35 
JAN.45 
(HE RURAL. NEW-YORKER. 
and has but quite recently made its appearance 
in America. Festoon “ strings ” of it have an 
airy gracefulness unapproachable by fern or 
smilax, and its elegant sprayey branchlets 
have a lightness and brightness in bouquets and 
other floral work, that even Adi an turn cuuea- 
tum var. gracillimum cannot equal. It is a 
greenhouse plant of easy culture, and, like 
most South African plants, would rather grow 
in Winter than in Summer. Ordinary light, rich 
soil, good drainage, plenty of water when in 
active growth, with a lesser supply in Summer, 
and a light, airy place iu the greenhouse, seem 
to be favorable conditions for its growth. 
Like nearly all the other ornamental species 
of tbe asparagus, in a cut state its sprays pre¬ 
serve their freshness as long as smilax and 
longer than most ferns. 
Besides the above, there are a great many 
species of ornamental asparagus. We have 
them here in the way of far-reaching, thorny 
climbers; shrubby, branchy roots; evergreen, 
arching plumes, and small, bright-green, dense¬ 
ly-tufted, herbaceous kinds, all available for 
cut-flower work, lasting long in beauty after 
being cut; but some species are handsomer 
than others. William Falconer. 
—---- 
ASPARAGUS PLUM08US. 
The most prominent characteristic of the 
asparagus genus is the finely-divided, hair-like 
foliage, and no approach to it is to be found 
in any other class of plants, except the Horse¬ 
tails—Equisetums. It is usual to speak of these 
hair-like divisions as leaves, but, though they 
serve the purpose of true leaves, they 
are only flattened branchlets. termed cladodes. 
The true leaves consist of grayish or brown 
triangular scales at tbe point of origin of the 
branches, and tufts of cladodes, which are 
sometimes transformed into spines. 
A few of the species of ornamental aspara¬ 
gus are hardy, but the larger pait of them re¬ 
quire to be grown under glass, being natives 
of the u opics. Tbe hardy ones, and a limited 
number of the tender ones, are dcciduous ! 
with erect, self-supporting stems, but by far 
the greater portion have slendei, climbing, 
perenuiai stems, with spreading branches, 
some of which make elegant conservatory 
climbers. Their culture is very simple, their 
requirements being a light, rich soil, with 
plenty of root accommodation, an abundance 
of light and air, and a temperature of from 
50° to 60®. They are increased by division 
or seeds. 
The foliage of Asparagus plnmosus is ex¬ 
quisitely fine and quite rivals iu grace some of 
the hair ferns. Unlike our garden asparagus, 
its stems have a flit, frond-like appearance. 
As it grows older its sterna become scan dent, 
but its lateral branches retain all the elegance 
of the juvenile state. There is probably no 
more useful plaut known for associating 
with cut flowers, as it retains its freshness 
several days. It is a native of Natal. 
Jab. Taplin. 
Bairg husbandry. 
will equalize the effect; for instance, if the 
temperature is lower than 55 to 60 degrees, the 
cream maybe kept longer; if the cream is 
churned at a higher temperature than 60 de¬ 
grees, the churn may be moved more slowly ; 
and if the cream ia colder, the motion may be 
more rapid. When there is cream enough for 
a daily churning of six pounds only, it is bet¬ 
ter to churn daily, and for this reason, viz., 
when the conditions are always the same the 
butter will always be of the same quality. 
There are two good qualifications for a dairy¬ 
man—one is to be able to make good butter ; 
the other is to make good butter always, and 
to have no variation in the quality at any time 
or season. There is a French proverb to the 
effect that when one excuses, he accuses him- 
ng. This may be done In the rotary churn 
without removing the butter, as the butter and 
salt may be thoroughly mixed by giving a few 
turns to the churn. When other churns are 
used, the butter is lifted oat with the ladle—it 
6hould never be touched by hand—into the 
bowl or butter-worker and mixed with the 
salt in tbe usual manner. 
jjffp gttstatoji. 
SHALL WE BREED DOGS OR SHEEP 1 
Scarcely a week passes but the papers have 
an account of some dog killing many sheep 
Vicious, worthless dogs, barking at every 
passer-by, and often making such streets dan¬ 
gerous to smaller children. Every town is a 
pest to the surrounding country by reason of 
the large number of dog3 that run abroad 
from it, making it impossible to beep any 
sheep within miles of Its outskirts. Now what 
shall we do? Shall we calmly submit to the 
existence of this great nuisance ? Shall we go 
on importing annually millions and milliens of 
dollars’ worth of inferior foreign wools and 
let our hills and rough lands lie waste ? Or 
shali we arouse the people and exterminate 
the dogs ? I am aware that we now have laws 
designed to protect the sheepi raiser, but in this 
county—and 1 presume it Is so in every other 
—the dog fund (so called) is so grossly defi¬ 
cient that there are now more claims against 
it than can be paid in ten years, if not another 
sheep should be killed in that time— and yet 
the dogs are multiplying greatly each year. 
