The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1870-06-09

FARMERS COLUMN.
Does Wheat Turn to Chess?

Docs w neat Turn 10 CneSS!
Farming has been my occupation for 50
YEAR,. and when | have seen an effect |
have looked Cor the cause. With my ex-
perience. | am satisfied that degenerated
wheat and chess are one | had five acres
Of oak land broken up with three teams and
the first crop s0T8 To plue-stem wheat
clean from every kink OF foul seed. There
vas about ha'l an acre near the center Of
the piece that was Low, where water would
stand In the Spring in this hollow there
were three small mounts turned up By trees.
The wheat was a large az | ever saw, and
clear frorI chess, except in the hollow, and
that was one mass o. chess no wheat ex-
cept on those mounds, and on them there
was good, pure wheat, except around the
edges, where there wee wheat and chess
mixed found considerable quantities mix
ed, and some on the same sti-.ms
Once | drew a few loads Of rails across
my wheat Some 40 rods n the month Of
May. There were two rows OF chess, one
in each wheel road, aud some also where
the team travelled; and did not find any
chess away from the road, in the lot OF t
acres My horses got III my wheat in June.
Where they fed and rolled, there were
chess and smut, and | could not fad either
where they did not travel.
Now, could give scores Of tests as good
"a these 10 prove that chess is degenerated
wheat have sold chess by way Of ex-
perlmcnts The first year it. will develop
:. small kernel Sowing the same, il came
up and grew about s inches high but did
not develop any kernel. BY experiment,
1 find that chess is not grain in and Of it
sef bat wheat in "a degenerated state.
-. 1 L.. Il.
subjects with the farmers that 90 in their
lots with gloves on for the purpose of keep
ing their hired help at work. think that
- out Of every hundred farmers who go
ahead in their farm labors and have mind
10 trace effects to causes, will come to the
same conclusion with myself But | am
pleased to see each one advocate his own
views. SO, brother farmer, come out. -
Western RuraL.
CULTURE OF TIE CABBAGE-1he CABS
bage IN ali Its varieties is about as impor
tant crop as farmer can raise. The
early varieties are useful in the kitchen
and profitable IN the market, and the large
late kinds, such as the Flat Dutch, Drum
Head, etc, are valuable for domestic use
IN " inter or early Spring, and also for
feeding cattle and sheep. The cabbage is
better fatening food than the turnip. The
preparation, of the soil for cabbage
should be the same as for root crops the
land should be deeply titled and enriched
with an abundance of barnyard manure =
SuperphOsphate, bone dust or guano, lime
or plaster, are suitable manures for cab
bage. The plant contains a large proper
ZION Of nitrogen and consequently requires
nItrogcnous manures.
TIE WOODpECKER IN THE ORCHARD. =
At recent meeting of the American In
stitutc Farmers Club, A. II. Caslin, of
iIerryvIIIc, Mo, wrote that in February
last, he examined his apple trees number
ing 400, for the borers, which were mum
crous III his locality, and, to his astonish-
ment found that y of the trees had been
relieved of the borers by the woodpecker,
and, in fact, every tree where the borers
were above ground, the birds had removed
them, ani in some instances, had gone be-
low the surface for them. He would not
Kill a woodpccker in his orchard for Eve
dollars
DR.. Trimble had never seen the wood
pecker at work SO ncai the ground as MIR.
Clshn had rtated, but of the great value of
the bird, he had no doubt. The borer
comes the first year Of the tree, and works
deep in the wood, seldom more than a foot
above the ground. When he was a Young
man, the woods were full Of woodpeckers
now there is hardly one of the red headed
species left There is one variety of this
bied,-the best OF all of them-called by
some, the sap sucker; it is really the
demi- woodpecker This bird finds the
apple moth which is the most destructive
insects to our trees. He fluids it by sound
ing. This faculty Is one Of the most re-
markable things in the history of birds. -
lie is not sap sucker. Audubon and
others make no distinction between this
bird and one that may be sap sucker
He sounds the outside of the bark, hears
the worm, and then bores in with unfsiling
certainty and kills him. He is the most
useful of birds.
f. d. CurtisS said there was pear
tree near his house, and the woodpeckers
were at WORK on 1t every day. He was adj
vssed to shoot them, but said, Let them
alone; they are not hurting the tree. -
They bored the tree from roots to limbs
The tree died, and be cut into it and found
that it was literally alive with grubs They
were too many for the birds. He never
saw any other bird that was so useful. He
ascribes to the woodpecker more wisdom
than he possesses himself The woodpeck-
ers did all they could to save the tree, bat
1t died for want of breath-strangled by the
mass Of grubs.
DR.. Trimble never knew the holes made
by the woodpecker to injure any tree
Their holes are most numerous in the Fall.
No apple tree is APP to be injured that is not
perforated above the graft. He could not
say too much for the woodpecker-the
most useful Of American birds. He thinks
it is entitled to what few grapes and cher
ries it eats-nothiug in value compared
with the good it does. He does not feel
like calling any man his friends who shoots
the woodpeckerS.
Mr. Lawton corroborated all that had
been said. There is one variety of wood~
pecSer that pecks around the tree in cir
Gle he had some of his apple trees treats
cd in this way, but none of them were in
iured by it. They are now as thrifty as any
in the orchard.
ii. L. Cotton said that in the South they
had all the varieties of woodpecker spoken
Of He never knew them IN inipr, trea g.