THE BORAS, NEW-YORKER. 
DEC. 34 
Grange, 41 pounds. I have grown hills 
weighing ten pounds, three feet each way, 
of each there were really only 12 hills; for one 
W, E. hill having failed, I pulled up one of 
the Grange to make the experiment even. 
While the White Elephant is certainly a fine 
potato, it falls short of the quality of the 
Grange: as in most long potatoes, one end is 
deficient in starch. Though the yield is in 
favor of the Grange, the experiment repeated 
next year might result the other way. it is 
evident that there is something extraordinary 
in the vigor and yield of these two varieties, 
and this induces me to call for the history of 
the White Elephant. 
The Grange having originated with me, I 
here give the history of its origin: A year or 
two after the Rose was sent out, in digging a 
patch of them, I discovered a hill that had 
sported, and was two or three weeks later than 
the Rose: weight six pounds. I cultivated 
the product several years, and finally dis¬ 
carded the variety, because, although it was 
healthier and yielded more than Thorburn’s 
Rose, it lacked the beauty and smoothness of 
that variety. The last season on which 1 grew 
them, I found a small seed ball, and from this 
I originated the Grange in the following man¬ 
ner: While burning, in the Spring, brush 
that had been used to cover beds of grape¬ 
vines in my nursery, 1 conceived the idea of 
throwing on soil and burning it, and with its 
aid growing my seedling potatoes when trans¬ 
ferred from the hot-bed. The burned soil was 
mixed freely in the hills, and I am of the 
opinion that the Grange owes much of its vigor 
and health to this burned soil. 
Here comes up the important question— 
what is manure ? Mainly the gases generated 
and left in the soil by oxidation, which is a 
slow fire. The feeding roots of plants cannot 
take up actual manure, but omy the minerals 
and gases left after decay, dissolved and ab¬ 
sorbed by rain water. Here were the con¬ 
ditions aud propitious surroundings that re¬ 
sulted in producing one of these extraordinary 
potatoes. During the two months of drought 
here this season, the Grange stood up and 
grew right along, better than any of the fif¬ 
teen varieties with which it was tested. It 
does much better in dry, than wet seasons. 
The reason for this is found in the nature of 
its foliage. The leaves are small, very tough, 
and durable; so much so that the beetles work 
less upon it than upon any other variety; they 
leave it for more succulent foliage. To¬ 
wards the tops of the vines the leaves are 
small; near the ground they are larger, and 
spread out so as to shade the soil completely. 
It will be seen that here is a lesson for farmers 
in utilizing brush and rubbish. May it not be 
that the same manures can be obtaiued from 
burning rubbish and securing the gaseous 
products by impregnating the soil with them, 
as by roRing stable manure, with the excep¬ 
tion of the larger amount of mineral matter 
from the stable refuse? I think the creosote 
left in the soil also aided in warding oil' both 
insects and sporadic diseases. The fact of the 
parent plant being a sport probably also added 
an impulse that may well be carefully consid¬ 
ered. To confirm my own impressions I will 
add that a short time ago I met Mr. Skeols, 
ex-Secretary of the American Agricultural 
Society, and he remarked that if he had 
planted all Grange instead of Rose and some 
others, lie would have had 100 bushels to sell, 
instead of, as now, buying for his own use. 
A. M. Purdy, of Palmyra, has grown 
the Grange several years, and says he has 
grown largely of the leading sorts, but not 
one of them begins to yield such a crop of 
large, fine, uniform tubers as the Grange. We 
believe it to be the. most productive potato in 
existence. It is for the benefit of our farm¬ 
ers that I commend these two potatoes for a 
main crop. They seem to be our best dry- 
weather potatoes. I have not a single cent’s 
interest in the dissemination of either. 
D. S. Makvin. 
<?l)c fytxtizmavL. 
NOTES BY A STOCKMAN. 
The fruits of an exhibition of live stock 
cannot be justly measured by the profits made 
directly by the show. If this were the chief 
end of the exhibitors the show would degener¬ 
ate into a sort of hippodrome; a show-ring not 
a bit more elevated in character than Bar- 
num’s exhibition of his fat woman, or his 
woolly horse. A live stock exhibition is a sort 
of mutual-improvement association for the 
benefit of stock owners. And it is a right re¬ 
sult of the recent Chicago fat cattle show thut 
the breeders of high class cattle are filled with 
a spirit of emulation and a desire to achieve 
greater things in the future. 
