CORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FES. S 
straight and is as precisely gradotted as a 
whip, Joses Its foliage wJien, except at the 
base and top, where leaves st'-l cluster, a 
whip stuck in the ground or tlover-pot would 
be scarcely less ornamental. 
The individual flower counts of a peculiar 
calyx and a long, cyliad'ical corolla of a 
greenish color, Bomewlia1*esambling the old- 
fashioned single Fuchsia They are borne in 
loose, pendulous, termnal panicles and num¬ 
ber, according to an old, English authority, 
from one to two nundred. It has never 
bloomed with uf-we have never, indeed, 
given it a charge—but we once saw it in 
bloom bearing about fifty flowers. It appre¬ 
ciates eare, though it will “still live” if 
wholly neglected—standing at least thirty- 
five of eokd and as much heat as it is likely 
ever to receive in this climate. When cut 
down to the ground, It starts up again with 
all the beauty and vigor of young plants. 
ojpcld 
THE CHEMISTRY OF ROOTS. 
Under the head of “ ilecent Investiga¬ 
tions,” we find the following article, signed 
“R. W.,”in the Agricultural Gazette, which 
will interest the readers of the Rural New- 
Yorker, who grow, feed and believe in root 
crops: 
“ The roots exhibited at our agricultural 
shows generally form a striking spectacle. 
The farmer and the citizen unite in gazing 
with wonder and admiration at their size 
and beauty. Nor is it only the sightseer and 
the practical man who find interest in these 
gigantic roots ; the man of science is equally 
astonished. In his mind’s eye he sees the 
small wild plant, the Beta nil gar in, the pro¬ 
genitor of these gigantic mangels, weighing 
3J to 10 lbs. a-piece ; and not tho parent of 
these only, but according to tho best botani¬ 
cal authorities, the parent equally of all the 
cultivated forms of beet root. The contrast 
between the wild seaside plant of the Medi¬ 
terranean and the numerous well-marked 
varieties of cultivated boot and mangel is end 
full of eloquent teaching, and illustrates most 
forcibly the power over the vegetable king¬ 
dom which man everts through his patient 
and intelligent cultivation. Wo wish in the 
present papar to direct attention to Rome 
points in tho chemistry of our modern root 
crops. 
One of tho simplest items in the chemistry 
of a root crop is the amount of water it con¬ 
tains ; it is a point, however, of great prac¬ 
tical importance. Agricultural chemists have 
constantly pressed this matter on the farm¬ 
er’s attention. It is not the gross weight of 
roots harvested that benefits either t he farm¬ 
er or his cattle ; it is the amount of solid 
mat ter harvested which determines t he value 
of the crop. Tliis consideration is always to 
be borne in mind in judging of the merits of 
the new varieties continually offered to the 
public. A ' heavy cropper 5 may he so merely 
because its roots are more watery than those 
of other varieties. If our agricultural and 
horticultural societies, who give prizes for 
new roots, would bear this fact In mind, and 
make tho percentage of solid matter in tho 
root an important clement in their decisions, 
the public would bo protected, and int elligent 
notions on tho subject would be established. 
In order to form a correct judgment on 
tho subject, the water should be determined 
as soon as the root is pulled up from the field, 
as when once removed from the soil it speed¬ 
ily loses moisture. The average amount of 
dry matter in our various roct crops is as 
follows 'Turnips, 8 to 9per cent.; Swedes, 
10 to 12 ; mangels, 10 to 13 ; carrots, 12 toll; 
and well-ripened sugar beet, 16 to 13 per cent. 
Potatoes exceed in solid contents any of the 
roots ; they contain about 25 per cent, of dry 
matter. 
It Is a necessity with the farmer to grow 
large roots, if he wishes to obtain a heavy 
Crop; but it should bo recollected that an 
excessively large root is always of inferior 
quality. In all vegetable growth, great lux¬ 
uriance and rapidity of formation is asso¬ 
ciated with a more watery, saline and nitro¬ 
genous composition. Wo cannot better illus¬ 
trate this than by giving tho composition of 
some sugar beet grown with artificial nitro¬ 
genous manure. Of these roots a sample of 
the small ones, about lXlbs. each, was taken, 
and also a sample of the large roots, weigh¬ 
ing lbs.; both were analyzed, with tho 
foliowing result : 
Composition op Lahol and small Roots of 
suo a u Beets. 
Small mots.lM- 
pounds. 8.44 
Large root s.SX 
pounds. 83.0 
It appears from these analyses that 10 tons 
of the small roots would contain as much 
solid matter as 13 tons of the large roots. 
