Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 523 



are mixed a great number of bones of cattle. I mix this material with 

 waste slaked lime, wliicli I get for nothing, and I intend in the spring, 

 after I plant my corn, to take my wagon between the rows and drop 

 say hah" a spadefall at every hill. Will the club j^lease inform me if 

 there is any virtue in such ashes and slake lime for land that has been 

 considerably run down by grain crop for twenty years, and if there is 

 some better way to apply this compound, and what amount will do ? 

 Is half a spade enough ? The land is well manured also in the fall, 

 which I intend to plow. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman. — Unless the soil is very moist the use of the lime 

 will not be of much value ; in any event one bushel of lime to three 

 of the other materials will be sufficient. To apply half a spadefuU of 

 the ashes, &c., directly to each hill at planting will simply result in 

 burning up the sprouting corn, and will do more harm than good. It 

 will be better to apply the materials broadcast on the surface after 

 having thoroughly harrowed in the manure. If you do this yon can 

 use three times the quantity per acre as by the other plan, and still 

 make it pay. 



High Flavored ]\1aple Sugae. 



Mrs. C. Swain, Soutli Bend, Ind. — The best way to retain the flavor 

 of maple sugar. Pack it in air-tight chests or boxes made to hold 

 from fifty to 500 pounds, the sugar to be stirred off fine or caked, but 

 boiled till it breaks brittle on snow or on an ax-edge before stirring or 

 caking. Maple syrup to be very fine must be of the "first run," and 

 sealed in jugs or cans while hot. Like fruit, it can be kept very well 

 in kegs or casks the same as Orleans syrup, but not so fine flavored as 

 in smaller jugs. 



Plastic Slate foe Roofing. 



Mr. Jireh Bull, Ballston Spa., communicated his experience with 

 plastic slate. He says : " Our gas house iu this village is a one story 

 brick building thirty by sixty ; it was built in 1860. Four years 

 after the works were pnt in operation, I became an interested party. 

 My first visit to the building was on a rainy day ; instead, however, 

 of finding it a refuge from the storm, an umbrella was found as indis- 

 pensable for protection inside as outside the building, on account of 

 the roof. Upon incpiry I was told that two warranted roofs, sure, 

 had already been put on and paid for, and it was deemed inadvisable 

 to expend any more money for that purpose at present. Having at 

 that time but one-sixth of a vote, the roof continued to leak. Two 



