i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
459 
RURAL SPECIAL CROP REPORTS. 
Indiana. 
Rockville, Park County, June 23.— 
Wheat in this county will make about 10 
bushels to the acre. Oats will make about 
15. Corn is very fine and clean; never 
have I seen a better prospect than now for 
this crop. Hay and clover are very fine; 
but the latter is short in acreage. Pastur¬ 
age very good ; but the supply of cattle is 
short. Oats are a very poor crop owing to 
the ravages of the green fly. Apples a 
poor crop. Pears very short. Peaches very 
fine where we have trees. Had farmers 
and fruit growers continued the planting 
of peach trees in abundance, the crop this 
year would have been equal to a silver 
mine. Small fruits are abundant and 
bring good prices. Potatoes are a very 
good crop so far, and all vegetables are 
plentiful. Insects are numerous and de¬ 
structive. B. 
Virginia. 
Farmville, Prince Edward County, 
June 20.—Wheat 1 fear will hardly be half 
a crop. No thrashing has been done yet. 
For all other crops we have the best pros¬ 
pect we have had for years. They are 
clean and well worked. W. D. 
CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS IN A 
DAIRY COUNTY. 
A great deal has been said about the last¬ 
ing effects of chemical fertilizers. This sub¬ 
ject has drawn out more discussion than any 
other pro and con at the various dairymen’s 
associations throughout this and Delaware 
Counties. Over 10 years ago, Lister’s fer¬ 
tilizers were bought, and used on one of the 
best grain and corn farms in the county. 
The farmer planted each year from eight 
to 10 acres of corn. He had a compost of 
hen, horse and hog manure, and used to drop 
in the furrow, a small shovelful on about 
one half of the field, depending upon com¬ 
mercial fertilizers for the remainder. In¬ 
variably the largest growth of stalk and the 
best-eared corn were where the latter had 
been used, and the grains filled out better 
there to the end of the cob. He practiced 
rotation of crops, planting corn on the sod, 
plowing in the fall, and sowing oats in the 
spring, seeding with Timothy and clover. 
For corn he put the fertilizer in the furrow 
the same as he did the compost; for oats 
and other grains he sowed it broadcast after 
the harrowing, before seeding with clover, 
covering both with a light bush. In the 
field the soil was all of the same character 
and all was treated alike. The difference 
could be readily seen when the oats were 
growing; in fact, it could be easily traced 
at harvest where the home-made fertilizer 
ceased and the commercial began. The 
next season, too, the line of division plainly 
appeared in the growth of the grass and the 
quantity of hay gathered. This was the 
farmer’s plan from year to year and he was 
looked upon by neighbors and townsmen 
as among the best farmers the county had 
produced. 
During a gathering of farmers of his town 
this subject was one of the prominent topics 
discussed, and the farmer had to fight the 
battle single-handed, there were so few 
who had tested fertilizers sufficiently to be 
able to certify to the good effects from 
the use of “ foreign manures ” as they 
termed them ; while the majority had never 
used them at all, and did not care to. 
Presently an old man who had moved into 
the town from a distant part of the county, 
and who, by the way, had retired from 
farming rich, arose and stated his plan of 
raining large crops of buckwheat on hill¬ 
side land, where the ground was poor, and 
where it would cost more than the crop was 
worth to haul barn-yard manure up the 
steep hill, even if there were plenty to 
spare, which he said was not the case, as he 
needed all he had or could make for top¬ 
dressing the meadows near the buildings. 
He told us he could buy the commercial fer¬ 
tilizer-raw bone he preferred for buck¬ 
wheat-haul it on the hill, spread and 
raise as large a crop of straw as he wanted, 
while his neighbor, just over the line, on 
the same kind of land could not raise a 
crop worth harvesting. He could make it 
pay well every time. The old Scotch farmer, 
with a strong brogue, discussed the topic 
exhaustively. The discussion has borne 
fruit, as many in that town who scoffed 
at fertilizers formerly are now using them. 
Six years ago, on the (Jold Spring Farm, 
13 acres of hill side, facing the west, con¬ 
sidered by all who knew the farm to be the 
poorest part of it, bore a large crop of oats 
—GO bushels,thrasher’s measure, to the acre. 
The field had been an old pasture for 10 
years at least. It was quite poor, having 
grown up to a tough wild grass. Clover 
and Herd’s Grass had nearly or quite all 
run out. Moreover, it was well sprinkled 
with brakes or ferns. It was well fitted for 
a crop, having been plowed the summer be¬ 
fore and cross-plowed in the fall. The 
writer well remembers harvesting a similar 
crop in 1862, which did not exceed 20 bushels 
per acre—probably it was not over 15. As he 
remembers, no fertilizer or manure was 
used at that time or since. While good 
tillage is required, no amount of it would 
have brought the yield, as stated. 
