NEW YORK, NOV. 2«, 1881 
PRICE FIVE CENT 
$2.00 PER YEAR 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1881, by the Rural New-YorkBr. In the office of the Librarian of Congress 
at Washington.] 
as to suppress it. These root-stocks grow 
rapidly and persistently, preferring to grow 
through any permeable obstacle rather than 
turn aside. The potatoes, A and B (large) are 
two of many which might have been selected 
from our hist crop through which the under¬ 
ground stems of the Quack had penetrated. 
It bloomed this year on June 25, and is later 
than Timothy in ripening its seeds. It varies 
a geat deal in size and color. In old fields, the 
heads are no longer than those of wheat, while 
in hedges or rich land we have seen them, as 
stilted, over a foot in length. There is a tall 
variety (botanical Iy nemorale) which bears 
awns, and a dwarf kind which is awnless. 
This grass is indigenous in the Northwest, and 
we should be glad to hear from our readers 
what is thought of it in that part of the 
country. 
one of the poorest-looking grains he ever saw 
—shriveled, light, chaffy, dark and soft. The 
grain and straw grown from it excelled any¬ 
thing he ever raised, the longest head being 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL FARM. 
THE FARM DIARY. 
Quack, Creeping Wheat, &c. - Triticum 
repens. 
First and last, a great deal has been said 
nnd written about Couch Grass—called also 
Quitch, Quick, Scutch, Rye, Dog, Chandler, 
Witch, Quake, Squitch and Quack Grass. It 
is called botanically Triticum repens, which 
signifies Creeping Wheat, and of all its “ com¬ 
mon" names this seems to be the most appro¬ 
priate. As a wheat it is worthless, the grain 
being small and shriveled, while the heads, 
which in good soil are often over a foot in 
length, bear but few grains and many none 
at all. As to its value as a pasture grass or 
for bay, there is no difference of opinion, that 
we know of. It is conceded to be as valuable, 
or nearly so, as Timothy, while a greater 
quantity may be raised upon a given area. 
It will endure the severest droughts of the 
North ; it will thrive iu sandy or clayey soils ; 
it is early to appear in the Spring ; it is the 
first to carpet a field with green after it has 
been mown or closely cropped ; it makes a 
compuct sod for the door-yard or lawn, anil 
will become as “ velvety” under the frequent 
use of the lawn-mower as tne Bent Grasses, 
Red Top or Poas. Its merits are many. We 
do not know of any true grass about which 
more may be said iu its praise. The groat 
fault with Quack is that it seeuis to be too 
much of a good tbuig. Upon this farm and, 
in truth, upon most portions of Long Island, 
this grass may be found m many fields and in 
almost every hedge. A field recently plowed 
for corn next Spring, which had been in grass 
for eight years or more, was nearly all Quack 
—Timothy having disappeared entirely, and 
the rest forming a small percentage of Blue 
Grass and Red Top. The cultivation which we 
shall give the corn will practically subdue 
the Quack unless the next Summer should 
prove unusually wet, so that when Timothy 
and clover are again sown upon the wheat, at 
the end of the rotation there will be scarcely 
any to dispute their possession. But Quack 
would reappear in several years and if the 
laud, as in the above case, were retained in 
grass for six years or more, the Quack would 
uguin largely predominate. As our lands are 
sandy with gravely sub-soil, they need frequent 
rains so thut a season rarely passes without 
a drought of lesser or greater severity pre¬ 
vailing. It is then that Quack is easily de¬ 
stroyed. The shallow corn cultivator, always 
here used, exposes the Quack roots to the 
parching air and sun and destroys them. In 
retentive soils, we presume it is difficult to get 
rid of Quack and no surprise need be enter¬ 
tained that its general reputation is that of a 
pest. Upon this farm Quack is a blessing, 
though perhaps a troublesome one. We do 
not believe there is another grass which, when 
plowed under, will furnish a greater amount 
of suitable food for Indian com while the cul¬ 
tivation given for suppressing its Summer 
growth is no mole than that which a full coru 
crop needs. 
Several engravings of this Quack, or Creep¬ 
ing Wheat, have appeared in the Rural 
New-Yorker from time to time, but always 
reduced iu size and not quite accurate. ()ur 
present illustrations (p. 705),. are carefully 
drawn from life from specimens sent from 
this farm. The smaller A is the flowering or 
seed-bearing stalk ; the smaller B a portion 
of the roots and lower sheaths. It creeps un¬ 
der tin* surface of the ground by subterranean 
stems or root-stocks from every joint of which 
roots issue establishing independent plants. 
Hence it is that any disturbance of the roots 
during wet weather or when the ground is at 
all moist serves as much to spread the plant 
WALDO e. brown, 
I believe there are more farmers to day 
than at any previous time who desire to be 
something more than mere “clodhoppers,” 
and who are willing to be at some trouble 
if thereby they can become better farmers 
and wiser and happier men. I wish to make 
a few suggestions to such, pointing out some 
means by which 1 have been greatly helped in 
my own experience. I began keeping a farm 
diary in 1S57, and as I look back over the 
nearly quarter of a century which has 
elapsed since I began this work, I cannot 
point to any one thing which has been so help 
ful or given such large returns for a small 
outlay of time and trouble as this has done. 
