344 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. ?JUNE < 
Prepare your land well, make it smooth so 
that when you sow, your grain will be covered 
evenly. Use less seed and there will be 
thousands of dollars annually saved. A heavy 
crop has been grown by “ dibbing in ” six quarts 
per acre. Ohio alone has in a single year sown 
two million acres of wheat. One-half bushel of 
seed per acre saved, would make a difference of 
one million bushels in a single State, which 
would send an agrioullnral paper to a good 
many homes which are now without one. 
ROOT CROPS. 
Our main dependendence is and must con¬ 
tinue to be Yellow Globe Mangel-wurzel. I will 
sow mine this year by stopping tip all but four 
of the holes in my drill—the Planet— which, by 
the way, can't be beat for garden seed, and 
is very useful in Bowing field beets and fodder 
corn—so as to drop the seed in clumps ten inches 
apart, saving seed and thinning and much 
trouble in hoeing. We sow Beets, Mangels 
and Rutabagas from May 20 till June 15; later is 
not profitable, and earlier is not very desirable 
as it makes coarser roots aud the cattle do not 
like them as well; and tbe rutabagas, if too old, 
will make the milk and butter taste. 
POCKET MONEY. 
I am glad to see these articles in the Rural. 
I well remember, when a little lad, how proud I 
felt when I sold my first litter of chicks, which 
“ Old Brownie ” had hatched and raised. I kept 
on increasing my flock till I had over sixty nice 
large Light Brahmas, winch alas! were one 
night “taken” by some prowlers. I felt my loss 
keenly, hut was not so sad as I was when, a few 
years before, I awoke one morning to find that 
my first love—“Old Brownie”—had fallen 
victim to a skunk during the night. I was sure 
that there would never again be a hen in my 
possession that would be ber equal -and there 
never has been. I have had fine fowls which 
have been admired by many, but I have never 
had another “ Old Brownie.” 
But the worst thing possible is to give a boy 
or girl, say. a motherless lamb, and then after it 
has grown—and owing to its owner’s oare—at¬ 
tained an extra size, let some butcher have it and 
pooket the money. The boy will vow that “ he 
will get away from the farm to where things are 
his." He can't see the logic of its being Johnny’s 
lamb but father’s sheep. 
Brown Co., Wla. 
— - -♦♦♦ - 
A GRANGE AGENCY—IS IT EXCEPTIONAL 1 
The Mississippi farmers who have attached 
themselves to that institution known as the 
Patrons of Husbandry,” have been taught to 
believe that the Grange Agency was a large and 
beneficent concern in Memphis, where a man 
“ initiated in all the degrees," posted in the 
• secret work,” might go and “get the worth of 
his money in bargains,” wagons of better make, 
more durable material—and cheaper by ten 
dollars than those to be purchased anywhere 
else. There was the same cry about sewing- 
machines—“a first-class sowing-machine for 
ten dollars less than it could be bought of the 
manufacturers.” Flour, sugar and coffee were 
sold by retail at very low rates, and in short the 
Agenoy proposed to be a nursing-mother to 
the poor husbandman. 
A certain gentleman of my acquaintance, a 
farmer, having by dint of bard work aud close 
saving accumulated a few hundreds, resolved to 
“try the Agency" in the purchasing of supplies— 
a sewing-machine for his wife and a wagon for 
himself. Arriving in the city, my friend saun¬ 
tered along Front Street, reading the signs, and 
at length discovered “Grange Agency” on the 
door of a dingy building, and going up the 
greasy, narrow stairs, encountered an unpi’e- 
possessiug and Bhabby gentleman, who in re¬ 
sponse to the initiated Granger’s signs, displayed 
none of the anticipated warmth and interest of 
mystic brotherhood, but summarily turned him 
over to a “clerk,” who conducted him to the 
warehouse of a neighboring establishment, 
and from his underling he learned that the 
“Agenoy ” was for the most part a nominal con¬ 
cern, whose principal gains were from “ drum- 
*ning.” The name “Grange Agency” was the 
potent magnet that drew up those greasy stairs 
the “Patrons of Husbandry” whose trade by 
those astute drummers was deftly transferred 
to the wholesale merchant next door, who, of 
course, paid a certain percentage on the custom 
thus secured. After examining samples of flour, 
sugar, coffee and rice, my friend decided to 
“look around a little before closing the trade;” 
and so, going from one place to another, 
happened to meet with a friend, a clever fellow, 
residing in the city, who without more ado took 
him to a house where he “ did business,” and 
with a word to the merchant, and a hint to my 
friend, secured bis supplies of meat, flour, 
Bugar, coffee and rice at a cent and a half less 
than the rates he would have had to pay at the 
“Grange Agency”—thiB firm, a house which 
made no pretensions to favoring farmers &b such! 
