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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YOUKO 
£i;iri> of it Iftoralist. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
fROM THE DIARY Of A OEHTLEMAN HEAR HEW YORK C!~Y. 
Steel Ralte in the Garden.— May 27. 
—There are few more valuable implements 
for the garden than the common steel rake, 
provided, of course, that one knows how 
and when to use it. The clumsy malleable 
iron affair, so largely manufactured and sold 
as good garden rakes, are but a poor apolo¬ 
gy for such uu implement, and 1 am only 
surprised that any one having a garden will 
purchase them. A good sharp-tined steel 
rake is one of the very best implements 
known for killing weeds; but it must be 
used in time and before the weeds have be¬ 
come very large and firmly roofed. Regin 
as soon as the weeds appear and then rake 
over the surface frequently, for this one 
can afford to do, because a man can go over 
five times as much surface in a day with a 
rake while the weeds are small as he can 
with a hoe when they have grown to any 
considerable size. Among flowers a rake is 
just the thing to keep the surface of the 
ground love], meat and clean; and even 
among larger growing plants, such as corn 
and potatoes, I am not quite sure that, it 
cannot be used quite economically, bearing 
in mind, always, that it is an early imple¬ 
ment—not. one of your “ oome-easy, go-easy, 
slow-coach, behlnd-batid ” affairs. Little 
weeds require but very lit tle labor to de¬ 
stroy; but large oneR quite the contrary; 
and those farmers and gardeners who are 
never a little ahead of their work are pretty 
sure to be n long way behind. 
Mowing Lawns.— May 28.— The late 
abundant rains have compelled me to set the 
lawn mowers in motion. In looking among 
the tine lawns about the city I notice that 
most of the gardeners cut the grass very 
close, in fact so close that, the sod is injured 
wherever there happens to be a Blight ele¬ 
vation. The best lawn will soon bo ruined 
if the knives of the mower arc set so low 
that the lowest joints of the grass above t he 
surface are out or broken; besides, the 
beautiful and velvety appearance of (lie 
grass is destroyed. The grass should be 
left at least one inch long, and then there 
will bo room for the flue cuttings to drop 
down and be hidden as soon as they are 
wilted. Workmen usually prefer to cut the 
grass very close, because if will grow less 
rapidly when shaved down to the sod, and 
the operation need not be performed so 
often, consequently less labor is required. 
Early anil Late Planting.— May 29. — 
There are some things that it will do to 
plant early, but others that cold, ora cool 
atmosphere injures more or less. There is 
little use in planting corn, beaus or toma¬ 
toes until the weather is warm enough to 
insure growth. Wo have had exceedingly 
cool weat her during this entire month, and 
many tender plants have made but little 
growth. Com looks yellow, except in very 
warm soils and protected situations, while 
tomato plants have t hat, sickly, brown color 
which says, plainly, “I am suffering from a 
bad cold." The bedding plants, such us 
coleuses, heliotropes, geraniums and fuch¬ 
sias have lost the bright colors which they 
possessed when planted out. These cold 
nights just suit, the cut worms, and they 
are making havoc with all those succulent 
plants agreeable to their taste. 1 have never 
found u more effectual method of destroy¬ 
ing than catching and crushing. Lime, 
ashes, and various other substances have 
been applied about the plants without any 
satisfactory results; but, if u man will get. 
up in the morning and use the line tooth 
rake ubout infested plants, the cut. worms 
may readily be found, for they do not go 
very deep into the ground, but remain near 
the surface. It is only the early bird that 
catches the worm, but not without labor. 
Magnolia Umbrella.— May 30.— Among 
the late blooming magnolias the M. Um¬ 
brella, formerly called trlpetela, is certain¬ 
ly one of the most showy. The flowers are 
six to eight inches broad when fully ex¬ 
panded, and of si pure white color. The 
leaves are also very large—one to two feet 
long and six inches broad. The fruit is also 
very showy In Autumn, being four or live 
inches long and of a bright rosy rod color. 
The trees commence blooming quite young, 
usually when not more than four or five feet 
high, seldom failing to show their flowers in 
this latitude the last of May. The habit of 
this species is not equal to the M. acumi¬ 
nata in graceful outline, the branches be¬ 
ing larger and coarser, and the trees do not, 
as a rule, assume a pyramidal form; usually 
they are rather open and not well furnished 
with small twigs or branches, which would 
till up and make the tree look more dense 
when covered with foliage. Jt is, however, 
a valuable species, growing rapidlj r and 
quite hardy in most of the Northern States. 
