422 
is cheaper to cut them down at once and 
plant anew. 
Young trees are more likely to recover 
from the injury by the winter than old ones, 
but they also may be cut back severely, and 
so form new tops. 
Some kinds of pear and cherry trees are 
also badly injured, if not destroyed. It is 
too soon, as yet, to discover the full extent 
of the damage. Black cherry bushes are, I 
think, all killed, and the finer kinds of rasp¬ 
berries. Most kinds of grape vines are in¬ 
jured-some quite badly—but they will no 
doubt recover, after severe pruning, with 
only the loss of the season’s crop. 
PalnesvIUe, 0., Feb. 10. M. B. Bateham. 
Jjield dJrqjB. 
FE®. 
JUDSON’8 AND COOLEY’S COEN. 
In your issue for Oct. 8th, 1870, you have a 
cut of a stalk of com raised by a Mr. Judson, 
also an ear of natural size. The stalk is rep¬ 
resented with six cars, and all, or nearly all, 
are represented of full size ; also you say : 
“ This Is not a fanciful representation of an ac¬ 
cidental specimen, but whole fields of stalks 
just like it have bocn grown the past season ; 
and we have grown iu our own garden sev¬ 
eral hundred stalks, none of which have pro¬ 
duced less t han four ears, and from that num¬ 
ber up to seven or eight.” Also, you say that 
“Mr. Judson has three varieties, all of the 
same habit, and we have not the least hesitan¬ 
cy in saying that every farmer can change the 
sorts he now cultivates into a branching va¬ 
riety in a few years if he will take the trouble 
of always selecting his seed corn from the 
stalks producing the greatest number of ears. ’ ’ 
Having cultivated one of Mr. Judbon’s va¬ 
rieties that year, and not with such success 
as you have represented in the above quotas 
tion, thought it best to say nothing about it 
till I had had more experience, remembering 
that when I first tried to warn the farmers 
that the so-called Norway oats, of Ramsdell 
notoriety, were not what he represented them 
to be, that I was selected as the person for 
all of his clique to vent their spleen upon as 
not knowing anything about them ; not hav 
ing the genuine sort, etc. Having now tested 
Mr. Judson 1 a corn for three years, I feel com¬ 
petent to form an opinion so far as my own 
farming operations teach mo, also the ob¬ 
servations and experiments of some of in}’ 
neighbors, which have passed under my no¬ 
tice. 
First, I have never grown a stalk that had 
six ears of com on of fair average size ; I 
have seen that number on the branching pop¬ 
corn, in rare instances, but never with the 
sweet or field com have I seen more than 
three ears, and not more than two of them of 
more than moderate size ; while with me the 
pop and field varieties have grown extra 
large stalks with an abundance of suckers, 
which are not desirable to grow, as the best 
ears of com I have ever grown were grown 
on stalks without suckers. I think the finest 
ears 1 have ever noticed were grown on a 
rather small stalk the past season, but them 
were but two ears on the stalk , yet if 1 would 
grow a field of com like it with three or four 
stalks in a hill the yield would be marvelous. 
I have saved the cars for seed, and if your 
theoiy is correct, shall hope to increase my 
com crop in a few yearn by continuous selec¬ 
tions from this same seed saved ; as, unless 
the selections be from the most prolific stalks, 
and continued from year to year, all would 
be at hap-hazard, and, therefore, nothing of 
value in the way of orlra ears to the stalk 
would be gained. I have no doubt that great 
advantage can thus be attained by the careful 
farmer; but that whole fields can be raised 
with six or eight earn of full or medium size 
to the stalk, I cannot yet believe has been 
done by Mr. J udson or any other person. 
I should Judge, from what I have learned 
by my own experience with the Judson corn, 
and from the different reports given of it, 
that it has, like the Ramsdell Norway oats, 
proved of no particular value to the ordinary 
farmer or the country at large ; also, 1 Judge 
that the call for seed was such that Mr. Jud- 
bon sent out seed that was inferior, and there¬ 
fore injured his reputation, as well as the 
public, so that no good has been attained by 
the Judson branching corn to the country at 
large. If I am mistaken in my views in re¬ 
gard to the Judson corn, it cannot be, so far 
as my own experience teaches me; but I may 
be in error in regard to the public at large. 
