2912. 
8SO 
THE RURAb 
The Largest Yield of Corn. 
J. 8. P., Maryland .—To settle a dispute 
will you name the largest recorded crop of 
corn ever grown in this country? 
Ans.— In the year 1889, the “Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist” offered a prize for 
the largest yield of corn, which prize 
was increased by the State Commis¬ 
sioner of Agriculture of South Carolina 
to $1,000. This prize was awarded by 
a disinterested committee to Captain Z. 
J. Drake, who raised 254-)4 bushels, 
green weight, or 239 bushels crib cured, 
of shelled corn at Bennettsville, Marl¬ 
boro County, South Carolina. 
In the year 1910, in connection with 
a contest of the Boys’ Corn Clubs su¬ 
pervised by the Farmers’ Cooperative 
Demonstration Work of this Bureau, 
the largest yield was secured by jerry 
Moore, of Winona, South Carolina, and 
was certified by a committee consisting 
of three disinterested citizens and care¬ 
fully'inspected by the County Superin¬ 
tendent of Education and by the State 
and District Agents of the Farmers’ Co¬ 
operative Demonstration Work. The 
record was 228$4 bushels of shelled 
corn. 
In the year 1911, under the supervi¬ 
sion of the Farmers’ Cooperative Dem¬ 
onstration Work and as part of the 
contest of the Boys’ Corn Clubs, Ben¬ 
nie Beeson, of Monticello, Mississippi, 
made a record of 227 1/6 bushels of 
shelled corn per acre. This record was 
certified by three disinterested citizens 
and was carefully inspected by the State 
and Local Agents of the Farmers’ Coop- 
ground 
covered with 
in place until it 
in Spring, and 
brush to hold the seed 
makes growth. Seed of both these 
grasses may be obtained from dealers 
in agricultural seeds.. In our own lo¬ 
cality, railway embankments are bound 
by self-sown Sweet clover, and also the 
little pink flowered bouncing Bet, Sapo- 
naria, while many trolley embankments 
are protected by close-set willow cut¬ 
tings, trimmed down. A permanent 
grass, however, is the best binder. 
NEW-YORKER 
Wireworms and Grubs. 
I have some land infested with wire- 
worms and grubworms which injure the 
corn crop seriously. Can you advise me 
how I may best get rid of them? j. w. m. 
Ohio. 
Thorough working is the best remedy. 
We should plow early in the Fall and not 
sow any cover crop. During the Fall work 
at intervals with a disk or spring-tooth. 
This will throw many of the insects or 
their eggs to the surface where crows and 
other birds maj get them. Follow with 
some hoed crop and keep the soil con¬ 
stantly stirred up. 
erative Demonstration Work. The ac¬ 
curacy of such yields is of course open 
to some doubt where the factor of mois¬ 
ture content of both corn and cob at 
time of weighing is not taken into con¬ 
sideration. B. T. GALLOWAY. 
Chief of Bureau of Plant Industry. 
Ohio Holstein Breeders Meet. 
Monday, August 5, the midsummer 
meeting of the Western Reserve Hol¬ 
stein Association was held at Burton, 
O., at the home of Hiram Russell and 
mother. After a picnic dinner under 
the trees. President Peter Small called 
the meeting to order. Paul McNish, 
secretary, read the minutes. G. A. 
Dimoc, who was recently elected one 
of the directors of the Holstein 
Breeders Association of America, and 
owner of the great cow Banostine Belle 
DeKol, was to have addressed the meet¬ 
ing but was unable to attend. Mr. 
Bushnell, of Columbus, addressed the 
crowd, urging the farmers to organize 
for their own interests. They also con¬ 
sidered giving prizes at the county fair 
in 1913 to boys and girls raising the 
best clover. This will stimulate interest 
in this branch of farming as nothing 
else would and help to solve the now 
important question of keeping our chil¬ 
dren on the farm. 
This organization started three years 
ago with about 50 members. They now 
number 150 enthusiastic members, each 
doing all possible to promote the inter¬ 
est of Holstein cattle. It is a noted 
fact that four out of the six greatest 
world record cows are owned in Ohio, 
three of which were bred here. At the 
consignment sale at Burton, O., last 
Fall, over 100 head of fine cattle were 
sold, none of which should have been 
allowed to leave the State, as many un¬ 
developed cows raised here have proven 
themselves great producers. The ladies 
also hold a meeting which is very much 
enjoyed. j. l. 
Chardon, O. 
A Soil-Binding Grass. 
J. F. 8Emporium, Pa .—I am a rail¬ 
road man, and we are troubled greatly with 
landslides every time wc get a heavy rain, 
and also in the Spring. I have heard that 
there is a wild grass called ‘•knot-grass” or 
Scotch grass that has very strong roots, and 
if sown on these banks would hold the soil 
so it would not slide. I understand that 
it can be found in Canada, Vermont and 
perhaps in New York State, and I would 
like to know what kind of grass it is and 
when and where I could procure the seed 
so we can try it. 
