Part 2

While the maize plant, as a rule, is not self-fertilized, that is, as a general thing the pollen from one plant fertilizes the silk of another, yet in very many cases the pollen and the silk upon the same plant is synchronous, and self-fertilization becomes possible, and undoubtedly is of frequent occurrence. The pollen ripens from below upward, and thus the fall of the pollen, through the successive ripening of the blooms, may last for three or four days, and there is a great variation in period of blooming as between individual plants. The silk maintains its receptivity for pollen for some little time, but for how long a period we do not yet know from direct observation. It seems, however, true, that closely following pollination, the silk loses its transparent structure and begins to shrivel, while before pollination is effected the silk retains its succulency for several days.--_E. Lewis Sturtevant, Director N. Y. Exp. Station._

Specialty Farming.

I noticed in THE PRAIRIE FARMER of February 23d, a communication from Cape Girardeau, Mo., on "The Dignity of Our Calling." It contains some very good reasoning, but I do not indorse it all, and take this mode of expressing my views upon the subject. The point upon which I beg leave to differ from the gentleman is, should a farmer have a smattering idea of everything pertaining to farming?

I believe that a man should make a specialty of some particular branch of farming, for it is universally conceded by all competent authority that no man can succeed in a given pursuit unless his time and energies are concentrated in that direction, consequently we have successful men in all the avenues of life--and why? from the simple fact that these men make a specialty of some particular branch of their calling; they are no jack-of-all-trades--not by any means.

So it is with farming; the man who endeavors to be proficient in all its departments is apt to be a failure, while his specialist neighbor succeeds, simply because he has his course marked out, and bends his energies in that direction. Life is too short for a man to comprehend everything. It is true, that the farmer has no fixed law by which to guide him; however, he must, in measure, be governed by past experience. If the farmer does his part, God will do the rest. In my opinion, what we want, is not learning in every branch of farming by the same individual, but we do want lore in a given direction, and then success will crown our every effort. Take as an example one of our large machine shops; do we find its workmen, each one, commencing a machine and completing it in all its parts. No; each man has a special task to perform, only that and nothing more. As to farmers' sons longing for other callings, I am forced to admit that it is a lamentable fact which can not be ignored. I believe the reason for this is that they are constantly coming in contact with nature in all her varied forms, and before they have yet reached their majority, they become inspired with an ambition which is prone to go beyond the boundary of farm life, hence we find them, step by step, climbing the ladder of fame. However, we have one consoling fact, and that is, they make some of the most noted men we have--find them where you may. A glorious example of this is in the person of a man who rose from the humble position of plowboy, to that of Chief Executive of the Nation.

A few words more and I am done. If the fathers of this land would have their sons follow the noble vocation of farming, let them educate them thoroughly for the branch which they would have them pursue, and by so doing teach them that proficiency in any given direction is sure to command respect and success. SUBSCRIBER.

Field and Furrow.

One of the strong points in preparing horses for spring work is in having their shoulders in a good, sound condition. With this to start with and soft and well-fitting collars there need be but little fear of any difficulty in keeping them all right, no matter how hard the labor horses have to endure. By keeping the collars well cleared of any dirt which may accumulate upon them from the sweating of the horse, and by bathing them daily with cold water, there need be but little fear of bad shoulders.

HUSBANDMAN: Every member of the Elmira Farmers' Club present had used sapling clover, more or less, and all regarded it with favor, although for making hay common red clover is worth more, as it is also for pasture. Mr. Ward expressed the opinion, in which all shared, that there were really but two varieties of field clover in common use at the North, red clover, usually called medium, and the large, or sapling clover. The chief function of the clover root as a fertilizer is in bringing nitrogen from the lower soil upward within reach of succeeding crops and changing its form to meet the requirements of the plant and crops that follow.

BROW CHEMICAL CO. CIRCULAR: The wise farmer will change his seed from year to year. A remarkable feature of the variety in potatoes is that no two kinds of potato are made up of the same chemical components in precisely the same proportion. There are now over 300 varieties of potatoes of greater or less merit. Some are celebrated for their large size, some for their fineness of texture and some for the great increase which may be expected from them. One hundred and thirteen years ago there were but two known varieties of potatoes, one being white, the other red. If the soil is too poor potatoes starve, if too wet they catch cold, and refuse to grow to perfection.

FARMER'S ADVOCATE: Spring operations will soon commence, and with these a demand for good farm hands. The general rule that is followed in this country is to put off the hiring of men to the last moment, and trust to chances for some one coming along, and then probably some inferior workman has to be taken, or none at all. Men who know their business on a farm will not wait, and are early picked up in the neighborhood in which they may reside. The trusting to men coming along just at the exact moment you are crowded, is a bad policy. There should always be profitable employment for a man in the early spring months before seeding commences, and it will pay any farmer to secure good farm hands early; and pay them good wages.

