WRIGGLERS FOR YOUNG TROUT 
IRRIGATION IN MONTANA 
Fred Mather, in American Farm Journal 
says :—“ I have been experimenting for the 
past three years to find live food, such as the 
trout thrive on in a state of nature, for cer¬ 
tainly such food would not only be sure to be 
acceptable and agree with them, but by re 
malning alive would he fed more gradually 
and—greatest merit of all—would not foul 
the water. 1 tried to gather the little fresh 
water shrimp, {gainmnrus) with which my 
spring abounds, but found it impossible to 
get them in sullieient quantities. 
“The next, move was to breed this crus¬ 
tacean, which proved a failure. Several 
aquatic insects were tried next with like re 
suits, until the ease seemed almost hopeless; 
several insects were found that could be bred, 
but not in quantity, that was the great stick 
ing point. There was a vague kind of a belief 
that it could be done if proper pains were 
taken, but it was like groping in the. dark 
and straining the eye for a gleam of light; 
at last it came, not a gleam as expected, but 
a flash, and to look at it now it seems so ab¬ 
surd that this was not. the first thing to he 
thought of, but there is t hi> consolation, there 
were at least a half dozen trout growers all 
looking for the same thing, and ont• had writ¬ 
ten to 1'rof. < ’ll AH. V. Riley, the well known 
State Entomologist of Missouri, asking for in¬ 
formation on insect breeding. 
"And this is the way it came about. It 
was not discovered by patient work and sci 
entiiio investigation,‘but just -tumbled into 
by blunderhead luck. We had some barrels 
of rain water at the barn, and when wanted 
for laundr y use It was found to bn very dirty 
ami required straining; it. was fairly alive 
with wif/glent, the larvm of the moaouiCO. 
“None of Alchemists of old could have 
watched las crucible with more interest 
while expecting to see Iris baser metal change 
to gold, than those insignificant wrigglers 
were watched until they drifted down to 
where the young trout were and such a 
commotion as they made. They attracted 
no attention while'they remained quiet,, hut 
as soon as one stirred he was gone. Thorc 
trout that had never seen one before, knew 
them by instinct and they ate until their 
bodies seemed puffed out. enormously, and 1 
feared that they would die from over in¬ 
dulgence, but not one was lost. 
"Probably two barrels to each thousand 
fish will tie sufficient until they are four or 
live months old, and t he larvae can be fed at 
aiiy size desired. They can be gathered wit h 
less labor titan the same amount of food can 
lie chopped fine enough from liver or heart, 
ft w ar. late in the season last year when this 
thing was stumbled on, und consequently it 
was not tried in the troughs, but that is the 
place whore live fond is most desirable, and 
as soon as the first “gkocter ” makes its ap¬ 
pearance this spring the barrels will tie set 
out.” 
In the Rural New-Yorker of March 7th, 
I notice a request from C. M, D., Warsaw, N. 
Y., for information about irrigat ing plowed 
lands. As I have had several years exper¬ 
ience iu farming hi Montana, where we have 
to irrigate all our crops, I perhaps can give 
him and others a few hints that may be of 
use and interest. As we have no summer 
rains, we depend entirely upon irrigation to 
supply the necessary moisture to the soil of 
the growing crops. 
The soil is usually moist enough in spring, 
from melted snows and one or two spring 
rains, to bring up the grain and enable it to 
attain a bight of four to eight inches without 
extra water. Our main or load ditches arej 
made permanent, bringing the water from 
creek or river to the highest part of the field 
or farm. After the grain is sown and before 
it comes up (as at that time less grain is de¬ 
stroyed by plowing through it), shallow fur¬ 
row's are run from the load ditches, through 
the field, parallel, if the “lay” of the land 
will allow ; if not, then following the highest 
ground, with others along the sides of the 
ridges ; and if there are hollows with but! 
lit tle fall, a deep furrow or two should be run 
in the bottom of thorn to carry oil the waste 
water, or the grain there will be drowned 
out. 
The lands here have a uniform and gentle 
slope from the foothills to the creeks or river, 
making it much easier to distribute the 
water to the different parts of the fa rm, than 
where the land is undulating, with many 
ridges upon which the water must, be carried 
by various and crooked lead ditches. 
