OCT. §1 
« 
are most delicately and finely cut or divided. 
It is a very ornamental tree for lawns or 
flower grounds. 
All ye who are thinking of seeking a new 
home, listen to this good piece of advice from 
Henry Stewart. We fully indorse what he 
says:—No person who intends to change his 
locality and mode of life should fix himself at 
the start in any strange locality. He should 
accept no statements of strangers or persons 
interested in inducing him to purchase prop¬ 
erty. Ho should, on the other hand, act with 
deliberation and common sense, and be in no 
hurry. There is a satisfactory place for every 
man somewhere; but it is hardly possible that 
he can strike it at the first effort, mid it is 
best to spend a month or two in traveling and 
exploring, and then to settle down tempo¬ 
rarily in the place chosen until the first im¬ 
pression is either justified or corrected. 
The editor of the American Rural Home 
says that the man who through indolence or 
inefficiency fails to properly till and fertilize 
his soil has no right to ask God’s blessing on 
his labors, for he has negloeted to co-operate 
with Him in the appointed way through 
which such blessings come. 
To judge of the condition of an apple tree is 
like judging of the condition of sheep in a 
pasture, says Prof. BeaL Look at the sheep 
and not at the pasture, and if they are plump 
and fat they are all right. 
From the versatile pen of the late Mrs. Mary 
Locke—a regular contributor to the Pacific 
Rural Press—we take tho following para¬ 
graphs: “ If you have a grand, noble farm, try 
to feel like a king and treat your wife like a 
queen.To plant homes 
worthily woman’s toil and care were also 
needed, and hallowed be their memory. * * 
When we have found our leisure, we must do 
something with it or it will *• sour ” on our 
hands.Ye°, hard knocks 
pay if they give us self-reliance and fortitude; 
if they broaden instead of hardening our sym¬ 
pathies; if they knock out of us arrogance 
and self-conceit, instead of putting more in.” 
.I want to see farmers look 
better than they do—dress better, carry them¬ 
selves with as much easy grace and confidence 
as though they felt iu every muscle that hand¬ 
ling the plow, the shovel and the hoe is just 
as dignified and gentlemanly as measuring dry 
goods, dealing physic, reading law or manag¬ 
ing “ rings.’ ”.There is some 
reason for thinking that after all 1ms been 
“ said and done ” no crop pays the British 
farmer better than wheat, says the London 
Agricultural Gazette. 
Dakota. 
Battle River, Custer Co., Oct. 3.—The 
original White Elephant weighed four ounces; 
its youngsters weighed 44 pounds—a light 
yield for this region. W. n. w. 
Illinois. 
Champaign, Champaign Co., Oct. 1.—It has 
been raining moderately in this county and 
neighborhood for the past 34 hours, and nearly 
two inches of rain have fallen. Presumably the 
same is true for the greater part of the State, 
since the storm which, moved east out of the 
valley of the Missouri, Thursday, had two or 
three hundred miles of north and south diam¬ 
eter. This breaks partially, if not wholly, 
the drought of 1881. so far as Illinois is con¬ 
cerned, and in that light may be regarded as 
a special providence, for the water famine 
will be put an end to, grass will come to 
something before cold weather, in pasture and 
in meadows, the earth will be so softened that 
the hardest and most refractory soils can be 
broken up and sown to wheat, and, last of all 
and most important of all, the wheat land 
plowed and sown in the dry weather will be 
in a measure compacted so as to stand a hard 
Winter should it come. Besides the stock 
men and fanners, the railroads have been put 
to great oost and inconvenience to obtain 
water, in some cases on north snl south lines 
engines having to make sixty and seventy 
miles between water stations. The water is 
running in the sloughs for the first time in 
three mouths, and there are surface accumu¬ 
lations of it on hard-pan soils, which will last 
for some time. Prices are still on the rise, the 
two leading cereals having reached the highest 
figures for the year yesterday. Winter 
wheat, $1.45<gl.50: Spring, $1.35@1.40; cash 
corn 73 cents, and May corn 78 cents, with 
almost every leading agricultural product in 
sympathy. And these prices are regarded as 
legitimate and not speculative by those who 
have the b st means for information. But 
the pinch i the coni and hog crop will not be 
felt for a. least eight months, and then what 
the markets will be nobody pretends to know. 
