(SOME 22 
T 
HE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
fortunately the same name ia not applied to the 
same thing in all aectione of our country. One 
tree ia called Wbitewood or Tulip-tree in Michi¬ 
gan and Poplar in the South, while there ia an¬ 
other tree oalled Poplar in Michigan. Poa pra- 
tenaia is often called June-graaa in the North, 
while the same grass ia called Blue-gra-s in 
Kentucky. Pbleuni pratenae is called Herd’a- 
graaa in Now York, while Agrostia vulgaris ia 
called Herd’a-gross in some parts of Pennsyl¬ 
vania. Some person inquires through the 
“ Huabandmau" about the hardiness of Buck¬ 
thorn in the Northern States, Ho undoubtedly 
meant Ithamnns oatbarticus. A farmer in Mich¬ 
igan replies: ‘‘Oh yes.it is perfectly hirdy 
and stands well along our roads and open 
places.” The praetica farmer probably meant 
Hawthorn, some species of Cratiegus. 
I knew a man who included himself among 
the practical men. He made an effort—a vain 
one, of course—to cause grafts of Chestnut to 
set on stumps or stocks of Horse-chestnut. A 
very slight knowledge of botany would have 
Baved him all that trouble. A writer in a recent 
number of one of our lirst agricultural papers, 
complains that tbe roots of olover stop his tile 
drains. The drains he says, are feet deep, 
that the librons roots entered the drains, spread 
out into a line, fibrous mass, and ohoked tbe 
drains, so that he had to take them up entirely, 
clean them out, and relay them. A correspon¬ 
dent replies and thinks number one must bo 
mistaken, for clover roots run down not more 
than 12 or 18 inches, certainly not 30. And 
then he goes on to say that he has just dug 
some clover roots in deep mellow soil and finds 
none longer than 15 inches. Tbe writer of this 
article has several times seen them six feet—72 
inches- or over, straight down into compact red 
clay with a little sand here and there in streaks 
near the surface. He saw a student digging for 
tbe end of a clover root one day. He was then 
down six feet and had not found the end. Some 
writer in the United States Agricultural Report, 
said Buffalo-grass sent roots down but a few 
inches, while an experienced botanist found 
them down se-veu feel. A “ practical " man was 
trying a remedy for a pear tree which had been 
struck with the blight. He bored into tho tree to 
insert the remedy. He was careful not to bore 
into the heart of the tree, implying that he be¬ 
lieved that part of the tree was very sensitive to 
iujury. The fact is, that the heart of trees pos¬ 
sesses very little, if any life, while tbe liveliest 
part of the trunk is the outside. A prominent 
nurseryman and author on Horticulture was 
applied to for some pollen of apple blossoms to 
be sent by mail for use in making a cross. He 
did not send any because he did not know how to 
collect it. The bees got the start of him. He 
had only to pluck the plump anthers from young 
fiowers or buds just about to open, and send 
them in an envelope. 
A “practical” man, so self-styled, reoom- 
mended a liberal use of slaked lime in a hennery 
among the droppings of fowls. The objections 
are two-fold tbe lime will liberate tbe ammo¬ 
nia which is a valuable fertilizer, and the ammo¬ 
nia is injurious to fowls. 
Another man who boasted of his practical tact, 
did not need any surveying for him to lay a tile 
in a certain spot. He could lay it by the eye. 
The tile was laid and in one place did not work. 
It was afterwards surveyed when it was found 
that the tile ran in a way to make it necessary 
for water to run up hill over a foot above its 
level. Tho tile was taken up, relaid in a scien¬ 
tific manner and has since worked well. At a 
farmer’s Institute, last winter, Dr. Rkdzie had 
just finished his lecture on some valuable chem¬ 
ical analyses of wheat and flour, showing their 
relative value. The man who succeeded him 
was to talk about exporting cattle to Eu¬ 
rope. He began by saying that we would leave 
the theoretical and have something practical. 
