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AGRICULTURE 
1W1I0IE NO. 652, 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE LEADING AMERICAN WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITER ART AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
a good many small shoots would be the result, while 
sometimes a very small set would give one or two 
strong shoots. 
The soil on which these experiments were con¬ 
ducted is a yellowish chestnut loam, poor from con¬ 
stant cropping, and 350 pounds of Peruvian guano to 
the acre was used. Barns' Seedling was the variety. 
when punctured, as shown at (3)—(4) being the 
natural size.” 
We do not know that any means have been 
devised for destroying this aphis. Smoking, which 
proves effectual with many of the aphis family, 
would be out of the question in the field. Slaked 
lime in a powder has been recommended for dust¬ 
ing the wheat heads, as also chloride ot lime. 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOOBE, 
With an Able Corps of Assistants and Contributors. 
CHAS. D. BHAGDON. Western Corresponding Editor, 
The Army and Canker Worm. 
Eos. Rural New-Yorker - —Will you please give me a 
description of the army worm? There is a worm in this 
vicinity which has very recently made its appearance, destroy¬ 
ing the forest leaves, and rendering the trees as desolate as in 
mid winter. The full sized worm is about one and a half 
inches long, grayish color, brown and green stripes along the 
sides, and yellow or straw-colored Spots along the back.— 
Lyman Walker, Fan du Lac, UTs., IS62. 
The worm that is destroying the forest leaves in 
your section is not the army worm, as this enemy 
never ascends trees, but confines its ravages to the 
smaller herbage near the surface of the ground. 
Your insect is probably a canker worm, which has 
proved very destructive to orchard as well as f .rest 
trees. It makes its appearance early in the spring, 
the perfect insect then coaling out of the ground 
and making its way toward the nearest trees and 
creeping slowly up the trunks. The females soon 
lay their eggs upon the branches of the trees, when 
they are glued (irmly in clusters of from sixty to 
ODe hundred, each female laying about this number. 
These eggs are usually hatched about the middle of 
May, and the young canker worms commence feed¬ 
ing upon the young leaves. At first, being small, 
they are unnoticed, but in June, when they become 
large and voracious, if numerous, they strip the 
trees of every leal, and sometimes orchards and 
forests appear as though visited by fire. 
The only way of protecting trees from these 
spoilers seems to be (o prevent the females from 
ascending the trees to deposit their eggs; and as 
the females are without wings, this is not so difficult 
as may be imagined. A strip of tarred cloth around 
the trunk, if changed frequently, will accomplish 
the object. Circular troughs placed around trees 
and filled with cheap oil have been used at ihe East 
but care must be had to prevent the oil and tar from 
besmearing the bark. 
Tub Rural New Yorker ib designed to bo unsurpassed in 
Value, l Unity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and nniriue 
and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes his per¬ 
sonal attention to the supervision of its various departments, 
and earnestly labors to render the Rural an eminently Reliable 
Guide on all the important Practical, Scientific and other 
Subjects intimately connected with the business of those whose 
interests it zealously advocates. As a Family Journal it is 
eminently Instructive and Entertaining—being - 80 conducted 
that it can be safely taken to the Hearts and Homes of people 
of intelligence, taste and discrimination. It embraces more 
Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, Literary 
and News Matter, interspersed with appropriate and beautiful 
Engravings, than any other journal,—rendering it the most 
complete Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper 
in America. 
Adulteration of Manures In France. 
"We learn from the Mark: Lane Express that 
the adulteration of artificial manures and guano has 
attracted the attention of the French Government, 
through the efforts of M. Adolphe Bobjbrre, who 
has been appointed chemical analyzer of manures 
for the department of the Loire Inferieure, an insti¬ 
tution established by the Government. The gentle¬ 
man has addressed a detailed report, in the highest 
degree interesting to agricultural science and to the 
body of cultivators. lie was the first to call the 
attention of the authorities to the flagrant frauds 
perpetrated in the manufacture of manures, and to 
the numberless deceptions to which that trade gave 
rise. In consequence of his representations, the 
administration, in order to protect the ignorant and 
credulous husbandman, founded the institution 
alluded to, and justly appointed M. Bobterre the 
first analytical chemist; and the report that dis¬ 
tinguished savan has drawn up fully justifies 
the selection. In it he has laid bare the fraud¬ 
ulent tricks of the manufacturers to deceive both 
the analytical chemists and the agriculturists. 
