598 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 4, 
that which has brought into such prominence the need 
of a pure food law, arid yet these good men refused. 
And why? Because they were lazy, purely and simply 
lazy. They preferred to stay right in the city, holding 
up some corner, or saloon doorway, trusting to luck that 
some one who is “Hush” will come along and treat them 
to a whisky or a beer. There is usually a large family, 
every member of which has only too true a right to 
sing up loud and clear, “Everybody works but my old 
man.” 
Now I don't want A. S., or any one else who chances 
upon this protest, to toss it aside with a sneer and think 
it was written by some silly schoolgirl. I am a farmer’s 
daughter, and my sister is more of a true lover of the 
farmer’s life than T, and I know whereof 1 write, not 
alone from observation, but from actual experience. I 
have done this work, as has my sister. We have milked 
cows, cleaned off horses, and driven them too, both sin¬ 
gle, as driving horses, and as a farm team, hitched on 
to a heavy farm wagon. We have dropped tobacco 
plants in setting-out time and handed the plants. We 
have dropped potatoes in the Spring and picked them up 
in the Fall. For five years I did all the horse-raking 
for my father, and at the end of that time was judged 
one of the best hands on a horse-rake anywhere in 
my home town. This year my sister is doing all the 
mowing and all the horse-raking, no mean task for a 
girl of 17. Possibly some one will think of us with 
pity, but I can assure you that such people would better 
keep their pity for worthier objects. Life hasn’t been 
all work and no play for us. Both of us hold high 
school diplomas, both of us have had three good years 
of music lessons, one on the violin, the other on the 
piano; one of us has worked for a year in a neighboring 
college city, where life is by no means “slow,” and now, 
at the end of a year’s course in a well-known commer¬ 
cial college, is ready to take a position that combines 
short hours with good pay, and is judged by those who 
ought to know to be a very lucky girl. When the proper 
time comes my sister will be equally advanced and 
neither one of us is ashamed of what we have done. 
In fact now that the time has come when we are able 
to see our way clear to repay some of the hard-earned 
money that has been spent on us we are glad and proud 
that our childhood days were spent on a farm taking an 
active part in its numerous duties. One of the happiest 
memories I ever expect to have is of being allowed to 
spend the first 20 years of my life on a farm where I 
enjoyed to the full the beauties of God’s pure air and 
sunshine, to say nothing of the beauties of Nature, beau¬ 
ties far more wonderful than those of the most magni¬ 
ficent public park. This is the life from which the hired 
man has always been an important factor, and I can safe¬ 
ly say that I have yet to see one who tried to improve 
either himself or his lot by working instead of talking. 
After all it’s the man wdio does things w r ho reaps the 
benefits in these busy days of progress, the man who 
works instead of talking. My advice to A. S. and all 
others who may feel as he does is look first to yourselves 
and see that both as men and workers you are as fit as 
you can be and then come up to old Bay State where, if 
you are ready to do the fair thing, you’ll find, as sure 
as Fate, that good workers always win recognition for 
themselves in the end, no matter how unpropitious the 
outlook may be at first; in other words, that a decent 
hired man need never be without work, and work that 
is to his liking, too. G. N. E. 
Western Massachusetts. 
VARIOUS INSECT PESTS . 
1. What can one do to keep small white worms from 
eating radishes? The radishes come up finely, and grow 
to about one-half size or a little larger; then these little 
small white worms get into them and they wilt down 
and die. 2. What can I do to protect tomatoes, squash 
and, in fact, almost everything that grows in a garden 
from cutworms? 3. What makes cucumbers after coming 
up out of the ground wilt down and die? They seem to 
come up about 2% inches high, then remain there without 
growing, and wilt down and die. I cannot find any cut¬ 
worms or anything of that description. I have used a weak 
solution of kerosene emulsion on all of the above for all of 
the above complaints. 4. What will prevent small black 
lice from sucking or eating cucumbers, tomatoes and squash 
vines? I have used the emulsion for this complaint also. 
This is the first season that T have ever used the kerosene 
emulsion, but have been troubled for the past three sea¬ 
sons with these insects. w. e. k. 
