1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
173 
Sontnining a gnat variety of Items, msluding many 
food Hints and Suggestions which we throw into small 
type and condensed form, for want of space elsewhere. 
Fire l>ollar Clulis. —This is a convenient 
season to make up Clubs of four subscribers which are 
sent for $5.—A present of Strawberry plants is offered 
elsewhere in this paper. See page 194. 
TIic Fast oilfer of Fremiiims, for this 
year, is printed on page 172. It is worth looking into. 
Oar Strawberry Flants.— All queries 
in regard to these, are answered in two items elsewhere. 
Some premium plants are offered. See page 194. 
Sbeep Show at Canandaigua, N. 1^. 
The “ N. Y. State Sheep Breeders’ Association” held its 
first exhibition, on the grounds of the Ontario Agricultural 
Society, on the 9th, 10th and 11th of May. These grounds 
contain an amphitheatre capable of seating 12,000 persons, 
and were well adapted to the purpose for which they 
were used. The show of sheep was very large and fine, 
as regards Merinos ; mutton sheep, however, were not 
well represented. There were near 600 sheep of all 
kinds, the most valuable collection of sheep ever brought 
together in this country, or, probably, in any other. The 
attendance was not large, chiefly consisting of farmers, 
and those much interested in sheep raising. We have no 
room now for the list of premiums. The shearing in 
competition for Mr. Moore’s prizes excited much interest. 
There were 26 sheep sheared. The lightest fleece was 
one of 7 lbs., K oz., taken from a 33-lb. yearling ewe 
lamb, 11 months, 1 day old. The heaviest was from 221- 
lb., 2-year old buck, the fleece being 11 months, 26 days 
old, and weighing 29 lbs., 21 oz. One 135-lb , 2-year old 
buck sheared 24 lbs., and one 118K-lb., 3-year old buck 
sheared 22 lbs. The heaviest ewe’s fleece was 14 lbs., 8 
oz., from a 77-lb. 3-year old ewe. The lightest bucks 
fleece 10 lbs., 13 oz., from a 61 lb., 2-year old buck. The 
weight of fleeces after cleansing will be given when 
reported. 
Sap Spoats.— C. Sweet, Saratoga Co., N. Y., 
used, last year, pieces of hoop-iron, bent into a groove 
form, instead of tubular spiles, and recommends them 
to the sugar-boilers of the ''Agriculturist family.” 
Folyacco. —(Omitted under “Work for the 
Month.”)—Have the ground thoroughly enriched and mel¬ 
low ; set out plants from the 1st to the 20th of the month. 
Lift the most forward plants, after thoroughly watering 
the seed-bed. Move to the field in baskets, keeping the 
earth as much as possible on the roots. Set rather low 
but do not cover the plant with much, if anymore soil, 
than it had originally, putting the plants 2K feet apart 
in rows 3 feet apart. Tobacco plants may be transplanted 
as soon as they are. large enough, say, when the leaves 
are 3 inches long; and the planting may be continued 
until the 10th of July. Select if possible a rainy day after 
the ground is well soaked. Should the sun come out hot, 
cover the plants with a handful of fresh cut grass, and 
remove it .toward night. 
Adcaowledg'ement.— We have received 
and handed to the U. S. Christian Commission from 
Jas. Rice, Fort Ann, N. Y., $27; Mrs. Elizabeth Feath¬ 
ers, Scio, $10; A Friend, do., 50c. ; Sarah Carmalo, 
Susquehanna Co., Pa., $5.45; Mrs. Miles Joy, Ridgeway, 
do., $3 ; H. C. Sigler, Oceola, Iowa, $16.06 ; A. R. Durlin, 
Westminster, Md., $3.50; District No. 2, Adams, Wis., 
$4.55; S. Harrison, Camp Creek, N. Y., $1.75 ; J. Harri¬ 
son, do., 50c.-For the U. S. Sanitary Commission : 
From John Gilman, Rosemount, Minn., $4 ; A Lady in 
Yorkville, N. Y., $4 ; J. L. Russell, Erie, Pa'., $9; Thos. 
A. Haggerty, Warren Co., N. J., $2.80; E. W. Slaters, 
Orville, Cal., 50c., H. P. Byrara, Sag Harbor, $3.12. 
