476 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 27 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
practical Departments : 
Expcrlmotua 1 Farm—J. B. Lawc*' (Illustrated)... 469 
Notes finm Miiplfwood Farm —Hector Bertram.. 4u) 
Drainage B. C. Carpenter .•••••• f™ 
Co. klmr F >o<t tor Stock— A. H. Ward. 471 
Swtv t p,.taut Culture-M. B. Prince. 471 
Haiatntr Flax. <72 
KI*»onn N"tcw—‘am'l Par>on».... *7* 
Note* from mo Rural Ground*.<72 
Catalogue*, 2fcc, Received.. ■ ”•;••••• 
Joilinv* *l Kirby Hnmeatuad—Col. F. lb Curtis.. 473 
Conneoticul Aiifou turul Experimental 8ta- 
tlon.—S. W. Johnson.. 
MoCheappy Drill.. 473 
Cornish a dCuni* But ter- Worker. 473 
Orclmril Plantiuir and Management. 475 -- 
... or t wo meDj if Deeded, are stationed in 
Duroc swine. J barn ^ move a way, and an equal 
Answers to oorrespomumts: number in the field to load. ThiB rapid 
j?« pushing of work is far the cheapest, 
wood Nymph Moth ...»...Often after one or two clayfi of nue 
KMUmf ipc wild m mmn^Giory in the Field'.47_4 weather we have rains which delay work 
Preplan* Food.4Z4 in the hay or harvest field for twice that 
.‘ length of time. Moanwbilo bey or 
c. u Drew.m grain i* Bpoilmg and at last it costa mn™ 
r B .cho ier. n. ..<?< to get it housed in bad condition than it 
would at first, to have it saved in good. 
p..quoMock Bridge, Conn.— 474 q£ the good farmer will have all 
Phiml.' n' t'' 1 ".. .'.V.:':::::::::'." 474 the labor-saving implements. This is the 
great advantage of using mower* and 
. reapers. They will do the work with 
Mr*, a. B. Btorr.g V»«ui. The farmers, however, should 
Too.tn Qpeeh Pen*—Mary b... . 480 not hire less i but employ the time and 
4so labor saved in getting the work promptly 
... an( j therefore more cheaply done. Who- 
BniTOBiAL Pirn: _ ever usee mowers and reapers merely to 
>epimr Aiiriui of work.-476 aave hired help gets very little advan- 
, r *piv^oVtVi u'm aine ¥>rmer...”,.. 1'.’..i"..V. ..’.*."*.* 47« tage from them. In all probability he 
rcViDos ,ille! ‘ 01 Erylhrtinlura :.v;;;.Gfi win lose as much on other crops, ana 
i iTfRAur.. possibly more than he will save in hired 
4-.y ‘. 40 ?, 477 , 4S3 help. We know that prices of farm pro- 
::::: in ducts are low; but labor is also nearly or 
in the hoed crops though you have to pay 
harvest wages to do it. One day’s work 
at the right time is worth five a week 
or two later. In the harvest field itself 
extra help is almost equally important. 
The present Beason is proving very 
Bhowery and 44 catching” in many sec¬ 
tions. When we have a really good day 
for curing hay or grain, there should 
be plenty of help to take advantage of it. 
We know farmers who at such timos fit 
out an extra wagon and with two teams 
Erythronium Americanum, our native 
Adder’s Tongue; sIbo a white species 
E. albidum found north and west. Then 
there is the E. Dens-oanis, the European 
species which is sometimes purple, 
sometimes rosy-lilac, sometimes white. 
Here we have as wide a range of colors 
as in the beginiug we had with the Glad¬ 
iolus, a flower that has been more im¬ 
proved perhaps by artificial treatment 
than almost any other. 
If these bulbs be taken up after they 
will keep the bam constantly filling. One are matured, which may be known by tiie 
r .. h 1 * A A* X » P- I • Ala ^ VI nnlnrl in fllA OQT. 
