THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Did. S3 
very mean man, will strike a horse with a whip, 
hoe, or shovel, when he is tied in the stall. 
One can easily toll if ft horse has been whipped 
while in the stall. If, when yon go up behind 
him to go into tho stall, he throws his ears back, 
springs ahead, lashes the tail between the logs, 
lowering and drawing forward the haunch for 
protection, you may feel sure he has boon 
pounded in the stall, with tho first thing the 
owner could get hold of. If he jumps hack 
when you go to the front to his head, or when 
you reach out your hand to caress his nose, be 
Bure his master has been in the habit of striking 
his nose with a hand, fist or fork. 
Jnhstual Copirs, 
GROUND BONE, SULPHATE OF LIME, &c. 
0. L., Niagara Co., N. Y. —Will the Rural 
plase answer the following questions in the cor¬ 
respondents' column ? (1) Is ground hone as 
good for fertilizing purposes as sulphate of 
lime '< (2 ) Where oun a bone mill be purchased ? 
(3.) How is neat’s-foot oil made and refined ? 
Ans (1 ) The efficacy and consequent value 
of fertilizers depend mainly on two considera¬ 
tions : First, the nature of the soil on which 
they are to he applied, including its mechanical 
texture, as well as its stage of impover ishment by 
previous cropping or enrichment by manure : 
and second, the kind of crops for which they 
are intended to furnish and prepare plant-food, 
for most fertilizers not only supply food to the 
plant themselves, but also by their aotion on 
some of the ingredients of the soil or atmos¬ 
phere, prepare these for ready assimilation by 
the plant. That fertilizer is best which either 
directly or indirectly supplies in the beat propor¬ 
tion the special kinds of nourishment required by 
any crop and of which the soil is most deficient. 
Hence such an indefinite question as that hero 
propounded, admits of only a general answer, 
which can be of little practical utility;— 
for the general is always indefinite, and the in¬ 
definite is never practical. 
In asking questions of this kind, therefore it is 
always well to particularize the nature of the 
soil on which the manures are to bo applied, and 
the kind of crop for which they are intended. 
Here we can only say, in a general way, that 
while sulphate of lime or gypsum is a very ex¬ 
cellent fertilizer for clover, sainfoin, rye grass 
and other plants of a similar character, yet, 
with these exceptions, ground bone is more val¬ 
uable both for any individual crop and for a far 
greater number If tho bones are merely ground 
without being reduced to a snperphoahate, their 
action is comparatively slow, but lasting ; where¬ 
as, when their fertilizing elements are rendered 
soluble by treatment with sulphuric acid or other¬ 
wise, their effects are more immediate though 
not so enduring. The com position of both these 
fertilizers will give a good idea of their relative 
values. Dry ox bones, according to Berzelius, 
contain 
Phosphate of lime with a little fluoride of cal¬ 
cium . $57.35 
Bone gelatine.. 33 30 
Carbonate rf lime. 8.86 
Phosphate of magnesia. 2.05 
Soda and :i litte chloride of sodium. 3.45 
100.00 
Sulphate of lime oontains 
LiuiO..$82 66 
Sulphuric acid. 40.61 
Water. 20.93 
moo 
(2) Blymyer Manufacturing Go., Cincinnati, 
Ohio ; James Bogahocs, corner of White and 
Elm streets, New York City. 
(3) Neat’s-foot oil is obtained by boiling the 
feet of neat cattle, and removing the floating 
fatty matter. 
Some will put in the heads and other bony 
portions of the body, but the oil is then inferior, 
and, of course, worth less than what is known as 
pure, or true, neat’s-foot. After boiling, tho 
fatty portion Is put into the tank and allowed to 
settle, resulting iu a portion of clear oil, which 
is floating over the “ foots,” or settlings. This 
is taken off, and the “ foots ” put into a certain 
kind of cloth bags, and then into a powerful 
press, and additional oil is in this way obtained, 
the solid matter being disposed of for soap- 
making. Acid, sulphuric or muriatic, is some¬ 
times used iu the process, To this correspond¬ 
ent, and indeed to all our readers, we would say 
with emphasis, that before engaging in any now 
business, they ought, by all means, to make 
themselves personally acquainted with its nature 
by visiting places where it is carried on, and 
making practical inquiries of those engaged in it. 
