1883 .] 
AMERICAS AGRICULTURIST. 
445 
Canary Seed—Bird Seed. 
The seeds sold as Canary Seed and Bird Seed, 
used for feeding Cana¬ 
ries and other cage- 
birds, are produced by 
an annual grass ( Phala- 
ris Canariensis), known 
as Canary Grass. We 
every now and then are 
asked about the culti¬ 
vation of this grass, es¬ 
pecially by correspon¬ 
dents in the Southern 
States. We think that 
it has been raised 
in California, but have 
not heard of any at¬ 
tempts to grow it else¬ 
where in this country. 
The plant is a native of 
the Canary Islands, and 
is now cultivated in va¬ 
rious parts of Europe, 
including England. In 
this country, it is often 
found in waste places 
as a weed; the sweep¬ 
ings of bird-cages being 
thrown out, the plant 
springs up, and having 
quite a striking appear¬ 
ance, it is often sent to 
us for a name. On rich 
land, the grass grows 
three or four feet high, 
and bears a dense, egg- 
shaped cluster of flow¬ 
ers, like that shown in 
the engraving, which 
contains about a hun¬ 
dred of the shining, 
smooth seeds. The 
plant is very weak in 
its young state, and lia¬ 
ble to be overcome by 
weeds; hence, in Eng¬ 
land, it is customary to 
sow it in drills, ten or 
twelve inches apart, and 
keep down the weeds by 
hand-hoeing between 
the rows. It is ripe af¬ 
ter the wheat harvest, 
and is cut with the 
sickle, tied in bundles, 
and stacked. It is re¬ 
garded as difficult to 
thresh, and the straw 
is of little value as feed. 
Where it can be pro¬ 
tected from mice, the grass is kept in bundles, 
and not threshed until the following spring. 
About thirty bushels to the acre is the usual yield. 
Rocks in the Garden and Elsewhere. 
Certain plants, especially “Alpines,” flourish best 
upon a rock-work, because their roots are kept 
moist, the rocks preventing evaporation from the 
soil. Rocks, or stones of moderate size, are useful 
in the garden, even if there is not a regular rock- 
work. When we receive a plant from the Rocky 
mountains, or from the Pacific coast, and know 
nothing of the exact locality in which it was found, 
it is set out in the border, and the surface of tha 
soil, for some distance around it, is covered with 
stones. The stones act as a mulch, and keep the 
soil over the roots moist; they also absorb heat 
during the day, giving it out slowly during the 
night, and thus serve to equalize the temperature. 
We have rarely lost a plant so treated. This 
method may be commended to those who have 
sown the seeds of perennials as soon as they 
were ripe, and intend to set the young plants where 
they will bloom next year. Such plants will be 
greatly benefited by a mulch of stones. The stones 
for this purpose should not be much larger than a 
hen’s egg, and fiat rather than round. A most ex¬ 
cellent application of this kind of mulch is to ever¬ 
greens. Whenever they are planted [we prefer 
the spring], a covering of the soil, as far as the 
roots extend, with large stones, as big as one can 
lift, will serve a double purpose. They will keep 
the soil over the roots from drying out, and at the 
same time anchor the tree in a more natural and 
effective manner than cau be done with stakes. 
Farm Bridges. 
A strong, small bridge structure is shown in 
figure 1. The top railing is of the same width as 
the sill, about one foot. The lower side may be 
cut away, giving the bridge a more finished ap¬ 
pearance. The railing (at the centre) is six inches 
thick, and three inches at the ends. The tie ( h ) is 
full width, and four inches thick. A bridge of this 
kind will answer for heavy traffic, even if twenty 
feet in length. The bolt truss, in figure 2, is 
adapted for a span of twenty-five feet. This 
makes a bridge of great firmness. Each set of 
Fig. 1.— A SHORT BRIDGE. 
truss-rods supports a cross sill. The road planks 
are laid crosswise of the bridge. The middle sills 
are sometimes half an inch lower than those along 
the sides, and should be four or five in number. 
