Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-03-27

or little more. Plant any time during
the winter or spring, before the close of
corn planting season. As soon as the small
grass-like shoots appear, run a cultivator
between the rows and dress out with hoe.
The ground should be kept level to bank
up billing would not only be useless but
probably quite injurious, as the roots spread
laterally and in all directions. When the
plants become well established they will
usually require no further attention during
the season except to irrigate two or three
times during the summer by running water
in furrow which should be run beside each
row.
QUANTITY OF SEED FOR AN ACRE.
If the tubers are dropped three feet by
one and a half, it will require $3.50 to
plant an acre, or, to use round numbers,
we will say 10000. Now bushel OF the
freshly gathered tubers contains 10000,
and when shrivelled las they will be in the
spring at the time of planting) not far from
81, 600; consequently half-bushel will be
an abundance for seeding an acre, even if
two tubers are occasionally dropped to-
gether, as may frequently be desirable in
case they are quite small or slightly dam
aged. From this our readers can see that
planting an acre of chufas will not cost any
more, if as much, for seed than an acre OF
potatoes, unless the price of the former
should advance above the figures at which
they have been sold during the past few
years. About 1000 of the dry tubers
weigh pound, and this information may
be of use to those of our readers who may
wish to send to some scotsman for small
quantity to be forwarded by mail.
GATHERING THE CROPS.
My way of gathering them is as follows
/ make bottomless box of foot-wide lum-
Der one foot in width and four feet long.
Then take piece of tin or sheet iron of
the size for bottom Il used an unsoldered
coal oil can for mine 4; this perforate full
of holes the size of large straw-this per-
forated tin 1 nail on for bottom. Then
turn the water of my irrigating ditch so
that / have water close to where am to
dig. Then putting my box upon blocks |
dig the chufas and throw dirt, tops and
all, into the box On these l cause
the water in the ditch to fall so as to
quickly wash all the dirt through the
perforated bottom, leaving only the tops
with the chufas, which now (tops and ALL
1 pour into larger, tight box full of
water the tops swim SO that they can be
easily gathered out with a pitchfork
leaving the clean, washed chufas in the
bottom. They must then be spread
where they will dry, till they resemble
dry, sweet almonds in taste, before being
stored in bulk for use. A man has worked
for me, who would dig, clean, haul
and spread for drying, a half ton a
day. He was, however, an extra hand, the
yield being excellent and the facilities for
washing perfect 800 pounds is an average
fair days work.
Large quantities are used for confec-
tionary, the same as almonds, walnuts, etc.
When to be used for this purpose they
must be thoroughly secured by use of a
broom when washing them. Poultry eat
them in preference to anything else. Fowls
of all kinds fatten upon them, doing their
own gathering after they once get taste.
Fowls SO fattened are heavier, and possess
masses of rich, yellow fat that no other
food will produce, besides their flesh is far
more tender and palatable. first learned
this in the South years ago, hearing an old
darkey cook, who was picking turkey,
call out to the proprietor, beside me
"Mars'r, dem gobluz gittin de chufas,
suah." "No, it is too early for chufas. y
Look heah, holding up gobbler badly
torn from picking, "disun TO- ye' old, "
pointing to the proof of its tenderness; dat
chufa, suah." And sure enough the fowl
contained no other food than chufas
though running in grain fields. l had
never eaten finer fowl but we have the
same quality now whenever we kill a
chufa-fed fowl, and they are all living on
chufas, though grain is scattered all about
the place. Hogs, too, will fatten upon
them. Once give them taste and they will
do all the rest if they can only get
to where they are growing. You
must keep hogs off them till the crop has
grown-say till September-then they will
fatten on them till the following May,
when they must again be kept eff. In
roofing for them they prepare the ground in
the best manner for the next years crop /;
besides they always leave enough of the
tubers in the ground for seed. Chufas
make the finest favored pork of anything,
though less fat than corn makes.-[W. A.
Sanders