1891 
4o3 
point where “ figures will not lie,” I held 
my breath at the sight of the cost. Every 
season’s failure to make it actually profit¬ 
able was accounted for and an improve¬ 
ment for the following season planned. 
No use, each succeeding summer brought a 
little difference in the way of accidents or 
hindrances and the final outcome proved 
just about as bad as the preceding one. 
The only possible way to profit by it was 
to make a hay mow of it. This I have done. 
A silo used as a hay mow is all right. 
Ruminants or non-ruminants are «qually 
safe. Good clover and Timothy hay harm 
nothing in the stables. 
If nature hasn’t made it convenient for a 
horse to chew a end, nobody that has to 
pay for feed wants him to do so. The siloist 
fiend, however, would be glad to make him 
do it, so that ensilage need not necessarily 
send him where the “ woodbine twineth ” 
when forced to eat it. The rtcords show 
conclusively that even a mule will suc¬ 
cumb with ensilage as a steady diet. There 
is little else known in the line of eatables 
that will induce a mule to quickly give up 
the ghost, excepting dried apples followed 
by a draft of water. 
Some contributors to The Rural advo¬ 
cate putting in the material whole. I had 
a neighbor who tried that once. He 
packed his fodder as carefully and solidly 
as possible. The bouquet that poured out 
of that silo every morning when opened 
was a terror to the community. In a clear, 
frosty morning the stale swill odor would 
permeate the air for a distance of half a 
mile from his silo. A physician whose 
residence was within reach of the flavor 
threatened to have it abated as a public 
nuisance on sanitary grounds. No one 
felt any ill effects physically, although 
mentally much shaken up. 
Having given up the silo, I do not 
necessarily cease sowing fodder corn. 
It is sown at the rale of about 
three pecks per acre in drills, cul¬ 
tivated once or twice and left to ripen, 
when it is cut up and stouted up in large 
“ shocks ” and fed as wanted. Horses and 
cattle eat it with sa'ety and with the same 
avidity with which the early enthusiasts 
on ensilage were wont to describe the fond¬ 
ness of their stock for it. Fodder corn 
preserved in this way is as good as hay, 
pound for pound, in our latitude. A horse 
with heaves will do his work on such feed 
without discomfort. He will not be cured, 
but the acuteness of the disease will be so 
far ameliorated that he will show it but 
little. Having had some experience with 
asthma, I have a sympathy for a horse 
with heaves, and am glad to give the poor 
brute a meal that will lessen his torture. 
ORIGIN OF THE TRENCH SYSTEM. 
It has been stated several times that 
what is known as the Rural Trench System 
of raising potatoes was known many years 
ago and that, consequently, The R. N.-Y. 
is not the originator. Until a few days ago 
we had been unable to obtain any proof of 
such statements. Mr. John W. Groutage, 
of Elkhorn, Man., Canada, has kindly sent 
us an English book, published many years 
ago—the date does not appear—which gives 
the following instructions how “To Raise 
Large Crops of Potatoes of the Best 
Quality.” It is copied without change of 
punctuation or construction : 
Take middle sized roots and soak them 
during eight or twelve hours, if very dry, 
in water, or draining of a dung-heap, or 
water in which horse dung has been steeped 
some days, or in water well saturated with 
salt petre or common salt, a saline steep 
being the supposed preventive of the curl, 
which it may be, the disease being in the 
seed although certainly not, should the 
curl originate in any future cause. The 
land being well broken up, pulverized and 
cleaned, mark it out in rows 18 or 20 inches 
apart. Make each row into a trench, as 
for celery, and each trench nine inches 
deep and 12 wide, the earth removed to form 
the trenches to be thrown on each side of 
them. The bottom of the trench should be 
level, and the potatoes planted in it four 
or five inches deep and 12 inches apart. The 
manure is then placed upon them In the 
trenches, and the ridges of earth upon 
that, leaving the surface level. Some 
growers defer moving the earth off the 
ridge until the plants have reached the 
height of six inches, then gradually throw¬ 
ing the earth upon them ; but, in the mean¬ 
time, the solar heat may be exhausting the 
quality of the manure, and, moreover, a 
co\ ering of earth will add warmth to the 
Beed and accelerate its growth. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
It will be seen that the instructions are to 
dig the trenches 18 or 20 inches apart and 
each trench 12 inches wide and nine deep. 
