152 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



tie, for it frequpiitly occurs tliat the top soil 

 looks sodden when the portion where the 

 roots are supposed to be feeding is almost dry. 

 This is often the case with azaleas and other 

 hard-wooded plants, growing in peat, which, 

 rammed in hard, as they require to be, be- 

 come so compact and close that water does 

 not penetrate readily, hut makes its escape at 

 the sides, where it cracks away from the pot. 

 Even where this does not take place there is 

 rarely sufficient space left when potting to 

 hold enough water to thoroughly moisten the 

 whole of the soil, and unless they are gone 

 over two or three times the middle of the hall 

 is never reached ; and this is why it is that 

 plants of this discription are .sometimes seen 

 in a starved condition. 



A well trained eye sees at a glance, in a 

 general way, when water is required, hut a 

 plant that has had on it the driblet .system is 

 deceiving, .and it is only by testing its weight, 

 or by turning it out of the pot, so as to make 

 a thorough examination, that a correct opin- 

 ion can be formed, as to look at it and come 

 to a conclusion is mere guess-work and can 

 not in any way be depended on. The test by 

 weight may be easily made by comparison 

 with others, in the same sized pot, and that 

 are growing in the same kind of soil, as those 

 that are in a proper condition in regard to 

 moisture will weigh several pounds heavier 

 than those that are not so, and in this way 

 they may be detected at once. 



^ 



THE WHEAT CROP. 



Reports to Brndstreefs from the entire 

 wheat growing regions sliow that the crop for 

 1880 has been generally overestimated. The 

 results of the threshing have not borne out 

 the estimates made while the wheat was be- 

 ing gathered or in the shock. The returns 

 are down to Septembar 2.5, and indicate that 

 the total out-turn of wheat for 1880 will not 

 he in excess of 465,(501.000 bushels. The re- 

 turns from the great wheat growing States of 

 Illinois aud Iowa are quite up to earlier esti- 

 mates, but it is probable, when the full re- 

 turns of the threshing in those States are 

 summed up, that the total product of this 

 country will not exceed 45.5,000,000, as com- 

 I)ared with the estimate of the Agricultural 

 Department for 1870 of 488,600,000 bushels. 

 The export of wheat from the United States 

 last year was in round numbers 185,000,000 

 bushels. It is estimated that the require- 

 ment for liome consumption from this year's 

 crop will be 261,000,000 bushels. On this 

 basis aud taking the total out-turn at 455,000,- 

 000 bushels, there will remain about 184,000,- 

 000 surplus for export from the wheat crop of 

 1880. A general summary of the wheat crop 

 of 1880 with reference to territorial divisions 

 is given as follows : Western States, :!3S,067,- 

 000 bushels; Southern States, 41,929,000; Cali- 

 fornia and Oregon, 38,000,000: Middle States, 

 36,595,000; Colorado, Nevada and Terri- 

 tories, 10,000,000; New England, 1,100,000. 

 (irand total, 465,691,000. 



APPLES, APPLE JUICE, CIDER, VINE- 

 GAR. 



This is most emphatically "the bearing 

 year" with apjiles. Not only are well kept 

 orchards in full bearing, but every super- 

 annuated and half-decayed tree, and every 

 scrub and chance seedling by the roadside, is 

 loaded in a manner seldom seen in a lifetime. 

 With this abundance it is evident that with 

 apples there will be a glut in the market. 

 There will be no room except "higher up," 

 and those who send poor fruit to maiket had 

 better use their barrels for fire-wood, and save 

 the freight charges. There is always a cer- 

 tain demand to be met, but this year only the 

 select fruit will supply it. In years of plenty, 

 careful selection and neat packages tell. The 

 almost daily inquiries as to fruit driers show 

 that i)reparations arc being made to dry a 

 share of this abundance, and we hope by tliis 

 article to anticipate the inquiries that will 

 soon be made as to disposing of the fruit in 

 the various liquid forms. Apple juice, as it 

 comes from the press, or "sweet cider, " is 



liked by many, and we have inquiries as to 

 keeping it in an unfermented state. Preserv- 

 ing powders are advertised, and sgme of these, 

 from their eft'ectiveness in preserving fruit, 

 will no doubt keep fruit juice equally well. 

