JAN, 15 
Farmer*' Clubs. 
These were said to be of wide adaptation, 
from the county farmers’ clnb, as in New 
Haven County, to the little district club in the 
school district. In connection with some is 
:an agricultural exhibition; others are merely 
Tor discussion of farm topics. Their organiz¬ 
ation is simple. The farmers’ club in West 
Cornwall was mentioned as an instance. This 
clnb was organized many years ago, and has 
bad meetings once in two weeks in Winter, ad¬ 
journing over in Summer, and has had the fol¬ 
lowing plan: Usually it has met at farm 
houses, all being invited, males and females, 
the gentlemen meeting in one room and ladies 
iln another. The former discuss the ques¬ 
tion of the evening, while the ladies have a 
isocial time. At 9 p. m. the whole unite 5n 
•eating apples and nuts (no more is allowed), 
■ and then the company adjourn to the next 
time and place. This club has had a suc- 
>ces ! ful existence for more than a generation. 
'The farmers’ club ot Woodstock, Conn, was 
;a1so instanced as one of the most useful of our 
■clubs. It has a hall, library, cabinet ot curi- 
■ositics, a microscope and, thanks to Dr. Geo- 
.A. Bowen, the club has been a grand success. 
’Mr. Gold thought that no organization accom¬ 
plished as much so cheaply as farmers' clubs. 
Dr. Cressy spoke in the evening on “ Facts 
and Fallacies in Veterinary Science." 
On the 2nd day of the convention at 10 30 
a\. w. t Prof. Beal spoke on 
Our Schools of Agriculture. 
He gave an account of the course of study 
: at the Michigan Agricultural College, and 
imore particularly of that in his own depart¬ 
ment—Agricultural Botany. His one great 
distinctive idea was that in the study of the 
natural sciences we should be close students 
of nature rather thau memorize a text book. 
To this end he has had bis students investi¬ 
gate nature in thu vegetable kingdom to the 
utmost of their opportunities. 
One mode mentioned was this; the class are 
each to take a branch of a tree and give it 
close study; at class exercise each is called on 
to state what be has discovered in his study of 
the branch until the subject has been well con¬ 
sidered. So likewise in regard to fruits. Com¬ 
parisons like tbe following are made: what is 
the difference between the Scotch Plneand Aus¬ 
trian Pine; the Black Spruce and Norway 
Spruce; the Butternut and the Black Walnut. 
At the Michigan Agricultural College stndents 
we employed at •eight cents per hour for labor. 
About one in 15 makes a good foreman. 
'■Scholars are employed in the barn, as well as 
in agriculture and horticulture; also on the 
drive-ways, hot-beds aud in the wild garden, 
experiments, etc. 
In the literary colleges about one to three 
iper cent, become farmers; from 212 graduates 
■of the Michigan Agricultural College 86 have 
'become farmers; IS are professors in agricul¬ 
tural Colleges, while others are occupying 
•other positions of influence in society. Alto¬ 
gether!. 300 students have taken a complete 
or partial course of study there, and of these 
most are farmers. The professors of the col¬ 
lege do considerable work at Farmers’ In¬ 
stitutes; of these about six are held during 
tbe year. Each of these is attended by from 
600 to 1.000 listeners. Prof. Beal spoke of the 
educational work among farmers as advanced 
by farmers’ clubs. These he thought good, 
but among Michigan farmers. Granges have 
done far mote. Farmers’clubs there are few 
in number; Granges are found by the hun¬ 
dred. The Professor is himself a Granger. 
M&uy members of farmers’ clubs look upon 
SJhe Grange as a secret society ; but there is no 
•doubt It has done very much to help the 
tfarmer. 
Or. Sturtevant gave a lecture on 
‘Thought* on Agricultural Education. 
ne strongly urged the advisability of a good, 
thorough, practical and scientific education 
for the farmer. In the common school there 
should be object lessons or teaching from na¬ 
ture. He thought the prime object of the 
farmer should lie to make money and better 
Ihis condition. Education should enable him 
fto improve his own condition and that of his 
tfatniiy. The speaker thought that some ideas 
rn vogue as to ihe desirability that agricultu¬ 
ral colleges should be paying Institutions pe- 
•cuniarily. were false notions. A paying col¬ 
lege farm shows a lack of Instruction, 
In tbe evening Professor 8. W. Johnson 
spoke on 
Systematic Agricultural Education, 
as adapted to the American farmer. His lec¬ 
ture treated the subject grandly and was one 
of his best efforts. The idea that anything 
would suffice for the farmer was thoroughly 
refuted. The farmer should have a thorough 
systematic education. We should have the 
ground work laid in the lower schools; then 
the superstructure built up in higher schools or 
in those of a middle grade, and then in those 
still higher. The speaker also gave an ac¬ 
count. of the foreigu schools of agriculture 
as compared with ours, showing how much 
less we are doing for the higher education of 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
the farmer than we should do, or than others 
are doing. 