There were sown, drilled in with the 
grain, 500 pounds per acre of Bradley’s super¬ 
phosphate and German salts. Three crops 
were taken from the ground, which was 
treated in the same way each year. It is 
not the usual practice of the farmer on the 
place to take more than two crops before 
seeding; very often only one was taken, 
but in this field he could not thoroughly 
subdue and kill the brake sods by twice 
plowing or two years’ tilling. Each year a 
heavy crop of grain was harvested. The 
ground was plowed and tilled as carefully 
the next spring as formerly ; but only the 
grass seed—clover and Timothy—was sown 
as an experiment. The stand came up 
thick and the Timothy headed out, but was 
not pastured that year. Suffice it to say 
that the field has been in pasture two years 
and rarely is there a day during the season 
on which the herd does not reach it. The 
farmer has repeatedly said that he received 
full pay for the price of his fertilizers and 
the cost of spreading them, in the extra 
crop of straw alone, so that the extra 
amount of grain was profit. The field con¬ 
tinued under grass. 
On the adjoining farm, a man direct from 
Scotland settled years ago. He bought it 
large, white-faced wasp. Fig. 169, also a 
paper-maker, often comes into our houses 
and captures house flies, to serve it tor 
food. Many of our mud wasps—the black 
and blue species often seen about wells and 
other muddy places—dart down upon lo¬ 
custs and other insects, sting them, and 
then bear them away to their mud cells, or 
nests. Thus the victimized insect is not 
only buried alive, but receives a wasp’s 
eggs, laid by the mother wasp. The young 
wasp which hatches from the egg, feeds on 
the yet living victim, and thus takes its 
tender steak sweet and fresh. 
The habits of wasps are very varied. One 
family builds paper nests, others construct 
mud cells or nests, others dig holes in the 
earth, which they stock with insects, upon 
which they lay their eggs, still others nest 
in hollow stems. The smooth, shining 
character of the wasp, its trim form, and 
its pointed abdomen enable us to dis¬ 
tinguish it. Some of the wild bees, how¬ 
ever, look like wasps; though most bees 
are more hairy than are the latter All 
female wasps have stings, which can be 
used with powerful effect. These, however, 
as already stated, are organs of defense, 
not offense, and will very rarely be used if 
the wasps are left undisturbed. The name 
hornet, which is often applied to wasps, is 
not generally used by entomologists. 
Let us all remem er, then, that wasps are 
our good friends, and so protect rather than 
destroy them. I would never molest wasps 
unless they were so much in the way that 
their removal was demanded. This might 
be the case if the yellow-jackets or white¬ 
faced wasps made their nests very near our 
paths. One summer a very large colony of 
yellow-jackets built their nest in a bee-hive 
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THE RURAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
TIMES BUILDING, 
NEW YORK, 
White-Faced Wasp. Flsr. 1 69. 
cheap, as the former owner was about to 
leave It, declaring that 41 he could not make 
a living off it.” The Scotchman died re¬ 
cently at an advanced age, leaving the place 
to one of his sons. It has been well cared 
for each year, the owner having some bal¬ 
ance to his credit. Not until recently have 
any fertilizers been purchased. The past 
year some was used on oats and potatoes. 
The oat field was some distance from the 
farm buildings and received little or none 
of the home made manure, but was favored 
with a light spread of the commercial fer¬ 
tilizer. The result was all that could have 
been desired—a heavy growth of straw 
and a fine crop of grain. The potatoes made 
a fine showing until the blight struck them. 
Then they shared the same fate as their 
neighbors, being almost an entire failure. 
There should be no remissness in making 
and saving all the home product possible. 
That is essential; but if there is not enough 
of it, we should supply the deficiency with 
chemical fertilizers used freely. Better 
not attempt to raise a crop than make 
the effort and barely raise enough for har¬ 
vesting. 44 CLEVELAND.” 
Delhi, N. Y. 
within six feet of the door of our college 
bee house, and close by a walk where I 
passed many times daily. I never disturbed 
them except to raise the cover of the hive 
to show the colony to my friends. These 
wasps never in any way tried to harm me. 
If such wasps are a nuisance it is easy to 
putchloroform into a close canvas sack, and 
inclose the nest with it. This is quickly 
fatal to the wasps. I hardly need say that 
this had better be done at nightfall. There is 
a large, hairy, red-and-black ant-like insect, 
without wings, known as the cow-killer, 
which is found from lndiaua to the Gulf. 
This insect has a powerful sting. It is also 
useful, like the wasps, and in like manner. 
This and some of the larger wasps often 
destroy bees, but not to an alarming ex¬ 
tent. a. J. COOK. 
Ingham County, Mich. 
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BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 
II. 
THE WASPS. 
Of the large, interesting, and very im¬ 
portant order of insects which includes the 
bees, wasps, ants, gall flies, saw flies, etc., 
we have the several families of wasps, all 
of which are predaceous, and so valuable to 
the farmer and gardeuer. How few farm¬ 
ers recognize wasps as friends 1 Like bees, 
they are often thought of only in relation 
to their sting, and so the sight of them only 
suggests harm. Yet this dread is usually, 
if not always, needless ; for wasps, like 
bees, rarely attack any person unless pro¬ 
voked. That wasps do a vast amount of 
good, is beyond question. The observing 
entomologist often sees them dart upou the 
currant slug, cabbage caterpillar, canker 
worm, or other noxious iusect, and kill and 
eat it, or else paralyze it by use of the 
poisonous sting, anil carry it away to serve 
as food for the yet unhatcaed baby wasps. 
1 have seen our yellow-jackets, and other 
paper-making wasps, carry off several cur¬ 
rant slugs in a very few minutes. Our 
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