stock, by thorough farraiDg and careful, Intel¬ 
ligent manufacture the cost of butter and 
cheese might be much reduced to the pro¬ 
ducers, and that they might then be afforded 
with an equal profit at a considerably lower 
rate than now, the result being a wider and 
steadier market, both at hime and abroad. 
Mr. Curtis read a thoughtful and well-con¬ 
sidered paper upon the economy of the dairy, 
in which he pursued a somewhat similar line 
of thought to that of Professor Arnold. 
Profs. Englehardt and Sabin gave veiy valua¬ 
ble instruction regarding the nature, manufac¬ 
ture, application and economy of both natural 
and artificial fertilizers. Such addresses do uot 
admit of the condensation required in this brief 
notice. The most important single feature of 
their remarks was the inslstance upon a care¬ 
ful preservation of both the liquid and solid 
excrements of domestic animals. 
in the orchard, and they may be lifted into the 
wagon and lifted out, saving much time and 
labor in handling these crops. For lifting, 
handle holes are cut in the ends, by boringly 
inch holes close together and trimming between 
them with a knife or a chisel. 
flattened, except at the point, which is hollowed 
out with a chisel to fit the point of the plow¬ 
share ; a crossbar is fastened at the rear end 
upon which I he plow sole rests. A great va¬ 
riety of such shoes may be made. The mi n- 
tion of the wood pile reminds one that all those 
pieces of wood having spurs of small limbs on 
them may bo turned to good account in the 
stables and barn as 
HooIih for Hnrnnw, 
tools, bags, chains, clevises, and other things 
too numerous to mention. It does not pay to 
be running to the store with one’s hand in the 
pocket, or, worse, running up a hill, for every 
thing oue may want, when it can be 
made at home. A dime saved is a dime earned 
aud a dime a wet k will pay for a copy of the 
Rdjul New-Yorker and one other good 
paper. These spurred pieces of wood as shown 
at, fig. 89, should be flattened behind the spur 
taking care to leave them strong and longer 
above the spur than below, because the strain 
of the weight comes there, and to give plenty 
of room for two strong screws above and be¬ 
low. The long pieces will be useful in tool 
sheds and far better than nails or hooks to 
hang things upon. 
4 Tool Sled or Boat 
will be useful to carry a harrow, bags of seed, 
and other matters to and from the fields. In 
making fences it will carry rails, posts and 
tools. In fact, it is one of those things which 
a person misses more after he has once used 
one, than before. Oue very easily made is 
shown at fig. 94. Two pieces of 2x0 plank 
(hard wood is preferable) are cut ubout six 
feet long, rounded at one end and sloping at 
the other. Boards three feet long are then 
nailed with twentj-penny nails on to these 
runners. A second pair of runners are made; 
the sled is turned up on these, placed just 
within the Hues of the others but on the other 
side, and these are nailed as the first pair were. 
This strengthens the sled, and furnishes sides 
which serve to hold on the load. This sled or 
boat is a sort of muUuru in parvo. It. is drawn 
by hooking a chain through the holes in the 
front end of the runners. If the load needs to 
be dumped quickly it can be turned over by 
turning the horses sharply to one side and can 
be drawn back on the upper runners, and then 
reversed again when requiri d. When snow 
covers the paths and roads a piece of board 
mi y be nailed to the sloping ends behind, and 
by drawing it backwards it makes an excellent 
enow plow, or road breaker ; the slope of the 
board prevents the sled from rising on the 
snow. If two hoards are fastened In the form 
of a V at the front the snow will be pushed off 
on each side. It makes an excellent corn 
marker, using the three-fee'-wide runners; and 
for potatoes or beets, by using the 30-iuch run¬ 
ners on the other side. It may b8 fastened to 
the harrow, and the field marked one way 
while it is being harrowed, the driver riding 
on it to steady it. It makes an excellent 
scraping table to dress hogs on and in many 
wrys will be found of use. 