A. Word to Fiircliasers of* Seeds ; 
Nursery Stock, etc.— A number of complaints of 
failures of different dealers to respond to orders, have 
been sent to this office. These have been forwarded to 
the dealers, and the trouble doubtless rectified as far as it 
can be. It is not altogether fair, because no retuiii is re¬ 
ceived from an order, enclosing money, to set the dealer 
down at once as a humbug and a swindler. It should be 
considered, that there has been an unprecedented de¬ 
mand this spring for all kinds of horticultural and agri¬ 
cultural stock-so great that there has been unavoidable 
delay in filling orders. Moreover, in any large establish¬ 
ment, wliere the business is done by correspondence, 
many_ letters will be received, to which there is no pos¬ 
sible clue. We get letters without signature, as well as 
those from which the Post Office or State has been omit¬ 
ted. One of the difficulties arises from the growing 
custom of giving names to estates, and the use of these 
in correspondence, instead of the proper P. O. address. 
One may call his place Clovernook, Hardscrabble, or any 
other fancy or eccentric name, and have it well known 
to a whole neighborhood, while people a thousand miles 
away may be quite ignorant of the location, to which also 
the P. 0. Directory will give no clue. We believe, that 
the seedsmen, nurserymen, and others who advertise 
with us, do the right thing, and when we have good evi¬ 
dence that they will not, their advertisements will not be 
admitted. Before charging them with dishonesty, it is 
well to recollect, that there is a chance for mistakes on 
both sides, and it is only fair to give them an opportunity 
to rectify and explain. 
A Splendid Boole.— The new edition of 
“Downing's Landscape Gardening and Rural Architec¬ 
ture," which has just been issued, is one of the most 
attractive books of the season, and will be a highly orna¬ 
mental as well as useful book on every table where it 
finds a place. It is on extra paper, is superbly bound,, 
and contains over one hundred steel, lithograph and wood 
engravings, many of them full page. It is large octavo, 
contains 576 pages besides the tinted sheets of engravings. 
Price $6.50. Sent by mail at the same price. 
Time to Trim Apple Trees.— S. A. 
Morrison and others. If the limbs are small, they may 
be removed at any time, but large wounds heal best in 
July. The place may be covered with grafting wax 
melted and put on with a brush, or grafting clay. There 
is no better wash for the trunks than soft soap, thinned 
with water to work with a brush. Lime is objectionable. 
Tlie First Strawberries.— The earliest 
fruit shown at this office was a pot of the “ Agriculturist” 
from Messrs. L. Pullen & Son, Hightstown, N. J. The 
plant was a runner of last fall, potted and grown in the 
green-house, and though so young a plant it made a 
goodly show of fruit on May 15th. 
Birds and Strawberries.— Several have 
complained that though their straw'berry beds bear good 
crops, the birds get all the fruit. 'Where birds are so 
numerous as to be very troublesome, we know of no 
other way then to cover the bed with a net. One sub¬ 
scriber asks, if a stuffed cat skin would not scare the 
birds away. A similar proposition was made at the 
Farmers’ Club a short time ago, and it was suggested that 
the skin should contain a live cat, which would stuff it¬ 
self with birds. If any one has a ready means of keep¬ 
ing the biids away, they should communicate it. 
Protection ag^ainst Striped Bags. 
—Dr. J. D. Newbro, Ingham Co., Mich., uses tarred 
roofing paper to make boxes or frames to keep the strip¬ 
ed bug from cucumber, squash, and similar vines. The 
frames are made slightly tapering, so as to pack together 
when not in use. They are made 10 or 12 inches in dia¬ 
meter, and 12 or 15 inches high. They are prevented 
from blowing over by means of three stakes driven in¬ 
side, and the paper tacked to the stakes. The doctor 
thinks that the odor of the tar, with which the paper is 
covered, helps repel the insects. 
The Striped Bug) ag-ain.- A. Quinby, 
Westchester Co., N. Y., has had no trouble with them 
for the last ten years. He dusts the plants with dry 
earth, while the dew is on them, and if the plants are 
dry, he wets them and applies the dust. He says that 
the bugs w ill not feed on leaves, that are covered with 
grit. E. Humphrey states, that he has grown cucumbers 
for several years upon sod ground manured with hen 
manure, and has never seen a oug on the vines. 
Plants Named.—As the season of flowers 
is at hand, we get specimens of wild flowers for names. 
If the specimens are sent in good condition, we are very 
willing to name them, but we have no time to give to 
making out badly dried specimens, or those which are 
put in a letter in a green state, and “ all of a heap.” 
We should be glad if those.who take interest enough in 
flowers to wish to know what they are, could be induced 
to study botany and look them out themselves. At all 
events, we ask our friends to either press the specimens 
before sending, which may be done in some books of little 
value, or between folds of soft paper with a weight upon 
it, or send them fresh in some kind of box that will not 
get crushed in the mail. Mr. R. Allen, York Co., Me.: 
Coptis trifolia, very nicely dried specimens. This is call¬ 
ed Gold-Thread, on account of the bright yellow color of 
its roots, 01 - rather underground stems. It is a very pure 
bitter and is used in medicine and domestic practice... 