VARIEGATED GRASSES, &c. 
A. M., Smith's Jianch, Cal. —(1.) Can the Eu¬ 
lalia Japonioa variegated grass be procured from 
seed ? or does it seed ? If so, where can one ob¬ 
tain it ? (2.) Also, will some of the good friends 
of the Rural give the method for crystalizing 
flowers and grasses with alum ? 
(1.) Mr. Peter Henderson kindly furnishes the 
following answer :—The Eulalia Japonica varie¬ 
gated will not seed North. I have scut ft lot of 
both it and its twin brother E. Jap. (zobrina) to 
California, in hopes to get seed ns the demand 
for them is such that the ordinary propagation 
by division is too slow ; yet there is some dan 
ger if we do get tho seed that it may not 
oontinue the variegfttion, as tho tendency in 
most plants is to run back to the original green 
species, and to not oontinue the variegation, par¬ 
ticularly if the variegation originated in a 
“ sport, " that is, one shoot of the green species 
becoming variegated. 
(2,) To crystalize grasses, pulverize a pound 
of tho purest white alum and dissolve it 
iu a quart of soft water, in an earthen howl over 
a slow fire. Let the solution cool to blood-heat 
and pour over the grasses arranged in a bowl. 
Cover them over and let stand twenty-four 
hours. Takeout carefully and dry four or five 
hours in the sun. If the grasses are formed into 
bouquets before crystalizing, suspend the bou¬ 
quet from a stick laid across the top of the bowl, 
careful that tho tops of the grasses arc not 
bent over. Tho alum water which remains in 
tho dish can be reheated and tinged blue, green 
or scarlet, by a few drops of dye, and used for 
other grasses, the same as before. We have 
never tried to crystalize flowers. 
4-S4- 
THE SOIL. 
J. ORVILLE TAYLOIl. 
Silica, or sand, alumina, or clay, and carbo¬ 
nate of lime, are the principal ingredients of 
the soil. The open, porous, or sandy, is where 
the silica is the main ingredient. Tho stiff, clay 
soil is that in which alumina predominates; and 
what is called a loam, contains nearly equal 
proportions of silica, alumina and carbonate of 
lime, furnishing the best soil for tillage. 
Each of these soils requires a different treat¬ 
ment for their improvement. The silicious, or 
sandy, is deficient in humus, or vegetable and 
animal matter. This can bo supplied by the 
addition of muck, found iu swamps, or low 
places; by plowing under green crops, either 
clover, rye, or oats ; and by the application of 
barn-yard manures. The open, porous nature 
of the Boil has permitted the hutmu to cither 
evaporate, or sink beneath the roots of the 
growing crop. The more we apply vegetable 
and animal matter to this soil, the more tena¬ 
cious, sticky and salvy it becomes, and thus 
better fitted to prevent sudden, extreme evapo¬ 
ration. leaving the ground too dry, and also ar¬ 
resting the sinking of the manure. Where 
there is a stiff subsoil, five or six inches below 
the surface, a saudy soil may be readily and 
permanently improved. And the purchaser of a 
farm of Bandy soil should be oareful to examine 
the subsoil, which If loose and gravelly, will 
make tho soil and its top-dressings of less 
value. 
The aluminous or clay soil, will lie benefited 
by the application of lime which unites with the 
clay, disintegrating it, or breaking up into fine 
particles the whole maHS, and thus permitting 
the small roots to penetrate every part and find 
their food, which, before this disintegration, lay 
latent and useless. Lime is, also, iu very small 
proportions a direct aliment, or food for plants. 
