bulk; but at least one-tkird of the tubers in 
the unthinned row were too small for market, 
while of those in the thinned rows almost 
every one was large and smooth. We should 
no more expect large tubers from a hill with 
too mauy plauts, than large ears of corn from 
a hill in like condition. D, c. A. 
Girard, Ill. 
A HOME-MADE CORN CULTIVATOR. 
Although farm implements are now made 
of all designs by the regular manufacturers, 
aud are sold at such low figures that they are 
within easy reach of all farmers, still home¬ 
made tools null always be popular because 
they can be made, at a trifling cost, of odds 
and ends otherwise useless about the farm, and 
at times when other work is slack or inter¬ 
rupted by bad weather. Moreover, they can 
be fashioned to suit the fancy or needs of each 
maker, aud there is always a good deal of 
satisfaction iu the use of an implement made 
by one’s-self if it works well. The illustration 
of such devices is useful not only to farmers 
iu genera], but also to manufacturers of agri¬ 
cultural implements, as they are often sug¬ 
gestive of improvements in old devices or 
even of new combinations or designs. 
A sketch of the corn cultivator shown at 
Fig. 173, was sent us by friend A. P. Freeman, 
Oakland County, Mich., who says: “It is the 
best tkiug of the kind I ever used or saw, as 
the pole. To prevent the chain from falling 
to the ground when unfastened from the pole, 
it should pass through a hole bored in the 
block. Quite large stakes can be driven down 
in this way. 
A HOME-MADE ROAD SCRAPER. 
For the design r* 
of the home-made \| 
road-scraper, it 
shown at Fig. 172, \t 
we are indebted to V| 
our friend S. S. 11 
Matthews, Che- \| 
nnmg County, N. 
Y. D is a piece of \1 
tough, naturally 
crooked wood, \1 
seven feet long and m 
hewed seven inch- 
es. B is a four-iuck ^ 
brace, notched at \l 
the tongue, C, to \1 
which it should be .1 “5 
bolted and also ^ 
bolted to the ends Fig. 172. 
of the beam. D 
is a wTOUghtriron or steel bar four inches 
wide, spiked to the beam, so as to project 
inch below it. ___ 
A CONVENIENT HOME-MADE HARROW'. 
The cut of the harrow shown at Fig. 1 1 1, 
was sent us by friend M. Bingenheimer, Osage 
Fig. 173. 
there is no jerking on man or horse. It is 
made of 2x3 inch stuff; the side-pieces are 2)4 
feet long, and the middle piece is three feet. 
The five teeth were obtained from an old 
spring-tooth float harrow, and are put on as 
shown at E. E. E. E. E., those at the ends of 
the side pieces being three inches from the 
ends, the others 14 inches farther along, aud 
that in the middle piece five inches from the 
end. For the handles 1 used a pair from a 
east>-aside Gale plow. The middle piece pro¬ 
jects 15 inches ahead of the side-pieces. At A. 
A., two pieces of half-inch by one-and-three- 
quarter-inch iron, each 18 inches long, form a 
cross-bar from one outside piece to the other, 
aud are so arranged as to spread or narrow 
the cultivator, by inserting a peg through 
holes bored in them and the middle piece. The 
bend or crook is three inches from the end. 
At B., is a wedge-shape piece spiked on the 
projecting end of the middle piece to make the 
draft come right. It should be about an inch 
through at the thickest end aud a foot long. 
At C. is a plate for binding the three pieces 
together, and a similar one is on the underside. 
The bolts through these and the side-pieces 
have nuts at the bottom aud are somewhat 
loose in the holes so as to pennit the spreading 
or narrowing of the cultivator. Heavy hand 
iron will answer for the plates. The forward 
corners of the side-pieces are rounded a little, 
as shown at D.” 
A HANDY POLE-DRIVER. 
The ordinary method of driving stakes is, 
of course, to strike them on the upper end with 
an ax, mallet, or some other heavy implement; 
but with hop or bean poles this would be im¬ 
practicable. With . 
the device shown at 1 
Fig. 174, (for a sketch I 
of which we return 
thanks- to friend M. 
D. Earle, of this city,) 
they can be driven 
down very conven¬ 
iently and quickly. 
