47 © 
©OBI’S BUBAL WIW-YOBBEB. 
SEPT, m 
than usual if it /natures in time to save the 
forage in good condition by cutting. 
Potatoes are n splendid crop so far as 
growth goes. The tubers are large and not 
of the good quality they would have been 
had their growth not been quite so rapid. 
If tliey do not rot, however, the yield will 
be large. Tho Colorado potato beetle has 
appeared here in small numbers. Many 
farmers do not know what the fellow is that 
has appeared on their vines. I suggest that 
you republish engravings of the insect, with 
a brief description, for while the Rural 
New-Yorker has tiling year published a 
complete description (without engravings), 
there arc tunny who will not identify the 
insect from the description alone. It should 
also be urged that these skirmishers which 
have appeared this season bo faithfully and 
effectually destroyed, with a view to lessen¬ 
ing next season’s crop—even if they have to 
be killed by hand-picking. 1 found a lot of 
them in the Homestead garden, they not 
having appeared in the field, and I tried at 
tho drug stores to find some Paris green 
with which to poison them ; but 1 could not 
find an ounce of it, and advised the druggists 
to lay in a good supply for next season, as it 
would surely be needed, unless an especial 
effort is now made to destroy the advance 
guard. 
Hops, wherever I have come across a yard, 
look like the last rose of summer, “faded 
and torn,” There may be good-looking and 
productive yards in this section, but I have 
not seen one, though I have ridden about 
considerably. 
The cheese crop for I am in the midst of 
a daily region where cheese is sent to the 
factories—is very fair, and I hear no com¬ 
plaint as to prices. 
There is only a moderate fruit crop— yet 
there is considerable fruit scattered through 
the orchards. Apples suffer because of in¬ 
adequate protection from tho codling moth. 
Indeed, the instances arc rare, so far as I 
can judge, where any systematic, effort is 
made to protect the fruit from this pest. 
The orchards are generally in grass ; most 
of them are old, and lack food evidently. 
Wherever 1 have found grapes there is a fair 
crop on the vines. Pears are yielding fairly, 
but there is much discouragement because 
of blight. Few’ planters adopt the practice 
of planting three or four trees for each one 
blighted. Some farmers have nurseries of 
seedlings, from which they replenish their 
orchards with profit. But these are rare in- 
cl'UBPPQ 
PIASTER OH SPRING GRAIN. 
An old and experienced farmer said to me 
tho other day, “ I see that the Rural 
New’-Youker recommends sowing plaster 
on small grain, though some of its corre¬ 
spondents assert that it is useless. Let me 
tell you that 1 have used plaster thirty years 
on corn, potatoes, grass, all kinds of small 
grain, both winter and fall sowed. My soil 
is a stiff loam, clay, sand and some gravel— 
nearly every variety of soil to be found. I 
know that except on very wet, undrained 
soil plaster is a benefit to any of these crops. 
1 think, by the way, that 1 have made a dis¬ 
covery’—that a good top-dressing of plaster 
on oats prevents rust,” 
This fanner had several acres of oats upon 
green sward this season. He top-dressed 
them liberally with plaster. They made 
heavy growth, stood up well, filled fairly 
and ripened without rusting. The soil was 
part stiff clay, part a dry, coarse gravel, and 
part sand. In an adjoining field a crop on 
sandy soil, treated in the same manner, with 
the exception of plaster, rusted very badly. 
Of course this may bo due to a difference in 
soil, exposure, or other causes, rather than 
to the plaster; but the experience of the 
farmer is that there is safety from rust 
where plaster is used, and that there is no 
such safety w’here it is not so used. 
FINIS. 
But I am not going to “write out” to-day ! 
The air is too delicious and I am too lazy. 
Besides, although I’ve been practical enough 
in what I have written, it is no index of the 
really sentimental mood I am in. My eyes 
have too much to see, my ears to hear, and 
this atmosphere is too much like exhilarating 
nectar for me to remain sober and matter- 
of-fact ; and I do not pledge myself hereafter 
to attempt it. There arc sundry questions 
of farm ethics I shall want to discuss if I can 
shake off this tendency to rest sufficiently to 
make the effort. Meantime, good Sanctum 
associates, enjoy your work as I do my holi¬ 
day indolence and you will be happy 1 
■- +-»-+ - 
SOILS LIABLE TO CHANGE. 