PEORIA TRANSCRIPT: We prepared a half acre of ground as good as we knew how. Upon one-half of this plat we planted one bushel of seed obtained from Michigan, and upon the other half of home-grown seed, both being of the variety known as Snowflake. The two lots of seed cut for planting were similar in appearance, both as regards size and quality. The whole lot received the same treatment during the growing season. The plants made about the same growth on the two plats and suffered equally from bugs; but when it came to digging, those from new seed yielded two bushels of large potatoes for every one that could be secured on the land planted with seed of our own growing. This difference in yield could be accounted for on no other theory than the change in seed, as the quality of seed, soil, and culture were the same. This leads to the belief that simply procuring seed of favorite varieties from a distance would insure us good crops at much less expense than can be done experimenting with new, high-priced seeds.

In another column a Kansas correspondent speaks of the crab grass in an exceedingly favorable way. We find the following regarding this grass in a late New York Times: Every Northern farmer knows the common coarse grass called door-yard grass, which has long, broad leaves, a tough, bunchy root, and a three-fingered spreading head, which contains large, round seeds. It is known as Eleusine Indica, and grows luxuriously in open drains and moist places. It appears late in the summer. This is an extremely valuable grass in the South. A friend who went to Georgia soon after the war bought an abandoned plantation on account of the grass growing upon it. It was this door-yard grass. He pastured sheep upon it and cut some for hay. Northern baled hay was selling at $30 a ton at that time. He wrote asking me to buy him two mowers and a baling press, and went to baling hay for the Southern market, selling his sheep and living an easy life except in haying time. His three hundred acres of cleared land has produced an average of 200 tons of hay every year which gives him about four times as much profit as an acre of cotton would do. Perhaps there may come an end to this business, and the grass will run out for want of fresh seed, but with a yearly dressing of Charleston phosphate the grass has kept up its original vigor. Now why could we not make some use of this grass, and of others, such as quack-grass, which defy so persistently all our efforts to destroy them?

Insects in Illinois.

Prof. Forbes, State Entomologist, makes the following report to the State Board of Agriculture:

"Now that our year's entomological campaign is completed, a brief review of some of its most important features and results will doubtless be of interest. Early attention was given to the insects attacking corn in the ground, before the sprout has appeared above the surface. A surprising number were found to infest it at this period, the results of their injuries being usually attributed by farmers to the weather, defective seed, etc. Among these the seed corn maggot (Anthomyia zeæ) was frequently noted, and was received from many parts of the State. A small, black-headed maggot, the larva of a very abundant, gnat-like fly (Seiara), was excessively common in ground which had been previously in grass, and attacked the seed corn if it did not germinate promptly and vigorously, but apparently did not injure perfectly sound and healthy grains. A minute yellow ant (Solenopsis fugax) was seen actually gnawing and licking away the substance of the sound kernels in the ground, both before and after they had sprouted. The corn plant-louse (Aphis maidis) was an early and destructive enemy of the crop, often throttling the young shoot before it had broken ground. It was chiefly confined to fields which had been just previously in corn or grass.

"The chinch-bug was found in spring depositing the eggs for its first brood of young about the roots of the corn, a habit not hitherto reported.

"With the increasing attention to the culture of sorghum, its insect enemies are coming rapidly to the front. Four species of plant-lice, two of them new, made a vigorous attack upon this crop in the vicinity of Champaign, and two of them were likewise abundant in broom-corn.

"The corn root-worm (Diabrotica longicornis) was occasionally met with in sorghum, but does not seem likely to do any great mischief to that plant. It could not be found in broom-corn. In fields of maize, however, it was again very destructive, where corn had been raised on the same ground a year or two before. The Hessian Fly did great damage throughout the winter wheat region of the State, many fields not being worth harvesting in consequence of its ravages. Several facts were collected tending to show that it is three brooded in the southern part of the State. Nearly or quite all the last brood passed the summer as "flax seeds" in the stubble, where they might easily have been destroyed by general and concerted action. Fortunately, the summer weather was unfavorable to their development; and the drouth conspired with their parasites to greatly diminish their numbers. In the regions under our observation, not one in a thousand emerged from the midsummer pupa-cases, and numbers of the larvæ were found completely dried up.

