bushel; and assuming an average crop of 
wheat to be 28 bushels, the crop is 14 percent, 
below the average. 
According to the returns of the Registrar- 
General, the population of tbe United King¬ 
dom was a little below 35,000,000 on June 30, 
1S81. Making due allowance for the natural 
increase, the mean population to bo fed during 
the year commencing He] it. 1,1881, and ending 
August 31, 1882, will be 35,280,000. Estimat¬ 
ing the consumption at 5% bushels of wheat 
per head, the quantity required to feed the 
population will be a little under 25.000,000 
quarters, or 200,000,000 bushels. 
The area under wheat in the United King¬ 
dom was, during the past harvest year, slight¬ 
ly under 3,000,000 acres. If the yield in my 
cultivator are concerned, has comparatively 
little influence on the requirements of the 
country at large for foreign wheat. 
I have no doubt that my estimate of the 
home wheat crop of 1880 was considerably too 
high. The average of the usually selected 
plots in my experimental wheat field showed 
a produce of 27 bushels, reckoned at 01 pounds 
per bushel. There was not at that time suffi¬ 
cient evidence to show how exceedingly bad 
was the yield of the crop upon the lighter soils; 
nor can I now account for the fact that in that 
year wheat grown continuously was so much 
better than wheat grown in rotation. For 
example, in the experimental field of light soil 
at Woburn, the land growing wheat every year 
showed but little difference between the crops 
stripping should be done, so far as practicable 
in warm, damp weather. The assorting also 
should be done in a warm, damp atmosphere, 
made thus either naturally or artificially. The 
latter requires that the work be done in a tight, 
room in which the air is impregnated with 
moisture from the evaporation of water. A 
kettle placed upon a stove in which there Ls a 
steady fire day and night, kept filled with 
water, will accomplish the desired result in a 
close, tight room. G. a. g., jr. 
Chemung Co., N. Y. 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL FARM, 
We planted a patch of the Early Ohio Pota¬ 
toes April 33. The crop matured July 12. They 
were planted in sandy soil without manure, 
single eyes one foot apart in drills throe feet 
apart. They were hoed once and London- 
purple was applied once. The yield was at 
the rate of 150 bushels to the acre. There 
is much to be said m favor of this variety—a 
seedling of the Early Rose. The tubers lie 
close together in the hills and are remarkably 
uniform in size. The Early Ohio has with us 
a flesh-colored skin. The eyes are sometimes 
deep, though generally as shown in the cut, 
rig, 515, which is characteristic in shape and 
size. The flesh is nearly white with more of 
the potato, or ‘‘strong,” flavor than most oth¬ 
ers of the same parentage. The vines grew 
only a foot in bight and bore no blossoms. 
As the tubers grow close together in the hill 
and average only medium in size and the 
vines are short and upright, it will appear 
that the pieces may be advantageously placed 
less than one foot apart and the drills not 
over two feet apart. So cultivated, a large 
if not a heavy yield might be looked for. The 
Early Ohio is everywhere among the earliest 
of potatoes—upon this farm the earliest of any 
we have ever tested. It submits to slouehy 
treatment, and a single cultivation with tbe 
harrow after the sprouts appear, suffices to 
produce a fair crop. It has been grown in 
this neighborhood for several year* and as a 
first early potato is preferred to the Beauty 
of Hebron. 
The drought is finally broken. Oc¬ 
casional showers are falling as we make 
these notes—one having time to soak in the 
ground ere another commences, the weather 
remaining warm, While this is helpful to the 
growing wheat, it will scarcely determine 
many farmers to sow wheat who have been 
unable to sow before this time. 
EARLY OHIO POTATO.—FROM LIFE. FIG. 515. 
experimental field be taken as a guide, the 
total wheat crop of the country would not 
amount to 0,000.000 quarters; and, deducting 
from this the amount required for seed, the 
quantity of home-produced wheat left avail¬ 
able for consumption would l>e only about 
8,000,000 quarters; and we should thus ha veto 
depend upon foreign supplies for nearly 
17,000,000 quarters, or 130,000,000 bushels. 
As, however, wheat has risen considerably 
in price, and the potato crop is likely to 
be abundant, it is probable that our re¬ 
quirement for foreign wheat may be satis¬ 
fied by an import equal to that which we have 
received during the last two years—namely, 
from 16,000,000 to 16,500,000 quarters. 
With a stationary or decreasing area under 
wheat, and a rapidly increasing population, 
it is probable that, before many years are 
past, the home produce of wheat will not fur¬ 
nish more than one-fourth of the total amount 
required. 
iu 1S70 and 1880; but where, in the san e field, 
wheat was grown in an ordinary four-course ro¬ 
tation, after clover fed off by stock with cake or 
corn, or without cake or coni but with an ap¬ 
plication of artificial manures, the produce of 
1880 was from 11 to 1(1 bushels per acre less 
than under the same treatment in the very bad 
season of 1870. 
