587 
well that it always pay3 to keep the weeds 
subdued in field or garden. He will be amply 
paid in the increased yield of the present crop 
aud also by the lessening of his labors for an¬ 
other year. But there is another reason why 
weeds should be kept down, that few, perhaps, 
have noticed and that is to lessen the cut¬ 
worm attacks the following season. These 
worms are very general feeders, eating al¬ 
most anything that grows out of the ground, 
not excepting buckwheat, and the more 
abundant the plant growth the greater will 
be the liability of injury fiom these pests. 
Twenty-two farmers of Iowa have reported to 
the station the proportion of their crops that 
have been destroyed this season by cut-worms 
on land allowed to grow up to weeds last sum¬ 
mer. The estimates range from two per cent, 
to 109 per cent, with an average of 40 per cent, 
the smallest losses being on land that was 
plowed late in the fall. Two cases that have 
come under my observation the present sea¬ 
son are worth mentioning. A piece of ground 
in tomatoes and squashes last year grew up to 
weeds in Aguust and September. This 
ground was plowed in the spring and 
set out to root grafts of apple, 
plum and cherry. For some time after 
the leaves should have appeared it was notic¬ 
ed that the buds had, apparently, nearly all 
dried out and spread open and the grafts 
themselves seemed to be dying. On examin¬ 
ing the ground about these grafts, it was 
found that cut-worms were present in large 
numbers and during an evening visit (between 
nine and 10) the worms were found eating out 
whatever was left green in the buds. It is 
doubtful if there would have been a living bud 
left if vigorous means had not been taken to 
destroy the worms which were gathered by 
the quart and killed. 
Another piece of ground comprising two or 
three acres was in potatoes last year and al¬ 
lowed to grow a perfect swamp of weeds in 
late summer. Last spring the field was again 
plowed and planted to potatoes. On the sec¬ 
ond of June I examined this field of potatoes 
and estimated that 75 per cent, of the hills 
contained cut-worms aud that more than half 
of the sprouts that had appeared up to that 
time had been cut otf beneath the surface. 
Other equally striking examples might be 
given but these will suffice. When enumera¬ 
ting cut-worm remedies we should not forget 
to mention clean culture. 
Ames, Iowa. 
NOTES. 
I have been worrying in good earnest this 
season against the striped aud cucumber flea 
beetles. I find that of the many substances 
tried, ashes and a strong tobacco decoc¬ 
tion are the best specifics. Ashes to be effec¬ 
tive must be used in great quantities, and In 
some cases they seemed to injure the plants. 
The tobacco decoction was even more effective 
than the ashes, aud did no injury to-the rad¬ 
ishes or potatoes on which it was used. I 
used for the decoction cheap tobacco dust or 
waste which I secured at tlie large factories. 
I believe this remedy will give excellent sat¬ 
isfaction : I shall try it farther another year. 
Many and serious complaiuts come from 
fruit-growers regarding injury done to peach 
trees, which were sprayed with London-purple. 
I have experimented very fully in this mat¬ 
ter. It seems that London-purple is far 
more injurious than is Paris-green. The 
latter, used one pound to 100 gallons 
of water—a mixture at least twice 
too strong—and twice repeated, did almost no 
harm; a mixture one-half the strength did no 
harm at all. The London purple of the first 
strength always did some harm and often 
serious damage. A rain just after the appli¬ 
cation seems to increase the damage. One 
pound to 200 gallons of water injures peach, 
cherry, apple and plum foliage often seri¬ 
ously, especially when repeated. It is much 
the most injurious when used on the peach. 
The leaves often fall off. Frequently one ap¬ 
plication of this weak mixture, would be 
followed by entire defoliation. 
I find that the colored water turned care¬ 
fully off after the London-purple has all 
settled, will still kill the foliage. Can it be 
that th9 analine is the poisonous substance? 
Or is it the soluble arseuici I am now having 
analyses made to determine this last point. 
If an arsenic is to be used on the plum aud 
peach, we must use Paris-green, aud for the 
peach this must be very dilute. I should uot 
make it stronger than one pound to 250 
gallons of water. prof. a. j. cook. 
t 
JERSEYISMS. 
Now is the time to begin the annual criti* 
cism on feeding off the meadows. Some say 
it is harmful, and some say it is not. For my 
part I think it depends altogether on the 
character of the land. Some fields can be 
fed, and some cannot. 
Tobacco culture exhausts the soil, and we 
accordingly lavish great pity on the growers. 
