Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-11-01

washington Correspondence 10 the Graphic
THE PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF SOME NEW
AND NOVEL THEORIES.
Commissioner lie Due, not having met
with the remarkable success he anticipated in
his tea culture. his date vineyards in Arizo-
ma and his corn-stalk sugar, has inAugurated
another wise and beneficial enterprise, and
has determined to expend the bal ance of the
appropriation for the Department of Agricul-
ture in the raising of fish-poles. lie has sent
to Japan for bamboo shoots, and when they
arrive he will distribute them among the
fruit growers of New Jersey and Delaware,
who will graft them on peach trees, and the
Commissioner expects, If the season is favor
able. to have crop in readiness by the time
the fishing season opens In 1850.
Commissioner lie Due also intends to in
troduce broom raising more extensively into
this country He thinks the climate of the
Southern States is adopted to the striped
handled variety and believes the long win
tiers and short summers of the North will be
favorable to luxuriant growth Of the moIe
hardy plain handled brooms.
There is a great and increasing demand for
the Commissioners able and exhaustive
pamphlet an his new method of raising silk.
instead of merino. or sheep. He has sent to
China for another lot of silk-worm eggs, and
when they arrive he will continue his expert
ments, which have so have far been success
ful, of feeding them to a fine breed of merino
sheep, which he has procured, and the result
Will be elaborately described in a supple
mental pamphlet, with copious illustration,
which he intends to issue. He will also dis
tribute samples of the silk, though Congress
men, to their constituents after the spring
shearing.
The Commissioner also has very econ
al "A ,,la of rrtIl old
stove pipes, fruit and oyster cans, corset
bones and hoopskirt wires as fertilizers, and
in his forthcoming annual report TO Congress
he will recommend liberal appropriation to
enable him to experiment with this sort of
fertilizer in retaining the worn-out planta-
tions of Virginia.
Public mention has already been made of
the Commissioners plan to exterminste
grasshoppers in this country. Having acci-
dentally heard somewhere that rocks were
fond of grasshoppers, Commissioner lie Due
drew on the appropriation for the Agricul-
tural Department for 81 900, which he sent
to England for the purchase of rocks, Sup
posing roOk was an animal similar to a rat
or weazel, and derived its name from the
tact that it inhabited dilipidated buildings
known in common parlance as ''old rocker
les, the Commissioner gave explicit instruc-
tions that on the voyage to America the rocks
should be led literally with crackers and
cheese. One hundred were sent, but this
diet proved SO disastrous that when they
reached the Agricultural Department all
were dead but eight and in consequence of
the negligence of subordinate, who failed
III supplying the birds with sufficient bed
clothing, according to the instructions of the
Commissioner. seven OF the eight took cold
and die1. The remaining rook is a fine
healty male bird. and by matching it with a
female parrot, Commissioner Le Due intends
TO secure a bird OF more brilliant plumage,
that can talk, which he will use as grass
hopper exterminator.