1880 .J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
421 
clods when no better places can be found.” Many 
go into the forest and along the bush-bordered 
streams. “ During the winter they remain in a 
torpid or semi-torpid state, but are easily warmed 
into life and activity. As the cold weather becomes 
more and more severe they press deeper and deeper, 
if possible, into the recesses of their hiding-places. 
They prefer dry quarters if readily obtained.” 
There are two broods of this injurious insect 
during the season. The perfect insect comes forth 
in spring (March to May), deposits its eggs, which 
soon hatch and pass through the stages of develop¬ 
ment, to in turn lay their eggs, which produce the 
fall brood to hibernate until spring again. 
Weeds: Two Troublesome Daisies. 
The Ox-Eye Daisy ( Leucanthemum vulgare ) and 
the Small White Daisy ( Erigeron strigosum) are 
troublesome weeds. These plants, known by differ¬ 
ent popular names, are somewhat 
similar, the latter, however, hav¬ 
ing smaller flowers, and being an¬ 
nual or biennial, while the former 
has much larger flowers and is a 
perennial. The Ox-Eye Daisy is, 
therefore, the most difficult to get 
rid of, as cutting before the seed 
is ripe is not sufficient. These 
weeds are rapidly spreading over 
the whole country, and scarcely 
a farm is to be found free from 
them. They are mown with the 
hay, and the seeds are thus carried 
far and wide to new fields and fresh 
pastures. When Timothy is cut 
for seed these weeds are gathered 
with it and thus too the seed is 
sown in new places. Something 
should be done to destroy these 
pests. Early mowing of the 
meadows will destroy the small 
fastened so wide apart the draft is much steadier 
than if attached nearer together. The stick not 
being quite heavy enough, he added two fence 
rails, fastening them on by a chain near the middle. 
A bundle of four or five fence rails would doubtless 
do equally well. The weight of the smoother 
should depend upon the hight of the ridges and the 
stiffness of the soil. The laborer carries the end 
of the middle chain in his hand, and with it guides 
the smoother, or lifts it if it becomes clogged or 
drags along weeds or sods. In turning also at the 
end of the drills, he lifts the implement by pulling 
back upon the chain. The action is very different 
from that of a roller; instead of flattening it 
smooths, and if sods or stones lay upon the ridges 
they are shoved off and not crowded into the drill, 
to be in the way of the seed sower. 
Eor the best use of such a smoother, the land 
should be reasonably clear of large stones. It has 
one decided advantage over the roller, in that 
A ONE-HORSE HOME-MADE RIDGE SMOOTHER. 
daisy, as the root will die the second year at least; 
but the Ox-Eye Daisy, as it is perennial, cannot 
thus be killed out. This can only be done by cul¬ 
tivation, and care to avoid using hay from infested 
fields, or foul grass seed. To cut the weed after 
the blossoms have formed, in the hope of prevent¬ 
ing the seeds from ripening, will be futile. The 
seed will mature after the plant is cut, if the flower 
has been fully expanded, and hay that has been 
mown early to escape mixing of the seed of the 
daisy, will, after all, be infested. The plan most 
likely to be successful, is, to seed down with a 
mixture of Orchard-Grass and Clover; this is ready 
to cut in May or June before the daisies have pre¬ 
pared to blossom, and the flower stalks being cut 
off, a new growth must be made. This will fre¬ 
quently happen, however, but as a second cutting 
is usually made of the Orchard-Grass, this may 
still be taken before the second growth of the dai¬ 
sies can show itself in flower. In this way these 
weeds, of both kinds, may be brought into sub¬ 
jection. Otherwise a succession of cultivated crops 
for three or four years, should be grown, and every 
daisy that escapes the cultivator should be pulled. 
It maybe thought that this is too laborious and ex¬ 
pensive to pay. But the loss sustained year after 
year, and the damage done to the meadows and 
pastures by these weeds is considerable, enough to 
warrant some expense and a good deal of labor to 
eradicate them. A farm cannot be kept clear of 
them, if hay or seed is brought from land that is 
infested. Buy only pure hay and clean seed. 
A Ridge Smoother. 
A correspondent who raises every year a good 
many roots, and whose practice has been to manure 
in the drill and cover with the plow, by ridging up 
over the manure and sowing the seed upon the 
ridges, first flattening them by a light roller, writes 
to the American Agriculturist that he has, or thinks 
he has, found a better way. 
The roller was out of order and so he attached 
the trace chains, about six feet apart, to a 12-foot 
stick about 6 to 8 inches in diameter, in the way 
shown in the accompanying engraving. When 
grass sods, and many weeds, are not pressed and 
settled into the ground, to 6tart up at the first 
rain, but are swept off into the hollows between 
the ridges, where they do little harm and the cul¬ 
tivator will strike them the first time it is used. 
Yellows in Peaches. 
From the number and character of the letters 
that are coming to us, it is evident that, in some 
regions, this has been a very destructive year to the 
peach trees on account of the prevalence of the 
“yellows.” A communication now before us is 
from “E. H. C.,” St. Joe, Michigan, in which it 
says: “ This vicinity has been a great peach 
region. The ‘ yellows ’ began here about ten years 
ago, and has swept every tree from existence. It 
is now claimed that the business (of peach-growing) 
is being restored in New Jersey, where the ‘yel¬ 
lows ’ prevailed a few years since. It is the topic 
for discussion at our next meeting,” etc. 
