4 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
30 
i 
cjffieltl (Jtyflp. 
GROWING RICE ON UPLAND. 
Mr. R. E. Huey of Brundige, Ala., writes 
in “The Southern Plantation” on the cul¬ 
ture of rice on uplands, u subject which is 
attracting considerable attention in the 
South. We quote as follows: 
“Let the )r»nd be well drained, so that it 
may be well prepared with the plow; lay 
off two and a*half feet; bed up as soon after 
Christmas as convenient, with four or five 
inch half-turn. If you intend planting early, 
say the first of March, re-bed in four or five 
weeks ; but if you wish to plant about the 
10th of May, it will be best to bed ugaiu 
about the middle of April, so that the laud 
will be free from weeds and grass when 
planted. If rice is not planted very early It 
is best to plunt in May, for if planted in 
April tile time of its maturity will be 
in the dry ess t and wannest time of sum¬ 
mer ; but if planted the first of March it 
will mature before that, time ; if It Is planted 
from the 10tb to the 20th of May its maturity 
will be in September and first of October. 
When t he seasons are good and the weather 
cool, I prefer planting old land, unless well 
drained, in May, for the following reasons : 
First, the seap water has dried up, and when 
the time comes to cultivate it, the land is in 
a condition to destroy all weeds and grass. 
“ Let the bedB be but little elevated \ lay 
off with a bull-tongue scooter about the size 
of a man’s hand ; cover with the same ; if 
any clods are left on the rice, rake off with 
hund rake ; when the rice is about six inches 
high and the weather is dry, run round with 
16-inch Dixon sweep, but if too wet to kill 
what is plowed up bar off (very shallow) with 
half-turner ; then as soon as the ground is 
dry enough, scrape off each side with hoe, 
pulling ouoof the rice all weeds and all grass, 
except crab-gras*. As soon as the ground is 
in good condition, run round again with 
Dixon sweep (16 or 20 Inches wide), throwing 
some dirt against the rice—the dirt and rice 
will kill the erab.grasa ; after this, cultivate 
as circumstances may su ggest. 
“ For low'lnnd rice I prefer what is called 
flint rice, as it is the hardest rice, and 1 can be 
cleaned much better than any large, soft 
rice, as it will not break so badly ; but for 
stock I would as soon have the Clinch or any 
other large rice. 
“ After taking off the outside husk, the 
rice is not clean ; the grain is covered with a 
thin, glutinous membrane that comes off by 
heating. Three fourLhs of a bushel of rice 
will plant an acre. The rice should be cut 
when the grains are a golden yellow', the 
straw will be green, and will make, if saved, 
good feed for mules, horses or cows. If the 
weather is bad, it is best to tic into bundles 
and hang on poles ; but if fair, cut (laying 
the heads of the rice upon the stubbles), say 
three or four days, and haul up and house. 
“ Threshing Out. —Have a close floor ; take 
two saw horses, tw-o and a-half feet high, 
put them about three feet apart, take hicko- 
y poles about three inches thick, bend the 
under side at each end, then nail down about 
two inches apart; let one hand stand on 
each side and beat on the poles. One hand 
can thresh out 20 or 25 bushels per day. 
Wind out the straw that is left in the rice as 
you do oats ; put away very dry, and in the 
husk it will keep for several years. 
“ I should have mentioned above that you 
should irrigate, when in your power, after 
the crop is put in good condition. Good, 
black swamp laud will make, if well culti¬ 
vated, 100 bushels of rough rice per acre. 
Red, or upland rice, will do well on almost 
any good upland—is well adapted to pine 
lands and all seapy hill-sides ; if pine lands 
are well cow-penned, it will make a very 
good yield, if the seasons are good. 
“ I regard rice as one of the best crops we 
can mai-re, as w r e can raise it (especially 
swamp rice), on land that will make nothing 
else ; it is the cheapest food for man and 
beast that we can raise. One and a-half or 
two acres will feed a mule twelve months. 
It has a heavier per cent, of nutriment than 
any other grain, being 87 parts in 100. 
“ The above applies to the cultivation of rice 
on a small scale, and to all the farms in the 
cotton State.” 
-♦♦ » 
A NOVELTY IN SPRING WHEAT. 
