406 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE 



Sweet. Cherries: Lieb. Grapes: lona, Croton, Eumelan, Isabella, 

 Martha, Walter, Kalamazoo, Beuasqua, Worden, Champion, and Tol- 

 man's Seedling, Rogers Hybrids, Arnold Hybrids, Wylie Hybrids, 

 Eicketts Hybrids, Campbell's Seedlings, Lady, and Ithaca. Peaches: 

 Foster, Mountain Eose, Atlanta, Eichmond, Solway, Southwick's Late, 

 Eiver's Peaches, (twenty varieties,) and Amsden's Jane. Pears : Dana's 

 Honey, Clapp's Favorite, Edmonds, Mount Vernon, and Souvenir du 

 Congress. Plums: Miner, Wild Goose, Weaver, and Jodoigne Green 

 Gage. Strawberries : America, Black Defiance, Boudinot, Boyden's No. 

 30, (Seth Boyden,) Charles Downing, Colonel Cheeney, Cowing's Seedling, 

 Cumberland Triumph, Dr. Warder, Early Queen, French, Golden Defi- 

 ance, Golden Perpetual, Golden Queen, Keech's 2,200, Kentucky, Kis- 

 sena, Kohocken, Kramer, Late Prolific, Lennig's White, Matilda, Monarch 

 of the West, New Jersey Scarlet, Eomeyn's Seedling, Springdale. Of 

 these, Cowing's Seedling is spoken of as bearing the largest berry in cul- 

 tivation ; the vine is vigorous and haj-dy, and the fruit of fine flavor and 

 great promise. 



Mr. Frank A. Gulley contributes a brief article on the treatment and 

 value of manure. Holding that success and profits depend upon the 

 amount produced per acre above the cost price, he has been experiment- 

 ing for years in the endeavor to bring his lauds up to the highest practi- 

 cable point of fertility. He states that fifteen years ago the livery-stable 

 men of Detroit were glad to give away their manure, and frequently had 

 to hire it removed. It now brings from 50 cents to $1.50 per wagon-load. 

 Its rapid increase in value has caused Mr. Gulley to economize, as far 

 as practicable, by manufacturing his own fertilizers, and in this he has 

 succeeded by the rearing of pigs and ttue feeding of cattle on his own 

 place. Previous to the past year he bought nearly all his own feed. He 

 is now renting land for the purpose of raising feed, for which he pays an 

 annual rental of from $3 to $6 per acre. He says: 



If we can make our sales of pork and pigs and the amount received for the cattle, 

 after deducting their cost, equal the value of feed consumed, letting the manure bal- 

 ance the work, we consider it a good investment. But we find we can do better than 

 this by keeping the small-boned, tine-bred pigs. With judicious and heavy feeding, 

 taking the value of the manure into consideration, we think we can comi)ete with the 

 western farmers in raising pork. Our pigs during the past year have returned $1,000 

 over the value of feed consumed on pigs sold for pork and feeding, while at the same 

 time we are establishing a herd of thoroughbred pigs. But we expect a greater profit 

 on the increased production of crops caused by the use of this manure. 



We make a practice of buying thin steers in the fall, either two, three, or four years 

 old, which cost us Irom S'JO to §50 each. These are fed until in good condition, and 

 then sold at from 50 to 100 per cent, advance. There are a class of farmers who raise 

 cattle till they ate two, three, or four years old, merelj'^ giving them f<-cd enough to 

 keep tbem alive and make them grow, and this class of farmers is found all over the 

 State. We can buy these cattle, feed them heavily three or four months, and get nearly 

 as much lor feeding them that length of time as the man who raised them did for 

 keeping them two or three years. But it is not done by a slipshod way of feeding. 

 Our cattle are kept in warm stables and fed regularly on cut hay, straw, and stalks, 

 mixed with pulped roots, and all the steamed corn-meal and miU-feed they will bear. 



Mr. Gulley says there is i)robably no way in which manure can be 

 made with less trouble, experience, and expense than in feeding cattle 

 during the winter. It is a practice which could be adopted with suc- 

 cess by gardeners in any vicinity where manure is scarce and feed can 

 be bought at a reasonable price. It does not require a very great 

 exi)enditure lor buildings and machinery. An old barn or shed can be 

 fitted up with gates and mangers at an expense of $1 or 82 per head, 

 with stanchions; or, where cattle are tied with ropes, the expense would 

 be less, but the extra amount of work will more than balance the cost 

 of gates. He fitted up a shed-floor for 25 head with gates and mangers, 