 The majority will wish to preserve their sweet 

 cider without addition, and these can treat it 

 by the same method used in canning fault. 

 Heat the cider to the boiling point, bottle and 

 cork it while still hot. When apple juice is 

 exposed to the air the natural ferment it con- 

 tains causes a change to take place. The 

 sugar in the juice is converted into alcohol, 

 and carbonic acid is given off. This process 

 may be carried on until all the sugar is de- 

 composed, when it is "hard cider." The fer- 

 mentation may be arrested at the desired 

 point by bottling, and sparkling cider will be 

 the result. This, which is also called "cham- 

 pange cider," can only be produced by bot- 

 tling before the fermentation is quite finished. 

 The best still cider is made from late ripening 

 apples, when the weatlier is cool, fermented 

 slowly at as low a temperature as possible, 

 taking care to exclude the access Of air ; when 

 fermentation has quite ceased the cider should 

 be racked off into clean cask and kept secure- 

 ly bunged or bottled. The great use of apples 

 in this year will be to make vinegar. In the 

 fermentation of cider the sugar of the apple 

 juice is converted into alcohol, and in making 

 vinegar that alcohol is changed into acetic 

 acid. The conditions of this change are full 

 exposure to the stir and a high temperature. 

 The richer the cider in alcohol the stronger 

 will be the vinegar, and the more slowly will 

 the change take place. Ordinarily the cider 

 is put away in the cellar or some outbuilding, 

 and in time, it may be two or three years or 

 more, will be found to be changed into vine- 

 gar. Those who have heard of the "quick 

 vinegar process" think it can be applied to 

 cider ; we are often asked to give a descrip- 

 tion of it. In this process a liquid containing 

 alcohol, usually in the form of cheap whisky, 

 is converted into vinegar in a few hours. But 

 this is not applicable to cider, for in the fer- 

 mentation of cider or other fruit juices the 

 change into vinegar is accompanied by the 

 growth of a very low form of plant, "the 

 mother," as it is usually called, and this 

 would so clog up the apparatus of the quick 

 method as to soon put a stop to it. Still the 

 change of eider may be greatly hastened. 

 Those who make cider vinegar on a large 

 scale have a house especially for the work, and 

 this is heated to about 70^-'. Vinegar can not 

 be made rapidly at a much lower temperature. 

 Exposure to the air is important, hence the 

 casks are not tilled, but only partly so, in 

 order to expose a broad surface of the liquid 

 to the action of the air. Exposure is in- 

 creased by frequently transferring the cider 

 from one cask to another, letting it run very 

 slowly. Exposure can be promoted by allow- 

 ing the partly formed vinegar to slowly run 

 down a long trough, and also by allowing it 

 to trickle over corn cobs placed in a cask, the 

 cobs having been previously washed and 

 soaked in good vinegar. Old vinegar acts as 

 a ferment, and hastens the change, and the 

 mixing of new and partly formed vinegar 

 with a portion ot old and strong vinegar helps 

 the change. Another method to hasten vine- 

 gar making is to add yeast to cider, or what 

 produces the .same effect, the "mother" from 

 vinegar barrels. The conditions for the most 

 rai)id conversion of cider into vinegar may 

 be summed up : A temperature of at least 

 70', all possible exposure to the air, the ad- 

 dition of old vinegar to the new or the use of 

 "mother." It .should be remembered that the 

 weaker will be the vinegar and more rapid the 

 change. 



BLIGHT OF FRUIT TREES. 

 Prof. T. .1. Burrill, of the Illinois Indus- 

 trial University, read a paper before Section 

 B, of the Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, on the "Anthrax of Fruit Trees." 

