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[Entkkko at thi Post Omen, iw Atlamta, Gkoimia, fob THtwnroKTATiox thbopoh the United State* Mail* at second Cun Rati Pm ipfll j Hr r§5 ■ JR\ 'iSSSSSSsh. JSI 2$ TWICE AM<>NTir.} YOL. II. ATLANTA, GA„ NOVEMBER 1, 1882. No. 1. A SOCTII AMERICAN FLOURING HILL We Americana often bitterly complain be cause Europeans know so little of us, our country and our institutions; but European ignorance of the United States finds a ready parallel in our Ignorance of the southern half of our own hemisphere. Conquered by the Spaniards long before our own coasts were settled, the states of South America have had a development of their own in directions entirely different from those which wo have followed in our part of the world. It is true that anarchy has reigned almost supreme in many of the South Ameri can republics since the day they achieved their independence from Spain; and it is unqestionable that some of them have gone into a decline which nothing but a change of population through extensive immigra tion from hardy countries in Europe can ever check. In others, how ever, progress is making rapid headway; railways being built, immigration is invited, and impetus given to the rapid de velopment of the naturally great resources of most parts of the southern continent. The two most prosperous republics of South America are Chili and the Argentine Republic. Both of them are known to the mill ing world as the only shippers of wheat to outside nations. Chili has long exported wheat and flour extensively, and it is not so very long ago that much of the flour consumed in our own Pacific States came from Chilian ports. The Argentine Republic comprises a vast area of fertile country admirably adapted to the culture of wheat. Indeed, all that is needed to make our southern neighbor a formidable rival of ours in the markets of Europe, in the mat ter of wheat exportation, is the extension of facilities for com munication with the interior. These are rapidly being built, and already the Republic ex ports 30,000 tons of wheat an nually. There is more immi gration to this republic than to all other South American re publics combined, and possi bly, as the vast plains fill up with tillers of the soil, we may find the Ar gentine States an unpleasant competitor in both wheat and flour; for under the clear sxies of that country, where the thermome ter rarely falls below forty degrees and as rarely rises above ninety, farmers can till the soil all the year around, and many of them raise two crops a year. But our object in this connection is neither to describe the country, nor to dilate upon its future pros pects. We give on this page an engraving of one of its flour mills and elevators, the Molino Carcarana, built on the Carcarana River, in the province of Santa Fe, thirty miles from the city of Rosario, on the line of the Cen tral Argentine Railway from Rosario to Cor- duba. The owners of the mill are a stock company, one of which is Mr. H. Q. Hill, formerly a well-known miller of Lyons, Iowa. The machinery for this mill was shipped from the establishment of the John T. Noye Mfg. Co. in June, 1875. It consists of five run of burrs, three sets of rolls, eight bolting reelsand all the usual and necessary machinery, among which we may enumerate a full line of Moline cleaning machinery, Becker Brush, Eureka Smut ter, Excelsior Bran Duster, Excelsior •'Purifier, packer, three Garden City Purifiers, etc. The power is fumi-hed by six turbines, one for each run Of stone and one for the other machinery. There is a dam across the river, which, for fully ten months in the year, affords three hundred horse power. The mill was started up on the first of April, 1876, and has run night and day most of the time since, turning out 150 bags of flour of 200 pounds each, per day. The mill’s trade is entirely wi th bakers, who require a strong flour, for which the wheat raised in the Province of Santa Fe is especially adapted, being a hard, flinty wheat very similar to Minnesota Hard Spring. The capacity of the mill was increased by some very consid erable additions last spring in order to meet the demand for their flour. The elevator is operated by a 48-inch American turbine, and has a storage capacity of 75,000 bushels. Both the mill nnd eleva tor are essentially American institutions even to their operation, the millers employ ed being mostly Americans. Mr. J. W. Allen is the bead miller. A few more such mills, as the one we have described will, no doubt, give our Baltimore and Richmond millers more competition in the Brazilian markets than they would care to encounter.