1883.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



159 



are produced by three hundred thouennd plants. 

 Conseriuently, only one-fifth of the grain sown pro 

 duces mature jjlants; these plants produce less than 

 one fifth of the proper numlicr of stems by tillering, 

 and these produce imperfect heads. This is almost 

 entirely caused by crowding. 



Two quarts of seed sown on an acre have produced 

 fifty bushels of wheat. Where all the conditions are 

 favorable, the American farmer shouhl not sow more 

 than a half a bushel per acre. But agricultural re- 

 forms are never sweeping ; therefore let the wheat- 

 grower try one bushel per acre. — American Aqrieul- 

 turist. 



California Chicory Farming. 

 Chicory farming promises to be one of the coming 

 Industries of California farming. Chicory was first 

 planted in that State' about fifteen years ago, but 

 since that time it has been extensively raised on the 

 San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers. Chicory is 

 cultivated on a small scale in some of the Eastern 

 States, and in some places in that section grows 

 wild in abandoned fields and orchards. It grows 

 very luxuriantly on the bottom lands of Louisiana 

 and Texas. The root of the pLant, when being pre 

 pared for use, is cut by a machine into small square 

 blocks ; then placed in the sun to dry, afterward 

 roasted, and finally ground in a mill. Chicory pos 

 sesses few elements in common with coffee, and yet 

 it imparts a taste to it greatly fancied by certain 

 coffee drinkers in B>urope. In France and Belgium 

 the common people have been so accustomed to mix 

 chicory with the coffee they drink that they prefer it 

 so prepared to the beverage in its pure state. 

 Traveler!, in those countries, even when they pur- 

 chase pure coffee for their private consumption, find 

 that the cooks will mix chicory with it, even after 

 having received strict orders to the contrary. — San 

 Francisco Chronicle. 



How to Destroy the Germs of Rust and 

 Smut. 



No farmer should omit to steep his seed wheat in 

 some caustic solution that will destroy the germs of 

 rust and smut. It is not yet known fully how the 

 ^ed is impregnated with smut, or if the smut infect 

 the seed within as well as without. But in any case 

 it is positively known that some substances destroy 

 the spores or seeds of the minute plant that produces 

 the rust and smut. A solution of four ounces of blue 

 vitrol — sulphate of copper — dissolved in a gallon of 

 water for each five bushels of seed, which is steeped 

 in it until it is absorbed, has been found the most 

 effective. Strong lime-water, salt brine and old 

 ehamber-lye, which contains a large quantity of 

 ammonia, have all been used with benefit. Smut is. 

 rapidly increasing. Few grain crops are free from 

 it, and all we can do to help ourselves to prevent it 

 is to use these precautions. — New York Weekly 

 Times . 



The Best Rotation Crops. 



The following is from the prize essay of T. O. 

 Nourse, written for the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College : 



There was an old practice of fallowing to give the 

 land rest and thereby enrich it. This, however, is 

 going out of practice, from the fact that it gives so 

 great a chance for loss by draining. Now a general 

 farm does not offer the same chance for losses, for it 

 is very easy to adopt a system so that a crop may be 

 kept growing all the time ; for if a crop comes ofiT 

 early in the season, but not early enough to allow 

 another crop to ripen, it is very easy to sow rye, 

 and either feed it off in the fall or spring, or plow 

 under for green manure. It has been found from 

 repeated experiment that one crop will not grow on 

 a piece of land for a long series of years and give 

 good results. This is probably due to the fact that 

 a large proportion of the particular elements needed 

 by the plant are exhausted, while if these are rotated 

 with those of another nature the former will again 

 soon grow as well as ever. For a rotation of crops, 

 the following may be a good one in many locations : 



First year, corn ; second, roots ; third, oats ; fourth, 

 wheat ; fifth, clover, and sixth, clover. This is for a 

 six-year rotation, and can, of course, be modified to 

 admit it to their circumstances and location, as, for 

 instance, in Canada, peas may take the place of 

 corn, for there a large crop of peas may be grown, 

 and make a very valuable one, too, while further 

 simth this would not be possible on account of the 

 pea weevil. The Norfolk rotation, which is thioreti 

 cally a perfect rotation, is as follows : First, wheat ; 

 second, turnips ; third, oats or barley ; fourth, clover. 

 This is, however, hardly admissable in most loca- 

 tions, for so large a proportion of turnips would not 

 t)e fed to advantage, and might well hr. modified by 

 placing the barley before the roots and inserting a 

 wheat crop between the roots and clover. 



A Big Clover Yield. 



Mr. A. Devereux, Deposit, N. Y., communicates 

 to the Orange County Farmer notes of " a remarkable^ 

 yield of clover "—no less than 75 tons :iOO pounds, 

 by actual weight, from seven acres. The weather 

 was unfavorable at mowing time, and so the crop 

 was hauled green to a silo, with exception of one 

 load which, thoroughly cured, dried away nearly 5fi 

 per cent., leaving C80 pounds, or at the rate of H3 

 tons of hay for the whole field. The weighting, with 

 the 4.'),000 pounds of stone, cost $.5 and caused the 

 ensilage to settle 6)4 feet, " so that it now occupies 

 a space equal to 4,67.5 cubic feet. He estimates that 

 the same clover in hay would have filled two barn 

 bays each 30x19x20 feet. 



Hort:cl /ruRE, 



The Profits on Small Fruits. 

