1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
463 
Stock Food at the South.— A correspondent who has 
recently returned from a trip through the South says that 
he found the New Orleans milkmen dependent upon the 
North for cow food, most of them using corn meal and 
bran, with cotton-seed meal only in small quantities. Re¬ 
ferring to the local market reports, we find the following 
prices demanded in New Orleans: 
Last year. 
Prime hay.$18.50 to $20.00 $17.00 to $17.50 
Bran. ^.97!^ to 1.00 .80 to .87^ 
Corn.(!9 to .70 .47J* to .48 
Rice bran.21 to .22 .10 to .11 
Rice polish.30 to .2i .12 to .14 
Cotton seed meal sold at $23 50 to $26 per ton. One of 
the things that strikes the Northern visitor at the South 
is the high price of hay. The South is covered with grass, 
and yet a large part of the hay used there is brought from 
the West or North. Negro laborers have long considered 
grass a weed to be fought and killed out. They call it 
“General Green.” This old plantation song expresses 
about their idea: 
Ole Master flt wid General Green a hundred years ago. 
Young Master’s fought dat General, too, forty year and mo’, 
Every spring comes General Green 
Soon ez airy a martin is seen. 
He draws up his line down airy corn row, 
An’ us hatter flt him wid plow an’ hoe. 
De ole folks say de mo’ de rain, den de mo’ de res’, sah ; 
But den in rainy times de grass shoter grow de bes’, sah ; 
No need er drummin’ to make it grow, 
Nairy a fife or a horn ter blow. 
But in ever’ fence corner hits so high, 
De crow hatter laugh when he pusses by. 
Lan’ is rich, lan’ is po’, ole General Green don't keer. sah. 
He’ll set out pickets wherever he pleises, des there or here, sah. 
One lively soun’U make his line grew, 
An’ dat’s a lazy nigger’s baujo ! 
Den tis go ter meet him wid sweep an’ plow. 
An’ hey ! General Green ! O, whar is you now! 
Earliness of a Late Potato.— Not long ago a young 
farmer told us that he had bought some seed of the R. 
N-Y. No. 2 Potato because it was “the earliest potato 
out!” As everybody knows who has tried it, this potato 
is a late variety, and yet many have bought it for early 
marketing. Why ? Perhaps this note from Prof. W. F. 
Massey explains the matter in part. 
" It was as much a surprise to me as it is to you to find 
the size attained by the tubers of this potato early in the 
season. Of course they were not ripe, and would have 
been skinned badly if dug, but in size at 
the time others were being shipped they 
were nearly equal to any. I do not wish 
to be understood as recommending it as an C 
early shipper, but mention it as remark- 
able that the tubers formed here so early, 
while the vines continued to grow for a 
long time after the early ones were ripe. 
At the North Carolina State Fair I exhib- I 4 V 
lted on a long table the entire crop of a 
series of varieties from 10 pounds of seed 
each, and the Rural New-Yorker pile was vjsi 
conspicuous as towering above all the rest 
except the Pride of the West and Bill Nye. 
My remarks in Bulletin No. 74 need a little 
qualification as to their condition for early 
shipping.” 
Live, Healthy Bugs are Needed.—T his 
is the advertisement sent out by Prof. F. H. 
Snow, of the Kansas University. He refers 
to chinch bugs, and he wants healthy ones 
because he means to have them “catch” 
a new disease. For some time past Prof. 
Snow has attempted to destroy the chinch 
bugs by spreading artificially among them 
a contagious disease. Up to May 8, of this year, over 
200 lots of Infected bugs had been sent to different 
parts of the State with full instructions for using them. 
Reports have not been received concerning the wholesale 
effect of this distribution, and it will be interesting to 
know how it does come out. 