One of the surprises of the times and season is 
the display of the magnitude of the power 
which keeps the price of cotton down, in the 
face and eyes of the fact that the crop has 
been reduced at least 30 per cent. Pork is 
now $20.00 a barrel, corn meal two cents a 
pound, and corn $1.25 a bushel in the South, 
with the almost sure prospect of an advance 
of 25@50 per cent, before the next crop is 
made. It is easy to see the cotton growers 
will bo in a bad way, indeed, if there is not 1 o 
be from 33 to 50 per cent, advance in the crop 
they produce. Contrary to general expecta¬ 
tion there will be considerably more acreage 
sown to wheat and lye this year than last, and 
I suppose the acreage would be nearly doubled 
if seed could be had on credit by those who, 
though responsible, cannot j>ay money down 
for seed. b. f. j. 
De Pue, Bureau Co., Oct. 5.—Coni is 
about two-thirds of a crop. It has been selling 
at 70e. per bushel, but dropped yesterday 
to 65c. The White Elephant was planted May 
10, cut into 10 pieces, one in a hill; eight grew, 
and yielded 105 tubers weighing 18 pounds 
when dug, Oct. 1. The R. B. Sorghum was 
planted in May; the last of July I cut it one 
foot from the ground when about four feet 
high. Now it is three feet high. I left some for 
seed, and on Oct. 1, I noticed it had tasseled 
out, but I am afraid it won’t mature. The W. 
Oats are pretty nearly all smut; but I’ve got 
two quarts of seed. The asparagus didn’t do 
well, but the pinks are beauties. F. p. R. 
Stillman Valley, Ogle Co., Oct. 4.—The 
small White Elephant Potato was cut into 13 
pieces with an eye in each, and each eye had 
a hill nf its own three feet apart. They were 
hoed three times and 12 grew, They were 
dug Sept. 15 and yielded 51% pounds of fine 
tubers. One of them weighed a pound and 
14 ounces—the finest lot of potatoes ever 
raised in this county, and I can prove it. 
The oats, flower seeds and sorghum all did 
well, but the asparagus never grew. i. A. 
Indiana. 
Pittsburg, Carroll Co. , Oct. 3.—I cut my 
Rural Branching Sorghum on Sept. 20. It 
averaged seven feet in bight. Only 42 grains 
grew. It was transplanted into rows 3J*j feet 
each way, one plant in each hill. I cut 300 
stalks with leaves from the bottom to the top; 
would have cut sooner but for the extreme 
drought. No signs of seeding; left two of the 
longest stalks to see what they will do. Think 
we will have to plant a little from hot-beds in 
the Spring to get seed. I am convinced that 
it is the best fodder plant in America. The 
White Elephant comes to the front w ith 141 
pounds of small potatoes. Potatoes hi this part 
of the country are a complete failure. We 
had one-third of a crop of wheat; corn is three- 
fourths of a crop. I tried the Rural’s method 
of cultivation with one 12-acre lot of com, 
harrowed it just as it showed aboveground; 
afterwards plowed with a common walking 
cultivator four times. At no time did I plow 
over three inches deep, and to-day it is the 
best field of corn in my neighborhood, x. b. b. 
La Grange, La Grange Co., Oct. 3.—From 
two ounces of W. E. Potato seed I dug 59 
pounds of splendid tubers. We cooked some 
and pronounce them good. R. B. Sorghum 
made a wonderful growth, but I think it can¬ 
not compete with coni here. Asparagus do¬ 
ing splendidly. Oats blasted badly. We had 
good success with all the other seeds and 
plants. Farmers have had rather indifferent 
success this season. Our corn will average a 
fair crop; potatoes one-fourth of a crop. All 
vegetables scarce. The outlook for the young 
wheat is good—fine growing weather. Prices 
of produce are: Wheat. $1.25; com, 70c.;oats, 
30c.; potatoes, $1; pork, on foot, 5@6c. per 
pound; butter 20c. ; eggs, 10c. N. s. 
town. 
