Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 469 



there are hundreds of farmers who have a prejudice against tlie bar- 

 berry on this account. But I have seen the iinest crops of wheat 

 growing close beside the bush spoken of. 



Smut in Wheat. 

 Mr. J. M. Burton, of I^ewcastle, Penn., alhiding to the article of 

 Mr. Geddes, says : For each bushel take one ounce of blue vitriol, 

 and with the solution of it moisten the wheat. The water in which 

 the blue vitriol is dissolved sliould be thrown boiling hot on the 

 Avheat, and the pile stirred constantly. One who has applied this 

 will not go back to the salt and brine preparation. 



How TO Prepare Peaches for Preserving. 



Dr. Joseph Treat, Yineland, IST. J. — Kever pare peaches to dry. 

 Let them get mellow enough to be in a good eating condition, put 

 them in boiling water for a minute or two, and the skins will come 

 off like a charm. Let them be in the water long enough, but no 

 longer. The gain is at least six-fold — saving of time in removing 

 the skin, great saving of the peach, part of the peach saved the best 

 part, less time to stone the peaches, less time to dry them, and better 

 when dried. A whole bushel can be done in a boiler at once, and 

 then the water turned off. This very morning we had over two 

 bushels skinned, stoned (halved) and on the boards long before a 

 quarter of them could even have been peeled. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — There is sense in it. I have known the 

 plan practiced often, and it works well. 



BoTs IN Horses. 

 Mr. T. S. .O'Bannon, aSTewark, Ohio, writes as follows : " I would 

 utter my humble protest against the opinions of I. P. Trimble and 

 J. A. Whitney, in regards to the disease called bots in horses. The 

 eggs which produce bots are deposited on the horse by two kinds of 

 flies. One deposits its eggs mainly near the knee, on the legs, but 

 some eggs promiscuously over the horse. The other deposits its eggs 

 under the jaw, near the throat, and never anj^where else. In close 

 observation by myself and others for a long period, there never has 

 been detected a single exception to this rule. The two flies are dis- 

 tinct, one from the other, and the bots from them occupy difierent 

 positions in the stomach, I would go on and give more particulars 

 of these flies, but that is foreign to the purpose for which this letter 

 is written. There is no such disease as bots in horses. Tliey live in 