The fact that the farmer sits down at his desk 
every evening to make an entry in his diary 
begets careful habits and is likely to lead him 
to keep his accounts more carefully and to 
keep up a correspondence with absent friends 
_J T i.L • . • _ ’ 
TOBACCO-GROWING NOTES. 
Tobacco cases should be made of dry, sea¬ 
soned pine lumber, an inch iu thickness, 
dressed on both sides. They should be made 
with hemlock or spruce corner-pieces two by 
two indies iu size. The length of cases should 
be in accordance with the growth of the 
leaves to be packed therein. The usual size 
for the better grades of seed-leaf tobacco is 
as follows; length, 3?.j feet; width, 2’-. feet; 
and depth, 2 l s feet. For extra long wrappers 
the length should be three feet ten inches, aud 
for fillers or domestic Havana three feet are 
sufficient. All cases should be carefully 
weighed and the weights plainly marked 
upon each end with red chalk or blue pencil. 
mu*rested in should also be recorded—visits 
made or received, journeys by any member of 
the family, sickness, attendance at school, 
and, in fact, anything which will serve to 
give a complete history of the family. 
If you keep a record of each day’s work, 
you W ill have, of course, at the end of the 
year the dates of your planting and harvest¬ 
ing of all crops, both in the garden and on the 
farm; when the fruit trees blossomed, when 
the forests were in full leaf, the latest frost of 
Spring and earliest of Autumn, the time of 
turning stock to pasture in Spring, the birth 
of stock, and, in short, memoranda of all the 
operations of the farm, to which you can 
turn at any time to ascertain how many 
weeks it takes a certain crop to mature, to 
settle definitely the age of an ammal, to en¬ 
able you to determine if it is best to plant a 
cei-toin crop late in the season, or to fix the 
disputed date of some event. The last day of 
each month note the prices of leading farm 
products. 1 his will become exceedingly 
valuable when you have kept it for years, 
and can refer back to it, and it will often help 
you to determine whether to market a crop 
as soon as ready or bold for higher prices. 
You do not want a regulur diary with printed 
headings and an allotted space for each day, 
for some days a single line about the weather 
will be all you will want, while occasionally- 
there will be quite a lengt hy entry to make. 
The weather record eau be kept in a single 
line, except occasionally when there is some¬ 
thing so unusual as to require comment. 
I use abbreviations and make a record of 
the temi>erature twice a day, aiming to get 
the highest and lowest. I hang the ther¬ 
mometer in a northern exposure and where I 
pass it on my way to the barn, and look every 
time 1 pass it, the record for a day reading 
thus: F. 20', F. 4ti v , U. and W.„ would show 
the temperature and that the day euded 
cloudy and windy. The next day as follows: 
50°, Lt. R., GIF, var. 54°, F., would show light 
rain in the morning, variable weather at noon 
and fair ut night. If you prefer, the daily 
record may be kept with a pencil, but at the 
end of each year a synopsis of each month 
should be copied with pen and ink into a sepa¬ 
rate book prepared for the purpose. This 
monthly record may be brief, but should give 
The Vv inter manipulation of tobacco furn¬ 
ishes for the tobacco-grower pleasant employ¬ 
ment during the inclement weather, provided 
he has prepared a convenient aud comfortable 
assorting or stripping room in which to 
perform the work of stripping, assorting, 
and packing his crop. Growers should 
spare no pains to put up their tobacco iu 
the most satisfactory and workmanlike man¬ 
ner, whereby they- will gain a reputation 
for careful handling, which is in itself a profit¬ 
able attainment for those who intend follow¬ 
ing the business through coming y r ears. There 
is as much necessity- for care and painstaking 
in the handling of a crop ot tobacco to pre¬ 
pare it for market as in the management 
An Experiment in Potato Planting. 
Hast Spring when planting my Beauty of 
Hebron potatoes, I planted one row through 
the piece as follows : l took potatoes below 
medium size, cutoff the seed and stem ends, 
cut out all the eyes but two ; planted them 
and gave them the same care as the rest of 
the piece. The “ seed” for the rest was of the 
same sized potatoes cut in two and planted 
one piece in a bill ubout IS inches apart in the 
row. Now for the result: the first row, con¬ 
taining 70 hills, gave 195 pounds ; one row by 
the side of it witli SO hills gave 143 Dounds. a 
Red Siberian—From Nature,—Fig. 524 , 
RED SIBERIAN WHEAT. 
V4 inches, the number of kernels 111, aftd the 
straw stiff and bright. The heads are smooth, 
as show n, and the chaff red. It is a Winter 
wheat. Such fine heads plainly show what a 
a grand field there is for the improvement of 
wheats. We have faith that out next seed 
distribution may greatly aid iu this direction. 