Clump for Selling Bean Poles, 
In setting bean poles in a market farm, hop 
poles in a hop yard, or stakes in a vineyard, 
it is alwr.ys a troublesome job to get them 
placed firmly. A very handy contrivance is 
used in the French vineyards for pressing the 
stakes iu the ground. It is made of iron, fig. 
three sides, and the suo is suu goou ior many 
years to fill again. The labor of gathering the 
corn and filling the silo and covering, all com¬ 
plete, without details, cost a trilie uuder $200. 
I have been a farmer almost my entire life, and 
never have secured so much or such good feed 
at so little expense. As proof, 1 Intend the 
coining Summer to build another silo as large 
as, if not larger than, this one, and fill them 
both ; and I predict that in less than five years 
silos will he common and found as necessary 
as a chitnuiy to a house, if comfort ar.d profit 
are studied. B. Austin Avert. 
Pres. Onondaga Go. Milk Ass’n, Syracuse. N. Y. 
Industrial fifties 
VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 
The recent meeting of this Association at St. 
Albans was probably the most successful, in 
point of attendance, of any agricultural assem¬ 
blage ever held in the State. On the second 
day Armory Hall, with seats for 700, was 
crowded, and on the first and third days the 
somewhat smaller ball of the Welden House 
was equally full. The principal subjects dir- 
cuseed were ensilage, breeding, feeding and 
selection of dairy stock, oleomargarine, and 
fertilizers. The chief speakers were Professors 
Arnold and Eugelhardt and Mr. T. D. Curtis, 
of New York ; Farm Manager Sanford, of the 
New Hampshire Agricultural College; Chem¬ 
ical Professor 8abin, of the Vermont Agricu’- 
tural College; Leander Wetherill, M. Whitta¬ 
ker, and Editor Cheever, of Massachusetts ; 
Captain Morton, General Thomas, ex-Governor 
Smith, Governor Farnham, and George W. 
Whitm y, of Vermont. 
Undoubtedly the most valuable contribution 
to dairy knowledge was the paper of the latter 
gentleman, a painstaking, intelligent, practi¬ 
cal daliyinan of the town of Williaton, wl o 
gave the figures of a series of tests continued 
through the year upon a family of cows, to at- 
certain the results, in point of profit, from lib¬ 
eral grain feeding for butter production. 
These tests resulted favorably, the product 
being increased so as to give a liberal profit 
upon the extra feed, aside from the gain in the 
quality of the manure. 
LITTLE HELPS 
Evert little helps. When one is in a hurry, 
by aud by, and work presses, he may be glad 
of the help of some little contrivances which 
may save time and labor and which may he 
made in a few hours in the tool-honse or shed 
or in the barn on a stormy day when the 
weather forbids ou'-door work, and the house¬ 
wife wants the house to herself. This month 
the orchard will need to be pruned, and to 
climb the tree on a sloping rail and to sit on a 
limb to cut off superfluous branches are neither 
safe nor agreeable. 
A Tree Ladder 
may be made very easily in the following man¬ 
ner. Procure a straight pole 18 to 20 feet long 
or a strong 4x4 scantling of straight-grained 
timber and two pieces half as long. Bore these 
with onr-inch holes so as to make a ladder of 
the kind shown at fig. 88. Make a sufficient 
number of rungs of strong white oak or hick¬ 
ory, one inch and a quarter thick iu the middle 
and tapering to the ends, as if made for a 
FIG- 94. 
The two Governors complimented the farm¬ 
ers handsomely (our public men all know how 
to do that), and Govornor Farnham thought 
strong efforts should be made to extend the 
benefits of these agricultural meetings to the 
farmers of the back towns, who need them 
most. Thi y were good citizens, he thought, 
but poor farmers. Governor Smith (who. as 
President of the Central Vermont Railroad, is 
our principal railroad manager) is a veiy elo¬ 
quent and interesting speaker, aud withal a 
good farmer, whose great farm on St. Albans 
Point,LakeChamplarn,testifies to his intelligent 
interest in agriculture. In his short address he 
referred to the agricultural distress In England 
and Ireland, and prophesied a large increase 
of immigration to America from those coun¬ 
tries, a considerable proportion of which New 
England ought to retain. He thought the ex¬ 
ample of English farmers amoog us would 
be bent tidal, and he urged all Vermont farm¬ 
ers to renewed efforts to improve their methods 
and thus hold their own in the fierce competi¬ 
tion with the West. 
