THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
AU@. S4 
030 
$m\ Cents, 
HINTS FOR THE SEASON. 
BT A JEBSET FARMER. 
FODDER CORN. 
There is no doubt tbat sweet corn makes 
the beBt fodder. The dry digestible mat¬ 
ter is the measure of the nutriment con¬ 
tained in food; and, as sweet corn contains 
more sugar than tho ordinary hold corn, it must 
be therefore more nutritious. Sugar is nutri¬ 
ment. It furniehes carbon for tho sustenance 
of tho animal heat, and also for the function of 
respiration, as well as tho formation of fat. An 
animal consumes much more erf carbon thau of 
nitrogen; and carbonaceous food for a bntter 
cow, a grcaey-wooled sheep, a fattening ox. or 
even a store animal, which is only expected to 
keep in fair, thrifty order, is by far the most 
needed kind of sustenance. Besides, one object, 
if not the chief one, of the good farmer, is to in¬ 
duce his stock to consumo all the food they can ; 
not to Btint them, but quite tho contrary ; know¬ 
ing that as they thrive, so he thrives with them 
and by them A great deal of nonsense has 
been uttered about the poor character of fodder- 
corn, as to its watery nature when green, audits 
likeness to chips when dry. But it will be 
noticed that if a cow is provided with half a 
bushel of clean sweet corn-fodder at one end of 
her trough, she will often leave a mess of meal and 
middlings, to eat that first. It is always safe to 
trust to tho judgment of a cow in matters of 
this kind, and the cows are invariably in favor of 
sweet-corn. 
Whero sweet-corn ears are sent to market 
from farms uear the large cities, the stalks may 
yield a crop worth as much as the grain. When 
corn ears are sold for 10 to GO cents a hundred, 
the stalks are actually worth more than that if 
they are properly saved. Where the oars can 
not be thus sold, the grain may ho made worth 
their market value for the winter feeding of 
milk cows. No other food helps tho pail and the 
churn bo much as this—tho stalks and ears being 
cut up and fed together. But to save them is 
the great trouble. 
Saving Cork-stales for Fodder —This may 
be done as follows: — Take the .Lima bean 
poles not in use, and 
where Lima beans are 
generally grown they are 
not now in use, beciuse 
the value of beans is too 
low for profit; where 
they are not grown, poleB 
six feet long should be 
procured from tho woods, 
or fence stakes ; defect¬ 
ive rails, and such waste 
stuff may bo iSuhzcd. 
Bore two holes cross-wise, 
an inch in diameter and 
a foot from the larger 
end, and put small rods, 
two feet long, in those, 
sharpening tho small 
ends. The stake will ap¬ 
pear as shown in tho en¬ 
graving (fig. 1). This is 
planted in the ground 
in the place where the 
shocks of fodder ace to 
bo placed. The stalks should be ent as soon as 
they are ripe. They may grow for two weeks 
after the ears are pulled. They will cure all the 
better when permitted to ripen their sap, and 
much of the usual difficulty of curing them will 
be avoided. If tho ears are not pulled, and the 
corn has been grown solely fur the fodder, and 
has been planted so closely as to prevent tho for¬ 
mation of ears, the crop may be cut as soon as 
the first of the leaves change color, and extra 
care will have to be taken in the curing. When 
the stalks are cut, they should be left on the 
ground twenty-four hours to wilt thoroughly; 
then hound in small sheaves of not more than 
one good arm-full, and the sheaveB set up 
against the stake before described. This will 
sustain the shook and prevent it from being 
blown or falling over, as well as from falling to¬ 
gether in the center, so as to prevent thorough 
curing. When a good-sized Block is made, the 
top is bound above the stake, but left open be¬ 
low. Thus left, it is protected from the weather 
and will oure perfectly in two or three weeks ; 
the time depending upon the condition of the 
weather. 
WATER-FURROWS FOR WINTER GRAIN. 
Farmers are now fitting their ground for fall 
graiu crops, and many, not having the fear of the 
Hessian Fly before their eyes, and wishing al¬ 
ways to be forehanded with their work, will sow 
their fields this piesent month. The first thing 
that should be done after the ground is sown, is 
to make water-furrows to carry off the rain. 