I have already mentioned that to prove 
what a breed of cattle is really worth, a num¬ 
ber of choice specimens should be fed for 
slaughtering. This is the chief end of a Short¬ 
horn, Hereford, or a polled beast, and any oth¬ 
er purpose for which they may be put on exhi¬ 
bition degenerates them to mere fancy stock— 
playthings for millionaires. It is a gratifying 
thing to note that the principal breeders of 
Herefords have pledged themselves to ‘‘steer” 
50 of their best bull calves nnd 200 of their 
best grade calves for future exhibitions. This 
is the right course, and these men will cer¬ 
tainly find their reward in it. 
Shout-horn breeders are also taking this 
course, and those of Ohio are reported as hav¬ 
ing formed an association for the purpose of 
preparing some of their best stock for exhibi¬ 
tion, to compete with the Kentucky and Illi¬ 
nois breeders. And these may find in the cat¬ 
tle from the rich Ohio pastures and corn fields, 
some beeves that will tax all their efforts to 
beat. This will put the finishing stone on the 
edifice begun by the old importing association 
of Ohio of many years ago. 
The Canadian Short-horn breeders, too, are 
restive under the control of the publishers of 
the private herd book of the Ontario Agricul¬ 
tural and Arts Association. A private asso¬ 
ciation, or a party, who publishes a herd-book 
has an interest conflicting with those of the 
breeders. This should be obvious, because the 
profits are measured by the number of entries, 
and to augment this number, there is always 
a temptation to let in entries of a doubtful 
character; and Hits is antagonistic to the 
breeders’ interests. The inevitable result is 
already near at hand in the Dominion, as it is 
in the Uni ed States, and as it has already 
been consummated in England: viz., that the 
breeders will control their own herd-books. 
The Canadians have already resolved “ that it 
is necessary to publish a herd-book completely 
under their own control,” and have declined 
to entertain any offers looking to a different 
conclusion, from the present herd-book pub¬ 
lishers. 
Hog Cholera is making frightful ravages 
in the West. The hog crop of Iowa, for in¬ 
stance, is reported as being 40 per cent, defi¬ 
cient from these losses. How long will West¬ 
ern farmers continue to ignore the plain 
teachings of experience ? The prophet’s pre¬ 
scription, “go wash and be clean,” applies to 
this case. Cleanliness is the patent remedy 
needed, and farmers may call upon the makers 
and compounders ol'nostrums and physic until 
doomsday, in vain, while they neglect the 
necessary sanitary precautions. It is a case 
for prevention, and not one for cure. No med¬ 
icine will cure a contagious or infectious dis¬ 
ease like this which is akin to the dreaded 
human cholera, and other epidemics produced 
by poisonous filth. A radical change must be 
made in keeping and feeding swine before hog 
cholera can be abolished. The nature of the 
disease is so well known that no other opinion 
can be justly formed, and the oilers of fortunes 
to the discoverers of remedies that will cure it 
will be without result and futile, because that 
is working at the wrong end: at the fruit and 
leaf instead of at the root. And the means 
used must be general, or they will be ineffec¬ 
tive. No sporadic attempts at prevention 
will avail; every hog owner and feeder must 
enter into the necessary combination, for the 
work of a portion only will utterly fail. The 
disease must be stamped out. 
The Northern Pacific Railroad has become 
a feeder of the Eastern cattle markets. Thou¬ 
sands of Montana sheep are now being shipped 
eastward; and Eastern sheep owners must 
look for increased competition from this di¬ 
rection, and prepare to meet it, or they, too, 
must go West. 
The demand for mutton for Summer con¬ 
sumption in every town and village is a thing 
to be cultivated by farmers. A Hock of sheep 
is safe to pay 100 per cent, profit in the hands 
of a competent manager. Every week a few 
head of fat sheep might go to the butcher for 
local consumption during the hot weather, 
when beef is less salable, and in this way the 
surplus of a considerable flock might be worked 
off. But the dogs! When sheep are more nu¬ 
merously kept than dogs, the dog question 
will be satisfactorily disposed of. 
The question of the most profitable stock in 
proportion to the quantity and kind of feed 
consumed has never yet been definitely set¬ 
tled. it is quite certain, however, that swine 
consume more food, and a more valuable kind 
of food, under our present system of feeding 
them, than any other of our domestic animals. 
It has been said over and over again that 00 
pounds of com will or should produce 10 to 
15 pounds of pork. But this is a partial state¬ 
ment, aud requires revision. What amount 
of corn is required to bring a hog from its 
birth up to a weight of 300 pounds ? This is 
a question upon which we have no decisive 
information, but yet it is a very important 
one. Again, how much cheaper could the 300- 
pound bog be produced if half its food con¬ 
sisted of roots, mangels, or sugar beets, for 
instance, for the growth of which the Ameri¬ 
can climate is admirably suited. And fur¬ 
ther, how much less cholera would there be 
among Western hogs if half their food con¬ 
sisted of these roots i The facts are, doubtless, 
that in general, a bushel of corn will not or 
does not produce 10 pounds of pork, and that 
continuous coin feeding is one of the chief 
causes, if not the chief cause, of the losses by 
cholera. 
