WOV. 18 
managers bagged the ladies for God’s sake 
to come and help out the lonesome affair. 
Lonesome as it was there were still some 
verj attractive features. Richard Pe¬ 
ters, the veteran stock breeder of Atlanta, 
hud a large array of his cattle, sheep, hogs 
and bees; and there were good samples of 
vegetables, grains, cotton, and other prod¬ 
ucts o! Georgia. 
On my way North from Atlanta to Chat¬ 
tanooga, I was glad to see very extensive 
Helds of corn in full bearing. North Geor¬ 
gia has a heavy corn crop, and the fields of 
the Etowah, Coosa and Chiokamauga will 
prove the Egypt of tho State, in this year 
of cotton depression. 1 saw but little laud 
in cotton North of Kenosaw Mountain. 
With these presents 1 closo the notes of 
my tour of the Cotton States. t>. d. h. 
Chattanooga, Teun. 
oficUl Qjdojifi. 
SOWING GRASS SEED ALONE. 
A WESTERN NEW YORK FARM. 
The Central and Western portion of 
New York State is considered one of the 
best and attractive agricultural districts in 
the country—not that it offers to husband¬ 
men an opportunity to amass large tracts 
of territory or presents to them the fruitful 
qualities of a virgin soil. Such alone belong 
to the wilder regions of the West and some 
portions of the sunny South. Its peculiar 
adaptability lies in the fact that it is rami¬ 
fied by a perfect system of railroads and 
canals, thus bringing the produce of the 
farm into direct und speedy communication 
with tho markets, and enabling the produc¬ 
er to dispose of his material to advantage. 
Prudent and far-sighted individuals have 
availed themselves of the opportunity; aud 
the traveler is surprised to meet all through 
those portions of the State homes of opu¬ 
lence and beauty, their owners the propri¬ 
etors of many broad acres, whoso skillful 
tillage yields a goodly remuneration, and 
certainly a surer one than the speculations 
of Wall street. 
Among those who have thus located is tho 
lion. Ebon N. Thomas of Rose Valley, 
Wavnc county. The extent of his property 
and tho success he has attained, both as an 
agriculturist and raiser of horses, have 
given him a wide reputation. The house 
he inhabits is of brick, 50 by J00 foot in di¬ 
mensions, and within and without presents 
all t he appearances of a city d welling. II is 
land is divided into three farms. These are 
situated near together, and embrace up¬ 
ward of seven hundred acres, the larger 
part being clear of forest or brush. The 
soil is suitable to the cultivation of cereals 
and fruits, especially the apple, and grape, 
and tho climate is such as to cause abund¬ 
ant crops. 
Of late, Mr. Thomas has devoted himself 
especially to the raising of horses. Fortu¬ 
nately for himself, ami for horsemen gen¬ 
erally, he became, several years ago, the 
purchaser of " Crittenden, Jr.,” a scion of 
tlm famous trotting stallion “John J. Crit¬ 
tenden," Through this animal a number 
ot colts have been obtained whose, .-.peed 
and build have won for them premiums at 
the annual fairs at Albany, Rochester and 
Elmira. Professor Law, F. R. V. of 
Cornell University, lately examined a num¬ 
ber of these animals while on exhibition 
in Albany, and paid them a high compli¬ 
ment. , 
Ju every respect this farm is a success. 
Science Is freely consulted in tlm cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil and the care of stock, and 
the latest inventions in instruments of 
husbandry are to be found in use. The 
result is that it pays, and Mr. Thomas is 
enabled to enjoy life with comfort. 
Traveler. 
-» » » 
QUESTIONS FOR ANSWER. 
Your Missouri correspondent has a long 
head to be able to understand, at a elance, 
why tlm negroes are poor, (’an In- tell v\ hv 
the Southern white people are poor? Can 
he come to so ready a conclusion why there 
are paupers at the North ? Can he tell why 
tho “poor darkey ” won’t h ave his pover¬ 
ty in tho South and go to Missouri, where 
he can get rioh? 
