758 
Nov.  19 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Does  It  Pay  to  Mulch  Wheat? 
H.  S.,  Highlands,  N.  C. — It  is  very 
often  the  case  that  the  way  of  doing'  a 
thing  determines  its  usefulness  or  harm¬ 
fulness.  This  applies  to  the  case  of  C. 
1*.  H.,  page  653.  He  put  on  the  straw  too 
soon,  and  encouraged  a  tender  growth 
that  was  injured  by  the  freezing  after¬ 
wards.  It  is  not  the  freezing  that  hurts 
the  wheat,  hut  the  thawing  and  freezing 
following  each  other,  by  which  the  re¬ 
peated  lifting  of  the  soil  leaves  the  plants 
on  the  surface.  Had  he  spread  the  straw 
after  the  ground  was  frozen  it  would 
have  protected  the  wheat,  and  the  young 
plants  would  not  have  suffered.  Only 
a  hardy  growth  can  stand  the  freezing, 
and  if  the  young  plants  have  been  forced 
to  excessive  growth  by  a  premature  cov¬ 
ering  they  will  afterwards  be  damaged 
worse  than  if  they  had  been  left  uncov¬ 
ered.  This  principle  applies  to  all  kinds 
of  mulching,  as,  for  instance,  of  straw¬ 
berries.  The  covering  should  not  be  put 
on  until  the  ground  is  frozen  somewhat, 
and  then  it  should  be  sufficient  to  keep 
it  frozen.  The  same  is  the  case  in  regard 
to  mulching  for  a  protection  against  dry 
weather.  This  should  not  be  done  until 
the  ground  is  moist,  and  the  mulch  is  in¬ 
tended  to  keep  it  so  by  preventing  evap¬ 
oration.  So  with  the  protection  of  plants 
from  the  severe  winds  of  the  winter  by 
wrapping  them  with  straw.  It  is  not  the 
cold,  but  the  drying  effect  of  the  winds 
that  injures  the  plants,  and  it  is  not  ad¬ 
visable  to  make  use  of  the  protection  un¬ 
til  the  winter  has  actually  set  in.  Ex¬ 
perience  has  given  abundant  proof  that 
it  does  pay  to  mulch  wheat  with  straw, 
but  the  science  of  the  practice,  which 
is  the  simple  why  and  how  of  it,  must  be 
understood  and  made  the  rule  for  its  ap¬ 
plication. 
Hurrying  a  New  Peach. 
mine,  in  a  given  case,  to  which  sex  the 
variety  should  be  assigned.  A  still  far¬ 
ther  difficulty  may  be  illustrated  by 
a  little  personal  experience.  My  trial 
strawberry  plot  last  spring  included 
nearly  150  varieties,  and  the  first  blooms 
appeared  under  the  enfeebling  influence 
of  long-continued  cold,  wet  weather. 
Under  these  conditions,  in  making  the 
record  of  first  blooming  and  sexuality, 
very  many,  even  of  strongly  bisexual 
varieties,  were  found  to  be  nearly,  and 
in  many  cases,  wholly  without  anthers — 
a  condition  which  continued  until  the 
return  of  favorable  weather  renewed,  in 
some  degree,  the  vigor  of  the  plants. 
Defense  of  the  Butter  Accumulator. 
S.  M.,  Bluffton,  Mo. — Last  spring  I 
purchased  two  trees  of  the  Crosby  and 
as  many  of  the  Champion  peach.  They 
were  very  small  June  buds,  and  neither 
of  them  had  over  six  inches  of  top.  Now 
such  trees  with  the  best  of  treatment 
could  hardly  be  expected  to  bear  in  less 
than  three  years,  while  as  I  have  them,  I 
may  expect  a  nice  little  lot  of  each  next 
year.  When  they  have  to  come  from  a 
considerable  distance  T  always  choose  lit¬ 
tle  ones,  as  they  can  be  sent  by  mail;  thus 
escaping  the  express  robbers.  I  cut  the 
tops  of  these  trees  down  to  a  few  sound 
buds,  and  use  the  buds  taken  off  for  in¬ 
sertion  in  strong  two  or  tliree-year-old, 
thrifty  trees.  I  know  that  spring  bud¬ 
ding  is  not  in  vogue  much,  but  I  find  it 
a  very  convenient  method.  Just  now 
both  these  varieties  are  growing  on  trees 
of  bearing  size,  and  each  has  a  top  large 
enough  to  bear  half  a  peck  of  fruit  next 
season  if  it  be  a  peach  year.  The  Crosby 
is  said  to  bear  every  year. 
