250 
MOOSE’S RURAL DEW-YORKER. 
well let down to the knees and hoolce ; the 
ribs well sprung from the backbone in a fine 
circular arch, and more distinguished by 
width than depth, showing a tendency to 
carry the mutton high, and with belly 
straight, significant of small offal; the legs 
! straight, with a fair amount of bone, 
clean and fine, free from any tuftiness of 
wool, and of a uniform whiteness with the 
face and ears. They ought to be well dad 
all over, the belly not excepted, with wool 
of a medium text ure, with an open p-irl, an 
it is called, towards the end. In handling, 
the bones should be all covered ; and particu¬ 
larly along the back and quarters (which 
should be longtbly) there should be a uniform 
covering of flesh, not. pulpy, but firm and 
muscular. The wool, especially on the ribs, 
should fill the hand well. When the above 
conformation is attained, the animal gener¬ 
ally moves with a graceful and elastic step, 
which, in the Leicester sheep, as well as in 
the human species, constitutes “the poetry 
of motion,” and without which animals, even 
of high class in any breed, cannot now attain 
the chief honors in the show yard. 
The above may not suit the taste of Leices¬ 
ter breeders. There has been a tendency in 
later times to attempt to improve the breed 
by crossing with sheep of looser frame, and 
wool of an opener and stronger staple. Such 
attempts have generally ended in failure, the 
strain of blood producing tender heads, weak 
necks and loins, and lack of constitution, and 
taking many years of careful and judicious 
management to eradicate. Our opinion is, 
that in all such attempts, the coarseness if any, 
should be on the dam's side, and that the 
sire should invariably be of symmetrical form 
and pure blood; nay, more, we think that 
where an apparent increase in the weight of 
fleece and frame has been attained it fre¬ 
quently proves fallacious when brought to 
the test of the scales, the extra open fleece 
weighing lighter than that of a medium tex¬ 
ture, and the larger and looser frame, when 
stripped of the offal, than the more compact, 
on the same principle as the bone of' the tlmr 
ouglibred horse exceeds in specific gravity 
the porous bone of the Clydesdale. 
There is nothing in the general feeding and 
management of the Border Leicester* differ¬ 
ing materially from those of other breeds. 
They require good land and good shelter, and, 
having these, will live and thrive on a small 
quantity of food. Having a strong tendency 
to fatten, they arrive at early maturity, and 
are capable of producing a greater quantity 
of wool and mutton in a given time than al¬ 
most any other breed. Their mutton, how¬ 
ever, does not stand high in mercantile value, 
being coarse in the gram and tallowy in the. 
fat. 
The worth of the Leicester sheep does not. 
however, depend on its value as mutton, in 
all well-bred flocks the great bidk of the 1 
lambs on the male side are kept for tups, and 
in like manner the tops on the female side for 
breeding purposes. Thus only a limited por- 1 
tion of each, i he east owes, and tups of a cer- 1 
tain age And their way into the butcher mar¬ 
ket. Their intrinsic value consists in their 1 
crossing profitably with the. Cheviot, Black- 1 
faced, Southdown, <fce. The latter are not 1 
cultivated extensively in Scotland or the Bor- ( 
dor counties, being generally considered too 1 
tender for the climate. The cross with the < 
Black-faced makes fine sheep at two years < 
old, yielding mutton of fine flavor. That, 
with the Cheviot also comes to fair maturit y 
at the same age, gelt mg to great weight with 
mutton of good quality. This cross also forms 
the foundation for another by breeding from 
half-bred ewes with the Leicester tup, and , 
producing what are called three-parts bred ^ 
sheep. For this purpose all the tops of the j 
half-bred lambs are kept, and command a j 
higher price than any other. On most lands ], 
of fail- average quality, where a portion of t 
turnips can be grown, half-bred ewes are , 
kept. Their produce being a cross nearer j, 
the Leicester, their development is rapid; j, 
they are generally forced forward for the ,, 
butcher market at one year old, or little p 
over; and, in fact, form T.he great bulk of p 
the mutton that now feeds our teeming pop- a 
illation. Early maturity and quick returns t j 
are the order of the day ; epicures iu the p 
middle and upper classes are fain to gratify j, 
their dainty appetites with mutton of two Bl 
aud three years old ; while Southdown, vv 
Cheviot, and Black-faced wedders of four Ul 
and five years, with the beautiful West High- L1 
land kyloe of similar age, are rarely found, p 
unless iu noblemen’s and gentlemen’s parks, w 
where they are kept, regardless of profit, to Cl 
tickle the palates of the aristocracy. 
cdpflil tffrop. 
