The analyses (average) of 49 samples of soil gave the following amounts of each manurial ingredient, in soil taken to the depth of eight inches:

Phosphoric acid,

Nitrogen,

Potash,

4.219 pounds.

3.053 pounds.

16.317 pounds.

From the same analyses it was estimated that a single acre of soil, one foot deep, amounted to 4.008.8 pounds of phosphoric acid and 11.329.8 pounds of potash.

The Bulletin states: "It will thus be seen that with a soil containing little more than half the amount of potential plant food ordinarily contained in soils, a yield was secured from three to four times the average of the state."

The character of the soil is thus explained: "The fact has been mentioned that this soil was gravelly. In securing a sample for analysis we found in the surface foot 56.79 per cent. of material fine enough to go through a sieve of eighteen meshes to the inch, and 41.85 per cent. of gravel which would not pass through the sieve. The loss due to drying and waste was 1.36 per cent."

The results of the experiments are thus summarized:

1. That the most arable soils possess sufficient potential plant food for a bountiful crop.

2. That the average yield for the state is not more than about onethird of what it should be and what it would be were proper methods of cultivation practiced.

3. The low average in the state is due not so much to a lack of potential plant food as to insufficient supply of moisture.

4. That by frequent surface tillage, moisture may be conserved and potential plant food made available.

5. Commercial fertilizers should only be used when the soil fails to respond satisfactorily to tillage, or to supplement manures and clover crops and stores of plant food already in the soil.

6. Level culture is preferable to ridge or hill culture for conserving moisture. Ridges should only be used when the object is to relieve the soil of moisture as in low, damp fields.

7. All other requisites being present to insure a satisfactory crop, full success cannot be secured unless the foliage be kept healthy and intact.

CREAM RIPENERS.

The agents of the Department of Agriculture have, more than during any previous year, been brought in contact with the use of cream ripeners in the manufacture of butter; if the information received is correct, the manipulators of "boiled." or "process," butter make use of "Conn's No. 41" to impart a "June flavor” to their product. "Cream ripeners" containing a large proportion of cotton seed oil, which, when added to the butter, increases its weight very materially, have also been met with and those using it compelled to appear before the proper officers for the punishment of butter and other adulterations.

The Connecticut Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 16, draws the following inferences from the use of bacteriological cream ripeners:

"1. The cream in ordinary creameries or in ordinary dairies always contains bacteria, a large majority of which are perfectly wholesome, and some give rise either to good flavor and aroma in the butter, or at least produces no injurious effect upon the cream. They are perfectly consistent with the production of the best quality of butter.

"2. In the months of May and June the variety and number of these types of bacteria are decidedly greater than in winter months, and this probably explains in part the better quality of butter at these

seasons.

"3. Occasionally a dairy or a creamery may be impregnated with a species of bacteria that grows rapidly and produces a deleterious effect upon the butter. This will produce in all cases a falling off in the quality. The trouble may be due perhaps to a single cow, inasmuch as the milk of individual cows may sometimes contain certain species of organisms not found in others, even in the same barn. It is, however, commonly impossible for the farmer or buttermaker to find the source of such impurities in bacteria.

"4. Creameries and dairies will, in many cases, be supplied with bacteria, giving rise to desirable flavors, aromas and a proper amount of acid. This is commonly the case from the fact that the good flavoring species are abundant, but it will not always be the case. It is more common in June than at any other season of the year, simply because the variety of bacteria is greater at this time, and, hence, the greater likelihood that some species which produce the proper aroma and flavor will be present. Probably also some of the desirable species are especially abundant in the green foods of cows in June.

“5. If cream be inoculated with a large culture of some particular kind of bacteria, this species will frequently develop so rapidly as

to check the growth of the other bacteria present, and thus, perhaps, prevent them from producing their natural effects. Hence it will follow that the use of starters will commonly give rise to favorable results, even though the cream is already somewhat impregnated with other species of bacteria before the inoculation with the artificial starter. This fact lies at the base of the use of artificial starters, either with or without pasteurization. To produce the desirable result, it is necessary to have the starter contain a large abundance of some favorable species which by its growth can both check the development of the ordinary cream bacteria, and can develop a proper flavor by itself."

MANAGEMENT OF APPLE ORCHARDS.

Bulletin No. 119 of the New Jersey Experiment Station, gives the following summarized general advice as to the treatment and care of an apple orchard:

"1. Select soil that is well drained, of good texture and overlaying a sub-soil not too compact.

"2. Choose a few varieties rather than a large number. The situation in reference to markets should guide as to the proportion in the orchard of summer, fall and winter sorts.

"3. Though the fall is the preferable season for setting the orchard, this point is not so important as the selection of the tree, the preparation of the soil and the method of planting. The distance apart of the trees may range from 30 to 45 feet, depending upon character of the soil and the habits of growth of the varieties set.