The ends of the planks fit closely against the inside 
Fig. 2.— A BOLT TRUSS. 
of the truss sills, thereby keeping the planks se¬ 
curely in place. 
If the sills of a bridge are laid directly upon the 
dry wall of an abutment, or upon a heavy plank, 
the jar of passing teams soon displaces some of the 
stones, and brings undue strain upon certain por¬ 
tions of the wall. To avoid this, abutments are 
gether. A coat of white lead should cover the in¬ 
terior surface of all joints. The number and position 
of the posts of the wooden abutment are seen in 
the engraving. A log should be laid upon the wall 
at m to relieve the bridge from the shock of the 
passing wagons. A long bridge requires one or 
Fig. 4.— END OF A BRIDGE. 
more midway supports. One of the best forms for 
these is given in figure 3. Both the sill and plate 
project beyond the bridge proper, and allow of 
substantial bracing. Each abutment should have 
a firm setting in the stream. 
Fig. 3.—A MIDWAY BRIDGE SUPPORT. 
best made of cut stones, and laid in cement. A 
wooden bank for the support of the ends of the 
bridge may be made as seen in figure 4. The whole 
should be constructed of heavy timber, pinned to- 
“ Fox-fire ” or Luminous Rotten Wood. 
School boys often find pieces of decayed wood 
which are luminous in the dark ; such wood is 
sometimes called “Fox-fire.” Not all rotten wood is 
thus phosphorescent. The light is due to some 
fungus, the fine threads of which penetrate the 
wood and from some imperfectly known cause 
emit light. The fungus may be one of the many 
kinds of toad-stool which grow upon the trunks 
and stumps of trees. The toad-stool itself is some¬ 
times also light-bearing, thus proving that the 
phosphorescence of the wood is due to this prop¬ 
erty of the fine threads of fungus which run in all 
directions through the decayed substance. The 
luminous toad-stool when cut in pieces shows the 
pecular light about equal in all its parts. A toad¬ 
stool grows upon the olive tree that gives out a 
strong light, which continues during growth and 
until it becomes hard and dry. The cut or tom 
flesh of a fresh olive-tree toad-stool will remain 
bright for three consecutive nights. This property 
is not modified by immersing the fungus in water. 
Long exposure to moisture diminishes the light 
and may entirely destroy it. 
From various experiments it is inferred that oxy¬ 
gen, water and warmth are as much essential to 
the production of phosphorescence in living crea¬ 
tures as in other substances. The luminosity ac¬ 
companies a chemical reaction which consists 
mainly in a combination of oxygen with the organ¬ 
ized matter; in short, there is a slow combustion. 
The light of the fire-fly, glow-worm, decaying fish, 
etc., is very much the same in nature with that of 
decayed wood, or punk, though often much 
brighter. A gentleman travelling in Brazil noticed 
one night some boys with a bright object in a vil¬ 
lage street. He supposed it to be a kind of large 
fire-fly, but it was a beautiful phosplioresent toad¬ 
stool which grew in abundance on the decaying 
leaves of a dwarf palm. Dr. Collingwood found a 
toad-stool in Borneo which at night could be seen 
for a great distance, shining with a soft pale green¬ 
ish light, resembling that of the electric discharge. 
The luminosity was not imparted to the hand as is 
the phosphoresence of a match-tip when rubbed. 
Upon turning up the earth near these toad-stools, 
spots of light were observed, due to the luminous 
threads of the fungus. We have seen a whole 
field of upturned stumps aglow with phosphores¬ 
ence, and have separated the luminous threads, or 
bands of threads, from the decayed stump. The 
brightness in this case gradually diminished, 
and in a few nights it had entirely disappeared. 
A fungus grows upon stumps in Australia which 
at night emits sufficent light to enable one to read 
a newspaper when held close to it. Phosphoresent 
fungi are usually luminous so long as they are 
growing, or while preserved in a fresh state. 
