8 



THE LANCASTER. FARMER. 



[January, 



planter are worthy of a moment's study for 

 the lessons they convey. His business is a 

 comprehensive one, including everything re- 

 lating to cotton. He not only raises cotton, 

 but gins, spins and weaves it, is a large dealer 

 and has oil mills as well. He was clear- 

 sighted enough to perceive that there is a 

 special profit in each process and operation 

 through which cotton passes from the field to 

 the consumer of cotton goods, and he had the 

 capital and ability to organize a business 

 which makes all these profits his own. He 

 owns some 32,000 acres of land, and last year 

 raised over 12,000 bales of cotton— a greater 

 number than the Khedive of Egyi)t, who is 

 the next largest cotton raiser in the world, 

 Mr. Richardson is not a "high" farmer, a 

 bale to three acres being the average produc- 

 tion of his land, which is largely tilled by 

 tenants on the share system. The 36,000 

 pounds of seed cotton which he annually gets 

 from his land are ginned by his own gins — 

 which do public ginning also — and pressed, 

 baled and compressed, so much as is shipped 

 as raw material, on his own plantation. The 

 seed, which is ordinarily worth $0 a ton, and 

 is to a great extent wasted by other planters, 

 is ground and pressed for the oil. The hulls 

 are used for fuel in this process, and the 

 ashes sold and used for fertilizers. From a 

 ton of seed he obtains 3.5 gallons of oil worth 

 35 cents a gallon— 112.25. The cake remain- 

 ing after the oil is pressed out is worth rather 

 more for fuel than the seed itself, selling 

 readily for home use or shipment to England 

 at .f 6 to S7 a ton. Each ton of cotton-seed, 

 therefore, nets rather more than $20 — the 

 bulk used as fuel being taken into account. 

 Mr. Eichardson's mill at Coiinth receives and 

 manufacture^ a large part of his crop, and an- 

 other profit is added on the sales of yarns and 

 sheetings, drillings, cottonades, etc., a profit 

 wliich is considerably enhanced by the elimi- 

 nation of shipping charges, insurance, broker's 

 commission, and other tolls levied on cotton 

 shipped to distant mWls.— Letter to New York 

 Times. 



LIME AS A PRESERVATIVE. 



It would be interesting to record the many 

 evidences of the value of lime in arresting de- 

 cay. As long as 17(59 a Mr. Jackson, a 

 chemist, obtained perraissirn to prepaj'e tim- 

 ber for the ship yards, by immersing it in a 

 solution of salt water, lime, muriate of soda, 

 etc.; another practical experimentalist sug- 

 gested slaked lime, thinned with a solution 

 of glue, for mopping the timbers of a ship. 

 The preservation of timber has been attempt- 

 ed by surrounding it with pounded lime; 

 several attempts have been made to preserve 

 timber by the use of lime. Mr. Britten, in 

 his work on "Dry Hot," mentions a number 

 of cases where lime has been of servicS. He 

 says, "quick-lime with damp has been found 

 to accelerate putrefaction in consequence of 

 its extracting carbon ; but when dry and in 

 such large quantities as to absorb all moisture 

 from the wood, the woof? is preserved and the 

 sap hardened." "Vessels long in the lime 

 trade have afforded proof of this fact, also 

 examples in plastering latlis which are gene- 

 rally found sound where they have been found 

 dry." The joists and sleepers of the base- 

 ment floors are rendered less subject to decay 



by a coating of limewhite ; and this might be 

 renewed at intervals. The same writer adds, 

 "it does not appear practicable to use lime- 

 water to any extent for preserving timber, 

 because water holds iu solution only about 

 1-500 part of lime, which quantity .would be 

 too inconsiderable ; it, however, renders 

 timber more durable, but at the same time 

 very hard and diflicult to be worked." Tliese 

 facts are instructive ; they show, at least, that 

 lime in a sufficient quantity kept dry is a 

 valuable preservative agent, and some practi- 

 cal chemist might earn a deserved repute if 

 he could prepare a lime solution that would 

 be capable of rendering so substantial a ser- 

 vice to all builders. Such a solution would 

 be at least suflSciently remunerative to make 

 it worth while to try a few exi)eriments in 

 this direction. It is stated on good aulliority 

 that the white ant in India costs the govern- 

 ment £100,000 a year for repairing woodwork 

 bridges, etc., caused by its depredations. 

 Concrete basements have been found to resist 

 the encroachments of the ant. Dr. Darwin 

 proposed a process of timber preservation 

 some yars ago, in which an absorption of 

 limewater was effected, and after that had 

 dried,^a weak solution of sulphuric acid, so as 

 form sulphate of lime in the pores of the wood. 

 The growth of dry-rot or fungus on timber has 

 been prevented by limewater, and many in- 

 stances have been mentioned of its value. 

 The cleansing and sanitary virtues of lime are 

 more generally known. The painter uses 

 limewater to kill the grease upon his work in- 

 stead of turpentine ; and soot stains on the 

 outside of flues have been removed by the 

 agency of thick warm limewash. The value 

 of limewhite as a wash for walls, as a .purifier 

 of the air in sheds, stables, and other build- 

 ings is unquestionable, though all limewashed 

 roof-timers have rather a rough and penurious 

 look. As a preservative coating to the joists 

 of floors and other timbers not exposed to 

 damp, it seems worthy of a more extended 

 trial. 



