644 
THE BUBAL MEW-YOBiKEB, 
SEPT 45 
ANSWERED BY THE AMERICAN MANUFACTUR¬ 
ING CO. 
We know of no book or treatise on the sub¬ 
ject. If the fruit is properly handled after 
taking it from the evaporator and protecting 
it from the moth, a small winged insect, there 
is no secret for keeping the fruit. It will 
keep for years. There is no trick about it. 
The heat of the evaporator in the manufacture 
of evaporated fruit destroys all insect life or 
eggs. Evaporated fruits exposed to the at¬ 
tacks of insects which by instinct are invited 
thereto, is liable to their ravages. If Rural 
subscribers will pack their fruit in paper bags, 
flour sacks or fairly tight cracker or flour 
barrels in tight packages they will have no 
trouble in keeping it. A dark room rather 
invites the moth than serves as a safeguard 
to prevent it, as is generally supposed. It is 
impossible to make common sun-dried fruit 
without its being full of insect eggs and germs 
and the only way to kill this life is to run the 
fruit through an oven or evaporator for a 
short time and then protect it as above. 
BONES OF FISH AND LAND ANIMALS AS 
FERTILIZERS. 
H. A. M. Fidalgo, Wash. Ter—l send a 
sample of fish guano [manufactured on the 
Columbia River. It is made from the heads, 
back-bones, and offal of the salmon that are 
canned on the river, after the oil is pressed 
out. You will see that it is nearly half bone. 
Now. are the bones of fish as valuable for 
fertilizers as those of land animals? What is 
their worth per ton? I have used four tons 
this j’ear and it cost me $26 per ton here. It 
seems so far to do nearly as well as bone 
phosphate that costs $50 per ton. 
Aus.—The exact value of the substance 
could be determined only by analysis. As to the 
value of fish bones, Prof. S. W. Johnson writes 
us as follows:—There can be little if any 
difference in the value of fish and .laud ani¬ 
mal bones. The “ flesh ” of fish is generally 
more watery than that of cattle, and the fish 
bones may also contain more water than the 
bones of the animals whose bones are used in 
making fertilizers, but the air-dry fish bone 
doubtless has, on the average, a composition 
closely like that of average cattle bone. 
There is considerable variation in the com¬ 
position of bones from different parts of the 
same animal.” 
Miscellaneous. 
Several Subscribers.— Mention is made in a 
recent Rural of a gasoline stove for use fci 
the kitchen during the summer. W hat par¬ 
ticular stove is used? 
Ans.—M r. Blackwell,who wrote the article, 
informs us that he uses the “Little Gem,” 
mude by the Dangler Stove Co., Cleveland, 
Ohio. His wife considers it the best one she 
could find. 
A. M. A., Carlton , N. Y —What is the 
name of the inclosed wheat heads? 
Ans.—W heats are so changed by soil, cli¬ 
mate and culture that it is not at all safe to 
attempt to identify a variety by the head 
alone. The specimen fairly resembles a dozen 
different varieties we could mention, but is 
not exactly like any as compared with our 
own specimens. It is as near Landreth as 
any, the difference being in the color of the 
chaff and in a harder grain. 
DISCUSSION. 
MORE ABOUT THE COUNTY FAIR. 
G. J., Srring Valley, N. Y. I may add to 
the account of the Suffolk County Fair in the 
Rural Sept. 1, a [few thoughts concerning 
our fair. 
The time for a county fair in our locality 
is about the middle of September. Last 
year we hold our fair in the last week in 
September and could not hold peaches. Some 
newspaper advertising is required as well as 
the posting of some large bills and a few small 
ones. Some invitations and, premium lists 
should be sent out and there should be lots of 
drumming and talking. It is not necessary 
for a president of a society to have Hon. or 
LL. D. to his name, but enterprising, re¬ 
spectable farmers and business men, who are 
ready to take their coats off are needed. 
Every office has its particular duties, and no 
one ought to allow himself to be an officer 
unless he is ready and willing to do the duties 
incumbent on the officer. No drones are 
required to make a fair a success, for the fair 
is just what the officers and the people make 
it. The superintendent should have a tent 
on the grounds and there should ,be as. many 
police as ^necessary all under his command; 
no one should give orders but him. In the 
way of amusements, all kinds of people attend a 
fair. Some take great delight in base ball, 
others injflne-looking horses. A little amuse¬ 
ment i? uot out of the way, but it gbouJd not 
be carried to extremes. Remember it is an ag¬ 
ricultural and horticultural County Fair. 
