may he not be amusing himself aB the bower 
birds do when they build up just such “baby 
houses” as young children do ? 
The General is all wrong. Let us know 
what people think. I don r t like to hear peo¬ 
ple say we know, and we know. I want to 
say I think I know, and I would have General 
Noble himself say the same about the English 
sparrow. This is a nuisance certainly; butwe 
don't know the good he does. Two years ago 
I berated him soundly for tearing open the 
ends of the corn ears. The past year I blessed 
him because be picked out of the corn ears 
the young worms which have been a thousand 
times the worse post. I don’t know hut wheD 
I shot him two yearB ago, when he depredated 
on my corn. I helped to encourage the worms 
which last year spoiled thousands of ears. I 
would like to have the General’s permission 
to say that. I think this same sparrow, in mod¬ 
eration, is a serviceable animal and does actu¬ 
ally kill off this corn worm if we will let him: 
and that wheu he tears open the ears, he is, 
like the General's eapsucker, after hiB grnb. 
But I don’t koow it; in fact, there is not much 
that I do know, and therefore I wish, with 
General Noble’s permission, sometimes to say 
what I think. n. s. 
nal reports a serious epidemic of typhoid fever 
at Worthing, due to infected milk. In all there 
were 44 cases, eight proving fatal, all of them 
occurring among the consumers of milk from 
a certain dairy, where a case of typhoid fever 
had occurred. It was noticed also that those 
who habitually drank large quantities of cold 
milk were the chief sufferers. Those who had 
only a small amount in their tea or coffee, or 
who drank the milk after it had been boiled, 
seemed to have escaped the disorder. The 
epidemic wa& at once arrested on discovering 
the source, aud the place is now free from the 
disease. 
be bought for much less than $1, though I be¬ 
lieve the merchants are buying in a small way 
for less. Fodder, 31 per 100 lbs,; eggs, 20c. to 
25c. Stock went into Winter in much better 
condition than usual, but Spring will undoubt¬ 
edly find them thin enough, though I am 
happy to be able to note a decided improve¬ 
ment in the attention and care given our cattle 
and hogs in the past few years. m. b. p. 
Va., Paineville, Amelia Co., Jan. 4.— Since, 
my last letter of Oct. 4th, we have had rough 
weather for the season in this section. We 
had ice three inches thick in November and 
many persons half filled there ice-houses. On 
December 20, snow fell to the depth of six 
inches, and on Christmas Day it snowed again 
thick and fast, but I look on it as a blessiug, as 
we bad so much diy weather for the last 
three months that it was quite a serious mat¬ 
ter. The farmers at this time are a little 
downcast as we failed almost entirely with 
tobacco, and wheat was a short crop, and 
these are the money crops, so that, of course, 
farmers feel a little discouraged, but the dis¬ 
tress is more imaginary than real among those 
who have lived within their incomes. But the 
trouble is there are so many that go far be¬ 
yond their means and then look for abundant 
crops and high prices to brin t them out of the 
difficulty; so that when failure comes, they 
are ruined. We made an abundant crop of 
corn which is selling for 30 centa per bnBhel 
locally; bnt it was worth 50 cents In Klch- 
mond which is our chief market, and some 
farmers are now shipping there to sell. My 
Ovoid Mangels were the wonder of the neigh¬ 
borhood. I 6owed them too thick, and it was 
very dry weather, aud yet I got 96 roots weigh¬ 
ing a fraction over 500 pounds. The wheat 
was put in quite early last Fall, generally, and 
was looking very well until the cold, dry, freez¬ 
ing weather set in which injured it somewhat ; 
but I think the present snow will bring it out 
all right. I did think of giving you some of my 
experience with corn ; but after your great 
yield I am almost ashamed to do so; however 
I will tell you what I made on three and half 
acres of land. It was creek bottom that had 
been in constant cultivation for 80 years, as 
far as I can learn, without fertilization of any 
kind whatever, and two-thirds of that time it 
was in the hands of tenants who cultivated it 
in corn exclusively, and allowed the water 
to deposit sand over one third of it; 