Knowing that you always take an inter¬ 
est iu placing before your readers anything 
new in the agricultural line, I wish to tres¬ 
pass on your valuable space to describe a 
new and, I think, a valuable cereal in spring 
wheat, which has lately come under my no¬ 
tice. Mr. Lucius Osaieut, one of the bes 
practical farmers in our County, (Bradley) 
psocured a few grains of this wheat from 
Mr. A. B. Htjohlitt of the State of Illinois, 
last season, and, after testing it thoroughly, 
believe* it to be the best spring wheat under 
cultivation in the South. This wheat had 
its origin in Africa, and was brought to this 
country'some two years ago by Mr. Huoh- 
litt. The grain of this wheat is small, 
plump and heavy, and weighs 70 pound* to 
the measured bushel. Its growth is quite 
different from all other grades of wheat. 
You plant in rows Stjj' to 4 feet apart., two 
stalks every 12 inches in the row. Culti¬ 
vate well to insure a large, line yield. The 
first crop will be ready to harvest, about the 
1st of Sept., and another crop ready to har¬ 
vest two to three weeks later. The heads 
are large, often yielding 3 ounces of clean 
wheat, and each stalk contains quite a num¬ 
ber of heads. One hundred grains of the 
seed is sufficient for any farmer to plant in 
order to obtain an abundance of seed the 
following year. One pint, will plant an acre. 
It is of a very hardy nature, and not liable 
to rust ; is easily' threshed on our com¬ 
mon threshers; and the quality of bread 
made from the flour is equal to that made 
from the best white wheat, 8evei farm¬ 
ers in our community intend to plant a large 
tract of ground the coming season m this 
wheat. But, fearing that I have been in¬ 
truding upon too much of your valuable 
space, I will close, hoping my future letters 
may find a place in your columns. 
Cleveland, Tenn., Nov. 30. 8. Y. Haines. 
LARGE YIELDS OF CORN. 
Late last season it was reported to the 
Soleburv Farmers’ Club that Wilson Pearson 
had raised 120 bushels of shelled com upon 
an acre of ground. Members of the Club 
expressed doubts as to the possibility of the 
tiling being done. This year, in September, 
a committee was appointed by the Club to 
visit and examine cornfields. Several fields 
were visited, among which were those of 
Wilson Pearson and Charles White, both 
residents of tills district. The modes of 
planting and cultivation were reported to 
the Club in October, as follows : 
Wilson Pearson’s field of 11 acres was ma¬ 
nured in the fall and winter, at the rate of 
23 two-horse loads per acre, or 253 loads on 
the 11 acres. Chas. White s field was ma¬ 
nured two winters in succession before 
planting, at the rate of eight two-horse loads 
per acre, making a total of 16 loads per acre, 
or 176 loads on the 11 acres. Both fir-ids 
were plowed in the spring of 1875, and 
planted with corn in rows four feet, apart, 
and two grains of corn iu the hill, which 
were two feet apart in the row. The corn 
was well worked and tended during the 
season. 
The committee met Oct.. 30th to test re¬ 
sults. in Mr. Pearson’s field oue-eignth of 
an acre was measured, husked and shelled 
in the presence of the committee, making 16 
bushels and 1 quart of corn, hieing at the 
rate of 12S bushels and 8 quarts of shelled 
corn per acre. In Mr. White’s fic-ld one- 
cighlh of an acre was husked, shelled and 
measured in presence of the committee, 
making 15 bushels and ID quarts of corn, 
being at the rate of 124 bushels 24 quarts of 
com per acre. In both fields of 11 acres 
each, the total yield was estimated to be 
over 100 bushels of shelled com per acre. 
Oliver Balderson. W. P. Magill. 
S. H. Rice. K, Reeder. 
Committee. 
Some of our farmers are becoming quite 
enthusiastic on the corn question. Mr, Pear¬ 
son claims that one bnshel of 6helled corn 
can be raised upon a square rod of laud, and 
he intends in the future to accomplish it. 
At the last meeting of our Club quite a 
display of corn was made. The largest ear 
shown, measuring inches, was by Geo. 
Lowener; the heaviest, ear by W. Pearson, 
weighing 1 pound 13 ounces. May the ef¬ 
forts of these men stimulate others to see 
what they can accomqlish in the same direc¬ 
tion. —E. Reeder, tn Country Gentleman. 
-—--r- 
A NEW CEREAL. 
Oregon has a new' cereal which looks like 
wheat, rye aud barley, and isn’t either of 
them ; and the “leading agriculturists” of 
the State are puzzling themselves about it. 
Its history is strange. About four years ago 
a farmer living in Talamook county, Oregon, 
killed a wild goose, in whose crop he found a 
peculiar-looking grain. He planted it; it 
multiplied wonderfully, and tie subsequent¬ 
ly raised forty bushels on half an acre of 
land. Its growth is peculiar, from seven to 
ten stalks springing from one root. The 
kernel, is very thin and compact, of a bright 
straw color, and extremely hard. 
