Connecticut western news., 1881-09-07
FARM AND GARDEN.

fungus which grows in the grain, destroying it and filling its place with fine black or brownish dust. This dust consists of fine round grains, which are the spores or seed of the fungus, and so small that space of a square inch will contain 5000, 900 of them. These spores are scattered by the winds and float about or fall on the ground. and, under favorable circumstances, they will germinate and grow and reproduce themselves. If the seed has any smut upon it when it is sown, the spores enter the plant and fill it with fine threads or mycelium, and finally break into the grain and there mature and produce seed. In corn the smut will appear on the stalk or the tassel or the ears or even on the leaves, showing 1t exists all through the plant and circulates with the sap.
 TESTING CREAM.-Prof H. E. Alvord described method recently invented in Massachusetts for testing in few min utes the per cent. of cream which can be raised on a sample of milk. The milk and cream are separated by cen trifugal force. Tubes containing the milk to be tested are suspended by a cord from the perimeter of 8 circular disc which is made to rotate rapidly by means of simple gearing. As the disc increases in motion the tubes contain ing the milk incline more and more toward horizontal position, and the heavier part of the milk feeling the cen- trifugal force most, is thrown to the outer end or bottom of the tube, and the cream being the lightest, rests at the other end or top of the tube when it is upright. When the disc comes to rest the per cent. of cream is run off on the side of the tube. It affords good test of the per cent. of cream milk is capable of throwing up. It can do nothing more.
 KEEPING SWEET C1DER.-A. c. M., Logan county, H., writes "There is much left to learn on the subject oi keeping cider sweet throughout the whole year. have been informed that there are some cider makers who prac, tice what they call close fermentation with cider designed for long keeping. In a word, they exclude the air during the process of fermentation by placing in the bung one end of bent tube, and carrying this other end into vessel oi water. The gasses and impurities dur, ing the fermentation of the cider escape through this tube into the vessel o1 water, but the water coming up over | the end of the tube excludes the ail from the barrel. This process is said l to be better than the usual one of allow ing fermentation with the bung loose ol open. I have no practical knowledge of the plan, but would like to hear from some one who has tried it. Iwould advise pressing pomace as soon as possible after the apples are ground and run the juice off immediately, before the cast-iron press has time to seriously affect the color or character of the juice."
 IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LAND.-A grass lot cannot we'll be improved and the thin grass be thickened without bott fertilizer and seed. Except in rare cases, it is better to make thorough work of the improvement of such land by blowing, fertilizing, and reseeding. When land is once down in grass il is easy to keep it in permanently good condition by frequent manuring an6 occasionally scattering some fresh seed It depends also upon the kinds of grass growing, for there are those kinds witt spreading roots and others which incline to grow in stools; the former can be thickened up by maturing and the latter only by reseeding. In. the case 1T question the sod should be plowed a once, the ashes GOO bushels per acre, scattered on the narrowed ground, the rye sown and narrowed in across the last narrowing, and the grass-seed sown at once upon the freshly narrowed soil into which it will sink and become covered.
 | CLOVER FOR FLOWING UNDER.
 for blowing under should be fully grown
 It may be sown now, if sown at once
 and may be plowed under next fall
 But it would be better to SOW it in tn
 spring, and take crop of hay the nex
 season and blow under the secon
 growth when the seed is beginning t
 form. It will then be matured and i
 the most valuable condition for tn
 purpose.