For instance, in the article of animal char¬ 
coal, they profess to sell it as containing forty 
per cent of phosphate of lime. They send the 
article weighed, in a dry state, to the obemist, who 
accordingly finds it. contains the alleged proportion. 
But with the dry material the merchant mixes 
water, according t,o the tenderness or otherwise of 
bis conscience, and then sells it by the hectolitre (or 
measure ) instead of the kilogram (or weight;) and 
thus the buyer and the chemist are both mystified 
beyond any redemption. But, in order more effect¬ 
ually to conceal the fraud, light., spongy substances, 
such as carbonized peat and other similar sub¬ 
stances, are mixed with the animal black, and 
absorb the water, making it impossible, without 
another analysis, to detect the fraud, which, as 
shown by M. Bobierre, reduces the proportion of 
phosphate of lime to nineteen per cent., instead of 
forty. We trust, says the Express, this report will 
be translated into English, and circulated through 
the agricultural journals, among the farmers, who 
cannot be too much instructed as to the set of harpies 
by whom they are assailed, in the shape of artificial 
manure manufacturers. 
Above we give an engraving representing Pitts’ 
Thresher and Separator, with its latest improve¬ 
ments. This celebrated machine was invented by 
John A. and Hiram A. Putts, of Winthrop. Me., 
and patented by them in 1837. They first manufac¬ 
tured it in Winthrop, but the senior inventor estab¬ 
lished business in Rochester in 1846, since which 
the machine has become very popular. The Messrs. 
Pitts continued to manufacture, and to perfect the 
working of the machine, up to the time of their 
decease, in 1850. It is claimed to be the first and 
most successful machine for threshing and cleaning 
grain, at one operation, now before the public, and 
its popularity over a wide extent of country proves 
its usefulness and superiority. 
Thousands of our readers are familiar with this 
valuable labor-saving invention, yet we take pleas¬ 
ure in calling the attention of other thousands to it, 
especially at a season when such machinery 13 in 
demand. In their descriptive pamphlet the manu¬ 
facturers remark that ‘‘this celebrated machine, 
with the improvements that have been added, is the 
most perfect Thresher and Cleaner, at one opera¬ 
tion, in the world. The demand has always been 
greater than the supply, and yet for the last ten 
years this concern has manufactured nearly double 
the number of any other concern in the country. 
This Machine is now in use in several places in 
Europe, in Australia, in South America, and in Cal¬ 
ifornia the demand is greater than for all other ma¬ 
chines combined. They are in universal use in 
every grain-growing State. All who are engaged 
in manufacturing a good Threshing Machine, must 
of necessity endeavor to imitate this. Of course 
parties about purchasing, and who desire to get the 
best Thresher, prefer to get one from the original 
manufactory, knowing that they can be relief on as 
the very best machines iu the world.” 
The latest improvement in this machine consists 
in placing a rack or slats between the straw belts of 
the Separator, to prevent the straw from passing 
through into the fanning mill beneath, or accumu¬ 
lating inside of the belt, thus securing its free opera¬ 
tion, and facilitating more perfect separation of the 
grain from the straw. It entirely prevents the 
straw from carrying any of the grain over the 
machine. The machine, as thus perfected, is now 
extensively manufactured by Messrs. Pitts & 
Brayley, proprietors of the Rochester Agricultural 
Works, to whose advertisement we direct the atten¬ 
tion of all interested. The machines and Imple¬ 
ments manufactured at this establishment are fin¬ 
ished in thehest style, aswe can attest from personal 
knowledge, and we have no hesitation in pro¬ 
nouncing them worthy the attention of the agricul¬ 
tural community. 
IJT- For Terras and other particulars, see last page. 
NOTES AND INQUIRIES. 
Potato Cultnre—Large Crop. 
