1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
239 
Taste of Turnips in Milk. 
There are several remedies to prevent the 
taste of turnips in milk, but we believe no one 
of them can be strictly relied upon as effec¬ 
tual ; wc will, however, give them in order : 
1. The objectionable taste comes from the 
crown of the turnip. If this is cut off and 
thrown away entire, the remainder will not 
affect the milk. 2. Dissolve a teaspoonful of 
carbonate of soda in a teacupful of warm 
water, and add this to six gallons of milk 
when first set in the pans. For a single gal¬ 
lon, of course one-sixth of the above would 
be sufficient, and for two or three gallons 
in due proportion. The turnips ought to be 
given to the cow immediately after milking. 
3. Pulp or crush the turnips so fine as to 
make them quickly and easily digested after 
eating, and when fed mix with cut hay or 
straw. 4. Scald the milk as soon as drawn 
from the cows. The best way to do this is 
to insert the milk can into a large pan or 
kettle about three quarters full of boiling 
water, and stir the milk until it reaches 80 to 
90 degrees of heat, and then set it away to 
gradually cool off. The cream then rises 
thick, comes off in a lump, and is churned 
quickly. All the above remedies are so simple 
as to be easily tried, and if they do no good, 
cannot effect harm. Thus, it is safe to ex¬ 
periment with them. 
TRIMMING HEDGES. 
kept in place. After one year’s growth, 
a hedge treated in this way will turn any 
kind of stock. The engraving shows the 
manner of doing the work. 
There are some strange notions current 
about grafting. One of our correspondents 
has been told by “an expert ” that it is neces¬ 
sary for the outside bark of the cion and 
stock to come in contact to insure success. 
The outside bark is practically only a cover¬ 
ing ; the active growing portion is the inner 
bark. “H. H.” has been told that in cleft¬ 
grafting the cion must not be perpendicular, 
but “quartering,” and asks if this is proper. 
Sometimes, where it is not easy to bring the 
inside bark of both graft and stock into con¬ 
tact, the cion is set leaning slightly away 
Trimming Hedges. 
-O— 
Mr. L. Purdy, Holmes Co., Ohio, writes us: 
Having some hedge that had grown for sev- 
erl years without trimming, I hit upon the 
following plan for making a good hedge of it: 
At. the end of the row leave two plants 
standing upright; cut them off about four 
feet high and trim away all the limbs. Trim 
up the plants along the row for several feet, 
so that there will be no limbs to interfere, 
and cut off the tops as high as you can 
reach with a hatchet. Take hold of the 
plant and bend it down in the direction it is 
to lie, and with one or two blows with the 
hatchet near the root the plant can easily be 
from the stock. This will cause the inner bark 
of the cion to cross that of the stock, and it 
must come in contact with it. 
DODDER ON 
GRAPE VINE. 
Another Enemy of the Grape Vine. 
Insects, numerous as they are, are not the 
only enemies with which 
the grape-grower has to 
contend. The dreaded mil¬ 
dew is a microscopic para¬ 
sitic plant, and now we 
learn of another plant, also 
parasitic, but by no means 
microscopic. S. F. Black¬ 
man, Ocean Co., N. J., in 
pruning his vines came 
across a “singular growth,” 
which he sent us and from 
which the accompanying 
engraving, of actual size, 
has been made. The affair 
is properly described as a 
“growth,” but it is not of 
the vine, but upon it. It 
is a cluster of seed pods of 
a species of Dodder— Cus- 
cuta, of which there are 
one or more species found 
all over the country. The 
Dodders germinate from seeds in the ground, 
throwing up long slender, leafless stems which 
tw T ine around and climb up the stems of other 
plants. There soon appears upon the stem of 
the Dodder, little disks or “ suckers ” whicli 
penetrate the stem of the other plant and 
through which it robs its host of its juices. 
Having established itself, the Dodder, finding 
it easier to steal its food than to prepare it, 
has no farther need of a root, and soon severs 
all communication with the soil. It bears 
minute whitish flowers in clusters, which are 
succeeded by small pods, each usually with 
four seeds. The flowers and fruit, though 
small, are interesting in their structure, 
which places the plant in close relationship 
with the large and showy morning-glories, 
both belonging to the same family. Some of 
the dodders are common in damp places, and 
m summer their orange-colored stems, like 
masses of tangled yarn, are quite conspicuous. 
The origin of the botanical name, Cuscuta is 
not known, but Dodder is the plural of dodd, 
the word in the Frisian lauguage for 
“bunch.” From the manner in which the 
plant subsists it is most injurious to those 
plants upon which it grows. The Flax 
Dodder and the Clover Dodder of Europe 
are often destructive to the important crops 
they infest. The first named has been intro¬ 
duced into this country, but is not at all com¬ 
mon. There is a Dodder which infests the 
“Alfalfa” or Lucerne, the important forage 
crop of California and other far Western 
States, and which w’as first determined and 
figured in the American Agriculturist, in 
Dec., 1874, as Cuscuta racemosa var. Chi- 
liana. The three species already referred to 
form-loose flower and fruit clusters, which 
present a very different appearance from the 
one now figured, in which the pods are 
closely crowded in a dense mass, that is 
sometimes two inches in diameter. It is a 
native species ( C. compacta) and the only 
one of about a dozen belonging to the At¬ 
lantic States that attack cultivated plants. 
We have known it to injure young apple 
stocks in a nurserv. but its occurrence on the 
vine is quite new, and though not likely to 
prove serious, should be known to vine- 
growers that they may destroy it wherever 
it occurs. By rubbing off the flower-clus¬ 
ters, before the seeds are formed, it may be 
kepi i n subjection without much difficulty. 
Milfoil or Yarrow- 
A correspondent who finds “Thousand¬ 
leaved grass or Yarrow ” recommended in an 
English work as useful in a mixture of 
grasses for a sheep pasture, asks what kind 
of a plant it is and our opinion as to its value. 
His first question may be in good part an¬ 
swered by an engraving of a small stem, the 
plant often reaching a foot or more in 
bight. The finely divided dark-green 
leaves are of great beauty, and it gets one of 
its common names, “ Milfoil,” from the 
French (and Latin) words for ‘ ‘ thousand ” 
and “leaf.” The structure of its small 
flower-heads, given of real size, shows that 
it belongs to the great composite family, 
and is very far from being a ‘ ‘ grass, ” though 
some English writers speak of it as such, as 
they do of other forage plants. The rays, or 
outer parts of the small head are usually 
white, with the small disk, or central portion. 
yellow’. The botanical name is Achillea 
Millefolium, , the genius being dedicated 
to Achilles, who is said to have made use of 
the plant medicinally. The meaning of the 
specific name has been already alluded to. 