Some of the Illinois papers are hard set to find 
excuses for the recent embargo placed upon the 
entry of cattle into that State by the Gov¬ 
ernor. They are going as far as England for 
an excuse for the foolish and ineffective mis¬ 
take that has been made: and “the dreaded 
foot-and-mouth disease ” is the text of the ex¬ 
cuse. There neverjias been a week and never a 
parish in the whole of England, but foot and- 
mouth disease has prevailed then and there 
for years past. But we have none of it here, 
simply because it cannot exist here from cli¬ 
matic conditions. Our dry climate and less 
luxuriant feed, and the absence of the common 
stall-feeding, or keeping on manure heaps in 
covered yards, are all antagonistic to this dis¬ 
ease, and it is not at all dreaded here. And it 
would never trouble Illinois if a thousand or 
two “foot-and-mouth " calves were turned 
loose on the prairies, for that in itself would 
cure this dreaded disease. 
illxsccllaw0ws. 
Dr. James R. Nichols kindly calls our atten¬ 
tion to a paper read by him before the Massa¬ 
chusetts State Board of Agriculture, in answer 
to several questions winch we had occasion to 
ask him in rotation to the muck controversy 
The entire address is well-considered and in¬ 
structive. We regret that, in the crowded 
state of our columns, we can find space only 
for the more important parts. The Rural 
hopes to be able to put before its readers addi¬ 
tional evidence as to the actual value of muck. 
Muck Proper. —Muck, considered as the 
most advanced of all bog deposits, is easily 
recognized by its peeuliur physical conditions, 
and we have now to consider its value as a 
manu rial agent. The large amount of water 
mixed with muck in its natural state, is a most 
serious obstacle to its farm employment. It 
may he stated to hold a minimum of 00 per 
cent., and a maximum of 92 per cent., the av¬ 
erage being, in New England mucks, not far 
from 85 per cent, of water. To cut out a wa¬ 
ter-soaked substance like tin's, from a treach¬ 
erous, spongy bog, lift it into carts, and carry 
it 'ong distances, involves great labor and ex¬ 
pense. If it is allowed to air dry on the spot 
where exhumed, some advantage is gained, 
but it must be remembered that under the 
most favorable weather and conditions for 
drying, much water remains to be transported. 
Exptr ments at my farm upon air-dried mucks, 
extended over five seasons, showed that water 
remained in the material to an extent vary¬ 
ing from 30 to 47 per cent. It is probable 
that not many farmers have ever seen a spec¬ 
imen of absolutely dry muck; that is, such 
specimens us the chemist has in hand in mak¬ 
ing his analysis in the laboratory. The abso¬ 
lute water-free muck is a light substance usu¬ 
ally, which the wind will scatter as it does a 
handfull of feathers.It is plain 
that a substance so under the constant influ¬ 
ence and action of water can contain no in¬ 
gredients sofuh/c in that fluid; and hence we 
fail to find in the ash of muck, any of the sol¬ 
uble forms of plant food. None of the valuable 
soluble salts of potash, soda, or phosphoric 
acid are present in the muck bed, unless in ex¬ 
tremely minute quantities. In soils on higher 
lands, the humus and ash contain all these 
soluble agents derived from the decay of veg¬ 
etation. It must be kept in mind that vegeta - 
tion decays in water uuderdiffereofeonditions 
from that when exposed to ai r, or in the pres¬ 
ence of oxygen, and a different condition of 
the resultant mass must be expected. 
The greater portion of the inorganic mate¬ 
rial of muck is lime in its insoluble form, sil- 
icia, iron, alumina, and often magnesia. Of 
the alkaline earths, lime is present in greatest 
abundance. From a careful consideration of 
the results of analyses of a large num¬ 
ber of specimens of muck, made during 
the past quarter of a century, under my 
observation, I have no hesitation in say¬ 
ing that the ashes of much are practically 
worthless to the farmer as a source of plant 
food. I say practically worthless, meaning 
by this, that the inorganic constituents of 
mucks contain so little of valuable, available, 
plant nutriment, that if they held no other 
forms, they would be utterly unworthy of at¬ 
tention, even under the most favorable condi¬ 
tions. This view is sustained by the investi¬ 
gations of Kane, Sullivan, Vaux, Regnaulte 
Mulder, Baer, Peterson, Anderson, Wagner, 
and many other eminent chemists in Europe, 
and Johnson, Storer, and other chemists in 
this country; in short, it is sustained by the 
analysis of every competent chemist whose 
researches have extended in that direction. 
