66 THE PABM. 



which the wet enters. It is thon that the mischief begins, the external wot 

 mingUng with the internal sap and causing fermentation. How long grass 

 will resist the bad effects of rain we hardly venture to state, but we are con- 

 fident that a week or ten days' bad weather will be best met by the passive 

 system here indicated. 



To Banisili Crows Prom a Field — Machinery of various kinds, such 

 as wind-mills in miniature, horse rattles, etc., to be put in motion by the wind, 

 are often employed to frighten crows; but with all these they soon become 

 familiar, when they cease to be any use at all. The most effectual method 

 of banishing them from a field, as far as experience goes, is to combine with 

 one or the other of the scare-crows in vogue the frequent use of the musket. 

 Nothing strikes such terror into these sagacioiis animals as the sight of a 

 fowling-piece and the explosion of gunpowder, which they have known so 

 often to be fatal to their race. Such is their dread of a fowling-piece that if 

 one is placed on a dyke or other eminence, it will for a long time prevent 

 them from alighting on the adjacent grounds. Many persons now, however, 

 believe that crows, like most other birds, do more by destroying insects and 

 worms, etc., than harm by eating grain. 



About Tobacco Grooving. — The ground for tobacco shoula be plowed 

 in the fall or early in spring, six to eight inches deep, and just before plant- 

 ing plow it again, this time more shallow. Pulverize and level the surface 

 soil, then mark out in checks or drills. If 'W^hite Burley tobacco is to be 

 grown make the rows three and a half feet one way by twenty inches the 

 other. Always procure well matured, pure seed, and be sure that it is true 

 to name. Some kinds are better adapted to certain soils than are others, and 

 you may labor under a disadvantage if seeds are not true to name. When 

 the plants appear above the ground, after being transplanted, begin using 

 the hoe and continue until they are too large to work in. 



Seed Com. — In an address on the subject of com, Professor Beal re- 

 marked that the top-most ear was the best for seed; of two fields, one 

 planted mth seed taken at random and the other selected in the field, the 

 latter yielded as much again as the former. Manure and cultivation may be 

 thrown away on poor seed. The best time to cultivate com is before plant- 

 ing. A shallow cultivation was recommended. Twenty-three ears of com 

 can be produced from one kernel: by proper cultivation and the use of the 

 best seed as high as twenty-five ears. Smut is a great damage to corn, and 

 smutty corn is very injurious to cattle. 



"Weeds. — There is no surer or better way to perpetuate weeds, than to 

 pull or mow them and cart to the bam yard or pig pen. The seeds will 

 ripen perfectly, and when carted out to the field again with the manure, 

 they will find plant food just where they would put it were they, instead of 

 us, lords over creation. If one finds a weed that he is choice of, with its 

 thousands of seeds just ripening, and fears that pulling and leaving it on the 

 ground will cause the seeds to rot from dampness, it is well to deposit sucli 

 weed on a rock or fence, where it will dry, and the seeds ripen in safety. 



Improving Pasture Lands. — A few years since, says a writer, I had 

 an old pasture that had almost run out, covered with weeds and patched 

 with moss. I mixed a few barrels of salt and wood ashes, and applied about 

 two barrels of the mixture per acre, covering about half of the lot. The 

 re«ult Burprised me. Before fall the moss had nearly all disappeared, and 



