MINER’S SEEDLING GRAPES 
the imaginary notion that the Niagara has 
“ hung fire too long,” and declares that it is 
“ nc fc before the public by being tested in dif¬ 
ferent fc:dIs and climates,” to cheer his droop¬ 
ing spirits, and to show that he does not know 
whereof he affirms, I will simply state that to¬ 
day there are more Niagaras growing in Vir¬ 
ginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
New York, Massachusetts, Quebec, Ontario, 
Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa 
than of all other new white grapes combined; 
and one vineyard not far from New York 
City has more Niagaras growing than there 
and a fraction every six days without any 
stopping for holidays and brooding spells and 
molting. It is a good hen that lays 150 eggs 
in a year, but your poult ry hobbyist and sheep 
enthusiast are not amenable to reason. 
been but slightly troubled by the curculio, al¬ 
though, contrary to usual practice further 
south, it is located on exceedingly light, porous 
sand of such depth as to forbid the assumption 
that the roots may roach a stronger subsoil. 
It should, however, bo remarked that the 
ground was originally timbered with beech, 
sugar maple and basswood, which were occa¬ 
sionally of very large size, and that a micro¬ 
scope reveals the fact that the soil is largely 
composed of minute fragments of shells, afford¬ 
ing an abundant supply of lime to vegetation. 
It must, however, by no means be supposed 
that the success of the plum 
here is confined to such 
soils. At. Manistee, a little 
farther up the shore of Lake 
Michigan, one or more of 
the oldest plum orchards in 
Northern Michigan stand 
upon a plateau of the most 
retentive “ hard-pan,” with 
but a very few inches of 
covering of lighter soil. 
This also has proved emi¬ 
nently satisfactory. The 
land is on a gentle slope, 
and, when last I saw it (in 
1874 or ’751, it had little or 
no under-drainage. 
This immunity of the 
plum from the usual draw¬ 
backs is found effective as 
far south as Oceana County—possibly even 
farther. How far north of Grand Traverse 
Bay the climate may prove adapted to this 
fruit, is yet an unsolved problem. There is 
abundant reason to believe that the entire 
western shore of Lake Huron, as far north, 
at least, as the Straits of Mackinaw, will prove 
adapted to the growth of this fruit, equally 
with the Dominion opposite, which has long 
been known os a fine plum region. 
The recent pushing forward of railroads 
into these noted haunts of the lumberman and 
hunter, is rapidly bringing- them to public no¬ 
tice, and farming and fruit-growing are be¬ 
ginning to usurp the place of the logging camp 
and the lumber mill. 
In 1878 I bought of T. B. Miner three of his 
seedling grapes, named hy him Linden (black) 
and Belinda and Antoinette (both white). 
Owing to late frosts the two past years, this is 
the first year they have fruited. The Linden 
is rather small in body and cluster, of good 
quality, but not particularly dasirable as we 
have plenty of good black grapes. The Belin¬ 
da and Antoinette are both ripe at this date— 
Sept, fid—and ore of the finest quality; in fact, . 
to my taste, they are the best in flavor of any | to deduct 50 per cent 
Co-operative stock keep¬ 
ing is probably the safest 
form in which associated 
capital can be employed in 
agriculture. It has several 
advantages, A large tract 
_ of cheap land can be pro- 
cured; fencing is unneces- 
sary *, the labor and cost of 
caring for the stock arc re- 
Hggp*' duced to the lowest point, 
f* and the produce can lie dis¬ 
posed of on the host terms 
and at the least expense. 
Doubtless in the near future 
we shall see several ventures of this kind in 
stocks keeping. 
A mistaken notion in regard to the size of 
male breeding animals is prevalent. It is sup¬ 
posed that a large animal must produce large 
and finely developed progeny. But, on the 
contrary, it is the small and finely formed and 
evenly balanced sire that is most valuable for 
breeding. Some of the most successful sires 
have been small animals, and, iu general, size 
is of very inferior importance in selecting 
males for breeding purposes. 
CHRYSALIS, MOTH AND LARVA OF THE “ POTATO WORM 
are of Lady Washingtons in existence,that are 
one year old or over. I make this statement 
only to show facts, and not because I wish to 
say aught against any other grape. 1 am only 
glad that there are so many uud such good 
new grapes, w hite and colored, and I only 
hope that many more, and those much better 
than the Niagara even, may he originated. 
1 can’t see why this jealousy as betw een the 
friends of new fruits—it is all wrong, and Mr. 
Benscl would do much better to use his surplus 
energies in trying to originate something new 
and good. This is a great country of ours, 
and there are a great many people to eat 
grapes, and there is room for more than all 
the good grapes wo can grow 1 . As to the 
beauty, quality, hardiness, productiveness and 
a 113- and all other points of the Niagara, we 
enter into no controversy; the people must 
judge of these for themselves, and we are 
perfectly willing to leave the matter in their 
hands, assured that they will do it full justice. 
