1891 
7o7 
Germination of Weeviled Peas —Prof. 
E. A. Popenoe, in the Industrialist (Man¬ 
hattan, Kansas) for May 2, 1891, reviews 
the old question as to whether peas, which 
have beem damaged by weevils, are fit for 
seed. He also gives an account of a series 
of careful experiments made at the Kansas 
Agricultural College, from which he con¬ 
cludes that weeviled seed should not be 
planted because it is worthless compared 
with sound, and because by planting in¬ 
fested seed without more care than is 
usually taken to destroy weevils, one sim¬ 
ply propagates the insect for the sake of a 
minimum return in plants. Out of 500 peas 
infested by weevils but one-fourth ger¬ 
minated, and the partial destruction of the 
cotyledons rendered the further growth of 
these doubtful. A check lot of the same 
number of sound peas gave a germination 
of 97 per cent. Of 1,800 weeviled beans but 
80 per cent could have passed the germi¬ 
nating stage, while 95 per cent of the check 
lot of perfect beans germinated. The ex¬ 
amination of 275 injured peas showed but 
69 in which the germ was not wholly or 
partially destroyed. This is a sad com¬ 
mentary, says Prof. C. V. Riley, in In¬ 
sect Life, on the statements of early authors 
who had much to say concerning the won¬ 
derful disposition of Providence in causing 
the weevils to spare the germ of the seed. 
We believe The R. N.-Y. was the first to 
announce the fact that weevil eaten peas 
were comparatively worthless, from experi¬ 
ments made at the Rural Grounds. At that 
time, as we remember, Dr. Riley was among 
those who placed little or no confidence in 
The R. N.-Y.'s discovery. 
FULL AS A TICK. 
IT is said, we know not with what truth, 
that water after mandrake root has been 
boiled in it, will kill potato beetles and 
cabbage worms. This is botanically Podo¬ 
phyllum peltatum, or May-Apple, common 
in rich woods. The roots are drastic and 
somewhat poisonous. 
It is just barely possible that some of 
our readers do not know that pigs and 
hogs are exceedingly fond of the common 
purslane weed, and thrive upon it. 
In the tests of 1891 at the Ohio Station 
fertilizers have, in every case, caused a de¬ 
crease of crop where superphosphate was 
used. Nitrate of soda, alone or with pot¬ 
ash, produced a slight increase, but in no 
case was the increase sufficient to justify 
the use of the fertilizer, and this applies 
both to the wheat grown continuously on 
the same soil and to that grown in rota¬ 
tion. In the tests of 1891, the wheat 
grown in rotation, without fertilizers, 
yielded as large an average crop as the 
best obtained from the use of the fertiliz¬ 
ers in 1890, although the yield from the 
unfertilized plots under continuous crop¬ 
ping was practically the same in both 
seasons. 
The chief waste of life on a farm is in 
false purposes, says Pres. Fairchild, of the 
Kansas Agricultural College. The farm 
should be looked upon, not as a mere ma¬ 
chine for speculation, not as a mere means 
of living, but as the home of generations, 
where children and children’s children 
may find the truest development of life. 
The home acres should be deeper, rather 
than broader. “ More land, more corn, 
more hogs,” leads nowhere but to greater 
hoggishness. Better land, better crops, 
better stock insure better men and women, 
better homes with each generation. 
Director Plumb of the Indiana Exper¬ 
iment Station (LaFayette) in Bulletin 36 
lately issued, gives the station’s experience 
with wheat culture. The following is a sum¬ 
mary of results: 1. Of 27 varieties of wheat 
tested during 1891, Jones’s Winter Fife, 
Ye vet Chaff and Early Red Clawson were 
the most productive of grain, in the order 
given. 2. The average yield of Velvet 
Chaff, as grown for the past eight years, is 
31% bushels per acre. 3 Seven years of 
comparing different amounts of seed sown 
per acre, show that eight pecks per acre 
gave the highest average yield—313^ bush¬ 
els; with six pecks averaging 29% bushels. 4. 
