FAIR NO. 
above method of computation to yield three- 
quarters as much. Four heads contained 138 
kernels weighing 75 grain? We need not pur- 
Bue this farther now; suffice it to say that it is 
our belief that either Shumaker, Fuitz, or 
Lost Nation (sown in the .Fall) would out-yield 
the favorite Clawson on this farm, and to the 
list we may be able to add several others when 
they are thrashed and weighed. 
Singular results from a Wheat Experiment. 
As our readers are aware, three years ago we 
tested various kinds of Spring wheats, among 
them Defiance and 
Champlain. Though If 
the straw was heavy «S 
and the heads large, I 
daily showers and in- ff 
tervals of a scorching 13 
sun while the grain % 
was in the milk, so if 
shriveled the kernels 
that at harvest th<y y 
proved to be mere 
shreds. It is gener- <1 
ally thought that 
shriveling does not pT 
impair the value of J 
wheat for seed. To j® {> 
ascertain the degree (r 
to which the kernels IL. 
might be shriveled if -Jr 
and yet germinate, (f 
we sowed these m 
shreds in the follow- \| jJ? 
ing Fall on a half acre. f/ 
They germinated W » 
freely and the yield, i/ i^Jr 
though light, was fur V* W 
greater than was an- If v af 
ticipated, because the i sJf 
plot had not received W T J 
any mauure for this J 
crop, and but little TO 
for several preceding \I yf 
crops. tgj/ Sw 
The several bushels I / ^ 
saved were, the next 
year, without auy « 
special object in M rJ 
view, again sowed on f 
tbis half-acre field '4 a 
with a light spread of \jT W 
leached ashes only, 
aud it was not sowed j y 
until Nov. 10. We (/ d? 
beg the reader to y \L, 
bear these items in W \S 
mind, since the re- M 
suits were quite unac- ' M 
countable to us and IL« W 
to all who saw them. fijjf 
The seeding was u V 
thin and the stand of ] |k I 
wheat light; but sack / 
wheat we have never 1 ,'l ^ 
before s e e n a n y- \ \\\ 1 
where. The straw r 
was very heavy and l** 5 ' 
thousands of heads 11 kdtancb fruit stacks. 
measured six inches ; ® ee Fi*’ 6 - 292 and 293. 
hundreds, seven, and the largest head we could 
find, seven and three-eighths inches. The en¬ 
tire character of the grain seems to have been 
changed. It ripened not until ten days after 
Champlain and Defiance, which were sown in 
adjoining plots, also in the Fall, and the ker¬ 
nels were of a much darker color. The shorter 
of the two heads illustrated, is the largest we 
could fiud among the Defiance wheat which 
was sown Sept ISth on a well-fertilized plot, 
the seed Of which was procured from the intro¬ 
ducer. Mr. B. K. Bliss. The longer head is but 
an average of those of which we are speaking, 
Viz., from the shriveled seed sown two years 
successively as a Winter wheat. The other 
two engravings show the spike or fruit stems 
(rachis) of each. 
Taking four average heads of the Defiance 
from Mr. Bliss’s seed (sown as a Winter wheat 
last Fall, 1879, for the first), we find 160 kernels 
Weighing just 87 grains. They averaged 17 
spihelels to a head. Four heads from the 
shriveled Beed 60 wn fu>o years, in the Fall, 
averaged 23 epikelots, with 244 kernels weigh¬ 
ing 148 grains. Why seeds from a Spring 
wheat so shriveled aa to form mere shreds 
sown on poor land late in the season two years 
successively in the Fall, should have under¬ 
gone a change so remarkable, we leave others 
to explain. The results of our next year’6 
test with these large heads, we shall anticipate 
with some curiosity, in which we can not 
doubt our readers will share. 
race ” to see who will drive the furthest and 
pick up the most. Fruit-growers who are in 
the main honest are effectually ruled out. Can 
our agricultural societies afford to award pre¬ 
miums that in effect encourage rascality ? 
