* 
nov. n 
than in others. Shipments of potatoes from 
this station in the month of September 
amounted to 10,000 bushels; thus far this 
month, they are being forwarded as fast as 
care can be obtained to receive them, and 
thousands of bushels are in store awaiting 
transportation. The White Elephant I re¬ 
ceived made twelve hills, an eye in each; bugs 
very plentiful;product 17 pounds. The Wash¬ 
ington Oats grew four feet lugh and yielded 
three pints of seed. Prices are: Wheat, $1.50; 
barley, 00c; oats, 50c; corn, 75c; flour, $4; 
butter, 30c; eggs, 35c; hay, $10; potatoes, 80c; 
hogs, 8c; beans, $3. G. w. s. 
Ohio. 
Pleasant Plain, Warren Co., Oct. 24.— 
The White Elephants weighed two ounces and 
had 21 eyas. On April 19 I planted one eye in 
a hill in good garden soil; used old hot-bed 
manure and unleached ashes, well mixed. Ou 
September 15 I dug 16 pounds, some weighing 
a pound each. The weather was very dry. 
The Rural Branching Sorghum came up nice¬ 
ly. It was planted in drills, but too thick. I 
cut every other row; the suckers are now four 
feet high aud 10 or 12 to each plant. The re¬ 
mainder is now 10 feet high, and there is a 
sucker to nearly every leaf-joint. Some of the 
heads are now ripe. The frost of the 20th did 
not affect, it any. The Washington Oats were 
a failure—rusty. The asparagus seed did not 
propagate well—but few plants. The pinks 
are doing very well; some are in bloom. I 
obtained one pound of the White Russian Oats 
of D. M. Ferry & Co., of Detroit, Mich. They 
were planted in drills six inches apart, in gar¬ 
den soil. The product was 1% bushel; four to 
six stalks from one grain. c. w. d. 
Pennsylvania. 
Columbia, Lancaster Co., Oct., 26.—I had 
hoped to be able to make a report on the White 
Elephant Potato, that would go ahead of all 
others, but the severe and long-continued 
drought, cut the crop short. My sou started 
the potato in the greenhouse—cut off the 
sprouts and soon rooted them, ciit them off 
again aud again, until he had five or six 
boxes, 12 by 18 inches, filled with growing 
sprouts, and hundreds of little potatoes, the 
size of peas, on the surface of the ground. 
After danger of frost was past he planted 
them out in a row 120 feet long. All started 
finely until the dry spell commenced in May; 
then they made little growth afterwards. 
Bugs, too, appeared determined to use them 
up. The several sprinklings of Paris-green 
bothered the bugs somewhat. His crop was 
49 pounds of small potatoes. As to the Rui'al 
Branching Sorghum, I also planted a few 
seeds in a pot and afterwards planted out 
three plants. Those soon started to grow and 
throw out sprouts, each plant eight to ten. 
The main stalk grew up eight feet, aud the 
sprout six to seven feet high. All the seed 
on nine heads on each of the three plants ri¬ 
pened perfectly, and I now have about three 
pints of very nice seed. Now what shall I do 
with the seed? [We give your address, so that 
those desiring seed may apply. Eds.] As 
we farmers in Lancaster Co., Pa., have not 
yet got to the soiling system, we have no use 
for this kind of green feed, preferring to let 
our cat tle pick their feed in the fields. The 
asparagus seeds came up well, but the drought 
soon finished them, as it did our cabbage, 
celery, und other garden truck. The flower 
seeds were nothing new or extra. Onr wheat 
was a fair average crop ; corn over half a 
crop; tobacco a medium crop, but of extra 
quality, free from flea-bites or worm holos. 
Light rains lately are bringing up the wheat 
finely; but springs and wells are not yet af¬ 
fected. J. B. GARBER. 
