hung up; but the side motion is so easy that 
each hill of corn can be hoed with little labor 
The spring assists all operations and doee not 
lose its tension until the gangs are hung up. 
It is adj uBted to carry as little or much weight 
of the gangs as desired, by hooking the chains 
in different links. 
which may come up in the rows. The inten¬ 
tion is to have the beds entirely free from 
weedB before the end of the season. 
to, that ha has tried in Western New Tork al¬ 
most every remedy for the codling moths, 
and found them ineffectual. A friend of Mr. 
Woodward, in 1876, had what he called can 
ker worms in his orchard, and wanted, to know 
what he should do for them. He told him to 
get a force pump and syringe his trees with 
Paris-green. He did so, and later in the sea¬ 
son he told Mr. Woodward the Paris-green 
had not only killed the canker worm, but the 
codling moth. Mr. Woodward went with 
him to the orchard, and one could tell where 
the Paris-green had been applied just as 
easily as he could see the row of trees. There 
were twenty times as many codling moths 
in the apples on one side of that line ae there 
were on the other. Since then, Mr. Wood¬ 
ward has recommended it to many of his 
friends. He has tried it himself, and there 
is no more doubt of Paris-green being an en¬ 
tire preventive and specific for the codling 
moth than there is that it is an entire preven¬ 
tive and specific, if properly applied, for the 
Colorado beetle. 
Wb say of a picture or a statue, “it is the 
expression of the artist’s thought.” So, too, a 
noble edifice is called an expression of the 
thought of the architect, and a flue park or 
garden likewise expresses the thought of the 
gardener. Run now, if you please, the divid¬ 
ing line through all the works of man, separa¬ 
ting those which should be the expression of 
thought from those which need not be, and on 
which side of the line would you find the far¬ 
mer’s work ? The question is asked by Mr. I. 
M. Hubbard ' n an essay before the Conn. Board 
of Agriculture. 
Bed-Bcos —We have found something about 
bed-bugs in our esteemed contemporary the 
Broadway Agriculturist, that should prove 
highly interesting to those whose houses are 
infested with this disgusting pest. A corres¬ 
pondent, it appears, having the misfortune to 
occupy a house in which “ every crack in the 
floor and walls was full ” of the insects, le 
commenced first with the bedsteads. These 
were taken down and each one 11 was painted 
from top to toe with paint in which kerosene 
was mixed." He suggests that kerosene alone 
would probably have done as well, of which we 
have no doubt. In his desperation he was led 
to cover his bedsteads with the mixture of 
paint and kerosene, but kerosene alone, ap¬ 
plied to the joints only, would have served the 
end in view, which was to get rid of the in¬ 
sects already in the bedstead. Having freed 
the bedsteads, his next point was to keep the 
bugs out. ne took old tomato cans, removed 
the tops, and Bet one under each leg of the 
bedstead, and partly filled them with water. 
This method was a complete success; the water 
in the cans offered an impassable barrier to 
the marauders, and he afterwards was free 
from the attacks of those established in the 
floor and walls. This insulation, so to speak, 
of the bedstead reminds us of an account of 
the intelligence of the scorpion, that we were 
told iu Mexico. The scovpiou makes a most 
painful bite, but it is by no means, as gener¬ 
ally supposed, deadly. A Mexican officer told 
us that being where scorpions were especially 
abundant, he fitted his bedstead with dishes of 
water under the legs. This answered for a 
night or two, after which the scorpions climbed 
to the top of the room (for it can hardly be 
called ceiling), and dropped down upon his 
bed. If Yankee bed-bugs are as cute as the 
Mexican scorpions that are above described, 
the “ protection will not protect.” 
RURAL BRIEFLETS 
Attention to the strawberry beds at this 
season will help them another year. All weeds 
should be cut out and the grouid mellowed 
about the plants and between the rows.. 
Cut off a bud with an oblong slice of bark 
and insert this between the bark and the wood 
of the tree or shrub to be grafted. Here we 
have a short story of the process* of budding. 
For the long story see the Rubai, of July 26, 
1879, page 482.. r ,. 
Budding is a simpler operation than graft¬ 
ing, and every boy and girl should learn how 
to do it. It is now time to bud many kinds of 
fruit trees. See that the bark parts freely 
from the wood. Between Ihe wood and bark 
is a mucilaginous substance which is really a 
thin layer c f delicate young wood cells, and it 
is these which servo to unite the wood of the 
bud to the wood of the stock from which 
the bud is thereafter to derive its nourishment, 
the same as if it were an original part of the 
stock itself..... 
