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The Entomologist.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.j No. 32---THE ASPARAGUS BEETLE.

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The asparagus is justly characterised as one of the oldest and most delicate of culinary vegetables, no less praised in ancient Rome, by Pliny, Cato and other writers, than at the present day." (Wood's Botany.) This plant grows wild in the maritime districts of the middle and southern parts of Europe, and there, in its native locality, are several kinds of insects which feed upon it, and which are pests to the gardeners of those countries. Much the most common and hence the most destructive of these insects is known by the name of the Asparagus Beetle. Of the group or genus Asparagus, some two dozen species are known to botanists. About half of these are found in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope; the rest occur in southern Europe and the East Indies.

Being thus numerous and widely diffused upon the Eastern continent, it is rather remarkable that no plant of the asparagus kind is found in any part of America. And consequently, we have no insects here which feed on plants of this nature. Therefore, when the garden asparagus was brought here from Europe, it was able to grow with us without injury or molestation from insect enemies. It is now in univeral cultivation, everywhere through the United States, north and south. Yet neither of the insects which depredate upon it in Europe has ever been met with in this country, nor do any of our American insects attack it. Thus it has been our happy lot to grow this one valuable plant, wholly free from the annoyance of seeing it marred and mutilated by those insect depredators which give us so much vexation and trouble with about every other kind of vegetation which we attempt to

cultivate.

But an insect devouring the asparagus has at length made its appearance on our shores. DANIEL K. YOUNGS, of the Queens County Agricultural Society, in a letter to the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, dated Matinecock, June 16th, says:

"With this I send some insects which have been eating the asparagus since the middle of May, and continue at this time in such num bers as to destroy in some localities nearly half the crop. Soon after the bugs made their appearance, they commenced depositing eggs upon the young shoots. These eggs in a short time hatch out a dark colored worm, which, as well as the parent bug. lives entirely upon the young shoots, mutilating and in most cases destroying them. As this is the first insect that has injured our asparagus, we are anxious to know what it is. *** I hope you will give the insect your attention, as IT THREATENS TO DESTROY THIS VALUABLE LONG ISLAND . CROP."

This remittance, forwarded from Albany, reached me June 24th. In the box, with slips of asparagus which had become moldy and semi-putrid, I found a dead beetle, three living larvæ, and several black grains which the microscope showed to be minute larvæ which had hatched from eggs which had been inclosed in the box and had perished. The three large larvæ, placed on a fresh slip of asparagus inserted in a vial of water upon my table, fed thereon with evident relish, until on the morning of June 30th they had disappeared-indicating that they do not fasten themselves to the plant to become pupa, but leave it and enter the earth-whicb in this instance, being within doors, they would perish before they would find.

The beetle in the box, on a moment's inspection, was found to be the noted Asparagus beetle of Europe. It is a species so peculiarly and plainly marked that any one accustomed to examining insects will not be liable to mis

take it. But that the reader may be more fully assured that my judgment upon this important point is correct, I may state that I have in my hands specimens of the European Asparagus beetle, received from Mr. Westwood, London, and also from Andrew Murray, W. S., Edinburgh, which specimens enable me to be positive that the Long Island insect is the same.

I will now present a brief history of this insect, with such a description of the beetle and its larva as will suffice to enable any one to clearly identify them when found upon the plant they inhabit.

The Asparagus beetle is scientifically named Crioceris Asparagi, its specific name having been given it by Linnæus a little over a hundred years ago. The generic name, Crioceris, was suggested by the horns or antennæ of some of the insects of this group, which have some resemblance to a braid of hair or a twisted' cord. They pertain to the order COLEOPTERA and the family CRIOCERIDE. Of this genus, Crioceris, we have several species inhabiting the United States. One which the reader will be most apt to know, is the Three-lined leaf beetle, (C. trilineata,) a common insect upon potato vines, and much resembling the yellow striped bug upon cucumbers, but differing in not having the head black.