But,—did you ever think of it?—the injury to 
the soil caused by tobacco-growing doesn’t 
compare with that caused by peach-growing. 
How careless farmers are about lifting! 
One is apt to try to lift a-third more than a 
day laborer attempts, and the consequence is 
a rupture. Sixty per cent, of our farmers are 
so afflicted, and it is all owing to their own 
faults. 
“What shall I decorate ? ” asked an insipid 
city boarder of me. And I showed her the 
butter-crocks, churn, hen-coop and mowing- 
machine. “Take your choice," I said. She 
looked at me softly, and then sighed sadly. 
How can the thistle be eradicated? I will 
tell you: Cultivate it. Try to fertilize a 
thistle and you kill it. So, cultivate it as you 
would a rose. The pest loves poor soil, and if 
you make it rich, you kill it. 
Be particular about the horse shoers you 
patronize, and always employ the same smith. 
Do not change. A smith gets used to a horse, 
up. If you are poor, what made you so ? 
Find out, and get rid of the cause. Wasn’t it 
because you “got trusted” so much ? That’s a 
bad idea—very bad. jay err see 
GREAT EXPECTATIONS,—HOW DIS¬ 
APPOINTED 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
A Standard old farmer’s joke is on the 
man who said that his pig, when slaughtered, 
did not weigh as much as he expected; add¬ 
ing: “And I always knew it wouldn’t. ’’Isn’t 
this about the way with the crops ot many of 
us? We think this, or that, or the other field 
of grass, grain or potatoes, ought to give us 
such and such a yield; and yet has there not 
been all the time a sense of doubt, causing 
that sinking feeling about the pit of the stom¬ 
ach—“epigastrum,’’ we doctors call it—where 
our business conscience seems to have its head 
quarters? Oh, how seldom the premium crop 
we hoped to make materializes to the full in 
the bay, or the bin 1 Why is it so? Is it not 
because we have been hoping for that Will-n- 
the-Wisp called good-luck, to remedy some of 
AGAWAM BLACKBERRY. From a Photograph Fig. 215. 
and horses get accustomed to the handling of 
a particular man. “ The best is none too 
good.” 
Never smoke or allow smoking in your barn. 
If possible, do not employ a hired man who 
smokes. Never carry a kerosene lamp or 
lautern into a barn. Instead, use oil—old- 
fashioned, but safe. 
My neighbor Riggs has a mound in his pas- 
ture, graced with a board, on which he has 
paiuted: “Here lies a red heifer, poisoned 
with Paris-green by the carelessness of J. D. 
Riggs. Was worth $40.” Riggs says that 
every time he sees it he is reminded “to be 
careful.” 
“Two fifthsof the inmates of-Asylum 
are farmers.” Well, farming didn’t make 
them insaue. Two-thirds of those unfortu¬ 
nates were rendered so by intemperance 
—drank cider to start with. 
Peas planted May 9, bloomed in 81 days; 
while peas planted July 1, bloomed in21 days. 
Same plot of ground, same fertilization, same 
kind of peas. 
Joe Brown has gone into partnership with 
his son on his farm: “J. Brown & Son.” 
Cbarley does half of the work, pays halt of 
the expenses, and has half of the profits. 
Good idea, the boy being 21. 
How much are you worth ? Impertinent, I 
know; but really, do you know ? Reckon it 
the conscious faults and deficiencies of our 
work? Did we fit the ground just right, in 
the best manner? Did we allow enough man¬ 
ure, or fertilizer for a first-rate crop? Was 
our seed just right? Did we get it in at the 
right time? Did we tend the crop faithfully? 
Was our grass ground rich enough to stand 
that dry time in early June, aud had we used 
seed enough, and was it good enough, in seed¬ 
ing it down? 
The longer I live and farm, the more I am 
convinced that profitable farming must be 
found in thorough farming; and I know that 
unsuccessful farming follows bad business 
judgment quite as often as anything. Losses 
will result from idleness, carelessness, lack of 
capital, want of knowledge. All these are fac¬ 
tors in the cases we see, where farmine plainly 
does not pay. Yet take them altogether, they 
do uot hurt a farmer so much as the defect of 
that peculiar thing known as “business sense.” 
With this we shall never expect something 
from nothing, which is the worst of all the 
causes of failure on the farm. 