The comparison becomes still more striking, 
if we compare the character of the solid mat¬ 
ter contained in these roots. 
Composition op lutv Matter in Large and 
Small roots. 
Nitrogen - 
ous mut¬ 
ter. 
1 
Sugar.’™ , c cr * 
Asli. 
Small roots, IK n-. 
Large roots. 5X lt>. 
. 7.S 1 
52.0 
33.4 
7.1 
IT.C 
01.5 
_is 9 
2(1.0 
It, is a mistake to suppose that the large 
amount of nitrogenous matter in bulky, 
heavily manured roots, must necessarily im¬ 
part to them a high feeding value ; albumi¬ 
noids are, it is true, substances of high feed¬ 
ing value ; but the chemist’s figure for “al¬ 
buminoid)!” or “nitrogenous matter” is ob¬ 
tained by calculation from the quantity of 
nitrogen present, and in immature vegetable 
structures the nitrogen exists in lower forms 
than albumen, in forms,indeed, that are with¬ 
out value as food for animals. We shall judge 
of the comparative feeding value of different 
roots far more correctly by looking at, the 
amount of sugar and other carbo-hydrates 
present than by regarding the percentage of 
nitrogen. Perhaps the best manner of com¬ 
paring roots like the present is to deduct the 
ash and nitrogen from their dry matter and 
to reckon the feeding value to be in the pro¬ 
portion of the carbonaceous remainder: 
comparing the largo and small roots on this 
basis, it will appear that 10 tons of the small 
roots are equivalent in feeding value to about 
15 tons of the large roots. 
A principal cause of tho inferior quality of 
large roots is their want of maturity. A root 
becomes ripe when the plant lias completed 
the first stage of its life ; the growth of the 
root then ceases, Nature having accomplished 
all it had in vjew, and the plant remains at 
rest till the spring, when a new and final 
stage of existence is entered on by the pro¬ 
duction of a flowering st a lk and seed. Ripen¬ 
ing in a root crop is recognized by a. general 
fading of the outer leaves. Now, a heavy 
) crop of large roots generally finds the season 
' too short for ripening to take place ; the 
roots are probably still growing vigorously 
when winter acts in, and the crop is harvested 
before the first stage of growth has been fully 
aoOomplished. The degree of maturity which 
a root attains materially affects its composi¬ 
tion and its feeding value ; a ripe root will be 
fur more nutritious than one that is imma¬ 
ture. Tho last volume of the German “ Juh - 
' resbeiicht dcr Agi flcuUnr-Chemle ” contains 
an investigation by C. Lotmann on the com¬ 
position of sugar beet in its various stages of 
maturity ; this will excellently illustrate tho 
I subject: 
Composition or Sue An Beet in Various Stages 
or grower. 
AlLuminolds aud unde - 
tern.lut'd mutters. 
U',: 
r 
-• 
C4 
1 * I u 
s-J j 
. 
! a ig . 
O 
(J) 
% 
u. 1 
1 
o 
n 
O 
o 
80.1-85.2 
1 8.1 7.4 
j 2.5 4.5 
Ml 
H.7 
0.6 
.34.8 
5.0 
bl| 
83.!• Kf 5 
5.7 5.9 
8.8 9.1 
2.4 1.9 
1.1 
1.3 
.7, 
7 
: .«! l.o 
1.1 
l.SI 
.0: 
.8 
Sugar. 
Fiher, 
&c. 
Asia 
8.1 
~5.2 
1.1 
5.6 
1.9 
2.4 
The regular manner in which the percent¬ 
age of sugar increases as the root matures, 
while all the other constituents relatively di¬ 
minish, is plainly shown by these figures. It 
is naturally a primary object with the culti¬ 
vators of tugar beet on tue Continent to ob¬ 
tain mature roots, us on this point the per¬ 
centage of sugar chiefly depends. To this 
end they plant early and avoid stimulating 
manures, which will tend to produce lurge 
roots, that cannot in an average season attain 
to complete ripeness. 
We will conclude by giving, as a further 
illustration of the subject, tho results obtain¬ 
ed by Bretschueider in liis investigations of 
carrots in various stages of growth. The ex¬ 
periments were made some years ago, but 
will, perhaps, be new to the majority of our 
readers: 
Composition of Carrots in Various Stages 
of Growth. 
Wuter....< 00.(1 ’ 90.2 | 80.5 f 89.2 
Albuminoids... 1.1 10 .8 .7 
Augur. 1.3 1.5 S.'l f,.l 
Fiber. LI 1.8 1.2 1.2 
Undetermined 
mutter...... 2.3 2.1 l 2.0 2.1 
Asli.. .0 I ..7 .0 I .7 
The most prominent feature is again the 
formation of sugar, which steadily increases 
in amount as autumn advances ; there is at 
the same time a diminution in the percentage 
of nitrogenous matter. 
