108 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AU8, 15 
worth about $30, while first-class thorough, 
breds sell from $150 to $200 each. These 
quotations are for sales in considerable num¬ 
bers. 
From the well-known manufacturing firm 
of SCHlPPJSRS Bros., Philadelphia, I have re¬ 
ceived the quotations for mohftirin Liver¬ 
pool on May 12Ui, lust, viz.: 75 a 70 cents, 
gold ; 77 a 7$ cents, gold ; 03 a 94 cents, gold. 
The cost of the last-nuujcd quulity, when 
laid down in the United Stat&s, is $1.20 per 
pound, gold, as shown in detail below * 
Gold. 
Cost in Liverpool.94o. 
Duty, 12c. per pound and 10 per cent, 
dess i-10).]9c. 
of the Angora goat in California, ns to the 
adaptability of this animal to that Stat e and 
other regions where the climate is similar. 
On this point I quote the following testi¬ 
mony : 
Col. W. W. Hollister of California, one 
of the first of the great pastoral princes of 
the Pacific Slope, and a wool grower of more 
than twenty years’ successful experience, 
during which he lias amassed a colossal for¬ 
tune in the pursuit, says, in an able letter to 
me in answer to the question, “ Do you raise 
Angora goats, and if so, with what result ?” 
“ I have handled them only in a small way 
* * * for four or live years. The result 
cdfield <Kt|(ip. 
LUCERNE AND CINQUEFOIL. 
Expenses. 7u. was all I could ask -very good ; but from 
...... ,. n the pressure, of other pursuits I quit the care 
Total.$1 20 
These gentlemen say :—“ We believe that 
if the production of Angora goats’ fleece, or 
mohair, us it is culled in England, were in¬ 
creased to a very extensive proportion, and 
if the quality were good enough for use in 
dress goods, the manufacturers of this coun¬ 
try could consume a very large quantity' of 
it, because goods made from this article are 
imported largely. The English market could 
easily absorb the surplus, regardless of 
quantity, in ease the home manufacturers 
did not succeed in consuming the entire pro¬ 
duction. 
One of the oldest and most respectable 
wool-buying firms in Philadelphia say, iu a 
recent letter to a leading mohair producer 
in California:—From your prospectus of 
Guadalupe Island, we are encouraged to 
hope for liberal supplies of these desirable, 
wools ere long ; * * * and we believe all 
the wool el' this class (mohair) thut you could 
possibly' forward would meet with ready 
sale at full values.” 
The proprietors of the new alpaca and 
mohair factory at Jamestown, N. Y., Messrs. 
Hall, Buoadhkad & Co., have announced 
to the growers or Angora fleece throughout 
this country that they will work in their 
factory' 200,000 pounds per annum of this 
fleece if.they cun obtain it at from 05c. to $1 
per pound for long combing mohair. These 
of them. I believe iu the business fully, and, 
fro.u wimt I have seen and what I have 
heard, think the raising of Angora, goats 
one of the very best things for the individual 
and the country that can be started. I say 
. this only for California, for here I know how 
they thrive, and elsewhere l do not. 1 at 
least should only follow the raising of them 
here in California, or in locations where the 
climate is similar.” 
More recently Col. Hollister gave ex¬ 
pression to the sentiments contained iu the 
following quotation from an article written 
by the agricultural editor of the Hart¬ 
ford Couraiit, who has visited California : 
“There was CoL Hollister, millionaire 
shepherd of California, driving his sheep 
aerosi the plains twenty-five years ago, with 
gold-hunters laughing at him, + * * Col. 
Hollister said in my hearing that if he liad 
twenty more such years to spend as he gave 
to sheep culture, he would give them to the 
breeding of fine-fleeced goats.” 
Under tlie head of “ Angora Goats a .Suc¬ 
cess iu Oregon,” I find in a California paper 
the following: 
“Mr. Smalt, of Silverton, Oregon, writes 
us that. Angoras are a perfect success -that 
there js a great demand f or mohair, ami i hat 
their expectations ure more than realized, 
They pay their way by eating off the oak 
sprouts and brush which give us so much 
trouble In this locality ; thus I he meat and 
gentlemen came from England, 1 believe, to I fleece is all profit,. Ami 1 predict we will 
set up this manufactory. I give below what beat California in mohair us we do in comb 
may be considered both * top” and “ but, of m.Y graded Angara 
, ,, _ _ „ . ewes sheared four pounds of clean, lustrous 
tom” prices for this fiber in our American mo | ul i r . ' 
markets : „ jj p> B UTLEIt 0 f The Dalles, Or., who 
James Hartley & Co., wool merchants of purchased a small flock three years ago, 
San Francisco, made several shipments of writes ‘1 have been running my goats iu a 
mohair to the East lust year, among which b ; UJ , d J ’ 500 sh f‘7‘ ; a . n b*re‘‘uUe and cor- 
** *■ O'° Amounting to between 4,000 and 0 p sheep und not a goat; all the gouts came 
5,()(i!) pounds, which were sold through the out in tine condition. Tim snow on my place 
Messrs. ICitchixos of New York at from was 14 inches deep.’ Like encouraging re- 
240. to 85c. per pound. The forwarders smn- ports come i rom other localities.’ 