This is plainly out of the question. The 
space between the trenches is but six to 
eight inches. Where are the nine inches of 
soil to be heaped up. Evidently a volume 
of soil nine Inches deep and one foot wide 
can not be piled up upon a space but six or 
eight inches wide. But this doesn’t matter. 
The fact is that the Rural Trench System 
was talked of in the olden time. The most 
that we may take credit for, it would hence 
appear, is its re origination and adaptation 
to fertilizers and the other needs of the 
present time. 
POINTERS. 
No doubt Paris-green, at a much less 
cost, would serve as well to kill the currant 
worm as hellebore. Probably a level tea¬ 
spoonful to two gallons of water would do 
the business. We can not see where there 
would be the slightest danger of injury to 
those who eat the currants any more than 
in the case of those who eat mature apples, 
the little upright fruit of which received 
the poisoned water soon after the blossoms 
fell. 
The incomparably graceful grass called 
Eulalia gracillima univittata seems as 
hardy at the Rural Grounds as the species 
E. Japonica. Its habit is perfect, its 
leaves, though of a firm texture, curve 
most gracefully, and the plant will prob¬ 
ably take a first place among the hardy 
ornamental grasses. 
Are the paper bags for the grapes ready ? 
Put them on as soon as the berries are as 
large as No. 7 shot. 
Plant a little more sweet corn every 
week or so until the first of July. Hickox 
and Stowell’s Evergreen are the best for 
market amoDg the later varieties. Ne 
Plus Ultra has an advantage over them for 
home use—a smaller and shapelier ear. 
One does not have to open his mouth so 
wide to harvest it. 
Black Mexican is as late as any, and it 
has a buttery flavor which the others have 
not. But it is not over-productive: the 
ears are rather small and ill-shapen, and 
unless plucked when young there will be 
some of the kernels of a dark color when 
cooked. 
WORD FOR WORD. 
-American Agriculturist: “Prof. 
I. P. Roberts (Cornell University), is now 
president of a land and live stock company 
engaged in feeding a thousand steers an¬ 
nually upon its own land in Mississippi. 
He is also the owner of a large farm in the 
South devoted to raising stock. These 
last facts serve to show that Prof. Roberts 
is a farmer first and always and practices 
what he preaches, doiDg both with success. 
He is remarkably successful as organizer, 
director, and teacher. His good work has 
been felt not only throughout his native 
State as lecturer at various farmers’ meet¬ 
ings, but his welcome voice has been heard 
at many of the leading agricultural meet¬ 
ings throughout the Union. By his pen he 
almost weekly gives wide wings to his 
matured thought upon various timely 
farm topics. Among the characteristics 
that have helped him to win marked sue 
cess are thorough sympathy with the 
farmers because one of them, and a keen 
Insight into methods for applying science 
to farm life.” 
_ F. H. Storer: “There is less sense than 
would appear at first sight in much of the 
talk that fills our New England papers 
against large farms. Where due attention 
is paid to the conditions which control the 
disposition and conduct of a farm, the size 
of it is a matter to be regulated solely by 
the administrative power and business 
faculty of the person who works it, and 
the amount of capital at his disposal. 
“European writers tell of farms in some 
parts of France and in the mountainous 
regions of Germany where the labor of 
three men and two horses is s fficient for 
250 acres of land; while in the market gar¬ 
dens around Paris the labor of 700 men and 
120 horses is expended on the same land. 
But in both instances the farming is ex¬ 
cellent.” 
-Agricultural Science : “ The New 
Potato Culture refers to the work of the 
experiment stations as having been of 
trifling service to the people they are in¬ 
tended to help and while there is some 
truth in this, it must not be overlooked 
that certain stations are doing noble work. 
We blush for the failures, and are proud of 
the successes.” 
-C. Y. Mapes: “ The press should give 
to your New Potato Culture a generous 
recognition. It is only by such work that 
we can disentangle the snarl of apparently 
conflicting facts and trace up to Nature’s 
truths.” 
-American Cultivator: “ Humanity 
is worth more than sentiment. It is senti¬ 
ment to leave the horns on a vicious bull, 
and it is humanity to saw them off and 
save some human being from a frightful 
death.” 
