85o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 23 
The Trouble with That Plum. 
R. R H.—A. R., of Moravia, N. Y., in 
Thk R. N.-Y. of November 25 does net 
say what shape his churn is, or whether 
there are breakers inside. The trouble 
may not be in the shape of the churn, 
but in the methed of working it. If the 
churn is nearly full, there is little chance 
of making butter, about three-fifths full, 
I think, being about the right quantity. 
Then the speed at which it revolves 
affects the churning; if very fast, the 
cream will remain comparatively still 
and the churn revolve around it; 45 
revolutions per minute I consider about 
right. Another point is the ventila¬ 
tion ; a certain amount of air must be let 
into the churn, or else let out of it, or 
both. This may not help A. R., but if 
he will describe his churn and his method 
of using it more particularly, he may get 
the information he requires. 
Subscriber.— A. R , on page 780, prob¬ 
ably puts too much cream into his churn. 
I notice that the fuller a revolving churn 
is filled, the longer it takes to get the 
butter, the cream not having room to 
splash around. 
More About That Slow Cream. 
E. G. L., Essex, N. Y.—I think the 
reason that A. R.’s butter does not come 
is that the cream is too cold. It should 
be 66 degrees when churned. I have 
found that cream raised in a Moseley & 
Stoddard creamery must be at that tem¬ 
perature, or it is a great while before 
butter will come. When I intend to churn 
more than one can of cream, instead of 
filling one can and then the other, I put 
one skimming in one and the next in the 
other until both are filled ; they are then 
about the tame age if they are properly 
stirred. I think the cellar is not a good 
place to keep cream. 
More About Bats aBd Bedbugs. 
W. P. M. K., Leecuburg, Pa—S ome 
years ago, while yet in the old home, I 
caught some bats in the comb of the 
roof, but found no bugs on them. Some 
time after that, I heard some bats at the 
hall door downstairs. I took off the 
door facing and caught and killed quite 
a number. I examined the bats care¬ 
fully, and found them full of bedbugs, 
and the wall was nearly covered with 
bugs. I am certain that they were the 
genuine bedbugs, as they had the shape 
and the odor. Some others of the family 
were witnesses to this. The house burnt 
several years ago, and I cannot investi¬ 
gate the subject any further now. I 
might never see any more bats with bugs, 
as all bats do not have bugs on them. 
Then there are about 30 different kinds 
of bats—so I read in some paper not long 
ago. 
Farmers and Business. 
Stage Drive#, Vermont. —In a late R. 
N.-Y. I saw a complaint from a feed 
dealer on the lack of business methods 
among farmers. My business is stage 
driving, and for 16 miles my route is 
among farmers. On the fingers of one 
hand I can count, without crowding, the 
farmers who know anything about busi¬ 
ness courtesy. Men who would be sur¬ 
prised to hear any one call them dis¬ 
honest, will come to me and say: “I 
have a passenger for you to-morrow; be 
sure to step.” I leave freight, refuse 
express, and maybe other passengers, to 
hear as I stop, “Mr. B had to go to X 
and took Miss Z along.” 
You may engage produce, and if a man 
come along and offer a few cents more 
for what they have, you may whistle, 
for they will sell all they can spare and 
tell you with a bland, baby-sort of a 
smile, “he would pay more than you 
and so .1 let them go.” They do not 
* \ 
seem to know that in the former in¬ 
stance they have bought an amount of 
space in my conveyance and are i j honor 
bound to pay for it, or to think that tbe 
latter ib dishonest. The few cents they 
save don’t amount to much, but still 
they wonder why i eal business men will 
not do business with them. 
" The Most From One Tuber.” 
T. E. P., Newton, Conn. —If I wished 
to keep a small tuber or “apiece of a 
tuber” for some time before planting, I 
would put it in a box of damp moss and 
keep it as near 34 degrees F. as possible. 
In this way I would expect to keep the 
tuber from drying and sprouting, until 
ready to plant it. In order “to get the 
most out of the tuber,” I would cut to 
one-eye pieces and plant in six-inch pots 
in a greenhouse. When the plants were 
large, I would take cuttings from them 
and follow this plan; that is, continue to 
take the cuttings and root them from all 
the plants, until time for planting in the 
open ground, when I wou.d turn the 
plants out of the pots and set them in 
well prepared soil. By this method a 
large number of plants may be grown 
from each eye, and a very large yield 
obtained. 
Having lived in the country—and a 
lonely, out-of-the-way country, too—for 
21 years, we dare say that our ways and 
manners seem countryfied to our city ac¬ 
quaintances with whom, from choice or 
necessity, we come in contact. Far from 
any feeling of shame that we are not up 
in the ways, often inscrutable, of polite 
city life, we rather take a pride in in¬ 
forming the butcher or groceryman that 
“ we are only country people, you know,” 
which gives a plausible excuse for the 
questions we proceed to ask The follow¬ 
ing conversation will serve to illustrate. 
