Peoceebixgs of the Farmers' Club. 297 



The chairman said he had used a brood of chickens and a lot of 

 toads. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble had also found that toads and chickens did a 

 great deal of good ; but he would recommend boxes to be placed over 

 the hills. It did not make any matter about covering them. Let 

 them be some four or live inches high. He thought that as the bugs 

 ■came in flights, these coverings would keep them out of sight of them, 

 and therefore they would pass over. 



A member. — I have tried them and found them of no use. >* 



Mr. J. C. Thompson, Staten Island, said that he found out acci- 

 dentally that the bone dust made by the Boston Mills Company was 

 a sure preventive. The plants should be dusted with them when the 

 dew was on, and the application repeated several times, till the vines 

 are vigorous. 



Ground Hay. 

 Mr. Joseph S. Kirk, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, sent a specimen of 

 ground hay for food for cattle. He says that ten tuns a day can be 

 ground, at a cost not exceeding one dollar a ton. Ground, it resembles 

 ground oats, its weight being from thirty-two to thirty-four pounds 

 per bushel. Mixed with chop feed, such as corn or oats, it makes a 

 cheap and excellent food. He wished to know the relative value of 

 good bright hay as compared with oats of equal weight. A member 

 said that three pounds of hay are equal to one pound of oats. 



Failure in the Corn Crop. 

 Mr. L. H. Albertson, Delaware Station, New Jersey, writes : 

 " During the last few years, in the northwestern ])art of Warren 

 county, New Jersey, where I live, there has been considerable failure 

 ill the corn crop. The corn comes up very unevenly with regard to 

 time ; that that comes up latest looks feeble and unhealthy, and by 

 the time of the last plowing is not more than six inches high, the 

 ends of the leaves dying, and on being pulled up, only a few slender 

 roots are found near the top of the ground. As the ploughman says, 

 the worms have eaten the main roots off. There are various and 

 conflicting opinions advanced as to the cause of this condition of 

 corn, without liavino; made minute investigations. Some attribute 

 it to lime, some to tinioth}^ sod, and others say (as there is here and 

 there a good hill among the poor patches) there must be worms in the 

 corn. There is not that much difference in the ground. I have made 

 repeated examinations by taking out the whole hill, roots and all, and 