ABOUT HOPS. 
I wish to make a few comtm-uts on the 
article “Hop Culture Prospects” in the Ru- 
S HAL New-Yorker of March 89, by E. F., 
[ CobleskUl, JNT. Y., as I think some of the 
statements t herein are calculated to mislead 
i those not acquainted wit h the business. He 
says “ English Cluster hops can be profitably 
grown in any climate or soil that will produce 
any kind of grain or potatoes,” whereas, for 
the profitable growing of hops, you must 
have warm, dry land or good com land, and 
then your success will depend largely on the 
location. 
In the next place, he puts the average 
yield at 1,500 pounds per acre ; and th© aver¬ 
age price at 10c. per pound, whereas the 
average of t he State is less than 700 pounds 
per acre, the average price not above BOc. 
per pound, and the cost of production not 
less than 10c, per pound, which reduces his 
figures from $41)5 por acre too if 140. He fur¬ 
ther says it wil cost *50 to pole an acre and 
many farmers have the poles on their own 
land, so it •will cost nothing but their labor. 
But, few men, have suitable poles, as hard 
wood will not. last; and if you have the poles, 
you cannot cut, ross, sharpen und liaul on 
the yard for less than $50 per acre; and if 
you have to buy, as most of us hop growers 
do, it will cqpt $140 per acre for spruce, or 
hemlock, aud $880 for cedar. To tliis you 
must add the drawing from five to twenty- 
five miles, adding greatly to the cost. Cedar 
is the only pole that will last 30 years. He 
says last year (1872) many realized $10,000 to 
$15,000 for their crops. I doubt if E. F. can 
mention a dozen men who gold their crop for 
*10,000 to say nothing of $15,000 ; and they 
are not many compared to the number of hop 
growers. Those lucky fellows are no doubt 
“jovial and happy.” But the.? are no more 
so than the rest of us hop growers, if after 
spending from *500 t o * 3,000 to get a crop, it 
1* suddenly blasted just before picking time, 
with rust mildew, or hop lice, as is often the 
case ; and we are not very,jovial after having 
a good crop baled for market, that has cost us 
15o. to prodttCo, and then have to sell for 5 
to 10c per pound, as was thecase three years 
ago with many ol' E. F’s. neighbors. My ad¬ 
vice to hop growers is, as many of you as 
have good yard*, dry house and other ap¬ 
purtenances, stick to the business, as it, will 
pay on an average as well as any other farm 
business. But you must put the good yield 
and good price against the failure and low 
price and plod right on ; as, after incurring 
t he expense of starting, it is better to keep on 
than to rush into something else, perhaps just, 
at the time you would have a good paying 
crop. But my advice to all who are not in 
the business is to keep out, us it is a veiy un¬ 
certain business and no more profitable on 
the average than raising grain or dairying. 
But if any one wonts to try his hand at the 
business, he will find good roots, English Clus¬ 
ter, at Cobleskill, N. Y„ as 1 know one E. F. 
who sold a good form with a good hop yard 
on it, notwithstanding the profitable busi¬ 
ness, to go into the hop root trade ; and lie is 
one of the largest dealers in the State and all 
of his roots are Fiujlish Cluster. 
Esporance, N. Y. r. w. s. 
ouglily warm, and thence to the middle of 
July. We have seen excellent crops of it 
grown north of New York City, the seed of 
which was sown as lute as July SO. if the 
object is seed, two and a-hulf to three bushels 
of seed is enough per acre : if for a soiling 
crop or for hay, sow bushels. Any good 
corn ground suits it. The cleaner the land is, 
the better. Cut before the seed matures, the 
; stubble does not die, and will yield forage 
during the season—especially if it is sown 
early, and the crop ia taken off early. It is 
an annua] plant. It is regarded as an ex¬ 
hausting crop to the Soil, especially if the seed 
is aliowed to mature—some farmers asserting 
that ft is as much so as tobacco. It is cut 
aud cured like any other grass crop for hay ; 
but Some fanners Who grow it for its seed 
cradle or cut. it with a reaper and bind it as 
they do grain. Tt is an excellent soiling crop 
because it withstands drouths remarkably, 
and produces a heavy crop of forage. It is a 
plant having a great deal of foliage ; hence 
its value for forage. Stock of all kinds eat it 
greedily. 
-- 
HARROWING WHEAT. 
In answer to C. S. W., in regard to harrow¬ 
ing wheat, I will give him my experience in 
that direction. In the fall of 1870, I had a 
piece of ground which had been planted to 
broom com the two seasons previous, and I 
wished to seed it to clover the next spring. 
