1882. 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



&9 



hence must havo been in the soil before the 

 tobacco was planted, or in proximity to it. 

 We raise as many and as s^ood potatoes now 

 as we did before the advent of the potato 

 beetle, because we apply the remedies for 

 their dislruetiou when they become tooabnn- 

 dant, and this must also be resorted to in re- 

 gard to the tobacco. Of course, it will be 

 more dillieult to contend with tlie cutworm 

 Hum witli the potato beetle, iiiasniucli as the 

 former is a "midnight marauder,"' wliilst the 

 latter is an "open enemy." With all these 

 counter influences, there will b ; an immense 

 crop of almost everything the present season 

 and tliere may be some anxiety to know what 

 to do witli it — it would be unchristian to wish 

 for war as an outlet. 



DESTROYING WEEVIL. 



The best remedy yet found for their exter- 

 mination is frequently stirring the grain. It 

 is more than |)robable that fully saturating 

 the bins with the fimies of sulphur will kill 

 the insects, and this would not lie dillieult to 

 do by means of asnitableappavatus. Altliough 

 Curtis says that turpentiue and the fumes "of 

 sulphur did not seem to incommode the in- 

 sects. Kiln-drying at a heat of l;!0 degrees 

 will kill them without injuring the germinat- 

 ing poweis of the grain. Placing the infect- 

 ed grain in close bins, without moving, is the 

 best possible way to contiuue their ravages, 

 since they deliglit in darkness, and in grain 

 that is not handled. We do not suppose that 

 the present scare in weevil in grain in the 

 Chicago elevators will affect prices seriously, 

 but if the weevil becomes generally dissemi- 

 nated in the west, it will become a most seri- 

 ous matter : not among farmers themselves, 

 if the means we have indicated are closely 

 followed (moving and fanning the grain often), 

 but in elevators the means of destruction will 

 not be so easily managed, though there is 

 little doubt if the fumes of sulphur be driven 

 into the bins, and there retained for ten hours, 

 the destruction of the insects will be complete. 

 — Prairie Farmer. 



"Frequently stirring the grain," seems a 

 very simple remedy for the extermination of 

 the weevil, and if it is the "best yet found," 

 it should be ijy all means universally adopted. 

 It might he of some use in expelling the 

 mature beetles from the bin, but we don't see 

 how it would exterminate the larva, which is 

 snugly en.sconsed within the grain, and which 

 cuidd not leave it if it wmdd, until its final 

 evolution from the pupa state. This stirring 

 the wheat is equivalent to jarring fruit trees 

 for the expulsion of the curcidio, but the jar- 

 ring is only intended to disturb or expel the 

 mature beetle, and not at all the larva, which 

 is beyond the influence af the jarring, it being 

 inside the fruit, and not inclined to come 

 forth until it has fully matured as a larva. 

 The grain weevil is the Sitopholis granurius, 

 of Linnaeus, and when it has fully matured it 

 leaves the grain of its own accord, and hides 

 itself in some convenient nook or crevice and 

 there hibernates, and comes forth in due 

 season to deposit its eggs on the grains of 

 wheat of a subsequent crop. 



EFFECTS OF BAKING ON FLOUR. 

 Good bread should be full of small pores, 

 and xiniforndij light. Such bread is produced 

 by strong flour ; that is, such as will rise well, 

 retain its bulk and bear the largest quanti- 

 ty of water. The largest proportion of gluten 

 usually contained in the flour of wheat, gives 

 the higher value it has over that of other 



grains. If the gluten be washed out, and 

 put alone in the oven, it will swell and be- 

 come full of pores, and the comparative bak- 

 ing qualities of different samples of flour can 

 be tested by the height to which specimens, 

 so treated, rise. 



Dry starch, when heated, is generally 

 changed into a species of gum, and of sugar 

 completely soluble in water. According to 

 Vogel 100 jiarts of flour, and of the bread 

 made from the same wheat, respectively 

 tested, shows a gain in the latter of 18 parts 

 of gum at the expense mainly of the starch. 

 The yeast added to the dough induces fermen- 

 tation, by which the sugar of the flour is 

 changed into carbonic acid and alcohol. The 

 carbonic acid, liberated in the form of minute 

 bubbles of gas, permeates the whole substance 

 of the dough, causing it to rise. If too much 

 water has been added— or if not sufliciently 

 kneaded — or if the flour be too (inely ground— 

 or the paste not sufliciently tenacious in its 

 nature— W\% bubbles will run together, form- 

 ing large airholes, and that irregular appear- 

 ance so disliked by the skillful baker. The 

 quantity of water which bread retains, when 

 baked, depends in some degree on the quality 

 of the flour. The Acts of Parliament, Eng- 

 land, assume that 280 pounds of flour will 

 produce 320 pounds of bread— thus calculat- 

 ing the retention, when baked, of one-seventh 

 of its weight of water. But the quantity of 

 water retained by the flour now in use is much 

 greater. 



Johnston, in his lecture on Agricultural 

 chemistry, states that home-made bread 

 (white and brown) baked in his own house, 

 whether of first or second quality, as well as 

 that baked in two other private houses, lost 

 by prolonged heating, at a temperature not 

 exceeding 220° F., from 42.9 to 44.1 per cent, 

 of water. So that wheaten bread, one day 

 old, contains about 44, and two days old, 43 

 per cent, of vvatei-. This proportion is almost 

 exactly the same as Dumas estimates the 

 white bread of Paris. 

