JULY 2® 
503 
mer years wo were often through with the 
rye and wheat harvest by this time. Hay 
was about an average crop, but clover was 
nearly all destroyed by the drought of last 
Summer. Timothy, however, was tall and 
the flue weather made excellent hay. Our 
wheat is tall and very thick on the ground, go 
that many fields will produce 30 and some 40 
bushels per acre. I believe generally the 
wheat in Lancaster County will be the 
heaviest crop grown for many years. Spells 
of cool weather bring the grain to full per¬ 
fection, and the kernels are large and perfect- 
Corn is backward, but the rain to day gave 
the ground a good soaking, and if the weather 
becomes warm, will bring it on very fast. A 
short, “dry spell” gave farmers a good oppor¬ 
tunity to cultivate it and keep down weeds, 
go that fields generally are very clean Now 
the tobacco planters will be very busy for a 
few days in replanting where the plants failed 
when planted in the dry ground. As regards 
fruit, cherries were less chan half a crop; 
strawberries also were not more than half a 
crop; pears very few, and peaches also “few 
and far between.” Apples are dropping and 
there may not be much of a surplus. All 
fruit trees bloomed profusely, but a frost on 
May 3 and then the heavy rains when the ap¬ 
ple was in flower, injured the blooms on most 
trees. Plums also bloomed very profusely, 
but either the frost or heavy rains prevented 
fertilization, so that there are not enough 
plums on the trees now for the cureulio to breed 
its progeny. Grapes are now the most prom¬ 
ising of all fruits, all varieties being very 
healthy and thirty, and bearing large crops, 
but all new or choice varieties must be 
covered with paper bags, to keep off the “busy 
bees.” J. b. G. 
South Carolina. 
Aiken, Aiken Co., July 7.—The crops here 
now are looking well. We have had a cool 
Spring and only part of June was what may 
be called seasonably warm weather. Part of 
the crop of cotton that was planted in April 
received a set-back from the cold weather in 
May, but it was making root, and is now 
more stocky and promises well. Our farmers 
suffered so much from the drought last year 
that although the ground is now moist quite 
deep, yet they are anxiously watching the 
clouds. The oat crop this Spring was splen¬ 
did—probably double the amount ever before 
raised in this section, and this is becoming a 
very important crop. More corn than usual 
was planted, ami it is promising well. This 
section is gaining rapidly, not only by a 
greatly increased amount of land being 
brought into use every year, but also by the 
use of more of the improved farming imple¬ 
ments, and because more -attention is paid to 
bringing the land into better condition; more 
intelligence is brought to bear on agricultural 
matters, which is showing plainly in all the 
farming operations. Farming here brings a 
good return for intelligent and economical 
work. Moreover, the climate is very attract¬ 
ive in its mildness as well as very healthy, 
and we have many advantages in the way of 
early fruits, etc,, so that we are advancing 
with rapid stridas in all ways. The peach 
crop this year is very heavy—trees loaded 
down and breaking badly under their loads, 
but while the cool, wet Spring has filled them 
out in size, yet they are not as sweet and rich 
in flavor as usual Again, in ripening I note 
particularly that while the blossom end is ripe 
and soft the stem end is hard and green. 
Here in the town the honey bees are proving 
a great nuisance, destroying all the best 
peaches—fairly Bwarming on the trees. They 
puncture the skin, then suck out the juices, 
and from one to a dozen bees are seeu on a 
peach. Our peach and grape raising of the 
Northern kinds is almost brought to a stand¬ 
still by the terrible work of the bees. The 
Scuppernong Grape is alone exempt from 
their attacks, owing to the thickuess of its 
skin. 0 d 6 thing is particularly noticeable this 
year —no caterpillars have hitherto sh nvu 
themselves. I have seen none on my grounds, 
and though I have repeatedly inquired, I have 
heard of none. The berry crop is full and 
good, although quite late. The watermelon 
crop is now comiug in freely and promises to 
be very large, I had a forty-pound one on 
my table on the Fourth, which was prime. 