Two years ago 1 saw a Missouri man down , 
in Tennessee trying to hire froodmen, 1 
heard him talking to a sleek, greasy, ebony- 1 
skinned cotton-chopper, lie offered him 1 
SIM per mouth, pay every Saturday even- ] 
ing, fare like his own soils, work tho same | 
as himself. After exhausting himsidf with 
eloquent arguments, the “poor darker" ( 
showed his ivory and shook his heud, and 
said, “Can’t go dar." t 
Ask your Missouri correspondent whvan 
Intelligent man from Massachusetts came 1 
to North Carolina In lSGl> with SeO.OOO in £ 
his pockets, made cotton three years, and t 
went back penniless. Ask tho same corre- v 
spomleut w hy another Massachusetts man 
went to Mississippi soon alter tho war, 1 
bought a cotton plantation for 800.0UO, paid 1 
$30,000 cash, made cotton two years, tailed, s 
tried to “ Crawfish," was sued in a Massa- t 
chusutts Court, bad the whole to pay, and + 
nine thousand dollars costs. These are 1 
facts; aud when your correspondent can 11 
answer them satisfactorily, ho will have fl 
some reason to know why the “poor dar¬ 
key" is no better off than when tho war 
ended. A Poor White Man. n 
Stanhope, Washington Co., N. C. o 
There has been some discussion of this 
[. subject in the columns of the Rural New- 
Yorker; and we regard it an important 
and profitable quo to discuss. Guo. F. 
e Reeiikk, Rockingham Co., N. H., furnishes 
.. the Germantown Telegraph some intcrest- 
,f ing facts on this topic. Wo make the fol- 
U lowing extract from his letter: 
r Our experience has taught us that the 
d best time to seed with grass alone is the 
last half of August to tho middle of Sep- 
>f tembor. The chief benefits from selecting 
this season of the year are these: first, the. 
grass plants get well established and make 
a vigorous growth before Winter sets in, 
enabling them to withstand tho sudden 
changes of ati open Winter, or a cold baok- 
f ward Spring; secondly, such a sward gives 
e a full and a more valuable crop of hay the 
n first season; thirdly, the weeds start, and 
- being killed by tho frost, the first crop of 
s hay is a clean one—an important item if 
1 designed for market. 
£ Rut we cannot always perform our work 
t! at the most proper time, or cannot seed all 
r wo wish by the middle of September; heuco, 
■ experience has proved to us that we need 
1 not limit ourselves to this season exolueive- 
3 ly in seeding our lands to grass alone. Per- 
1 haps I could not make the subject more 
■ plainly understood than by detailing a few 
• experiments from my own farm. 
In November, 1806, I seeded an aero to 
grass alone; the ground closed up anil re- 
1 mained frozen till Spring; consequently tho 
seeds did not germinate before Spring. 
The first crop was fair, a good ton, the 
1 herd-grass or Timothy nearly half beaded 
out, no clover sown. In the year 1868, ad- 
1 joining the piece, I seeded two acres in 
September, which was well-started before 
Winter; the first crop of hay was fully ma¬ 
tured, aud the yield two tons per acre. 
These lands have been in mowing since, 
without any perceptible difference in favor 
of either since the first year, and yielded 
tho best, heaviest grass on the farm through 
tho dry seasons of 1869, ’70 and ’71, and are 
now la good condition, yielding fully two 
tons per acre the present season. 
Passing numerous experiments in other 
years, I will pay a word about an acre seed¬ 
ed last fidl; it was a small mud meadow, 
drained and reclaimed, surrounded by poor, 
gravelly land; the acre was about half 
meadow, the balance gravel. It, was plowed 
tho Fall before, planted with potatoes in 
t he Spring, and as soon as the potatoes were 
dug, the land was cleared of tops, and seed¬ 
ed at once to grass, without any addition 
of manure; the potatoes had an application 
of about four cords of stable manure In tho 
Spring, spread broadcast, and well worked 
into tho soil. There have boeu two crops of 
excellent hay taken from the piece this sea¬ 
son ; both crops were well matured in 
growth, aud there is a lino third crop well 
started at the present time. 
This experiment has been the most sug¬ 
gestive and interesting to mo of any that I 
have as yet made; considering tho poor 
quality of tho land, tho small amount of 
manure which was applied to a previous 
crop, tho result has thus far been remark¬ 
ably good. The lesson to me is this, that 
hereafter all my potato lands will be seeded, 
as soon as cleared, to grass without plow¬ 
ing again; and it is a hint for me to try a j 
| like experiment on my corn land this fall, 
both field and fodder corn. 1 propose to ( 
split the hills with a plow, harrow out the 
butts, pick and draw them to the com- j 
post heap, pulverize thoroughly and seed ( 
to grass without plowing or manuring, as 
the land was liberally manured in the 
Spriug, broke up last fall, the manure ap- t 
plied on the furrows in the Spring. If I j 
plow it I shall turn up a half-rotten sod, 
bury my manure, and can not get a oatoh 
of grass without manuring again. 