It consists of a piece 
of tough w'ood a foot Ijiflf] f • jj#/ 
long and four or five < gatjk. *Wi 
inches square at the sEEsPjj j!By 
top, tapering dow r n- MB 1 ||w 
ward wedge-shaped, |ll|| |J llllllfir 
as in the cut. The |ir 
part next the pole is ||| RN Y- 
hollowed out some¬ 
what so that the pole || 
can rest snugly in it. 
An ordinary trace R UH 
chain is wound tight- m 
ly around the block W 
and pole at a conven- pjg 
ient hight in latter, 
and hooked in place. Then a few heavy 
blows on the top of the block will drive 
the pole quickly and firmly into the ground, 
very blow tightens the grip of the chain on 
that young cabbages under shelter, or even in 
a closed room, soon lost the fine powder which 
was applied to the plants, as shown by anal¬ 
ysis and by close examination with a kigh-pow- 
er microscope. I have uo doubt that apples, 
treated just after blossoming, would be free of 
all traces of the poison long before harvest. 
Having lived in California three years, I know 
w-ell that though in the fruiting season of the 
apple there may be not a drop of rain, there 
are always refreshing breezes, which are often 
far more than gentle. Yet, in such an impor¬ 
tant matter I advise great caution. Let Mr. 
S. use. the arsenites, and then get some good 
microscopist to make a careful examination a 
month after the poison is applied, aud see if a 
grain of it is to be found on the fruit. Such a 
test is crucial, and I have not a shadow of 
doubt but that it will show that the poison lias 
done its work and fled. This disappearance is 
not so surprising. If wall paper may part 
with the incorporated Paris-green, which fur¬ 
nishes the rich, beautiful green tints, so as to 
poison people, why should not the loose pow¬ 
der be swept from the applet 
Fig. 171. 
Count}', Kansas. He made his’ of .old rails; 
but a similar one can, of course, be made of 
any timber at hand. It was designed for the 
first cultivation of corn; but was useful for 
other purposes also. By means of the handles 
at the small end the implement can lie held 
in the right position. The engraving fully 
explains the mode of construction. 
(Entomological. 
FIGHTING THE CODLING MOTH. 
PROF. A. J. COOK. 
Mr. Springer, a subscriber to the Rural 
from Santa Clara Co., California, requests that 
I explain my method of lighting the codling 
moth(Carpocapsa pomonella)witb the arsenites, 
especially in his State, where the pest is lie- 
coming a very serious enemy to the apple. 
1 have found by very careful and pains-tak¬ 
ing experiments repeated annually now for 
several years, that Paris-green and London- 
purple—white arsenic would serve as well, 
but owing to the greater liability of its being 
mistaken for some culinary article, and so be¬ 
coming a poison to men and not to insects, 1 
never use or recommend it—if mixed with 
water aud put ou to our trees in the foi m of a 
fine spray, is sure to kill this arch enemy of 
our most valued fruit. 1 have found that if 
a pound of the poison be mixed with 100 
gallons of water and kept well mixed, it is still 
effective to kill the larvae, as they seek to enter 
the apple. The watery mixture can be made 
iu a barrel and drawn in a wagon through an 
orchard, when by use of a force pump and the 
cyclone nozzle,the poison is quickly, easily aud 
economically applied to the bearing trees. It 
destroys not only the codling larvae, hut 
canker-worms, leaf-roller larvae aud various 
other caterpillars that seem especially to relish 
the young, tender apple foliage. The expense 
is very light, and the good results are very 
great. I find that one application, made two 
weeks after the blossoms fall, will usually thin 
out the insects ulmost to extinction. Some of 
our critical entomologists have argued that 
this will kill the first brood only; but if the 
first brood are all killed, where will the parent 
moths come from to generate a second brood? 
The truth is, even our winter fruit is usually 
almost freed from the destruction of this insect 
by the use of this remedy. Mr. Springer says 
there are three broods in California, which 
would make this remedy still more valuable 
there. 
Dr applying the poison, I have always work¬ 
ed the force pump by hand, finding the Whit¬ 
man Fountain Pump very excellent for treat¬ 
ing a few trees, and one of the large force 
•pumps made fast to the wagon, t he best thing 
for a large orchard. In Western New York 
they improve my method by an attachment to 
the wagon wheel, which does the pumping. 