Eos. Rural New-Yorkku: —I noticed an article in a 
late Rural, under the head of “Timely Suggestions,” which 
stated that the writer had grown six hundred bushels of pota¬ 
toes per acre. Will you, or the writer of the article alluded 
k to, plea«c inform me through the medium of the Rural the 
^kind of potatoes planted, the kind of manure used, the dis¬ 
tance of the potatoes iu the hills or rows, the kind of soil, 
and manner of cultivation?— A Young Farmer, Greene Co., 
A'. K, 1862, 
The crop referred to in the article noticed by our 
correspondent, was grown in 1860, the soil a sandy 
loam, but poor from hard usage and constant crop¬ 
ping. The variety grown was Davis' Seedling, one 
of the best of potatoes, we consider, for a general 
crop, a fine keeper, excellent even until late in 
July, and unsurpassed as a cropper. It has a small 
top, and therefore may be planted quite close, and 
matures early in the fall, so that it can be dug and 
stored in fine weather. The seed was cut, about 
one-third of a potato being used, planted in rows, 
the rows twenty inches apart, and the sets in the 
rows about ten inches. The ground was kept mel¬ 
low aud clean with the fork and hoe. The amount 
of ground used was half an acre, measured cor¬ 
rectly and staked, and the crop was placed on the 
ground to dry in the sun for three or four hours, 
and then weighed, for which purpose a platform 
scale was taken to the field. There were very few 
small potatoes, not more than two and a half bush¬ 
els in the lot, and ot these no account was taken, as 
the crop over-ruu three hundred bushels by fifteen 
pounds without them. In planting, a line was 
stretched the width of the plot, and a drill made 
with the hoe. Two hundred and seventy-five 
pounds of guano was used on the half acre, and a 
calculation being made of the quantity this would 
give to each drill, it was measured off and scattered 
in the drill. It was then scattered with the rake 
and a little earth drawn over it, and the seed 
planted and covered. 
In 185!) we made some experiments to learn the 
best mode of planting, as to distance, cut or uncut 
seed, &c., with the following result: Five rows, 60 
feet long and 2 feet apart, with sets of two good 
eyes 1 foot apart in the rows, produced 5 bushels 25 
pounds, or at the rate of about 400 bushels to the 
acre. Five rows of same length and distance apart, 
planted with sets of one-fourth of a potato cut 
lengthwise. 2 feet apart in the rows, produced 3 
bushels and 25 pounds, or at the rate of 230 bushels 
to the acre. Five rows the same, planted with 
whole potatoes, 1 foot apart, yielded 5 bushels 10 
pounds, or about 370 bushels to the acre. Five 
rows with whole potatoes, 2 feet apart in the rows, 
gave 4 bushels 15 pounds, or about 300 bushels to 
the acre. 
Five rows of hills, 60 feet loDg and 3 feet apart 
each way, with two sets containing two good eyes, 
in each hill, produced 4 bushels 45 pounds, or at 
the rate of 230 bushels to the acre. Five rows of 
hills, same as before, planted with 3 sets in a hill, 
made by cutting a medium-sized potato into three 
parts, 5 bushels 25 pounds, or about at the rate of 
260 bushels to the acre. Five rows of hills, with 
two half potatoes in the hill, yielded 5 bushels 11 
pounds, about 243 bushels to the 
Aphis, or Plant Lice. 
12ds. Rural Nkw-Yorker:— Inclosed you will find a 
head of wheat infested by numerous insects, which excites 
some uneasiness. Will you be kind enough to give us your 
opinion with regard to them, and whether any danger to the 
wheat need be apprehended?—D. Hi lands, PerrytviUe, Alle¬ 
ghany Co., Penn., 1862. 
The insects received with the above, clustered on 
a head of wheat, are the grain aphis (Aphis Arena:, 
of Curtis.) They were very numerous in sections 
of this State as well as at the east last season, infest¬ 
ing the wheat and oats, and dying much injury to 
the grain by sucking the juices needed for the per¬ 
fection of the seed. In an excursion among the 
wheat fields in the vicinity of Rochester, a few days 
since, we failed to find the aphis, though it is not at 
all likely that the farmers of this State will escape. 
We are indebted to Curtis for the. accompanying 
engraving and description of this insect, as well as 
its ichneumon enemies, which we hope are to check 
its ravages, and may have already done so in a 
great measure: 
seven or eight weeks old all the pigs he did not 
require for breeding he had cut, and began to wean 
them a fortnight afterwards. He then turned them 
out into a grass field, with a hovel tor them to run 
into, and allowed each pig a quart per day of peas, 
Egyptian beans, or Indian corn. English beans 
did not answer for young pigs, being too heating. 
