5io 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 26 
fertility for wheat, and then the land is usually Sum¬ 
mer-fallowed the following year. Even on land that 
has been cropped the hardest with grain, after grow¬ 
ing one crop of potatoes or corn three or four crops 
of wheat can be raised with a yield equal to that on 
new land. * 
Seeding to grass and pasturing is one of the cheap¬ 
est and most satisfactory methods we have at present 
of restoring fertility. A field of 25 acres that was 
seeded with Timothy and pastured with sheep from 
1893 until 1897, and also manured once, has raised a 
20 -bushel crop of flax, two crops of potatoes, a total 
of 350 bushels to the acre for the two years, and a 25- 
bushel wheat crop since being broken. There are on 
the farm perhaps 500 loads of rotted stable manure 
that has been accumulating for the past 15 or 20 
years. It would be hard to estimate the value of this 
manure if spread on the land, but with labor as high 
as it is, never less than $1 per day with board, during 
the Summer, and a long haul to the fields needing it, 
it is practically impossible to spread it at the present 
time. Prohibitive freight rates prevent the use of 
commercial fertilizers now, and in the meantime we 
must depend upon cattle, sheep and hogs to turn our 
surplus straw into manure (over 90 per cent of our 
straw now being burned as soon as thrashed), and 
maintain the fertility of our soil to its present high 
standard. J. d. b. 
Wolverton, Minn. 
A FARMER ON CAME LAWS. 
Mr. Morse, page 447, has hit the truth as squarely 
as is possible for anyone. It is a great and unpardon¬ 
able mistake for legislatures to depart from the 
wishes of the people in framing laws. When the rights 
of the many are trampled on to cater to the whims 
of the few the laws resulting are not only not respect¬ 
able but also are not respected. There is an inborn 
feeling among farmers that they alone have the right 
to control—on their own premises—the wild animals, 
birds, and fishes found there, and no amount of lega¬ 
tion will change this feeling. Time will not change 
it. If States think it the better way to make criminals 
out of one-half of their best citizens let them continue 
in their present course—the awakening will come 
later on. 
Take the fish laws, for instance, and let us see the 
working of them. It is illegal to use “fish traps” 
here. Who uses these traps? Persons living near a 
river sink a trap in the stream at some convenient 
place and each day perhaps a fish or two is caught 
and eaten. Nothing is wasted. These men are law¬ 
breakers and will continue so no matter how many 
fish wardens the State employs. Even an occasional 
shot from the bush at the warden will testify as to the 
feeling in the matter. It is not this taking of these 
few fish to the mile of river that appreciably dimin¬ 
ishes the fish supply, what then? Hundreds of turtle 
and spawn-eating fish, many fish-eating birds, deci¬ 
mate the number of fishes until the insignificant few 
taken by these “lawbreakers” for their “daily bread,” 
may be compared to just a drop in a shower. Worse 
yet, manufacturing establishments are allowed to 
dump their poisons into the rivers, sweeping off all 
fish life for dozens of miles down stream. I have seen 
tens of thousands of fish so poisoned floating down 
the stream. If there is any protest from the State, any 
arrests made, any fines paid, we do not hear of it 
At any rate, the poisoning goes on. The residents 
along the river know all this, and I ask whether it 
is any wonder that they are not respecters of the laws 
that fine-haired legislators have enacted against 
them? The “bird and game” laws are all off the same 
piece of cloth. They are made at the instance of the 
few against the wish of the many, as Mr. Morse has 
plainly and truthfully pointed out. 
Your New York law which prohibits the sale of 
skim-milk (under its proper name) is another ex¬ 
ample of pernicious legislation that certainly should 
not stand if tested by the higher courts, away from 
the influence of money and partyism. Let me talk of 
the “bird laws” and see how we come out. I have 
not shot any birds this season in protection of my 
fruit. There are thousands of them on my place. Yet 
I have been obliged to spray to kill canker-worms 
and Currant worms. Plant lice are holding high car¬ 
nival all around me, because I have not found time 
to give them tobacco or the kerosene emulsion. Nor 
have the birds found time, because they have been 
too busy in eating the fruit. My cherry “plant” is 
small, mostly “varieties,” but I estimated 50 crates 
as the probable crop. We picked half a crate, the 
birds got the remainder. I had a dozen varieties of 
new mulberries grafted here and there to test; have 
not been able to see a ripe berry. About 10 crates 
of Juneberries were taken as fast as they ripened; we 
got about six quarts. For the past week birds have 
been taking as much as two crates of black raspberries 
daily. My patch of raspberries is small; if it were 
larger more birds would flock in. In fact, they come 
in just in proportion to the amount of feed they find, 
and this is especially true where the plant is gradual¬ 
ly increased each year. A great many currants and 
strawberries were taken, but so far as I know goose¬ 
berries are not molested. Later on jays, flickers and 
woodpeckers will pick at a few of the apples and 
pears, but the damage here will be slight. Not so, 
however, when the chestnuts and pecans begin to 
open. Here they have the aid of squirrels, and many 
bushels of these nuts will be carried away if there is 
a full crop. Persimmons are proof against birds un¬ 
til fully ripe, and then, so far, the damage is slight. 