A recent letter from one of the leading peach- 
growers in Delaware, informs us that there has 
not been much trouble in that section from the 
“yellows” for a number of years. But what is 
the “yellows?” This question is so frequently 
asked, that we wish it could be answered beyond a 
shadow of doubt. The “ yellows ” has been 
claimed by some to be of fungus origin, while 
others class it among those deranged states of 
plants not caused, as far as is known, by either 
fungi or insects. In order to find out more con¬ 
cerning the nature of this destructive disease, we 
have spent considerable time in examining the dis¬ 
eased parts with the compound microscope. In 
this examination, which included all parts of af¬ 
fected trees; the leaf, stem, fruit, root, etc., no 
traces of fungus could be found. This, of course, 
is b} - no means conclusive that the trouble is not 
caused by fungus, but it leads one to believe that 
if the “ yellows ” is caused by a fungus, it is prob¬ 
ably one of those minute kinds like that of the 
yeast plant. Recent investigations upon the Pear 
Blight indicate that it may be caused by a fungus 
so small as to require the higher powers of the 
microscope to see it—that it can be artificially prop¬ 
agated on healthy pear trees by a process of in¬ 
oculation, etc. It may be that the “yellows” 
comes in the same category. It is certainly con¬ 
tagious, as has been proven beyond a doubt, and 
though not so sudden in its action as the Pear 
Blight, is, as many in the Michigan Peach Belt and 
other localities can testify, as destructive in the end. 
Our Apples in Sweden. 
Dr. Eneroth, of Stockholm, has sent us a copy of 
his Svensk Pomologi, Volumes I. and II., bound in 
one octavo volume. This “ Pomology of Sweden ” 
is a capital book. We feel that the letter-press is 
worthy of the figures, and these we see are excel¬ 
lent, both the wood-cuts and the chromo-litho¬ 
graphs. They represent to the life the apples, 
pears, plums, and some of the small fruits of culti¬ 
vation in that country, where, in the northern part 
especially, the length of the summer days makes 
amends for the shortness of the season. Dr. Ene¬ 
roth also sends a recent appendix, entitled, when 
put into English, “Contributions to the Pomma of 
Europe at its Northern Limit.” It will be inter¬ 
esting to know the capabilities of our American ap¬ 
ples in this respect, so we have abstracted the fol¬ 
lowing results of their culture for several seasons 
in latitude 59°, or thereabouts, which parallel, in 
our country, is about the middle of Hudson’s Bay : 
The Baldwin appears to have failed altogether, 
and while beautiful exteriorly, is small, and the 
flesh is hard and dry, and does not come into 
eating until March. Not worthy of cultivation. 
Canada Red. —This is found to be an excellent 
keeper, and in quality is regarded as a rival of the 
Ribston Pippin. 
The McClellan apple, thus far, gives promise 
of being a very useful variety. 
Cox’s Orange Pippin. —This unites high charac¬ 
ter with great beauty, and is regarded by Dr. Ene¬ 
roth as one of the finest varieties of apple of which 
he has any knowledge, and he thinks that it will be 
cultivated everywhere in Sweden where fruit culti¬ 
vation is at all possible. It keeps until April, when 
it is as good as in January. 
Newtown Pippin. —This seems to sustain its 
high character there, and, grown on espalie'r, has 
produced fruit of uncommon size. 
The Early Strawberry also appears to be well 
suited for Switzerland, and the Swaar promises to 
be there, as it is with us, an apple of high charac¬ 
ter and of great value. A. G. 
Bare Pastures in Autumn. 
Why should meadows and pastures be brown and 
bare late in summer and in the autumn? Lawns 
can be kept green, and grass plots for late soiling 
may be made to yield a good cutting in October, 
“ brown October,” as it has been called. The rea¬ 
son is that we deal more liberally with our lawns 
and soiling plots; it is not that we do not cut them 
close, for no grass land is cut closer than a well- 
kept lawn. It is not the climate either which we 
have been so ready to blame for our browu and dry 
fields, but something in our management. The 
fact is, we do not give our grass lands a chance to 
do the best they can. As we write we look out 
upon a grass field which has been cut the third 
time, but which has been top-dressed after the first 
cutting; and another beside it which has been 
pastured since it was cut in June. The former is 
in complete verdure, and the ground is thickly 
covered; the latter is a miserable exhibition of 
bare brown spots, interspersed with masses of rag¬ 
weed, left uneaten by the cows ; a fair representa¬ 
tive of the majority of meadows and pastures. 
When we have learned that it is possible to make 
more profit from an acre of grass, than from an 
acre of any other crop, we shall do justice to it and 
treat our meadows liberally. Just now it is very 
important to consider what this treatment shall be. 
A coarse, tufty growth should not be left on the 
surface, which dies but does not rot, and is in the 
way of the mower next season; but this cannot 
now be removed by pasturing, which would only 
leave it in patches, nor by mowing, which would be 
