36 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[JANUARY", 
large towns, it may be found convenient for farmers to 
do the best they can to procure waste bones, and reduce 
them to a condition for use by means of wood ashes, as 
was explained in the American Agriculturist for Nov., 1879, 
(page 477). But where manufactured bone dust, or other 
bone fertilizers can be procured, it will certainly not pay 
for farmers to spend money and time in the disagreeable 
and slow process of thus reducing bones for use. Their 
money may be better used in purchasing the more effec¬ 
tive fertilizers, and their time in doing more valuable 
work. The hints given to a correspondent last month, 
were not intended to be of general application, as W.S.S. 
and some others have supposed, but only to apply to 
special cases, where raw bones were easily procured, and 
the manufactured bone was not. 
Balky Horses.— After long coaxing, with no little 
use of the whip, we have seen a balky horse started by 
putting a lump of earth in its mouth. The mind of the 
animal seems to be set on not going, and the point to be 
gained is to divert it from the idea entertained, and this 
the earth in the mouth does effectually. So soon as the 
horse gives its attention to the getting of the earth out 
of its mouth, it forgets its balkiness and can be started. 
Keeping Butter with Borax. — The Italian 
Minister of Agriculture gives an account of experiments 
which have been made at the Experimental Station at 
Florence, to the effect that Butter, purposely not freed 
from buttermilk, kept perfectly sweet for upwards of 
three months by the addition of about eight percent 
of Borax. It is stated that the Borax should be dry, in 
fine powder, and thoroughly mixed with the butter. A 
friend of ours is experimenting with both Borax and 
Boracic Acid, in butter,and will in due time report results. 
Tlie Gardens and Conservatories of Cal¬ 
ifornia, is the title of a series of articles by Mr. Shinn, 
the Editor, the first of which appears in the "California 
Horticulturist” for November. This article is illus¬ 
trated by a full-page photograph of the residence of A. 
K. P. Harmon, of Oakland, giving the house, grounds, 
and a large conservatory. A comparison of this tine 
p\ace with our recollection of a visit to Oakland, shows 
that twenty-five years must have brought wonderful 
changes in what was then a very rude suburb of San 
Francisco. But this is not more wonderful than .that 
San Francisco should publish the second Horticultural 
journal of the country—our old friend the “ Gardener's 
Monthly ” being the first. More wonderful still is the 
fact that for our third horticultural journal, we must 
still go to the Pacific coast, where the “ Southern Cali¬ 
fornia Horticulturist ” is doing most excellent work for 
its favored locality. We use first, second, and third, 
with reference to duration, not to indicate order of ex¬ 
cellence, which we should not attempt where each is so 
good in its place. 
Tine 10 III Duchess of Airdrie, owned by 
Hon. Mat. Cochrane, is one of the most remarkable cows 
on record. She has just given birtli to her ninth calf; 
the " 8th Duchess of Hillhurst.” Of the 10th Duchess 
and her daughters, Mr. Cochrane has sold several animals 
at the price named: “4th Duke of Hillhurst, $7,000; 
“ 5th Duke of II.” (2 months old), $8,000; “ Duchess 5th” 
(8 months old), $1S,000; “Duchess 2d” (cow), $21,000; 
“Duchess 3d” (heifer), $23,600; “6th Duchess of H.” 
(heifer), $12,000; “3d Duchess of H.” (heifer), $20,500; 
“5th Duchess of II.” (heifer), $21,500; a total of $131,600 
for the eight animals. The 10th Duchess, Airdrie 
Duchess 4tb, and the 7th Duke and 7th and 8th Duchesses 
of Hillhurst are still in Mr. Cochrane’s possession, valued 
at $116,000. Grand total from the “ 10th Duchess of Air¬ 
drie,” $247,600. Not a small sum for one cow. 
T'lie Ben net Plant.— A friend writes from Idaho 
that lie has heard of a plant growing in New Mexico that 
is used in cheese making for the same purpose as rennet. 
Will some of our subscribers in New Mexico tell us what 
this plant is, or, if the botanical name is not known, send 
a specimen, that we may determine what it is? 
Hop Culture. — “ H. D. M.,” St. Louis, Mo., asks 
a series of questions which would require a treatise to 
answer in full. Perhaps an answer to the first may make 
a reply to the others unnecessary. He asks: “Can Hops 
be grown to advantage on a wet, mucky soil, not springy, 
but a marsh, subject to overflow in winter or spring?”— 
Most decidedly not. The first requisite in Hop culture is a 
dry warm soil, if at all retentive of water the plants will 
soon die out. It would be a waste of labor and a useless 
expense to set a hop-yard on such soil like that described. 