On Friday the 17th Mr. Gold, the Secretary, 
read an interesting paper on Agricultural So¬ 
cieties by Prof. Brewer of the Sheffield Scien¬ 
tific School. 
Connecticut has probably iu proportion to 
her population as many agricultural organiza¬ 
tions as any State in the Union, and some of 
her farms are yielding a product which would 
have astonished the grandfathers. One 
thousand three huudred barrels of onious 
have been raised from a single farm besides 
potatoes, corn, grapes, strawberries, pears, 
hay. etc., amounting, in all, to from $6,000 to 
$S.O 0 per annum. On another farm a mod¬ 
est little dairy-house turns out annually 8.000 
pounds of gilt-edged butter whose value is 
$2,500. On another the poultry house, /row, 
egg* alone, at common prices brings in the 
snug little sum of $250. These are only in¬ 
stances of what many farms may do, and will 
do in the near future. In the product of or¬ 
chards aud small fruits a wonderful advance 
has taken place, and the most encouraging 
thiug of ail for Connecticut farmers is that 
the best markets in the world are close at 
hand. 
A most valuable and highly interesting pa¬ 
per was read by J. M. Hubbard, of Middle- 
town on 
Self-Educaiion as a Nmaiily for the Farmer, 
The leading idea was that while the schools 
may do much, the individual man must do 
still more. He held that the farmer must 
read, think and investigate. He didn't believe 
in having a job of manual labor for every 
rainy day, but he thought the farmer should 
take such times for reading and study. Mr. 
Hubbard is a plaiD, practical farmer, a good 
farmer, a good citizen aud a man capable of 
filling any position the State has to offer. 
The time has come when we need not feel that 
the legal profession must fill all the higher posi¬ 
tions. Conn, has just called one of her best me¬ 
chanics and bnsiness men to the gubernatorial 
chair. We have plowmen who would adorn 
the same place with dignity and honor. 
We must honor the profession of agriculture 
with skill and intelligence and it will surely 
honor us. 
J. B Olcott, of the Hartford Courant, read 
an admirable paper in the evening of the last 
day on the 
Agricultural Press. 
It was listened to by a full house and fre¬ 
quently applauded. Among all the educating 
influences of the day he considered none 
should be more heartily sustained and en¬ 
couraged than the agricultural press, Mr. 
Olcott made some very humorous illustra¬ 
tions and brought a most interesting course to 
au appropriate end. 
jlcuitttfit aat) Istful. 
THE POWER OF WOODLAND TO HOLD 
WATER. 
PROFESSOR F. H. STORER. 
With the view of gaining more precise 
knowledge than we now possess of the well- 
known capacity of wood-land to absorb and 
retain water, Riegler, in Germany, has studied 
the comparative absorptive power of various 
kinds of leaves and mosses, by subjecting 
weighed quantities of each of them to the test 
of experiment. Cylindrical tin vessels, pro¬ 
vided with sieve bottoms, were charged to the 
depth of three inches with the materials, such 
as rakiuga from a beech-wood, rakiugs from a 
fir-wood, bog-moss, etc.—all taken in the air- 
dried condition and pressed moderately firmly 
into the cylinders. Measured quantities of 
water were poured, in a Cue stream, upon t,he 
materials day after day, and the amounts which 
trickled through each of the layers were caught 
and measured. The results of some of these 
trials are given in the tollowing rabies. It 
should be said that 600 parts of water, repre¬ 
senting a rainfall of four-tenths of an Inch, 
were poured upon the materials every day, in 
each instance. 
BAKINGS FROM A BEECH WOOD. 
_ , Water that, 
Water absorbed, trickled through. 
1st day.sit.7 4W.3 
2nd day. .114.4 885,8 
Hrd day.185.2 834.8 
4th day.146.1 863.9 
»«h day.97.U 403. (J 
6th day. 26.6 474.4 
7th day. 34.6 466,4 
8th day.12.4 487.6 
BAKINGS FROM A FIB WOOD. 
. , Water that 
Water absorbed, trickled throuarh. 
1st day. 58.7 441-3 
2nd day.54.9 446.1 
3rd day.. 69.6 440.4 
4th day. 60.6 4 9.4 
6th day... 46.5 463 6 
6th day. 10.6 489 4 
7th day. 4.0 496.0 
8th day. 0.4 499.6 
BOO-MOSS (SPHAGNUM). 
