The Portland daily press., 1878-01-29
AGRICULTURAL.
Agricultural Notes,

Water contaminated with decomposing ami
NAL matter is common cause of disease, and
this polluted water is often that which is
alone used by the farmer and his family.
Although the Canadian harvest was late it
resulted in very heavy crop. The results
show 30,000.000 bushels of wheat, 100000
bushels of barley and 100000 bushels of
other grains.
Peruvian guano varies in color from very
light yellow or gray to dark brown hue.
1t occurs in the form of powder mixed with
Jumps, mostly of crystalline nature. and
somewhat difficult to reduce to powder.
Guano is rather light, bushel weighing
about seventy pounds; adulterated guano is
generally much heavier.
The heaviest animal at the recent Smith
field-Club show in England was Short-Horn
OK. His live weight when exhibited was
274 pounds. On being slaughtered a few
days after the show his dead weight was 1890
pounds, which is within 274 per cent. of his
live weight. Ofloose tallow there was 1886
pounds.
Seeds should not, in these climates, be
sown deeply. Hoffman found that the seeds
of twenty-four kinds of plants cultivated by
farmers and market gardeners, perished when
placed twelve inches below the surface. The
depth at which seeds are best sown depends
much upon the climate and soil; but as rule
the proper depth is from II to three inches.
1t has been found that seeds do not
germinate below 37oF., or at higher tenn
perature than about 1889 f. Seeds retain
their vitality at very low temperatures, but
when heated above 1859 F., they are. with
rare exceptions killed. Seeds which were
left within the Arctic circle by an exploring
expedition, and were some years subsequent
ly brought to England in October, 1876,
germinated freely.
The Zeitung communicates plan of test
ing milk, which possesses the merit
at least Of simplicity. A well-polished
knitting needle is dipped into a deep vessel
of milk and Immediately withdrawn iii an up.
right position, when, if the sample be pure,
some of the fluid will be found to adhere to it,
while such is not the case if water has been
added to the milk, even in the smallest pro-
portions.
The amount of nitrogen is not less than
l "a per cent. while this same gas consttu-
tes about four-fifths of the weight of the at
moshere; yet it is generally conceded that
plants cannot utilize the most minute pro-
portion of the unlimited supplies of nitrogen
which surround them, and that the nitrogen
of plants is obtained, not from this free gas
in the air, but from the soluble organic mat.
tiers contained in the soil, and also from
atmospheric ammonia.
The percentage of ash in the dry matter of
plants THAT obtained by drying the plants at
a temperature of 212oF., until they cease to
loose weight) islusually from about three to
six per cent. of the entire plant. In the seeds
the amount OF ash IS generally very small,
while in the leaves it often amounts to more
than twenty per cent. Wolff states that the
average amount of ash in grain is two per
cent, and in their stems five per cent. In
the leguminous crops the ash makes up three
per cent. Of their seeds and 45 per cent. of
their leaves.
The best remedy for frozed combs in
poultry, consists in repeated applications of
glycerine, When supply of this material
may not be at hand, an effectual substitute
may be impoyised in the following manner:
A piece of raw bacon is to be held in the
flame of pine chips, containing plenty of
rosin, in such manner that the fat and the
rosin, as they melt, may fall upon bit Of ice
held beneath the flame, while the mixture,
rubbed into salye with the finger, should be
applied at once to the frozen combs. The
sooner the application is made the better.
Experienced European butter makers
claim that one cause of the white color and
crumbling consistence of winter butter, is
due to the practice cf raising the milk or
cream to desired temperature by adding hot
water to it, while the hotter the water is, the
more thoroughly will the resulting butter be
deprived of color and more crumbing will it
turn out. Such practice should never be
pursued, but the cream should be warmed by
placing the vessel containing it in a larger
one full of hot water, or by placing small
vessels filed with hot water in the pan of
cream ITSELF In this way the cream can be
gradually warmed, and the temperature kept
under strict control by attention to the
thermometer.