448 AGRICULTUKAL' REPORT. 



■svas for farm-horses, while the premiums on wheat aud coru amounted 

 to $7.50 only, aud on cheese to S13. He adds that the premium-lists of 

 the society in later years have shown a similar disproportion. In the 

 autumn of 1871 he visited the fair of an agricultural society whose offi- 

 cers had cut down the premiums on fast horses. When the time arrived 

 for the exhibition of this class those who had entered horses rode into 

 the ring and insisted on the premiums being doubled in amount, and 

 their demands were comiilied with. 



ExjDermcntal stations. — The system of agricultural experimental sta- 

 tions is rapidly extending in Italy. In consequeuce of information 

 obtained and circulated by the minister of agriculture, respecting the 

 experimental stations in Germany, seven new stations have been estab- 

 lished on the German model. These are located at Udine, Modena, 

 Milan, Lodi, Padua, Florence, and Turin. 



Application of entomological science. — Professor S. I. Smith, in a recent 

 address before the Connecticut board of agriculture, made the following 

 statement: In 18GC an agricultural iiaper in Maryland published an 

 editorial calling particular attention to a puri;)orted discovery for destroy- 

 ing the Hessian fly, the inventor offering to sell county -rights for using 

 the preventive at $100 each. This ''invention" was founded on the 

 mistaken supposition that the Hessian fly deposits its eggs on the grain 

 in the wheat-ear in midsummer. Professor Walsh thinks that this and 

 other erroneous representations of the inventor may be explained on 

 the ground that the latter mistook one of the parasites preying on the 

 Hessian fly for that insect ; in other words, the wheat-grower's friend for 

 his deadly enemy. 



In the debate following Professor Smith's address, Mr. J. S. Gould, of 

 New York, remarked that the asparagus-beetle, so injurious in Great 

 Britain and other parts of Europe, was unknow n in this country until 

 about eight years ago, Avhen it swept down in clouds on the immense 

 asparagus-beds of Long Island. Dr. Fitch, the entomologist, was sent 

 for, and on his advice the hens were turned into the fields; the result 

 has been that the insect now does little damage there. About the same 

 time an orange-colored aphis, before unknown in this country, began to 

 ravage wheat-crops in New York. In his own region, in 1864, the whole 

 crop was destroyed by it. But soon a red bug appeared, preying on 

 this aphis, and in the course of three years the latter disappeared. 

 Farmers should learn to discriminate between their friends and foes 

 among insects, and great losses have resulted from ignorance on this 

 and kindred points. 



Mississipjn crop reports. — In February, 1872, the legislature of Missis- 

 sippi passed an act providing for a system of crop reports in that State, 

 under the supervision of the editor of the Field and Factory, an agri- 

 cultural journal at Jackson. 'Three thousand dollars were appropriated 

 to this purpose for the year. 



A NezD Mampslt ire farmer. — At a latei meeting of the New Hampshire 

 board of agriculture at Gilmanton Iron Works, Colonel D. M. Clough 

 said that in 1872 he kept 7 yoke of oxen, 105 cattle, 175 sheep, and 4 

 horses, raised 2,000 bushels of corn and 1,200 bushels of oats, and cut 

 and fed 250 tons of fodder. Colonel Clough, who is now- sixty-eight 

 years of age, also sorted aud placed in crib 1,800 bushels of corn. 



Farminq in loim. — James P. Coulter, of Johnson County, Iowa, raised 

 last year' 12,000 bushels of corn, 2,000 of oats, 500 of wheat, 900 of 

 timothy-seed, and GOO of flax-seed ; keeps 800 hogs, 40 cattle, 18 horses, 

 and has 640 acres of prairie-land uuder cultivation. 



Large plantation.— <jO\oiiQ\ B. G. Lockett, near Alban;y^ Georgia, had 



