Connecticut western news., 1882-05-10
FARM AND GARDEN.

THE ONION SMUT.-A destructive pest to the onion crop of some localities is in the form of fungus known as the onion smut. This smut makes it's appearance while the onions are quite small, and if it sdoes not entirely destroy them, it sadly depreciates their value. When the smut is allowed to perfect itself the soil becomes more or less filled with the spores, and gives truth to the express sion among onion growers that "the disease is in the ground" The question of ridding the soil of onion smut, says Dr. Byron D. Halstead, in paper on Fungi, incorporated in the Report of 1 the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, resolves itself simply into this: "How
 kill the spores therein ?" Maturing the l land and giving it high culture will not in his opinion do it, although healthy plants are better able to withstand its attacks. The best way to treat onion fields that have been smutted, according to the authority in question, is to
 change the crop. Leave young onions
 on the land for term of years sufficient
 to exhaust the vitality of the dormant
 smut spores in the soil. Grow other
 crops and in the course of four or five
 years the smut spores will have died.
 Every precaution should be taken that the limits of this pest be not extended.
 Dr. Halstead cautions every one who
 buys seeds to bear this in mind, for a
 little care in not taking seed from
 smutty locality may make thousands of
 dollars difference in the great and grow | ing onion interest of the country.
 l REsEEDMa GRASS LAND.-A corre- | spondent of The Nea0 Eaagla,ad Farmea'
 writes that "many old fields are of late
 being reseeded by turning over after having, narrowing down, and having
 some fertilizer, either barnyard, con- post or chemical, applied to their sur
 face and worked in, and liberal seed
 ing of grass seed" And he might have
 added that many fields are reseeded by
 merely narrowing the stubble immedi-
 ately after the hay has been taken of,
 doing the work very thoroughly with
 sharp-toothed harrow, and then sowing
 the seeds for grass, narrowing lightly to
 cover them, and following with roller
 to make all smooth. A top-dressing of
 manure will help wonderfully. In this
 way the grass roots that are yet in the
 land are saved, as but part will be de-
 stroyed in narrowing. MT. Geddes
 mentions that this spring he has sown
 on piece of land that was moved last year, but not satisfactorily seeded,
 clover and timothy and narrowed the
 ground to cover this new seeding and
 help out the partial catch of the old.
 A MARYLAND FARMERS P1AN.-R. s.
 Cole, Anne Arundel County, Md, a
 practical market gardiner, reports his
 plan of rotation: Corn land, planted
 in peas, which, if the land be strong
 enough or we'll manured, may be fol-
 lowed the same year by late crops of
 corn, tomato es or cabbage, among
 which kale may be sown at the last
 working. If the latter is omitted the
 land may be occupied by oats or straw
 berries the following spring, thus ad-
 mitting of being turfed. Should the
 land be light and it be desirable to allow ] the peas to occupy the land through
 the summer, it may be planted the fol- lowing spring in cantaloupes, tomatoes or corn. MT. Cole advises cultivation by horse-power whenever possible, and thinks that Peruvian guano and bone
 shred from the basis of the commercial fertilizers should be used.
 STIRRING THE So1L.-Mr. Henry Ives
 mentions, in 1he Farm,ers' Advocate, that one test of good farming brought out by last years exceptionally severe dfonth, was the superior crops of those who kept right on STIRRING THE sou even when all weeds had been killed and there seemed to be no more to ron. ,, quer. and they were stirring soil that was already open and loose. In one field of corn of eight acres, only one . acre was hood. as it was thought il |, could do no good in such extreme drouth. That acre returned about as much as all the other seven. Potatoes that were titled well gave, 125 to 17t bushels per acre, where those neglected yielded but thirty to sixty,
 FIGHTING THIsTLEs In our strone
 soil the Canada thistle cannot be de
 stroyed by hoeing or cultivating. In <. 3 portion of our strawberry beds W, : fought them consistently with hoe ane ctltivator, secured fair crop, and SUD posed we had eenduated, but the nex } season they appeared as thick as tn, frogs of Egypt. We have destroyed nine-tenths of them by moving just be fore blossoming, when the stem was hol low, and much of the, vitality of thu plant exbended, Ert tihlis method can B not be depenped upon, as it is ofte1 3 without perceptible effect. We have r found but one reliable method of extir , patton, which is to plough thoroughly
 early in spring, and as often thereafte1 a during the growing season as is neces 9 sary to prevent the appearanse ef { c ssngle shoot above ground, say ever, r two weeks. If the roots are thu 8 smothered for one season (they canno 7 breathe without leaves) they will ro 7 and be converted into plant food, leav @ ing numerous small drains through the 9 subsoil greatly to the benefit of tn, q land. Though this method is laborious, who can doubt that it will prove profit