However much interested parties may sneer 
at its “unattraotiveness” and "disgusting” 
qualities, and ridicule and run it dow n, those 
who know the most of it, and w ho have seen 
its broad, thick, dark-green, health-giving 
leaves, call it beautiful and good, ami the gen¬ 
eral public have faith in it, and are planting 
and are going to plant it largely; and we leave 
it w ith them and with time to fully vindi¬ 
cate it. J. S. Woodward. 
See’y Niagara Grape Co. 
white grapes I have ever eaten. They resem¬ 
ble each other so closely that I am unable to 
distinguish any difference, and judge that Mr. 
Miner must have made a mistake and sent 
only one variety instead of two. 
A good, early' white grape is very desirable 
for our market, and should these prove as 
good in tlio years to come as they' now en¬ 
courage me to hope, they will be a valuable 
acquisition. 
Does any one know whether or not these 
grapes hear the same names given them in 
1878? I fail to find anything relating to grapes 
by the above names in any of the agricultural 
papers, hut should he happy to hear from oth¬ 
ers w ho have had any experience w ith them. 
For our market we must have something be¬ 
sides black grapes to sell well, ns the “ nasty ” 
Talman (Champion) has nearly ruined the de¬ 
mand for grapes of that color. 
In reading over Mr. Miner’s letter I find 
that he claims there is no essential difference 
between the Belinda and Antoinette except 
that the latter is a week or ten day's later than 
the former, and is sometimes shouldered. 
Nelson Ritter. 
It seems that some time ago the fashionable 
breeders in Jersey took means to close the 
Herd Book and stop registrations, where¬ 
upon fabulous prices were obtained for their 
recorded animals and they w ere quickly' sold 
out to American speculators. The breeders, 
or rather dealers, iu Jersey then stocked them¬ 
selves with cheap unregistered animals, and 
are now having the Herd Book opened again. 
The recent boom in imported Jersey cattle 
is all explained when we discover this hither¬ 
to hidden motive power, hy which it haR been 
put in operation. It shows very clearly the 
farcical and ludicrous character of this Herd 
Book business, and how it is made a means of 
“milking and shearing” the public just us they 
are milked and fleeced in Wall Street. 
Reply to Mr. A. A. Bensel. 
The frantic efforts made by Mr. A. A. Ben¬ 
sel, in Rural New'-Yorker of August Gth, to 
bring discredit upon some of the newer white 
grapes, and especially upon the Niagara, only 
too plainly show that he has a pet which he 
thinks is in extreme danger. His efforts would 
be amusing only they show the extreme jeal¬ 
ousy felt hy some of the friends of some of the 
new’er grapes towards others of the same class. 
It is passing strange how he could be so bitter 
and berate and deride the Niagara so much, 
and in the same paper commend the previous 
article by Mr. Green, w hich certainly w as 
very favorable to the Niagara. We, too, with 
him, would like to see Mr. Green’s article have 
a wide circulation, and will contribute to so 
worthy an object. That there has been much 
systematic swindling done in the dissemina¬ 
tion of new grapes even Mr. B. must know, 
and some of the very worst and most bare¬ 
faced cases ever know n originated on, and 
were put forth from, the banks of the Hudson 
River; in fact, it would be hard to name any 
grape that originated in that fruitful section, 
which has not proved to be worthless in every 
other place. 
The course pursued by the originators of 
new grapes there has been one calculated to 
breed and foster these great humbugs. They 
would place a few vines here and there to be 
tested, as they said, but nine-tenths of these 
went into the hands of interested parties, who 
planted one or two and petted and pampered 
them to make them show their best, while they' 
were propagating a stock of vines and puffing 
the variety, so as to be able to sell a few thou¬ 
sands at high prices to a confiding public, to 
have them found on further trial entirely 
worthless. In proof of this l cite the fact that 
to-day to the public “ new grape ” is synony¬ 
mous with “ humbug.” 
The course, adopted by the Niagara Grape 
Company to test the Niagara is entirely new 
and different. They place no vines except in 
vineyards, to be treated only as other vine¬ 
yards are, and the planter has no right to prop¬ 
agate a single vino, and, of course, he has no 
interest in anything but the fruit, and no rea¬ 
son to pet the vines or make them “show off,” 
or to misrepresent the grape in any way; and, 
of course, the people can sec the vines and 
fruit growing in their own neighborhood be¬ 
fore any' vines will be offered for general sale. 
This course evidently' does not please Mr. 
Benscl, who is, no doubt, a propagator; but it 
seems an eminently' fair one, and certainly, so 
far as the public is concerned, it has no hum¬ 
bug in it. 