Mi-. .Springer asks if iu his Sta te, where there 
is no rain, there would not be danger in such 
use of the arsenites. 
If he has read my reports he will see that 
the wind soon scatters the poison. I found 
Sewage as Manure. —We learn from the 
Journal d’Agriculture that a German chem¬ 
ist has succeeded in extracting organic matter 
in solution from sewage by means of chemical 
precipitation, in such a way that it is obtained 
in a solid form for the purpose of being uti¬ 
lized as a manure with the rest of the resid¬ 
uum. The discovery has beeu successfully ap¬ 
plied to the sewage of houses in Berlin. The 
sewage is allowed to pass through a tank in 
which, by means of cheap chemical ingredi¬ 
ents, the mauurial matter is separated from 
the water, leaving the latter to flow off clear, 
while the former is forced into an apparatus 
where it is converted into a dry powder. As 
the demand for fertilizers increases, fresh 
sources of them are being constantly discov¬ 
ered. The original discoveries of Liebig, 
Ville and Lawes and Gilbert with regard to 
ordinary commercial fertilizers, have of late 
been supplemented by the discoveries of Ger¬ 
man potash salts at Stassfurt, of phosphatic 
rock in .South Carolina and of apatite iu Can¬ 
ada; aud should this new mode of utilizing 
sewage prove cheap and efficient, what a vast 
supply of fertility will be available iu every 
inhabited pari of the world. 
Corn Culture.— B. P. Ware, spealdug on 
corn culture before the Massachusetts Agri¬ 
culture Society, said if the Pilgrim Fathers 
had not been fortunate enough to discover this 
golden grain the first Winter after they lauded 
on our shores, the condition of this country at 
the present time would be doubtful. Coru 
cau give us more grain per acre than any 
other cereal, aud more fodder than any of the 
other grasses, and its influence ou the pros¬ 
perity aud wealth of the United States is 
greater than that of any other cultivated 
plant. We have thousands of acres of plain, 
light laud, producing less than a half ton of 
hay per acre annually, that could be profitably 
devoted to coru without, interfering with 
the other operations of the farm. But we 
must adopt the newer methods of culture, aud 
use the improved labor saving implements 
adapted to large fields. The speaker recom¬ 
mended plowing in the Fall, but he would culti¬ 
vate thoroughly just before plauting, to de¬ 
stroy weeds aud fine the soil: 1000 pounds of 
s-uitable fertilizer applied auuually will pro¬ 
duce good crops of 50 bushels per acre, and 
two tons of fodder. He prefers to plant in 
drills feet apart with horse coru planter, 
dropping the kernels about five or six inches 
apart iu t he drills, or thick enough to allow an 
average of one stalk to each square foot on 
the whole surface. Before the coru comes up 
he drags the field with a smoothing drag of 
plank, having n two-inch strip of inch-board 
nailed underneath for a pulverizer. After the 
corn comes up he uses the Thomas harrow 
three times, at intervals of a few days, to kill 
the weeds, after which the cultivator or horse 
hoe, run two or three times between the rows, 
will do all the work of cultivation and leave 
nothing for the hand hoe. 
RURAL’S LIFE NOTES. 
The Gardener’s Monthly expresses the opin¬ 
ion that the Berckmans Grape will have “a 
wild run, after another year, in the North.’’ 
It is, the G. M, says, as hardy aud as free-grow¬ 
ing as the Clinton, one of its parents, while the 
quality is very little below the Deluwure. Mr 
Meehan regards it as one of the best of ail of 
the late Dr. Wilie’s hybrids.. 
At every cattle convention held iu the West 
this year the question of providing shelter for 
cattle has beeu brought up. There has never 
been but one decision in the matter. All are 
agreed that it pays to shelter stock, and yet a 
large proportion of cattle are shivering in the 
cold. Unfortunately, the owners of such cat¬ 
tle are not the men who attend conventions 
aud intelligently discuss the question. 
Mr. C. B. Plumb, Assistant Director of the 
New York Exyieriment Station, says, in Count¬ 
ry Home, that the Bessarabia Corn, largely ad¬ 
vertised several years ago, is the same as the 
Common Maryland White. Several differ¬ 
ent kinds, however, are sold for Bessarabia. 
