FEB. 26 
THE BUBAL NEW-VOBKEB. 
433 
trees on the high steep bluffs of Lake Michigan, 
rather than on 'he nice flat back of them, as 
he had intended to do. saved his trees through 
that trying time, that demolished all on flit 
grounds. If no where else in the world, the 
people of Western Michigan, even in this 
famous Peach Belt, have learned to pay special 
regaid to what we call here “Atmospheric 
Drainage.’' 
Muekeeron Co., Mich. 
Iirtnstrkl Soncttcs, 
CHEMUNG COUNTY TOBACCO CLUB. 
[Rural Special Report.] 
A meeting was held by tobacco growers of 
Chemung Co., Feb. 3. near Elmira for the 
purpose of organizing a tobacco club. After 
the election of officers and the transaction of 
other preliminary business the discussion of 
questions of interest to growers was imme¬ 
diately begun. 
Mr. G N. Hoffman said “In order to make 
our club beneficial and practical, we should 
tell what we know and then stop. It is a com¬ 
mon fault with members of such organizations 
to make speeches. These embarrass and con¬ 
fuse other members of more modest preten¬ 
sions who, not being tluent talkers, refrain 
from giving their experience. We should 
tell what we know, not what we speculate.” 
N. A. Ward.—•* We must educate each other. 
If we cau increase the price of our tobacco 
half a cent per pound we have done great 
good. Practical sayings are what we want— 
not theory. 
George Chamberlain.—“We want to know 
how to improve the crop. To find out which 
are the best varieties to grow and which fer¬ 
tilizers give the best crop, 
Mr. Hoffman.—“Which is the best variety? 
Mr. Chambeilain.—“ The Lancaster is best 
with me.” 
President Miller.—“With me the Lancaster 
is a failure.” 
G. A. Goff, Jr.,—“I consider the Ohio Broad- 
leaf a better variety.” 
Mr. Hoffman.—“I have a five-acre field of 
clover sod which I want to fit for tobacco. 
The only manure which I have is cow man¬ 
ure ; how can I put the soil in good condition 
for a crop with only cow manure as a fertil¬ 
izer ? 
Mr. Chamberlain.—1 should apply the mau- 
ure in the Spring and plow the ground shal¬ 
low. Shortly before the time for setting the 
plants I should plow it again rather deep, then 
fit the soil in the usual way.” 
Joel Rutau.—“ Manure applied in the row 
has succeeded well with me and I consider the 
method a good one when one has only a lim¬ 
ited amount." 
Mr, Hoffman.—I prefer spreading it on the 
surface. Cow manure when burled iu the 
soil becomes a dry clod, rendering little ben¬ 
efit to the crop.” 
John Strouse.—“ I would like the opinion 
of the Club in rtgard to raisiug tobacco on 
the same soil for successive years, without 
rotation with other crops. Is it best to man¬ 
ure heavily and employ the same grouud year 
after year, or to change the tobacco field and 
seed it to grass and clover, to be followed ty 
some other crop previous to fitting it again for 
tobacco ? 
Mr. Chamberlain.—“ It is best to change. 
You will get better colors and greater yield. 
L°8 s manure is also requite! when the soil is 
seeded to clover occasionally." 
Mr. Strouse.—“ I thought of sowing my old 
tobacco field with barley, then follow with 
wheat and seed to clover.” 
Mr. Guff —" If the object is to get it ready 
as soon as possible it would be best to sow to 
wheat after batvestiug the tobacco, aud seed 
with clover iu the Spring." 
Frank Copley.—“ I consider clover a great 
help to a tobacco crop. The great benefit of 
clover is from the root, which fertilizes and 
loosens the soil." 
Mr. Waul.—“ With mixed fanning it is beet 
to employ several fields lor tobacco and prac' 
tice a rotation. It is not wise to apply all the 
manure made on a farm, on one single field on 
which tobacco is grown year after year. It is 
poor policy to raise a crop that we cannot fer¬ 
tilize with manure made from a rotation of 
crops.” 