There is but one argument in favor of this 
practice—it makes it easy for the judges to 
decide who is entitled to premiums. Auy one 
who can count Is competent for this. If it is 
considered absolutely necessary to give a pre¬ 
mium for the “largest collections“ of apples, 
pears, etc., the amount so offered should be 
reduced. Let tbe man who tries to grow fruit 
of the finest quality have a chance also. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. Nelson Bitter. 
productiveness. Although we are now suffer¬ 
ing from want of rain, having had an exces¬ 
sively dry Summer, yet this field of sorghum 
looks as fresh and bright and is growing as 
rapidly as if enjoying daily showers. 
It branches from the root, throwing out from 
four to a dozen strong branches from three- 
fourths to an inch in diameter, and pushing 
upwards with wonderful power and strength. 
If cutoff it s.arts again with renewed strength 
and more heads and stalks, so that there is no 
telling what amount of fodder could be made 
from a single acre. It starts from the seed, 
slowly and feebly, seemingly to make root and 
get a strong foothold; then itneeds hotweather, 
and on my ground it is doing the beet on the 
sandy land. For the Sonth, compared witfl 
other fodder-producing plants, it is, in my 
view, worth fully double as much as any other 
kiud that has come under my notice. It needs 
a long, hot season to perfect its seed, which, 
when ripe, is valuable for chickens or stock— 
all eat it greedily. Stock of all kinds are 
very fond of the Branching Sorghum, either in 
a green state or dried, for it is rich innutri¬ 
tions qualities. It is, iudeed, a valuable ad¬ 
dition to our fodder-pliiuts, and on good soil an 
acreot U will give all that a dozen head of 
stock could eat for all the Summer, and even 
then they would not use it fast enough to keep 
it down. It must not be confounded with 
whut is generally sold for Doura or“Doura 
Corn,” being a far different article, and ten¬ 
fold more productive. „ 8 . Ott. 
Aiken Co., S. C. 
OUR WILD GOOSE PLUM 
K. WILLIAMS, 
A few years ago when this plum mania was 
at its hight, I procured and planted a tree 60 
as to be able to judge knowingly of its merits. 
ThiB season it has borne fruit of which the 
accompanying outline is an exact representa¬ 
tion, in size, of an average specimen. 
The color at maturity is red. sprinkled with 
minute white dots and covered with a delicate 
bloom, making it a beautiful and attractive 
fruit. Flesh, mild, sub-acid, better for cooking 
than dessert, and apparently nearly, or quite, 
free from rot. Its habit, if Bucb it is, of fruit¬ 
ing singly instead of in clusters, as is usual 
with our improved varieties, is an advantage 
in tbis respect. The tree is a strong, vigorous 
grower and the fruit in its different stages of 
coloring—yellow, pink and scarlet—scattered 
doubtless be imported iDto thi6country at very 
reasonable rates. But, in the lack of auy de¬ 
mand for them on the part of farmers, they 
have hitherto usually been converted by their 
makers into superphosphates of high grade, 
or they have been sold to the regular mak¬ 
ers of superphosphates for this purpose. 
If, therefore, a farmer really wishes to buy 
“reverted phosphate" he will do well to apply 
to head-quarters and jnquire the price. He 
may re6t assured that it will be lower than 
the current “ valuation” of the analysts. 
There is, moreover, another way of lookiug 
at the matter, less direct, indeed, though it 
may 6eem easier to some persons. Namely, 
why shouldn’t the farmers who want reverted 
phosphoric acid make it, or have it made for 
them, out of materials already in the markets? 
Even in this way. reverted phosphate could be 
got at a considerably lower price than the or 
dinary valuation. In one of the recent mar¬ 
ket reports of the Rural New-Yorker tbe 
price of plain superphosphate made from bone 
black, and containing 15 to 17 per e-nt. of sol¬ 
uble phosphoric acid, is quoted at $30 to $35 
the ton. For the sake of round numbers, let 
us say 16 per cent, and 832. At the same time 
the price of boue-aeh, containing 70 per cent, 
of bone-phosphate of lime was $24. That is 
to say, seventy pounds of actual bone-phos¬ 
phate could be got for $1.20, or the pound for 
about one cent and a quarter. But by mixing 
bonc-ash with superphosphate of lime in the 
proper chemical proportions, that is to say 
by adding 165 pounds of actual triealcic phos 
phate for every 117 pounds of the soluble 
monocalcic phosphate, there will be formed 
some 272 pounds of the reverted, or dicalclc, 
phosphate; no account being taken, of course, 
in this calculation of the Impurities or non- 
essential matters which accompany the phos¬ 
phates. 
