1883 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
361 
orchard culture. Selecting early apples, and pack¬ 
ing them carefully in new half-barrels, lined with 
white paper, or in suitable crates, will greatly 
increase the market returns for this kind of fruit. 
Live Stock Exhibitions. 
During the coming three months, there will be 
continual exhibitions of our domestic animals at 
the numerous Fairs and Shows over the whole 
country. In order to judge fairly as to the merits 
of these, it is highly important that they should 
be exhibited in proper condition—that is, neither 
being too fat nor too lean. As fat hides many 
bad points of animals, they are very frequently 
exhibited by owners in a superabundant state of 
grossness, in order to cover faults, and blind the 
eyes of the examining judges. Here a distinc¬ 
tion should be made in accordance with the 
different breeds of animals, and the purposes for 
which they are kept. The Jersey, Guernsey, Ayr¬ 
shire, and Dutch (Holstein and Friesian) cows sur¬ 
pass in the dairy; these, then, should be judged 
mainly as to their merits in yielding an extra large 
quantity of milk or butter for the food consumed, 
while a harmonious form and fine points, though 
desirable to accompany these extra yields, should 
be a secondary consideration. As the Shorthorn 
cow is a general purpose animal, its form and dis¬ 
position to take on an excellent quality of flesh 
when dried off for fattening, should be equally 
considered with its dairy qualities ; and the same 
is required of any other breed for which a general 
purpose is claimed, as is the case with the Devon, 
although a much smaller animal than the Shorthorn. 
As to the beef breeds, like the Hereford, Black 
Polled Scotch, Kyloe, and any others, perfection 
of form, aptitude to fatten economically, and turn 
out first quality meat, are alone to be kept in view. 
In preparing beasts exclusively for the Fat Stock 
Show, particular regard must be had to their con¬ 
dition. No butcher wants them overloaded with 
fat, for such are unfit for consumption, and a good 
judge of meat will never purchase pieces cut from 
the carcass of these. He does not wish to buy tal¬ 
low, but tender, well-marbled, lean, juicy meat. 
This alone is required, and the animals which best 
furnish it are now given the first prizes at Chicago 
and other places in the United States, when fat 
cattle are exhibited. They must be judged twice : 
first, when alive, as to form, condition, etc. ; and 
second, after slaughter, as to the quality of their 
meat. We regret to say that these rules were not 
followed in England at the great Fat Cattle Show 
at Birmingham, in December, or at the still larger 
and more important Christmas Show in London. 
But the principles of the American Shows are now 
studied to some extent by the managers of those 
in England, and the agricultural press there is 
heartily recommending that they should be adopt¬ 
ed throughout the United Kingdom. Until this is 
done, no satisfactory progress can be made on the 
part of breeders and feeders in supplying an eco¬ 
nomical and savory quality of meat for the market, 
whether it be flesh of beeves, sheep, or swine. 
Of the latter, however, two sorts of flesh are re¬ 
quired : such as is almost entirely fat for salting 
and barreling, and that which is tender, juicy, 
and lean, for smoked hams, shoulders, and bacon. 
Spare the Toads. 
There is no better abused, and probably no more 
useful creature in the garden and upon the farm 
than the toad. That apt simile, “ like a toad un¬ 
der a harrow,” tells the story of his wrongs. And 
now that our harrows are armed with steel teeth, 
and are supplemented with clod crushers and cul¬ 
tivators of various types for comminuting the soil, 
the sorrows of the toad are intensified, and he is 
threatened with extinction in all cultivated fields. 
Stay thy hand from slaughter, tiller of the soil. 
The toad is as useful in his place as the implements 
of tillage you drive over his back so thoughtlessly. 
“The jewel in his head” is not there, but in his 
capacious stomach, that always has room in it for 
one more bug, one more worm, that destroys the 
food of man. Watch his habits for a day, and ob¬ 
serve the lightning thrusts of his tongue as he 
scoops in your enemies, and you will have a better 
appreciation of his work, and of his place in good 
husbandry. If your garden is without toads, you 
can afford to purchase them for stock. They will 
pay good dividends, as surely as superphosphate. 
Diseased Cabbage Stems and Roots. 
The cabbage is a most unfortunate plant with re¬ 
spect to its insect enemies. Some attack the seed¬ 
lings as soon as they are out of the ground; sev¬ 
eral others devour the leaves, and the stem and 
roots have insects which infest those parts; in- 
Fig. 1. —a “club-footed” cabbage. 
deed, over a dozen different species are known to 
live upon the cabbage. In some localities, the 
roots swell up and become “ club-footed ” to such 
an extent that they cease to nourish the plants, 
and they fail,—are really starved to death. A 
friend sent us some yjung, partly grown cabbages, 
the roots of which were in a very bad condition, as 
shown by the portrait 
of one, of real size, 
given in figure 1. It 
will be seen that when, 
instead of fine fibres, 
for taking up food, the 
roots are swollen and 
distorted in this man¬ 
ner, there can be no 
hope for the plant. 
