than the others. Which fact doubtless is 
due, in whole or in part, to their being plant¬ 
ed in plowed ground ; while the more rapid 
maturing of the Victors may doubtless be 
attributed to their being planted In unplowed 
ground, by digging a hole about eight inches 
in diameter and planting as above. This 
may also account for their luck of fruitful¬ 
ness. At any rale T deem the Canada Vic¬ 
tor worthy of another trial, and expect, 
under more favorable conditions, they will 
prove a very desirable early sort. 
For a medium and late Tomato the Trophy 
is the “ vp pins ultra ” of all. One large one 
weighed one pound and three ounces. Who 
can resist a slice from one of those superb 
tomatoes nearly equal in size to a beefsteak 
and far more juicy and delicious ? s. a. c. 
never been known to breed in their new¬ 
found home beyond the second generation. 
Those which come down from the mountains 
may deposit their eggs in the ground in au¬ 
tumn, and then they die. The eggs hatch 
the following spring, hut this second genera¬ 
tion seldom does any considerable damage, 
for as soon us their wings are sufficiently 
developed they fly away to some distant part 
of the country, the greater part, dying while 
making the journey or booh after alighting. 
This may seem to be a curious freak of na¬ 
ture ; still it is true, according to the obser¬ 
vations of some of our best entomologist®. 
A new and fresh supply of the “ iiatefuls” 
may reach Noble Co., Minn., tliis summer, 
but those little chaps which hatch from the 
eggs deposited by last year’s visitors will 
do very little, if any, harm to anything. If 
H. will comrmini- 
DAILY RTJKAL LIFE. 
From the Diary Of a Centleman near New 
York City. 
THOSE HATEFUL GRASSHOPPERS. 
June 1.—From what I have seen and heard 
of the doings of the “ hateful grasshopper,” 
(as the lamented W alsh used to term them,) 
I conclude that they are the most provoking, 
unreliable, meanest Insect in the entire en¬ 
tomological catalogue. Of course I refer to 
the species infesting the Western prairies, 
which swoop down from the mountains 
sc mi -occas i anal ly, alighting just where they 
can do the most damage, and especially 
GARDENERS’ NOTES 
they do, 1 hope Cynthia 
cate the facts to the readers of the Rural 
New-Yorker. 
PROPAGATION OF CERTAIN KINDS OF SHRUBS. 
Daily Rural Life Will you please an¬ 
swer the following questions in your “Dia¬ 
ry ?” 1st, Would like the names of six good 
roses for winter flowering, 'hi, How shall 1 
propagate the following named shrubs f— 1, 
Altheas, In varieties ; 3, Almonds, do. ; 3, 
berberries, do. ; 4, Calvcauthus, do. ; 3, 
Deutzias. do. : tl. Forsytbias, do. ; 7, Honey¬ 
suckles. do. ; 8, Mahonias; 9, Meaerum* ; 10, 
Purple Fringe : 11, Quince Japan ; 13, do., 
Chinese ; 13, Spiraea, in var. • 14, Syringas, 
do. ; 15, Tamarisk, do. ; 10, W eigelfts, do.— 
J. D. Maole, Atchison, Kan. 
June 2.—The following six roses are first 
rate sorts for forcing m winter, and suit me 
as well asanv 1 have-fever cultivated :—Bon 
Silene, Countess, of Bath, Isabella Sprunt, 
Marshall Neil, Lamarque. The usual method 
of propagating the shrubs you name is as 
follows Nos. L r >. 7 - ia * 14 > 15 and lfi > b J r 
cuttings made of the ripe wood of the pres¬ 
ent season’s growth, taken off in the fall; 
the cuttings buried in the ground or kept in 
sand, sawdust or moss in a cool cellar until 
spring, then planted out. in the usual way. 
Nos. 3, 3 and 10 will succeed in some locali¬ 
ties and soil from ripe wood cuttings, but the 
surest plan is to layer the branches nearest 
the ground, making them at this season—i. 
<>., soon after growth commences in spring. 
Nos. 2, 4, II may be readily propagated by 
cuttings made of the roots in autumn. J lie 
cuttings should be made of medium-sized 
upon some pioneer s omy or moau pruiiiwuig 
field of com. A fellow can keep his temper 
over the ravages of the Colorado potato 
beetle, because this pest, gives due notice of 
his arrival in a State or neighborhood, neither 
coming nor departing in a hurry. More than 
this, it is quite considerate in its selection of 
food, for if it takes your potatoes it will 
leave you some corn, wheat, oats and garden 
vegetables; but the hateful grasshoppers are 
just the reverse of all this. They come when 
least expected, and if expected, never come 
at all. They give no warning, but drop 
dow'ii upon the most luxuriant spot they can 
find, and, without the least discrimination 
or selection, take everything, from a pet 
verbena up to a good sized forest tree. A 
hundred-acre corn field is scarcely enough 
for the breakfast of a fair sized swarm of 
the “ hatefuls.” 