The Asparagus beetle closely resembles this of the potato in its form and size, but not at all in its colors. In the annexed cut at a, it is represented its natural size, its length being a quarter of an inch or a little less. It is a beautiful insect, of a shining blue-black color, with the thorax bright tawny red, and on each wing cover are three lemon-yellow spots placed in a row running lengthwise. The wing covers are further ornamented with an orangeyellow border upon their outer sides, and the middle and hind spots have their outer ends united with this border. The under side, the legs and antennæ, are black. The insect varies in having the spots on its wing covers sometimes larger, whereby the anterior and middle spots become united togther. On the thorax, too, there are usually two small black spots, which are sometimes larger and more or less completely united into a single large spot.

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a. The beetle, natural size. b. Its eggs. c. Its eggs magnified. d. The young larva. e. The larva full grown. f. Full grown larva magnified.

Mr. Westwood, in his Modern Classification of Insects, from which work the figures of the above cut are copied, informs us (vol. i, p. 374) that these insects grow up and complete their transformations in a few weeks. The eggs (b and c) are oblong oval, and are placed on the plant by the end of another. one of their ends, one egg being sometimes attached at

The worms or larvæ which hatch from these eggs (see cut, d, e, and f,) are of a dull ash gray or olive color, often with a blackish stripe along the middle of the back. They are soft and of a flesh-like consistency, about three the body much wrinkled transversely. The head is black times as long as thick, thickest back of the middle, with and shining, and the neck, which is thicker than the head, has two shining black spots above. Three pairs of legs are placed anteriorly upon the breast, and are of the same shining black color with the head. As will be seen when it is crawling, the worm clings also with the tip end of its body, and all along the under side may then be seen two rows of small tubercles slightly projecting from the sur

face, which also serve as prolegs; and above these, on each side is a row of elevated shining dots like warts, above which the breathing pores appear like a row of minute black dots. It moves very slowly, and when menaced with danger, a black fluid comes from its mouth. When it is done feeding, I suppose that, like other species of Crioceris, it crawls into the earth, where it lies dormant during its pupa state, which in summer probably lasts ten or twelve days, when it changes into a beetle, and comes out to feed again upon the asparagus and deposit its eggs. Those larvæ which descend into the earth at the close of the season, probably remain there in their pupa state through the winter, and give out the first beetles which make their appearance the following year. We come next to consider how we are to combat this enemy that has now invaded us, and protect our asparagus from ruin.

In Europe they have had long and ample experience on this subject. Every remedy that can be thought of, every protective expedient which human ingenuity can devise, has probably at one time or another been there resorted to, and its efficacy fully tested. And as the result of the efforts and observations of the gardeners of the different countries of Europe from time immemorial, we are told there is one remedial measure which is effectual, and one only. It is given to us in a single line of Kollar's Treatise, as in other publications, that "the only means of destroying these insects is picking off and killing the beetles and their larvæ by hand."

dens, it would be an easy matter to keep it thus cut down.
But this plant is so fully naturalized that in many places
in the neighborhood of New-York I suppose it occurs wild
in the field and upon the rocky shores of the sea. Every
occupant of the land, however, or the children in his
family, will probably know every place in his grounds
where this plant, so peculiar in its structure, is growing
Now if these wild plants be cut in the manner stated, say in
the first week in June next year, and if with the new shoots
which will start up, this operation be repeated every fort-
night during two or three months, none of these insects
will remain there. And by simultaneously treating the
asparagus in the gardens either in the same manner, or
destroying the beetles, their eggs and larva, by repeated
hand-pickings upon all the plants which are allowed to
grow, I am confident this insect can be utterly extermina-
ted. I earnestly commend this subject to the considera-
tion of the Horticultural and Agricultural Societies of New-
York and its vicinity. Let those Societies co-operate with
each other, ascertain how far this insect has now extend-
ed itself, appoint a committee in every town where it is
present, and select an efficient man in each school dis-
trict to see that the occupant of every plot of ground on
which asparagus grows, is next summer on the alert to
to combat and subdue this insect, and they can assuredly
rid our country of this impending calamity.
East Greenwich, July 18, 1862.

ASA FITCH.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.]

Frost.

Quercus, on p. 369, last vol., wishes some explanation of my manner of wiring fence stakes. The following figures will illustrate.