Keeping Serb Grains—A correspondent 
of the Rural New-Yorker asks our readers 
how they dispose of their seed corn so as to 
keep it properly, and adds :—“ I have a great j 
deal of trouble with iniiio and would like to I 
know how others do.” 
THE BEST BREED OF SWINE. 
It is not likely that this question will be 
settled very soon, except so far as localities 
and individual preferences are concerned. 
Nevertheless, a breeder’s experiments and 
experience are valuable aids to conclusions. 
Hence we give the following, furnished the 
American Swine Journal by W. L. Mallow, 
whom we conclude to be a Western man. 
He says : 
When 1 first considered the importance of 
changing my stock of hogs, the question pre¬ 
sented itself—what strain I should,select, as 
breeders all claimed their stock ay as ths 
best. So I concluded to commence cn the 
Magie, a large* coarse, white hog, with a few 
Spots on their bodies. But after a care fill 
trial, I was convinced that this was not the 
hog that would suit me, so 1 crossed them 
with tho Poland-China, or Butler county bog. 
This added some good qualities to the Magie 
stock, but did not improve in any respect 
tho Poland China. 
Tho pig-i were strong and grew rapidly, but 
did not fatten even. Some that were bred 
in the Poland-China blood were fat and 
ready for market, at 10 or 12 months old, and 
the rest of the lot had to be kept until nearly 
18 months old. So with this result 1 thought 
it best to continue my experiments. So I se¬ 
lected some of the best Poland-China blood, 
then added to it the improved Berkshire, 
and soon found that I had gained tho point 
of my experience. It seemed to increase the 
size of the Berkshire, and still left their su¬ 
perior fattening qualities. So T bred this 
cross long enough to satisfy me that t.hej T arc 
the hog for the farmer who does not pretend 
to breed pure Strains, 
But I have coiue to the conclusion, after 
carefully investigating the different theories 
of breeding, that no crosses breed as perfect 
and evenly as one strain in its purity, so I 
have directed my undivided attention to the 
Berkshire. My breeding stock is imported, 
and I find my pigs are strong even when 
young, and remain so till fattened. So in,, 
conclusion I will just say the Berkshire is 
I my hog, for I have found from experience 
they i;re the most profitable of all breeds. 
-4-t-+-■ 
BEST BREED OF HOGS. 
In answer to an inquiry wliich is the best 
breed of hogs, an Ohio breeder gives the fol¬ 
lowing reasons for naming the Poland-China 
as such ft breed : 
J. They do not get rnangy. 1 have never 
had one that was troubled this way ; and 
this is something of so much importance that 
it should not be overlooked by any farmer 
who knows anything of the evil. 
2. This breed is excellent on account of its 
early fattening qualit ies ; and yet for its con¬ 
tinued growth it has no equal. When only 
nine or ten months old it will readily fatten 
into clear pork, weighing 300 pounds or 
more. Or they will continue to grow until 
twenty months old, and then iveigh, when 
fattened, from 150 to 525 pounds. 
3. It is the best feeder on clover and blue 
grass that I knoAV of. I have Avitnessed test 
experiments Avhicli Aveut to show that hogs 
of this breed will make more gain and thrive 
better on grass alone than those of any other 
breed, 
4. They are naturally quiet at all times, 
unless a contrary spirit is stirred up by 
abuse. They fatten well, eating their fill 
and then lying down, the sows are good 
and prolific breeders, kind in litter and good 
su cklers. 
5. I claim that the Poland-China is Me hog 
for the packer, because of the proportion of 
weight behind the shoulders and the amount 
of high-priced meat it carries, and a corres¬ 
pondingly small amount of offal produced. 
It has a small head and small feet. 
(!. It is the breed that avc can do the most 
Avith between April and January. I claim 
that pig3 should come Avken grass in the 
spring begins to grow, so that they can be 
fattened without having to winter them. 
Or, if avc deem it good policy to hold them 
over, we want, them to keep on groAA ing 
during the second summer AA-itli the least 
cost. 
1 believe tho Poland-China is the hog for 
tho farmer. It is small-boned and long- 
bodied. It has short legs and a broad, 
straight back ; it has deep sides, with square, 
heavy hams and shoulders ; it has drooping 
ears aud fine hair, In color nearly always 
spotted black. 
-♦-*-*- 
TO PREVENT SOWS LYING ON PIGS. 
i A. V. Poindexter, in the Cincinnati Ga¬ 
zette says My plan of a jeu for sow3 to 
farroAv in is generally eight feet by twelve. 
