THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
to white, with some varieties striped in & very 
attractive manner. The red and white are, of 
course, most popular because most distinct. 
Almost the only acousation that can be justly 
made against the J, pan Qninoe is that it grows 
too large for Borne positions. My object, how¬ 
ever, in calling attention to the Japan Quinoe, 
is not only to offer a brief tribute to its many 
choice qiiriitiss, but to describe two distinct 
varieties that are really very flue *ud quite un¬ 
known to the lawns of America. They come 
from Mr. Thos Hooo, as do so many other 
good things, and have now attained a size which 
Very fairly indicates their nature at maturity. 
The first is a strong-growing kind, with leaves 
of a more oval form than usual and very large 
flowers of white, touched oa the upper edge with 
rose oolor. The flowers are well formed and 
clustered in the usual way about? the stem. 
Their size is very striking, and the habit of the 
entire shrub decidedly attractive. It will un¬ 
doubtedly be found a great improvement aud 
addition to the present list of Japan Quince 
varieties. 
The other—Gydonia or Pyrus Japonica, angli¬ 
cized, Japan Quiuce—is still more remarkable 
than the last. I have already noticed that 
for some positions the heretofore known varie¬ 
ties of Japan Quiuoe were toolar<e. Nature has 
apparently become cognizant of tbe fact, and 
therefore has sent, us from Japan this little gem 
of the species. Dwarf enough to occupy any 
position near tne house where small plants 
wouid be used, it has, in add lion, literally 
masses of preity salmon-colored flowers and a 
mo t lovely variegation of the leaves in red, 
white, and green. Tne flowers rest like a rich 
crow i on the compact little plant. It may be 
readily seen how cutrimugiy adapted such a 
plant would be to a group of low choice shrubs 
near the uousa, a place from which the common 
J ipau Q uuee is perforce excluded. The great 
value of tueintroJuitiou of such new deciduous 
shrubs lies ia tue lucrease J beauty and variety 
of foliage and U >wor aff »rdo I at a particular 
season by groups arrang* d for continuous bloom 
ing. It is uot easy to speak too strongly of the 
importauoe of deciduous shrubs ou a lawn, and 
it is to iuorease the list of materials to be com¬ 
bined by thelindsoape gardener that it affords a 
pleasure to present two new Japan Quiuoes for 
consideration. 
them by crushing. They are not poisonous, and 
are best orushed in the naked hand as they are 
picked. Some persons, who have a fanoy for 
giving and taking medioine, dust the larva with 
powdered hellebore. This is effectual, if applied 
often enough and of good quality. Other per¬ 
sons use other powders, especially just as the 
Jarvffi have reached their full growth and are 
about to descend to the earth ; as the larva dis¬ 
appear abont at this time these persons write to 
their agricultural paper that they have discov¬ 
ered a remedy for the currant-worm. 
The male aud female imagos are described in 
detail and are figured in the American Entomolog¬ 
ist, vol. 2, p. 16-17. The larva is green, and 
in its earlier stages has a black head and has 
many black dots on its body, but after its last 
change of larva skin, it is grass-green all over, 
except the large dark eye-spots on each side 
of the head, and exoept that the joint next to the 
head and the hindmost two joints remain of a 
yellow oolor. When full-grown it is about eigh¬ 
teen millimeters long. It may be distinguished 
from other larvro found on these bushes by hav¬ 
ing twenty feet, as well as by its other charac¬ 
teristics. A detailed description is given in the 
Practical Entomologist, vol. 1. p. 120. 
The cocoon is thin, oval, six to eight millimet¬ 
ers loug, and made of brown silk. It i- spun 
amongst the rubbish on, or slightly under, ground 
or spun between some leaves on the brauohes. 