 The wide-spread and disastrous disease of the 

 pear tree, commonly known as fire-blight, and 

 that no less prevalent one knovni as twig- 



blight of the apple tree, are due to the same 

 agency. They are identical in origin, and 

 as similar in pathological cliaracteristics as 

 are the trees themselves. The quince, Lom- 

 bardy poplar, American aspen and some 

 other trees suffer from the same or similar 

 affections. 



The immediate cause of the disease is a 

 living organism which produces butyric fer- 

 mentation (^f the material stored in the cells, 

 especially those of the liber. This organism 

 is allied to, if not specifically identical' with, 

 the butyric vibrione of Pasteur the Bacillus 

 miiylobacter, of Van Tieghem. After re- 

 counting the history of the disease in this 

 country, which goes b.ack at least a century, 

 the experiments which were made with the 

 specific poison or ferment, in inoculating 

 healthy trees and in other ways, were recount- 

 ed in detail. After it was determined that a 

 specific living organism, the Bacillus named 

 above, was always present in the lil)er-cells of 

 the affected trees or branches, an isolated acre 

 of ground upon which there were 94 pear 

 trees of different ages and varieties was se- 

 lected for the experiments. The method of 

 experiment was to cut oft' small portions of 

 the bark of diseased trees and insert them be- 

 neath the bai'k of other healthy trees, as in 

 the ordinary process of budding. The re- 

 sults of these experiments are given in a 

 table, which shows that a very large percent- 

 age of the experiments were perfectly success- 

 ful in communicating the blight from the dis- 

 eased tree to the previously healthy one. 

 Sixty-three per cent, of all the iiear trees thus 

 inoculated became diseased. Of the pear 

 trees that were inoculated with the virus 

 from diseased pear trees 54 per cent, became 

 affected. Of those pear trees inoculated from 

 blighting apple trees 73 per cent, received the 

 disease. When the poison was taken from 

 the pear trees to inoculate apple trees the 

 percentage of successful operations was much 

 below that obtained when the process was re- 

 versed, probably because the apple tree is the 

 more hardy of the two. The virus seems to 

 be quite harmless when it is applied to the 

 epidermal surface of the leaves of a tree; it 

 does not seem to enter through the stomata. 

 Of the entire number ot recorded observation, 

 34.78 per cent, were successful, while of the 

 whole number of inoculations with the knife, 

 52.07 per cent, were effective. 



The organism to which the disease is at- 

 tributed is so minute that a very great mag- 

 nifying power is necessary to enable one to 

 study it or to make out its form. It assumes 

 various shapes during its development, and 

 these different forms may usually be seen at 

 one view in the microscope. The most char- 

 acteristic form is that of two oblong joints 

 with rouuded ends. Their transverse diam- 

 eter is about .002 millimetres, and the length 

 of each joint about .003. They are compara- 

 tively thicker aud shorter than the common 

 Bacterium termo, and they move less rapidly. 

 If this should prove to be the organism which 

 is the well-known agent in converting starch, 

 sugar, etc., into butyric acid, hydrogen, and 

 carbon dioxide, this would not invalidate the 

 assumption that it is the ca^se of this dis- 

 ease, but it might render the discovery of 

 remedial treatment less hopeful. The most 

 conspicuous change in the tissues of the af- 

 fected plants revealed by the microscope is 

 the almost total disappearance of starch from 

 the cells. 



^ 



ABSORBENTS FOR STABLEMANURES. 



A correspondent of the Country Gentleman 

 says : Next to underdraining, where needed, 

 the best paying labor on the farm is to secure 

 materials for use in the stables. There are 

 many things, such as chaff', muck, saw-diist, 

 and even dry soil, or, better, road dust ; but 

 the best of all, next to chaff, is leaf mould 

 from the woods. This may be gatliered in 

 the fall after the leaves have fallen, and leaves 

 aud leaf dust taken u]) together. Large quan- 

 tities may be obtained in a short time at only 

 the cost of the labor, which is light for both 

 man aud team. Besides its use for stable 