The furrows should bo from five to fifteen 
paces apart, depending upon the soil and lay 
of the land. If the soil is porous or is newly 
turned sod, the grain may lie irrigated by 
‘‘supago,” which is preferable to flooding 
when the grain is small, as it, does not cause 
the surface to bake in u lint sun. 
It should bo commenced before the ground 
gets very dry, as it then SUpes much better 
and quicker, 1 have known the ground to 
saturate for forty feet each side in a day and 
night, and again the water might mu a 
month and not supe three foot in some soils 
which had got very dry. 
Just enough water is turned into each fur¬ 
row to run through, and no more, as t he extra 
is but wasted. Regulate the quantity by a 
sod at t tie head of the furrow ; boxes or gates 
are unnecessary. The supago will show in 
foot tracks &c., more plainly iu the morning, 
before the sun dries up the surface. The 
water may be allowed to run in a half-dozen 
or fifty furrows at once, according to the 
needs and the amount of water available. 
if the land has much fall, the furrows must 
not run the steepest way, but iu an oblique 
direction, ms swift running water will snipe 
but little, besides washing out the furrows 
into gullies. The shallower the furrows and 
the slower the current, the belter. 
In irrigating corn, potatoes, &c., the water 
may be allowed to run in every other row, 
when it will take but a short time to wet the 
roots and can then be turned off. Potatoes 
should nut be kept too wet after they have 
bloomed, as it ret ards ripening and is liable to 
make them watery. 
Peas may be kept growing and bearing 
until frost, by keeping them tvet.. This is 
often done to delay their harvesting until 
ot her grain is taken care of. 
But the greater part of the irrigating of 
grain is by flooding ; but the grain should be 
six or eight inches high, so as to partially 
shade the ground and prevent its baking. 
TO GET GOOD WELL WATER 
ladies’ bamboo work stand.—(PAGE 287.) 
need no more water. On ordinary soil, one 
man with plenty of water, and commencing 
in t im e, can keep one hundred to one hundred 
and fifty acres well watered ; and few farm¬ 
ers who have plenty of water would willing¬ 
ly exchange our dry summers with irriga¬ 
tion, for the uncertain rains of the States. 
Itotna, M. T. W. B. Hxiu.an. 
In answer to an inquiry, B. G., in Scientific 
American, says : I have the best pump water 
in the neighborhood ; my plan was the fol¬ 
lowing : —Jlaug iu the well, suspended (by a 
string) a coarse canvas bag, with three or 
four good sized lime stones and one or two 
lumps of charcoal in it. Have a st ring long 
enough to nearly reach the bottom of the 
well. In a week or two, take out the char¬ 
coal, throw back the lime stones into the well 
with five pounds of Boft coal. Put a round 
or square wooden shoot up at the back of the 
pump ; carry the shoot up higher tlian the 
pump for free ventilation. If the pump is 
out of doors, put a “tee” on top ; if under 
cover, a fine wire guaze will do. J. S. L. can 
cover up his well, and I think he will have no 
more trouble in getting a drink of good 
water at home. 
MANNA AND HONEY-DEW 
San Joaquin Valley. With reference to this 
paper, wo find the following in the Rural 
Press (Han Francisco) of march 29—Mr. Ar- 
RLKGATK is of the opinion that both manna 
and honey-dew descend from the heavens, 
like frost or mist, and that both are derived 
from the sweet aroma of wild flowers, which 
is carried up by the rarifled atmosphere, and 
subsequently condensed and deposited like 
dew. A portion—the finer, dryer, and lighter 
particles—may bo carried to a higher eleva¬ 
tion, and into a cooler atmosphere, where it 
might condense more in the form of snow, 
falling in little pellets, «smanna. Heaccoiuits 
for the appearance of these deposits in the 
fall, so long after the great mass of 
flowers have disappeared, by suppos¬ 
ing the sweet principle to be held 
in suspension In the atmosphere for 
a long time, drifting but slowly from 
the place of its origin. This theory 
w ould hardly be admissible, consider- < 
ing that the high winds of summer, S 
in this latitude, and the farther fact JW 
that they come mostly from the ocean H 
—a surface from which we can hardly Jk 
expect much sweet, honey producing Jd 
aroma to ascend. Jfflffm 
Mr. A. alludes to the fact that jtmjmk 
while the honey-dew never fails to 
come in the fall, the appearance of 
manna is rare, lie mentions only two 
seasons in which he lias observed it— 
in the fall of 1801 (or 1802) and also 
that of 1872. It is noticeable, howev¬ 
er, that on both occasions its np 
pear an cc -followed immediately aft< 
uieris immense verdure. It appears 
t he mornings of the first cool weather in the 
fall, and covers the fuliage and fences some¬ 
what like frost—in the form of small, round¬ 
ish, whitish grains or particles, quite sweet 
to the taste, and corresponding very elosely 
with the description in Exodus of the manna 
upon which the Israelites subsisted during 
their sojourn iu the wilderness ; the honey- 
dew elosely resembles that described by 
CULTURE OF STERLET 
BRIEF NOTES. 