The best way to divide premiums for fine 
cattle and other products should be consid¬ 
ered, so as to encourage farmers in agricul¬ 
tural pursuits. The ladies should not be left 
out in the cold ; for they add greatly to the 
full exhibitiou of the societies. Generally, if a 
man has a fine horse, he is apt to take pride 
in showing it without coaxing or any invita¬ 
tion. 
In my judgment it does not pay to have speak¬ 
ers from abroad, unless he is a Governor or 
President. Bob Ingersoll might amuse a few, 
but not many. A successful county fair can be 
run without horse-racing. I have tried it. When 
we had lots of “horse,” we wore always behind. 
We tried it without “ horse,” and came O, 
K. Ask the Orange Co. fair managers about 
horse-racing at fairs. All gambling should be 
strictly prohibited ; it doesn’t make any dif¬ 
ference what the gamblers may offer. Last 
year I was offered $30 for two days, for eight 
feet square. No good. 
No liquors should be sold on the fair grounds. 
I could derive a good revenue for the privilege, 
but a clear conscience is better. Of course it 
would, swell our receipts to get a few hundred 
dollars for gambling,etc., but it might turn 
out to be Judas money. Our Society prides 
itself on running a respectable fair, one a di¬ 
vine is not ashamed to attend. 
Last year, Mr. L. Clark, of Newburgh said 
to me;tlmt he was offered $1,000 for the privi¬ 
lege of liquor selling on the fair grounds, but 
he refused. Last year we had a balloon as¬ 
cension, and we are to have the same this year. 
This year, I believe, the ladies are getting up 
a silk crazy-quilt, which they are to'dispose of 
in chances. We often have a little bicycle 
but it is confined to the county with a gold 
medal as a reward. 
A MACHINE FOR CUTTING CORN. 
J. A. M., Gilbkrtsville N. Y. A recent 
R. N.-Y. makes a request for experience in 
using machinery for cutting fodder corn. 
So far as my experience goes, a sweep-rake 
reaper ,is the best machine for that purpose; 
but as all farmers have not a machine of that 
kind, a mowing machine can be used. 1 
arrange mine as follow’s. Near each end of 
the bar, I take out a guard bolt and replace 
it with one long enough to take straps, 
through which other holes should be made 
just at the back edge of the bar. Now make 
a table or a platform as wide as the bar will 
take and about 3}£ or four feet long, putting 
bed-pieces which should be in size one inch or 
a little over, by three, to correspond with eyes 
in the bar. Cover this with light lumber 
and attach straps of iron terminating in a 
hook upon the bed-pieces to attach the plat¬ 
form to the bar. Should there be a space 
between the platform and the bar, lit a 
board and bolt it on the top of 
the platform. At the side of the 
platform farthest from the machine 
a board should be put up to keep the corn 
from falling off. It requires two hands to use 
it. The driver should ride and carry a light 
rod, upon the end of which is a piece of 
wood, about one inch square and seven or 
eight long both the ends sharpened and a 
three-quarter hole bored diagonally through 
the center, forming a hook to'draw the corn 
upon the table. If the team walk slowly the 
other hand can catch it by the tops and draw 
it off behind the machine out [of the way of 
the next swath. If this cannot be done, load 
up the table and stop the team and take the 
corn off. Either lay it upon the ground or bind 
it up. It should be cut lengthwise of the rows 
and usually one row should be cut at a time. 
It is not equal to> reaper, but it is much bet¬ 
ter than a corn knife. 1 prefer a wheel un der 
the back side of the table. It can be put 
under in this way: Rut an extra bed-piece 
under the center of the table. Set a wheel 
about five or six inches in diameter into a 
stick two or three by four in size in the form 
of a castor bevel, having the other so as to 
raise the .table the hight you wish it, and 
bolt it to the center bed-piece with one half 
inch bolt. 
G. W. G., Manpan, Dakota.— It is said 
that experience is the_best. school-master, and 
I often find that truth is as strange as fiction. 
Last spring my sou'plowed in about half an 
acre of wheat, five inches deep on an average, in 
order to see.if it would come as quickly aud 
grow as well as that sown by the seeder and 
cultivator aud harrowed over afterwards. 
The half acre was sown by the broadcast seed¬ 
er, plowed in and harrowed after plowing. 
