HE BORAL HEW-YORKER. 
AU8. as 
though to break off the stamens and apply the 
anthers direct to the stigmas is just as well, 
where those organs are large enough to be hand¬ 
led in that way. 
The words “crossing” and “hybridizing” 
Fig. 4. 
are used synonymously—though it Booms to us a 
pity that tho former is not confined to a union 
between two plants of tho samo species or close¬ 
ly related and the latter to a union between 
two plants of the same genus and or a different 
species, or distantly related. 
---- 
NEW SEEDLING GRAPE. 
Eds. Rural I send you this day one bunch 
of a new exotic seedling of mine, from Pope s 
Hamburgh, crossed with the Cannon Hall Mus¬ 
cat, and at least two weeks earlier than any of 
the Hamburghs. Yours respectfully, 
James H. Ricketts. 
[The bunch referred to is large, shouldered, 
quite compact. Berries largo—larger than either 
parent — round, juicy and exceedingly sweet. 
Flesh tender without tough pulp at center. Skin 
not tough ; color black.—E ds.] 
,-- - 
CATALOGUES, &c., RECEIVED. 
T. S. Hubbard, Fredonia, N. Y.—Wholesale 
Price List of Grape Vines, Fruit Trees, &c., for 
Autumu, 1877. 
After Sept. 15, Mr. Hubbard supplies selected 
clusters, as samples for agents to sell by, of Sa¬ 
lem, Rogers 4, 9, 15, 19 —Eumelan and Martha 
at a small price. He iuvites patrons to call upon 
him and examine his stock, which is an excellent 
guarantee of its quality. 
The Dingee & Conard Co., West Grove, 
Chester Co., Penn.—We take much pleasure in 
commending their Rose Guido to tho perusal of 
our floricullural friends—for the reason that it 
is one of the most liberal-minded and courteous 
establishments in tho country. The G uide is full 
of precisely Ihe information needod in Rose cult¬ 
ure, and is sent free to all applicants. 
B. K. Buss & Son, 34 Barclay St.—Autumn 
Catalogue and Floral Guido. All sorts of hardy 
bulbs and a list of Small Fruits, containing the 
most desirable varieties. 
fully trained in straight lines and angles, which 1 
Nature, in her most abnormal forms, evidently c 
seeks to avoid. All around us, in vegetation, we t 
observe variations of the curved and spiral lines, 
as well in the the flow of the sap as in the growth t 
of the wood. Hence, it is not unreasonable to suj>- 1 
pose that this sap will accomplish better work in < 
perfecting fruit and foliage, if allowed to assume i 
its habitual course than if checked aud retarded l 
by angles aud corners. Iucarrying out this idea 
to its legitimate extent, much less pruning is 
necessary to promote a healthy growth than is 
used under the French system. The best prun¬ 
ing will leave Nature least impeded in the per¬ 
formance of her functions, and t-o this end the 
hint /1 form seems best adapted. Not necessarily 
rounded, after the popular conception of a bush, 
but merely whatever its form, clothed from base 
to crown with foliage; and just here, allow us to 
say that all pruning that in any way destroys 
the characteristic habit of a tree, is not conso¬ 
nant with the truest instincts of ait. 
On the lawn, nothing can be liner than a tree 
thus clothed and protected. Health and beauty 
are thereby promoted, and the severe strain of 
summer aud winter Is rendered less injurious. 
Nor is the value of this system confined to 
ornamental trees alone. Fruit trees, similarly 
treated, will enjoy the same advantages. The 
sap, with lesB work to dobeforo concentrating on 
the fruit, does that work better. In employing 
tho term bush, we wish to convoy simply the idea 
of a plant that develops foliage at or near the 
ground, whether it he tree or shrub. 
The secret of the advantages possessed by the 
Irtish form, so understood, lie* in the strictly cur¬ 
vilinearway in which tho branches spring from 
the base of the plant, allowing the growth to 
assume the curved lino most agreeable to its 
nature. Pruning, on this principle, becomes 
very simple, requiring only the renewal from 
time to time, of fresh, fruit-bearing wood, by i 
removing any excessive amount of the old. Care 
should bo taken, every year, to thin out all su¬ 
perfluous and disproportioned growth, and to 
clip the outer ends of certain branches that may 
be too vigorous. Exhausting quantities of fruit 
aud flowers should be also diminished. 