Now a word for Spring seeding of grass a 
alone. Having an aero of laud last Spring j, 
which had been used for garden purposes v 
and manured very heavily for tho past t 
three years, which I wished to seed to grass, t 
grain being a secondary object, I ventured j, 
to try it, omitting the grain. The result is u 
this: seeded May 7, first crop cut July 15, 6( 
second September 5; the first yielded fully 
two tons, the second one and one-half tons; 
the first somewhat weedy, but the last ft 
nearly clean, and the piece is now looking p 
finely. t] 
The conditions of success in seeding grass f< 
alone I am inclined to think are these, with- g] 
out considering the quality of the land: A 
thorough pulverization of the soil, surface 
application of manure, the soil and manure 
pulverized by the same operation. I use a 
home-made clod-crusher, Cumberland (En¬ 
gland) pattern, which is very effective; 
thick seeding thinly covered; the soil when 
the job is completed compact at the surface. 
Tbo farmers of New England at the pres¬ 
ent moment are under the necessity of 
getting as full paying crops as possible 
from their fields with tho least expenditure 
of labor consistent with good farming. We 
formerly thought we could not get our 
fields, when run out, into good grass with¬ 
out a hoed crop for one or more years—I 
am speaking now of high, dry lands—but 
we have proved beyond question or shadow 
of doubt that there is no necessity of this; 
that thero is a quicker, cheaper, more prof¬ 
itable way. I have in mind a field of one 
of my neighbors, who never strikes out an 
original path, but is pretty sure to follow 
anything that pays better than his own 
practice — a good, thorough, progressive 
farmer, who never seeded to grass alone 
but once, and that the previous year. Tbo 
field is high and dry; it was broken up last 
October; the soil was so dry that it plowed 
badly; manured well, not heavily; seeded 
at once to grass; last year the laud did not 
produce five hundred pounds of hay per 
acre; tho Winter was an open one, and the 
young grass plants were badly thrown out; 
Clover was sown in the Spring. Now for 
tho result—my neighbor has cut two crops 
from the land, full}’one and one-half tons 
per acre each crop; the clover did not in¬ 
crease t he first crop, but made a fine show 
in the second; the sward is now a perfect 
one, thick and even, promising a heavy 
yield next and succeeding years. 
POTATOES FOR SEED. 
The following are the ideas of an old 
1 farmer in Maine on seed potatoes, as given 
in tho Lewiston Journal:—We use too ripe 
seed when wo propagate from tubers that 
have lain In t he ground t ill dead ripo. Plants 
that are propagated by tubers require dif¬ 
ferent treatment from those propagated by 
seeds. Our corn and grains that we use for 
sued we like to have stand u little longer 
than tho main crop, and become perfectly 
matured. On the sumo principle our corn 
is selected from tho ripest, best developed 
ears and kernels. Rut potatoes for seed 
should be dug and placed in a cool, dark 
cellar, just as soon as a majority of them 
will slightly crack open in boiling. This is 
most invariably while the tops are yet green 
and growing fast. The tubers aro then in 
their most vigorous state. Disconnect them 
from the parent stalk at that time and they 
retain their vigor. Instead of deteriorating, 
as most, all of us know the older sorts have, 
their vitality is increased, and they yield 
better, with less tendency to rot. As long 
ago as 1816, and subsequently, observations 
led him to make some experiments to test 
the theory, and he finds it tho proper course 
to pursue. It is not often said that, the late 
planted potatoes are hotter for seed than 
those planted early ? Tho lateness of their 
planting, presumedly, prevents perfect rip¬ 
ening, lienee the principle of the above 
reasoning would be in force. 
- -♦♦♦ -- 
FIELD NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Castor Beans Death to Stock. — It 
seems certain that castor beans will kill 
horses and cattle. Within a year or two it 
has been stated in the Farmers' Club of 
New York City that if placed in the paths 
of moles or in tho holes of gophers they 
would exterminate these animals. Nowit 
is recorded that a span of horses in Ne¬ 
braska died within twenty-four hoursafter 
eating a half handful of castor beans divided 
between them. Commenting on this fact 
the Prairie Farmer says:—“That castor 
beans injure stock is certain, and that 
death has resulted from eating them seems 
ulso sure. Among the earlier acts passed 
by the Legislature of this State, was one 
attaching severe penalties to persons who 
left castor beans in exposed situations or 
who left fields of them exposed so that cat¬ 
tle could enter.’’ Our readers who grow 
these beaus should, therefore, be careful 
bow they expose them to stook, at least 
until tho fact whether they kill is definitely 
settled, if there is any question about it. 
