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Show HOME AND FARM. IN rolling ground, never do it when wet but when it is firm enough to get the necessary pressure from the roller. IF you have a pasture with bare places on it, harrow, new seed and roll them, and you will have a uniform pasture. VERBENAS should be grown in a temperature of from 50 to 60 degrees. After proper flowering, and before the plants become exhausted, they should be cut back to some extent, and manure water applied around the roots once a week, and the soil loosened. This is to prevent the black rust. If too dense, trim out some of the branches. GARDEN BEDS are rarely dug deep enough, and the manure used is oftentimes so fresh from the stable that it burns the seed. Seeds planted in such soil might as well be thrown in the fire. The manure which has either rotted in the heap or has been used as a protection on beds during the winter, and hen dung, make a rich and acceptable soil for most descriptions of flowers. A FARMER claims to have found a sure cure for potato bug, by ten years' experiment in Colorado. His plan is simply to plant one or two flax seeds in each hill of potatoes. He says that bugs will shun it every time, and that for ten years he has been successful, while others have failed. The proposed remedy is simple, and it costs almost nothing try it. IN the care and management of the dairy cow, the milking should be done with exact regularity as to time, and each cow be milked by the same person, and in the same order from day to day if possible. No change of milkers or change of time for milking should be allowed, except for the most urgent reasons. Above all, never allow intemperate dispositioned persons to milk. Very slight causes often cause a shrinkage in milk which cannot be brought back. CARROTS seem to have some peculiar effects on the health of horses, rendering the skin especially glossy and healthy looking. For milch cows, carrots are valuable for the golden tinge and richness which they impart to the butter. They are also more nourishing for cows than turnips are. In feeding carrots, care must be taken that the pieces are not cut in such a shape as to choke the animal. Cut large carrots length wise, not across. AN INSECT DESTROYER.-An experienced gardener gives the following method for effectually destroying insect pests, both in doors and out. Take a barrel half filled with coal tar and fill it with water, and let it stand awhile. Then the water may be sprinkled on the leaves and stems by means of a wisp-broom, or a watering-pot. This will kill all the insects that come in contact with the plants. If coal tar cannot be obtained, hellebore or Paris green may be used with perhaps equally good results. By the use of the coal tar water, the plants are not in the least injured and a supply of water may be daily added to the barrel of coal tar. BUDDING ROSES.-This is a simple process by which amateur cultivators often increase their stock. A sharp penknife can do duty for a budding knife, and the handle of a tooth brush, if ground down smooth, will answer for a spud to aid in lifting the bark. From the last of June to the first of August is the best time for this process, as the bark can be more easily raised from the wood. Take a smooth stalk and make a horizontal cut across the bark through to the wood, but not into it. From the centre of this cross cut make another cut straight down the stem an inch or more in length. These two cuts should resemble a T. Slice off the bud you desire to propagate with one cut of the penknife, cutting it close to the main stalk. Now, with the edge of the spud turn back the bark on each side of the straight cut, and insert the bud on the wood of the branch to be budded, fitting it tightly to the crossed cut; with a bit of soft yarn bind down the bark, leaving a point of the bud exposed. A handful of dampened moss must then be bound round the stem, taking care to leave the tiny point of the bud exposed to the air. In six weeks the wrappings can be removed, but all other shoots must be kept from growing on the budded branch. By this means a rosebush can be made to bear half a dozen different colored roses. TO DESTROY BUGS on squash or cucumber vines dissolve a tablespoonful of saltpetre in a pailful of water, put one pint of this around each hill, shaping the earth so that it will not spread much, and the thing is done. Use more saltpetre if you can afford it, it is good for vegetables, but death to animal life. The bugs burrow in the earth at night and fail to rise in the morning. It is also good to kill the "grubs" in peach trees-only use twice as much, say a quart to each tree. There was not a yellow or blistered leaf on twelve or fifteen trees to which it applied last season. No danger of killing any vegetables with it; a concentrated solution applied to beans makes them grow wonderfully. |