The wheat plowed in came up just as soon as 
the other, and to-day standsjis high aud is as 
well headed. Now the result here is very dif¬ 
ferent from that on the trial described in the 
Rural of August 11. What makes the dif' 
ference ? Is it the climate ? Again, a neigh¬ 
bor plowed in some 15 acres of corn. He 
would plow a furrow and drop the corn with 
bis planter; then plow three furrows„aud drop 
again and so on. This man told me that he 
plowed about five inches deep. It came up 
first-rate and the part that I saw is looking 
tip-top. I would like to hear what the Pro¬ 
fessors will have to say to the above. 
ANTIDOTE FOR THE FLEA-BEETLE. 
S. C. C., Pasco Co., Fla. In the last num¬ 
ber of the Rural that reached me, I noticed 
the damage caused by the Cucumber Flea- 
beetle among the potatoes. From what is 
said of the work of the pest, I believe it is the 
same that visited me on Long Island last 
spring, causing a loss of from $500 to $1,000. I 
treated the nuisances, under a strong glass, 
with every poison at my command and I had 
some five or six kinds. They laughed at my 
vain efforts even when I laid them firmly on 
a pile of Paris-green. They would grow fat 
on sulphur. Tobacco, however, a strong solu¬ 
tion, was too much for them; for after its 
application they gave up the ghost in from 
10 to 40 seconds—certainly their death agony 
didn’t last more than 60 seconds in any case. 
E. E. B., Norfolk, Va.—I n the Rural of 
Aug. 4, information is asked as to white 
huckleberries. Some 12 to 15 years ago in my 
native town of Hopkinton R. I., there was a 
small patch of white huckleberries, also a 
larger area of rod huckleberries neither of 
which I have ever seen in any other place. 
The red huckleberries were of a brick-red 
color aud decidedly superior in quality to the 
common black variety. Both varieties—white 
and red—had been in the same places for 
many years. 
H. IL, Ridgewood, N. J.—On inquiry of 
my neighbors I find the little black fleas are 
very numerous on the potato vines all over 
this section. When I first looked at mine it 
was early in the morning with a heavy dew 
on them; on looking at them since, during the 
day, I find mine are swarmed too. My 
neighbors had not noticed them till I called 
their attention to them. 
ANOTHER POTATO ENEMY. 
“ An insect has appeared in New York and 
begun to work on the potato vines, before 
w'hich the old-time “ potato bug’’and alibis 
work, sink into insignificance. 
as 
This insect is the Cucumber Flea Beetle, or, 
; Harris names it, the “Haltica cucumeris. 
The appearance of this beetle was not no¬ 
ticed until too late to fight him well. The po¬ 
tato crop was anticipated to be unusually 
large when suddenly it was discovered that 
the leaves of the vines had turned black and 
were drying up and the stems turned yellow, 
withered and died. 
The cause of the premature death of the 
vines was sought in all directions and finally 
it was found that this tiny insect was the 
cause. The beetles puncture the leaves from 
the under side and then they work until the 
leaf resembles a sieve audit turns black and 
withers. Without the leaves the stems must 
soon die. This beetle will seriously diminish 
the potato yield. 
Thus far nothing has been found to have 
any effect upon the beetles, although Paris- 
green, plaster, Buhach, hellebore, Gishurst’s 
compound aud borax have ull been tried. It 
is described as the most formidable enemy to 
the potato that has yet appeared and vigilant 
search will at once be made for some weapon 
that may enable the fanner to triumph over 
this foe that has invaded his fields,” 
We copy the above from the Massachusetts 
Plowman. Our cotemporary might without 
any great stretch of generosity have men¬ 
tioned the R. N.-Y., in the above connection, 
since we were first to discover und to announce 
the cause of the injury to potato vines not 
only in several parts-of.New Jersey, but also 
in various parts of southern New York. It is, 
however, a surprise to us that the press in 
general did not at once spread the informa¬ 
tion; that the experiment stations did not 
issue bulletins; that the Department of Agri¬ 
culture (which we promptly notified) did uot 
investigate the amount of injury being done 
and endeavor to find some effective means of 
fighting the enemy. The insecticides men¬ 
tioned are merely those which the R. N.-Y. 
thoroughly tried without, as our readers are 
aware, any good results. Indeed, our per¬ 
sistence in trying first one, insecticide, then 
another no doubt hastened the death of the 
vines on the plot experimented upon. 
Through a valued correspondent wo learn 
that tobacco water will kill, or at any rate 
drive off this flea-beetle at once—a possible 
remedy that may well be remembered another 
season in case of need. 
more or less for many years to prepare large 
specimens for exhibition, but only for a few 
years past has it been practised to hasten the 
crop for market. 
