332 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JUX,Y 



out with about half the accustomed amount, and 

 kept our own counsels. When we approached 

 this part of the field at harvest, my brother and 

 myself supposed the yield would be in proportion 

 to the seed. When the potatoes were laid out to 

 the sun to dry, by the side of those from the other 

 rows, my fatlier's eyes stared about in wonder at 

 seeing a much larger and finer yield here, than 

 elsewhere. Our confession disclosed a double se- 

 cret, — the special fact, and what we regarded ever 

 after as the general law as to this vegetable. 



By the way, I planted a single peach blow from 

 Buffalo, N. Y., last year, and raised eighty— only 

 three large enough to cook. The vines grew to the 

 length of twelve feet, and were there stopped by a 

 frost. 



The old Carters, in their prime, were the heaviest 

 and most nutritious for man or beast that we have 

 ever raised. C. N. Andeus. 



Chelsea, Vt., May 20, 1867. 



TROUBLE WITH COWS. 



I had a cow that did not clean after calving, — 

 she lost her appetite, and in a short time she 

 got so weak she could not get up. After trying 

 various things, I took a tablespoonful of rosin, 

 pounded fine, and mixing it with a little rye dough, 

 formed it into a ball or pill. I made three such, 

 and put tliem down her throat with my hand ; the 

 next day, as many more. The following day she 

 was on "her feet, with quite a good appetite. After 

 regaining her flesh, she did as well that season as 

 usual. Give a cow what oats she will eat; it is 

 about a sure cure. A Subscriber. 



Stcanzey, N. H.. May 21, 1867. 



Remarks.— A Maine correspondent thinks the 

 majority of the Irasburg Club were con-ect in the 

 idea of the importance of the cows being in a 

 thrifty condition at the time of calving. He feeds 

 meal for three weeks, and has no trouble. 



KILLING BUSHES. 



Salt won't do it. Something might be done in 

 the way of reducing them l)y mowing them off in 

 "the old of the moon in August." We say this at 

 the risk, perhaps, of appearing extremely stupid, as 

 ?omeofour agricultural editors know the moon 

 has nothing to with the weather nor anything else 

 in particular; — one of whom once proved the fact 

 to a demonstration, by citing its great distance from 

 the eartli. We have tried cutting, as here recom- 

 mended—and without trouljlingto inquire whether 

 the crescent had or had not anything to do with it ; 

 we believe it to Ijc the best time to cut bushes. If 

 not too large, gather them with a stout rake into 

 piles for the barn-yard and hog-house. You will 

 lind nu trouble in working tlicm in the spring. 

 They are worth much more than the cost of cutting 

 and gathering. After tliis, where there is not too 

 many stones, afield is easily subdued with a plow 

 and four cattle. Sow to rye, or plant with pota- 

 toes. ^' 



Stoughton, Mass., May, 1867. 



APPLE TREE BORERS. 



Will .you please remind your readers of the 

 method recommended by yoii last year to protect 

 trees from the attacks of the borer, viz : heap up 

 earth around the trunks to the lieight of about a 

 foot, any time before the first of July, and let it 

 remain "until after the Hy has ceased to work in 

 August. When the hurry of hay time is over, 

 brush away the earth. If tiieliorcr fly has laid any 

 eggs or if any eggs are hatched, they can be read- 

 ily seen and removed from the bark without the 



least injury to the tree. This process will not take 

 over five minutes' time to a tree ; and, by prevent- 

 ing the borers from entering so low that they can- 

 not be found, will afford a certain protection. 

 Ashby, Mass., May 18, 1867. A Subscriber. 



CABBAGE AND CUT-WORMS. 



A very simple process recommended in your 

 paper last year, for the protection of cabbage plants 

 after they are set out, has done so much good 

 among those of my acquaintance who have prac- 

 ticed it, and there are yet so many more who 

 either do not read the Farmer or have over- 

 looked this remedy, and still suffer by the de- 

 struction of their plants by cut-worms, that I 

 think it would be a public benefit if you would in- 

 sert it again. It is simply to wrap a piece of paper 

 or bark around the stem when it is set out. 



Boxboro', Mass., May, 1867. A Subscriber. 



RAISING cranberries IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



I see in your last paper the inquiry, whether 

 cranlierries can be raised in Cheshire County, suc- 

 cessfully, and j'our reply that flowage is necessary. 

 Six years ago Mr. Nathaniel Narramore, of this 

 village, fenced a part of the side of a road near his 

 house, by setting some posts about three feet high 

 and putting on one rail on the top. The land so 

 fenced is live rods and nine links long, and nine 

 and a half links wide. He set this out to cranber- 

 ries, which he got in his wheelbarrow from beside a 

 pond about a mile off. He then covered them 

 with waste tan bark, about three inches deep, and 

 on the third year he picked three and a half bush- 

 els of cranberries from the lot, and has picked 

 from three to four bushels each year since. I 

 think the appearance of the road is improved by 

 substituting the cranberry patch for the bushes 

 usually allowed to grow in such places, and cer- 

 tainly the profit from labor spent on it, is more than 

 farmers usually realize in this town. The same 

 gentleman hasabout two acres of land about his 

 house from which he sells more in value than 

 many of our farmers get from twenty-five. 



Daniel R. Spaulding. 



Richmond, N. H., May 20, 1867. 



BUGS ON APPLE BUDS. 



Some days since we received a letter enclosing 

 a twig of an apple tree, the buds of which were 

 nearly covered by a small bug. We put the letter 

 in our pocket for the purpose of consulting our 

 Natural History adviser, and lost it. We could 

 not well satisfy ourselves from an observation with 

 the naked eye, but we think they are the Aphis, of 

 which a correspondent furnishes some account in 

 another column. Still it may be a new pest. We 

 find in the Iowa Homestead the following notice of 

 an insect that was lately discovered on the blos- 

 som buds of apple trees in Des Moines and other 

 places in Iowa : — 



We have a new pest for the apple trees this 

 spring; l)lossoni buds ai'e overspread with black 

 lice. They are smaller than the hen louse, but 

 what their mission is no one seems to know, and 

 time will have to solve the question. A niicro- 

 sc()i)ic examination makes them about the size of a 

 common house-fly, and about the same shape. 

 The bark of the branches is overspread with what 

 appears to the unaided eye, a fuzzy, dark brown 

 net-work, holding in its meshes iunnnu'ral)lc black 

 specks, whicli, on examination under the glass, are 

 found to be the abode of the unhatclied insect. To 

 the casual observer, this covering of the bark 



