The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-06-03
AGRICULTURAL.

are kiln dried sweet potatoes2 J.B. NJ.
Reply:-Sweet potatoes are kiln dried
in the same manner that apples, peaches,
pumpkins, etc., are. Any person who
understands the process in one case, can
make use OF it in drying other products.
Sweet potatoes are thus dried in consid-
erable quantities, and with the processes
of drying now practiced, this promises
to become quite an industry.
DRYING Up MARES UDDER.
F. A. s., Milledgeville, IIl-Query:
What is the best course TO pursue to di-
minish or dry up the flow of milk IN
mare that lost her colt two days after
birth of the same. At this date the colt
would have been one week old if it had
lived. The milk has been drawn from
the mare three times per day since the
loss of the colt.
Reply:-Apply twice daily to the I'D
der, sufficiency of oil of camphor. The
milk may be drawn off, but only in small
quantity at time, so as to prevent cak-
ing or Inflammation. If drawn clean
every time, the secretion will not readily
diminish. Twice day would be suffi-
cient, later only once daily.
LIME IN AGRICULTURE.
The Journal of Forestry briefly sums
up many of the uses of lime when ap-
piled to the soil. The effects of lime, as
will be seen, are in part mechanical and
in part chemical.
1. Upon deep alluvial and clay soil it
increases the crop of potatoes, and rem
ders them less waxN Sprinkled over
potatoes In a store-heap it preserves
them, and when riddled over the cut sets
it wonderfully increases their fertility.
2. Lime eradicates the fnger-and-toe
disease in turnips, and gives greater
soundness to the bulbs.
3. 1t gives, when applied to meadow
land, larger produce of more nutritious
grasses. 1t also exterminates coarse and
sour grasses, destroys couch grass, and
acts powerfully upon rye grasses.
A. Upon arabic land it destroys weeds
of various kinds.
5. 1t rapidly decomposes vegetable
matter, producing large amount of food
for plants in the form of carbonic acid
gas.
6. 1t destroys or neutralizes the acids
in the soils; hence its adaptability to
sour soils.
Z. 1t acts powerfully upon some of the
inorganic parts of the soil, especially on
the sulphate of iron found in peaty soils,
and the sulphate of magnesia and alumina.
8. 1t proves fatal to worms and slugs,
and the larvae of injurious insects, though
favorable to the growth of shell bearers.
9. Stacked lime added to vegetable
matter causes it to give off its nitrogen
in the form of ammonia. Upon soils in
which ammonia is combined with acids,
it sets free the ammonia, which is seized
upon by the plants.
10. Its solubility in water causes it to
lutO dLlu itulCIlCIdIG lu6
When the soil contains fragments of
granite or trap rocks, lime hastens their
decomposition and liberates the silicates.
II. Its combination with the acids in
the soil produces saline compounds, such
as potash, soda, etc.
y. Strewed over your plants, it des-
troys or drives away the turnip fly.
13. Worked in with grass seeds, the
beneficial effects of lime, chalk, mari,
and shell-sand have been visible for 80
years.
IA. Applied to tho rot heap, lime ef-
fectually destroys the seeds of weeds.
To sum its advantages; when properly
applied to the soil, it purifes and stimu-
lates its action, thereby promoting the
growth of healthy vegetation of all kinds.