 In illustrations of the profits in cultivating small 

 fruits we note in the Santa Barbara, California, In- 

 dependent, a statement that in a garden at that place, 

 L. A. Hemenway is raising strawberries at a lusty 

 profit. The paper says ; " Upon the three-fourths of 

 an acre, which are now ripening, the weekly yield Is 

 one thousand boxes. These are of the choicest vari- 

 ety, the Monarch of the West. Mr. Hemenway has 

 sold already this season over $750 worth of berries, 

 and the vines promise to yield as much more before 

 their annual period of rest. Almost the whole work 

 of preparing the land, constructing water ditches 

 and flumes for irrigation, setting and irrigating the 

 plants and attending to them when growing, has 

 been done by Mr. Hemenway alone. Since the ber- 

 ries commenced ripening they have required the help 

 of one man. Besides this, Mr. Hemenway has at- 

 tended to his other crops, doing the whole work con- 

 nected with ten acres of hay, three acres of co.in, 

 one acre of vineyard, four acres of pumpkins, antl 

 five or six acres of apricot and walnut trees, which 

 are now beginning to bear most bountifully. In this 

 way, upon a small piece of land, he is making more 

 clear profit than many of the so-called large farmers 

 who are sowing two or three hundred or one thous- 

 and acres of wheal or barley and paying out almost 

 the entire receipts for hired help, harvesting, thresh- 

 ing, sacking, transportation, commission, etc. 



Shooting Worms. 



The increasing prevalence of " worms nests " or 

 tent Caterpillars in fruit trees is bringing out vari- 

 ous suggestions, from those who have had experi- 

 ence, as to the best mode of destroying them. A 

 writer in the Pittsburg .■^tockniau comes to the front 

 with the shot gun method, as follows : 



" An ordinary shot gun loaded with a small charge 

 of powder, a little experience will determine the 

 amount, with a little or no wadding (if any, a little 

 prper is best,) held from one to three feet from the 

 tent and fired, will completely destroy the tent and 

 all the ca'erpillars therein at the time, without in- 

 jury 'o the tree. The result is a Suddeu column of 

 fire, accompanied by an explosion, too short to burn, 

 and too weak to injure the tree, and yet strong 

 enough todestroy utterly and completely the worms." 



The writer quoted above describes the piocess 

 quite clearly, but fails to mention one important 



feature, the proper time to do the shooting. Our 

 own experience in that business In our boyhood 

 days, proved that the best time was during a 

 drizzling rain preceded by a damp, foggy night. 

 The fog and dampness of the atmosphere drives all 

 the worms into the nest, and the rain keeps them 

 there. Thus a well-directed shot effectually exter- 

 minates the entire nest. 



Experiments in Cultivating. 



W. W. Higbee of Vermont, writes to the Practical 

 Fanner, giving some of the results of his experi- 

 ments in cultivating orchards, which, although ac- 

 cording with the experiments of others, may be use- 

 ful if briefly stated in enforcing their teaching. Sow. 

 ing wheat in an orchard always seriously checks the 

 growth of the trees, even if the ground Is manured. 

 Oats are exhausting, but less so than wheat. Corn 

 and potatoes both answer well, and the cultivation 

 they receive benefits the trees. In one instance, half 

 of an orchard was sown with wheat, and the conse- 

 quence was it was put back two years as compared 

 with the other half. Wheat in a thrifty young plum 

 orchard ruined it. To these statements we msy add 

 the following : A neighbor set out 100 peach trees, 

 cultivating a part of the ground in potatoes, and the 

 remainder was in wheat. None of the trees in the 

 potatoes grew less than a foot and a half, and some 

 sent up shoots two feet and a half. None of those 

 which stood in the wheat ground grew more than 

 three inches. 



Household Recipes. 



Poor Man's Cake.— To one-half cupful of butter 

 beaten to a cream add two cupfuls of granulated 

 sugar, the yolks of two eggs, one cupful of sweet 

 milk, and three cupfuls of flour. To each cupful of 

 flour, as it is sifted, add a teaspoonful of baking 

 powder, scant measure. The whites of the two eggs, 

 well beaten, should be added last. This recipe is es- 

 pecially nice for any kind of layer cake, or when 

 baked in large square pans and thickly iced. 



Mayonnaise Duessino for Tomatoes. — To the 

 yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, smoothed to a paste, 

 add the yolk of one raw egg, three tablespoon fuls of 

 vinegar, one of melted butter or oil, and salt, peppe^ 

 and mustard to taste. Mix thoroughly and place 

 over the tea kettle until heated, stirring all the time. 

 The whites of the hard boiled eggs should be chopped 

 fine and piled upon the slices of raw tomatoes. 

 When the dressing is added, the result is not only 

 an appetizing but an ornamental dish, the mixture 

 of brilliant red, yellow and white being, in itself, al- 

 most sufficient decoration for a tea-table. 



To Ci-EAN AND Freshen Old Matting rub It 

 with a cloth wet in salt water, being careful not to 

 allow any drops of water to dry In the matting, as 

 they will leave spots diflicult to remove. Heavy, 

 varnished furniture should never rest directly upon 

 the matting, for even good varnish, becoming soft in 

 warm weather will stain the straw. Malting may be 

 turned if the loose ends of the cords are threaded in 

 a large needle and drawn through to the other side. 



IlAun Boiled Egi:s, when placed in water just 

 below the boiling point for three-quarters of an 

 hour, are much more tender and palatable than 

 when cooked in the ordinary way, and also more 

 digestible. 



Take large, ripe tomatoes, cut them in half, and 

 with a spoon scoop out the centre. Chop any kind 

 of cold meat very fine, and mix with it a teaspoonful 

 of chopped onions, some crumbs of bread, a little 

 salt and pepper, and a well beaten egg. Fill up 

 each half of a tomato with this mixture; scatter 

 bread crumbs over the top of it ; put a small piece 

 of butter in the centre, and bake in a slow oven f<ir 

 forty minutes. Put the tomatoes in a buttered bak 

 ing tin. Serve on a hot platter, garnished wiih 

 sprigs of parsley or water cresses. This makes a de. 

 licious breakfast dish or a side dish. 