ONE SQUARE ACRE. 

 The number of square feet in an acre is 

 43.560. la order to have this area the piece 

 of land must be of such a length and breadth 

 that the two multiplied together will produce 

 the above number. Tlius an acre of land 

 might be 43, .560 feet long by one foot broad ; 

 21,780 feet long by two feet broad ; 12,250 feet 

 long by three broad and so on. If the acre of 

 land is to be exactly square, each side must 

 be as nearly as possible 280 feet 1-2 inches. 

 The nearest you can come to an exactly 

 square acre with an even number of feet on 

 the sides is to make it 220 feet long by ISO 

 broad. 



YARDS IN A MILE. 



Mile in England or America, 1,760 yards. 

 Mile in Russia. 1,100 yards. 

 Mile in Italy, 2,497 yards. 

 Mile in Scotland and Ireland, 2,200 yards. 

 Mile in Poland, 4,100 yards. 

 Mile iu Spain, 5,028 yards. 

 Mile in Germany, 5,866 yards. 

 Mile in Sweden and Denmark, 7,233 yards. 

 Mile in Hungary, 8,800 yards. 

 A league in England and America, 5,280 

 yards. 



WHEAT CROP OF THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



The following is the estimated wheat crop 

 of the United States for 1881, according to 

 the figures furnished by the department of 

 agriculture at Wasliington. The figures for 

 1879 are from the census returns : 



1S79. 1881. 



Bushels. Bushels. 



Maine 666,201 524,800 



New Hampshire 168,720 16.5^0 



Veniiout 34J,4I6 .399!ooO 



Massiiehu.setts '.5,7i)3 



Rliodc Island 240 



Connecticut ;jS,.58o .36 000 



New Yorli 11 ,21(8,097 13,26 '',000 



New .levsey ',901,952 2.448^600 



Pennsylvania 19,512,034 19,839,000 



Delaware 1,181,776 927,000 



Maryland 8,3.54,792 0,612,6.0 



Virginia 7,S:J7,02l 7,1.36,000 



Nortli Carolina 3,428.194 4,442,100 



South Carolina 957,074 l,0%i800 



Georgia 3,t39,.514 2,487,400 



Florida 421 



Alabama 1.5.36.8.32 1,111,800 



Mississippi 217,620 20.5,200 



Louisiana 4.9-53 



Texas 2,.577,923 3.287,500 



Arkansas 1, 265,612 993,400 



Tennessee 7,299,034 6,752,0 



AVest Virginia 3,030,680 4,2 IJ,0OO 



Kentucky 11,369,067 «,.s39,tX)0 



Ohio 46,010,412 39,177,000 



Michigan 34,632,231 24,765,000 



Indiana . 47,1.54,5 29,' 30,000 



Illinois 51,174,818 28,.543,000 



Wisconsin 24,930.448 16,15O,.50O 



Minnesota 34,709,2.38 3 .19 ,000 



Iowa 3 . 02,738 4.871 ,300 



Missouri 24,892,728 23,847.600 



Kansas '7.311,038 19,448.800 



Nebra.ska 3,816,7.31 11,625,000 



California 28.9,52,.378 28,367,800 



Oregon 7,477,294 13.889,(X10 



Nevada 09,.13S 



Color.ado 423,:356 l,.309,0fl0 



The Territories 7,79»,.590 14,508,000 



Total United States. , 458,105,747 381,479,200 



A PLAIN AND EASY WAY OF CURING 

 HAMS. 



The principle thing in curing hams is to get 

 them just salt enough to keep them and not 

 so salt as to injure the flavor and cause them 

 to become hard. Haras should be neatly 

 trimmed and cut rounding, to imitate as 

 closely as may be the hams of commerce. 

 Trim closely, so there sliall be no masses of 

 fat left at the lowest extremity of the hams. 

 The shoulders may be cut in shape convenient 

 for packing, and they should be salted in 

 separate packages from tlie hams. 



Hams are cured by both dry salting and 

 brine. When dry salting is employed the hams 

 are rubbed often with salt anti sugar. Be- 

 tween each rubbing they are bunched up on 

 platforms or tables, the surface of which is 

 spread with a layer of salt, and each ham is 

 also covered with salt. When taken up to 

 rub, which is usually done i\\e or six times, a 

 shallow box is at hand in which to do the 

 work. 



When brine is used, prepare a pickle strong 

 enough to float an egg and stir into it a suffi- 

 cient amount of sugar and molasses to give it 

 a sweetened taste. Some add a little salt- 

 peter to color the meat. In moderate quan- 

 tity it is commonly accepted as beneficial. 

 Covbr the hams with the pickel and place the 

 packages where the temperature is uniform 

 and above freezing. For hams of twelve 

 pounds, four weeks will be sufficient ; larger 

 hams must remain in the brine a longer time. 

 In general, three to seven weeks embraces the 

 extreme of time required for domestic curing 

 of hams, varying as to the size of the hams, 

 temperature and time when they will be re- 

 quired for use. When it is designed to pre- 

 serve hams through the summer they must 

 not be removed from the pickle too soon. 



Shoulders require much the same treatment 



