MOORE’S RUBAI. NEW-YORKER 
july 6 
10 
of the forward revolution of improvements 
for the relief of human industry, the saving 
of time, and for enhancing the real value of 
the hay product by enabling the farmer to 
cut his grass when it is in ftie best condition 
to cut, cure it iu the short est space of time 
and in the best manner, and secure it under 
cover without such exposure as will rapidly 
and surely depreciate its nutritive qualities 
and hence its value, whether designed for 
his own stock or the market. 
-*-*-♦- 
FARMER GARRULOUS TALKS. 
Strawberry and Cherry Friends. 
It is astonishing, Mr. Editor, how many 
friends 1 have during strawberry and cher¬ 
ry time. I'm overwhelmed with their at¬ 
tentions! There is no use o’ talking! 1 
am growing vain because of my growing 
popularity, 1 find myself saying, “After 
all, virtue is its own reward,” and I seem 
to be reaping the reward of careful indus¬ 
try and inind-my-own-busincsH habits—at 
least so far as apparent appreciation goes. 
For instance, who who would have thought 
that Mrs. Stick unit kbno.se would ever 
have deigned to visit my humble home? 
Yet only yesterday her carriage stopped at 
my gate, and she—delightful woman!—got, 
out of it and actually entered my house! 
She told iny wife that we hail a most 
“ebawming place," and that she had been 
trying to Induce her husband to bnv two or 
three farms, and retire from business and 
indulge in pastoral pursuits as a rc<-rca¬ 
tion! "Iieercation!” I repeated when I 
was informed of her desire. Then she very 
naively and frankly informed Mrs. Garru¬ 
lous that she was dying for a taste of 
strawberries, but she didn't suppose they 
would be ripe for a month yet (she had seen 
me selling them in market only the day be¬ 
fore) and sho thought she would drive out 
and get a breath of (Ion’s fresh air (she’s 
very devout), look in upon our “cliawming 
home," (sho had told Mrs. Tkllallkhk- 
Hkahs that sho could not understand how 
(Susan Jank Junks ever came to marry that 
Garrulous and shut herself out from the 
world on a farm), and find from Farmer 
Garrulous how long she would have to 
wait before alio could put a strawberry be¬ 
tween her lips! 
Of course 1 was sent for. Mrs. Garru¬ 
lous (innocent, kind hearted soul!) sent out 
forme with a message to bring iu the best 
box of strawberries the boys and girls had 
picked. So I went in with the box under 
my arm. Heboid Mrs. Stick itphehnose in 
the parlor awaiting my coming. 
"Good morning, madarnc!" 
" Why, how do you do, Mr. Garrulous? 
O, I did want so much to sec you and your 
dear wife that I could not stay away any 
longer: so 1 came down to see you, and see 
when strawberries would be ripe. I'm dy¬ 
ing for a taste of 'em." 
"Well, madamo, strawberries arc ripe;” 
and 1 exhibited the box of Charles Down- 
ings under my arm. Mrs, Garrulous 
rushed up to me to get them, and thrust 
them into the waiting hands of the delight¬ 
ful Stick upheknosb, but I said, "I will 
show them to Madame." So 1 did. But I 
did not let her touch them. 
" Oh ! how delicious! " 
" How do you know, Madamo?” 
“They look, I mean,” said she. 
" Yes, and they taste equally so," said 1. 
“Are you sending them to market, Mr. 
Garrulous?" slm asked, very defforon- 
t hilly. 
“ Yes, Madame; I was in market with a lot 
yesterday, which you saw me selling. This 
box I had picked especially for your next 
door neighbor, Mrs. Substantial, who 
bought live boxes of me yesterday, and or¬ 
dered ten of my best to-day. Aren’t they 
nice?” 
" Very," said our visitor, rather demurely. 
" Can you spare mo some to-day?" 
“ Certainly—how many do you want? " 
" O, aa many as you .can spare conveni¬ 
ently.” 
“ What, Madame ? I can let you have five 
bushels if you want them! " 
" O, you mean sell them to mo? " 
“Certainly!—why should I give them 
away?” My wife looked at me deprecat- 
ingl.v and appealingly. 
" Well, that makes a difference; if I must 
buy them, after having come so far without 
getting a taste, i suppose I had better have 
three or four boxes. How much will they 
be?” 
“Twenty-five cents per box, Madame. 
And allow inn to say that my wife, when 
she visit s you, does not expect you will send 
foryour husband and bis sainplesof needles, 
thread, laces, or silks, from his store, with 
any idea that he will (Jive her any of those 
articles.” 
