452 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
trade of the towD. This iB, probably, not an ex- y 
traordinary case. The much-traveled roads are, t 
no doubt, very bad throughout a large part of v 
our country in the winter season. Those that I 
are used moBt are, singularly, permitted to fall i 
into the worst condition. How often do mer- t 
chants sit and vainly watch for customers, and i 
heads of families groan over scanty supplies in 
market stalls, while the farmer impatiently loots ( 
at his ready produce and hopes for the day when ’ 
King Mud shall raise the siege of the iuaccesai- i 
ble village or townOnly think of the spatter- I 
ed, panting, overstrained horses ; of the muddy i 
boots, soiled garments and lost patience of the 
sorely-tried wagoner ; of the miring and prizing, 
the whipping and stalling, the turning over and 
the breaking down I 
How are we to acoouut for the continuance of 
these things—these reproaches upon civilization 
—from generation to generation ? It appears to 
be an inherent peculiarity in man to neglect the 
roads over which he knows he must travel. That 
peculiarity is aggravated by general custom 
among all classes of people. Everybody who 
travels complains of the roads in his own neigh¬ 
borhood ; but how few are willing to act sensi¬ 
bly and faithfully in improving them? In at 
least some places, all that “ the overseer and 
hands” desire or intend is to escape prosecu¬ 
tion and fines. As a term of court approaches, 
they pretend to “ work the road.” And what a 
work! Sometimes a little earth or even mud is 
thrown into a mud-hole, for the first wagon to 
cut out—perhaps a few pieces of brush being 
put in the hole. To prevent washing along the 
route, ditches are opened diagonally, and the 
dirt piled so high that the horses, the vehicle 
and the backbone of the traveler must all be 
subjected to a severe trial at every crossing. 
These barricades are sometimes placed on the 
very brow of difficult hills. Rocks, roots, stumps 
are left in undisturbed possession of their places 
directly in the road for years. Surely ignorance 
must be regarded as one explanation. The prog¬ 
ress of the age seems to have no effect in many 
localities. The people work the roads simply as 
their fathers worked them. It is rarely that any 
jurors present the responsible parties—although 
the judges so often charge them directly upon 
the subject. Their observation is dull, or their 
memory is short, or they eau’t tell when a road 
is neglected, or they may have consciences that 
need sharpening. 
In all the bad portions of the road, common 
sense would convince a man that it is necessary 
to raise the middle and open a channel for the 
water on the sides. A rolling road becomes firm 
and remains so. 
It wonld work well for all, if it should become 
general, to utilize the muscle of convicts in every 
county, by making them work the roads. If 
there be those who, for any reason, ought not 
to be thus employed, let impartial discretion ex¬ 
empt them. There are at least some classes of 
convicts who ought to be thus made to contrib¬ 
ute to the welfare of the people who are sup¬ 
porting them. But there is need, in any event, 
of securiug the services of more competent 
<< overseers ” of those who do the work. As a 
rule, the most intelligent do not give their atten¬ 
tion to the matter. 
But I will not carry the reader further on 
“bad roads.” 
University, N. C. 
Jlcriralteral. 
WATERING PLANTS IN POTS. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
Nurserymen and florists who grow Pelar¬ 
goniums, Roses, Verbenas, Carnations, and the 
like by the thousand or bundled thousand, may 
water them overhead and irrespectively from 
the garden-hose, because it would not pay to 
use the watering-pot; but the amateur who 
grows only a few plants caunot afford to have 
some of them drowned or parched, hence he 
supplies their wants individually from the pot. 
GrasB, and the common herbs of the field are 
indiscriminately showered overhead from heaven 
but the trees though similarly treated, teach us 
a mighty lesson: Instead of the water that 
descends on them being equally deposited on 
the ground underneath their branches, it is 
warded off so far as the branches extend, and 
falls, not at the base of the stem, hut where the 
rootlets exist; and this is a chief cause of 
arboreal longevity. 
It is most injurious to any kind of plant to 
water it, time after time, right on its crown or 
to direct the stream of water against its stem, 
thus laying bare the roots and making a hole in 
the middle of the soil in the pot, just at the 
stem. If we notice the position of any perma¬ 
nent plant, as a tree or a shrub, growing in the 
garden, field or wood, we will find that the stem 
rises from the ground on a little hill rather than 
from a basin-shaped hollow. After plants are 
freshly potted, and in the case of seeds and 
young cuttings, water should be applied over 
the whole surface of soil, through a rose, but Ac 
wheu the soil gets compacted, the water may he fei 
poured on without the rose, keeping the water- lis 
pot near the flower-pot, around the inside edge lai 
of which the libation should be applied—never or 
in the middle. 