Glenora, Butler Co., Oct. 24.—The Wash¬ 
ington Oats I drilled in good grouud. They 
grew very rauk, but smutted badly; I got 
half a gallon of good seed from them. From 
the W into Elephant Potato I got almost a 
peck of nice tubers, which I thought a good 
yield, owing to the continued dry weather we 
had for so long a time. Potatoes are worth 
from $l@L.30 per bushel. The asparagus seed 
germinated and grew finely. The Rural 
Branching Sorghum was n failure; only a few 
seeds germinated. The Rural pinks wore 
beauties. 1 think the Rural a worthy paper 
and hope it may long flourish. G. G. u. 
Washiii k t<>n Territory. 
Klikitat Landing, Klikitat Co.—In this 
section wheat must be sown shortly after 
February 1, for iu many .seasous a crop of late- 
sown grain does uot get rain enough to cause 
it to sprout. Experiments with the seeds you 
sent out this year show that the White Ele- 
plant hardly equals the Early Rose either for 
quantity or quality. The Rural Branching 
Sorghum is a real success. The Argenteuil 
Asparagus, fair; German Asparagus, almost 
a failure. The carnations have been a wonder¬ 
ful success and a real surprise, such a variety 
aud so beautiful. The pinks have takeu 
splendid roots and we are looking forward for 
a fine show next year. The season has been a 
favorable one for farmers. Growing crops 
have all about matured. Prices here are, per 
pound, wheat, lc; corn, 2%c .;—a poor crop 
here; barley, lc; oats, lj^c; potatoes, %c; 
pork, 5@6c; beef, 3@4c; apples, %c; grapes 2 
@4c; peaches and n arly all kinds of small 
fruits abundant and prices low. G. w. B. 
Wisconsin. 
Minnesota Junction, Dodge Co., Oct. 24. 
—My original WhiteElephant Potato weighed 
1% ounce. I planted it in five hills and dug 
33% pounds of nice, large tubers—all larger 
than the one planted- I would not sell 
the potatoes for what three subscriptions 
to the Rural cost. The asparagus also came 
up finely aud has done well. Most of the 
carnations have blossomed and my “better 
half" thinks they are splendid. The Rural 
Bl anching Sorghum has done finely aud I 
think I shall save some seed. The Washing¬ 
ton Oats lodged badly, and half turned out 
smut. Crops are poor. The average yield of 
wheat is nine bushels; potatoes good; oats, 
middling; corn, a failure, on account of the 
white grub, Old meadows are all destroyed 
by the same pest. We are haviugrain almost 
every day and plenty of it. Ground too wet 
to plow or to do any work on the farm. Cows 
pay best of anything ou the farm; we get 32 
cents per pound for creamery butter. Fall seed¬ 
ing good on account of having so much raiu. 
We have bad but three frosts that amounted 
to much; they have not killed our geraniums 
in the garden. Not as much Winter wheat 
has beeu sowed as usual. I think it pays to 
take the Rural New-Yorker, and you can 
coimt me as one of your life members as I am 
an old reader. I have bound copies in my 
library since 1871, so you see I am no stranger 
to the Rural New-Yorker. c. c. d. 
Troy, Walworth County, Oct 23.—Our 
crops, on the whole, have been rather poor; 
wheat yielded from three to twenty-five bush¬ 
els; averaging from six to eight. Corn, early- 
planted, good where the grubs did not eat it; 
late, very poor; oats a fair yield, but light in 
weight. Potatoes the same as coni—early, 
good; late, very poor; hnlfaerop. My White 
Elephant was small, but when cut with one 
eye in a piece, it made 16 pieces which were 
planted oue in a hill; 14 grew and after taking 
out three tubers the rest weighed 34 pounds. 
The Rural Branching Sorghnrn did first-rate. 
I cut it twice to feed to my horses. I thinned 
and saved two hills for seed: it was cut last 
week before frost, and I think I shall have 
plenty of seed. After gathering the seed I cut 
the stalks and the horses devoured them 
greedily. The asparagus did not grow; the 
other seeds my wife gave to her sister. H. 
<Tl)c (Querist, 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
aud address of the writer to insure atteutlou ] 
THE LATE IRISH LAND LEGISLATION. 
