PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 143 



fully two or three times in the early part of the season, and finding where 

 the borer is by the enlargement ol' tlie vine, lie cuts it out with a sharp 

 knife, and covers the vine with earth, pressing it down hard. In this way 

 he has grown this season half an acre ot Hubbard and other winter 

 squashes. 



Mr. Charles Thompson, St. Albans, Vermont. — "To prevent the ravage 

 af the melon bug, it is only necessary to place a box, without top or bot- 

 tom, around each hill of plants. The bug will fly against the box and fall 

 down on the outside of it, and if it be well bedded in the earth, so that no 

 entrance can be found beneath it, the plants will be secure. It is the 

 practice of some to cover the top of the box with muslin, but this is alto- 

 gether needless." 



Wheat without Plowing. 



Mr. Norman Matteson, Berwick, Warren county, Illinois, says: "I see 

 in several agricultural papers, that 'subsoiling, fall and spring, and 

 deep plowing,' is higlily recommended for wheat. This would not 

 do so well here in our rich soil. We succeed best not to plow at all, 

 to sow very early in the spring, on level land, among corn stalks, harrow 

 with the team astride each row both ways, and then roll. Such treatment 

 prevents the chintz bugs from doing their ravages; the ground being solid, 

 tlie bugs cannot breed among the old corn-stalks under ground. I sowed 

 ten acres after the .'ibove rule, the first week of last March ; it yielded 255 

 bushels of the first quality of wheat. It was a very heavy growth, where- 

 fore it all lodged flat to the ground. 1 cut it one way with a McCormick 

 reaper. My neighbor, right across the line, possessing just such land as 

 mine, plowed his ground and sowed one month later ; but the bugs nearly 

 destroyed iiis wheat, so that he cut only part of it. Another neighbor I 

 persuaded to sow three acres of wheat according to my rule, and the crop 

 weighed 93 bushels." 



Buckwheat as a Manure Crop. 



A correspondent, Mr. Allen, asks tlie following question : " I would 

 wish to inquire of the club their opinion as to the benefit of replenishing 

 land by plowing in buckwheat wliile it is green. Would it be a good 

 manure for winter wheat if plowed in just before sowing the wheat." 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — To this it may be answered that buckwheat is 

 rather better than no ci'op to turn under for manure, but it is not half as 

 good as clover, and is less valuable than several other things which are 

 just as easily grown. A crop of sowed corn would be far better than 

 buckwheat. The common flat turnip has been highly recommended for 

 tliis purpose. But of all things to turn under to improve land, there is 

 probabh' nothing so valuable or economical as red clover. There certainly 

 is no way that land can be manured so easily as growing the manure upon 

 the soil to be improved, and 160 loads of well decomposed sods would be 

 counted a good dressing for an acre. Then why not grow them where 

 they are needed ? 