I wish to tell the readers of the Rural to 
give C. Cooley’ 6 early field com a wide berth, 
unless they live in a warmer latitude than 
Oneida Co. Seeing his advertisement last 
year, of his extra early field com, detailing 
its great yielding properties, I was induced 
to try a peck of it, direct from Mr. Cooley 
himself, so as to be sure to get the genuine ar¬ 
ticle. It proved to be a Dent com, growing 
12 to 15 feet in hight, and, with a very warm 
season, did not ripen at all in this latitude, 
was perfectly green the 16th of Oct., when our 
first frost came ; ears 12 to 16 rows, about 8 
or 9 inches long ; a perfect humbug to try to 
grow such com in this county, or any part 
as far North as this. I notice one faimer says 
his was 8- rowed mostly ; if so, Mr, Cooley 
probably sent out such com as he could get, 
without regal'd to earliness or honesty. As 
I have been very particular with mine, and 
have never seen an ear less than 12 rows of 
kernels, 14 to 16 quite common, have fed it 
mostly out to get rid of it, as the experiment 
cost me nearly $40, so that, my advice is, to let 
the C. C. Cooley’s early field com alone, as 
it is a failure. Jonathan Talcott. 
Rome, Oneida Co., N. Y., Jan., 1873. 
---- 
A SORREL FARM. 
I have charge of a farm of 240 acres, in Kent 
Co., this State ; about three-fourths of which 
is under cultivation. The soil is sandy and 
has been badly “ run” for several years. The 
sorrel last Summer was rank enough to “turn 
a good Bwath,” on a portion of it. What is 
the most economical method of fertilizing 
such land i It. lies too far from any city to 
bring stable manure. Plaster can be bod 
near here at $4,50 per ton. I^ast year some 
thirty acres were well seeded to clover, and 
plastered at the rate of 100 pounds per acre, 
with the view of plowing under the clover 
crop, when the proper time came. The seed 
germinated well, but for want of sufficient 
strength of soil, or from some other cause, it 
died out before August. 
In cases where land is too poor to produce 
clover, it lias been said to be a better prac¬ 
tice to sow buckwheat instead of clover for 
that purpose. Before experimenting on a 
large scale, I would like the opinion of those 
better informed in this matter.—J. M. C., 
Ann Arbor, Mich. 
If you could put 50 or 100 bushels of lime 
per acre on that land it would benefit it; and 
if you cannot get stable manure you can per¬ 
haps get peat or muck from swamps or sunk¬ 
en places. Even clay, soil or stiff loam would 
be better than nothing. Bandy soils must be 
fed. They manufacture the food given them, 
quickly iuio plants ; the supply must kept 
up. Clover cauuot be produced unless there 
is the material for clover in the sofi. Cannot 
you buy straw cheap ? or obtain leaves, or 
decayed wood ? You must obtain organic 
material for it in some way. Peas, buck¬ 
wheat and clover will help furnish it. 
--*-•-*- 
PREPARING LAND FOE T0BACC0,PLANTS. 
A Virginia Fanner’s Club adopted the fol¬ 
lowing as the sentiment of the Club on this 
subject:—That, as a matter of economy, burn¬ 
ing should be dispensed with, except on such 
land as actually required it; not that burning 
was of no use, but not necessary, and by 
omitting it much wood and labor would be 
saved. The following plan, without burning, 
had long been successfully practiced by mem¬ 
bers of the Club Select a place In woods of 
original growth, as far as possible from ara¬ 
ble lands and old plant beds; grub, and clean 
off all leaves and trash, then coulter the bed 
deep and well, turning as little of the surface 
soil as possible. Sow 1,000 lbs. of guano per 
acre, and rake it in, leaving the surface of the 
bed leveL Sow the seed, one pipeful to every 
ten square yards, tread them in and cover 
well, first with stable manure, then with 
brush. Would resow tint first of March, and 
hasteu (if necessary) the plants by frequent 
applications of fertilizers. Would not select 
very moist places for plant-beds, relying on 
deep cultivation for moisture. To prevent 
fly, would use kerosene mixed with lime and 
guano. Fly would not injure plants while in 
a rapidly-growing condition, 
-- 
PLANTING POTATOES UNDER STRAW. 
I planted some last year, alongside others 
covered in the usual way. The result was 
very small potatoes and few of them under 
the straw, while the adjoining rows gave a 
fine yield. As we have to raise all our crops 
by irrigating, and the straw will not absorb 
much moisture from the ground underneath, 
the seed and young tubers were dry nearly 
all the time ; hence the result. The plan may 
work in sections where rain can be depended 
upon ty w,et the straw from the top down ; 
but I would pot advise any one to plant po¬ 
tatoes in this manner where irrigation is prac¬ 
ticed. .N. K. Shelburn. 
