urn 
©ORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY <© 
Jndustpl 0fo$it(8. 
VARIATION IN THE ELEMENTS OF 
PLANTS, 
Readers of the chemical analysis of va¬ 
rious plants must often have noticed a con¬ 
siderable variation in the proportion of dif¬ 
ferent minerals in the same 
kind of plant or grain. We jA } 
have been in doubt whether 
these variations were not due * \ 
to imperfect analysis ; but we V A// 
are assured that this is not the < < y \ 
fact. There is a real differ- , \s\\v 
enoe in the composition of v-xVi^V 
grain grown on different soils < ^ A' 
in different seasons, with more \ V ' -,.c 
or less supply of water. In ' u&txM 
the tobacco crop tliis differ- m - 
enee is most remarkable, and 
it is by taking advantage of it — - 
that growers in certain sec- _ 
tions of country hold their — (l|| 
market price higher than all < ■ Ks -' l JUt • 
competitors. Jt, has been Z~A&'} 
learned (hat this difference 
can be partly effected by ma- 
ntires, and potash especially is J|£V- ^ 
H -commended us one of the " _ ' 
most important to make a leaf 
of the right quality. In the — 
grape-growing sections of Eu- -X h~ . 
rope vintners have learned 
that wines from certain towns 
—nay, even from certain fields 
or hillsides —have a peculiar —— 
flavor to be found nowhere vP f* 
else. Take the same variety < -7 
and transplant it a few miles 
away and the wine will not 
eeem as if made from the same 
grape. W© have not studied 
tliis point sufficiently to determine definitely 
the best locat ions ;—such facts are learned 
only after many years experience, which 
and the soil should also improve their owner 
as well. This is a fact we have often no¬ 
ticed, and who shill say we have not sug¬ 
gested a plausible explanation ? 
•-♦•*-*-- 
FROM WESTERN ONTARIO. 
Barley and oats very promising. Corn 
up and cultivation proceeding fast. A great 
deal of the winter w r heat was killed. The 
respect, for it is specially important for good 
work with the drill that the fields Bhould be 
cleared of stumps and large stones as far as 
possible. Add to this that the use of n drill 
requires less seed per acre than broadcast 
sowing, and we have a summary of the rea¬ 
sons for buying and using drills which have 
made them regarded as essential by the best 
farmers in all parts of the country. 
1C 
BREEDS OF SWINE. 
Some advocate one breed, some another, 
but most of the improved breeds have merit, 
and if every farmer would fatten a fine lot 
r 
¥0 these reasons we may now add one j annually, keeping them in sties holding about 
six each, they would find it 
f 
, . /i 
ft 1 M'fT..iMrr 
-H'l || 
| 
■ 1 t ■ 
h - 
-tTS.: ' ~ 
4 - \ 
'JL'Filil IT-AIiAIKIiS’ FAVOltlTH: GRAIN 
grass has a good start, and although the cut¬ 
worm and also the wire-worm lias caused a 
good deal of replanting of corn, yet on the 
American grape-growers and wine-makers j ■whole there is naught to complain of but a 
have not yet hod. 
What we propose to deal with is the es¬ 
tablished fact that there are variations in 
the same kind of fruit, vegetable or grain 
depending on soil, season and manures. 
Farmers know generally that potatoes 
grown ou land highly fertilized with unfer¬ 
mented manure are apt to be coarse, large 
and watery. What we want to know is how 
far it is possible to change the organic ele¬ 
ments of plants by the Application of min¬ 
eral manures. Can we, for example, give 
the potato additional potash by the nse of 
ashes, or phosphate by the use of bone ma¬ 
nure ? There seems to be little doubt that 
to a certain very limited extent this may be 
done with some plant# ; but is the change 
cumulative ? Can wo grow new plants from 
these improved old ones which shall exhibit 
less and less of the succulent, watery char¬ 
acteristics and greater nutritive value ( The 
potato is usually grown from sets, thus really 
perpetuating the old plant., so that this gives 
leas opportunity for any improvement in 
character to be noticed ; but is It not true 
that seed balls from potatoes growing under 
conditions to perfect the crop would lie more 
apt to produce improved varieties than if 
selected at Imp-hazard ? Is there any other 
reason than this why gardeners nod farmers 
select the largest , best tilled a nd best-ripened 
corn for seed, as also t he best of fill garden 
vegetables and fruit? 
English farmers have within twenty years 
originated a large number of new and greatly 
improved varieties of Rutabaga, or Swedish 
turnip. Is it not because they have per¬ 
fected the art of growing these roots that 
they have been able to go so far toward 
perfecting the varieties ? 
Lime is popularly believed to make wheat 
and other grains whiter and thinner hulled. 
