T3 
2S2 
^farra dtantmuji. 
WHEN SOILING CROPS PAY. 
The system of growing crops, to be fed green 
to cowh and otbor stock, ban long been practiced 
by farmer* with success. But it depends on the 
extent of good pasture one has, and the number 
of cows that he keeps, to determine whether it is 
best, or not, to grow crops to be fed green. If a 
farmer never lacks good pasture through the 
entire season, soiling his cows is of no object to 
him, as they will produce as much milk on an 
abundance of good graHS in his pasture, ft» they 
will on any green crop that can be grown. But 
Buppo8e the pastures fail iu August and Septem¬ 
ber ; and your cows begin to fail iu then' milk, 
and to grow poor from tho want of sufficient 
food to sustain them in a good condition? In 
Bucb a case a green crop will save yon a serious 
loss, as it is expensive to bring cows back to an 
abundant flow of milk, when that is lost from a 
lack of feed. There is a class of small farmers 
and milkmen, who sell their milk in villages, or 
otherwise, who have not land enough to pasture 
all the cows that they dosiro to keep; and with 
such men soiling is advantageous, three or four 
cows being kept to the acre of green crops 
grown. 
KINDS OF CROPS GROWN. 
First—Bye, to be sown early in September, 
rather thick; and if you like, seed the land at 
the same time to grass. As soon as it has grown 
two feet high yon can commence to cut it. 
Second -Oats, sow early in tho spring, quite 
thick ; seed to clover, or other grasses, and cut 
as soon as it grows to be high enough to be pro¬ 
fitable. 
Third—Clover, from a previous year's seeding 
on good land. Commence cutting eatly so that 
the entire crop will be fed out before the heads 
turn brown. 
Fourth—Bowen, when you have such a crop, 
that you do not desire to cut for hay. 
Fifth—Hungarian grass, a variety of millet. 
Sow early in Juno, three pecks to the acre, to be 
cut in July or early in August. 
Sixth—Com, this is a staple crop for soiling, 
sown in drills, two and a-half to three bushels to 
the acre. Begin to bow as early as the soil and 
climate will admit, and sow every two weeks till 
the first of August. Any variety will do. but tho 
large, free-growing sweet corn is generally con¬ 
sidered best, being eaten with a great relish by 
cows. This seed is expensive, and caif*only bo 
grown to the best advantage when tho seed is 
grown by the sowers. The Western Dent is also 
a good variety, as it grows rapidly, and produces 
a great quantity of good fodder. 
NOW AND WHERE TO FEED STOCK. 
Iu deciding where you will feed your cows ou 
green crops, an eye should be directed to the 
manure heap, as this is a very important matter. 
Tho probability is, that every cow that is pastured 
drops ten cents’ worth of manure in the field 
daily, the most of which evaporatos into the 
atmosphere. Now, if you can secure that 
amount of manure from each cow by soiling, 
you at once pay tho expense of cutting your 
crops, and feeding your cows in this way, and 
even more than that,, as twelve cows may he fed, 
and attended daily, by the labor of a hand lialf- 
a-day, worth generally not over GO cents. Tho 
most comfortable way for the cows, is to put 
them into a yard adjoining the barn, where 
there is a good shade, and feed them from racks 
adjoining the fence where a load of feed can be 
drawn alongside, and pitched directly into the 
racks. Once a day the manure should be gath¬ 
ered into a wheelbarrow and taken to the dung 
heap, which should bo kept well covered with 
litter. To stormy weather the cows should be 
stabled, and there fed. Or they may he fed in 
the stable altogether, and turnod out into the 
yard for exercise after eating their feed. In no 
case can a farmer make a mistake by having an 
acre, or more of fodder corn ready to bo cut in 
September and October, when tho nights are 
long and the cows are yarded, as they require 
some kind of fodder at that season, uuIcsb they 
be kept, in their pasture all the time ; and oven 
then, if short, a little green corn would bo bene¬ 
ficial to them. T. B. Minkr. 
Linden, N. J. 
■ —--♦♦♦- 
PRODUCTIVE LANDS. 
In the Rural of January 20,1 gave an account 
of a 200 acre farm, lying near South Bend, in St. 
Joseph County, Indiana, which had 800 rods of 
underdraws upon it. Anil now I will give a 
statement of several other farms which are not 
nnderdrainod, but have a few open ditches 
upon them, from 0 to 8 foot wide at top, 1 foot 
at bottom, and from 2 to 4 miles from South 
Bend, in the Kankakee bottoms, and the owners 
believe the open ditches are sufficient without 
underdrains. 