President Miller.—“That is true. To apply 
all the manure made upon a farm, on a few 
acres, will sooner or later ruin the farm.” 
Milton Beckwith.—“1 would like the opin¬ 
ion of the Club, on the use of commercial 
fertilizers.” 
Mr. Chamberlain.—“I have tried some of 
them without benefit to the crop.” 
Mr. Beckwith.— *• I have tried Bowker’s 
and could detect some improvement in the 
growth.” 
Mr. Chamberlain.—“The use of commercial 
fertilizers injures the quality of leaf.” 
Mr. Ward asked about applying common 
manure in the hill. 
Mr. Shappee.—“1 have grown good crops 
from applying stable manure In the hill," 
President Miller.—“This method of apply¬ 
ing is practical wheo it is necessaiy to make a 
little manure go over a good deal of grouud.” 
Mr. Havens.—“Drill manuring is too much 
work in a busy season.” 
Mr. Goff—“ A great drawback to this 
method of applyiog manure is the difficulty 
iu obtaining that which is thoroughly rotted. 
It will not do at all to apply coarse manure iu 
the t ow." 
Mr. Crooker.—“Too much manure in con¬ 
tact with the roots causes poor colors of the 
leaf.” 
Mr. Ward.—“ I am not in favor of hill ma¬ 
nuring with any crop. Manure iu a hill does 
not dissolve; the next year.it is 6till there. 
Manure applied broadcast, becomes thorough¬ 
ly incorporated in the soil and there is no fear 
but that the roots will find it, if it is only 
there. Manure cannot make plant food until 
it has been dissolved.” 
Mr. Chamberlain.—“ Those aie my views." 
jicifiitiftc aut) Useful. 
CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERI¬ 
MENT STATION. 
BULLETIN NO. 50, DEC. 18, 1580. 
Fertilizer Analyses. 
500. Forrester’s rye fertilizer, made by G B. 
Forrester, 188 Pearl Street, New York, sent by 
M. 8. Baldwin, Naugatuck. 
502. Ground hone, made by Peek Brothers, 
Northfieid, sent by 8. R. Gridley, Bristol. 
508 Genuine sulphate of potash. 
509. Muriate of potash. 
508 aud 509 are from stock of A. Lathrop, 
sent by H. H. Austin, Suffieid. 
500 502 508 509 
Nitrogen as aiumi nla. 6.00 
Nitrogen of oigaummatter. .33 4.06 
Soluble plios «eicl..,.. 4 73 
J.everten jilios. acid.U2 
Insoluble phoe. acid.. 1.17U 21.79 
Potash.. 9 45 27.38 53.83 
Chlorine... . 8.75 1.24 
Estimated value per ton_$45.83 $38.40 
Cost per ton..$47.50* $33.00 $35 00 $32 00 
Cost, of potash p er 100 tbs... _ $ 6,39 $ 2,97 
* Iu New York. 
Bulletin No. 51, Jan. 27, 1881—Fertilizer 
Analyses. 
Analysis of refuse lime from Franklin Beet 
Sugar Works. Sample No. 516, received Dec. 
24, 1880, from Edgar Stoughton, Esq., South 
Windsor, Conn:— 
*0 
© a 
-* a 
>T) 
*30 
© 0 
^ P 
CV-O- 
O u 
0 
© 3> 
n 
9% 
: p 
K 
M X 
© 
-i 
05 
. ff. 
Moisture.. 
42.19 
OarbOUie acid combined water 
and orgauiu waiter. 
23.99 
Lime (calcium oxiUe).. 
19 85 
397.0 
4-10c $1.69 
Eotasfi (potassium oxide). 
.32 
6.4 
6c 
.38 
Phosphoric acid. 
3.10 
62 0 
9c 
5.58 
Nitrogen... 
.44 
8.8 
2oo 
1.76 
Total estimated value per ton. $9.31 
Lime is here valued at its C 06 t shipped in 
casks at New Haven, i. e., $4.40 ($0 40 Icsb 
value of casks) per ton of slaked oy&tei-hell 
lim; with 60 per cent, of pure lime = 1200 
pounds. The cost is 37 cents per 100, or 4-10 
cent per pound. The same lime is to be had at 
the Kilns in bulk for 1-4 cent per pound. These 
are pei haps not present prices. 
