AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 275 



STUMPS OF TREES. 



Dig a trencli around a stump, six or eight inches wide and eight or ten 

 inches deep ; fill it with wheat-chaff, into which a fire-stick (punk) is put 

 lighted. A slow mouldering combustion takes place and burns all the 

 stump to the depth of eight or ten inches, out of the reach of our plow- 

 share. Do this in the heat of summer, in dry time, and begin in calm 

 weather or the wind will blow some of ycur chaff away from the stump. 



By the last steamer from Europe, we have received, among other things, 

 "An extract from the catalogue of plants," for sale by " Oudin, Ainee ;" 

 Mr. Oudin Larin at Lisieux. 



He recommends his Pri'do?iie, a dwarf bean yielding 1,000 for 1. They 

 grow like bushes. Also, his "■Abu?idance Pea.''^ Also, his curly-headed 

 or frizzled Drum-head cabbage. 



DISEASES OF WHEAT. 



Boussingault gave his opinion that sulphate of copper was a cure for para- 

 sitic diseases of wheat. He says, " I can assure the reader that our fields 

 of wheat in Alsace are never infected where sulphate of copper is used. 

 One hundred grammes, equal to three and one-quarter ounces, troy weight, 

 ore applied to three bushels (a sack,) of wheat, by dissolving it in water 

 enough to cover the grain, for three-quarters of an hour. The grain is wet 

 with it, in a basket, allowed to drain, and then spread out on a floor to dry 

 before sowing it." Sulphate of copper is commonly called blue vitriol. 



Some have put four quarts of slaked lime to the bushel of wheat, wet 

 it, stir three or four times, and have no smut. Charles \V, Gilbert, of 

 Knox county, Illinois, had smut on his wheat nineteen years ago. Used 

 the lime, and has clean wheat ever since. 



The Illinois State Horticultural Society is attended by many ladies. 

 The culture of flowers and fruits, under their care, is urged, for bloomino^ 

 cheeks, rich health, and making home delightful. 



The most suitable trees, for the dress of the naked prairies, are pointed 

 out, and their planting, by seeds or young trees, strongly urged. In a few 

 years those plains will lose their peculiar character. Fires will be pre- 

 vented from ravaging the country, by divisions of the surface, in place of 

 one continuous ocean like level covered with tall grass, the burniuo- of 

 which, for ages, has prevented any trees from growing. 



CANADA THISTLES. 

 Solon Robinson. — I have received a pile of letters upon destroying this 

 pest of Northern farmers, and, as it would seem from a letter from Frede- 

 rick, Md., Southern ones. too. L. Rainsford, of that place, says he had an 

 acre of land badly infected with Canada thistles, which he extirpated by 

 hard labor, " We employed two men, who went over the ground with 

 grubbing-hoes, and took out every plant and root, as they supposed, leav- 

 ing them on the surface. The ground was afterwards raked, and plowed 

 and raked again, and afterwards the sprouts kept cut off with long chis- 

 els." 



