134 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



noted that at tins point the road, hitherto 

 extremely dusty in summer and equally 

 muddy in winter, was now firm and very 

 much improved. His theory to explain 

 this was that the oil formed a water tight 

 covering to the road and the earth below 

 being dry, no ruts or mud could form. 



Mr. Meigs became interested in the 

 subject and recently made experiments 

 with a tank of crude oil, which was placed 

 at his disposal by the ' 'liberality of the 

 Standard Oil Company." Liberality is a 

 word seldom connected with the Stan- 

 dard Oil Company, so let us give it due 

 credit. Thanks, then, to the liberality of 

 this firm, the experiments were made pos- 

 sible, and the results sustained Mr. 

 Meigs in his belief that oil was instrument- 

 al in preventing mud and ruts. Those 

 who have used oil say the roads are kept 

 free from dust in the dry season and are 

 hard and firm in the wet weather; surely 

 results worth working for. Mr. Meigs 

 urged the members of the Good Road As- 

 sociation to make experiments with oil in 

 different sections, and gave four rules for 

 applying it : The road should be smooth- 

 ly graded and rounded well, so as to shed 

 water ; the roadbed should be dry when 

 the oil is applied ; it is advisable to roll 

 the ground after the oil is put on; the 

 oil from which the naphtha and kerosene 

 has been extracted is more agreeable to 

 use in warm weather, and the tendency of 

 the oil to become too stiff in cold weather 

 is overcome by a spraying apparatus, using 

 a jet of steam. 



STREET SWEEPINGS AS FERTI- 

 LIZERS. 



An interesting bulletin lately issued by 

 the Department of Agriculture is the one 

 which deals with the utilization of street 

 sweepings The sweepings from the city 

 streets are either used as fertilizers, used 

 to fill up low land, or are dumped in bo- 

 dies of water without any attempt to make 

 use of them. The letters received from 

 those who have used street sweepings as 

 fertilizers nearly all go to prove the util- 



ity of them for the purpose Out of the 

 sixteen letters given, from different sec- 

 tions of the country, only one did not con- 

 sider it a profitable plan, and his objec- 

 tion was that the cost of transportation 

 from the city of New York to his farm, 

 35 miles distant, was too great to make it 

 pay. One farmer says they are worth 

 two-thirds as much as any stable or cow- 

 pen manure where straw is used for bed- 

 ding. The sixteen cities that report the 

 sale of their street-sweepings, give varying 

 prices, 15 cents per ton being the lowest 

 and $2 00 the highest. The city of At- 

 lanta sells her street sweepings by con- 

 tract for $60.00 per year and finds this a 

 satisfactory arrangement as the street- 

 cleaning department has the advantage 

 of a short haiil. 



H. W. Wiley, the chief chemist having 

 charge of the experiments made in this 

 line, is desirous of obtaining further in- 

 formation on this important subject and to 

 that end invites the correspondence of 

 persons interested in the subject, and, 

 with farmers and gardeners who have 

 used street-sweepidgs. 



MORE COFFEE. 



A. P. Austin, Chief of Bureau of Statis- 

 tics, Treasury Department, Washington, 

 in a recent report says: "More coffee 

 and less tea, or a substitution of coffee 

 for tea, seems to be the rule with the 

 American people 'just now. The figures 

 of the Treasury Bureau of Statistics show 

 that the coffee importation of the past 

 year has been the heaviest in the history 

 of the country, and the tea importation 

 the lighest in many years. The impor- 

 tation of coffee in the calendar year 1897 

 was over 800,000,000 pounds, and the 

 1898 figures will be about the same as 

 those of 1897. In no earlier year were the 

 importations ever as much as 700,000,000 

 pounds. This is a larger amount of coffee 

 for each individual than was ever before 

 consumed in the country, the per capita 

 consumption being about eleven pounds 

 annually, while no earlier year showed a 



