perty” of Kansas, her churches, newspaper 
press, railroads, etc., make up the balance of 
this interesting report. It is worthy of imita¬ 
tion by many other States that now seem to 
think “ the less said about agricultural mat¬ 
ters, the better.” J. K. Hudson, Secretary. 
Topeka, Kansas. 
R. H. AlJjEN & Co’s., Catalogue of Agri¬ 
cultural Implements, Seeds, Fertilizers, etc. 
Office 180 & 191 Water St., N. Y. 
Catalogue and Price List of Edward 
Harrison’s Standard Grinding Mills manu¬ 
factured at 135 Howard Avenue, New Haven, 
Conn. 
Ohio Crop and Stock Reports for July 
and August 1881, comprising reports from 
every county in the State, together with a pa¬ 
per on values and valuations of Fertilizers, also 
one on the Ohio Fertilizer Law, by W. I. 
Chamberlain, Secretary of the State Board of 
Agriculture. 
Tariff Tracts, Nos. one and two, on the 
American Policy of Protection to Home In¬ 
dustry, published by the American Iron and 
Steel Association, 3(55 South Fourth Street, 
Phil. 
Veterinary Medical Register of the U. 
S. compiled for the Journal of Co-operative 
Medicine, W. L. Hyde & Co., Publishers, 23 
Union Square; N. Y. 
Thirteenth Quarterly Report of the 
Penn. Board of Agriculture for June, July 
and August 1881. Thos. J. Edge, Sec. 
Second Quarterly Report of the Georgia 
Department of Agriculture, for the quarter en¬ 
ding July 31, 1881. J. T. Henderson Com¬ 
missioner. 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
A communication from a correspondent in 
Washington, Ga., states as follows: "A car¬ 
load, (a little over 300 bushels) of wheat was 
shipped from this depot on August 30, to 
the Department of Agriculture at Washing¬ 
ton, D. C. The price paid for it was $2.50 
per bushel. It is known as the Bill Dallas 
AV heat, and has been raised successfully for 
about half a century in the neighborhood 
where this shipment was purcliascd.” 
We have never before hoard of this wheat. 
The price considered, it should prove some¬ 
thing extraordinary... 
From a subscriber who has shown his friend¬ 
ship towards the Rural New-Yorker in 
many ways we print the following note : 
“In reply to your letter of Aug. 12, mak¬ 
ing inquiries in regard to Golden Grains 
Wheat losing its beard. I would say that it 
does not lose its beard until a few days before 
ripening. In answer to your next inquiry 
“Do not they fall off as in the Centen¬ 
nial ?” I would say that they do not ; that 
the Centennial does not lose its heard with mo. 
It does seem a hard matter to convince you of 
the merits of Centennial and Golden Grains, 
I have raised them both and find a wide differ¬ 
ence between them. The Golden Grains is 
similar to the Centennial ; the difference is in 
the wheat; the Goldou Grains is much the 
larger in kernel, in order to convince you 
that you arc wrong—if you desire to be 
fully acquainted with the two varieties—lean 
send you samples of each ; sow them side 
by side and carefully note their growth. 
It does seem to me that you among all others 
should 1x3 fully posted in regard to the differ¬ 
ent varieties of wheat, as your Wheat Special 
is an interesting paper; but it should an all 
matters pertaining to growth and culture lie 
in advance of the times, not behind.”. 
The Black-bearded Centennial loses its 
beards just as t he grain ripens, first turning 
black. That is just what the so-called Golden 
Grains does, in so far as we are advised. We 
have shown heads of both to good judges of 
wheat, and they have been unable to deter¬ 
mine which was which. We have compared 
the kernels also of both kinds, and no difference 
either in size or appearance (even under a 
magnifying glass) presents itself. It is true, 
as our friend states, that the Rural should 
be in advance rather than behind the timesin 
such matters. We have been the first to re¬ 
mark upon the similarity (identity as we be¬ 
lieve) of the Black-bearded Centennial and 
Golden Grains, and the evidence we have ac¬ 
cumulated in proof surely does not justify our 
friend’s reproach. ,.... . 
It should be worth something to the public 
to be informed that they have been paying 
from $00 to $100 per bushel (or at, that rate) 
for a grain disguised as new by a well selected, 
ingenious name; though under its true name it 
could have been purchased for a small part of 
such prices... 
Several of our leading seedsmen wore in¬ 
duced to buy and soli the “ Golden Grains" 
^ ''eat from the claims made for it by Haines 
&Co., of Philadelphia, who were supposed 
to control it. We have the assurances of two 
of those leading seedsmen that l hey believe it to 
bo Black-bearded Centennial, and that they 
will henoeforth sell it under that name._ 
Of all our roses this year Antoine Mouton 
and Mad, Charles Wood are the freest late 
bloomers. Both are what is called Hybrid 
Perpetuals—the first of a lively red color, large 
and finely shaped; the second of a brilliant 
crimson, huge and as double as it well can be. 