Objections  to  Naming  Strawberries  by  Sex. 
T.  T.  Lyon,  South  Havkn,  Mich  —In 
the  issue  of  October  22  reference  is  again 
made  to  the  propriety  of  bestowing  fem¬ 
inine  names  upon  pistillate  strawberries. 
That  this  would  be  exceedingly  conven¬ 
ient,  as  well  as  appropriate,  can  scarcely 
be  questioned  ;  but  with  such  practice, 
if  universally  applied  to  future  introduc¬ 
tions,  what  is  to  be  done  with  the  con¬ 
glomerate  past,  there  being  no  adequate 
authority  to  revise  and  change  the  names 
of  those  already  named  and  launched 
upon  the  public  ;  or  even  to  dictate  the 
naming  of  future  introductions  ?  There 
are,  moreover,  comparatively  few  abso¬ 
lute  pistillates.  Between  these  and  those 
distinctively  bisexual  there  exists  such  a 
gradual  variation  in  the  number  of  an¬ 
thers,  as  well  as  in  the  fertilizing  capacity 
of  the  pollen,  that  there  seems  to  be  room 
for  grave  doubt  as  to  the  ability  of  the 
average  originator  to  properly  deter- 
A.  Waiilin,  New  York.— From  a  quo¬ 
tation  in  Hoard’s  Dairyman  of  September 
28,  my  attention  has  been  called  to  an 
article  appearing  in  The  R.  N.-Y.  of 
October  15,  which  somehow  escaped  my 
notice  at  the  time,  containing  an  inter¬ 
view  between  the  paper’s  representative 
and  Mr.  Cottrell,  of  Ellerslie  Farm,  as  re¬ 
gards  my  butter  accumulator. 
Allow  me  to  say  that  if  at  any  time 
Mr.  Cottrell  found  that  the  accumulator, 
however  managed,  left  “  seven  per  cent 
of  fat  in  the  milk,”  it  certainly  was 
not  the  fault  of  the  machine.  Compara¬ 
tive  tests  at  the  Ellerslie  dairy  itself  have 
shown  that,  when  the  separator  and 
churn  produced  34  pounds  of  butter,  the 
accumulator  gave  36  pounds.  This  also 
agrees  perfectly  with  all  tests  made  else¬ 
where.  There  are  several  users  who 
have  been  running  my  invention 
every  day  for  the  last  nine  months,  with 
an  average  result  of  six  pounds  of  butter 
more  out  of  1,000  pounds  of  milk  than  ob¬ 
tained  from  the  best  kind  of  churn. 
Among  these  are  Mr.  John  Mayer,  of 
Mountain  Side  Farm,  Mahwah,  N.  J., 
and  Messrs.  Hovey,  Clark  &  Co.,  of 
Bainbridge,  N.  Y. ,  who  have  expressed 
the  greatest  satisfaction  with  the  results 
from  my  machine,  and  who  have  never 
experienced  the  least  trouble  with  it.  In 
fact,  as  regards  trouble  of  any  kind,  Mr. 
Cottrell  stands  quite  alone  so  far.  Be¬ 
sides,  on  February  20,  this  year,  while 
the  accumulator  was  run  by  Mr.  Cottrell’s 
own  dairyman,  Mr.  Kelly,  and  the  weigh¬ 
ing  and  testing  were  performed  by  his 
own  expert,  Mr.  Dorman,  the  result  was 
0.045  per  cent  of  fat  from  750  pounds  of 
milk  let  through.  I  challenge  any  ex¬ 
isting  churn  to  produce  a  better  result, 
or  even  one  nearly  as  good.  As  regards 
the  quality  of  its  product,  1  wall  only 
quote  what  Mr.  Kaufman,  Superintendent 
of  the  Down  Town  Club,  wrote  Mr.  Cot¬ 
trell  on  January  11,  this  year:  “  I  find 
the  butter  made  by  the  new  process  a  great 
deal  more  delicate  in  flavor  than  what 
we  have  been  receiving  heretofore,  and 
wish  to  have  that  kind  delivered  to  us  in 
future.” 
As  The  Rural’s  article  seems  to  have 
been  very  generally  observed  and  conse¬ 
quently  may  do  my  machine  very  grave 
injustice,  I  hope  the  editor  will  kindly 
find  room  in  his  columns  for  the  above 
statements,  which  I  am  prepared  at  any 
time  to  substantiate  by  producing  corre¬ 
spondence  and  other  evidence,  both  from 
Mr.  Cottrell  and  others,  too  bulky  to  be 
included  here. 