Choice grape-vines suffering from drought, 
should be drenched with water and the soil 
covered with straw, hay, grass or even corn¬ 
stalks. 
The Broadway Agriculturist gives some very 
valuable hints respecting wheat. The gist of 
the article is that there are “good wheats and 
poor wheats.” (!) It mentions the Clawson as 
having “gone through the mill” taking a 
“ high rank as to quality of flour.” (!) Then 
it says that •• there are others.” (!) We were 
going to reserve the above for our Wheat 
Number. But it occurred to ub that all the 
papers in the land would copy it and that it 
would seem old by that time.. 
One of our most valued lady contributors 
writes us: M I must tell you I do think there is 
something ‘ exceptionally fine * in Mrs. Gar¬ 
field’s conduct. I’m afraid I ehonld have 
broken down under it: and she, too, just from 
a sick bed. Then she has such a discreet 
toDgue, too. Most women are so demonstra¬ 
tive.”... 
Mr. Stewart says of Quack (Triticum 
repene) that it is one of those varieties of grass 
whose best qualities, when misapplied, give it 
a bad reputation. That’s just the truth. We 
have little doubt that the day will come when 
seedsmen will offer Its Beeda for sale and that 
all men who purchase and sow will not be con¬ 
sidered fools. 
We believe that the Rural is the first journal 
that has ever 6poken a word 
in favor of thi& Quack, Quitch, 
Couch. Scutch or Rye Grase, 
and .1 ha, MB Mated more - bMMI 
than once since that we could 
have known little of it. But 
the Rubal has had it to deal 
with for over 13 years, and 
although it is at times annoy- 
iug, we are free to say that if 
upon demand we could have R 
every root at once removed 
from our farm, we should 
not make the demand. 
The neighboring farmers, 
however, do not one of 
them join in our opin¬ 
ion, though not one of 
them has ever given it a fair 
trial. As soon as it appears, 
they fight It until It disap- —= 
pears. “It makes too much 
work ”—they say. The fact is, --— 
however, and we have a right -- 1 ~ ” 
to speak positively, that let -- "g 
a sod consist of pure Quack 
when turned under, if the 
succeeding corn receive all 
the cultivation it should have 
the Quack will be exterminated. For the rest, 
we value the hay as highly as Timothy, while 
the best crop of corn ever raised at the Rural 
Jarm was upon a Quack sod. At this time the 
drought is curling corn, killing clover, and the 
fields—save one—are brown. That one yielded 
about two ton b of hay to the acre, though cut 
for the sixth year; and three-quarters of the sod 
is Quack...... 
Ve do not advice anybody to give this grass 
a footing upon his farm. We do not set our¬ 
selves up against the hundreds of farmers who 
condemn it 2tt Itto and whose judgment is the 
result of a longer and, possibly, a more dis¬ 
criminating experience. We do but state, in 
this case as in all others, our own convictions 
as they are arrived at from constant observa¬ 
tion and experiment—and that is the foremost 
“ I need not dwell on the influence fairs 
have in spreading a knowledge of machines 
and appliances; the host of agents at every 
fair, however small, with all kinds of machines 
from a patent apple-corer or pot-washer to a 
steam thrasher or ditching machine, is evi¬ 
dence enough that the manufacturers of to-d^y 
believe, from experience, that this is a great 
and sure way to get a knowledge of their wares 
before the people. And we all know the eager¬ 
ness of breeders of fine stock to exhibit and thus 
advertise their animals." We take the above 
from a very interesting essay by Prof. Brewer, 
delivered before the Conn. State Board of Ag¬ 
riculture and published in its recent Report, 
p. 115. T. S. Gold is the Secretary, West Corn¬ 
wall, Conn. 
Hints to Flax Growers.—' The Minnesota 
Linseed Oil Company has issued the following 
letter of advice to its patrons respecting the 
cutting and curing of flax, and the hints here 
given are applicable to all places where flax is 
grown for the seed :— 
“ As the season for cutting flax approaches, 
we wish to give our friends a word of advice 
and caution as to harvesting and securing their 
crop. 
First, cutting.—When most of the bolls and 
lower parts of the stalks have turned yellow, 
and the seeds have turned slightly brown, and 
the lower leaves have dropped off, it is ready 
to harvest. At this stage it will cut as easily 
as wheat. Be careful not to cut before ripe. 
Unripe seed cannot be properly filled out, and 
must fall short in weight. 
Use a smooth knife in your reaper. Cut high 
—only low enc ugh to get all the bolls. 
ofccond, shocking.—Set it up as soon as cut, 
in gavels. It may be handled the same as 
barley or buckwheat; but, better still, bind 
with a self-binder and shock the Batue as wheat. 