He also states that Blount’s Prolific is the old 
Prolific of Tennessee. This surprises us. About 
the time that, we distributed this corn among 
our subscribers, we wrote to Mr. Blunt (as he 
was then called) os to its origin. The reply was, 
“It is the result of science aud cultivation,” or 
words to that effect. 
Mr. Plumb finds White Novelty and White 
Zealand the same as White Russian Oats. 
He also finds Golden Drop, California Blue 
Stem, Lancaster, Red Amber, Scott aud Tas¬ 
manian Wheats the same. Also Fultz, Finley 
and Heighe’s Prolific He also finds Silver 
Chaff and Treadwell the same—a surprise to 
us, though we do not remember ever to have 
raised the Treadwell as Treadwell..... 
In allowing water to stand iu the stable 
over-night during the Winter, Mr. C. S, 
Plumb has found that simply covering the 
flails with bagging or cloth of any kind, will 
prevent freezing in the coldest weather. He 
has kept water from freezing by this method, 
when if the water were exposed, it would 
freeze hard over the top, as well as at the 
sides of the pail. This he mentions iu Our 
Country Home. 
Mr. Plumb advises every farmer to have 
vaseline on hand. He knows of nothing moi e 
healing aud antiseptic for wounds, sores aud 
inflammations—.. 
The Editor of the Phil. Weekly Press holds 
that Timothy should be added to either Blue 
Grass or Red-top—not that Timothy is good 
in itself as a lawn, or that a good lawn can be 
made of it alone, but because it gives an im¬ 
mediate effect... 
The N Y. Tribune gives good advice when 
it says: “Cut down the gardeu to the smallest 
space consistent with the needs of the family. 
Then take good care of it." . 
An acre of onions, says Joseph Harris, in the 
Weekly Press, will afford hoeing aud weeding- 
ing enough to keep the boys aud girls out of 
mischief—aud money enough to lessen the 
cares and anxieties of the mother and father. 
Ouious want rich land, but 750 pounds of 
nitrate of soda per acre, and 400 pounds of 
siqierphosphate will make any of our ordin¬ 
ary land richer, for the first crop of onions, 
than 75 tons of barn-yard manure. This is 
true,uo doubt.os far as it goes. But how about 
the potash?.. 
The best vine to cover an old stump or a 
low trellis is the Honeysuckle—preferably 
Hall’s... 
(Eiicnjwljcvc, 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Alabama. 
Grand Bay, Mobile Co., April 3.—On 
March 15 we had a slight frost, and ou the 27, 
28 and 30 cold rains. Last three days sunny, 
but such vegetables as are up look very much 
as if Winter had the upper baud. Beaus look 
sick; cucumbers killed; second plantings just 
coming up; a large proportion of the toma¬ 
toes set in field have vanished; coru three to 
four inches high, but not thrifty. I made 
first shipment of strawberries yesterday; 
last year I sent off tho first lot April 7th aud 
the year before oil March 28th, Potatoes 
planted on Rural plan up and looking well. 
I was very much interested in reading the 
Rural’s hist Special on potatoes. Potatoes 
are raised very extensively iu this country 
for spring shipment west and north. The 
great drawback, however, is the excessive 
railroad freight charges, so that unless they 
sell for rather high prices, a very small mar¬ 
gin of profit is left for the farmer, and the 
same rule holds good for all sorts of vege¬ 
tables grown here for distant markets, so 
that many growers have nearly or quite quit 
the business, or have turned their attention to 
such productions as will put a larger value iu 
smaller bulk, like dairying aud small fruits. 
c. C. w. 
Canada. 
Belmont, N. B.—Times very dull. A warm 
Winter with very little snow. Farmers had 
hark work to get tire-wood and fencing. Po¬ 
tatoes, 90 cents per barrel; flour, §4.50 to $5.50; 
beef, $0 to $10; pork, $0.50; hay, $12 per ton; 
oats, 45 cents per bushel. t. dea. 
Illinois. 
Pleasant Valley, Jo Daviess Co., April 
8.—Although last season was very wet here, 
