346 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
CASTOR BEAN CULTURE. 
We have au inquiry about Castor Bean 
Culture, and as the subject is seasonable, we 
give the following somewhat exhaustive 
article from a writer in the South Kansas 
Tribune r 
Having cultivated some castor beans last 
season, I will give the result of my experi¬ 
ments and conclusions. In the first place, it 
is not a peculiarly favorable crop, if you 
have to hire all your labor, and that full- 
priced men. To a fanner who has a goodly 
number of boys from ten to twenty years of 
age, or even girls who are able and willing 
to go into the field, it is a useful and profit¬ 
able erep, the return for it coming so early 
In autumn as to be in advance of all other 
crops, except flax and barley. It requires 
no better soil than corn, can stand the drouth 
much better, and is' proof against ohineh 
bugs ; indeed, a bolt of the beans around a 
com field will Bave it from invasion from 
without, for they do not cross or pass 
through castor bean lots, nor do they touch 
any stock of any sort growing among the 
beans. Ground that will produce 40 bushels 
of corn per acre can with equal cultivation 
bo made to yield 20 bushels of beans. Fif¬ 
teen acres ean be planted with one bushel of 
beans. The time of planting and cultivation 
is the same as corn. The seed should be 
placed in tolerably hot water two or three 
days before planting. The spaces should be 
four feet apart, and the fourth row should be 
six feet wide, to give free passage for horse 
and sled, with dry goods box, to gather the 
spikes when ready. But one stalk should 
mature in each hill or square ; early, clean 
culture and old land are requisite. They 
keep the ground perfectly clean of weeds 
after flhey are 20 inches high. 
For 20 acres, three sleds made of 2x6 stulf, 
wide enough to grasp the largest size dry 
goods boxes, will suffice. The spikes should 
be cut off and hauled in those boxes to the 
popping-out place as soon as you see them 
turn a dark green or some of the pods burst¬ 
ing open. To save a loss yon should go over 
them four times, each time cutting off such 
spikes as may be ready. If cut while yet 
the light bloom is on them, the beans will be 
light and imperfect, which may do to plant 
out, but, do not weigh. Then as to the sepa¬ 
ration and cleaning of the beans, perhaps 
more mistakes are made than in the grow¬ 
ing. Many contend that we should have a 
popping-out. house and use stove heat. 1 do 
not advise this expense, unless a party in¬ 
tends to make the bean a specialty. 
It lias been alleged that If rain fell on them, 
when in an open place and exposed to the ac¬ 
tion of the sun, they would be damaged and 
command reduced prices. There is but Utile 
in that. Mine were often submerged in 
water when ou the popping out yard, and 
the quality was pronounced good by the 
manufacturer. I would advise selecting 
clean, smooth, hard prairie, sloping enough 
to cause rain water to flow off freely, so that 
none will stand or lie dead ; lake sharp hoes 
and scalp off smooth all the grass on a space 
of say 100x80 feet for 20 acres. This should 
be swept off clean, having a level surface of 
hard ground. Then deposit your spikes, 
leaving a border uncovered by spikes of at 
least 20 feet all around, to catch those beans 
that jump outward when opening under a 
hot sun. About t he second or third day they 
should be turned, to bring those at the bottom 
. to the top; a steel garden rake Is the best 
implement to use ; about the fourth or fifth 
day they are nearly all out of the burs, unil 
the haulniB or straw, then greatly dimin¬ 
ished in bulk, should be pitched on a pile, to 
give them time for all stragglers to leave it, 
and the beans, being set free, are found in 
the bottom of the dv.hrix, when they can 
easily be raked clear of the empty burs and 
taken away preparatory to fanning. By that 
time the field has to be gone over again for 
such spikes as are ripened, and so on till all 
be gathered. Any good fanning machine 
will ('lean them, and when the yard is clean 
and solid very little earth will go with them. 
Active boys can do the work of men, if 
they are only willing, in gathering the beans. 
Hence it is a valuable crop to those who have 
that kind of help, and, in addition to that, 
the crop is equal to a coat of clover or ma¬ 
nure in preparing the ground for wheat, 
which may be sown on the same ground 
after gathering, or between the rows. 
—-- 
LARGE GRAIN FOR SEED. 