Ans. —There are several grasses used 
for protecting railway embankments, 
beaches, etc., against waves and wind; 
we do not know one under the name of 
knot-grass, but this may be merely a 
local name. Lime grass, Elymus are- 
narius, is very valuable for this pur¬ 
pose; it forms a dense mass of widely- 
spreading roots. Beach grass, Ammo- 
phila arundinacea, is another variety of 
value; its strongly creeping roots bind 
drifting sand into a solid embankment. 
It is usually propagated by transplant¬ 
ing in Autumn, but seed may be sown 
DIARY OF A “BACK TO THE LANDER.” 
May 6» Finished drawing stable manure 
on my potato ground to-day; drew 27 
large loads. 
May S. Flowed the ground. I measured 
off exactly one acre, not a very large 
"patch,” but 1 think that with my other 
work it will be as much as 1 can care for 
properly. The soil is a sandy loam, well 
drained and naturally fertile. I plowed 10 
inches deep and the soil is in line condition. 
May 11. Rained all day the 9th ; yester¬ 
day the ground dried off, and to-day J har¬ 
rowed thoroughly. It certainly looks good, 
line, mellow and smooth. 
May 12. Started to mark out the ground 
to-day, but rain stopped me ; rained all day. 
May 14. Found my ground dry once 
more; harrowed once over and marked one 
way with one-horse plow four inches deep 
and 42 inches apart, cross marked with 
marker 32 inches. 
May 15. Started planting; the wife 
dropped potatoes which I covered, dropping 
the fertilizer on top and covering with hoe. 
Neighbor advised covering with plow, but 
we can’t afford to take chances. Rain 
stopped us 2 F. M.; showers remainder of 
day. 
May 17. Rain prevented planting yes¬ 
terday, finished to-day. We used GOO pounds 
of a high-grade fertilizer in the hill and 
took pains in distributing it over a large 
part of the ground around the seed, and 
covered it carefully, which was somewhat 
of a slow task, but we shall go to bed to¬ 
night with the satisfaction of having done 
our work well. 
June 1. Fotatoes are up and looking 
fine. We have had plenty of rain and 
nice warm weather. The wife and I have 
of course made an estimate of the probable 
yield. She has been reading in the agri¬ 
cultural papers of some large yields and 
was for placing the estimate at 400 bushels. 
She asks why, with naturally fertile soil 
and the fair amount of fertilizer we have 
used, and thorough cultivation, we can’t 
grow as many potatoes per acre as any¬ 
one. It is rather a hard question to an¬ 
swer, and a question becomes more dif¬ 
ficult to debate when one is sympatheti¬ 
cally inclined toward the opposition. But 
by dint of much argument and use of all 
the imaginary calamities that cqn befall a 
potato crop, I at last succeeded in cutting 
her estimate in half. 
June 5. After waiting three days for 
the rain to stop and ground to dry off, 
have at last begun cultivation, potatoes 
looking tine. 
June 15. Beetles are making their ap¬ 
pearance ; am going to spray to-morrow. 
June 17. Rained all day yesterday; 
could not spray and beetles grew fat. ' I 
barely finished spraying this morning when 
it began to rain; it rained all afternoon 
and is still raining at bedtime. 
June 18. Sun came out bright this 
morning, so I mixed up some more dope 
and sprayed again ; the spraying of yester¬ 
day was all washed off and did not even 
delay the beetles in the good work. Neigh¬ 
bor says we will get more rain to-morrow. 
June 20. Neighbor was right; drizzle 
all afternoon, and in the evening it rained. 
The work of the beetles is showing. Wife 
says if this kind of weather keeps up the 
beetles will get our crop, and I guess the 
wife is right. 
June 24. Am almost discouraged. I have 
sprayed five times; every time I spray it 
rains and washes the poison off before it 
does any good. Sprayed again to-day, but 
it looks like rain again. 
June 51. Have had fine weather for a 
week; beetles have disappeared. Damage 
was not so great after all. 
July 12. Fotatoes looking fine; we need 
rain. Wife estimates the gross income 
from our potatoes at $200; $1 a bushel is 
the price we paid when we came out here. 
After some some little debate we agreed 
to cut the income in half, as we did the 
estimate of our yield. 
July 20. No rain yet: ground is getting 
dry. I am cultivating twice a week. The 
ground is as dry as powder; have hard 
work to keep the cultivator from going too 
deep. 
July 25. A fine shower passed a few 
miles north of us to-day; standing in the 
door we could see it raining over on the 
hills. If we could only have had some of 
it ! Our time next. 
July 30. Am still cultivating semi¬ 
weekly: the dust flies, as okl Bill and I go 
back and forth. 
August 4. Fotatoes are nearly done for; 
the leaves are all curled up and many are 
dead. Vines arc wilting and shrinking up. 
Neighbor says we will get rain to-morrow 
but I am afraid it will come too late. 
August 7. Neighbor was wrong; we did 
not get rain, although a heavy shower 
passed a few miles south of us. 
