The National tribune., 1884-05-01
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers.
A FIBER MACHINE.

grass, was started in this country by the United
States Agricultural Department some fifteen
years ago. About that time promises were
made by inventors that machinery for clean
ing or extracting the fiber would soon be put
upon the market. These hopes were not real
lied, and the culture had to be abandoned. At
various intervals since that time announce
mentS have been-made that the machine had
at last been perfected, but we are not aware o.
any successful machine having ever been intro
duced up to the present time. A large prize,
some $4,000, was offered by the Indian gov
ernment for machine which would clean this
fiber; all the machines offered proved failures,
and, after being open for many years. the prize
was Withdrawn. 1T is again announced that
machine has been perfected, as appears from
the following extract from Scottish paper
This machine solves the difficulty we have
been trying to overcome for the last thirty
years or more. It produces in moment a
better cleaned fiber than the Chinese produce
by cleaning each stem by hand at prohibitory
cost. This machine works not only on ramie,
but on other tiber-y yielding plants with the most
extraordinary success. Without any readiust-
ment the machine took the fiber out of a single
rame stem, then out of number together,
and then out of massive aloe leaf more than
two inches thick" The fine fbers known as
istle and pita are yielded by species of aloe and
bromeha, and their production has hitherto
been restricted for lack of machinery. These
plants can all be grown in some parts of this
country.
WRONG ADVICE IN STRAWBERRY CULTURE.
A writer in the Germantown Telegraph is
quite severe on writers who recommend cutting
oil strawberry runners during summer. He
says: When | read an article that strawber-
RES Will not bear fruit unless all the runners
are cut off, all my interest in that article is
gone"
We think it very doubtful, indeed. if the
writer of the above ever saw such statement
until he himself penned it; but, having made
the statement, he proceeds to show that it is
not true, aud calls it an old stereotyped scandal
which goes out on its regular rounds, to the
great damage of strawberry culture.
AS the demand for products increase, and as
the production becomes more competitive, cul-
tlvators take advantage of every expedient and
improved method of management which tends
to enhance the value of their crops. In regard
to strawberry culture, two points of practice
have lately become more strictly enforced by
the most successful cutivators: the first one is
that all runners should be promptly removed
from plants intended for frulting, and the
second is that the soil should not be cultivated
near the roots during late fail and spring, and
not until the fruit crop has been gathered
Fruit will be produced whether the runners
are cut off or allowed to remain. But to desig-
nate it as wrong adyice"-as is done by the
writer referred toto recommend the cutting
away of all runners from strawberry plants
which are grown for the fruit is so absurd
that we charitably presume that the writer is
not experienced in the culture of this fruit,
and in the methods practiced by the most sue
cessful fruit growers of the present day.
HOW TO GROW SOUND POTATOES.
Some time ago we copied from foreign
paper an account of method of cultivating
potatoes SO as to measurably save them from
rotting. The method consisted mainly in COW
ering up the stems with soil so that they would
appear as if growing out of sharp ridge, SO
that the water from rains would rapidly run
off. In late number of the Farmer Reseiw
correspondent advises his brother farmers not
10 raise rotten potatoes, and that by following
his method they need not do So He says:
" First place, plant deep and then the seed, if
sound, is likely to come up and is not so much
affected if the weather is dry. | work them as
often as / can until they begin to bloom; then
| stop. Just before they bloom | throw the
dirt with diamond pillow, then take the hoe
and finish them. leaving the potatoes killed up
so that the water runs off Leave the hill
sharp at the top. This is my mode l hardly
ever have sunburnt one. The potatoes are
dryer and worth five cents per bushel more to
eat"
RENDERING SHINGLES FIRE-PRooF.
The Farmers Reuiew says that the advice to
use Grade petroleum on roofs to increase their
durability is dangerous, in case of their catch
ing fire from chimney sparks The following
preparation is recommended The shingles in
the bunch are boiled for half hour in soiu-
ton of lime and salt, which penetrttes every
particle of the wood and renders the shingles IN
a large measure fre-proof. In laying the shin
giles the roof boards are laid close together and
covered with thin layer of hydraulic cement,
and the si4inCIeS laid rnor, this Time
fre-proof layer between the lime-and -salt-satu-
rated shingles and the roof boards. The use of
cement between the shingles and roof boards is
of great value. With such roof the entire
shingles might burn off without the fire being
communicated to the roof boards though, as
matter of fact, it will be hard to start fire on
the limeand -salt-saturated shingles.
STALKING PEAS AND OTHER PLANTS
One of the advantages of the late introduc-
tions Of peas is, that they require no stakes.
These dwarf varieties, however, are mostly
early sorts for later use there is no variety
which exces the old kind known as the Cham
pion of England, which is tall variety, and
requires support Instead of placing upright
stakes to peas, we have seen the expedient
adopted of spreading rough II III over the rows
just after sowing the seeds, and the young
plants allowed to grow up through and over the
brush. The same method applied to cucumbers
and melons was evidently advantageous to the
crop. Even the Lima bean produced as well,
if not better, in this way than when allowed
to ran on upright poles. For tomatoes it is an
admirable arrangement. Many years ago we
saw this method in the garden of chicken
fancier, who adopted it as protection against
the fowls scratching out the seeds, and it was
success every way.
SALT FOR ASPARAGUS.
As the results of an examination, the Massa-
chusetts Experimental Station states that the
comparatively small amount of soda in the
ashes of both the stems and roots of asparagus
confirms the impression that the beneficial in
tluence of common salt on asparagus beds fire.
quently reported, is due rather TO its action on
the physical condition Of the soil than to its
requirements as plant food. The common salt
increases the microscopic quality of the soil,
assists in the diffusion of potassa and phosphor-
ie acid, and rarely supplies deficiencies in the
SOIL as far as its own constituents are concerned.
judicous application of muriate of potash
with sulphate of magnesia tKicserit) tends to
secure available potash through the entire body
of the soil penetrated by the extensive root
mass of the plants
PEACHES FOR MISSOURI.
Climate, soil and location have so much in
fuence on the value OF fruit trees, that the
| safest guide for beginners in country new to
them, is to take the advice of those who have
learned from actual test what is most valuable.
Acting upon this suggestion we have noted
from time to time lists of fruits for various
localities, as given by responsible authorities.