And in order to keep tho sow from lying on 
her pigs, I take a two-inch augur and bore a 
bole tAvelve inches from the wall on each 
end, and ten inches from the floor, and insert 
a strong pole about tAvo and one-half or 
three Inches thick, shoving down each end 
so it fits tight, as the sow will im'ariabiy try 
to take it out of her Avay in making her bed. 
It should be fastened iu so she cannot move 
it, and she will hoav make her bed against 
the pole, it being the nearest she can get to 
the wall, and do you be sure that the space 
is not packed full of straw on or about the 
time she has her pigB, so that the pigs ay hen 
farroAved can have room to walk around 
their mother and not get overlaid. The pigs 
avIII soon learn to nestle in this place, and 
feel secure from harm. This arrangement, 
Avhen carried out, would save a large per 
cent, cf young pigs to the farmer. 
<§aij|g Ijufibandrir. 
THE AMERICAN DAIRYMEN’S CONVEN¬ 
TION. 
The usual preliminary business and ap¬ 
pointment of committees having been dis¬ 
posed of at tho morning session, the after¬ 
noon meeting opened with the first paper 
before the Association byT. D. Curtis, en¬ 
titled “ Borne Hints.” The speaker com¬ 
menced by saying that ho had not been so 
situated during the past year as to obtain 
experience and new points in cheese-mak¬ 
ing. The leading points treated were (he 
baneful influence of imperfect milk in cheese¬ 
making and tho unnutritious and unsatisfac¬ 
tory character of "skim-cheese,” He thought 
there is too much poor cheese offered over 
the counters of grocers. Fat cheeses were 
more desirable in the market. By selling 
skimmed cheese to the exclusion of whole- 
milk cheese in any market, it had the effect 
of lessening consumption and destroying in 
a great measure home demand and the home 
trade. There is less Avaste in cutting up and 
selling good cheese than in poor cheese. He 
thought there was more trouble to be attrib¬ 
uted to diseased milk than is commonly sup¬ 
posed even by our best cheese makers. In 
closing, ho urged the importance of estab¬ 
lishing farmeis’ clubs or similar organiza¬ 
tions everywhere. Members will profit by 
an interchange c,f thought. The time was 
coming when tho industrial classes are to 
assume a mere prominent position and to be 
no longer led by mere politicians. In answer 
to some of tho positions taken in tho paper, 
Mr. Ccivm said the tendency of tho acidify¬ 
ing process Avas to destroy or cat up the oil 
or butter of the inllk. Some of tho creamery 
men thought if that was the case it Avould be 
better to skim off the butler than to have it 
I eaten up and lost by the process the speaker 
had recommended. Mr. Curtis replied that 
ho was do chemist, but he believed the re¬ 
sults from skimmiDg and acidifying to be 
dissimilar. 
Mr. Moon of Herkimer gave tho result of 
| some experiments showing that tho cream or 
butter when retained in the milk had a ten¬ 
dency to prolong the keeping qualities cf the 
cheese. The next paper was by Mr. C. L. 
Bhkldon of Lowviile on 
ACIDITY AND TEMPERATURE IN CHEESE MAKING. 
One of tho most important points he said 
in cheese making is to understand Avhen the 
lactic acid lias progressed far enough and to 
dip the curd at just this point. He related 
his experience with tAvo vats of tainted milk 
during the season of 1873. The temperature 
of these vats was raked to 08% and they stood 
several hours until the acid Avas well started, 
Avhen the curds were dipped into the sink 
and salted at the rale of about tbreo pounds 
of salt to 100 pounds curd. Tho curd had an 
elastic feel, and when pressed between the 
thumb and finger would emit a faint, crack¬ 
ling sound. It was thoroughly aired and put 
to press. Four months after one of these 
cheeses Avhich he had kept Avas brought to 
this Association and pronounced free of taint 
by members, but it lacked flavor. Subse¬ 
quently, on dissolving a piece of this cheese 
in distilled water, putrefactive fermentation 
set in at a very early period, showing clearly 
that the influence of the acid had the effect 
of only choking down the taint and not kill¬ 
ing it; and that just ns soon as circumstances 
favorable totbc development of taint appear¬ 
ed, it Avas ready to spring into vigorous ac¬ 
tivity and attest it-s presence and ils sway. 
The odor it gave off avas intense and offen¬ 
sive, thus showing its aetuul condition to be 
bad, though its apparent one seemed right. 
The conclusion arrived at by tho speaker was 
that lactic acid is not only an efficient 