When the stem was 
cut through length¬ 
wise, it appeared as 
in figure 2, which is 
somewhat enlarged. 
The interior of the 
stem was alive with 
numerous maggots, 
which had partly hol¬ 
lowed it to a mere 
shell. The presence of 
them was sufficient to 
account for the dis¬ 
eased root, and the 
death of the plant, 
which appeared to be 
close at hand. These 
maggots were, apparently, those of the “Cab¬ 
bage-Fly” of Europe (Anthomyia brassicce). When 
full-grown, they are about a third of an inch 
long ; they then leave the plant, and turn to pupae 
in the soil, from which, in two or three weeks, the 
Fig. 2.— MAGGOTS IN CAB¬ 
BAGE STEM. 
perfect insect comes forth. This is a two-winged 
fly, of a gray color, with a spread of wings of about 
half an inch. Several broods are produced during 
the season, the pupae of the latest remaining dor¬ 
mant in the ground all winter. The flies come out 
the next season in time for the early cabbages. 
While this pest does not appear to be general, it is, 
in some localities, sufficiently abundant to cause 
serious loss. Lime has been found to be the best 
remedy 7 proposed thus far. In England, it is ap¬ 
plied in the form of lime-water, and on the conti¬ 
nent, the use of superphosphate as a manure has 
been found to be a preventive. The best means of 
getting rid of this pest, is by a proper rotation of 
crops. While cabbages may be grown year after 
year on soil well supplied with lime, the proper 
practice on other soils is a judicious rotation. 
- -- 
Worms in a Lawn 
J. H. Tompkins, Ohio, is much annoyed by earth 
or angle worms in his lawn. The soil is a sandy 
clay, lies high, and has been heavily manured. He 
writes us that the worms, “as large as little 
snakes,” are ruining the grass. That worms are, 
on the whole, useful, is strongly advocated by 
some, but if there is a place where their labors in 
bringing up fertilizing matters from below, can be 
dispensed with, it is on a well-made lawn. What¬ 
ever good they may do to the lawn, their casts are 
a nuisance. In England, where worms are much 
more abundant than with us, the worm casts are 
scattered by sweeping. One English horticultural 
writer advises the use of salt, at the rate of eight 
bushels to the acre, to destroy worms, stating that 
a less quautity will do no good, while a bushel or 
two more will do no harm. If we wished to destroy 
worms in a lawn, we should use lime-water. We 
do not know what the effect of such a heavy dress¬ 
ing of salt, as that just mentioned, might be in our 
climate, but having used lime-water on the most 
delicate plants in the greenhouse, should not hesi¬ 
tate to apply it to the lawn to destroy worms. By 
lime-water, we refer to a saturated and perfectly 
clear solution of lime (see page 324, last month). 
Lime-water is most readily made by placing ten or 
twelve pounds of quick-limc in a barrel, slaking it 
with hot water, and then adding water to fill the 
barrel; stir thoroughly, and allow' the sediment to 
settle. The liquid, perfectly clear when applied 
to the lawn, will soon put an end to the worms.. 
Broad-Cast and Drilled Seeding of Crops. 
Professor Roberts, of the Cornell University Ex¬ 
perimental Station, found the average of two 
years of broad-cast sowing of oats to be 61 bushels 
per acre, while equal areas drilled gave 56 bushels. 
He also obtained the largest yield with about three 
bushels of seed per acre. The summary' of seven 
years of experimentation with wheat, shows that 
the drilled plots gave a larger average yield than the 
areas sown broadcast. Three bushels of seed per 
acre gave a better crop than a greater or less 
amount. Professor Roberts finds that there is a 
noticeable variation from year to year in the per 
cent, of seed that germinates, and the amount de¬ 
stroyed by insects and other causes. Thin seeding 
frequently does well, until the freezing and thaw¬ 
ing of early spring, when it suffers more than thick 
seeding. If the weather of late spring is not favor¬ 
able, the thin seeding does not tiller as it should, 
or tillers so late, that there is a large number of 
small heads on short stalks, in the standing grain. 
One bushel of good seed would be ample for an 
acre, if all the conditions were most favorable ; 
but they seldom are, and it is wiserto give aliberal 
sowing of the grain, than to run the risk for the 
advantages of a thin seeding. 
The extended experiments with various com¬ 
mercial manures warrant two conclusions : First, 
concentrated fertilizers, under some conditions 
of the soil, when applied liberally in contact with 
the seed, may do as much harm as good. Second, 
nitrogen, when applied in the form of dried blood, 
is much more effective than when furnished to the 
soil in nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia. 