Judge GmiENE has 200 acres; F. B. A E. Tctt, 
280 acres; E. Chapin, 80 acres; C. Studebakek, 
• THE BUBAL I 
160 acres; Andrew Anderson, 80 acres; and 
Boveral others have more or less further down 
the Kankakco Biver. The «oll of those farms is 
a black vegetable mold mixed with clay and sand, 
from 1 to 5 feet deep. In some placets the black 
soil predominates, at others the clay and sand 
are more abundant. But all have proved to 
be quite productive. For the last few years 
Judge Greene baa raised from 48 to 71 buBhels 
of corn per acre, from 200 to 280 bushels of po¬ 
tatoes per acre, from 22 to 28 bushels of wheat 
per acre. Moreover, ho has sold a large quantity 
of grapes, and made some wine, besides obtain¬ 
ing large yields from several other crops. F. B. 
<{• E. Tctt have raised from 200 to 000 bushels of 
potatoes per acre, oats from 00 to 75 bushels per 
acre, corn from 50 to 76 bnsholH per acre, 
timothy hay, from 2 to 8% tons, and clover 
about the same. They sold 2 acres of timothy 
ou tho ground in cook , one year, for 870 in cash, 
being 7 tons at $10 |>er ton, or $85 per acre. 
Tomatoes, beets, turnips, cucumbers, pumpkins, 
squashes and other vegetables, all yielded 
abundantly. E. Chapin had large crops of hay, 
wheat, corn, and potatoes. C. Studebakeii had 
fine crops of corn, buckwhoat, oats, potatoes, 
cabbage and various kinds of vegetables. A. 
Anderson has had large crops of hay of good 
quality. 
Ou some of these farms fruit trees have been 
set out and are doing well, some of which are 
already in bearing. Blackwalnut, Butternut, 
Ash, Maple, Willow and Poplar, have been set 
out and grow thrif Lily, llop and grape vines do 
well and bear abundantly. In fRet, all the 
Kankakee bottom lands produce well when 
properly cultivated. The soil being composed of 
vegetable mold, clay, sand, and black loam or 
muck, will retain its fertility many years, even 
though no manure should be added. Especially 
would Us productiveness bo kept up, if stocked 
with cattle or sheep. These farms being near 
the city, are valued quite high, say from 850 to 
8100 per acre. But few if any of them are for 
sale. Yet a tittle further from town, down tho 
river, land of the same quality and productive¬ 
ness can bo purchased for one third of Its real 
value. The open ditches, alluded to above, did 
not cost to exceed 81 per acre, on the average, 
and had as much more been expended in under- 
draining, I am satisfied that the products would 
have been thereby increased. Isaac Khmay. 
South Bend, lud. 
HOW MUCH MANURE 1 
Fifteen years ago I purchased about forty 
acres of laud, about twenty-five miles from New 
York City, but soon sold all but about eighteen 
acres. Four of these are untillable, and are used 
for pasture. Tho remaining fourteen acres 
have been used for garden, lawn, and meadow. 
When purchased, it was said to bo fair farming 
land, rather light and sandy, but with a yellow 
loam for a subsoil. 
Now, my first venture for manure was super¬ 
phosphate and bone-dust of various brands ; but 
these did not bring the crops desired, so I wont 
into the muck compost rather heavily, hauling 
out some three thousand loads, composting a 
part, and spreading the remainder upon the laud 
broadcast, in winter, plowing it under iu Bpring. 
I also purchased manure wherever it could be 
obtained iu the neighborhood, sometimes twenty 
to fifty loads in a lot. Later on, I had several 
car-loads sent out from the city, which made it 
rather expensive; but my object was to make 
the land rich, and, therefore, no reasonable op¬ 
portunity for obtaining fertilizers was neglected. 
This has been my system for tho fifteen years, 
and more money has been spent for these neces¬ 
sary adjuncts to a good garden than the original 
cost of tho land. 
But, in addition to the fertilizers purchased, I 
have used seven to ten tons of hay annually, 
also purchased, for the use of a span of horses 
and cattle kept for the use of the family: also 
oats, ground feed, straw for bedding, etc., etc. 
All have gone into tho manure-pits, and then 
been spread upon these fourteen acres. Not a 
pound of grain, hay, or bushel of vegetables 
raised upon the land has ever gone olT from it 
since it came into my possession, and I am a lit¬ 
tle curious to know bow long I must pursue the 
present system of taking nothing off and putting 
everything back, with large additions purchased 
iu tho form of hay and grain for my stock, and 
good homo manure from tho stables of the vil¬ 
lage near by, in order to get fourteen acres of 
rich soil a foot deep. 