W. H. N, New Brunswick, N. J., asks what 
advantages are conferred on the Irish tenant 
farmer by the Land Act lately passed by the 
British Parliament. 
Ans. —Briefly summarized the new Land 
Act provides that every tenant shall be 
entitled to a lease of fifteen years; that ex¬ 
penditures for improvements shall go to his 
credit iu giving him a property interest iu his 
holding; that on Che expiration of the lease 
he shall be entitled to compensation for this 
property, and if it is not paid, he shall be en¬ 
titled to a new lease without change of rent; 
that in case of disagreements, rate of rent 
shall lie determined by a special court called 
the “ Land Court,” lately created for the pur¬ 
pose of settling land questions; that in fixing 
rent, valuation is to be made on naked laud; 
that no tenant shall be evicted except for non¬ 
payment of fair rent as fixed by the court; 
that the tenant may sell his property interest 
in the lease or improvements at any time, 
and that under certain specified conditions the 
tenant may become the purchaser of the land 
held under tho lease, receiving aid from the 
government to do so, by a loan secured on the 
property and payable by installments within 
a certain limit of time. The Land Court 
has just begun operations and rendered its 
first decision last Wednesday at Monaghan. 
Before its .recent suppression, the Land 
League made ample arrangements for testing 
the value of the new law, for tenant farmers, 
by bringing before the court a large uumberof 
cases where the rent was not very excessive, 
yet where a reduction was thought just. Such 
cases will now be tried without the aid of the 
League, and for some years to come claims 
for reduction of rents must form the vast 
majority of business before the court. Its 
first decision reduced the plaintiff’s rent six 
guineas—about $31, on a small holding on 
which the rent was not high in comparison 
with that charged for other land of the same 
nature. Tho excessively high rent sometimes 
charged may be inferred from an application 
made to the Dublin Land- Court last Wednes¬ 
day to fix the rent on a holding in Cork 
where the Poor Law’s valuation was £27 
and the present rent £113. In spite of the 
Land League, an enormous number of tenant 
farmers are sure to seek relief from the court; 
2,000 tenant farmers in the single count y of 
Limerick have already resolved to apply to 
the court to fix their rent judicially or set 
aside unjust leases, while 11,000 applications 
are being prepared in County Clare. 
THE FIVE-COURSE SYSTEM OF CROP ROTATION. 
A. L., ^estover, Mil., asks what we think 
of the five- s eld system of rotation, and what 
rotation would be advisable where wheat aud 
com are the principal crops—soil mostly heavy 
loam, with a yellow clay subsoil; level. 
Clover and Timothy grow kindly, but oats 
are not a certain crop. 
Ans. —This is a very important question, as 
it opens up the whole subject of the manage¬ 
ment of a farm carried on under tho mixed 
system. Where wheat and corn are produced 
and some cows are kept, as well as a few 
head of beeves fattened each year, and a 
small flock of sheep is kept, the five-course or 
five-field system is the best that cuu be pur¬ 
sued. There are two fields iu grass—oue for 
hay and one for pasture; or both for hay if 
there is a permanent pasture on the farm be¬ 
sides the five fields, as theie should lie. Theu 
the second or oldest grass field is plowed for 
corn, the corn stubble is put into roots or oats 
or both with some potatoes. Wheat follows the 
oats or roots and is seeded with grass and 
clover. There are two fields of grass; one of 
corn; one of oats, roots and potatoes; und oue 
of wheat, aud these crops furnish some wheat, 
hay, potatoes, oats, butter, pork, wool, lambs, 
eggs aud poultry for sale; aud corn, corn fod¬ 
der, hay, straw, roots, and some oats for feed¬ 
ing. There is no other system of farming 
which is so desirable or profitable as this 
when the character of the soil suits it pre¬ 
cisely. A heavy loam soil, kept well manured 
by feeding as much stock as possible and 
buying bran or cotton seed meal to help in 
feeding the straw, corn fodder and roots to 
cattle or shoep purchased in the Fall for this 
purpose, is very suitable and may be kept by 
good management as rich as a garden. The 
manure is all given to the wheat, being 
plowed in on the oat stubble and the potato 
ground; this iusures good wheat and fine 
grass; this good sod makes certain a fine corn 
crop and a good oat crop following. We think 
there is no better system for such farms as are 
suitable to it. 
