288 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Onion Worms — How to Kill Them. 



Mr. Benjamin Eastman, De Peyster, N. Y., tells how to kill the 'onion 

 magg'ot. He says: 



"Steep or soak the seed twelve to twenty hours before planting' in a 

 strong decoction of tobacco at a temperature of 100 degrees to 120 degrees 

 Fahrenheit; I tried it last year and others in town two or three years, 

 Avhhoiit a failure." 



Frozen Potatoes. 



Mr. C. H. Bowen, Yankee Springs, Barry county, Mich., gives the fol- 

 lowing fact about potatoes being injured by freezing: "On the 8th day of 

 March I noticed in the garden some hills of potatoes. In the first hill I 

 opened, I found some fifteen as fresh potatoes as I ever saw; yet under the 

 potatoes the ground was frozen hard. In other hills Ifound the potatoes 

 bedded in the frozen earth, but no frost in the potatoes; in others, the 

 potatoes would be all soft like any other frozen, potato; and in sonn; hills, 

 half of them would be soft and the other half sound; yet there was frost 

 in the ground under all. These potatoes were a little sweetish when 

 cooked, bat I have no doubt about their vitality." 



Coal Ashes. 



Mr. Bowen says he reclaimed a piece of yellowish white clay, which was 

 almost barren, by a liberal use of bituminous coalashes. 



Sugar Corn Preserved for Table Use. 



Mr. E. Cronkhite, Marshfield, Warren county', Ind., says lie keeps sweet 

 C(.)rn the year round in good condition for the table, in the following man- 

 ner: " Cut the raw corn from the cob with a sharp knife, and pack it in a 

 stone jar, a layer of corn and a layer of fine salt, as you would pork. It 

 keeps this way much better than drying it, and it is not half the w6rk. If 

 it is too salt when wanted to be cooked, soak it in cold water, .or sweet 

 milk, whicii is better." 



Prairie Flowers. 



Mrs. Lrwicy Croy, New Philadelphia, Story county, Iowa, says: "Our 

 prairies furnish many rare and beautiful flowers, .and if au}'^ of the members 

 of the Club will furnish me with slips of shrubs or flower seed, either of 

 which are unattainable here, I will be glad to return some of their wild 

 but not less beautiful sisters. It is a great deprivation to me to be with- 

 out those blessed gifts of our Creator, the ' stars of earth,' for I so love 

 them, and home hardly scgras home without their sweet presence." 



Receipts of Flower Seeds. 



The Secretary reports that he has received flower seeds from the follow- 

 ing persons: Mrs. L. P. Seaver, Stowe, Lamoille county, Vt.; Mrs. H. A. 

 Piper, Monroe, Me.; Mrs. C. 0. French, Dnflield, Me.; Mrs. E. D. Willey, 

 Corunna, Me.; Mrs. Jennie A Remington, Chester, Mass.; Mrs. I>. M. Adams, 

 East Brookfield, Mass.; Mrs. M. A. Waterhouse, Salisbur}^, Vt., Mrs. S. H. 

 Symouds, Reading; Mrs. Mary A. Fisher, "Waltham, Mass.; Mr. Panicd 