 Bread baked for public institutions, not gen- 

 erally being so well fixed, or baked with many 

 loaves stuck together, contains more water. 

 The barracks bread of England and Paris 

 contains about £1 per cent of water. English 

 wheaten flour contains naturally, on an aver- 

 age, 16 per cent, of water. If, therefore, the 

 bread baked from it contains 44 per cent., 

 33i per cent, will have been added to the 

 natural amount, or the flour in baking takes 

 up half its weight of water. A sack then rf 

 280 pounds of flour ought to give 421 pounds 

 of well baked bread. Deducting, say 5 per 

 cent., for fermentation and dryness of the 

 crusts, there would remain 400 pounds of 

 bread of the best quality. 



Chemical writers have assumed that the 

 quantity of water absorbed depend.s mainly 

 upon the proportion of gluten the flour con- 

 tains. Tlie following facts, says Prof. John- 

 ston, do not accord with this supposition. (1) 

 Household bread, made respectively from the 

 flour of French wheat, and of wheat from 

 Taganeog, Russia, retained nearly the same 

 amount of water; tho' a sample of the latter 

 contained more than twice as much gluten as 

 the French. (2) The flour from Odessa wheat 

 contains about one-fourth more gluten than 

 French flour in general, yet it absorbs very 



little more water. (3) Rice is said to contain 

 very little gluten — not estimated at more 

 than 6 or 7 per cent. — and yet, as the result 

 of numerous tiials, it is .said that an admix- 

 ture of a seventh part of rice flour causes 

 wheaten flour to absorb more water. (4) If 

 hard wheats are ground too line they lose a 

 part of their apparent strength, the flour re- 

 fuses to rise as it would do if sent to the baker 

 in a more gritty and less impalpable state. (5.) 

 Lastly, the admixture of very minute quan- 

 tities of foreign matter, by way of adultera- 

 tion, increases the water ab.sorbing power of 

 flour. In some parts of Belgium it is said to 

 have been the practice to adulterate the 

 bread with a small quantity of blue vitriol 

 (sulphate of copjier). A solution of the salt 

 added to the dough, in iiroportion of about 

 one grain to two pounds of flour, gives the 

 bread a fawn color and thus permits the use 

 of inferior flour, and cau.ses the bread to re- 

 tain about per cent, more water, without 

 appearing more moist. Alum improves the 

 color of bread, raises it well and cau.ses it to 

 keep water, but requires to be added in larger 

 quantities than the poisonous salt of copper. 

 Common salt also strengthens the paste and 

 causes it to retain more water, so its addition 

 is a real gain to the baker. — American Miller. 



PHOSPHORIC ACID IN PLANTS. 



The substance especially important to the 

 farmer is undoubtedly phosphoric acid, which 

 is found in combination with lime, as plants 

 assimilate the same in considerable (piantity, 

 while it is sparinszly contained in the soil. 



Plants rc(fdreplios2>horicund in the foUmoing 

 proportion to 1,000 pounds : 



Wlicat 8 1-5 lbs. equal to 17H 'bs. bone phos. 



W Ileal Straw 2'A " " 5 



liailcy 7 1-5" " 15 



Hurley Straw 19-10" " 41-10 



Oats 6ii " " 121-10 



OatsStraw 18-10" " 39-10 



live 81-5 " " 17K " 



HveStraw 19-10" " 41-10 



forii 55-10" " 121-10" 



Corn Stalk i Leaf. 3S-10" " 8 



Peas 88-10" " 193-10" " 



I'ea. Straw 38-10" " 8 



Beans 110-10" " 2.^4 " 



Hean Straw 41-10" " 81-5" 



Potatoes 18-10" " 4 " " " 



(Jreen Potato 



Vines 6-10" " 13-10 



Heet Rc)ots(sugar) 1 1-10 " " 24-10" 



(ireen Keet Tops. 13-10" " 28-10" " " 



Hemp (whole 



iilant) 33-10" " 71-5 



Linseed 74-10" " 161-5 ' 



Tolmeoo 71-10" " 156-10 



rloverlliay) 56-10" " 12 ' 



Meadow (.hay) 41-10" " 81-5 " 



If grain, potatoes, etc., are to nourish us 

 and our cattle, they must contain phosphoric 

 acid, as our growing bones require one-third 

 of this substance in the form of phosphate of 

 lime, in addition to considerable contained in 

 blood and muscles. 



Innunieiable experiments have proven — 



1st. That plants cannot perfectly develop 

 unless the soil contains suflicient phosphoric 

 acid. 



2nd. That the application of phosphate in- 

 creases the weight and quality, and frequently 

 shows a dilVerence of more than twenty per 

 cent, in the particles of starch.— .Fro«i ''What 

 of Fertdizcrs." 



We cannot ignore the fact that all vegeta- 

 ble, as well as animal, growth, require for 

 their normal development a suflicient quan- 

 tity of inorganic and mineral substances aa 

 stimulants to that end, and that phosphoric 

 acid is one of the most prominent among 

 them. 



Co.'UMON hydraulic cement mixed with oi\ 

 forms a good paint for roofs and out-buildinge. 

 It is waterproof and incombustible. 