Value of Fodder Corn. —The experience of the 
past season has given the writer a highly favorable opin¬ 
ion of fodder corn. A number of cows kept for milk 
have been steadily fed from July until frost upon fodder 
corn, with the addition of four quarts of meal daily. The 
ration lias been 90 lbs. in three meals of 30 lbs each. The 
first feed was given at 6 o’clock in the morning, cut up in 
a fodder cutter, wetted with water in which malt sprouts 
had been steeped for 12 hours, 2 qts. for each cow, and 
sprinkled with 2 quarts of meal of corn, oats, and wheat- 
middlings ground together; the second at noon, given 
whole, and the third at 6 o’clock in the evening, cut as in 
the morning, but without any malt-sprouts and with 2qts. 
of meal, mixed with it after wetting it witli water. Upon 
this feed the cows have kept up their usual flow of milk 
and in good condition, and have done as well as when fed 
upon green clover or grass. The corn was sown with the 
Albany corn planter in drills 3 feet apart and 3 inches 
apart in the drill. Five feet of row produces 30 lbs. of 
fodder, or 2 lbs. to the square foot, or 43 tons to the acre, 
the corn being about 8 feet high and having a good many 
half-grown ears here and there. One acre of such corn is 
thus able to support 40 cows 13 days, or 12 cows for 40 
days; but this is only when fully grown, as it was when 
these weights and measures were made. Half of this 
estimate would be fair, considering that the feeding of 
the fodder usually begins when a part of the field is only 
half-grown. It may be gathered from these facts that 
there can be no more valuable fodder crop grown for late 
summer and early fall feeding than fodder corn. This ex¬ 
perience is corroborated by that of many other dairymen 
and farmers, but it is wortli noting that there is a differ¬ 
ence in fodder corn which may well account for the vari¬ 
ous opinions regarding it. There is that which, sown 
broadcast and being too much shaded from light, is with¬ 
out color or substance, and makes very poor feed; and 
that, on the other hand, which having been grown in rows 
and exposed to the light is more solid and the juices are 
more mature and perfect. The latter kind is that which 
satisfies those who use it, and the former is that of which 
so many complaints have been made, and doubtless with 
justice, and which have given fodder corn a bad reputa¬ 
tion with those farmers who had rather give heed to what 
they hear than try experiments for themselves. 
An active Farmers’ Club is that of Oxford, 
O., of which the Rev. James McGregor is President, and 
Miss Virginia Dare, Secretary. The meetings are held 
monthly, at the residences of the members, and the pro¬ 
grammes for all the meetings of the year are neatly 
printed beforehand. The programme is not a mere 
statement of the topic, but gives a digest of sub-topics, 
and persons are appointed to speak upon these. The 
programme for this month will give an idea of this com¬ 
pute and excellent arrangement: “ January 2, 1879. 10 
a.m. The Club will meet at the residence of Mrs. E. S. 
B. Topic— Wastes of the Farm and Household. Sub- 
Topics. —1. Waste Lands in Fence Rows ; Sprouts ; 
Washes; Knolls, etc. Opened by Mr_2. Wastes in 
Keeping and Management of Horses. Brood Mares, and 
Colts_3. Wastes in Keeping and Management of Cattle, 
Cows, and Calves_4. Wastes in Breeding, Feeding, 
and Management of Swine and Sheep_5. Wastes in 
Machinery, Bad Buying, and Poor Care_6. Wastes in 
Harvesting and Storing Crops, Corn, Grain, and Roots 
_ 7. Wastes in the Kitchen. Mrs.-, (this and the 
following are assigned to ladies)_8. Wastes in Amount 
and Kinds of Food_9. Wastes in Heating and Clean¬ 
ing the House_10. Wastes from Irregularity and 
Want of System.” This club means business. 
Seedlings Peaches. — “P. S. T.,” Spring Creek, 
Va. Has been told that seeds from budded peaches 
would not come up. — Which is nonsense. Has been 
told by others that the seeds would produce such fruit 
as the tree would have borne had it not been budded. 
This is another error. No one can foretell what kind of 
fruit a peach seed will produce, but it is more apt to 
have fruit like the tree which bore the seed than will 
other cultivated fruits. Some varieties of the peach re¬ 
produce themselves from the seed with great regularity ; 
with others it varies, being either poorer or better than 
the parent tree. To be sure of the variety, we bud. 
Buying Tools.— The winter is the time to buy 
tools. Every farmer should, at this season of the year, 
determine what implements he will need for the next 
year, and make arrangements for procuring them. If a 
mowing machine is to be bought, let him take time by 
the forelock, and look into the merits of each kind of 
these machines, and buy intelligently; do not wait until 
the grass is ready to cut, and rush and buy the one near¬ 
est at hand. By sending to the various manufacturers, 
circulars with full directions, and illustrations, can be ob¬ 
tained, together with prices, etc. If a plow is needed, 
do all the work of selecting it, before the busy season is 
at hand, that it may not be “ on the way,” just when the 
best week for plowing is passing. In the peace of win¬ 
ter, prepare for the war of summer. 