He went on with his lecture, which, to say the 
least, contained some visionary ideas. We know 
two prominent men called scientific, who Btated 
in papers that tho mole could not cat vegetable 
matter. An account of some experiments, given 
in the Rural not long ago, proved that at least 
one mole could and did eat cherries, soft corn, 
and potatoes. Additional proof could now be 
given of another mole—or two perhaps—which 
has twice “cleaned out” a nice lot of peas 
planted in a garden. 
A beginner tried some experiments in the use 
of superphosphate on potatoes. He dropped a 
treated yielded more than those where super¬ 
phosphate was employed, probably because the 
fertilizer was not sulliciently spread or diluted. 
More than one practical farmer has fooled away 
his time in puttiug bands of cotton about bis 
plum trees, or bottles of sweetened water in 
the limbs, all to attract, repel, hinder, or destroy 
the curculio. It iB very common to hear whole¬ 
sale approval of birds as friends to the farmer 
and fruit-grower, not even excepting tbe cedar- 
bird, and one of tbe sap-suckers, and tbe Eng¬ 
lish sparrow. These, to say the least, must yet be 
shown to be a greater boon than a curse, if, in¬ 
deed, it can ever be shown that they do more 
good than harm. The learned and unlearned 
may make some queer mistakes. Science with 
practice gives the beat results. 
Agricultural college,.‘Lansing, Mich, 
ROBERT BAKEWELL AND HIS WORK. 
PROFESSOR I. P. ROBERTS. 
In 1726, Robert Bakewell of Dishley, En¬ 
gland, was born. His early life was about 
equally divided between tbe farm and the 
school-room. At manhood he became possessed 
of several domestic animals, noue of which ap¬ 
proached in excellency bis youthful ideal. Had 
he lived in our day, he might have gone to 
libraries and newspapers and have learned 
much of the successes and failures of his prede¬ 
cessors ; bnt the past had nothing to give him. 
Ho was liko a mariner seeking a new continent 
without tho aid of the compass. True, he 
might have studied the most anoient book of 
the Bible and have learned that Job, 2000 years 
before the Christian Era, had a thousand yoke 
of oxen, but of their quality or characteristics 
ho would have learned nothing. Had he studied 
Homer, he might have learned iu detail, how to 
fasten golden knobs on the horns of bullocks, 
but the art of producing a prime beefsteak at 
lowest cost Homer had not revealed. 
Had ho read Virgil’s description of the cattle 
of the Romans, it would no doubt have increased 
hiB love for beautiful animals in the abstract, 
but he would have been as ignorant as before 
as to the methods by which the ungainly and 
angular animals about him were to be trans¬ 
formed into ones of beauty and value. Had he 
turned in other directions, the field was equally 
barren. Neither tbe Egyptian hieroglyphics 
nor ox-eyed Juno shed any light on the hard and 
unsolved problem. One other field is left from 
which to glean. Surely the artist whose highest 
aspiratiou it is to reproduce nature on oanvaB 
with the minutest exactness, will give some 
valuable hints as to the cattle of other lands and 
other times. But no; he is met at the very 
threshold with sadest disappointment; for he 
finds that nearly all the old landscape painters 
have introduced cattle scenes as accessories, and, 
with a view to bighton the beauty of the land¬ 
scape by comparison, Lave grossly distorted and 
exaggerated tbe animals, thereby sacrificing 
truth for supposed artistic effect. Bakewell 
learned little of bis matchless methods of im¬ 
provement by beholding impossible, unshod, 
Jeft-handed milkmaids, of twice the altitude of 
the cow, balancing on their heads two-quart 
pails while the poor cows’ udders appear dis- 
teuded to a capacity that would satisfy the most 
grasping milkman even during a drought. 
ThankB to Landseer and Herring of England 
aud Page and others of America, we now have 
the aristocratic Short-Horn and the fawn-like 
Jersey portrayed with admirablo truth and fair¬ 
ness. Thanks to modern civilization which has 
wrought snch changes that the honorable, tbe 
cultured and the wealthy vie with each other in 
tho cultivation of these, save man, the highest 
types of animated nature. 
