MISCELLANEOUS. 595 



IT. For CcMage, Tomatoes, etc. — In place of boxes, other persons have 

 recommended the peeling of ash, bass wood, or other saplings of about 4 inches 

 in diameter, that will peel, be cut off in lengths of about 4 or 5 inches, and the 

 rings placed over cabbage, tomatoes, or other plants as a perfect protection, 

 securing well at the bottom to prevent their crawling under. "When the bark 

 of any suitable tree cannot be got, pasteboard rings, I think, would answer 

 all purposes, tied together to prevent them from opening out. The same as 

 the barks would be. 



in. For Melons, or other plants in hills, use the bark of larger trees. 

 This, the writer claimed to be better than paper, which I had recommended in 

 one of my former books, as the bark does not soften down by the rains. Boxes 

 will do just as well, if any less trouble to obtain. Either must be pressed a 

 little into the ground so the bugs cannot crawl under. See also insecticide, and 

 other things to destroy insects, bugs, etc. upon plants, 



4. Another plan, and claimed to be safe, is to sprinkle a little fine soot 

 upon cucumber vines, squash, etc., which are liable to be attacked by any 

 insects. If good against wire-worms (which see), why not good against these 

 pests, too? It no doubt is. 



5. Another writer says: "Last season I kept the striped bugs from my 

 cucumber vines by saturating (making perfectly wet) ashes vdth kerosene and 

 applying a handful to a hill." He does not say, but I think he means to the 

 ground, as they burrow in the ground at night, and, as a writer says in some 

 other place, ' ' they don't come up, or out. in the morning." They are killed by it. 



e. Cucumbers a Paying Crop.— A correspondent of the Country 

 Chntleman tells us how he makes cucumbers a paying crop. He says: 



" I find cucumbers a paying crop when grown for pickles, and sold either 

 before or <if ter salting — price per hundered the same in either case. I plow as 

 deep as 2 horses can pull the plow, then mark one way 4 feet apart, let- 

 ting the plow run as deep as the ground Avas plowed. I then put a large shov- 

 elfiil of good barnyard manure where each hill is wanted, say 4 feet apart, and 

 then thoroughly mix with the soil, making the hills about 2 inches higher than 

 the general surface of the ground. I plant about the middle of June. 



" As soon as the plants get large enough to be out of the way of the striped 

 bug, I thin out to 4 plants to each hill. I cultivate them frequently, and hand- 

 hoe them 2 or 3 times before the vines commence to run. In this vicinity the 

 price ranges from 50 cents to $1 per hundred, and the product of an acre sells 

 from $400 to $800." 



On the same subject a correspondent of the Portland (Me.) TVanseript 

 says: 



" In my opinion there is nothing that a farmer can realize so much money 

 from as he can from raising cucumbers. If they are pickled the right size and 

 well preserved in strong salt pickle, there is always a market for them. Some 

 farmers have already commenced raising cucumbers for the picklers, and are 

 well pleased with the undertaking. The average crop for 1 acre of ground is 

 about 50 barrels, which will bring about |5 a barrel at the factories. Perhaps 

 it will be well to state to the farnaers of Maine that on account of the scarcity 

 of cucumbers here hundreds of thousands of dollars go out of this state annu- 

 ally for pickles. Even in Massachusetts and New York the supply does not 



