MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
APRIL 3 
struction and selection of paths, grassplots, 
lawns, Rowers, flower beds, trees— deciduous 
and evergreen — fences, arbors, summer¬ 
houses, that there is a wearisomely monoton¬ 
ous resemblance ? And is it true that the 
field of horticulture and landscape gardening 
is so narrow that this dastardly copying, the 
one after the other, is unavoidable ? 
It is surprising how many fields of inquiry 
the enthusiastic study of one plant—with 
the determination if possible of learning all 
there is about it—is likely to open up to us ; 
and how, beyond our best hopes, by this 
study we will find ourselves educated for 
further endeavors. It matters little whether 
our specialty is a house plant or a hurdy 
shrub or tree — the patient, minute observa¬ 
tion arouses original thought and induces US 
to seek after original results. We become 
no longer content with that dread sameness 
that would excuse us if, after a month’s ab¬ 
sence, we mistook our neighbor’s premises 
for our own or that suffers us to pass from 
the one to the other, searching in vain for 
one plant to rivet our interest. 
If thy neighbor, iny friend, more alert than 
thou, procure a rarely beautiful flower or 
shrub—envy it, if thou wilt, with the whole 
of thy envious little heart—but steal it not, 
nor beg a slip. For where is thy credit '< 
Gaze upon it in thy neighbor’s garden and 
enjoy it—it will gratify thee and thy enter¬ 
prising neighbor too—but leave this rarely- 
beautiful plant to him and seek another, a 
diffei-ent beauty, for thyself 
“In green fields and pastures new." 
In the consideration of specialties in flori¬ 
culture, through a brief series of articles, we 
beg to solicit attention first to the hybridiza¬ 
tion of Geraniums and collection of seed ; 
to the culture of hybrid Geranium seedlings, 
and to Geraniums generally. 
(Jichl <3j;i[0p. 
LUCERNE IN MARYLAND. 
The Editor of the Maryland Farmer says : 
“ Drilled Indian corn is a standard soiling 
crop in this country ; but we have found Lu¬ 
cerne properly managed more profitable than 
it or any other crop. A light loam, very deep 
and fertile and uot steep, we have succeeded 
best with In the growth of Lucero. The soil 
should be free from weeds, in thorough tilth, 
and the seed should be planted with a grass 
seed sower, attached to the grain drill, drop¬ 
ping the seed in the open drills, 7 to 0 inches 
apart, covering with a light seeding harrow 
and following with a roller ; 14 pounds of 
seed per acre will be found a proper quanti¬ 
ty. Try a half acre and you will put in more 
next year. We never grew a better paying 
crop than Lucerne, rightly planted and man¬ 
aged. We have cut three full crops in a sea¬ 
son and left, on a proper stand for winter 
protection. It is very fond of bone meal.” 
- — — 
POTATOES FROM SEED. 
M. P. P. writes:—“ Will the Rural New- 
Yorker please publish directions for manag¬ 
ing potato seed i Several weeks ago 1 took 
some balls, crushed them with my hands, 
washed out the seeds ami planted in a hot¬ 
bed, but they don’t start.” We do not know 
why your seed did not grow, unless it is due 
t,o the condition or management of the hot¬ 
bed. Perhaps you gave them too much beat. 
We never found any difficulty in starting 
potatoes from seed in a hot-bod < >r in the gar¬ 
den in the open ground. In opeu ground 
(and in hot-bed) we prepared our soil as we 
would for lettuce, planted the seed a little 
deeper than we would lettuce, pressing the 
soil firmly about it; planted after the ground 
got warm in spring. Most of the seed comes 
up in this way. 
■ * ♦» — 
FIELD NOTES. 
Crops to Make Money With. —E. H. Rhtet,, 
in answer to an inquiry, “What crops shall 
we grow to make money !" replies be f ire 
the Alton Hort. Boc. ‘ Sirs, plant that 
which vou know best how to grow * grow 
that best suited to your locality and soil; 
grow it, whether prices are up or down ; 
grow it every year ; study it until you know 
more about it than anybody else ; until you 
can produce it in its highest perfection every 
year ; until you can grow it profitably at 
prices at which others will starve ; do this, 
and vou will make money, gain reputation, 
and have the satisfaction of knowing your¬ 
selves benefactors of your fellow men.” 