Ho one knows how soon a heavy shower may 
fall upon the soft, loose soil, and if unprepared, 
the beating rain will soon wear many little fur¬ 
rows, which converging, will gather into larger 
ones, and these again into a torrent, which will 
wash the soil and perhaps carry off the ferti¬ 
lizers and grass seed on to a neighbor’s farm, or 
certainly where they will not be wanted. So the 
water-furrows should be made without delay, 
and on the prop 1 r making of them depends their 
effectiveness and the safety of the field. A few 
rules for the making of water-furrows may be 
given. 
How to make them. —They should never 
be carried directly down a slope. The quickest 
way to get rid of the water is the most 
injurious way. The water Bhould be carried 
down the slope as nearly level, and should 
be distributed amoDg nB many channels, as 
possible. The ground covered by the chan¬ 
nels is not lost, or useless; as many plants of 
wheat and grass will be found in them as else¬ 
where. By distributing tho water in many chan¬ 
nels, and delaying its escape, more of it will be 
absorbed by the ground and there will be loss of 
it to run off. Thus the soil will be benefited to 
a greater extent, as well as damage to it be pre¬ 
vented. The form of the water-furrow is shown 
at fig. 2. It is made by throwing a furrow shoe 
Fig. 2. 
down the slope, thus leaving not only a channel 
to catch the water flowing from above, without 
impediment; but forming a dam to prevent it 
from overflowing down the declivity. If the 
furrow slice is turned tho other way, the water 
must first collect above it, until it breaks 
through ; when the loose earth is washed into 
tho furrow, which iB soon filled and choked, and 
tho wash then begins straight down the elope 
and enlarges at every foot in its oourse. This is 
not infrequently done by careless hired men or 
by equally thoughtless farmers themselves. 
These furrows should be carried as little from a 
level as may be necessary to convey the water 
away as fast as it may collect. A slope of one 
foot in a hundred will do this. 
A Properly Drained Field.—A plan laid 
out for a typical field is given at figure 
3. In the center is a piece of high ground 
gradually sloping to the diagonal lines b b. The 
highest points are at a a, and the lowest bound¬ 
ary of the field at c. The arrowB show the gene¬ 
ral elope, being between tbat from a a a. to b b. 
and from a b to c. Now, the usual way would be 
t carry furrows in the lines of b b only, down 
o; or at least to make one or two down in 
the direction of the arrows. This would inevi¬ 
tably cause washing ; first in the furrows dewn 
tho main slopes, and then in those at bb : be¬ 
cause all the water would be collected as rapidly 
as possible into one channel, which, in case of a 
heavy rain, could not dispose of it safely. But 
if the furrows were made in the directions shown 
by the lines, the water trickling down the elopes 
would bo arrested before it became unmanage¬ 
able, and would be conveyed away from the 
channels b b down to the foot of the field c ; 
where it would find its escape in the ditoh or 
along tho fence row, which being grassed over 
Fig. 3. 
would not suffer. The channels b b would have 
to take water only from the center of the field, 
and a very largo proportion of that which falls 
there would soak into the soil, leaving but a 
small quantity to run off. The fact is this plan 
would provide a method of irrigating the field as 
well as draining off the surplus, thus avoiding 
what is one or the most serious difficulties of 
our climate, viz.: an excessive rain-fall at some 
times and excessive droughts at others. The 
plan here given oould be modified m as to suit 
any form of sloping ground with the greatest 
ease. 
-•-*-*- 
A GOOD SHOW FOR A CITY-BRED 
FARMER. 
I have been struck lately with the Rdral’s 
articles relating to the cultivation of wheat. I 
would love dearly to raise 60 bushels to the acre, 
as my average product heretofore has been but 
30 and 35 bushels ; but if 1 lose a year in after 
fallows, where is the gain ? To be sure, I could, 
after harvesting the wheat, put in another crop 
seeded to grass, but that would bo rather hard 
farming, I could, instead, the next spring, put 
in corn, oats or other spring-sown crop, but it 
might not suit to do this. It iB always safe to 
have one’s ground in grass, and it takes better 
with wheat than anything else, and there is no 
time lost. There is no better rotation, I con¬ 
ceive, than breaking up sod for corn, then oats, 
or, as I prefer, half in potatoes, and half in mil¬ 
let, then wheat, then clover. Oats I have dis¬ 
carded for many years, as it pays nothing. Po¬ 
tatoes are less hard cn the ground, pay better, 
and wheat takes well after them. The advan¬ 
tage in millet (German is tho best) is, tbat the 
grower has the option of converting it into hay, 
if the season has been a bad one for time thy or 
clover ; and, if tho contrary, he can let his mil¬ 
let ripen and he haB either a good market for 
the grain or he can feed it to his horses, for 
which purpose it is more valuable thau an equal 
measure of corn. 
