©CT. 29 
E 
7 
A CREAM PARTY AT KIRBY HOME. 
STEAD. 
A cream party wag held on September 30, 
at Kirby Homestead (the quarters of our es¬ 
teemed friend, Col. F. D. Curtis), which every¬ 
body said was both pleasant and profitable. 
People understood why it was called a cream 
party when they saw the long row of glusscans 
ranged on a temporary shelf under the trees, 
filled with milk, with the cream all up, some of 
it thick and some thicker, each one of the cans 
containing a portion of tho morning’s milk of 
one of the cows standing in a row close by. 
Some of the cows had the record they had made 
all printed in large type and posted by then- 
sides. Then there were churns, from those of 
a primitive character up to the best, and a 
Moseley creamery was in operation, sending 
up the cream so rapidly that in three hours it 
was all up to the top of the can. There was 
butter in the bowl, and butter in the churn, 
just churned, in the granulated form, the best 
for salting and draining out the buttermilk. 
Fodder corn 12 feet high stood around, lean¬ 
ing against the huge shade trees, and a big 
pile of big roots all helped to explain what a 
cream party meant. 
If anybody had any doubt, it was made 
clear when tho bell rang in the afternoon and 
the crowd of visitoi-s assembled around the 
front piazza and the speaking began. The 
host thanked every one for coming, and said 
he had been '‘worried" because in his vicinity 
there was not butter enough, and what there 
was, was not good enough. lie wanted to 
talk to his neighbors and farmers about it. 
The average yield per cow, he suid was not 
half as much as in Vermont; we got less thou 
100 pounds of butter, they got 200 pounds. 
Better cows, more feed, less work and Better 
butter were necessary if any money was to be 
made. Cows could be improved by breeding; 
some had done it. Mr. B. Callaghan’s cow, 
half native and half Ayrshire, on exhibition, 
proved this, and so did the cows of Al¬ 
exander Davidson, the Rev. C. W. Backus and 
Geo. M. Heaton. The herds of the last three 
had been bred from Jersey stock. Mr. Calla¬ 
ghan’s cow had supplied his family with milk 
and cream, and made 2* pounds of butter in 
10 days, and 410 pounds in a year. When five 
years old, she had made 04 pounds of butter in 
June; and when six years old, 00 pounds. Mr. 
Heaton's half-bred Jersey had made in a week, 
when two years old, Oji pounds of butter; 
when three years old, 12 pounds 0 ounces; and 
15>2 pounds when six years old, the last trial 
in April before being turned to grass. Cows 
should, he said, be tested, every one, and the 
poor ones turned into beef. As soon as the 
flush of feed is over, extra feed should be giv¬ 
en. His cows had given one-third more milk 
in dry weather by feeding four quarts 
of wheat middlings daily, which cost four 
cents. In hot weather cows will stay out in 
the sun and fight flies only long enough to sat¬ 
isfy the cravings of hunger. All they eat in 
such a case will not make much milk. They 
must be tempted to eat more in the stable, and 
all of this extra feed will make milk. 
Under the old system of taking care of milk 
there is too much labor. Farming had been 
made much easier by improved implements, 
and so had butter-making by ice setting and 
the creameries. This was not all: when milk 
was set in pans in warm weather, it would 
not all be ready to skim at the same time, and 
some of the cream would become rancid: this 
would in time make the butter rancid, for al¬ 
though the germs of putrefaction in it may be 
only in one pan of milk, or one skimmer of 
cream, yet, like leaven, it would affect a whole 
tubful of butter. This was the reason why 
there was so much poor butter and so 
much disappointment to hard-working house¬ 
wives when the butter was sold. The changes 
of atmosphere and conditions, warm cellars, 
etc., were generally such that the butter 
would be poor. With ice or cold water the 
temperature of the milk and cream could be 
controlled and both could be kept sweet. He 
believed iu sweetness. Fermentation meant 
putrefaction, and this was decay. People 
would not buy, at a first-class price, butter on 
• the way to decay. 
Mr. T. B. Clark, a practical Vermont dairy¬ 
man, who makes 25 cows average over 200 
pounds of butter each every year, who had been 
induced by Col. Curtis to be present, then ex¬ 
plained the creamery process, and the hand¬ 
ling and care of the cream and butter. He 
also told the farmers how he manages his cows. 