Those who see these insects over-running their aspara- Wiring Fence Stakes---Preventing Heaving by gus as they do, perhaps in thousands, will be inclined to regard it as a hopeless undertaking, an endless task, to pick off and destroy every individual of the vast multitude. Reader, let me assure you, as I can from my own experience in this remedy of hand-picking-you will find the labor far lighter and less irksome than you suppose. When this work is resolutely entered upon, you will find that you soon acquire a love of it. It ceases to be a labor, it becomes a pastime; so much so that when the last one of these vermin is destroyed, it will be with a feeling akin to regret, that, on looking over the plants, you find there is no more of this work for you to do.

B

C

And must we now have this insect to combat, this task to repeat, year after year, we and our children after us, through all coming time? The inquiry is certainly a most important one. The asparagus was brought to this country no doubt, about the time that the first European settlers emigrated hither. For upwards of two centuries, A. Loop partly made on the end of coil, being drawn therefore, it has been growing upon this continent wholly to its place before cutting off. B. finished loop. C. tool unmolested by insects. How has this, its worst enemy, used in making loop-six inches long, one-half inch wide happened to follow it here now, at this late day? Proba- and three-sixteenths of an inch thick, with a hole in each bly some enterprising nurseryman or gardener in receiv-end suited to the size of the wire, and one end turned at ing from his European correspondent a choice variety of right angles at its broadest side. A pair of pincers is this plant, in the pot of earth in which the roots were necessary to hold the loop while coiling the end back. transmitted, has unfortunately had some of the pupæ of While on the subject of fences, I would state some exthese insects lurking, from which both male and female periments I have made in making board fence. Clay beetles have hatched. Certain it is, that some such con- soils are very apt to raise the posts out in the spring when tingency has occurred to bring this insect here as had not the ground is frozen hard the preceding winter. I have occurred for two hundred years before, and might not oc- adopted the following plan, which in a measure obviates cur again for a hundred years to come. Having now ob- that difficulty. I set my posts two feet or more in the tained a foothold, it will undoubtedly multiply and extend ground, then plow on both sides three furrows or more, itself everywhere over our country. Indeed there is the which will raise the earth six inches on the line of the strongest probability that, like so many other insects when posts. Trim up the furrows around the posts, and clean newly imported, this also will become vastly more nume-out the ditches made by plowing. These ditches, if there rous and destructive in this country than it has ever been is descent enough in land, will carry off the water and known to be in its native haunts; and that the asparagus, prevent it settling around the posts, and remove the cause hitherto so cleanly and inviting, we shall henceforth know of the frost heaving them. I use four boards seven inchonly as being worm-eaten, filthy, and repulsive. es wide, one inch thick, and sixteen feet long, for a But is it not possible to exterminate this insect, and not length. I put them on with twelve-penny nails for cedar allow it to extend itself and become permanently estab-posts, after being well annealed. I so space it, that when lished in our land? I think it is. I suppose this insect done it is just four feet from under edge of bottom board is at present limited to a comparatively small district in to the top edge of the top board, and any animal that you the vicinity of the city of New-York. As it grows to ma- can't control by such a fence, had better be sent to the turity in a few weeks, and can subsist upon no other vege- shambles. tation but the asparagus, it is evident that by keeping this I have taken old fence badly hove out with the frost, plant cut down to the surface of the earth for a couple and served it as above described, and made it quite subof months in summer, all the insects must perish for want stantial-which otherwise would have to have been built of food. If no asparagus was growing except in the gar-over. HIRAM WALKER. Mexico, N. Y.

SHADE TREES.

As far back as our memory runs, there has been more or less effort at improving country places by the culture of pleasant shades around dwellings and by the way-side. Many dwellings have been beautifully embowered with pleasant groves, and many graceful avenues now open their vista of trees planted by the hand of man. Tall, wide spreading, graceful old trees, now the admiration and comfort of all who find a place beneath their shadow, the pride of the neighborhood they adorn, have many of these once sapling denizens of the forest now become.

