1876 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
103 
before using, with wood’s earth, (leaf-mold), dried 
muck, or good dry garden soil, one part of the fer¬ 
tilizer, thoroughly broken up if lumpy, and three of 
the dividing material are to be thoroughly mixed 
in a dry place under cover, and shoveled over two 
or three times at intervals of a week, and then put 
in barrels or boxes and kept dry until wanted for 
use. If there is a brewery anywhere within five 
miles, it will pay to buy spent hops, if they can be 
had at the cost of stable manure; they ferment 
very rapidly, and will need turning, and if disposed 
to get too hot, may be mixed with some earth. 
Ashes are useful, leached or unleached, but are not 
to be mixed with, or applied at the same time with, 
the above named fertilizers. We have seen no 
neighborhood and no place, (our own included), 
where all the resources were made use of. Wher¬ 
ever there is a manufacture that uses bones, ivory, 
hair, whalebone, or other animal matter, except 
tanned leather, there are useful waste substances 
to be had, Slaughter-house offal, soap-boilers’ 
waste, the dead horses and other animals of a town, 
street sweepings, especially of paved streets, should 
all be looked after. Near the sea-coast and the 
great lakes, unmarketable fish, and fish offal are 
available, and make excellent manure. How many 
of those who complain of a scarcity of manures, 
save all the wastes of the family ? We know how 
difficult it is to have this properly attended to, but 
we also know that it can be done. The house 
wastes, washing water, chamber slops, dish-water, 
and all liquid matters, may be run into a tank as 
the basis of liquid manure, a matter much neg¬ 
lected in this country, or they may be turned 
apon absorbing material in a heap, or better, in a 
pit made for the purpose; dried muck or peat, 
leaf-mold from the woods, leaves, or sods, may be 
used. In most localities the road-sides and out-of- 
the-way places afford an abundance of turf, which, 
when dried, makes an excellent absorbent, and the 
fine roots with which it is filled, rot into an excel¬ 
lent manure. But all composts require time; for 
present needs some commercial fertilizer must be 
bought. Peruvian guano, fine bone, superphos¬ 
phate, dried blood, or fish 'guano, if good of their 
kind, though they differ in price, are of about equal 
value, i. e., it takes enough more of the clieaperfer- 
tilizer to produce the same effect, to bring its cost 
per acre up to that of Peruvian guano. Of course 
some “fertilizers” are nearly worthless, and this 
general statement is based upon the supposition 
that those named are intrinsically worth the price 
asked for them. We can make only this general 
reply to the recent letters of many anxious garden¬ 
ers, and moreover advise them to study carefully 
the articles by Prof. Atwater, on Fertilizers, which 
are now in course of publication. 
Blackberries in Indiana in 1875. 
BY STEELE BROTHERS, LA PORTE, IND, 
We sent you last -winter some notes on Blackber¬ 
ries in 1874. Though our statement of facts then 
given were disputed by some, we made no reply, 
preferring to wait until we could speak from an¬ 
other year’s experience. This year the Blackberry 
crop of La Porte Co. may be said to have been a 
total failure. Even the wild berries were very 
scarce. The Kittatinny, Wilson’s Early, and New 
Rochelle, or Lawton, were killed to the snow line. 
From two rows of Wilson’s Early, that last year 
yielded ten bushels, we picked less than half a 
bushel this year. The Snyder on our place, all one- 
year-old bushes, was killed to the ground. Some 
other patches leaved out and blossomed, and set 
fruit, but did not ripen half a crop. A profession¬ 
al man in the city, who is a successful amateur 
gardener, told us that his Snyders were killed to 
the snow line, and that he had grubbed them out 
by the roots. We went around toward the last of 
the blackberry season to examine some patches of 
the Snyder, and see how they had done. In the 
first patch we visited, fully two-thirds of the canes 
had dried up before the berries were grown, with¬ 
out ripening a single one. On the canes that still 
lived, the fruit was so small as to be almost worth¬ 
less, The next patch was somewhat sheltered by a 
double row of evergreens on the north, and this 
was not quite so badly injured. On the south end, 
farthest from the wind-break, about half the canes 
were dead. On the north they were better, but still 
the fruit was very small. The past season here 
was wet, and very favorable for small fruit. Straw¬ 
berries and raspberries did remarkably well. Our 
Wilson’s Early blackberries, growing on branches 
near the ground, and protected by the snow during 
the winter, were as large and fine as ever. All the 
Snyders we saw this year, both on the branches and 
in market, were not more than half the usual size. 
We are not prejudiced against the Snyder, in fact 
we set out some more young plants ourselves this 
year, for still another trial. But we wish to prove 
our former assertion, that it is not perfectly hardy. 
And also to caution persons against investing heavi¬ 
ly in any fruit before they have tested it thorough¬ 
ly, or its hardiness has been fully proven in their 
locality. 
Plant an Apple Orchard this Spring. 
