1908. 
THE STORY OF A CORN CROP. 
We have been able to obtain a series of pictures 
showing the growth of a field of Michigan corn from 
start to finish. The pictures given this week show 
the starting of the plants, the growth at seven weeks 
and the finish. Next week we shall see how the crop 
gained in size week by week until the end. Mr. R. 
C. Angevine, who took the pictures, has made brief 
notes describing them : 
I hese pictures were taken from week to week from 
the same location in a field of silage corn grown on 
the Beach Farm Dairy at Coldwater, Mich., by the 
proprietor, Charles Angevine. The corn was grown 
on clay soil with a very wet cold season, and shallow 
cultivation was used entirely, spring-tooth and weeder 
and harrow. No work was done in it after the rid¬ 
ing cultivator was laid aside. The yield, about 15 
tons per acre, was light for the reason of many dam¬ 
aged spots in the field owing to very wet ground, also 
from the fact that the ears had not time to form 
and fill, which fact perhaps made a shortage of five 
or six tons per acre. Fig. 154 shows the corn just 
two weeks from the day of planting, which was done 
June 19, or about three weeks later than it should 
have been, owing to excessive rains. The corn had 
been worked four or five times before this picture 
was taken, mostly with a weeder and 
harrow. Fig. 156 is when the corn was 
three weeks old, and shows that it is 
gathering headway. Fig. 160 is when 
the corn was four weeks old, and shows 
a fine growth for the week. Fig 161 
is when the corn was five weeks old, 
and I think anyone will admit that it is 
getting on some, even though it was 
cold, wet weather most of the time. 
Fig. 158 is when the corn was six 
weeks old, and T think a comparison 
with Fig. 161 will show a very satis¬ 
factory growth; in fact it was more 
than 24 inches for seven days. The 
weather was warmer, but still wet. Fig. 
159 is when the .corn was seven weeks 
old, and it shows a remarkably fine 
growth; the stalks and foliage were of 
a very fine colon and were doing finely. 
When the corn was eight weeks old it 
was from seven to eight feet high, and 
doing very well. R. c. ANGEVINE. 
FUMIGATING A HENHOUSE. 
Concerning the use of hydrocyanic 
acid gas for greenhouse purposes, which 
I said could be used successfully on al¬ 
most all plants, 1 have the following to 
say: We use from three-fifths to four- 
fifths ounce of cyanide per 1,000 cubic 
feet; 98 per cent cyanide of potassium 
is used, which costs 26 cents per pound, 
and comes in 10-pound cans in lumps. 
I weigh out the cyanide into four-ounce 
packets, and wrap in tissue paper (not 
oiled). Great care is taken not to leave 
any cyanide around, as the least particle 
taken will kill anything almost instantly. 
It is claimed to be the most effective 
chemical poison known. 1 do not like 
to handle the sulphuric acid by lamp¬ 
light, so in order to have the water- 
acid liquid hot when I come to drop the 
cyanide into the jars, I put the acid in first. That 
is done in the afternoon, so as not to leave the acid 
in the open too long, as it takes moisture from the 
air, and, as stated, to avoid handling at night. If 
the cyanide is dropped into cold liquid it won’t al¬ 
ways “go.” I use four jars to a house 158 feet long, 
and pour into each jar (earthen or chinaware) 
eight ounces of commercial sulphuric acid. The 
glass I use for measuring the acid is marked by a 
glass cutter, so I do not weigh acid more than once, 
when the mark is made on the glass. The jars are 
then placed at intervals the whole length of the house. 
^ hen the fires in the boilers have been attended to 
and are ready to be left for the night, which is about 
II o’clock, I pour the same amount in volume of 
water as the acid into each jar, which immediately 
steams and gets quite hot. The middle doors of the 
greenhouse are then bolted from the inside and also 
one end door. The door through which I leave the 
house is locked from the outside so as to keep out 
any unaware, absent-minded person or stranger that 
might possibly enter. T start at one end of the house 
and drop a package of cyanide in the first jar, and am 
careful to leave immediately for the next jar, and 
when T have passed that I drop a package into it, and 
so with the third and fourth, and nobody enters that 
house until six o’clock the next morning, when the 
gas has escaped so that it is no longer dangerous. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
You may wonder if such a weak dose will kill any¬ 
thing. 1 have found it will kill aphis and thrips, 
and has a more lasting effect than tobacco; besides it 
will kill snails, wood lice, spiders and a number of 
insects. Rats, mice and sparrows also succumb. It 
will not kill at that strength grasshoppers and the 
Tarnished plant beetle, and no strength that the plants 
can stand will kill red spider. I am using the gas 
exclusively now on violets, carnations, Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, callas and candytuft. In the Summer when 
the carnations and Chrysanthemums are soft they are 
apt to get hurt, the carnations on the bud and the tips 
of the young leaves of the Chrysanthemums, but not 
seriously. The only thing I know that will not stand 
that strength of gas is the sweet pea. g. o. 
West Hartford, Conn. 
THE PROBLEM OF POTATO SCAB. 
Before the seed potatoes were treated for the scab 
spores, a large part of the potatoes grown on this 
farm were not marketable on account of the scab. 
When I first treated potatoes for the scab the results 
were tested in a careful way, the same as I always do 
with fertilizers. Alternate rows were planted with 
the treated and the untreated seed, and the potatoes 
dug and picked separately, and the results were surely 
wonderful. I have grown potatoes so free from scab 
that it was hard to find a potato in 100 barrels with a 
spot of scab on it, but I find there are a few small 
spots on this farm where the scab germ lives in the 
ground from one rotation of crops to another. I 
take two rather large barrels and saw them off to 
leave one hoop above the bulge of the barrel. The 
barrels are placed on a floor in an outbuilding. Three 
ounces of corrosive sublimate and 21 gallons of water 
are put in each barrel. To the rafters arc fastened 
double pulleys directly over each barrel, so the single 
pulley will hang over the center of it. We take bran 
sacks and stitch the corners so they are round, and it 
will go into the barrel easily, when filled with potatoes. 
