i46 
THH RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FEB. 21 
Tile Drainage in Oregon. 
Prof. E. R. Lakh, Benton County, Ore. 
—In The R. N.-Y. of January 17, page 48, I 
find this statement: “ Oregon farmers are 
talking about using tiles. They would use 
them for irrigation—not for drainage.” 
Now, while I know full well The Rural’s 
good intentions, I must protest against 
this item. While no great injustice is 
done, it is plain that the casual reader 
might infer from these words that farming 
in Oregon is like railroading in China—yet 
in the dark ages. The truth of the matter 
is, we are tiling. During the past three 
years many miles of the best modern tile 
have been laid in the most approved 
modern style in the Willamette Valley, to 
say nothing about other sections of the 
State. Recently a large tract of semi- 
inundated land has been reclaimed by 
putting a large open ditch through it. 
This land will be excellent for all kinds of 
vegetables and it has been thought that by 
putting in a system of under-tiling it could 
also be Irrigated during the dry summer 
months, thereby making it produce in per¬ 
fection what we now lack—to a certain ex¬ 
tent—late summer vegetables. 
Whether this is The Rural’s source of 
information regarding our irrigation tiling 
or not I can truly say that to day one can 
see the tiles distributed over several hun¬ 
dred acres in the vicinity of Portland, and 
when the weather will permit (which will 
probably be in a few weeks) these will be 
placed in position. That our people are 
alive to the importance of drainage is well 
attested by the fact that scarcely a meeting 
of our intelligent cultivators is held in 
which some phase of the subject does not 
come up for discussion ; and yet, while this 
subject is new to the great mass of our 
farmers so far as the practical aspect is 
concerned, wo are not quite so far behind 
as our Rural friend represents. 
R. N.-Y.—We thought to compliment our 
Oregon friends on the fact that they are in 
advance of the rest of us with a system of 
sub-irrigation—the use of tiles both to 
remove surplus water and to supply needed 
moisture. Something of this kind is likely 
to be the future of tile drainage. 
Tree Label: Orchard Map. 
F. Philp, Columbia County, N. Y.—I 
have used the following plan for labeling and 
keeping record of fruit trees, grape vines, 
etc. For a label I use a slip of zinc having 
a number stamped on one end; the other 
is bent around a small limb. I use a num¬ 
ber for each name and keep a record in a 
book. I also keep a map of the orchard in 
which each tree with the name of the vari¬ 
ety, is indicated by a number, and I keep a 
record of these numbers and names. The 
following is a map of the north orchard. 
1 2 
1 2 
1 2 
1 2 
1 3 
1 3 
]. Baldwin. 
2. Ben Davis. 
8. Greening. 
4. Northern Spy. 
5. Newtown Pippin. 
6. Russet. 
?. Spitzenburgh. 
4 7 10 
4 7 10 
5 8 11 
5 8 11 
5 9 12 
6 9 12 
8. Vandevere. 
9. Tetofsky. 
10. King. 
11. Porter. 
12. Swaar. 
18. Jonathan. 
14. Fameuse, etc. 
A Southern Woman Defends Japan 
Clover. 
Mrs. Bessie C. Bond, Shelby County, 
Tknn. —Please allow a Southern farm girl 
a word in defense of Japan Clover, so much 
derided by Mr. Stewart in a recent Rural. 
It appears that the gentleman does not 
really know the genuine Japan Clover, but 
has mistaken some other variety of the 
Lespedeza for it. He says it is not eaten by 
cows at all, while all of our cows, mules, 
horses, colts, hogs and sheep delight in it, 
live and fatten on it from April to frost, 
and love It dry all winter. Lespedeza will 
reclaim the poorest land. Some great man 
said, “ The greatest benefactor to mankind 
is he who makes two blades of grass grow 
where one grew before.” If that is true, 
the man who sows Japan Clover is a thous¬ 
and times greater benefactor. Lespedeza 
will eradicate the hateful “ broom-sedge ” 
and also Bermuda Grass, and, according 
to the law of the “ survival of the fittest,” 
it is the “ fittest ” of all, for it will survive 
anything else unless it be Johnson Grass. 
As to whether it is a clover or not, I can¬ 
not dispute with Mr. Stewart, and will 
leave that to the learned botanists to decide; 
but what I have said is the result of my 
experience and observation. Lespedeza is 
a great thing, a good thing, and the thing 
for me, Mr. Stewart’s Red Clover or any¬ 
thing else to the contrary. 
An Iowa Corn Yield. 