We waut more apple orchards in all the older 
states. The old trees, once so bouutiful, are bear¬ 
ing less, and dying every year. On many farms no 
successors are provided for. We have occasionally 
a surplus of apples, as in 1874, when the orchard 
does not pay much. But there is a compensation 
to the fruit-grower, even in these years of excep¬ 
tional abundance. The cheapness of apples intro¬ 
duces them into many families, where they are 
generally used only as a luxury. They are so whole¬ 
some and enjoyable, that they become a necessity, 
and are more largely purchased in subsequent years, 
when they bring double prices. In 1874 apples 
sold for $1.50 per barrel. In 1875 they sold for four 
dollars a barrel. We know of a case in which a 
family laid in, in 1874, 16 barrels ; in 1875, the price 
being so much higher, the same sum being allowed 
for apples, the supply was but jsix barrels. If 
apples can be raised at a dollar a barrel, and pay 
expenses, the farmer who furnished this family, 
made eight dollars in his trade of 1874, and eighteen 
the past season. Thrifty families soon become ac¬ 
customed to apples, and they take their place with 
flour, meat, and butter, among the necessary family 
supplies, and the whole crop is taken, even in 
abundant years, at prices that pay something. This 
is what the fruit grower wants, steady paying 
prices for all that he can raise every year, rather 
than extravagant profits, which will induce every¬ 
body to rush into his specialty. Apples are, on the 
whole, as likely to be profitable as any fruit a farm¬ 
er can invest in at the present time, with the pros¬ 
pect of making money out of them for the next 
thirty years. They keep better than almost any 
other fruit, and in all the northern half of the 
country, they can he had, in the fresh state, 
with very little difficulty, every day in the year. 
Our soil and climate are admirably adapted to 
this fruit. It grows in the greatest beauty and 
perfection, and American apples command very 
high prices in the English markets. They are 
already a profitable article of export, and this 
business has as substantial a basis for increase, as 
the export of American cheese to European mar¬ 
kets. The idea that our climate jhas changed, is a 
fiction. Apples grow in our older states in as great 
perfection as they ever did, if the orchards are 
properly cared for. They will not grow so well on 
worn out pastures, as on virgin soil. But we find, 
to-day, on soils that are fed and cultivated, apple 
trees so vigorous and fruitful, that nothing more 
can be asked. Nor do we take any stock in the 
idea that the old varieties are running out. The 
Roxbury Russet has been in the country from very 
near its first settlement, and in the east, the trees 
are as vigorous and hardy, and the fruit as perfect 
as they ever were. As a long keeping standard 
variety, there is no better selection for this region. 
Plant an orchard this spring. Plant only standard 
varieties that are known to do well in your neigh¬ 
borhood, and let the varieties be few, and nine- 
tenths of them the long keepers. Late winter 
apples can be sold eight months in the year. They 
almost always bring extra prices in the spring. We 
know of farmers who have never lost faith in this 
crop, and are reaping golden harvests from orchards 
planted twenty years ago. First, plant an orchard. 
Second, take care of it. Connecticut. 
THE HOTSEiMm 
For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
-O- 
Prescribing for the Sick. 
I have sometimes been called upon by neighbors 
to give some advice about the care of persons who 
were suffering from pains of some kind, and who 
hardly liked to summon a doctor. If those who 
come to me knew what medicine to give, or if they 
had some undoubted panacea iu the house, they 
would not ask for my advice, I presume. But f 
never have any medicines, and never want any. 
Neither do I know much about particular diseases. 
There are a few things which every one should 
know about curing diseases—and the same rules 
apply generally to the prevention of efisease. When 
I am called upon for help, I ask, “ are the feet 
warm ?”—and usually they are not. This, then, 
must be corrected as soon as possible. Ton can 
hardly trust an ignorant woman’s report on this 
point, so common is it for women to go habitually 
with cold feet in the winter, calling them warm, 
perhaps, unless they actually ache with cold. 
Neither can you trust a sick child’s report of its 
feet, and if you would do your best for the patient, 
feel of its feet yourself. Not only warm its feet, 
but see that the whole body has a comfortable degree of 
warmth. This is necessary whatever may he the 
disease. If the body, or any part of it, is Hot and 
dry, cooi it. Usually cloths wet with clean soft 
water are most available for this purpose. An 
equally important inquiry is concerning the state of 
the bowels. A Swede mother came to me one 
Tuesday afternoon, in great anxiety about her child, 
four or five years of age. I asked, “ how are her 
bowels?”—“Well, I don’t know,” she answered, 
“ for she has not had a passage of the bowels since 
Saturday !” I lent her my syringe, with instruc¬ 
tions as to its use, for nothing but feverishness and 
pain could be expected while the waste matter of 
the system was retained in the body. This rule, 
“keep the bowels open,” like the previous one in 
respect to a comfortable degree of warmth for the 
whole body, applies in every case of sickness, no 
matter what may be the disease. 
I know I am only repeating what has been said 
editorially and by other contributors to this journal, 
when I say that medicine does not cure sick folks. 
It may give some assistance, hut Nature herself 
works with all her might to prevent, and also to 
cure, sickness, or to restore to health any injured 
part of the body. We have only to work in har¬ 
mony with her. For this reason we seek to main¬ 
tain an equable circulation of the blood throughout 
the body by warming that which is too cool, and 
cooling that which is too warm. For this reason we 
seek to keep open every means of exit for the waste 
and poisonous matter which the body has to throw 
off constantly in its processes of repair and growth. 
This makes necessary not only an open condition 
of the bowels, but an open condition of the pores 
of the skin. Sweatings, or “sweats,” are well in 
their place, when the pores are closed on account 
of cold, but a sick person’s profuse perspiration 
ought to be followed by some kind of a bath, care¬ 
fully given so as not to chill the patient, in order to 
wash away the effete matter which the sick body 
has poured, with the perspiration, through its innu¬ 
merable pores. This should be done in a warm 
room, if possible, and in cool weather only a small 
part of the body should he exposed at once. When 
one arm has been washed and dried, the other may 
be bathed, and so on—apart at a time. 
Improper eating seems to be the cause of much 
of the ailments for which I am called to prescribe. 
Of course the over-worked stomach ought to rest, 
and with it the whole body. But working people 
can not lie by on account of illness, if they have 
