3 32 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
It I*siys Any One to study the advertising 
pages of a journal like this, where the eye is not offended 
by glaring announcements of medical nostrums and frau¬ 
dulent schemes, and where every advertiser is believed 
to he a trustworthy man, having the ability and intention 
to do what lie promises—for it is the aim of the publish¬ 
ers to admit only such advertisers, despite the fact that 
the excluded class would gladly pay much higher prices. 
They could afford to do so, for they give the least for the 
money they receive, and so can expend more in inveig¬ 
ling purchasers.We know by experience that many 
business hints and suggestions are derived from studying 
the ways and modes of business adopted by others ; and 
reading a lot of advertisements is like going into a 
“ Grand Bazaar,” where a multitude of dealers exhibit 
their wares. So we always advise our readers to go all 
through the advertisements of each paper, as they are 
usually changed materially in every successive number. 
As our advertisers are a select class, we like them to 
know that in this journal they meet with a wide-a-wake, 
enterprising class of readers, and so we make the stand¬ 
ing request that those who write to them, ordering any¬ 
thing, or for circulars, or other information, would men¬ 
tion the fact that they are readers of this journal. 
Hedge in Virginia. —Our Washington 
correspondent will find Osage Orange best for his pur¬ 
pose, and if he will write his name a little more plainly 
we will try to answer his other questions by mail. 
Woollen Slioes. —Some years ago one of 
our editors who had lived long in Europe, where wooden 
shoes, or sabots, were in general use, wrote an article 
setting forth their utility, and suggesting that there 
were many cases in this country in which they would 
serve a good purpose. The idea struck Mr. E. W. Ship- 
pen, of Meadville, Pa., very forcibly, and he began to 
make wooden shoes. An American will always improve 
on the pattern given him, and the result of the whole 
matter is that there has been formed at Meadville a “ Nov¬ 
elty Shoe Company,” which turns out shoes combining 
all the good qualities of the rude, hand-made sabot, 
with—we had almost said a dancing pump. At all events 
the shoes made by them seem to be just the thing for 
those who have need of such an article, and they are 
good looking as well as serviceable. 
A Nursery Ag'eiat is canvassing one of 
the western states, claiming to represent the Dingee 
Conard Co., of West Grove, Chester Co., Pa. As the 
chap offered peaches grafted on the “Wild Canada 
peach,” which would be sure to bear every year and never 
be winter-killed, and other marvelous things, one of our 
readers wrote to know about the Company and the won¬ 
derful trees. Thinking the D. C. Co. would like to know 
of the matter, we sent the letter to them, and they write, 
“We do not employ any agents, and will endeavor to 
make it unhealthy for any one to make such representa¬ 
tions in our name.” Be on the look out for this chap. 
Amcricnn Pomologieal Society.— 
The great biennnial gathering takes place at Chicago on 
the 8th, 9th, and 10th of this month. Every member 
should endeavor to be present, and every fruit-grower 
who is not a member should become one. There is no 
exclusiveness about these meetings, and every one in¬ 
terested in fruit should be present. It is worth going a 
long distance to see the great number of distinguished 
pomologists this meeting will bring together, to say 
nothing about the fruit, the exhibition of which, held in 
co-operation with the Inter-State Exposition, promises 
to be something wonderful. For fuller details see July 
number, p. 252. The meetings will-be held in one of the 
commodious balls of the Grand Pacific Hotel, the pro¬ 
prietors of which offer to deduct 50 cts. per day to those 
members who may take rooms there.—Young men “ Go 
West.” 