The watermelon seed from Mr. B. F. 
Rogers, of Orville, Ala., ripened fruit Aug. 25. 
They are large, long, dark-green with darker 
stripes, thin-skinned, crisp and sweet. The 
flesh is pink—seeds white. The largest weighed 
21 pounds. All melons in the neighborhood of 
the Rural Grounds this season are small and 
scarce. 
We print the following letter because it 
pithily presents a subject respecting which 
many have written us ; 
“ I am sure you do the patrons of your ex¬ 
cellent paper great injustice by omitting to 
furnish an index of the principal matters in 
each number. Often, very often, one wishes 
to refer to back numbers for some informa¬ 
tion on a particular subject, and the time, 
trouble and difficulty in finding it renders the 
attempt often fruitless and always annoying. 
This would Ixi ami ought to be remedied by an 
index of the principal subjects in each num¬ 
ber. I had rather add 25 per cent, to my sub¬ 
scription than to be without the index ; indeed 
I think the index referred to would add that 
amount to the value of the paper.” 
Mt. Lebanon, N. H. E. H. K. 
A comprehensive index to each number of 
the Rural would fill the better part of one 
column. The paper is already so crowded 
that we find it impossible to do justice to our 
contributors and to the several departments 
which it is desirable should be fully treated. 
A weekly index costs us nothing, and we are 
very willing that their wishes should be de¬ 
ferred to. It is not easy, however, to deter¬ 
mine whether a majority of our readers do or 
do not prefer the iudex. It should be borne 
in mind that our annual index is prepared 
with great care, and that that fully serves for 
reference to all except the numbers of the cur¬ 
rent year. It seems to us that the weekly in¬ 
dex is not worth the space it would take. 
We have received from Messrs. Holmes and 
Sweetland a sample of Scotch Fife Wheat 
weighing (51 pounds to the bushel, yielding 35 
bushels to the acre and harvested Aug. 7 to 12 
of this year. It was raised by Mr, Nels. Over¬ 
bee, of Moorhead, Clay Co., Miun.... 
-- 
What is a Polled Aberdeen ?—Wo make 
the following extracts from an interesting ar¬ 
ticle in the Ag. Gazette (England) discussing 
this question: Herodotus, in Iris Fourth Book 
dedicated to Melpomene, notes the exis¬ 
tence of polled or hornless cattle among the 
herd of the ancient Scythians. Possibly this 
is the earliest notice of polled animals of the 
bovine species,.One of the earli¬ 
est notices of polled cattle in Scotland is made 
by Hector Boeco—educated at Aberdeen Uni¬ 
versity, in his work published early in the 
sixteenth century. Captain Birt, 1725, in 
one of his noted “ Letters,” describes the sing¬ 
ular appearance, “ like so many Lincolnshire 
calves,” presented by 50 cows that “ had no 
horns,” in swimming across a ferry. Sir Wal¬ 
ter Scott in his Old Mortality (the scone of 
which, however, is laid about 1070) mentions 
a “ humble-cow—the best in the byre,” of 
Niol Blaine. Dr. Norman Maelcod in his 
Reminiscences of a Higland Parish, gives a 
beautiful legend, the “ Spirit of Eihl,” in which 
“three dun, hornless cows” figure OS the em¬ 
bodiment, apparently, of ideal bovine beauty 
and purity, and it is interesting to note these 
dual characteristics of the Highlander’s 
“ fairy cat tle The last thn ‘References must 
allude to Gateways, which however, it should 
be noted, were previous to 1750 universally 
horned. 
There are six words we are acquainted with 
applied to hornless cattle—“ hummlie,” 
“doddie,” “ cowie,” “ maol,” “nat,” “poll.” 
We have seen that there are at least three 
varieties of the first. Dr. Johnson thought it 
allied to humble (the same, he thought, as its 
use in that in the stingless “ humble bee”). 
But Jamieson differs from the great lexico¬ 
grapher, and shows it has no affinity, but is 
derived through “homyl,” from a root signi¬ 
fying mutilation, and allied to “hummelled,” 
as applied to barley. 