plained greatly of the inferiority of these -A Arm of Monterey Co., Cal., breeders 
shipments, which contained much that was have informed mo that out of 1,400kids born 
little better than common goats’ hair. This I JQ one of their flocks last spring, not over 
proves the necessity and profitableness of 
“breeding fine goats and plenty of them,” 
as tin.* great wool-grower, Hollister of 
California, remarked to me. 
The above quotations may fairly be set 
down as “ bottom ” prices for mohair. Now 
for the “top” prices, viz.A lot of sorted 
California mohair, from three-quarter grade 
to full blood, shipped to Philadelphia last 
spring, was valued as follows :—For line, 
$2.29 ; low fine, $1.10 ; line kempy, 80e., and 
low kempy, 70c*. per pound. These quota¬ 
tions have been verified as correct by a re¬ 
spectable house in Philadelphia, from whom 
I made inquiry. They say that these values 
were placed upon the shipment “by a 
well-known manufacturer and one well-ac¬ 
quainted with these wools os they are used 
in England and France,” and who took the 
above lot “to sort and give an opinion upon 
based on his knowledge of values.” 
While breeders of flic Angora goat in the 
United States may not bo justified in ex¬ 
pecting that such handsome prices as the 
highest of those above quoted will be inva 
riably, or even generally, realized in actual 
trade, yet, from all the evidence before 
them, they may bo sure that there will 
always be a demand for this beautiful, dura¬ 
ble and useful liber at. high-paying prices. 
Hence it is fair to conclude that the growing 
of Angora goats and their fleece will con¬ 
tinue to lie in that section of our country to 
which they arc especially well adapted—the 
trans-Missouri section—one of the most lu¬ 
crative employments in the whole range of 
legitimate productive industries. As has 
been wellsmd elsewhere :—“Millions of dol¬ 
lars’ worth of mohair goods manufactured 
in Europe are annually brought into the 
United States and sold to our people at high 
prices. The plain, practical question in view 
of these facts is, why may wo not profitably 
produce at home the raw material consumed 
in the mohair fabrics which we buy of Eu¬ 
rope from year to year.” Certainly there 
can no longer be any question, after thirteen 
years of successful experience in the culture 
were lost. Evidence of the same sort might 
be multiplied almost indefinitely, but it 
would be merely cumulative After taking 
into the account till Ike drawbacks, the 
weight of facts is still decidedly in favor of 
Angora-goat raising as a good business. And 
I say this without any prejudice to the sheep 
growing interest, which I believe in fully, as 
will be seen by my published articles on this 
great industry. The idea that the cultiva¬ 
tion of Angora goats is advocated at the ex¬ 
pense of sheep husbandry is wholly erro¬ 
neous. Nothing could be more so. As I have 
I said in another place, “ these two interests 
are not in conflict. They exist and flourish 
together harmoniously. Angora fleece (mo¬ 
hair) is not a substitute for sheep’s wool; 
and no kind of sheep's wool, not even the 
finest, can take the place of mohair. Each 
material has its distinctive uses iu the manu¬ 
factures of the world, and there is abundant 
demand for both in the United Stall’s. The 
home consumption ol' both is far in excess of 
the supply.” (See the statistics on “Wool 
in the United States” inclosed herewith, 
and which have been collected from official 
and other reliable source!*,.) 
I think our great trans-Missouri pasture 
lands should be made to support, as they are 
able to do, millions of sheep where now they 
graze only thousands. And after all the fer¬ 
tile valleys and plains of the Pacific Slope 
shall have been whitened by the presence of 
the patient sheep, there will still be room on 
her foot-hills and upon her mountain sides 
for untold numbers of the nobler race with 
the silvery fleece, the precious Angora goat. 
Harrison Gray Otis. 