Fighting Grasshoppers —The dry weather in various 
parts of the country has made things very pleasant for 
grasshoppers and they are found in countless swarms in 
the West. California is threatened with this scourge In 
dead earnest. At present the “hoppers” are in the grass 
and gialn crops but it is only a question of time before they 
will gain access to vineyards and orchards. Long lists of 
remedies are printed in the California papers. Before 
their wings are fully formed many hoppers may be killed 
by burning over the grass fields in which they are work¬ 
ing, To make this successful whole neighborhoods must 
cooperate. When they once get into an orchard or vine¬ 
yard, a poisonous mixture seems to be considered the best 
remedy. A mixture of one part sugar, l?4 part arsenic 
and four parts bran with water enough to make a wet 
mash is used. A tablespoonful of this mixture is placed 
on a shingle under each tree or vine and most of the grass¬ 
hoppers will leave their feeding to settle upon it. 
The Hybrid Wheats. —How are your wheats doing ? 
The first report, following, is sent by Mr, Hodgman of 
Kalamazoo County, Michigan. 
“ The Rural hybrid wheats sown by me last fall are 
just beginning to blossom. The types are not thoroughly 
fixed yet, or else the seed was mixed before I sowed it. I 
planted the seed one kernel in a place a foot each way. It 
was a waste of ground, as it is now evident that eight 
Inches apart would have produced just as good results 
from each stool. About a third of the plants were des¬ 
troyed by the burrowing of moles last fall. I did not 
mulch the wheat, as.the soil was quite rich enough with¬ 
out it, a prairie loam not subject to heaving. The wheat 
was not at all damaged by winter and gives great promise 
now. At present I like the appearance of the Willits 
Wheat best. 
Irrigation Makes Value.— We have just received two 
notes—one from Massachusetts and the other from Ari¬ 
zona, which to us are interesting and prophetic. In Mas¬ 
sachusetts a piece of swamp or marsh land regarded for 
years as almost worthless suddenly jumps to a prospective 
value of $500 per acre. For years its only value seemed 
to lie in its ability to produce a poor quality of hay. At last 
a man with experience came along and found that this 
swamp was an ideal location for a cranberry bog. It was 
as level as a floor, with a gentle slope, surrounded by high 
ground, and through it ran a never-failing stream. The 
whole tract could be easily flooded. There can never be too 
many cranberries—they are always salable at a good price. 
It is by all odds the best crop that can be grown in that 
part of the country. The formerly worthless marsh will 
now bo turned into a bog. In Arizona is a vast mesa or 
upland plain, dry and hot as a desert. Nothing will grow 
there because there is no water; yet, naturally, the loca¬ 
tion is better for early fruits and vegetables than southern 
California. A few miles away flows the Gila River with 
water in plenty. Over much of its course it Is spread out 
In a wide, shallow stream without depth or force to its 
current. At one point, however, it flows through rocky 
bluffs, forming a swift and deep stream. Here may be 
located rafts with strong water wheels to pump the water 
to the top of the bluffs, whence it will run of its own 
weight to the land that is to be irrigated. Thus two sec¬ 
tions at extreme ends of the country are made prosperous, 
not by accident, but because of an understanding of possi¬ 
bilities. One of the great problems that confront agri¬ 
culture is how to conserve and handle water. At times 
we have too much of it—at others too little. How can we 
handle it so as to avoid these extremes ? 
SHRUBBERY NOTES. 
Try the purple and golden catalpas, originated by E. Y. 
Teas. They are lovely in foliage, bright, clear and not of 
sickly hues. In bloom they are also very fine. The growth 
of these catalpas Is rapid and a full-sized tree is excellent 
for shade. I prefer, however, to grow catalpas in as com¬ 
pact form as possible in large shrubberies. 
The Judas Tree which is the glory of earliest May, has a 
bad habit of splitting down In the crotches. Take a wire 
and loop it around above the main branching point, hold¬ 
ing the limbs firmly. 
Dwarf fruit trees make the very finest of ornamental 
shrubs. Among them dwarf apples, cherries, plums, 
SKf' 
A RHODE ISLAND BUTTER MAKER. Fig. 1 76. 
pears are excellent. Dwarf Richmond is the best cherry ; 
but the Morellos on their own stocks are superb. They 
blossom from two feet in height upward. For my part, I 
prefer fruit trees altogether for lawn planting. The canon 
of landscape work that excludes them is senseless. There 
is no tree more beautiful than an apple tree. It is home¬ 
ful and generous ; and what could be more glorious than 
an apple tree in bloom, unless it be an apple tree in fruit ? 