Many persons seem to think, because the 
soil of a farm was once rich and fertile, it 
must be so yet; or because some of our 
lands were wet and soft 40 years ago, that 
they must all be so still. They ought to 
know, that by constant cropping without 
fer' 'izing, the land becomes exhausted of 
so/ • of its elements, and nearly’ worn out or 
barren ; while by clearing up the country, 
ditching and draining, the. land improves ; 
the wild nature of the soil becomes subdued 
and changed for the better. I know’ lands 
that SO years ago were so soft, that cattle 
and horses would mire iu them, and being 
unable to extricate themselves, perish in the 
soil, which are now solid and among our 
best lands for cultivation, bearing line crops 
of corn, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, hay and 
the like. At an early day the Mohawk flats 
in the State of New York, were so soft and 
ndry that the first settlers rejected them, 
jfud'settled on the high lauds adjoining. But 
when the Dutch people came along a few 
years later, they were eager to obtain them, 
some bought nearly all and commenced 
working them. And now these bottom 
lands are wort li more than double the price 
per acre than the adjoining high lands will 
bring, and are considered the best and most 
valuable agricultural lands in the State, 
They’ are not soft and miry now. Forty 
yearn ago the Tonaw’anda Swamp in Wes¬ 
tern New York was covered with water, 
in some places 4 feet deep, and considered 
nearly worthless. But a few Germans know¬ 
ing its value, bought portions of it at low’ 
figures, and in the winter when it was frozen 
over, cut down the trees close, to the ice, 
hauled the timber, fencing and firewood off, 
piled up the brush, and in the spring when it 
was dry burned it, then plowed as for in as 
they could, which would dry the land further 
into the swam)); next winter they would do 
the same, and now nearly all ol' what was 
formerly bad swatnp is among the most 
valuable land in the State. Would it be right 
to call it swamp land yet ? From 20 to 80 
yearB ago the Black Swamp in Northern 
Ohio was nearly all covered with water 
from 6 to 20 inches in depth, but now is eo 
changed that the whole will soon be the 
garden of the West, Should it be called 
swamp now ? Iu fact, I know of several 
tracts of land lying in Northern Indiana, 
which were formerly covered with water, 
but by cutting a ditch in the low part 
through the center, conducting the water 
to the nearest, stream at small expense, have 
become quite productive and of great value, 
on which is now raised from 20 to 80 luisWs 
of wheat per acre and other crops in propor¬ 
tion. The lands throughout most of the 
country arc continually changing. Those 
which were quite wet 85 years ago, are now 
mostly dry and among our most productive 
and valuable lands, while some of our then 
dry lands, for want of proper cultivation and 
attention, have become partly exhausted 
and nearly worthless. Yet there are a few 
persons in our midst who think because a 
farm was counted good many years ago it 
must be so still, and because some of the 
lands were considered inferior years back, 
they must yet be the same. Terreeoupee 
prairie, now one of the finest and most valua¬ 
ble prairies Of the West, was formerly cov¬ 
ered wMh water, so that the Indians sailed 
all over it in their canoes. The name (Terrc- 
coupee,) signifies “ land out off.” When the 
Indians living ill Michigan desired to visit 
their friends In the Illinois country, they 
would come down the St,. Joseph River in 
their oftlioea, to a point two miles below 
South Bend, then carry their canoes and 
where the earth was cut off by the water 
for many miles around, and there the In¬ 
dians would launch their canoes, cross the 
water to the grape vine creek, go down the 
grape vine to the Kankakee River, hunting, 
fis hing and trapping on their way; thence 
down the Kankakee to the Illinois country 
to visit their friends, and in due time re¬ 
turn bv the same rout. Now, because Terra- 
con pee was a shallow lake then, must it. be 
called n lake now, when it is one of the fin¬ 
est prairies in the whole country, and the 
land worth from $70 to *100 per acre ? Rome 
of our Inhabitants seem not to increase in 
wisdom as fast as nature improves thu 
country ; consequently t hey will always be 
a generation behind the age, not knowing 
the value, or even the condition, of the soils 
in their immediate neighborhood ; nor do 
they’ find out the value of the timber, the 
hay’ or the natural grasses which grow in 
great abundance just before their eyes, until 
it is too late lo benefit themselves. Then 
would it not be well for our farmers, to read 
more agricultural books and papers, become 
acquainted with the changes which are con¬ 
tinually taking place in our SoiLs, the im¬ 
provements constantly being made by na¬ 
ture in some of our lands and which with a 
little help from man, could iu a few years be 
converted irom seemingly poor and worth¬ 
less soils into rich and valuable fields of 
grain, hay and pasture, or covered with 
flocks oi sheep and herds of cat Up to the 
great benefit of the land, as well aTto the 
owners of it, Isaac Esmay. 
