398 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



liable. The purchase of grouncf and the erection 

 of buildings, fixes the annual meeting at the 

 place where the estate is located, and however 

 gratifying it may be to the people in the imme- 

 diate vicinity, leads to the division of county so- 

 cieties into district societies. This has been the 

 case in Worcester and Middlesex, and will be the 

 case in other counties, whereas, if the annual 

 exhibitions could be held alternately at two or 

 three towns in the county, the county societies 

 might continue unbroken, and have strength and 

 friends enough to devise and execute many use- 

 ful and efficient plans for the promotion of agri- 

 culture, which cannot be accomplished under the 

 existing order of things. 



EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. 

 WHITE SPECKS IN BUTTER. 



I noticed in the Farmer of June 11, an article 

 written by Henry Holmes, on "White Specks in 

 Butter." I never manufactured or sold churns,! 

 but have used churns more than forty years; 1 

 have had white specks in my butter, but it was | 

 not caused by uneven churning, or by scraping 

 down the cream while churning. The cream 

 should be put down as soon as it thickens, and 

 before the buttermilk appears, or you lose the 

 cream, but it will not cause white specks in the 

 butter ; dried cream is the cause of white specks. 

 It is dried in summer by a current of air blow- 

 ing across the pans. Since I altered my milk- 

 room, and put on a blind to prevent the wind 

 from blowing directly across the pans, I have 

 got rid of the dried cream. If your cream is 

 dried, you can soak it in the cream-pot and pre- 

 vent the specks in the butter; it should be 

 soaked twenty-four hours before churning, and 

 stirred well, and if thick, some milk added to 

 soak it; but if you churn it as soon as skimmed, 

 in Tyler's churn, or any other churn, you will 

 have white specks in the butter. 



An Old Farmer. 



Mo7iij)elier, Vt., July 4, 18o9. 



A YOUNG NON-BEARING ORCHARD. 



I have a young and thrifty orchard, from which 

 I receive little or no fruit. The trees are about 

 12 inches in diameter, and in a rich soil, facing 

 the sun ; the ground has been cultivated every 

 year and a crop taken off, since the trees were 

 set, 12 years ago. As trees in good bearing 

 yield, I have enough for one hundred barrels of 

 apples. What can be done to procure a crop of 

 apples? Will you, or some of your correspon- 

 dents, answer this question ? E. 



Remarks. — Hard to tell you. Let it go to 

 grass two or three years, clover, and then plow 

 it again shallow, and see what the result will be. 



MR. REED AND HIS BUGS. 

 In the summer of 1858, my attention was ar- 

 rested by the grand microscopic discovery made 

 by Mr. Lyman Reed, of Baltimore, of the bug 

 that destroyed the potato. I received from him 



notice of his patent right for the remedy, and an 

 earnest solicitation to participate in the benefit, 

 simply by remitting a small sum in advance — 

 but time passed on, and the bugs with it, and I 

 have heard nothing of them since. I have a 

 strong suspicion that the bug discovered was of 

 the humbug order ; whether it will be found in 

 the latest work on insects, I am not able to say. 

 I am in hopes the Board of Agriculture, with 

 their entomologist from Christian Hill, in Ando- 

 ver, will be able to tell us about it, when they 

 next publish a treatise on onion maggots. *»*. 



Remarks. — We know Mr. Reed, and believe 

 him to be an ardent and sincere inquirer after 

 truth. 



EGGS OF INSECTS ON GRAPE VINES. 



I herewith send you by a friend, a small slip 

 from my grape vine, cut in March last. It con- 

 tains, as you will perceive, either an insect, or the 

 larviB of some insect. My vines have, for some 

 years, been nearly covered with it. When plump 

 and fresh, it presents a disgusting appearance ; 

 has the small red insect called lady bug anything 

 to do with it? Will you please inform me 

 through your paper what it is, or what comes 

 from it? D. 



Lynn, July, 1859. 



Remarks. — We are unable to shed any light 

 upon the inquiries of our correspondent. Sever- 

 al persons have examined the pl','ce of vine sent, 

 but without giving us any knowledge of what 

 occasions its singular appearance. 



TO kill cockroaches. 



In your July number of the Farmer "A Sub- 

 scriber" asks what will exterminate cockroaches. 

 In reply — Equal ])arts of dry red lead and sugar, 

 well mixed, is a certain and sure exterminator of 

 cockroaches, black and red ants, and other like 

 pests. A Reader. 



TO "oak hill" — pines and ducks. 



For the information of "Oak Hill," please say 

 the best time for transplanting the pine, spruce, 

 &c., is from the fir.st to the middle of June. The 

 same care is needful in transplanting them as in 

 other trees. 



He will obtain the Muscovy ducks he inquires 

 for by sending four dollars for the three to 



South Wilbraham, Mass. Nelson Mowry. 



grasses. 



Will you please give me the names of the en- 

 closed grasses ? E. T. Wheeler. 

 Berlin, Mass., 1859. 



Remarks. — The parcel marked "No. 1," is 

 the true Fowl Meadow Grass. "No. 2," is the 

 Italian Rye Grass. "No. 3," is the Blue Joint. 

 "No. 4," is a grass entirely unknown to us. 



good opinions. 

 Thanks to "O. P. L," Pembroke, Mass , for 

 the good opinions he expresses for the Farmer. 



