454 



night and day by gangs of 45 men each, relieving each otber. The sugar 

 produced is said to be superior to any other raw sugar in the market. 



False agricultural philosophy. — The partial failure of the wheat- 

 crop for three seasons iu England has caused some English farmers to 

 suppose that the land has become " sick " of small-grain culture, and that 

 it needs the rest of a long fallow to recuperate. The Mark Lane Express 

 thinks that the failures of the past three years are largely dne to im- 

 provident culture, and especially to the lack of fertilization. The fine 

 yield of 1874 is cited as sufficiently explosive of the old idea of " sick- 

 ness of the land," an agricultural superstition dating back to the com- 

 mencement of the Christian era. Columella, a Roman writer of the 

 first century, wrote against the croakers of that day, who tormented 

 themselves and the public with this absurd chimera. He charged the 

 failure of crops upon the slothfulness and ignorance of cultivators. It 

 is astonishing how old errors constantly reproduce themselves. In spite 

 of the advance of science and the diffusion of intelligence, men who 

 have opportunities of knowing better surrender themselves to childish 

 delusions, and gravely propound the most fanciful hypotheses to account 

 for facts they do not understand. In the present case, however, the truth 

 lies near the surface. Common sense shows sufficient cause for the late 

 crop-failures in the incompetence or listlessness of farmers themselves. 

 These sharp criticisms find a legitimate application on this side of the 

 Atlantic. 



PRESERTI^'G 5IAKURE. — The Boston Journal of Chemistry states that 

 the sources of loss in the storage of manure are two : first, the escape 

 of volatile ammonia and other gases: and, secondly, the loss of valuable 

 salts by leaching. The first difficulty may be obviated by covering the 

 excrement with eight or ten inches of good soil or loam, which will ab- 

 sorb all escaping gases. A bushel or so of plaster may be advanta- 

 geously scattered over the heap before the soil is thrown on. The whole 

 mass should be perfectly covered, leaving no " chimney" for gaseous 

 exudation. The danger of leaching may be avoided by covering the 

 heap with hay or straw sufficiently thick to shed most of the rain. If 

 kept in this way a sufficient time, the manure will undergo spontaneous 

 decomjjosition, the products of which will be ready for immediate assim- 

 ilation by plants. The usual process of carting manure to the fields in 

 the autumn to waste, by both the above processes, some of their most 

 valuable constituents. 



Preserving grapes. — A French viticulturist has lately published 

 a process by which he has preserved the freshness, beauty, and scent of 

 grapes as late as the month of April. The fruit is left upon the vine up 

 to the last moment, but must be cut, before the first frost, at the second 

 or third joint below the cluster. The cut end is then covered with wax 

 to prevent the escape of vegetable fluids, and then thrust into a bottle 

 of water through a perforated cork. A little charcoal iu the water pre- 

 serves its purity. The cork is then covered with sealing-wax, air-tight, 

 and the bottles placed in a dry room, where the temperature neA'er falls 

 below the freezing-point, and carefully kept in an erect position, the 

 clusters not being allowed to touch each other. Every imperfect grape 

 must be removed as fast as it shows signs of failing. 



Artificial fertilization of flowers. — It has been discovered 

 that infertile flowers may be fertilized by touching their pistils with 

 camel's-hair ]>eucils dipped in honey ; or, still better, in honey mixed 

 with pollen of a fertile flower. In the botanical gardens of Vienna, a 