We copy' the above from the Valley Farm¬ 
er of Vt. No doubt this grain is “ new ” to 
the people who discovered it, and from the 
description it is hard to say' what it is but 
the time for entirely new grains to be dis¬ 
covered has passed by. An Oregon letter 
says that the Wild Goose grain is worthless. 
It is a “ wild goose chase ” to get a crop. 
industrial 
PLANTS AS INSECT DESTROYERS. 
That “the cobbler should stick to his 
last,” is strikingly illustrated by the ab¬ 
surdities of political, commercial and other 
class journals in their advice to farmers. 
Here, for example, is a Wilmington, N. C., 
paper making, and the staid and sensible 
New York Journal of Commerce copying, a 
suggestion that grasshoppers and potato 
beetles may be destroyed if farmers will 
only raise enough of the newly-discovered 
carnivorous plants dlonsea, drosera and 
other varieties which eat flies, ants and 
other small insects. It is a subject full of 
funny suggestions and we don’t feel compe¬ 
tent to develop it fully ; but entirely Indorse 
the objections which another New York 
paper, the Graphic, has discovered to the 
brilliant plan: 
There are only two reasons that we can 
think of why the suggestion is not immedi¬ 
ately feasible. The first is because the trap 
is too small and feeble : and the second is 
because both the grasshopper and potato-bug 
have acquired the impudent habit of eating 
the dioneea and drosera, trap and all. In¬ 
stead of the trap catching the bug the bug 
catches the trap and is glad to get it. One 
grasshopper, cut up in small pieces, would 
be as much as a hundred droseras could ©at 
iu a year, while one Kansas grasshopper 
could devour a dozen droseras at a meal 
without a touch of indigestion, and then he 
would pick his teeth on the fence and cry 
mournfully for more. 
“ This objection Is a slight one, and can of 
course be remedied. Ail that, the projectors 
of the magnificent enterprise have to do is to 
produce smaller bugs or larger plants. This 
can be accomplished by careful interbreeding 
aided by sexual selection. If the plant can 
be grown nearly as large as the bug they 
will begin an awful struggle for existence— 
a mortal combat to see which shall eat the 
other. Then the young and agile grasshop¬ 
pers will conquer the old aud bald-headed 
droseras, and the muscular droseras will eat 
the senile grasshoppers that have lost their 
fangs. If, at last, the drosera’s backbone 
can be stiffened and his jaws strengthened 
till he is superior, the vanquished grasshop¬ 
per and the once opulent potato-hug will 
fold their tents and seek another clime. 
“ After a while iu the struggle for life some 
plant would reach so far for game as to de¬ 
tach it* roots from the parent soil; but it 
would survive the shock, for having learned 
to forage for fresh meaL it would be no 
longer dependent on the nutriment supplied 
by those unreliable subterranean pumps 
called roots. So, after a few generations of 
hitching and creeping, the abortive roots 
would become muscular and comely leg*, 
and in the inevitable death-hug for existence 
that plant would live longest which could 
get around the liveliest and defend itself the 
most scientifically—the survival of the fighk- 
lst. Indeed, there is no reason why carniv¬ 
orous plants should uot be cultivated until 
they can catch wild geese, rabbits, aud pos¬ 
sibly the steer8 which now disport them¬ 
selves upon the Texan pampas. Let us not 
despair.” 
The Graphic, as Rural Readers will ob¬ 
serve, is sensible and safe while showing up 
the absurdities of its neighbors. When it 
follows their ideas to conclusions of its own 
its absurdities are equal to their*. Cannot 
City Journals learn to leave matters con¬ 
nected with farming affairs to the experi¬ 
enced and practical Editors of the Agricul¬ 
tural Press whose business it is to understand 
them f 
- 
COOKING FOOD FOR STOCK. 