Don’t forget, though, that the opossum is a bird to 
be reckoned with in this crop. In grapes, if the birds 
happen to start on the crop away it goes. Sometimes 
they don’t start. If they do, it means that I must 
kul several hundred, thus driving away the rest, or 
lose tons of grapes. Now it strikes me (just as it 
does other farmers) that I know my own wants as 
to birds fully as well as does the man with a stove¬ 
pipe hat on his head, and an Hon. to his name who 
feels so paternally inclined that he must direct the 
poor farmer at every step he takes, using, mind you. 
a chain for a lead-string. benj. buckman. 
Illinois. 
PLANTING A CABLE. 
The French government is about to plow a furrow 
1,500 miles long for the purpose of laying a cable 
across the desert from Tunis, in northern Africa, to 
Lake Tchad. Fig. 204, reproduced from the Farm Im¬ 
plement News, shows the plow that is to be used. It 
opens a trench about 30 inches deep in the sand and 
loose soil, lays the cable in the bottom, and covers 
and rolls down the surface firmly. The motive power 
PLOWING UNDER A CABLE. Fio 204 
will be a traction engine, and an average speed of a 
little over a mile per hour is expected. It will be a 
long, hot and dusty job to plant this cable, but what 
a crop of messages will be flashed back and forth 
under these barren sands! 
THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS. 
How the Adults Feed. 
At the present time the opinion probably prevails, 
at least among entomologists, that the mature or 
adult cicadas take but little if any food. This is more 
particularly true of the male, the alimentary canal 
having been stated to be rudimentary, and it was 
therefore impossible for them to take food. In the 
course of a study of the recent brood of the Periodical 
cicada in Maryland, the writer frequently observed 
both sexes of the insect feeding, after the usual man¬ 
ner of insects of this group. Young apple, pear and 
peach trees seemed to be favorite food, and on these 
plants, in various parts of the State, the insects were 
quite generally observed with their sucking apparatus 
stuck in to the bark of the tree, pumping out the sap 
for food. In the higher parts of forest trees the in¬ 
sects were also observed by the aid of an opera glass, 
feeding on the smaller limbs and branches. This 
fact may account to some extent for the prevalent 
idea that no food is taken by the adults, since they 
could thus feed and readily escape detection. 
Definitely to determine the position of the mouth 
parts of the insects in the plant individuals were 
found in the act of feeding, and the beak was quickly 
snipped off, with a fine pair of scissors, thus leaving 
it inserted in the tissues. A block of wood surround¬ 
ing the beak was carefully removed, and then sec¬ 
tioned so that the mouth parts were distinctly visi¬ 
ble. The accompanying illustration, Fig. 206, from 
an enlarged photograph will illustrate this point. 
This represents the mere distal part of the beak of a 
male cicada, in the wood of the Carolina poplar. Many 
different individuals, both males and females, have 
been dissected and the alimentary canal in neither 
sex is to be considered rudimentary, but is sufficiently 
developed for insects subsisting on liquid food. Cica¬ 
das taken in the act of feeding have been quickly 
opened, and the stomach or crop found distended 
with the juices sucked from the plant. The conclu¬ 
sion is therefore plain, that the adults of the Periodi¬ 
cal cicada do take food. It is also probable tnat food 
is quite necessary for their existence, as individuals 
placed in confinement without food soon die. 
Md. State Entomologist. a. l. quaintance. 
PLANTING ROOT GRAFTS IN FIELD. 
Three different trials have convinced me it will not 
pay to set apple root-grafts where they are to remain. 
