132 



THE LANCASTER PARMER. 



[September 



to plant one seed in a half egg shell or in a 

 hollowed piece ol turnip or beet filled with a 

 little earth. The plants can be transplanted 

 by simply breaking the shell, or, if in turnips, 

 the receptacle will rot away, supplying nutri 

 ment to the plant. This practice is followed 

 to a considerable extent among small garden- 

 ers. Plants grown in this manner are sure to 

 live when transplanted. 



Experiments were made at the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College in girdling surplus 

 branches which vvere to be afterward cut away 

 A revolving knife cut rapidly a 'ring of the 

 bark a fourth of an inch wide Just below the 

 bunch of fruit about midsummer. This treat- 

 ment was performed on twelve rows of grapes. 

 The enlarged and early fruit sold for $30 

 more than the same amount of the common 

 or main crop, the labor being less than half 

 the sum. No injury has been apparent to the 

 vines so treated, the girdled canes being cut 

 away when done with. 



A New York farmer declares that an acre 

 of Hubbard squash will fatten ten more hogs 

 than the corn that can be raised on the same 

 ground. He has gathered from six to eight 

 tons from an acre. 



The striped bug, which destroys young 

 plants, is a great obstacle to cucumber culture. 

 Various expedients are resorted to in attempts 

 at protection against this pest. An ancient 

 remedy is sprinkling the plants and surface of 

 the hills, while wet, with ashes, soot and 

 superphosphate. There is probably no better 

 remedy than soot when this can be obtained 

 in sutiicient quantity. Boxes with mosquito 

 netting or glass for the top are cheaply and 

 readily made, and when placed over the hills 

 prevent the bugs from their work of destruc- 

 tion. 



A Correspondent of the Ohio Farmer 

 gives the following about the peach tree 

 borer : " The beautiful blue fly, resembling a 

 wasp, which lays its eggs just at the surface 

 of the ground in the stem of the trees, may be 

 seen occasionally at this time pursuing its 

 allotted task. The simplest remedy, or rather 

 preventative of its attacks, is a piece of stout 

 wrapping paper a foot wide wound around 

 the stem of the tree just above the ground. A 

 little dirt should be drawn up around the 

 bottom of the paper, while the top can be 

 tied with a cotton string. 



Caterpillars are devouring the foliage of 

 the trees in City Hall Park, New York. It 

 is pertinent to inquire what the festive Eng- 

 lish sparrows, who their admirers say will eat 

 anything troni a grub to a grindstone, propose 

 to do about it. 



A Quart of good milk should weigh about 

 2.15 pounds, or nearly 2 pounds 2^ ounces. If 

 milk is weighed, this rule will give the month- 

 ly yield in quarts more exactly than measur- 

 ing. 



Most fruits need a good deal of water to 

 ripen a full crop, but not many will dc well 

 on land naturally wet. They want water, but 

 it must not stay long enough to become stag- 

 nant water. 



Immersion, for at least five minutes, of the 

 vessels in which milk is set will, it is asserted 

 by a member of the French Academy, destroy 

 the organisms which in the form of dark blue 

 spots distress dairymen. 



Do not leave any unoccupied land to grow 

 a crop of weeds. When an early crop is re- 

 moved sow at once any crop that will keep 

 them down. Buckwheat and peas are good, 

 and may be turned under before frost. 



Superphosphate, or bone manure, in any 

 form is a specific for turnips or rutabagas. 

 English farmers discovered this and now ap- 

 ply bone manure to their root crops instead of 

 to wheat, as is usually the practice here. 



The Gardener''s Monthly says that a little 

 windmill, such as some boys can make with a 

 jack-knife, will keep birds out of a cherry 

 tree in case a tiny bell is attached to it. It is 

 better than a stuffed cat or an imitation hawk. 



A Butter-maker, writing to the Iowa 

 Homestead, says the best butter color is a pail- 

 full of corumeal mush, fed warm once a day, 

 the com to be of the yellow variety; adding 

 that it will increase the milk and butter as 

 well as give a goodcolor. 



It is noted that in Georgia an acre of land, 

 which in ISSO produced only 500 pounds of 

 seed cotton, was manured by having fifty 

 sheep penned on it twenty nighls, and in 1S81 

 it produced 1.500 pounds of seed cotton. This 

 virtually tripled the annual value of the land. 



Leading members of the Kansas State 

 Horticultural Soci'ety agree upon the follow- 

 ing distances apart to plant trees : Apple 

 trees, thirty-two feet each wav is none too 

 much; pear, standards, sixteen feet; dwarfs, 

 ten feet; peach, twenty feet; plum, ten feet; 

 cherry, twenty feet. 