T like to get the potatoes out of the cellar and the seed 
soaked as soon as the danger of their being frozen is 
past. I now put two bushels of potatoes in each sack, 
tie a short rope together so it will loop over the 
sack, hook it on the pulley and let it into the barrel. 
This is done the first thing in the morning. They are 
left in 1 yj hour, and then they are raised just out of 
the water, and the rope is fastened and they are al¬ 
lowed to drain until noon. At noon they are pulled 
directly overhead and spread singly on a floor. If I 
wish to take them off downstairs a cover can be laid 
on the barrel and they can be let down on it and un¬ 
hook the pulley without any lifting. More potatoes 
can be put in at noon and drained until night, and 
379 
another lot can be soaked at night after coming from 
the field, and allowed to drain over night. In this way 
I can soak 12 bushels of potatoes and not interfere 
very much with my day’s work. The potatoes are 
spread out single on a floor when it is possible to do 
so, and left so until it is time to plant. If kept in 
this way the sprouts will be very short, but if piled on 
top of each other the lower ones will get long sprouts. 
As the sandy spots are all that is usually planted on 
this farm the potatoes are quite clean and do not re¬ 
quire to be rinsed. We seldom plant over 15 barrels 
here and I have never found it necessary to add any 
solution. The potato ground is always covered with 
manure if there is enough of it. Potatoes grown on 
the sand spots of this farm have frequently brought 
from $100 to $150 an acre, and this has been done with¬ 
out any hand hoeing whatever. We avoid planting 
the loam or clay ground whenever we can, as the pota¬ 
toes arc more likely to rot and they do not look as 
nice. For the last two years I have soaked the seed 
with formaldehyde, but shall use corrosive sublimate 
this year. I may have had poor formaldehyde; at 
any rate.it has not been as effective as the other treat¬ 
ment. Two years ago I thought I knew a whole lot 
about the scab, and could tell anyone about it, but I 
have found T knew very little about it and have a 
whole lot to learn. A year ago last 
Summer we planted a small piece of 
loam ground that is naturally very fer¬ 
tile. No manure was put on it, and 
I am sure none had been put on for a 
number of years, but it had a good 
clover sod. No potato had ever been 
planted there before to my knowledge. 
Clean seed, treated with formaldehyde 
was planted, and I did not expect to 
see a single potato with a sign of scab 
on it, but they were nearly all com¬ 
pletely covered with it. m. f. 
FARMER’S WIFE AS HIRED MAN. 
M. M. C., Connecticut, wants to know 
the relative merits of horse-forks and 
slings. Use slings by all means. We 
have two forks, the harpoon and a 
straight fork, but never use them for 
the same reasons M. M. C. gives for not 
liking the fork. The only thing against 
the slings is that they will persist in 
getting tangled when they are being 
handled; that is after tripping the hay 
out and placing them in position on the 
wagon again. We use four pairs, 
placing two on the front and two 
on the back of the wagon, and 
use the same team to pull it up that 
we have on the wagqn. Some only use 
two pairs of slings, but that makes the 
sticks longer and necessarily harder to 
handle, besides taking up more room in 
the mow and making heavier loads to 
pull up, and more strain on the rope. 
We take the hay all off clean at four 
pulls and never have to make an extra 
trip. They need no more room in the 
barn than a fork. We fill our barn to 
the roof, pulling up from the barn floor 
until both mows are full; then by ex¬ 
tending the track out the gable end of 
the barn and putting another stop, then 
taking the center stop off (or by just 
changing the stop if you want to, and only using 
one, but we have two) then changing the carriage, 
we pull up from the outside and fill in up 
over the barn floor. The hay is much nicer to handle 
when mowing back; when slings are used it is not 
torn to pieces as with a fork. The slings give no 
trouble in the mow in the barn, and are tripped as 
easily as a fork. They are much superior to the fork, 
and I know, for I help. To our mind an ideal hay¬ 
ing outfit consists of a hay loader, a side delivery 
rake, a flat-bottomed rigging with sideboard and 
slings; then to run it a good man in the mow and 
one on the wagon with a boy or girl large enough to 
drive a team or a wife who has no babies to keep her 
iii the house will do (which is the case with us). 
You can then make hay with very little heavy work; 
husband and I make all of ours without any help at 
all. We also use the slings in hauling in and un¬ 
loading sheaf wheat and oats. We thought at first 
that dropping the sling full down from the roo'f 
would shell the grain out badly, but it doesn’t seem 
to shell any more than handling by hand, if as bad, 
even when the grain is very ripe. Of course the first 
layer of grain must be laid carefully so the sheaves 
will all be caught in, but you will soon “catch on” to 
how to do it, then the rest is easy. I find it much 
easier to drive the team to haul the grain up in the 
slings, than to mow the grain back. Before we got 
slings, husband used to pitch the sheaves into the mow 
with the hand-fork, and mowed them back; now T 
only have to drive the team to pull four slings full up 
and then sit down and rest while husband mows them 
back. MRS. IT. G. H. 
THE CORN CROP 28 DAYS FROM PLANTING. Fig. 160. 
THIRTY-FIVE DAYS FROM PLANTING, NEARLY TWO FEET IN 
A WEEK. Fig. 161. 
