4885 
577 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
f ound that the mycelium is well established 
in the plant long before any outward indica¬ 
tion. Some have believed that entrance is 
effected through the seed, and so have soaked 
the seed in vitriol water, brine, etc. At the 
Michigan Agricultural College a lot of corn 
was planted which was free from smut, and 
adjoining this another lot which had been 
purposely rolled in the smut. No special dif¬ 
ference was observed in the number of smutted 
stalks produced in the two cases. 
Much has been said of the poisonous nature 
of smut; but the Rural has shown that some 
cases at least of injury attributed to smut are 
more likely due to other causes. Borne fungi, 
as ergot, are certainly poisonous; but there 
is no reason for believiDg that fungi as a class 
are more poisonous than other plants. 
Ann Arbor, Michigan. 
SELECTION OP SEEDS. 
I wish to call the atteution of Rural 
readers to the importauce of selecting their 
owu seeds, aud improving their quality by 
careful selection each year. 
Iu the spring time of 1880, I bought Lima 
Beaus, said to be the most prolific variety, 
from a seed-store in New York. They were 
planted iu good soil; when gathered the pods 
shelled out from on£to three beans, with two 
exceptions, when two pods were found con¬ 
taining four beans each. These were planted 
the following season, and from them the num¬ 
ber of pods containing four beaus was greatly 
increased, The nextseasou they were planted, 
and when ripe shelled out; a majority of the 
pods contained four beans each and a few 
of them contained five beaus. Last Spring 
the beaus from the most prolific pods were 
again planted, aud on shelling them out, 
scarcely a pod yielded less than three, the 
majority four, and a large number produced 
five beans, which have been carefully selected 
for plantiug next Spring. 
If such improvement can be made in beans in 
four years by careful selection, why not test 
other kinds of seed, and keep one small plot 
on which each person should sow the choicest 
seeds he can select each year from all his crops, 
in order to obtain therefrom improved seeds 
enough for raising his general crops the next 
year? “farmer.” 
A NEW REMEDY AGAINST TFIE DE¬ 
STRUCTIVE LOCUSTS. 
PROF. C. V. RILKY. 
The warfare which the California people 
have waged against the destructive locusts or 
grasshoppers, that have recently beeu causing 
so much alarm in certain parts of the State, 
has uecessarily been very much a repetition 
of the means that were found to be most sat¬ 
isfactory during the tussle which our Missis¬ 
sippi Valley farmers had from 1873 to 1877 
with the Rocky Mountain specks. One new 
method udopted in California, and which Mr. 
D. W. Coquillett, who was sent into the field 
to make special observations, has found to be 
quite satisfactory, is the use of poisoned bait. 
It consists of arsenic, sugar, bran and water; 
the proportions beiug one part by weight of 
arsenic, oue of sugar aud five of bran, to 
which is added a certaiu quantity of water. 
The arsenic and bran are first mixed together, 
then the sugar is dissolved in water and added 
to the. bran aud arsenic, after which a suf¬ 
ficient quantity of water is added to thor¬ 
oughly wet the mixture. About a teaspoonful 
of this mixture is thrown upou the ground at 
the base of each tree, vine, and so forth, and 
left to do its work. In the case of trees, the 
locust# are shaken or driven out of them with 
loug poles. The poison works slowly, seldom 
killing its victims within eight or ten hours 
after having been eaten. 
While I have no doubt that this method of 
destroying the locusts may prove very ser¬ 
viceable in vineyards aud orchards when the 
insects are not in excessive abundance, 1 do 
not believe it will compare with the kerosene 
pans and with ditching iu broad grain fields 
where the insects are as numerous as I huve 
so often w itnessed them in the Merrimack 
Valley in New Hampshire and iu the Missis¬ 
sippi Valley. 
CONTAGIOUSNESS OF CONSUMPTION 
Men of scientific attainments declare that 
the germs of tuberculosis, or consumption, 
pass from man to the lower auimals and from 
one human beiog to another. In proof of the 
truth of this conclusion are cited hundreds of 
observed cases, and scores of experiments, in 
which that malady has been conveyed from 
diseased to healthy individuals. Dogs, cats 
and other pets, fondled by consumptive per¬ 
sons, have contracted from those persons the 
dreadful malady, and died. Other animals 
have been compelled to breathe air in which 
the germs of consumption floated, or have 
been inoculated by minute quantities of tuber¬ 
culous matter, and, after showing the charac¬ 
teristic symptoms of the disease, have per¬ 
ished. 