Without guide or pattern Bakewell com¬ 
menced his life of original work. His ideal 
must have been nearly perfect, judging by 
what he accomplished. He selects the best of 
his own herd aud purchases from his neighbors 
the best of theirs. A portion of the offsprings 
he slaughters and dissects. The amount and 
texture of bone are carefully noted. Thu muscle 
is minutely scrutinized, not only as to its com¬ 
position but as to its location; for it was well 
understood, even in that early day, that loin 
muscle was three times as valuable in the mar¬ 
ket as neck muscle. Next, the adipose matter 
was inspected to see if it was mixed with the 
lean meat, marbleizing the whole, making it 
juicy and palatable, or whether it formed layers 
ou the surfaces, leaving tho lean meat dry, tough 
and uudesirablo. How much information he 
gained by those todii us and continued experi¬ 
ments we arc not informed ; but certain it is, he 
soon learned one thing which appears hard for 
most of us to learu : that the half of the sum of 
two numbers is equal to the sum of their halves. 
To illustrate ; supposing live to be the standard 
of perfection and we mark one parent four on 
this scale, the other three. Then the offspring 
—other things being alike—cannot exceed three 
and oue-half. True, it is an improvement on 
one parent but tbe loss on the other equals it; 
ikere is no gain; we have simply equalized. 
And if parents are taken from this offspring, 
botn being of a standard of three and one-half, 
their offspring cannot, of themselves, exceed 
this three and one-half standard. 
There is much misconception as to selection or 
survival uf the fittest. There could be no best 
or poorest, if the circumstances and surround¬ 
ings were always the same. The offspring, 
however numerous, of two animals unaffected 
by the law of atavism, and always under the 
same conditions, would always be the same, as 
certainly as that a given weight will fall 
through a given space in a given time. Bake¬ 
well and his immediate successors learned 
the lesson well that like begets like undex like 
circumstances; that Nature makes no mistakes 
aud never sports but is ever true to the law of 
cause and effect. He discovered another law 
which has been formulated and called Prepo¬ 
tency. When thiH valuable quality had de¬ 
veloped in any animal, he seized upon it as the 
means of actual improvement. Not believing 
| it to have been produced without a cause, but 
only to have eluded his researches. In the 
illustration already given, if the parent marked 
four was prepotent, then the offspring might 
possibly reach a standard of three and three- 
fourths or even four; here is an actual gain of 
the average qualities of both parents, but if we 
follow thiH reasoning on and put it into prac¬ 
tice, we find it a slow road to improvement, for 
tbis valuable quality can only be ascertained by 
results; tbe most discriminating judge being 
unable to detect it by outward form. Better 
food, care, and surroundings he soon found to be 
his main reliance. 
But just as he appears to have learned tbe 
sure road to speedy success, he discovers 
another law, which asserts itself and frustrates 
his wisest, plans—atavism, or ancestral influence, 
appeal's in many of the progeny. He finds that 
ancestors increase in each preceding generation 
in a geometrical ratio, and that tho progeny iH 
often not a typo of its immediate parents, but 
has a portion, at least, of Ibe possibilities of an 
innumerable ancestry; or possibly it may largely 
represent Borne inferior ancestor far down the 
lino. Now, selection comes iu play and separates 
those that have inherited tho fewest objection¬ 
able qualities of their ancestors. But at first 
the number is very limited that escape this 
reversion to the inferior type. Had some of his 
neighbors improved their cattle to his standard, 
ho might have gone on selecting and improving 
surroundings till be had finally eliminated the 
tendency to atavism. But tbis he could not do 
since all others were inferior to his own. Thou 
how is he to reach his object ? How arrest this 
constant tendency to revert to original types ? 
The inferior blood that comes down with all tbe 
gathered strength of a hundred generations may 
appear he knows not when or where. He se¬ 
lects, with the utmost care, a few of his herd 
that appear to have inherited acquired tenden¬ 
cies, anu to have esoaped remote ancestral oueB. 
This blood he concentrates by close breeding. 