1 Nfvsda. 
Jhrm tfroramtg. 
8UGAR MAKING IN VERMONT. 
There is at present an ebb tide in Vermont 
fanning. Farm help is scarcer, and its cost 
is high, and there is a growing disposition 
among farm laborers to give leas work in a 
day than formerly. Taxes are high. I could 
name towns where the cost of doing the town 
business has increased five hundred per cent, 
in ten years, with but little increase in the 
amount of business. At the same time, the 
price of «ill farm crops is low. There has 
been a little spurt in wool trade, and farmers 
have realized 55 to 60 cents for good lots ; but 
there is an or ganized and resolute determina¬ 
tion on the jiart of manufacturers and dealers 
to crowd price* down again. There is a gen¬ 
eral complaint that farming does not pay any 
income on capital invested, and much de¬ 
spondency exists among farm ere. 
The only farm crop common to the whole 
State, and uniformly profitable, is maple 
sugar. 1 propose to give the thousands of 
farmers who read your excellent paper some 
hints, based on the experience of our most 
successful sugar makers. There are a few 
simple rules, the observance of which will in¬ 
sure success. They are plalu and easily un¬ 
derstood, and aim to economize labor and 
fuel, and secure absolute cleanliness and free¬ 
dom from foreign substances, to obtain the 
greatest possible quantity of sap with the 
least injury to the tree, and to reduce it to 
syrup or sugar with all possible dispatch. 
There should be a sugar house for boiling, 
large enough for the evaporator and for stor¬ 
ing all the buckets and fixtures, with a wide 
door, that will admit the entrance of the 
gathering tubs at the end of the season, and 
which should not be used as a hog pen, or 
for any other base purpose. (Sap, like milk, 
is very sensitive, and impurities in the atmos¬ 
phere or the sugaring utensils are quickly im¬ 
parted to it, destroying the delicious maple 
flavor, which is its peculiar charm.) The 
farmer can put. up a suitable building at a 
cost of $50. It should stand on a side Mil, or 
have an artificial elevation at one side of three 
feet, to give head for the flow of sap from the 
gathering tub to the evaporator. A wood 
shed, or at least a roof over the wood pile, 
should be adjacent, but so placed that the 
steam will not escape through it. The evap¬ 
orator or pans should be set on brick, with 
iron grate and door, and a damper in the 
chimney to regulate the draft. If the bars of 
the grate are concave on the upper surface, 
they will fill with ashes, and not warp or 
burn out, OS solid bars will do in the intense 
heat. Fuel should be provided in the Fall, 
well worked up and thoroughly seasoned. 
No good sugar maker keep* his sap simmer¬ 
ing over a sputtering lire. 
All the utensils should be scrupulously clean 
and sweet. Old barrels with the pores of the 
wood impregnated with West India molasses, 
or anything else, are not fit for gathering or 
storing Bap. Gathering tubs should be made 
of clean, sound timber, and should be kept 
sweet. The buckets should be of tin and the 
spouts of metal. Mr. C. C. Post lias invent¬ 
ed several valuable Improvements in spouts 
and buckets which are regarded as superior 
to all others. I have seen them advertised in 
the Rural New-Yorker. They are worthy 
of a full description in this place. 
The Eureka sap spout and bucket hunger 
is of galvanized iron. Three thin flanges on¬ 
ly enter the hole in the tree half an inch, and 
while they hold the spout firmly in place and 
support the bucket, do not obstruct the flow 
of sap. A collar or oblique shoulder fits 
againsf the external bark and prevents the 
escape of sap, and also excludes water from 
ruin and melting snow which frequently runs 
down on the tin, and would color the sap and 
spoil its fine flavor if it got into the bucket. 
The aperture for the escape of the sap is such 
as to exclude the ah’, which would dry up 
the pores and stop the flow. There is a hook 
attached to hang the bucket on. My own 
experience and that or my neighbors who 
use these spouts demonstrates that the sap 
starts earlier in the morning and runs faster 
and continues longer in the season than with 
auy wood spouts, while the hole does pot firy 
up and require to be reamed out as with tip 
spouts, which are the next best thing. The 
tin spouts are apt to cut the bark or to fit im- 
! perfectly, causing leakage, and the wood 
spouts plug up the pores. The nails, which, 
injure the grain of the tree, break off and 
spill the sap, and often stick in the tree so 
they cannot be drawn, are superseded. 
It is important that the tapping should be 
done by a skillful hand, that the tree be not 
injured by too deep boring, or otherwise. 
The sap flows close to the bark, and a hole an 
inch deep is sufficient. 