-Popular Gardening: “TheNovelty 
Business.— The pending efforts toward 
checking the wild advertisements, over¬ 
drawn pictures and misleading representa¬ 
tions of our seedsmen, nurserymen and 
florists, meet my thorough approval. No 
one can feel more interest in the advance¬ 
ment and improvement in all trees, plants, 
flowers and fruits than I do, hut the un¬ 
reasonable, deceptive, and in many cases 
outright dishonest descriptions of things, 
merely for pecuniary gain, should meet 
with rebuke. Extravagant descriptions 
are doing more harm than good, and tend 
to prejudice the public against all novelties, 
and even against the really good ones. We 
will take, for example, the tomato. If every 
statement about new tomatoes were correct, 
as to form, earliness, solidity, etc., we 
would have them to day, ripening about 
the first of May under very ordinary treat¬ 
ment, as uniformly perfect as would be 
possible to imagine, and so dry you would 
have to add water to use them. Thirty 
years ago I saw Lester’s Perfection that 
would make a very good show anywhere 
to day.” 
-Prof. S. T. Maynard : “ Bordeaux 
Mixture —Six pounds of sulphate of cop¬ 
per are dissolved in two gallons of hot 
water, and four pounds of fresh lime are 
slaked in water enough to make a thin 
lime wash. When both are cooled, pour to¬ 
gether, mixing thoroughly and dilute to 22 
gallons. Strain before using.” 
_R. N.-Y.: “ The rum-shop is to day the 
worst enemy of the American farmer.” 
-Edward Bellamy: “If, Instead of 
spending an afternoon batting a ball, men 
would unite to lay out walks in a park, 
they might get exercise for a worthy end 
and cultivate friendly emotions.” 
- N. Y Herald: “There is nothing like a 
grudge for filling a man’s mind to the ex¬ 
clusion of everything else.” 
-Dr F. H. Storer: “It is difficult for 
any one who was not actually upon the 
ground at the time to realize the terrible 
destruction of farms that was caused in 
Nova Scotia in particular, by the potato 
disease of 1847-48.” 
-Dansville Breeze (via Tribune) : “A 
man can’t be very cultivated who hasn’t 
been under the harrow.” 
-Count Tolstoi as interviewed by the 
N. Y. Herald: “ All this priestly supersti¬ 
tion and ceremony is a mockery of religion. 
It is not Christianity. Christianity is sim¬ 
ply love; not the love of one person, but 
the love of one’s fellow mortals as brothers 
and sisters. Selfishness is the death of love 
and love is religion.” 
“ I HAVE no right to ask other men to 
work with their muscles and avoid manual 
toil myself.” 
“ No, there is no use in slaying innocent 
animals when we can live just as well on 
vegetable products. It is needless cruelty.” 
-Prof. Storer: “ There is every reason 
to believe that the ordinary course of agri¬ 
culture will essentially be entirely changed 
in many countries by the adoption of 
methods of irrigation founded upon pump¬ 
ing water by means of engines driven by 
the sun’s heat.” 
The successful fruit grower is one who 
gets rich selling water.—R. N.-Y. March 
28—where does the evaporator man come 
in ? P- C. 
Catonsville, Md. 
He makes a virtue of necessity. He 
fights to save his fruit by driving the water 
away. When the housewife uses his prod¬ 
uct she adds the warer again, but she can’t 
put it, as Nature did, so Nature’s work com¬ 
mands the higher price 
sMA. ^ ^ 
I 
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With Liszt for My Master |g 
_*__ _- tt r r»r'OT/V I/a 
By ETELKA WILLHEIM ILLOFSKY 
A 
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Student [£» 
1 
A Valuable Article for Every Piano 
^ SEE MAY NUMBER OF' 
|! The Ladies' Home Journal I 
Musical Helps and Vocal Hints 
T HE success of the articles “Musical Helps and Vocal Hints,” 
published in the Journal, has encouraged the Editor to 
arrange for an entire series of articles which will take up every 
point that may enter into the aspirations of music-loving girls, 
or those interested in the voice, lhe best-known singers \\ ill j^, 
_ U1 Uiooo imoj.wi.vvi .A* ~ 
write for this series, including 
CLARA LOUISE KELLOGG 
EMMA JUCH 
CHRISTINE NILSSON 
SIMS REEVES 
MADAME ALBANI 
ANNIE LOUISE CARY 
MINNIE HAUK 
MARY HOWE 
RAFAEL JOSEFFY 
SIGNOR CAMPANINI 
a! 
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