At the prices above cited, 155 pounds of real 
bone-phoBphate would cost $1.94, and 117 
pounds of the monocalcic phosphate would 
cost $7 02. So that, taking no account of the 
labor of mixing, the 272 pure pounds of pro¬ 
duct would come to $8 90. But there would 
be no more than 142 pounds of phosphoric acid 
in the product. Hence the value of one pound 
of reverted phosphoric acid obtained in this 
way would be cents; or, making a liberal 
allowance for labor, say 6| cents. 
Instead of the bone-ash in this operation, 
either spent bone-black or ground rock phos¬ 
phate might be used as the source of bone 
phosphate. If bone-black were taken the eost 
of the bone-phosphate would be a little greater, 
and if the rock-phosphate were used the cost 
would be a little Icsb than the above citation. 
I have purposely chosen bone-ash for the cal¬ 
culation aB representing a medium price. 
To the buyers of fertilizers there is no need 
to insist that 6} cents per pound are a decidedly 
lower figure thau la commonly “allowed” for 
reverted phosphoric acid In statements of anal¬ 
ysts. It would be a gain, of course, if what¬ 
ever iB excessive In Ihe “allowance - ’ could be 
lopped off Bnt the chief point to be consid¬ 
ered, after all, is that we need to break through 
a viciouB tradition which tolerates improperly 
made or shop-worn superphosphates and allows 
far too liberally for their imperfections. The 
plain fact of the matter is that true superphos¬ 
phate of lltne ought not to contain a noticea¬ 
ble quantity of reverted phosphoric acid, any¬ 
way. When a farmer buys superphosphate of 
lime let that article be genuine. On the other 
hand, in case he ever wishes for reverted phos¬ 
phate. let him buy that substance, ns such—or 
let him make it if need be. If it should ever 
happen that a mixture of the two is wanted, 
assuredly the farmer is perfectly competent to 
mix the harmless powders for himself. As 
bearing upon the suggestion that reverted 
pbor-phoric acid may be got when wanted by 
mixing ft superphosphate with bone-ash or 
bone-black, it Is well enough to recall the fact 
that it is ft very old practice of European farm¬ 
ers to mix superphosphate and bone-mbal, as 
a manure for turnips on certain soils. 
The Rural Branching Sorghum. — We 
have received the following from Mr. Henry 
Stewart whose testimony will readily be taken 
without any grain of allowance : 
Ed. Rural; —“You will be interested to 
know that I have to-day cut one foot in length 
precisely of a row of “Rural Branching Sor¬ 
ghum,” having 12 stalks which were eight feet 
seven inche- high, not spreading out the leaves 
which drooped over at least a foot, and the 
stalks weighed just nine pouuds. This is equal 
to more thau 65 tons per acre. Amber Sugar 
Cane, now in full blossom, weighed six pouuds 
for a similar quantity. 8weet corn one hill 
(three feet apart) weighed, with eight earB, 
(four stalks) 16 pounds—6talks 10 feet long 
and very stout. How is this for tbe Sorghum ? 
The seed was planted May 21. Each root has 
au average of six shoots. Where it had been 
cut about six weeks ago it is five feet high 
with about 16 branches i«t the root. It is grow¬ 
ing aboutthreo inches a day now. The cows 
eat it both leaf and stalk, and leave not a frag¬ 
ment. What a crop for fodder! The stalkB 
were not picked at all but wereau average lot. 
OUTLINE OF WILD GOOSE PLUM. — FIG. 295. 
among the foliage of the tree, makes a pleasing 
and attractive sight. Further trial will deter¬ 
mine Its productiveness. It is not curculio- 
proof as was claimed. I question if we have 
auy variety that is, though there are doubtless 
a number of the so-called Wild Goose varieties. 
Will the time ever come, “ when the truth, 
the whole truth’’—or a little less—“aud noth¬ 
ing but the truth,” will be employed in stating 
the merits of new fruits, etc ? All of these wild 
or native Bpecies have been called iron-clad 
and curcul io-proof, to a greater or less extent, 
notably Bassett’s American, yet I saw a speci¬ 
men of tbis on the Rural Grounds last year 
that was almost literally covered with the 
crescent marks of the “little turk.” 
