The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-23
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mer season millions of little clods made from the crust that they have gone through. These little clods are very in- furious. but if mashed into dust are very helpful to the crop. An inch, more or | less, of dust will prevent the evapora- ton of water during hot. dry spells, and | Tn this way very greatly increase the | yield of the different crops. The hotter and dryer the weather, the more rapid | the evaporation, and the greater the | flow of water brought up by capillary attraction. If the top of the soil is left roughly broken or covered with crust. this evaporation does very great dam age. Hence. any device which pulverizes the surface and keeps the moisture where 1t is needed will greatly increase the yield of the crop. The dashboard is such | device
 The dust-board is simply a piece of plank. board or scantling, attached to the blow, harrow or cultivator. In such way as to make the dust-blanket above | described.
 The little springs of iron or | steel are attached to the stock with a couple of small bolts, and the { board to the other ends in the same way, so as to press the lower edge Of the. board against the soil sufficiently to crush the little clods made by the blow in front. This board can be cut of any | desired length to suit the width of the rows in which 1t is being used.
 Another method Is to punch hole in | each of the scrape wing. and take piece of 2x4 scantling. little longer | than the scrape is wide, bore a hole near | each end, and tie to the scrape with two | pieces of wire. With the cultivator or harrow, a piece of scantling attached to | the two hinder teeth makes a very | good dashboard.
 | If properly adjusted, the dust-board will leave the middle level and very fine- | ly pulverized. You can have them wide enough to cover the whole row at one | time, or you can go two or three times to | the row just as with any blow. The boards are useful in blowing all kinds | of crops in dry weather. We have l known corn to make a good crop where | the dashboard was used, and a failure | in the same farm where 1t was not | used, there being no other difference in the cultivation. It Is safe to say that the dashboard will increase the yield from $2500 to, $10O00 per horse the aver | age summer. One important point Is to have the
 board close up to the blow, so as not
 to have the board get in the way of the feet of the plowman. We hope we have | made this so plain that all our readers
  use of the dashboard. They are extreme l iy valuable to truckers, and should be used Tn the cultivation of all vegetables 1 We have seen yellow and wilted corn
 change its color in a night after the use of the dashboard, without any rain. It would be good idea for enterpris- ing implement dealers to keep lot of them on hand for their customers.
 With the weeders and dust-boards. cul- tivation is made very simple. effective | and cheap.-Southern Cultivator.
 Two Plum WeevfIs.
 Both the plum curculio and plum gouger do serious injury to young
 plums wherever that fruit is grown in Texas. With the migration Of the
 Mexican boil weevil many people in To- calities where that insect has not pre- viously occurred have mistaken these two plum weevils for it, and conse-
 quently we have had numerous reports
 in the daily press and many specimens
 sent to this office of supposed cotton
 boil weevils breeding in plums. Most
 of this misunderstanding is due to a
 comparison of the grubs or larvae
 within the plums with those of the boil
 weevil. These are very similar and
 only an entomologist would be able to distinguish them away from the food
 plant. But if the adult weevils are
 neared, those in plums are seen to be quite different from the cotton boil
 weevil if carefully examined. though
 the plum gouger is nearly related to
 1t and bears quite a close resemblance. The plum curculio is probably the
 most generally injurious of all plum
 inspects. It is a native insect and oc-
 CUTS commonly east of the Rocky Mountains.
 The adult weevil is about one-fifth
 of an inch In length, of a dark brown color, marked with spots of white.
 ochre-yellow and black. It may be
 readily distinguished from the plum
 gouger and most other weevils by the
 two prominent black tubercles or
 humps on the wing covers. one on eith-
 CT side of the median line; behind these
 is a band of dull yellow and white.
 The wing covers are also promptly
 ridged lengthwise When disturbed
 the curculio. like most weevils. has a
 habit of drawing up its legs. bending
 its snout on It's breast. and feigning
 death or sulking, dropping to the
 ground. It is then very dificult to dis
 tinguish from a bit of bark or earth, particularly If lying upon them.
 The beetles hibernate over winter in
 all sorts of rubbish, leaves, loose bark.
 etc, in or near the orchard. Early in
 the spring they appear on the trees
 ana reed on the expanding buds, green tips and young foliage As soon as the young plums reach the size of
 small marbles they commence to lay
 eggs in them.
 The female makes a hole in the plum
 with the small mouthparts at the end
 of the snout, sufficiently large for the
 egg. Turning around she drops an
 egg in this opening, which is then
 thrust to the bottom with the snout.
 Around this incision is now made a
 crescent shaped cut, forming & flap
 made to deaden the tissue of the fruit and delay its rapid growth. which
 might otherwise injure the delicate egg. From this characteristic crescent
 shaped scar, by which the presence of this insect in an orchard may always be recognized, it has received the pop
 uiar name of Little Turk. The eggs
 are oval, pearly white, and about three
 one-hundredths inch long. Each fe-
 male deposits from five to ten a day and from fifty to one hundred all to-
 gether, so that egg laying continues
 for some time. single fruit will of
 ten be found with several egg scars.
 The egg matches in few days into a small white grub which at once bores into the fruit until 1t reaches the stone. It never enters the stone like the plum gouger It becomes a full grown in from three to five weeks. It is then about four -tenths of an inch long, glis- tening white, footless and with a brown head. The injury of the larva
 Ag,n zR xNIR .