J. F. Pitts, Allamakee County, Iowa. 
—Our Governor (Boles), at a recent dinner 
in New York city, gave the world to 
understand that Iowa farmers this year 
are close to famishing paupers. Let me tell 
how much corn I have raised on a piece of 
worn-out pasture land in which there are 
several sink holes. There were only three 
acres that could be cultivated. It was 
plowed as soon as the frost was out of the 
ground and received no dressing except 
only a light coat of stable manure on the 
poorest spots : 
Cost for plowing at $1.25 per acre. $3 75 
Planting . 1.50 
Cutting and binding $ i per acre. 8 00 
Husking and getting In the fodder. 6.30 
Total.$14.55 
For my trouble and outlay I received 126 
bushels of good sound corn, worth here at 
home 40 cents per bushel, amounting to 
$50.40. After deducting the amount paid 
for labor, I have $35.85 in corn, while I 
think the fodder pays me for help hired to 
do the rest. Add to this at least $10 for 
pumpkins raised on the same ground, and 
I have $45.85 for my trouble, and am well 
satisfied. 
A “Coltery” The Latest. 
A. J. Walling, Broome County, N. Y. 
—My “ coltery” is 11x20 feet and high 
enough to permit the colts to move about 
without striking their heads. I put two 
colts in it Thanksgiving Day—one a year¬ 
ling grade Hambletonian, the other a 
Percheron eight months old, and about the 
same size as the yearling. After these had 
been there about two weeks, I put in 
another young colt, a “native.” I feed 
them four quarts each daily of bran and oil 
meal—one-fourth of the latter by weight- 
all the clover and Timothy hay they will 
eat up clean, and water them twice a day. 
They are growing nicely. They have not 
been out since they were put in. They 
play and exercise as much as is necessary. 
As to Japan Clover. 
Henry Stewart, Macon County, N. C. 
—I will not quarrel with Prof. Stark over 
this two sided question, which presents 
precisely a similar case to that of the his¬ 
toric shield, which was of silver on the one 
side and of gold on the other. I have 
spoken from my point of view, which 
covers North and South Carolina, Georgia, 
Virginia and part of Tennessee, and of my 
knowledge during six years past of several 
persons who have sent communications 
freely to agricultural journals which circu¬ 
late largely in the North, eulogizing this 
plant as an invaluable forage plant of 
which they would supply the seed. One 
man especially, whom I knew to be a 
fraud, was busily engaged in this enter¬ 
prise, and to my personal knowledge, re¬ 
ceived hundreds of letters from Northern 
farmers who wished to purchase seed. My 
knowledge of this plant, from my point of 
view, is as I have stated, as Prof. Stark 
correctly quotes. I need not therefore re¬ 
peat it. But Prof. Stark mistakes when 
he leads himself to believe or suppose that 
I deny his statements as regards the Gulf 
States. I have every confidence in his 
entire veracity, and good judgment, too, 
but the latter is somewhat strained when 
he includes the whole South in his state¬ 
ment of its good qualities. He should say 
in some parts of the South, and qualify 
the statement as to other parts. I still in¬ 
sist that he is wrong in saying that it is 
valuable within the limits of Bermuda 
Grass, and might succeed farther north by 
artificial seeding. I know the plant well, 
as I know the other varieties of Lespedeza, 
and know that it will not grow in every 
place where Bermuda Grass thrives, for in 
my lawn and some of my fields this grass 
is growing thickly, but only here and there 
a stray plant of Japan Clover is to be seen 
on the roads and in old fields. My object 
is not to throw cold water on this plant, 
nor to put any obstacle to its use in local¬ 
ities where it may be found valuable ; but 
it is to prevent farmers elsewhere from 
losing money and valuable time, and gain¬ 
ing disappointment in trying to grow this 
plant as a substitute for clover where that 
can be grown or where it will not seed it¬ 
self and so become perennial, or in local¬ 
ities where it does not naturally thrive to 
the remarkable degree described by Prof. 
Stark as occurring in the Gulf States. 
It has failed, as it appears, to be of any 
value in Kentucky, although grown on an 
experimental plot, and this admission 
should be sufficient to cast doubt on the 
four somewhat enthusiastic reasons given 
why “ Southern ” farmers should cultivate 
it. Lastly, I think Prof. Stark himself 
scarcely meant to say that this plant, 
climbing down into the gullies and washes, 
finally closes them up. I have seen it over¬ 
hanging the edges of such gullies in old 
fields, untasted by cows or hogs, but that 
it will close them up is a heavy draft upon 
one’s credulity, although it may be true in 
some places, for what I know. Will Prof. 
Stark explain how the wind sows this 
seed, which is small and heavy, and not 
winged. 
The Polaris Potato. 
H. L. Wysor, Pulaski County, Va.— 
In the first test which The R. N.-Y. made 
of this potato, it made the discovery that 
there were two or more forms of it, so that 
it would be rather difficult to say which 
was the true Polaris. In seed which I ob¬ 
tained two years ago and from which I 
have grown two crops (the tubers were 
obtained from Maule, of Philadelphia, who 
says he bought them of the originator), I 
find this to be markedly the case. One of 
these forms or varieties developed a rather 
remarkable peculiarity during the severe 
drought of last summer. After the vines 
had matured and died down, it required 
considerable muscular effort to pull them 
from the ground. The roots had entered 
deep into the soil, and, as a consequence, 
the tubers were numerous and large not¬ 
withstanding the dry weather. With what 
is probably the real Polaris, the case was 
precisely opposite. It is shallow-rooted 
and the crop last summer was hardly 
worth digging. The vines of the deep- 
rooted variety are taller and later in 
maturing than those of the earlier type; 
the tubers, too, are larger and have more 
prominent eyes, and are in shape oval- 
round, and not so smooth as those belong¬ 
ing to the true form. I note that Messrs. 
