Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

7 THE SOUTHERN WORLD, SEPTEMBER 1,1882. The Cabbage Worm. Editor Southern World—I have seen several remedies for destroying both the red and green worm, but I think I have a rem edy far superior. Break a leaf from the un derside of the cabbage and place in a re versed condition on the top of the cabbage, late in the evening. If taken off in the morning while the dew is on, you have all the worms on that cabbage, as they go under the leaf for pro tection from the dew. This I have tried sat isfactorily. J. A. K. Felix, Perry county, Ala. Tbe Great Need. Editor Southern World—I am applied to by so many of my neighbors, that I once more address machinists and inventors, through your valuable paper, ou the subject of individual farm machines for hand or horse-power. We want a rice-huller and cleaner, cotton seed huller and cleaner and press to get the oil, small circular-saw for short wood, hand corn-sheller to be screwed to a table or bench. We do not want ma chinery for large cotton mills or factories, but something every man can use at home, and what we want we can pay for. J. Hendree, Callierville, Chilton county, Ala. Too Mncb Moisture In Mississippi. Editor Southern World.—As you invite the readers of your excellent paper to re port the crops of their counties, I will write you what 1 know about tbe crops of Scott. Before the late rains began our crops were very, very good, but now our prospects are very gloomy. Nearly all our low land cot ton is drowned out. On our place we have not done a days work since the 3rd of July in the field and our crops are very foul. Had I not examined some corn before I began to write this letter, I would have pronounced tbe corn crop of this section very good, but on examination of it I found that the ears were not more than two-thirds full. To go through the fields most persons would pro nounce tbe corn crop excellent; it has a splendid color and large shoots, but little corn. The sandy land in the eastern por tion of this county will make as good, if not better crops than usual, but the flat lands near Morton cannot make more than two- thirds the usual crop. J. M. Champion. Morton, Miss. Weather Predictions and Crops in Ala bama. Editor Southern World -I wish to state through your very valuable paper for the benefit of the fanner, that my experience of more than two yean, from observation and careful instrumental data made three times a day, that the weather forecasts of Oeo. It. Cather, so far as they concern this district are correct I quote from his pamphlet, briefiy stated: 1. “The high and low places of the moon, are tbe greatest monthly distances of the moon north and south of tbe equator.” 2. “By corresponding periods is meant pe riods which fall either at high moons or at low moons. A succesive period at high moon corresponds with a previous period at high moon. 3. “Note the season and the character of the weather, and from these estimate tbe de velopment for the next corresponding pe riods. By following this up you will soon become an expert.” .4. “You need give your weather no range, as you are only interested in your own lo cality.” 6. “In winter the cold developments are of long intervals, sometimes running into each other.” 6. “It is interesting to watch the weather about the time of the autumnal and vernal equinoxes.” 7. "Whenever the development occurs just before the moon reaches its highest or lowest point, and an interval of ordinary weather succeeds the same weather will re turn as the moon gets back to this point This is worth observing, as it proves the the ory of lunar weather belts.” 8. “The temperature falls and rises in lo calities'during the intervals between the climax developments, but the latter are too well defined and marked to be overlooked— they are easily detected.” 9. “The electricity of a storm is generated by molecular pressure and movement.” 10. “The warmer intervals lie between the cooler. The four intervals of the month are the lunar seasons.” I want every farmer to send to Oeorge It. Cather and get bis little pamphlet. It will amply repay him, for it is full of scientific truths verified and proven. I believe he has fully solved the meteorological problem. Before tbe war, I was engaged by Professor Henry in such pursuits, and a long life of over 70 years groping in the dark, at last has opened up to day and light. We have enormous crops of oats, wheat and corn; fruit and vegetables with much increased acreage for cereals. Your much pleased subscriber. Georoe D. Norris. New Market, Ala. Crops In East Tennessee. Editor Southern World—Our harvesting and threshing is about done, and we are now busy preparing the ground for next year’s crop of wheat. The average yield for East Tennessee is increased and promises better, though many farmers are disappointed in results from the use of commercial fertilizers. Clover lands have invariably come up to and in many cases exceeded expectations. My own crop of forty acres yielded me 710 bu shels, an average of a little less than twenty bushels to the acre. Weare having an abundance of rain, more apparently than is needed. Our corn crop promises fair, but we are short of hogs to eat it. We will have two Farmer’s Institutes tnis fall, one in Greenville and the other at Jack- son, Tennessee. They will be held under the direction of our Commissioner of Agri culture, A. W. Hawkins. The meetings no doubt will benefit those attending. I expect to be present at both, and will give you sy nopsis of proceedings. Capitalists are investing largely in manu facturing and mining enterprises here, and large quantities of marble, coal, etc., are be ing shipped, making money plentiful for farmers and producers. Our Commissioner of Agriculture has attracted a useful class of immigrants to our State and many are purchasing homes in our midst, highly pleased with - their surround ings. John M. Meek. Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. From the Old North Slat*. Editor Southern World—I am in receipt of the Southern Wobld, and am much pleased with it. I think it an encyclopedia of valuable instruction and information that every Southern planter should have for both home and farm improvement. We have been blessed this year with boun teous crops of wheat and oats, and the pros pects now are that to all those who have “ tickled the bosom of old mother earth,” she yet will “laugh forth abundant har vests,” of a different character. Corn is looking splendid, tobacco and cotton fine. Some few here have the Australian cotton, which is the finest of all cottons. Its staple is as long as Sea Island, and its yield is from two to three times as much per acre as that of other kinds, so it will be the cotton of the future here. The timely showers have caused all vegetation to grow kindly, and our cattle are now fat and sleek off of that most wonderful of all grasses or trifoleates, the Les Pedexa Striata. This plant is described by Hooker and Arnott in the flora of Hong- Kong, and it is supposed to have made its way here from China. It was first seen in this section in 1866, occupying a space on the roadside, surrounded by broomsedge and old field pines, not exceeding ten feet square. In 1870 the broomsedge had all disappeared and this clover had formed a rich carpet of nutritious verdure in its stead covering hundreds of acres. Land is rapidly improved by it, and when turned under with the plow it gives the same fertilizing and chemical elements to the soil that red clover and pea- vines do. It will grow on any soil, in fact in gullies where there is no soil. I have seen it three feet high among old-field pines and in tbe original forest. Its seeds are almost infinitesimal in appearance, and it produces them in great abundance, consequently it is the most fructiferous plant ever seen here. Stock and cattle prefer it to any other grass and keep fat and sleek on it from its appear ance in February until the frost in October or November. It does not cause that flow of saliva that other clovers do. In this new in vader of the grass domain of the South we have the future rejuVenator and reclaimer of our old worn out and turned out lands. It frees them of the worthless broomsedge and gives the best of pasturage in its stead, and improves the land annually. When once sown you have it for all coming time, as it never runs out, Yet, like all other val uable grasses, It is easily destroyed with the plow. Near here Nature’s remedy for consump tion has been found in a bed of natural “ hy- pophosphites,” just above the famous Con sumptive Springs. Tbe mineral is white and since its discovery has never failed to cure any one so afflicted who used it This is certainly a boon to those afflicted with that heretofore incurable disease. J. W. Walker. Franklin, North Carolina. Gluten. “Forever and forever” are we entertained by the would-be philanthropists with argu ments loud and long against the use of white bread, and in all these arguments the burd en of the song is the smaller percentage of gluten contained in the center or white por tion of the wheat berry as compared with the total contents of the grain. In London, England, the crusade of the Bread Reform League has been long and determined, and yet we do not read that all of the millers of England are changing over their mills to the Campbell-Morflt system. On the con trary, those wicked men, like the millers of the United States, are pandering to the de praved tastes of misled humanity and are striving to make their flour white and to eliminate by all the devices tbe inventor's brain can put before them every particle of those outer coatings of the wheat berry which, although containing, according to bare chemical data, a large percentage of gluten, do not nevertheless, contain this gluten in a convenient form for assimilation into the human system. Chemical data, pure and simple, do not suffice for our guid ance in the choice of food; experience, as propounded by the dictates of nature, must have its share in the direction of our diet to as great an extent as the theoretical results of the analytical laboratory. There are very many substances whicli contain a larger amount of gluten than wheat. Why, then, if the presence of gluten per se decides the food value of all we eat, should wheat be preferred to any other vegetable food ? Na ture answers the question. Because the con stituent parts of wheat, although partaking of the same nature chemically as certain constituent parts of other vegetable sub stances, possess in reality different proper ties, and, following in the same order of things, it has been maintained by competent authorities that albuminoids contained in the outer coatings of wheat are not of the same value as those dispersed throughout the central whiter portion. Wo know quite well that flour containing a large portion of gluten makes a finer loaf than that made from flour poor in this constituent; but we also know that oatmeal, which contains more gluten than flour, will not make a loaf at all, thus showing that the gluten of oats is not identical with the gluten of wheat. In the same sense the gluten which is reject ed by the miller is not identical with that retained in white flour, and may not have the same effect either in the loaf or stomach. To make strong flour the miller should use strong wheat, and he is not going in the right direction when he scrapes the bran to help himself. To demonstrate more clearly the truth of our argument that we do not eat wheat bread simply because it contains gluten, we append a table of percentage of gluten con tained in various vegetable substances which will be interesting to the curious: Cauliflower (dried) 64 Mushroom (dried matter ot( to Cabbhge (dried leal) JO to 35 Dried onion-root 25 to 30 Dried tea leaves JO to 25 Wheat—Venezuela 22)4 Wheat—English 12 Beans, peas, lentils—about............