1027. Easy Method of destroying Mites or Weevils in Granaries.—A very sagacious farmer has succeeded in destroying weevils, by a very easy process. In the month of June, when his granaries were all empty, he collected great quantities of the largest sized ants, and scattered them about the places infested with the weevils. The ants immediately fell upon and devoured every one of them; nor have any weevils since that time been seen on his premises.
Remark.—The large, or wood-ant, feeds entirely on animal substances; of course it would not destroy the corn.
1028. To preserve Carrots, Parsnips, and Beets, all the Winter.—A little before the frost sets in, draw your beets or parsnips out of the ground, and lay them in the house, burying their roots in sand to the neck of the plant, and ranging them one by another in a shelving position; then another bed of sand, and another of beets, and continue this order to the last. By pursuing this method, they will keep very fresh. When they are wanted for use, draw them, as they stand, not out of the middle or sides.
1029. To preserve Turnips from Frost.—The best way is to stack them up in straw in the following manner:—One load of any sort of dry straw is sufficient for an acre of fifty tons' weight. Pull up the turnips, top and tail them, then throw them in a sort of windrow, and let them lie a few days to dry.
First, lay a layer of straw next the ground, and upon it a layer of turnips about half a yard thick; then another layer of straw; so go on alternately with a layer of straw and a layer of turnips; every layer grows narrower, till it comes to a point at the top, like a sugar-loaf. The last layer must be straw, which serves to keep all dry. You must observe always when you have laid a layer of turnips, to stroke or lap over the ends of the under layer of straw, in order to keep them close or from tumbling out. The heap should be as large as a hay-cock; the tops may be given to sheep or cattle as they are cut off.
1030. Another.—Turnips placed in layers, though not thick, have been found, after a few weeks, to rot. In some places the following method is adopted. Lay the turnips close together in a single layer, on a grass field, near the farmyard, and scatter some straw and branches of trees over them; this will preserve them from sudden alternations of frost and thaw. They keep as well as stored turnips can do. The bare grass is of no value in winter, and may rather perhaps receive some benefit from the shelter of the turnip. An immense quantity may thus be stored on a small extent of grass ground. It is chiefly useful for small farmers, in soils unfit for the turnip, but who are forced to raise it for milk-cows, or to support, in the winter, the sheep they feed in the summer on the commons, and which they keep, perhaps, principally in the night, on the fields they have no other means of manuring. But it may be useful, even on proper turnip soils, to save the latter part of the crop from the sudden frosts and sunshine in the spring, or in an open winter, which rot so great a portion of it; perhaps a fourth or third part of what is then on the ground.