104: Bukeau of Farmers' Institutes. 



by plowing under cow peas and rye, the humus was supplied to 

 hold moisture, the unavailable plant food was unlocked and made 

 available for the use of the plant. 



Question. — Which is best as an absorbent in a stable, plaster or 

 South Carolina rock ? Will either injure the manure ? 



Mr. Smith. — Plaster contains no fertility, but, on some soils 

 it has some benefits of minor importance. It costs too much, how- 

 ever. It is better to use South Carolina rock, instead of plaster. 

 Bv this, I mean dissolved rock. 



Question. — • Which will give best results, shallow or deep 

 cultivation ? 



Mr. Rice. — 'Cultivate deeply at first, subsequently at a shal- 

 low depth, using a fine spiked-tooth cultivator, having a number 

 of teeth. This breaks up the earth crust finely, makes a dust 

 blanket of it, and thus prevents loss of moisture by evaporation. 

 Such cultivation does not disturb the roots of the plants, which 

 deep cultivation does. We also use the weeder, our aim being to 

 kill the weeds before they germinate. 



Question. — What is the cause of club-foot cabbage ? 



Prof. Harding. — That question comes up at nearly every in- 

 stitute. It is out of my field, but I can say that the cause is a 

 fungus in the soil. The best preventive is not to plant cabbage 

 on land where club-foot cabbage grew the year before. Lime, 

 it is said, if applied to the -soil, will make the conditions more 

 unfavorable to the spread of the fungus. 



Mr. Smith.- — I do not know enough about cabbage culture to 

 add anything to the professor's reply; but I think that the cab- 

 bage growers in central !N"ew York prefer old ground to sod, for 

 cabbage culture. 



Question. — Is the English sparrow a friend to the farmer? 



Mr. Gould.- — I do not know that he is a friend to any one. But 

 I do know that he is an enemy to all other birds, and a thief. 

 Then, too, he is an awful nuisance about the house, and we make 

 it a point to get rid of him. We scatter a little millet seed in a 

 furrow, and, when the sparrows gather on it, we pull a double- 

 barrel shotgun on them. This gives us a week's cat rations and 

 disposes of sparrows for a month. 



Question. — Would you advise a young man to go to some other 

 State, with the intention of raising lambs? 



Mr. Witter. — I don't know; I visited 13 States of the Union 

 last fall, and came back with the conviction that the old Empire 

 State was as good as anv of them. There is as good and as poor 



