1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
331 
amount of vegetable matter, detrimental to 
a clear cane juice. The yield of syrup on 
light soil is not far from one hundred gal¬ 
lons, to which must be added twenty bushels 
of seed. A rich loam will yield one hundred 
and fifty gallons, but such syrup requires 
much more care in manufacture, and will 
not be so fine and clear. A farmer should 
select for his cane field one that is naturally 
warm and dry, not recently fertilized with 
barn-yard manure. The amount of syrup 
made in Wisconsin last season was 491,200 
gallons, scattered through thirty-eight coun¬ 
ties. The amber cane industry is showing a 
healthy growth. 
Is Soda Essential to Plant Growth? 
Water-culture experiments have added 
much to our knowledge of the essential food 
elements of agricultural plants. The pro¬ 
cess is simple, and within the reach of any 
farmer or gardener who may desire to be¬ 
come more familiar with the nature and 
growth of his crops. Seeds are first placed 
in moist cotton until they have thrown out 
roots a few inches in length, and then are 
arranged in wide-mouthed bottles, so that 
only the roots are immersed in the liquid. 
The plant is held in place in a notch cut in 
the cork that closely fits the bottle. If the 
cotton is first washed of all impurities, and 
moistened with pure water, distilled from 
the spout of a tea-kettle or an escape-pipe 
of a steam engine, it is clear that the young 
growing plant has received no ash constitu¬ 
ents from outside the seed. In like manner 
all such substances can be kept from the 
plant while it is suspended in the cork with 
its roots in the water. If only pure water is 
used, the development of the plant soon 
ceases, because the food stored up in the seed 
for the initial growth becomes exhausted. As 
soon as the green leaves begin to unfold, the 
pure water should be replaced by a weak solu¬ 
tion of any substance that it is desired to test 
as a source of plant food. A thriving plant 
gets all the essential elements from the water 
that it would obtain from a fertile soil. 
It has been found by water culture and 
other experiments that the leading food ele¬ 
ments of a good soil are potash, phosphoric 
acid, magnesia, nitrogen, lime, iron, sul¬ 
phuric acid, and chlorine. Substances con¬ 
taining one or more of these materials in a 
soluble form may be added to the water, and 
the effects upon the plants noted. It would 
be more striking to have a number of jars and 
plants, each with a different substance added 
to the water, and to observe the influence of 
each substance. Thus the jar with pure 
water may stand by the side of one contain¬ 
ing a salt of potash or of soda, phosphoric 
acid, etc. The water lost from the jar by 
evaporation from the plant should be daily 
replaced, and the whole solution changed for 
fresh every week. Some noted experiment¬ 
ers, as Wolff, Knop, Sachs, and others, have 
so carefully adjusted the substances, as to be 
able to produce full-grown corn, oats, bar¬ 
ley, buckwheat, and other common plants. 
Wolff’s solution, in which he brought plants 
to maturity with well-developed seed, con¬ 
tained the following substances : phosphoric 
acid, 8 parts in one thousand of water; lime, 
10 parts; potash, 9; magnesia, 1.4; sulphuric 
acid, 2£; chlorine, 9; nitric acid, 30 parts. 
This was about 63 parts of food substances 
to 1,000 parts of water. 
Common well water is often rich enough 
to perfectly nourish plants, if supplied in 
abundance and frequently renewed. Oats 
have been raised to maturity fully equaling 
in seed production those grown in the soil, 
when the well water employed contained 
only 32‘/ 3 parts of solid matter or food ele¬ 
ments in 100,000 parts of water. Water cul¬ 
ture does not provide all of the mechanical 
and other conditions for the best develop¬ 
ment of plants, but it helps to answer the 
question with which we started. It is within 
the reach of any one to grow a buckwheat, 
oat, or corn plant without any soda. Soda 
is found in the ash of nearly all plants, and 
sometimes to the extent of 29 per cent. It 
is never totally absent from the entire plant, 
but may be absent in weigliable quantities in 
some parts. If indispensable, the amount 
requisite is minute. Soda, however, has an 
important indirect action as a fertilizer. 