Transplanting Tulip Trees.— June 1. 
—I dug from the woods and fields last fall 
i.i m» | ijife Y 
Iliil mmmm ~x 
A 
GOODELL’S CHERRY - STONER. 
quite a number of tulip trees, (Lirlodcn- 
(Iron tuUpifcra,) and heeled-in during win¬ 
ter, which I have planted out in nursery 
rows this spring. Like most other species 
of farest trees, these seedlings had few side 
or lateral roots, the main or tap-root pene¬ 
trating deeply into the earth. In planting 
these seedlings I cut away (lie greater por¬ 
tion of the tap-root, and cut the stems 
down to within one or two feet of the 
ground. The largest) of these seedlings 
were six to eight feet high, but all were se¬ 
verely pruned as stated, no attention being 
paid to buds or branches on the stems; but 
at this date nearly .ill have put forth new 
shoots, and I have little fear of the result, 
having done the same thing many times 
with these and other forest-grown seedling 
trees. Handsome and valuable native trees 
can be procured in abundance from our 
forests, and there is little danger of loss if 
they are severely pruned at. the time of 
taking up or planting. 
3$arm <|mjil ciuents. 
THE LOUDEN HAY CARRIER. 
Pkoharivy no farm work involves severer 
labor than gathering and storing the hay 
crop. Its enormous bulk, and the fact that 
it must frequently be handled almost at 
lightning speed to save it from injury by 
ruin, make any implement that lightens the 
load or moves more rapidly than unassisted 
muscle, doubly welcome to the farmer. 
wagon) and held there until the pulling of a 
cord releases the load, and it. falls all to¬ 
gether, as closely packed as it. was while 
held by I tie horse-fork. It is claimed that 
by the use of this implement from one to 
three tons of hay may be packed in the 
same barn more than could be got in with¬ 
out it. 
The hay having been dropped, the fork 
automatically returns for another load. 
One of l lie excellences of this implement is, 
that the fork is always under control, never 
flying loose, striking against beams, or 
threatening to "put a head on " those using 
it. This fact, and the perpendicular raising 
of the load, make the implement do clean 
work, not scattering t he hay. 
As to the expense, no unimportant consid¬ 
eration in l hose times, we learn that the two 
sizes mode cost Respectively eight and 
twelve dollars. The weight is ubout twenty- 
tlve pounds, and t bey can be sent by express 
cheaply and safely. The LOUDEN Mast- 
KArrt uiNo Works, Fairfleld, Iowa, will 
promptly send to all applicants circulars 
and price lists of these carriers, and also of 
tlu; large variety of Horse Forks, Revolving 
Rakes, etc., tliey manufacture. 
-♦♦ » 
GOODELL’S CHERRY-STONER. 
Fon this fruit per re. we have a genuine 
affection, too deep to let ub compare varie¬ 
ties, and be dissatisfied if the particular 
sample before us be not the most approved 
sort. Cherries of any kind always meet 
our approbation as soon as they become 
ours. If they belong to other people we 
LOUDEN HAY CA-RRIER. 
Chief among appliances for rapidly and are more critical. Yet there is always a 
economically handling hay is the Louden drawback to the pleasure they give. When 
Hay Carrier, of which we give a represen tn- eating the fruit an naturcl the stones 
tion. Its construction is such that it makes Serve in some degree to mark pauses, and 
little difference how the barn is situated, Intensify the pleasure, by delaying satiely, 
the implement is effective in every position, but an occasional careless bite brings us to 
4DNE 15 
The hay being grasped in large bunches by 
the usual horse-fork, is, by the action of the 
Carrier, raised perpendicularly, requiring 
no guides, moved to the place designed for 
it (recent improvements render it easy to 
deposit the hay one hundred feet from the 
grief, and makes us lament that so sweet a 
fruit has so hard a heart. 