I think this a question of great importance, 
aud that it should be much oftener discussed 
in the public press. Pablic attention should 
be fixed upon it, aud our law-makers should 
be urged to protect the farmers by the passagp 
of some very stringent laws; such laws, as 
shall fully protect the sheep owner from, and 
remunerate him for, all damage by the ravages 
of dogs. 
I am willing to concede that the dog is man s 
friend and companion in boyhood, and that 
we become attached to him, and. everything 
else that can be honestly claimed in his favor ; 
but when it comes to a question of no dogs or 
no sheep, I must place myself on the side of the 
iheep. and if necessary insist on the extermin¬ 
ation of the last dog. J. 8 . Woodward. 
- » ♦ +- 
To Prevent Sheep Getting over Stone Wall*. 
A great many men who have farms excel¬ 
lently adapted for keeping sheep, are deterred 
from doing so on account of their farms being 
fenced with stone walls, and sheep will soon 
learu to get over any ordinary stone fence. 
The cheapest and at the same time the most 
effectual device for preventing this is one 
gotten up by a neighbor of mine. It consists 
in setting posts against the wall, boring a hole 
through these about sixteen inches above the 
top of the wall and running a No. 11 wire 
through the holes. This should be stretched 
very tight. If the first end is well fastened, 
this may be done with a crowbar for a long 
way, using the bar for a lever. The posts 
need not be nearer to each other than four to 
six rods, if the top of the wall is straight; if 
it is not, they should be somewhat nearer. 
This he has found to he perfectly satisfactory, 
so much so that a neighbor’s big dog tried to 
get over it to the sheep once or twice, and 
went away perfectly disgusted. A much 
neater and more durable plan, costing but 
little more, would be to insert small iron posts 
into the cap-stones at proper distances and 
bend the posts so that the wire will haDg 
directly over the face of the wall on the side 
on which the sheep run. Either of these 
methods costs 60 little that the profits of a 
small flock of sheep would more than pay the 
expense in one season. w. e. m. 
| Wallsvtlle, Pa. 
asparagus plcmosus.—fig. 24. 
THE DAIRY COW—NO. 21. 1 
HENRY STEWART. 
Churning. 
The temperature of the cream aDd the veloc¬ 
ity of the churu are very important elements in 
the process of chnrning. There seems to be a 
certain arnouut of agitation needed to produce 
tbe butter at a normal temperature, which 1 
place at 60 degrees; and this requisite agita¬ 
tion is effected by making 60 revolutions or 
strokes of the churn for 20 to 30 minutes. The 
effect upon the cream of this amount of agita¬ 
tion and aeration seems to be precisely that 
which is required to produce the best quality 
of butter from cream that has undergone the 
necessary amount of ripening. This ripening 
process is effected by keeping the cream for 48 
nours, on the average; that is to 6ay, if the 
cream has been 72 hours, or three days, in col¬ 
lecting, or there have been three sklmmmgs, 
its condition will be equivalent to that of 
cream of one skimmlog which has been kept 
48 hours. The cream should have been gath¬ 
ered from milk that has been 6et no longer 
than 36 hoars. II cream in a small dairy can¬ 
not be churned twice a week, being kept only 
three days, It should be kept at a lower tem¬ 
perature, not exceeding 45 degrees, until 24 
hours before churning, when It should be 
raised to a temperature of 60 degrees for a 
whole day and night before it is put in the 
churn. As this point is very important, it 
may be well to repeat the rule in thiscase, viz.; 
Cream should be skimmed after the milk has 
been set 36 hours ; it should be kept 48 hours 
before churning, at a temperature of 55 to 60 
degrees ; It should go Into the churn at 60 de¬ 
grees ; it should be churned at least 20 min¬ 
utes, and not more than 30, the chum moving 
about 60 strokes or turns in the minute. 
This rule is subject to Buch changes only as 
self. This is true of the dairyman or woman ; 
and if he or she ever needs to excuse the in¬ 
ferior quality of the butter, there has been 
some fault committed. 
