9 
DEC <§ 
to induce our farmers to make much effort to 
produce the finest possible butter. And 
again, with us, though not with you, the milk 
made is now the chief and leading feature 
in our insular daiiying, and as our adultera¬ 
tion censors require a standard of quality 
which is far enough below that which rules in 
Jersey milk it does not jiay our farmers to 
employ such cows as give a moderate quan¬ 
tity of milk of surpassing richness, but rather 
those that yield a large quantity, tho quality 
of which will pass muster with the public 
analysts. Here, then, we have the reasons 
why a milk test in England and a butter test 
in America are so prominently in vogue above 
all others. 
We English do many things by halves or by 
quarters. We are, when wo can be, a piece¬ 
meal sort of people: but when we get very 
much iu earnest, which occurs once in a while, 
we do things about as thori mghly as anybody 
can expect to do them. We are an essen¬ 
tially conservative race of men. and stick to 
old things, grimly, as long as they will stick 
to us; and when we once get fairly in the 
swim, in any particular direction, we go on 
swimming that way until fiscal considerations 
induce us to go in some other. And thus it 
was that, when you first began sending 
cheese to us, and demonstrated your capa¬ 
bility of sending us unlimited quantities of 
it, we came to the conclusion that our aim in 
the future must be beef aud not milk; aud so we 
fed for beef. But, when you gorged us with 
beef, we had a rude awakening to the fact t hat 
we had been swimming too far on the beef tack, 
and must needs go back on milk to some ex¬ 
tent. And this was more particularly the 
case because the rapid development of the 
milk trade was, as regards period, well-nigh 
coincident with the advent of your beef. You 
w'ill have noticed that our insular location 
fills us with insular ideas; these ideas we re¬ 
linquish reluctantly, and only under the 
strong pressure of the logic of facts. This 
strong pressure has been brought to bear, 
frequently, from your side, aud we have had 
to dance round to another tune than the old 
one, as well in political as in commercial mat¬ 
ters. You drove us into beef, for instance, 
and now you have driven us into milk; pres¬ 
ently you will pursuade us to follow you, part 
of the way, on Jerseys and on tho butter 
test. In any case, it is true that we are run¬ 
ning once more on milk, for it is inquired 
about, on the part of stock buyers, far more 
than it formerly was. 1 have on several oc¬ 
casions noticed at the Birmingham Spring 
sales of bulls, that Mr. Lytball, the well-known 
auctioneer, is tn the habit of calling special 
attention to bulls from herds well known for 
deep milking, and that such animals com¬ 
mand a brisker competition than they ivould 
without this recommendation for milk. 
THE HIGHEST-PRICED HOLSTEIN. 
At the recent public, sale of Holsteins, held 
at Chicago, Ilk, the heifer calf Mercedes III., 
daughter of the famous butter-producing Hol¬ 
stein cow, Mercedes, was secured by Messrs. 
Smiths & Powell, of Syracuse, N. Y., at a cost 
of $4,200, the highest price ever paid for a 
Holstein. The recent record of Mercedes in 
competition for the Breeders* Gazette chal¬ 
lenge cup. in which she vanquished her Jer¬ 
sey competitors and raised the record higher 
than ever before reached, is still fresh iu the 
minds of our readers. Her yield for thirty 
consecutive days was 00 pounds ounces of 
unsalted butter. 
Mercedes III. is a granddaughter, through 
her sire, of the well-known cow. A£gis, so long 
one of the prominent members of the Lake¬ 
side herd, and whose milk record is only fourth 
in the list of milk records, the greatest yield, 
18,120 pounds 8 ounces in a year, having been 
made by her sister. The two next largest were 
made by Aaggie and Aaggie II. (the latter 
but two years old), giving respectively 18,004 
pounds 15 ounces and 17,740 pounds 2 ounces 
• in a year, NextisiEgis, with 16,823 pounds 
10 ounces in a year, Aaggie Rosa, a niece of 
Aaggie, has given 10,053 pounds 2 ounces iu 
seven months to November 1. All these ani¬ 
mals, with one exception, are in the herd of 
Smiths & Powell. 
£arw Ccmiaiu}. 
A CHEAP AND CONVENIENT EVAPO¬ 
RATOR. 
In the Fair Number of the Rural an en¬ 
graving and description of a fruit evaporator 
gave some good hints to readers of the paper; 
but I am going to beat the evaporator devised 
by “ Elm,” by describing mine for the benefit 
of those who have but one or two apple-trees, 
or who care only to preserve a small quantity 
of fruit and vegetables for their own use. 