The exceedingly minute germs of consump¬ 
tion are scattered through the air by the 
breathing of persons or animals affected, by 
their spitting, and yet more by their cough¬ 
ing. The germs are then drawn into the 
nostrils, throat or lungs of others more or 
less susceptible to attacks of the malady, or 
settle upon food or drink, to tind their way to, 
and cause disease iu the digestive organs. 
These germs are so exceedingly tenacious of 
life that, it is asserted, meat in which they ex¬ 
ist can not be safely eaten unless it has been 
boiled for at least a quarter of au hour. Ex¬ 
periments have proved that the long-dried 
sputa of tuberculous persons is capable of con¬ 
veying these germs. 
Although men of scientific research have 
been for some years convinced of the truth of 
the assertions set forth above, comparatively 
few people, outside of the medical profession, I 
appear to understand the importance of those 
facts and the direct bearing they have on the 
welfare of thousands of families. Many to 
whom they are new will deny the correctness 
of the conclusions reached by the students. 
For the sake of humanity it is wiser and iu 
many ways better to assume that the scien¬ 
tists are right. No harm can possibly come 
from guarding, in every practicable way, 
against the extension of a malady, that has 
caused more suffering than has resulted from 
all the wars mankiud has known. Better err 
by being too careful and too cautious, rather 
thau by being unbelieving and neglectful. 
Telling the truth bluntly may seem cruel, but 
those who have pulmonary consumption 
should uot be permitted to associate with 
other people, except under such precautions 
as will prevent the spreading of the malady. 
No persou should tie permitted to sleep in a 
room wherein a consumptive patient is, or has 
recently been. No consumptive person should 
ever kiss or fondle a healthy one, especially a 
child ; aud sound members of a family should 
not, without adopting more aud better pre¬ 
cautions for the preservation of their own 
health, attend consumptive patients. Above 
all, uo person suspected of having pulmonary 
consumption should be allowed to visit family 
after family, infecting uapkius, bedding and 
rooms, caressing tender children, and in other 
ways sowing germs that may cause suffering 
and death. 
The world looks with dread and loathing I 
upon one who, having small-pox, brings him¬ 
self iDto contact with others who may con¬ 
tract the disease. Cholera aud yellow fever 
sufferers are regarded with horror by the rest 
of mankind, because the diseases they spread 
are quick in development aud clearly marked 
in effect. If scientists are right in regard to 
the contagiousness of tuberculosis—and no 
proof that they are not right in this matter 
has been furnished—the consumptive is, like 
the small pox. yellow fever or cholera suffer¬ 
er, very dangerous to the welfare of others. 
But the latter maladies kill so quickly that 
they shock exceedingly the survivors; the 
former causes years of suffeiing to tne pa¬ 
tient and long continued torture to friends; 
yet thousands of poor creatures, stricken by 
the hard of death and loDging for the com¬ 
panionship and sympathy of friends they 
must soon leave forever, or running about 
wildly in the too often vain hope of shaking 
off the fatal grasp that drags them, day hy 
day, nearer to the grave, are by so doing 
bringing upon their dearest friends a fate as 
painful as their own. Thus the consumptives 
needlessly multiply sorrow and suffering. 
They would be horrified by a suspicion that 
they would willingly introduce into the homes 
of their dear ones any of the diseases gener¬ 
ally known to be contagious. With others 
consumptives have severely criticised those 
who have incurred the risk of spreading scar¬ 
let fever, diphtheria, measles or whooping 
cough: yet they were at the moment doing 
much to perpetuate and extend a contagious 
disease that has killed more people thau all 
the disorders mentioned. 
Is there a reasonable excuse for remaining 
in ignorance on this subject? Is it not the 
duty of every one, especially of guardians of 
the young, to prevent the contaminating pres¬ 
ence of all animals, human or other, that are 
likely to convey the germs? Is it uot the duty 
of every consumptive to use the earliest op¬ 
portunity for learning the truth concerning 
the disease, and to carefully avoid all danger 
of inflicting upou others a malady that will 
cause great suffering aud lingering death* 
“FAX.” 
THE NEW STRAWBERRY “AMATEUR.” 
Plants were received from Mr. Reuben C. 
Hart, West Torrington, Conn., April'JO, 1884. 