_ Water that 
Water absorbed, trickled through. 
1st day.284 0 216.0 
2nd d y.„.394.4 106.6 
?rd day...... 441.1 669 
■1th day......215.6 284.4 
6th day.124.1 876.9 
6th day. 90.6 409.4 
Sfhday. 13.3 486 7 
8th day.. 6.6 498.6 
It appears that of the first day’s sprinkling 
the beech litter absorbed about 20 per cent., 
the fir litter about 12 per cent., and the moss 
nearly 57 per cent. ; or, calling the sprinkling 
equal to a rainfall of one inch, eight-tenths of 
it ran through the beech litter, nearly nine- 
tenths through the fir litter, and but little more 
than four-tenths through the moss. On tbe 
second day the absorptions were respectively 
28, 11, and 79 per cent. In these experiments 
care was taken that the water should fall 
gently upon the litter. Other trials had shown, 
as was to be expected, that when the water 
fell somewhat forcibly upon the materials a 
larger proportion of it ran through, particu¬ 
larly through the layer of dry moss. 
The figures above given enforce the lesson 
that the absorptive power of moss and wood- 
litter is by no means at its best when the mate¬ 
rials have once become thoroughly dry. In 
order to attain tbe most effective absorption 
the moss, etc., must already be somewhat 
damp. One reason why this is so is that a 
quantity of air clings to the dry materials and 
hinders the water from immediately coming 
into thorough and complete contact with them. 
In case the leaves, or what not* press upon one 
another rather closely, or if the material swells 
np when moistened, the impaction hinders the 
water from flowing away, and so helps to re¬ 
tain it. Applying these facts to ordinary expe¬ 
rience, it appears that many a woodland mast 
absorb a smaller proportion of the rain which 
falls upon it after long-con tinned hot, dry 
weather than of that which falls when the 
litter is somewhat moist. 
THAT WOODPECKER. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
Gen. Noble’s head is " level ” when he calls 
upon the writers for the Rural to give its 
readers facts and not guesses. (And right 
here is a good place to thank the General for 
giving us, in ihe Rural of May 1. 1880, the 
facts about the Vergennes Grape, which pro¬ 
mises to be a valuable addition to our list of 
choice fruits.) Regarding the woodpecker, 
commonly called “ sap sucker," and which is 
noted everywhere as producing symmetrical 
circles of holes in the bark, not only of apple 
trees but of birches, poplars, firs, pines,cherries 
and several other species, both evergreen and 
deciduous, I will state a few facts observed by 
myself aud others. Firstly, he is not the 
“bluggy”-headed kind. He is the “yellow- 
bellied," and is not strictly a wood-pecker, but 
a bark- pecker. He never digs insects out ot 
rotten trees, and couldn’t if he tried, because 
he hasn't got the right kind of tongue for the 
trade. The true woodpeckers which we hear 
“tapping the hollow oak tree,” have tongues 
barbed at the end, which they thrust into the 
holes they make with their bills, and there¬ 
with draw out the insects, somewhat as a 
corkscrew draws out a cork. I know of no 
species of woodpecker which takes out worms 
from living trees. The locust aud the aspen 
poplar are badly injured and often killed by 
boring grabs, as well as the apple and the 
peach, buL if these grubs are sought for or 
extracted by any bird whatever. I have not in 
a somewhat long life surrounded by orchard 
and shade trees in whose preservation I have 
been deeply interested, yet discovered the 
fact. 
The so-called '* sap-sucker" pecks holes in 
the bark of living trees only. These holes 
are made around the trunk or a large branch. 
They are about a quarter of an Inch in diam¬ 
eter, and the same or a little greater distance 
apart, and the rows, one under another to 
the number of six or more, are about one 
inch apart. The holes never extend into the 
wood, and are excavated laterally, so that 
the cavity is widest at the bottom. The great 
number of species of trees, both evergreen and 
deciduous, upon which these attacks are 
made, renders it highly improbable that the 
bird is after an insect or worm of auy kind. 
We know of no insect that deposits or inserts 
eggs in so mauy species or in such circles and 
ranks as are represented by the “sap-sucker’s" 
holes, nor do we ever aote ravages such as 
worms batched from eggs so deposited might 
be expected to make. On the contrary, this bird I 
— ■ . ■ -- -"-2.. ‘ g- - . 
invariably attacks what appears to be per¬ 
fectly sound aud healthy bark. Great injury 
is inflicted by these attacks, both upon or¬ 
chard and forest trees- The White Birch is 
frequently killed, and an apple tree badly 
peeked, ceases to bear for several years. 