A Yates county. New York, correspond- 

 ent of the New York Tribune reports that a 

 quince bush grafted on common thorn and 

 without being cultivated, has borne regular 

 crops of fruit for over forty years. He thinks 

 that this points a moral to nurserymen, as the 

 quince upon its own roots is uncertain and 

 short-lived. 



When an old fence has been removed the 

 crop the first season is no sure test of the 

 quality or fertility of the soil. It takes one 

 year of thorough culture to clear out the sods, 

 bushes and rubbish that accumulate in such 

 places. After this is well done the fence row 

 will usually be as fertile as any other part of 

 the field. 



Hog manure should not be used on laud in- 

 tended for cabbage for at least one year before 

 the crop is grown. Its premature use is a 

 mistake commonly made by farmers who draw 

 manure for the garden from the hog pen. 

 Hog manure breeds worms that work at the 

 roots of cabbage plants and render them 

 worthless. 



The Source of Trichina.— J. E. Morris, 

 M. D., in the Cliniad Brief, says in regard to 

 tricbinfe in swine that it is a well-estabhshed 

 fact that the real source of infection in swine 

 lies entirely in the rat. A committee of 

 Vienna physicians found in Moravia thirty- 

 seven per cent, of rats examined trichinous ; 

 in Vienna and its environs ten per cent. The 

 well-known voracity of the hog, and its special 

 fondness for meat, causes it to feed upon the 

 flesh and excrements of other animals infested 

 with these parasites, and especially rats and 

 mice. To prevent trichinous swine, it is 

 highly important to cut off all tlie sources of 

 disease in the diet of these animals. 



Cucumbers, accordingtoM. Deliee, caterer 

 of the New York Club, should be peeled and 

 put to soak in ice-salt water at least an hour 

 before served. Tlie salt extracts the poison 

 and the ice renders them brittle and easier to 

 be digested. 



For breakfast try this : Take the skin off 

 a nice piece of salt codfish ; wash it in several 

 waters, and lay it on a gridiron to broil. It 

 should be broiled for about twenty minutes, 

 and must be turned often to prevent burning. 

 This is nice for tea also. — Chicaijo Journal. 



A correspondent of the Husbandman 

 uses his buckwheat chaff as an absorbent in 

 cow-stables. One and a half bushels will be 

 sufficient for ten cows over night, keeping 

 them clean and dry. In addition to his own 

 he buys from his neighbors, paying one dollar 

 for a load of fifty bushels. 



It is advisable to give the chicks which are 

 with their mother a feed early in the morn- 

 ing, another feed in the middle of the fore- 

 noon, then at noon, followed by a feed in the 

 middle of the afternoon, and again late in the 

 evening. — Cincinnati Times. 



To expedite the making of a lemon pie 

 use hot water in place of cold, stir the cut-up 

 lemon, the sugar and corn-starch or flour and 

 eggs together, as if you were making pudding 

 sauce ; then pour in hot water ; if the pail or 

 basin containing this is then placed in a vessel 

 of boiling water it will cook in five minute.s. — 

 N. Y. Post. 



If it is possible so to arrange the order of 

 dinner getting, do not shell the peas until a 

 few minutes before they are to be cooked. 

 They lose much of their fine, distinctive fiavor 

 if shelled some time before cooking ; and do 

 not wash them. VVhat water is so clean as 

 the lining of the pod ?— Exchange. 



Early Hoeing.— By this we do not mean 

 hoeing early in the season, but early .in the 

 morning. In the early morning the dew is on, 

 and this is charged with an available amount 

 of ammonia, which, of, course, feeds the roots 

 below. If the surface is neglected a crust 

 forms and the air does not circulate in the 

 soil. Get the farm hands to begin work a 

 couple of hours earlier in the morning, and 

 crive them the same time at noon to rest.^ — 

 N. Y. Herald. 



Farmers, observes a recent writer, are 

 very negligent in regard to keeping well- 

 intormed as to prices. Two cents, or even 

 one cent, on the yearly butter product of 

 twenty or thirty cows, is no small loss for any 

 ordinary farmer. No loss can be averted and 

 gain insured without radical improvement in 

 the manufacture of the butter. The best 

 brings the top prices ; the poorest is hard to 

 sell. — Prairie Fanner. 



CONTRIBUTIONS, 



For The Lancaster Farmer. 



INSECT PESTS. 

 Prof. S. S. Ratiivon, Dear Sir:— You can 

 give the Latin names of the hosts of insects 

 that bother the farmer and fruit-grower, but 

 as I am no Entomologist I can only say bugs, 

 worms, caterpillars — some old acquaintances, 

 and some new ones. I do not know if these 

 pests are doing as much injury in other places 