Dakota, Humboldt Co., Oct. 8.—I have 48 
asparagus plants. TheW, Elephant I planted 
in 17 hills—an eye in each. Twelve of’em 
yielded 16 pounds. Those from the four other 
hills I didn’t weigh. The W. Oats and R. B. 
Sorghum were failures, except two hills of 
the latter one of which had 13 stalks, the 
other three. The flower seeds came up well but 
a heavy rain washed them all out, so that we 
did not have any left. Crops are poor, with 
the exception of com which is above the 
average of other years. We had a snow st am 
on September 16, but no frost till September 
29, and that was light and did not injure nii 3 v - 
thing. G. l. h, 
Wellman, Washington Co., Oct. 5.—The 
White Elephant Potato we received had 10 
eyes, ot. which nine grew, producing 101 tu¬ 
bers, 35 large and 66 medium to small. The 
Branching Sorghum and Washington Oats did 
not do well on account of wet weather in 
J une. Of the asparagus every see 1 seemed 
to grow. The plants stand from eight to 10 
inches high. We have five carnations. The 
picotees are just splendid—26 different kinds. 
Mother takes all our visitors to see them, and 
they are praised by all. We have 26 Cuthbert 
Raspberries from the one you sent out a year 
ago. E. B. s. 
Kansas. 
Downs, Osborne Co., Oct. 6.— The Rural 
seeds were almost a failures owing to the 
drought. The White Elephants were very well 
at first, but the bugs and drought injured 
them severely. I have a couple of quarts of 
seed for next Spring. From the Washington 
Oats I only got the seed back. The asparagus 
grew well for a time, but the dry weather 
“ was too much ” for it. The R, B. Sorghum 
grew five feet high but did not seed. The 
pinks turned out poorlj*. Dry weather began 
the last of June and has lasted ever since, 
with the exception of one rainfall early in 
September. Wheat, however, is about 15 bush¬ 
els per acre; but corn was burnt up by the hot 
winds, so that there is hardly any. Potatoes 
scarce and rotting. The young wheat is being 
eaten up by chinch bugs. No fruit. The 
look-out for the coming Winter is dark enough 
hero. Wheat sells for $1.16; corn, 55c.; pota¬ 
toes, $1.25 and hard to get. We like the 
Rural so very much that we don’t know how 
we lived so long without it. j. b. 
Parsons, Labette Co., Oct., 4.—The dry 
spell is broken. Virtually it has lasted three 
years. On the 24th of September it rained 
half an inch: on the 28th, one inch; 29th, two 
inches; and on the 30th there was mom rain 
rushing down the runs than 1 had ever seen. 
No such serious drought as we have seen the 
past eight weeks, had ever occurred here. 
Nearly all the work on many farms was in 
hauling water and digging wells. About 
half the usual area of Winter wheat is in 
and up, and farmers have been busy plowing 
up to this time. Grass and wheat and turnips 
are growing finely. We see now very plainly 
the results of a season’s toil on the farm. 
Vegetables (except early Spring) are entire 
failures. Fruit was almost a complete failure. 
