200 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
No. 150 . 
to the conclusion that their guanos are of very 
iittle real value. Chance circumstances there 
maybe, and doubtless have been, where increased 
crops have apparently resulted frorn their use, 
but these, so far as published, are not conclusive, 
arid until we have some better reason than we 
have yet seen for a change of opinion, we must 
regard the guano of the American Company as 
not entitled to the confidence of cultivators. 
We do not accuse the Company of fraudulent 
intentions. They may be themselves deceived. 
But we feel assured that the plausible arguments 
with which they are trying to convince farmers 
of the value of their fertilizer, are not founded 
upon a correct basis, and they are therefore lead¬ 
ing people astray, when they induce them to pay 
$30 or $40 per tun for a fertilizer which, for the 
reasons above givqn, we think cannot be worth 
half that sum, at the best. 
Transplanting, Easy, Safe, and Profitable. 
We wish to impress upon the readers of the 
Agriculturist that it is a very simple and safe 
operation to transplant nearly every thing that 
grows. Iti-sjustas easy to transplant corn as 
cabbage plants, and this in the middle of the hot¬ 
test day; audit is profitable also. Take an ex¬ 
ample. Here is a corn field planted in rows and 
hills three by four feet, which allows 3,630 hills 
to the acre Estimating the yield on a good soil, 
with all the hills perfect, at 50 bushels per acre, 
we have about a pint of corn to the hill But sup¬ 
pose we have 62 hills (one in every 60) deficient, 
there will then be a loss of one bushel of corn, 
with no less labor in preparing the ground and in 
the after cultivatios, for the weeds should be hoed 
down on the vacant spots. The vacant hills usu¬ 
ally amount to one in 15 or 20, taking the whole 
field together. But with a trowel, or other sim¬ 
ple implement, a man will readily fill up sixty 
hills in an hour, or two at most, by transplanting 
from those which have an excess of plants. This 
could be done on a rainy day, and we doubt wheth¬ 
er labor could be more profitably expended on 
the farm, in at least one half of the country, than 
in securing an extra bushel of corn by two hours 
labor. When the ground is wet it is easy to take 
a trowel or piece of shingle and divide a hill hav¬ 
ing superfluous shoots, lift out one side of the 
earth with the plants, and set them down where 
needed to fill in. This of course should be done 
while the plants are small and the roots not yet 
extended far, so that they may not be injured in 
dividing the hill. We have here taken the worst 
case and shewn its feasibility. In gardens, where 
higher culture is practiced, the profit of trans¬ 
planting would be much greater. 
A word on the mode of transplanting. During 
the second week in June, just after noon on one 
of the hottest days, we removed 200 large straw¬ 
berry plants, carrying them half a mile. They were 
partly fruited and partly in blossom, and yet after 
the transplanting they continued vigorous and 
perfected a portion of their fruit, and this too, 
though not a particle of shade or protection was 
placed over them, and the following two days 
were hot and dry. The mode of transplanting 
was the same as we adopt for all plants. 
The plants, of whatever kind, are taken up with 
as much undisturbed earth around them as may 
be practicable—cracking or breaking the earth 
severs a multitude of feeding and drinking mouths. 
A large hole is dug for each plant and a quart or 
mpre of water poured in. The roots are then 
dipped into the water and as it soaks away earth 
is filled in. The top half inch of earth is put in dry. 
This is important; a wet mass of earth will bake [ 
and shut out air and warmth, while the dry earth 
will soak up water from below to dampen it, and 
yet remain loose and friable. Plants set in this 
way have a moist bed below, and unless their 
roots are nearly gone they will go on growing— 
all the better for not being shaded even. 
Since adopting the above mode of setting plants 
into water and covering with dry earth at the top, 
and not watering afterwards from above to pack 
the ground, we have not lost one plant in a thou¬ 
sand, and they have grown as well after trans¬ 
planting as before. 
- ■ ^ a-exam- [i ob- 
Sow a Patch of Buckwheat. 
There are many fields which from failure of the 
corn, or delay in Spring plowing, are lying com¬ 
paratively idle. The grass is nearly run out, and 
thistle, dock, snap-dragon and other foul weeds 
are disputing for the vacant places. Although the 
labois of the present month are pressing, these 
patches should not be neglected, especially when 
ihere is a prospect that all the grain we can raise 
this season will be wanted at good prices. Even 
if these anticipations should not be realized, a 
good crop of buckwheat will greatly help to fill 
the right side of th'e farm balance sheet. 
If sown during the first two weeks of the pres¬ 
ent month (July) there will be a good chance for 
it to fill during the cool weather in September. 
Where there are “ swales ” ordinarily too wet to 
plow for corn in the Spring, cropping with buck¬ 
wheat will often be found a good preparation for 
seeding down with Winter rye after the Summer 
crop is harvested. 
-« < -—nsa {**■—-O---- 
The Wheat Insects—A Request. 