Thus ends the talk about doing away with 
“ middlemen,” mere “ bubbles” fit only to burst; 
for, looking at the matter from a plain, common- 
sense, practical staod-point, what could we do 
without middlemen and middlewomen? It is 
they who bring capital and labor together, and 
even co-operation fails without them—as a 
sandy field yields no returns if burnt by drought. 
Capital is a reservoir, labor the field, the middle¬ 
man the aqueduct conveying the life-giving fluid 
to the thirsty land. The middleman or factor, 
living in the busy town, is' an fait with city 
prices, city regulations, and city fashions; and as 
superior to a countryman in driving a bargain as 
the practiced swordsman in tbe use of hia weapon 
excels a mere novioe. Many a time have I 
proven the advantage of a middlewoman friend. 
When in want of a styliift, fashionable costume, 
I greatly prefer to depend on her taste aud 
economy in laying out my funds. She will not 
forget in her shopping rounds the minutest 
appurtenanoe of the toilet—there will bo gloves, 
necktie, parasol and fan to match the dress, 
and tbe trimmings will be comme il faul; 
whereas one of our good fsneers' wives, branch¬ 
ing out to do a “ day’s trading,” as she calls it, 
gets her mind so perplexed with the multitude of 
little thiugs she wants to get at once, that she 
comes home minus the most important. Her 
liege lord in the city loses his head at the 
“sights,” and is no more fit to trade with the 
quick-witted salesman without a pilot middleman 
than he is to talk to a Turk without an inter¬ 
preter. Perle Perdu. 
- 4 4 4 - 
FROM CUSTER COUNTY, COLORADO. 
Wet Mountain Valuev, Ula, Ouster co., Col. 
Doubtless the name Wet Mountain Yalley, 
implies a place where water is at least abund¬ 
ant. It was as badly named as tbe ridicu¬ 
lously named neighboring mining region wbiob 
an unsound mind, having no idea above cow¬ 
driving, christened the Hardsorabble Mining 
District. Such an idiotic naming of a mineral 
district has kept thousands of people away from 
its great riches, and thousands, too, eager to se¬ 
cure Government’s fertile lands iu between 
mountain ranges, have held aloof from coming 
to the beaui iful valley here mentioned. There 
is iu it just the water needed, no more, no less. 
There are no swamps, no mirey places, no 
water-oovered tracts. Grope Creek, Texas Creek, 
Muddy River, whose water is as clear as crystals, 
and tributaries traverse tbe valley. These waters 
are oold, clear, rapid iu their course from their 
mouutaiu birth-places to the Arkansas River, 
and are full of the finest American fish—the 
wiley, yet luscious mountain trout. 
In length from northwest to southeast the 
valley iB fifty miles, with an average width of ten 
miles. It hugs closely the Grand Canon of the 
Arkansas at its northwest extremity, in Fremont 
County, aud crossing Custer County, ends in 
Huerfano County. It is crossed by ranges 71, 
72, 73 and 74, west of the 6th principal meridian, 
latitude 88° 15' north. Its clime to is faultless 
The atmosphere is clear, transparent, bracing ; 
giving now life to worn aud weary lungs, heal¬ 
ing universally all catarrhal and bronchial affec¬ 
tions, and insuring a new lease of life to all 
dyspeptics and debilitated people from the east 
and souih. Cattle feed and keep in excellent 
condition all the year, not requiring any more 
care than to herd them once yearly when they 
are to be branded. Those nutritious mountain¬ 
side and valley grasses prepare stuck for the 
Kansas City market better than any cattle fed 
on the plains of Kansas and Nebraska. The 
large hay crop cut in the valley is pressed, baled, 
and goes to the markets of Colorado Springs, 
Pueblo aud Canon City, where it brings very 
remunerative prices. No fencing is necessary, 
except for the small fields of 100 to 1,000 acres 
reserved for hay and grains. 