Within the last half century there have been enough trees set in our New-England, to have shaded every dwelling, and transformed each of our numerous highways into a beautiful avenue. In one instance, several years since, we recollect a few individuals caused trees to be planted by the way-side, over a distance of nearly three

miles. Now there is not a half dozen of these trees re

maining. Most of them perished the first season, and their failure killed the ardor that set them out or their places would have been supplied. In another instance of more recent occurrence, the members of an enterprising firm bought a large tract of land, with a long line of highway through it. With a zeal worthy of the noble cause, before a year had passed after the purchase was made, two rows of maples were planted by the way-side through their territory. Now scarcely one remains to reward them for the labor so honorably performed. Here are two instances of failure in a catalogue that might be extended almost indefinitely.

one of them as it grew, and for very limberness the wind times so far it would almost brush the ground. This top would blow and twist the top in every direction, somemust be cut off to prevent this sacrilege of winds, and here, instead of your tree, you take a mutilation, a mere stump, to begin with. Then, these trees have grown in Their fibre is open, they are more porous, and the bark the woods, well shaded from wind, storm and sunshine. thinner and more tender than is the case with trees which have been exposed to the changes of time and season. This change from the forest to the open field tree, all comes to them at once-only they suffer the additional disadvantages of being no longer trees but stumps, with perhaps here and there a small branch shooting from their sides.

It is very reasonable to suppose that the effect of this change of locality, from shady woodlands to a position where hot, scorching sunbeams fall upon them, has a very killing influence. The bark, open and very porous, is scorched, contracts and dies. By the drying up of the bark the wood suffers and contracts, the avenues of life which nature prepared for the tree in its first home, contracts so that the life fluid is checked in its channels, and this also tends to decay.

The roots are an important part of the tree, yet how

carelessly they are handled in removal! How small a pro-
portion of the whole is usually taken up in the removal
of trees, and the very portion is left in the ground, (to
wit, the fibres or feeders, always most numerous at the
extreme parts of the roots,) most necessary to the pros-
perity of the tree; very many losses have no doubt arisen
from neglect in this matter. Once, in years gone by, we
stood with a friend admiring some beautiful elms, when
he remarked that he sent an Irish laborer to take some
trees to set in his yard, and that the laborer returned with
those trees, small and miserably scrawny looking things
He asked him why he brought such
as he ever saw.
looking things to set in his yard. Oh, said the laborer,

they have good roots, and if a tree has good roots, the

top will make itself. These trees then showed and now show, that with good roots, the top and trunk too will find ample provision for their success.

The question arises, why did not these trees live and grow? They were healthy looking trees. None but the best were taken up-straight smooth barked trees. They were set in good land. Tall grain and thick grass was growing just over the wall from their new home. The soil must, surely be good. Were not the trees in fault for dying out? We have thought well on the question, and the conclusion we reach is-first, that trees are beings. They exist, grow, reach maturity-decay commences, proceeds in its work, and eventually they die. Second-they are organized beings, having not only all the organs necessary to continue life until they reach maturity, but to Another cause of failure in tree planting has probably promote growth, protect them from disease and all the casualties to which they may be liable. They have roots arisen from the want of adaptatation of the soil to the Each species and variety of the tree has to secure their position, and these roots have fibres to tree set in it. draw sustenance from the earth. Nature gives them in the its favorite soil, as every one conversant with the domains very form and quantities they need. The top or trunk, of Sylva must have observed. The maple has been the in the forest, shoots forth in a tall mast-like form, having universal favorite; so the maple has been transplanted but few branches until it rises above the surrounding everywhere and under all circumstances, when in very trees. Around the margin of woods, and in open lands, many cases, if some other species had been introduced, trees take stronger roots, and are more thickly beset success would have been more certain. The elm will sucwith branches. These new fixtures become necessaryceed where the maple will fail. The sugar maple is most the roots to give a firm protection from the influence of at home in a dry soil. The elm is more accommodating winds the branches to shield from storms and the burn-in adapting itself to other localities. ing rays of summer's sun. So nature has not only endow ed them with organs of life and growth, but has given them power by which, under ordinary circumstances, they can increase the number and power of some of those organs for self-preservation.