He gave them one pint of corn in the morning, and 
the other in the evening, with regularity as to time 
and quantity, and found it better to give to them on 
the grass, in a clean place each time, than in a 
trough, as it prevented quarrelling, and each pig 
got his share. With this quart of corn per day, and 
what grass they got durmg the seven months of the 
year, with nothing but, water to drink, the pigs 
would, on an average, make five pounds of pork 
each per week. After eight months, be allowed an 
extra half pint of corn per day. One man atteuded 
well to from 200 to 250 pigs; he must like the job 
sufficiently well to take an interest in tho pig, as 
carelessness on the part of the man materially 
decreased the profit. He kept the store sows when 
in pig the same as the other stores. They ran about 
in a field till a fortnight before pigging, when he 
placed them in a covered shed, so constructed as to 
admit as much sun as possible. Young pigs kept 
in the manner described were always nearly fat 
enough for porkers, and did not require more than 
two or three weeks feeding on meal. It wus Lime 
enough to begin to feed pigs for bacon at eight or 
ten months old. It was desirable in breeding ani¬ 
mals to have as little bone as possible in proportion 
to flesh. He had tested a cut sow of his breed, 
about thirty months old, which weighed thirty-two 
score, (610 pounds,) and the whole of the bones, 
after the flesh had been boiled Irom them, only 
weighed twenty pounds; so that for every pound of 
bone there were thirty-two pounds of meat. which 
he believed to be a fair average of his breed. Ilis 
pigs made two pounds ot flesh for every four pounds 
of good Indian corn, barley, or pea meal; as a rule, 
he preferred the Indian corn. He considered it 
always to be more profitable to feed upon good food 
than upon inferior. A3 a rale, pigs would thrive 
better fer being turned out once a day, except in 
wet weather, aud they would also be healthier, 
more active, have a cleaner appearance, and would 
possess a great advantage in the show-yard over 
heavy, ungainly pigs, which could not move about 
to show themselves. 
locality round me a plantation acre of grass will fat¬ 
ten a bullock at four or five months’ feeding. Now, 
an average sized goose, weighing 10 lbs., will eat at 
least two pounds of grass per day—that, is, one-fifth 
of her weight, and certainly will destroy as much 
more, and leave it unfit for a beast to touch. But 
leaving the last statement out of the question, and 
taking for granted that a cow will eat seven stones 
or 98 pounds of grass per day, we have 49 geese 
equal to one cow. Bat now let us tuke a view of the 
two acres at the end of the season, and what will we 
see? The acre fed by the cow, although bare, is well 
manured, and “nothing worse of the wear;” while 
the one fed on by the geese is literally burned lip by 
their dung. Any person that knows the dreadful 
injury inflicted on grazing pasture by geese would 
manage to house-feed them, unless there were a com¬ 
mons or bog convenient to drive them out on. 
The editor remarks:—Though the droppings of 
the geese injure the grass for the time being, it acts 
as a potent manure afterwards. 
l’ig Breeding aud Feeding. 
A short time ago Mr. Baldwyn, of Bredon 
nouse, near Birmingham, England, delivered a 
lecture on the breeding and feeding of pigs, and as 
it contains much which may prove of value to 
American pork raisers, we condense therefrom: 
•‘In opening the lecture. Mr. Baldwyn said:—In 
1845 he entered on a farm at Kingsnorton. In 1846 
he purchased two gilts and a boar, of the Tarnworth 
breed, from his cousin, who was famed lor his breeds 
of Tamworths; and although he (the lecturer) com¬ 
menced breeding with three pigs in 1846, in 1851 he 
sold £1,000 worth of store and fat pigs within one 
year; and in the years 1852, 1853, 1854 and 1855 he 
sold £1,000 worth each year. When he had got his 
stock up to about 40 breeding sows, in picking the 
breeders tie used to pick them several times over, 
as it frequently happened that Ihose which looked 
the prettiest and best when young, altered consid¬ 
erably when they got three, four, or five months old. 
The rule was to pick long-growing pigs, and those 
that were straight and thick through the shoulder 
and heart; and experience had convinced him that 
his method of choosing was a correct one. There 
need be no greater proof of that than the number 
of medals and prizes he had obtained. He always 
kept to the Tarnworth breeds, generally purchasing 
the boars, but breeding the sows. If he found the 
pigs getting too fine, he purchased a good strong 
boar, and if the animal exhibited tendencies the 
other way, he picked a boar of good small bone, but 
was always particular to pick a boar that was thick 
through the shoulder and beart, and a straight- 
growing pig of the same color and breed. By care¬ 
fully following this plan he got the breed so good 
that it was a rare occurrence to see even a middling 
pig in the flock, though he bred trom 250 to 300 each 
year. 
His plan of keeping was as follows: — As soon as 
the sows littered they were kept on kibbled oats, 
scalded, with raw swedes or cabbage; and when the 
pigs got to the age of three weeks or a month, he 
turned the sows out from them for a short time 
every day, and gave the pigs a few peas or a little 
Indian corn while the sow was away. When the 
weather was fine and warm the pigs went out with 
the mother into a grassy field for a short time. He 
found that young pigs, from the age of three weeks, 
required dirt or grit, and therefore, if the weather 
was bad, aud they could not be turned out. it was 
necessary to put some grit into the sty. This was 
very important, as he believed it was quite neces¬ 
sary for the proper digestion of their food. At 
NOTES FROM LANCASTER Co., Pa. 