Oats a fair crop. Wheat on acreage planted, 
three to five bushels. Corn—our chief crop— 
is pitiful, and may be put thus : Out of 10 
parts of its i'.creage, two were no bushels to 
the acre; three, four; two, ten; two, twelve; 
one, twenty; giving an average for the crop 
of this county of seven-and-eix-tenths bushels 
to the acre. This will be very nearly the 
average corn product of the State, except 
cn about an area equal to 20 square miles in 
Central Southern Kansas, which will average 
40 bushels to the acre. The consequences will 
be quite hard on small farmers. Had there 
been one-third or one-half a crop the present 
prices would have made the crop as profitable 
as a full crop of former seasons. But seven- 
tenths will have none to sell. Grass whs (and 
is) a good crop. Pricesare: wheat, 95c. to$1.35 
per bushel; corn, 40 to 65c; oats, 45e; pota¬ 
toes, $1.50 per bushel; castor beans $1.75 per 
bushel; flax seed $1 per pc ml: flour, $4.50 
per 100 pounds; coal, 13c. per bushel; lumber, 
$22.50 per 1000; brick, $7.50 per 1000. Castor 
beans and cotton are but one-third to one- 
half of an average crop. j. b, 
Kentucky. 
Garrettsburg, Christian Co., Oct. A— 
This it the largest tobacco-growing county in 
the State, and also among the flirt in wheat 
production and com raising. Tobacco will 
make three-fifths of a crop if frost does not 
come before October 15. German Amber, 
Fultz, Golden Chaff and Georgia Rust-proof 
wheats are the favorites hereabouts, w.k.m. 
Maine. 
North Paris, Oxford Co., Oct. 4.—I plant¬ 
ed the small Beauty of Hebron and raised a 
quarter of a bushel of tubers. The next year 
I raised nine bushels, and after selling enough, 
at 50 cents a peck, to pay the subscription 
price of the Rural for two years, I planted 
the remainder, and have harvested this Full 
275 bushels of very nice potatoes. I carried 
some to the Oxford County Agricultural Fair 
last week and took the first premium for the 
best specimens of potatoes on exhibition. I 
have engaged quite a number of bushels for 
planting at one dollar a bushel, and think I 
cm dispose of nearly all I have to spare at 
that price. 1 think it pays to take the Rural 
New-Yorker, and you can reckon me among 
your life subscribers. w. w. n. 
MaesacliiisettM. 
Springfield, Hampden Co., Oct, 3.— The 
White Elephant Potato weighed four ounces: 
it was cut to eight eyes and planted one 
piece in a hill—soil a sandy loam. One shovel¬ 
ful of manure was used iu each hill. Pro¬ 
duct, 27 pounds of fine-looking tubers. Corn 
has been a fair crop, although it was back¬ 
ward during the first half of the Summer 
owing to cool weather. Potatoes are u light 
crop in most cases, the bugs having done 
considerable injury in some fields and dry 
weather injuring those planted late. o. l. h. 
Michigan. 
Corunna, Shiawassee Co., Oct. 5.—My R. 
B. Sorghum is doing well ; most of the seed 
came up, and it is coming to seed now. i cut 
several bills and they are growing fast. My 
W, E. Potatoes did not do very well owing to 
the drought. They were dug about the 1st of 
September and yielded about five pounds of 
nice white tubers. The Washington Oats did 
very welL The asparagus seed came up finely; 
I think I have about 125 plants of both kinds. 
Of the carnations and picotees about five 
plants came up and some of them have blos¬ 
somed. ii, w. 
Detroit, Wayne Co., Oct. 4.—The W, E. 
Potato was cut into 13 pieces; 12 of them 
grew and produced about six pounds 
of tubers, a very small yield, but I shall 
save all for another year’s trial. The W. 
Oats did well. I harvested eight pounds of 
clean seed from the sample received. The 
stalks stood about, four feet high and the 
grain was very smutty. The Ii. B. Sorghum 
I planted on June 11 on a piece of land 
which was cultivated three times before 
planting, leaving but very little weeding to 
be done afterwards. At the same time I 
planted near-by some Pearl Millet seed which 
I had left over. Both of the seeds came up 
well, but. the Pearl Millet outgrew the R. B. 
S. On August 13 I selected some average 
hills of both and cut the plants about six 
inches above ground—they were all four feet 
high; six hills of R. B. S., in which there were 
40 stalks, weighed six pouuds, while two hills 
of Pearl Millet, 48 stalks, weighed four pounds. 