“ O, well! Mr. Gambi:lou 8; you and f 
understand each other. You say these 
berries are twenty-five rents per box. Why, 
that is all they ask for them in town at the 
fruit stands; and you do not get that for 
them t here ? ” 
“No! But when 1 do a retail trade I ex¬ 
pect pay for my time; and I do not pro¬ 
pose to destroy my town market for my 
fruit by underselling my best customers 
there, at home. It lias cost mo more timo 
to bargain with you for the sale of t hree or 
four boxes than to have sold three or four 
dozen boxes in town. I will send John in 
with the fruit, Madame. You can pay me 
now for it." 
Site very reluctantly Handed me a dollar 
bill, flounced out of t he house and into her 
carriage without bidding good-bye or in¬ 
viting Mrs, Garrulous to rchon the cull, 
received her berries (John said) “as if she 
knew they were sour,” and went whence 
she came. 
1 don’t hear that she has told anybody 
about her visit to our “chawming borne;" 
but I have heard that sho thinks “that 
Garrulous a boor, and a man who would 
steal coppers from dead men’s eyes." Her 
husband is a good fellow, a thorough and 
liberal business man, without an ounce of 
meanness in him, and I don’t think she has 
told him how far she rode to “ find out when 
strawberries would be ripe." 1 have invited 
Mrs. Substantial and her family, with a 
few other choice friends, to a “ Strawberry 
Short -cake Party,” (so the invitation reads,) 
and if we don’t have a jolly time it will not 
be because t-linra are not plenty of straw¬ 
berries to eat, and flowers to garnish the 
table with. But I tell you, Mr. Editor, I’ve 
lived long enough on a farm to have learned 
how to t reat “ strawberry and cherry 
friends.” (You may leave the r out of that 
last word when you set it up, and you’ll hit 
the nail square on the head).— Farmer 
Garrulous. 
St h e Herdsman. 
PRICES OF CATTLE IN OHIO. 
The long established Madison County 
stock sales, in the town d London, v Mich l 
in t iie midst of the great him r. . cutt le 
feeding region of the D.uM Bluiie . iweru 
the Scioto and the Miami , ,w .. cm in¬ 
dex of the ruling prices f»»r live stock which 
the country afford; being to < Hiio what tin 
Bourbon County stock 1< are to Ken¬ 
tucky. These sales are i t gnlai l.v held on l lie 
first Tuesday of every month, and are at¬ 
tended by the best Informed and largest 
operators in live stock in all Southwestern 
Ohio and the region beyond as far as St . 
Louis. 
The sales for .1 uno were la rgely at tended 
and well supplied with cattle. From an 
analysis which l have made of t he sales of 
between four and five hundred of one, two 
and three year old cattle mostly two-year- 
olds—I find that, the range of prices was 
from a small fraction over four cents to fully 
six cents per pound, live weight. These, of 
course, are stock cattle, which change hands 
from breeder to feeder, or from one stock 
man to another, to suit the convenience or 
exigencies of business. The cattle of this 
region are mostly grade Short-Horns, The 
range of weights for two-year-old steers at 
the June sales was from TOO pounds to 1.100 
pounds- a majority being between 850 and 
000 pounds. 8. il H. 
-- 
NOTES FOR HERDSMEN. 
Horn Ail, or Hollow Horn.- In reply 
to Tims. Millkr’s inquiry (page 270), as to 
wliat ailed his heifer, 1 had a cow that was 
taken sick, with the same symptoms as his. 
My cow was healthy, apparently, and iu 
good order. Some time the last of April 
she calved; did well, and gave u full mess 
of milk until the calf was about a week old, 
when she began to sicken and the water to 
run out of her eyes. (She would stagger 
around in the yard as If she was blind. I 
examined her horns to see if they were hol¬ 
low, and * bought i hem all right ; so did 
some of my neighbors who examined them. 
Her droppings were hard and black ns tar. 
1 put spirits of turpentine on her horiiH and 
gave her about a pint of bogs’ lard and 
about the same quantity of linseed oil; then 
I gave her a pound of epsom salts, all to no 
effect. 1 got. two pounds more of salts, ami 
put it down her, without much change, 
except for tho worse. Next morning I took 
my gimlet and bored into one horn, and 
found that was hollow as a drum ; 1 ha ot her 
had a little blood nml matter. My cow is 
all right, now; gives from twenty to twenty- 
four quarts of milk per day at present,. It 
may be that if Mr. Miller hud examined 
the horns of bis heifer, he would have found 
the disease there. — Abraham Witmer, 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
(Jjifld 01 ro ji !i. 