In cases where potash was lacking in the 
soil there has sometimes been found a slightly 
increased amount of soda, indicating that 
tliis alkali might, to a small extent, take the 
place of the other. The extensive and in¬ 
creasing use of phosphates and superphos¬ 
phates Of lime suggests the question whether 
wheat will not hereafter be richer in phos¬ 
phates than formerly. If bo, will the in¬ 
creased phosphate be found through the 
flour, or will it be confined, as heretofore, to 
the bran ? One other suggestion and we 
close. We arc told that phosphate is food 
for the brain. If the use of superphosphate 
gives not only an increased w heat crop but 
an increased percentage of phosphate in the 
grain, will not farmers who U9e t his fertilizer 
be more wide-awake and energetic—have 
more brain power, in short, I lian those who 
do not ? It would certainly be a noteworthy 
result if the means used to improve the crops 
great deal to be thankful for. 1 have 10(1 
acres of corn cultivated both ways, and it is 
hand hood ; expect to go through it again by 
the end of the week, for I have six cultiva¬ 
tors constant ly going and a change of horses 
every day, which enables the men to go 
faster and the relief is very beneficial to the 
horses, which are all in very high condition, 
and w T e ha ve had no sore shoulders and no 
lameness or evils of any kind. 
1 feed oats and grass, mowing a piece of 
natural sward June, herds and blue grass 
with other sorts, which is much like our 
good old grass land in England. There is a 
great deal of this grass on the newly-cleared 
land where the stumps are in the way ot 
plowing. 
The above was written a week back, but 
the busy season has Caused writing to be less 
resorted to as a recreation. 
The soil is becoming very dry, and some 
of the grass w ill he much lighter than was 
expected, and some of the late-planted corn 
is not all up and cannot come without rain. 
A great deal of fresh plowed land lies wait¬ 
ing to be sowed with Hungarian grass, which 
is a favorite crop with many. Water is be¬ 
ginning to get scarce, but as this is the long¬ 
est day perhaps “the turn” may firing rain. 
We commence mowing this w eek. Our bar¬ 
ley, of 57 acres, is all in ear. 
A Working Farmer. 
3S (Industrial Jmjilennjnts. 
THE FARMERS’ FAVORITE GRAIN DRILL 
Drilling seed of ail kinds rather than 
sowing broadcast is iuci easingly prevalent in 
all sections of country. So numerous are 
tne advantages of the practice that it in¬ 
creases in equal ratio with the improvement 
of American farming and is itself one im¬ 
portant cause of such improvement. Drilled 
seed is covered at n uniform depth, is dis¬ 
tributed evenly through the soil and leaves 
no bare places in the field. It is the method 
of putting in all seed calculated to insure 
the best crop which the sail is capable of 
producing. It will not make poor land rich 
nor cold and wet soil dry aud warm, but it 
helps on inferior land to bring the best crop 
other. The use of commercial fertilizers, 
guano,superphosphate, &e., is yearly increas¬ 
ing in the older settled portions of the 
country, and a grain drill with attachment 
for distributing fertilizers with the seed is 
the best possible means of using them. In 
tliis mutter WO have had extensive and 
favorable experience for years, increasing 
crops of wheat, oats and barley, one hundred 
or more per cent, by the use of superphos¬ 
phates with the Farmers' Favorite grain 
drill manufactured by Bickford & Huff¬ 
man of Macedon, N. Y. This bouse built 
and put upon the market the first American 
drill with fertilizer attachment, and have 
successfully retained for it the prestige of 
rank and popularity by retaining for twenty 
years the same underlying principle of ope¬ 
ration which secured the success and re¬ 
nown of its early life, improving and adapt¬ 
ing its mechanical construction to meet the 
development, of agricultural wants and the 
demands of agricultural thought and expe¬ 
rience. Their combined, drill, with fer¬ 
tilizer attachment, does its work per¬ 
fectly, distributing both grain and fer¬ 
tilizer evouly, aud placing the manure 
“where it will do most good.” In some 
sections w r e know farmers wriio have used a 
common grain drill for years are' discarding 
them in order to buy oue witli fertilizer at¬ 
tachment. The cost is very little more, and 
the drill can be used to drill the grain alone 
the same as any other. Re ad el's of the 
Rural who are wishing to buy a drill should 
send for the catalogue of prices of Messrs. 
Bickford & Huffman at Macedon, N. Y., or 
address their popular general agent, Mr. S. 
N, Gallup, at the same place. Their South¬ 
ern trade is in charge of Col. H. P. Under- 
iiill, No. 01 S. Sharp St., Baltimore, where 
they have maintained a branch house for 
twenty years. Either of these gentlemen 
will cheerfully answer all inquiries upon 
the subject of grain drills. The engrav¬ 
ing which we give of the drill shows a com¬ 
bined machine, distributing grain and fer¬ 
tilizer through the same tubes. 
