142 



THE GEKESEE FARMER. 



THE INSECT WHICH DESTROYS THE WHEAT-BUDGE 



There is an invaluable 

 little insect, called Platy- 

 gaster tipuke^ whose prov- 

 ince is to feed upon and 

 destroy the wheat-midge 

 {Cecidomyia tritici). It 

 is sometimes very abund- 

 ant in England; but, ac- 

 cording to Dr. FiTcn, en- 

 tomologist to the New York State Agricultural 

 Society, it is not known in this country. The 

 wheat-midge has been imported here, but not the 

 parasite designed by nature to keep it in check. 

 The Doctor has made efforts to import this para- 

 site, and we hope will be successful. 



In England, this parasite frequents grasses and 

 wheat in June, July, and August, when the females 

 are seen flying about or running over the ears to 

 deposit a single egg in each of the midge larva?. 

 She is shining pitch color, with longish, ten-jointed 

 horns, a little clubbed and flail-shaped; head 

 globose ; eyes lateral ; trunk oval ; body small, 

 obovate, narrowed at the base, with a long curved 

 oviduct concealed in the belly ; four wing», trans- 

 parent, without nervures, superior ones very large • 

 legs strong, bright ochreous; thighs and shanks 

 clubbed ; feet long, slender, and five-jointed. Ex- 

 pands 1^ line. We annex a cut (1, natural size; 

 2, magnified.) 



KEASING CALVES: 



Wk have received several letters from esteemed 

 correspondents, on this subject, all agreeing that 

 early calves are the most thrifty and the best to 

 raise. We know a thrifty Scotch farmer, now re- 

 siding in Canada, who raises the biggest and fattest 

 calves for the butcher^ without new milk. lie gives 

 them well boiled oatmeal porridge, with just enough 

 skim milk stirred in to enable the calves to drink it. 



An experienced farmer of Niagara county, N.Y., 

 says: "Undoubtedly the best mode of raising calves 

 would be to allow them to run with the cows; but 

 this method is too expensive for general adoption." 

 He recommends new milk for the first few days, 

 after which they can have skim milk with a little 

 meal stirred into it, gradually increasing the quan- 

 tity of meal as the calf grows older, keeping the 

 calf in good pasture. The meal may be of oats and 

 barley or buckwheat, or all three, and should be 

 kept up till winter. 



Another correspondent, writing from Vernon, 

 Iowa, recommends giving calves milk, and porridge 



made of middlings, boiled, with the addition of an 

 egg to each mess, and plenty of good tender grasB. 



Another, from Jefferson county, N. Y., recom- 

 mends that after two weeks old the calf sliould be 

 fed witli coagulated milk throe times a day throngh 

 the summer, and says the calves will be as large 

 and fat as if allowed to run with the cow. 



Another, from Pennsylvania, recommends, after 

 three weeks old, sour milk, with bran or corn meai 

 mixed with it ; also keeping the calves in a dark 

 stable during the hot days of summer. 



ABE AMERICAN FASMESS INTELLIGENT? 



Eds. Genesee Farmer: — Two weeks ago, I was 

 on a tour through a part of Cayuga county, and 

 will endeavor to tell you about matters aud things 

 so far as I saw there. 



I passed a field there last September, (a plowed 

 field,) on which men were spreading rotted mamire 

 made by cattle or sheep, or by both. I then 

 thought the owner was preparing for a good wheat 

 crop. When I passed this time, I saw he had only 

 manured part of the field. On the part manured 

 the wheat is strong, of fine color, and will un- 

 doubtedly make a fine crop ; while on the unma- 

 nured part I could see none alive from the road ; 

 so it is either dead or nearly so. As a good deal 

 of the manure wa.s on the surface, I concluded it 

 had been harrowed in with the seed. Now there 

 is neither theory, science, nor agricultural chemis- 

 try in this, but plain, practical common sense ; and 

 as farmers pass that field daily, one would suppose 

 men of intelligence would manure in the same man- 

 ner. I found the wheat in that county looking pale 

 and yellow, and altogether worse than it does in 

 this county. Whether it is owing to it being later 

 in that county, or lack cf manure, or owing to the 

 soil, I don't know ; but there is some cause for 

 ours looking so much better than theirs. Yet I 

 saw many underdrains discharging into the ditches 

 along the highways. 



I was in a number of their cattle-yards, and in 

 only one of them did I see anything like intelli- 

 gence (enterprise is out of the question) in keepinf! 

 their stock, only one yard that I saw being littered. 

 In all the others the cattle were loaded with dung 

 — at least all those parts that came in contact witl 

 it when they were compelled to lie down ; and ir 

 not a single yard did I see a box or rack of anj 

 kind to put their fodder in. True, as the yard.' 

 were become so filthy, some took the fodder out 

 side the yards and laid it on the clean ground 

 which wa.s a great improvement. In one yard, 

 noticed horses, cattle, and a iovf loan ewes, wit} 

 young lambs, all eating at a half-rotted stra'w 

 stack ; the other part of the yard was a completi 

 mass of dung, and not a handful of straw on it. 

 saw the ewes and lambs turned to one side of th« 

 yard, and a few ears of corn thrown down on tht 

 dung heap to them, which they went at greedily 

 but as they shelled it off the cob, much of it fell OJ 

 the dung, and neither that nor the under side of tb' 

 ear could they eat, as sheep will die of hunge 

 rather than eat anything that has a bad, smell. 



Now 1 have no doubt that e\*ry one of the 



