m 
.> 
get back into their places again and remain honse and they are looking fine. I have 
there during this generation. Cotton is about 
all picked; everybody sowed turnips. We 
J. y. Van Duzer notes that a late estimate 
of the value of wheat bran for cattle feeding 
is lower than for hay. It seems to him at 
variance with the facts, but may be correct. 
G. W. Hoffman considers it is about right. 
The thin wheat bran, that we buy now-a- 
days is about as ]Joor as bran can be. Ton 
for ton he would prefer good hay. He 
has fed a great deal of wheat bran and has 
come to regard it as low in the scale of values. 
J. S. Van Duzer, if he had to buy bran and 
hay at the same price per ton, w ould take 
more of the bran. He has fed a great deal of 
it, and can not accept tho low estimate of 
value. 
Persistency of Hungarian Grass.—A 
writer in our esteemed contemporary the 
Kansas Farmer, makes this statement as to 
Hungarian Grass. Ten yearn ago he sowed 
30 acres of new sod with Hungarian seed. 
The next two years he raised corn on the 
same land, and the Hungarian grew so thickly 
that he w as forced to use the hoe. 
The following year he sowed Timothy seed, 
hoping to kill the Hungarian. Instead of 
Timothy, the Hungarian grew' about two feet 
tall, fine and even, turning out over two tons 
per acre. In the Fall he sowed again to Tim¬ 
othy, but, for lack of rain the seed did not 
start, and the following season he mowed an¬ 
other crop of Hungarian, thicker, but not so 
tall as the last. The following season he 
sowed Timothy again, and mowed another 
fair crop of Hungarian. He plowed the field 
and planted to coni, and each year the Hun¬ 
garian grows thriftily among the corn, some 
of the heads as full and fine as the original 
crop. It is useless he says to sow Timothy in 
the .Spring after Hungarian. Timothy sowed 
in September, if we have rain to start it, will 
kill out Hungarian the following season. 
Hungarian seed shells in handling more than 
other seeds, but will not sprout the same sea¬ 
son as wheat and oats, but will wait in the 
ground years for its chance to grow. 
A member of tho Western New York Farm¬ 
ers’ Club, as reported in the American Rural 
Home, said he had asked shippers if they sup¬ 
posed purchasers, if they knew that the fruit 
(apples for instance) were not uniformly as 
good as they were on top, would pay more 
for them if they were faced than if they were 
put in just as they would average. They 
said they thought they would, and that they 
had become so accustomed to it that they ex¬ 
pected to find them thus faced. ... In 
one instance where buyers were packing po¬ 
tatoes, they told him that they faced both 
ends of the sacks so that they would appear 
well on top in the sacks, and when turned in¬ 
to the barrels the bottom part of selected po¬ 
tatoes would present a fine appearance on the 
top of the barrel. 
The .Scientific American says that a resid¬ 
ent of London, England, claims that that 
city spends over $85,000,000 a year for oysters, 
and that more than twice the number of these 
bivalves would be used if they could be ob¬ 
tained at as reasonable prices as in America. 
The geuuine Whitestable oyster fetches about 
75 cents or 80 cents a dozen. Oyster culture in 
England.ia yet in its infancy. Large numbers 
of oysters are now carried to England from 
this country. The most popular size for eat¬ 
ing is a shell about as large as a. dollar. They 
are packed in barrels very closely and kept 
right side up duriug the voyage. Quite a 
trade is now springing up in carrying '• seed ” 
oysters to Europe ...... The sea¬ 
boards of Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas 
abound in oysters. In some places they have 
grown up into reefs extending for twenty 
miles along the coast. Much of this oyster 
wealth may yet become available for Northern 
markets.Science has demon¬ 
strated that oysters can be so managed that 
their spa" ning seasons can be regulated, and 
thus good oysters be had and eaten every 
week in the year. This is arranged in the 
Connecticut waters by planting them indiffer¬ 
ent depths of water. This secures variety in 
temperature, The greater the heat the earlier 
the oyster will spawn. Therefore by moving 
them into shallow w'ater in a. sheltered place 
where the sun will warm the water easily the 
spawning season will be over in early sum¬ 
mer. Those in the deeper and colder water 
will, of course, feel the heat later, and there¬ 
fore spawn later. Thus one portion of the 
oyster supply can be always ready for use. 