"4. The main object in trimming is to make a well-proportioned top, which shall admit the sun to every portion. If trees are started right in this respect, trimming consists largely in the annual removal of superfluous growths, which may be performed at any convenient time.

"5. The cultivation of orchards is important, though not a necessity under all conditions. The chief objects to be attained are to conserve moisture, and to increase the available food for use of the tree. If practiced, it should begin with the setting of the tree and be performed with a tool which thoroughly stirs the surface of the soil.

"6. Bearing orchards, even though located on soils in a good state of fertility, should be manured or fertilized; the mineral constituents,

phosphoric acid and potash, are especially useful. A mixture of equal parts of ground bone, acid phosphate and muriate of potash, or one of one and one-half parts of ground bone and one of muriate of potash, furnishes these constituents in good forms and proportions. The amount of the mixture applied annually may range from 500 to 1,000 pounds per acre. The excessive use of yard manure, which is rich in nitrogen, should be avoided. Where nitrogen is needed, it may be obtained cheaply and in good forms from such crops as red and crimson clover.

"7. To secure perfect fruit, the remedies given for the control of insects and diseases must be used.

"8. It will pay to thin apples. This practice exerts a good influence upon the proportion of first-grade fruit, and upon the continuous bearing of the tree, besides preventing the needless exhaustion of the soil.

"9. It will pay to carefully study the markets in reference to the advantages of careful grading and packing. The difference in price between fruit properly graded and packed, and that ungraded and poorly packed, is very marked; the poor fruit rather than the good in the mixed package fixes the selling price.

"10. Those who carefully observe the above suggestions, find that apple growing is a paying business."

CONTAGIOUS NATURE OF TUBERCULOSIS.

Dr. Nelson (Bulletin No. 118), of the New Jersey Station, thus sums up the proof of the contagious character of tuberculosis:

"Any disease produced by germs is contagious, infectious or "catching." In such diseases, there are special ways in which the germs are transferred from a patient to a healthy person. We have learned enough about consumption to know what constitutes exposure to this disease. As no one knows at any one time to what extent he is exposed, and as this disease takes a long time to develop, it is quite difficult to connect any case with a particular act of indiscretion. Under the circumstances, people in general have no very positive belief that consumption is really a contagious disease, though this has been definitely proven by scientific experiments. Many coincidences of exposure to the germs of consumption with development of this disease, which would be of uncertain value as proof of contagiousness. if taken by themselves, are very suggestive when viewed in the light

of the knowledge that this disease is a germ disease. In this connection one bit of positive evidence outweighs hundreds of merely negative instances. As the care which people will exercise in dealing with this disease will largely depend on the firmness of their belief in its contagiousness or infectiousness, efforts to establish this belief are of value. Hence we shall proceed to refer to a few instances recorded by different writers.

"In 1860, Chauveau fed 'scrofulous' products to cattle and produced 'scrofulous' (consumptive) disease. Bollinger fed the milk of tuberculous cows to guinea pigs and tuberculosis developed in them. One way of testing milk to see if tubercle germs are present, is to inject a quantity into the abdominal cavity of guinea pigs. Even when the germs are present in so few numbers as to be incapable of demonstration by microscopic examination, the inoculated animals become tuberculous. Ernst inoculated milk of tuberculous cattle with sound udders to guinea pigs, and half of the inoculated animals became tuberculous. Milk from these cows fed to a number of swine, caused half of them to become tuberculous. Drs. Stalker and Niles separated three calves from their mothers at birth, and gave them the mixed milk from several tuberculous cows, but always heated the milk that one calf received. This animal did not become diseased; the other two became tuberculous. Dr. Schroeder found that one sample out of nineteen, secured from the general milk supply of Washington, D. C., produced tuberculosis when inoculated into a guinea pig. Dr. Ernst found three out of thirty-six samples of Boston milk to be similarly infectious. Prof. Bang placed two healthy bulls with the reacting division in his experimental herd, and within a year they, too, reacted when injected with tuberculin. Cornet inoculated guineas with dust from rooms occupied by consumptives, and compelled other guineas to breathe such dust, and produced tuberculosis in the experimental animals. It is a general observation that when cows occupy the same stalls and do not intermingle, that tuberculosis spreads from the diseased animal to its nearest neighbors first; while in case the stalls are used indiscriminately, the entire herd is irregularly affected.

"Many infants die of bowel troubles that suggest "feeding tuberculosis.' It has, in a number of cases, been found that the milk received as the sole food by such infants was received either from a consumptive nurse, or mother, or tuberculous cow. In Dr. Ernsts's extensive correspondence with physicians on this subject, he found eight cases reported in which infection was conveyed from mother to child; eleven cases of transfer from the cow to the infant and sixteen cases where this mode of infection was supected. Veterinarians are better situated to observe such cases than ordinary physicians. Dr. Stalker reports that five young people in one family died of con