CALIFORNIA WHEAT AND WHEAT SOIL. 
\Vk saw a paragraph, some time since, go¬ 
ing the rounds of the newspapers, stating 
that Benjamin Ely of Buckeye township, 
Yolo County, had raised five successive crops 
of wheat from one sowing. Chancing to 
meet Mr. Ely at our Yolo ranch, a few days 
since, we inquired of him as to the authen¬ 
ticity of this story, and he confirmed it iu 
every particular, and in answer to our in¬ 
quiries, gave us several additional facts of 
interest about those crops. Mr. Ely in¬ 
formed us that he put. in the first crop in 
1805 (if we remember the year aright), in the 
usual way, by plowing and barrowing, and 
that he harvested five successive annual 
crops of wheat without further plowing, 
sowing, or borrowing, and that his yield 
was an average of .15 bushels to t he acre, per 
annum, for t he 45 acres that comprised the 
field; and t hat on t he sixt h year it produced 
u good crop of hay. 
This land is situated next to the Foot. 
Hills, about six miles north of the Putah 
Creek, and thirty miles due west from the 
city of Sacramento, two or t lireo miles north 
of “ Grand View Park,” our Yolo rancho. 
Ah we have said, there was no plowing, 
harrowing, or sowing after the first crop 
was put in; but Mr. E. says he turned in 
his hogs upon the stubble ground, and t hat 
was all that was clone. 8o we see that it 
was “snout culture ” that did tlm work, and 
produced a series of crops that will compare 
favorably with the most scientific or thor¬ 
ough tillage in the yield of I heir products. 
And if this term has never had a place in 
tin* agricultural encyclopedias hitherto, it 
should have one henceforth. 
Volunteering crops, as it is called in Cali¬ 
fornia, is very common; but it is generally 
done by harrowing or Cultivating the stub¬ 
ble ground the season after the first crop 
was harvested; but wo do not recollect of 
any instance before this where more than 
two or three crops iu succession have been 
taken from this kind of tillage. The diffi¬ 
culty in this kind of wheat cult ure generally 
is. that there is too much seed scattered 
from t he harvesting, but the hogs, by eating 
much of it, and rooting and trampling if into 
l in-ground, leave only enough for a proper 
riling; and hence the success, doubtless, 
in i he case before us. 
The superiority of California wheat is be¬ 
ginning to be understood and appreciated, 
not only iu New York and other Eastern 
markets, but In Liverpool and other mar¬ 
kets of Europe. The commercial world 
seems to have awakened to the importance 
and value of this superiority by a somewhat 
sudden impulse within the past year or 
two. And yet for thirty years or more, 
the value and superior quality of tho wheat 
of California, and soil of California as a 
wheat growing country, has been known to 
tho observing and intelligent, readers who 
have taken an int erest in the subject. 
in looking over a volume of Hunt’s Mer¬ 
chant’s Magazine for 1842 (Vol. VI.), we find 
under the heading “Value of California 
Wheat,” an article quoted from the Augus¬ 
ta (tin.) Constitutionalist of Aug. 20, 1841, 
which goes on to state that “the grain of 
this article was brought by a trader from 
Middle (’aliforuift, 111 or 15 north latitude, 
where it grows luxuriantly and yields 
abundantly a superior article of Hour. It, 
was obtained and introduced by Major l\ 
SnuiilN, who was in the Northwest iu the 
employ of the United States as Indian 
agent. This wheat has been sown iu Abbe¬ 
ville District, South Carolina, latitude 11 
1(1 W. The crop of tiiis year, 1841, is su¬ 
perior t o t hat of 1810 in the size of t he heads, 
superior product and fullness Of the grain. 
Experienced farmers, who have seen the 
wheat grow, assert that on proper wheat 
land, well prepared, eighty bushels can be 
raised on an acre. Its yield is astonishing, 
from the fact of one grain producing thirty 
to forty stalks, each having a full head, 
which contains from one hundred to two 
hundred grains, The best head of our com¬ 
mon wheat will only shell out from sixty to 
eighty grains. Another advantage is, that 
this wheat is not so subject to disease as 
Other kinds of wheat, and will withstand 
high winds and storms. It also grows and 
matures well westwardly, in the 89th de¬ 
gree of north latitude. It is considered to 
be a superior kind of wheat and a great ac¬ 
quisition to the agricultural community, 
mid we hope it may at least have a fair trial, 
when it will prove itself all that its most 
sanguine friends have said or thought it 
would be.” 
This prediction, made thirty years ago, 
has been fully verified, and more, even, 
t ban was claimed then for (’alifornia wheat. 