The soil is a dark, rich, deep, very light loam, 
that does nut pack down for years after being 
once cultivated. It iB not encumbered by brush or 
trees, is easily broken, aud ex-riches itself by the 
yearly decomposition forever going on upon the 
vast, wide-spread breaBts of tbe grand mountains 
which upon the east and west slope towards the 
center of the valley. Fifty bushels of wheat— 
of a quality too to make the premium flour of 
the world—CO to S5 bushels of oats and barley ; 
325 to 460 bushels of potatoes, to the acre; 35 to 
40 bushels of peas ; three to five tons of hav— 
such are the products of mountain-fertilized 
soil. Forests of Pine, Spruco, Poplar and Bal¬ 
aam, furnish free wood for building and fuel. 
These forests are on the great mountain slopes 
on either Bide. The many mining camps of Sil¬ 
ver Circle, Ula, Texas Creek and Hardscrabble 
mining districts, afford ready cash market for 
all the produce of the valley exoept hav, and 
these camps arc rapidly swelling in numbers and 
in population. Potatoes arc, on an average, the 
year round paid for at the rate of two cents per 
pound or fcl.20 per buBhel Those who cultivate 
them plow, plant and dig without using hoe, 
cultivator or shovel-plow. Weeds are compara¬ 
tively unknown. Crops grow rankly and quickly 
and mature in very much shorter time than sim- 
ilai crops do East. Rains fall during August and 
the latter part of July. Annoying, long, drench¬ 
ing rains are unknown. Storms here are all 
short for, just west and Bouth of here are made 
up the storniB which move eastward to the At¬ 
lantic, and, being made up for a long course, 
they cannot stop to give us mnoh of their vol¬ 
ume for fear, as it were, they might not have 
force enough to do their wonted work in the far¬ 
away east and Bouth. 
The Canon City Branch of the Denver & Rio 
Grande Railroad from Pueblo terminates thirty 
miles east of the valley. At Pueblo it connects 
with the Atchison, Topeka A Santa Fe road—for 
Kansas City, Chicago, and all eastern points. 
An extension of this road is surveyed into the 
valley, terminating at Ula—its central point; 
Rosita, 12 miles distant, i8 purely a mining 
camp, 9 800 feet above the Bea level. It has no 
garden spots, is too high for permanent good 
health, consequently Uia, of the valley, 1,200 
feet lower, is the central commercial point of 
Custer County. 
On either side of Wet Mountain Valley, all 
along itB line, are wide crevices of precious ores. 
There is ample working room in this dual min¬ 
eral belt for a quarter of a million of sturdy 
miners. Their number doubles annually, thus 
increasing the need of having tens of thousands 
more people come and take up these valley lands 
which are open to all as pre-emptions and home¬ 
steads. Of the 500 square miles of agricultural 
and grazing lands comprised within Wet Moun¬ 
tain Yalley, not one-twentieth of the land is, as 
yet, claimed. It is open to all. As agricultural 
land it is unexcelled; as grazing lands they 
have no kuown rival; as a climate it is the 
“ perfect land ” of savants and travelers; as an 
adjunct of mining vicinities it has advantages of 
transportation and proximity to central cities 
not possessed by any other metaliferous region 
of our own or any other country; as a land of 
wonders, such as Nature sometimes fashions, its 
scenery transcends all other views on earth. 
Deer, elk, beaver, mountain sheep, wild tur¬ 
key, grouse are the natives, for we are 175 miles 
east of even an Indian, stray or tramp. Occa¬ 
sionally, a solitary cabin in the center of a few 
hundred acres of fertile bottom-land is found. 
All such lands are being taken up rapidly. 
This valley was located first by a German ool- 
ony ; Englishmen of means, with a few Ameri¬ 
cans came next, and have enriched themselves 
by cattle-growing, horse-herding, and tending 
grass lands. No less thau 30,000 bales of hay 
were cut here last season. The Beckwith Bros., 
of the valley, have 15,000 hoad of line cattle. 