Any visitor to the Birmingham or Smith- 
field fat stock exhibitions at Christmas, or the 
great London Christmas market at Islington, 
will not long remain in doubt as to “ What is 
a Polled Aberdeen?” In the many cycles con¬ 
nected with the manufacture t. meat—of all 
the now highly wrought beef-producing ma¬ 
chines, the Polled Aberdeen is the acme—the 
very term is the world-wide current superla¬ 
tive of perfection. The Aberdeens, us seen 
densely lining the rails of Copenhagen Fields, 
display their characteristics grandly. They 
have a fine expression of countenance—mild, 
serene, and expressive. Fine in the bone, 
with clean muzzle; a tail like a rat, and not 
ewe necked; short on the legs; a small, well- 
put-on head, a prominent eye; a skin not too 
thick or too thin, covered with fine silky hair 
to the touch like a lady’s glove; a straight- 
hacked, well ribbed up, and well ribbed home: 
hook bones not too wide apart—level from 
the hook to the tail; well set in at the tail— 
free from patchiness there and all over; deep 
thighs, with a good purse below him; well 
fleshed in the fore breast, with equal covering 
of fine flesh all over his carcass. Such an 
animal he is, that when standing behind you 
can see all his poiuts at once, ami altogether 
with the appearance of his perfect “meati¬ 
ness” bursting out of his seal-skin, smooth, 
and glistening covering. 
As to early maturity we need not say much. 
The Editor of the North British Agriculturist, 
some years ago, declared he could produce 
evidence on this point so abundant that “ he 
would not be able to find room for it in one 
whole issue of the Agriculturist.” Partisans 
of other breeds have since the Paris exhibition 
had this very thoroughly, we think, impressed 
on them.A great deal is writ¬ 
ten and spoken about “ Aberdeenshire crosses;” 
Short-horn men indeed seem to find in this a 
never-failing text to advance the praises of 
their own favorites. So they well may, for 
in how many reports of English Christmas ex¬ 
hibitions do we read “the Polled Scots and 
Aberdeenshire crosses continue to be the 
backbone of the exhibition.”.For 
some time back the use of the Short-horn sire 
has rapidly given place hi the north to the 
use of the Polled Aberdeen sire on Short-horn 
and cross cows. This method is giving the 
greatest satisfaction, and the best crosses we 
have ever seen have been so manufactured. 
The result of such is that such cross is at least 
three-fourths Aberdeen. These facts are 
highly important to owners of other breeds 
who are turning their thoughts to the “all 
round” Aberdeen*. 
As to the milking properties of the I ’oils, if 
they have been supposed to be naturally in¬ 
ferior milkers it is a misrepresentation of facts. 
The old Aberdeens early in the century were 
traditionally famed as dairy stock. Youatt 
records them to have been great milkers and 
butter cows, and states that among the best 
dairies they yielded up to seven gallons per 
day. Such, were their capabilities that they 
compared fully with the Ayrshire*, and were 
introduced into the northern counties on ac¬ 
count of their dairy fame. 
A word or two as to the relative positions 
of the Polled and Short-boni breeds in the 
North. During the last few ycat's the Polled 
have turned the tables on the latter in every 
possible way. The Polled have increased in 
favor day by day, obtaining every day new 
and more favorable supporters, making better 
a ml better appearances at shows, and extending 
far beyond its boundaries in every direction, 
with a greater demand for animals for the 
south of Scotland, England, America, and 
the colonies. These results are easily tracea¬ 
ble to the enormous advantage and prestige 
gained for the breed at the Paris Exhibition 
of 1878, the fame of which has penetrated the 
remotest corners of the earth. 
IVe have often had occasion to admire the 
shrubby Magnolia Ilalleana or stellata, a 
specimen of which thrives finely in t he Rural 
Grounds. Mi’. Samuel Parsons, Jr., in his prize 
essay read before the Mass. Hort, Society, says 
that it is the most compact and slow-growing 
of its race, it has been introduced from 
Japan for many years, but has not until re¬ 
cently been received with anything like the 
attention it deserves. The leaves are dark- 
green, somewhat small for a magnolia, and 
given to disposing themselves in very 
picturesque, masses. If it is the most dwarf of 
Asiatic magnolias, it is also the hardiest and 
most readily transplanted. Its prime charm 
consists in its flowers. They are more than 
creamy-white, they are snow-white, with a 
peculiar brilliance of texture ; but, more than 
all, they are delicately fragrant, more fra¬ 
grant than auy other hardy magnolia. When 
open, these flowers, which come earlier than 
the bloom of auy other magnolia, and before 
the leaves, remind one of the star-shaped 
clematis, but in their loveliest form, half- 
opened, their graceful curves are like those of 
white water.lilies. The earliness and beauty 
of this flower, and the sudden manner in 
which it bursts into bloom, indicate a capacity 
for producing early forced flowers of the 
finest quality. 
When to castrate foals.— Farmer Miles, 
the American veterinary surgeon, advised a 
writer in the London Agricultural Gazette 
that foals should be castrated when about four 
months old, i e., as soon as the parts are suffi¬ 
ciently developed. The humanity of the 
practice is undoubted, for a foal is easily 
thrown ; he seems scarcely to suffer from the 
operation, as immediately he is released he 
gets up and runs to his mother as if nothing 
had happened ; there is little or no swelling, 
merely a slight stiffness for a few days, and 
there is no trouble in keeping him by himself 
for the first Spring. 