Is Orchard Grass Soil Easily Plowed f — 
Bo asks a correspondent of the Rural New- 
Yorker. Yes. if you plow deep enough. A 
well-established orchard grass is very differ¬ 
ent from a timothy sod. Timothy is bulbous- 
rooted ; orchard grass tibro us-rooted, like 
clover ; but the roots are not so tough or 
wiry but they may be easily broken with the 
plow and the' land readily put in good eondi 
Liuu for grain crops, 
Jndustiftal ®ojrics. 
WAGES AND LABOR. 
Every farmer should give wages only in 
proportion to the worth of the men, and pay 
no heed to complaints of unequal amounts ; I 
for some men honestly earn double what 
others do and there arc often those to be met 
with who would not be cheap if given naught 
but their board. It is high time the boarding 
of men in the farm houses was a custom of 
the past, as there should be cottages on every 
farm, and by having respectable families in | 
them extra hands in busy times could be 
boarded there, tbuB saving the farmer’s wife 
from the greatest nuisance to the family ; 
for on a large farm the good lady cannot )>os- 
sibly board and lodge farm laborers without 
having servant girls, and these are in many 
instances Ignorant, lazy, dirty and saucy ; 
or, when a decently behaved girl who can 
get along if she likes is engaged, she probably 
goes out for half a day once or twice a week 
and expects her mistress to do more than 
half her work, for she will say, “I am no 
servant; I only go out to help as if it was 
a disgrace to serve ; and so foolish is the idea 
on this subject, that one of my little girls 
looked over as I was finishing a letter for her 
t,o mail in the village, ran to her mother, say¬ 
ing, " Ma 1 Pa wrote ‘ Your Obedient Serv¬ 
ant !’ ” as if it was something so very hu¬ 
miliating. Cottagers can get along with men, 
for though they live plain the fare is substan¬ 
tial and no fancy dishes are expected, though 
in the employer's house they are rarely sat¬ 
isfied. The farmer’s wife having a dairy, 
poultry, often the flower garden and some 
other beds, besides her children to Attend to, 
her position is pitiable, and it is no wonder 
t hat well educated farmer’s daughters choose 
husbands who are not. farmers. 
When the advantages of having married 
men in cottages is fully understood, it will 
be found to bo a great gain to employ the 
boys in the families, as there are many new 
implements corning into use which can be 
used by any one who can ride and guide the 
horses : and thus there will be. a great saving 
In the cost of manual labor. There is a plow 
coming out which may make a great change 
in the cost of cultivation lor, if as stated in 
Illinois, the horses draw much easier with a 
rider than the common plows do with a man 
walking behind, it will be a great saving, as 
a boy or a man unable to walk all day can 
guide the horses, and by using ore pair till 
noon and another pair after noon, the driver 
could do as much with each team in half a 
day as would be done all day in the old- 
fashioned way of resting at land's end and 
going very slow to make the animals and the 
man hold out for the long, scorching day till 
“sundown.” Thus double the work can be 
accomplished for about half the cost. 
Boys can plow : for from 13 to 18 years of 
age I did a deal of plowing, my father run¬ 
ning four or five plows with only one man, 
the “carter,” who had charge of all the 
horses and controlled the boys ; and in that 
part of England (vicinity of Banbury) wheel 
plows and two furrow plows with two wheels 
—the same asou the single plows—were com¬ 
mon on every farm. We only plowed from 
7 A. M. to 3 P. M., or one hour later in very 
busy times ; but we wore very tired, and 
there would be frequent inquiries about the 
time for the last hours. Now, if in addition 
to the wheels we liud been able to ride and 
we had used quicker-stepping animals instead 
of the old-fashioned, ponderous cart-horse, 
we could have done double the work. 
A Working Farmer, 
-♦♦♦- 
THE CENTENNIAL AT PHILADELPHIA. 
Ed. Rural New-Yorker Your friends 
in this vicinity read (a few weeks since) with 
pleasure your kind words for the Centennial 
Exposition. Natives of this region of the 
country who have always resided here can¬ 
not appreciate the feelings of apathy mani¬ 
fested by New Yorkers, New Englanders 
andotherstowardthe forthcoming Centen¬ 
nial. Although not a native of the region, I 
several years ago established my permanent 
home here and my interests center here ; 
but having lived and traveled extensively in 
the North, I can view the situation from a 
different standpoint than those whose homes 
have always been in this vicinity. Philadel¬ 
phia is a decidedly old-fashioned and conserv¬ 
ative locality. That ingenious and enterpris¬ 
ing class of men who especially abound in 
New' England. New York, Ohio and in more 
Western localities, have ever found Philadel¬ 
phia a hard locality in which to introduce 
their multitude of constantly-increasing in¬ 
ventions, improvements, &e. It has not been 
unusual for tins class of men to meet with 
decided rebuffs while thus engaged in this 
direction; consequently, they argue that 
Philadelphia is not a proper locality for an 
“industrial” Exposition. 