OCR friend, Governor Furnas, according to 
the Pacific Rural Press, had heard of the at¬ 
tractions of California, but he thinks the half 
had not been told him. In fact, the Gover¬ 
nor remarked that if his interests in his own 
State were not so large, and his associations 
and relations other than what they are, he 
would pull up stakes and emigrate to Califor¬ 
nia with a view to engaging in horticulture 
there.Dried bananas from 
Jamaica.—An attempt is being made, says the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle (London), to find a mar- 
for this product, and there is no doubt that 
they will form an acceptable addition to the 
dessert-table, as they have the sweetness of the 
dried fig without the inconvenience of the 
numerous seed-like fruits. There is no doubt 
also that they have a considerable nutritive 
value. ..... It is physically demon¬ 
strable, says Professor Orton, in Secretary 
Chamberlain's Ohio Agricultural Report, that 
in multitudes of instances the cess-pools feed 
the wells. The additions to the cess pools of 
oaeday are pumped from the well the next. 
.God forbid us any longer to 
misinterpret His providence; and we, alas, 
must bear our own burdens, and, fora multi¬ 
tude of our sicknesses, at least, must accept 
the humiliating explanations which are fur¬ 
nished by our ignorance, self-indulgence and 
laziness.Progress (Phila.) thinks 
that, after all, vanity in the abstract is but a 
laudable desire to appear well and to feel con¬ 
vinced in your own opinion that you are ac¬ 
complishing that desire. You are happy in 
the estimation of yourself, and the world is by 
no means a loser in the profit it receives from 
this almost universal ambition to put the best 
foot foremost. Thinking well of one’s-self 
often brings with it the strongest craving for 
the good opinion of others.Mor¬ 
ally and physically we must suffer to be beau¬ 
tiful. Savage and civilized alike endure tor¬ 
tures to gratify the (.esthetic instinct. Men, 
women and children all suffer for ti e sake of 
beauty. ..... It is a glorious sign for 
the South, says the Farmer and Mechanic of 
Raleigh, N. C., when field laborers can earn 
from fifty to eighty cents per day, and when 
artisans of all trades can find employment 
from dawn till dusk, and all night in some 
localities. Speed the plow! Rattle the loom I 
Ring the trowelt Whistle the factory engine! 
Stick the types! Swing the school honse bell! 
.The Husbandman thinks that 
in the common sense view it is absurd to issue 
a patent on wire fence. It is no more an in¬ 
vention than a thorn bush is. Machines for 
making barbs and attaching them, may prop¬ 
erly be patented, but the product ought to be 
as free as the material of which it is con¬ 
structed.. Justice, it is to be 
feared, is blind in more senses than one, re¬ 
marks the London Live Stock Journal, A 
jKjor wretch who goaded by the patchings of 
poverty, steals a bagful of turnips, is sent off 
to the county gaol for a month; while the 
scoundrel who does his best to poison his 
neighbors by selling unwholesome meat es¬ 
capes with a fine, which is easily paid out of 
his ill-gotten gains. 
Arlcnnsns. 
Ai.tus, Franklin Co., Nov. 3.—What opin¬ 
ion many readers of the Rural may have of 
Arkansaw (now called such in order to obey 
the dictum of a late Legislature Of the State) I 
do not kuow, but I presume that since a more 
general diffusion of knowledge abroad through 
the columns of the 100 newspapers published 
here, the world has u better opinion of our re¬ 
sources, as well as of our intellectual and 
moral character. We are now quiet and 
peaceable in all our borders, with a low degree 
of prosperity as compared with former years. 
The past season our soil labored to bring forth 
its usual quota of cereals and fruits, and suc¬ 
ceeded admirably under the burning sun and 
cloudless heavens of our unparalleled Sum¬ 
mer for drought and heat. Railroad construc¬ 
ting is on the “ boom,” and some of the mag¬ 
nates are competing zealously in efforts to 
cross our Htate in several places. Soon we 
expect to be able to tell of a population equal 
to our unbounded resources. We are able to 
sustain a million more of people than we have 
from agricultural resources alone. Then the 
undeveloped mineral wealth is now attracting 
the attention of capitalists. Our mineral 
waters are everywhere abundant, and in me¬ 
dicinal properties will compete with half the 
world beside. 1 have sjient 14 years traveling 
over the hills, mountains, valleys and bottom 
lands of Arkansas, and have become familiar¬ 
ly acquainted with every nook and corner of 
it, and 1 hesitate not to say that it compares 
well with any State in our great country and 
far excels many of the older settled States in 
its grand resources. Gregory. 
Hot Springs, Garland Co., Nov. 3. —Is it 
not provoking tp reflect that after enduring 
one of the severest droughts ever known, we 
are now likely to have no fruit next year ? 
We thought that to lose our crops the present 
season was all we could endure, but the pros¬ 
pect of the future fruit crop is gloomy enough. 
Fears, early apples, plums, peaches and other 
fruits are, or soon will be, in full bloom, The 
shrubbery is also blooming; we are having the 
finest of Spring weather and unless old 
Boreas makes haste this way we shall havuuo 
fruit left. It is to be hoped old Saturn, 
Jupiter and all those other big fellows will 
have some rye and wheat. Fall pasture is 
coming on finely. Stock thin and very 
cheap, §0 to $10 per head for cattle. After all, 
we have something to be thankful for—this 
delightful climate and these hot, healing 
waters. T. J. B. 
