as thrown fresh from the stables. For a 
year or more past I have taken part of the 
manure from a stable where several hun¬ 
dred horses are fed, paying $2.50 per ton ; 
| by this mode each farmer takes what he 
wants and pays for exactly what he gets. I 
might add that we haul it ten miles ; the 
toll and ferriage costs $1.40 for each wagon 
load. The value of a ton of manure as given 
by Prof. Geo. H. Cook is as follows : 
Phosphoric acid, 9 lbs., at 16c. per lb. $J 44 
Potash, 9 lbs. 8 oz„ at 7n. per lb . 68 
Ammonia, 14 lb. 6 oz., at »5c. per lb. 3 65 
Total value.... $5 77 
This is only the estimated value of the 
three high-pricod constituents, many items 
of smaller value being omitted. A part of 
the value of stable manure is due to the 
organic matter which it contains. From the 
above estimate it will appear that the real 
value is more than the usual cost of manure, 
and as a general rule those who use the most 
succeed the best in raisiug farm crops. 
Cfnnaralnson, N. J. William Pauiiy. 
grain is in a doughy state, or can be mashed 
with the thumb and finger, and the straw 
a bright yellow, and before the heads turn 
down much. Shock up and cap good ; should 
the weather be occasionally showery, put in 
long shocks, 
MAPLE SUGAR MAKING 
CRANBERRIES ON UPLAND 
In reading the Rubai. New-Yorker of 
Feb. 13, my attention was called to the arti¬ 
cle headed “ Maple Sugar Makiug." Living 
in a sugar making district, and making that 
a branch of my business for years, it struck 
me that I might say something on that sub¬ 
ject which might not be without interest to 
the readers of the “Old Rural." Last year 
1 set 1,00U taps in my lot of 1*00 trees,—one 
spout to a tree in most cases. My trees are 
second growth, with the exception of a few. 
I should recommend one spout as being bet¬ 
ter than two, for the reuson that it don't 
injure the tree as much as two ; and, as far 
as my experience goes, I get nearly or quite 
as much sap from one as two. 
I boil in one of Cory’s Evaporators (have 
for the past four years), and 1 pronounce it 
the best thing out for boiling sap, and would 
not return to the old style of boiling with 
pans on any condition. My evaporator is 14 
ft. long, with wooden sides, which is a little 
behind the new styles. 1 use turned pails, 
painted white inside and red outside. I have 
enough to set my whole lot. My sap house 
is divided into three rooms—one for boiltog, 
If favorable weather, in eight 
or ten days put in barn or stack. If stacked, 
have them well topped out. Let the grain 
remain in stack at least two to four weeks, 
to sweat before threshing—stuck the straw 
well for it may be needed ; you will then 
have wheat, if a good variety, from which a- 
competeut miller can turn out a satisfactory 
quantity and quality of fiour, and make the 
good housewife look pleasant when you 
come to sit down to her nice bread, cakes, &c. 
A. j. hinds, Fatchogue, L. I., writes the 
Vermont Farmer :—When inquiring in New 
York of land agents for swamp land suitable 
for cranberries, I was told I did not need 
swamp land, for (hey raised cranberries on 
Long Island, near the Long Island Railroad, 
around Lakeland and Suffolk stations, where 
the water was seventy feet below the sur¬ 
face in the wells. The idea seemed so absurd 
—having always associated cranbeiries with 
swamp land—that although getting off the 
cars at Lakeland I never asked a question 
about the fact but came direct to Say vilie, 
bought a small place, and commenced tilling 
FIELD NOTES 
Hulless Oats. — The Rural New-Yorker 
has already stated that these oats, called 
“hulless,” and about which interested par¬ 
ties are attempting to create an excitement, 
are not new and untried in this country ; 
nor have experiments with them hitherto 
demonstrated 
in swamp land for cranberries. I soon found, 
however, that they did raise cranberries in 
Lakeland on upland, so 1 went to see them, 
and continued to go for seven years in suces- 
sion, especially to see the cranberries "play 
out.” 13ut no ; on the contrary, to my cer¬ 
tain knowledge, they bear guod crops all the 
time. Since this time 1 have sifted this thing 
down, and have come to the following con¬ 
clusion from practice and observation : 
1. Cranberries do not need manure, but do 
need muck. (New land is best.) Some have 
set them out on old, worn out sandy lot 3 , and 
made a failure. 
