«■ 
Tlie grain is less apt to be injured by sur¬ 
face water, and very superior grain is said 
to be the result of practice in this new de¬ 
parture. 
Potato Culture. I usually open rows 
about three feet apart and put the sets 18 
inches apart in the row. I put one potato 
to each hill. While the largest, ripest po¬ 
tatoes are drier, more mealy and palatable 
to eat, they have parted with some of their 
vitality and reproductive power, and are 
not so good for seed as the smaller and less 
ripened ones of the crop; hence from these 
I select my seed. Success in growing po¬ 
tatoes depends vastly more on a rich, well 
prepared bed or soil to grow in, and a pro¬ 
pitious season, than in the thousand and 
r/)ne ways recommended in the papers, by 
individuals, about selecting and manipulat- 
the seed before and at the time of planting, 
On such soil as I use to grow potatoes, I al¬ 
ways had the best luck to plant about four 
inches deep as a general rule. I keep the 
surface level and clear from weeds until the 
last time of hoeing; when some of the loose 
earth from the middle of the rows should 
be brought around the plants to make the 
hills slightly elevated.— r. s., Willington. 
Mass. 
What constitutes a grade? —Custom 
makes the only rule in such cases, and custom 
does not designate a cross between two distinct 
breeds as a grade, but rather as a cross-bred 
beast. When one of the progeuitors is of a pure 
breed and the other is of a mixed origin, the cus¬ 
tom is to designate Such an animal as a gr«de 
Short-horn, grade Hereford, grade Berkshire, 
etc., taking the name of the breed to which the 
pure-bred ancestor belongs.—National Live- 
Stock Journal. 
Mr. W. H. White, a level headed Massachu¬ 
setts farmer, says that in his own experience and 
observation, he has found that the sooner ma¬ 
nure incorporated in the soil, the greater and bet¬ 
ter the effect on the soil, and the better the 
crop immediately following such application. 
Hence he has come to the conclusion that much 
of the value of barn manure may be lost, by 
being exposed to the sun, air and rains, and that 
spreading manure on the surface of the land to 
be plowed, to remain long, unless in a rainy 
time or when the ground is covered with snow 
is bad practice; as the sun and air will positive' 
ly draw off its virtues, according to the length of 
time exposed. He also concludes that manure 
in a fine compacted well decomposed state may 
be spread upon grass lands in early spring, im¬ 
mediately after cutting the first crop, or in late 
fall, and very little of its virtue will evaporate 
or be lost, if the grass grows freely to shade it 
when the season becomes warm, and that the best 
possible way of applying manure to cultivated 
lands, is to plow it in, or otherwise incorporate 
it into the first one or two inches of surface soil 
and the finer the manure is made, the more thor¬ 
oughly mixed in the soil, the better the results. 
One of the best and most effectual remedies 
for curculio on plum trees is to put a pailful of 
coal tar in an old barrel, fill the barrel with 
water and stir it up. The tar will settle to the 
bottom and leave the water strongly scented with 
it. As soon as the plums have set take a garden 
pump and sprinkler and shower the trees with 
this tar water. After a heavy rain repeat it 
several times during the season if necessary. 
We believe the same medicine would prove an 
effective cure for currant worms, coddling moths 
and perhaps potato bugs, but f r currant worms 
the application should be made as soon as the 
leaf buds begin to open as the eggs are laid very 
early. 
Mr. Massey, successfully grows egg-plants 
by keeping them in pots in his greenhouse until 
his tomato plants are set in the field or sold 
and a quantity thus liberated. They are then 
planted in the frames, two plants to each sash. 
Put on the sash and give air only at the back. 
Uncover during warm rains but keep covered 
nights until the middie of June, or until they 
crowd against the glasses. They are extremely 
tender and cannot be hardened to low tempera¬ 
ture as the tomato can. He has thus put them 
on the Norfolk market at $4.00 per basket. 
A great many faemrrs seem to think that 
they are the only laborers in the world. This is 
a very foolish thing. Farmers cannot get along 
without the mechanic. You are not independ¬ 
ent of the man of genius. Your prosperity de¬ 
pends upon the inventor. The world advances 
by the assistance of all laborers; and all labor is 
under obligations to the inventions of genius. 
The inventor does as much for agriculture as he 
who tills the soil. All laboring men should be 
brothers. You are in partnership with the me¬ 
chanics who make your reapers, your mowers 
and your plows; and you should take into your 
Granges all the men who make their living by 
honest labor. The laboring people should unite, 
and protect themselves against all idlers. 