California. 
Deer Valley, Park Co., Nov. 1.—We 
dug some large holes in the garden and pro¬ 
cured some very rich soil, cut the White Ele¬ 
phant Potato to single eyes and planted them 
one in a hill. They came up nicely, but were 
cut down twice by frost early in June; still we 
have several pounds of nice tubers, but no 
very large ones. Of the asparagus seeds a little 
over one-half germinated and did ificely. It 
was very dry here in May and June, and we 
had to water the lied every day. The Wash¬ 
ington Oats we sowed in the garden in drills 
two feet apart, giving each plant ample room. 
They did well, but not better than other varie¬ 
ties we have tried. The ground has been ma¬ 
nured somewhat every year. The longest 
panicles measured 15J£ inches. We put a few 
of the flower seeds in boxes; only one plant 
survived. We will try starting the rest in a 
liot-bed in the Spring. As for the Rural 
Branching Sorghum, we waited for frosts to 
be over until too late; we will have to try the 
liot-bed. C. T. 
Canada. 
Cornwall, Ont., Oct. 27.— The Rural 
comes to hand as regular as a clock and is 
more interesting and instructive than any ag¬ 
ricultural paper I have ever seen. Many a 
time, when thinking about economizing, my 
thoughts have turned to the Rural, but not 
to dwell there long, for I would soon con¬ 
clude that it is the best investment I could 
make. The seeds alone are worth the money, 
and I shall be the last to grumble if you 
raise the price to $2.50. 1 shall certainly give 
up my local paper before I give up the 
Rural. The harvest has been very good in 
this section, with the exception of corn, 
which has been a failure; but as this is not 
generally a corn-growing country, we do not 
suffer much. Hay is a good crop, but not 
extra in quality owing to heavy rains at har¬ 
vest time. Uats and barley very good. Wheut 
very fair considering the dry weather. Po¬ 
tatoes and all roots very good. The early 
frost we had cut down everything we had 
left in the garden in the shape of turnips, 
celery, cabbage, etc. I had a beautiful crop 
of Beauty of Hebron raised from the seed tho 
Rural sent. I had bad luck with my White 
Elephants. I cut the potato to single eyes and 
only one came up: the others were killed by 
heavy rains in the Spring. From tho one 
eye I raised pounds of potatoes, which I 
think ought to satisfy any one. The sorghum 
■was a failure with me, but the other seeds 
were all excellent and a great acquisition. I 
am looking forward to the new Free Seed 
Distribution with some pleasure, for I know ‘ 
there will be something good about them. w.t. 
Colorado. 
Table Rock, El Paso Co., Nov. 1.—My 
Rural Branching Sorghum came up very well; 
but this location is too high and the seasons 
too short to evei' make it a success here. I 
cut my White Elephant to single eyes; all 
came up well; the vines grew quite rank and 
I harvested 11 pounds only. The season was 
very dry, or no doubt they would have done 
better. The Washington Oats came up well, 
and after removing the stalks containing rust 
as fast as it appeared—which was consider¬ 
ably—I got 10 pounds of clean oats of very 
fine quality. The asparagus did very well, 
considering the season; the seed nearly all 
grew. The grain crop in this locality was very 
light; most of it was cut for hay. Potatoes a 
fair crop and on some ranches good. No 
fruit is raised in this vicinity. j. e. k. 
Illinois. 
Dover, Bureau Co., Nov. 1.—The aspara¬ 
gus seeds of both kinds came up very well. 
Rural Branching Sorghum did finely. Wash¬ 
ington Oats ennio up well, hut my hens found 
them, and took them before they were ripe. 
The White Elephant Potato I cut into 13 
pieces and planted iu 13 hills, yield 53 tu¬ 
bers weighing 13 pounds and lOnunees of very 
good size. All the seeds did well for such an 
extremely hot, dry and buggy season. Now 
for the pinks: I planted the seeds from 
both packages in the house on April 11 in a 
box. They came up finely and l transplanted 
them into the ground about the middle of 
May; the 10th of June the first pink opened; 
it was double and very pretty. About the 
25th of June I began to have plenty of blos¬ 
soms and counted at one time 35 pinks, all of 
different shades and markings, but what 
seemed strange to me was that not one was 
pure white. When I transplanted into the 
ground the first time, I sowed the rest of 
the seeds, and they did equally well with the 
first. To-day I picked my last pink to put on 
a bridal cane. The carnations have not blos¬ 
somed yet, but I have taken them into the 
saved a goodly amount of seed and my pink 
roots out-of-doors have unopened buds now 
which a few warm days will perfect. I have 
enjoyed my l>ed of pinks very much indeed 
and shall take pains to keep those in the 
ground alive for Spring. c. a. t. 