Dear Rural:— It may not be uninteresting to 
your readers if I tell them of some things in Lan¬ 
caster Co., Pa., which have interested me. An 
inhabitant once said to me, with evident pride, 
“ There is but one Lancaster county in the world.” 
Certainly 1 have never been in any section where 
there was so much wealth among farmers as here, 
and the county is noteworthy iu other respects. 
The county lies on the east side of the Susque¬ 
hanna. Its surface is uneven, gradually rising back 
from the river, though there is but little waste land. 
The Pennsylvania bank-barns are lhe admiration 
of all who observe them, aud they reach their great¬ 
est perfection here. There is an appearance of 
utility and durability about them, which speaks of 
the solid farmer. I saw one which was built in 
1814, that appears to be good for another century. 
The slate roof alone often costs as much as the 30 
by 40 barns usually built in Western New York. 
The wealth of the county is manifested as much 
as by anything else in the great number of good 
turnpike roads, which connect all the important 
places in the county. These are McAdamized and 
kept in good repair; but to furnish the “needful” 
to do this a toll is charged, which appears high to 
a New Yorker. The bridge across tho Susquehanna, 
connecting Columbia, Lancaster Co., with Wrights- 
ville, in York Co., is one and one-fourth miles long, 
and is used as a wagon, railroad and canal bridge. 
The cars are drawn across by force of mule power, 
on account of the danger from fire, as it is a covered 
wooden structure. The York & Columbia railroad 
crosses here, and with the Columbia & Reading rail¬ 
road, now fast approaching completion, promises a 
more direct route from New York city to Washing¬ 
ton than by Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania canal 
crosses at this point. A dam is built a mile below 
“A. granaria (wheat plant louse) inhabits corn 
crops, having been observed upon barley and oats, 
as well as upon wheat. In July and August it is 
sometimes abundant on the ears of wheat, sucking 
the stem, and impoverishing the grain. The male 
is green, (1)—(2) natural dimensions — horns very 
long and black; eyes and three ocelli black; disc of 
trunk dark; tubes slender, longish and black; 
nervures of wings pale brown; terminal cellseini- 
heart shaped; stigma long and green; hinder legs 
very long; thighs, excepting the base, tips of shanks, 
and feet black. Female often apterous wingless,) 
dull orange; horns, excepting the base, eyes, and 
abdominal tubes (which are stouter than in the 
winged specimens,) black; legs blackish, anterior 
thighs, and base of tibhc, more or less ochreous. 
Numbers of the apterous females are often seen dead, 
and of a tawny or black color, upun the oar« yp- 
wheat, having been punctured by a parade jjy i 
named Aphidius arena:, (5)—(6) the uatiq a i $[ ze — 
which escapes when it hatches, by forcing open a |ja 
at the end or side of the body. Ephredfo^ plagia- 
tor, (7)—(8) natural dimensions—is a para¬ 
site, bred from - the dead females, whit/ ,, . n black 
P unus, about 248 bushels to the acre. Five rows ot 
hills with one set in each hill, containing three good 
eyes, gave 3 bushels 7 pounds, or about 150 bushels 
to the acre. 
Occasionally dug up sets to examine them, and 
found that from a whole potato, as a general rule, 
only from two to four of the strongest eyes grew, 
the others remaining dormant, the eyes obtaining 
the first start appearing to have exhausted the 
nutriment in the potato before, those slower in grow- 
tng had got ready to claim their share. The same 
potato cut in two, three, or even four pieces, would 
give about the same number of shoots to each set, 
though the smaller the sets the weaker were the 
l u0l *‘ 7° tliese rules there were some exceptions, 
oi occasionally most of the eyes in a whole potato 
would commence growth about the same time, and 
Geese vs. Cows—A Comparison. 
The Rural has been favored by correspond¬ 
ents, with several inquiries relative to the care of 
geese, and as we note some talk about this fowl, 
(though embracing another branch of their keep¬ 
ing,) we give the following from a writer in the 
Irish Farmer's Gazette: 
Seeing in your Gazette of last week a query, as to 
the number of geese equal to a cow on grass, an 
answer at once suggests itself. In some parts of the 
IRVING Chaut Co N Y 