A writer in the Weekly Times (W. J. F., 
whom we reckon to be an old Western New 
York friend,) gays :—The first nutriment a 
young plant gets is from the decay of the 
starchy matter around the germ. This is 
always small, and in shrunken and shriveled 
grain the plants put forth more feebly. No 
subsequent, manuring or fertility in the soil 
can entirely make up for the lack of this 
food at the start, because it is not possible 
for any other manure to be in close contact 
with the germ and root. Farmers are 
usually very particular in selecting seed for 
corn, but with other grains requiring a larger 
amount of seed per acre, less care is taken. 
The result is Dial corn thus selected rarely 
deteriorates, while other grains almost al¬ 
ways do. - Our hot, dry summers are bad 
enough at the best for such moisture-loving 
grains as oats and barley, but the tendency 
to shrivel the grain is aggravated greatly by 
sowing imperfect seed, as also by too thick 
seeding. It is doubtful whether thick seed¬ 
ing increases the crop ; but if it did, it would 
still be good policy to sow a small piece 
tbiuly with perfect seed, free from foul 
stuff as seed for the following year. 
Something can easily and cheaply be done 
for the main crop by running the seed care¬ 
fully through a fanning mill, blowing over 
all the light and imperfect seed and saving 
only the heaviest. In this way barley 
weighing fifty to fifty-two pounds per 
bushel can be winnowed from any lot of fail- 
weight and the refuse is worth nearly as 
much for feed as if it were heavier. I have 
no doubt that any farmer doing this by all 
grain crops for a series of years, would 
secure a reputation as a seed-grower, which 
would give his crop a ready sale to neighbor¬ 
ing fanners at remunerative prices. Clean 
and perfect seed is the great need of all 
fanners at present, and as increased atten¬ 
tion is given to improved fanning, the 
demand will keep pace with the importance 
of good seed as the foundation of all success 
in grain-growing. 
FROM OUR FARM OF SWAMP.-I. 
Dear Rural New Yorker This month 
has been occupied by moving, settling and 
getting acquainted with “ Our Farm of 
Swamp,” our new neighbors, etc. 
With a farm of a hundred and fifty acres 
a pair of oxen, cow and calf, and a dozen 
and a half of chickens and no resources or 
liabilities outside of these, except a family 
of seven ami a Life insurance that draws 
thirty dollars a year, we propose to change 
our occupation from builder to farmer. 
Now when we speak of a Farm of Swamp, 
we mean all aw amp —every foot—so that we 
are compelled to rent dwelling, garden and 
cattle yards. It lies in the midst of a thou- 
saud acre swamp, with occasionally a clump 
of tamarack, well set with clumps of willows, 
and bordered by black ash. The soil is muck 
of all depths, from one furrow or less to 
about four feet. To this general description 
of the whole swamp our farm is no exception 
in any particular. Across this a large ditch 
is cut, in which a good current of water is 
running two feet below the surface level of 
the swamp, and a half miltxof this ditch lies 
ou our farm. But everything is before us to 
do, and in our May article we shall probably 
report that something has been done. 
I. D. Miner. 
Branch Co., Midi., April, 1875. 
SUNFLOWER GROWING. 
Ed. Rural New-Yorker :—Since reading 
the suggestions of our venerable friend, 
Daily Bural Life, that the farmers of the 
grasshopper regions of Kansas etc., plant 
the Chinese Yarn and Jerusalem Artichoke 
to provide an unfailing supply of vegetables 
against future visits of the locust plague, I 
am reminded of a suggestion or two very 
proper to be made, uot only to those people 
hut many others, residents of the treeless 
regions of the great West. 
I would like to recommend to them the 
plantiug to a large extent, of the common 
Sunflower. As a flower it is not without 
some beauty, if planted as a back ground or 
as a screen. Easy of growth, quite hardy 
for an annual, they grow and thrive in any 
good soil, bear transplanting as well as a 
cabbage, and may be made a source of profit. 
