1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



415 



ral history, tlian the torpidity and winter retreat of 

 swallows. Although the direct proof is not so of- 

 ten seen and discovered as the more indirect. 

 Danvers Port, June, 1857. s. P. F. 



For the New England Farmer. 



LITTLE THINGS: 



Or, a Walk in my Garden....No. 12. 



Every affectionate father loves his own children 

 better than all other children in the world ; so do 

 I love my garden, however humble in comparison 

 with the best of my neighbors. But here comes 

 grandmother, who told me how to have an abun- 

 dance of 



EARLY SALAD. 



Take the small sized onions which you have win- 

 tered over, and plant them as early as you please. 

 As soon as the tops are up a few inches, cut them 

 down nearly to the bulb for salad. In a few days 

 you may have a second crop. The onion will new 

 bottom, and may be used in a short time for the 

 same purpose. A bed of cives makes a very early 

 salad. Cut up these or onions with a little tender 

 new cabbage, and there is a dish early in the season 

 for^verybody. But here I must stop to say a word 

 abcnit 



THE ONION MAGGOT. 

 My onion bed is attacked by them, and I have 

 just commenced two experiments to stop their rav- 

 ages. From some of the rows, I draw away all the 

 earth from the bulbs, and let the onion lie on the 

 ground. The fly chooses to deposit the egg a little 

 under ground, and the hot sun will kill the worm, 

 if already deposited. I once saved a fine bed in 

 this way, but it was very dry and warm weather. 

 How it will succeed in a wet season, time must de- 

 termine. The other method is to draw the earth 

 high up around the tops until their ravages are 

 over, when it can be removed. But here comes 

 some one I dread to see about as bad as the onion 

 maggot. It is 



A VISITOR, 

 who had read something of my Little Things, and 

 somehow, got the impression that I had a splendid 

 garden. I have no such thing. I am a learner. 

 Almost every day, I learn something new in the 

 garden, and though it be a little thing, I cannot 

 help speaking of it, hoping that somebody else will 

 be benefiied thereby. But I have been at work 

 to-day, digging up 



MY ASPARAGUS BED. 



I was surprised to find that the roots did not de- 

 scend more than a foot ; whereas, when I made it, 

 I dug it nearly four feet deep, and filled it with 

 manure and soil. Now what is the use of this 

 depth ? Is not two feet just as good as four ? To 

 obtain a new bed, is it better to transplant old or 

 young plants ? But I learned one thing from my 

 visitor, for which I thank him. Speaking of 



RHUBARB, 



he says that he finds wood ashes the best manure 

 for it. The oxalate of potash, so abundant in this 

 plant, would indicate that he was right. But let 

 us look at my 



PLUM TREES, 

 which have been ravaged by the curculio worse 

 than before. There is one fact I have not seen no- 



ticed by others, that where trees are in a vigorously 

 rowing condition, many of the plums will contin- 

 ue to grow in spite of the puncture, while old trees 

 will lose them all. Will not this in part account 

 for the contradictory reports in regard to the suc- 

 cess of different experimenters ? But I must go 

 back to my 



ONION BED. 



I have completely succeeded in stopping the 

 ravages of the maggot. The tops grow some- 

 what crooked, but the bulbs fill out apparently as 

 well as when erect. I present this as a sovereign 

 remedy, till some one shall prove it unsuccessful. 

 This reminds me of a neighbor who has great faith 

 in the use of 



SALT FOR KILLING INSECTS. 



He put into a small bed a bushel and a half of 

 salt last fall, hoping to kill the onion maggot ; but 

 they have almost entirely swept his bed. It was 

 only yesterday that I read an article, advising the 

 putting of a bushel and a half of salt to the acre to 

 kill insects. Now I would like to know how small 

 a dose, whether infinitesimal or not, is necessary to 

 kill an insect. The same is true in regard to weeds. 

 A wrong impression prevails in regard to the use 

 of salt for these purposes. It must be used in im- 

 mense quantities to effect the object. Littleish, 

 enough, I remain, N. T. T. 



Bethel, July, 1857. 



The Spider and the Toad— A Curious Inci- 

 dent. — The following singular relation is furnished, 

 by a correspondent of the Traveller, as having been 

 witnessed by a person now living, though occur- 

 ring more than forty years ago, about sixteen miles 

 from this city : — 



The narrator said, that while walking in the 

 field he saw a large black field spider, considered 

 of the most venomous species, contending with a 

 common-sized toad. The spider being very quick 

 in its movements, would get upon the back of the 

 toad and bite it, when the toad, with its fore paw, 

 would drive off the spider. It would then hop to 

 a plantain, which was growing near by, and bite it, 

 and then return to the spider. After seeing thia 

 repeated several times, and noticing that each time 

 the toad was bitten it went to the plantain, the 

 spectator thought he would pull up the plantain 

 and watch the result. , He did so. Being agaia 

 bitten, and the plantain not to be found, the toad 

 soon began to swell, and show other indications of 

 being poisoned, and died in a short time. If the 

 plantain, which grows so abundantly near almost 

 every dwelling in this vicinity, was such an imme- 

 diate and effectual remedy to the toad for the b.'te 

 of the spider, can we not reasonably infer that it 

 would be an eflectual cure for man for the bite of 

 the same insect ? 



Removlng and Preventing Rust. — Some per- 

 sons employ an acid to remove rust from knives; 

 this should never be done under any circumstances. 

 Nothing surpasses rotten stone and oil for scouring" 

 knives and forks. To prevent stoves and grates 

 from rusting during summer if placed in damp sit- 

 uations, give them a thin coat of lard and resin 

 melted together, in the proportion of three parts Oi 

 the former to one of the latter. — Scientific Amtri- 

 can. 