A lawn entirely of cherry trees might be made very attrac¬ 
tive if one grouped the different varieties. The Heart 
Cherries make noble trees. The same is true of pears. 
The Buffums are erect; the Anjou broad and firm, the 
Bergamots are stately and the Seckels round-headed. No 
other fruit affords so wide a variation in style of growth. 
Notes on the Bushes.— Don’t fail to hellebore the second 
hatching of currant worms. Many farmers and some fruit 
growers neglect them; and the result Is that next year’s 
crop Is ruined, even if the bushes are not killed. 
A teaspoontul of kerosene in each pail of hellebore water 
is a help In the way of making the poison adhere. 
The worms this year hatched out something like a week 
ahead of time. The second crop is already on hand the 
first of June. 
The curculio should be hunted till about the middle of 
June. I begin shaking as the petals fall from the flowers. 
The curculio will continue to sting somewhat until July, 
but will not do any serious damage after the middle of 
June. It is the easiest of the pests to keep ahead of. My 
trees are loaded with fruit and hardly one is stung. 
Don’t bother with nostrums to keep these beetles from 
crawling up your trees; they can fly as easily as a bird. 
I am quite safe now in saying that copperas is a pre¬ 
ventive of anthracnose. I worked it on before the leaves 
began to expand ; use five pounds to half a barrel. E. p. p. 
Green Cloyer for Potatoes.— I have never tried the 
plan of plowing under clover in June, but I have asked 
some of our best potato growers who have tried it. They 
say it is the best way to raise potatoes. One man had 
over 500 bushels per acre planted on clover sod. What 
experience I have had in plowing down clover has shown 
that it is good for any kind of a crop. As for planting 
potatoes about July 1, the outcome would depend a great 
deal on the character of the fall. If it was favorable I think 
the crop would mature; and if it did, the result would pay 
for all the trouble and more. I sow rye in the fall and 
plow it under in the spring for green manure, and I think 
it pays a good profit, C. E. 
Live Stock Matters. 
A Tested Jersey.— Our Jersey heifer Friendship 62460, 
age three years and nine months, tested for us with this 
her first calf 17 pounds 3 ounces of choice butter for the 
seven days ending May 14, 1891. Her total milk yield was 
276 pounds 12 ounces; best day 42 p mnds. Five daughters 
of her sire Ida’s Rioter of St. Lambert, 13656, now have 
full weekly butter tests from 16 pounds 2)4 ounces to 25 
pounds 2)4 ounces. Her dam is by Stoke Pogls 5th, 5987, 
whose 17 tested daughters average over 17 pounds apiece 
per week. miller & sibley. 
Stimulants for Horses.— Who have watched the effects 
of stimulants on farm animals ? WJiisky is frequently 
given in cases of milk fever in cows. How does it affect 
the animal after recovery t We once watched a gypsy 
“ fit ” up an old horse for sale, and we wondered what 
state the animal was In after the effect of the drugs and 
liquors had worn off. A California paper gives an account 
of a practice, which it says is in vogue among certain 
horsemen of “infusing artificial courage into a faint¬ 
hearted horse.” The horse described had lost two heats of 
a race after winning the first two. She was tired and dis¬ 
couraged. The report states : “ While Helene was being 
cooled out preparatory to his sixth heat, George Stengel 
sauntered by, and after looking the mare over remarked : 
‘If that was my mare I would give her half a pint of 
whisky.’ The suggestion was like an inspiration to the 
backers of the mare. A long-necked bottle was procured, 
anil about 10 minutes before the start a half-pint or 
more of the ‘ fiery fluid ’ was poured down her throat. The 
effect was magical.” The horse, we are told, went off like 
the wind, and won the race, but collapsed after winning 
it, and never fully recovered from the effects of the dram. 