Now the conclusion of the matter touching these fail. úres, as we understand it, lies in the fact that most, probably nearly all the trees, that have been transplanted and lost, were taken from the forest, where their organs had been adapted to forest circumstances. As they grew in the old wood lot, they grew up tall and withy. Set out

It is often found on

the margin of rivers and borders of swamps. The great elm of Pittsfield is in a gravelly soil,

Trees will more readily bear removing from a moist or even a wet soil, to a dry one, than from a dry to a moist

one.

In conclusion, in our experience in tree planting we have found that trees taken from open lands have a preference over those taken from the forest, which cannot be overrated; but as our fields have but few if any trees for transplanting, we must resort to the woodlands for a supply, where, in making a first choice, we would select them

from as exposed a situation as possible. If no exposed place can be found, where they can aquire hardiness, our next effort would be to obtain short trees, though they might be quite young.

It must have been noticed how well a seedling tree, which has sprung up by the fence will grow. Let such a one spring up, and take a tree of ten summer's growth and set it near by. If it is taken up as trees too often are, and the top or main stalk cut off, in fifteen years the seedling will be the largest and most symmetrical tree-even if the large tree lives, which is doubtful.

Small trees are preferable for general transplanting for the reason that you obtain more roots in proportion to the size of the tree, and what is better, the necessity of amputating trunk and branch will not exist. We are aware that this is contrary to general practice, and therefore we run against public opinion, which, when it exists against facts, is of no consequence. We speak from our own experience, and for the encouragement of those who have been unsuccessful in tree planting. Richmond, July, 29, 1682.

WM. BACON.

A COLUMN FROM ALDERMAN MECHI. In taking up our copy of Alderman MECHI's "How to Farm Profitably," we discover sundry little paragraphs marked for quotation a long time ago, but for which we have never yet found the space. They contain a great deal of truth, if they are written by a city farmer:

The history of prejudice [in agriculture as elsewhere] has always been the same, viz., resistance to innovation and disbelief of progress; but that is no justification of despair; on the contrary, the evidence of all time shows that we must fight manfully against the old enemy, and that we shall overcome him by degrees.

-The want of drainage on clays is ruinous.

The quantity of meat made on a farm per acre determines the quantity of grain grown. It has often been remarked that amidst miserable land and wretched farming the laborer's cottage garden is like an oasis, but it receives, independently of deeper cultivation, 32 times the farmer's quantity of manure, for he knows that on his eighth of an acre of land he cannot expect a crop unless he keeps a pig to make manure.

There are certain fixed expenses on land, whether we grow a large crop or a poor one; rent, tithe, taxes, manual and horse labor, and seed, become a very heavy percentage of charge on a minimum crop, whilst on a maximum one the expenses are proportionately diminished.

- On well laid out land, with few fences, good drainage, and good roads, there is actually much less cost of labor than on a poor, undrained farm, with wide and irregular hedges, green lanes, and choked up ditches; as most of my work is done by piece, I can estimate the difference with accuracy.

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If you buy 5 per cent. too dear, and sell 5 per cent. too cheap, your farming profit is gone. Bear in mind that there are in every market men who are keen and thorough judges of the value of every article. If you are not so, you must find some good judge to act for you, otherwise you will soon fall a victim to superior power.

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Let agriculture form an honorable portion of our general education-why should it not? Let Tull and Tusser range side by side with Homer and Virgil. Agricultural education and apprenticeships for our young farmers are imperative.

The question of what may be profitably produced from an acre of land, is a very important one. Professor Playfair, (a first rate authority,) has, I believe, stated that £250 can be and has been produced from one acre of market garden in one year; and we all know full well that in all gardens the produce is abundant compared with field "At blithsome culture. Why it is so needs no reply. morn and dewey eve," the crowds of men, women, and children issuing from market gardens are living solutions of the problem, and stand in charming relief to the solitary farm laborer, alone in a twenty-acre field, or scattered here and there over an extensive district, like plums in a school pudding.