—Ameri can Miller. The Common Hnsliroont and Its Poison. > The current belief is that, while many fungi are virulently poisonous, others, in cluding the common mushroom, are free from poison and may be eaten in any quan tity. When mushroom-eaters show symp toms of poisoning, it is accordingly assumed that a blunder has been made, and noxious species taken for or with the wholesome ones. The fact that an eminent English fungiolo- gist is numbered among those who have lost their lives by the alleged mistake, would seem to throw grave'doubt upon the blun der theory, unless it be true, as some have held, that the edible species are mimicked by those that are poisonous so closely that the most expert is liable to misjudge them. The fear that this may be the case deters many from making any use of this savory and nourishing but treacherous vegetable. At this season, when the fields abound with wild mushrooms, and when multitudes might find in them a cheap and enjoyable addition to the daily bill of faro if they were not afraid to eat them, it is a matter of con siderable importance to have the real stand ing of fungi as food-stuff's made clear. According to recent investigations by Prof. Ponfick, of Breslau, the question seems to be, not how to distinguish poisonous from harmless species, but how to treat mush rooms of every sort in such a way as to re move or neutralize the poison which they all contain, with the proper precaution of using this class of food-stuff's at all times with mod eration. Professor Ponfick finds that repeated wash ings with cold water removes most of the poison of mushrooms, and cooking, especial ly boiling, dissolves out the rest. The wa ter in which mushrooms are boiled, how ever, is always poisonous, more so even than raw mushrooms. Experiments made upon dogs showed that if a dog ate one per cent, of its own weight of raw mushrooms it fell sick, but recovered; one and a-half per cent, produced violent illness; and if the dogate two per cent, of its weight, the result was al ways death. Of boiled mushrooms dogs ate ten per cent, of their weight without harm. When the mushrooms were well-washed with cold water, a larger quantity could be eaten raw without bad effects than was pos sible with those that were not washed ; but simple washing never removed the poison entirely. Dried mushrooms were found to be dangerous for twenty days, and also the water in which such mushrooms had been boiled. They were not really safe until af ter four months' drying. The moral is: Treat all mushrooms as poisonous; carefully throw out the water in which they have been washed or boiled; cook them well, and never eatjliem in large quantities. If men are no more susceptible than dogs are to the poison, a man can as safely gorge himself with well-boiled mush rooms as with beef or any other highly ni trogenous food. When otherwise cooked, or when the species is doubtful, a sparing use is always prudent. The fact that all mushrooms and allied growths are more or less poisonous should be no bar to their use as food, proper care be ing taken in the cooking and eating. The common potato is not free from poison; and the juice of the root from which tapioca is made is a virulent poison. The latter pois on is expelled by beat, and the former is in quantity too small to be harmful, as is the case with many other useful vege tables. In preparing mushrooms for the table, safety is assured, not by looking for specific charac teristics supposed to indicate harmlessness, but in consider ing alias poisonous and requir ing judicious treatment to de stroy or remove their noxious qualities. Thus properly at tended to, mushrooms and many other fungi are not only edible, but really delicious and valuable food-stuff's,—[Sci'eati/fe American. profitable Knowledge. There can be no doubt but that a large majority of farmers limit their range of vision inju riously by steady application of labor during what is called the busy season, which is, in fact, the greater portion of the year. They work with insuffic ient knowledge because they do not estimate at it its true value instruction derived from ob servation beyond the narrow limits of their fields. The de mand upon their powers are exhaustive, and there is weari some response until thought flags, thenceforth stolid labor without the refreshing influence of intelli gence in direction. It is the tendency to this course that makes farm life seem like dull plodding, as in too many cases it really is. Of course the tasks of the farm are tasks to be executed. Farming is a business that yields no profit without labor, but it does not follow that profit bears steady and di rect relations to labor, according to its ex tent. There must be intelligence to direct effort or the result will be very uncertain. Broader information, wider scope of knowl edge, extended acquaintance with methods and capabilities are the fitting for successful effort. In this view it is quite necessary that every farmer should know what his neighbors do, how they manage their flolds what now and instructive lessons are record ed in their practices. And no farmer can expect to develop all this by trial restricted to his own powers, nor is there need that he should attempt the task by a method so hopeless. He can avail himself of wbat wisdom his neighbors have if he will only observe. Let him go among them seeking aid.