The report concludes: “It is a demonstrated fact that al¬ 
cohol depletes the nervous system, and while it may whip 
up the circulation for the time being, and give a momentary 
impetus and increased strength to the action of various 
organs, the after effects are so disastrous 
that it does not pay in the end.” We have 
no doubt that there are men about the race 
courses fully low and mean enough to do 
such business. 
A Rhode Island Butter Maker.— 
i'Ml Rhode Island Is a small State, but it has 
WgkjB id produced Borne men, animals and farms 
f jpaw \1 that have made big records for usefulness. 
s^B agf \\ One of these animals is the family cow 
pay |\ shown at Fig. 176. In old times the Devons , 
i ji Short-horns andAjrshlres were most pop- 
ji / J ular there. Of late years Jerseys have been 
mV introduced, and the grades from Jersey 
Litwilili bulls out of the other breeds are highly 
\ ; 1 m esteemed. The cow shown has enough of 
\lif rcw the Jeree y blood to enable her to make a 
y* HI m record for rich milk and easy keeping while 
Hi j h she is enough of a grade to insure increased 
M I size, docility, health and large milk yield. 
Purebred Jerseys are sometimes too frisky 
0 ^\,/ and kittenish for a small place. They do 
not like to be tied any more than a Leghorn 
hen likes to be cooped up. A cross with 
a more dignified breed generally gives a cow 
that is better satisfied in a small space. This cow belongs 
to Mr. David A. Waldron, of Bristol County, R. I., who 
considers her a valuable member of his family. 
Yields of Different Breeds —Last week we gave 
some figures from the Maine Station report showing the 
relative composition of the milk from different cows. For 
a given amount of milk the Jersey gave more fat than 
either the Holstein or Ayrshire. As we stated then, how¬ 
ever, this simply referred to equal amounts of milk ; both 
the Ayrshire and the Holstein gave more rnilli than the 
Jersey and therefore a greater weight of solids. Below is 
given a table showing this fact. The figures represent the 
yearly average of two animals, each fed and milked for 
two years. 
Holstein. Ayrshire. Jersey. 
Pounds of milk. 8,399 
Pounds of milk solids... 1.0 4 
Pounds of butter fat ... 285 
“ Inches ” of cream. 642 
Pounds of butter. 2iU 
Ayrshire. 
6,612 
848 
288 
499 
199 
These figures show that the Holsteins gave a greater 
weight of “ milk solids ” than either of the other breeds, 
though their milk compared with the others’, quart for 
quart, contained less fat and less casein and slightly more 
sugar. The average yearly cost of keeping these cows, in¬ 
cluding $7 allowed for pasture, was, Holstein, $70.83; Ayr¬ 
shire, $62.49; Jersey, $59.20. The Holsteins averaged 1,200 
pounds In weight and the Jerseys 900. The question to be 
asked is: Which was the most profitable cow ? For a but¬ 
ter dairy the Jersey unquestionably led, making the most 
butter at the least expense. For the milk business the 
Holstein would have proved most profitable, as her milk 
cost less per pound. The Ayrshire is noted as a “ rustler ” 
and can make a more economical U9e of rough forage than 
any other breed. No effort was made to show the quality 
in this test. It is admitted that Holstein and Ayrshire 
milk is best for drinking purposes—particularly for chil¬ 
dren or invalids. This Maine report is one of the most 
valuable dairy pamphlets ever issued. We shall have more 
to say about it. 
Don’t Feed Cotton-Seed Meal to Hogs.— Prof. Cur¬ 
tis, of the Texas Station is quite right in his caution not to 
feed cotton-seed meal to pigs. But I think I can tell him 
the reason why, which as yet people have not discovered 
In Texas. When cotton-sead oil meal was first introduced 
as a feed, the merchant who brought the first cargo into 
New York consulted me about it and sent me a few bags 
to try in my New Jersey dairy. I was fully aware of the 
value of the feed for cows, but questioned its safety for 
horses and pigs and after the trial with my cows reported 