This insect is one of the worst enemies which 
the curr-nt-bushes now have in tbe country, 
and should be vigorously opposed wherever it 
appears. The Beooud generation io the year 
would be fifty fold more numerous than tbe first, 
were it not for enemies, diseases and other mis¬ 
haps which ooour. The increase at any rate is 
so great that it is well worth while to be thor¬ 
ough in early work. 
starch thus obtained, containing about 33 per 
cent, of water, may be used either in the moist 
state, under the name of green fecula. for vari¬ 
ous purposes, as for the preparation of dextrine 
aud starch syrup ; or it may be preserved under 
a thin layer of water, which must be renewed 
from time to lime to prevent fermentation; or, 
lastly, it may be taken out and dried. 
In the manufacture of starch, a considerable 
proportion of tbe product is lost despite every 
I precaution, owing tc tbe strong affinity which 
the starch has for the fiber of the potato, and it 
is generally considered that very little more than 
two-thirds of the quantity of starch in the differ¬ 
ent varieties of potatoes manipulated, is seoured, 
while nearly one-third escapes. The “slump” 
or waste, is sometimes by chemical treatment 
converted, in great part, iuto sugar or in o alco¬ 
hol, but in European countries it is generally re¬ 
turned to the soil along with the vines as manure, 
and as it oon tains neatly all the fertilizing ele¬ 
ments of the potato, but little exhaustion of 
the soil is produced by the growth of successive 
crops of potatoes on the Bame land, if enriched 
in this way. 
There are several other processes and contriv¬ 
ances for manufacturing potato starch, most of 
them complicated by the nature of the machin¬ 
ery a nd the use of chemicals j but these, chiefly 
employed in huge factories, would be beyond the 
meaus of an ordinary farmer, and beyond the 
skill of one untrained in their use. 
floor and proper shoeing, a horse would never 
have contracted feet and, of course, that is the 
beginning of all foot diseases, such as corns, 
thrush, founder, quitter, toe-crack, and of all 
the navicular joint diseases. If a horse were 
shod properly, with only three nails on a ride, as 
close to the toe as possible, on tbe fore feet, and 
if he always were allowed to stand on the ground 
as a floor, flat feet and foot diseases, as well as 
the so-called sweeni, would not exist. Lame 
horses would be out of fashion, and so many of 
our horses would not have to go to pasture with 
great setons in their shoulders from the effect 
of contracted feet. When the feet get softened 
by the moisture of the earth, and the horse gets 
well of the lameness, then comes around the 
practitioner who has put in the setou, saying, 
“ Don't you see the set'on is the best thing for 
lameness, and is what does the business ?” never 
thinkiug it is the moisture of the feet that has 
produced the good results. One tiling is cer¬ 
tain, that lameness in a horse is due far more to 
the owner’s and sheer’s fault, than to any in¬ 
herent defect in the animal. 
Edward 0. Kingman, 
Veterinary Practitioner. 
Cortland Co., N. Y. 
ijorfirulfiiral. 
IMfrinani 
SHOEING HORSES. 
jSrinttifir anti istful. 
MANUFACTURING POTATO STARCH. 
(fntomoloflital. 
THE CURnANT.WORM SAW-FLY. 
Will the Rural ple*t-e give the name, origin 
and habits ot me insect, specimens of welch nre 
inciosed. Lydia M. Pratt. 
Marion On. Indiana. 
ANSWER DY B. PICKMAN MANN. 
The specimens, very nicely put up, arrived in 
exceUeui, urde^ a condi iou rare euougti in the 
experience of entorno ugieal writers, to call foi 
notice and commendation. 
The insects are four males and one female ol 
the imported Currant^ worm San-fly, Nematus 
ventricosus. Tney were in reduced iu.o ttie 
United States nearly twenty years ago, from 
Europe, appearing first iu the neighborhood of 
Rochester, N. Y whitner they ctme probably m 
cocoons a 1 tactiod to the roots of imported cur 
rant or go iseberry bushes. Hid tne importer-* 
been eutomoiogisis, oi had tney kept in their 
employ an entomologist, they would have taken 
into consideration what insects, in what condi¬ 
tion, might be expected to occur on imported 
bushe-, aud would have searched, in turn, for 
each of these. They spread in all directions from 
Rochester, and re tched Indianapolis about 1870 
Perhaps thny were indepeuleutly introduced 
into some other places, for instance into Ver¬ 
mont. 