Mr. Wetherill made a savage raid upon the 
fraudulent makers of oleomargarine, sneine, 
etc., and a hardly less severe one upon the 
makers of daily butter who use artificial col¬ 
oring. Mr. Whittaker combatted the opinion 
advanced ly some speakers that there was 
little progress in New England agriculture, and 
by comparisons of the present with the past 
he demonstrated that this section oI the coun¬ 
try fully holds its own with 4he rest of the 
nation. 
Mr. Cheever gave a summary of the present 
state of knowledge regarding abortion in daiiy 
herds, favoring the idea that it is contagious 
or infectious, and requires isolation of diseased 
animals and thorough purification of stables 
where the disease has occurred. t. h. h. 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
fig. 88. fig. 89. fig. 90. 
common ladder, and put these in, on alternate 
sides as shown. This is all that is necessary, 
but the rungs mey be put in on each Bide alike 
if desired. These should be wedged on the 
outside In the usual manner. A few extra 
ones may be put through the center pole above 
the double ladder and some hooks should be 
fastened above these near the top. The hooks 
should be blunt-edged screw hooks made lor 
use in pantries, and uot sharp ones for obvious 
reasons. This ladder may be rested in the 
fork of a limb so that one may get to the ou'- 
side of the tree to prune the end growth which 
cannot be peached 1 y ordinary ladders or 
methods. 
A Tool Bag 
to hold pruniug saws, chisel and knife will be 
useful. Make this of a piece of sacking or 
carpet, cut in an oval and doubled as shown at 
fig. 90. The edge is bound over a piece of 
small rope or fence wire and three or four 
inches at the bottom on each side are sewn to. 
gether and strengthened with pieces of leather. 
The ropes are extended at the top on each side 
to form loops for handles. This bag with the 
tool6 can be hung on to the hooks of the ladder 
or on to a limb by an S hook of wire. 
Plow Shoes. 
When a careless person takes his plow from 
the 6bed to the field he permits it to make au 
unsightly lurrow the whole distance, digging 
into the yard, the road, and sometimes into 
the sod ot a meadow which he crosses. Every 
plow should have its own shoe belonging to it. 
It should be placed on it in theehed and should 
be drawn on it to the field and home again. A 
shoe may be made of a piece of plank fig. 91, a, 
ensilage, not only to cows, but to swine and 
other stock, and satisfactoiy results id the llow 
of milk, quauti'y and quality of butter. Cap¬ 
tain Morton sells ail his butter at 85 cents to a 
dealer who supplies the tables of the naval offi¬ 
cers of the United States navy yard at Boston, 
whose customers are entirely satisfied wth en¬ 
silage butter. The feed of his cows is not, 
however, entirely of ensilage. Their food Is 
mixed in the proportion of 250 pounds of ensi¬ 
lage to 180 pounds of chaffed hay and 75pounds 
each of corn meal and whea'.-bran. This con¬ 
stitutes the ration, thrice repeated dally, for 27 
head of stock, large and small. He tried both 
the Blount and Southern Gourd seed corn, and 
rather preferred the latter. He plants in rows 
two feet apart, and cultivates entirely with 
the Thomas smoothing harrow and a horse- 
hoe. 
General Thomas, whose methods and results 
were quite similar, expressed the belief that he 
could grow 40 tons of ensilage muteual to the 
acre, and thought it would equal, as feed for 
cows, 20 tons of hay. The G-meral did not 
hesitate to express the opinion that Dr. Bailey 
is a good deal of a humbug, in which Captain 
Morton concurred. 
