The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-07-17
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD


FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
Farm and Garden Notes.
What cabbages, Brussels sprouts, and
%caulihowers need is a good start before
dry weather.
ANIMALS started under glass, or in
window-boxes, should be hardened off
by gradual exposure before putting
them in the open ground.
For the purpose of making the off
year of fruit trees a bearing year-sup-
pose we give the trees a heavy dressing
of n in the fall of the bearing
year.
If the dirt is infested with insects
and the plants dying, remove the plant
from the pot, shake the dirt carefully
from the roots, get good rich, fresh
earth, and repot the plant.
Prof. Cook, of Michigan, advises
w~heat-growers, where the Hessian Fly
prevails, either to pasture or NOV the
infested fields after the eggs are dePos-
tied and before they hatch.
Carpet bedding consists in the decora-
ton Of our fower-beds with neat dwarf
habited plants that are more consplcu-
GUS for their compacted nature and bril-
liant or dense LEAKAGE than for their
flower.
The safest remedy for potato bugs is
to pick them off and kill them. When
this cannot be done, a mixture of Paris
green in water sprinkled upon the vines
will avail to keep them off, without in
iuring the fruit.
A small quantity of salt sprinkled
under plum trees just as the fruit is
forming will kill the curculio, and pre-
vent theyoung plums from being stung.
Wood-ashes spread underneath the
plum trees will also drive the curculio
away.
Mulching is of great benefit to'a large
share of the small fruits. A mulch,
while it prevents evaporation and over
heating the soil, allows the rains to pass
through, and by preventing the beating
of storms, keeps the soil mellow and
porous.
Attend to roses. Look to the buds
inserted last summer, and cut off those
on the stocks that interfere with their
growth. Give liberal dressing of man
ure if not already done. All sorts of
bedding plants may be set beside spring
bulbs, such as tulips, hyacinths &c.
Climbers should be introduced where
ever there is a proper place for them.
A rough screen covered with ANIMALS,
such as morningglories, canary creeper,
~thunbergias, Madeira vine, maurandla,
cobaa, &C.. may be made to shut out an
unsightly object and be pleasing in
itself.
For pickles, do not be in too much
of a hurry to plant cucumber seeds very
early. When the weather gets warm
and settled the young plants grow faster.
Arrange the matter so as to have sew
eral coops of chickens scattered around
among the plants. If you have no
chickens, borrow some, for there is no
better remedy to keep away the insects
than plenty of young chickens a few
weeks old.
A valuable mixture to keep on hand
at this season is one Of coal ashes, sui
phur and hellebore. The ashes should
be very fine. 1t is best after passing
them through the ordinary coal-ash
sieve. To one pailul of ashes thus
sifted, add a quart each of -four Of sui
phur and hellebore, and mix together.
For currant worms, plant lice, cabbage
feas, slugs on pear trees, melon bugs,
we found this to be so e~fectual last sea-
son, that we confidently recommend it
to our readers. It is always best to use
it in the cool of the morning while the
dew is upon.the leaf.
Some Calculations.
J. H. asks: 81. How much wire
would it take to 90 around a farm of $50
acres, putting five wires in q row, and
how much would it cost ? 2. How long
a bin for $50 bushels wheat, the bin be-
ing eight feet high and twenty-five feet
wide? 5. How long a bin for 1900
bushels oats, the bin being eight feet
high and twenty. two feet wide? 4. I
intend building a crib eight feet high,
100 feet long, 40 feet wide; will that be
big enough for 5000 bushels of corn.
Reply:-To make a ive-wire fence
around 100 acres would require 5000
rods. A moderate estimate for such a
fence would be from 81, 1000 to $1,000.
To fence $40 acres, or four times as much
land, would cost but twice as much.
A bushel of wheat contains about one
cubic foot and a quarter. Three hun
dred and fifty bushels would occupy,
then, about 440 cubic feet, or a bin
eight feet high, two and one-half feet
wide, and twenty-five feet long. 1t
would be better to have it four feet wide
and high instead of eight by two and
one-half. One thousand five hundred
bushels of oats would require a bin
eight feet high, twenty-five feet wide,
and II feet long, or 1850 cubic feet in
capacity. A bushel of corn in the ear
contains about two and one-half cubic
feet. For 5000 bushels Of corn, TO-
900 cubic feet would be required, or q
crib eight feet. high, 120 feet long, and
twenty-one feet wide, which would be
better than one twice this width.
Grubs in the Backs Of Cattle.
As usual at this season, correspond
ents are inquiring about the grubs or
worms found under the hides Of cattle.
These are the young or larval form of
the Estrus BOWS, or gadfy of the OK,
which chase and seriously harm cattle,
while laying their eggs in Summer and
Autumn. Where the flies abound they
retard growth and ~fattening, and in y.
IRENE cases cause much fever and de-
rangement of the system, as well as de-
te~rioration of the hide by the presence
of the larvae under the skrn. But as the
fly does not survive the winter, save in
this larval form in the skin, it is easily
killed out in any district by a uniform
destruction of the grubs now to be found
under the integument. The parasites
will be found mainly in the back. ard
should be squeezed out of their cysts
by strong compression of the adjacent
skin, and crushed under foot to destroy
vitality and prevent them from burrow-
ing in the soil and undergoing their
natural transformation into the fly. If
the hole is too small it may be slightly
enlarged with apenknife so as to allow
the easy escape of the grub. The des-
truction of these parasites by introduce
ing caustic liquids or red-hot irons into
the sacks is not to be commended, as it
leaves a mass of dead matter in the
sore to undergo putrefaction, and de-
velops an amount of surrounding infa-
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