Connecticut western news., 1880-05-12
FARM AND GARDEN.
CORN CULTURE.

An early start with the corn crop is good point gained, and there is no doubt but that the use of special fertilizers in hill or drill is of great advantage provid- ed that always the soil outside contains sufficient food to carry the plant once started on to the perfection of it's growth. The best methods for inducing large yields of corn, consists in frsthar- rowing in 8 liberal amount of stable manure after the ground has been plowed, or, It chemical measures are employed, sowing these broadcast and narrowing in; then in hill or drill applying some concentrated fertilizer, as poultry ma- nure, Peruvian guano, superphosphate or ashes or plaster. The-seed, by the way, ought never to come in immediate con- tact with manures which are placed in the drills; covering of earth should sep- arate them. In soils where corn of pre- vious years growth has been liable to fall, want of salt, gypsum and ashes is indicated, and the application of these will assist greatly in strengthening the stalks and inducing them to keep an up- right position.
 | The fact that successful cultivators differ as regards the question of level and hill culture proves that both are right under certain conditions. On dry land level culture doubtless has it's advantages, while wet land produce best when the crop is planted in hills. Corn, for best results, requires cultivation from the time the seed germinates until it is in tassel. Handwork, where large areas are planted, is too costly, and horse cultiva-, tion has largely taken its place.
 The distance of planting this cereal >depends on the variety of seed large growing kinds require drills three and half to five feet apart, while small corn thrives well at 8 distance of three feet or less. The seed should not be covered too deep; two inches is all-suficient and more than enough in mellow ground. Under the present modes of cultivation suckering is generally dispensed with. Repeated experiment. has proven that suckers do not lessen the yield of the grain to any appreciable extent and that it hardly pays to remove them, except of course from such portions of field as seed is to be taken from.
 Tarring seedc to prevent birds from pulling the young plants up in order to obtain the kernels is practiced with good results by many farmers. This is, per haps, most easily accomplished by soak ing the seed in tar water and rolling in plaster to dry it. But little tar is re- quired for the purpose. One tablespoon ful to quart of corn in sufficient water to wet the corn is enou gh.
 CHANGING POTATO SEED.-So far as I am aware, says Professor Goodale, in Loaad and Home, no careful, systematic experiments have yet been made in this country for determining the advantage of Changing seed," as it is termed, or of planting only such as were grown on a heavy loam, and in a cool climate-say either in Northern New England, or in localities 1000 feet to 2,000 feet above sea level. My own observations and ex- periments lead me to believe that this advantage is very great, and I am satis- fled that the New Jersey farmer, for ex- ample, will add at least one-third to his product by planting Maine-gr seed.
 SULPHUR FOR ANIMALS. taken in- formally with their food, sulphur will al- most invariably keep all kinds of animals free from lice. We have made prac-
 tice for years past of giving heaping
 teaspoonful three times week in the , feed of each of our COWS, and the same quantity to about every ten hens in oul flock, and they have never been troubled with lice in them. It may be given 1T the same proportion as to size when re- , quired in the food of poultry, pigs anc
 sheep. Sulphur is mild cathartic wher required for this purpose, and in small
 doses seems to have general beneficial effect on the animal system, something f. like salt, though, of course, not of tha'
 nature.
 , PRESERVING SHINGLES.-Crude petro leum is an excellent preservative of pine
 shingles, causing them to become of the
 character of cedar or cypress. But the petroleum will flavor the water that runs from a roof so prepared for more than {
 year. To steep the shingles in lime water renders the vegetable albumen in , soluble, and so makes them more dura
 ble The lime water is soon washed out and after that the water is unchanged, APPLE AND PEACH TREE BoRER. w use wash of lime, sulphur, soap, ane carbolic acid, colored with lamp-blacl and red mineral paint. The first'wasl
 is applied in May and the trees are after F wards washed as they seem to need 1t ! Placing tarred, oiled or painted paper O. . paste-board about the stem, and othe remedies are advocated by many, bu
 they are of doubtful value, ali thing Q considered The peach grub works Il the inner bark mostly, just at or littl 2 above or below the surface of the ground f Its presence is indicated by gummy ex udations and it may easily be traced an' II killed with the point of knife. An or
 chard examined in this way in the spring , and summer will not suffer seriously iron n this cause. ..-.. >. CU1r1vArNG ORCHARDS W. Gray ,- in his report for Orleans county, N: Y.
 to the Western New York Horticultura
 Society, furnished some interesting fact on the management of orchards. On 's belonging to s. Bragg, put in eightee z r years ago, bore eight barrels the fit l' year, twenty the next, and since then a 'e average of eighty-fve barrels annually