No  machine,  however  simple  and  per¬ 
fect  it  may  be,  can  give  good  results  if 
carlessly  handled  and  if  instructions  are 
disregarded.  It  is  easy  to  fail  with  any 
machine  if  its  success  is  not  earnestly 
wanted  or  its  manipulator  does  not  care 
to  ascertain  how  it  should  be  manipu¬ 
lated. 
[R.  N.-Y. — We  are  glad  to  print  the 
above.  We  hope  further  and  more  satis¬ 
factory  tests  will  be  made.] 
Appearance  of  a  Good  Potato. 
E.  C.  S.,  Springfield,  Mass.— On  page 
686  is  the  question  :  Would  it  be  desirable 
to  breed  potatoes  of  whiter  flesh  ?  Yes. 
I  have  raised  this  year  over  500  bushels, 
of  11  varieties.  I  sell  directly  to  families, 
and  the  potatoes  that  sell  the  best  and 
give  the  best  satisfaction  are  the  whitest 
kinds— Hampden  Beauty,  Beauty  of 
Hebron,  Polaris  and  Empire  State. 
Another  question  is  :  Isarusseted  skin 
evidence  of  good  quality  in  potatoes 
Yes.  I  have  never  seen  any  one  better 
able  to  judge  the  quality  of  a  potato  by 
its  looks  than  Irish  women.  I  have  often 
had  them  pick  up  a  russeted  potato  in 
my  wagon  and  say,  “  I  like  to  see  them 
look  freckled  like  that.  That  is  a  good 
potato.” 
A  third  inquiry  is  :  Are  a  shapely  form 
and  a  smooth  skin  evidences  of  quality  ? 
Yes.  For  the  last  three  years  I  have 
selected  my  seed  potatoes  in  the  fall  at 
digging  time,  saving  only  those  perfect 
in  shape  and  form,  with  a  smooth  skin 
surface  the  ideal  potato — and  my  pota¬ 
toes  have  improved  in  sha  pe  and  c  uality. 
While  potatoes  are  selling  here  on  the 
cars  at  75  cents  and  farmers  are  selling 
at  75  to  90  cents,  my  customers  are  cheer¬ 
fully  paying  me  SI  a  bushel. 
Select  Notes  of  the  Chrysanthemum  Show 
of  New  York. 
Ivory  is  one  of  the  very  best  white 
chrysanthemums.  The  flower  is  perfect 
as  to  form  and  the  plant  is  dwarf. 
Domination  is  also  white  and  of  per¬ 
fect  form.  This  is  prized  as  an  early 
forcing  variety. 
Rohallion  is  among  yellows  what 
Domination  is  among  whites,  one  of  the 
earliest  to  force.  It  is  a  charming  flower. 
Mais.  J.  N.  Girard  is  a  fine  pink,  the 
petals  wholly  covering  the  center.  It  is 
fairly  dwarf  as  to  habit. 
Mrs.  Wanama«er  islilce  Ivory,  but  the 
petals  part  from  the  center  somewhat. 
The  new  “  hybrid  ”  crysanthemum, 
World’s  Fair,  attracted  more  attention 
than  any  other  single  plant  on  exhibition. 
It  stood  alone  in  a  pot  a  foot  in  diameter 
raised  up  six  feet  or  more.  The  plants 
bore  leaves  resembling  a  solanum  a  foot 
long  and  deeply  lobed.  The  plant  had 
but  one  stem  two  feet  high,  which  bore 
a  single  flower  so  far  above  the  heads  of 
its  admirers  that  no  one  could  touch  it. 
This  wonderful  flower  was  of  an  orange 
color,  not  less  than  10  inches  in  diameter 
and  well  covered  with  broad,  curved 
petals. 
This  “World’s  Fair”  was  “not  offered 
in  competition.” 
Not  one  of  the  many  who  admired  it 
( Continued  on  next  page.) 
If  you  name  The  R.  N.-Y.  to  our  advertisers  you 
may  be  pretty  sure  of  prompt  replies  and  right 
treatment. 
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Mrs.  Mary  E.  O’Fallon, 
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broke  out  on  her  head, 
_  arms,  tongue  and  throat. 
Mrs.  M.  E.  O’Fallon. She  weighed  but  78  lbs., 
and  saw  no  prospect  of 
help.  At  last  slie  began  to  take  HOOD’S 
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could  soon  get  out  of  bed  and  walk.  She  is  now 
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HOOD’S  Pills  should  be  in  every  family 
medicine  chest.  Once  used,  always  preferred. 
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