The Portland daily press., 1880-06-02
AGRICULTURAL.
Undertaking with Stone.

The best time to construct underdrains is
in the spring of the year, when The land is
soft When made of stone, they not only
last fer all time, but carry off any surface
water much sooner than tile In cutting a
ol!ph for a drain, the most expeditions way
is to first run a furrow with two-horse
plough, as straight as possible, where the
drain is to be, and Oh this first furrow back
furrow another of equal width. Then, after
shovelling 10 one side the earth of which
this double furrOw is composed, repeat the
poughing and Storytelling by attaching a
short chain between the doubletree and cley-
is, to incrt ase the distance between the two,
and thus cause the plough to run the re-
quired depth. By this means. i. e., is by re-
peated ploughing and shoyelling out,
depth of from fifteen to twenty inches may
be obtained, and of the proper width the
drain is to be. This much done, hitch the
two horses. one in front of the other tandem
fashion, to singe-coulter plough. with
which rip up the sub-soil and throw out
as before-repeating the operation until the
proper depth is had.
In finishing the bottom of the intended
drain, care should be taken to have it of
uniform smoothness throughout the entire
length, only sufficiently inclining towards
the mouth to cause the water to flow with
equal freedom through every part of the
drain; otherwise little depressions will be
left in the bottom of the drain, in which sed-
iment will accumulate to such an extent as
to obstruct the free passage of the water
and thus choke up thu drain and render it
useless.
The next thing then is to prepare the
. stone for constructing the drain, and which
after being hauled in piles all along the
side of the intended drain-should be broken
into pieces not larger than goose eggs, the
smaller ones to take their place in the bot
tom OF the drain and the larger ones to be
thrown in promiscuously until to within
foot or so of the surface, and, covering the
same with few leaves from the woods, to
fill the balance of the drain with the exca-
waited earth.
Where low places occur in a field, on
which water is inclined to stand so as to in
terfere with their cultivation, and for which
no outlet can be conveniently had by means
of drain, very good substitute will be
found by digging hole through the clay,
some three or four feet in diameter, filling
the same with stone to within few inches
of the top, and covering with leaves and
earth as above directed. By this means the
water will find ready outlet and perfect
drainage will be Observation-Disclosures Sun.
Wash for Fruit Trees.
A correspondent of the Fruit Recorder
writes as follows:
l notice in recent issue number of re-
cipes for killing the codling moth. / have
tried various remedies ON my orchard, some
of which have been suggested by scientific
men. l will now give you my experience
with them. My orchard consisted of trees
ranging from one to fifty years of age, and l
find the cooling moth ready for attack at any
age. Last year, when pruning, made
wash of my own, and tried it with good re-
c,,ltp rho fnl1
the wash: One quart of lime, such as is
used by the plasterers in "whitecoating;;"
one peck of leached wood ashes, two pecks
of cow manure, one quart of soft soap, and
one large tablespoonful of Paris green. 1
wet the mixture thoroughly, to make it like
paste, beating it thoroughly until it became
tough. l added twelve quarts of water, or
enough to give the trees another coating. 1
find, on the old trees SO washed, that the old
bark is dropping off and leaving the new
bark perfectly smooth. On all the trees |
have washed l see perfect improvement.