He went from the small pan system to that of 
the large, shallow pans with water running 
around them. This was better thau the small 
pans, but when the deep-setting plan was in- 
troducedjhe went into that, notwithstanding 
he had built an expensive milk-house for the 
other. He found ice much better thau water, 
as the former gave pex-fect control over the 
milk, while the latter did not. One was a suc¬ 
cess, the other was a partial success. He fed 
his cows all they would eat, as there was no 
profit in poor cows, or those poorly fed. 
Rev, Mr. Parkinson made a pleasant address 
on the benefits of social gatherings and discus¬ 
sions among farmers. They should meet of- 
tener and talk about just such topics as had 
been elucidated. A farmer was not wise or 
sensible who stood aloof from any improve¬ 
ment, or the opportunity to improve. The old 
ppmo logical. 
JERSEY HAWTHORNE APPLE. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
The “ Haththome,” as old people used to 
call it, is a local apple in this vicinity and has 
JERSEY HAWTHORNE APPLE.—FIG. 505. 
rut led up hill too much. Ho should go home 
wiser and grateful. 
Dr. Geo. A. Stuart, a local physieiau, read an 
instructive paper on contagion from milk and 
its relation to health and disease, and stated 
that typhoid fever and other diseases had been 
transmitted in milk. Milk was susceptible to 
taiut and contagion, and required clean and 
healthful surroundings. Cows could also con¬ 
vey disease through their milk if the food or 
water they consumed was foul or infected, or 
even the air. 
The ample hospitalities and the charming 
sunshine served to make the greetings, if 
possible, more cox-dial. May there be more 
suc b! A Rural Reader. 
MY PIGS. 
I am experimenting in growing pork, and 
have taken, for the purpose, 12 pigs of the 
Poland-China breed. 1 have provided dry, 
sheltered sleeping quarters under a low, tem¬ 
porary shed covered with a hay roof, and ad¬ 
jacent to a covered alley-way, filled loosely 
with hay, under which they'can burrow to 
avoid the hot sun or the cool air of night. The 
pigs are, one-half of them, three months old, 
and one-half, two mouths old. They have been 
‘‘altex-ed” and weaned in the most successful 
manner, and as they are all growing in a re¬ 
markable degree. I will describe my manage¬ 
ment of them. 
I have a long, shallow, V-shaped trough out¬ 
side of the regular hog-yard (which is 30x100 
feet inclosed by barbed wire only) and beside 
the trough a barrel for swill. f have a lot of 
coarsely ground corn, some wheat b:-an, and 
some wheat shorts ; these I mix in the barrel, 
and manage to have the mixture sour all the 
time. I put two common pail fids of it to 40 
gallons of cold wafer, but I do not always 
make the swill of the same proportions of the 
tlu-ee kinds of feed ; in fact, I aim to keep up 
a constant variety in their feed by continu¬ 
ally varying the proportion. For instance, 
calling the corn No. 1, the bran No. 2, and the 
shorts No, 3, 1 begin to-day by making a mix¬ 
ture of six parts of No. 1, three parts of No. 2, 
and one part of No. 3, to-morrow it will be 5, 
3 and 2; the next day, 4. 3 and 3, the next day 
3, 4 and 3, and the next day 5, 3 and 2, and so 
I “swing around the circle.” By this means 
I keep their appetite continually active. 
In addition to these rations, they have, 
three times a day, sour milk, to the amount of 
a pailful each time, apart from their regular 
swill, They get their swill at five and nine 
a. m., at noon, and at four and seven P. M. —in 
all live times a day. All day they run iu the 
com field, where there are many cool, dump 
places and plenty of green herbage to nibble 
at. Although I give them at each feed all 
they will eat, they come promptly to the 
trough when culled, and eat as if it were their 
lii-st rnoal, and feared it would be their last. 
They are remarkably sleek, lively and 
thrifty, and their growth cur almost be no¬ 
ticed from day to day. I am as regular as the 
clock iu feeding them, and believe it to be a 
»inr-<jua-non. I am sure the variety I make 
in their swill is a most important: matter, as 
well as giving them their liberty, both night 
aud day. They are very sociable, and uever 
squeal, except when following me to the feed 
trough, and this is another point T aim at As 
the “ quiet sow gets all the swill,” l am edu¬ 
cating these pigs, as I did their mothers before 
them, to be quiet,, so that each one can get 
all the swill it wants. I do not pretend to 
offer the treatment as particularly new, but I 
do assert that, it is rare—too rare altogether. 
