1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
575 
Farmers’  Club  Discussion. 
(Continued.) 
inarkably  rapid  progress.  On  the  tables 
of  our  best  farmers  we  find  a  variety  and 
quality  of  food  fully  equal  to  that  found 
on  the  best  tables  in  town.  And  when 
it  comes  to  domestic  fruits  and  vegeta¬ 
bles,  the  farmer  has  the  advantage,  be¬ 
cause  his  are  fresh  and  at  first  hands, 
while  the  other  fellow’s  are  more  or  less 
stale  and  have  been  handled  by  nobody 
knows  who.  Of  course  it  is  under¬ 
stood  that  I  am  speaking  of  the  skillful, 
enterprising  farmer,  who  is  up  with  the 
times  and  manages  his  business  with  a 
master’s  hand.  The  short-witted  clod¬ 
hopper  who  is  governed  by  the  moon, 
the  equinoxes  and  luck,  who  is  afflicted 
with  a  “  retch  ”  in  his  side,  a  “  crick  M 
in  his  back  and  three  pairs  of  twins,  is 
not  in  it  at  all.  He  is  not  considered. 
This  great  change  for  the  better  is  due, 
I  am  satisfied,  almost  entirely  to  the 
agricultural  press ;  for  whenever  we 
found  evidences  of  skill  and  good  judg¬ 
ment  on  the  farm  and  in  the  home  there 
are  found  the  leading  agricultural  jour¬ 
nals.  Their  influence  and  teachings 
are  steadily  extending,  and  they  arc 
doing  more  to  instruct,  encourage,  refine 
and  elevate  the  farmer  and  his  family  to¬ 
day  than  all  other  agencies  combined. 
Greening  Potatoes.  Celery  Blowing1 
Down. 
E.  D.  R.,  Arnot,  Pa. — In  a  late  Rural 
a  writer  speaks  of  “  sunning  ”  his  seed 
potatoes  in  the  spring.  Several  years 
ago  I  read  in  another  agricultural  paper 
a  communication  from  a  Mr.  Gerald 
Ilowatt  (if  I  remember  the  name  cor¬ 
rectly)  who  allowed  his  seed  to  become 
greened  by  the  sun  after  they  had  been 
dug  in  the  fall.  I  have  tried  the  experi¬ 
ment  of  greening  the  little  ones  too  small 
to  be  eaten  and  using  them  for  seed  with 
satisfactory  results.  I  once  tried  an  ex¬ 
periment  on  Burbank  Seedlings.  In  a 
row  100  feet  long  I  used  greened  cut 
seed,  having  picked  out  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  tubers  no  larger  than  butternuts, 
and  the  next  row  was  planted  with  un¬ 
greened  cut  seed  (having  two  and  three 
eyes  apiece)  from  potatoes  that  would 
have  weighed  three-quarters  of  a  pound 
or  more  each.  Result,  the  ungreened 
seed  yielded  two  bushels  and  scant  four 
quarts;  while  the  green  seed  yielded  2)4 
bushels  and  about  five  quarts  of  market¬ 
able  potatoes.  Greened  seed  will  stand 
several  degrees  more  of  cold  than  un¬ 
greened,  as  I  have  found  by  two  experi¬ 
ences.  Is  not  this  a  fertile  field  for  ex¬ 
periment  ?  With  reference  to  the  New 
Celery  Culture,  when  the  celery  plants, 
7x7  inches  apart,  are  two  feet  or  me  re 
in  height  and  a  wind  storm  occurs  strong 
enough  to  blow  corn  into  a  confused 
heap,  how  will  the  celery  stand  it?  I  am 
trying  100  plants  surrounded  with 
boards,  and  seeing  my  corn  go  down  be¬ 
fore  a  strong  wind  I  wondered  how  it 
would  have  affected  the  celery  if  unpro¬ 
tected. 
R.  N.-Y. — We  cannot  say  about  the 
celery  but  should  think  a  strong  gale 
would  blow  it  down. 
Give  the  Gooseberry  a  Lift. 