-— 
A Good Potato Digger.— A great many 
potatoes will be grown this year, spite of the 
beetle, and some of our correspondents are 
already inquiring for a machine to dig pota¬ 
toes. The Travis Potato Digger, manufac¬ 
tured by the IJigguimm Manufacturing Co., 
appears to fill the bill. It has been tried and 
approved by many practical farmers and is 
winch can be got and the farmer is thereby ■ well worthy the attention of all potato grow- 
enabled and encouraged to take other steps 
In the line of improvement, Tne difference 
in crop from drilling the seed is so much 
clear gain, lor it generally costs less to pre¬ 
pare the ground foi* drilling than it does 
to harrow and cultivate as land should be 
where the seed is sown broadcast. Drilling 
is an incentive to good farming in another 
ers. The Travis Potato Digger will be on 
exhibition at the Cincinnati Exposition the 
coming fall, and our re ad ere will there find 
opportunity for seeing and testing it. We 
presume that the manufacturers will also 
have it 011 exhibition at the New York and 
other important fairs in potato growing 
regions. 
an exceedingly profitable un¬ 
dertaking, on account of the 
\ rich manure. 
; • Pigs can be bred on a farm 
at very little cost by looking 
forward and growing green 
food to suit every season of 
_the year. Almost any kind of 
_ilk herbage is relished by them 
_ when put in their sty, and a 
\ very little corn or grain will 
if V i keep them in heavy ilesh when 
w YU daily supplied with vegetable 
— |l matter. Any kind of roots 
|1 given raw will keep store 
B swine healthy, and if cooked 
f and meal mixed, they will fat¬ 
ten all winter in warm pens 
where there are only a few 
together. 1 have seen ht.n- 
. dreds in yards near distilleries, 
S- where the swill would have 
fattened them so fast as to 
^ _ - have paid very highly, but in 
cold weather the number lay- 
- ~ ing one on the other and over- 
r _heating themselves aud then 
_ —- feeling the cold when moving 
- to eat, gave them colds and 
— caused sickness and loss. 
Like all other stock, swine 
must be attended to i» a sen¬ 
sible way, for it will not do 
to expose them to the cold or 
suffer injury from lying together in large 
numbers. The Berkshire aud Essex are good 
breeds and so are some of the white pigs, 
and there is every good quality to be found 
in the Whites, and as they are better to 
dress, there is no occasion for trying to exalt 
the Black ones, as in all countries there are 
good pigs of all colors and withuut color. 
The runuing of hogs in woods at other 
times than when there are nuts and the feed¬ 
ing of corn there, is a great loss of manure. 
The sty in the plaoe for hogs. 
-»♦ » - 
PIG-PEN PAPERS. 
Premium for an Essay on Berkshire 
Swine .—The American Berkshire Swine 
Association is preparing a reliable record of 
Berkshire pedigrees, and the Secretary 
writes us that this movement is receiving 
sufficient encouragement among breeders to 
insure its success. To create additional in¬ 
terest in this work the directors of the asso 
ciation have decided to offer a premium of 
one hundred dollars for the best approved 
essay on the history, breeding and manage¬ 
ment of Berkshire swine. The essay to be 
entitled to the award must be practical and 
exhaustive, aud meet the approval of a ma¬ 
jority of a committee of disinterested parties 
selected for their recognized competency to 
decide upon the merits of the respective 
papers. All competing essays to be the prop¬ 
erty of the Association and to be forwarded 
to the Secretary, at Springfield, Illinois, by 
September 1, 1875. The money to be paid 
as soon thereafter as the award of the com¬ 
mittee shall be announced. The following 
gentlemen have been designated and invited 
to act as the awarding committee Prof. 
John H. Kucpaut, Columbus, Ohio ; Hon. 
John P. Reynolds, Chicago, Ill., aud Luther 
H. Tucker, Esq., of Albany, N. Y. Pedi¬ 
grees, to be insured insertion in Volume I of 
the Record, should be in the hands of the 
Secretary by August 1, 1875.—A. M. Gar¬ 
land, Secretary, Springfield, III. 
Increase the Porkers. — Every indication 
favors the business of hog and pork produc¬ 
tion for the coming year. The present priee 
of hogs, bacon and all pork products is high, 
young pigs are nearly everywhere scarce, 
and all through the West an unprecedented 
breadth of corn 1ms been planted which bids 
fair to provide an abundance of feed, much 
of which must be put into pork, it is hardly 
probable that the scarcity of hogs and pork 
caused by a two years’ fight crop will cease 
under a year, hence those who go into the 
business of pork raising at once can hardly 
fail to do well by it, especially those of our 
Western readers who grow corn largely and 
who would otherwise lack a profitable mar¬ 
ket for it. Corn is scarce and dear at pres¬ 
ent ; but it will pay even now to bay it for 
growing hogs ra her than let them get poor. 
