The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-01-30
Board of Agriculture.

A meeting of the Vermont Board of
Agriculture was held at Middlesex on
Tuesday and Wednesday, January Is
and 16. The first session was opened
at ten O'Clock, and the hall was we'll
filed at the opening. William B.
McElroy was made chairman of the
welcome by its former associate, Hon.
William Chaplin, who said that the best
welcome that could be given was
large attendance at these meetings and
an interested audience; that the inter-
ests of the town of Middlesex were al
most exclusively agricultural and that
the basis of the prosperity of the town
was its l 800 to 1000 cows, and the
measure of prosperity is the intelligence
with which these COWS are handled.
He welcomed the board in behalf of
the people of the town, believing that
from these meetings will come better
practices and increased interest in agri
culture, which must mean a larger
measure of prosperity for the people.
The forenoon session was devoted to
the consideration of tuberculosis by G.
M. Winslow. 1t was not found that
the disease had been prevalent in this
town and but little fear of it was enter
tanned by the farmers present.
In the afternoon, J. o. Sanford took
up the subject of roads, and the topic
proved of great interest, discussion be-
! ing continued until nearly five o'clock.
The position taken by Mr. Sanford on
this subject in urging towns to select
for commissioners the best business
men without reference to their capacity
for manual labor, and to give to our
highways constant, instead of Occa-
sional, supervision, met with general
approval
The evening was occupied by F. w.
Spaulding of Poultney with a familiar
talk on poultry and the conditions un.
J der which it may be made success.
He said it is to be the business of the
New England farmer to produce eggs;
| believes the greater profit is in that
line, and in supplying fresh eggs to the
eastern cities has less to fear from the
| plying meat. Following this talk, Mr..
Spear gave half-hour talk on dairy
| matters, urging the farmers to use
homegrown feeds and to grow more
and greater variety of feeds upon
their farms and to be obliged to buy
less. He believed that when feeds are
bought they should be of the nitro
genous class to balance the qualities
lacking in our farm-grown crops; did
not think it economical for the average
farmer to buy corn.
Wednesday forenoon was devoted to
the maple sugar industry and the after
noon to the experiment station farm
ing by Superintendent D. D. Howe.
Wednesday evening, Professor l.. r.
Jones gave lecture on plant diseases
and their remedies. He noted great
advance made in knowledge of plant
diseases in the past few years and clas-
sifed plant diseases under three gen.
eral heads % Physiological Diseases;
(2) Insect Diseases; (3) Fungons Dis
eases. In the past season the main
trouble had been with the first class,
and came from the dry weather. We
are able to exercise but little control
of surrounding conditions and can
therefore do little to protect ourselves
from injury in this direction. He de.
fined fungous diseases as those caused
by minute plant growths, and instanced
bread mould and scab upon apples as
illustrations. The Fameuse apple is
very subject TO scab, and this scab is
found also on the leaves and twigs of
the trees as we'll as on the apple. Bor-
deaux mixture is a remedy for this dis
ease, and to prevent the disease, spray
with preparation of blue vitriol-one
pound to fifteen gallons of water-and
later, when the leaves are out, with the
bordeaux mixture. When blossoms
have fallen, spray again, adding paris
green. Spray again about ten days
later. The coddling moth lays eggs in
blossom ends aud is killed by last two
applications. Where there is no scab,
spray with paris green-one pound to
200 gallons of water. In last seasons
work, value of Flemish Beauty pears
was doubled by four applications of
bordeaux mixture. In reference to
black knot, they should be removed
from trees at once by emitting them off.
With reference to potato diseases, said
that the two .mostlcommon insect pests
were the potato bug and flea beetle, the
former too well understood to need
speaking of; the latter is an insect
about the size of pin head and eats
holes in the potato leaf. These insects
appear early, then disappear and come
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