This treatment makes thrashing easy and pays 
well. 
Third, stacking.—Flax cures very fast, and 
in good drying weather may be stacked the 
day after cutting. Don't waste a day after it 
is ready, for a thrashing machine or anything 
else, but stack, stack, if you want to save your 
crop. Build a good, solid stack, always keep¬ 
ing full in the center—heads in and butts out— 
and top out with prairie hay. Stacks must not 
be disturbed for two or three weeks, or more, 
until the flax is through the ‘sweat,’ which 
leaves the seed heavier and better. 
Fourth, thrashing. — The ‘ Vibrato* ' and 
‘ Minnesota Chief ’ are considered the best flax 
thrashers; but good work is also done with 
the Chase and other makes, with flax attach¬ 
ments." 
Salting Pork.— The Husbandman says that 
Mr. G. S. McCann a few days ago, opened a 
barrel of pork that had stood in the cellar 
through Winter, and found the meat slightly 
tainted—not spoiled entirely, but the odor 
suspicious. He asked his club if there was 
any way to restore it ? 
8. M. Carr replied that if not much tainted, 
the pieces might be taken out and washed 
thoroughly, then soaked in buttermilk and 
afterward washed in clean water, when they 
may be re-packed and very possibly they 
would keep in good condition until required 
for use. 
W, A. Armstrong remarked that the error 
was in salting. No farmer has a reasonable 
excuse for losing pork, provided the meat is 
entirely sound when it goes into the barrel. 
All he has to do is to cut the pieeea of proper 
size, as nearly uniform as practicable; then 
put a layer of salt fully an inch thick on the 
bottom of the barrel; on that a layer of 
pieces set on edge, stowed closely, then cover 
with salt and fill all the interstices, and so 
continue until the barrel is full. At the proper 
time pour on brine as strong as it can be made". 
By this plan Mr. Armstrong kept pork four 
or five years as good as on the day it was 
packed. 
Mr. Bergh, president of our Society for Pre¬ 
vention of Cruelty to Animals, says in the 
organ of that society, never to whip your horse 
for becoming frightened at any object by the 
roadside, for if he sees a stump, a log, or a 
heap of tan-bark in the road, and, while he is 
eyeing it carefully, and about to pass it, you 
strike him with the whip, it is the log, stump, 
or the tan-bark th tis hurting him iu his way 
of reasoning, and the next time he will be 
more frightened. Give him time to smell all 
of these objects, and use the bridle to assist 
you in bringing him carefully to those objects 
of fear. 
Planting Early Potatoes. — Mr. P. T. 
Quinn says in the Philadelphia Press that his 
practice has been to plant early potatoes ia 
Keeping Sweet Potatoes —Mr. T. S. Gold 
Secretary of the Conn., State Board of Ag- 
The Barbed Wire Fbnce.- 
Prof. S. A. Knapp, of the Iowa 
Agricultural College, in dis¬ 
cussing the Barbed Wire Fence 
Monopoly, says: “It is gra¬ 
tuitous advice we offer on the 
snhject of fencing, but among 
the items worthy of consid¬ 
eration is that of using less 
barbed wire. It is our obser¬ 
vation and experience in build¬ 
ing four wire fence, that the 
fence is in every way as 
serviceable and durable to 
use two barbed and two 
smooth—the top and third 
wires barbed; the second 
and bottom wires smooth. 
The smooth wire should be 
two-strand, steel, twisted wire 
—the same as barbed wire— 
aud can be purchased or 
ordered of a factory at 5} 
cents per rod. We are build¬ 
ing such a fence upon the 
college farm at a cost of 35 
cents per rod, dipping in coal 
tar. The posts are fnmished 
by the farm.” 
.. 
The Editor of the Rural Home takes occa¬ 
sional rides over his section of country, 
(Rochester, N. Y.) to observe the crops and 
ascertain the methods of the best farmers. 
One large farm of 300 acres through which he 
rode, he says, yields less clear profit, he was 
informed, than a patent mouse-trap invented 
by the proprietor. The mouse-trap probably 
accounts for the diminished profits of the 
farm. 
The b66t rule for salting butter is to salt to 
suit the taste of the consumer, says L. B. Ar¬ 
nold, iu the N. Y. Tribune. There is no use in 
applying any particular amount of salt for the 
sake of pre^rving it, because the very lightest 
salting is always more than sufficient for all the 
effect salt can have as a preservative of butter. 
Generally one ounce of salt to sixteen ounces 
of butter is «6ed. . 
Remedy for the Codling Moth.—M r. 
Woodward said, in the Report above alluded 
