The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-09-17
The Indiana Fruit Prospect.

Early in the season Prof. J. Troop
OF Purdue University published the re-
suits Of inquiries sent to every county
in the state concerning the prospect
for fruit. At that time "a counties gave
the prospect for apples as good, AZ only
fair and 9 as poor. Pears, IS good, II
fair; 3 poor. Peaches, 81 good, fair,
5 poor. Plums, 81 good, fair and 5
poor. Not all Of the counties reported.
In order to ascertain whether these
estimates would hold good or not, a
second lot Of inquiries was sent out
to the same persons about ten days ago,
and 70 have been heard from. This
time the result is as follows: Apples,
81 poor, 10 fair and none good. Pears,
6 poor, 40 fair and "a good. Peaches, 20
poor, 80 fair and 20 good. Plums, s
poor, 20 fair and 35 good. These coun-
ties are we'll distributed over the state,
from the extreme north to the Ohio
river, so that these last figures may
be taken as representing the fruit pros
pect for the whole state. AS will be
seen, the percentage has dropped very
materially since the poisoning period,
and it now appears that we shall be,
obliged to look to other states for our
winter apples.
Antiquity of Agriculture.-The art OF
tilling the soil for the production IF
food is as old as human civilization.
The discovery of the nutritive quality
of the grains, fruits and vegetables as
they grew wild must have preceded
the cultivation of them. The fertile
valleys of the Nile, the Euphrates and
the Ho-ang-ho must have abounded in
these spontaneous productions, and
population would be invited by this
natural supply, till it's density would
which would naturally lead to cultiva-
ton. In conformity with this hypothe-
sis we find that Egypt, Chaldea and
China each claim the Introduction of
the agricultural art. It is possible
that cultivation of the soil for the
production of crops was practiced in
each of these countries without the
knowledge of the others. But the sim
ilarity of the ancient processes and i'm
plements strongly suggests a common
origin, most probably that detailed in
the ancient Hebrew narrative.
Getting Iron Into Eggs.-An ex-
change says a French physician has
conceived of a novel method Of adj
ministering iron, if not to his patients
in general, at least to his immediate
family. He has noticed that hens have
powerful digestive organs, and has
discovered that they can digest con-
siderable quantities Of iron, and send
it back through the albumen of their
eggs, in a: form which is more easily
digested by the weaker stomach of man
than il taken in any other way. So
he feeds his hens salt of iron, mixed
with their wheat, and they lay eggs
extremely rich in predigested iron.
The amount of iron contained in the
animal tissues Of a man weighing $50
pounds is about 100 grains, or quar-
ter Of an ounce. Yet even this small
amount is so necessary to the economy
Of human nature that a few grains less
may produce serious disturbance in the
system. s. Az
Berries in Parchment Paper.-A new
method Of preparing berries for ship
ment to market is to place them as
soon as picked where they will become
& cool and then wrap each $box II, march,
ment paper SO that it will be almost
air tight. The berries are said to re-
tain their freshness and attractive APP
pearance much better when treated ii
this way than when exposed to the air.
Sheets Of parchment paper 12x13
inches are used for quart boxes. Elk.
Why does ripe scholar sometimes
+ live to a green old age?