There is a region of country, more than a 
thousand miles broad and two thousand 
long, lying west of the Mississippi river, in 
-which no man need think his crops safe 
agaiast the ravages of this greatest of North 
American insect pests. Even fires and floods 
may be in a measure guarded against, but 
as yet. neither the power nor cunning of man 
has been able to touch the stronghold or 
precent the visitations or ravages of the 
Rocky Mountain grasshoppers. Of course 
these pests do not visit, the same localities 
every season, nor remain and breed where 
they alight for more than one or two years 
at most, but it would be far better if they 
did, for if this was the case the people might 
avoid the pestiferous regions; but they come 
and go without being under the guidance of 
any apparent principle. 
The bare canes of many a corn field, as 
well as nude oat stubbles and devastated 
gardens, which I saw last summer in Ne¬ 
braska and other Western States and Terri¬ 
tories, showed plainly enough how quickly 
the husbandman’s labor may come to naught 
through the ravenous appetites of these 
pests. In all the region of country visited 
by the “ hatefuls,” one is never quite sure of 
a harvest, eveu though the seed time was 
propitious, and many a strange story of 
rapid devastation is told to travelers through 
the grasshopper country. 
A lady residing in Colorado said to me, “ I 
had a beautiful garden last summer—at least 
in the early part of it—but one afternoon 1 
visited a neighbor, being away from home 
not more than three hoars, but on returning 
in the evening I found everything in the 
way of plants had been destroyed in my ah 
sence. A swarm of grasshoppers had been 
there, taking every leaf from trees, shrubs, 
and eveu the soft stems of my flowering 
plants did not escape.” 
The “hateful grasshoppers ” were brought 
to mind to-day by the receipt of the follow¬ 
ing note from Cynthia H. of Noble county. 
l\T inn “ Will ‘ Daily Rural Life ’ be so kind 
as to give a brief history of the ‘ hateful 
grasshoppers,’ which have already appeared 
in vast numbers in our gardens, and are now 
about one-fourth of aD inch long. Do they 
seek shelter in mother earth during winter, 
and what becomes of the parents of this 
spring brood ?” 
The home of the genuine Colorado grass¬ 
hopper, as it was formerly called, is in the 
deep canons of the Rocky Mountains, where 
it appeal's to have lived and prospered for a 
good many thousands of years. Its scientific 
name is Caloptenus spretm. and although 
resembling the common and more widely 
distributed Red-legged grasshopper, ( Galop - 
tenus femur-rubrum,) still its habits and his¬ 
tory are quite distinct. For instance, the 
Red-legged breeds and lives almost every¬ 
where, while the true “Hatefuls” thrive 
nowhere for any considerable length of lime 
away from their native canons. The immense 
number which come down from the moun¬ 
tains in summer, spreading over the plains 
hundreds of miles from their birthplace, 
destroying the erops on many a farm, have 
We live on extensive sand plains, with 
small springs, streams of pure, cold water, 
all running towards Lake Huron. These 
creeks have, fiats along them from 10 to 100 
rods wide, with muck bottoms ; these flats 
are covered with timber, such as tamarack, 
pine, soft maple and white birch, with under¬ 
brush—mostly tag alder. The plains are cov¬ 
ered with oak grubs, from six to 15 feet high, 
with strips of spruce, piue and Norway pine. 
The oaks grow very fast. These plains, at 
some time, wore covered with oak, but have 
been burnt over so many times when it was 
very dry that it has killed the old trees and 
burnt them up. But they grow again, and 
some begin to have acorus on them. Some 
of these plains have not much on them but 
grass. The grass grown here mostly in bunch¬ 
es from three to five feet high, with a bushy 
top ; some have a three-spangled hard top ; 
then there are two kinds of fine grass which 
covers the ground. There are two or three 
kinds of evergreens on these plains, some 
with leaves on and some look like lettuce. 
Sweet fern grows all over the country ; in 
some places it grows three feet high. Win- 
tergreens grow in most places ; the whortle¬ 
berry brush is all over the plains and grows 
about eight inches high and yields large crops 
of large berries, A great many hundred bush¬ 
els are gathered here annually by the people 
aud sold at the different harbors on the lake 
shore. 