2. Cranberries do not need any more water 
than corn or other crops. 
3. The wire-worm, being a native of low 
lands, do not seem to trouble crauberries on 
upland. The berry worm does not trouble, 
except in drouth ; then they attack them as 
lice attack cattle when they get poor, or as 
curculio attack fruit when the trees are not 
doing well. 
4. Any soil that is soggy on the surface is 
too wet for cranberries, and needs draining 
before crauberries will succeed. 
5. Manure makes the 
any superiority us belonging 
to them compared with the varieties gen¬ 
erally grown. This answers two or three 
inquiries. No one is recommended to throw 
mouey away by purchasing them. If curi¬ 
osity prompts and money is plenty, buy if 
3 'ou choose, but not with hope of great gain. 
Chess Inquiries. —In reply to E. S., who 
asks, we say that chess grows among wheat 
because the seed was iu the soil and germi¬ 
nated. Chess seed sown will produce chess 
and never wheat} nor does wheat ever pro¬ 
duce cheBs. Chess sown in spring will prob¬ 
ably head out the same season, though we 
have never tried the experiment to see. 
Castor Beans in California.—It is stated 
that Mrs. M. A. Burton, near San Diego, 
planted 100 acres with castor beans last year, 
her product averaging 1,500 lbs. per acre! 
worth four cents per pound. 
ASHES FOR CROPS 
•out of the arch, In answer to a correspondent of tile Rural 
guring off, 1 use New-Yorker who asks us sundry questions 
arrel pans, set on as to the value of ashes, we answer that un- 
liich in my sirup leached ashes are more valuable than leach- 
1 gallons. As the ed, but that both or either are valuable up- 
rutor it is turned plied directly to the soil from which auy crop 
it the can and al- is to be taken, whether grain, vegetables or 
Measure, thereby fruits, whether on fallow or grass lands, on 
trainer. My can strawberry plantations or in orchards. 
drawn through Ashes contain essential components of uli 
about 3 inches of crops. They should not be mixed with com- 
spuce below the post-that is, there is no gain in so mixing 
wooden spouts, them—but applied broadcast directly to the 
0 iron - soil, whether it is grass land or land that is 
itor to till sugar to he plowed 
VVe never knew a farmer 
who could get more ashes than it was profit¬ 
able to apply to his land. One hundred 
bushels per acre is not too much to ap¬ 
ply to old, cultivated lands. Any man who 
asserts that wood ashes applied to orchards 
is death to trees either does not know what 
he is talking about, or has a selfish purpose 
iu lying. Especially are ashes excellent, for 
orchards. They should not be heaped right 
about the bodies of the trees, but spread 
over the roots, which extend as far from the 
bodies of the trees as the branches do. 
Ashes are especially valuable as top dress¬ 
ing on old grass lands, or on lands cropped 
with grain. For root crops they are equally 
important; indeed, o-s we say above, there 
is no crop grown and no land cultivated 
that is not benefited in a greater or less de¬ 
gree by the application of leached or uu- 
leacbed ashes —the latter being the more 
valuable. 
vines grow too rank 
to bear fruit. 
Any of our plains that are heavy loam are 
by nature adapted for cranberries, and can 
be bought for $5 to $10 per acre. 
We have had two very dry seasons, and 
some are getting discouraged on upland. 
The fact is that they must be cultivated on 
upland the same as strawberries. Set in 
drills, three or four feet apart, keep the run¬ 
ners cut off the same as strawberries, and 
either keep cultivated between the rows or 
else mulched with meadow hay, straw, or 
leaves. In stumpy land mulching is prefer¬ 
able. The main cause of failure hitherto 
has been the. constant attempt to mat the 
vines. (They will mat, of course, but thus 
in a drouth the worms will attack them.) 