Domestic Recipe*. .. 480 labor saved in getting tne worn, promptly 
... an d therefore more cheaply done. Who- 
RruTORiAb paoe: _ ever ones mowers and reapers merely to 
Keepinar Ahmrt of Work..478 gave hired help gets very little advan- 
Bepi'y s'm afne K'pVraer...",. ...... "..V. ..’.*."*.* jw tage from them. In all probability he 
b^uim* 1168 orEr y ,Uro ^ um ;;;;;;. 4 $ will lose as much on other crops, and 
i it. rauv . possibly more than ho will save in hired 
P 4 ,y “. 40 ?, 477 , 4 S 3 help. We know that prices of farm pro- 
!| *>«•««>°» t but •»»“*•?‘ 8 °“ e “ rlj “5 
Kecim fniuraturu. 479 quite as cheap as btfore the war, auu 
Bric-u-Brnc. 47 . considering the improvements in farm 
Reading for the. Young: machinery, farmers can get more done for 
Pocket-Money for Young Peopie-No. li—An- ten dollars now than they ever could be- 
Spen'iiinp Money for tiie Young Girls— ( fore. The temptation to many farmers is 
our^ni^teiir.v:.v;;::":::::::::"::::::::::4il to save in their help-expense account, 
RiisMun Commercial Village*. 482 But if the farm is worth working at all 
Sabbath Reading: it is surely worth working well, and the 
of Reuding-E. J. 8. c. 482 larger the amount judiciously expended 
^Ae^ei^He^in:::::::::;":::::::::::: m for farm labor, the larger win be the P rof- 
wit an i Humor. <w jt s a nd the greater the improvement of 
Advertise i.,-nis.481.4S7.481 ^ f ^ m Doing wifch toQ lltfc l e 
- kelp fills the soil with weeds, and where 
•p jp pj these obtain control, all hope of profit is 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PDBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. -- , x . 
_ We onoe snccessfully transplanted in 
Addrew July, a young Grape-vine three feet 
rural publishing co., hieb The errouud was daily watered 
78 Duane Street, New York City. a month . We read that 
- evergreens may be transplanted at ctny 
SATURDAY JULY 27, 1878. season of the year, if—if—if. The fact is 
— . ^ = small plants may be so transplanted that 
We offered, some time ago, to sell the onts the slight disturbance to the roots and 
used in this Journal for ten cents the square the after care are equivalent to no de¬ 
inch. Many have requested us to send proofs rangement of the plant economy a a , 
of our cuts. As we have upwards of ten thou- But the question is when is he safes 
sand, we could not undertake to do bo. Persons time to transplantr-that to, when is the 
wishing to purchase, must select from files of time that a plant will jes s am ‘ 
th« Rttuat New-Yokkek turbance usually attendmg transplanta- 
the Bubal New Yoekeb. tion> We 8ay that, as a rule, spring is 
best for all climates like New York and 
KEEPING AHEAD OF WORK. north of it, in which the thermometer 
. . ... ,. falls to ten degrees below zero, and lower, 
A wtity lecturer says that some &nd • t g0 soon iu the spring as the frost 
people have three hands They have ifJ QU J t o{ the groanc i. E or climates like 
two hands the same as their neighbors, tho8e south of Philadelphia, fall is no 
besides which they have always a little doubfc better than spring, because the 
behmd-hand. He might well add that roota ma he some growth during the win- 
this sort of men are wholly disqualified to a reciprocal action between the 
be farmers, and if they are such, the three- rQot8 and buds aud leaves is 800ne r es- 
handed facers can never become fore- tabliflhed wb en spring growth begins, 
handed. But, seriously, we have seen j? or this climate, and north of it, many 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 
Addresi 
RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
78 Duane Street, New York City. 
SATURDAY JULY 27, 1878. 
We offered, some time ago, to sell the outs 
used in this Journal for ten cents the square 
inch. Many have requested us to send proofs 
of our cuts. As we have upwards of ten thou¬ 
sand, we could not undertake to do bo. Persons 
wishing to purchase, must select from files of 
the Rubal New-Yorker. 
KEEPING AHEAD OF WORK. 
A witty lecturer says that. 44 some 
people have three hands.” They have 
two hands the same as their neighbors, 
besides which they have always a little 
behind-hand. He might well add that 
this sort of men are wholly disqualified to 
be farmers, aud if they are such, the three- 
handed farmers can never become fore¬ 
handed. But, seriously, we have seen 
enough to prove that keeping ahead of tbat they pre fer to plant in the fall, 
the work from the opening of spring till ^ betore th e leaves begin to 
the last job is finished in the fall, is the , ,, Then thev reason, new fibrous 
only way to farm with either pleasure or 
profit. The farmer who gets behind at 
any season works at a serious disadvan¬ 
tage ever after ! And it is no easy mat¬ 
ter to manage jnst right to keep abreast 
of the work. The direction of a large 
farm demands executive abilities as great 
as does the management of an army. 
The farmer has in faot an army; but his 
men are engaged in the work of produc¬ 
tion rather than of destruction. To keep 
two to ten men employed profitably in 
all kinds of weathers, requires thought 
and tact. The difficulty with most farm¬ 
ers is that they do not hire enough help. 