Success crowns his efforts. Tho valuable ac¬ 
quired qualities are transmitted to tbe offspring, 
and the nndeeir&ble ones of remote ancestors 
are drowned out. He has established a breed 
excelling all others. So far excelling that lords 
and nobles flook to his unpretentious homo to 
do him honor and learn the Bocrot of his suc¬ 
cesses. Even the king makes him a visit to ex¬ 
press his appreciation of hiB valuable labors and 
researches. 
Though tbe rearing of cattle has been one of 
the chief occupations of mankind since the ear¬ 
liest periods, yet Bakewell was the first, so far 
as we know, to make use of any really scientific 
principles in their improvement. Ho learned 
that within certain limits bo could produce any 
type or form of animal desired. Not by selec¬ 
tion per se, but by taking advantage of variations 
caused by changed conditions. He who ex¬ 
pects improvement from selection alone, will 
only meet with disappointment. Nay, more 
tliau this : the chances are about two to one 
that there will be deterioration caused by atav¬ 
ism or errors in judgment, in management, and 
in selection. 
There has been a careful selection for the 
last hundred years of the cattle of the United 
States. The best animals are invariably saved 
and tbe poorest slaughtered ; yet there lias been 
uo improvement except where improved blood 
has been introduced or tbe conditions have 
been bettered ; and there never can be, for tbe 
stream cannot rise higher than its source. 
This one false idea entertained by the masses, 
has arrested improvement in domestic animals 
more than all others combined. Selection Bim- 
ply steps in and makes use of an accomplished 
result produced by a previous cause. 
Bakewell died in 1795, and although he left 
nothing on record, yet his success was bo great 
aud attracted so much attention that bis meth¬ 
ods were well understood by many and put 
immediately into practice. Charles aud Rob¬ 
ert Colling, Thomas Bates and Thomas 
Booth followed in his footsteps with the most 
happy results. In fact, they established another 
breed—the Short-Horns—that has attracted 
more attention than all others combined. Great, 
credit is due to those last-named iuon for 
their skill and energy, though greater to Bake¬ 
well. But all of them will he remembered and 
houored as long aH civilization endures, and 
long after the“ Reform Politician” has been for¬ 
gotten, the methods of theBe plain men will be 
studied with increasing interest. 
Cornell University, Ithaca N. Y. 
-♦ ♦ ♦- 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT SORREL. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. I). 
The writer lives iu a sorrel country; his farm, 
when he bought it, produced more sorrel 
thau anything else, and consequently he has 
had oleuty of opportunity to study thiH interest¬ 
ing plaut aud learn its peculiarities. 
Au acute observer has said that “the obvious 
is rarely tbe true,” yet among tbe things that 
nearest approach the impossible, without quite 
reaching it, the removal of a plausible orror 
from tbe popular mind must be ranked high. 
As an example of tbis fact, I refer to tho notion, 
contradicted by all experience aud tho obsorva- 
tion of every farmer who does_ohsorve, that the 
growth of sorrel indicates “sour” land.. The 
warmest and swectoBt soils are where tbe sorrel 
most luxuriates. Sorrel will retaiu its grasp of 
such soils even after their fertility has so de¬ 
clined by cropping withont. manure that few 
other plants will grow upon them. Tbe sorrel 
will not luxuriate there, in such circumstances, 
but it will grow and overspread the ground, so 
that its red inflorescence can he distinguished at 
a long distance. Theso light sorrel hinds are 
almost atonco restored to fertility by the appli¬ 
cation of green sand, marl, or wood ashes, thus 
indicating that their special need la potash. But 
will the marls or ashes exterminate the sorrel ? 
Very far from it. Unless the land is seeded 
with some crop able to overgrow and kill tbo sor¬ 
rel, that plant, when dressed with asboN, will as¬ 
sume a most astonishing growth and luxuriance. 
A very slight experiment will satisfy any one 
that ashes, instead of beiug hurtful to sorrel, 
nmy be regarded as a special fertilizer for it. 
The two statements made above—first, that sor¬ 
rel will take possession of and overgrow land ex¬ 
hausted of potash ; and, seooud, that potash is 
a speoial fertilizer for Horrel, may be regarded 
as laughable inconsistencies; and certainly their 
mutual truth and intor-depcndonce do not rest 
upon their obviousness, to secure belief. Yet I 
will give an explanation regarding it which 
will satisfy any one somewhat acquainted with 
the principles of agricultural chemistry. 