Starvation to either man, beast or plants, will reduce cleanliness and warmth, will make them comparative them to mere skeletons; abundance of suitable food, with giants. The concentration of manure and its consequences, are plainly exemplified at our flower shows, where enormous masses of flowers and foliage are produced by one solid foot of prepared earth. In a state of nature forty times the quantity of soil would fail to produce similar results. No doubt the frequent application of moisture, when requisite, assists in producing this efeffect; but a knowledge of this fact should stimulate us to study irrigation, and apply our liquid manure to the roots when the plant is in vigorous growth, instead of wasting it in our horse-ponds. I know and can appreciate practically the effects of such applications.

The necessity for diminishing the fixed expense by an increased produce, is illustrated by the statement of a £1 per acre, or £600 per year, for artificial manures, he first-rate north-country farmer, who says that if he spends makes a profit-if he omits it he makes a loss. If stock is too dear, or you are short of capital, plow in green and root crops-particularly on heavy land.

Essential Preliminaries to Profitable Farming :

A thorough knowledge of your business, practical and theoretical.
Ability to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market.
-To select the most able workmen of industrious and honest habits.
-To apportion rightly your land and capital.

To maintain in economical efficiency the motive power, whether
horse or steam.

Deep, frequent and clean cultivation.

Drainage of land not naturally filtrative.

Shelter for stock.

Efficient machinery and farm implements.

Ample (and judicious] use of purchased food and manures.

Rigidly correct farm accounts, posted daily from the cash book and journal.

Estimates of the cost and return of each crop in detail.

Before I hired a farm I would take with me a labor

Let him who enters on farming make up his mind to great vicissitudes in price, and in some degree in quan-er, and dig a hole in every field, to the depth of two or tity and quality. It is the history of the past, and will be 3 feet, that I might know the character of the subsoil, for of the future. If the average is remunerative it is all we herein lies the prospect of your success or failure. The can expect. agricultural pie-crust, or plowed soil, to the depth of 5 inches, always looks pleasant enough and dark, but inside the pie you will too often find a most miserable contrast, inconceivably at variance with the deceptive surface which has been so long cultivated and aerated. There is nothing more instructive than the contents of a 5-feet drain cut through a field. Mere contents, when exposed to daylight, appeal forcibly to agricultural common sense with reproachful truth. It is in that 5 feet of subterraneity that you must look for your agricultural profit or loss; and yet I have seen many farms hired without a spadeful of earth being moved or examined; and I have seen many farmers, in a very brief period, leave farms so hired, minus their capital.

IRON AS MANURE.-A farmer once told me he manured his land with iron, and explained that it was the plow which furnished his manure. This is literally true, for there is a love between the air and the soil, which ends in a fructifying attachment if you will but expose them to each other's influence.

The advantage of deep cultivation is particularly

LAMBERT WHEAT.

EDITORS CO. GENT.-I send you a sample of weevilproof or Lambert wheat, grown by myself. I have grown two crops of it. The wheat is from three to five days earlier than the Mediterranean, smooth head, small blade and straw. The straw is softer than smooth-headed wheat generally. Its earliness renders it less liable to be affected by the midge. The hull of this wheat is double, so that the midge fly does not pierce it, in depositing its eggs. Thousands of heads have been examined by different persons, and I have never heard of a weevil being

found in it.

The

Last year I had ten bushels of this wheat sowed side by side with the Mediterranean, in the same field. Mediterranean was very much injured by the weevil, while the Lambert was entirely free from the little pest. One bushel to the acre of this wheat will yield 20-some say 25 bushels. F. C. W. Columbus, Ohio, July 13th.

DAIRYING IN BROOME COUNTY. Mr. C. H. TREADWELL, a farmer at Pleasant Hill, four miles southeast of Binghamton, some time ago contributed to the Franklin Visitor an account of his dairy operations for the season of 1861. His farm contains ninety acres, (70 cleared,) and is rather a new farm-the first clearing being made on it about twenty-one years ago. His dairy consisted of eleven cows, including a two-year old heifer. Mr. T. says:We have sold 2,218 lbs. butter at 19 cents per lh...

Dairy to be credited for pork..