When some of your correspondents talk of ex¬ 
pending five, ten, or twenty dollars per acre for 
fertilizers, in order to make their land fertile 
enough to raise good crops, 1 cannot help look¬ 
ing over my manure and feed bills, and counting 
up tho cost of makiug my little garden-patch 
rich. Of course, some of your Western readers 
may say: “ Why not sell out your sandbank and 
come out here and purchase land which needs no 
manure ? " But to Buch invitations I would re¬ 
ply, with a polite “thankyou." For, having 
raised and sold corn once for ten cents per 
IEW-Y0BKER. APRIL 28 
bushel, I have no inclination to try it again, even 
where from seven to ton dollars' worth can he 
produced per acre at that prioe; but wliat I 
would like to kuow is, How much money must a 
man spend to make an old, worn-out soil rich, 
and keep it so during a man’s lifetime ? If some¬ 
body does not tell me, I may learn it all myself, 
if patience holds out. A Suburban Farmer. 
--- 
SEEDING TO GRASS. 
It would bo a great improvement, in regard to 
the hay, and the pasture after the hay is cut, to 
seed down land to timothy and Kentucky blue 
grass, or June grass, as it is also called. Tho 
June grass makes a firm sward, which is not in¬ 
jured by pasturing cattle upon it in wet weather; 
and it makes excellent hay either alone or when 
grown with timothy. Clover had better not be 
sown with these two grasses, as it would bo liable 
to crowd them out too much. 1 see no good rea¬ 
son for growing clover with any other grass. It 
may bo grown by itself quite as profitably to 
farmors as to grow it with timothy according to 
the old stereotyped custom. Then, the old cus¬ 
tom of seeding down land to grass with a grain 
crop is not now followed as closely as it used to 
bo in years past. The land now is often plowed 
early in the spring, and seeded down to grass 
with no other crop. Early in September is a 
better time to seed down lands, but it will do 
neat ly as well in the Sluing, if the seed is sown 
early. 
Tho seed of J uuo grass is generally very chaffy, 
and a bushel of such seed, at least, should be 
sown with from four to six quarts of timothy 
seed per acre. Let the land be well harrowed, 
after being plowed, then sow the seed, and cover 
it with a brush harrow; and then roll tho land, 
an operation that covers a good deal of seodthat 
was not covered before, and presses tho earth 
firmly upon it, which causes the seed to germin¬ 
ate soonor than it otherwise would, especially in 
dry weather. A fair crop of hay is often cut the 
first season when grass seed is thus sown, or 
good pasture is obtained by August. It has been 
found by numerous experiments that but very 
little grass seed of any kind germinates when 
covered two inches deep; therefore, ordinary 
harrows cover much of the seed too deep. 
Linden, N. J. T. B. Miner. 
H;iirir fjuskntim 
OLEOMARGARINE. 
THE BRANDING OF 01E0MARQARINE BUTTER ANO CHEESE 
AND SKIMMED CHEESE- THE PR0P0SE0 LAW 
BEFORE THE N. Y. LEGISLATURE. 
Ever since tho manufacture of Oleomargarine 
or artificial butter was introduced into this coun¬ 
try, it has been urged that it should go upon the 
market under a distinctive name, and be sold to 
consumers for what it is. There can bo no rea¬ 
sonable objection to this, it Booms to us, and the 
RURAL has always advocated that the product, 
known afl Oleomargarine butter, should be brand¬ 
ed aR such, so that consumers may kuow what 
they are buying and eating. Much has been 
said against tho manufacture of tins product, 
bul in no instance has it been proved that bad 
or unhealthful fat had been used at the manu¬ 
factories. On tho contrary, the testimony of 
those who have made a thorough examination 
of these establishments is, that great care and 
attention are given to the selection of the caul fat 
of animals slaughtered for beef, and the most 
scrupulous neatness and cleanliness arc observed 
in all the processes of manufacture. From the 
recent improvements that have been made in 
the grain and flavor of this artificial butter, and 
the cheapness at. which it can bo put upon the 
market, it is evident the product must, iu the 
futuro, take its place as an article of food, and 
hence the propriety of having suitable laws 1 
passed, which shall compel those manufacturing 
or dealing iu the article to designate it under an 
appropriate uame, so that consumers may know 
what they are buying, and if they prefer the arti¬ 
ficial butter to the genuine, either on account of 
price or flavor, it is their privilege to do so. 
Tho Senate bill, now before tho Legislature of 
New York, and which is likely to become a law, 
provides that not only Oleomargarine butter but 
Oleomargarine cheese, and the skimmed cheese 
made from milk set and skimmed at factories 
and creameries, shall be branded as Oleomarga¬ 
rine butter, Oleomargarine cheese and skimmed 
cheese, respectively; and it ia further provided 
that whenever these products shall be sold at 
retail, the brand or name shall be distinctly 
made known to tho consumer or purchaser. 