The larva or “ worms " eat only the leaves of 
the cultivated Currant and Gxmberry, preferably 
the former. Imagos come out of tbe ground 
Boon after tbe loaves of bushes put forth in the 
spring, aud the female soon after lays her eggs. 
These specimens from Indiana are nearly three 
weeks earlier than any of whioh I had record 
previously. I hope Miss Pratt will make a note 
of the dates at whioh the insects paas through 
their several stages, and send them to the Rural 
New Yorker to be printed. In about two moutbB 
after tbe first appearance a second brood makes 
its appearance. * 
The presence of the insects may be noticed in 
the first stage, after the images have been found, 
by turning up the leaves, or lying down aud 
looking up under them, and seeing rows of white 
eggs upon the ribs ot the loaves. In the next 
stage the egg-* have batched anl the larvte have 
gnawed little holes through the leaf, so that it 
looks as if riddled with shot. When the native 
leaf is all eaten the larva move to other leaves, 
soitter . g along tbe branch, and devouring these 
leaves from (he edge inwards, not riddling them 
With hole-*. 8 >ou the branches are stripped. 
Tne bu-heS enouid b_- examined frequently, an 1 
the larvlB destroyed. 
The moatocriaiu, economical and safe way of de¬ 
stroying the larvae is to piok them off, either separ¬ 
ate from the leaf or with the leaf, and to destroy 
P. M., North Jackson, Hung. Co., Pa., wishes 
to be told how potato starch is made on a large 
scale, as there ate hundreds of bushels of pota¬ 
toes going to waste in that county, aud starch 
night be made from them and sold fur some¬ 
thing. 
Ans —A oarefnl comparison of a dozen or 
more tables of analyses of potatoes shows lai ge 
variations in the proportion of starch in different 
samples, aud that these variations are chiefly 
caused by the variety cultivated, by tbe soil and 
locality iu which the tubers are grown, and by 
the time during whioh they are kept. The high¬ 
est proportion of starch in potatoes may be taken 
at 20 perceut.,the lowest at 10 per cent., and 
the average at 15 percent, iu the natural, and 
60 per cent, in the dry state. On keeping, the 
proportion of starch diminishes, shrinking in one 
variety analyzed every mouth, from 17 2 per 
*ent. in October to 14.5 percent, in the follow¬ 
ing April. 
In manufacturing the article in large quanti¬ 
ties, the potatoes are first washed in a cylindri¬ 
cal c *ge formed of wooden spars, made to revolve 
on a horizontal axis iu a trough filled with water 
ro the level of t he axis T hey are then reduced 
ro a pulp by a rasping machine composed of a 
wo >den drum covered with sheet-iron, roughened 
outrode with numerous prumiaences, made by 
punching out hales from the opposite side. It is 
turned by hand by means of a winch fixed upon 
each end of the shaft. The drum is inclosed in 
a square, wooden box, to prevent the potato- 
mash from being scattered about. A hopper, 
from whioh to feed the washed potatoes, is 
i attached to the top of the box, aud has its bot¬ 
tom concentric with the rasp-drum and nearly in 
contact with it, A pulp ohest, underneath the 
drum, is made to slide out, so as when full to be 
readily replaced by another. Two boards, slant¬ 
ing towards each other from the opposite sides 
of tbe box under the drum, conduct the pulp LbIo 
it. A moderate stream of water should be made 
to play into the hopper upon the potatoes to 
prevent the surface of the rasp from getting foul 
with fibrous matter. Two men, with one for a 
relay, will rasp, with suoh a machine, from two 
and a half to three tons of potatoes in twelve 
hours. 