So to facilitate the seeding, i removed the 
stalks immediately after harvesting tiie brush 
and cultivated with corn cultivator, sowed 
the wheat and cultivated it without disturb¬ 
ing the stubble, which 1 cut close to the 
ground. The winter following was a trying 
one hero for wheat, it being bare of snow 
much of the time, and my wheat being sown 
late, it. bud a veiy slim appearance in tho 
spring. 1 put the drag on and gave it a 
thorough harrowing, about the middle of 
April, the ground being well settled and in 
good Condition to work ; harrowed both 
ways, and 1 assure yon that it looked as 
though the wheat was pretty much all 
scratched tip when I had finished. But as my 
anxiety was more to get a good seeding of 
clover than for a crop of wheat I was content 
to take the risk, 
1 should have said that I sowed the clover 
seed before harm wing and rolled afterwards ; 
and ] sowed fifty pounds of plaster per acre. 
The result was the wheat started with re¬ 
newed vigor ; the clover came up veiy quick 
and made a fine growth, and I harvested 30 
bushels of fine plump wheat per acre, al¬ 
though the midge worked in it some, which 
diminished the yield considerably. 
Did not Mr. Ai.vkn Wilcox of Mendon, 
N. Y,, used to tell us through the Rural, in 
its early years to strike in boldly and harrow 
our wheat in the spring without fear of in¬ 
juring it t And did not the good old Rural 
urge farmers to go aud do likewise 1 
Kalamazoo, Mich. j. w. p. 
-- 
DRILLING CORN IN VIRGINIA. 
HOW TO TAKE CARE OF 
MOWER. 
LAWN 
HUNGARIAN GRASS. 
Cameron Corbin’s sheep lose their appe¬ 
tite, have sore eyes and grow poor; the 
lambs have, sore eyes, grow poor and die. 
He asks what can be done for them. 
A correspondent writes that he has heard 
that Hungarian grass injures cattle and asks 
if it is so. In answer, we are not aware that 
it injures any kind of stock if cut and cured 
before the seed develops. We have never 
known it to injure cattle, even if cut after 
the seed is ripe, provided they do not get at 
the same time grain to eat. We know the 
hay containing ripened seed injures horses; 
but this is probably due to the fact that hors¬ 
es are usually fed grain at. the same time; 
for the sod of Hungarian gross contains a 
large amount of oil, making it heavy food 
alone ; and if corn or oats ore fed at the same 
time, the animal gets too much carbonized 
food, and is seriously affected, diuretically. 
It would probably affect ocher animals in the 
same way. We doubt if Hungarian grass, 
with tho seed in it would injure a horse, if 
no other grain was fed with it, and the fact 
that it is a heavy food of itself were taken 
into account and fed accordingly. The safest 
way, however, if it is to be fed as hay, is to 
cut and cure it when in bloom. 
The Bame Correspondent asks about the 
culture—when it should be sown, &c. It is 
usually sown about, the time of corn planting 
—sometimes earlier and sometimes later. It j 
may be sown as soon as the ground is thor- 
Hkre is what a Virginian says :— I took a 
field of about seventeen acres and, after pre¬ 
paring it in the usual way, drilled the rows 
three ami a-hulf feet apart, leaving the stalks 
about eighteen inches apart. This was a 
field on which the usual crop had been about 
thirty bushels per acre, being planted in hills 
three feet and three inches eueh way, with 
two stalks to the hill, I used manure enough, 
as I thought, to add ten bushels of corn more 
to the acre. The result last fall was, my 
poorest acre yielded forty-live bushels, and 
my best acre eighty-seven and five-eighths 
bushels. I think the drilling process added 
I at hunt ten bushels to the acre to the old way. 
Four or five of my neighbors made t he same 
experiment with about like results. Indeed, 
it is HO longer experimenting here, as facts, 
for the last few years, have proven that drills 
are more profitable than hills, and a large in¬ 
terest is being manifested in it. It is a popu¬ 
lar error that corn can only be drilled with a 
machine on smooth land, as part of the land 
I drilled last year was just cleared and full 
of stumps. 
-- 
FIELD NOTES. 
Tobacco Culture .—Two or three corres¬ 
pondents ask us to give a complete treatise in 
our columns upon tobacco culture. For this 
we have not the space ; but upon the receipt 
of 25 cents wo can send them a imok upon the 
subject which will give the required informa¬ 
tion. 
