these great companion parks, -within thlswedded 
circte of male*tie hill and majestic plain, under 
these skies of purity, and in this atmosphere of 
elbdr, - lies the pleasure-ground and health- 
home of the nation.’' 
Yours for “ Progress and Improvement,” 
Old Settler. 
Canon City, Colorado, 1869. 
cflover sod, and plant to com again. In this 
tray they have one field in corn, one in 
wheal, and one in clover at the same time.. 
With tills style of farming they got from 
fifteen to fifty bushels of com per acre; in 
some few cases as high as seventy-five 
bushels have been got to the acre. Of 
wheat they generally get from six to twelve 
bushels for every one sow, and as high 
as forty bushels for one sown has been 
obtained. Most of lire farmers apply wliat. 
manure is made on the place to thrive pota¬ 
toes and corn, and apply a coat of lime, or 
some common fertilizer, to the. wheat at the 
time of sowing. 
The price of corn here this winter has 
been from seventy-five cents to one dollar 
per bushel, delivered at the stat ion; of wheat 
from two dollars to two dollars and fifty 
cents per bushel. Oats from sixty to seventy 
cents per bushel. They usually yield from 
ten to twenty bushels for one sowed. The 
common or Irish potato does well, never 
rottlr^, and yielding from one hundred to 
two hundred bushels per acre; the sweet po¬ 
tato grows to perfection, and yields from one 
hundred and fifty to three hundred bushels 
per acre. The price of shell lime per bushel 
hare is about ten cents. 
In regard to grasses, one can easily see 
that with the plan of farming in operation 
here, grass had no chance of getting any 
hold, and neither did they want, it to, as a 
man here said to his neighbor, who had got 
a sack of grass seed to bow:— “Be very 
careful when you sow it that none of it blows 
on my land, as It is very spready stuff, and I 
1 li_A It 4 .-~v-.4 !n ^ Tlilo IlOO 
feet of southern yellov* pine is here mfuiu- 
fhetured and sent to mtfr-ket in a year. We 
saw immense quantities of blocks ready for 
the is’icliolson pavement. These yellow pine 
blocks are almost as heavy as bricks of eiqual 
size. We were surprised at their weight* 
They would surely wear three or four lEnn» 
as long as our white pine. 
Wc also visited works for the preparation 
of cane fiber for paper. The cane is put 
into cylinders very much like cannon, a jet 
of steam is turned upon it and then /It is 
blown out of the cylinders with such force 
that it Is at once coirv feted iDto a soft, fine 
substance like tow. It Jb Urn dried, baled 
and shipped to the paper maker. Some 
fifteen tens per day were made here in this 
new establishment; price ixbout twenty-five 
dollars per ton. This mak«ts a bettor paper 
than straw, and the supply of cana is almost 
inexhaustible. 
From Wilmington we proceeded! directly 
to Charleston. On our way, at St pl*oe called 
Mullin’s Station, we saw a very large and 
regularly planted vineyard. It wits the prop¬ 
erty of a German who had settled’ there aDd 
was, wc were told, experimenting Ki th many 
sorts of grapes, and was subjecting il<e Scup- 
to the ordinary methods of pruning 
Second Annual Exhibition of Colorado Ag¬ 
ricultural Society, October 1867 — page 35; 
and chapter on Agriculture in Ho lusters 
“ Mines of Colorado,” — page 417. On page 
423 he states that 50,000 acres were under 
cultivation In 1866, which yielded over 1.500,- 
000 bushels grain. In Gen. Hughe*' ad¬ 
dress, page 34, vou will notice bis estimate is 
still larger. In 1863,1,362,220 bushels grain 
and 736,875 bushels vegetables were raised, 
(notwithstanding in the midst of a devastat¬ 
ing Indian war,) according to statistics gath¬ 
ered by W. R. Thomas, Esq., of the Denver 
News, and of the Colorado Chieftain, Dec. 
