1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
7«3 
The Home Acre. 
More About Peach Borers. 
X page 717 I read the article on kill¬ 
ing the peach borer, having had no 
experience in digging them out. I have 
a few fine trees and never noticed signs 
of borers until I saw the gum this Spring. 
On scraping with a knife I found some 
holes almost grown over and others with 
old dead sawdust in them. It looked as 
though the borer was not at home. Will 
you tell me when and how to look for the 
borer and take him out? F. w. T. 
Bardwell, Mass. 
We have known the borer to dig five 
inches or more under the bark, straight 
down the tree. The only way to make 
sure of him is to take a wire with a lit¬ 
tle crook at the end of it, and push it 
down the burrow to the end. By work¬ 
ing it around, and pulling it out, you 
will generally drag out the borer, if he 
is there. Our own plan is to scrape off 
the gum; then with the sharp pointed 
blade of a knife slit the bark down over 
the burrow to the bottom. Do not cut 
across, but cut down, digging out the 
bark over the passage made by the borer. 
If he is at home you will find him at 
the bottom, often below the ground. At 
this season he has about done his work 
for the year, and could hardly do more 
damage. The best time to hunt for bor¬ 
ers is in the Fall. They are then rather 
ful season for the rhubarb, and we never 
had a better growth of the Linnaeus. 
The chard, sown thickly, is now getting 
quite thick along the rows. I sow this 
rather thickly because the young thin¬ 
nings are the best of all substitutes for 
spinach, and we can get many messes in 
thinning the plants out to six inches 
apart, which is as close as they should 
stand for the full development of the 
leaf stalks, which we boil like asparagus 
later. 
And the cool weather seems to have 
suited the asparagus too, for the stalks 
are of unusual size, thanks to the heavy 
manuring last Summer after cutting 
stopped. That is the time to prepare for 
big asparagus shoots, getting the strong 
growth on the roots in the Fall to make 
strong crowns for the Spring. Now, as 
soon as cutting stops, we will pile on the 
manure and fertilizer, and cultivate the 
plants clean the rest of the season, know¬ 
ing that they are storing up food to make 
fat shoots next Spring. 
The early Queen onions have all been 
used, and now we are using the offsets 
of the Yellow Potato onion for green 
onions. These clean off perfectly white 
and are now in fine shape for the table, 
while the main bulbs can go on to ripen. 
These were planted last Fall, and the 
soil banked over them as a. Winter pro¬ 
IIUSTLIXG THE TIE PLANT CROP TO MARKET. Fig. 321. 
small, but have not done much damage, 
and by cutting down their passage they 
may be found and destroyed before they 
injure the tree. This cutting out plan 
is the best we know of. Next to it in 
efficiency will probably come the plan of 
painting or spraying the base of the tree 
thoroughly with a liine-sulphur wash. 
Notes from a Maryland Garden. 
T is the third week in May, and the 
third planting of corn for roasting 
ears is coming up. The first planting 
was made in April of the Early Nor¬ 
folk Market corn. This is a great im¬ 
provement on the old Adams Early, the 
cars being longer and the crop earlier. 
I usually plant this in March, but this 
Spring there was no corn-planting weath¬ 
er in March, and it was April before the 
seed went into the ground. The later 
plantings are the Country Gentleman, 
for though some of the extra early sweet 
corns are of good eating quality, like the 
Golden Bantam for instance, we get too 
little here from these to make it pay to 
occupy space in the garden with them. 
The Norfolk Market corn is of course not 
a sugar corn, but it is early and we get 
larger ears, and the quality is not at all 
bad. Then too, it can be planted earlier 
than any sugar corn, which would be apt 
to rot in the cool weather of early Spring. 
Any ears are good when we can get them 
by the 20th of June. 
Along the wire fence at the north end 
of the garden I have Berger’s Green pod 
beans. These are a great improvement 
on the old Dutch Caseknife bean, make 
nice string beans and the ripe beans are as 
good as navy beans, which we cannot 
grow well here. This would be a very 
fine beau to plant in a cornfield, but in 
the garden I cannot afford to let the 
cornstalks stand as bean poles, for as 
soon as tin* ears are past value for the 
table the stalks are pulled out, and the 
ground prepared for a later crop. 
This cool Spring has been a wonder¬ 
tection to the bulbs. This has now been 
pulled away to allow the bulbs to swell 
and form on the surface. 
The dasheens are starting, and I hope 
to get a crop of larger conns than the 
dry weather last Summer allowed me to 
get. My crop last Summer made such 
small conns that I did not test their eat¬ 
ing quality, and hope to get some next 
Fall that we can use on the table 
In the flower line, the Dahlia seed, 
sown in the open border, is now up. I 
never start these inside early, for sown 
in the open ground the plants come into 
bloom just in the host Dahlia weather of 
the Fall, and as I sow some seed every 
Spring I have selected from time to time 
a collection that is hard to beat among 
the named sorts offered. But more of 
the flowers later. w. f. MASSEY. 
Maryland. 
Destroying Chickweed. 
UR < entire farm is infested with 
chickweed. Even the old grass fields 
are showing it. Is it to be taken as 
a serious pest? llow shall we rid farm 
of it? MRS. c. F. B. 
Pureellville, Va. 
Chickwood is becoming to be a serious 
pest in some parts of the country, es¬ 
pecially in trucking sections, with such 
crops as strawberries and Fall-sown 
crops, as kale. Owing to its early ma¬ 
turity it does its principal damage in 
early Spring before ordinary crops have 
a chance to grow. When it occurs in 
hay, clover and Alfalfa fields it seldom 
does more than temporary damage. Al¬ 
falfa matted with it the first Spring after 
seeding may not have any more after 
that. There is no remedy for getting rid 
of it, other than keeping it from going 
to seed. Spraying with the chemicals 
ordinarily used for killing other seed have 
very little or no effect. Shading to kill 
it out cannot be practiced, because at 
the time of year when chickweed is grow¬ 
ing the most rapidly other crops make 
very little or no growth. 
Keep an accurate record 
of your farming operations and illustrate that 
record with Kodak pictures. An album of 
Kodak pictures, with explanatory notes on 
methods of tillage, drainage, fencing, building, 
breeding and the like will make a valuable 
reference work that will help you plan for the 
year to come. Experience is the best teacher 
—but you need records of such experience. 
Let the Kodak help. 
Ash your dealer to show the Brownie Cameras $1.00 to $12.00, or Kodaks 
from $6.00 up. Catalogue free at the dealers, or by mail. 
EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY, 
387 State Street, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
WEST" Make your own Fertilizer at small cost witn 
,J|§a Wilson’s Phosphate Mills 
From 1 to to H. P. Send for catalogue. 
WILSON BROS. Sole Mfrs., Easton, Pa. 
1 1 | | \ J wl factory, freight 
\ 111 prepaid. Over 
| 1 k Btyles for every 
| J purpose, all Louble gal- 
vanized. 13c per rod up. New 
c SSi'i°fo a sfaM 6 . < s, test - 
THE BROWN FENCE & WIRE CO. 
Dept. 59 Cleveland, Ohio J ] 
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