Sorghum Seed. 
XC. Seed of Minnesota Early Amber Cane, 
from E. M. Dunn, Grafton, Mass. 
XCil. Sorghum seed, from E. D. Pratt, 
West Cornwall. 
COMPOSITION. 
Air dry. Water free, 
xu. xuir. xc. xcu. 
Water. 15.04 16.76 
Ash . i..a a.17 2.n4 a .60 
Albuminoids. H.13 7.67 9.67 0..3 
Cruue fiber . 1.94 3 . 2 I 2.28 5 85 
Nitrogen—free extract. 69 6a 66.81 81.98 80.30 
Eat. 3.61 3.36 4.13 4.02 
■ _ 100.00 100.00 1 00.00 100.00 
Probable amouut of digestible nutrients in 
air-dry eubstauces:—* 
xu. XOII. 
Albuminoids. 6.69 6.23 
Carbohydrates.,... 62.47 60.24 
Eat... .. 2.60 2,40 
Nutritive ratio ...ldo.4 ltlo.s 
Estimated value per loo pounds. $0.98 $.i.92 
* No determinations of the digestibility of sorghum 
seed have been reported. Its composition is quite 
simitar to that of tbo ordinary cereal grama, and it is 
to be anticipated that it will prove equally digestible. 
In computing the above table, the averages of the di¬ 
gestion coefficient for all the cereals yet experimented 
upon were used. 
Kiln.Dried Brewers’ Grains. 
Brewers’ grains, i. e., the residue of barley 
after it has been malted and used for making 
beer-wort, b&s lougenjiy-da high repute as 
cattle food, especially loi milch cows; and not¬ 
withstanding the fresh grains contain an aver¬ 
age of 78 per cent, of water, they are much 
sought after by fanners living wiLhin a few 
miles of the breweries. During the warmer 
seasou, however, large quantities sour aud spoil 
before they can be fed. The only plan of sav¬ 
ing them hitherto has been by putting them 
into pits after the manner of ensilage. Re¬ 
cently it has been attempted to make them ca¬ 
pable of indefinite preservation and of easy 
handling by removal of most of the water. 
which not only constitutes three-fourths of 
their weight when fresh, but renders them sus¬ 
ceptible to damage. The sample whose anal¬ 
ysis is herewith given has been thus prepared. 
This sample was brought to the Station by A. 
J Ramsdeli, E-q , of New Haven:— 
Kiln-dried 
brewers' (Trains. 
Oats. 
X01II. 
Average. 
Water. 
13.7 
2.7 
Albuminoids. 
12.0 
Crude fiber. 
........ 11.79 
9 0 
Nitrogeu—free extract... 
.... 54.1-9 
66 6 
1 at. 
. 6.40 
6.0 
100 00 
100 OO 
The amount of water above found is peihaps 
smaller than can well be practically realized 
on a large scale. On exposure to air, the 
grains containing but2^ per cent, of water will 
no doubt gradually absoib several per cent, of 
moisture. Witu even 10 per cent, of water the 
dried brewers' grains will be, so far as chem¬ 
ical ana'y-us cau indicate, equal or superior to 
any grain or seed commonly used among ns as 
food for animals. They correspond most near¬ 
ly to oats in their composition, containing the 
Bame proportion of fat, a little more fiber and 
ash and some eight per cent, more of the most 
costly and valuable food elements, viz., albu¬ 
minoids. Peas, beaus and fl ax seed are the 
only seeds raised at the North which contain 
so much albuminoids. If experience shall 
show that Ihe drying of brewers’ grains can be 
carried on economically, the process will save 
a large amount of valuable cattle food from 
waste. 