Frank Ford & Son, Ravenna, Ohio, offer 
in this year’s catalogue a new potato— 
Koshkonong—which is said to possess the 
peculiarity I have remarked above, and of 
which the description is pretty much the 
same as that I have given. Query—Did 
Mr. Crane, the originator, grow it from 
seed in ’84, as stated, or is it a selection 
from the Polaris ? By the way, Mr. Bur¬ 
pee claims that the Polaris is identical 
with the Puritan, as he Is not able to see 
any difference between them. Mr. Maule, 
on the other hand, says that inasmuch as 
the Polaris was offered for sale some years 
before the Puritan, if there is any identi¬ 
cally about them, the Puritan is identical 
with the Polaris. It is a little strange, if the 
Puritan runs true to type, that Mr. Bur¬ 
pee, who says he has grown the two varie¬ 
ties side by side, has not observed the vari¬ 
ations of the Polaris remarked by The R. 
N.-Y. and myself. 
(Continued on next voge.) 
When writing to advertisers, please 
mention The Rural New-Yorker. 
When 
Winter Wanes 
The Bracing - Effect of 
Cold Air is Lost. 
To Gain Health 
and Strength, Take 
Hood’s 
Sarsaparilla 
Highly concentrated. Dose small. In quantity costs 
less than one-tenth cent a day per hen. Prevents and 
cures all diseases. If you can’t get it, we send by mail 
post-paid. One pack. 25c. Five $1. 2 1-41b. can $1.20; 
6 cans $5. Expresspaid. Testimonials free. Send stamps or 
cash. Farmers’ Poultry Guide (price 25c.) free with $1.0# 
Orders or more. L S. JOHNSON <fc CO., Boston, Mass. 
BEECHAMS PILLS 
(THE GREAT ENGLI8H REMEDY.) 
Cure BILIOUS and 
Nervous ILLS. 
25cts. a Box. 
OF ALL GrGS-ISTS. 
A child can man- 
\ age the “ Pitts- 
^ burgh” Lamp— 
all it wants is fill¬ 
ing and wiping 
once a day a^l 
trimming once a week. 
So much for one year’s im¬ 
provement in lamps I 
We have a primer to send. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. PITTSBURGH BRASS Co 
NEW KODAKS 
“ You press the 
button , 
toe do the rest." 
Seven New 
Style, and 
Size, 
all loaded with 
Tran.parent 
Film.. 
For .ale by al 
Photo. Stock 
Dealers. 
THE EASTMAN COMPANY, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
Send for Catalogue. 
SCRIBNER’S 
LUMBER 
LOG BOOK. 
Over One Million Sold.— Most complete book of 
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ing bolts, etc. Standard book In the United States 
and Canada. Illustrated edition of 1882. Sent post¬ 
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Q. W. FIHHKR, Box 238, Rochester, New York. 
(idrWIRE ROPE SELVAGE the BEST. 
PRICES REDUCED. Sold by dealers. FREIGHT PAID. 
McMULLEN'S POULTRY NETTING. Ncwthln*. 
No sagging! No bagging! Extra Heavy Hclvuge. 
The McMullen Woven Wire Fence Co.. Chicago. JQL 
‘ISelCFENCING 
WIRE 
Woven Wire. 
P RACTICAL HINTS [Qrr 
TO BUILDERS. ! lilLL. 
100 pages, 48 Illustrations, 20 short chapters on the 
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mortar, cellar, heating, ventilation, the roof and 
many items of Interest to builders. 
Over 100,000 copies of this little book have been sold 
for ten cents each. 
We now propose to put It Into the bands of those 
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Metal Shingles and Roofing we manufacture. 
THE NATIONAL SHEET METAL EOOFINO 00., 
510 to 520 East 20th St., New York City. 
Address 
Circulars Free. 
THOMAS PEPPLER, Hightstown, N. J. 
he Most Perfect 
HJRROWER 
Marks 
NY WIDTH or 
EPTIlof 
Lea 
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Price, complete, 
LYS 11 . 
Also the Riggs’ Im 
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Harrows. Cultivators, 
Corn Shelters. Bag 
Trucks. Wagon Jacks, 
Extension Ladders, 
Ac. Ac. 
FOR SALE. 
THIRTY ACRE FRUIT FARM, situated on thn 
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for steamer, which makes four dally trips. Suitable 
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For terms of sale address 
Box 24, Spring Lake, Mich. 