Readers of the Rural New-Yorker of years 
agone will remember the interesting articles 
from the pen of Prof. Maury, recommending 
the sunflower as anti-miazmatic, a prevent¬ 
ive, where liberally planted, of malarial 
diseases. In addition to its sanitary value it 
can be grown with profit for the seed, which 
yields a very pure oil, used for painting, for 
illumination, and, when purified, as a salad 
oil. No food is better relished by domestic 
fowls at any time, its richness in oil render¬ 
ing it very useful for them. Undoubtedly it 
might be grown with profit on the rich 
prairies of the great West, and supply the 
demand of the American Market, now main¬ 
ly supplied by importation from Germany. 
But the great recommendation of trie 
Sunflower for the prairie country is its value 
as fuel, of which an acre or two will yield a 
large amount of a superior quality, especially 
for kindling. Planted or setatgood distance 
apart and given the same cultivation as corn¬ 
stalks, it will grow twelve to fifteen feet 
high, large, and with a thick, woody body, 
which burns readily if kept under cover. It 
will not ignite anthracite coal, but would 
probably answer well for the bituminous 
coal used at the West. Used with corn cobs, 
I have often ignited our hard coal, and 
have no doubt that if the farmers of the 
treeless lands of the West, would grow the 
Sunflower, and utilize their large stock of 
corn cobs, they would be independent on the 
supply of fuel to ignite their coal, and find it 
cheaper than going long distances to the 
timber lands for a supply. Is it not worth 
a trial ? n, c. w. 
Bergen Co., N. J., 1875. 
-M-*- 
TO PREVENT CUT-WORMS. 
Soak your seed com one night in a tub of 
equal portions of lye made from ashes arid 
common urine, with u fair proportion of 
bluest-one dissolved therein. Pour off the 
liquid through a basket into a tub, to pre¬ 
serve for use again. Then, while the corn is 
wet, take a first-class article of plaster and 
mix and stir till each und every grain is 
thickly and thoroughly coated with the 
plaster, so as to cover the entire surface of 
grains. Then plant as usual, being careful 
not to break or rub off the coating. Tt is 
said to be, by those who have tested it, a 
complete preventive against those annoyers 
to all farmers .—Rural Messenger. 
Tile above may answer very well for what 
are called “ Wire-worms,” also for the White 
Grub, both of which work at the roots of 
corn ; but we cannot see how it is to affect 
the various species of Cut worms, which 
work at the stalks above ground, if the 
growing corn absorbed the lye or other in¬ 
gredients of the solution, retaining them in 
their normal condition, then the juices might 
be noxious to the cut-worms ; but it is well 
known that growing plants do not take up 
such crude material-, consequently we fail 
to see the use of any application to the roots 
to prevent insects attacking the stems or 
leaves. Climbing cut-worms will ascend the 
stems of plants several feet in order to get at 
some particular part which to them is desir¬ 
able food. Still, the mixture named is a 
good stimulant for corn, and will do good in 
assisting growth, as well as preventing grubs 
working at the roots. 
-- 
MANURE FOR GRASSES. 
The Michigan Ag'l, College lias made care¬ 
ful experiments with different manures as 
top-dressings for grasses, with the following 
results as summarized by the farmers of that 
Btate : 
The results of a single top-dressing on 
eight plots of nearly half an acre each of 
sandy warm soil, exhibited the following 
facts at the end of three years -.—the top¬ 
dressing was applied in 1861, and the grass 
was cut twice each season in 1864 and 1866. 
The produce of each cutting and of each lot 
was weighed separately and « perfect record 
kept. The results for the four seasons were 
as follows On the plot to which no manure 
or fertilizer was applied, the total weight of 
hay yielded per acre was 8,740 pounds. 
Where two bushels of plaster per acre were 
applied the yield per acre was 18,226 pounds, 
a gain of 4,484 pounds. Where five bushels 
of wood ashes were applied the yield per 
acre was 13,907 pounds, a gain of 4,165 
pounds. Where, three bushels of salt were 
sown per aero, trio yield was 13,969 pounds, 
a gain per acre of 5,227 pounds. Where 20 
loads of muck per acre were laid on, the yield 
per acre was 13,816 pounds, a gain of 5,074 
pounds. Where 20 loads of horse manure 
were laid on, the yield was 14,686 pounds, a 
gain of 6,224 pounds. These are results 
which indicate that there are fertilizers 
which will produce as good results as plaster. 
For instance the plaster yielded a gain of 51 
per cent., while the horse manure gave an 
increase of 71 per cent., or nearly a ton more 
grass per acre in the three years. 