24,1868. The Chieftain also gives the num¬ 
ber of sheep In Southern Colorado, according 
to Assessors’ returns for 1808, as 500,000 
bead. Careful estimates of stock owners 
place the number of cattle in the Territory 
at 250,000 head, which live and fatten on the 
grasses of the cotin try without hay or grain; 
also “ countless thousands aboriginal cattle 
on our 25,000,000 broad pastoral acres,” 
which Hon. Horace Greeley estimated 
equal in number to the cattle east of the 
Mississippi. I have seen yearlings taken 
from the range in mid-winter, which never 
tasted hay or grain, weigh, when dressed, 
over four hundred pounds. The “dry” 
which your contributor sets down to our dis¬ 
advantage, adds greatly to the value of the 
grasses, which are cured gradually while 
retainin: 
ntmstrial topics 
NOTES OF TRAVEL SOUTH— H 
CLEAN UP! CLEAN UP! 
EY P. BARRY. 
I visited a friend lately, and hero is about 
the way we talked. I arrived at nlgbt, and 
in the morning got up early and took a walk 
out around over his place. After breakfast, 
as we sat on the porch, I said, “ You’ve got 
a nice place here —a beautiful view, plenty 
of fine trees, &c., but your place is so con¬ 
founded dirty that it takes away all my 
pleasure in looking at it.” 
“ Eh ! wliat do you mean ?” 
“Why, just this: your crops evidently 
have been well cared for the past year; your 
vines are nicely trimmed and trained; but 
there is that old barrel of ashes just as you 
left it after the leach was over; there’s that 
old refuse litter of broken and spare boards 
just beside the ham door; there's your old 
sleigh left, I should think, just where the 
snow left you and It; there’s that, old wagon, 
bold before tis as we sit, evidently long out 
of use; and forty more tilings I could name, 
to say nothing of the loose straws, flying 
papers, bits of broken 1 wards, an occasional 
stone, etc., that are all around and annoy the 
eye wherever I go; and this is what I mean 
when I say your place is a nice one, hut it is 
‘ confounded' dirty.” 
“Well, well; I don’t know but you are 
right; my good wife has always been talk¬ 
ing in the same strain, but I would not listen. 
However, 1 believe when I look at it there 
is too much truth and reality in it, and I 
promise to go to work and clean up, so that 
when you come to visit me again you can¬ 
not thus find fault.” 
How many readers of the Rural New- 
Yorker are there to whom these remarks 
are applicable I know not; but I do say 
tanners and gardeners—those who have all 
around them blooming and blossoming, tree 
and vine, producing fruit and flower, are too 
liable to leave some litter of old boards, 
ban-els, ash leach, an old wagon or harrow, 
just where It happens, and so gradually ac¬ 
customed to it that they see not the blemish 
it gives to their place. It Is said a hint 13 
something of more value than long detailed 
advice, and on that Til now rest, Imping to 
see the hint taken. Addi. 
The State capitol occupies an elevated, 
beautiful site. The building Itself is old- 
fashioned and dilapidated, and the grounds 
possess no interest in the way of trees, but 
we noted a fine group of statuary commem¬ 
orative of distinguished public men and his¬ 
torical events. 
We dropped in at the office of the South¬ 
ern Planter, and found there Mr. Ruffin, 
one of the editors. IIo informed us that a 
meeting of their State Agricultural Society 
was about to be held for the purpose of re¬ 
organization, and pressed us to Btay over and 
he present; but our engagements would not 
permit. We were glad to learn from him 
ami othew that there Is a very general move¬ 
ment throughout the State iu the way of re¬ 
organizing county agricultural societies and 
otherwise stimulating Improvements. 
Richmond, with such fticilities of rail and 
water communication as she possesses, must 
become a large and important city The 
climate is not quite equal to that of Nor¬ 
folk for early gardening, hut it is good 
enough to admit of this culture being car¬ 
ried on extensively and profitably. I see It 
stated that, during last season, there were 
shipped from Norlblk for the Northern mar¬ 
kets over a million dollars’ worth of straw¬ 
berries, melons and garden vegetables be¬ 
sides some $25,000 worth of fruits. 