ADVANTAGES OF AGRICULTURAL STATIONS. 
A, S., Westover, Md.. asks whether there is 
any means by which an ordinary farmer can 
tell about what percentage of potash and of 
other fertilizing materials there is in the mu¬ 
riate of potash ordinarily sold for agricultural 
purposes. 
Ans. —No—not with any certainty. In 
those States which have agricultural experi¬ 
ment stations, such as Connecticut, New Jer 
sey, North Carolina, etc., oue of the most im¬ 
portant objects of these institutions is to 
analyze samples of fe tilizers of all sorts sent 
in by farmers from all parts of the several 
States. In this way the agricultural value of 
various sorts of manures, such as muck, 
ashes of different woods, marl, etc., is deter¬ 
mined. aud farmer's can either employ them 
profitably if they are of real utility, or avoid 
the outlay of time and labor upon them if 
they are worthless. Unscrupulous manufac¬ 
turers of commercial fertilizers are also pre¬ 
vented, to a great extent, from adulterating 
their goods through fear of detection and ex¬ 
posure through the stations. In those States 
where no such stations exist, it would often 
pay the farmers of any district to employ a 
competent chemist to make an analysis of 
such fertilizers as are largely used. Iu giving, 
from time to time, the analyses of fertilizers, 
made by the Connecticut and New Jersey 
Experiment Stations, our object is to show 
the composition of the analyzed fertilizers to 
our raiders throughout the wide district iu 
which those particular articles are used. 
Miscellaneous. 
E. L. W., Brooklyn, Ba., 1, sends twospee- 
imens of seedling apples to get our opinion as 
to the value of the fruit. The tree is 50 years 
old and enormously productive. Thereabouts 
the apple is known as Weston’s White Apple. 
2, How should quinces be raised from cut¬ 
tings. 
Ans.— 1. It is an apple, in our judgment, of 
the finest quality aud should be propagated 
and disseminated. 2. Take the cuttings now. 
Cut c:lose to the old wood. Set them in a firm 
soil and press the earth closely about them, 
leaving only the tips out of the soil an inch or 
more. Cover with manure. Quince cuttings 
often fail iu sandy soil. Keep them mulched 
during next Summer to preserve moisture. 
T u e following Spring they may be set where 
desired or in nursery rows. 
IF. If. Hapley, Mass., wishing to obtain the 
next number of the Journal of the American 
Agricultural Association, asks its price aud 
where can it be had. 
Ans.—T he next issue will be very interest¬ 
ing and instructive, as may be seen by the 
bare list of its contents lately published in the 
Rural. It will contain about 300 pages of 
matter by some of the best agricultural 
writers, aud will cost only 75 cents per copy. 
It is now in press and will lie ready for distri¬ 
bution in a week or two. Those wishing copies 
should address thi Secretary and Editor, J. 
H. Reall, 127 Water Street, N. Y. 
Subscriber, Glendale, Mich., asks, 1, will the 
Robbins Family Washer do what it is claimed 
to be able to do; 2, where can ho get the Ver- 
gennes Grape. 
Ans.— 1. A number of notices of this washer 
have appeared from time to time in the “ Do¬ 
mestic Department" of the Rural, a few of 
which were unfa vorable,but mostof them spoke 
highly of it. After a good test at the Rural 
Farm it gave complete satisfaction. Probably 
a good deal depends on a careful use of it. 2. 
Thomas Calef, Bridgeport, Conn., advertised 
Vergennes Grapes for sale iu the R.ukal some 
time back. 
IF. M. N, Darien, Conn., asks, when is the 
best time to plant Black Walnuts; 2, the ad¬ 
dress of “ The Advance." 