“My pigs” get feed enough at each feed; 
get it often enough; get variety enough; get 
exercise enough, and are content. Under 
these conditions they canuot help growing ; 
they have nothing to squeal for, and their fine 
condition proves uiy course to be the correct 
one. I recommend' this plan absolutely to all 
who wish to enjoy pork raising; as' to me, 
there is real enjoyment in seeing success fol- 
ow full feeding, and no sign of surfeit to fol¬ 
low. S. Rufus Mason. 
not, as far as I can learn, been much dissemi¬ 
nated. Tho oldest, and I suppose the original, 
tree is still standiug in West Orange, N. J., 
and was iu 1S40, to use the language of the 
gentlemen who then purchased the farm, in 
the very prime of life and vigor and produc¬ 
ing abundantly. I have not been able to find 
any other trees now standing, that did not 
emanate from this one by grafting. It has 
generally been supposed to be identical with 
the Hawthornden of Downing, an apple of 
Sco' ' origin, and I, too, accepted this stoiy 
until I fruited the latter and found it entirely 
distinct. The old tree bears no evidence of 
ever having been grafted, and I can find none 
that leads me to suppose it is not a seedling. 
The fruit has been frequently exhibited during 
the last dozen years without being identified 
with any known variety, and to avoid con¬ 
founding it with the foreign variety I have 
felt justified in calling this “Jersey Haw¬ 
thorne.” 
Tho trees are of vigorous growth and the 
limbs are elastic (just the reverse of R. I. 
Greening and such rigid varieties), making a 
full round head. It is a profuse bearer in al¬ 
ternate years. Fruit medium to large, round, 
quite regular , fiat, usually very fair and hand¬ 
some; skin greenish-white, becoming light- 
yellow at maturity, ofteu with a light blush, 
on the exposed side, slightly sprinkled with 
gray dots. Stalk three-quarters of an inch 
long, rather slender, set ki a deep cavity. 
Calyx closed. Basin moderate. Flesh, white 
tender, crisp, juicy, subacid, pleasant. A 
handsome apple of fair quality. Season, Oc¬ 
tober to J anuary. 
Changing the Bearing Year. 
A neighbor some years ugo had a tree of 
Dutch Mignonne the fruit of which did not 
suit him though it bore abundantly on the 
“ off ” year when apples were desirable. He 
also had several trees of the Jersey Hawthorne 
doing well. I remember one season he real¬ 
ized 34 per barrel for some of the fruit. He 
grafted his Dutch Mignonne with Hawthornes 
and when it came to bear it took on the 
Mignonne habit ol' bearing in the “ off ” year, 
so that now he has Hawthornes every year. 
Will not this fact score one on the affirmative 
side of the question “ of the influence of the 
stock on the graft ” ? 
Montclair, N. J. 
fHiscclioncoits. 
Destroying the Canada Thistle,—A t a 
late meeting of the Markham iCanada* Fann¬ 
ers’ Club Mr, Slater made some suggestions as 
to the destruction of the Canada Tliistle. We 
find the report iu the Toronto Globe. He had 
killed everyone of them by repeated cul¬ 
tivation. He and his gardener. Mi'. Burgess, 
had started experimenting with thistles; had 
found that a dense shade would kill them, but 
that merely cutting off the tops would not. 
As the result of the experiments he had be¬ 
come fully satisfied that three or four cuttings 
just under the surface were sure death to 
thistles. So he purchased a now set of shovel 
teeth for his cultivator and ran that over his 
field. It cut the thistles and left them stand¬ 
ing, but in a few hours they wilted beauti¬ 
fully and dropped. In ten days they were 
up again and received another dose of the cul¬ 
tivator. This time the thistles grew again, but 
weak and soft, and one more cutting finished 
nearly every one of them. Ho expected that 
a crop of barley and clover would finish off 
whatever seedlings might spring from seed 
left in the soil. For thistly land from which 
a grain crop had just been taken, he would 
first go over the ground with a grubber to 
loosen it and give the weed seeds a chance to 
germinate. Then lie would run his scuffler 
and cut off the weeds; let the seeds grow 
again and cut again. One of the greatest 
mistakes a farmer could make was to plow 
under land foul with seeds without doing 
something to germinate the weeds. He 
thoroughly believed that plowing was of no 
good against thistles. Besides, the saving ef¬ 
fected by using a cultivator instead of a plow 
was immense. A man can cultivate three 
times as much as he can plow. On the ordin¬ 
ary form, in two or three days a cultivator 
will go over all the summer-fallow there is. 