It is not saying too much for tliis system of 
pruning, that, by its means, greater power is 
acquired of retaining beauty and fruitfulness 
than by any other we are familiar with. Not 
only is it based on Nature's own method, but the 
most practical men both in tbis country and 
Europe, not excepting Frenchmen themselves, 
have come to employ it, modified to a greater or 
- less degree as soil and climate may dictate. The 
1 proper extent of its application throughout 
I the entire classes of fruit or ornamental trees 
■ is not fully recognized only because it is the 
failing of experts to ride hobbies ; to overlook 
i tho general system from pro-absorption in de- 
• tails, and to miss therefore the broad application 
» of underlying principles. 
We commend (lie above remarks to general 
■ consideration because we wish to see all cast- 
iron systems done away with and nature allowed 
to do her perfect work with the least let or 
hindrance. 
CURVILINEAR PRUNING. 
BY SAMUEL PARSONS. 
Pruning, in one way or another, must have 
been practised from very early agos, and hence 
has probably kept pace with other improvements 
in horticulture. Modern times, with vastly in¬ 
creased skill visible everywhere, have, however, 
brought the art to a considerable degree of per¬ 
fection and French experts, so far at least as 
manual dexterity is concerned, seem to take the 
lead of all others. Very remarkable, certain¬ 
ly, are tho feats accomplished by Messieurs 
Le Peke, Dubrieul aud others in training 
foliage into curious devices, and it would be 
far from our wiBh to speak in other thuu the 
highest terms of the excellence of tho work of 
these masters. The point we wish to make is 
simply that their methods are ill adapted to the 
practical needs of trees in America. We may 
compare the results of such work to tho artificial 
training of the gymuasium which fails to de¬ 
velop the tough, enduring muscle obtained by 
exercise in the open air. There is apt to be a 
screw loose somewhere, and a collapse when 
least expected. One part of the system is keyed 
up to a higher pitch than tho others can stand, 
aud the muscles of the limbs cultivated to the 
disadvantage of the orgaus of life. In like man¬ 
ner, this complicated French pruning is very 
difficult of application in the simple gardens and 
farms of America, and lias the same tendency to 
fail all at once under the peculiar strain of our 
summers and winters. We contend that the en¬ 
tire system suggests too much of the unnatural 
conditions pertaining to many French fashions. 
Deformed, dwarf habits result, and a lack of cer¬ 
tain elements of natural health and beauty, that 
belong rightly to the tree, is apparent. 
One word expresses the key-note of the diffi¬ 
culty, namely: angularity. Everything is care- 
SUGGESTIONS FOR PACKING BUTTER. 
BY X. A. WILLARD. 
When left to stand until cold, the brine is turned c 
off and tiro pores of tho wood will be filled and £ 
the package when cool is lit for use. 
Packages prepared in this way do not impart, i 
the woody taste to the outside surface of the , 
butter coming in contact with tho package, < 
while the pores of the wood being tilled renders i 
it impervious to air and at the same time allows ( 
the butter to bo removed without loss, the sttr- i 
face, in contact with the wood, cleaving off clean i 
and smooth. The cover of the package should 
be treated in the same way. Tills last is seldom 
attended to, even by many who make a practice 
of soaking tile tub or firkin with brine; aud the 
consequence is that tho sail and gum in the 
cover are drawn out by tho salt and brine placed 
on top of the butter for its preservation, and this 
gives the top layer a woody and disagreeable 
taint. Rutter should always ho packed as solid 
as possible, anil iu putting It down in layers, caro 
should he taken to pack from the center out¬ 
ward, keeping the center always a little higher 
than the outer edges. In this way the pressure 
is both perpendicular and outward toward the 
edges of the tub, all the parts being filled solid 
with the least injury to the grain of the butter. 
Tills is an important point, for butter is often 
more or less injured in the grain by uuHkilllul 
packing—When the center of the butter, in 
packing, is kept ft little higher than the edges, 
the moiHtnre or surplus brine flows naturally to 
the edges of the tub where it is most needed to 
exclude air, and prevent the wood from drawing 
too much moisture from the outer edges ot tho 
butter, which are in contact with the tub. Again, 
iu packing, if there is not sufficient butter to fill 
the tub at once, great cure and attention should 
be given to have tho different churnings or par¬ 
cels of butter of the sumo color. Jn boring the 
butter t he color must show uniformity on the 
fryer, throughout. A white layer of butter in 
the center of the tub, or a tub showing butter of 
two colors will not sell in market at “ top prices, 
even if the grain aud flavor of the two packages ! 
he perfect. The reason is obvious ; since a plate 
of butter with two colors on the table is unsight¬ 
ly. giving the impression of negligence and per¬ 
haps gross uncleauliuess on the part of the 
maker; and this improssiou, even though it be 
i pure imagination, will destroy all tho pleasure in 
t eatiug the butter though filled with tho aroma of 
the sweetest June herbage. 