In the following table is given tbe produce 
in 1881, upon t he same selected plots as usual, 
in tlio field at Rothawsted, which has now 
grown wheat for 38 years in succession. There 
is also given for Comparison the average pro¬ 
duce, on the same selected plots, over the last 
10 years, 1871-1880; over the preceding 19 
years, 1852-1870; over the total period of 29 
years, 1852-1880; during which time the same 
manures have, in every ease, been applied to 
the same plots:— 
J. B. LAWES. 
[Du. Lawks favored us with an advance slip of the 
following, which was first published In the London 
Standard. We were unable to print It, however, un¬ 
til this issue.] 
The seven seasons ending with 1881 have 
been more disastrous to British agriculture 
than any seven consecutive years of which we 
have a record. Those who hold the opinion 
that the fluctuations of the weather occur in 
definite cycles will have some difficulty in 
finding a parallel to the period of the last 
seven years without going back to very remote 
records, 
The change in the relative proportions of 
home-produced and imported wheat which has 
taken place during the last few years, has en¬ 
tirely altered the character of the trade. In 
1868-70 two-thirds of the total bread consumed 
was tbe produce of home-grown wheat. A few 
years later the requirements of the country 
were met by one-half of home-grown and one- 
half of foreign wheat. But the harvest of 
1879 scarcely supplied one loaf in four re¬ 
quired, that of 1880 only oue in three, and that 
of 1881 will also supply only about one loaf in 
three required. 
AVe cannot ignore the fact that, in conse¬ 
quence of these great changes, the question of 
a good or a bad wheat crop, however impor¬ 
tant, it may be to the land-owner or the culti¬ 
vator, is no longer of the same importance to 
the nation at large as it was formerly. An¬ 
other point worthy of notice is that, although 
our requirements for foreign wheat are be¬ 
coming larger and larger, the fluctuations in 
the amounts required from year to year 
are becoming much leas. Thus, after the 
bad season of I860, the net imports of 
wheat increased from 4,500,000 to 10,000,000 
quarters, or by more than 100 ]>er cent. 
In 1872-73 tho imports were 3,000,000 quar¬ 
ters more than iu the previous year, cor¬ 
responding to an increase of about 33 per 
cent. But after the harvest of 1879, the worst 
on record, when the net imports of wheat in¬ 
creased from 14.1 to 16.4 million quarters, tho 
increase only amounted to about 16 per cent. 
Duriug the year ending August 31, 1881, the 
amount of foreign wheat retained for home 
consumption was more than 16,000,000 quar¬ 
ters. As the area under wheat in the United 
Kingdom was last year rather less than 3,000,- 
000 acres, a deficiency of half a quarter per 
acre in the yield of the crop, although a very 
serious matter so far as the interests of the 
Old Sweet Potatoes Under New Names. 
A writer in a recent number of the Rural 
speaks of growing Bliss’s Early Golden, Pea¬ 
body and Southern Queen sweet potatoes. 
This suggests to me that here are two potatoes 
under wrong names. That under the name 
of Peabody introduced some five or six years 
ago, was nothing but the Red Bermuda that 
has been in cultivation as long back as I have 
known sweet potatoes After growing the 
Peabody and comparing it with tbe Bermuda 
and calling the attention of growers to the 
two, there was no room left for doubt as to 
their identity, and I so reported to an agri¬ 
cultural journal, possibly the Rural New- 
Yorker. This seemed generally to be ac¬ 
cepted, but I notice a noted grower of plants 
still puts it out under the name of Peabody. 
This custom of selling an old plant under a 
new naiue is too prevalent, and whore known 
to be such, can be characterized, if the truth 
is told, as a dishonest one. I find also that 
the Early Golden introduced in 1880, is iden¬ 
tical with the Yellow Strasburg, a variety 
sold under that name in the West as much 
as four years ago. And I have a letter lying 
before me from Rev. Leon Wilson, of Cyntbi- 
ana, Ind., which narrates how he found a vine 
growing among some Bermudas, differing 
from them in color, and, that having sent it 
out to different parties it came buck to him 
under the name of Yellow Strasburg. I grew 
this and tbe Early Golden which I got of the 
Agricultural Department, together, and they 
proved alike in every respect. These state¬ 
ments are made in the interest of truth and 
fairness. J. A. Foote. 
.E »©|<t 
pojrunjuiufi 
*1 putt 
jo ui>mk 
(1) Equal to 24 bushels, at fil pounds per bushel, 
( 2 ) ;* " *• ;; ;; ;; 
These figures do not show much prospect of 
an abundant harvest. The yield per acre is 
low, and tbe quality indifferent. In no case 
among the nearly 40 plots iuthe experimental 
field does tbe weight per bushel reach 60 
pounds, and the produce of straw is at the 
same time exceedingly low. In an adjoining 
field 21 varieties of wheat were grown side by 
side; not long before harvest the crops pre¬ 
sented an exceedingly luxuriant appearance, 
and it was considered that the yield would be 
from 50 to 60 bushels per acre. The result of 
the thrashing is, however, disappointing. The 
highest produce in the field is only 54 bushels 
per acre, with a weight per bushel of 57t£ 
pounds, and the lowest produce is, in two 
cases, 39V?i bushels, iu one with a weight of 61 
pounds, and in the other of scarcely 59 pounds 
per bushel. It is, I think, quite evident that 
the yield of the wheat crop will vary very 
much, not only in different districts, but in 
the same district, and even in different fields 
on the same farm. 