W.  G.  Waring,  Blair  County,  Pa.— I 
am  glad  to  learn  that  The  R.  N.-Y.  is 
giving  its  great  influence  in  favor  of  ad¬ 
vancing  the  gooseberry  to  a  higher  grade 
of  estimation.  It  is  the  first  fruit  that 
we  can  use  from  our  own  Northern  gar¬ 
dens  in  early  June,  when  we  have  the 
liveliest  appetite  and  desire  for  some¬ 
thing  fresh  and  piquant.  This  is  what 
green  gooseberries  eminently  are.  They 
come  in  for  sauce  and  pies  soon  after 
rhubarb,  and  have  much  more  zest  and 
flavor.  Even  after  strawberries  begin  to 
ripen,  gooseberry  tarts  are  by  no  means 
outrivalled.  Both  are  very  acceptable 
constituents  of  the  dessert.  There  are 
no  fruits,  not  even  currants,  that  give  a 
larger  or  surer  yield  than  the  gooseberry 
every  year  without  fail.  They  last  till 
mid-August,  when  they  become  fully 
ripe  and  sweet,  acceptable  to  old  and 
young,  and  if  enough  remain  for  pre¬ 
serving  they  make  a  notably  rich  jam. 
One  of  many  different  sorts  growing 
here  is  a  tall  grower  and  yields  its  fruit 
in  quasi  racemes  usually  of  two  berries 
each.  This  and  the  form,  smoothness 
and  gloss  of  the  leaves  and  their  compara¬ 
tive  exemption  from  injury  by  the  worms 
tend  to  justify  the  idea  that  there  may 
be  some  share  of  the  Missouri  currant  in 
the  composition  of  this  sort.  A  bush 
about  eight  years  old  is  six  feet  high  and 
seven  or  eight  feet  wide  and  bears  im¬ 
mensely,  ripening  all  that  are  left  to 
ripen  without  any  rotting  or  bursting. 
The  berries  are  as  large  as  Houghtons, 
and  the  same  color  and  season  as  those 
of  the  Industry,  and  as  large  as  they  are 
on  a  bush  of  about  the  same  age.  but 
with  much  less  vigor.  We  call  this  sort 
the  Mountain  Seedling. 
Why  Does  the  Water  Rise  P 
H.  Stewart,  Bergen  County,  N.  J. — 
Why  does  the  water  rise  in  creeks  before 
a  storm?  asks  Mr.  B.  F.  Johnson  in  a 
late  R.  N.-Y.  This  question  is  like  that 
one  mentioned  in  history  when  an  Eng¬ 
lish  king  asked  the  Royal  Society,  the 
first  scientific  body  in  the  world  at  that 
time,  “Why  does  a  pan  of  water  with  a 
fish  in  it  weigh  no  more  than  the  same 
pan  of  water  before  the  fish  is  put  into 
it.”  The  bald-headed  scientists  worried 
over  this  question,  and  many  different 
attempts  to  solve  it  were  made.  When 
one  said,  does  it  weigh  the  same?  The 
scales  were  brought  and  the  weight  of 
the  water  and  the  fish  were  found  to  be 
equal  to  the  weights  of  both  together. 
And  the  king  smiled.  So,  does  the  creek 
rise  before  rain?  I  aver  that  it  does  not, 
and  if  it  did  the  pressure  of  the  air  has 
nothing  to  do  with  this  supposed  phen¬ 
omenon,  which  does  not  exist.  There 
are  many  popular  delusions  of  the  kind. 
Many  millers  think  the  water  has  more 
power  at  night  than  in  the  day.  This  is 
without  any  foundation  in  truth.  The 
power  of  a  water  wheel  is  due  to  the 
weight  of  the  water  passing  through  it. 
And  the  water  is  precisely  the  same 
weight  in  the  day  as  in  the  night.  If 
Mr.  Johnson  would  think  a  moment,  he 
must  see  that  the  atmospheric  pressure 
cannot  have  any  effect  on  a  stream  of 
water,  nor  indeed  on  a  spring  of  water 
either,  because  it  is  exerted  in  every  di¬ 
rection  at  the  same  time.  If  this  pres¬ 
sure  could  have  any  effect  at  all,  it  must 
be  to  change  the  density  of  the  water, 
but  this  would  not  change  its  level  in  the 
stream,  and  would  be  a  wholly  inappre¬ 
ciable  quantity. 
