T4 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



the other products of the soil. The extraction ot 

 the saccharine matter deprives the root of only a 

 part of its elements. Its pulp and foliage supply 

 the animals with an abundance of food; and the 

 returns of the sugar works enable them to add 

 commercial manures, which indefinitely increase 

 the fertility of the soil. In 1855, the city of Va- 

 lenciennes, the principal seat of the manufacture, 

 was able to inscribe upon a triumphal arch these 

 significant words: 'Produce. of wheat in the aron- 

 dissement before the manufacture of sugar, 353,000 

 hectolitres (961,173 bushels); number of oxen, 700. 

 Produce of wheat since the manufacture of sugar, 

 421,000 hectolitres (1,158,256 bushels); number of 

 cattle, 11,500.'" 



The pulp or solid residue amounts to about 

 twenty per cent, of the entire root. "When divest- 

 ed of the juice, it still contains two or three per 

 cent of saccharine matter, and is greedily eaten by 

 cattle and pigs, which fatten rapidly upon it. It 

 is said not to be good, however, for milch cows. 



Ordinary beets and mangel-wurzel contain sugar, 

 but the Silesiaa beets alone are cultivated for this 

 purpose. By judicious selection and culture vari-. 

 ties have been obtained which contain much more 

 sugar than the ordinary variety. In obtaining this 

 result, however, the size of the root has been re- 

 duced. M. Knatjek, of Germany, has produced a 

 variety, which he names 'the Imperial beet-root, 

 whish eo;. tains 17i per cent, of sugar! This im- 

 provement i>laces the beet on a par with the cane 

 as a sugar plant, while the cultivator of the beet 

 has several important advantages over the West 

 India and Louisiana planters. The cultivation of 

 the sugar, cane occupies from twelve to fifteen 

 months, and it must all be manufactured in a few 

 days, or great loss ensues. On the other hand, the 

 beet requites only about four months to arrive at 

 maturity, and then it can be stored and manipu- 

 lated at leisure. 



KATS-H0W TO DESTROY THEM. 



Coffee in Illinois. — It i9 said that G. R. Hoff- 

 man, of Effingham Co., Illinois, raised last year 

 two bushels of coffee. The seed was sent him 

 from Australia. The first year the plants were un- 

 productive; the second year they bore a little, and 

 produced a full crop the third year. He thinks 

 thirty bushels can be grown per acre. 



Where England gets hee Timber. — Great 

 Britain and Ireland import annually some 27.000,- 

 000 cubic feet, or 540,000 loads of Canadian pine 

 timber, the greater part of which is manufactured 

 on the Ottawa river and its tributaries. The ope- 

 rations of this manufacture extend over upward of 

 11,000 square miles, and give employment to more 

 than 40,000 men. 



Solon Robinson, of the New York Tribune, 

 well remarks that this species of the genus Mus is 

 an almost intolerable nuisance in some portions of 

 the United States. They follow man into the wil- 

 derness. When he located on the "r rairie in 1834, 

 about fifteen miles from neighbors, and forty miles 

 from what has since grown to be the city of Chi- 

 cago, there was not a rat to be seen or heard of. 

 For several years he was exempt from the pest. 

 Then came abundance of shipping to Chicago, and 

 with it abundance of rats, and they soon spread 

 over the whole land, multiplying and devastating. 

 Now they are great pests in the barns and stacks 

 of prairie farmers. 



Our common breed is called "Norway rats," 

 from the supposition that they originated in that 

 country. British naturalists, however, assert that 

 they were introduced into the British Islands from 

 India. If they are tropical animals, all we have 

 to say is that they easily adapt themselves to a rig- 

 orous climate, where they multiply at a most pro- 

 lific rate. What we are yet to do with them is a 

 problem not easily solved. All the receipts to cure 

 the nuisance are only preventive, not eradicative. . 

 A correspondent of the Gardener's Monthly says: 



u . I tried the effect of introducing into the en- 

 trance of their numerous holes, runs, or hiding- 

 places, small portions of chloride of lime pi 

 bleaching powder, wrapped in calico, and stuffed 

 into the entrance holes, and thrown loose by 

 spoonfuls into the drain from the house. This 

 drove the rats away for a twelve -month, when 

 they returned to it. They were treated in the 

 same manner, with like effect. The cure was most 

 complete. 1 presume it was the chlorine gas, 

 which did not agree with their olfactories." 



Arsenic is considered by some who have tried it, 

 as a failure, used for the purpose of clearing 

 premises of rats ; because they are too cunning to 

 partake of it after witnessing the death of two or 

 three of the family. It is effectual, if the vermin 

 will take the bait. 



Strychnine we consider far preferable, and al- 

 though so much more costly, it requires but a few 

 cents' worth to do the work of death upon a hun- 

 dred rats, it is also the very best thing to use 

 upon a troublesome dog or cat that comes prowling 

 about your premises. One grain for a dose is suf- 

 ficient. Mr. Robinson lias killed numerous wolves 

 by inserting one grain of strychnine in the center 

 of a piece of fresh meat, just large enough for a 

 mouthful for a wolf. As rats do not bolt their 

 food, it is a little more difficult to get them to take 

 strychnine; it is so intensely bitter. If it is mixed 