Mr. Hart at that time wrote us: “It combines 
thetlavorof Lenuig’s White with large size, 
great productiveness and with the shape of 
Mrs. Garfield, as pictured. The leaves are as 
large as those of Sbarpleas. Each plaut sends 
up two or three peduueles, each bearing from 
six to 10 berries. Medium to late. Shape, 
ovate conical. It was grown from selected 
berries of Lenuig’s White and Green Prolific, 
crushed together in sand and the mixture 
sown.” He lurther says: “Fertilized with 
Charles Downing, the following is a descrip¬ 
tion of the Amateur as grown by me for 10 
years: Glossy pink—from bright to pale pink 
—never crimson. Flesh white, sweet, aromat¬ 
ic with the pine apple flavor of Lennig's 
White. Season earlier and later thau Charles 
Downing.” He further says that Amateur 
fertilized with Sharpless, James Vick, Iron¬ 
clad or Prince of Berries, is different from 
Amateur fertilized with Charles Downing, in 
size, shape, color, flavor, color of seed, shape 
of calyx.” 
We copy the following from our records of 
1884: “Bright, light red, quite firm, fair 
quality, very vigorous; berries large to very 
large. Among plants set this 8priDg this and 
Jewell are the most vigorous and fruitful. 
Dark-green foliage, golden seeds. Later: 
Most prolific of auy; ripens all over.” 
Our remarks regarding this herry for the 
past season are already before our readers. It 
was not so prolific as the Jewell: the berries 
did not aveiage quite so large, and they 
dropped from the stem too easily, as if the 
stems were weakened by the tall leaves which 
covered the fruit entirely. The quality is 
somewhat better than that of Jewell—the 
plants remarkably vigorous and free from all 
disabilities. We regard the Amateur as at 
least worthy of trial. Fig. 889 shows with all 
fidelity an average fruit cluster as it matured 
in the earlier part of the season. Exact draw¬ 
ings of fruit always seem smaller in print 
than the berries appear as we look at them, 
and this, perhaps, gives the catalogues a 
shadow of excuse for a slight enlargement of 
the natural size. The gross exaggerations of 
most catalogue pictures, however, are inex¬ 
cusable. 
f arm Cconomi). 
NAIL BOX. 
No farm should be without a well filled nail- 
box, containing also several sizes of screws, 
together with hammer and screw driver. It 
should also have a similar box stocked with 
the more commou sized bolts needed, aud in 
place of the hammer there should be a screw 
wrtueb. We show a bandy form of the box 
at Fig. 890, which can be used for either pur- 
Fig. 390. 
pose. It can be made of any light material; 
one of a good form aud size is 10 inches wide, 
24 long aud four deep. The bottom, ends and 
band-pieces should beof stuff three quartersof 
an inch thick. The other parts may be made 
of one half iuch stuff. The partitions may 
be groved into the sides and ends as shown. 
1 he hammer, or screw wrench may be carried 
as shown in the cut, and the screw driver is 
fastened to the opposite side of the hand-piece. 
The smaller appartments are for screws of 
different sizes; or, if used for bolts, each ap- 
paitment may be used for different sizes and 
lengths of bolts. 
HAULING CORN FODDER. 
I haul eoru fodder with a one-horse sled. I 
drive close to the shock, and theu with a rake, 
pull the whole shockonto the sled. This can 
be done if the fodder is well shocked, and 
tied with twine (binder twine will do) with¬ 
out tearing the shock to pieces. The shock 
can also be dumped off the sled, so as to stand 
up as it did in the field. One who never saw 
this mode of hauling fodder practiced, can 
scarcely Imagine its advantage. Two boys 
with two sleds can haul the fodder off a large 
field in one Saturday. w. h. k. 
U:t>iwalional. 
THAT COLLEGE BOY OF YOURS. 
There are hundreds of readers of the Ru¬ 
ral who have boys large euough to attend 
college. In a few short weeks the school sea¬ 
son will begin, and the question of education 
will force itself into the home circle. The 
farmer must decide whether he is wdliug to 
give up his boy. Few college graduates ever 
come back to the old farm permanently. The 
course at a purely literary college teuds to 
pull one away from farm life. If a boy at¬ 
tends au industrial school of auy kind, and 
keeps up his interest iu agriculture, it will be 
hard to keep him at home unless the farm is 
Amateur, From Nature. (Fig. 3S8.) 