We intended to give in this number a full de¬ 
scription of some of the insects most destructive 
to wheat, illustrated with several engravings, but 
could not get the drawings quite completed in 
season. Next month we shall have an interest¬ 
ing and instructive illustrated article. The object 
of this note is to request our readers who reside 
in localities where the insects of various kinds are 
now at work, to send us immediately any items 
in their possession respecting their habits, etc., es¬ 
pecially of the Midge , and its parent the clear¬ 
winged wheat fly (Cccidomya Tritici). This midge 
or gnat, or weevil, as it is sometimes called, is 
now doing most of the injury in the wheat fields 
of the North and Northwest. It is the small yel¬ 
low or orange-colored maggot, that is found upon 
the unripe kernels of wheat. We have been una¬ 
ble, so far this season, to find specimens of either 
the fly or maggot. We would like to show them 
engraved on a magnified scale, and will be obliged 
to any one who can send us specimens during the 
first week of July. We have, already engraved, 
specimens of the chintz or chinch Bug, the Hes¬ 
sian Fly, and Grain Weevil ( Calandria, granaria). 
■--«az*<2> - 
Sow Turnips. 
Some farmers have talked and written against 
turnips for stock, and justly so, if their own ex¬ 
perience were the test. Cattle or other animals 
fed almost exclusively on turnips, for weeks to¬ 
gether, will not thrive well. But there is no 
doubt that a moderate feeding of turnips with dry 
fodder is better than dry feed alone. Every keep¬ 
er of live stock should raise some turnips. They 
can be grown at little cost. Every one can at 
this season find some ground that may be devoted 
to their culture. The seed may be sown at any 
time this month (July). Where a drill-sower is 
not at hand, and it is not convenient to harrow or 
dig it in, the seed may be sown broadcast upon 
the surface. A large part of it will generally 
take root, even if left uncovered. We intend to 
go over our own corn and potatoes, and through 
the vegetable garden, this month, with a dish of 
turnip seed and a rake or hoe in hand, and where 
ever there is a square foot not certain to be need¬ 
ed by plants already growing, the seed will be 
scattered, and raked into the surface a little. It 
will be sown between the rows of the earlier 
varieties of corn, and that to be cut up for fodder ; 
also among early potatoes, between the rows of 
peas in the garden, etc.—in short, wherever a 
single turnip can have room to develop itself, even 
late in the Autumn, there a few seeds will be left_ 
the superfluous plants to be removed when they 
crowd each other. In this way we shall get a 
good supply at very little cost. They will proba¬ 
bly be stored in the cellar, or in covered heaps, 
at less than 10 cents per bushel. Having seed, 
we sow the Long White French variety exclu¬ 
sively, but almost any variety may be sown up to 
the close of July—the earlier the better for ruta 
bagas. 
-— - «»•— — »— --- 
The Crops—The Frost. 
So far as we can gather, from correspondents, 
and from various other sources of information, 
the crop prospects are good, taking the country 
as a whole. The newspapers have been filled 
with accounts of damage by frosts, rain, drouth, 
etc., and parties who have on hand a stock of last 
year’s products to dispose of, have been interest¬ 
ed in magnifying every unfavorable report. 
That the untimely frosts in the second week in 
June did severe damage in some localities is cer¬ 
tain, but it i3 equally certain that the-injury was 
confined to limited areas. It is impossible, as 
yet, to determine the exact outlines of the dis¬ 
tricts where the cold operated with decided inju¬ 
ry on the whole, but enough is known to warrant 
us in saying that, of all the field, garden, and 
orchard crops in a condition to be seriously af¬ 
fected by the cold snaps during the week begin¬ 
ning June 5, not one plant in four hundred suffer¬ 
ed materially—that is, taking into account the 
whole country north of the latitude 38°. South 
of this no great harm was done. In special lo¬ 
calities the loss was very severe, and for the suf¬ 
ferers we feel a strong sympathy. We hope good 
weather, the rest of the season, will, in part, repair 
the loss experienced. Careful culture of the 
crops remaining, and an increased space devoted 
to buckwheat, turnips, etc., will be some help. 
It seems to be the economy of Providence, 
that individuals must at times suffer for the gen¬ 
eral good. History teaches that even the worst 
calamities, of war and pestilence, which produce 
intense suffering and desolation to individuals 
and whole countries, are yet overruled for the 
benefit of the race. So it is with such a calamity 
as the recent frosts. Myriads of devouring in¬ 
sects have been destroyed, and other beneficial 
results will continue to be discovered; and could 
we look over the whole ground, and then look 
into the future, as only He can who seeth the end 
from the beginning, we doubt not that we should 
all, even the most afflicted, be thankful for 
the frosts of June, 1859. We know by experience, 
that, when in the midst of trial, it requires no 
little effort for us to have faith in the doctrine 
that “all things are for the best.” The child, 
while smarting under the rod of correction, will 
be slow to believe that the discipline is for his 
ultimate good. So it is with us as grown up 
children. Yet, in after years, we can almost al¬ 
ways look back with satisfaction upon the re¬ 
sults of experiences of the most severe kind. 