Girdling has been practised in the M ass. Ag. 
College vineyard more or less every year 
with favorable results; the canes that are to 
be cut away at the fall pruning only have 
been girdled, to avoid any possibility of in¬ 
jury to vine or root from stopping the down¬ 
ward flow by the girdle. 
Some seasons the results of this practice 
have been more marked than in others; but 
generally the increased price obtained for the 
early fruit has much more than paid expense s 
of the work, and in seasons of early frost, to 
which many sections of New England are lia¬ 
ble, it has made the difference between total 
failure and fair profit. 
To save expense in the work, for the past 
two years the girdling has been done by 
twisting a wire very firmly about the canes 
the last of June above the point where the 
cane is to be cut away at the fall pruning. 
About No. 20 wire has been found best, and 
results obtained have been more satisfactory 
when the wires were put on the last of June 
or early in July, aud twisted very firmly about 
the cane. 
Prof. Maynard concludes that while he has 
no proof that the vines are in any way in¬ 
jured (notwithstanding that he has made very 
careful observations for many years), he 
would not advise girdling the entire vine, but 
would treat only those canes to be cut away 
at the fall pruning, and would leave about 
one half of the vine to grow to a natural con¬ 
dition. 
The Hor Crop Outlook.— The following is 
a condensation of Bradstreet’s opinion of the 
hop crop prospect: “The continued bad re¬ 
ports of the English crop keep the market in 
a very sensitive condition. Since the begin¬ 
ning of August,and indeed considerably before 
that, the English weather, with the exception 
of a few days, has been wet and cold, aud it is 
now too late to hope for any material im¬ 
provement. Estimates of the yield vary from 
200,000 to 260,000 hundred-weights of 112 
pounds. The consumption is generally put at 
600,000 hundredweights. These figures indi¬ 
cate that England will have to import about 
one-half of hor requirements during the ap¬ 
proaching season, as the stock of old hops on 
hand is not large. If the quality of the New 
York State aud Pacific coast crops proves 
equal to expectations it is probable that a 
great many American hops will find theiFway 
to the London market. Acting on this hy¬ 
pothesis, New York dealers have been making 
contracts with the farmers in the interior of 
the State for their crops at 20 to 25c. per 
pound. The terms of the contracts require 
them to take their chances as to the quality of 
the hops when picked. These contracts are 
largely speculative, though all indications 
point to 25c. as the lowest figure at which new 
hops will come into the market on purely 
legitimate trade. 
The business passing in old hops is light, and 
brewers are indifferent buyers. Both the 
American and European crops are late, and 
tho season will not be fairly opened before 
October.” 
THE LATEST AND BRIEFEST. 
Girdling Grape-vines. -Cuttiug rings of 
bark from tho canes of the grape vine to has¬ 
ten the time of ripening lias been practiced 
In a recent bulletin issued by the New .Jer¬ 
sey Agricultural Ex. Station we find, among 
the analyses of chemical fertilizers,the follow¬ 
ing station valuations and the appended 
prices at which they are sold: Fish and pot¬ 
ash, manufactured by J. C. Fifield & Son, 
Bakersville, N. J. Selling price at consumer’s 
depot, $30. Actual value as estimated by the 
N. J., Station $18 89. Potato, hop aud tobac¬ 
co phosphate, manufactured by Crocker 
Fertilizer Co., 60 Pearl Street, Buffalo, N. N ., 
selling price $40; analysis vulue $27.05. High, 
grade Ammoniated Bone, made by J. B. 
Eckerson, River Vale, N. J., selling price $38; 
station valuation $27.20. Mineral fertilizer, 
manufactured by Jeptha A. Wagner, Holts- 
ville, N. Y., station valuation $6.88 (per ton). 
Selling price at consumer’s depot, $55. Wo 
give the above instances of excessive differ¬ 
ences between the value by analysis and the 
selling price,to show our readers that it is not 
well to buy fertilizers indiscriminately. 
The experiment station of the Mass. Ag¬ 
ricultural College calls itself the “ Hatch” 
Experiment Station. Why?. 
The dairy expert, S. Hoxie, considers that 
the strongest evidence of cows producing 
healthy milk is shown in their dropping 
strong, healthy calves at birth, and their 
rapid development and continued health 
while being fed on the milk of their dams.... 
Garden & Forest says that fine varieties 
of Salpiglossis sinuataare seen this summer in 
i the windows of some Boston floyists. I ho 