We find our new stumpy lund the best for 
strawberries, and some pay $Io per acre per 
year for such land after the owner lias taken 
off one crop of rye, and both parties make 
money. They only take off two crops of 
strawberries, however, when they plow 
a roceiti otock i>J , oeder8 , Convention in 
Iowa, Dr. Traer states that lie can take a 
Poland-China pig and make it weigh ]00 lbs. 
at 100 days old, by feeding it two bushels of 
com. Goes on to show his experiments in 
feeding II sows and CO pigs on a 5 acre lot of 
clover pasture with but very little corn. He 
can raise 20 pigs on an acre, and next year 
he can do the same, and can raise 100 on 5 
acres, and not feed them over 200 bushels of 
corn, and the pigs to weigh 100 lbs. each at 
lOOdays old. 
Mi-. Gilmore, vouches for all the statements 
made by Dr. Traer, but makes the points 
stronger by his own hogs doing as well as 
Di. Tiaer’s and he not feeding the swineany 
corn whatever. 
ECONOMICAL NOTES 
WHAT IS A TON OF MANURE WORTH? 
Lime and 
Edward Mason in 
IVestern Rural says :—“Lime improves the 
quality of almost any cultivated crop. Tho 
grain of the cereals has a thinner skin, is 
heavier and yields more flour. The flour is 
said to be richer iu gluten, but there is much 
difference of opinion on the subject. It is 
said to hasten the ripening of wheat ; but 
our experience is quite different ou this point 
as we have known it to delay the ripening of 
grain crops. A more marked improvement 
is produced in both the quantity and the 
quality of the spring-sown than of the win¬ 
ter-sown erops. It hardens the straw of ce¬ 
reals and prevents it from falling down under 
the weight of the ear. Potatoes, turnips 
Trichina in Indiana Swine.—Mr. Charles 
G. Boerner of Vervay, Switzerland County, 
Indiana, reports to this Department the 
result of microscopic examinations recently 
made by him to determine whether pork in 
that, locality was affected with this parasite. 
Out of 187 slaughtered hogs examined, 11 
were found to be affected. Three of these 
contained encysted trichina Spiralis, and 
eight, various other forms. The partB ex¬ 
amined were the ham, shoulder and tender¬ 
loin. A magnifying power of from 50 to 100 
diameters most distinctly revealed the para¬ 
site when present ; a higher power cut off 
the light too mucin He also found in the 
muscles of a rat he examined, trichina 
identical with those in the flesh of the swine. 
determining the quantity than by the load, 
which latter term is indefinite, and may be 
any quantity from a wheelbarrow load to 
an ordinary horse-cart load. It is well 
knowu that manure dealers in buying get as 
much as they can for a load, and iu selling 
give as little as will pass for one. It is the 
usual custom in Philadelphia, when loading 
a vessel with manure (the price of which has 
been for years $1 per load), to measure it in 
a cart as loosely as possible from a pile pre¬ 
viously collected on the wharf. If a load 
is put ou a vessel us it came direct from the 
stable (where the usual price is 75c.), it is 
counted two loads, frequently three loads 
_ n 11 « 1 
Perhaps it is worth a trial. AH I have to say 
further is that Long Island is u natural home 
for cranberries, and I have seen larger growth 
of vines and more berries (according to 
amount of vines) than on low lauds. Of 
course an acre in drills a foot thick and tliree 
feet apart will not produce as much per acre 
as matted vines on low land, but I have yet 
to learn of a surer crop or a more profitable 
one in these parts. It is not the amount of 
produce raised we care for so much as the 
net profit per acre-. 
WHEN TO CUT WHEAT. 
A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer says : 
My experience has taught me that when the 
weather would permit and harvest hands are 
comatable, the proper time to cut is when the 
