News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-05-25
FARM AND GARDEN.


new vigor and manliness.
FARM AND GARDEN.
The ONION SMUT.-A destructive pest
to the onion crop of some localities is in
the form of a fungus known as the onion
smut. This smut makes its appearance
while the onions are quite small, and if
it does not entirely destroy them, it
sadly appreciates 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 3" the
disease is in the ground" The question
of Kidding the soil of onion smut, says
DR.. Byron d. Halstead, in paper on
Fungi, incorporated in the Report of
the Connecticut Board of Agriculture,
resolves itself simply into this "How
kill the spores therein % Manuring the
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 a 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.
DIR. Halstead cautions every one who
buys seeds to bear this in mind, for a
little care in not taking seed from a
smutty locality may make thousands of
dollars difference in the great and grow
ing onion interest of the country.
REsEEDNG GRASS LAND.-A CORE
spondent of The NeaO England Farmer
writes that "many old fields Gre of late
being reseeded by turning over after
haying, narrowing down, and having
some fertilizer, either barnyard, COM
post or chemical, applied to their sur
face and worked in, and a 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 off,
doing the work very thoroughly with a
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. MIR. 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 PLAN.-R. s.
Cole, Anne Arundel County, Nd, a
practical market gardiner, reports his
plan of rotation: Corn land, planted
in peas, which, if the land be strong
enough or well MANFRED, may be fol-
lowed the same year by late crops of
corn, tomatoes 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 adj
hitting 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. Mr.. Cole advises cultivation
by horsepower whenever possible, and
thinks that Peruvian guano and bone
shred from the basis of the commercial
fertilizers should be used.
STIRRING THE SoIL.-Mr. Henry Ives
mentions, in The Farmers advocate,
that one test of good farming brought
out by last years exceptionally severe
drouth, was the superior crops of those
who kept right on STIRRING THE SOIL
even when all weeds had been killed,
and there seemed to be no more to con-
quer, and they were stirring soil that
was already open and loose. Ia one
field of corn of eight acres, only one
acre was hoed, as it was thought it
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 IT'S
bushels per acre, where those neglected
yielded but thirty to sixty.
FIGHTING THIsTIEs In our strong
soil the Canada thistle cannot lbe de-
stroyed by hoeing or cultivating. In a
portion of our strawberry beds we
fought them persistently with hoe and
cultivator, secured fair crop, and sup
posed we had conquered, but the next
season they appeared as thick as the
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 the
plant expended, but this method can
not be depenped upon, as it is often
without perceptlble effect. We have
found but one reliable method of extir-
patton, which is to plough thoroughly
early III spring, and as often thereafter
during the growing season as is neces-
sary to prevent the appearance of
single shoot above ground, say every
two weeks. Ii the roots are thus
smothered for one season (they cannot
breathe without leaves) they vii rot
and be converted into plant food, leay-
| ing numerous small drains through the
subsoil greatly to the benefit of the
land. Though this method is laborious,
who can doubt that it will prove profit
able, considering the long years of loss
and annoyance that must otherwise fol
low.-Ch0rleS Il. Green, Monroe Co.,
N. Y.
| CHICAGO MnK.-Ihe Evening Jour-
nal, of Chicago, says that the poor
quality of the milk retailed to house
| lroaoars hos orivan rico 70 on iDvaStiro