The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-10-02
CURIoSITIES OF AGRICULTURE.
Roots of the Gala Lily as FOod-Cater-
pillars Which Bear Mushrooms.

Roots of the Gala Lily as FOod-Cater-
pillars Which Bear Mushrooms.
A new vegetable is about to be intro
duced to the people of the United States
through the department of agriculture
1t is nothing more nor less than the
root of the Gala lily, which resembles
somewhat in appearance the ordinary
Irish tuber, with the addition of a few
whiskers that have nothing to do with
the other qualities of the article A
section of it is SO potato-lil1e that you
would not be likely to remark any diff
ference. In cooking it has first to be
boiled, in order to destroy certain acrid
properties, after which it may be fried,
roasted, baked, or what not, according
to taste
Farmers in Florida have begun to
raise these Gala roots for market The
plants grow eadily in swamps, and so
thicSly that the yield of a single flooded
acre is enormous. They reproduce
themselves by the multiplication of
their bulbs underground, SO that the
grower has simply to dig up the off
shoots and leave parents to propagate
anew. For centuries the Egyptians
have cultivated a similar crop during
the seasons of the Niles overflow, and
at the present time Gala lily bulbs are a
common vegetable in Japanese mar
kets. So prolific and palatable are
they that their propagation in many
parts of the United States, where condi-
tons are favorable, may reasonably be
looked forward to as an agricultural in
dustry of the future.
The department of agriculture is con-
tinually engaged in trying to discover
and encourage the cultivation of new
and desirab BILE varieties of fruits. Late
ly it has come across sort of giant
gooseberry that grows on trees, and
within the last few days long sought
prize has been obtained from Benton
Harbor, Mich, in the shape of a really
thornless blackberry. The picking of
this deiectable fruit has hitherto been
| interfered with to some extent by the
| spikes with which nature protects the
branches but in the future. it is hoped
people will be able to go blackberrying
without danger of pricking their fingers
| Experiments are making for the first
time in the grating of pecan trees. Ac-
cidental seedlings in Texas and New
Mexico have developed nuts of this
kind as far superior to the ordinary
ones as the shellbark is to the pignut
Furthermore it has been demonstrated
that these improved varieties can read
| lily be perpetuated, and even bet
tered by grating. Only little cult
walton is necessary to produce pecans
of five or six times the size of the
usual specimens and with shells so
papery as to be easily broken between
the forefinger and thumb. The writer
saw good sized paste board box full of
such samples in the office of the United
States Pomologist yesterday, and ate
few to make sure of their delicious
quality. The same process is possible
with chestnuts, which grow to the size
Of horsechestnut in some parts of the
United States. They, too are being
grated with view to securing the in
crease of their size and the improve
ment of their edible qualities. In a
certain Illinois valley hickory nuts
used to grow as wide as the palm of
ones hand, and efforts are being made
to obtain surviving plant SO as to prop
agate from them.
The department of state has just re-
ceived from Consul Jones at Chin Kiang,
China, small bottle containing some
specimens of the curious fungus that
grows from a species of caterpillar, lit
orally transforming the animal into
vegetable and causing the unhappy in
sect to serve the purpose of Il root. 1t
is the larva of a moth. and when the
cold of winter approaches it makes its
way down into the soil to the depth of
three or four inches. There it is at
tackled by remarkable disease and
sprouts, sending up long shoot which
appears and fructifies above the ground
like any mushroom. The natives in
Thibet and in the province of SEE
Khuan go about looking for this fungus
near myrtle trees of a certain sort.
They dig up such specimens as they
discover and make them into little bum
dies, tied with red thread. In this shape
they are sold as medicine, which is es-
teemed, if possible, more highly than
the famous ginseng, being considered a
powerful curative agent for diseases of
the throat and lungs.
This fungus has no other method of
growth than the one described The
fructifying top that is above ground
scatters it's spores around under the
scarlet-fowered myrtles on which the
caterpillars feed. When the latter bur-
row into the soil to hibernate. they are
apt to stir up some of the hostile germs,
whereupon they are at once attacked
and speedily transformed into vegeta-
BILE tissue. The substance of their flesh
is metamorphosed into stalks sprouting
from their heads. Of course, sufficient
number of the larvae escape this fate to
perpetuate the species from year to year
and to supply reproductive opportuni-
ties for the fungus.
Curiously enough, the common white
grub, which is the larva of a beetle, is
in many parts of the United States at
tackled by fungus in a similar manner.
1t has been suggested that measures
might be profitably taken to artiticially
innoculate this destructive worm on a
large scale with the disease, with a