Undoubtedly a man may have good luck 
in farming, as in buying lottery tickets. But 
woe to the man who puts his trust in what he 
calls ‘chance, ” and especially woe to such 
farmers. “If scarcely the righteous (*. e., 
the right-doing,) be saved,” how can the farm¬ 
er whose conscience hounds him with the eon - 
tinual thought that he has not been - faithful, 
that he has not done as well as he knew how, 
or as he could have done, but has pacified his 
conscience by the false hope that he may not 
be obliged to reap as he has sown—how can 
such a man bslieve that he can be successful ? 
To carry od a farm to assured success re¬ 
quires as strict a training, and as faithful ad¬ 
hesion to duty, as to command a ship. Every 
thing must be foreseen and provided for, and 
nothing that man can do should be left to 
chance. It takes a first-class farmer. No 
wonder, then, so many declare that farming 
doesn’t pay. But it is the best of all businesses 
for incompetent men—who, if they don’t make 
it pay, survive at farming many years longer 
than they could hold out in any other way of 
life. 
Here is a great fact that should always put 
heart into the improving farmer. The world 
must be fed and clothed, and only the farmer 
furnishes the wherewithal. The price of food 
and clothing must forever be based on the 
cost of production. The farmer who cannot 
get a living out of the land must give up. 
Prices therefore must be based upon average 
farming. Anything better in the way of 
farming than an average, life-sustaining re¬ 
turn, must give a profit ; and that profit must 
increase with the efficiency of the work. Or, 
in other words, the more than average farmer 
must make some profit; and if he will keep on 
improving his farming, and investing his 
profits wisely, his farming is sure to pay. The 
proofs of this are to be seen in every county 
in America. 
DAIRY DOTS. 
Milk for Hens. —I don’t “ know,” but I 
think that if skimmed milk is fed to the hens 
instead of the pigs it will yield a greater 
profit. Our hens get nothing to drink but 
milk, and they lay right straight along. One 
advantage in butter over milk dairying is 
that the skimmed-milk and buttermilk are 
left for use on the farm. Another advantage 
is that in selling butter you carry off none of 
the farm’s fertility, whereas in selling milk 
you do. Still another advantage is that you 
do not have to go to market so often. Horses 
and wagons cost money ; a neighbor of mine 
sold milk and kept two wagons ; as he put it, 
“ he bad one wagon on the road and one at 
the shop.” 
Make good Butter.— But we can’t all 
make good butter ; if we did, it wouldn’t pay ; 
as it is only good butter that pays, the general 
run of farm dairy butter must be sold at a 
loss in summer. Why is it that so many 
farmers breed their cows to come in in the 
spring ? The result is a glut in the market 
and low prices. Some say that winter calves 
do not make as good cows as spring calves; 
but they do, and, besides, there is more time to 
attend to them and they are not bothered with 
flies. Then when grass comes they are old 
enough to get a good part of their living 
from it. 
Feeding Calves. —How much milk should 
a calf have? My practice is to feed four 
quarts a day in two feeds till the calf is from 
10 days to two weeks old, then gradually in¬ 
crease the ration. For the first week it gets 
new milk, by the end of the second it gets all 
skimmed-milk with linseed or flax-seed meal 
to supply the loss of cream. The calf is wean¬ 
ed when three days old, (if the cow is a very 
rich milker, when one) and is taught to drink 
by putting two fingers in its mouth. This is 
better than to put only one finger in, as by 
spreading the fingers a little the calf can more 
readily suck up the milk. When the calf is a 
week old hang up a bunch of the best clover 
hay within its reach; it will soon learn to eat 
it and it is surprising how much it will eat. 
The •* Scours.” —When a calf scours it i 9 
generally the owner’s fault; he has given it too 
much or too rich feed. I wouldn’t doctor, 
but dietit; one may let it go without one meal, 
aud then if it is three or four weeks old, be¬ 
gin with the original ration of two quarts at 
a feed, watching the calf closely as an in¬ 
crease is made in the quantity. If you had 
watched it as closely before it got the scours 
it would never have had them. 
When to Breed Heifers.— I like to have 
them drop their first calves when they are 22 
to 23 months old. They may make larger 
cows if not bred so young; but I don’t want a 
big cow for butter; mine grow too big even 
when bred young. Even for milk we don’t 
need a “big” cow; size alone doesn’t govern 
production and we have to consider the cost 
ot feeding the extra weight. It is what we 
get from the cow daily, not what we get for 
her when we are done milking her, that 
makes our profit. If I were selling milk and 
