21 
The Bantams. —There is no greater source 
of profitable enjoyment for a child than a few 
diminutive Bantams. They can be kept at a 
trifling expense, and a small box sometimes 
answers well for them as headquarters. They 
are good flyers, however, and the hawks are not 
wise enough to discriminate regarding their age, 
they are carried off' like chicks. A latticed 
yard, covered in the same way, is the safest 
plan with them.— Western Farm Journal. 
The Pea and Bean Weevil.— The follow¬ 
ing remedy for these pests is traveling among 
our exchanges: 
After harvesting, dry thoroughly in the sun, 
and alterward place in jars, cans or barrels that 
have been thoroughly heated before the fire, 
placing in each vessel a bottle of turpentine, not 
corking the bottle, but simply tying a piece of 
cloth over its mouth. Cover the vessels as air¬ 
tight as boasible, and afterward expose to the 
sun accasionally. The fumes of the turpentine 
enge«dered by the heat kill the egg of weevil 
deposited in the seed when it is green. This is 
an effectual remedy, and should be known to all 
seed growers North or South. 
Bot Flies. —John W. Rutherford, of St, Law¬ 
rence Co., N. Y., gives his experience as follows: 
In a field where bot flies were very plenty, I 
stopped my team to kill some of them. I stood 
near one of the horses with my hand under his 
throat; a fly stuck an egg on a hair of my arm 
(my sleeves being rolled up) which caused a 
sharp stinging pain, almost equal to the sting of 
a bee, which soon swelled to a hard lump. The 
fly did not touch the skin, and I cannot acoount 
for the effect, unless it ejected some poisonous 
fluid conveyed by the hair to the nerve. And I 
suppose the fly produces the same effect on horses, 
as we can find, on examing in bot fly time, little 
lumps between the jaws on the outside near the 
throat. 
Use of Lime. —The first and one of the most 
important rules to be observed in the use of lime 
is, that it should be applied in these large doses 
only to soils comparatively rich in humus, or 
strong clay soils, rich in finely-divided silicates. 
It has been proved by experiment that lime 
will convert plant-food from insoluble to soluble 
forms in either case. We find the proverb cur¬ 
rent in France and Germany, as well as in our 
own language, that “lime without manure 
makes the father rich, but the children poor;” 
which means, plainly enough., not only should 
we start with a good soil in using lime, but 
should maintain its good condition by tne liberal 
use of manure. And we find that whenever, in 
this country or elsewhere, lime is used intelli¬ 
gently, manure is used freely.—Prof. Caldwell. 
Wearing Out Tools.— Farm tools will rust 
out sooner they will wear out. Many farmers 
injure their farm implements more by exposure 
to the weather than by the use on the farm. An 
implement which with good care would last 
twenty years, will, when exposed to the weather, 
become useless in five years or even less. A 
farm cart which, with good usage, would almost 
last a lifetime, will only a few years, when expos¬ 
ed to the weather. The explanation of the reason 
why farming does not pay with money is found 
in this neglect to take care of the farm tools. 
All farm implements are costly, and the farmer 
who has to buy three or four times as many 
as his neighbors because he does not teke care of 
them, of course will not find much profit in 
farming. The same carelessness in any other 
kind of business, would insure equally as dis¬ 
astrous results. 
Indigenous Potatoes. —Mr. John E. Lem¬ 
mon, a member of the California Academy of 
Sciences, has made a very important discovery. 
He has recently returned from a botanical ex¬ 
cursion of several months in the range of rug¬ 
ged mountains in Arizona along the Mexican 
frontier. The discovery is that of two or three 
varieties of native indigenous potatoes, some of 
which were growing in mountain meadows, 
whose surrounding peaks were 10,000 feet above 
the level of the sea. The specimens were about 
as large as walnuts, and they were to be dis¬ 
tributed among careful cultivators, who will 
experiment with them for>a number of years to 
see what can be made of them. The original 
home of the potato has long been a matter of dis¬ 
pute, but we now know where one home is to 
a certainty. It is among the probabilities J hat 
from these Arizona tubers will come a new and 
vigorous race of potatoes to take the place of the 
short-lived varieties now grown. It is true we 
get occasional new and fine varieties from seed 
balls, but after all they are from the same old 
stock, the inheritants of disease and constitu¬ 
tional weakness, as is proved by the fact that 
all of them “run out” after a few years. They 
do not cease to appear in our markets because 
they are superseded by better varieties, but 
because they cease to be productive. Prof. Lem¬ 
mon’s discovery will be hailed with delight by 
scientists the world over. 
Comparative Value of Corn and Oats 
for Horses. —The comparative value of corn 
and oats for horses may be briefly stated as 
