Sept. 1894.] 



GENERAL AGRK^ULTURAL NOTES. 



73 



raw fats are digested. In the case of cottonseed-cake, which 

 seems to closely resemble sunflower-cake in this respect, the 

 coefficients of digestibility have been stated by the s^me author 

 to be 847 per cent, for albuminoids and 87*6 per cent, for fats. 



Effect of Carbon Bi-sulphide on the Yield of Crops: 



M. Girard has recently read a paper before the Societe 

 Nationale d' Agriculture in which he states that it is now an 

 established fact that carbon bi-sulphide, when applied in large 

 quantities to the soil, increases the abundance of a crop to a 

 remarkable degree. This fact he claims to have demonstrated , 

 in a series of experiments carried out during the last four years. 

 It is curious to note that it was only through an indirect channel 

 that M. Girard 's researches led him to the conclusions at which 

 he ultimately arrived. In 1886 he announced the discovery of 

 a variety of nematode, Heterodera Schachtii, upon the roots 

 of sugar-beet in France. As the ordinary insecticides were 

 found to be quite inoperative in fields upon which the parasite 

 had once become thoroughly established, M. Girard decided to 

 try the effect of applying large doses of carbon bi-sulphide. 

 When tentatively applied to crops only partially infested, this 

 local treatment proved in numerous instances a complete success. 

 It was on a farm at Joinville-le-Pont, in the Department of 

 Seine, that the first experiments were conducted, while the first 

 practical application to a crop took place on a farm at Gonesse, 

 in the Department of Seine-et-Oise, in 1887. By injecting into 

 the soil a dose of carbon bisulphide representing not less than 

 724 lbs. per 120 square yards it was found, although at the cost 

 of complete sacrifice of the beetroot crop, that all the parasites 

 infesting the crop were destroyed. 



Upon the same field in which the beetroot had been grown, 

 and of which 240 square yards had been subjected to the 

 treatment above described, a crop of wheat was sown, in 1888, 

 in the ordinary manner. At the beginning of June it was 

 observed that upon the plot treated in 1887 with sulphide the 

 wheat was much more upright and healthy, and from 4 to 

 5 inches higher, than upon the rest of the field. After the 

 verification of these facts a second plot of equal area was 

 measured off in the same wheat-field in order that comparison 

 might be made between the production of the two plots. It 

 was found that the area treated with sulphide yielded no less 

 than 46*8 per cent, more grain and 2173 per cent, more straw 

 than the plot which had not been so treated. In order to 

 thoroughly investigate the nature of this action, two series of 

 experiments were conducted in 1889, the dose applied being 

 the same as before. At Gonesse, a plot of 360 square yards 

 which was about to be sown with wheat, and at Joinville, a plot 