It would be interesting to note and compare 
the promises with the actual performances of 
the various horticultural novelties introduced 
for the last 15 or 20 years, and see what pro¬ 
portion of them have been verified. The chap¬ 
ter would be a long one, and I imagine a few 
of the more sensitive (?) actors would, like the 
politicians, rather not have the record con¬ 
sulted. Do not this untruthfulness and the 
extravagant ubb of adjectives in this connec¬ 
tion lower the standard and retard the health¬ 
ful growth of horticultural progrees? This 
custom is not confined to horticulture and 
agriculture but pervades all other similar ave¬ 
nues of trade. Are misrepresentation and 
exaggeration necessary to success ? I know it 
is often said that the American people have 
been humbugged so long as to have become 
used to it and rather expect and like it, but 
would not the plain truth and simple facts pay 
as well in the long run ? Tbe young and in¬ 
experienced may be credulous enough to be¬ 
lieve these overdrawn claims, but older ones 
who have had their “eye teeth cut," are very 
apt to make a liberal allowance, and it is cer¬ 
tainly wisdom to do so. 
The Ruhal Branching Sorghum.— I can¬ 
not say too much in praise of the Rural 
Sorghum in this climate as a soiling plant. 
We have been growing it for the past four 
years aud consider it much preferable to any¬ 
thing we have ever tried. We have cut it 
three times in one season, and two of the crops 
were heavy. I have counted as many as 15 
good stalks from one stump or root ou sandy, 
thin land, not highly manured. It takes about 
the whole 6eason for it to mature its seed in 
this latitude. Ite capacity for standing the 
drought is being fairly tested this Summer. 
The corn crop is almost a failure, and yet the 
sorghum is suffering very little. 
Aiken Co., 8 . C. I. H. Satterthwait. 
I saw at Mr. Williams's a home-made tin 
label with tbe name scratched or pricked on it 
with a brad-awl. A slightly diagonal cnl at 
each end makes a pair of ears for attaching 
the label to the wire of a trellis, a small stake, 
or a plant. AU that is needed are a pair of 
shears, a brad-awl. and some old tin, to make a 
durable label. The tin oxydizea when scratch¬ 
ed, and the mark will last us long as the tin 
itself. Tbis is a plain bnt very good domestic 
label. A label “ boom” is greatly needed. The 
present wooden label, written on with u com¬ 
mon lead pencil, as used by nurserymen and 
florists, is an unmitigated nuisance, uud has 
been productive of untold profanity, p. b. m. 
OBJECTIONABLE FRUIT PREMIUMS 
Why will our agricultural societies persist 
in offering the principal premiums for the 
“ largest number of varieties” of the different 
kinds of fruit? The tendency is already 
towards too many kinds, aud to offer premiums 
in encouragement of this already existing evil 
is a great mistake. Where one has too many 
varieties it is very annoying to keep them 
separate, ae to do so requires more room for 
storing, etc., and adds greatly to the labor and 
expense of marketing. Better our crops were 
of a few leading varieties than to be bothered 
with twenty bushels of this, teu bushels of 
that, five bushels of the oihcr, and so on. 
Besides, giving premiums to the largest 
number of varieties encourages a few unscru¬ 
pulous persons to procure their fruit of other 
growers and exhibit it as their own. In this 
county about one-third of the amount given in 
premiums is offered in this objectionable man¬ 
ner, and the consequence is a sort of “scrub 
THE RURAL BRANCHING SORGHUM 
In reply to the Rural’s inquiry relative to 
the “ Rural Branching8orghum,”I would say 
that I first beard of it some two years ago 
(1878) and of its wonderful productiveness and 
growth, and on investigating the matter I 
found it waB, indeed, an interesting addition 
to fodder-producing plants, that promises to 
excel all. In 1879 I had it growing on my own 
grounds, and although under great disadvan¬ 
tages, in addition to a drough eo long and 
TEE VALUATION OF 
REVERTED” PKOS 
PHORIC ACID 
PROFESSOR F. H. STOKER. 
Among the offences against sense aud good 
morals which the selling of chemical fertilizers 