Kansas. 
Cawker City, Mitchell Co., Nov. 2.— I hope 
some of those who have succeeded in raising 
seed from Rural Branching Sorghum will let it 
be known if they have any to spare, os ours 
failed to seed. We are anxious to g t enough 
to try again, as wo consider it a valuable arti¬ 
cle for stock food. Ours grew finely, each hill 
having from 12 to 20 stalks. The other seeds 
did fairly, but Hone so well as tho sorghum. 
The oats grew well, but we failed to get seed 
from them, too, as the native grasshoppers 
liked them so well that they, very selfishly, took 
the whole crop. The potato, on account of the 
drought, failed to give us much more than the 
seed. We only harvested three small tubers. 
The pinks, what I saved of them, were fine. 
In our part of the State crops are generally 
poor. The early-planted corn did very well, 
but that of late planting was, much of it, an 
entire failure on account of the drought. 
Potatoes, the same. They sell here for $1 to 
$1.25 per bushel. I think our State is des¬ 
tined to become a fine stock country, unless 
a few more dry seasons frighten us all 
away. k. s. w. 
Maine. 
Bolsters Mills, Cumberland Co,, Nov. 3.— 
The crops are all gathered. Corn w as very 
good; the potaio crop was also very good with 
some and light with others. The grain ciop 
was fair with most of the farmers. The 
Rural seeds did well From the single 
White Elephant I got 72 good-sized tubers. 
The Branching Sorghum didn’t grow very 
well. r. s. p. 
Michigan. 
Bronson, Branch Co., Nov. 2.—The Whito 
Elephant Potato w as of the size of a common 
hen’s egg; it had seven eyes; I cut it into 
seven pieces and planted them in seven hills 
all in a row 1C feet long, on the 8th of May. 
The vines made a wonderful display—very 
large and rank. I dug them on the 23th of 
August—weight of crop 28 pounds, mostly 
large and fine. The Rural Branching Sorghum 
I planted on the 20th of May, oue seed to a 
hill. It made a very slow start, but by 
the middle of July it was five feet high, with 
from seven to twelve stalks to a hill. From 
July 25 to 31 I cut off half of the piece for 
a second growth; it is now green and grow¬ 
ing, with from 20 to 34 stalks in the hill, 
six feet high, averaging 20 pounds from both 
growths to each hill ! ! My homes devour it 
with a relish. We had a long spell of dry 
weather in part of July and all of August; 
the sorghum remained green and growing 
when everything else suffered, 1 think the 
seed raised on the uncut half of the patch 
will grow. w. a. 
Marshall, Calhoun Co., Nov. 2. — I had 
eleven hills of White Elephant Potatoes and 
nine came up and did well. Of the dianthus 
and picotees every seed germinated and the 
plants are splendid—155 different kinds ; half 
blossomed. The Rural Branching Sorghum 
and asparagus did well. Tho Washington 
Oats did better than the White Russian Oats 
right alongside, but the drought put all the 
seeds back, so it was not a fair trial for any of 
them, j. it. x. 
Terry St’n, Bay Co—My White Elephant 
Potato weighing less than two ounces, was cut 
into 1(5 pieces by dividing some of the eyes. 
The pieces I rolled in plaster and planted one in 
a hill in dry sandy loam on May 10. Yield, 152 
tubers, weighing 04 pounds. Largest one 
weighed 1^ pound. A frost on June 10, cut 
potatoes and all tender plants to tho ground. 
Washington Oats grew well, but rusted badly. 
Rural Branching Sorghum made a fair growth 
but did not ripen seed. Asparagus did well, 
also the plants from the flower seeds. Success 
to the Rural! e. m. p. 
Ohio. 
Camden, Preble Co., Nov. 8.—We have had 
fine showers for the last month, w hich have re¬ 
vived our pastures and given our wheat a good 
start. Our early sown wheat has been badly 
injured by the (ly and grub worms. My 
White Elephant did not do very well as it 
was so very dry. The Branching Sorghum 
stood the drought extremely well and ripened 
its seed finely. The asparagus made a good 
growth. We have had but little frost and 
late potatoes have not been much injured yet, 
and our Peachblow's may make a moderately 
good crop. Early Rose are almost a complete 
failure. w. m, 
Gallipous, Gallia Co., Nov. 2.—I have 
taken the Rural 23 y..<ars and I cannot get 
along without it, as it is the best paper of its 
class that I can find and is growing better as 
it grows older. The weather was too dry and 
| hot for the White Elephant, but I have one- 
half peck of small tubers. The Washington 
Oats rusted somew'hat and smutted badly. 