Corn Crops.—I should like to know, 
Mr. Editor, what’State, represented by ' 
Rural New-Yorker readers, can report 
the largest bona fide yield of shelled corn < 
for the year 1872. I nm sure you will be 
glad to record verified reports.—R. M. F., 
Xenia, 0. i 
gill) Slfiiarinit. 
FALL FEEDING BEES. 
Mrs. Tuppkk writes tho Roe Keepers’ 
Journal:—However people may differ as to 
the benefits of feeding bees in the Spring, 
we think they will all agree that to feed in 
tho Fall is poor economy, except in special 
cases. If stocks aro in too poor condition, 
to winter over, bettor make one good one 
out of two, or even three, than to attempt 
at this season to food them into good safe 
wintering condition. Wo have fed stocks 
that had not five pounds of honey in Octo¬ 
ber and made them good colonies and win¬ 
tered them safely. Wo did it as an oxperi- 
ement and found that it “ cost us more than 
it come to,” a homely and ungrammatical 
phrase, but an expressive one. 
Now our course is, to go through the api¬ 
ary some time, in October, see tho condition 
of every colony, select tho best queens to 
save, destroy poor ones, and then selecting 
the best combs from two oolonies, place 
them in order in one hive, and sprinkling 
the bees well with sweetened water and 
peppermint, put them all together. This 
is no difficult matter. It may be done in a 
few moments. Every year confirms our 
opinion that a strong colony is the only one 
that preserves any value. We know that 
after a poor season the desire is strong to 
keep as many stocks as possible, but in this 
matter our strength is not in numbers. 
Better have one good one in the Spring than 
a dozen that have barely lived through; 
you will bo better off even in point of num¬ 
bers by Juno. In a good season and under 
favorable circumstances one can increase 
very rapidly (if ho knows how)! In a poor 
season, when all is unfavorable, he had bet¬ 
ter far unite than divide. We have often 
found this true. 
The exact amount of honey necessary to 
keep a colony through tho Winter can hard¬ 
ly be estimated, so much depends on tho 
season, the locality and the manner of win¬ 
tering. Remember that bees do not waste 
it If they have It surplus, and that If it is not 
too Pmch in tbo center of the hive it is no 
disadvantage if they have more than they 
need. 
Slhc tfincprd. 
VINEYARD NOTES. 
Keeping Grapes.—The editor of The 
Fruit Recorder says he has good success in 
keeping grapes in Winter by cutting the 
clusters with as long stems as possible, re¬ 
moving bruised or decaying specimens, dip¬ 
ping the end of the stem in mucilage, wrap¬ 
ping in pieces of newspaper, pucking care¬ 
fully in shallow boxes, and storing the 
same in a cool place till cold weather, and 
then transferring them to a room next or 
between rooms that are kept warm through 
tho Winter. For this purpose he recom¬ 
mends Diana, Iona, Isabella, aud Rogers’ 
1-5. Even Concord retains its virtues till 
January. He lias also had very good luck 
with grapes, picking them right from the 
vines and putting In boxes in layers with 
paper between, 
A Calikornia grape grower, it is said, 
keeps his grapes any desirable length of 
time by packing them, when perfectly free 
from external moisture, in dry sawdust, 
and then burying them In the ground under 
a ehed. He uses nail casks for packing, 
because they aro easily and cheaply pro¬ 
cured, but any cask or box would serve the 
same purpose. The sawdust must ho per¬ 
fectly dried, either in the sun or in an oven, 
and the place where the packages are buried 
must be secured against the possibility of 
any water settling around them. 
The Red Tomato Grape,—In the pub¬ 
lication of my description of a grape (see 
page 268) found resembling a tomato in 
shape, you make me say, the cluster resem¬ 
bled a tomato In shnpo, which Is a mistake 
of yours or mine. Tho mistake is made by 
omitting the word “on,” which should pre¬ 
cede “one of the clusters." To bo more 
explicit, this Is a grape which cannot be 
distinguished from a tomato in appearance; 
grew upon a largo clust er of one of Rogers’ 
blue grapes; and this red tomato grape is 
much larger than the blue. I supposed 
President Wilder the originator of the 
Trophy tomato, and knowing him to be 
also well versed in the mysteries of the veg¬ 
etable world, called on him for an explana¬ 
tion, If such a circumstance was ever 
known to ocour before, let the learned 
speak out.— R. L. Dorr. 