To dispel this wide prevailing sentiment, 
several sagacious and far-seeing Philadel¬ 
phians last, autumn induced the Franklin In¬ 
stitute to hold an Exhibition—the first for 
sixteen years—and they invited the manu¬ 
facturers and mechanics of the couutry to 
participate. Bo far as numbers of exhibitors 
and visitors and the quantity and quality of 
goods exhibited were concerned, the Exhibi¬ 
tion was a magnificent success. The man¬ 
agement of the Exhibition, however, was 
miserable, and widespread dissatisfaction 
lias prevailed in consequence. The only re¬ 
deeming feature in the management was the 
selection of a first-class superintendent; but 
his best efforts were rendered powerless bv 
the incapacity of the few “old fossils” who 
ruled the management. Many prominent 
exhibitors w'ere so disgusted that they de¬ 
clared they would not exhibit at the coming 
Centennial. 
Now this is all wrong. Philadelphia will 
have but little to say and still less influence 
in the management of the “Centennial,” 
certainly in the industrial portion of the 
Exposition, and manufacturers and ar tisans 
may rely upon unprejudiced and equitable 
treatment. Philadelphia will, no doubt, reap 
decided benefits from the Centennial; but 
New York City is peculiarly interested in t.ke 
industrial department of the Exposition, inas¬ 
much as a large portion of the manufacturing 
capital Invested in Philadelphia belongs to 
New York, eras some New Yorkers put it, 
“Philadelphxaisthe workshop of New York,” 
It becomes them, therefore, to encourage 
the Centennial in every legitimate way. It 
is encouraging to learn that her capitalists 
are subscribing liberal’y and her manufac¬ 
turers and artisans will place their goods on 
exhibition. The good words of her press are 
fully appreciated here. Local affronts and 
local prejudices must not be allowed to mar 
the perfect success of this national enterprise. 
Philadelphia. March 23. Observer. 
- - - 
HIGHWAYS IN WINTER. 
Recently, In riding through Cayuga Co., 
in climbing a hill by a road commonly called 
a “ dug-way,” 1 noticed that instead of fol¬ 
lowing the road as worked for summer use, 
that parallel to It and close to the fence upon 
the upper side of the road, another road had 
been cheaply made by plowing two or three 
furrows bo as to make a narrow but safe 
track for sleighs, giving us an easily-kept 
winter track above the snow drifts which 
filled the broad road-bed for ten or twelve 
feet deep below us. It did not probably take 
as much time, the preceding year, to plow 
and make that track as it would require to 
open the road in the summer track after a 
severe storm ; and the new path will be good 
to follow in for many years to come. 
In Central and Northern New York are 
roads that have a great amount of travel 
upon them, and for several contiguous miles 
it is uninterrupted good sleighing, when the 
traveler comes to an obstruction of ten or 
twenty rods of enow drifts, which anight be 
entirely obviated by using a few lengths of 
i panel fence and lay.ng it down for the win¬ 
ter months. Can wo persuade (not compel) 
the landowners to try panel fence in such 
places ? 
There are other routes where the snow¬ 
drifts (or the entire lack of snow in the road¬ 
bed) crowds the traveler into his last resort, 
the ditch ; and that is often filled with need¬ 
less obstructions in the shape of piles of 
boards or rails, logs, boulders, half-decayed 
stumps, &c.. around which the helpless team¬ 
ster is compelled to drag his load, because 
the obstructions are firmly held in their 
places by frost, and the driver cursing him¬ 
self and the public because they (the ob¬ 
structions) are t here. 
I would suggest that iu the ensuing year a 
small portion of time be taken for removing 
any such obstructions or in any way to im¬ 
prove the roads for wlntei' use in our respect¬ 
ive road districts. Prompter. 
Cortland, N. Y., March 1,1875. 
----- 
A ton of HAY BY mkasure. —There are 270 
cubic feet in a ton of hay put into the mow 
fresh from the field, and 210 in a ton well 
settled down. The difference in a mow that 
had been standing two years, over one that 
had been standing one year would uot be 
great—as the hay would settle very little tho 
second year. A correct, practical rule by 
i which to ascertain the number of tons of hay 
in a mow is to multiply the length in yards 
by the bight in yards, and that by the 
width in yards, ana then divide this product 
by 15, when the quotient will be the number 
of tons, says the Me, Farmer. 