The cost of “ Elm’s” device would purchase 
evaporated apples enough to supply a family 
for nearly three years, and is more than one 
feels like spending at once, w hen his whole 
apple crop is not worth ten dollars. 
My apparatus is simply a coverless packing- 
box, inverted so that the bottom may become 
the top of the evaporator. One of the sides is 
removed and hinged with leather to this top. 
It is used over a stove as “ Elm’s” is. The 
size of the box is 27 inches long (which is the 
width of my cooking stove), 15 inches wide, 
and 24 inches high. By settiug this back 
against the stove-pipe, I have the front of the 
stovp for cooking aud still have plenty of hot 
air in the evaporator. The box is set on four 
flat stones, which raise it two inches from the 
Evaporator. Fig. 700. 
stove. So far, I have not had occasion to pro¬ 
tect it from overheating. The trays are made 
of lath and covered with mosquito uetting, 
and slide upon ways of pieces split from a 
planed pine board and nailed to the sides of 
the box. The ways are two inches apart and 
the lowest tray is arranged to about six inches 
above the stove. I have thus 10 trays. These 
are only IS inches wide and are placed in the 
box alternately forward and back, so as to di¬ 
rect the current of hot air across and over the 
fruit. My device has no connection with the 
stove-pipe, but has a short chimuey of its own 
running the whole length of the box, and hav¬ 
ing a lid by which the passage of the air may 
be controlled. To prevent sagging of the net¬ 
ting in the tray, a piece of stout twine is 
stretched lengthwise under it ou the frame. 
The whole cost of the evaporator was 40 cents 
in money and two-and-a-half hours in time. 
Capacity, three pecks; and it will drv the 
fruit in six hours with a slow fire, which is all 
the heat needed. I use no sulphur. The ac¬ 
companying sketch (Fig. 70U) shows a section 
of the evaporator with arrangement of trays 
and position on the stove. The engraving 
also illustrates how an apple should be sliced. 
Essex Co., N, Y. Richard Ferris. 
A SYNDICATE OF FARMERS. 
DR. G. C. CALDWELL. 
We have heard a good deal about bankers, 
railroad men and other people of the class 
that some folks were once pleased to call 
the "bloated aristocracy,” forming associa¬ 
tions among themselves called syndicates, for 
the purpose of carrying on large transactions 
in their business; but who ever thought of a 
syndicate of furmers? Nevertheless there is 
such a thing in one of the districts of France, 
formed last July, for the purpose of purchas¬ 
ing on a large scale, and, of course, at whole¬ 
sale prices, all articles useful to the farmer 
aud especially commercial fertilizers and 
seeds. The auuual cost of membership is one 
franc (20 cents). The syndicate ou the first 
of October numbered 205 members. 
It has already contracted ou behalf of 05 
of the number, for 70 tons of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers of various kinds, to be guaranteed in 
composition, aud to be sold at such rates that 
each pound of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash Ijought shall cost the purchaser a cer¬ 
tain specified sum, according to the degree of 
solubility or availability of each of these 
plant foods. The terms of delivery of the 
fertilizers to the several purchasers are care¬ 
fully specified, as well as the conditions of pay¬ 
ment; cash payment secures a discount of two 
per cent., while those who wish for delay can 
have it by paying for it at the rate of five 
per cent, per annum. The guarantee com¬ 
position is to be tested without cost to the 
purchaser, within certain limits. Further, 
the officers of the syndicate, one of whom, the 
president, is a sort of State or Department 
Professor of Agriculture for the district iu 
which the syndicate is formed, offers to ad¬ 
vise any member as to the choice of fertilizers 
ou information being sent to headquarters us 
to the kind of soil, crop and culture, ami the 
amount of money to be invested. It is ex¬ 
pected, aud with good reason, that such a 
method of buying fertilizers will go far toward 
suppressing the frauds in the trade, which are 
not uncommon there. It will also do much 
towards acquainting the fanners with the 
nature of these materials which they are in 
the habit of using without knowing much 
about them, and they will by that means be 
taught bow to use them more intelligently. 
