r6-’- 
i OST.2 
IDamoIugical, 
FRUIT CULTURE IN KANSAS. 
Prof. Gale writes to the Industrialist of 
two successful orchards near Fort Riley and 
ou high land : 
The soil is a deep-bla:k mold. The sub¬ 
soil is somewhat clayey with an abundance 
of lime ami frequent indications of iron. The 
soil and subsoils drain naturally to a great 
depth, while the nature of the subsoil is such 
as to afford an almost exhaustless reservoir 
of moisture to growing plants. And at the 
same time they have no occasion to fear the 
heaviDg out of the young plants by freezing 
in the winter. 
These gentlemen came to Kansas and settled 
in their present location in 1859. Their or¬ 
chards were planted from 1881 to 1865. Mr. 
Cutter has twelve acres in orchard and Sen¬ 
ator Harvey five. Both orchards have been 
grown with very little pruning. Theorchurd 
trees have suffered very little from the grass¬ 
hoppers. The only real loss from this source 
is in the crop which might have been rea¬ 
sonably anticipated in 1875. 
These gentlemen have planted largely of 
all the favorite varieties from the East. Many 
of these have proved valueless here. They 
have planted largely of cherries and ?nd no 
profitable returns from any except the early 
May and the Morello varieties. Plums, ex¬ 
cepting our native varieties, have done well. 
Gov. Harvey planted a few pear trees in 
1861. These werp probably the first planted 
in the County of Riley. They have made a 
vigorous growth. They began to bear fruit 
the second year after planting, and have pro¬ 
duced fruit nearly every year until the pres 
ent time. And what is especially worthy o' r 
note, while every other kind of fruit has 
failed in this part of Kansas, these trees am 
producing fruit this year. The blight ap¬ 
peared upon a few of the trees for the first; 
time in 1874. but did not affect them seriously. 
In this case the returns have paid many times 
for the cost of the trees and for all the care 
bestowed upon them. The success is a rea¬ 
sonable one and should encourage the plant¬ 
ing of pear trees in 9mall quantities by all 
orohardists in this part of the State. 
We may not be able to reach tbe cause of 
this success In pear culture at once, but there 
are a few points which should be noted in 
comparing this with other locations and 
sim lar experiments. For while failure in 
pear culture has been apnarently f lic rule in 
many portionsof the State, aud may be even 
here, it is desirable to get at the causes and 
discover, if possible, a remedy. 
The t rees planted were one year from the 
graft, in good condition. They were planted 
on a soil which is naturally and very deeply 
under drained. The trees have received only 
moderate culture. The location is not sub¬ 
ject to early and lute frosts. They have 
never been pruned. 
We do not assume that the results so far 
attained have been reached through one or 
all of these causes. They are only noted as 
the most prominent facts in the case for fu¬ 
ture reference. How much they have af¬ 
fected results can only be answered by more 
extended observation and experience. 
The apples that have done best on this 
ground are, best Summer apple, Early Har¬ 
vest, next best. Sweet June. B-st Fall, 
Maiden Blush and Grammar's Pearmain. 
The latter is a comparatively new apple. A 
seedling from Illiiois, very productive, and 
recommended by Mr, Win, Cutter as one of 
the best apples for baking aud drying knrown, 
indeed would prefer it for the latter pur¬ 
pose to any other apple. Best Winter apples, 
Ben Davis, Little Romanite, Winesap and 
Willow Twig. Many other varieties have 
been tested, some of them doing very well, 
but others have been discarded. 
♦ »■» — 
THE PEACH GROWERS’ PROFITS. 
A daily newspaper tells us that when the 
peach-growers have no peaches they grum¬ 
ble, and when they have good crops they 
grumble more. Bub it congratulates its 
readers that, whatever may be the woes of 
the growers, peaches will be abundant and 
cheap, and that it is of little consequence 
whether the peach-growers make anything 
or not, bo long as the great public profit by 
the superabundance of fruit. 