At this writiug we are enjoying cool and 
charming weather. s. o. 
Vermont. 
Charlotte, Chittenden Co., July 11.—We 
are now having a great deal of rain, but crops 
of all kinds are very promising. Farmers 
have just commenced haying. Our meadows 
are fairly white with dasies, and the sooner 
they are cut the better. If it continues to 
rain, as often as it has in the past, many a load 
of hay must go into the barns in a damage! 
condition. However, it is not best to look 
upon the dark side until the facte are before 
us. Labor is very high and men are scarce. 
The corn crop is looking exceedingly weli. It 
is decided by some of our oldest and best 
farmers that the common eight-rowed yellow 
t* the very ?ie#t cam tn raise in this santjau, 
as the kernels are quite large, the cobb small 
and it cures quickly. A great many, how¬ 
ever, prefer the 10 and 12 rowed mixed, think¬ 
ing it does better. Potatoes are doing nicely. 
1 am testing some SO varieties this seasou. 40 
of which are some that I have originated. I 
have many that are very promising. My ex¬ 
perience shows me that it is best to put plenty 
of seed into the ground, if yon have it, on soil 
that is net over 8nd above rich. I would 
recommend planting one whole medium¬ 
sized potato, or one-half of a large one. On 
good, rich soil two pieces in a hill, two eyes in 
a piece, are enough. I should recommend 
deep planting if we are sure of a drought. We 
are picking some very large strawberries 
from the Glendale, Sharplcss and Bidwell. 
The last stood our cold Winter exceedingly 
well, without any protection. It is a very 
fine variety, but the Sharpless is rather our 
favorite. I think the Wilson the most profit¬ 
able for raising to send to market, o. H. A. 
Wisconsin. 
Freedom, Outagamie Co., July 4. —Just 
now we are having a surplus of rain. We can 
neither hoe nor mow. Crop prospects for 
wheat, oats, barley and rye are good. Corn 
and all crops that need hoeiug are suffering 
from too much wet. Weeds grow and the 
corn does not. The hay crop promises a heavy 
yield. Fruits (that is, apples and small fruits) 
promise fairly. The Crescent takes the lead 
with us amoug strawberries, and the Philadel¬ 
phia among raspberries for productiveness 
and hardiness. Think the Cuthbert will be 
well liked when it becomes better known. 
Our most reliable apples are the Red Astrochan, 
Duchess of Oldenburg, St. Lawreuee.Fameuse, 
Wealthy (new yet), Talraan Sweet and Golden 
Russet. This partof Wisconsin is welladapted 
to raising stock, and those who have gone into 
it are making mouey. Good cows are selling 
at about 350. Butter is worth from 20 to 25 
cents; cheese, 10 to 12 cents per pound. Our 
best fat steers were sold this Spring in our 
local market for six cents a pound,live weight. 
Short-horns are used in improving our native 
stock. E. N. 
She dOumsi 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention 1 
BRAN AS A FERTILIZER AND STOCK FEED. 
J. G. B., Dunmore, Pa. Seeing that Waldo 
F. Brown recommends bran as a fertilizer, 
I would like to have him state how it should 
be used on potatoes, corn and garden vegeta¬ 
bles, and wherein lies its value. 
ANSWER BY WALDO V. BROWN. 
