158 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[October, 



ground, and drenched and injured by rains. Such 

 plants should be staked and carefully tied up. The 

 earliest and best developed cucumbers, squashes, 

 melons, etc., should be selected for their seed, and 

 these seeds are best preserved by remaining in the 

 old cucumbers, etc., through the winter and keep in' 

 a dry place secure from rats and mice. The best 

 place to preserve turnip, cabbage, and in fact all 

 seeds, ism the mother shell. The farmer well kpows 

 that his unshelled corn, peas, beans, etc., always 

 come up best. Cut the stalks when the seeds are 

 sufficiently ripe and tie them in bunches, then put a 

 paper around the tops, secured by a string, to catch 

 any seeds that may fall out of the bolls or pods, and 

 hang them up in a secure place until wanted in the 

 spring. There is no reason why, under such circum- 

 stances, every perfect seed should not germinater 

 and the germs will be healthy and strong. The best 

 and earliest ears of corn should be selected for seed, 

 and to insure this, they should be selected while the 

 corn is still standing. Go through the field and look 

 out for the long ears, well filled out, and when the 

 husks begin to whiten, gather them, pull back the 

 husks and braid them into traces which hang in a 

 dry place. By careful following out this plan through 

 a Series of years, the same variety of corn will ripen 

 earlier, an important advantage in localities subject 

 to early frosts. It requires time and care to look out 

 for these things, but it is time well spent and labor 

 that pays. — Maiiie Farmer. 



How to Distribute Manure, 

 farmers are often at a loss to know how to dis- 

 tribute the manure on a field properly. An example 

 may help them. For instance suppose a field of 5 1-2 

 acres, on which 82 loads of manure are to be drawn. 

 Dividing K2 by 5 1-2 gives 15 loads per acre. By mak" 

 ing four heaps of each load and placing the heaps 9 

 yards apart, the manure will be evenly distributed. 

 Or, if he makts 9 heaps of each load, placing them 6 

 yards apart the result will be the same. A cubic 

 foot of half rotten manure weighs about .56 lbs., 

 oarse, dry manure about 48 lbs. A load of manure 

 B about 36 cubic feet; hence a load of half rotten ma- 

 nure will weigh a little over a ton (2016 lbs.) ; if 

 coarse and dry, it will "weigh 1728 lbs. There are 

 43,560 square feet in an acre ; if you multiply this 

 by the number of pounds you want to spread on each 

 square foot, and divide the product by 2016, the quo- 

 tient will give the number of loads required of half 

 rotten manure.— O/iio Farmer. 



Shade in Pastures. 



There are intelligent farmers who insist that shade 

 in pastures is a positive disadvantage to stock, hogs 

 excepted. The argument usually advanced is that 

 the animals, especially cattle, will form the habit of 

 standing or lying in the shade and will not eaj, 

 enough, whereas, if they had no shade, they would 

 spend the day in eating. The answer is two-fold. 

 Animals need time to digest their food as well as to 

 eat it ; and where the pastures are in condition they 

 should be spent, a considerable part in each day 

 should be spent by the animal in rest, giving time to 

 ruminate and digest the food eaten in the cool of the 

 day. Secondly, during the extremely hot weather, 

 stock eat but little in the middle of the day, even 

 when they have no shelter. 



Probably m uch of the prejudice against shade In 

 the prairie regions has arisen from the fact that 

 often where there is some shade in such regions, it is 

 made by a thicket of low-growing trees and bushes 

 oilong the borders of a slough, or some low, wet 

 land. But shade in such a place is a very different 

 thing from that furnished by trees on high, dry land 

 where the breeze has full play and flies, gnats, etc. , 

 are found in no greater numbers than in any other 

 dry place. True there are some disadvantages ac- 

 companying shade trees— there is loss of grass, and 

 some portion of the droppings of the animals is 

 partly wasted — but we never see animals standing in 

 a shelterless field during such days as have charac- 

 terized July and August in much of the west during 

 the past season without a feeling of pity for them. 



Horticulture. 



Care of Fruit Trees. 

 S. M. jilahon, in a letter to the Dowaglac, Mich., 

 Jtepuhliean, says : Many farmers are In the habit of 

 buying trees every season and planting them in sod 

 ground, or to fill some vacant place in their orchard. 

 Often they are never trimmed, never receive any 

 mulch, and the result the tree becomes unhealthy 

 and worthless. We believe that six-tenths of the 

 peach trees that die with the so-called, yellows are as 

 free from the disease, yes, far more so, than man is 

 from that disease we call blues. No doubt many 

 peach trees do die with that disease, fcut if we have 

 a tree in our yard that has stood there for fifteen 

 years, and it dies, it has the yellows ; if planted the 

 previous spring and it dies, of course it had the same 

 disease. The peach has another enemy as fatal or 

 more so to the trees than yellows. It is grub in the 

 root; and if no remedy is applied after their appear- 

 ance, they are sure death to the tree. The preven- 

 tive, ae well as the remedy, to a great extent, is in 

 the ash. When trees ar«, planted put! among the 

 roots two or three quarts of leached ashes, and the 

 first of June wash in very strong soap suds or weak 

 lye. In the following spring dig away the earth 

 from the roots of your trees and put in more ashes, 

 leached or unleached, and you will be surprised to 

 see the rapid growth they will make ; as a rOle they 

 will be healthy. Also put ashes around} the tree 

 after planting. Ton will find. that ashes will benefit 

 any variety of fruit trees, when applied on the sur- 

 face of the soil. If you buy young and thrifty trees, 

 and care for them as you do for your^corn, they will 

 amply reward you, and there will be no occasion to 

 Ind fault with nurserymen. 



A Giant Grape Vine. 