Axs.—1. When the nuts are gathered for 
planting they should be laid iu heaps on dry 
ground and covered with straw or sods on 
which should be piled earth enough to exclude 
water and prevent alternate freezing and 
thuwing. In Spring they may be planted in 
ground marked out, in rows four feet apart. 
2. The New York office of The Advance is No. 
60 Bible House, it is dated and published 
here and at Chicago. 
T. L. P. C., Cartersmile, Va., says that six 
years ago he manured his orchard with about 
35 loads per acre of stable and pig-pen manure, 
and ever since his apples have been more in¬ 
clined than formerly to rot on the trees, and 
less disposed to keep well, aud he asks for some 
preventive of rotting. 
Ans. —Perhaps the soil was rich enough be¬ 
fore the application of the manure. Any stim¬ 
ulant that excites au undue growth might 
cause fruit to rot. But the trouble should 
remedy itself. Root-pruning might be ef¬ 
fective. 
J. G. S., Ellinwood, Kan., asks the address 
of the Iowa Horticultural Society with a view 
to getting its 36-page pamphlet giving explicit 
instructions in the propagation, setting and 
management of forest trees on the prairies, 
which Professor J. L. Budd, in the Rural of 
October 15, said would be forwarded to appli¬ 
cants on the receipt of a three-eent stamp. 
Ans.—P rof. J. L. Budd, Amee, Iowa, is 
Secretary of the Society and Editor of its 
publications. Applications should therefore 
be made to him. 
IF. C., Sparta, TIL, asks for a description of 
Ren’s Mammoth Quince. 
Ans. —Ren’s Mammoth resembles the Orange 
or Apple Quince in form and color, but is one- 
third larger It is large, roundish, shaped like 
an apple, and of a fine golden color. The 
tree is a strong, thrifty grower, and moder¬ 
ately productive. The loaves are longer and 
darker than thpse of the Apple Quince. 
./. F L., Newell, Ioioa, asks whether the 
Rural’s Deut com will mature as far north 
as that latitude. 
Ans.—W e should doubt it. Better try the 
Rural Thoroughbred. 
L. P. Stevens, Norfolk, Conn., wants to 
know where he can obtain trees of the Mar¬ 
shall Pear recently illustrated iu the Rural. 
Ans. —From P. H. Foster, Babylon, Long 
Island, N. Y. 
S. IF. McLachlan, Miss. —The present, for 
your section, is probably as good a time as 
any to plant asparagus roots. Other questions 
will bo answered under Domestic Economy. 
F. H., P&waukee, IFis., sends a stalk of grass 
for name. 
Ans. —It seems to be Hungarian Grass. 
For Owners of Bates Short-horns.— A 
“Subscriber,” Chesterville, Me., wishes to 
learn through the Rural who has for sale a 
Short-horn bull of Bates blood. He says: 
*• Will not object to color, nor if he is cross 
(sic,) if becomes cheap enough and is high¬ 
bred enough to make it pay.” 
--- 
Communications Received for the week 
ending Saturday, Nov., 5, 1881. 
J. F. L.—H. H. B.—H. & S—L. P. S.-G. 
G. G.—A. J. C.—G. A. S.—T. G. T., bulbs re¬ 
ceived.—N. R., thanks.—B. F. J.—E. L. W.— 
S. H., plant received. Answer iu Querist.— 
J. B.G.—A. B.—J. A. L.—C. C\ D., thanks.— 
S. H. M.-C, W. D.—W. C.—E. O. T., 
thanks.—L. M.-C, B. W.-J. A. F.-C. S.— 
A. M.-A. W.—M. F. McC.-T. L. P. C.—M. 
C. T.—E. C. J.—I. E. S.—H. T. M.—J. G.— 
W. V.—H. E.—P. E.—S. W. G.—J. S. J. 
—C. D.—P. C-—N. A.—K. P. S.—H. M. J.— 
K. L.—P. M. E.—S. B. G,—W. S.-P. N. D. 
A. B. F.-B. L.—S. P.—J. G.—M. E. J.— 
H. E.—M. E. P.—W. C.-H. C. P. 