Now about the soil :—It is on the top a 
black sand for two or three inches ; then 
about two feet of yellow sand ; then a streak 
of gravel ; then it is light sand down to 
water, which is from 16to 33 feet. The water 
is of the best quality and is found in coarse 
sand. On the plains are found a great many 
kinds of dowers in the summer. When the 
laud is first plowed, it will not produce much 
but corn stalks and some potatoes, and about 
three bushels of beans to the acre ; the sec¬ 
ond time it is plowed it will raise 40 bushels 
of polatoes to the acre, about 100 bushels of 
turnips ; oats, 10 bushels : spring wheat, 
where a little manure is put on, 14 bushels to 
the acre ; corn, manured in the hill, 60 bush¬ 
els ; squashes and melons grow to a large 
size ; cucumbers and beaus grow fast and 
tender ; carrots grow sometimes two feet 
long and two to four inches through at the 
top. Some of the neighbors raise rye for 
fodder ; it grows about four feet high. Buck¬ 
wheat grows to a good bight ; clover does 
not do well * indeed, we cannot get it to 
grow to amount to much. This is as near 
its I can describe this country. Now, the 
question is, can this land ever be brought 
up to good farming land, and how i I am a 
young, inexperienced farmer, and would 
like to hear from some one that is older and 
more experienced. I hear agreatdeal about 
soils, but it is all clay aud loam, but read 
nothing about light, sandy soils. We live 
within IS miles of one of the most extensive 
plaster beds in the count ry, where they man¬ 
ufacture and ship hundreds of tons annually ; 
also within 14 miles of the best salt works in 
the country, where it can be had if the land 
calls for it.' The people here, if they put in 
a crop, when they harvest it. find fault with 
the plains because they do not get large 
crops. Some say it was never intended for 
farming land but for Indian hunting grounds; 
others, who have some grit, say it will make 
a splendid farming count ry some day. Every 
tiling a person raises brings a good price here 
on the lake shore, at the different harbors, 
about 13 miles away. Will you or some of 
ypur correspondents tell what they think of 
| such a description of country—whether they 
fee is made. This is the cheapest, cleanest, 
easiest raised and best substitute for coffee 
T have ever used. The seed should be plant¬ 
ed the same time as corn, in rows about three 
feet apart and plants one foot apart in the 
row. Cultivate like coni, and gather the 
pods when they begin to crack open. T 
recommend all persons who wish to use any 
substitute to begin by using a certain pro¬ 
portion of real coffee at first, gradually de¬ 
creasing It till it may be entirely left out; 
when, very often, some quite chronic affec¬ 
tions of the system will very mysteriously 
disappear, to the decided advantage, of old 
coffee drinkers.” 
Cotton Cloth for Hot-Beds.—J. B. Root, a 
successful market gardener, states in the 
Fruit Recorder that lie uses cotton cloth at a 
cost of one-eighth that of glass, for more 
than three-fourths of his hot-beds, and al¬ 
though not so good for the earliest beds, is 
preferred for all later ones. Tt is prepared 
by making the cloth covers a few inches 
wider and longer than the frame, hemmed 
and provided with small curtain rings fifteen 
inciies apart around the border, stoutly 
sewed on ; and by hooking over nails, the 
cloth is drawn air-tight over the frame. One 
quart ol'linseed oil, one ounce of pulverized 
sugar of lead, and four ounces of pulverized 
resin are heated, dissolved and thoroughly 
TOMATOES 
Editors Rural New - Yorker : — Having 
read with much interest the correspondence 
in your valuable paper, with your permis¬ 
sion, will give my experience for last season 
in tomato culture. My experiments were 
with three kinds, the Hubbard’s Curled Leaf 
and Canada Vietor for early, with the Tro¬ 
phy for medium and late. My method for 
getting early tomatoes is to sow my seed in 
a small box filled with ordinary soil from the 
garden, long before hot beds are usually 
started in the spring. This must be kept in 
a warm room. In from T/hree to five days 
the plants will make their appearance. 
When sufficiently grown to require more 
room, they must be transplanted. This is 
done by unsoldering tin cans ; throw away 
the ends and fasten around each can a small 
wire. These cans should then be sunk their 
full depth in a hot-bed, giving room tinder 
the glass for good growth. By this means 
when the time comes to transplant into the 
open ground we have a fine, stocky plant. 
In transplanting pass a piece of shingle under 
the can. and remove from the hot-bed with¬ 
out letting any of the dirt fall out. Have 
the holes dug for the plants so that the can 
may be set in to the proper depth, and the 
shingle withdrawn. Then remove the wire, 
draw the dirt up close to the outside of the 
can and finally remove the can. By this 
means the roots are not disturbed and the 
growth is never checked. 
M3 t Curled Leaf plants had about four 
weeks' start when the Canada Victor seed 
were received. The plants of both kinds 
were set in the open ground on the same 
day, and ripe tomatoes were gathered from 
both on the same day. The Curfcd Leaf 
was much more prolific and thrifty in growth 
