202 
AMEEICAj^ agkioultueist. 
[May, 
the highways must exercise due care to avoid acci¬ 
dent and injury, includes an observance ot the duty 
to drive at a moderate rate of speed. To drive 
faster than an ordinary reasonabie traveiiing pace 
upon the highway, and espcciaiiy upon the streets 
of a city, is not oniy culpabie 
negiigence, but is prohibited by 
statute or municipai ordinance. 
What is an immoderate rate of 
speed, in the absence of a statute 
upon it, is a question for the jury 
to decide. The Supreme Court of 
the United States said it was “such 
rapid driving as under the circum¬ 
stances amounts to rashness.” In 
Pennsylvania it was heid that driv¬ 
ing at a rate of fifteen miies an 
hour, or an hour in four minutes, 
on a pubiic highway was uuiawful, 
and that if death resuited from a 
coilision caused by such driving, without any fauit 
of the injured party, it would amount to murder 
in the second degree. Henry A. Haigii. 
A Seed Bed* for Forest Trees. 
A. S. PULLER. 
For most of the deciduous trees the open field is a 
good situation for a seed-bed, no shade being re¬ 
quired for the young seedlings, except in rare in¬ 
stances. The preparation of tiie soil sliould be most 
thorough, not only should it be plowed deep, but 
cross-plowed and pulverized with a harrow, until 
in fine tilth and free from all lumps and stone. If 
the land is not rich it should be made so, by liberal 
applications of very old and well decomposed barn¬ 
yard manure, or some other good fertilizer, but no 
fresh stable manure or other kind that will make 
the soil too open and loose, should be used. When 
all is ready, the seed should be sown in drills far 
enough apart to admit of cultivation, with plow or 
cultivator. There are two methods of sowing, the 
single drill and in double or narrow beds. The 
first is more convenient for thorough and clean 
■cultivation, but the latter is sometimes preferred, 
where the space to be devoted to the purpose is 
limited, or where it is desired to raise a very large 
number of plants on a given area. Small seeds may 
be sown with a seed-drill, when convenient, or the 
single drill may be opened with a plow or marker 
made for the purpose, or even opened with a hoe 
drawn along by the side of a line for a guide. The 
depth of the trench must be varied according to 
the size and kind of seed to be sown. For maple, 
ash, locust, and similar kinds one-half inch of soil 
is sufficient for covering, but the larger nuts should 
be covered a little deeper. Judgment should be 
used in all cases, and the depth of covering be va¬ 
ried not only with the size of the seed but with the 
nature of the soil. If this is light and sandy, or 
contains so much vegetable matter that it does not 
become compact, and the surface hard after heavy 
rains, the seeds may bo covered deeper than in one 
of an opposite character. 
On sowing in what are termed double trenches 
or narrow beds, a trench a foot wide and of proper 
depth is opened, the soil being thrown upon one or 
both sides. The seeds are scattered in the bottom 
of the trench, and the soil drawn back over them. 
The wide drills should be three or four feet apart, 
or at sufficient distance to admit of pruning and 
cultivation between them, and to give room for 
workmen to pass when hoeing and weeding the 
plants. Frequent,stirring of the soil between the 
rows with plow and cultivator during the summer, 
materially increases the growth of the plants, as 
well as facilitates the emission of side or lateral 
roots. At the end of the first season, or certainly 
not later than the second, the plants should be dug 
up. This may be done very rapidly with spades, 
or faster and better with a tree digger represented 
in figure 1. This very handy Implement passes un¬ 
der the plants, cuts off the tap-root if long, and at 
the same time leaves them standing upright in the 
row, from whence they can be readily pulled up by 
men following the digger, or left to be taken up 
when wanted. Having used one of these implements 
for many years, I can speak from experience of its 
value, especially for lifting seedlings that have very 
long and coarse tap-roots, like the black walnut, 
hickories, and similar kinds, as shown in figure 3. 
Fig. 1.— THE TREE DIGGER. 
After the plants have been lifted, the long tap¬ 
root should be shortened if it has not been cut off 
by the digger. Some of the nut trees, like those 
mentioned above, will throw down a central or tap¬ 
root to the depth of two or three feet the first sea¬ 
son, while the stem above may not be more than a 
foot high. Figure 3 represents an average speci¬ 
men of a one-year-old seedling black walnut. The 
tap-root of such a plant should be cut off at 
a, and the larger lateral roots reaching below this 
point either spread out or shortened at planting. 
The main object in shortening the tap-root is to 
force outside or lateral roots the following season, 
but it also renders transplanting less troublesome, 
as it would be very inconvenient to dig trenches or 
holes three feet deep 
in which to set seed¬ 
lings not more than 
one dr two years old. 