They underestimate the amount of work 
required, and make too little allowance 
for rainy days when little or nothing can 
be done out of doors. 
Up to harvest time most farmers do pret¬ 
ty well. But unless work is pretty well 
advanced before haying and harvesting 
begin, it is pretty sure to be all in a 
tangle by the time the grain is in the barn. 
There are two, three or four weeks when 
little is usually done except securing the 
hay and grain crops. Then is the time 
when weeds run riot in potatoes, corn, 
beans and other hoed crops. We have 
often known fields to become so weedy in 
harvest time that the crops cost more to 
get out of the weeds than they were 
worth. Plenty of help at such times is 
all-important. Keep the cultivator going 
as soon as, or betore the leaves begin to 
fall. Then, they reason, new fibrous 
roots are formed before settled cold 
weather, and the tree is so much ahead of 
that transplanted in spring. This reas¬ 
oning might hold good if we oould al¬ 
ways be assured of such a mild winter as 
the last. But we believe that continued 
severely oold weather, which freezes the 
ground two feet or more in depth, will 
kill those tender roots formed in late fall, 
and that the tree will be found less vigor¬ 
ous than the one transplanted in early 
spring. 
When treeB make a late growth that 
has not time to ripen, not only will a se¬ 
vere winter kill the late growth, but the 
plant itself will be weakened. It is the 
same with the tender root-fibers. 
If the northern farmer or horticultur¬ 
ist is so pressed for time iu the spring 
that he is willing to take the chances of 
failure resulting from a severe winter and 
transplant in the fall, let him do so. 
But if our experience has taught us any¬ 
thing it has taught us that spring-plant¬ 
ing is preferable to fall-pi an ting in the 
ratio of at least three to one. 
-« « » ■ - 
NEW VARIETIES OF ERYTHRONIUM. 
We cannot find that any attention 
has been given to the production of 
new varieties of this earliest of the spring- 
blooming Liliaceous plants. We have 
fading of the leaf, and planted in the gar- 8 
den, the size of the flowers will be in- c 
creased and the bulbs will thrive as well t 
as in their moist native habitats. Crosses 8 
between the purple, white and yellow ^ 
could no doubt be effected which might c 
perhaps result in beautiful intermediate i 
varieties. c 
-44 » t 
REPLY OF THE MAINE FARMER. 
- < 
“ Thank you, Editor of the Bubal, it teas “an i 
oversight.” The enterprise of the Rural New- ] 
Yorker (which, by the way, has been somewhat ' 
enlarged and much improved of late) secured for I 
its columns a contribution from Mr. J. B. Lawes, i 
of Englaud, which articto the London Farmer i 
copied—giving credit, however, to its American i 
contemporary—and we oopied a paragraph or 
two from this article, giving credit not to the 
Rural, as we should nave done, but inadvert¬ 
ently, to the London Farmer. Wo are sorry to 
have been led into this error, but glad our atten¬ 
tion has been called to it, that we may give 
credit to whom it justly belongs." 
Upon reading the above we were re¬ 
minded of the Latin proverb, “ Bis dal 
qui cito dat ”—he who gives promptly, 
gives twice as much—except, in this case, 
the oversight was one so liable to occur 
to any of us that we feel we have reoeived 
ten times instead of twice our due from 
the Maine Farmer. We onoe knew a 
man that prided himself upon the fact 
that he had never made an apology in his 
life. Bnt how could we appreciate the 
beautiful in this world if there were 
I nothing ugly with which to contrast it! 
----- 
BREVITIES. 
Man is " a bundle of habits.” 
J. J. Meohi is 76 years of age. 
It is now time to make cuttings of Pelargoni¬ 
ums and similar plants for late autumn bloom¬ 
ing. 
In the way of green food, we have found 
nothing that poultry like better than Pearl 
Millet. The leaves, "however, are still young 
and tender. 
Cuttings of Hollyhocks may now be made 
of desirable roots, aud many of the improved 
varieties are very desirable. The bottom shoots 
are beBt. Insert in sand and keep moist. 
Mr. Wb. Robinson dedicates the thirteenth 
volume of his enterprising Garden (London, Eng¬ 
land,) to Dr. Moore of Glasnevin, in recognition 
of his long and faithful services to horticulture. 
Any of our readers who have cultivated any of 
the following Spring wheats will much oblige us 
by oommunicating the results : Champlain, De- 
fianoe, Mediterranean, China, White Spring Rus¬ 
sian. 