Rivers’ Early Readies. —Since the ar¬ 
ticle on p. 3ff>, showing how these peaches have done in 
Georgia with Mr. Berckmans, was in type, we have re¬ 
ceived from Mr. Randolph Peters, specimens and notes 
on the behavior of some of the same peaches in Delaware 
and Maryland. That a peach should do differently in 
Georgia from what it does in Delaware is not at all sur¬ 
prising, and it is only by comparing the notes of grow¬ 
ers in widely separated localities that we can come at 
the real value of a variety. Mr. Peters writes: “I have 
no hesitation in saying that the Early Beatrice is fully 
10 days earlier than Hale's Early, tree vigorous and a 
profuse bearer. The Early Louise is about one week 
earlier than Hale’s, the fruit much larger than Early Bea¬ 
trice, and if it were as early, would be the more valua¬ 
ble of the two for market.”_R. S. Emery, of Chester- 
town, Md., of whose magnificent orchards we retain a 
pleasant recollection, writes: “I have fruited both the 
Early Beatrice and the Early Louise this season, and they 
are a perfect success, productive, free from rot, and 
ripening and coloring up beautifully.” He says that 
Col. Wilkins’ (one of the largest, if not the largest peach 
grower in Md.), 6-year-old trees are very fine, and quite 
fulfilled his expectations of them.—This matter of earli¬ 
ness is of the greatest importance to all peach-growers. 
The perishable nature of Hale’s Early—hundreds of 
crates being sold early in August in the N. Y. market for 
10 or 15 cents—makes it nearly worthless as a market 
peach. While Mr. Berckmans does not find the Early 
Beatrice with him, any earlier than Hale’s, but better 
in every other respect, these Delaware and Maryland 
gentlemen find it much earlier than Hale’s. We shall 
be glad of any other testimony as to these peaches. 
WONDERFIJE TOXS.— There seems 
to be no end of the resources of Mr. C. M. Cranuall, in 
providing pleasant and useful amusement for children. 
All of his inventions have the advantage of developing 
ingenuity and constructive talent. None can predict the 
amount of architectural skill and mechanical invention, 
that will be exhibited by the growing generation, owing 
to the fact that so many of them possessed in childhood 
the Building Blocks, the Acrobats, the Menagerie, etc., 
of C. M. Crandall. All these blocks so fit each other, 
that their several parts can be combined in ten thousand 
ways.—A Supplement to this paper gives, on a very small 
scale, some two hundred of the countless thousands of 
combinations that any child can produce. The Acrobats 
were pretty widely disseminated last year, but probably 
few, except children of exceptional skill, found out a 
hundredth part of the combinations, of which the Acro¬ 
bats are capable. The Supplement will furnish directly 
a good many new figures, and suggest many more.—P. S. 
Since the above was written, 25 cases of three dozen 
boxes each of Acrobats and other toys were started on 
the way to amuse children in France. 
Basket Items com- 
tiMiied ©m page 357. 
An Agricultural Experiment Station to 
be Established at Middletown, Conn. 
Wc take pleasure in announcing that at last a 
beginning is to be made in this country in the 
organization of those most useful and most impor¬ 
tant aids to agriculture known as Experiment Sta¬ 
tions. In Germany, especially, and elsewhere in 
Europe, a large number, probably not less than 
seventy-five Agricultural Experiment Stations in 
all, have been established within the last dozen 
years, and their great utility is proved by the fact 
that the practical farmers are enthusiastic in their 
support; they see and feel the benefits conferred 
by them. Though we have something correspond¬ 
ing to them in a few of our colleges, especially in 
three or four agricultural colleges, in the Bussey 
Institution of Harvard, and the Sheffield School, of 
Yale ; the one provided for at Middletown will he 
the first organized under the distinctive appellation 
of an “ Agricultural Experiment Station ” in this 
county, and Connecticut is therefore first in this 
particular field. 
The Connecticut State Board of Agriculture, 
with other intelligent farmers of the State, have 
been agitating the subject for two years past, and 
have presented to the Legislature strong reasons 
for making an appropriation of $8,000 a year to 
support such a Station. But contrary to the gen¬ 
eral expectation, our own in common with others, 
it was found by June 1st that owing to the de¬ 
mands upon the Treasury for the new State House, 
now going up, and for the Centennial Exhibition at 
Philadelphia, as well as the determination of the 
dominant political party in the Legislature, to re¬ 
duce appropriations to the lowest possible limit, 
there was no hope of securing the desired, and very 
desirable sum. Some thought it best to drop the 
subject for the time being, and trust to another 
Legislature to give what was needed; others 
thought it better to wait no longer on uncertainty, 
hut to get the most that could he obtained, and 
make a beginning, and they set about the work. 