It is unfortunate that great papers, which 
lead public opinion, can see no deeper into 
the sources of public interest than this. If 
the peach-growers’ crop fails, and he has 
none to sell, he will give up growing them, 
and if the growth is given up, the public will 
never find them abuudaut and cheap. On 
the other hand, if the peach-grower calcu¬ 
lates that a certain number of millions of 
ba-bets will be required, plants accordingly, 
and the trees take it into their heads to pro¬ 
duce double the required number, so that 
nobody wants them at paying figures, he is 
again not likely to extend his peach orchards ; 
so that in scarce times the public has lo pay 
higher tbun if orchards were more numer¬ 
ous. It is clear that the public interest is, 
in a great measure, bound with the peach- 
growers’ interest and that, in chuckling over 
the pea^h growers’ misfortune, it is in no 
way helping its own cause. Of course there 
is a slight degree of antagonism between 
buyer and seller. The oue wants to get as 
much as he can for what he has to sell, and 
the other as much ns he can for his money. 
But it is wholly to the buyer’s interest, as a 
whole, that the peach grower should get 
reasonable profits. In this way ho is en¬ 
couraged to plant and produce, and the 
wholesome competition of so many who 
have to sell keeps down inordinate prices. 
It is certainly a poor sort of principle which 
leads a great newspaper to teach editorially 
that the great public are to be in any way 
benefited by the ruin of any branch of pro¬ 
ductive industry, whether it be peach-grow¬ 
ing or anything else .—Maryland Funner. 
xt ®iitcnard. 
GOOD GRAPES EASILY GROWN. 
■It is not exactly the best time to plant 
grape-vines, though it can be done any time 
in the fall, if proper care is taken ; but we 
call the attei turn of our readers to this sub¬ 
ject now because when grapes are ripe it is 
less difficult to create an interest in grape¬ 
growing. Thousands of farmers’ boys and 
girls will visit Agricultural Fairs this fall, 
look lovingly on beautiful plates of luscious 
grapes, carefully labeled “Hands off,” aud 
then wish, oh so much, that they could grow 
fruit like that. The idea rarely occurs to 
thousands of farmers that the finest fruits of 
the orchard and vineyard ought to grace 
their tables and tickle their palates in prefer¬ 
ence to those of any other class in the com¬ 
munity. Tnat so few comparatively of the 
great mass of farmers have choice fruit, 
especially grapes, shows how sadly they 
neglect a d abuse their privileges. We do 
not mean that the next generation of Amer¬ 
ican farmers shall so mis-irnprove their oppor¬ 
tunities. 
Grape-vines are, in fact, so ehenp, so easily 
propagated and so easily grown that any 
boy or girl can in a few years provide an 
abundant supply for a family. If they can’t 
buy vines, they can at least take cuttingB 
from good varieties of their grape growing 
neighbors, and there is no farmer who has 
not some spare corners where a few grape¬ 
vines may be planted. Make the ground 
mellow by thorough and deep digging, and 
if it is rich enough to grow a good hill of 
corn it is about right for grapes. Just the 
same culture that would make a good hill of 
corn will make a thrifty grape-vine the first 
year after plant ng. Keep the weeds down 
and thesoil mellow. Thislsall that is needed. 
The first and second years let only one shoot 
grow up, and encourage that to grow as 
large as possible. The third year you may, 
if you wish, get a bunch or two of grapes 
from tbe strongest vines, and after that the 
production maybe yearly increased to ten 
or even twenty oounds per vine. What 
farmer or farmer’s boy or girl is there who 
cannot do t his I Of course there is some¬ 
thing to be learned about pruning ; but that 
comes later, and is easily acquired when 
needed. You can make a beginning in grow¬ 
ing grapes, and even raise some choice fruit 
without knowing anything of pruning, and 
treating the grape-vine each year as yon 
would a hill of corn. 
Advice to beginners generally is to take a 
few common kinds of grapes, 6uch as Con¬ 
cord, Hartford Prolific and Isabella and grow 
these first. By all means have some vines of 
each of these varieties. But if this means 
that other and higher flavored grapes are 
harder to grow we repudiate this advice 
altogether. The Delaware, Creveling, Salem 
and the leading Rogers' Hybrids are as easily 
grown, as hardy, as sure to ripen a crop as 
Concord or Hartford Prolific. If we were 
restricted to one variety of grape, which we 
never will be, it should be the Salem. It 
may do for the closely-penned resident of 
cities or of eouutry villages to grow one or 
two varieties of grapes or other fruit. It is 
the privilege of ti.e farmer, owning abun¬ 
dance of laud, to grow all t he choice varieties, 
aud keep Ids table supplied witli the be9t. 