Soft water, as that from pond, river, stream, M 
or tank, is tho best for plants, yet some as nice sh 
window plants as I ever saw grown were fed 
from a well whose water was “ hard.” Water tli 
to be applied to the roots should be about the A 
same in temperature as the atmosphere of the tl 
house or room in which the plants are grown, ie 
hut while active growth is being made the f< 
water may with impunity be a little warmed, ts 
and again while the plants are at rest, water a ri 
little colder than the atmosphere won't hurt u 
them. At auy rate the water of equal tempera- b 
tore is always the safest. Don’t water a plant a 
till it needs it, and then give a plenty, that is, ii 
fill the pot to the brim, but if that be insufficient 
to moisten the whole ball of earth, give more. 
If the plant is somewhat moist but Dot enough 
so to do without water till next watering-time, 
then give it a lesser quantity than you would to 
a dry plant. Dribbling, or in other words, giv- : 
ing a little drop every day to every plant, is j 
miserable practice, by which wet plants are 
mado wetter or sodden, and dry ones don’t get 
enough. 
The syringe is used to bedew plants and thus i 
refresh their herbage and incite growth, as well 1 
as to cause stems or branches to “ break equal- ‘ 
ly, and for this purpose it is employed daily in 
fine weather iu spring and early summer. Later < 
on, it is brought into requisition, loss frequently ’ 
though, as a cleanser from dust and insects. < 
In dull or wot weather, except in exceptional 
cases, the syringe should not be nsed. In 
syringing instead of showering the water so as 
to wet tho surface of the leaves, I direct it up 
through between the branches and against the 
underside of the foliage, thus more effectually 
dislodging vermin. In spring and summer the 
water used in syringing may with benefit be a 
few degrees warmer than that applied to the 
roots, but in fall and winter it should not be so. 
Plants should not be syringed while the hot sun 
is blazing on them, nor should they he done so 
: late in the afternoon or evening, that they 
, might remain wet all night. The proper time to 
| svringe unshaded plants is at or soon after sun- 
i rise in the morning, giving ventilation enough 
r to prevent burning tho leaves; or when the 
i sun's heat is on the decline, say three to five 
i o'clock in the summer time, so that all may be 
dry before night. 
5 More plants are killed by bad watering and 
j over-watering than by anything else. When a 
t plant becomes sickly, inexperienced growers 
t usually “cure” it with more water, wheu in 
- fact, they kill it. If you are satisfied that your 
f plant is Buffering of drought, then water it, giv- 
- ing enough to moisten the whole mass of earth, 
- and if you be not confidently sure that the earth 
,, I is entirely wetted, place the pot for a few min- 
t utes, an hour or two, or even a night if need be, 
a up to its brim in a bucket or tub full of water. 
- But if your plant bo sick with the “ well, I don’t 
know what is the matter with it ” disease, theu 
a keep it dry. And it is a frequent occurrence to 
give manure water to a sickly plant, but this 
“cure” is to the plant, as a Delmonico's 
- dinner would bo to a person sick of typhoid 
fever. 
Manure water is an excellent stimulant to 
healthy plants, but should never be applied to 
“ those that are sickly. Neither should it be given 
to newly-potted plants, to those whose pots are 
not well filled with roots, nor to plants that are 
in a dormant condition. Soft-wooded and gross- 
r- feeding plants as Cinerarias and Calceolarias 
ie love it, hut hard-wooded kinds like Camellias 
,y and Myrtles, though they like a tasting, are 
n safer without its aid iu the hands of most 
,o amateurs. 
,o As Borne plants require to be kept moist all 
r e the year round, others only a part of the year, 
ie and some grow in the summer and rest iu the 
t. winter, others grow iu the winter and rest in 
•e the summer, and too, as plants grown under 
:n different conditions often have different tastes, 
is I will refer to this subject in another paper, per- 
it haps next week. 
m EVERGREEN SHRUBS (Mahonia and 
I Eeucothoe.) 
id The other day, in the gardens of John C. 
ie Gray, Esq., at Mount Auburn, near Boston, I 
)f noticed the following two evergreen shrubs iu 
very fine condition. They are big bushes, very 
to thrifty, and growing iu a mixed border along 
3 r with Lilacs, Mock-oranges, Rhododendron maxi- 
1 , mum and others, and quite unprotected by 
in mulching or otherwise. In this way they under- 
le go our more than zero winters, and with their 
a- shining metallic-green persistent leaves, make 
le winter's garden enjoyable. Not only are they 
m ornameutal as eveigreeuB, but both are oomely 
m flowering sLrubg. Their hardiness we have 
re proved in the gardens here, and our plants are 
id much smaller than Mr. Gray's. 