I understand it is claimed by some that the 
diying of brewers’ grains seriously injures 
them for feeding purposes. This notion is in 
agreement with the idea put forward by the 
partisans of ensilage, some of whomassertthai 
dried corn-fodder is greatly inferior to a cor¬ 
responding quantity of the same put down as 
ensilage. Iu total absence of any exact com¬ 
parative trials these claims must be regarded 
as entirely questionable. Without doubt dry 
brewers’ grains may be considered equally nu¬ 
tritious with dry grains of any sort that cor¬ 
respond to them in chemical composition. 
Paris-Green on Corn-Stalks. 
Under date of Sept. 17, Mr. D. C. Spencer, of 
Old Saybrook, wrote the Station as follower— 
“Last Spriug I applied Paris-green, mixed with 
water, to my corn when it was about three to 
five inches high, to stay the ravages of the 
army worm. I desire to know whether you 
have analyzed any corn thus treated, or can 
inform me if it will now be safe to feed the 
corn-stalks and husks? if not, will the Station 
analyze a sample for me ?” 
Mr. Spencer was requested to forward to the 
Station a dozeu or fifteen stalks taken from 
different parts of the field. The sample came 
in good order, well tied up in papers aud secured 
with Backing. The stalks were run through a 
straw cutter, and all the dust, together with a 
good portion of the well-mixed cuttings, were 
examined by Dr. Jenkins for arsenic. No trace 
of this poison conld be found by the processes 
which serve to detect 1 50000.h of a grain ot 
white arsenic. It thus appears that the Paris- 
green applied to the yuuug plants bad beeu 
completely removed by the rain. It has bet a 
well established by Dr. McMurtie that vegeta¬ 
tion takes up into its interior no arsenic from 
the soil with which Paris gr^en has been min¬ 
gled in the quantities which are used for de¬ 
stroying insects—a result which id fully con¬ 
firmed by this examination. 
Si W. Johnson, Director. 
-- 
THE METRIC 3Y8TEM OF WEIGHTS AND 
MEASURES. 
The graphic characters representing volume, 
quantity aud space, aud increasing in tenfold 
proportion, are said to be of Arabic origin, and 
that iu all written languages the same charac¬ 
ters are used, being thus part and parcel of a 
universal language. What a pity that these 
same ingenious Arabs did not invent for us. 
the English-speaking people, a more rational 
and convenient system for the division of com¬ 
monly accepted units in all measures and 
weights, decreasing iu tens or decimals, instead 
of, as now, the unit gallon decreasing by 4 3.4, 
and the unit pouud avoiidupoia by 16 16, aud 
the division of all our other weights and meas¬ 
ures vary ing all the way from 4 to 24. In our 
legal currency the thing is perfected, ihe divis¬ 
ions of the unit dollar being iu lens, hundreds, 
and thousands, it cau be carried by the same 
principle of decimals as much lower as any 
one has occasion for. The French people, too, 
have carried out the decimal principle, both in 
their currency and In all their weights and 
measures, thus simplifying all calculations in 
which figures are concerned. 
This system of the division of units by tens 
is in France the only legal method, hut in the 
United States the system is simply legalized, 
and can oe used or not as the sovereign people 
please : but whether this very simple, conven¬ 
ient and desirable method will come into gen¬ 
eral use here Is a question a9 yet unanswered. 
The great difficulty iu the way of a transition 
from our most unmitigated iumble to this 
simple and plain French system, is that the 
differences m the units of the two systems can¬ 
not be expressed either by whole numbers or 
decimal fractions. Thns the French meter is 
very nearly expressed by three and twenty- 
eight one-hundredths feet, but cannot be ex¬ 
pressed exactly without the much less conven¬ 
ient resort lo vulgar fractions ; and so with 
the French liter, it is a little less than our 
quart of dry measure and a little more than 
our quart of wine measure, hut the difference 
in neither case can be expressed precisely by 
decimals. Thisdifficulty islikely tobeal ways in 
the way of bringing this French metric, or 
decimal, system into general use here, how¬ 
ever much we may lament the gross Inconsist¬ 
encies in the terms we use and the manner of 
our divisions and subdivisions of units. The 
French word “ meter ” corresponds with our 
word measure in some of its various uses, but 
while oar neighbors, as far as I can see, apply 
it only to length and breedtb, we use it in the 
measurement of land, whisky and potatoes. 