Nitrogen in Muck. —As regards the other 
forms of valuable plaut food contained in 
muck, I have only to consider nitrogen. All 
analyses prove the presence of potential ni¬ 
trogen in mucks, and in some it is found in 
considerable quantities. The form in which it 
exists is in combination with organic acids, 
the humic, ulmic, crenic and apocrenic. It has 
been alleged that free ammonia has been found 
in some bogs, but I have failed to detect it in 
any specimens coming under notice, and no 
reliable chemist, so far as I can learn, has de¬ 
clared its presence. Nitrogen is the most 
costly, nnd, indeed, the most valuable, of all 
forms of nutriment needed by plants, and the 
question of its value, as found in mucks, is 
one of high importance in this discussion. 
Analysis of Mucks.— In the table of analy¬ 
sis presented below, a clear view is given of 
the amount found in three typical specimens 
of muck, one of which is from a bog on my 
farm at Winnekeni, one from a remarkable 
deposit in Boxford, Mass., the other from a 
well known bog in Plaistow, N. H. The equiv¬ 
alent in ammonia (NII 3 ) is also presented. 
Nitrogen. Ammonia. 
Winnekeni farm, percent..0.5(5 0.68 
Plaistow, N. H., •' " 0.31 0.37 
Boxford, Muss., “ “ 0.50 0.61 
The above is as found in the wet condition. 
In the water-free state it stands as follows: 
Nitrogen. Ammonia. 
Winnekeni farm, per cent.2.47 3.00 
Plaistow. N. H„ •• •' 2.13 2.55 
Boxford, Muss., “ “ 2.12 2.59 
The average of fifteen determinations of nitro¬ 
gen In wet mucks, by Prof. Johnson, Is.0.42 
Water-free.. 2.81 
. . . . Taking muck beds as they are 
found in the Northern States, it will be safe to 
assume that they hold on an average, in the 
absolutely dry condition, about two and a- 
quarter pounds (2}-* lbs.) of potential nitrogen 
in each one hundred pounds. 
A specimen from my farm meadow contains 
in each ton (2,000 pounds), of water-free muck, 
49.-10 pounds; this at 15 cents (a fair price), 
gives a money value of £7.41 for the nitrogen. 
The value of all the mineral and nitrogeneous 
plant food it contains may be stated as fol¬ 
lows : 
Nitrogen,.7.41 
Lime. 30 
Other suits.10 
$7.81 
The cost of procuring one ton of absolutely 
dry muck, may be understood from the fact 
that ten tons of the wet mass are required, es¬ 
timating the wuter at 90 per cent., which is a 
fair average for successive seasons. A ton of 
wet meadow muck of the best quality, is thus 
shown to have a value of seventy-eight cents 
(78 cents) as fertilizing material for farm 
crops, estimating its mineral plant-fond con¬ 
stituents as we estimate that found in cow 
dung. 
Analysis of Cow Manure. —With the 
view of affording a comparison of muck with 
fresh dung, a sample taken from my barn 
stalls, the droppings from cows in milk, is 
here presented. It contained of 
Wuter. 81.08 
Organic matter . 15.96 
Ash. 2.96 
100.00 
The result of this examination may appear 
somewhat startling inasmuch as it shows that 
the fresh eow dung from the ba rn, contains 
more water and less organic mutter and ash 
than is found in muck on the farm 40 rods dis 
tant. It would appear (other things being 
equal) that the muck is os valuable, or even 
more valuable than the dung, but important 
considerations come in to dispel this illusion. 
A complete analysis gave, as contained in 
each ton of the l'resh dung, the following 
amounts of valuable constituents. 
Nitrogen.....5.11 lbs 
Phosphoric uohl...3,55 “ 
Potash...2.00 “ 
The nitrogen in manure has a higher value 
than that in muck, but estimating it the same, 
with the phosphoric acid, potash, etc., the 
value stands as follows: 
5 1-1(1 Tbs. of Nitrogen.15 76 
3hj lbs. of Phosphoric add.12 42 
2 lbs. of Potash. 7 14 
Lime uml other Halts. 33 
$1.66 
Analysis of Liquid Excrement.— The 
nitrogenous aud mineral value of muck stands 
to fresh cow dung as 78 cents to $1.65 per ton, 
water-soaked; or nearly three to one in favor 
of the tatter; but it must be remembered that 
fresh cattle droppings do not represent ma¬ 
nure as found in farmers’ barn cellars. This 
consists of a mixture of the liquid excrement 
with the solid. A ton of fresh urine, as de¬ 
termined in analysis from specimens collected 
at my barn, gave the following results: 
Nitrogen. 
Phosphoric acid 
Potash. 
17.5 lbs. 
10.12 “ 
15.9 