We have used and retained for use 300 lbs., which, at 19 cents
per lb., would add $57 to the above,
Deacon Skins,
Calves,

Total credit to dairy...

$421.42

57.00

62.35

4.00

12.50

$557.27

We pack our butter in jars, and either sell the jars with the butter, or have them returned.

My income from the farm was as follows:
Cattle sold......
Potatoes raised,

Corn, beside fattening pork,.

Buckwheat raised,

Hay raised.

Pork, beside that credited to the dairy.

Total credit to the farm,

Total receipts from dairy and farm.....
Sold for cash to the amount of $643.77.

$156.00

21.00

16.40

9.00

208.00

19.25

$429.65

$986.92

The heads sent are beardless and considerably resemble in external appearance the whiter heads of the Soules wheat. The grains are rather larger and darker colored than the Mediterranean as grown here-the interior is more compact and will probably make as white flour. As in the Mediterranean and other varieties there is an inner and outer chaff, but they are slightly thicker in the Lambert, and separate more readily. A very favorable foots up the best this year it ever has. Last year we made notice of this variety was published in the COUNTRY GEN-2,432 pounds from twelve cows. Last year I raised more TLEMAN, vol. xvi. p. 218, from an anonymous correspon- grain, the total produce amounting to $1,013.27. But dent, from which it appears that it has been in cultivation the blessings that crown our industry every year, are over ten years, and if valuable will make its way and be- such as to furnish us a happy thanksgiving day, as often come extensively introduced.

To Make a Cheap Water Trough. Saw off a hollow log, say ten or twelve feet long, and nail boards firmly over each end. The ends of the log should be sawed true, so that the boards will fit water tight. On the upper side of the log, cut holes with a narrow axe, so that cattle can thrust in their noses and drink. These holes may be about three feet apart. Scrape out the rotten wood from near the ends, on the inside, and apply a good daubing of pitch or rosin (resin) mingled with an equal amount of linseed oil. In case the trough is very much decayed, procure a quantity of brick clay, and work it until it is about of the consistence of putty, and fill each end with clay.

I have made cheap troughs in this way, that would last several years.

Pure Water for Stock.

A good draught of good water, is, probably, as refresh ing to beasts as it is to people. But, in the month of August, nearly all domestic animals suffer far more than we imagine, for want of good water. Sheep will thrive far better if they can have access to pure water. Teams will endure the heat far better if they can have a plenty of clean pure water; and if milch cows must drink stagnant water wherever they can find it, how is it possible for them to give their usual flow of good milk. It is impracticable for them to do it.

Some people allow water to stand in troughs, day after day, many times, and compel their animals to drink it all up. Did such people ever drink water from an old dirty slop pail, after it had been allowed to stand in the sunshine for two or three days? Let them try the experiment of drinking such water, and wait for the result; and then they will be prepared to express a correct opinion, whether or not such water is as good for stock, in the sultry days of August, as pure cold water would be.

Water troughs and water tanks should be cleaned frequently, during the hot days of August, and fresh water pumped into them several times during the day.

Milk cows require a vast quantity of pure water in hot weather, in order to produce their usual flow of good milk.

as the sun rises.

The dairy

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] REMEDIES FOR CRIB-BITING. EDITORS OF COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-In a former number of your paper, there was an inquiry for the cure for a crib-biting horse, and I have looked for answers, and as yet have seen but one, and that was to buckle a strap around the neck. I owned a crib-biter once, and was told to try the strap, and the effect was to cut the mane out, but the horse would crib when the strap was off and almost as often when on-keeping in a stall without rack or manger, and taking the food to the horses in boxes at feeding time, or soaping the parts thickly with soft soap on the spots he uses for cribbing, and in fact all parts reached by his teeth.

A horseman told me that the front teeth of a horse that cribbed, lapped over each other or pressed together so as to create pain, and if they were filed apart it would cure him of cribbing. I never tried it, so cannot vouch for its efficacy, but I give it to you for what it is worth.

I send you four heads of timothy I pulled one day from all were about the same length. They are not samples of a bunch of about twenty, apparently from one seed, and what I raise, but should like to.

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