The National tribune., 1882-03-25

TO control the richness o: the root cultivated
on $50 acres, grown simply for seed some
1000 to 5000 analyses can be made daily,
and the beet found richest in sugar is kept
for seed; from IL to Is per cent OF sugar is
anticipated; roots yielding less are thrown
aside
, 1t is not explained how a beet that has
been cut to pieces, for the purpose of analy-
SIS can afterwards be kept for seed; it is
evident that the statement needs revision, as
do many of the statements issued from labor
atories.
. DETAILS IN SILK CULTURE-N1r L. s
Grozler, of Corinth, Miss, in remarks on silk
culture, figures up as follows: The number
OF trees to the acre range from $50 to $40 ;
the former number if the soil is to be Guilt
| waited between the trees in other crops
Three hundred and forty trees after four
years will furnish enough leaves to feed
| $4,000 worms, which will make 200 pounds
of cocOons, worth from 80 cents to 70 cents
! per pound, or from one dollar to one dollar
and half dry. One hand can attend to
10000 worms, which will produce 100 pounds
of cocooDs, worth from $50 to S15. Three
hands, with a little extra help the last week,
can attend to 100000 worms, which will pro-
duce 1000 pounds of cocoons, worth from
$500 to $3.50 Eggs are worth from s. to
50 per ounce, or 81 per 900, 10000 worms
being obtained from one ounce of eggs
Fourteen pounds Of leaves on an average will
| nol lyn &c -,I
worth from Sc to So per pound. One-half
pound of silk can be reeled by an average
hand per day, who can learn in three months
time, reeling an hour each day. The general
success of silk growers from Kansas to North
Carolina, from Texas to Florida, proves that
the raising of the silk worm is to be an i'm
portant addition to the other products of the
farm.
FERTILIZERS AND CROPs.-At meeting
of the Deer Creek Farmers Club, Hartford
county, Maryland Mr.. Castner spoke as fol-
lows:
Mr.. Cashier said that if they wanted to
improve their farms rapidly they must
adopt his plan of plowing down clover sod
y
prime, and furnishes more vegetable matter
to the soil than when older What is needed
IN our soils is vegetable matter. He thought
the time had come when farming cannot be
successful without the use of chemical fer
tilizers With them you can improve land
quicker, cheaper, and raise better crops than
with anything except clover. The chief
clements Of fertility are phosphoric acid
potash, soda, magnesia, and q little ammonia
Nature will supply all the ammonia needed
but the rest must be obtained from some
chemical fertilizer. In bone you only sup
ply sone kind of plant food, phosphate of
lime, which is slowly convertible into phos-
phoric acid by the action of the elements
With chemical fertilizers you can raise more
and better wheat at q smaller outlay than
with barnyard manure-more and better
wheat also than with Peruvian guano. Mr.
0astner's rotation is to plow sod for corn,
follow the corn with oats the next spring,
SOW wheat after the oats, and the following
spring sow clover. He mows or pastures
the clover the first year, pastures it the next,
and the following year plows it down for
corn again. He sows some timothy with
his clover but would not if the clover were
sure to take root without it, as he regards
clover better to use, but not to sell, than
timothy. He applies his chemical fertilizers
with drill for wheat, and also with a wheat
drill for corn, using 400 pounds to the acre
for corn and 800 for wheat. For two years he
has been using South Carolina rock and pot
ash, and the result has been so satisfactory
that last fall he put in his entire wheat crop
with it, The cost is S26 a ton. Bone will
not improve land as well as properly pre-
pared phosphate, and there is just as much
adulteration in bone as in anything else. If
you buy any phosphates, he said you buy
South Carolina rock at phosphate prices, be-
cause it enters into the composition of all |
the better chemical fertilizers. He had used |
it alongside of high grade and reliable phos-
phates and could see no difference. He used l.
no fertilizer for oats, as under his system |
none is needed, and he raises good crops
SPRUCE GUM.-FOrty thousand dollars
worth of chewing gum is gathered in the
State of Maine every year. In Oxford
county is man who makes it his business