A quite common fault in packing is in using 
I too large quantities of butter for the layers. In 
i this way air cells occur, as if is difficult to get it 
‘ down as solid as can he readily done by putting 
i in Bmall quantities at a time and stroking it light- 
t ly a few times with the ladle, 
i That there are immense losses snstaiued annu- 
• ally from poor packages aud improper packiugs, 
i is well known to every large dealer in butter, 
- and this refers particularly to butter that is well 
i made and which, by proper attention to the 
points we have named, would go to the consum- 
1 ers iii prime condition and without Iobs. lho 
- greatest neglect, or want of knowledge in regard 
1 to packages and packing, is among the farm 
r dairies, and when butter is made Upon the farm. 
The matter is one of great moment at the present 
- time when tho price of butler is comparatively 
low ; and while the markets are crowded with in¬ 
ferior goods, producers should inquire into the 
causes, and seek by every possible measure, to 
- improve their product and thus put pricoB on a 
better footing. For, notwithstanding the im¬ 
mense production iu butter of all sorts, the de- 
. mand for choice or fancy butter is always greater 
than the supply. 
over some unimportant side-issue which had been 
given undue prominence in the discussion. 
Now I do not venture to assert that tho water 
in a spring house or anywhero else should bo 
uniformly of any ono temperatnre. nor do I un¬ 
dertake to say that good butter cannot be made 
with tho water at 54° and the air at 00 *, but 1 
do assert as a matter of fact, which challenges 
refutation, that bettor butter can be mado when 
both air and water are at the same temperature 
no matter what that may bo, provided the milk 
vessel is open and exposed to the air. I more¬ 
over assert as a fruit of my investigations that 
milk set in closed vessels sod cooled 10° lower 
than 54®, or to any intermediate degree will 
make more end bettor butter than when kept 
open to the air at any ti mperaturo. Milk set 
in open vessels surrounded by water at a 
lower temperature than the atmosphere is con¬ 
stantly absorbing beat and impurities from the 
atmosphere and in turn losing its watery purls 
by evaporation, an exchange which cannot hut 
affect the milk injuriously. 1 hope at a very 
early day to give the public the benefit of my 
prolonged investigation of this subject in an 
economical system of Betting milk, which shall 
be a long way in advance of any at present iu 
use, but will not take more of your space to dis¬ 
cuss that question at present. 
1 object to your correspondent’s practice of 
churning butter in water. I believe in washing 
butter, but in a very gentle manner. I like tho 
term “rinsing” better, and I would do that 
before the butter is gathered. I do not believe 
in setting the butter away till the next day 
before it is finished. That custom together 
with the use of some new-ranglod patent 
worker for grinding the life out of the but¬ 
ter spoils moro butter than the milk. left after a 
moderate rinsing, ever does. O. S. Bliss. 
Georgia, Vt,, July *.), 1877. 
An important matter with retail dealers and 
consumers Mho take butter out of the original 
package, Is to have it cleave smoothly from the 
sides of tho package. In many instances tho 
butter adheres to the sides of the tub or firkin, 
causing a loss of from ono to two pounds of 
butter, more or less, since the particles adhering 
to the wood arc, at heat, fit only for grease. 
This loss not unfroqnently will amount to a penny 
or more per pound on the whole weight of butter 
iu the package, and retail dealers, as well as con¬ 
sumers who purchase their supplies in original 
packages, very justly complain that this is a 
waste imposed upou them by tho producer and 
should be charged to his account. A ud without 
doubt the producer should bear this loss, if he 
could be readied, because it is the result of n«g- 
ligouoe or want of knowledge iu packing. 
