188 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



wheat in the whole four acres. A farmer living back on the hill says his 

 under-wheat is about half killed. It is said spring wheat is not materially 

 affected. One piece of rye which I have seen looks as if it had been de- 

 stroyed by hail. The stems froze near the joints and then wilted, and 

 the heads have fallen down to the ground. You can form some opinion of 

 the degree of cold here, when it is stated that water in an iron kettle two 

 inches deep froze solid, though water in tubs of a considerable quantity 

 froze about a quarter of an inch." 



A. P. Cumings — The probability is that the cause of this freezing and 

 killing is the extreme rank growth of the plants this year. The stalk 

 being full of juice and rank growth, was killed much easier than it would 

 have been with equally hard frost, if the spring had been cold. The 

 plants then would have been more hardy. 



Here is a letter from D. D. W. C. Thorp, of Preston, Chenango county, 

 N. Y., who writes upon the subject discussed here at a former meeting as 

 follows : 



" Weeds. — I have ceased to regard weeds as enemies, but rather as 

 helps and monitors to stir up the soil on plowed land and keep it light and 

 porous, for I am satisfied the roots of plants need a portion of air as much 

 as the leaves. As to weeds on meadow land, they are sentinels that tell 

 us the land wants better tillage — not to spend our time in digging up the 

 weeds, or pulling them up, but to put on the manure — put on the manure, 

 plaster, ashes, leached ashes, barn-j^ard manure, where we can; turn the 

 street wash on to them, and if the grass is too thin sow on some grass 

 seed. 1 think this method much better than plowing up and seeding over. 

 I have a meadow of an acre and a half; when I bought it, nine years ago, 

 about one-third of it was all white daisies. I put on the manure ; they 

 soon disappeared. Then it cut about one and a half tons; this year I 

 think it will cut four tons. Last September I put on 500 pounds of 

 plaster; this spring a dozen one-horse wagon loads of manure and five 

 bushels of ashes, and there is no room for any weeds as I can see. White 

 daisies cut in the blow make the best kind of hay, but it is not profitable 

 to raise them, for you can't get over 500 or 600 to the acre. I like them 

 sprinkled in with the grass, and where the grass is good they will not 

 blow till the grass is ready to cut; for my experience, (I am 40 years old) 

 is that the time to cut clover and herds-grass for cattle is when it is in its 

 full blossom, but for horses herds-grass should stand till it has shed its 

 pollen, which is ascertained by striking the head when the dew is on, and 

 if no dust flies out then down with it. Canada thistles I don't think are 

 pests, but good fertilizers, making a deep soil and enriching it every year 

 by renovating the sub-soil. You can kill them in one or two years in any 

 meadow by making the ground rich and mowing them with the grass. Get 

 them to grow large stalks ; they will be hollow; then mow them and they 

 soon die out, but while they live they do not interfere with any growing 

 crop, but I think increase it. When folks cut their grain with a sickle 

 and bound and threshed by hand, they were in the way, but in these days 



