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THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



179 



maphrodite, which renders it difficult for Joha 

 Bull to believe that there are pure malea and 

 females. Not the least curious thing is the way 

 in which the male impregnates the female. He 

 does it by proxy, honeybees and other insects 

 playing the go-between. They carry the dust 

 on their feet as they fly from flower to flower. 

 This fact has been established I believe, be- 

 yond cavil, by a series of experiments, such as 

 covering some of the female plants with gauze, 

 they are sure to be barren, bat begin to do their 

 duty the moment the gauze is removed. There 

 is, therefore, no need of putting the male plants 

 in the same bed with the females, and in prac- 

 tice each is now placed by itself, from a foot to 

 a yard apart from its conjugal companions. Of 

 the three varieties just mentioned as Mr. Long- 

 worth's seedlings, now in general cultivation 

 here, the Superior and Extra Red are females, 

 and the Prolific is hermaphrodite. 



The amount of strawberries raised and brought 

 into Cincinnati, is immense. Hundreds and 

 hundreds of bushels, are brought in each day. 

 One man, it is said, had three hundred bushels 

 in market at one time, and the price places them 

 within the reach of all. 



Strawberries do well planted out in the next 

 and following month, August and September, if 

 the weather is suitable. 



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THE GARDENEE. 



The Sbiped Bug.' — M. B. Bateman, in the 

 Ohio Cultivator says that he effectually protected 

 his cucumbers and melon vines by placing four 

 or five bricks round the hills on edges so as to 

 inclose them. Who will remember this? 



->—- 



TMnning Out Vegetables. 

 It seems a pity to put a hoe into those luxur 

 iant rows of beets, carrots, parsneps, and onions, 

 that already give promise of an abundant har- 

 vest. But full two-thirds of them must still be 

 sacrificed, before you can get a full crop. They 

 are cransped for room. The carrot sends out its 

 roots on all sides of the main tap, and if it have 

 a chance, will completely occupy the soil on all 

 sides of it with its fine rootlets. One root will 

 appropriate the aliment in a square foot of soil, 

 much better than a half dozen, and will make a 

 greater weight of nutritious food at the harvest. 

 This is what wise cultivators are seeking for, — 

 the most food upon the least surface. Thin out 

 then to six or eight inches apart, aadif you 

 want very large specimens for the fairs, make the 

 spaces a foot wide. The roots that are pulled 

 np are excellent fodder for cows aud pigs, and if 

 you throw a few into the poultry yard, they will 

 be appreciated. Try it and see. 



THE POULTRY YARD. 



Gapes in Chickens. 



For a couple of years after commencing the 

 raising of poultry, I was subjected to the loss of 

 a large number of young chickens, and almost 

 the whole of them by gapes. I inquired of an 

 old lady, who has had great success in the chicken 

 line, if she could tell what made the gapes. The 

 reply was, lousy hens, and the cure, or I should 

 say preventive, simply to grease the hen under 

 the wings thoroughly, and around the neck as 

 soon as s^tcame off the nest. 



Well, Iwied it, and the result has been, the 

 more I did not grease the hens, the more chickens 

 died, and vice versa. The whole matter, in my 

 experience, is perfectly simple, and so far as prac- 

 ticed with my chickens, has been, successful. 

 When a hen comes off her nest with a brood, she 

 is well greased, and from time to time, while 

 confined to the coop, the operation is repeated, 

 with occasional changes in the position of the 

 coops. Should any of your readers try the ex- 

 periment without a favorable result, 1 should b« 

 glad to know it. — | Am. Ag. 



lice on Fowls. 



F. A. W., of Missouri, wishes to be informed 

 how to exterminate the vermin that frequently 

 infest hens and hen roosts, &c. Prevention, 

 when practicable, is always better than cnre. 

 Strict cleanliness about the roosts and nests will 

 always prevent hens from becoming lousy. The 

 droppings under the hens should be removed fre- 

 quently, the nests often renewed and air-slaked 

 lime and ashes scattered around the floors, boxes 

 and roosts. Boxes of dry ashes and lime should 

 always be kept under cover where the fowls can 

 have constant access to them, that they may 

 wallow in at pleasure. With these precautious 

 fowls that are free from vermin will never be in- 

 fested. But where they have become lour y, the 

 roosts should be thoroughly swept and cleaoed, 

 the straw and litter from the nests entirely re* 

 moved and the wood work and roost poles of the 

 house white-washed with fresh slaked lime, into 

 which a quantity of sulphur or tobacco has been 

 mixed. A day or two before this operation, 

 the fowls should be fed with coarse corn meal 

 wet with milk or water into which a quantity tf 

 sulphur has been mixed. Feed with this sev- 

 eral days, it may then be omitted for a f«w days, 

 and repeated again at intervals of three or four 

 days, and continued in this way until all the nits 

 have hatched, when the insects will drop off and 

 leave the fowls. Thorough cleanliness after this 

 will generally exterminate them. Fowls are al- 

 ways poor and unthrifty and setting hens are 

 seldom successful in hatching their eggs when 

 annoyed with vermin. A little care is all that 

 is necessary to prevent it. — [Valley Farmer. 



-*•>- 



Illinois Central Railroad. — The sales of 

 Illinois Central Railroad lands, daring the 

 week ending the 23d, were 15,697 73-100 acres, 



for 1187,946.15. 



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