18G6.] 
AMERICAN AaRIGULTURIST. 
139 
peuclicuhir ; Ihcii, four inches back the spade is 
set iu imtil it comes through into the gallery, 
and after working it a little back and forth, it is 
lifted carefully out. Tlie hole is then cleared 
of all cai'lh that may have crumbled down, and 
Fig. 3. — GOPHER TRAP. 
the wire noose inserted through the cut made 
by the spade, and spread wide. A stake (D), 3 
feet in length, and having a pin (E) through it, 
and a notch (F) about as indicated in fig. 3, is 
then driven a little in front of the hole. The 
board, r, which is about 30 inches long, is then 
suspended, by the hole B, upon the pin in the 
stake, close against the perpendicular face, shut- 
Fig. 3. 
^6 
A 
ting the hole. The pole is then 
bent down, the cord (a) attached to 
the wire loop, and the trigger, the 
string being made the right length, 
is inserted between the notches a in 
the board, and/, in the stake. The gopher touch- 
ing the board wiih his nose will release the trig- 
ger, and be caught around the body by the noose. 
Mr. Smizer sas's : " I have tried many ways to 
catch gophers, and this is simple, cheap, and 
sure to catch and kill them, and is the best I 
ever tried. I caught 4.5 last spring with three 
traps ; and the whole cost was not 25 cents." 
J. B. Quill by, of Davis Co., Kansas, describes 
his way of killing gophers as follows : "Armed 
with a weapon something similar to a fish spear, 
visit the ground infested by them early in the 
morning (before sunrise), or a little before sun- 
down, and with as little noise as possible, search 
until you find one of their holes opened. Take 
your stand back of it, holding your spear within 
a foot of the hole, and ready poised for action. 
Soon you will hear the gopher at work, and di- 
rectly he will come to the surface, pushing his 
load of dirt before him. As soon as you can 
see his shoulders, pin him with your spear, and 
look for more holes, and my word for it, if they 
are plenty, you can bag more game iu an hour 
than you can with all your traps. Gophers sel- 
dom come to the surface of the ground in pleas- 
ant weather, excepting for an hour or so morn- 
ing and evening, and they seldom show more 
than part of their bodies. After opening a hole 
a few minutes suffices to throw out what dirt 
they wish, and they immediately close it up. A 
little practice will make experts of most any one." 
The Weeds of the Flax Field. 
The flax crop is liable to be infested by the 
ordinary field weeds, and besides these, there 
are two which seem to be quite peculiar to it, 
the False Flax, and Flax Dodder. It is proba- 
ble that the seeds of these weeds, being intro- 
duced with imported flax seed, vegetate freely, 
and flourish the first year, but do not perpetu- 
ate themselves to any considerable extent in our 
climate, as do the majority of foreign weeds. 
Indeed several of the English writers have rec- 
ommended the use 
of American seed 
as one means of 
ensuring freedom 
from these weeds. 
False Flax, al- 
so called Wild 
Flax, and by the 
rather extrava- 
gant name of Gold 
of Pleasure, is Ca- 
melina satica of 
the botanists. It 
was formerly sup- 
posed that flax 
degenerated into 
this plant, just as 
some persons sup- 
pose that wheat 
turns to chess, or 
that potatoes mix 
in the liill. This 
plant is still more 
widely separated 
from flax than 
the chess is from 
wheat, and only 
those persons 
ignorant of plant 
structure believe FiS- 1.— false plax. 
in these sudden transformations. The False 
Flax belongs to the Cnicifene, or Mustard Fam- 
ily, and in the structure of its flowers closely 
resembles the Mustard. It is an annual, grow- 
ing about 18 inches high, with its smoothish 
stem le.aves sessile upon the stem, and having an 
arrow sh.aped base. The figure shows the up- 
per portion of a stem somewhat reduced in size, 
and at the left hand a seed pod of the natural 
size. The pods are somewhat pear-shaped and 
bear a sharp point at the top. The seeds are 
reddish yellow in color, and, in the plant as it 
grows in this country, not very numerous. 
Fig. 3. — FLAX DODDER. 
Flax Dodder, Cuscuta epilinum, is a much 
worse weed than the other. It is a plant of 
peculiar habit; starting from the seed in the 
ground, it pushes up a slender, thread-like, leaf- 
less stem, which branches freely and entwines 
around the flax plant, entangling llie plants to- 
gether. This is not all the mischief it does; 
wherever the Dodder comes in contact with the 
flax stem, it puslies out small suckers or feeders, 
by means of which it draws nutriment from 
the flax, and is able to grow and flourish even if 
its root be destroyed. TIk 
flowers are very small, and 
are produced along the stem | 
in small dense clusters of a 
white color. Figure 3 shows 
the Dodder of the luitural 
size, with clusters of flowers SBSypi 
and fruit. This is one of the ©if 
most injurious weeds of the 
flax crop, and the estimation 
in which it is held in England, is shown by the 
vulgar, but rather expressive names of " devils' 
guts," and "hell-weed," there applieil to it. 
These weeds being introduced with tlic flax seed, 
the cultivator should take pains to select pure 
seed. A sample of flax seed when spread out 
thinly upon a piece of white paper, allows the 
naked eye to see if any foreign seeds are pres- 
ent. Figure, 3, gives a seed each of Flax (larg- 
est), False Flax, and Dodder, equally magnifieil, 
the Dodder the smallest, and rough. Properly 
adjusting the fanning mill, and passing the seed 
through several times, cleans it quite well. 
Leading Staff for a Bull. 
A great deal depends upon having a safe 
leading stafl' when a man handles a bull. Bulls 
have a way of being very gentle and docile at 
times, thus throwing their keepers olf their 
guard, and tlien they very often take a notion 
to have a little rough pUn/, if it may so be called. 
The result maybe, and has oflen been, that a 
man has been killed or greatly injured, perhaps 
by a _voung animal he had not the least fear of 
Mr. Thorne, of Shorthorn fame, has never 
had serious accidents 
of this kind occur, be- 
cause he believes in 
"making assurance 
doubly sure," and never 
trusting a bull at all. 
The leading stalTs used 
by his herdsman struck 
us as needlessly secure 
at first sight, but we 
were assured that long 
experience had proved 
that spring clasps, 
though never so well 
made, did occasionally 
give wa}', and that in 
using the stafl' with the 
clasp attached by three 
or four links of chain, a bull would sometimes 
get the advantage, and crowd his groom most 
dangerously. They have adopted, therefore, a 
staff tipped with a strong hook of the best iron, 
wrought in the shape shown, and closed by a 
screw passing through botli the shank and the 
tip of the hook. The thread on the screw is 
first cut the whole length, and then it is tinned 
or filed off in the middle portion, leaving the 
shaft of the screw a plain bolt, except at the ends, 
as seen in the left-hand figure. When the hook is 
to be opened, a few turns are snfiieient to allow 
the screw to slip back, and it can not fall out, 
being prevented by the threads at the end. 