Fitchburg, Mass. 
1. The Radish maggot is often very troublesome early 
in the season, and is a difficult insect to control, as the 
eggs are laid on the ground near the sprouting plants, 
and the larva penetrates the roots soon after hatching. 
Perhaps the most convenient treatment is to scatter 
thickly fresh-ground tobacco or tobacco dust along the 
rows and on the soil just after the plants have come up, 
before the seed leaves have reached an inch in diameter. 
2. Cutworms may be, to some extent, controlled by 
poisoning before the plants are set out by scattering 
balls made of chopped green clover, bran, molasses and 
Paris-green over the soil. The worms having no other 
food are likely to eat the poisoned clover, and a con¬ 
siderable number will thus be killed. The only certain 
way, however, to protect tomatoes and other plants is 
to wrap the stem in a collar of paper four or five inches 
wide, setting it firmly an inch or more in the soil, so 
that worms will not emerge between the wrapping and 
the stems of the plant. This will not always protect 
short-stem plants, like cabbage, from the various climb¬ 
ing cutworms, but it is usually effectual in guarding 
long-stem plants, like tomatoes, from the ordinary 
THE RIGHT WAY TO PACK FRUIT. Fig. 245. 
ground cutworm. 3. Cucumbers and melons often wilt 
and die in cool, dry weather without making sufficient 
root growth in the soil to continue their development. 
Later in the season, when it is warmer and moister, 
there is seldom much trouble with this complaint. Many 
melon and cucumber seeds have slight vitality, pos¬ 
sessing only strength enough to germinate without pro¬ 
ducing growth. 4. The small black lice troubling your 
cucumbers, tomatoes and squash vines are probably 
the ordinary black flea beetle. It may be driven away 
by dusting the plants with plaster, or, better still, fine 
ground bone. In case the aphids are true plant lice, and 
THE WRONG WAY TO PACK FRUIT. Fig. 24G. 
trouble your crons, the only practical way is to uproot 
and plant again in some other unaffected place. They 
may be killed out in a small way by covering the plants 
with a tent cloth and evaporating a teaspoonful or so 
of bisulphide of carbon, which may be conveniently 
poured in a clam shell or small dish and set in the tent. 
ALFALFA HARD TO SPOIL 
I recall that a short time ago the Hope Farm man 
spoke of getting his Alfalfa wet, and supposed it was 
only fit for tree mulch. I did not have time to write you 
just then to say that it was very hard to spoil Alfalfa 
A PORTABLE PACKING TABLE. Fig. 247. 
so badly that the stock would not eat it. A friend who 
had cut bis first crop and got it wet sent his men to haul 
it off the field, and throw it in the stream adjoining. 
Before they were done he went to the field and was 
surprised to find it was good hay, and had the remain¬ 
der hauled to the mow. Afterwards he pastured the 
field with his cows, and they waded in the mud four 
inches deep to seat what was thrown away, and cleaned 
up all they could get. My second cutting, July 2, was 
in part put in cock same day, a part in windrow, and 
remainder in swath. It rained the night of the second, 
which kept us out of the field till the 4th, when it was 
all cocked up. It remained in the cock till the 10th; had 
several rains on it. That put in the cock first was 
moldy on the outer edge to some extent. All was 
tough and damp, too much so to stack without airing out. 
I think there were at least 10 tons of it. My men went 
over it three times in less than two hours at a cost of 
about 25 cents a ton. This put it in fine shape for rick¬ 
ing and it would have taken a close observer to discover 
that any of it had been moldy. Past experience leads 
me to believe that it will come out of the rick with a fine 
flavor and good color. Last Winter I had some out of at 
stack that I thought too moldy to feed to my fattening, 
lambs. A neighbor came to my lot and on seeing the 
hay said' he had fed worse. So I put some of it in a 
rack in lot. For the next five hours about 40 lambs 
stood at the rack eating it; the white mold would rise 
from some of it while they were eating. I feared evil 
results, such as wool slipping, etc., but they did not ma¬ 
terialize. It is the most palatable feed that we can grow. 