U. Patent Office, " asliington, July 13. 
•-- 
Sheep Ticks, — An Ohio /farmer says: 
While 1 sheared nay sheep I had a boy to pick 
the ticks off the lambs. This being done, I 
sj u*i ukled sulphur over them. This keeps them 
off the. lambs, while the old sheep rid them¬ 
selves. This 1 tried last spring, after quite 
a number died. Result: I have not a tick 
on the place. 
With the usual good judgment displayed 
in the Rural, there are extracts from an 
essay, at page 3SD, lust volume, relative to 
this forage crop of Lucerne, which, from my 
, knowledge of it forty or more years ago, l 
think is very correct. The great trouble in 
this country is to have the soil prepared and 
rich enough ; but that done and the crop 
, established, it is invaluable for soiling. But. 
in my experience it lias been always grown 
near the homestead of wealthy men and fed 
green to horses ; and it is astonishing how 
very quickly it grows and how many tiroes 
it can be cut in one summer ! Cinquefoil, or 
Sanfoine, is a native of France, but very ex¬ 
tensively grown in England. It is of a to¬ 
tally different ■•hunieter in some respects to 
Lucerne. It will grow on pom* land, and 
two tons of hay per acre can lie taken where 
Lucerne would not grow at all, nnd where 
Clover would not mow one ton. per acre, or 
any other grass besides Cinquefoil. How¬ 
ever, there is a condition, without which it 
will not succeed : there must be mart, chalk , 
or time in the soil or tjie subsoil. Unlike 
Lucerne in its ability to eut more than one- 
crop, it is quite as valuable in proportion on 
the poor limestone land as the other on its 
carefully prepared patch. Lucerne is sel¬ 
dom cult ivated beyond two acres, or from 
half an acre up to that quantity of ground, 
while I have many times passed hundreds of 
acres of Sanfoin in a day. 
This grass can be mowed for from seven 
to ten years, and the after-feed eaten with 
sheep or calves till the 1st of October, and 
the land gathers fertility, because the roots 
get the support in a greater proportion from 
the under stratum of soil. The heibage 
looks very much like vetches when green, 
and when iu bloom the fields will show the 
most gorgeous color for miles ; but it should 
not be allowed to stand till fully in bloom. 
Doubtless it might supersede Timothy on 
suitable soil; but whoever should feel in- 
clined to try it next spring, must recollect 
that the seed must be of the growth of this 
summer, and it cannot be bought till about 
February, Is75, as this year’s seed will not 
bo thrashed before Christmas. If older seed 
is used very little will sprout.. 1 tried some 
seed in Orange Co., N. Y., in the year 1X00, 
but it was a year too old, and (ho little that 
grew showed that there was not sufficient 
lime in the soil to make it proper, t >i, an¬ 
other occasion 1 sowed some good new seed 
on a piece of sandy loam, which had been 
heavily limed and richly manured for a crop 
of corn the previous year, and it came up 
ami looked very fine ; but there was a heavy 
clay subsoil, aud the next winter was very 
wet aud water stood on the ground for days 
together and killed it all. Sanfoin should 
be drilled aud the seed be in the hull, in 
which state it, is generally drilled 2bushels 
per acre ; it sowed broadcast, it will be best 
to sow thicker. The best grain to sow with 
is barley, and that should lie thin. The best 
time is directly the soil is in good order in 
the spring. A WORKING Farmer. 
EARTH ALMOND 
CHUFA. 
Periodically —about ouce or twice a 
month—the Rural New-Yorker receives 
inquiries about this plant and tuber. We 
have published and republished articles con¬ 
cerning its culture. In order to meet the 
wants of our readers, however, we publish 
the following from a Louisiana correspon¬ 
dent of Our Home Journal. He says :—Let 
none be afraid of it on account of its resem¬ 
blance to the notorious nut grass, and it Is 
more easily eradicated and exterminated 
from the soil than the pindar or peanut, in¬ 
deed it is so easily destroyed, that it is im¬ 
possible to raise it on land that poultry have 
access to. 
To raise the crop, prepare the land as for 
cotton, rows thirty inches wide. Soak the 
nuts twelve hours before planting, open the 
beds with a scooter, drop the nuts some 
fifteen or eighteen inches apart, cover with 
a board or harrow : hue once, and sweep ; 
one hoeing is usually sufficient: the sweep 
may be passed through the middles some 
twice or three times. The nuts will soon 
crowd out all vegetation in the drill, and 
ultimately the middles. They should be 
planted about the middle of March, and 
gathered for seed the middle of October or 
lirst of November. Care should be taken to j 
spread thin and dry well, when first gathered; 
if bulked too green or damp, they will go 
through a heat, and become rotten. I had 
a nice lot badly damaged, last fall, from 
bullring too green. 
