1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



837 



PEARL MILLET AS A FOUDEK PLENT. 



Another important t'oiUler plant, to a limitetl ex- j 

 tent, is Pearl Millet, whieh 1 tried several years ago; ! 

 but as you, Mr. Henderson, have got some notoriety 

 by your experiments with it at that time, and some 

 biame too, I think it you have no scruples in the , 

 matter it would be well to give such intormatiou in 

 regard to it as your experience enables you. j 



(Mr. H.) Pearl Millet is now well known all over j 

 the C'luutry, especially in the Southern States, 

 where it goes by the common name ot Cat-Tail I 

 Millet. In 1878 I determined to give it a thorough 

 trial, and prepared a piece of good grouiui, as il for ; 

 a root crop, by manuring at the rate of i~ or 1") tons i 

 to the acre, plowing deeply, and harrowing. The 

 seed was sown in drills twenty inches apart, at the i 

 rate of four to five pounds to the acre. The seed i 

 was sown about the middle of May. When the 

 plants were up, a cultivator was run through the j 

 rows, and the growth became so rapid that no . 

 further culture was necessary. The tirst cutting 

 was made f:") days after sowing; it was seven feet 

 high, and covered the whole ground. The crop, cut | 

 three inches above the ground, weighed, as cut, at j 

 the rate of 3(.i tons per acre; dried. H'z tons i)er acre 1 

 of hay. The second growth, cut 45 days from the 1 

 time of the first cutting, was nine feet high, and i 

 weighed at the rate of bb tons to the acre fresh, ! 

 equal to eight tons dried. The last growth started | 

 rapidly, but the cool weather retarded it, so that i 

 the last cutting weighed only ten tons green, and i 

 1' j tons dried. The total yield was as follows: First j 

 cutting, in 4.5 days, gave thirty tons green, or (i'i j 

 tons dry; second cutting, in 45 days, gave 55 tons 

 green, or eight tons dry; third cutting, in 45 days, 

 gave ten tons green, or I'e tons dry; in all. being 

 95 tons green fodder in 135 days, equal to sixteen 

 tons of hay. These results, published at the time, 

 gave rise to some severe critcism by persons who 

 had failed to do as well with the crop as I had done. 

 But it should be rem mbered that the conditions 

 under whieh an experiment is made are essentially 

 necessary to a successful repetition of it; and if 

 these ditter in any respect, and especially if they | 

 are inferior, failure is apt to result. 



As 1 have had many inquiries as to the best man- 

 ner of drying Pearl Millet for "hay," 1 would say j 

 that our crop was sown in a solid block, so that , 

 when cut it had to be removed from the land where I 

 it grew, and tied in sheaves, and hung up on an ex- i 

 tempor.zed rail fence until cured. This plan, of 

 course, would not answer on a large scale, as the , 

 crop is so enormous that such an exiteilicnt lor dry- 

 ing would be too expensive both for lahor and rails; 

 an<l as it is too heavy and succulent tn be dri'Ml like 

 Timothy and Clover, on the ground where it is cut, 

 it must be removed, for to attempt to drj- it where - 

 it grows would destroy the second crop. Circum- 

 stances, of course, must in a great measure be a 

 guide; but we would suggest, that when grown for 

 the purpose of being dried, that it be sown in beds, 

 say i:i feet wide, with alleys six feet between, where 

 it may be dried; this, of course, would be a loss of 

 one-thirdof the land fori he tirst crop, but it would be 

 little or no loss of crop in the second, for the millet 

 would spread so as to fill up all the six feet of alley. 



It seen"is to me that this book, laid on any 

 farmer's table, ought to pay tor itself many 

 times over in the course of the coming year. 