The questions were put to our butcher, 
who more, perhaps, than any other in 
our vicinity, furnishes the swell class of 
traders with their meats, poultry, game, 
etc. : 
Ruralisms: ‘ Our people rather objected 
to the last lamb chops as being not quite 
sweet.” 
Butcher : “ Perhaps it was too old.” 
R. “ llow old was it ? ” 
B. “Oh, about two weeks.” 
R. “ Why do you keep it so long ?” 
B. “ To satisfy our customers.” 
R. “ Why do they prefer it so old ? ’ 
B. “ It is better ripened, more tender, 
more gamey. Many of our customers at 
this season of the year will not buy lamb 
or mutton that is less than a month old. 
They buy saddles and require that we 
hang them up until they become hairy.” 
R. “ What is hairy ? ” 
B. “Oh, moldy—covered with mold. 
Our way is to hang the meat up in a dry 
place until it becomes well seasoned, and 
then to place it in the ice house where 
the dampness soon causes the mold to 
appear.” 
R. “Do you get more for such lamb ?” 
B. “ No, we charge the same price, but 
owing to the shrinkage and care, it costs 
us more and our profit is therefore less.” 
R. “ Is fat or lean lamb demanded?” 
B. “Oh, fat always. Anything lean is 
no good for us. One of the tricks of the 
trade is to buy poor, lean lambs and cover 
the legs artistically with caul fat. This 
caul fat is worth only 2% cents a pound; 
but when nicely adjusted over the poor 
leg, brings what the leg brings—about 12 
cents or more a pound ” 
R. “Mutton and lamb often have a 
strong, muttony flavor. By keeping the 
meat for several weeks or a month, does 
this bad flavor pass away ? ” 
B. “ No. The strong flavor remains. 
There is no way of getting rid of it.” 
R. “ What weight of lamb do you pre¬ 
fer ? ” 
B. “ From 45 to 50 pounds.” 
R “ What do you charge for the sev¬ 
eral parts of lamb just now ? ” 
B. “ For leg chops, 18 cents ; for a leg, 
16 cents ; for rib chops, 22 cents.” 
R. “ Where does most of your lamb 
come from ? ” 
B. “ From Canada. We must have 
Canada lamb if we would keep up our 
business. Of course, in the early season, 
near-by lamb is preferred, because the 
animals then cannot stand the journey 
from the north.” 
R. “ When does a lamb change to a 
mutton ? ” 
B. “ Oh, in January or February. The 
lamb becomes mutton in one year or 
less.” 
Our last year’s review of the cata¬ 
logues, illustrated with engravings of 
novelties that seemed worthy of illus¬ 
tration, was accepted by advertisers, as 
well as by our subscribers, as a welcome 
innovation. The notes and criticisms 
were intended to be impartial. We de¬ 
sired to help our readers to make whole¬ 
some selections ; to avoid all that was 
not worthy of trial and to enable them 
to select the very best of all the varie¬ 
ties—whether ornamental or economical 
seeds and plants—which the new cata¬ 
logues offered. This season we shall 
give additional care to our catalogue 
series, calling upon experienced culti¬ 
vators to aid us in placing trustworthy 
information before our readers. 
Our friend Nicholas Hallock, of Queens, 
L. I., calls attention in Gardening to the 
surpassing beauty of crocuses, snov 
drops, grape and feather hyacinths, blue 
bells, Siberian squills, Chionodoxa and 
the like in early spring, the bulbs 
growing in the grass—it matters not 
where, even under trees. As their 
growth is made early in spring and they 
begin their long rest before the leaves 
of the trees shade them, they may be 
planted in the grass under almost any 
deciduous trees. 
Mr. Hallock mentions that we can 
buy a thousand mixed crocuses for the 
price of a dozen hyacinths or a hundred 
tulips. We need not expect to make 
much show with a dozen crocuses. Be- 
jr 
(Continued on next page.) 
lx writing to advertisers please always mention 
Th* Rural. 
Shooting Pains 
All over my body and 
swelling of my limbs have 
caused me great suffering. 
In the spring I was com¬ 
pletely worn out and ate 
hardly enough to keep me 
alive. I have been taking 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla, and 
the swelling has sub¬ 
sided, the shooting pains 
are gone, I have good ap¬ 
petite, am better every 
way.” Mrs. A. G. Oman, 
84 Newman Bt, So. Boston, Hood’s Cures 
HOOD’S Pills cureBick Headache. 25o. 
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Consignments solicited. Stencils furnished. Ref¬ 
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to be found at any bank. 
Increased Appetite 
is one of the first good effects 
felt by users of Scott’s Emulsion 
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Scott’s Emulsion 
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Practical Short Courses are offered by CORNELL 
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Feed and Brain Dealers and Farmers 
Will find It to their Interest 
to call on or write 
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No. 143 Washington Street, Buffalo, N. Y., 
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which makes the Cheapest and Best feed in the mar¬ 
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feed for milch cows and cattle. A'so all grades of 
mill feed In car lots or less. Samples and prices 
sent by mall. 
CLAREMONT Land Association, s^rcTva., 
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on James River, with terms to suit purchasers. 
Free circular 