What is the substance that gives it’s acid qual¬ 
ity to the sorrel plant ? Oxalate of potash. And 
what is oxalate of potash ? It is a combination 
of oxalic acid with potash. The oxalic acid is 
native to and formed within tho plant, by the 
union of its elements in tho sap. But how does 
it get its potash ? In a fertile soil, soluble salts 
of potash exist in sufficient quantity to supply 
the needs of all plants. In unfertile soils, ren¬ 
dered so by the exhaustion of the available pot¬ 
ash, potash may nevertheless exist in large 
quantity in a form insoluble, or very slowly sol¬ 
uble, in the soil-water. From such a soil the 
oxalic acid of tbe sorrel enables it to extract pot¬ 
ash by direct solution. Lime is also extracted in 
the same way. (Seo Johnson’s “How Crops 
Feed,” pp. 140 112.) The potash so taken up by 
tbe sorrel is sufficient for a moderate growth 
aud the perfection of its seed, but not for lux¬ 
uriant growth and leafage. But take a little 
patch of sorrel on such poor land, remove all 
other plants and keep them out— i. e., weed 
your sorrel patch—aud then apply a moderate 
dressing of uuleacbed ashes, and see the demon¬ 
stration of my statement that potash is a special 
fertilizer for sorrel. 
How, then, does a free dressing of some pot¬ 
ash fertilizer exterminate sorrel? Simply by 
promoting the growth of stronger plants, 
clovers and grasses, which aro as weeds to the sor¬ 
rel, and which when encouraged to grow freely by 
appropriate fertilization, smother it out. Apple- 
pomace, as narrated by the.. correspondent of 
the Germantown Telegraph, is a good applica¬ 
tion, because it contains a large amount of the 
i rgauic salts of potash. 
Orleans, vr. 
■ ■» » »- 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Rural Affairs.— Luther Tucker <fe Son, Al¬ 
bany, N. Y. Tbis book is well named. It is an 
Illustrated Register of Rural Affairs. Just those 
topics are touched upon which concern country 
people in their every-day life, and each topic is 
treated so as to convoy in the plainest manner 
the most solid and valuable information. Thus, 
such subjects as “Country Dwellings, Improv¬ 
ing and Planting ^Grouuds, Fruits and Flowers, 
Domestic Animals, and all Farm and Garden 
Processes,” are selected, and treated according 
to the best-known method, to the exclusion of 
the more theoretical views that may be con¬ 
sidered as varying in accordance with individual 
tastes. It oonaists of 410 good engravings, illus¬ 
trative of every subject in the text, anil 350 
pages. Mr. J. J. Thomas, the associato editor 
of that excellent farm journal, tho Country 
Gentleman, is the author. Tho price is $1.50 
by mail, postage prepaid, either for this volume 
or any of its predecessors, or $12 for the eight 
volumes, complete. We do not know of any 
similar work that, to the general roader who is 
interested in everything appertaining to the 
country home, ia of more real value. 
Manual of the Apiary, by A. J. Cook, Pro¬ 
fessor of Entomology in the Michigau State 
Agricultural College. Second edition, revised, 
enlarged, mostly re-written, and copiously illus¬ 
trated. Published by Tiros. G. Newman & Son, 
Chicago, Ill. Among the numerous works on 
apiculture, w'e know of noue ho valuable to 
every practical apiarist as this handsome vol¬ 
ume of 286 pages. Every point connected with 
the subject on which it treats, is handled in a 
clear, exhaustive, yet pithy and entirely practi¬ 
cal manner. Ah we consider tho work well worthy 
of a more extended notice m a later issue, we 
shall merely ramarlc hero that it Hhould be in 
the hands of every apiarist who is Hooking suc¬ 
cess by availing himself of the latest and best 
information on his business. 
Catalogue of tuk University of North 
Carolina. —This neat pamphlet of 64 pages 
gives full particulars concerning the institution 
to which it refers, including the names of the 