WilinitijclOH, N. C. 
We arrived here on the 13th of January. 
The weather was clear and warm, as our 
month of .May. Garden work had already 
commenced. Here we found the Cape Jas¬ 
mine, Camellias, Laurustlnus, PiUosporums, 
and others of our northern green-house 
plants, flourishing in the open air. The size 
to which some of these plants had attained 
will show how well they thrive here. Pit- 
tosporum, a diameter of head twelve feet 
and a stem fifteen inches diameter; Ever¬ 
green Enonymus, twelve feet high and six 
pernong 
and training. He will probably fail in that. 
He sent wine into the care for salc% but it 
was badly made, miserable stuff, and is not 
calculated to give the Seuppernong a good 
name among travelers on that route. It is 
nothing but a libel on that noble grajie. 
—-- 44-4 ---** 
AGRICULTURE IN NEHRASB’-A. 
BY HUGH T. BROOKS. 
In the Nebraska papers there i& a very 
lively discussion of railroad projects. The 
State has a large amount, of valuabl e land to 
be appropriated to railroad impro’tcments, 
and, from the spirit and enterprise olf its in¬ 
habitants, it must soon have railroad licilities 
equal, or superior to any other Western State. 
But I must again exhort all fjood legislators, 
who have lands to bestow, to guard ttiesn by 
stringent provisions from passing into the 
hands of monopolists. 
The Nebraska State Board of Agriculture 
has recently held several spirited mea tings 
&t Lincoln, the Capital; Hon. R. W. Fur¬ 
nas has been elected President, and C. H. 
Walker, Esq, of Ashland, Secretary. T his 
means business. I observe that many tal¬ 
ented and influential men took part in the 
discussions, among whom were flon. O. M. 
Mason, Chief Justice, who is also a leading 
standing, retaining all their nutritious 
qualities. 
This new, sweeping and most injurious 
libel on our country brings to mind the fol¬ 
lowing facetious application. Gen. Bugses 
proposed, when speaking of the “ impudent 
ascription of sterility to our favored land ” by 
“ the map man,” who clings to the popular 
error of Great American Desert, that if here 
“ wc might knock out his brains with a Colo¬ 
rado onion, bury him in one of our squashes, 
put of our beet s one at each end of his grave, 
quite as long as the stones that will be 
deemed necessary by bereaved friends for 
his last home and slab it over with half a 
dozen turnips all the product of the desert 
of his imagination.” 
The following on the true resources and 
advantages, instead of reported disadvan¬ 
tages of our port ion of the W est, is an ex¬ 
tract from Sam Bowles' last letter to his 
Springfield Republican. Speaking of the past 
don’t want it to get in my corn.” This has 
been and is yet, to a great extent, the feeling 
in regard to grass among- the natives of this 
county. 
I do not recommend this couniy for 
dairying or stock growing, only so fax as to 
supply our home demands, from the fact that 
the land will pay far better put into fruits of 
different kinds; but nearly every farm has 
some portion of it that would pay far better 
in grass than anything else, and we could 
there have what hay and good pasture 
we needed to produce butter and cheese 
enough for the home supply. 
Most farmers have from one hundred to 
three hundred acres; small farms of twenty- 
five to seventy-five acres are rather scarce, 
aud usually sell for much more In proportion 
than the larger ones; hence it is better for 
two or three to purchase one tract and di¬ 
vide It. 
The water is generally soft and good. Of 
churches wc have a plenty, mostly of the 
Methodist order. Taxes here are almost 
nothing. Not over one-half of the land in 
this county i3 under cultivation, the balance 
being in wood, some of which is very heavy 
white oak, red oak, pine, hickory, chestnut, 
black walnut, ash, cedar, cypress and gum. 
Most of farmers keep some sheep and they 
do welL 
The price of farms depends upon the 
quality of soil, condition of buildings and 
fences, quantity of fruit trees out and dis¬ 
tance from railroad. The usual price of 
most of the land is from twenty to sixty dol¬ 
lars per acre. The soil is a sandy loam, with 
; clay subsoil in many cases. 