The potato pulp must be elutriated, or cleansed, 
upon a fine wire—say No. 120—or hair sieve, 
which is set upon a frame iu the mouth of 
a large vat, while water is made to flow upon it 
from a spout with many jets. The pulp mean¬ 
while must be stirred and kneaded by the hand 
or by a mechanical brush-agitator, till almost 
nothing but fibrous partioies are left upon the 
sieve. These, however, retaio about five per 
cent, of starch whioh cannot be separated in this 
way. 
This parenchyma, or agglomerated, sticky 
mass, should therefore be subjected to a separ¬ 
ate rasping upon another roughened cylinder 
The water, turbid with starch, is allowed to set¬ 
tle some rime iu a large tub or vat, called a bac ; 
tbe clear liquid is then run off by a cock into a sec¬ 
ond bac, and after some time into a third, where¬ 
by the whole starch will be precipitated. The 
finest powder collects in the last vessel. The 
Every veterinary surgeon knows the great 
errors that are committed by blacksmiths in the 
matter of shoeing the horse and the proper care 
of his feet. The chief cause of these is that, as 
a general rule, the horse owner patronizes the 
blacksmith that does the work cheapest and 
makes the shoes stay on the longest, whether 
tbe work be inferior or first-class. A great many 
men do not know the Importance of good shoe¬ 
ing. and, of course, the smith wants to suit his 
customers, so he drives the nails home and 
clinches them down to stay six mouths I saw 
an instance, this morniug, of the evil effects of 
bad s joeing. A man from the rural district 
hereabouts came to me aud wanted me to put a 
-etou iu the shoulder of his horse to cure a dis¬ 
ease which never existed—sweeny. Now this 
man had this horse shod last January or early in 
February, according to his own account, and 
here it ia the tenth of May and he has not had 
the shoes even set yet. The poor animal has 
done the spring’s work, plowing, etc., with his 
winter shoes on! 
I had a blacksmith take off the shoes, cut the 
toes down, pare them out level with the heel and 
then rasp the whole bottom of the foot to make 
the surface level aud smooth for thu application 
of the shoe. The shoes should be cold or black¬ 
list instead of red-hot, and beveled ou tbe inside, 
so that the outside will protect the outBide crust. 
They should cover the crust or shell all around 
the foot, and the heels should not be so wide 
that the heft of the heel of the foot will crowd 
between the heels of the shoe and cause contrac¬ 
tion of tbe foot by making a wedge ( f it. On 
the other hand, puttiog the heels in too far will 
cause corns and contraction. Let the shoe just 
rest all around the crust equally, the same as it 
rests on the ground. And do not allow the shoe 
to be drawn in, aud then chop the toe off, for 
this weakens the shell of the foot and the horse 
is more liable to be pricked. 
Now, when the nailing comes, never allow 
more than three nails on a side to be put in on 
tbe fore-foot and four on the outside and three 
on the inside of the hind-foot; for the heels of 
the hiud foot are thicker than those of the fore. 
1 n road and speed horses, in dry weather, there 
should be only two nails on the inside, as close 
as possible. Shoes nailed this way will, as a 
a general thiug, stay on longer than is good for 
the horse without clinching very close. A horse 
shod this way will never be flat-footed or have 
contracted feet, unless it be by standing on a 
hard plank floor without applying softening 
agencies to the foot. Youatt says that agricult¬ 
ural horses need no foot softening; neverthe¬ 
less, in warm, dry weather, they need it every 
other night. No foot can be deformed without 
contraction. 
It is almost impossible to drive four nails in a 
horse's foot without driving one opposite or 
back of the navicular joint, and all of the veteri¬ 
nary eurgeons in the world, with the best foot 
stoppage, could not prevent the feet from oon- 
inicting with nails back of this joint. I have 
seen blacksmiths try to point out the navicular 
or what they called coffin Joint j and they would 
oome from half an inch lo an inch of it, but on 
taking a foot that was divided iuto sections, 
they would find this joint nearer the toe than 
they thought. There are a great many black¬ 
smiths who deny this, but the one that does 
never ought to be permitted to shoe a horse. 