Sized Potatoes to Plant .—A correspondent 
asks what sized potatoes are best to plant 
and whether it is better to plant them whole. 
We prefer large potatoes for seed, planting 
two eyes to a lull. 
This is a question that is often asked by 
\ owners of lawn mowers and it is not to be 
. wondered at when wc consider that the gen¬ 
eral use of. these machines is comparatively 
. in its infancy in this country. There are a 
few simple rales necessary to be followed in 
I using lawn mowers, which I give ns follows : 
First —The lawn should be kept free from 
stones and such other rubbish as would tend 
to injure the knives. 
Second—The grass should be cut often and 
never be allowed to get over four inches in 
length (three is better) this makes the work 
of cutting easy, and avoids straining or 
breaking Hie machine. 
Thi/rd —The mower should be well oiled and 
kept clean ; this is a very important item, as 
1 have seen many good lawn mowers con¬ 
demned and thrown aside when all they 
needed was cleaning and oiling. 
Fourth —Care should be observed in start¬ 
ing the mower, especially a horse mower. A 
mower (and all other machinery having a 
rapid motion) should not be started too sud¬ 
denly ; for a sudden start is liable to break 
the ratchet, gears, or other parts of the ma- 
cliino. 
Fifttt—C are should be taken to keep the 
wiper properly adjusted to the bottom knife. 
The wiper, or revolving cutter, should be ad¬ 
justed so as to lightly toueh the head knife; 
if this rale is observed the knives will rarely 
if ever need sharpening. 
The above rules are simply and easily to be 
understood if followed, the work of mowing 
a lawn (with one of our modern lawn mow¬ 
ers) would be light; an immense amount of 
trouble and expense would be saved and we 
would become as noted for our beautiful and 
well kept lawns, in a few years, as England 
now is. T. C. 
Newburg, N. Y. 
-♦♦♦- 
THE CREAM STILL. 
Having seen, in Rural New-Yorker, an 
inquiry concerning a new invention called 
a “Cream Still, or Portable Cream Gather¬ 
er,” 1 can testify to the utility of said inven¬ 
tion, from personal experience. T have used 
one of them, uiul can safely say that I can 
make as much butter from four cows, by the 
use of a Cream Still, as from six cows when 
milk is kept iu u cellar. A cellar cannot 
compare with it for cleanliness, labor-saving, 
quantity and quality of butter. This article 
will not work in a collar ; it requires a light, 
airy room, or woodshed, in the summer, and 
to sit in a room, about 10 or 12 feet from a 
stove, in the winter, it ia packed bo that it 
does not freeze hi it, thereby producing one- 
fourth more butter lliun in the ordinary way 
of keeping rnilk iu the winter season. I can 
testify that I churned 000 pounds of butter 
from the milk of three common Canada cows 
during one mil Icing season, or about nine 
months, using (he still; and I think it would 
require an extra cellar to make 1500 pounds 
from the same cows, in the same length of 
time. d. j. 
Fenwick, Ont. 
A SCOTCH STEAM PLOW. 
The Scottish. Former speaks of a new steam 
plow that has made its appearance there (hi 
Scotland) as follows:—“ The inventor is G. W. 
Murray, aud it was made for L. Livingstone 
Learmouth of Linlithgow. It is made of 
►Swedish wrought iron, soft can work among 
tla* stone* and rocks of Scotland, steel plows 
being there too much addicted to the break¬ 
ing of shares, “ skifes,” &c. The principal 
new feature of tins plow is that there is a 
combination of the common plow and the 
siibsoiier, or it can be used for plowing with¬ 
out. snbwoiiing. This particular implement 
cuts three furrows as a plow simply, or two 
with t he subsoiling apparatus attached. Tile 
subsoiler loosens the soil in the furrow from 
three to nine inches, as desired; it simply 
breaks up or loosens, without bringing the 
subsoil to the surface. The cost of the im¬ 
plement is £135, or $C25. This, of course, 
does not include the cost of the engine for 
running it.” 
- *-♦-* - 
EXTRA GOOD HARROW. 
A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer 
Bfiys Last Spring, I made three harrows hi 
shape of a triangle. They are feet from 
corner to corner. I hook two of them to the 
back corners of the front one with hooks aud 
eyes, and hook the corners of the two hack 
harrows together, and I have the best har¬ 
row I have ever seen, and l have tried nearly 
all kinds. It pulverizes Jthe ground better, 
and laps down on rough land, and keeps clean 
easier, and in stumpy or soddy ground does 
the work better, with less hitching on stumps, 
than any harrow I have seen. 