Farm Manager Sanborn, a most intelligent 
and earnest young man. spoke strongly for a 
new departure in New England husbandry, to 
be inaugurated moiuly by the filling of all sui'- 
able land for machine tillage and the cultiva- 
tion of large areas hy that means. He had | 
found that In this way, with the labor of one 
man, he could grow 16 acres of eoru, which 
gave a net profit of over $ 600 . He regarded it 
a waste of labor to grow roots for stock wheu 
corn could be grown. He used large quantities 
of artificial fertilizers with profit, hut was par¬ 
ticular to know what his soil ri qnired so as to 
avoid waste. He did not believe early-cut hay 
so profitable, either for milk or meat, as late- 
cut fediu connection with grain, and regarded 
cotton seed meal as especially valuable, first as 
a feed, and then as a fertilizer. 
Professor Arnold spoke concisely of the ne- 
eessityof a close and business-like manage¬ 
ment of dairy farms, and thought that by cart¬ 
ful attention to economy in manures, by skill 
in the feeding, selection and breedUg of dairy 
MEETING OF THE N. Y. HORT. SOCIETY 
[Rural Special Report.] 
The twenty-sixth annual meeting of the 
Western New York Horticultural Society was 
held in Rochester Jau. 26th, the sessions con¬ 
tinuing through Iwo days. The morning ses¬ 
sion of the first day was occupied in organiz¬ 
ing, nominating officers and other routine 
work. In the afternoon the first business was 
raising by subscription the sum of $317, this 
being the debt of the society. The association 
raised $500, which places them on a stronger 
financial basis than they have ever before oc¬ 
cupied. 
fig. 92. 
92, aud has a claw at one end. It is fastened 
to the hollow of tho boot sole by a strap as 
shown at fig. 93. The stake is he’d by the 
claw and the harder the foot presses down the 
tighter the claw holds the stake. A hole is 
first made in the ground with a pointed bar 
and the stake or pole, sharpened at the point, 
is then thrust iu the hole until it is firm. 
A llushel Box. 
Now is the time for makiug crates or boxes 
for use at harvest for corn ears, potatoes, 
roots, fruit, etc , etc. The use of a set of these 
boxes will save much more time than their 
ccst is worth. A box to hold a heaped bushel 
should bel6| inches long. 14 inches wide and 
13 inches deep inside measure. This makes 
2751 cubic inches and a heaped bushel is 2750 
inches. To make the box, shown at fig. 95. 
procure end pieces of 13 inch-wide l ox boards 
14 inches long. A 13 foot long board makes 10 
pieces. The bottom and sides are made of 1J 
inch wide strips, | Inch thick aud 17£ inches 
long; the end boards being JMuch thick. Six 
strips make the bottom aud five each side. 
Tho top Etrip on each side is set a quarter of 
au inch below tho top edges of the end pieces. 
These are very useful for storing potatoes, 
apples or pears in a cellar as one box can be 
set upon another in tiers. In the field, corn 
ears may be husked into them, or potatoes 
picked into them, or apples gathered in them 
fig. 95. 
Mr. W. C. Barry then read a paper upon 
“ The New Fruits." after which the question, 
*• What is the experience of the last year with 
the different varieties of fruit ?" was discussed. 
Dr. Beadle, of Canada, from one year's expe¬ 
rience with the Moore’s Early Grape was much 
pleased with it. It i ipened a day or so ahead 
of the Champion, was as good as the Concord, 
and seemed to be hardy. Mr. Green had ri- 
fig. 91. 
or a slab of timber split from the end of a 
log, fig. 91, b, and having the bark smoothed off. 
A piece of worn-out leather tug-strap is strong¬ 
ly fastened on to the front of either of these 
shoes and the point of the plow-share is thrust 
under this. Tho plow glides easily over the 
ground when resting on this shoe. 
Another shoe, fig. 9L, c, can be made of a 
crotch from the wood pile. The upper part Is 