Furnish  Intelligence  and  Hire  Muscle. 
E.  L.  G  ,  Loudon,  Tenn  — On  page  528 
of  The  R.. N.-Y.,  the  question  is  asked 
the  readers  whether  a  young  man  can 
get  a  small  farm  in  their  respective  sec¬ 
tions,  and,  if  not,  why  not  ?  lama  young 
man.  I  came  to  this  country  5)4  years 
ago,  with  barely  $2,000  capital,  all  told; 
to-day  I  could  raise  $8,000  to  $10,000.  I 
do  not  state  this  as  a  boast,  but  to  show 
what  has  been  done  here,  and  what  I 
fully  believe  any  young  man  willing  to 
work  can  do  again.  One  naturally  wants 
to  know  how  I  have  done  so  well. 
Largely  by  the  advance  in  the  value  of 
an  old  plantation.  I  bought  at  that  time, 
for  $2,500,  an  old  farm  very  badly  worn 
out  and  gullied,  going  in  debt  for  what 
I  could  not  pay.  I  could,  by  close  scrap¬ 
ing,  gather  two  loads  of  manure  the  fall 
I  came  here.  I  have  this  year  put  out 
150  big  loads,  and  next  year  am  sure  to 
increase  this  by  100.  I  have  stopped  up 
all  gullies,  repaired  fences,  manured  thin 
spots,  plowed  deep,  raised  clover,  bought 
chemicals,  etc.,  and  to-day  the  farm  that 
cost  $2,500  is  worth  and  would  sell  for 
$8,000.  It  has  furnished  means  enough 
to  pay  the  debts  on  it  and  a  living  for 
me,  as  well  as  the  means  for  improve¬ 
ments,  and  to-day  each  acre  is  yielding 
a  crop  that  would  more  than  pay  the  first 
cost  of  the  land  it  grows  on.  If  nothing 
happens  to  injure  the  corn  now  almost 
ripe,  I  shall  raise  $2,000  worth  of  corn, 
wheat  and  stock  this  year.  There  are 
plenty  of  such  chances  still  to  be  had 
here  by  going  back  a  little  farther  from 
the  railroad. 
There  are  several  things  that  go  to 
make  farming  profitable  in  this  section  : 
Cheap  labor  is  one,  low  taxes  another, 
nearby  markets  another,  and,  last  but 
not  least,  a  long  season.  We  can  have 
grazing  for  10  months  in  the  year  by 
proper  management,  and  the  cotton  coun¬ 
try  south  of  us  gives  us  a  nearby  market 
for  all  we  raise.  Oood  farm  laborers  can 
be  had  at  from  $13  to  $15  per  month  with¬ 
out  board.  Their  employer  furnishes  a 
cabin  for  them  to  live  in  and  a  truck 
patch  of  perhaps  a  quarter  of  an  acre 
gratis.  Readers  may  say  :  “  You  can’t 
get  intelligent  labor  at  such  prices.”  We 
can  get  muscular  labor,  and  I  for  one  am 
willing  to  furnish  the  intelligence  to  run 
this  plantation,  if  the  muscle  can  be  had 
at  such  a  price.  These  laborers  are  good, 
strong  men  of  average  sense,  and  willing 
to  obey  orders  and  do  as  directed,  which 
is  all  I  ask  of  them. 
There  are  many  small  farms  here  of 
from  60  to  100  acres,  that  can  be  had  at 
from  $1,000  to  $2,000  each  on  very  easy 
terms,  say,  one-third  cash  and  the  rest  in 
from  three  to  five  annual  payments. 