"The wheat straw-worm (Isosoma tritici), a minute, slender, yellow grub, which burrows inside the growing stem, dwarfing or blighting the forming head, was abundant throughout the winter wheat region of Southern Illinois, causing, in some places, a loss scarcely exceeded by that due to the Hessian Fly. Our breeding experiments demonstrate that this insect winters in the straw as larvæ or pupa, emerging as an adult fly early in spring, these flies laying their eggs upon the stems after they commence to joint. As the flies are very minute, and nearly all are wingless, their spread from field to field is slow, and it seems entirely within the power of the individual farmer to control this insect by burning or otherwise destroying the stubble in summer or autumn, and burning the surplus of the straw not fed to stock early in spring. A simple rotation of crops, devoting land previously in wheat to some other grain or to grass, will answer instead of burning the stubble.

"The life history of the wheat bulb-worm (Meromyza Americana) was completed this year. The second or summer brood did decided injury to wheat in Fulton county, so many of the heads being killed that some of the fields looked gray at a little distance. This species was also injurious to rye, but much less so than to wheat. It certainly does not attack oats at all; fields of that grain raised where winter wheat had been destroyed by it, and plowed up, being entirely free from it, while wheat fields adjacent were badly damaged. We have good evidence that postponement of sowing to as late a date as possible prevents the ravages of this insect, in the same way as it does those of the Hessian Fly.

"The common rose chafer (Macrodactylus subspinosus) greatly injured some fields of corn in Will county, the adult beetle devouring the leaves.

"The 'flea negro-bug' (Thyreocoris pulicarius) was found injurious to wheat in Montgomery county, draining the sap from the heads before maturity, so that the kernel shriveled and ripened prematurely. In parts of some fields the crop was thus almost wholly destroyed.

"The entomological record of the orchard and the fruit garden is not less eventful than that of the farm. In extreme Southern Illinois, the forest tent caterpillar (Clislocampa sylvatica) made a frightful inroad upon the apple orchard, absolutely defoliating every tree in large districts. It also did great mischief to many forest trees. Its injuries to fruit might have been almost wholly prevented, either by destroying the eggs upon the twigs of the trees in autumn, as was successfully done by many, or by spraying the foliage of infested trees in spring with Paris green, or similar poison, as was done with the best effect and at but slight expense by Mr. David Ayres, of Villa Ridge. Great numbers of these caterpillars were killed by a contagious disease, which swept them off just as they were ready to transform to the chrysalis; but vast quantities of the eggs are now upon the trees, ready to hatch in spring.

"A large apple orchard in Hancock county dropped a great part of its crop on account of injuries done to the fruit by the plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar). There is little question that these insects were forced to scatter through the apple orchard by the destruction, the previous autumn, of an old peach orchard which had been badly infested by them.

"In Southern strawberry fields, very serious loss was occasioned by the tarnished plant-bug (Lygus lineolaris), which I have demonstrated to be at least a part of the cause of the damage known as the 'buttoning' of the berry. The dusky plant-bug (Deræcoris rapidus) worked upon the strawberries in precisely the same manner and at the same time, in some fields being scarcely less abundant than the other. I have found that both these species may be promptly and cheaply killed by pyrethrum, either diluted with flour or suspended in water, and also by an emulsion of kerosene, so diluted with water that the mixture shall contain about 3 per cent of kerosene.

"The so-called 'strawberry root-worm' of Southern Illinois proves to be not one species merely, but three--the larvæ of Colaspsis brunnae, Paria aterrima and Scelodonta pubescens. The periods and life histories of these three species are curiously different, so that they succeed each other in their attacks upon the strawberry roots, instead of competing for food at the same time. The three together infest the plant during nearly the whole growing season--Colaspsis first, Paria next, and Scelodonta last. The beetles all feed upon the leaves in July and August, and may then be poisoned with Paris green.

"The season has been specially characterized by the occurrence of several widespread and destructive contagious diseases among insects. Elaborate studies of these have demonstrated that they are due to bacteria and other parasitic fungi, that these disease germs may be artificially cultivated outside the bodies of the insects, and that when sown or sprinkled upon the food of healthy individuals, the disease follows as a consequence. We have in this the beginning of a new method of combating insect injuries which promises some useful results."

Illinois Central Railroad.

The elegant equipment of coaches and sleepers being added to its various through routes is gaining it many friends. Its patrons fear no accidents. Its perfect track of steel, and solid road-bed, are a guarantee against them.

FARM IMPLEMENTS, Etc.

NICHOLS & MURPHY'S CENTENNIAL WIND MILL.

Contains all the valuable features of his old "Nichols Mills" with none of their defects. This is the only balanced mill without a vane. It is the only mill balanced on its center. It is the only mill built on correct scientific principles so as to govern perfectly.

ALL VANES

Are mechanical devices used to overcome the mechanical defect of forcing the wheel to run out of its natural position.