In a general and rather unsatisfactory ar¬ 
ticle in a late issue of the New England 
Farmer, on steaming food for cattle, an ac¬ 
count is given of the practice of Mr. Augus¬ 
tus Whitman of Fitchburg, Mass., a well- 
known breeder of Short-Horns ; of which 
the Farmer says: 
“The fodder, made up of chopped corn 
stalks and hay and several varieties of grain, 
is all mixed together and cooked in two 
huge iron cylinders until nearly the whole 
mass is as soft aud homogeneous as a pud¬ 
ding. At the time of our visit the daily ra¬ 
tion was made up in the following propor¬ 
tions Cut corn fodder, 525 pounds ; cut 
hay, 175 pounds; corn meal ground in the 
barn by the same steam that drives the hay 
cutter and cooks the food, 1)0 pounds ; ootton 
seed meal, 105 pounds, and wheat bran, 114 
pounds. This quantity gave an allowance 
of two bushels per day, to each animal, cost¬ 
ing, with the addition of one daily feed of 5 
pounds of dry hay, 21.46 cents per head, 
which, at that time and for such large ani¬ 
mals, was considered very low. One of the 
cows gave, in one month, 1,200 pounds of 
milk, and in one year, being in milk eleven 
months, 0,200 pounds ; and one of the calves 
fed on this kind of food, in part, weighed, 
dressed, at thirteen months, 547 pounds, 
which indicate* that such food makes both 
flesh and milk in abundance ; yet the cattle 
did not look a* we like to see animals In 
winter, and we heard others express the 
same view. They were just a little—what 
word shall we use ? Lank does not express 
it, as the word is generally understood, but 
they lacked that full, round, plump appear¬ 
ance we like to see in cows and other neat 
stock, when fed on grass or bay. Not that 
we claim that this fullness is necessary to the 
comfort or health of the animals, but that it 
gives them a look that we rather admire.” 
Insurance geprtment. 
INSURANCE NOTES AND NEWS. 
Insurance Companies and Newspapers.— 
“We have often wondered how newspapers, 
claiming respectability, could so deceive 
their reader* as they do in the treatment of 
insurance companies. Several of the relig¬ 
ious papers have their insurance columns, *o 
called, ostensibly furnishing news and sug¬ 
gestion* for their reader*, but tn reality ad¬ 
vertising the companies that have paid them 
well for the space. It is a form of deception 
which ought to receive the unqualified con¬ 
demnation of all honest and earnest editors. 
We believe that anything which appears in 
ft paper as the views of its editors, corres¬ 
pondents and contributors should be inserted 
without charge, and that the paper which 
sells itself to advertisers so far as to puff 
their wares for money, or to allow anything 
paid for as an advertisement to appear as 
reading matter, is committing a fraud, wbioh 
is a disgrace to honest journalism.”— Hug- 
man. 
9 All this we heartily indorse. It has been 
the rule of this paper to admit nothing paid 
for as an advertisement to appear as edito¬ 
rial. Not only *o, but the number of com¬ 
panies good enough, and sound enough m 
finance and management to be admitted to 
oitr advertising columns can be counted on 
ourfiuKers. Before we indorse a company 
wo must know that it is above suspicion, and 
o«r own favorable opinion must be con¬ 
firmed by that of competent experts. 
Go Slow.— 8o many thing* wholly unex¬ 
pected have occurred or come to light re¬ 
cently, things very nearly affecting the sta¬ 
bility of several of the life companies hither¬ 
to supposed to be in no danger, that it be¬ 
comes our duty to warn our friends to be 
very careful. Quite recently one or two 
or three companies, not large companies as 
compared with the leading representatives 
of life insurance, but companies of mature 
age and several millions of accumulation*, 
have exhibited unmistakable indications of 
weakness, and there is no knowing, just, at 
this time of the year, how those which have 
been long known to be shaky may come out 
in the next reports. It is palpably evident 
that the end of life insurance failure has not 
yet come. There will be further weeding 
out before it can be truthfully said that all 
the companie* are reliable. By the middle 
of January next the annual balance sheets of 
the prompter companies will be published, 
and we can tell what companies have weath¬ 
ered the financial storm. Until that time, all 
those who intend to-be secure beyond perad- 
venture, had best wait before investing, 
unless it be with the old stand-by’s that are, 
and always will be, unaffected by hard 
times. 
The Earliest Life Policy. — It appears 
from the records of a Massachusetts court as 
early as 1815, and long before there w'ere any 
life insurance companies in this country, that 
an individual who knew nothing of either 
the principles or business, insured the life of 
a sailor going on a voyage to Africa. The 
policy was for $5,00o. It was a term insur¬ 
ance for several months only, and written 
in favor of the sister of the insured, who, 
like many others since her day, paid 83,050 
for the privilege of litigating her claim* 
after her brother’s death. The defendant 
fought her claims for six years before he 
was compelled to pay it, and the objections 
made in court were much the same as those 
made now, “ denial of the sister’s insurable 
interest, concealment of facts, and that the 
insured lost his life while engaged in an un¬ 
lawful enterprise” (slave trading). He lost 
his case, however, as lie richly deserved, af¬ 
ter charging a premium five or six times as 
large as the most exacting company now 
requires. 
-_9- 
