proceedings of the farmers' club. 129 



Plaster and Salt as a Kemedy for the Potato Rot. 



Thomas Carpenter, Battle Creek, Michigan, I find the application of a 

 mixture composed of one part salt and two parts plaster, a remedy for the 

 potato rot, apply a large spoonful to the hill jus.t as the blossom buds set. 



How TO Grow Short-Legged Cabbage. 



Mr. Carpenter also recommends that the holes should be made about 

 eight inches deep from the surface of the ground, three feet apart, set the 

 plant at the bottom of the hole, and as it grows keep filling up the hole 

 gradually with rich earth ; when done growing the head will rest on the 

 ground." 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — I could not recommend this plan without consid- 

 erable experience, as it appears to be one that would not answer upon a 

 flat, wet soil, in a rainy season. 



Solon Robinson asked the Chairman (an old Long Island farmer), what 

 would be the benefit of growing short-legged cabbage. He replied that 

 in light soils the plants sometimes get top-heavy and fall over, so as to 

 injure the heads. To obviate this the great cabbage farms grow a kind 

 that is naturally short-legged. This is better than growing the long- 

 legged in the way recommended. 



Beans and Bugs. 



Dr. J. Weston, of Baraboo, Wisconsin, says melon bugs maybe kept off by 

 planting a circle of beans around the hill, to grow till the melon or cucum- 

 ber vines are too large for bugs, and then to be pulled up. 



Grarxing Wild Cherry. 



J. H. Garretson, of Richland, Keokuk county, Iowa, wants to know if 

 the early May cherry will grow grafted upon the wild cherry, prunus 

 Virginiana. 



Several members replied to this inquiry, expressing an opinion that the 

 wild cherry will not answer for stocks for grafting cultivated cherries 

 upon. 



Corn in Minnesota. 



Jesse H. Soule, of Stillwater, Minnesota, says that he has lived in Min- 

 nesota eight years, and he is sure that Indian corn does not average more 

 than 30 bushels per acre. The highest jueld given in his township was 50 

 bushels, and that upon guess work, while many other crops were rated 

 below thirty. lie deprecates such extravagant estimates as that lately 

 given to the Club by Mr. R. P. Leighton, of Cohassett, Mass. 



Peach Trees — Do They Need Protection in Iowa ? 



S. Foster, Muscatine, Iowa, says : 



" Twenty-seven years in Iowa enables me to speak upon this subject, 

 and experience enables me to give facts to correct an error in your theory 

 of burying the peach tree in the soil. You err in tracing parallels of lati- 

 tude across this broad continent to determine the same climate. Iowa is 

 inland from any large body of water, which is a great modifier of climate, 

 cooling the extreme heat of summer, and modifying the extreme cold of 



[Am. Inst.] J 



