New-York tribune., 1883-06-04

rants and gooseberries when nave peen set onIy
their being heaved out By severe freezing and and
thawing. If the cornstalks are loft on until the
fruit rpens they will keep 1t from getting sandcd:
Straw contains 50 much foul seed tnat u mahco
very unploftabe mulch. ,.,
aMr. Palmer would mulch strawberries with good
clean straw cut up fne and then cover with corn
stalks over the straw. Take the stalks off In spring
and the straw will protect the fruit from sand ana
dirt. II was by accident that be discovered the
benefits of cut straw as mulch for strawberrles.
The straw had been carried across portion OF the
bed and the litter left there. The increase OF
fruit. both in size and quantity, on the part 20
mulch good for all kinds of fruit trees and plants
both in winter and summer. A. G. Guley said tho
objection to straw as mulch Is the foul seed IL con
fains He mulches in winter for the benefit OF the
fruit IN the spring He has found that any KIND OF
mulch can be put on in damp rainy or snowy
weather. Never remove the mulch in spring. he
has seen very good results when cuttings "eio
mulched when planted out
&C NJ Shelter thinks muck the best mulch n tho
world. The man who has genuine muck BED nss
n fortune The most of our black ash swamps are
full of muck. He believes liberal application OF
muck every year on peach trees is a preventive OF
yolIows. Muck is good Tor apple. peach. and pear
trees, or any thing else. HenIy King set 40 apple
trees in Nebraska very late in spring. and muched
them with prairie hay, putting "a large forKIuI
one tree He also mulcheG the bodies of the trees
by tying tall grass around them, protecting tnem
from the extreme heat and cold. thereby preventing
sunscad and frozen-sap blight"
COLOR AND FLAVOR OF MAPLE SWEETS.
DIR. r. C. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural
College at Lansing says that while maple sugar is
too good to be degraded to the manufacture of
loaf sugar. still it is priced if free from much
color. ESPECIALLY if the other qualities are pre-
served at the same time" and he enumerates some
of the usually understood causes of the objection
able brown:
"Old and discolored buckets and storetroughs;
the soluble materials washed from the bark by ram
and carried into the sap during long storm; the
influence of burning or carameiling the sugar on tne
sides of the kettle pan, which converts some OF
the sugar into deep brown substance that VIII
color a large amount OF sugar
Another cause not SO generally recognized, and
which can be overcome by process of sulphurizing
for details of which refer the interested reader
to The College Speculum) is thus referred to:
Atmospheric oxidation and especially the in
fuence of the most active OXidlzlng agent, ozone,
seems TO convert q small amount of sugar into
colo1ng agent of considerable intensity, ana I'M
parts a brown color TO maple sugar as ordinarily
made The coloring in part takes place before
evonorotion when the sap is stored for any time,
and in part during the boiling. 1t is well known
that any saccharne fluid boiled in the alkaline
condition will become strongly coored, but II is not
generally known that maple sap contains ammonia.
III sap could be gathered and kept IN vessels IN
capable of coloring 1t, excluded from OK
dzing influences, ana evap3ra'eu IN .ne ,'Id ba
slightly acld conuItlOh, 'ne pio"u0' ""ii" "o
white sugar.
The material which gives the exquisite flavor to
maple and which is something distinct from aud
more precious than the mere sweetness OF ordinary
sugar seems volatile TO some extent; II disappears
if exposed damp to atmosphere and can only be
permanently retained by sealing syrup or sugar in
air-tight vessels though if the sugar is made into
hard and dry cakes the flavor is preserved Tor some
time"