Messrs. Frink A Cole, retired eastern merchants, 
have 4 000 head and many horses. Messrs. 
Leonard and Frank Hunter, brothers and Eng¬ 
lishmen, have largo herds and many fine horses. 
“Trapper” Smith, tv graduate of Cambridge, 
owus 250 heads of blooded horses. Mr. John 
Walts, Oouuty Commissioner, has a Bpleudid 
place at the uorthom end of the valley, where he 
has a stately mansion, which usually is filled 
with the elite of Pueblo and Canon City during 
the summer season. Dr. Bell, of Manitou Hprings, 
has a large ranch and a spacious cheese-faotory 
in the valley. His out of hay off from the cheese 
farm last season was 900 tons. The Rev. Major 
Goodwin, a pensioned relic of Lunday’s Lane, 
haH a fine place. Mr. Goodwin is mining, is nO 
years old. souod, hale and sprightly. Mr. Wm. 
Scofiold has a tine ranch and a goodly herd of 
American eattlo. Joseph A. DaviB, County Clerk, 
haB a good farm, is among the foremost men 
of the valley, and is the people's choice for the 
legislature. Mr. Jacob Passer, Wm. Hall, Frauk 
Hall, Wm. Tall, H. B. Harrison, are English 
gentlemen of means; Mr Schwab, a great 
grower of potatoes, Chas. Sicber, a successful 
cattle man, Reginald S. Sweetland, J. H. Tebbs, 
a school-teacher, Messrs. Jarvis <fc Sons aud Mr. 
Ed. Martin, have homes in the valley. Mr. A. 
B. Johnson, ouoe a big corn importer across the 
plains, and familiarly called “Coni” Johnson, 
has a large farm, cattle, horses, and owns some 
fine mines of gold and silver. Herr Kantzan- 
ti.n Jt Sons have a good ranob and some rich 
mines also. Wm. Wood owns good property. 
Captain Horn, after whom Horn’s Peak on the 
Range is named, is a retired merchant from 
Philadelphia. He has a splonilid location on 
Grope Creek, just across the valley from Rosita, 
and grows, with little pains, astonishly large 
crops. Mr. J. T. McNeally, Chairman of the 
Republican Central Committee, is the legal-law 
depository of the valley. Messrs. Mix and On- 
derdonk, of Batavia, N. Y., have recently pur¬ 
chased the Hilburn Ranch, in the eastern end of 
valley. The Messrs. Snyder Bros., Germans, 
have erected a Jargo still for the purpose of 
manufacturing whiBk}' from potatoes. On the 
road from Rosita to Mocha Pass, “ English Bil¬ 
ly,” familiarly named, haH a fine ranch. His 
hospitable home is made a stopping-place for all 
who make the San Juan country via Mocha 
Pass. Here he entertains all alike, rich and 
poor, aud his name has become a household word 
in Wet Mountain Valley. Samuel Shepard, As¬ 
sessor Gove, Messrs. Hayden, Burrows, Lowther. 
Rieiters, Lawrence, Palmer, Meyers, Duckets 
(who also own valuable mines), Townsend, 
Lausendorfer, Gillaud (an excellent family), 
Wheeler, Gen. R. K. Swift (who was one of the 
stirring bankers of Ghioago 20 years ago), Falk- 
enburg (who is Postmaster), aud many others 
have locations iu the vast mountain valley. All 
are prosperous, and are ready to welcome thou¬ 
sands of new neighbors who ootne to settle. 
Two prospectors, W. H. Holmes and Edward 
Egglistone, locate mines for farmers and others 
for an one-half interest doing all the work under 
their own experienced superintendence. Already 
they have Buch partners as Hon. Geo. M. Chil- 
cott, Hon. Sheldon C. Hall, Justice Tnoker, 
Attorney John W. Warner of Leon, Iowa, Col. 
W. M. Strait, H. K. Pinkney, MrB. Judge Wil¬ 
bur F. Stone, Banker, J. N. Pierce, Jr. aud 
many others. I do not know of any other 
place on our continent, and I have been coursing 
over it for 17 years, where the industrious yeo¬ 
man can so handily unite fortune-gaining as 
here; where he can be miner during winter and 
farmer during summer; and. in all cases, when 
a family has some dear one whose health is im¬ 
paired, who is sickly East, or South, this land 
certainly, should he Bought and once found will 
ever afterwards be prized. H. H. Horton. 