AN ECONOMICAL CULTIVATOR. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker In answer to 
“A Working Farmer,” in Rural of March 
17, I would say there is a sulky cultivator 
that will please him, and he need not plant 
his corn four and five feet, but can work it 
any desired distance in the rows—frame 
three and a half feet to five. I am an old 
farmer. Have followed after the plow and 
hand cultivator for the past forty years, and 
no doubt should have kept right on had not 
an agent came along with a sulky cultivator. 
I have used it now for three years. There 
is no humbug about it. It will cultivate 
more corn, and do it better, than any other 
cultivator 1 ever saw. It Is the onlv one 
that has the rotary shields, which are so 
essential where there are stones and lumps 
of any kind, to cover the corn. If the corn 
does not come up as soon as expected, there 
is no use of having the gross get the start. 
Put plaster on the bills and go to work. It 
will not do two rows at once, but will do 
both sides of one row; and his boy of thirteen 
can cultivate eight acres every day of the 
week and feel good-natured at night. There 
are now thirty or forty in use in our town. 
They are manufactured at Springfield, Ohio, 
by P. P. Mast & Co., and cost us here for 
five shovels $45, including transportation : for 
seven shovels, 850, a. w. b. 
North East, Pa. 
Jndttstyral iritis. 
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT CHURNS. 
I have often thought when reading articles 
upon butter making, whether it, was a faot, 
that there was no churn ever made that 
would make as good butter as the old-fashion 
dash churn. It is a remarkable fact that 
butter makers who exhibit their butter at 
our fairs and other places, when giving the 
manner of making, &o., almost without 
exception tell us they use nothing but the 
dash churn—just as if that fact must secure 
to them the premium. 
This subject was very forcibly brought to 
my mind while reading a letter taken from 
the N. Y. Tribune, in which the writer says 
lie uses nothing but the dash churn ; he has 
tried a crank churn but after spoiling, to his 
mind, several churnings, he sent his Patent 
churn hack to the manufacturers. Now I 
haven’t the least doubt that this uian makes 
fine butter as well as others ; hut this idea 
that just as good butter cannot be made 
with a crank churn is more imaginary 
than real. The same writer says after alter¬ 
ing his dash he churned in twenty minutes, 
while before he had been churning one hour. 
Now why this difference, unless it is the fact 
that all the cream was stirred with each 
motion of the dash, while with ordinary 
dashers it is not the case. Right here is tlie 
point in my argument. In the useofacrank 
churn all the cream is thoroughly stirred at 
every turn of the crank ; now then if cream 
must have just so much agitation to break 
the butter globules what is the sense of 
pouuding away for an hour or two when 
with a proper machine you can do the work 
in twenty minutes ? In my opinion it is the 
gathering of the butter after the globules are 
broken that does Injury to the butter, in any 
kind of churn. Other things being equal, I 
don’t believe there is ona man in a thousand 
could tell in what kind ot churn butter had 
been churned. 1 think it is as much 
prejudice as any thing else, against patent 
churns, as well as a great many other helps 
to farmers that so many people object to use. 
I am no dealer in any kind of churns but 
have used one for at least a dozen years, and 
would as soon let my mowing machine and 
horse rake go, and go away hack to scythe 
and hand rake, because people say you can 
make as good hay with machines as you ean 
the old fashioned way, as to let my crank 
churn go. 
I read uot long since of a dairyman in a 
farmers’ club saying he used the dash churn 
in his daily because he didn’t believe good 
butter could be made in any other. Some 
one asked him if he had ever used a patent 
churn. Oh no ! he was willing other people 
should try them. Just so ; as for him he 
was satisfied with the old way. Well, I’ve 
no objection to a man churning an hour if he 
likes it, but I’ve never seen that man yet 
who seemed to be happy after standing over 
a churn an hour and watching for the butter 
to come. Another trouble is the women 
folks have to do a great deal of churning and 
a great many men seem to think if they have 
all the machinery out of doors they want, 
the women ean get along in the old way. 
They don't mean to do an injury to their 
wives and daughters, but just let them take 
hold of that old churn and churn an hour, 
and if they don’t begin to look around for 
another churn then I’m mistaken. 
Sharon Center, N. Y. In Cog. 