It will not be then-talk that this or the other 
brand of superphosphate gave them such a 
good crop, but that a dressing of so many 
pounds of soluble or available phosphoric 
acid, or of nitrogen as ammonia or as nitrate 
gave the crops; and they will have reasonable 
surety that with a similar season another year, 
like results will be obtained with the same 
uumber of pounds of these plant-nutrients, 
in whatever brand of fertilizer offered to 
them, whether it be for more or for less per 
ton. 
On this same subject Privy Counsellor 
Thiel, one of Prussia’s most eminent, authori¬ 
ties iu all that relates to the agriculture of 
the country, says iu the last uumber of a lead¬ 
ing agricultural journal that Gerruau far¬ 
mers, through their association with the 
Experiment Stations iu the purchase and use 
of commercial fertilizers, have come to look 
on these manures not as so many hundred¬ 
weight of hone meal, superphosphate, Chili 
saltpeter, etc., but as representing so many 
pounds of phosporic acid, nitrogen or potash; 
and in their transactions with the dealers 
their bargains are not for so and so milch of 
the fertilizers, but for so many pounds or 
hundred-weights of phosphoric acid, nitrogen, 
etc,, of such aud such a quality as to availa¬ 
bility or solubility, to Vie paid for at such aud 
such prices per pound. Our own farmers 
must learn this lesson before they will ever get 
the best possible returns for their investments 
in commercial fertilizers. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
This bug—Auasa tristis, De Geer (Coreus 
tristis. Haw.)—is well known, and generally 
recognized as one of the most vexatious of 
our insect pests. This has been true, as we 
have been unable to suggest any satisfactory 
remedy. I have often remarked to my stu¬ 
dents, that of all insects that vexed the farmer 
by attacking his crops, tins was one of tho 
hardest to deal with. My experiments the 
past season make this exception no longer ne¬ 
cessary. and so I write this article. 
The Squash Bug (Fig. OUfl) is nearly two centi¬ 
meters (about three-quarters of an inch) loug 
and black in color. 
The whole anterior 
part of the hotly, ex. 
cept the ends of the 
wings, is specked 
with mi, so that this 
part of the body has 
a brownish cast. 
On the margins of 
s^visit Her,.— fir. 699 . the thorax the red 
lines are quite distinct. Below, the brown pre¬ 
dominates, and is flecked with black specks. 
The. eyes and antenna* are black. Sometimes 
the brown color is replaced with yellow. 
The eggs of the Squash Bug, which are 
glued to the under side of leaves, are brown 
globular in form, though somewhat, flattened 
and are laid iu clusters. These are laid at in¬ 
tervals, aud as they soon hatch, we find the 
bugs of all sizes, all through the season, even 
till quite late in the FalL The larva, which 
has the same habits as the pupa and imago^ 
or fully developed bug, is gray and wingless. 
The larva is proportionately short at first. It 
soon elongates, aud becomes yellowish in 
color. All through the season the larviv, puptv 
and images will be seen in company about the 
vines. They insert, their long sucking beaks, 
and thus rob the squash and pumpkin vines of 
the sap. This causes the leaves to wrinkle up 
and die, and if the insects are very numerous, 
the vines are killed. During cool nights ami 
iu Winter the insects are wont to hide under 
any chip, clod, or other protection that is at 
hand. 
REMEDY. 
Heretofore our best protection against this 
bug was to place chips about the ground 
among the vines and thus capture the bugs 
early iu the season as they would cluster under 
these chip-traps. Iu common with all heini- 
ptera, w hich includes our plant lice, it is diffi¬ 
cult to poison these Squash Bugs, as they do 
not eat, but suck their food; so any poisonous 
compound which we may scatter on our plants 
does not. disturb them at all. They reach 
through it and so do not get. it as they insert 
their bcuks. To kill them, thou, we must use 
some substance which will destroy by outward 
application. I have placed these bugs in py- 
rethrmu for a whole day, and yet they Beemcd 
to suffer no harm. 1 am sure that it is useless 
to try to kill them witti this insecticide which 
against many of our insects is so invaluabip 
For the past two seasons I have tried kero¬ 
sene oil as a remedy for these pests, and with 
very gratifying success. Last year I used 
strong soap-suds iu which was placed the kero¬ 
sene in the proportion of one to five. This 
year I have stirred the kerosene into sour 
milk, which bad not become thickened, in the 
same proportion, and find it works well. 