In the vicinity of LaFayette, the average 
yields of three years indicate that about 
September 20 is the best time for sowing 
wheat. 5. In comparing large and small 
seeds the average for three years past shows 
a gain of 2 57 bushels per acre for large seed 
over the small. 6. Nitrate of soda is at 
present not only a comparatively cheap 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
source of nitrogen, but, in the experiments 
of the past season, it was the most effective 
form of nitrogen for wheat. 
From tulletin 35 just issued by the Ken¬ 
tucky Station, we find that the results are 
the same as they have been for the last two 
seasons, that fertilizers, whether used In 
combination or singly, have no effect upon 
the yield of wheat. On the same lands for 
corn, potatoes, hemp and tobacco, the re¬ 
sults of potash fertilizers show very favor¬ 
ably. 
The yield of 21 varieties of wheat at the 
Kentucky did not vary so much as might 
have been looked for. Martin’s Amber, the 
lowest, yielded 26 bushels to the acre, Egyp¬ 
tian 33%, Landreth, the same as Martin’s 
Amber, yielded 29% bushels; Jones’s Win¬ 
ter Fife 30% . 
Bulletin No. 30 of the Cornell Experi¬ 
ment Station presents some preliminary 
studies of the Influence of the electric lamp 
upon greenhouse plants. The experiments 
do not give any positive results, but Prof. 
Bailey, on the whole, is inclined to the 
view that there is a future for electro- 
horticulture. 
An Idaho Pear was received from Lewis¬ 
ton, Idaho, on the 15th inst. Though not 
as large as others received in previous 
years, the quality was of the best. The 
flesh is buttery and of the finest grain, the 
flavor like the Bartlett, though more aro¬ 
matic. 
In looking over the last bulletin of the 
Connecticut Experiment Station (No. 109) 
it is seen that some of the fertilizer analy¬ 
ses show that the fertilizers are worth 
more than the price asked for them. Others 
show that they are worth 67 per cent less 
than the station’s valuation. Such differ¬ 
ences must be studied by any one that 
would purchase economically. 
Popular Gardening, from Its own 
trials, praises, and justly so we suspect, 
the Heroine Pea and Nott’s Excelsior. The 
R. N.-Y. pea report will appear later. 
Mr. J. H. Hale, good authority, says 
than there is no other peRch that can com¬ 
pare with the Elberta for hardiness. Every 
nurseryman should propagate it. 
“ Michel’s Early Strawberry.— We see 
that an Eastern journal is recommending 
the Michel’s Early Strawberry for trial, 
Our Wisconsin friends seem to be satisfied 
with the trial they have made of this plant, 
and to be willing to cast it to oblivion.”— 
Farmers’ Review. 
Probably our esteemed contemporary 
alludes to The R. N.-Y. As grown during 
the past season, we have praised it for 
earliness and, considering its earliness, for 
Its quality. 
The Appletons publish the story of Adopt¬ 
ing an Abandoned Farm, by Miss Kate San¬ 
born, who Is, as the Literary News declares, 
“a bright, sagacious writer.” When Miss 
Sanborn heard of an available estate at 
Foxboro to be had for a rental of $40 a year, 
her purpose was to occupy the quaint old 
house for a season or two, plant hardy flow¬ 
ers and save her income for a journey round 
the world; but alas for the futility of 
human hopes 1 One fatal day she went to 
a poultry show, and thereafter her fate 
was sealed. She bought peacocks, she 
bought hens and turkeys and ducks, and 
from these first dallyings with temptation 
she descended to a determined attempt to 
raise vegetables for market; she tried to 
find a horse” that a lady could drive,” and 
she undertook to make a lake out of a mud 
hole. 
Mibs Sanborn is convinced that there is 
no money and barely a living to be made at 
farming, and that at the expense of unspar¬ 
ing toil and continued privation; but for 
the amateur farmer who is not dependent on 
farming for a livelihood there are compen¬ 
sations not to be scorned. A life free from 
conventional restraints; plenty of fresh 
air, sunshine, butter, eggs and cream ; glor¬ 
ious sunsets—these are among the charms 
that do not lose their attractiveness in the 
vistas of memory. 