 Where is there a farmer's boy who wouidn t 

 delight to see pictures of the latest improve- 

 ments in farming-tools, anil stock and farm 

 products y and when you add to these re- 

 marks the suggestions from such old, wise, 

 and successful men as Peter Henderson and 

 William Crozier. the book l>ecomes of im- 

 mense value. Now, then, if you want to 

 make your boys or your husband or your 

 father a rational Christmas book, give him 

 this beautiful volume. The book is, in the 

 size of pages, about equal to the A B C book. 

 It contains about 400 pages. The price is 

 S2.o0: but by taking 100 copies at a time I 

 can get them "^so I can club itwithGLEAN- 

 ixu.s for only .S2.7o. If you want it sent by 

 mail, add 20 cts. extra for postage. If you 

 have already sent in your subscription for 

 IS.S0, you caii have the book for rrl.To, post- 



age added. You will see by the postage that 



)S. 



age auueu. i uu win t 

 the book weighs •2i Ib^ 



CARP AND TEXAS. 



FKIE.NU KLU.MS EXPERIEXCE IX THE BUSINESS. 



ELL, 1 feel proud of the " Fish Department" 

 in the Juvenile. Shall I tell what 1 know 

 ^W^ about carp? In 1881 I saw an article in our 

 county paper, that the Agricultural De- 

 partment at Washington would send out 

 carp. I wrote to the Fish Commissioner, and he 

 told me he would send me 20 if I would pay $3.00 

 for a can, and the express charges. 1 sent the mon- 

 ey. It was in May. In due time the can came to 

 Sherman with 21 fish, 11 dead and 7 alive; express 

 charges, $5.(5. My friend in Sherman changed the 

 water, and the next morning brought them to me, 8 

 miles on horseback. Only 5 were now alive. The 

 largest one was about 4 inches long, the smallest 

 one about r2 inches. I turned them loose, and saw 

 nothing more of them until the next February, 

 when 1 drained my pond and found 3 fish, about 10 

 or 17 inches long; they would weigh (estimated) 

 3 lbs., not one year old yet, unless the start I got 

 was yearlings. 



I decided I had two females and one male. Ke- 

 member, this was in Feb., liS.l. I dipped all the 

 native fish and water out of the pond (we call it 

 tank), filled it again with water, and turned my 

 three fish loose again. The next January I drained 

 and dipped, and got my three spawners and 1500 

 young fish, not one less than 4 inches long, and sev- 

 eral y inches long, large enough to eat, the first year 

 from the spawn. 



That is the success I had. Do you want to know 

 the failure? I could not fill all the orders last spring 

 at #2.C0 for 2J, $8.00 for lOJ. I have shipped a few 

 with good success. Oh! that looks like an ax to 

 grind. Let us all vote for the fish department. 



We get double the growth here that you get up 

 north. They feed and grow all winter, some sea- 

 sons, and some well-grown ones will spawn the sec- 

 ond summer. M. S. Klum. 



Sherman, Texas, Nov. 4, 18t'4. 



While awav it was my good fortune to be 

 able to visit (he building belonging to the 

 Ohio Fish Commission, at Sandusky, Oliio, 

 where the German carp emanate from, men- 

 tioned on another page. The superintend- 

 ent informed me that all the carp have been 

 distributed that can be spared this winter, 

 but he hopes, with perfect arrangement, to 

 be able to commence shipping again in July 

 next; so, friends, you can be getting your 

 carp-ponds in readiness. While there I wit- 

 nessed tlie operalion of hatching white tish 

 by artificial means. Only sixty millions 

 were under the process of hatching, while I 

 was there. Tiiey were habthed in tall glass 

 jars, througli which running lake water is 

 made to pass constantlv. The outside world 

 niav know nothing of what is going on in- 

 sideoftlu^ bee-hives behniging toour people, 

 but it is als:) true tliat the outside world, in- 

 cluding bee-folks, are. at least many of them, 

 comparativelv ignorant of what is being 

 (Ume in thewav of disseminating fishes. 

 Think of the herculean task of filling Lake 

 Erie with fish hatched by artificial means; 

 );ut yet. dear friends, that is exactly what 



