Connecticut western news., 1884-09-03
FARM AND GARDEN.

| - been careful to scrub them out once each year with boiling-hot salt water. If the bins are not all empty when thresh- ing time approaches, prepare those that are empty for the reception of grain, and transfer the old grain to these, and scald the bins just emptied. First, scrub the floor and sides with the boiling brine, being careful that it fills all the crevices. When this has well dried, prepare thick white-wash, and with it coat the entire interior of the bins, filling the cracks with it. The day before threshing, take an old broom and sweep off the thickest of the white. wash. Since adopting this plan we have had no pests in the granaries.
 If the mice have gnawed holes through the sides, tack pieces of sheet iron or tin over these, and place lath over the cracks, as the inclosed cracks will be inhabited by pests, very difficult to reach and destroy.
 The loss occasioned by pests is not measured by what they consume. Mice may not eat much, but they leave crumbs plentifuIly behind them. which detract from the appearance of the wheat and lower its price, when it is sent to market. Weevils may not de- stroy much grain, but many millers will not buy grain infested with them at any price.
 PREPARE FOR THE FARs.-Go to your fair, whether it be the State Fair, or that of the county, and by all means exhibit something. It will be safe for those, who propose to exhibit fruits and vege- tables at the coming fairs, to assume that no provision will be made for them and to prepare beforehand. Common store boxes, such as may be had at a very small cost, can each be converted into two or three trays or flats. These, however rough they may be, by lining with cheap, white paper, will serve for the display of fruits. If liued merely with moss or freshly cut grass, they will serve for showing vegetables. If the premium schedule calls for bushel or half bushel of potatoes or of apples, etc., these may be exhibited in recep- tacles made by cutting a half-barrei in two, and lining each tub thus made with white paper. Help decorate the "Floral Hall, 7" the place in which the products of the garden are usually shown. Young eyerereens are always welcome. Such trees, taken up from pastures or the edges of the woods, and set in nail-kegs with soil, will last as long as may be re- auired, and greatly add to the general effect of the display of vegetables.
 A LIQUID MANURE CABr.-A large part of the fertilizing elements of liquid manure go to waste, without provision is made for storing it and applying 1t to the soil. A brick-walled cistern holding several thousand gallons, can be built for about fifty dollars, and this will se cure constant supply of the best and quickest acting plant food. A cheap and substantial cart for spreading the liquid manure upon the land, is easily made. The box should be water-tight, provided with two taiI-boards. The outer one has several holes bored in it, through which the liquid passes when the inner board is raised for short distance. It is easy to make water-tight box out of tongued and grooved stuff, fitted to- gether with paint or tar. The box is hung upon bent iron axle, to bring it near the ground. Persons with large lawns may keep them luxuriant during midsummer drouths. by using such a cart. Liquid manure produces good effects upon vegetation at once, and needs therefore to be applied frequently and in small quantities. This is espe- cially true if the soil has an open texture without retentive power.
 FIGHT THE POTATO BEETLE TO THE LAsT.-The fecundity of the potato beetle is enormous. Some insects, that prey upon the farmers crops, are trou- blesome for only a few days or weeks, but this pest comes as soon as the potato tops are in sight, and, if unmolested, continues to devour and breed, until the vines have ceased to grow. Last year the beetles had abundant feed up to the close of the season. Farmers have learned to fight them with Paris Green and London Purple through all the early part of their growth, until they think the crop is secure. There is too often utter neglect of the crop in August and September, and the vines are pulled in harvest quite full of beetles and their slugs. Killing them with thumb and finger, or picking and burning, seemed to make little impression upon them. We do not take any stock in the idea advanced by lazy farmers, that this pest is to have its day, and die out in few years. Insects, like other creatures, follow the feed, and as long as we culti- vate pototoes, we shall have to fight the beetle. The Iet-alone policy is too ex- pensive to follow. The experience of this season should rub the doctrine into our bones, that the campaign lasts the whole summer. Every slug that is left to mature makes work for next year. If he is buried in the pile of green vines, he still feeds, natures, burrows, and rises again, and it is not "the resurrection of the just" If you would gain the victory over the legions of Doryphora, there is to be no discharge in your war fare.--American Agriculturist .for September.
 Long Search for ParsOn.