South Bend, Iud. 
A NEW PHASE OF IRRIGATION. 
California enterprise has by’ openiug ca¬ 
nals and aqueducts subjected great tracts of 
country’ to the influences of water conducted 
over tho surface and permeating the soil. 
Thus the farmer virtually controls the sea¬ 
sons, liis crops have moisture when they 
need it, and the results arc all that could be 
looked for. The Pacific Rural Press men¬ 
tions some less-expected effects iu the fol¬ 
lowing article : 
Iu the valley’s where irrigation has been 
most extensively introduced a noticeable 
change has occurred in the atmosphere, 
greatly modifying the discomforts of the 
heated term in those localities. The oppres¬ 
sive heat of midsummer in some of the most 
favored valleys in the State has heretofore 
been an objection in the minds of many to 
locating there; but by a liberal supply of 
water in these localities, and by tho growth 
of grasses, fruit trees and other vegetation 
that this irrigation has promoted, the sum¬ 
mer atmosphere has become much more 
bearable. In Kern County especially, where 
probably more lias been done in the matter 
of irrigation than in any other portion of 
the State, this climatic change is quite per¬ 
ceptible. Still more extensive schemes of 
irrigation are about to bo inaugurated there, 
and with the probable increased improve¬ 
ment in the atmosphere which this will pro¬ 
duce, will add greatly to the attractions of 
San Joaquin Valley. The probability is that 
the irrigating enterprises of California will 
result in something more permanent than an 
increase of t he crops to which it is applied. 
For the moisture that is thus artificially 
brought to these dry, languishing places en¬ 
courages permanent vegetation there, and 
this vegetation iu its turn promotes moisture 
and tempers the severity of the heat, thereby 
reducing the necessity of irrigation and mak¬ 
ing these fruitful regions fur more desirable 
as permanent homes. 
A Kern County exchange credits the grow¬ 
ing alfalfa crop with aiding materially in 
modifying the heat and dryness of former 
summers. The increased acreage given to 
this crop in Kern County is quite extensive, 
and the breezes that come across these rich, 
green, almost matted fields, if they are not 
equal in their fragrance tj those that come 
from “Arabv the blest,” are good enough 
for “all practical purposes;” and if those 
who breathe this nlfalfan breeze do not go 
into poetic ecstasies at its approach, they 
will at least feel inclined to take off their 
hats to it respectfully, and even thankfully. 
That these climatic changes arc being ef¬ 
fected by irrigation, satisfactory’ evidence 
proves, and science affords ample illustration 
of the mode by which it is done ; but while 
we are considering the climatic benefits de¬ 
rived from a limited system of irrigation in 
an extremely di-y region, we would call the 
attention of those living in places surrounded 
with a damp atmosphere to the danger of 
excessive irrigation. San Franciscans, espe¬ 
cially, would do well to consider whether 
their profuse irrigation is not really injurious 
to the health of the city. When to the cold 
fog which hangs about our dwellings morn¬ 
ing and evening a copious watering is added 
to everything surrounding the house, a con¬ 
dition of the atmosphere is produced which 
does not offer a safe retreat to persons af¬ 
flicted with pulmonary diseases. It is be¬ 
lieved that diseases of this class are on the 
increase in Ran Francisco, and it is remarked 
that while some are coming here to escape 
consumption, others are leaving for the same 
prudential reasons. 
This artificial dampness is undoubtedly 
even worse than that which is caused by ex¬ 
cessive ruin ; and if people possessing weak 
or partially diseased lungs cannot safely re¬ 
main in an atmosphere naturally damp and 
chilly, it is, wo think, at a still greater risk 
that they pass their time in neighborhoods 
where the bare earth, the glass, shrubs, 
walks and streets even, are every day, and 
iu many cases twice a day’, drenched with 
cold water that lias not been properly pre¬ 
pared for this purpose by passing through 
the air that surrounds us. A delicate person 
would probably incur less risk in going 
abroad on a regular damp day than on a dry 
one, when the warm, dusty streets and side¬ 
walks are interspersed with crossings and 
other spaces that are as wet as they can be 
made, and that, too, with the coldest of 
water. 