It is from the grass and grain the animal obtains 
the lime that makes the bones. The day soil is 
greatly improved by pulverization, and hence 
should never be worked when wet : when dry it 
should then be broken up as finely as possible. 
Ah this soil does not permit the surface-water to 
soak through readily, open and ample drainage 
should be provided. For this soil a dressing of 
ashes is particularly valuable, the potash pro¬ 
ducing a looseness of the hard, adhesive clay, 
and being also a mineral food for plants. 
The ealcarious, or lime soil, combines in great¬ 
er or less proportions, the silicious, aluminous, 
and carbonacious, and being a mixture of the 
principal primary earths, is iho most fertile Of 
all the soils, and on this soil we may profitably 
put gypsum, or plaster, limo, and humus in every 
form; and it may be more certainly relied on 
whether the season be a wet, or a dry one. 
It is what is called a loam, and is the soil of 
the Western prairies, holding in that pnmative 
state, a large amount of dead vegetable matter. 
The soil holds in its bosom the food for plants. 
This food is mostly from decayed vegetables, or 
decomposed dead plants and animals j the decay¬ 
ing and the dead becoming food for the living. 
But this food can he taken only in liquid form, 
and hence the necessity of the presence of water 
which « a solvent, and holds in solution that 
which the plant is seeking and can take in no 
other way. This shows why liquid manures are 
more immediate in their action than those 
that are solid. 
The best soil is that which not only contains 
the most food for plants, but that which has it, 
also, in the best prepared state for the plants to 
appropriate. The stiff, hard and lumpy clay soil 
locks the food up ; the open sandy soil permits 
it to run away, and even in the loamy soil the 
plant frequently is not able to take its food, 
either from the want, or excess of water: 
(for water in excess either sours, or dilutes too 
much) or from its not being broken up to the 
requisite fineness. The intelligent farmer, by 
close observation of the habits and appetites, 
likes and dislikes of plants, can feed them with 
as much certainty as ho can feed an animal 
And he may analyze his soil and know what it is 
wanting in, and what will supply the want and 
not work blindly and mechanically in the durk. 
#dti Crops. 
RUTA-BAGA-USES AND CULTIVATION. 
Rcta-Bac*ab, or Bweedish turnips are usually 
fed to cattle, but are of great value as food for 
horses, which are as fond of them as they are 
of carrots or potatoes. The American farmer 
seldom feeds the turnip to horses, though it is 
very generally fed to them in England, France 
and Germany. The writer, while riding, a few 
days since, behind a pair of horses remarkable 
for their courage and siky coals, was told by the 
owner that t he only feed given to them was tur¬ 
nips and out straw. Ho gave the pair, he said, 
one bushel of turnips a day, and what straw they 
wanted to pick, the leavings being thrown to the 
cattle, which liked them the better, after having 
come from the horse-stable. These horses were 
worked to draft or light carriages from four to 
six hours every day, and the declaration of the 
owner was, “ they do bettor than when I feed 
them grain.” 
If tho soil is properly prepared, and slight at¬ 
tention given to the cultivation, from three to 
four hundred bushels may be raised from one 
acre ; and taken, too, from the ground as a sec¬ 
ond crop , following early potatoes, peas, or the 
first cuttings of clover. The owner of the 
horses we were riding behind, told the writer 
that he had taken, this year, from tigo acres a 
crop of clover hay of remarkable growth, giving 
at least three tons to t he acre. After gathering it, 
he plowed the field and planted it with nita-ba- 
gas, completing t he planting the 22nd of July. He 
said he had taken from theaetwo acres 800 bush¬ 
els of turnips. This would make the produce of 
these 2 acres, six tons of clover hay, and six¬ 
teen tons of turnips. These sixteen tons of tur¬ 
nips are worth for food, either for cattle or 
horses, eight, tons of good hay, making tho 
product of the two acres amount to fourteen 
tons in one season. Tho turnip crop takes but 
very little from the soil, and leaves it admirably 
fitted for the suoeeediDg crop. 
