* 
1883 .] AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 15 
Weeds at the West. 
Who has not sat at a car window and al¬ 
most thanked the weeds for the varied beauty 
they give to the landscape? In April, the 
green-sward is gemmed with dandelions, 
from Maine to Minnesota, and, as the season 
advances, hundreds of other weeds brighten 
the meadows, and make beautiful the neg¬ 
lected hedge-rows. The thistle in mid¬ 
summer; the cockle in the ripening grain; 
the golden-rod and asters in the mellow am 
tumn—how beautiful they all are ! 
Stand at the rear platform of the car, and 
see the breeze of the train break up the gos¬ 
samer globes of the dandelion, and whirls 
along the seed-laden balloons, which seem to 
chase and dodge one another for miles—this 
is in June. In August, the dandelion is 
gone, and the prickly thistle fills the air 
with down, and upon the wings of the wind 
seeks fresh fields and pastures new. 
The East is full of weeds, and our railway 
trains are carrying their seeds westward, 
gradually but surely, every year. Fully one- 
third of the labor of many Eastern farms is 
weed-hilling , This is a labor barely thought 
of on most Western farms. There it is “ one 
of the things you read about,”—but how soon 
it will be a reality ! There are farms at the 
East, once weedy, now nearly clear; held, as 
we hold our freedom,—or as we should hold 
it—by eternal vigilance. This is not near so 
expensive as plowing, harrowing, hoeing, 
and summer fallowing. We take pleasure in 
commending early and lasting vigilance to 
our brother farmers of the West. 
Fight the weeds. Keep clean hedge-rows 
and road-sides; slay, burn, eradicate, ex¬ 
terminate. We are passing laws in the 
Eastern States compelling the careless and 
thriftless to keep their road-sides clear of 
weeds, and of the brush in which they har¬ 
bor. It is not very thoroughly done as 
yet. In some districts, public opinion—which 
is not more thrifty than those who make it— 
seems to be quietly “agin the law.” In 
others, the laws are in some measure lived 
up to, and gradually man gains upon his 
foes, both in the fields and the road-ways. 
There is no joke about it. The weeds are 
in earnest. They will get into the richest 
soil—the fairest heritage of the finest coun¬ 
try the sun shines upon. But they are 
vulnerable; they are mortal; and are, we can 
assure you, “ foemen worthy of your steel.” 
The Use of Lime in Blasting. 
There are some forces, apparently insignifi¬ 
cant, which act with irresistible power 
through short distances. The expansion of 
water in freezing is a force of this kind. 
The increase in bulk in changing from the 
liquid to the solid state of ice is only about 
one-tenth, yet it exercises a power sufficient 
to break iron vessels and rend the hardest 
rocks. Every one who has slaked a lump of 
quick-lime by gradually pouring water upon 
it, has observed that the first effect of the 
jo ntact between the water and the lime is to 
ca use a swelling of the lump. It generally 
i xpands and takes up considerable more 
,* oom than before. This expansive force has 
recently been successfully applied to coal 
mining in England. Powdered quick-lime is 
strongly compressed into cartridges about 
three inches in diameter, and each has run¬ 
ning through it a perforated iron tube, 
through which water can be forced. These 
cartridges were used in a coal mine in place 
of the usual blasting charge, water was 
forced into them, and the expansion of the 
lime threw down a mass of coal weighing 
about 10 tons, with little of the small coal 
made with the usual blast. The exemption 
from danger and the avoidance of smoke, 
have caused coal mine owners to regard this 
new method with favor. Some of our ingeni¬ 
ous readers may find a useful hint in this. 
Malformation of the Eranches of the 
Black Ash. 
Br PROP. W. A. BUCKHOUT, STATE COLLEGE, PA. 
Our native Black Ash tree (Fraxinus sam- 
bucifolia), is subject to a curious malformed 
growth, the nature of which is not generally 
known. In winter, when the trees are bare, 
these peculiar blackened bunches may be seen, 
sometimes so numerous as to be mistaken 
for the natural fruit of the tree. These ab¬ 
normal growths generally hang on two or 
three years before they become so brittle as 
to fall in pieces. Closer view shows them to 
be cauliflower-like masses, not of the fruit, 
though a few of the characteristic seeds of 
ash may be mingled with them, but of swol¬ 
len, curled, and distorted stems, to which are 
appended numerous small, sharp-pointed 
scales. They are, in fact, the flower clusters 
which have failed to develop properly, and 
given rise to these abortive bodies in place of 
the real seeds. If a good hand-lens be used, 
great numbers of very minute, pinkish 
mites ( Phytoptus ) can be seen in the crevices 
of the cluster. When placed under the 
compound microscope, these mites are found 
to be narrowly oblong, and about T ’ l?r inch- 
in length, when full grown. The head is- 
blunt-pointed, and just behind it are two 
pairs of legs, the 
terminal joints of 
wdiich are quite 
anomalous. The 
body is minutely 
cross-striated, bears 
a few stiffish hairs, 
and terminates in 
an imperfect suck¬ 
er, much as in the 
leech, which it re¬ 
sembles in general 
appearance. They 
walk readily, not- „ 
withstanding the Flg> 3 ~ TnE MITES ‘ 
small number and odd position of the- 
legs, and can be found all over the tree in 
summer time. They are not confined to the 
ash, but are found upon many of our native 
trees, and are widely distributed. Generally 
they produce a small gall upon the upper 
side of the leaf, as in the basswood and wild 
cherry, but the black ash does not produce 
its leaves until after the flowers; hence the 
latter are attacked by such mites as have 
lived through the winter, while the leaves 
remain free from galls. 
Large Loss in Using Damp Fuel. 
Burning wet or damp wood, or coal, instead 
of dry is much more wasteful and expensive 
than most people imagine, and the subject is 
worthy of attention, now, when we are using 
much fuel, and are—or ought to be—provid¬ 
ing a supply of wood for the rest of the year, 
where wood is used. An extensive series of 
experiments, recently made at Bochum, Ger¬ 
many, shows that six tons of finely broken 
dry coal gives as much heat as about seven 
tons burned as wet as it would be if water 
were dashed upon it and drained off for a 
short time. And this is the condition of 
much coal kept in damp vaults, leaky sheds, 
or out-of-doors. The lesson is obvious: keep 
the coal in a dry place and condition, and 5 
to 14 per cent less, according to its fineness, 
will be needed to obtain the same heat. 
There is a good scientific explanation of this. 
Water, in changing to steam, or cold vapor 
even,—that is, in drying off,—conceals, or 
makes latent, about 1,000 degrees of heat. If 
heated to 212°, the boiling point, the steam 
really contains about 1,200 degrees of heat, 
although only 212 degrees are sensible, or are 
shown by the thermometer. 
The waste of heat is still greater in burn¬ 
ing green or wet wood. The sap or water 
uses up—that is, carries off in a latent state, 
—a very large portion of the heat produced 
by its carbon, or its dry material. As much 
man and team power is required to haul 
three or four cords of green wood as for six 
or eight cords of dry wood. The lesson is: 
cut the fuel, and split it as finely as it is to 
be used, in the grove; haul it home when 
well dried, and keep it in a dry place for use. 
It will be worth far more for heating pur¬ 
poses than if burned green, or wet, or damp 
even. The only exception to this advice is, 
when by reason of easier hauling on snow, 
and on account of the leisure of men and 
teams in winter, it may be expedient to 
haul home the green wood then; but in all 
cases let it be well dried before it is used.. 