Insects Injurious to the Turnip. 
Nearly all of the insects which attack the 
cabbage in its early growth, also prey upon 
the turnip. Among these are the caterpil¬ 
lars of a number of “ Cabbage butterflies,” 
easily recognized by their whitish wings, 
with black markings, and lazy, lumbering 
flight. The Harlequin Cabbage-bug is a 
common pest in the South on many plants of 
Fig. 1. —FLEA BEETLE, LARVA, AND PUPA. 
the mustard family, as cabbages, radishes, 
mustard, turnips, etc. The greatest damage 
to the turnip crop is done by the Striped- 
Turnip-beetle (Haltica striolata). This in¬ 
sect is about one-tentlx of an inch long, of a 
black color, with broad buff or-yellowish 
stripes on the wing covers. The larva or 
“ worm ” is white and slender, with a horny, 
light-brown head. Its motion is slow and 
awkward. The pupa is also white, and forms 
an earthen cocoon in the soil, in which it un¬ 
dergoes its transformations. The perfect 
insects are very fond of the young turnip 
plants, and do great injury to the seedlings 
when they first appear above the soil. The 
eggs are deposited on the underside of the 
Fig. 2. —YOUNG TURNIP PLANT WITH “FLY.” 
foliage, and soon hatch into the “worms” 
that eat their way between the upper and 
lower skins of the true leaves. The “worms” 
burrow rapidly for a few days, and then 
drop to the ground, to pass into the inactive 
pupa state. The first brood of the “flies” 
appears in May or early June, and the second 
in August or Septeiu.^r, Hot, dry weather 
is most favorable to the beetles, as during a 
rain they cannot open and use their gauzy 
wings. On the other hand, turnips thrive in 
moist weather, and ought to be hurried on 
in such times. The ground should be in the 
best possible condition of tilth and fertility 
Fig. 3. —THE TURNIP WORMS AT WORK. 
for a rapid growth, and with a smooth sur¬ 
face, so that the least time need be taken in 
passing through the seed-leaf state. The 
best, plump, vigorous seed should be sown 
thickly. It is. well to dust the young plants 
with equal parts of wood ashes and land 
plaster. Air-slaked lime may be used in the 
same manner with good effect. Figure 1 
shows the Flea-beetle, larva and pupa, much 
enlarged. In fig. 2 is seen a young turnip 
plant, with a “ fly ” and an eaten seed-leaf. 
Figure 3 shows the “ worms ” at work within 
the substance of the leaf, natural size, and 
magnified. 
Commercial Fowls. 
Under this head, Mr. Harrison Weir, a 
great English authority, discusses at con¬ 
siderable length the various breeds and 
crosses of fowls to raise and fatten solely for 
the market. He is most in favor of a cross 
of the old-fashioned English Game-cock with 
the Dorking, the Light Brahma, or the Buff 
Cochin hen, in the order named. These are 
small in the bone, broad in the breast, fleshy, 
beautiful to behold, and very hardy. The 
foil-grown cocks of this cross weigh from 
nine to ten pounds, the hens are good layers, 
and the flesh of both is excellent. 
Like most reliable English writers, he pre¬ 
fers for a pure breed the white-legged Dork¬ 
ing, not only as super-excellent for the table, 
but profitable for general market purposes. 
After the cross of the Game-cock, he prefers 
the Dorking cock with the Light Buff Cochin 
hens. The chickens of this cross lay earlier 
than the pure Dorkings, grow faster, and 
when grown appear larger. The cross of 
the Dorking with the Light Brahma hens 
gives a more compact fowl than the Cochin 
cross, and, on the whole, is preferable. Of 
a big, coarse fowl, he says what we all know, 
that it eats more and sells for less in market 
than the better bred. Choice table fowls are 
not so plentiful nowin England as they were 
some forty years ago, when one used to see 
in the Newgate and Leadenliall markets 
row on row, tier on tier, of bright, white¬ 
skinned, wliite-legged Dorkings and Game 