Iu the first place, the tub or firkin should be 
well hooped and made perfectly tight so as not 
to allow of the least leakage. Then in preparing 
it for use, the pores of the wood should be com¬ 
pletely filled by soaking in brine, for if these are 
left open the butter will work into them, and 
this causes the adherence or sticking or the but¬ 
ter to the package. The package should be first 
soaked for a day or two with cold briue made 
with pure salt and clean spring water ; this 
should then be turned cut, and is not fit for use 
again, as the briue will draw out the sap and other 
impurities iu the wood, New briue should now 
be made by dissolving salt in clear spring water 
and heating the solution, aud when boiling hot, 
it is poured into the package completely filling it. 
IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR SETTING 
MILK. 
Tho following will perhaps be of interest to 
the dairy readers of the Rural : 
Editor Rural. ■ I used to look with a great 
deal of respect, amounting almost to reveranee, 
upon those persons who promulgated, without 
why or wherefore, their positive theories in re¬ 
gard to butter making etc., etc. Formerly, 
when I saw a man affirm as a matter of fact, as 
dees your correspondent “ a Practical Butter- 
maker,’' in the Rural of July 7th, that the uni¬ 
form temperature of the water should be 54 ° 
aud of the air about 60°, I was accustomed to 
infer that he buna something or the subject he 
was talking about, aud was really imparting 
some useful information. But alter a little ef¬ 
fort at karmouiziug the dogmas of several of 
these positive men, some even of whom write 
“ Prof." before their names, I came to the con¬ 
clusion that it was just possible that some of 
them might be wrong. Sometimes it is possible 
from a mass of conflicting testimony, not any 
part of which is really true, to edneo truths of 
great importance. The methods we ueod not 
discuss here ; suffice it to say that this milk set¬ 
ting question is one of the kind, and that whole 
months of time have been expended upou at¬ 
tempts to elucidate the principles involved and 
ferret out the errors. Countless experiments have 
also been made, some of them of much moment, 
but many more merely to settle the controversy 
PROFIT FROM COWS. 
In Juno 187(5, I came on to a farm here in 
Now Hampshire to try my hand at farming, aud 
soon found I needed assistance. My neighbors 
gave me advice freely, but 1 didn’t set much 
value on it, perhaps because it was bestowed so 
liberally. I subscribed for the Rural Nkw- 
Yokkkr, however, and find that 1 get much 
valuable information from it. and with its assis¬ 
tance 1 have been able to raise better crops than 
my neighbors, a thing they think very strange. 
I cannot say that I have not got my money’s 
worth from the Rural, for It has paid me many 
times over. During the week I find time to read 
all its contents, and I venture to say that any 
man who reads that paper will In: well repaid for 
its price. Yet, like all Yankees, I am not satis¬ 
fied, for l want more information, and venture 
to ask it through your columns. I sell my milk 
and herewith send you a statement of the re¬ 
sults in the hope that you, or some or your 
readers, will tell me how to obtain a better 
return from my cows, either by making butter or 
otherwise. 
I purchased live cows and took them to the 
farm on June 22, 187(5. Besides supplying my 
family of six persons with milk, I sold to June 
22,1877, 803 cans said to hold 8j-.j quarts each. 
The price at, tho house was from 19; j 
cents per can; amounting in all, to *180.02. 
I sold two calves in 1870 for $1(5‘12. I 
have raised 4 calves for 1Hi7, and estimating 
these to bo worth SO each they would make $24. 
Tho total income from my cows for the year was 
therefore $226.44, besides supplying my own 
family as above stated. 1 fed them some green 
corn in September and October 18 / 0 , but gave 
no extra provender in the winter except to one 
cow that was thin in flesh, and to her I fed uieal 
after she went dry. 
My cows seem to require something that they 
cannot obtain from the Boil, for they readily 
Beize and try to cat old wood, bones or litter. 
Now, what do they require ? w - 
East Deny, N. 11. 
DISEASED SHEEP. 
To B. B., Rome, III—In England the dew 
hangs on the herbage for hours longer, alter 
the sun rises, than it does ou the American Oon- 
tiuenl, and moreover nearly half the days are 
cloudy with a kind of drizzling rain which keeps 
the grass all tho time wet, yet there I never saw 
sheep discharge from the nose as I have seen 
them do here. As sheep in general are never 
put under cover iu England, and never lie on 
any kind of bedding excepting it may be for a 
very short time in February or the early part of 
March, when tho breeding ewes are kept in at 
night for the convenience of tho shepherd, con¬ 
sequently I have always thought it was lying on 
bedding and being kept from the dew and rain 
which coddled and made sheep so tender here 
that they easily take cold, and thus the sneezing, 