Since Mr. Bensel seems to feel so bad over 
The Jerseys arc not making their way into 
popular use as they should do; and every year 
that this sort of business lasts, will add to the 
deterioration of the race. A few sensible breed- 
era are confining themselves to native-bred 
stock and the rearing of useful cows for high- 
class dairy purposes; and are letting these im¬ 
ported, fancy cuttle alone. An excellent hull or 
cow of good honest lineage and high quality 
can be procured from these breeders for one- 
tenth the price asked hy t he foreign dealers, 
whose business is not breeding but buying and 
selling and going through the farce of “hip- 
pod raining, ” and “rigging the market” by 
means of their Herd Books. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
Let us figure up a little. The average value 
of farm land from the Atlantic to the Missouri 
may be reasonably' estimated at $50 per acre 
and the taxes at 50 cents per acre. The inter¬ 
est, at six percent, on the. land and taxes would 
amount to $3.50 per acre. Five acres of pas¬ 
ture and two acres of hay and other Winter 
feed are required, ou un average, to support a 
cow. The cost then of her feed will be $34.50 
yearly. The cost of labor of feeding, milking, 
and attention, will amount to ten dollars more. 
The total is $5-1,5i>. Attwo cents a quart for the 
milk,this will require 1785 quarts in the year, or 
an average daily yield of eight quarts per 215 
days or six quarts daily for about ten mouths. 
This is above the average of alt cows, including 
good, bad, and indifferent, and far above the 
average of the worse half of all the dairy 
cows. 
HOW OPINIONS DIFFER. 
The Lindley Grape. 
I have before mo a slip cut from Green’s 
Fruit Grower, speaking in the highest terms 
of this fruit, giving not only the writer’s 
Opinion, but quoting in its praise from several 
prominent vintners and pomologists to the ef¬ 
fect that it is “one of the best, if not the best 
of Rogers’s Hybrids. As to the quality of the 
grape when you get it fairly in your hand, I 
can speak only in its praise; but 1 have six 
other varieties of Rogers’s, any one of which 1 
prefer to the Lindley, not so much on account 
of flavor or hardiness, in both of which the 
Salem excels it, but any r one of the six has 
been with lue more productive and of more 
agreeable lmbit of growth of vine and fruit. 
The Lindley is loug-joinled, with stems very 
long and large, and bunches long and loose. 
The canes want all the room you can give 
them, and do not branch much or turn out 
much fruit. In the am Hint of fruit the Mer- 
rimac, Vv ifiler and Amiuia excel it among the 
blacks, and MassasSoit, Requa, Salem and No. 
5, among iho reds, and, furthermore, as to 
flavor, I have more than once placed samples 
of these eight varieties of Rogers’s before a 
family of old and young persons, and in all 
cases the Salem got the most votes, and gener¬ 
ally the Requa the next highest number. 
Still there is little difference in quality or 
beauty between the Mussusuit, Requa and 
Lindley: either of them brings me in our 
home market more than three times tb>» price 
of the Concord, and there being but few of 
these large red grapes in our market, the only 
question is who shall have them. S. B. Peck. 
Farmers should learn that the pure stock 
is not the most profitable for them. The cows 
for profit are grade cows, half and three- 
quarter-bred, which, as a rule, exceed the pure¬ 
bred even in yield very often. Now, we can¬ 
not have grades without pure-bred stock and 
hero the benefit of the breeder to the tanner 
comes in. Let the breeders make their first 
business to improve their stock and show its 
real value at the fairs to teach the farmers 
bow much money can be made by using a 
pure-bred bull in their herds. 
This is the great point. The use of Short¬ 
horn and Hereford bulls in the great West¬ 
ern pastures has more than doubled the value 
of the herds for beef, and when a farmer is 
inclined to scorn a Short-horn cow because 
she is no milker, ho must remember that her 
business in the world is to produce beef. And 
so the lean, light, bony, cat-hummed Jersey’s 
business is to make the best of butter, and 
that of the bulls to cross on our common cows 
and double the value of every heifer calf. 
If the owner of a cow will realize the fact 
that unless she pays him in clear cash $84.50 
yearly, she is kept at a loss, ho will soon be- 
como interested in the subject of the improve¬ 
ment of dairy cows. 
But how will this matter stand when those 
farms are considered which cost their owners 
$100 per acre. The cost of keeping a cow on 
such land will average $50 yearly, anil yet we 
may see constantly in the reports of cream¬ 
eries and cheese factories that the average 
yield of whole dairies for the season varies 
from a little more than $80 up to about $40. 
PROFITABLE CATTLE FEEDING. 
It is curious to take the amount of figuring 
that is done in regard to fow ls and sheep, and 
the absurd and extravagant hopes thus held 
out delude hundreds of persons into losses and 
disappointment. A person recently figured 
so as to show the yearly income from 300 hens 
to be $1,500. “ Each hen lays 250 eggs, which, 
at two cents each, make $5 per hen.” Now 
there never was a hen that laid 250 eggs in 365 
days, which would be equivalent to four eggs 
WALDO V. BROWN, 
Advantages of Spring over Fall and Winter 
Feeding. 
In a former article 1 spoke of the compara¬ 
tive pr ofits of W inter and Spring feeding of 
cattle, and now by request of the editor I will 