I had four or five acres lies in the swath four days be¬ 
cause it rained so much that I could not take it up. 
When I could care for it it made good hay; the way the 
animals ate it was proof of its quality. Some men balk 
at the expense of airing it out. If they would get down 
to figures and not imagine so much to arrive at con¬ 
clusions they would find that in most cases the stirring 
is a light expense when it marks the difference be¬ 
tween poor and good hay. The universal testimony of 
men of experience whom I have talked with is that they 
can cure it in bad weather much easier than they can; 
clover. Clover that lodges will blacken. If it is wet in 
the windrow or cock it will blacken. Lodging Alfalfa 
does not blacken it, and it takes an immense amount 
of rain to blacken it in windrow or cock, more than 
1 have experienced in handling it for near five years. 
Ohio. JOHN M. JAMISON. 
NOTES ON THE ASPARAGUS CROP. 
I would like a little information in regard to controlling 
the Asparagus beetle, also the care of the beds after cutting 
is finished, kinds of fertilizer, amount to use, etc. Is 
salt of any benefit? w. b. d. 
Southington, Conn. 
The Asparagus beetle is very troublesome in some lo¬ 
calities. The best method of getting rid of the pest is to 
dust the plants with Paris-green, mixed with plaster 
about the same as prepared and used for the Potato 
beetle. A light application while the dew is on the 
plants is a sure remedy. When we stop cutting the as¬ 
paragus it is customary to plow down the rows and har¬ 
row the surface of the soil level, so as to give flat cul¬ 
ture the remainder of the season. The cultivator should 
then be kept going between the rows whenever it is nec¬ 
essary; weeds and grass should not be allowed to grow 
between the remaining plants that are left to grow to 
renew the strength of the crown for the next year’s crop. 
In Autumn, when the shoots are sufficiently dried so 
they can be broken down by the harrow, they should be 
raked together and burned. The surface of the aspar¬ 
agus bed should then have a top-dressing of stable ma¬ 
nure, and in applying this it should be remembered that 
the last load pays the best. Early the following Spring this 
top-dressing should be lightly worked into the soil. 
On the first indication of growth the rows should be 
ridged up for cutting. In the absence of stable manure, 
however, commercial fertilizers can be used to excellent 
advantage, and as good results can be obtained from a 
reliable brand of potash fertilizer as any other mixture. 
This should be applied in the Spring, either broadcast 
before working up the rows or used as a side dressing 
on either side of the row and the asparagus will stand 
a very liberal application. I have always heard a good 
deal about the use of salt for asparagus as a fertilizer, 
and also as a weed exterminator, but during my long 
experience in a locality where hundreds of acres are 
grown, and of the very largest and finest quality, I am 
frank to admit I have never seen it used on the aspara¬ 
gus beds, and I am of the opinion it will not increase 
the yield or improve the quality of this popular vege¬ 
table. T. M. WHITE. 
Monmouth Co., N. J. 
THOSE DOUBTFUL AGENTS.—The other clay an agent 
came around here; he wanted to sell seed wheat. The price 
was $7.50 a bushel, but he sold it for $1.50 a 
bushel, then he wanted 10 bushels back in a year, 
lie had two little books full of names of persons he 
had sold to, a good many of my neighbors. I told him I 
wanted to buy no wheat, I read The R. N.-Y. Then he 
said; “What has that to do with it?” I told him I read 
the other day in The R. N.-Y. that a subscriber from Penn¬ 
sylvania told of an agent who came around and sold No. 
10 seed wheat, exactly the same terms that he sold it. and 
they thought if that agent could find farmers enough who 
are foolish enough to buy his wheat he could soon get 
rich, making about 500 per cent interest on his money. 
Then he wanted to see the paper, and I showed it to him. 
He said: “That must be hunted up.” I tell you, that hurts, 
and just a few years ago when an agent came around to 
sell that orchard I had just read about it in The R. N.-Y. 
not two weeks before, so I knew all about it when he 
came, and they caught a good many of my neighbors. 
Pennsylvania, r. j. b. 