-- 4 - 4-4 - 
TEAMSTER’S VADE-MECUM. 
I am using a device which I prize very highly, 
and since I do not design to obtain letters patent 
upon it, or allow others to do so. I offer it to 
the Rural folks. It is an improvement upon 
the Bwivel clevis. 
2, 2, are % bolts, passing through the evener 
and fastening on rear of the evener, the plate 
of iron 1,1. 3, is a short hook playing freely in 
the plate 1, 1. 
On the wagon, the hook is out of the way under 
the hammer-strap. Its uses: if ou wish to 
“ double up ” a steep hill, hook on to the end of 
the wagon tongue aud ascend. Are your horses 
feet iu ground so soft that thoy cannot poll the 
load after them ? hook on to the end of the 
tongue again, and your horses with feet on hard 
ground, can now pull the load across the soft 
spot. Is the ico doubtful ? put greater distance 
between your horses and the load. 
Its numerous uses will readily suggest them¬ 
selves to every teamster. Its chief recommenda¬ 
tion is that you always havo it with yon when 
you need it. Any blacksmith can put one on at 
a fow cents’ cost. Try one and you would not 
trade it even for a “ Cricket.” 
That last assertion is made without ever hav¬ 
ing seen a “ Cricket,” of course. 
Harlan Co., Nebraska. R. H. Crane. 
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE. 
On tbe night of May 19th, the extensive fac¬ 
tories of Russell & Co., makers of the widely 
known Massillon Thresher, at Massillon, Ohio, 
were partly destroyed by fire. They write us 
that—“Undismayed by the terrible fire of last 
night, by which our Iron Working, Belting and 
Wagon Making Departments were almost en¬ 
tirely destroyed, we have already arranged for 
machinery to replace that lost, and will resume 
work on Monday next with undimished zeal. 
But one day’s delay has been caused by a fire in¬ 
volving a loss of a hundred thousand dollars. 
We are prepared to till orders promptly, and 
hope that our misfortune will occasion our 
friends no inconvenience.” 
We sympathize with them in this misfortune, 
bnt admire their pluck. May the orders flow in 
steadily! 
EXCERPTS FROM BINGHAMPTON FAR¬ 
MERS’ CLUB. 
< • How shall we interest young men most ’in 
the pursuit of Agriculture ?” 
If we would interest young men in agriculture 
we must make home and the farm pleasant and 
agreeable. We must make society in the coun¬ 
try attractive; must organize oiroles for social 
and intellectual improvement in their own neigh¬ 
borhood. Let them have something thoy can call 
their own ; don’t let the boyte colt bo tho father’s 
horse. Teach them not only how to got money, 
but how to spend it. Enlist them in the art of 
doing business themselves. Gain their confi¬ 
dence ; try to understand them. In a family of 
boys there may he as many different dispositions 
and abilities to fill different positions as there 
are boys ; provide good reading. J. h. 
- 4 - 4-4 - 
MEETING OF MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS. 
The summer meeting of the Michigan State 
Pomologioal Society will occur in the city of 
Jackson. Juno 18, 19 and 20. There will be an 
exhibition of fruits ripe at that date and a gen¬ 
eral discussion upou topics of interest. Horti¬ 
cultural Societies in other States are cordially 
iuvited to send delegates. If the Secretary is 
notified of the attendance of horticulturists 'rum 
abroad, provision will be made for their recep¬ 
tion. Chas. W. Garfield , Sec. 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 
■- 4 - 4-4 - 
HORTICULTURAL MEETING. 
The third annual gathering of the nurserymen ( 
florists, seedsmen and those of kindred interests 
wilt take place at Rochester, N. Y., commencing 
June 19, aud continuing three days. Every per¬ 
son interested in horticultural pursuits is in¬ 
vited to be present, and will receive a cordial 
welcome. Specimens of cions, seeds, fruits 
flowers, implements etc., are requested. June 
19, committees will be appointed and President’s 
address delivered; 20th, the election of officers, 
reports aud discussion; 21st, address, reports 
and discussions continued. 