I think it quite important to throw this on 
to the insects with considerable force. Thus, 
when I forced it ou with Whitman’s Fountain 
Pump, I found I succeeded better in killing 
the bugs than wheu I used a common sprink¬ 
ler in making the application. If applied 
with the sprinkler, it is kept from the body by 
the heavy wings, which cover the body as with 
a flat roof. If forced on with the pump, it 
deluges the whole body and brings quick death. 
If applied as directed—one part to four of 
the milk—the vines will not be injured. I 
fouml that one to three was too strong, as it 
did some injury to the plants. As the kerosene 
mixes well with the milk w hen stirred, this is 
a convenient dilutent; yet we must apply soon 
after the stirring, as the two substances very 
soon separate when left quiet. Sweet milk 
answers well, but no better than does the sour, 
and it is worth more. 
• Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. 
ENTOMOLOGY IN NEW YORK. 
Mr. Lintner bas favored us with an advance 
copy of his first report (for the year 1881) as 
State Entomologist of New York, and we have 
had much pleasure in its perusal. It is one of 
the best entomological reports yet published 
in this country. There is much to commend, 
not only* in the matter itself and the great care 
with which every opinion given has been con¬ 
sidered, but also in the scarcely less important 
details of arrangement of material; in the 
completeness of the index and table of con. 
tents: iu the excellent little bibliographical 
lists accompanying the consideration of each 
species, and in many* other minor points. 
The report opens with an admirable plea for 
the importance of entomological study, and 
this is followed by a summary of the progress 
made iu economic entomology iu the last 20 
y r ears, etnbraeiug a short account of the per¬ 
sonal work of each of the principal entomolo¬ 
gists, aud of the progress made in the forma¬ 
tion of entomogruphie collections. Fifty pages 
are then devoted to a consideration of the 
most prominent remedies and preventives 
against, injurious species. This part of the 
work is in the nature of compilation with little 
that, is based ou the author’s experience or ex¬ 
periment; but it is admirably* doue aud will 
prove most useful to those for whom the re. 
port is more particularly intended. After a 
few pages on classification, the consideration 
of specific insects begins. 
The injurious insects treated of comprise in 
the main those species which were prominent 
in the State of New York during the years, 
1881 and 1882. They are grouped into their re¬ 
spective orders as follows: Lepiduptera, Thy- 
ridopteryx ephemeraeformis, Tolype laricis, 
Nephelodes viola us. Gortyua nitela, Heliothis 
nrmigor, Crambos vulglvagellus, Cr. exsicca- 
tus, Anarsia lincatella, Buceulatrix pomifoli- 
ella and Coloophoru malivorellu. Diptera.— 
Phorbia ceparum, Ph, cilierura, Authomyias 
brassic*. A. radicum, A. raphani, A. zea\ A., 
sirnilis Hylemyia decentiva. Mallota postica- 
ta, Drosophila uuipolophila,Meroti)yz a Ameri¬ 
cana. OOLEOPETHA.—MacroductyliissubHpino- 
sus, Crioceris asparagi, Phytouomus puaeta- 
tus, Sphenophorus sculptilis. Ukmiptkka.— 
Murgautia histrionica, Poecilocapsuh lineatus, 
Enebenopa biuotata. 
These articles contain much original aud 
valuable matter, while previous writings are 
used with discrimination aud full credit. The 
report closes with four appendices. Appendix 
(A) gi ves a list of the entomological papers of 
Dr. Fitch and an account of his entomological 
work, chiefly in connection with the State. 
Appendix iH) includes a list of 170 insects in¬ 
jurious to the apple tree. (C) Contains re¬ 
printed descriptions of Nisoniades naevius, n. 
sp., N. Petronius, n. sp., N. Soiuuus, u. sp, 
Eudamus Electro, u. sp., notes upon N. Pro¬ 
pertius, N. Icelus, Eu. Proteus, and Ku. nova- 
da, and also a short paper on the Life Duration 
of the Heterocera. (D) Miscellaneous adden¬ 
da. (A) and (B) arc most full and praisewor¬ 
thy; (C) while valuable is not so germain, be¬ 
ing alrcfuly accessible to entomologists, for 
whom alone it has interest. 
Altogether the report shows such care, abili¬ 
ty and conscientiousness us compared with 
other late State report*, that, the people of New 
York are to bo congratulated ou having so 
worthy a successor to Fitch. The illustrations 
are from various sources, and for the most 
part duly' credited. A few are original. Tho 
presswork and paper, while by no means first- 
class, are rather above the average for State 
documents, C. V. riley. 