This mill will stand a heavier wind, run steadier, last longer, and crow louder than any other mill built. Our confidence in the mill warrants us in offering the first mill in each county where we have no agent, at agents' prices and on 30 days' trial. Our power mills have 25 per cent more power than any mill with a vane. We have also a superior feed mill adapted to wind or other power. It is cheap, durable, efficient. For circulars, mills, and agencies, address

NICHOLS & MURPHY, Elgin, Ill.

(Successors to the BATAVIA MANF. CO., of Batavia, Ill.)

THE CHICAGO DOUBLE HAY AND STRAW PRESS

Guaranteed to load more Hay or Straw in a box car than any other, and bale at a less cost per ton. Send for circular and price list. Manufactured by the Chicago Hay Press Co., Nos. 3354 to 3358 State St., Chicago. Take cable car to factory. Mention this paper.

DEDERICK'S HAY PRESSES.

are sent anywhere on trial to operate against all other presses, the customer keeping the one that suits best.

Order on trial, address for circular and location of Western and Southern Storehouses and Agents.

TAKE NOTICE.--As parties infringing our patents falsely claim premiums and superiority over Dederick's Reversible Perpetual Press. Now, therefore, I offer and guarantee as follows:

FIRST. That baling Hay with One Horse, Dederick's Press will bale to the solidity required to load a grain car, twice as fast as the presses in question, and with greater ease to both horse and man at that.

SECOND. That Dederick's Press operated by One Horse will bale faster and more compact than the presses in question operated by Two Horses, and with greater ease to both man and beast.

THIRD. That there is not a single point or feature of the two presses wherein Dederick's is not the superior and most desirable.

Dederick Press will be sent any where on this guarantee, on trial at Dederick's risk and cost.

P. K. DEDERICK & CO., Albany, N. Y.

Sawing Made Easy

Monarch Lightning Sawing Machine!

Sent on 30 Days Test Trial.

A Great Saving of Labor & Money.

A boy 16 years old can saw logs FAST and EASY. MILES MURRAY, Portage, Mich., writes: "Am much pleased with the MONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE. I sawed off a 30-inch log in 2 minutes." For sawing logs into suitable lengths for family stove-wood, and all sorts of log-cutting, it is peerless and unrivaled. Illustrated Catalogue, Free. AGENTS WANTED. Mention this paper. Address MONARCH MANUFACTURING CO., 163 E. Randolph St., Chicago Ill.

MONARCH HORSE HOE AND CULTIVATOR COMBINED

For Hoeing & Hilling Potatoes, Corn, Onions, Beets, Cabbages, Turnips, &c.

SENT ON 30 Days' TEST TRIAL.

An immense saving of labor and money. We guarantee a boy can cultivate and hoe and hill potatoes, corn, etc., 15 times as easy and fast as one man can the old way. Illustrated Catalogue FREE. AGENTS WANTED. Mention this paper. Address

Monarch Mfg. Co., 206 State St., Chicago, Ill.

THE PROFIT FARM BOILER

is simple, perfect, and cheap; the BEST FEED COOKER; the only dumping boiler; empties its kettle in a minute. Over 5,000 in use; Cook your corn and potatoes, and save one-half the cost of pork. Send for circular. D. R. SPERRY & CO., Batavia, Illinois.

"THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST."

SAW MILLS, ENGINES THRESHERS, HORSE POWERS,

(For all sections and purposes.) Write for Free Pamphlet and Prices to The Aultman & Taylor Co., Mansfield, Ohio.

REMEMBER _that $2.00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _one year and, the subscriber gets a copy of_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER COUNTY MAP OF THE UNITED STATES, FREE! _This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country._

Stockmen, Write for Your Paper.

Well-informed live stock men estimate the drive from Texas the coming spring at 325,000 head, unless shipping rates are unusually favorable, when it may go above 400,000 head.

A careful estimate of the stock on the range near the Black Hills is as follows: Cattle, 383,900 head; horses, 2,200; sheep, 8,700. It is asserted that the stock has wintered remarkably well, the loss not exceeding 1-1/2 per cent.

A virulent disease resembling blind staggers has appeared among the horses of Oregon, and a large number of valuable animals have succumbed to it. Over 400 have died in two counties. So far the veterinarians have been unable to stay its progress.

The period of gestation in the mare is in general forty-eight weeks; the cow forty six weeks; the ewe twenty-one weeks, and the sow sixteen weeks. Having the date of service, the date at which birth is due may be easily ascertained. Careful breeders always keep strict record of each animal.

The Illinois State Board of Agriculture has adopted a rule requiring the slaughter of all sweepstakes animals at the next Fat Stock Show, in order that the judgment of the committees may be verified as to the quality of the animals. The premiums for dressed carcasses have been largely increased over last year.

Polled Aberdeen Cattle.