“ I think,” says Miss Sanborn, “ of the 
delicious morning hours on the broad, 
vine covered piazza, the evenings with their 
starry splendor or witching moonlight, the 
nights of sound sleep and refreshing rest, 
the all-day picnics, the jolly drives with 
friends as charmed with country life as 
myself, and I weary of social functions and 
overpowering intellectual privileges, and 
every other advantage of the metropolis, 
and long to migrate once more from 
Gotham to Goosevllle.” And there is “ the 
rare, ecstatic privilege of eating onions at 
any and all hours. I said comfort; it is 
luxury 1”. . 
ABSTRACTS. 
THE SOUNDS OF AUTUMN. 
Will begged a kiss so tenderly 
That Katie could but yield, 
As from the milking vard they came, 
Along the autumn field ; 
But when they reached the farmhouse door 
Their loving hearts stood still 
For lo ! a voice cried “ Katy did,” 
Another •- Whip poor Will.” 
-N. Y. Herald. 
- Christian Union : “ Some people have 
become chronically inebriated with doing. 
They must be doing, although that which 
they do amounts to nothing. Repose, 
meditation, thought and growth are things 
which do not enter into their lives. They 
are always running, always out of breath ; 
but they never reach any definite point, 
and they never see anything by the way.” 
-Mirror and Farmer : “There is more 
in planning than in hard work.” 
“The farm is quite as near heaven as 
the city is. ” 
“ The enriched acre helps you to enrich 
other acres.” 
“ Intensive farming permits of no waste 
land or labor.” 
“ The cost of production varies with the 
farm and the farmer.” 
“If you have a poor spot on your farm, 
make it the richest.” 
“ If yoa have anything too filthy to eat, 
put it into the hog and then eat the hog.” 
“ The thrifty farmer needs to trust no¬ 
body but God and Nature.” 
“Carry on those lines of farming to 
which your farm is best adapted.” 
-N. Y. Times : “ Milk, boiled and taken 
hot or mixed with boiling water, is the saf¬ 
est and most healthful drink for children 
and old persons.” 
“ The night air is generally purer than 
that of the daytime, and no one need be 
afraid of admitting it freely into the sleep¬ 
ing rooms.” 
“The frying pan, so commonly used in 
farm-houses, is often an occasion of dis¬ 
ease. It is better to broil meat than to fry 
it in grease, and the hot biscuit fresh from 
the oven is another provocation of dyspep¬ 
sia. One more suggestion might be made 
for its exceeding importance. The retiring 
closet should be made dry and comfortable 
and be kept pure and clean by an abund¬ 
ant use of dry earth. The common cess¬ 
pool Is a fearful thing, a constant threat 
and danger to health and life.” 
“Throwing off the outer clothing and 
cooling off in a draught of air has carried 
off thousands to untimely graves. Cooling 
off the body should always be slow and 
gradual, and the clothing should be re¬ 
tained meanwhile. When one is over¬ 
heated to sponge the body with tepid water 
and rub with a rough towel is the best way 
of cooling off. Dry clothing should then 
be put on. Lastly, no one should sleep in 
clothing that has been worn during the 
day. An entire change should be made.” 
- Ruskin : “We want one man to be al¬ 
ways thinking, and another to be always 
working, and we call one a gentleman and 
the other an operative, whereas the work¬ 
man ought often to be thinking and the 
thinker often to be working, and both 
should b3 gentlemen in the best sense.” 
“It is only by labor that thought can be 
made healthy, and only by thought that 
labor can be made happy; and the two 
cannot be separated with impunity.” 
-Assistant Secretary Willits: “We 
want to emphasize the necessity of the 
scientific farmers keeping in touch with 
the practical farmers and making use of 
their experience.” 
-N. Y. Voice : “ ‘ Whenever we see the 
merits of somebody’s “ bitters ” blazoned 
all over a barn we conclude that the barn 
belongs to a farm that will not bring its 
value in the market,’ writes the editor of 
a leading agricultural journal. ‘Why? 