A hard Bhower prevailed here (Rural Farm) 
this afternoon, Sunday, July 22. Of the spring 
wheats, one-third of White ltussiau is lodged and 
one-quarter of Champlain. Of the five varieties, 
Defianoe is last to ripen. 
‘ ‘ Thobe defenders of the faith are more zealous 
than wise who most needs fire away in their oata 
pults the very bastions of the citadel in the de- 
feuoeof outposts that have become untenable"— 
Dr. Asa Gray. 
Oat meal tea 1 b an excellent drink for the 
harvest field- Put about fifteen tablespoonfuls 
of meal into a gallon jug, adding Borne salt. 
Fill up with boiling water, stirring briskly. 
Then let it stand iu a cool place until needed. 
Entomolooistb describe only four varieties of 
insects parasitic upon the bodies of hens, not in¬ 
cluding the mites of the ohioken-honse. Oar 
correspondent, Mr. Halos, has sketched twelve 
additional varieties. He thinks.there are others 
yet. 
The Miobigan Farmer, whose opinion In suoh 
matters is eutitled to nutoh weight, anticipates 
that there will be a general drop in the price of 
wheats from this time till the iucome of the crop, 
when it will probably settle down to the lowest 
figures known hero sinoe 1853. 
Fourteen years ago several fields of the 
“ Rural Farm ’ weio “ alive' ’with the Wild Rad¬ 
ish (Rbapbanus Rhaphauistrum). They were 
wholly extirpated by pulltug them up as soon 
as the yellow flowers appeared. It is an au- 
nual, and of course is propiigated by the seed. 
We mention it merely to say that the labor of 
eradicating this weed was far loss than was sup¬ 
posed before the pullnig-up process was begun. 
“ The fanner who will carefully consult the 
catalogues of seed merchants and nurserymen, 
look for markets near home, and keep his wits as 
busy as the Himcessful manufacturer must do, 
says the N. Y- Herald, will find in the long run 
that the most money does not come from tho 
most popular crops or tho groatest number of 
aores under cultivation.” 
, That Is true; but it is not tho seedman s cata¬ 
logue that is going to tell hun what crop there 
wifi bo an extra demand for. lhat gives the 
list. The farmer must judge for himself. 
A New Use for Potatoes,— Potatoes are to 
come out as a manufacturing medium, and Lt 
Cultivateur says that pipeH similar in appear- 
i auce to meertchaum are made by the following 
f processYou take a potato, and having peeled 
it, place it in water acidulated with sulphuric 
3 aoid, in the proportion of 8 parts acid to 100 
parts of water; let the tuber remain in this 
liquid for 36 hours to blacken, then dry it with 
blotting paper; you then submit it to a oertain 
pressure, when you have a material whioh oan 
be readily carved to any desigu. The counter¬ 
feit is marvellously perfect. By the same pro¬ 
cess a very good imitation of horn can be ob¬ 
tained, sullioiently hard and dense to make 
billiard balls, Ac. A striking resemblance to 
ooral is obtained by treatiug oarrots in the same 
way. 
All poultry authorities agree that poultry, 
especially chickens of oourse, should be fed 
“little and often.” Our chickens and hens 
which aro confined are fed five or Bix times 
evorv day. Besides grain food they are given 
all of the table scraps, finely out meat, both 
cooked and raw, grasB, omver, beet-tops, pea- 
tops, radish-tops, oto. We are raising chickens 
and keeping them confined (fifteen to an area 
about thirty feet square) as an experiment. 
Fine ashes in whioh a little flour of sulphur is 
occasionally mixed, is supplied for them to dust 
in. The house is whitewashed often and the 
droppings removed from the floor evory few 
days. We have not yet had a case of siokness. 
The essentials in keeping butler in Bummer 
The essentials in keeping butler in bummer 
consist in making it properly, and having a oool 
place to keep it, and excluding it from the air. 
No butter oan be safely packed in warm weather 
which iR not perfectly made, nor oan it be 
kept if exposed to the air. Dairy-rooms cooled 
with a cheap refrigerator are coming into use 
now among butter-makers, both for keeping 
milk and keeping butter, and with ioe and salt, 
secure a low temperature at small cost. The 
best packages for keeping butter a long time in 
warm weather are made of tin, and wood-lined. 
When filled the cover is soldered on and made 
air-tight. So says Prof. Arnold in the Weekly 
Tribune. 