Any farmer can find time to do this, while 
farmers could not and did not find time to 
plow their fallows. So that even if plowing 
was as effectual as cultivating, which it is 
not, cultivating would be best. 
The York Imperial Apple.— If ever a 
fruit did better in Eastern Pennsylvania than 
the York Imperial Apple in the few years it 
has been tested, then it must be as nearly per¬ 
fect as we can expect. It is as regular in 
bearing as the return of the seasons, as large 
as the favorite old Pennock, and as handsome 
in color as was that variety in “ the good old 
times” of our fathers; it has no imperfections 
to speak of to mar its glossy red surface; and in 
quality it has just that nice commingling of acid 
and sugar sure to please the majority of judges 
of good fruit. It is not so rich as the Smoke¬ 
house, and yet it. is by no means deficient in 
flavor; nor so spicy as the Newtown Pippin, 
although it possesses a fragrance peculiarly 
its own. In the orchard, the outline of the 
tree is not to be commended, and yet it is a 
remarkably healthy and vigorous grower, 
with rich, dark green foliage. It will not pro¬ 
duce so many apples as Smith’s Cider, but 
there wifi be more bushels per tree; and as 
regards value, the York Imperial is immeas¬ 
urably its superior, aud always commands 
a much better price. So says Josiah Hoopes 
in tlie N. Y. Tribune, the agricultural de¬ 
partment of which is, as we view it, ably and 
conscientiously conducted. Since reading the 
above we have made inquiries as to where 
this apple thrives best. According to the 
record of the American Poinological Society, 
the States are Pennsylvania, Maryland and 
Virginia. Favorable reports have also been 
made from some parts of New York. 
Crops on Long Island. —The Democrat of 
Bellefonte, Pa., has the following: “Center 
County farmers are not only just but gener¬ 
ous, and would not think of rejoicing over 
any reported failure of crops, consequent up¬ 
on the drought in other sections of the coun¬ 
try. Nevertheless, “ Misery loves company,” 
and we confess to being a little less uncom¬ 
fortable on the score of the discouraging 
emptiness of our bams and cribs, when we 
learn that we are “no worse off than our 
neighbors" of other counties and other States. 
The Rural New-Yorker comes up smiling 
with an amusing cartoon of “ The Long Is¬ 
land fanner gathering his crops.” His face 
wears a most forlorn expression as he trudges 
homeward with a basket upon one arm, con¬ 
taining his entire crop of potatoes and gar¬ 
den truck, a small sickel in the same hand, 
and in the other his whole grain crop, done 
up in a single sheaf of wonderfully slender 
proportions.” We would say that although 
all late crops (especially eoru) have proven 
comparative failures, the Long Island farm¬ 
er was blessed with very heavy crops of wheat, 
oats and hay and has, in fact, little cause of 
complaint. 
China and California.— Hon. John Bid- 
well says, in the Pacific Rural Press (Cal.), that 
the great want of a California farmer is a fair 
price and an adequate market, there being no 
question in his mind about his being able to 
pro luce the greatest abundance. No market 
can be deemed available unless products can 
be transported to it with, at least, a small mar¬ 
gin of profit. After giving the statistics of 
the grain crops of the State, he refers to China 
as a market: “ We have a treaty with China 
and, as I understand, we have ample control 
of Mongolian immigration. All is satisfactory. 
Why may we not lay hold of China and con¬ 
vert that vast empire of more than 400,000,000 
people into a boundless and never-failing mar¬ 
ket for all our surplus flour 1 I do not mean 
to compel the Chinese to swallow our bread at 
tho canuuu’s mouth. But lay hold of China 
by the stronger and more enduring ties of 
friendship. I can see uo reason why we should 
perpetuate the senseless abuse and prejudices 
for which politicians and demagogues have in 