Do we not use more water about our houses 
than accords with good health, or even with 
comfort ? While our friends in other por¬ 
tions of the State are panting and languish¬ 
ing during midday, and in the morning and 
evening hours arc tempted into out-door 
strolling, and arc justified in the use of any 
means for “cooling off,” we are only com¬ 
fortably warm at midday, rather preferring 
t he sunny side of the street, while the semi¬ 
daily fogs drive us indoors morning and 
evening, throwing a wet blanket over all 
out-door enjoyments. Is every house in the 
city, no matter wha t the condition of its in¬ 
mates maybe as lo comfort and liealthful- 
ness, to be drenched, with all its surround¬ 
ings, just for “ the fashion of the thing,” or 
because California generally is to be recog¬ 
nized os an exceedingly dry climate ? Those 
who are concerned for their own health or 
that of their families, and those also who are 
sensitive about the reputation of California 
for healthfulncss, would do well to give a 
thought to this matter. 
---- 
THE USE OF WEEDS. 
Will not weeds take possession of the old 
meadows after a while ? Yes, if the meadows 
are not properly fed. There is some truth in 
the maxim of the ancients that nature abhors 
a vacuum. Weeds abound on old, worn-out 
hinds simply because tho proper nutriment 
for a more delicately organized herbage has 
been exhausted. White daisies and golden- 
rod, and even hard-hacks, are better than 
utter barrenness. In their decay they f urnish 
food for a better class of plants. Nature is 
determined to produce something, and if 
left to herself always produces that to which 
the soil is most congenial. If water abounds 
coarse, aquatic plants will as surely grow 
without any sowing of the seed, as will corn 
when planted in good loam. We have seen 
alluvial meadows that had for a. long series 
of ymars produced large crops of good hay, 
being kept in good heart by a deposit of fine 
fertilizing material in tlio annual overflow of 
a neighboring river, suddenly have their her¬ 
bage changed to reeds and rushes by tho 
darning of this river aud the consequent 
setting back of the water over their surface. 
In those parts of the meadows where the 
water did not come within a foot of the sur¬ 
face, the character of the grasses was 
changed.— lnd. Farmer. 
- - - 
COST OF FENCES. 
Gen. Brown of Clark Co., Ga., calculates, 
in the Southern Farmer, that there are 50,000 
miles of fence in this county alone, which 
costs 40c. per panel of 8 feet. This would 
amount to $13,200,000, which is a tax on the 
farmers to keep out about $200,000 worth 
of stray cattle belonging to their heedless 
neighbors. If half the counties in the United 
States w’ere fenced at an equal cost, on the 
average which we presume they are, it would 
amount to six times our national debt, or 
say, in round numbers, about fifteen thou¬ 
sand millions of dollars ! 
Several counties in the States of New Jer- 
sey, New York aud Ohio have passed laws 
prohibiting cattle from running in the 
roads ; consequently every person keeping 
live stock in those counties is obliged to 
fence them in on his own premises. The re¬ 
sult is that seven-eighths of the feueos there 
are done away with, and a very heavy ex¬ 
pense taken off from the farmers. 
-- 
SPRING vs. WINTER WHEAT. 
Tue Western Farmer claims Spring wheat 
to be of greater value and excellence than 
Fall wheat, aud explained it in this way. 
According to Dr. Bellows wheat consists of 
water, gluten, albumen, starch, sugar, gum, 
fat, fiber and minerals. There is less water 
iu Spring wheat than in Winter, and this is 
the reason that the flour absorbs more water 
when mixed. The remainder of the constit¬ 
uents are of more compact nature than 
those of Winter wheat. Now the latter con¬ 
taining more moisture, it Is softer and will 
not granulate in grinding, but will flatten 
out, the middlings will be soft and wooly, 
and incapable of purifying like the middlings 
of Spring wheat. Therefore the new process 
of using the middlings is practicable with the 
one and not with the other. It is a conceded 
fact that Spring wheat flour remains sweet 
and mo:.*, when mixed into broad much 
longer than Winter. 
—- - -- 
Use of Gypsum. —Here is an item in farm 
economy’. It has been shown that at the 
Michigan Agricultural College a single bush¬ 
el of plaster added a full ton of hay to the 
yield of an acre of ground in the five, most 
of it m the four mowings that followed—two 
crops being taken off the ground each of the 
two years succeeding tho sowing of the 
nln.st,Ri\ 