Thns the man who asked his grocer for five 
pounds of oysters, on being told that he 
did not sell them by weight, but by measure, 
at once changed his application to five yards. 
Our word “ dram,” or “ drachm," means the 
sixteenth part of an ounce avoirdupois,also the 
eighth part of au ouucc apothecaries’ weight; 
also what one pleases to drink at one time, 
more or less Thus the Teuton, more firm liar 
with drams than ounces, called in a Yankee 
M. D. to prescribe for his bad health. The 
doctor, readily seeing the neces.-ity for restrict¬ 
ing him in bis potations, and foreseeing the 
danger of total abstinence in a diagnosis of 
delirium tremens, prescribed one ounce of 
brandy per day, with an earnest injunction to 
be very exact in. the amount. Weil, the doctor 
gone, the next thing was to measure, or 
weign, this exact quantity, and in this diffi¬ 
culty the son, who had had a considerable sum 
laid oat on hiB education, was appealed to, 
and very correctly informed his sire than an 
ounce was sixteen drams. 
The word quart leads to a good deal of con¬ 
fusion. as well as not a little cheating, it being 
one thirty-second part of a bushel and con- 
taming 67 2 cubic inches, and also one-fourth 
of a gallon wine measure, containing 57 75 
cubic inches, the difference being 9 45 inches, 
and still how many dealers in bushels and 
quarts understand that the bushel contains 
only 32 dry-measure qnart9, while it contains 
37 and nearly a quarter quarts of wine meas¬ 
ure? When “Lo.” the poor Indian, or the 
small boy comes in with blackberries, the 
grocer measures them with the half bushel or 
peck, but if Mr. “Lo" wants a quart of pea- 
Duts, they are measured in the tin quart cup, 
and it is generally “ Lo” and the boy that get 
cheated ; but now-a-days boys go to school 
and some of them sometimes learn something to 
their advantage. Thus alrieud, at my elbow as 
I write, tells that in his boyhood he picked two 
half-bushels full of blackberries, but before he 
reached the grocer’s with them they were con¬ 
siderably shrunken in bulk, and though the 
price per bushel was agreed upon, it was re¬ 
quired of the boy that the one measure be 
filled np from the other, and that what re¬ 
mained in the half-bushel should be measured 
out. The boy, seeing there was nothing to 
measure with but the tin quart cup which the 
grocer sold by, consented—result, the frac¬ 
tion of the half bushel turned out to be worth 
more than the full one. 
Who among the boys who graduated at a 
country school 50 years ago ever understood, 
or even now understand, the difference in 
quantity between the avoirdupois and the Troy 
pound ? Doubtless the boy then learned that 
the one had 13 onncc-s and the other 16. at Die 
same lime that he learned that three barley¬ 
corns made one inch and that four quarters of 
a yard m de one yard; but country school¬ 
keeping kept on neatly up to the present time 
before Your g America was taught that though 
the Troy and apothecary pounds wore alike, it 
took one pouud and nearly a quarter of them 
to balance one pound avoirdupois. If ever the 
metric, or decimal, system is adopted and be¬ 
comes familiar here, all this j angle and con¬ 
fusion will be obsolete ; but, if I were 60 years 
younger than I am, I should hardly expect to 
live to see this very desirable thing brought 
about—or the proposed spelling reform, either. 
s. B p. 
RURAL BRIEFLET3. 
Commercial Manures.—I f we are to judge 
by the increase in the business of our leading 
concentrated fertilizer firms, the use of these 
fertilizers must in the main, give satisfaction. 
On this subject, we wish all of our readers 
were familiar with the careful and long-con¬ 
tinued experiments of Dr. Lawes of Rotbarn- 
sted, England. True, Eogland is not America. 
But land there, H9 here, mnst supply plant food 
or crops must fail. Dr. Lawes’s experiments 
show that concentrated fertilizers do supply 
to the soil what plants remove in a condition 