When the butter appears in tbe churn in 
small grains or pellets the churning should 
stop. One can very soon learn to recognize 
the sound made by the churn when butter has 
come; yet it is well to have some other guide, 
and this is easily secured by fitting a piece of 
plate-glass in the cover of the churn. When 
the butter has come the glass will become very 
neatly clear, and the small fragments of butter 
may be seen upon it Over-churning has the 
effect of injuring the texture of the butter and 
changing the waxy, almost crystalline appear¬ 
ance into a soft, greasy one. When the butter 
is in the best condition after churning, it ap¬ 
pears as a mass of small grauulee loosely ad¬ 
hering together, but which easily fall apart 
when floated in cold water. These granules 
are no larger than the capsules of beet seed, 
and many of them are not more than half or a 
quarter as large, and when some cold water is 
poured into the churn to harden them, they 
are kept separate aod do not adhere in a mass. 
Butter of this form is better made in the 
rectangular or other dashless churns than in 
those with dashers, because the granules are 
not crushed, pressed, or rubbed, when there i3 
no dasher used. The great advantage of this 
form of butter Is that it can be completely 
freed from buttermilk, and can be washed, 
salted and packed into pails or tubs, or made 
into cakes, without any working. When the 
buttermilk Is drawn off, a small hand strainer 
should be used to catch any of the small frag¬ 
ments that may run off with the milk. After 
the milk is run off, cold water is put into the 
churn until the batter floats; tbe churn is 
slightly moved to bring the water into contact 
with all the butter, and the water is drawn off. 
This is repeated until the water comes off per¬ 
fectly clear, when the butter is ready for salt- 
and maimiug many others. Every year there 
is scarcely a sheep keeper who does not suffer 
more or less loss caused by dogs. The greatest 
damage is due, not to the number killed right- 
away or so maimed that they die afterwards, 
but to the terrible scare received by the other 
portion of the flock, from which they never 
fully recover. 
Recently I passed through Connecticut and 
other portions of New England aud saw thou¬ 
sands of acres only good for pasture and better 
adapted to sheep than to any other 6tock. 
When, however. I asked mv companion how 
many sheep were kept, he commenced by tell¬ 
ing how many were kept years ago. but said 
that lately the dogs were so bad it did not pay 
to keep sheep, and there were scarcely any. 
Those thousands of acres of rough pasture 
lands would keep many thousand sheep and 
produce vast quantities of the very best and most 
healthful kind of meat, and many, many thou¬ 
sand pounds of the very finest wool, thus 
adding largely to our national wealth, aud 
going far toward making farming profitable 
in the older States with their hilly lands; but 
now they are rendered worthless, and, worse, 
are allowed to grow many noxious weeds, the 
seeds of which are scatteied broadcast over the 
adjoining fields, all because we persist ingrow¬ 
ing and allowing others to grow a lot of en¬ 
tirely worthless curs. 
The experience of New England is not very 
different from that of all the older-settled por¬ 
tions of our country : many townships to-day 
can count more dogs than sheep. How strauge 
it is that a people so very intelligent and 
money-making as we claim to be, shonldthink 
more of dogs than of sheep, and be willing to 
sacrifice the latter for the former. 
In our iown6 the authorities are very careful 
—and j ustly so—to pass laws restraining cattle, 
hogs, or even geese from running at large, and 
employ an officer to enforce such laws, and 
yet the streets are infested with hundreds of 
foultrj 
THE BREED FOR BROILERS. 
L. 3. HARDIN. 
This is a subject that may be treated theo¬ 
retically or practically. The authorities gen¬ 
erally take the former view of it. The whole 
burden nf their song is quality of flesh. To 
obtain this they choose the breeds that make 
the tenderest and most juicy grown fowls, and 
propose crosses between them, such as a Dor¬ 
king cock on a La Fleche hen, thus combining 
all the tender qualities of these two tender 
breeds. Then what is the practical result ? 
You obtain a chicken so extremely tender that 
itis the next thing to impossible to raise it at all. 
Along with the crossing of these tender breeds, 
they advocate feeding on milk oat-meal, and 
custard, until they reduce theflesh of the broiler 
to the tender consistency of underdone mush. 
The fact is, one of the hard points in making 
first-class broilers is to get a sort of flesh not 
only tender, but sufficiently firm to furnish a 
relish. Then, again, it is useless to advocate 
a certain cross of which one musthatch out a 
hundred to rai-e a dozen. The practical poul¬ 
try breeder, the one who hopes to make a 
profit on his fowls—aud he is the one in whom 
we feel the deepest interest—wants a bird that 
will not only satisfy the purchaser, but return 
a fair profit to the breeder. 
To get at the gist of this subject, we must, 
first, consider what are the hardest points to 
overcome in raising broilers, and then master 
or avoid them. First, then, in order to receive 
the highest price, one must bring the largest 
yield of aleck into the market in early Spring. 
When hens alone are depended on for the 
necessary incubation, procuring the chicks at 
the right time will be the main difficulty, for 