The Mahonia or Holly Barberry (Berberis 
Aqui folium) is a beautiful shrub some four 
feet high, a native of Oregon, and as an estab¬ 
lished plaut is quite hardy at Boston. It has 
large shining pionalifid leaves, and a dense 
crop of clustered racemes of yellow blossoms 
that appear in May. B. repens from the Rocky 
Mountains, is very like the other, but it is much 
shorter-growing aud I believe hardier. 
Leucothoe Catesban is an evergreen bush of 
the Heath family, a native of the Southern 
Alleghanies and the moist banks of streams iu 
their vicinity, and, apparently is perfectly hardy 
iu Massachusetts. It has arching branches, 
four feet long and. over, and ovate-lanceolate 
taper-pointed leaves, aud a wealth of little 
racemes of white flowers arranged along the 
under side of the branches in Holliman's Seal 
fashion, and which though budded in fall like 
an Andromeda, do not open out till the succeed¬ 
ing May or June. 
Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass. 
■Pain) fusbaulrrj|. 
INFLUENCE OF CONSUMPTION OF WATER 
BY COWS ON THEIR YIELD OF MILK. 
0. <7. King .—Will the Rural please explain 1 
what influence, both aa regards quantity and s 
quality, the amount of water drank by milch 1 
cows has upon their yield of milk ? _ * 
Ans.—E xperience has told not ouly practical I 
dairymen but every observant cow-keeper, that 1 
when cows are, fed on a diet containing a good < 
deal of water, their yield of milk is larger than i 
when their food contains but little moisture; < 
aud every summer fnrni-hes a multitude of in¬ 
stances proving that cows shrink rapidly of i 
their milk in dry, hot weather, when water is 
scarce and the animals do not get. their usual 
supply. But although it has long been known 
that an increased secretion of milk follows the 
consumption of an unusually largo quantity of 
water, it has been very often assumed that a 
thinner and poorer quality of milk is then pro¬ 
duced, and that the increase in quantity consists 
disproportionately of water, ibe experiments 
of Dasokl, however, as communicated to the 
French Academy of Sciences, repeated and ex¬ 
tended with greater precautions by Stohmann, 
go to prove that this assumption has but little 
foundation iu fact. 
Dan CEL states that when he gave cows from 
20 to 25 litres of bran mash instead of the cor¬ 
responding amount of dry bran, the animals still 
drank the usual quantity of water and gave from 
14 to 10 litres of milk per head instead of the 
ordinary yield of from 10 to 14 litres, without 
any depreciation either in the quality of the 
milk or in that of the butter made from it. Sim¬ 
ilarly, by inciting the animals to drink large 
quantities of water by the administration of salt, 
an increased socretion of milk was produced, and 
milk that was yielded under this water regimen, 
having beeu carefully analyzed as to its chemical 
and physical properties, was declared to be of 
good quality—a decision confirmed by the excel¬ 
lent butter obtained from it. It was Danckl S 
opinion that on observing the relative appetites 
for drink in a number of cows, and the quantity 
of water usually consumed by each member of a 
herd in the course of twenty-four hours, and 
comparing this quantity with that of the milk 
produced, the inference is inevitable that tho 
yield of milk is in direct proportion to the quan¬ 
tity of water absorbed, His experiments, how¬ 
ever, were not conclusive as to whether this in¬ 
crease iu quantity was at the expense of its qual¬ 
ity, as he made no special examination of it with 
a view to determining this point. 
It was reserved for Stohmann, by experiment¬ 
ing upon goats at Halle, to afford clear proofs 
that an increased supply of water is followed 
not only by a larger yield of milk, but aLo 
by an increase in itB . dry constituents. 
Morever, at the same time he took note 
of the influence of an extra supply of water 
on the bodily conditions of the animals. 
From an analysts of the increased yield of milk 
produced uuder the stimulant of au unusually 
large consumption of water, the appetite for 
which had been artificially provoked, as well as 
from the quantitative determination of its con¬ 
stituent parts, it appeared that tho increased se¬ 
cretion was not due to au unusually large pro¬ 
portion of water contained in it, but to au actual 
increase of all its constituents. In other words, 
the composition of the extra large quantity of 
milk yielded in the three days during which the 
experiment lasted, corresponded almost exactly 
r w ith its composition immediately before aud im- 
• mediately after. 
• The experiments proved, however, that if at- 
, tempts are made to increase the secretion of 
r milk by increasing the supply of water, an in- 
r creased consumption aud digostion of food must 
3 also he iusured ; otherwise the enlarged secre- 
3 tiou will take place at the expense of the whole 
system ; the animal will soon fall off in condi¬ 
tion, and consequently will, ere long, cease the 
increased yield, however much wator may be 
given. In this connection Stohlman says :— 
“ An increased consumption of water favors the 
secretion of milk, but is unfavorable to fatten¬ 
ing ; the production of milk requires a large con¬ 
version of albumen, aud everything that in¬ 
creases such conversion counteracts fattening. 
