192 



QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 



assimilate nitrogen both, from the soil and by fixation, and the evidence 

 of fixation of nitrogen has been i^roven by Dr. Gilbert in his experiments 

 •witli leguminous plants grown on land made free from nitrogen, but sub- 

 sequently inoculated with bacteria soil, the nitrogen obtained being only 

 from the air and through the active agency of the bacteria. 



jjjp,^ 1033. Q. Which of all the counties in the United States is the leading 



Agricultural one in agricultural produce ? 



Counties. j^_ Lancaster, Pa It is thirty-three miles long by twenty-eight wide, 



and comprises 928 square miles. Part of it has been cultivated since 

 1709, and yet it has not a single acre of worn-out laud. It contains 

 9070 farms, valued at sixty-nine million dollars, and produced last year 

 farm produce of the value of nine million dollars, or fifty per cent, 

 greater than any other county in the United States. A leading produc- 

 tion for years has been tobacco, of which in 1889 the value was one and 

 one-third million dollars. Lancaster county contains 325 grist mills, and 

 last year wintered forty thousand stall-fed cattle. The other counties 

 in the United States producing the highest value of agricultural products 

 is St. Lawrence, N. Y., producing six millions of dollars, but its area is 

 three times as large as Lancaster. Tlie third productive county is 

 Chester, Pa., one quarter smaller than Lancaster, producing nearly six 

 millions of dollars. The fourth county in production is Bucks, Pa. , one- 

 third smaller than Lancaster, producing five and one-half millions of 

 dollars last year. It is in Bucks county where is situated Bloomsdale 

 Farm. 



Com Crops. 1034. Q. Maryland is not far behind, for I have just measured up my 

 corn crop of 1479 shelled bushels grown on seventeen acres. Is that 

 quantity of eighty-seven bushels to the acre often exceeded ? 



A. Not often exceeded in general cropping, for eighty -seven bushels is 

 a most admirable product, but it is not as much as often grown in the 

 crack counties of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Lancaster, Chester and Bucks, 

 where there are many records of over 100 bushels, and as high as 127, 

 which was certified to by the Brandyne Club in 1874. In 1893, a Penn- 

 sylvania farmer exhibited at the Chicago Exhibition a lot of corn, part of 

 the product from a twelve-acre field which gave 1320 bushels, or 110 

 bushels to the acre. 



Ensilage. 1035. Q. What is meant by ensilage ? 



A. The principle involved is the preservation of green forage in cellars 

 or pits through the exclusion of air, the green stuff being put in so tightly 

 as to drive out very nearly all the air, and the material kept so com- 

 pressed as to continue to keep out very nearly all air. Some will remain, 

 but this, after a time, is changed by fermentation to carbonic acid gas, 

 filling all interstices, excluding other air and holding the green forage in 

 a bath of gas, in which condition all decomposition is arrested. The 

 forage changes its color in the pits, and a vinegary odor becomes very 

 perceptible, the material becoming more digestible than it was in its 

 green condition. 