THE AYRSHIRE BREEDERS. 
A convention of Ayrshire Breeders was 
held at Albany, N. Y., March 11. The prin¬ 
cipal breeders or their representatives were 
present. A permanent organization was 
completed by the adoption of a constitution. 
The Country Gentleman says 'The notice¬ 
able provisions of the constitution as finally 
adopted, are the fixing the time of holding 
the annual meeting for the third Thursday 
of January; that twenty members shall 
constitute a quorum; that they can vote 
either in person or by proxy ; fixes the in¬ 
itiation fee at *10 ; that entry fee for record¬ 
ing animals shall not be more than $1 to 
members, and $2 to breeders not members ; 
the Executive Committee to appoint the 
Editor of the Herd Book, and fix its price per 
volume ; and written consent of two-thirds 
of all the members is necessary to alter the 
constitution. The regulations adopted fixed 
the terms of admission to registry, making 
two classes of thoroughbreds—those im¬ 
ported or tracing directly to importation ; 
and those in whose pedigrees a link connect¬ 
ing to importation is missing, but which are 
believed to be pure bred—the numbers in 
one class to be numerals, and in the other to 
be Roman capitals. No doubling of names 
is hereafter to be allowed, and the affix Lst, 
2d, 3d, &c., shall only be given to tbe calves 
of the cow bearing the namo used and nor to 
her grandchildren, or any other animals. 
Transfers of animals are to be recorded, and 
transfer books to be kept by the editor. A 
death record to be also kept by the editor of 
the Herd Book, recording deaths of animals 
and the causes so far as know n. The breeder 
of an animal shall be considered as the one 
owning the dam at time of service by the 
bull. 
Some discussion took place on tbe division 
of Ayrshires into two classes, a few urging 
that no one would wish to record in the 
second class, while others thought this the 
only way to satisfy all breeders of acknowl¬ 
edged pure stock. Many Ayrshires, through 
accident, or carelessness of breeders, cannot 
be traced in an unbroken pedigree to impor¬ 
tation, and therefore, although probably 
pure-bred, could not be recorded in the first- 
named class, and provision must be made for 
their record. 
A resolution was introduced by Gen. Cur¬ 
tis, instructing the Executive Committee to 
accept the North American Ayrshire Reg¬ 
ister, edited by Messrs. Sturlevant; they 
agreeing to add a supplement to their volume, 
to contain those animals which are, in the 
opinion of tho Executive Committee and tbe 
editors, eligible for i-ecord in the second 
class. Dr. St irtevant objected, that their 
first volume will be xeady for the press by 
April 1st, and therefore that it is beyond any 
supervision of the Executive Committee or 
other* ; that it must stand, as a record, on 
the personal authority' of the editors, their 
reputation being its sole guarantee of cor¬ 
rectness, but that there is still time to 
examine additional entries. He made no 
objection to publishing a supplemental vol¬ 
ume. Messrs. Pearce, Wells and others 
objected to any interference with the duties 
or judgment of the Executive Committee, 
preferring to allow them to make such se¬ 
lection of editor as they' should see fit. After 
considerable discussion the resolution was 
tabled, and the Association adjourned sine 
die. 
-- 
NOTES FOR HERDSMEN. 
Foot-Rot (or Foals) in Cattle-— Please in¬ 
form C. W. V. V. in Rural, March 20, that 
the foot-i*ot can easily be cured by simply 
taking a tax-red rope, drawing it smartly 
through the split iu the hoof a few times, 
when it will give out a bad stench ; remove 
the rope and fill the raw wound with fine 
salt. One application is all that is necessary 
generally ; keep the animal from the wet 
barnyard—which is a fruitful cause of this 
disease ; have had six or eight so afflicted at 
once, always effecting a speedy cure by using 
the means described above.— Brownie. 
Alcohol and Lice.— Your cori’espondent, 
C. R., may- i‘ely upon alcohol being a safe and 
certain remedy any season of the year to kill 
lice on cattle or horses. It kills evei’y one it 
touches. I do not know wlxat its effect would 
be otx sheep ticks.— Granger, Malone,.N. Y. 
Hemp Seed for Abortive Coies.—A pint of 
hemp seed per week, fed to a cow that had 
j aborted twice in succession, saved the third 
calf, 