A horse never ought to be allowed to stand on 
a hard plank floor ; it ought to be the natural 
ground—good gravel floor. With this kind of 
THE TEUTH ABOUT IT. 
[Under this heading, a number of articles 
have been prepared by able writers. These will 
appear from time to time. Their object is not 
at all to deal with “ humbugs’’—but with the 
many unconscious errors that creep into the 
methods of drily country routine life. —Eds.] 
POPULAR FALLACIES. 
T .T. LYON, PRESIDENT MICH. POM. 800. 
Among the great mas i of people who have neg¬ 
lected to thoroughly acquaint themselves with 
the subject, it is a very common circumstance 
for a person, who shall chance to have his atten¬ 
tion drawn to a fine-looking or well-flavored va¬ 
riety of fruit, just in Candition to please his taste 
or to gratify his eye by its large size or beautiful 
col* r, to proceed, upon such slight knowledge o 
it, to introduce it into bis grounds, without wait¬ 
ing to learn whether or uot its observed success 
is exceptional -only to find by dearly-bjught ex¬ 
perience, that while, once perhaps in a decade 
or two, a season just adapted to its needs will 
develop the perfection which chanced to catch 
bis attention; under all other circumstances, it 
remains a reproach and a failure. 
Or, the variety may have attracted his atten¬ 
tion wheu just in bearing upon young, vigorous 
trees, sufficing to develop beauties or high quali- 
t ea whioh disappear as soon as the tree reaches 
full bearing, or maturity, either from the ten¬ 
dency to overbear, or from lack of constitutional, 
vigor, or, possibly, from want of proper adapta¬ 
tion lo the climate or soils of his locality. No¬ 
table cases of this latter dlflV.sulty will be found 
iu the old Herefordshire Pearmain, the Ortley 
and the American Summer Pearmain, to which 
we may add the Wagoner, the Amerieau Golden 
Russet (Bullock’s Pippin,) and to some extent 
Esopns Spitzenberg aud many others, while . 
White Doyenne pear, (in regions where it is liable 
to the cracking of the fruit,) aud Hale’s Early 
Peach, (where It proves liable to rotting of the 
fruit.) are characteristic cases of the former 
difficulty. 
We know of no better rule to govern the se¬ 
lection of varieties to be planted, and to be rig¬ 
orously applied in the introduction of varieties in¬ 
to existing plantations, thau to seleot them, as a 
man should choose a wife—upon thorough ac¬ 
quaintance, and a careful Btudy of their pecu¬ 
liarities. 
These remarks must, however, be considered 
to apply only to general planters, aud for perma¬ 
nent purposes. Uokuown and promising sorts 
may, very properly, be put upon trial in small 
quantity, by any one j although, as a rule, this 
sort of experiment will be better ededucted 
by the pains-taking and observing amateur; 
from whom the ordinary gardener or orohardist 
will he able to acquire a knowledge of careful¬ 
ly matured results; while he will avoid the 
ninety-nine failures, so sure to accompany every 
case of sotual success. 
®{jf jStoinc-gJirti. 
HOG CHOLERA AND GOVERNMENT. 
Eds. Rural : We are making an effort to get 
the assistance of our Legislature to enable us to 
eradicate the scourge of our country—the so- 
called, nog Cholera. What do you think of it ? 
Is it practicable ? If so what plan would you 
advise ? The aocompauyiug slip is from our lo¬ 
cal paper "The Trimble News,” and is the first 
of a series of articles that will be published, at 
an early day. 8. E. Hamtton, M. D. 
Milton, Ky., May 13, 1878. 
“ Every fanner ia asking for a remedy for hog 