Many of our readers will remember an item we 

 published about a year ago in regard to a monster 

 grapevine of the Mission variety growing on the 

 ranche of William E'. Flinn, several miles from the 

 Cajon. At that time the reporter took his measure- 

 ment all by guess, and that too, from memory after 

 his return to town. Not a few thought our descrip- 

 tion of the big vine a stretch of tlie reportorial pre- 

 rogative, yet we have been assured by Mr. Flinn 

 himself that we failed 'to do the vine even justice ; 

 that its branches were longer and covered a much 

 larger area than was represented. Since then this 

 monster has continued to grow until its accumulated 

 weight of branch and- fruit has brought total de- 

 struction to one of the two large oak trees which 

 supported it and almost demolished the domicile of 

 its owner. From Mr. Flinn's driver, who visited our 

 office yesterday, we learn that the vine and its fruits 

 have completely crushed the tree, tearing it out,by 

 its roots. The size of the vine and the weight of 

 grapes growing upon it may be estimated when we 

 say that the oak tree thus pi-ostrated, which is per- 

 fectly sound, is fully two and a-half feet in diameter 

 and upwards of sixty feet in height, with correspond-' 

 ing spread of limbs and branches. Mr. Flinn esti- 

 mates thfit on that portion of the vine which 

 destroyed the tree there were fully five tons of 

 grapes.— San. Diego {Cal.) Utiion. 



To Propagate^the Currant. 

 In this month, (October,) select healthy, well- 

 ripened cuttings about a foot in length, cutting them 

 square oflTjust below the bottom bud. Set in a well- 

 prepared bed, some six inches apart, leaving the top 

 bud just above the ground and pressing the earth 

 close around the lower end. As soon as cold weather 

 sets in cover them some two or three inches deep with 

 coarse manure from the stables, which should be re- 

 moved in the spring. After that keep down all weeds 

 and cultivate thoroughly during the summer. The 

 same autumn of the following spring they may be 

 transplanted into a bed of deep rich soil, about four 

 feet apart, and receive a mulching about the roots of 

 coarse manure, and the following summer give clean 

 culture, cutting out all dead wood, etc. The best vari- 

 eties are the old Red Dutch, Versailles and Victoria. 



Remove the Dead Limbs. 

 Our readers must remember that only recently it 

 has been clearly demonstrated that a dead branch on 

 a tree makes almost as great a strain on the main 

 plant for moisture as does a living ons. It is one of 

 the most important discoveries of modern botanical 

 science to the practical horticulturist, as by this 

 knowledge he can save many a valuable tree. When 

 one has been trasplanted, some roots get injured and 

 the supply of moisture in the best cases is more or 

 less deficient. ' Any dead branch or any weak one 

 should, therefore, at once be cut away. — Oardner't 

 Monthly. 



Domestic Economy. 



Household Hints. 



To take ink spots out of carpets, wash with milk, 

 and clean up afterwards with warm soapsuds. 



Grease may be absorbed from a carpet by frequent 

 applications of magnesia or buckwheat fiour. It 

 should be sprinkled on the spot, allowed to remain 

 a while and then brushed off. 



A preparation of equal quantities of cream and 

 brown sugar, and half as much black pepper, will, it 

 is said, drive flies from the room in which it is allowed 

 to stand. 



To take iron stains out of marble : An equal 

 quantity of fresh spirits of vitriol and lemon juice be- 

 ing mixed in a bottle, shake well, wet the spots, and 

 in a few minutes rub with linen till they disappear. 



A "careful housekeeper" says: Do not iron a 

 red tablecloth at all ; wash it carefully in warm suds 

 (not hot), rinse well, and when ready to hang on the 

 line, take great pains to pull it so that it will keep 

 the proper shape. It will retain its color much longer 

 than if ironed. 



Removing Tan and FBECKLES.-Takeahalf tea- 

 spoonful of flour of sulphur and mix with a cup of 

 milk. Wash the face in it, allowing it to remain all 

 night. _ 



Coal Ashes. 



It pays well to pass coal ashes through a fine 

 sieve — a fiour sieve for instance. This sifted ashes 

 when perfectly dry, as it should be kept, is one of 

 the best substances with which to mix London pur- 

 ple, Paris green or hellebore for the destruction of 

 potato beetles, fruit slugs, currant and gooseberry 

 worms and the like. Being lighter than plaster or 

 flour it does not fall so quickly, but settles upon 

 every part of the plant— the stem, the under part of 

 the leaf as well as the upper part. It may be said 

 also that it adheres to leaves for a longer time, and 

 is not so readily washed ofl' by rains. 



Glucose. 



The use of glucose as an adulterant seems to 

 to be unlimited. It is used in large quantities 

 in cheap confectionery, in beer and in the various 

 grades of sugars. In London recently large quanti- 

 ties of imitation honey-comb, with glucose instead of 

 honey, were found exposed for sale. The boxes bore 

 the stamp of the New York custom-house, and were 

 labelled "Sweet Clover Honey." The honey-comb 

 had been made by machinery outof paraflRn wax, and 

 after the cells were filled with glucose, a hotiron had 

 been passed over the wax tops, thus closing them. 

 The glucose had been made to resemble honey in 

 both its taste and appearance. It is said that from 

 a bushel of corn,costing thirty cents, a dollars worth 

 of glucose may be made, but, though great profits 

 are made from its manufacture, glucose is never ad- 

 vertised, nor does its name appear on the hogshead 

 in which it is imnsportei.— Brooklyn Eagle. 



Weather Wisdom. 



When you wish to know what the weather is to be, 

 go out and select the smallest cloud you see. Keep 

 your eye upon it, and if it decreases and disappears 

 it shows a state of the air which is sure to be fol- 

 lowed by the weather ; but if it increases in size, 

 take your great coat with you if you are going from 