Sewing Machines.— 1 The largest sewing ma¬ 
chines now in use weigh 800 lbs., and are employed in 
carriage manufactories for doing the stitching of the 
leather, as upon the dasher and other parts. These large 
machines are as perfect in their action as the small, fami¬ 
ly ones, and accomplish in a few minutes what would re¬ 
quire hours to do by hand, and do it in a superior manner. 
The Vandal of Laurel Hill.— At Laurel Hill 
Cemetery, in, or near, Philadelphia, there were two Ce¬ 
dars of Lebanon, each some 50 feet high, and well known 
to lovers of trees as among the finest specimens of this 
Cedar in the country. We learn from a late “ Gardener’s- 
Monthly ” that one of these trees were cut down I And 
why? Because the tree was in the way; it interfered 
with the reading of the inscription on some paltry grave¬ 
stone or monument I We say “ paltry,” with no refer¬ 
ence to the particular handful of dust that the stone may 
for a few years mark, but any monument whatever, by 
the side of such a tree, is a miserably paltry affair. A few 
dollars and a few day’s work may restore a gravestone or 
a monument—whatever lettering there may be, of no 
possible use to the dead, and only flattering the vanity of 
the living who put it there—could be easily replaced. 
But that tree 1 The miserable marble thing of to-day 
would sink into utter insignificance before any tree 50 
feet in hight—but before a Cedar of Lebanon of 50 feet, 
before any Cedar of Lebanon, how miserable paltry seems 
any work of man. It is well to be charitable, and as¬ 
sume, difficult as it may be, that this person knew' no¬ 
better. Could he have known that the very ancestors of 
this tree are now regarded as among “ the most renowned 
natural monuments of the universe;” that they furnished 
Solomon wood for the Temple; that this very tree de¬ 
scended from those mentioned all through Sacred His¬ 
tory ; had he known that to this day even the Arabs hold 
the ancestors of this tree as sacred, could he have cut 
down a Cedar of Lebanon, as if it were a used up tele¬ 
graph pole ? This tree would, no doubt, live for centu¬ 
ries after the elements had obliterated the letters chis¬ 
elled into the slab or monument, centuries after the mis¬ 
erable piece of carbonate of lime had crumbled away, 
centuries after the memory of the dead whose monument 
was to be preserved, and centuries after the memory of 
the preserver of the monument had passed away, would 
this Cedar of Lebanon have stood, and been an object of 
interest and admiration—but it was in the way of some¬ 
body’s head-stone, and was cut down 1 
Frosh. Air for Fowls.— In protecting poultry 
from the cold, do not shut them up so closely that they 
can not get a sufficient amount of pure air. Ventilate the 
fowl ho.se, otherwise the fowls will sicken. Feed well, 
and in winter mornings give a warm mess. 
Farmer’s Clubs are now holding their meetings- 
in various parts of the country, and if properly conducted, 
much information can be thus exchanged. The social as¬ 
pect of these gatherings is not to be overlooked, in esti¬ 
mating the good such gatherings do. At best, the farm¬ 
er’s life is a secluded one, but not therefore to be consid¬ 
ered dull and monotonous. Farmer’s Clubs tend to make¬ 
good neighbors, in more than one sense. 
TJie Imx»ortation of Plants.— Whoever has 
been so unfortunate as to have a friend abroad send him a 
presentofa box of living plants, will, after his experience,, 
be ready to join the free-traders and declare against all du¬ 
ties, so far as plants go. We find that the dealers in plants 
are also desirous that the duty be abolished. To them the 
importation of plants is like the importation of raw 
material; they only get from abroad a stock from which 
to propagate, and the case is exactly parallel to an im¬ 
post on the crude stuff in manufactures, the raw-material 
of which is not, and can not be, produced at home. But 
aside from this, the delays, which in the routine of the 
Custom House seems to be unavoidable, are such that if 
plants reach the port in fair condition, the time that must 
elapse before the owner can get possesion of them is the. 
death of a large percentage. A ridiculous feature in tho 
law is, the duty on common roots is 20 per cent., whilw 
if the plant is unfortunate enough to have a hulb at the 
base, Uncle Sam wants 30 per cent. If our beloved Uncle 
will make this nice distinction in the duty, he should 
have officers who can make the distinction in the plants 
themselves. A friend of ours recently had a box come 
over, which in the routine of the Custom House was 
appraised and the plants therein were appraised as bulbs; 
none of the plants therein had bulbs any more than a 
cabbage has, but the United States Government, through 
its sworn officers, said they were bulbs. It now becomes 
a delicate question; if these plants, which the highest 
authority have pronounced to be bulbs, should grow 
and still produce common roots, are they not guilty of 
constructive treason, and is not our friend an aider and 
abetter? Why not be done with at least this much of 
nonsense. If plants are to pay a duty why not have it 
uniform-alike for all; this would avoid the overhauling 
of the plants by persons who do not know a bulb from “a 
permanently abbreviated, tunicated, subterranean stem”. 
Duties on plants are a serious drawback to horticulture,, 
and help only foreign growers. 