Some times they will be nearly as good as one-year- 
old transplanted trees treated in the same way, but 
more often not. Planted with corn or potatoes the 
crop would pay the expense of cultivation and a profit 
besides, and the loss would be the crop in the hill 
occupied by the trees. But one would hardly care to 
cultivate his crop once or twice a week regularly for 
five or six months. It would be too expensive, the loss 
of one to 100 hills of corn on an acre of 4,000 hills 
does not count for much, but one to 10 trees on an acre 
of 49 trees does. These trees are just as liable to 
root-gall, aphis and a hundred other little troubles as 
those in the nursery. For instance, a nest of cotton¬ 
tail rabbits have bit off the tops of a score of apple 
grafts in one night when about two to six inches high, 
and may continue for a week unless found and de¬ 
stroyed. Among 10,000 trees it is little loss. The best 
answer to the above is that you cannot find a nursery¬ 
man of experience in the United States who would 
plant root-grafts in this way to get an orchard. 
Illinois. s. E. HALL. 
THE HAY CROP. 
In this immediate vicinity the hay crop must certainly 
be very light, as we have had no rains since early In 
April. We understand that in other sections there have 
been plenty of rains, and fields should be in proportion. 
Boston. AMES plow co. 
Our reports indicate that in New England and New 
York clover, Timothy and other tame hays are a good 
average crop. The southeastern States, however, are 
not quite as good. West of the Alleghany Mountains, In 
fact, through the Middle West, clover, Timothy and 
tame hay generally is quite poor; in fact, much below an 
average crop. In Texas and the extreme Southwest they 
have suffered from a very dry spell. Alfalfa, we under¬ 
stand, Is in nice condition, making a good average crop. 
The wild grass, owing to the large unusual precipitation, 
is in good condition and bids fair to give a yield some¬ 
what above the average. 
Chicago. M’COHMICK HARVESTING MACHINE CO. 
While we have quite a good many reports from our dif¬ 
ferent customers, they are so varied that it is hard to 
give a correct report. Right here in the Mississippi Val¬ 
ley the reports we get are that there will be from 40 to 
75 per cent of a hay crop; the reports we get from east¬ 
ern Kansas, eastern Nebraska and western Iowa are that 
there will be from probably 60 to 80 per cent of a crop; 
while in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio our reports gener¬ 
ally claim that there will be from 90 to 100 per cent of 
a crop, and in some places they claim the hay crop has 
never been better. The reports, however, from the same 
section are so varied that we scarcely know whether 
they can be credited. louden machinery co. 
Fairfield, Iowa. 
Taking the Mississippi Valley as a whole, there will 
he a very large yield of hay, for we have had excep¬ 
tionally heavy rains with the usual results. At the 
present time, however, we need dry weather, so that 
the farmers may cut and mature the grass. The crop 
situation as a whole is very satisfactory in the Missis¬ 
sippi Valley, except that for the past two weeks, some 
sections have had too much rain, lodging the grain 
badly, but we apprehend that the conditions are not 
as serious as some of our farmer friends indicate. We 
believe, taking the West as a whole, that it will have 
exceptionally large crops this season, and that there 
will be an Immense amount of small grain and corn for 
export and distribution through the Eastern States. 
Wisconsin. Milwaukee harvester co. 
Our information is that there will be a considerable 
shortage in the cultivated grasses throughout the south¬ 
ern and middle portions of the United States, and most 
of the western portion. The Spring was unfavorable, 
and later hot weather ripened the crop very quickly, 
making the grass short and in some places thin. It is 
rather difficult to give a percentage of a whole crop—our 
judgment, however, which you must understand is purely 
a guess, would be that the cultivated grass crop will not 
be more than 75 per cent, and in some of the southern 
and southwestern territories not that. There is a dis¬ 
position in some of the corn-growing States to supply 
the shortage of grass with the shredded cornstalk, which, 
in fact, makes a good feed, and some farmers are pro¬ 
gressive enough to learn that by shredding their corn¬ 
stalks they are able to supply their own stock with a suf¬ 
ficient quantity and quality of feed, and thus have their 
entire hay crop to market. The shredded stalks will add 
hundreds of thousands of tons of forage to the stock 
feed of the country. The Winter wheat crops have been 
very short; in the territories south of the Ohio River it 
is doubtful if they have 50 per cent of a crop. The Spring 
wheat territories are indicating very good prospects at 
the present time, and if the present crop matures, with¬ 
out damage, it will probably be equal to any Spring- 
wheat crop that the United States has ever had. There 
are, however, many things that can happen, and as the 
hot winds have already taken the corn crop of a large 
part of Texas, it need not be surprising if the present 
bright prospects for Spring wheat in the Northwest 
are changed into a partial failure through damage from 
heat. DEERING HARVESTER COMPANY. 
Chicago. 