Hknophones —The London Farmer says, it 
roust draw the line somewhere. It has so fre¬ 
quently received “facts” from America whioh 
turned out “ fancies,” that it does not accept 
with implicit credulity the statements of its con¬ 
temporaries on the other side of the “herring 
pond.” It believes in the telephone but not iu 
tho “ benopbone.” An exchange Htalea that an 
intelligent farmer has invented a henophone. A 
henopbouc is modeled ou the principle of the 
telephone. One old, reliable hen, occupying a 
central office In the hennery, sits on all the 
nests about the eslablishment, leaving other 
fowls free to lay eggs, scratch, and cackle. As 
soon as a now nest contains the full complement 
of eggs, it is connected with the oontral office by 
a copper wiro, and the business is settled. The 
only trouble with the maohioe is, that it Bits so 
hard it hatches out the porcelain nest-eggs with 
the others, so that one chick in every nest is 
born with glass eyes, and the farmer has to bnv 
and train a dog to lead it axonnd. Tnis, it is said, 
makes it expensive. Hereafter the London 
Farmer will draw the line at “ henophones.” 
The Colorado beetle has been subjected to a 
series of experiments by a member of the Ento¬ 
mological Society of Ontario. Mr. W. Brodie, 
of Toronto, has been studying its peooliar 
tastes for food, and also its fasting powers. 
Mr. Brodie, having kept thirty beetles without 
food for twenty-four hours, they refused leaves 
. of carrot, parsnip, beet, pumpkin, lettuce, sun¬ 
flower, sage, and cabbage. After eight more 
hours, when supplied with potato loavos, they 
ate them freely. A similar cxjieriment was 
made and repeated with a large number of oom- 
mon weeds, but none was eaten. Again, thirty 
beetles, after being kept oleven days without 
food, were given the leaves of a large number of 
weeds, which remained untouched. Potato 
leaves were then eaten freely. Three repeti¬ 
tions gave the Batno results. To ascertain how 
long they would live without food, of forty-five 
beetles which were allowed nothing to oat after 
ohangiug to beetles, four died the fourth day, 
thirty-threo the fifth day, two on the sixth day, 
and three more by tho eleventh day. Over 75 
per oent. died within five dayB, the males dying 
first. The next experiment was to take thirty 
mature beetles, whioh hail partaken of food; 
they were then kept without it. Two died the 
fourteenth day, six by tho nineteenth, five by 
the twenty-third, three more by the twenty- 
seventh, while 20 per oent. survived forty-seven 
days’ fasting. Other experiments were made, 
by which it was ascertained that on an average 
one beetle wifi oat an inch square of potato 
leaves in thirty honrB. the maximum rate being 
ten hours and the minimum thirty-seven hours. 
One beetle ia able to defoliate entirely one plant 
of potatoes during its boetlo life, 
Fanot Bulbs.— Mr. J. J. Meohi Is a believer in 
the influence of soil, climate and food, on human, 
animal and vegetable development. Hence there 
will be always great varieties in all vital subjects. 
Starvation causes diminution and malformation, 
especially when accompanied by an unkindly 
climate. Perfect development results from an 
opposite state of things. In rich and free soil 
or highly-manurod laud fibers are multiplied, 
and a single tap root does the needful: but 
where the plant food is widely and sparsely dis¬ 
tributed bulbs will send out powerful fangs in 
search of it. When he impoverished his surface 
soil by steam ploughing It very deeply, and mix¬ 
ing with it a large quantity of poor aud unaired 
subsoil, the plums in the pudding were too far 
apart; and tho mangels knew it, and acoordinglv 
sent out searchers iu the form of long and thick 
fangs, which brought to their bulb the good 
things which were widely diffused. Feeble- 
rooted plants could not have done this. He pro¬ 
tests against the supposition that these fanged 
mangel s are of inferior quality. On the contrary, 
they are dense aud heavy, and keep well, and 
have the advantage of having buried their bulbs 
deeply iu tho soil, which Is alwavs a sign of 
quality, either in turnip or mangel. When his 
top soil is again rich, no doubi these mangels 
will use fillers, ana only send tho tap-root down 
to pump up moisture for tho circulation Red 
clover acts much like mangel, and goes deeply 
into tho soil, A father aud son divided some 
oats which thoy purchased of him. The father 
grew an abundant crop of excellent quality, 
the bou’s crop was wretched in sample and 
i quantity. Tho different quality of their farms— 
both in his county—explained the apparent 
mystery. Plants, like animals, are grateful for 
good feeding and other suitable conditions. A 
turnip in deep rich land will send a single tap 
i root a yard or more deep, but not so on poor, 
I shallow or iU-oultirated and undraiued laud. 