During the experiment, an increase of water and 
consequently of milk caused an increased de¬ 
struction of albumen ; for the goat eliminated 
iu her urine considerably more than the usual 
quantity Of nitrogen, while more fences were also 
excreted and she daily lost weight at the rate of 
14 grammes, while ordinarily on similar solid 
diet, she gamed from 60 to 90 grammes of flesh. 
In tho case of pregnant animals the effects of 
a stimulated consumption of water, without the 
absorption of a corresponding supply of nutri¬ 
tious food, may he still more prejudicial, since 
the conversion of the nitrogenous constituents 
of the body into milk or urine must deprive it 
of much of the substance necessary for the 
development of the foetus. 
It must be borne in mind, however, that the 
quality of water sometimes has considerable in¬ 
fluence on tho yield of milk. Water foul with 
decomposing organic matter, may injure the 
general health of animals, and so decrease the 
secretion of milk; while water, in itself harm¬ 
less but possessed of a disagreeable taste, often 
acts injuriously on the yield of milk, because 
the animal will not driuk a sufficient quantity of 
it to promote a full lacteal Beoretion. Partly for 
the same cause, water whose temperature is too 
low, is apt to reduce tho yield of milk, because 
cows will drink only a very moderate quantity of 
it even wheu specially thirsty, while the process 
of digestiou is retarded by the introduction of 
very cold water into tho stomach. Experience 
goes to prove that the best temperature of water 
i for stock, is that which is pretty uniformly maiu- 
1 tained in a well of niodorato depth, 
i From these facts practical dairymen, and in- 
i deed, all interested in domestic stock of all kinds, 
p should draw the lesson that cows and other aui- 
i mals. to yield the best returns, must be provided 
- with an abundanoe of pure water, easily accessi- 
i ble at all times. Dan cel’s opinion may also be, 
a as a rule, accepted : that tbe quantity of drink 
9 habitually consumed by a cow is a valuable te-t 
- of her worth as a milk producer ; and hence, 
that au animal that geuerally drinks au unnsual- 
b ly small quautity of water—say 27 quarts per day 
—is necessarily a poor milker. 
llistfllanceus. 
CATALOGUES, &C., RECEIVED. 
We have to thank Mr. Wm. H. Carson, the 
enterprising seedsman of this city, for a largo 
paoliage of many kiuds of seeds for the field, 
vegetable aud flower garden, among which are 
a number of novelties of much promise. 
ILooT'ES, Brother & Thomas, Cherry Hill 
Nurseries, West Chester, Pa. A hand-book of 
green-house aud bedding plants, embracing de¬ 
scriptions of the most popular plants grown 
under glass, to which is added the novelties for 
1878. 
We are always glad to call the attention of our 
readers to the excellent catalogues of this trust¬ 
worthy establishment. No. 4, now before us, con¬ 
tains 57 pages, printed upon tinted paper aud 
well illustrated. Also, price-list of evergreen* 
and fruit trees at “ panic prices.” Sent free to 
applicants. 
George Soon, South Amboy, N. J. One of 
the best though most unpretentious catalogues 
we know of. It contains a long list of Gladioli, 
a specialty with Mr. Suou, and a rare collection 
° f Among 'those to wliioh we would call particu¬ 
lar attention are the following: tI a ^y Ohent 
Azaleas ; Abulilon “ Rosy Queen ; White Hy¬ 
drangea “ Thomas Hogg Hydrangea paul““- 
lata grand! flora; the new double white Violet 
“ Belle do Chateuay Eulalia Japonica zebieua, 
Gannas, an excellent collection of named varie¬ 
ties. . , 
D, S. Marvin, Watertown, N. Y. Price-list of 
grape vines, &c. Single vines are offered, of all 
good varieties, for from 2o cts. to SH each, and 
at proportionately less prices by the dozen, bun 
dred and thousand. 
Mr. Marvin gives the species from which the 
varieties have Dean obtained, not all of whiU 
are in accord with other authorities. Autuchon, 
e. g , is from Aestivalis aud Vimfcra, not liom 
Vmifera and Cordifolia as ho states. Mr. JMa t- 
vjn is much opposed to crossing V. viuifera wim 
our native varieties. 
E. & J. O. Williams, Montclair, N. J. Le- 
BCriptive catalogue of small fruits, grape vines, 
Ac., for the coming spring. Here we And toe 
latest varieties of strawberries, such as Gi eat 
American, Beauty, etc., eto. Also, a list of the 
best grapes. 
For the convenience of those having new 
places, this catalogue gives au excellei.t list m 
Strawberries, Currauls, Grapes, Blaekberi 
and Raspberries. It will bo sent free to appi 
cants. . 
Carrots, Mangel-wurzols and Sugar Beet. 
How to raise them, how to keep them, aud how t 
