November i 1887.,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
one-third of .the seed is lost by drought, decay, or 
consumed by birds and vermin. As previously 
alluded to if the seed be planted at distances of ten 
inches, there will he some 64,000 stems to the acre; 
but if broadcast about 750, 000, say one plant to each 
square inch of surface, being ten times more for the 
same space of ground than when the seed is drilled. 
The roots of the plants are thus checked in their 
development by over-crowding; there is the impossi- 
bility that ten can develop as well as one ; the roots 
are restrained in their work, the stooling is effoctod 
badly, perhaps not at all, and fiually, as is well known 
the yield will bo less thau the drilled-in corn, whilo 
exacting about 18 times more seed. 
It has also been demonstrated that were the roots 
have full play in wide sowings and good soils, the 
efficacy of uianurings has been nil. In other words 
the wheat's roots found the maxima of their nourish- 
ment in the preponderating advantages of greater 
unoccupied space. But if wheat be spaced on a sandy 
soil, there will not be much difference in the yield. 
Add, however, organic matters ; bring the light up 
to tho level of a loamy soil, aud the wide sowing 
will exhibit the same profitable differences as an 
unmanurod rich clay. 
But here is a curious result from the experiments 
at the Kastern Agronomic Station. On a calcareous 
soil, extremely poor in plant-food, the spacing of 
wheat exhibited no superiority in yield over that 
sown broadcast, but the moment the soil received an 
application of pulverised dephosphorised scoriie, the 
return was tripled, although the fertilizer contained 
50 per cent of its weight of lime. This addition of 
lime to a calcareous soil was proof, that the action 
of tho phosphoric acid of the scoria* is not affected 
by the natural excess of lime in the soil. The scori;o 
contains from 8 to 24 per cent of phosphoric acid, 
associated with 40 to 50 per cent of lime in addition 
to oxides of iron aud mangauese, plus sulphur. 
The presence of tho metallic oxides even when as 
high as 10 per cent offer no danger to vegetation. 
Doses of the clinker dust from 4 to 28 cwts., 
following tho richness of the soil, may be applied 
per acre with impuuity. It caunot be too well 
remembered tho importance of humus in sandy and 
I arfl calcaroous .soils. In tho famous black soils of 
Itussiu, whose fertility is proverbial, the disparity in 
returns as compared with soils equally aud even 
richer in mineral plaut-food is enormous. The 
difference resides in the humus. If the light soils 
be enriched by 50, or even 100 per cent of peat, 
their fertility will be increased. The organic matter 
through tho action of its microbes and by combining 
with tho insoluble mineral matters of the soil 
aids in the production and perfect distribution of 
plant food. And the fertility of the soil will be 
raised and maintained in proportion to the employ- 
ment of the peat or humus. The addition of clay 
will lot similarly — both on root and cereal crops. As 
a counter proof the addition of turf to clay soils 
produced no marked superiority in fertility. 
Tho important experiments in question revealed an 
unexpected result. The ordinary proportion ol grain 
to utraw is as 23 to 60. But on poor sandy soils 
the proportion was H5, and on loams, 25. There is 
no scientific explanation of this fact; but it is 
conjectured that ill poor soils the plant concentrates 
all its energies on the development of the seed in 
order to secure the perpetuation of its species. In 
BOBc'uslorj the solution of the wheat-growing problem 
nn the Continent, or in IVimce at least is Ibis: Till 
Ifi. soil w.ll; aid per acre, if the laud b«> not 
siiltieient'v rich, M of powdered scoria— cost :c> 
fr , mid in spring top dress with 180 lb of nitrate 
..f todt -coal :t7 fr ; lelool the best seed, sift it well, 
mnl drill on ten-inch sp.res. 