It will be observed that the provisions of the 
bill do not apply to the whole of the skim-cheese 
interest, but only so far as the milk is skimmed 
at the factory or creamery, and then is made 
into skimmed cheese. Farmers, under this bill, 
are allowed to skim their milk at the farm and 
make skimmed cheese, or after the cream is re¬ 
moved they may take tho skimmed milk to the 
factory and have it made into skimmed cheese, 
aud such product may go upon the market with¬ 
out branding. This evidently will Beom to some 
to be hardly fair or eqnitablo, for if the cream 
has been removed from tho milk, and does not 
go into the cheese, why not call it a “ skim 
cheese," and brand it as such, without makiug 
any discrimination ? A moment’s consideration 
of the subject, however, will show that it is no 
easy matter to draw the line and doll no the exact 
point under which a choose should be branded as 
skimmed without doing injustice to the farmer. 
If wo Bhonld say that all cheese made from milk 
that doeB not contain all its cream, is skimmed 
cheese, it might operate very inconveniently for 
many farmers, who, in making up their milk at 
tho farm, are accustomed to take a little of the 
oreaw that rises ou the night's milk, to use in 
their tea or coffee. The portion removed is 
often so small as to make no perceptible differ¬ 
ence in the quality of cheeso from that made 
from milk containing all its cream ; aud yet to 
be compelled to brand such cliccse as “ skim¬ 
med and put it on tho market iu tho same 
class as tho chcoso from which all or nearly all 
tho cream has boon removed, would evidently bo 
unjust. The rule would apply also to various 
degrcoB of light skimming, and especially in the 
fall make of chcoso, when milk is very rich in 
cream, and whoa a portion of tho bntter may be 
removed from tho milk without detriment to the 
cheeso. Then, again, some manufacturers, by 
tho caroloss handling of the milk and curds, iu 
tho process of manufacture, work out the cream 
or oil, so that it passes off In the whey—thus as 
effectually skimming the cheese as when a cer¬ 
tain proportion of the cream has been removed 
from tho milk, which is then handled by a more 
skillful maker. 
Numerous cases could be mentioned where a 
law requiring all cheese to be branded as skim¬ 
med, without defining the exact degree of skim¬ 
ming, would cper*te unjustly to some of the 
parties. The bill, then, in its application to tho 
milk sot for cream at the factories and creamer¬ 
ies, when made into skimmed cheeso, draws the 
line so that there is likely to be no mistake ns 
regards the cheese from these establishments. 
And while wo should have been glad to have 
seen a provision including tho skimmed cheese 
made at the whole-milk factories in the spring 
of the year (the cream being removed at the 
farm, and by the farmers), still the bill covers a 
pretty wide field as it is, and will, we think, be 
generally approved. 
One very important point to bo gained by tho 
passage of this bill, is to prevent the adultera¬ 
tion of butter with oleomargarine, which, as we 
have been informed, is beginning to bo practiced. 
It is statod that when frosh creamory butter, as 
it is churned, receivos about ouo-third its weight 
of oleomargarine, tho product is of equal llavor 
and texture with gonuiue creamery butter, or at 
least that it is not easily distinguished from gen¬ 
uine creamery butter by experts, aud that it sells 
for the same prices ub those obtained for genu¬ 
ine butter. 
To what extent this adulteration has been car¬ 
ried wo are unablo to say, but wo presume it is 
more extensively practiced than has been imag¬ 
ined. At any rate, it is believed that without a 
law. compelling tho makers to brand such adul¬ 
terated batter with its propor name, tho prac¬ 
tice of adding oleomargarine would continuo to 
grow until tho greater proportion of our butter 
would be adulterated. That this would naturally 
follow, it need only to be stated that when cream¬ 
ery butter sells for from 30 to 35 cts. per pound, 
where oleomargarine can bo bought at about 12 
to 15 cts. per pound, the profit to be derived 
from the adulteration is very considerable. We 
have nothing to say against the wbolesomeness 
of the adulterated article, because that point has 
not been raised by consumers, but we object to 
the deception that is practiced—tho consumer 
paying an extra price for what be supposes to be 
a genuine cream butter, when in reality lie is 
cheated with a baser material. It is said, too, 
that butter adulterated with oleomargarine, in 
the way we have named, will not keep for any 
considerable length of time, but must be con¬ 
sumed while fresh, as it soon turns in flavor. 
If this be so, it is an additional reason why 
such adulteration should be discouraged. But 
under the provisions of the proposed bill, butter 
adulterated with oleomargarine must be branded, 
and this of course will have a tendency to break 
up the practice, since it places tho adulterated 
article in tho same class as oleomargarine, while, 
at the same time, it puts the manufacturers iu a 
very unfavorable light before the public, and 
with no chance, it seems to us, of ever getting 
“ fancy prices," even should they turn their at¬ 
tention to the manufacture of genuine butter. 
We hope soon to give a copy of the bill, aud 
have no doubt it will become a law which will 
prove not only an advantage to dairymen, but to 
the manufacturers of the products referred to. 
■ ♦- 
BITTER BUTTER. 
Mr. Editor Some four or five years ago I 
bought, in December, a fresh Alderney cow, and 
C 