August 12. 1 have decided to sow rye 
on the potato patch this Fall, which I will 
turn under in Spring: intend to use 1.000 
pounds of potato fertilizer. No rain yet. 
August 20. Potato vines are almost all 
dead ; am going to dig. 
August 22. Finished digging to-day. 
Wife picked nearly all of them up as I 
forked them out. We had 18 bushels: they 
range in size from three-fourths to 1 % 
inch in diameter; are not marketable. Wife 
says never mind, “better luck next time.” 
She can fix the old hat over, and we can 
manage to skimp through some way, at 
least we can try. She did not remind me 
that it is pay-day to-day in the shop where 
we used to work. 1 wonder if she thought 
of it? A. J. HILL. 
Traction Engine on Small Farms. 
On page 813 M. II. wants to know if it 
will pay to buy a 25-horsepower traction 
engine for a 70-acre farm. I would say 
let 25-horsepower engines alone; they 
won't pay expenses, and as to cultivating 
crops with them, it is out of the question. 
For plowing you want about 1.000 acres or 
more, fat bank account and a good prac¬ 
tical knowledge^ of mechanics. I used one 
five years in Kansas and my advice is to 
buy four good horses and do the work with 
modern tools. 
Salt Point, N. Y. 
a. w. 
Chickweed in Lawn. 
Considerable creeping vine, the same as 
the enclosed, which I believe to be a 
myrtle, is appearing in my lawn and appar- 
cntly choking out the gniss. Can you give 
me any method that will remedy this 
trouble? J. A. H. 
Bala, Fa. 
The weed is not myrtle but chickweed, 
often a great nuisance on the farm, as well 
as in lawns and gardens. Small patches 
may be pulled out, and spraying with sul¬ 
phate of iron, one pound to the gallon of 
water, is recommended ; this does not in¬ 
jure the grass, while destroying both chick- 
weed and dandelions. Kverytking should 
be done to encourage a thick and vigorous 
growth ol ? the lawn ; in the Spring while 
the ground is soft, it should be raked over, 
given a good top-dressing of lawn fertilizer, 
and sown with grass seed in any bare or 
thin spots, then well rolled. Thin spots 
should be promptly reseeded and the lawn 
mowed regularly; if this treatment is eon- 
stantly followed up the chickweed is usu¬ 
ally choked out without spraying. Giving 
the grass a chance to outgrow any intro¬ 
duced weed is a prime requisite in keeping 
up a good lawn. Rotation of crops and 
frquent cultivation will kill out chickweed 
on the farm; infested pastures should be 
bioken up. In the orchard chickweed 
regarded by some fruit growers 
able mulch. 
Snails in Cellar. 
Perhaps some of the readers have had 
experience with snails and can tell of how 
trap or exterminate them. My cellar 
to 
is infested with them, and auvthing'in fruit 
and vegetable line put in is eaten and 
tracked over with their slimy trail. Cellar 
is all cemented and it is a puzzle to un¬ 
derstand where they come from or go dur¬ 
ing the day, but nights are out in great 
N. J. 
are often a 
and equally 
trapped in 
cellar fresh 
fresh cab- 
nu mbers. 
Rahv/ay, 
These disagreeable creatures 
great nuisance in a greenhouse, 
so in a cellar. They can be 
quantities by placing about the 
slices of potato or turnip or 
bage leaves; expose these baits at night, 
and in the morning gather up and destroy 
the snails clinging to them. Lime scat¬ 
tered about the cellar will repel the snails, 
also salt. Bits of gum camphor scattered 
about is offensive to them, and from this 
we should infer that powdered moth balls 
would also be a repellant. but we have 
never heard of it being used. The lime 
salt and vegetable baits are all tested in 
greenhouse work. 
Maltese Potatoes.— Few of us think of 
the island of Malta except that it has given 
name to a breed of gray cats—which are 
not found on the Island. Consul Oliver 
states that Maltest potatoes are worth con¬ 
sidering. Malta raises an excellent quality 
of potatoes. 'Pile seed potatoes are im¬ 
ported .usually from the north of Ireland, 
and two crops are raised annually. Seed 
potatoes are imported in sacks, while the 
crop is exported in casks that contain a 
little more than 300 pounds each. Orders 
are usually given for 65 casks. The mar¬ 
ket price fluctuates, but is usually be¬ 
tween $5.34 and $5.83 per 100 kilos (220 
pounds). The principal exports of pota¬ 
toes during the fiscal year 1010-11 were 
valued as follows: To Austria-Hungary, 
$192,706; Belgium, $5,139; France, $3,742; 
Germany. $20,965; Netherlands, $74,257; 
Italy, $10,969; Tunis, $5,158; Turkey, $14,- 
475. The total exports to all countries 
were valued at $320,131. 
When you write advertisers me/itior. The 
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UTICA 
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New 
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Gasoline Engines 
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218 N- W. St. New Holstein. Wis. 