Dr. Enoch, in a communication upon the 
artificial culture of the sterlet, a much es¬ 
teemed small species of sturgeon found in the 
river Volga, remarks that the best food, fur 
the newly hatched fish consistsol the various 
species of Vy f lops And lJaphnia , such as are 
developed in quantity in connection with 
aquatic plants, like the water-cress, Ac. 
These are devoured by this Mi as greedily as 
they are by the white-fish (Cureijonux), and 
the other zSalmnnidiK, which attain a won¬ 
derful growth in the course of lour months. 
Dr. Enoch refers to specimens of both the 
eggs and of the young fish prepared by turn, 
in bichromate of potash, as exhibiting a re¬ 
markable state of preservation, arid as being 
ina condition suitable for inveHtigatiDg the 
various stages of growt h, In connection with 
t liis he also remarks that the method of dry 
impregnation winch has been so suceeiisnil 
with the salmon and trout, is not suited to 
the sterlet, since the eggs, like those of many 
other fish (the Cyprinidn or carp especially), 
are so glutinous as to slick immediately to 
any object that they may touch, so that when 
gathered from the parent amt stirred togeth¬ 
er, they adhere to a degree which prevents 
the proper penetration l*y tin* spermatozoa. 
Water-lime for Cellar Walls .—I would 
like to leam, through your paper, by Borne 
one who has had experience in the uso of 
water lime for a cellar wall — used the same 
in cisterns. The soil is clay, with small stones 
mixed ; large stones are not plenty enough 
for a wall. Would the lime be desirable, etc. 
—E. S. Bowen. 
Oil for I lament). ~ Harness, it is said, may 
bo rendered impervious to water by thor¬ 
oughly impregnating it with a mixture made 
CANNED STURGEON 
A Calikorn i a paper lias the following: 
On the 21st. of March parties at t tolusa caught 
a couple of Sturgeons, and desiring to have a 
little fun, they attached to the tail of one of 
them a large tin can, sealed tight, with the 
word "Colusa” painted upon it. '1 he I m- n 
t hus notes the arrival of his honor at H:n i a- 
mento " Last Monday one of the watchmen 
at the Sacramento and Yolo bridge observed 
a tin can coming rapidly down stream. 
Every moment or so a big fish would leap "m 
of the water near it. and then disappear, arm 
at the sarne time the can would be lust to 
sight, as the etui neared the bridge, '-tie 
observer noticed the fin of a large fish stick¬ 
ing out of the water, while the can zifipe* 
along iu its wake. The fish continued to 
jump out of the stream tit brief intervals, 
slinging the can around very much as sue)i 
things have been known to bound behind a 
betrayed dog, und evidently either greatly 
delighted, or terribly disgusted with tne 
unnatural appendage. 
FILLET-WORK EGG-DAG. (HKE PAGE 287.) 
in the proportion of twenty-one gallons of 
pure whale oil, and fifteen to seventeen 
pounds of India-rubber shreds. Heat these 
ingredients together at a temperature of 
from 1tM° to 240", in order that the rubber 
may be completely' dissolved. 
A Cement for Lamps is made by the use 
of protoxide of lead (litharge) rubbed up 
with glycerine to a thick, creamy consistence. 
It adheres to metals and glass, and is not 
soluble in petroleum. 