The produce iu my experimental field, tak¬ 
ing the mean of the same selected plots as for 
many years past, shows an average of 24 
bushels per acre reckoned at 61 pounds per 
COLONEL F. D. CURTIS. 
Last year we lost money on a pen of pigs. 
The price of pork was low and we thought we 
would feed them a month or two longer, al¬ 
though the weather was beginning to get cold, 
and we would have the advantage of an in¬ 
crease in price as well as an increase in 
weight. AVe made the pen as warm as possi¬ 
ble and fed them all the shelled corn they 
would eat, thoroughly cooked. After feeding 
them a full month, the price of pork being no 
higher and the pigs apparently not gaining, 
they were slaughtei'ed. \A r e were satisfied 
that the corn consumed was a loss. The ma¬ 
nure which was made did not any more than 
pay for tbe labor of cooking the feed and the 
care of the pigs. This year we are not dis¬ 
posed to try any more such experiments. 
This mistake is often made by fanners of 
feeding without any profit. 
It requires very close calculation to make 
profit in fattening animals. AVe have several 
sows now suckling pigs which we designed to 
turn off this season. Corn is worth 72 cents a 
bushel, and pork is nine dollars a hundred in 
our markets. On this basis will it pay to 
try to fatten these hogs? AVe do not think it 
will. We have heard old farmers say that it 
will always pay to fatten pigs when pork 
would bring as many dollars a hundred as 
corn is shilliugs a bushel. No doubt this rule 
is good when the fattening can be done in 
warm weather. In cold weather the ratio 
should be double for the pi’ice of pork; for 
our experience teaches us that animals will 
not. gain half as fast in cold weather as they 
will iu warm, and although the price of pork 
is exceptionally high, wo have concluded to 
winter these sows. They can be nearly win¬ 
tered on the coni it would take to fatten them, 
or, what is better yet, they can be wintered 
on apples and roots and tbe com be saved. 
The corn which it would take to fatten them 
will furnish feed in the Spring to prepare the 
pigs for sale, and make a handsome income. 
After that, if allowed to go without offspring, 
by early Autumn they can lie made nearly 
ready to butcher on pasture alone. This is the 
cheapest way to make pork. 
The cider mills in this vicinity are offering 
12} j cents a bushel for apples. Farmers gen¬ 
erally sell to these mills all their apples which 
are not good enough to market as barreled 
fruit—such as refuse grafts and common 
apples. AVe shall put ours in the pig-house 
ella r to feed to the hogs. Father used to 
winter his store bogs entirely on apples and 
they kept in good condition. AVe are satisfied 
that six bushels of apples will go a good deal 
further in feeding pigs than a bushel of corn, 
which is the relative proportion at the present 
price of both, 
A man refused the other day to buy a thor¬ 
oughbred boar pig, although he said he 
wanted him very much, because lie could not 
get him for one dollar less tlmu the price 
asked. This is a kind of economy which may 
save a dollar—but is it wise? AA r e rather com¬ 
mend the more progressive farmer who thinks 
that the best is the cheapest. 
It is surprising to those uot acquainted 
with the fact to see how much crude sulphur 
pigs will oat when fattening. Ik should be 
given to them every few days; or, what is 
(letter yet, be kept in tbe pens where they can 
help themselves to it. AVhen pigs ore fed a 
large amount of hearty food, their stomachs 
become disordered and they need sulphur and 
cliarcoal to neutralize the acidity and to cor¬ 
rect the condition of their stomachs. AVlien 
it is given to them plentifully they will eat 
better, digest more and are freer from bowel 
disorders. These correctives help to keep the 
blood pure and the skin free from affections. 
\\ r hen hogs have these correctives their flesh 
must be healthier. AVe have had hundreds of 
hogs and never a case of cholera, which we 
uttribute to the healthful effects of plenty of 
charcoal and sulphur together with succulent 
feed. A long-coutinued corn diet will invar¬ 
iably produce fever and more or less inflamma¬ 
tion of the stomach and bowels. 
EASTERN MARKET FOR WESTERN 
HORaES.-No. 1. 
L. S. HARDIN. 
It was one of the wisest sayings of the 
“ Bard of Avon ” that “ tho bearer of ill new's 
hath but a losing office.” No one is very fond 
of being told a disagreeable truth, and there¬ 
fore a little censure may fall to my part if I 
in any degree contribute toward destroying 
one of the idols of horse worship; as it is pro¬ 
posed, however, to deal with this subject 
solely from a money point of view, if my 
facts hold good the conclusion cau be drawn 
by each reader to suit himself. 
That the Eastern farmer has been follow¬ 
ing a cruel delusion until bis market bus 
abandoned him, I think it is not only easy te> 
demonstrate, but still easier to point out the 