That this is not done with a fruit so ea-ily 
cultivated us tbe grape, shows au inexcusable 
lack of taste and enterprise on the part of 
American farmers. 
DOES PORK PAY IN NEW ENGLAND? 
“New Englander,” writes to the Agri 
culturist thus logically i—After cyphering 
on the pork question for the last five years, 
we have found so lit’le profit in good years, 
and so much loss in bad, that we hacl pretty 
much settled upon the policy of no pork ;it. 
nil upon a New England farm. We have no 
abborenceof swine’s fl -sh, and shall pro' a- 
bly continue to favor the baked porK n.ml 
beans, the boiled dinner, the codfish cakes, 
the fried fish, the spare-ribs, and other good 
dishes of which pork is the glory, unto the 
end, whether the pig is raised in Illinois or in 
oitr own sty. Looking at the question in a 
purely economical view, we do not. think it 
jm.ys us to raise pork to sell. As a mutter of 
private opiuion, which we should net like to 
have published outside of the Agriculturist 
family, wc think we have lost money on 
erery pound of pork we have sold for the 
last five yearB. It may possibly pay to keep 
n pig or two to utilize the wastes of the 
family aud as a matter of esthetics to raise 
your own pork for delicate white lard, and 
pink slices to broil and fry, and for one’s own 
ham and sausage, but not beyond. To raise 
pork for the general market., brings us into 
competition with the prairies and the Missis¬ 
sippi Valley, where corn is grown for twenty 
cents or lees a bushel. Whole hogs well 
fattened are put down in our village markets 
every winter for about six or seven cents a 
pound in consequence of this competition of 
the West, and this does not give over fifty or 
sixty cents a bushel for our corn, which is a 
good deal below the market price. 
We have outgrown the necessity of fatten¬ 
ing pork, and ielying upon tho sale to raise 
money to meet farm expenses. Wo can 
raise other tilings that pay much better, 
hecause they are free, comparatively, from 
the competition of the Great West. Butler 
st'Il pays fairly, and a very nice article pays 
still better. It is not difficult to make a 
style of butter that will command fifty to 
sixty cents a pound sold to regular customers 
every week, in the village or city market. 
The same roots and meal that make pork 
will make butter. Milk pays better still 
either sold wholesale in the city, or peddled 
ill the village. Raising poultry pays better. 
Many of our fanners raise large quantities of 
turkeys, geese, ducks, hem and eggs, and 
the sales run from three to six hundred 
dollars annually. Chickens and turkeys 
bring from two to three times as much a 
pound as pork, and it costs but little more to 
make a pound of poultry than a pound of 
pork. Sheep pay better than pork. 
With a good sheep pasMire tho returns 
from a flock for lambs, mutton and wool, ;in* 
very satisfactory, and the labor is light. 
Raising blooded stock—herd-book animals, 
horses, sheep and cattle—pays better, if one 
understands the business. Glazing and fat 
tening cattle is a good business, and brings 
up a farm with very little labor. We have a 
class of far men’s who make this a specialty, 
buying three and four year-old steers in the 
spring and selling in the fall. Such farming 
pays well, and fruit fanning, and these 
specialties are growing every year with an 
increasing town aud city population. If we 
will study tbe home markets that are spring 
ing up in the older states, and aim to supply 
them, we shall make more money and raise 
less pork. 
-*-*-*- 
FINE STOCK A SAFE INVESTMENT. 
John Scott, in the Swine and Poultry 
Journal for September, impresses a lesson 
which we have always sought to teach by 
an illustration which may make it clearer 
to many than it ever has been before, and 
especially as he vouches for the occurrence 
as an actual fact : 
My neighbor bought a trio of fine pigs, 
paying therefor the reasonable sum of $120. 
The male was valued at $60, and the females 
at thirty each. This was a wise apportion¬ 
ment of values, as the male would impress 
his value on all the produce. There are 
those who think, however, that $60 is too 
great a price for one pig. In this case he 
did not die or prove barren, but he begat his 
likeness not only on the females of his own 
blood but largely on others to which he was 
bred. In the short space of two jours my 
neighbor had sold, at prices much le s than 
he paid, pure bred pigs to the amount of 
$600 ; had on hand a stock of young things 
worth $300 ; still had the original stock, and 
had paid for all his teed and labor by the use 
of his male on his and other stock. To say 
nothing of his enjoyment in the possession of 
the best, of the increased respect of his 
neighbors, of his own culture growing out of 
the thought he gave to liis pursuit, he had 
a dear return of $1,000 on an investment of 
$120 ; and all in two short years. Allowing 
one half for contingencies, and who has 
done as well ns this with low-priced stock ? 