The Wesleyan University at Middletown having 
large laboratories, and abundant room to spare for 
the chemical department, in its new Scientific 
Building, offered the free use of them to the State. 
The Proprietors of the American Agriculturist offered 
$1,000 towards expenses, and under these circum¬ 
stances the Legislature voted $5,600, $2,800 a year, 
payable in quarterly installments during two years. 
With this total sum of $6,500, and the free use of 
ample room and convenient laboratories—which 
could not be provided independently except at a 
cost of many thousands of dollars—and the aid 
proffered by the Middlesex Co. Agricultural Society, 
Middlefield Farm Club, and with the co-operation 
of the State Board of Agriculture, and other entei 
prising men, it is believed that enough will be ac¬ 
complished to demonstrate the utility of such a 
Station, so that public opinion will compel more 
liberal provision hereafter, and also that it will lead 
to the organization of similar institutions in many 
other States. 
The prominent idea of an Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station, is to have a central headquarters, 
of a semi-official character, wholly in the interest of 
the people , to which may be referred such questions 
as require the practical attention of intelligent, sci¬ 
entific, and practical men, entirely devoted to the 
business of careful experiments and investigations. 
For example, all the older States are flooded with 
artificial fertilizers, some of them good and profit¬ 
able, others of uncertain value, and others largely 
fraudulent. Some are well and honestly manufac¬ 
tured until they obtain a good reputation, after 
which they are deteriorated. With a State Exper¬ 
iment Station in operation, farmers will naturally 
buy only those fertilizers which have been tested 
at the Station ; and frequent analyses of samples of 
those actually sold will enable farmers to know 
whether they are getting what is purported to he 
sold to them. No farmer can, from the appear¬ 
ance of any fertilizer, tell whether it is a good ar¬ 
ticle, or half, or two-thirds, inert material. The 
tests at the Station will decide the quality with 
great accuracy. The result will be that manufac¬ 
turers and dealers in poor materials will give the 
Station a wide berth, and seek a market elsewhere, 
while honest dealers in first-class articles will seek 
a market there. Farmers will buy more freely 
when they can do so in confidence, to their own 
profit, and to the benefit of the whole State. 
Again, there are in every State more or less of 
good marls, or other natural resources of fertility. 
No unscientific man can tell whether a substance is 
a worthless silicious deposit, or a calcareous or 
other valuable marl. A State Station can do much 
to seek out and test such deposits, and give valu¬ 
able information to those who are in doubt as to 
the value of known deposits, and who hesitate to 
send samples for analysis when a large expense is 
certain, and the result to be obtained not always 
surely trustworthy. 
There are hundreds of other questions which 
may well engage the energy, skill and science of 
those engaged in conducting an Agricultural Ex¬ 
periment Station, such as the value and best modes 
of using manures produced on the farm; relative 
value of various foods for animals, and the best 
combination or mixtures of them ; best methods 
of preparing them by cooking or otherwise; de¬ 
tection of adulterations in oil-cake, cotton-seed 
cake, etc.; best period for getting hay, grass, and 
other green forage ; poor seeds ; difference in soils, 
and the crops and fertilizers best adapted to each ; 
feeding for growth, for work, and for fattening, for 
milk, butter, or cheese ; fruit culture ; useful and 
destructive insects, as the potato beetle, army 
worms, etc., etc. All these and other topics are 
questions of practical interest, that require the 
highest practical skill and close, careful experiment 
and investigation, by painstaking, conscientious, 
scientific men—those above the suspicion of being 
in league with any dealers, and wholly devoted to 
the interests of the State which employs them. The 
results to be obtained, even on a small scale, can¬ 
not fail to be of great practical utility. 
We regret that this first effort at Middletown 
could not have had abundant funds at the start to 
enter upon the whole field of experiment. No 
effort will be spared to make the means and facili¬ 
ties at its command go as far as possible, and we 
look for at least some good results, which shall be 
of benefit not merely to the State of Connecticut,, 
but to the agriculturists of the whole country. 