J. H. Parsons. Some kind of Smilax, which cannot be 
told without the leaves...E. G. Topping, Whiteside Co., 
Ill. Probably White Cedar, but specimens too small...J. 
C. Martindale, Phila. Co., Pa. The grass is Crypsis 
schcenoides, the Rush-like Crypsis, a European species 
which has become naturalized in some parts of Peno. 
The other is a species of Muscari, or Grape-Hyacinfll, 
but too old to say which one...R. R, Alleghany. The 
Dutchman’s breeches, Dicentra cucullaria...'EiWa.s Jones. 
Stellaria media, the common Chickweed. It will flower 
whenever not actually frozen. It is most troublesome in 
wet soils, and drainage is the best remedy...Emily C. 
Day. Hepatica triloba, or Liver-leaf. The young leaf 
not recognized... .J. M. Shaw. Bastard Pennyroyal, 
sometimes called Blue-curls, Trichostema dichotomum... 
J. E. Fuller. DiUzxiy, Cunila Mariana, It may be liked 
by some as a substitute for tea, but it smells too much 
like medicine to suit us. 
Tlie Borer.— F. D. Loy, Lyon Co., Kansas. 
The only sure remedy for the apple tree borer, is purely 
mechanical. Probe the holes with a wire or whalebone, 
and crush the maggot; then wrap the lower part of 
the trunk for a foot or more with tarred paper, first re¬ 
moving the earth, so that the lower edge of the paper 
will be near the roots, and draw the earth back again. 
Anotlier Borer Remedy.— A subscriber 
finds, that an occasional application of urine around the 
trunks of peach trees, is offensive to the borer, and con¬ 
ducive to the health of the tree. 
Again and Again 'we are obliged in self- 
defence to repeat that we know nothing about and wish 
to know nothing about any quack doctors in New York 
or any other city. We have repeated so often the state¬ 
ment that no one who advertises his cures is, in our opin¬ 
ion, worthy of confidence, that it ought by this time to be 
generally understood by our readers. Notwithstanding 
the frequent expression of this opinion we are still very 
often appealed to by parties who wish to know if such or 
such an one is not an exception to this rule. These 
questions are generally asked about persons of w’hom we 
have never before heard, and the supposition is that they 
advertise only in the country papers. Sometimes these 
inquirers say, that they saw the advertisement of the so- 
called doctor in some particular paper, and think that it 
would not be admitted there if the advertiser was a quack. 
The fact is that tfle general, as well as the religious and, 
agricultural papers (except our own), exercise but very 
little censorship over what appears in their advertising 
columns, and the most outrageous and obscene things ap¬ 
pear under the head of “ medical advertisements” in the 
best of them. As a general rule, the longer a man’s ad¬ 
vertisement, the worse quack he is. Physicians of proper 
standing if they advertise at all, at most state their ad¬ 
dress and the fact that they give their attention to par¬ 
ticular diseases. Beware of the man who does more than 
this. We hope that our friends will not put themselves 
to the trouble of making inquires about advertising 
“ doctors,” for the only answer we can make is: “We 
know nothing of the persons.” 
■ Killing Flecampane.— “F. F.” says, 
that tlie roots will be destroyed by fall-plowing the land. 
Strawberry Freserves—Note.— Since 
the page (191) containing “Mrs. F’s way of preserving 
strawberries,” went to press, Mr. F. informs us that the 
bottles containing the selected fruit, are to be kept in hot 
water until the fruit is thoroughly heated through, so as to 
expel the air completely, before the flavoring syrup from 
the other berries is added. 
New Kerosene Burner.— The new kero- ^ 
sene burner without chimney, with which a challenge is 
made in our advertising columns, combines some ad¬ 
vantages we have never before seen so fully attained. 
The light is clear, free from smoke, and although not 
equal to a chimney burner, will answer well for or¬ 
dinary use. A great point gained is, it is not easily blown 
out; it may be carried up and down stairs rapidly with¬ 
out being extinguished. 
Iviu’s Hair Crimpers— Several inquir¬ 
ers. Ladies who have used these, report that they like 
them much. They are in the form of a hair pin, are 
easily applied, require no heat, and therefore do not in¬ 
jure the hair as some other appliances used to crimp the 
hair, and give it the wavy appearance admired by some, 
A Waspish Item.— A correspondent asks,' 
why wasps cannot sting a person while he continues to 
hold his breath. Let the inquirer when he finds a Yellow- 
jacket’s nest, hold his breath good and tight, and break up 
the nest, and if he does not get sj,ung, we shall conclude 
it was—because he held his breath. 