If a boar will get one hundred pigs in a 
year, and each of the pigs is worth two dol¬ 
lars more than are ihose from a common 
sire, what is lie really worth ? If we use 
him but three years at this rate he will earn 
us $600. is it. not plain that such an animal 
has a real value far beyond the terrible hun¬ 
dred dollars for which he sells ? Is it safe, 
then, to wait for the price to come down 
before we buy ? The expectation or fear 
that the prices will tumble, is based on the 
assumption that the world will move back¬ 
wards, The idea is as vain as it is uncompli¬ 
mentary, as fallacious as it is undesirable. 
- 
EFFECTS OF COLD IN FATTENING. 
A producer of pork in Muskingum County, 
Ohio, who has made au experiment with 
hogs with a view to ascertain how far cold 
retards the rate of fattening, reports tlio 
following results:—Carefully weighing the 
hogs fed, and the corn fed to them, and esti¬ 
mating pork at four cents per pound, he 
found that what ho fed out during the firao 
week in October returned (in pork) 80 cents 
per bushel ; the first week in November, 60 
cents ; the third week, 10 ; the fourth week 
in November and the month of December, 
25; the first half of January, 5; tho last 
half, 0. In the Octoher week of tho experi¬ 
ment the weather was pleasant and warm. 
It gradually grew colder till tbe latter part 
of November, from which time it remained 
about, stationary till the 1st of Junuary, 
after which it ran down to zero, and below 
in the latter part of the month. Tho hogs 
were well sheltered iu a good pen with plank 
floor .—Agricultural Report. 
A BEAR ON A SPREE. 
The Sacramento Union tells the following 
story :—When the editorial party were at 
the summit, yeRterd y morning, a number 
of them, who had been informed as to the 
arousing performances of a 'arge cinnamon 
bear kept at Cardwell’s hotel, expressed a 
desire to see him accomplish his feat of drink¬ 
ing a glass of whisky, and Cardwell, to 
oblige them, ordered the keeper of the animal 
to take him into the saloon, where the bar¬ 
keeper promptly prepared a whisky punch, 
and placed on the counter before him. The 
bear placed his fore paws on the edge of the 
counter uud drank the liquor with apparent 
reliih, many of the excursionists meanwhile 
patting him, or feeling of bis coat. The 
glass having been drained of its contents, 
the bar-keeper compounded «, second punch 
and passed it to the bear with his left hand, 
hut at that moment one of the bystanders 
playfully took the bear by the ear. The 
beast, becoming enraged instantaneously, 
seized the. bar-keeper’s hand, sinking his 
teeth deep in the fleshy portion of it, and 
attempting meanwhile to pull themanoicr 
the counter. Tbe keeper beat tho bear over 
the head to make him let go, but without 
the desired effect. Tho bartender drew a 
revolver and pointed it at the animal’s head, 
but did not fire, fearing that the shot might 
not be fatal, and that matters would be made 
worse, and some of the bystanders would 
also have used their revolvers but for the 
same reason. A scene of intense excitement 
prevailed. All efforts to make the bear loose 
his hold failed, and in the end the hand had 
to be pulled by main force out of his jaws, 
causing terrible laceration, Btrings of flesh 
hanging down as the hand was finally with¬ 
drawn. The bear now grew much more 
violent, and the crowd of ladies and gentle¬ 
men that had filled the saloon became panic- 
stricken and fled in all directions, the men 
shouting and the women screaming. The 
keeper, however, having hold of the bear’s 
chain, took a turn arooind a post supporting 
the ceiling of the apartment, and kept him 
from doing further hurt, and finally, after 
receiving a considerable beating, he was re¬ 
moved to his cage. The bar keeper, whose 
wonderful nerve and courage were com¬ 
mented upon admiringly by all—lie having 
scarcely changed color notwithpuu dffig the 
pain—expressed his determination to kill the 
bear, but the keeper and others opposed him, 
and he then gave up his gicuation at the 
hou^e in disgust. 
■f - 
