THE GENESEE FAEMEK. 



Extermination of the "Wire "Worm and Canada Thistle! — For several years I had plowed my 

 land and sown wheat, and got but little, it being destroyed by the worms. I became almost dis- 

 couraged, and at last concluded to try an experiment, which was as follows: 



I had a field of four acres very unpromising for wheat, containing several patches of Canada 

 thistles, and the sod being nearly eaten up by worms. I plowed the field and sowed it to buck- 

 wheat. The i|ext season I put three horses to a plow that cut sixteen inches deep, and turned it 

 over the last of May ; then dragged it down and covered with barn-yard manure, and plowed it in. 

 After plowing it in lands four paces, the first week in September I sowed it to wheat, which yielded 

 twenty bushels per acre, and entirely destroyed every thistle. The next season I followed the same 

 course with another piece of three and a half acres, except that I sowed it the last week in August. 

 Last summer I harvested thirty-four bushels and nine quarts to the acre, beside considerable being 

 shelled and destroyed by a hail storm during harvest. I also destroyed every Canada thistle on 

 that piece. Last season, three of my neighbors tried the same process in preparing pround for 

 v/heat, which looks promising. 



I would here say that no one need think of destroying Canada thistles by plowing as I have 8e?ii 

 it done — only thre« or four inches deep, and the surfoce not more than half broken, leaving many 

 here and there to go to seed. The land should every inch be broken. Take time, and do it welL 

 If a stone throw the plow out, back up and start again. 



I find that very deep plowing is not good for spring crops ; ten or twelve inches is sufiicient only 

 on land that is summer fallowed. C. B. Gilbert. — Pultney, N. Y. 



Maximum Ruta Bagas. — I beg you will allow me one more " last word" on the turnip crops of 

 Eno-land. My reasons for believing that over forty tons have been raised there, are these : Numer- 

 ous crops of this weight have been reported ; that the English farmer is more thorough in determin- 

 ing the amount of his crop than we are ; that the rent of land is sometimes paid in this article, 

 requiring ita true weight to be known; that careful experiments in feeding are made wit!h the 

 turnip, requiring .also the true weight ; and, finally, these great crops are oifered at faii-s for large 

 premiums in competition so close as to secure accurate measurement. Your explanation that all 

 these super-forty-ton crops are the result of careless measure and exaggerated estimates will apply 

 to sonae, perhaps to many, but to suppose it will account for all seems to me inconsistent with a 

 proper estimate of testimony. But enough of this. 



Your estimate of the jjretensions of Prof Comstock agrees with my own. He lives near me, and, 

 of course, we have the advantage of the direct rays and full effulgence of this new luminary. I 

 Ihave been exactly iu your dilemma, for the first time I met the unfortunate lie talked to and at me 

 unmercifully for more than an hour, when, at last, out of breath, I had a chance to inquire whether 

 he was trying to convey to my mind one idea or several ! Human credulity is stnpeudouss ! John 

 T. Andrew. — West Cornwell, Ct. 



Wire Worms. — The wire worm has been the bane of farmers in this vicinity for a number of 



years, and numerous experiments have been made to stop their ravages, but generally without 



effect. Three years ago, in planting a field with corn where several crops had been destroyed by 



the wire worm, I soaked the seed in copperas water forty-eight hours — then applied one pound of 



sul])hur to ea.ch bushel of seed — the sulphur adhearing to the grain — and planted it. The result 



was, the worm did not make its appearance. The crows pulled up the corn in a few hills, but left 



the grain untouched, and did not visit the field again. I have used it with equally good success 



the last two years. Last year I tried the sulphur on my seed wheat, and the worms did not touch 



it, where two years before they had destroyed my whole crop. I dampened the seed with water, 



and then mixed the sulphur through it, putting twenty pounds of sulphur to one hundred bushels 



of seed. I use a drill, and think the sulphur cannot be applied where the grain is sown by hand. 



Gilbert Baker. — Milo, Yates Co. 



»♦« 



Experiment with Guano. — In July, 1850, I sowed a field of 23- acres with buckwheat. Of this, 

 two acres were sown with guano, about 90 lbs. to the acre; the remaining f of an acre had no 

 manure of any kind. We harvested and thrct^hed in October, and from the two acres sowed with 

 guano we had 51 bushels of good jdumj) grain; and from Wm f of an acre not guanoed, we had 

 K '2f bushels of poor, shrunk, good-for-nothing. — Fcnn. Farm Journal. 