To-day it stands at the top of the list in all 
the beat wheat markets of Europe and the 
United States. n, 
-- 
CULTIVATION OF POTATOES. 
As potatoes arc raised extensively in our 
vicinity, I will give our method of cultiva¬ 
tion, as it may be of use to farmers in other 
localities; hoping, also, to hear from them 
in return. After the ground is plowed and 
thoroughly harrowed, we mark it out with 
a marker making three marks at a time, 
using one horse or two as may he preferable. 
The potatoes are dropped iu tho crosses 
and stepped on to prevent their rolling out 
of place, and then covered with a two-horse 
potato eoverer. If tho ground is very 
grassy, as soon as the potatoes begin to 
break through tho surface, we put two 
horses before a large plow (the one used in 
plowing at first) and with a long eve nor 
(((’:; feet) so that the horses may straddle 
two rows, we plow them under, and then 
put on the harrow and drag it down smooth. 
The potatoes make their appearance again 
in two or three days, and t lie gross is effect¬ 
ually checked. This takes the place of t he 
old method of hoeing. They are then culti¬ 
vated with a one-horse cultivator, once in a 
row each way, and afterwards hilled with a 
shovel plow, which is the finale until the 
time of digging. a. H. U. 
Sohodack, N. V. 
-»♦ » 
CLOVER FOR NAMES. 
F.nclobed find three species of clover (or 
wliat. I take them to be); please examine 
them and tell me their names, and whether 
they are good for grazing stock and im¬ 
proving poor land or not ? 
1. The branch with small leaves and yel¬ 
low clovers is wliat some call the Japan or 
Lcspedeza, which attracted some attent ion 
Houtli and West, two or t hree years ago. I 
never noticed it growing in this part of the 
country before yesterday; and to-day 1 
have been riding around in the Country, 
and see some about every plantation 1 
passed. I saw it growing oil land that had 
been turned out for years, which was cov¬ 
ered with ledge grass, and it had taken such 
ahold that it seemed as if it was going to 
make the ledge give way to it; iu places 
where the ground is good it grows luxuriant. 
2. The branch with large leaves aiul red 
bloom (deeper hue than the common red), I 
have seen growing about hero; very pretty 
on poor laud, and even amongst ledge. The 
first time that I noticed it was about three 
years ago; hut »s I have been West most of 
my time since then, 1 have never experi¬ 
mented with it. 
1. The branch with long leaves and soft 
velvet-feeling bloom, slightly tinged with 
red. Is something new to me, never having 
noticed it before to-day. I noticed it grow¬ 
ing line on poor ledge fields, I think from 
it s appearance It must lie a kind of clover.— 
1). T. I>yb, 8la ud l ord, N. ( ’. 
Neither of t he clovers sent are Lcsjjeileza 
striata or Japan Glover. No. 1 is Yellow 
Hop Clover, (Trifull urn proenvhens,) some¬ 
times called Yellow Dutch Clover. 
No. 2 is T. Carallntanum or Carolina 
Clover, common in the fields and pastures 
of the (Southern States. 
No. 1 is I. a men sc or Rabbit’s Foot ('lover, 
or Stone Clover. 
Tho second is tho most valuable of all, 
but neither are equal to the common red 
clover (I. pratense), or the Lcspedeza or 
Japan Clover. Of course they answer for 
pasture where no better species are grown, 
but are not worth special care or culture so 
long as we have many that are better, that 
will grow in a similar soil and climate. 
■- 
FIELD NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Alsilco Clover.—Will you inform me ns 
to the call for Alsike clover seed? I have a 
few acres of clean land, will it pay to raise 
it for seed better than as a forage plant ?— 
Noaji Alarm. 
We should think it would pay to grow it 
for seed, for we find on inquiry here that 
the seed (all of it imported,) wholesales at 
155 to 45 cents per pound, and retails at from 
50 to (»0 cents. The demand for it is in¬ 
creasing. Probably it would Increase still 
more if farmers could buy it at less than 
$30, or even $25, per bushel. We know no 
reason why clean domestic seed should not 
bring a paying price for some years to come. 
Other correspondents who inquire are in¬ 
formed that the seed can be obtained of 
nearly or quite all the seedsmen advertising 
iu our columns. 
Planting Corn in Drills,— John John¬ 
son, Geneva, N. Y., claims that corn plant¬ 
ed in drills will yield about twenty-live per 
cent, more than when in hills in the com¬ 
mon way. An editor of tho Country Gen¬ 
tleman, by repeated experiments, found 
that on his land he could increase the crop 
fifteen bushels per acre by planting in drills. 
ifel 