In response to the above I will give my ex¬ 
perience with bran as a fertilizer. In the 
Spring of’7b I planted a half acre of Peach- 
blow Potatoes on a poor ridge which would 
scarcely produce corn at al), the crop the 
previous year not yielding over 12 bushels 
per acre. About a mouth before planting 
time I mixed 50 pounds of bran with an equal 
bulk of leaf mold from the woods and wet 
it with the black water which had leached 
from the manure heap. An active fermenta¬ 
tion set in, which I regulated by spreading 
the mixture only six inches deep and by fre¬ 
quently stirring it, and before planting time it 
was thoroughly decomposed and no one could 
have told from its appearance that there was 
any brau about it. When I planted the po¬ 
tatoes I dropped the seed and thou on every 
alternate row I dropped a handful of the 
bran mixture to each hill, dropping it di¬ 
rectly on the seed. I did not make a close 
estimate, but as nearly as l can recollect I 
used at the rate of about |2 50 worth of the 
bran to the acre, or 500 pounds, as I bought my 
brau for ?10 per ton. A few weeks after the 
potatoes were planted, on visiting the plot, I 
found the difference so marked in the rows 
that any one passing would notice it. The 
plants were several inches higher and of darker 
color in the rows on which the bran had been 
used. At digging time I took a pair of stiel- 
yai’ds to the olot and I dug down a manured 
row till my basket was full, and weighed it, 
and then I dug back the same distance in the 
adjoining row which had no manure, and 
wtighed again. I did this in some ten or 
twelve plat es, and several times found that 
the manured row gave double the quantity, 
and in no case less thau 40 per cent increase 
In size and quality the potatoes grown in the 
manured rows were greatly superior to the 
others, and from an estimate made at the 
time I found that the extra potatoes produced 
by the bran application, cost me about live 
cents a. bushel. The same Spring a friend 
wrote that he applied the brau dry to his po 
tatoos and the result was that not one hill in 
20 ever came up. I hdVot read that the to- 
h<wyjo jrrowwm of Oontp^oticu* buy bran 
the car-load in the Far West, and ship it to be 
used to fertilize the crops, and from this 
single experiment of mine I am inclined to 
think that bran may, for some crops at least, 
prove a cheap and valuable manure. I shall 
experiment further with it ami wish that 
some of the readers of the Rural would do 
the same and this Fall report through the paper 
the result. I tried orly 100 pounds this 
Spriug, as bran costs $1. per 100 lbs. this year: 
but with even this small amount I can test 
its value. I have usually found that the best 
time to buy bran is just after harvest when 
the millers are needing all their room to store 
the new crop of wheat. Until this season I 
have not for several years paid over 310 per 
ton, and I have bought it at 30. There is no 
difficulty in keeping bran, as it does not heat 
or sour or mold as corn meal will, if a large 
bulk is put together. I have stored 10,000 
pounds of it In a bin in the hottest weather 
and never had any spoil. 
Every year of experience with bran as cat¬ 
tle food confirms me in the opinion that it is 
of great value and that few farmers properly 
appreciate it. In feeding cattle, whether for 
milk, flesh or fat, I would rather have a mix¬ 
ture of half bran and half corn meal than all 
of the latter. Bran, like grass, is a regulator, 
keeping the bowels open and the digestion 
good, and I have been able to feed a stable 
full of cattle all Winter without one of them 
losing a feed when I fed bran and meal 
mixed; while when feeding meal alone there 
would hardly be a week in which some of 
the cattle were not off their feed. We need 
a series of careful experiments to enable us 
to determine the value of bran as a fertilizer 
and as animal food, and I am sure that such 
experiments, if carefully and honestly carried 
out, would lead many farmers to a change of 
opinion as to its value. From a German 
table of chemical analyses before me, I see 
that the money value of bran per ton is 320,81; 
corn meal 322 34; oats 319.01 and meadow 
hay 312.93. These values are higher thau we 
should give them for America, but I presume 
that relatively they are correct, but when 
the fact of the digestibility of bran is taken 
into consideration and that it enables the ani¬ 
mal to digest other food more readily, we 
may give it a still higher value. 
APHODIUS INSECTS. 
B.C. IK., Rahway, N. J. I have found up¬ 
wards of 50 large white grubs, besides many 
small ones, in about two cubic feet of a heap 
of manure thrown out of the stable last 
Spring 1, Can salt enough be put on the 
mauure to kill the grubs without injur¬ 
ing the plants to which it may be applied I 
How much is needed for a two-horse load f 
Ans—A re not these grubs rather of a 
bluish or slate color and not exactly white ? 
