Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-06-09
AGRICULTURAL.

nOIS6S legs D6lON the Knee anu nOCk-
A corn broom is best, since it takes out
the dirt and does not hurt the horse.
The codling moth is a nighthyer.
Orchadists have frequently built fires
in their orchards at night during the
season when the moths are Matching
and flying.
In nutritious properties the wet po-
tato excells. Weight for weight, it con-
tains more than double the quantity of
starch and sugar that are found in Irish
potatoes.
The sugar beet forms starch in its
leaves, but in the leaf stalk this is con-
verted into grape sugar, and into cane
sugar in the thick top root in which it
is stored up.
Algerian wheat planted in Bohemia
and Austria is said to give very salts
factory results, yielding more largely
tnan other varieties. 1t is hard va
riety, and yields almost twenty-five
bushels per acre.
Dalrymple, the great wheat farmer,
of Dakoka, has sold $4,000 worth of
his land to George Howe, of Bradford,
Pa. Dalrymple found it necessary to
decrease his acreage in order to farm it
effectually.
To make a cement for stoves take
iron filings and mix to about the con-
sistency of putty for glazing with white
lead AID linseed oil. Fill in the joints
as securely as possible when the stove
is cold, and let it stand day or two be-
fore using.
By growing deeply-rooted crops as
part of rotation, the subsoil is made
TO contribute to the general fertility.
Shallow-rooted crops, on the other
hand, have generally special faculty
for appropriating food accumulated at
| the surface.
The prices for Jersey cattle at the
public sales are equaling those for
shOrtharns. At the late sales in New
York over go head were sold; four
teen animals brought 81 600 and up
ward each, the highest price for COW
being 81 800.
1t is a good idea to wrap the trunks
| of apple trees with burlap sacks. and
to examine the wrappings every few
days to ascertain if any of the grubs or
worms of the coddling moth have
found heir way into them, that they
may be destroyed.
In selecting paints for out-ofdoor
work, the lighter colors should be pre-
ferred in point of durability, though at
present fashion dictates the darker
tints. The dark colors absorb the suns
rays and occasion earlier decay of the
material painted.
T@e secret Of raising winter squashes
is to plant them late. When maggots
get into the vines the only way to save
the crop is to cover the vine about six
inches deep with earth. Burying the
worm kills it, and does not hurt the
vines. The crescent strawberry is the
best variety for all purposes. The
way to get rich by farming is to keep
down the weeds and use plenty of ma
nure.
Farm manures contain all, while
commercial fertilizers may contain
only a portion of the ingredients which
plants use for food. But If a farmer
were to find il profitable to apply large
quantities Of phosphates to his fields,
as is often the case, he would prooaly
secure the material more cheapiy by
purchasing a suPerphosphate or bone
meal, than by getting horse manure
from the city stables at large expenses.
After trial of many years practi-
cal gardener says he finds the following
method Of raising peas in small gar
dens the most profitable and satisfac-
tory: A warm, sheltered situation is
selected, and trenches are dug about
] J feet wide and 3 feet apart. The bot
tom is filled with old manure, the lat
ter being covered with loan. The soil
being light, he then sows the peas and
covers them SIX inches deep with soil.
After the first hoeing the sticks are in
serted for their support. The manure
imparts great vigor to the plants, the
depth of covering prevents the effects of
drouth, ard the bed furnishes peas for
nearly month
Charcoal is not a fertilizer 1t is
almost indestructible, and wholly in
soluble in water. 1t is Of great value
as dlslnfectant and deodorizer, absorb
ing many times its own bulk of am
moniacal gas, and acts as a storehouse
of ammonia and moisture, giving them
out rs needed by plants. Its mechan-
zeal action is to tighten the soil, and it
tends 70 purify it and keep it sweet.
Plants take their carbon from the air
by their leaves and not from the earth.
Tobacco growers have a safe way of
printing their rows by sowing ferti-
lIzer broadcast and then gathering the
earth into Il fiattened ridge. The same
preparation would not suit strawber-
ry planter SO well, for he likes his mel
low ground quite flat for planting, but
such a fertile ridge might be an "ele-
CANT fix for transplanting beets and
turnlps or cabbage Tobacco planters
generally stick their plants so low that
the weedy ride is mostly drawn away
ut the first hand-dressing.
A table just completed by the Indi-
ara Bureau Of Statistics, with a view
10 ascertaining the benefits to be de-
rived from draining, shows that land
which yielded an average of nine and
one-half bushels of wheat per acre for
five years, before draining, yielded
nineteen and quarter bushels for five
years, after being drained. With corn
the increase was form thirty-one TO
seventy-four bushels. Daring the same
period the number of cases of malarial
sickness diminished from 1,S40 to 400
cases after draining.
The current ideas of the mutility of
nitrogen IN 4 commercial fertilizer re-
ceiyes 4 sudden check when we see
the places in grass where urine was
dropped this spring, or last fall, stick
ing up in luxuriant verdure from spaces
that were literally dressed last sum-
mer with a popular commercial man
ure- The fact is, l guess, that we
needn't buy nitrogen for sandy land
with the expectation Of its showing for
more than one season, unless, possibly,
4 plenty Of humus in the ground may
keep some of the nitrogen over.
The ehineh bug is little less than
one-fourth of an inch in length, little
less than half as wide as it is long,
rounded on the under side and fat
above, Of 4 coal-black color, with white
wings, which was triangular black dot
on the outer margins. The mouth is
prolonged into slender, norney, joint
ed beak, usually turned under the
breast when not in use. With this
beak it punctures the back, stems and
leaves of plants, and sucks out their
iuiceS Its capacity for iniury lies not