Thus  a  young  man  who  has  from  $500 
upward  to  invest  in  land  can  get  a  home 
on  such  terms  as  will  enable  him  to  pay 
for  it  and  thus  lay  the  foundation  for  a 
competence.  Hundreds  of  men  from  the 
high-priced  lands  and  rigorous  climate 
of  the  North  and  East  could  better  their 
conditions,  as  well  as  their  health  by 
coming  to  East  Tennessee.  We  have  the 
best  climate  on  the  continent,  being  free 
from  both  extremes  felt  in  the  North. 
The  temperature  rarely  goes  to  within 
10  degrees  of  zero  in  winter  and  never 
has  been  known  to  reach  100  degrees  in 
summer.  We  are  surrounded  by  lofty 
mountains  which  protect  us  from  the 
burning  heat  of  the  far  South  as  well  as 
the  cold  blizzards  of  the  North.  Here  in 
the  Sweetwater  Valley  is  as  good  and 
fertile  a  country  as  lies  south  of  the  Ohio 
River.  The  parts  run  down  by  bad  farm¬ 
ing  respond  quickly  and  permanently  to 
the  use  of  manure  and  fertilizers,  and  can 
be  soon  restored  to  their  original  pro¬ 
ductiveness.  The  curses  of  this  country 
are  large  farms  and  poor  farming.  We 
need  more  men  from  the  North  to  buy 
up  these  farms  and  manage  them  better. 
Hundreds  have  already  come  and  there  is 
room  for  thousands  more.  Our  climate 
is  genial  and  healthful,  the  people  kind 
and  courteous,  the  soil  responsive  to  right 
usage,  and  land  still  wheap,  although 
advancing  in  price  every  year,  and  for 
renters  and  men  of  small  means  in  the 
North  there  are  many  inducements  to 
come  here. 
Estab’d]  JACKSON  BROS.  [1852. 
V.  Y.  STATS  DRAIN  TILB  AND  HPE  WORKS 
70  Third  Avenue.  ALBANY,  N.  Y. 
AND 
kro> 
azed  Pipe,  Fi> 
Brick  and  Cement. 
NEW  YORK  STATE  FAIR. 
52nd  Annual  State  Fair, 
Syracuse,  September  8,  9,  10, 
12,  13,  14  and  16. 
$25,000  in  Premiums. 
The  largest,  and  finest  exhibition  of  Horses, 
Cattle,  Sheep,  Swine  and  Poultry 
ever  seen  in  the  State. 
On  Saturday,  September  10,  His  Excellency,  the 
Governor  of  the  State,  Hon.  ROSWELL  P.  FLOWER, 
will  attend  the  Fair  and  address  the  people. 
On  Tuesday,  September  18,  HON.  J.  H.  BRIGHAM, 
Grand  Master  of  the  Farmers' National  Grange  will 
speak  on  the  Fair  grounds.  This  will  be  the  largest 
meeting  of  Fanners  and  Grangers  ever  held  In 
this  State. 
Every  day  of  the  Fair  trotting  and  running  races 
will  be  held.  The  MacDonald  Chariot  races,  and 
other  new  and  superior  attractions. 
Entries  of  live  stock  close  August  8.  Entries  for 
trotting  races  close  August  25.  Entries  in  all  other 
Departments  close  September  7.  For  details  and 
other  Information  apply  to  W.  JUDSON  SMITH, 
Secretary  of  the  New  York  State  Agricultural 
Society,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
SCIENTIFIC 
Grinding 
MILL. 
BEST  MILL  on  Earth. 
Safety  Bottom 
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to  prevent  accidents. 
Reversible,  Self-Sharpening  Grinding  Plates. 
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SAVES  25  to  50  per  cent,  grinding  Food.  Fully 
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lx  writing  to  advertisers  please  always  mention 
THE  RUBAI,. 
Canada  Unleached  Hard-wood 
Acknowledged  the  most  satisfactory  fertilizer. 
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|*I5  Road  Cart,  -  *9.00 
I  *7.50  Single  Harness,  *4.25 
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ALL  GOODS  Fl.'LLY  WARRANTED  and  shipped  any¬ 
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Husks  the  corn  and  cuts  the  stalks  into  the  best  fodder  known.  A  won¬ 
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