The “ common sense ” bucket, contrived by 
the same inventor, is of tin, conical, indent¬ 
ed on one side to fit the tree, so that it re¬ 
tains its upright position, and has a tin cover 
wliich is attached to the top of the spout, 
effectually excluding rain, snow and falling 
bark, leaves, dirt and Insects. The entrance 
of either of these foreigu substances affects 
the flavor of the product. The cover is not 
attached to the bucket and does not interfere 
with gathering. 
A half inch hole, an inch deep, soon heals 
over, and causes but slight injury to the tree. 
The sap should be gathered frequently, and 
boiled immediately. Fermentation begins 
very soon, if not instantly on the sap leaving 
the tree, although it may not be at once per¬ 
ceptible to the casual observer. It is certain 
that the delicious maple flavor, so agreeable 
to the palate, is best preserved by a speedy 
removal of the water by evaporation. 
There are several devices for evaporating. 
The best in use is the Cory Evaporator. It 
is of galvanized iron, with ledges or groove- 
in the bottom, which give double the heat ing 
surface, and cause a current from side to 
side as the sap flows from end to end. A 
monitor gauge regulates the flow and depth 
of sap, and a faucet draws off the sirup as 
fast as it is thick enough. The injury to the 
flavor and color, which is caused by keeping 
the sirup over the fire hour after hour, is all 
avoided, as it is reduced to sirup and drawn 
off in half an hour. The evaporation is so 
rapid that holdere for storing are unnecessary. 
I have no difficulty in evaporating a ban-el of 
23 gallons an hour in a seven-foot evaporator. 
One of twelve feet will take care of it as fast 
as produced by a very lurge sugar lot. 
A gutta percha pipe from the gathering 
tub to the evaporator saves all lifting and 
storing. Felt strainers are used for removing 
lime and motes from the sirup. By the use 
of such apparatus as above described, 1 make 
sirup wMch finds a ready market in our vil¬ 
lage at $2 a gallon (equivalent to 22 cents a 
pound for sugar). Everything should be iu 
readiness to tap the trees at a moment’s no¬ 
tice. The “first run” is the best. In the 
Spring of 1871 the sugar season was nearly 
over before many farmers were ready. 
I am a farmer, and have no interest in the 
introduction of any sugar-making fixtures. 
Springfield, Vt. C. Horace Hubbard. 
-- 
rt GUANO-AS SOLD IN NEW YORK.” 
In a recent issue of the Rural New-York¬ 
er is an an article on “Guano—As Sold in 
New York,” with a table prepared by Mr. 
Habirshaw, a chemist, which is calculated 
to injure my reputation and business, and 1 
beg you will let me say that in the past twen¬ 
ty-five years, during which time I have 
bought Peruvian Guano and sold it to my 
customers, I have never adulterated any of 
it or caused any of it to be adulterated or in 
any way tampered with auy of it. 
Conclusive proof of this, so far as it refers 
to three-quarters—perhaps nine-tenths—of 
my sales, can be given by showing, as 1 am 
able to do, that in this proportion I make de¬ 
liveries by handing to the buyers orders on 
the Brooklyn warehouse, which is employed 
by the Peruvian Government. 
For the rest you have my statement, back¬ 
ed by the probabilities involved in a reply to 
the question whether any man of ordinary 
intelligence would risk, in a petty sale as de¬ 
scribed by Mr. Cocks, h character acquired 
by more than a quarter of a century of hon¬ 
est endeavor to properly serve the interests 
of his customers. 
Assuming that the intentions of the per¬ 
sons engaged in making this “report” (see 
page 90) were honest, and the motive none 
other than what shows on the face of it, it is 
proper to explain to them that no bag of Pe¬ 
ruvian guano is of uniform quality through 
its whole bulk. The lumps contain twelve to 
fifteen, and sometimes more thau twenty, per 
centum of ammonia, while in the finer por¬ 
tions, especially in the later cargoes of Chin- 
cha Peruvian, there have been some small 
stones, any ope of which, being taken in the 
I portion used for analysis, would make it show 
a large percentage of silica or other insol¬ 
uble matter, and, of course, a smaller per 
1 cent, of amMOUia. The person who selected 
the samples ought tp have been well informed 
on the subject before he took it upon himself 
to destroy or establish reputations, 
I am respectfully yours, 
Geo. E. White. 
Poatcript .—There are some facts connected 
with the appointment of Messrs. Cocks and 
Gould for the work which they have done, 
ostensibly for the interests of the farmers and 