In the writer's experience the grubs found 
plentifully in manure in the Spring and dur¬ 
ing the Summer, both in manure heaps and 
in corn, melon, cucumber, and other hills 
where manure has been used freely, are of 
this character and they are very abundant. 
Fortunately they are not injurious to the 
plants and live exclusively upon the decay¬ 
ing manure, probably to some extent doing 
a service by hastening the change of the man¬ 
ure into its ultimate mineral elements so that 
it can be fitted for plant fond. As this insect 
is of much interest and its habits and history 
should be known so that the natural impres 
sion as to its injurious character may be re¬ 
moved we give herewith ashort description of 
it. The mature insect is a beetle, black in 
color with bright red elytra, or wing covers, 
belongs to the genus Copris, and is named 
AphodiusJimeldirivs. A closely related Eu 
ropean variety is Aphodius fossor. An¬ 
other allied species of this genus is Phaneus 
cum i f ex, the common * * tumble bug,” so called 
from ils rolling balls of manure and clay 
about on the ground until it finds a conven 
tent place for burying them. Its eggs are de¬ 
posited in this ball and the young larvm feed 
upon the manure within it. All of these 
tieetles live upon manure and do not disturb 
vegetables. There is therefore no need to 
take the trouble of destroying them on ac 
count of any suppo ed damage they may do 
to the crops. If a dozen or two of fowls are 
given access to a heap of manure so infested 
with these grubs they will soon level it over 
a yard in their efforts to get at these—to 
them—desirable morsels. It would not in¬ 
jure the mauure to add salt to it even iu a 
large quantity, neither would it injure the 
grubs, as they do not mind salt in the least 
unless kept in strong brine for a considera¬ 
ble period: a handful of salt mixed with a 
handful of manure in which there were more 
than 20small worms hashed no effect upon 
them. 
WORMS IN UORSK: PINK-EYE. 
E. H. IK., Eaton Rapids, Mich. 1. The 
Rural of July 8, in answering a question of 
mine as to what ailed my horses, said they 
were suffering either from worms or mal-mas- 
tication, and advised to inspect their drop¬ 
pings in search Of worms- On doing »o t find 
in the dung some worms about two inches 
long, of a white color, and pointed at both 
ends. How are they to be got rid of! 2, One 
of my horses has lately become nearly blind. 
The trouble began by water running from the 
near eye, which became Inflamed and of a 
pinkish color on the inside. The other eye 
soon became just as bad. When the animal 
lowers his head to drink or eat, there is often 
a discharge of a thin, watery character from 
the nose. Raised swellings or bunches have 
appeared on his fore-legs and body. They 
are hard and contain no "matter.” What 
ails him, and how should he be treated? 
Ans. —1, From the description of the worms, 
these are probably one of the three species of 
so called pin-worms of the horse, and are 
known as Oxyuris eurvula. The female ia 
one half larger than the male. Those worms 
inhabit the large intestine and may be ejected 
in the following manner: Dissolve one ounce 
of soap in one quart of hot water, add one 
ounce of quassia chips; simmer half an hour; 
inject one-half daily; use it cold. The injec¬ 
tion may he given by means of a dried pig’s 
bladder, into the neck of which a smooth tube 
of elder wood is fitted and tied; this can be 
procured when a large syringe may not be, 2, 
Besides this, the horse is suffering from the 
prevalent disease known as “pink eye,” which 
consists of catarrh of the membranes of the 
head and general fever, in fact, influenza of a 
peculiar type. For this, the horse should be 
treated as follows: Give 12 oances of Epsom 
salts; after this has operated, give one ounce 
of saltpeter daily for three days; give very 
little food, a moderate quantity of grass and a 
light bran mash in the evening, with good 
nursing and thorough ventilation and cleanli¬ 
ness in the stable. A few days’ rest would be 
desirable. The horse is evidently much out of 
condition, and sufferirg most probably from 
overfeeding with gi*ain, and for want of some 
simple sanitary precautions, as moderate feed¬ 
ing in the hot weather, want of sufficient rest 
before feeding, pure air iu the stable, 
thorough cleansing of the skin, protection 
from drafts or changes of temperature, etc. 