Broad Tires. —A writer in the Times says 
that a year’s experience with broad wagon- 
wheels is conclusive as to their value. A four- 
inch tire will carry two tons over soft ground 
with greater ease to the team than a two-and- 
a-half inch tire will carry one ton. The 
wheels are not so much strained by stones and 
rough tracks on the road and the road is not 
cut up, but, on the contrary, is packed down 
and keeps smooth. The prevalent idea that the 
draft is increased by widening the tire is alto¬ 
gether baseless; on the contrary, a wide tire 
reduces the draft. The extra cost of the tire 
is repaid many times over every year in the 
extra work that can lie done by a team. 
The Muck Delusion, remarks the Editor 
of the excellent Journal of Chemistry, which 
prevailed twenty or more years ago, regard¬ 
ing tho manural value of what is known as 
muck, has lost some of its force, hut it still ex¬ 
ists among fanners, especially those new in 
the industry. ..The fallacy of 
muck consists in the error of regardiiLg it as 
manure, or a substance which turns spontan¬ 
eously into manure without cost to the farm¬ 
er. The term “muck” is usually applied to 
the dark, wet, unctuous product of low mead¬ 
ows, and the black mud from the bed of 
marshy lakes and frog ponds. 
If it had absolute or potential value as ma¬ 
nure, the wet mud from meadows cannot be 
hauled long distances with profit, but it has 
not under any circumstances manurial value. 
The peat of bogs, as freshly taken out. aver¬ 
ages of water fully 00 per cent., and a load of 
this of 2,000 pounds gives but a couple of hun¬ 
dred pounds of dry humus at the barn. If 
through inexperience or want of close obser¬ 
vation a farmer hacks up his cart to a mud 
hole, dry in Summer, he loads into it a sub¬ 
stance which is usually valueless. 
. . The true value of muck is well under¬ 
stood among chemists, or at least it ought to 
be. It really holds no available plant food, 
although it contains some nitrogen and car¬ 
bonaceous elements. These do not exist in it in 
available forms, and cannot be brought into 
that state at a cost which will under ordinary 
conditions warrant transportation and mani¬ 
pulation. Muck has a certain value as an ab¬ 
sorbent of liquid manure, and it may pay to 
procure and dry it for such purposes; but to 
meet this want it must be convenient to the 
barn, and of good quality. 
Petroleum on Trees and Bushes. —Dr. 
H. Gibbons, at a recent meeting of the Cali¬ 
fornia Academy of Sciences, said that since he 
put petroleum on the trees in his garden they 
had grown better and faster than ever before, 
and given better roses than before. The pe¬ 
troleum seems to kill the scale bisect. The 
handsomest rose ho exhibited was from a bush 
which looked nearly dead a short time before. 
The petroleum was mixed with castor-oiL It 
is applied sparingly, a nd great care is taken that 
it does not run down the roots. Perhaps in a 
crude state, the petroleum would be had, even 
on the stalks: but mixed with the castor-oil it 
appeal’s to be advantageous to the plant. 
As regards the distinction, nutritivelv con¬ 
sidered, between the whole grain of wheat and 
the white flour of the interior parts, there is 
no room for doubt or dispute, says the Journal 
of Chemistry. It is the whole grain which 
constitutes perfect food ; the white flour is in¬ 
capable* of affording complete and healthful 
support under all conditions of human exist¬ 
ence. The white loaf is very beautiful and 
fashionable, but it does not contain the phos¬ 
phates of magnesia, lime and soda which are 
found hi the brown loaf. These salts are 
stored for some wise reason, doubtless, in the 
bran or outer covering of the grain, and they 
are certainly lost to a large extent in the bolt¬ 
ing process. 
Bermuda Grass on the Levees.— General 
Bidwell. of Chico, says the Pacific Rural Press, 
who has tested Bermuda Grass on tho levees 
and as stock feed, says that he regards it as a 
very successful protection to levees ; that it 
quickly forms an almost indestructible turf 
against the action of water, and as far as 
spreading is concerned, the more it spreads and 
covers the ground in that dry country the bet¬ 
ter. All kinds of stock cat it with great eager¬ 
ness, and it furnishes an excellent and abun- 
ant supply of green feed during the dry and 
wet seasons alike, except when killed down a 
short time by frost' in Winter. 
Milk Diet.—F rom a first-rate article in 
the Christian Union we take the following :_ 
*' Let me feed a sick patient, and who will may 
give the medicine. In an illness far more de¬ 
pends upon the proper feeding of the sick per- 