For light sandy soils, I consider the chufa 
* a far superior crop to raise for hogs to the 
piudar. Were I to raise either for sale or 
for markets I should prefer the pindar, as 
the chufa in very tedious to gather. Both 
are excellent for hogs; so is the gouber or 
ground pea. I have cultivated all three. I 
prefer the chufa and gouber for light sandy 
soils, the pindar for stiff or elay soil. I have 
planted the pindar for over twenty years. 
To this the Editor adds his indorsement as 
follows :—“We can fully endorse all our cor¬ 
respondent says about the chufa, having 
cultivated it since 1854. For winter feed for 
pigs and poultry, there is? nothing that.equals 
it for profit, as it yields an immense amount 
of the richest food, with only the expense of 
planting and culture—the pigs and chickens 
will do t he gathering. We also like the pin¬ 
dar very much—but what does our frieud 
mean by making distinct plants of the pindar 
and gouber'( We have alwa 3 's considered 
them synonymous. 
-- 
CLOVER AFTER POTATOES. 
The Rural New-Yorker of July 25th 
quotes the Maine Farmer as saying that 
clover seldom if ever grows as freely after 
potatoes as after corn. I do not doubt that 
this has been the writer’s experience, but it 
is not safe to generalize from a few facts. I 
know a field of equal fertility in different 
parts where the clover after potatoes is a 
much better “ catch ” and stronger growth 
after potatoes than after corn. The line is 
very plainly marked. I have accounted for 
this superiority by the supposition that the 
potato ground was in finer tilth, as I could 
think of no other reason. But why this 
discrepancy between the Maine Farmer’s 
facts and mine ? I believe that much de¬ 
pends on the character of the soil. Potatoes 
are largely exhaustive of potash, which 
clover also needs. Where potash is deficient, 
a crop of potatoes may exhaust that ele¬ 
ment from the soil so as to prevent the 
growth of clover. This I believe has been 
the fact on much sandy land in this vicinity 
where the land has been “ run ” with pota- 
I toes for years. On such land gypsum fails 
to produce its usual effect in making a 
growth of clover. Potash—not sulphate of 
lime—is what such land needs. A compact 
growth of clover follows a. good application 
of ashes to such soils. One gentleman iu a 
neighboring town brought into fertility a 
worn out sandy farm by a liberal dressing 
of leached ashes. I never doubted Lhat it 
was the potash in these leached ashes that 
produced this result. On all lands where a 
deficiency of potash is suspected a liberal 
dressing of uni cached ashes should be given 
to potatoes as soon as t hey are up. 
On heavy lands where potash is not defi¬ 
cient I find potatoes much less exhaustive 
than I had expected. So large a proportion 
of this crop is waste that it really took little 
more from the noil than a good crop of corn, 
wheat or other grain. All agree that pota¬ 
toes leave the soil in better mechanical con¬ 
dition than any other crop, A neighbor of 
mine lias his best field of corn without ma¬ 
nure this 3 r ear following two successive 
crops of potatoes, I do not approve this 
practice but it shows that potatoes have not 
very badly exhausted that land. 
Western New York. 
WHAT AN EAR OF CORN .WILL YIELD. 
An ear of corn has been seat to this office, 
grown In Cleveland, East Tennessee, which 
measures 10 jv inches in circumference in. the 
thickest part of tlie ear, has 22 rows, with 
an average of 5(1 kernels in a row, making 
1,232 kernels iu all on the car. The variety 
is known as the Southern Dent Corn. These 
1,232 kernel's planted in the same locality, or 
anywhere within the limestone region of 
Tennessee or Kentucky, If all germinated 
and came to perfection, would produce the 
first year a fraction over -15,000 bushels.— 
Turf, Field and Fanil. 
Which shows what big ears some agricul¬ 
tural writers favor. Now, take 1.232 ker¬ 
nels ; plant 4 in a hill ; make every one pro¬ 
duce a stalk and bear 2 ears to each stalk (a 
full yield). This gives 8 ears to a hill and 
31N hills—2,404 ears. Count bid, CO cars to the 
bushel, and you have 410 bushels—the utmost 
possible yield. The paper that started the 
above paragraph can carry the Granger ban¬ 
ner. Bergen County. 
-♦♦♦- 
Giant Grass.—A. E. Blunt, the grass 
which 3’ou send for name is Trypsocun 
dur.tyJoides , a large, coarse-growing, exotic 
species, sometimes cultivated for ornament; 
but we think it is of uo value for fodder. It 
is perennial with very large, coarse, but 
tough leaves, with flower stalks four to six 
feet high. 