Tho most approved mode of cultivation is: 
after plowing, harrow the same way it has been 
plowed and then open furrows with a small plow 
thirty inches apart; into the bottom of these, 
drop a slight scattering of well-rotted manure. 
Then turn the earth over the manure, about 
four hushes in depth, by running the plow on 
each side of the furrow. A hand rake is now 
drawn over the top of these ridges to level them 
slightly, and prepare them for the seed, which 
is put in by a drill barruw. If this instrument 
cannot bo had conveniently, tho seed may be 
dropped from a tin cup, having a small hole in 
the bottom, of the right size to let the requisite 
amount of seed pass out as the man walks along. 
After the plants have appeared an inch or two 
above the earth, they should lie hand-thinned, 
allowing them to stand about (I inches apart. 
After a week or two, the cultivator may be 
passed through between the rows, running the 
bright, sharp, steel tooth as near the plant as 
possible without covering it. The crop may re¬ 
quire a second application of the cultivator, but 
not unless the weeds spring up too vigorously. 
The crop is now left, and nothing more is done 
until the harvesting which will be in the fall 
after a few sharp frosts have appeared. In 
harvesting, the root is pulled by one hand, and 
tho top out off by a knife held in the other hand; 
the turnip is then thrown upon the ground, and 
left for an hour or so to dry in the sun. They 
are then pickod and buried on the surface of the 
ground in long heaps, the heap sharpening to 
the top, and then covered slightly with straw 
and earth. When the weather, becomes colder 
an additional covering should be given, to pre¬ 
vent freezing. 
In the winter, as the stock may want the 
turnips, a heap is opened at one end, if a long 
one, always choosing a warm, sunny day, and 
the roots carried to the cellar or to some place 
where they will not freeze, yet be accessible. 
If they are used for fattening cattle, a bushel a 
day may be given each animal along with two 
quarts of Indian meal scattered over the turnips. 
A “ root-slieer " will be found convenient, but if 
this is not possessed the turnips may be cut 
with a sharp spade. 
In this country, root culture has never re¬ 
ceived the attention it deserves. By its aid the 
amount of stock usually kept on a farm may be 
doubled, and thereby the land improved and 
profits greatly increased. j. o. t 
WHAT SHALL IT BE CALLED I 
I refer to the grain noticed brit tty. some time 
since, in the Rural as evidently a species of 
sorgo. It was sold last year extensively by C. 
B. Kress A Co., of Michigan at fabulous prices, 
and called by the-m “ Pampas or Upland Rice.” 
They claimed it as “ the coming cereal,” said it 
would yield sixty bushels to the acre, was grasi- 
boppe.r-proof etc. 
I have tried it one season in my field, and 
though I place a much lower estimate upon it 
than Kress & Co., I still think it worth, in 
many instances, cultivation cm a small scale. I 
intend to plant four or five acre.-, next reason It 
is left untouched by the Hatefuls as is the com¬ 
mon sorghum. Fowls and quadrupeds devour it. 
with avidity. It will not be consumed in the 
houso in any shape, to any extent, as long as 
wheat, rye, or corn can be had. Pampas or Up¬ 
land Rice is a misnomer, as it b»s no affinity to 
rice. What shall we call it ? 1 will put it on 
the Rural's ‘'Exchange” list, or I will send 
it free to any one w ho will send a stamped and 
addressed envelope. Have also for exchange, 
Opuntia vulgaris and a Mammillaria inacromeris 
two hardy (here) cacti and quite pretty bloom¬ 
ers. R. M. Crane. 
Orleans, Neb. 
(Lie ©artnt. 
THE BEST TOMATOES. 
PROF. W. J. BEAL. 
Titrough the kindness of the editor of the 
Rural Nbw Yorker, I received packages of ten 
varieties of the choicest tomatoes. These were 
not started till rather late, and after petting out 
suffered some from the Colorado beetle. On 
May lGtb, four small plants of equal age. of each 
variety, wore set on light soil three and a half 
feet each way. Tho plants named Hathaway 
(College), were raised from seeds saved from the 
first tomatoes which ripened the year before at 
this place; and those descended from seeds 
saved in like manner tho year previous. All the 
other seeds came from New York, hut just where 
each was raised, I am unable to say. 