But when the cherry is cooked, when cher¬ 
ry pie is made, or compounded of delicate 
paste, a pudding is glorified by cherries, 
when the gustatory nerves are quivering in 
every fiber with expected enjoyment, to 
come upon a vagrant Stone then, perhaps 
break a pet tooth— hlc dolor! True, cherries 
can bo stoned by hand, but it is a dirty, 
wasteful, hand-staining business. It is no 
wonder the good wife guesses the folks are 
old enough to avoid swallowing the stones, 
and leaves them in. 
But in these later days, GoodEll, so fa¬ 
mous already in agricultural mechanics, 
calmly considering these things, resolved to 
perfect the cherry, by removing the obnox¬ 
ious stones by machinery; and, having suc¬ 
ceeded in doing so, like, the public-spirited 
man ho is, now calls all the world, and every¬ 
body else, to share in the delight of which 
his Family Cherry-Stoner will prove so 
prolific a source—at least, during cherry 
time. 
The instrument is not large, nor compli¬ 
cated, nor dear, nor likely to get out of or¬ 
der. The cherries being divested of stems, 
are washed and placed on a grooved plat¬ 
form, down which they gravitate to the in¬ 
evitable cutters, which, swiftly descending, 
force the stones through the fruit on to the 
table, while the cherries are rolled off into 
a bowl. Two cherries are stoned at once, 
and about as rapidly as one can count, or an 
average boy eat them—which we call good 
speed. The stones are taken out about as 
cleanly as if carefully done by lmud, but the 
shape of the cherry is perfectly preserved, 
and the largo waste Of juice in haml-stoning 
is avoided. Need we say more? Perhaps 
it will be as well to mention that Mr. I). II. 
G-OODkll, who manufactures these unpre¬ 
tending comforters at Antrim, N. II., has 
also an office at 56 Chambers street, New 
York City, as will be seen by advertisement 
in this paper. 
rc naturalist. 
BIRDS AND CATS. 
I Had hoped that some one more compe¬ 
tent to do the subject justice than myself 
would put in a plea for the feathered song¬ 
sters who, by their presence near our homes 
and in our forest belts, do so much to en¬ 
liven and cheer us. No one can deny their 
usefulness in ridding the fruit trees and 
plants of insects, and in destroying worms 
which infest our lields and gardens. Many 
write in their praise, and for their pro¬ 
tection, by law, from boys and men, but 
forget to advocate the most effectual means 
at our com maud for the increase of their 
numbers. 
Where one bird is killed by man or boy, 
ten are destroyed by cats. Yes, the cat is 
the great enemy, the destroyer by whole¬ 
sale, of our songsters; and as long as people 
keep a host of bowling, hideous feline pests, 
so long will the birds be kept from increas¬ 
ing in numbers, and be frightened from our 
orchards and gardens. 
I have been observing the motions and 
habits of both birds and cats pretty closely 
for a few years, and I And it is next to im¬ 
possible to protect birds, even where you 
put up boxes on poles and in trees for their 
use in hatching. The cat perseveres, from 
day to day, watching and waiting, and in 
every case, will either kill one or both of 
the parents, aud leave the brood to starve; 
or, falling in this, watch the voting birds’ 
first feeble efforts t o fly, and destroy them 
ere they are able to escape her. 
I say, kill the treacherous cats, and, if 
necessary, poiBon the mice and ruts, or take 
some other means to get rid of them than 
the common one of keeping, as some do, a 
half score of cruel cats. s. h. j. 
Perrysville, O. 
-»♦» . ■ 
NOTES FOR NATURALISTS. 
Regulating the Hatching of Silk- 
Worm Eggm— Dmdaux, after a careful ob¬ 
servation of the external conditions which 
favor and influence the hatching of the eggs 
of silk-worms, lias prepared the following 
rules, by attention to which it. is said that 
the development of the eggs can be regula¬ 
ted at will. First, to prevent an egg from 
being hatched at the usual time, it must bo 
kept, from the period of being luid, at a tem¬ 
perature between 59 and 68 F„ and then 
exposed fourteen days to cold, three months 
before the time at which t he hatching is de¬ 
sired, being subsequently treated in tho 
usual manner. To cause an egg to batch be¬ 
fore the usual time, it must be exposed to 
cold twenty days after being laid, and kept 
in that condition for two mouths, and then 
removed. Six weeks later it will be in the 
same condition as ordinary eggs, and can lie 
treated in the same manner. In this way it 
is possible to have silk-worms ready for 
hatching at any season of the year. 