Peach trees are put out when one year - old 
l from the bud, and should be planted with 
I com or potatoes for three or four years after¬ 
wards ; plowing the ground once a year will 
be sufficient. 
As to climate, our winters are short and 
mild. At, tins time of winter, Feb. 22,6ome 
have planted potatoes, peas, &c., and some 
of the farmers are sowing oats; but usually 
this work is not begun before March; and 
my experience thus far, in regard to the 
summers is, that one does not feel the heat as 
much in Delaware as in New York State, 
from our location between the Delaware and 
the Chesapeake Bays and Atlantic Ocean. 
We have a pleasant breeze nearly all the 
time. I consider one’s life and property as 
safe here as in any State in the Union. 
Let me add that in writing the above, as 
well as my other letter, I have tried to repre¬ 
sent mat ters as nearly correct as possible, be¬ 
lieving that it does more harm than good to 
highly color and misrepresent. 
B. Redfield. 
“ Our Farm," Bridgervllle, Del. 
years of speculation, consequent relapse and 
final return to labor basis of self-reliance, 
he adds; 
“These were the kernel years of Colorado; 
they proved her; they have made her. He r 
f old product went down, probably to a million 
ollare fav. in each of 1886 and 1887; but it began 
at onc/i. under the now order of things, tar Iso; 
and agriculture also at ouce shot up fthd ahead, 
and directly assumed, as it has tn California, the 
place of the brat, interest, the great wealth. No 
more -flour, no more oorn. no more potatoes, at 
six to twelve cents a pound freight from the Mis¬ 
souri river. In one year Colorado became self- 
supporting In food; In the second, an exporter, 
the feeder of Montana, the contractor for tiie 
Government post and Pacific UuUroad; and now, 
in the third year, with food oheciicr than in ‘the 
States,' she forces the Mississippi and Missouri 
valley# to keep their produce at homo or hrk! It 
East.’ She feeds the whole lino of the Pacific 
Railroad, and bus oven t*ecu sen ding some of her 
vegetables to Omaha, Her gold and silver pro¬ 
duct is up to at laaat two millions, this year, got 
out at a profit of from twenty-five to fifty per 
cent., is now at tbo rate ol nearly. If not qujt^ 
Ga* Lime for Sorrel.—The Melbourne (Aus¬ 
tralia) Economist speaks highly of gas lime as a 
cure for sorrel and other weeds, and also as a 
renovator of soils which have been exhausted by 
them. Iteays:—“Onereportinourhandsstates 
that tho gas lime, after lying spread upon a thick 
mat of sorrel, entirely destroyed the latter, and 
in n short month maize and sorghum wore sown, 
not only without danger, but with the greatest 
success. Byway of experiment sorghum was 
sown every seventh day after tho gas lime was 
u*ed; tho grain was completely destroyed after 
the first and second sowings, and the plants were 
partially lciJied at the third attempt, but the 
fourth sowing was a most complete success, and 
in none of the four plots can scarcely a piece of 
live Borrc-1 be found. TJhe land in question had 
at the rate of 6lx loads, or tons, of the lime per 
acre spread upon It, and was then plowed; the 
caustic properties, In connection with the pow¬ 
erful ammonia, quiokly took effect, but appa¬ 
rently were as speedily quiescent so far as the 
causticity-and ammonia were Ineffective as de¬ 
structive agents, the base, or the lime itself, 
acted most beneficially as a manure." 
, Chief Justice, who is also a leading 
agriculturist, and Hon G. W. Frost, State 
Senator, one of the principal ofiicers of the 
Pacific Railroad, and who takes a lively in¬ 
terest In agriculture. 