„......~........ 34 Qulnoa flour 19 Oatmeal ........... IS Bran of English wheat IS Corn meal ........ 12 Dhurra. - —....... 11)1 Buckwheat flour...... 10)4 Wheaten bread 5H Bye bread......... — 5)4 Tires of Mixed Metals. Tbe Saint Chamond Works have recently beguu to manufacture tires of mixed metal- half iron and half steel—and which, it is claimed, will have the hardness of the latter without its fragility. The body of the tire is composed of a ring made of pices of pud- died steel, and inserted between two hoops of fine iron, which from the outer sides of the section. The whole is welded together by tbe hammer. The principles of this maufacture are as follows, but they have not been developed very far as yet: A bar of fine iron, which is to serve as the core, is first rolled, and then a hoop of fine iron is put on at each end cold. One of these hoops is afterwards to form the flange, and is com posed of three coils of equal size. The other is formed of a single coil, and is to make the outer face of the tire. Wedges of puddled steel are then placed obliquely in the space between the two hoops, thus making so an any spirals inclined on the axis of the tire. This arrangement brings the wedges together when the hammer is applied, and thus a complete welding is obtained. The wedges are cut from lolled bars; they should be of hard steel, but yet soft enough to weld with fine iron. The round pieces thus obtained are forged and welded with the hammer. Four heats are requisite to obtain a ring like those used in tbe ordinary process. The welding is completed by the rolling, and it brings the inside core to such a small thick ness that it disappears altogether in the bor ing.— Engineering. The Clover Plant. Dr. Byron D. Halstead presents in the American Agriculturist for September, the fol lowing important Tacts with regard to the agricultural value of the clover plant: The clover plant is a close and deep feeder, send ing its fine roots far down into the soil, fill ing tbe sub-soil with a net-work of rootlets. It exposes a targe leaf surface, and is thus able to concentrate weak solutions of plant food, and prepare them for the formation of vegetable substance. The clover plant grows throughout the whole season, and is thus able to take up the nitrates as they form. These compounds of nitrogen are produced in large quantities in hot summer months, and, being very soluble, would be washed out by the rains, were it not that the clover plant absorbs them. This is one great ad vantage which clover has over all the com mon grains, that finish their growth, and are harvested before tbe time for the most rapid nitrification arrives. It is a well-known fact that clover prepares land for the pro duction of large crops, and this is explained in large part by the long season of its growth, and its deep and close feeding, and the storing up of compounds of nitrogen. Tbe clover plant is largely below ground, so that removing the tops takes away only a part of the vegetable matter that has been accumulated. The roots of clover are large and numerous; when they are turned over in plowing, and decay, they yield a good supply of plant food to such crops as feed near the surface, and must grow rapidly for only a few weeks. In this way the clover crop will help tbe succeeding wheat crop, and has’given rise to the saying, that: “ clover seed is the best manure that a farm er can use.” If tbe whole crop of clover is turned under, as a green manure, a much larger amount of plant food is put into the soil. This is one of the quickest, cheapest, and best methods of increasing the fertility of a piece of land. Putting Away Tools. The wearing out of farm implements is, ns a rule, due more to neglect than to use. If tools can be well taken care of, it will pay to buy those made of the best steel, and finish ed in the best manner; but in common hands, and with common care, such are of little advantage. Iron and steel parts should be cleaned with dry sand and a cob, or scraped with a piece of soft iron, washed and oiled it necessary, and in a day or two clean ed off with tbe corn-cob and dry sand. Fin ally paint the iron part witli rosin and bees wax, in the proportion of 4 of rosin to 1 of wax, melted together and applied hot. This is good for the iron or steel parts of every sort of tool. Wood work should be painted with good, boiled, linseed oil, white lead and turpentine, colored of any desired tint; red is probably the best color. Keep the cattle away until the paint is dry and hard, or they will lick, with death as the result. If it is not desired to use paint on hand tools, the boiled oil with turpentine and “li quid drier,” docs just as well. Many prefer to saturate the wood-work of farm imple ments with crude petroleum. This can not be used with color, but is applied by itself, so long as any is absorbed by the pores of the wood.—American Agriculturist. California comes to the front with tbe champion busy woman. She is as active os Dr. Jim McCool, the celebrated conduc tor. The lady in question is Mrs. Gertie De Force Cluff, proprietor of the Valley Review at Lodi. She sums up her work thus: “In the past four years we have coooked, washed dishes, nursed babies, solicited, canvassed, collected, wrote editorials and locals, and built up the Review from a patent outside with press work done in Stockton, to its present improved appearance.” May she live long, prosper and b'e happy. I was ever of opinion that the honest man who married and brojght up a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and only talked of population.—Gold- smith.