NUMBER OF TOMATOES AND DATE OF PICKING. 
rss 
Si I 
tC , 
3 
00 | 
15 1 2 3 
-T 
Cl 
id o X 
Variety. 
! . p 
a «a 
g! 
<. 
■*>» 
O 
CO 
■+* 
c 
i\ 
cc 
^ 1 
£ | 
CO i 
&. 
fi 
CO 
■p 
57 
X 
t > y 
o . < P. 
Trophy. 
1 4 1 
71 
0 118! 
101 
20 | 
121 
7 1 
40 1 118 | 29 
Canada 
I 1 
15 I 
16 
16 | 
53 | 177 I 69 
Victor 
1 s| 
n 
30 | 
21 1 
14 1 
Conqueror. 
1 4! 
32 
1661 
451 
81 
28 I 
20 | 
56 | 
87 | 831 | 83 
Hathaway.. 
1 4| 
4 | 15 1 17 1 19 | 
20 I 161 
21 i 108 | 270 I 67 
Hathaway, 
I 1 
1 
1 1 
I 
19 
20 
1 48 | 
125 | 240 | 80 
(College) 
1 3 1 
0 
111 1 
17 1 
o| 
One Hun 
1 
1 1 
1 
1 1 
45 | 224 | 76 
dred Pays 
1 3 
10 
1 26 
1 31 I 
28 | 
80 I 
9 
1 46 1 
Arlington .. 
1 3| 
31 11 1 
17 i 13 | 
11 I 
t> 
1281 
81 | 169 1 59 
Cheenoy.. 
1 31 
01 
21 | 
21 | 
13| 
50|40 
1461 
263 | 454 | 161 
Emily. 
1 21 
11 »|25| 
51 
21 
1 1 
2 1 
53 1 88 | 44 
Golden 
1 1 
1 
1 
1 1 
44 | 103 | 51 
Trophy 
1 s| 
5 
1 18 
1 9 | 
el 
6 
r> 
1 10 1 
Little Gem.. 
14 |32 |85| 
46| 
841 
153 | 
58 | 48 | 
107 | 453 | 113 
Remarks.— Trophy: very large,even. Canada Vic. 
or: large,even. Conqueror: medium, creased. Hath- 
i W ay • medium, even. Hathaway (College): medium. 
• veil.' i)no. Hundred Days medium, ereared. Arling- 
nn: large, creased. Cheonoy: small, even, yellow. 
Kimly: large, creased. Golden Trophy , large, creased, 
-ellow. Little Gem: very small, even. 
The seeds of Little Gem were sown when the 
,lants of the other varieties were set in open 
;round. 
From these rather crude experiments it will 
J0 gem) for the three first pickings up to 
September 10, when tomatoes are the most valu- 
iblo, that piants of 
The Conqueror average S3 medium sized tomatoes. 
The handr<-d days “ 22 
Canada Victor 
Golden Trophy 
Emily 
Arlington 
Oheeuey 
Hathaway 
Hathaway (College) * t 
Trophy 
21 large 
16 “ 
15 “ 
10 ” 
14 small 
9 medium 
9 “ 
6 very large 
The Conqueror comes off conqueror for early 
se. From previous experience, when the plants 
re started early, I prefer Trophy for the late 
ickings. Little Gem is too small. I must con- 
asB that the Hathaway has fallen behind my 
xpectat ions. The form and ripening of this are 
I most perfection. Canada Victor and Hundred 
lays also rank high. It ia possible that experi- 
lents made with seeds of these varieties, all 
lisod in one place, would give different results 
com those above. 
GARDEN NOTES. 
THE BEST POTATO. 
ie head gardener to H. R. H. the Prince of 
as says that he finds “Magnum Bonum” 
best potato he ever ate and that it is in 