What the purpose of this bird, in making 
these excavations in the green bark of trees, 
may be, has been a matter of doubt and dis¬ 
cussion among observers. The systematic or¬ 
nithologists have confined their attention 
mostly to peculiarities of structure with the 
view to classification, and very few of them 
are able to give information of value to far¬ 
mers about practical questions affecting the 
character of species in regard to their help¬ 
fulness < r harmfulness upon the farm. The 
general assumption has been that all birds 
are useful, which is about as nearly right as 
similar claims set up in favor of ouadrupeds 
would be. Generally a tirade of abuse meets 
auy farmer who undertakes to protect him¬ 
self against birds, or even writes disrespect¬ 
fully of the doings of the feathered race. 
“Fool” and “brute” are the best epithets he 
is likely to escape with. Nevertheless we are 
obliged to exterminate rats, mice, squirrels, 
foxes, wolves and bears; and fruit-growers 
find that none of these do more damage to 
property thau birds of various species. 
The “sap-sucker” is an unmistakable nui¬ 
sance. Yet there is good reason to think he 
is not rightly named. There is no evidence 
that he sucks the sap of the trees whose bark 
ho perforates. I have held the opinion that 
he lives upon the inner bark, which I have 
never foutd upon the ground beneath the 
trees where I have seen him at work, but 
which is found in his crop. Recently several 
observers (Rev. Henry Fairbanks, of St Johns- 
bury, Vt., being one of them) have advanced 
the opinion, based upon observation, tha 
these holes are made for the purpose of at¬ 
tracting insects upon-which the bird feeds. 
This would seem to aigue an incredible 
amount of intelligence, yet it is stated as an 
actual fact of observation by Mr. F. and other 
observers that the “ sap sucker” really makes 
his rouuds from one freshly pecked tree to 
another to secure the insects which are at¬ 
tracted by Ihe juices exuding from the wouuds 
he has made. Here end my ’facts.” Who 
will add to or amend them? 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
- » 
The Woodpecker, according to orni¬ 
thologists, has a long, straight,wedge-shaped 
bill, with flattened and truncated tip, and sides 
more or less ridged. It has two toes before 
and as many behind, furnished with sharp 
claws which enable it to run up a branch with 
the greatest ease. By one set of muscles the 
tongue is thrust out far beyond the bill, while 
another set draws it back. Its surface is cov¬ 
ered with a glutinous matter, a fresh supply of 
which is furnished by a couple of glands 
every time it is drawn in. The tip is also 
horny, with several barbed filaments pointing 
backward to retain insects too large to be 
captured by the viscid secretion. They are 
very active in the woods and forests, con¬ 
stantly tapping the surfaces of trees to dis¬ 
cover soft or rotten places in which are lurk¬ 
ing the insects and their larvae which form 
their principal food. There are hundreds of 
species of them, but the most common in 
this country are the hairy woodpecker, the 
ivory-bilJed woodpecker, tha black wood¬ 
pecker, the three-toed woodpecker, the red¬ 
headed woodpecker, and the flicker or yellow- 
shafted woodpecker. 
MISSISSIPPI AGRICULTURAL AND ME¬ 
CHANICAL COLLEGE. 
This college was opened on October 6th, with 
160 students. The number has already in¬ 
creased to 230, and more would come if room 
could be provided. The faculty at present is 
as follows;—Gen. 8. D. Lee, President; G. S. 
Rondebush, Professor of Literature and Eng¬ 
lish ; R. F. Kedzie, Professor of Chemistry, 
F. A. Gulley, Professor of Agriculture ; Dr. D. 
L. Phares, Professor of Biology ; Lieut. E. 
Bolton, Commaudaut of Students aud Pro¬ 
fessor of Mathematics; Dr. Sullivan, Superin¬ 
tendent of Preparatory Department; T. B. 
Bailey, Professor of Languages ; Messrs. Har¬ 
per aud Rondebush, Instructors. Professors 
Kedzie and Gulley are from Michigan and 
graduates of the Michigan Agricultural Col¬ 
lege ; the remainder of the faculty are Missis¬ 
sippi gentlemen. 
The course of study is modeled after that of 
the Michigan Agricultural College, including 
the manual labor system. All students will be 
compelled to labor from two to three hours per 
day on five days in the week. Owing to lack 
of funds the Mechanical Department will not 
be opened during the coming year, but as soon 
as possible it will be fully equipped. 
The college farm comprises 800 acres of land, 
of which 600 are cleared and can be cultivated. 