These tap-roots are 
doubtless of value to 
trees growing thickly 
in the natural un¬ 
broken soil of a 
forest, and where 
there is little room 
for side or lateral 
roots to grow, with¬ 
out coming in contact 
with those of neigh¬ 
boring trees. Where 
it is necessary for 
roots to go deep 
to find moisture, as 
when growing on 
high and dry soils, 
it is seldom that trees 
growing sparsely or 
in low moist soils re¬ 
tain their ta])-roots 
many years, if they 
have them at all. 
Therefore they can 
only be considered 
necessary appendages 
under certain condi¬ 
tions, none of which 
often exist in culti¬ 
vated trees. I am 
well aware, that there 
are arboriculturists in 
this country who will 
not agree with me in 
this, for some often 
Fig. 3.— SEEDLING BLACK claiTn that the central 
WALNUT. Qj. tap-root is a very 
essential part of a tree, and for this reason they 
advocate planting seeds where the tree is to 
grow, in order that it may be preserved intact. 
But with all due deference to the opinion of these 
gentlemen, my long experience with trees has 
showTi me that tap-roots are but short-lived at best, 
except in rare instances, and only with trees grow¬ 
ing on dry, hard soils, w’here all the roots go down 
deeply in order to reach moisture. I have taken 
up thousands of trees from moist soils and of all 
ages, from one to twenty or more years old, and I 
never found one with a tap-root of any considera¬ 
ble size, and generally there was none at all on 
trees after they had reached the age of a half dozen 
years or more. I have also seen hundreds of acres 
of our largest forest trees turned out by the roots 
by tornadoes, and by stump-pullers in clearing the 
land for canals and railroads, but not one in a hun¬ 
dred of such trees had anything like a tap-root. 
The Disease in Western Cattle. 
There has of late been much excitement among 
the cattle men of Kansas and elsewhere at the West, 
as to the nature of the disease that has appeared 
among the herds. Some have'asserted that it was 
the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease, and that the 
most stringent quarantine was needed to prevent 
its spread. Others have denied that there was any 
cause for alarm, but that the deaths were due to 
the poor condition of the animals at the end of a 
hard winter. A recent gathering of Western vete¬ 
rinarians claim to have discovered that the cause 
of the loss of hoofs and other alarming symptoms 
is due to ergot. It is well known that the con¬ 
tinued use of ergotized rye produces most serious 
results in man as well as in domestic animals. It is 
not generally known that the seeds of various 
grasses, as welt as those of eultivated grains, some¬ 
times become ergotized, and when in that condi¬ 
tion, are poisonous to cattle. A large share of the 
wild hay eut on the Western plains is of species re¬ 
lated to the cultivated rye, and is often called 
“Wild Kye.” An examination of the hay upon 
which the diseased animals have been fed, shows 
it to be infested with ergot to an extraordinary ex¬ 
tent. As the manifestations of the disease, the loss 
of hoofs, etc., are similar to those caused by ergot 
poisoning, the veterinary gentlemen feel warranted 
in declaring that there is no dangerous contagious 
disease, and that the unwholesome fodder is suffi¬ 
cient to account for all the alarming symptoms. 
Bogus Butter. 
The testimony taken by a Committee of the 
State Senate, has opened the eyes of the house¬ 
keepers of New York City to the character of 
much of the stuff sold as butter. The methods of 
making oleomargarine, butterine, and other com¬ 
pounds, known collectively as “Bogus Butter,” 
as described by the workmen employed in the fac¬ 
tories, are not'such as would tempt one to prefer 
them to butter. The law as it has heretofore stood, 
tolerates the making of these substitutes, but re¬ 
quires that they shall be distinctly labelled, and 
sold for wh.at they are. A most excellent pro¬ 
vision, but the testimony before the Committee 
showed that this law does not enforce itself, is 
universally disregarded, and that these compounds 
are openly sold, and at high prices—for, what they 
are not—butter. Our position with regard to 
these butter substitutes has from the first been 
this: It is not a question whether they taste as 
well as butter, or whether they are as healthful as 
butter, but that not being butter, a well-known 
product prepared in a definite manner, no one has 
a right to substitute them for, and sell them as 
butter. It is a falsification, and should not only 
not be tolerated, but both the buyer of butter and 
the maker of it should be protected against this 
fraud. If beef and horse-tallow may be sold as 
butter, then horse and mule-flesh may on the same 
grounds be sold as beef and veal. Unless methods 
can be devised by which these butter substitutes 
can be sold for just what they are, then the law 
should prohibit their sale altogether. The loss to 
the dairy interests of New York State is already 
estimated to be upwards of five millions of dollars 
annually. What may be the loss in health to 
those who purchase these stuffs as butter can not 
be estimated. Absolute honesty and integrity in our 
food supplies should be insisted upon, and the sale 
of false milk, false butter, false sugar, flour, etc., 
be prohibited by severe penalties. Giving a stone 
instead of bread is condemned by high authority. 