The Herd Laws were discussed. On that 
subject. Chief Justice Masg* is entirely sound; 
he holds that fences are to keep cattle in, 
and not to keep them out, and that every 
man should be held responsible for all dam- 
was thoroughly discussed. The conclusion 
reached may lie inferred from a resolution 
passed by the Board, instructing Secretary 
Walker to make arrangements to supply 
all applicants with plants and seeds; by de¬ 
voting his attention to the subject, and by 
ordering them in large quantities, he will be 
able to supply farmers upon the most favor¬ 
able terms possible. The State Fair is again 
io be held at Nebraska City, the last of Sep¬ 
tember. 
It is very evident that leading Nebraska 
farmers arc taking a decided stand in favor 
of thorough cultivation. Success to them. 
Nomenclature.—The Engllshof It 1$ whattbou- 
sands of farm ore mentally aek for when they 
read scientific descriptions of fmita and plants. 
An essayist In tho West, who recently discussed 
this subject, takes the position that the language 
used in describing plants falls far short of Its 
purpose. To understand a description we must 
first spend some time studying Latin. Why 
these descriptions could not bo printed In Eng'- 
lish as well. Is a question he would like answered. 
As a specimen take the following description: 
“ Stem erect; leaves globose, pubescent on the 
under side; flower at first erect, afterward pen¬ 
dant, etc." Now tales tho same lu English: 
“ stem upright, leaves egg shaped, hairy under¬ 
neath; flower at flrst upright, afterward droop¬ 
ing.” Ho assorts t ha 1 U the last desor iption does 
not convey the Idea exactly to common minds 
then the English language is not lucid enough to 
convey any meaning. 
LANDS IN DELAWARE. 
More Facts from a Sussex Co. Farmer. 
Since the publication of my letter in Ru¬ 
ral of January 1 Gth I have received so many 
letters of inquiry that it seems to me the 
eyes of the whole country must be on Dela¬ 
ware, — at least, I received so many that I 
cannot think of answering, Individually, the 
one-half of them; and I propose to answer 
these inquiries, one and all, in a general letter 
through your valuable paper. 
for next year’s corn crop; and so on, rice 
versa, until they began to learn better. Some 
few farms are tilled in that way to this day. 
Who would suppose they could get any com 
from land lilied in that way for years and 
years aud nothing put on in return? And 
yet they get from ten to fifteen bushels per 
acre. Remember that they never use a hoe 
in a cornfield here, and one man or boy with 
one horse will cultivate in proper order, after 
it is planted, thirty acres of corn. 
The improved way, or the way now more 
generally adopted, is to divide the farm in 
three fields. Cultivate one in com this year, 
sow wheat in the com in the fall, and the 
next spring" sow on clover seed, and as soon 
as the wheat is harvested, turn all the stock, 
horses, mules, cows, sheep aud hogs on the 
clover, and keep them there the balance of 
the season, and all of the next season; aud 
the spring after plow under what they call a 
ERRORS CORRECTED 
Popular Notious of the Great West Contro¬ 
verted. 
It seeniB unaccountable that such ideas of 
the geography and resources of this great 
Western country can be found among intel¬ 
ligent men as those shown in tour old con¬ 
tributor’s “Notes on Nebraska —No. II." 
He states that “excepting a few fertile val¬ 
leys on the Pacific slope, there is no land fit 
to form on west of a line drawn through 
Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota. 
This line will leave at least one-third of those 
States out in the cold,” &c.; and that the wild 
grass “ for three or four months affords some 
pasturage, but early frosts render it nearly 
worthless.” 
The truth is, in Colorado alone there are 
4,000,000 acres farming lands, according to 
report of Surveyor Gen. John Pierce ; also 
Goals for Milk.—The American Stock Journal 
makes a good suggestion when It says: —“Many 
families about towns and suburbs of cities who 
have not pasture and conveniences for peeping 
a cow, might keep a milking goat to great advan¬ 
tage ; they arc easily cared for and not costly to 
keep; maybe fed on the slops of tbo kitchen. 
If milked regularly twice every day, one will 
yield a sufficiency for a small family. Goat's 
milk is very healthy, very nourishing, and is 
often prescribed for the sick during convales¬ 
cence. The animal is very domestic in its habits, 
fond of being petted, and grateful for kind at¬ 
tentions.” 
