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CHEMISTRY AND HORTICULTURE. 389 
Assuming that market price of the blood is $20.00 per ton and of the 
nitrate of soda is $60.00, the price per pound for the fertilizing 
constituents of the dried blood will be eight cents, while in the case 
of the nitrate of soda, it will be nineteen cents. 
Inseticides and Fungicides.—-While the chemist may be able to 
prepare insecticides and fungicides, these are usually suggested by 
the entomologist after a series of delicate experiments. In this line 
the chemist usually plays an important part by exposing fraudulent 
preparations for the destruction of insects and plant diseases. An 
example will make this pointclear. In 1895there appeared upon the 
market a material with the high sounding name of “The American 
Soil Renewer and Insecticide.” The chemist of the Minnesota 
Experiment Station found the material to consist mostly of salt, 
with the addition of a little land plaster and sawdust. 
In many instances the preparations may not be actually injurious 
to the land or plants, yet in most cases the compounds are nearly 
worthless, and the prices charged are simply enormous. In one 
instance, a material was sold for $5.00 per jar,and upon chemical 
analysis it was found to contain about five cents worth of chemicals 
which were almost worthless for the purpose for which they were 
prepared. 
In summing up, we find that chemistry and horticulture do, to a - 
considerable extent, go hand in hand and will in due time become 
more closely related. 
CIRCUMVENTING DROUTH. 
(The truth contained in this article can not be too often repeated. Sec’y.) 
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of thorough, fre- 
quent but shallow culture as a means of obviating to a great extent 
the-illeffects of drouth. In the garden, the field or the orchard it is 
equally efficacious. Mulching with some coarse material as straw, 
chaff, leaves,etc.,is in most cases really superior to the earth-mulch, 
but for lack of the necessary material is impracticable on a very ex- 
tensive scale; while, on the contrary, the earth mulch can be prac- 
ticed everywhere and by everybody, as well as on as extensive 
a scale as heart could wish. The feasibility of the earth-mulch 
at all times and in all places, constitutes it the most valuable of the 
two methods for accomplishing the same object, viz: the retention 
of moisture. 
According te the exhaustive experiments of Prof. F. H. King, of 
the Wisconsin experiment station, three inches is the best depth fo 
the loose dirt, or blanket on the surface. In either the garden, or- 
chard or field, in long continued spells of dry, hot weather, the use 
of the earth mulch means the difference between profit and loss, 
success and failure, The dryer and hotter the weather, the greater 
and more imperative the necessity for a frequent stirring of the 
surface. 
We do not advocate deep culture for any single cultivated plant 
of our acquaintance. In any and all cases where it is desired to 
deepen the soil, the deepening process should be put in practice in 
time of preparing the soil for the reception of the seed, and not in 
time of cultivating the growing crop. In very hot, dry weather, the 
soil will dry out just as deep as plowed.—Western Farmer. 