Because in our view that sign does not in¬ 
dicate neatness, enterprise and thrift—and 
we know that there are thousands who 
feel the same way.’ ”—[ The above credited 
to the New York Voice appeared origin¬ 
ally in The R N--Y. Eds. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural New-Yorker. 
QUAKER CITY 
GRINDING MILL 
or CORN and COBS, 
FEED andTABLE 
MEAL. 
for all mills advertised, 
the best ami return 
A.W.STRAUB & C0.,Rhilada.Pa. 
Territory Kiut of Ohio. 
CO.Springfield, O. Ter’y We»tofPft 
niTrtlTO FRANKLIN H. HOUGH, Washington 
UQ I !• I X D. C. No attorney’s fee until patent is 
ln| Lit I \J obtained. Write for Inventor'* t/uide. 
Members of the 
Alliance, Grange, League 
and other organizations will make a mistake 
if they buy a 
BUGGY, VEHICLE or HARNESS 
Of any kind before 
seeing our free, 
big catalogue, 
just out, show¬ 
ing over 100 dif¬ 
ferent styles of 
Carriages and 
Harness. 
No cash in advance rc<,uire<1 from meiubers. 
Cincinnati is 
the largest car¬ 
riage market in 
the world, and 
we are ahead of 
the procession. 
Reference: Second National Bank,Cincinnati. 
Get our prices 
and com pare 
them with your 
local dealer’s 
prices. Goods 
are hand made 
and warranted 
for 2 years. 
HEADQUARTERS FOR ANYTHING ON WHEELS 
We will send a 
beautiful Alli¬ 
ance badge to 
any one who 
will send us the 
addresses of 
ten prospective 
buyers. 
ALLIANCE CARRIAGE CO. Cincinnati, 0. 
FARM ENGINES: 
l If you want a strictly 
first-class Outfit, at 
I low figures, address 
us in full, as follows : 
theleFFELWATERWHEEL&ENGINECO. 
GreenmountAve., SPRINGFIELD, OHIO. 
Champion Evaporator. 
For MAPLE, SORGHUM, CIDER, 
and FRUIT JELLIES, 
Corrugated pan over firebox, d<)Ubling_/K* lllWi; Sffi*t 
boiling capacity. Small interchange-/ 
able syrup pans (connected by si-^ ' 
phone),easily handled for cleans-, 
ing and storing, and a Perfect, 
Automatic Regulator. 
The Champion is as great 
an improvement over the 
Cook Pan as the latter 
was over tile old iron ket¬ 
tle, hung on a fence rail. 
The C. H. CRIMM 
MFC. CO. __ 
Hudson, Ohio and Rutland, Vt. 
ENSILAGE 
The SILO Is rapidly being adopted In all 
sections of the U. 8. and portions of Canada as 
the cheapest possible means of harvesting and 
feeding the corn crop; no waste,no husking, 
nogrindlng.no toll to pay, nor time to lose, and 
a reserve of green feed for all seasons of the 
year when pasturage und other crops may fall. 
Double the number of stock cun be kept on the 
same number of ucres under cultivation. 
Our Catalogue embraces valuableinformation 
and detailed Instructions on the subject, us well 
as description and prices of the FAMOU8 
“OHIO” 
Ensilage and Fodder Cutters 
THE SILVER MFG. CO., SALEM, Ohio. 
improved; 
“Cummings” I “Clipper” 
FEED AND ENSILAGE GUTTERS. 
We manufacture a full l<ne of the most desirable 
Feed Cutlers offered to the trade. They have the 
upward cut, rocking feed roller and safety balance 
wheels. They have every point of excellence that is 
most valuable in a cutter, and have easily displaced 
all others wherever Introduced. Comolned Angle 
und Direct Carriers furnished for all power cutters 
when desired, fi?” Wrile for i-’ree Circulars. 
Add ress 
ANN ARBOR AGRICULTURAL WORKS, 
ANN ARBOR, MICH. 
send Circulars# 
Pruyn Manufacturing Company, 
BOX A, HOOSICK FALLS. N. Y 
* 