During fifty years the Trench rivalry have had to 
depend on fnreimi importations for horses, aud Uioho 
prfnc pally camn fr mi l Irrm.atiV. The Central Society of 
Voted nnry Medicine in June last ruled that carefully 
chosen, trained, rared, and fed, the native I'rencli war 
bant Was •qua] to that of any other country. It 
OtRBf t0 not fifing ■ autlicieutly good price, that tho 
French cavalry received a bad namo. The same 
Society stated that the cavalry did care and traiu 
tho horses sufficiently, and that the artillery negleated 
theirs. It is a long standing reproach that tho worst 
hay and oats aro reserved for the army horsed ; 
it is not food the cattle want, but food of superior 
quality ; heuco neither cavalry nor artillery horses 
are capable of yielding tho strength, energy, and 
endurance expected from them. In the German 
army the horses are no better fed than those of tho 
French; at the oponing of tho war of 1870-1, tho 
Uhlans had anything but well-fed mounts ; but on 
quitting France, the German horses, owing to liberal 
feeding, were models of working vigor. 
The Agronomical Stations iu France following thu 
example of those in Germany now deliver forms of 
contracts to farmers to have filled up by seedsmen , 
manure fabricants, and implement makers, binding 
these furnishers to deliver their goods according to 
samples previously deposited at the statioma. 
Sugar is obtained from beet and cane ; but how do 
these form it? M. Girard, after four couseoutive years 
of experiments on soil, mauuros, and sugar beet in all 
the stages of its growth and from every part of the 
plant, demonstrates that the formation of sugar takes 
place exclusively iu the loaves ; that this plaut-mauu- 
facture of sugar proceeds most abundantly in the 
day, aud most largely as the light is most vivid ; 
and that it is at night this diurnally formed sugar 
becomes stored in the root. 
The wheat question is intimately allied to the pro- 
duction of sugar-beet. In Belgium and the North 
of France, no grain can be raised if beet does not 
enter into the rotation. To grow beet remuneratively, 
four chief points must be attended to: Select tho 
best seed, prepare the soil well, secure adequate 
and appropriate manure, and till with intelligence- 
It must not be forgotten, that the sugar is made 
from the field, and that the factory exists only for 
its extraction. Siuco sixteen years the production of 
sugar has doubled in France; but this increaso is 
not on a par with the augmentation in Austria, 
Russia, and above all Germany. In the latter two 
countries it has quadrupled. Belgium is in the same 
position as France. As the beet sugar can be pro- 
duced more cheaply in Germany, the expense being 
less, the German is able — independent of the question 
of bounty — to monopolize the English market. The 
ideal for all sugar-beet producers ought to be to 
obtain a root having a saccharine richness of 13.\ per 
cent. In Germany near Cologue beet has been raised 
having nearly 16 per cent of richness, and Professor 
Marcker of Halle-sur-Salle has raised in 1886, 25 tons 
per acre, having a mean richness of 15J per cent. 
4> 
A FltUIT TP. EE PEST. * 
Tho author has prepared an extended article 
on this insect in his aunual report as United 
States Kntonmlogist, which will appear in the 
report of the United States Department of 
Agriculture for 1886, now being distributed from 
Washington, and others iu the Bulletin 15 of the 
division of Entomology of the Department, also 
just being distributed. These documents can be bad 
on application to the Commissioners of Agriculture, 
by those interested, and Miss E. A. Ornierod has 
recoutly published in England a pamphlet ou the 
same insect. The fart* ot greatest interest may be 
thus briefly Stated : — 
Tho species is the most polyphagous of Ooccids 
(scale insects), living on a great variety of plants, 
and thriving particularly on Acacia, I.irae, I.omou, 
Orange, (Quince, Pomegranate, and Walnut. It is 
capable of motion at all stages of development af- 
ter hatching, and can survive without food for a 
long period. These characteristics h»vn rendered it 
* Icerya purchasi, an Insect injurious t . frail trees 
in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and 
California. Abstract of a paper, by Professor 0. V. 
ltiley, road before the Itritish Association for the 
Advancement ol Science, Manchester, ^.'ptrtnbr! 
6. 1S37. 