Miscellaneous. 
T. D. C., Gainesville, Texas. —1. Will the 
Bolmer’s, Washington and Wild Goose Plums 
sprout from the roots when the trees are in 
good health 1 2. Will seeds from budded peach 
trees germinate i S. How should tomato 
seeds be gathered and taken c&ra of ? 4. Does 
the Rural answer questions from non sub¬ 
scribers. 
Am—1. We do not know of the Bolmer’s 
Plum. The others should not sprout from the 
roots persistently if in good health. Often the 
union between th9 graft and the stock is im¬ 
perfect, they being unsuited to each other In 
such cases the roots are liable to sprout. '3. 
Yes: just the same as any other seeds. 3. We 
allow the tomatoes to grow soft and then 
wash out the seeds. Iu small quantities a 
towel or rag of any kind may be used to crush 
the tomatoes and absorb the pu'p. 4. Yes; if 
the questions are of general interest. 
E. D. C., Cherry Valley, -V K., and Elias 
May, address mislaid, send for name a grass 
that is common in their neighborhoods. 
Ans.—I t is Festuea pratensis—Meadow- 
Fescue, called Randall Grass in Virginia. It 
is an excellent pasture grass, forming a con¬ 
siderable portion of t he herbage on old past¬ 
ures and fields. The fact Chat it ripens its 
seed before most other grasses, shedding them 
abroad, tends to propagate it widely. It is 
rarely sown, and whenever it is it should be 
mixed with other grasses, such as Orchard 
Grass, Rye Grass or Spear Grass, It also 
makes fine hay—relished by stock. Accord¬ 
ing to Gray it is Festuea elatior pratensis. He 
does not recognize pratensis as a species. 
R. E. A., Bonham, Texas.— How should I 
treat a pear tree to make it bear fruit l I 
have several that bloom and are seemingly 
healthy, but do not bear any. 
Ans. —If the trees grow luxuriantly, a dis¬ 
turbance of the roots by sinking a spade to 
the top from four to six feet from and around 
the stem, according to the age of the trees, 
may induce them to fruit. Digging a trench 
about the stem at the same distance, a foot or 
more in depth, would be a severer remedy. 
Cutting through the bark of branches, or 
taking out n thin ring of the bark, is resorted 
to by many. 
To Destroy Canada Thistles.— In answer 
to X. S., in a late Rural I should say the best 
way to destroy Canada Thistles is to mow 
them w hen in bloom. The stalk is then hollow 
aud the rain will kill the root G. w. G. 
-+ ♦ » 1 - 
Communications Reckivkd fob thk Wkkk Ending 
Saturday, July 22,18S2. 
M. 9.—C. L.—tt P. G , thanks.—M. C.—Mrs. B. a D.. 
—thanks—V. M.—F, M. It —E. D O. J, C. a . J. P. • 
M M. S.-S J.-J. M R. • J. c.— M P B.-X. A. M— 
H. S.—C. J.-H H.-R. D R.-W F-J A. W.-MC. L. 
D._F. U. C.—VV. R. A , thanks—1. H - W. F. B,—ft. S. 
—E w. T., thanks—would be glad to have you do so. 
—J. B. A.—J. R —R C —S. O —J. T.—a. R.—C. H -J. 
—B. R.—C. B. T —O. T —H. M. W.-R. R H D —G. V. - 
t> W.--L S. -P> Ri -K. R.-C. P.-W, Hi—C. H 