This shows a better yield for tho millet in 
the first growth; but tho second growth is in 
favor of the Sorghum; for on Oct. 4, the same 
hills were cut again; the stalks were three 
feet high and weighed 6)<j pounds for the 
sorghum, and four for the millet. f. p 
Minnesota. 
Anoka, Anoka Co., Oct, 5.—From my very 
small White Elephant I made eight bills with 
one eye in a hill, and got half a bushel of 
nice tubers. The R. B. Sorghum I planted 
on May 18 in a row four rods long. It grew 
to a bight of eight feet, and the heads were 
from six to eight inches long and the seeds 
got pretty ripe, though the stalks are green 
yet clear down to the ground. The land had 
some barnyard dressing and nothing else. I 
think I have seed enough for from 10 to 15 
acres. b. h. c. 
Caroline, Lb Sueu!*Co., Sept. 30.—The W. 
E. Potato was cut in single eyes, planted in 
drills, three feet apart., eighteen inches in a 
drill and yielded 74 pounds. Several weighed 
l id' pound apiece. How is that for Minnesota 
“bigwoods?” Mold's Ennobled Oats yielded 
heavily but lodged badly. The W. Oats stood 
well but were damaged somewhat by smut. 
The asparagus is doing finely. The carna¬ 
tions and diantbns ore beauties, o. v. mcg. 
Lake Crystal, Blue Earth Co., Oct. 6.— The 
White Elephant weighed two ounces and had 
10eyes. I planted it about May 15th, one eye in 
the hill, iu common garden soil; no manure 
for two years; no more care than my other 
potatoes. The bugs did not hurt, them any. I 
dug them Sept. 5; one hill weighed &}■£ pounds; 
the ten bills weighed 51% pounds. There were 
200 tubers, nine-tenths of which were good eat¬ 
able potatoes. We have had a poor season 
for potatoes—too much rain. It has rained 
here as often as every three days (except for 
about three weeks iu harvest.) for the past six 
months. There is no thrashing and not much 
plowing is done. The water was never known 
to be so high. The oldest inhabitants are 
drowned out, so wo liave lost past records; 
but what are alive never saw it so high. The 
R. B. Sorghum is about 10 feet high, and 
is not topped out. It would not ripen here, so 
it would not pay to plant it. The pinks were 
nothing but common single pinks, with the 
exceptions of two, and they were small, m, m. 
Missouri. 
Caldwell, Oct. 3.—Of several kinds of 
grass and clover I sowed last Spring the only 
kind that lived through the drought was an 
experimental patch of Alfalfa. It came out 
as sound as a dollar. Red Clover, common 
and mammoth, Timothy, Orchard Grass and 
Red-top all perished. Much of the old pas¬ 
tures and meadows perished, Red-top being 
about the only grass that remained unhurt. 
The White Elephant, made 17 pi. cc-, which 
were drilled in a row about 15 inches apart 
as early iu April as tho ground would permit. 
At the same'time I planted Early Rose in rows 
on either side. The Elephant made a beauti¬ 
ful growth, much like the Early Rose, except 
that the leaf was a little larger. It ripened 
about a peck of very fair tubers about the 
same time as the Early Rose—the first week 
in September. A few tubers have rol led since 
digging, and so have some of the Early B.ose. 
The Washington Oats promised well, but were 
destroyed by a horse getting loose and eating 
them. The Branching Sorghum was planted 
about May 20, camo up quickly and well, but, 
I suppose owing to drought, never headed. So 
far as my taste goes, I can find no more sweet 
about it than in a stalk of broom-corn. I 
turned the cattlo on it on the 1st of Septem¬ 
ber, and for several days they did not touch it, 
and when they did, they ate it to within three 
feet of the ground and then left it; while last 
year l turned them on a piece of Amber-cane 
sown broadcast uud they ate it to the ground. 
The cow-peas were greatly mixed as to color, 
but came up well uud yielded finely. Both 
varieties of usparagus came up sparingly, but 