the rest was well set with wire grass. I 
plowed it thoroughly in January with an 
Oliver chilled No. 20 plow, seven to eight 
inches deep, and let it lie until April 17, when 
it was again plowed and harrowed, the rows 
being struck off four feet, and the corn drop¬ 
ped by hand thirty inches, as near as may be, 
and covered with a one-horse cultivator. It 
was cultivated three times with plow and cul¬ 
tivator, und twice with the hoe, and without 
one ounce of fertilizer I harvested one hun¬ 
dred and fifty aud a fraction bushels of good 
corn. This, although not s large yield for the 
acres, will do pretty well, I think, for poor 
Canadian vs. United States Apples. —The 
following is from a writer in the London Gar¬ 
den : “In Covent Garden I heard a verygobd 
account of Canadian apples, and was surprised 
to learn they were beating the American pro¬ 
duce out of the field. There seems some reason 
for this, as the Canadian apples are better 
packed; the American barrels are usually 
“topped up,*' in market parlance—a layer or 
two of good lruit at the top, and then fruit of 
poor quality below. On the other hand, the 
Canadian fruit is generally fairly good 
throughout, the barrels are well packtd, and 
considerably larger than those of the Ameri¬ 
cans. A very excellent apple which has been 
coming in large quantities is the Golden Rus¬ 
set; it has & high and rich flavor. In some 
sales lately, Canadians, when compared with 
Americans, were in the proport ions of over six 
to one. This must be very encouraging to the 
Canadians, aud should teach the Americans to 
pack honestly if they wish to keep theirtrade.’ 
RURAL BRIEFLETS 
Bermuda Potatoes. —There are many per¬ 
sons who think that the so-called Bermuda 
potato is a distinct variety peculiar to the 
island, says the N. Y. Sun. This is not true, 
however, for Bermuda has to depend upon 
the United States for a supply of seed annual¬ 
ly. Of late years the Garnet Chili is the varie¬ 
ty principally planted ; nearly all the stock is 
sent from this city, and in a few months they 
come back to us under the name or Bermuda 
potatoes. The climate of Bermuda is not fa¬ 
vorable to the keeping of potatoes; conse¬ 
quently. no stock for seed is preserved; in 
fact, the inhabitants of Bermuda and nearly 
all the West Indies have to obtain their supply 
of potatoes for Buirmer and Winter use from 
our Northern States. 
RURAL 8PECIAL REP0RT8 
A New Line of Farming —Dr. Hoskins 
tells the Home Farm (Maine) that he ha& grown 
seeds for upwards of a dozen years, and his 
sales have raBged from 3100 to *800 per year. 
He has a single contract to grow peas next 
season for a New York party, that, with a fair 
crop, will net him 3400. And yet he has only 
12 acres, on which he has 1.400 fruit trees in 
orchard, 1 000 currant aud gooseberry bushes, 
one-half acre of strawberries, one acre in nur- 
ery, etc. 
Mb. Clare Sewell Read's address on a 
late occasion, says the London Live Stock Jour¬ 
nal, contained oneor two points worth noting; 
this, for iustance—that the Eastern 8tates of 
America are alreedy beginning to feel the com¬ 
petition of the West almost as folks do in Eng¬ 
land ; and, again, that changes in agriculture 
are going ou in those Eastern States very sim¬ 
ilar to those English papers have so often dis¬ 
cussed as beiug desirable at home. Some lands 
have almost gone out of cultivation. There is 
a general desire to grow less corn and more I 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS 
ANSWERS to Mant Readers —We cannot 
sell Rural Branching Sorghum, Chester Corn, 
the White Elephant Potato or the foreign 
Asparagus, or anything else except the Rural. 
If our friends would scan the advertising col¬ 
umns, some of the above questions would 
there find an answer. For the rest, we com¬ 
mend them to the catalogues Boon to be noticed. 
Loving the Cud—“ Hollow Horn.” 
UTS., Stdalia, Col.,' asks. 1, whether there is 
such a thing as a cow losing the cud, and on that 
account becomiug sick and dying ; 2, is there 
any such disease as “hollow horn?” 
Ans.— There is a disease known as losing or 
dropping the cud. It arises either from Indi¬ 
gestion due to feeding on unwholesome food 
and acrimonious plants, or to over-feeding on 
Infected Milk.— The British Medical Jour- 