Every farmer should, I think, have a specialty, 
dictated by the character of his land and the 
wants of his market. Mine is gilt-edge butter, 
which pays well. With pastures running to 
green grass, with copious springs in every field, 
with an appreciative market within an hour's 
railroad time, with dairy women on every side, 
that can make choice butter as naturally aB they 
eat or sleep, one drifts to butter as a natural 
sequence. If one could have permanent mow¬ 
ing ground, then it would pay beat to keep cows 
enough to pasture all that was not needed to 
furnish them with a wiuter stock of hay. A 
dairyman could then well a fiord to purchase the 
needed com and bran to keep his cows milking 
in winter. No one, however choice his butter, 
can command the best market price for it unless 
he has Bpicial customers, and they can only be 
had by furnishing them with the golden prints 
in winter as well as in summer. 
Failing this permanent mowing ground, it fol¬ 
lows that one field has to be broken up every 
year, and hence the study requirod to follow’ the 
best rotation. To a certain extent, I think I 
have attained tbe [point in devoting two of my 
fields to a constant rotation of wheat and clover. 
I take off a crop of wheat this year , next, one 
crop of clover : lot the grass grow till tho clover- 
heads begin to ripen, turn it over with a Syra¬ 
cuse chilled plow—which is admirable in cover¬ 
ing the grass—and seed to wheat. With no 
other manure, I find my ground growing richer 
and richer. I have never failed in getting a 
good clover catch, which I attribute principally 
to my practice of Bowing 500 pounds of plaster 
to the acre. It costs only $1.75, and insures 
moisture in a dry spring, which I take to bo the 
chief cause for a poor clover catch. This course 
gives mo an abundance of clover hay, which is 
the only sort n butter-maker wants, gives an 
ample Bupply of barn-yard manure, and conse¬ 
quently good crops of corn, potatoes, millet or 
what-not. Last year my corn-field shelled out 
98 bushelB sound corn to the acre all over the 
field. My timothy field cut four three-horse 
loads to the acre. I could ask no more, for it 
web eb much as there was room to cure. 
If the Rural will tell me how I cau improve 
my system, I will gratefully listen. 
Chester Co , Pa. A City-bred Farmer. 
Crops. 
THE TOBACCO PLANT.-No. 3. 
E. R. BILLINGS. 
WHAT KINDS TO PLANT. 
We come now to a very important question, 
and one which the grower of tobacco cannot 
well afford to lose sight of- What variety is 
best adapted to my lands, and what variety will 
bring me the greatest profit ? are questions 
which wo now propose to consider and answer. 
Seed-leaf and cutting tobacco are ordinarily 
grown in different sections of tho State or 
country, True, in some States, like Ohio and 
others, both cigar leaf and cutting tobacco are 
grown, but this is the exception and not the 
rule. Then, too, there are some sorts of tobac¬ 
co that may be used for nearly all purposes for 
which tobacco is designed. This is the case 
with Pcriquo tobacco, grown on tho banks of 
the Mississippi in Louisiana, by a few small 
planters. It is used for smoking (in the pipe), 
chewing, snuff, and is also used in the manufac¬ 
ture of cigarettes. 1 do not think it is UBed for 
cigars at all. In New England our growers have 
from the time of the first planting of tobacco in 
the States (1634), grown only cigar-leaf tobacco. 
I do not assert that cutting-leaf cannot be grown 
in this sectiou, and with profit, too, but as it 
has not as yet been tried, mere conjecture does 
not avail. It would seem, however, as both 
kinds are grown in Ohio, that our soil might do 
equally well. 
Along the Connecticut river, beginning at a 
point about 30 or 40 miles from its mouth and 
extending all through Massachusetts, and also 
into New Hampshire and Vermont, is doubtless 
one of the finest tobacco-growing sections in 
the world. Tho rich bottom or meadow lands 
bordering the liver are particularly fine for the 
plants, while they grow luxuriantly farther from 
the river on land known as a sandy loam. Such 
haB been the advanoe in the methods of fertiliz¬ 
Fig. 1. 
ing and cultivating, that from 1800 pounds to 
the acre the product has increased to 2,000 
pounds, and sometimes 2,300 pounds have 
been grown to the acre, when the soil has been 
made very rich, or when the plants have been 
“ set ” close together. 
A great advaneo is also noticeable in the color 
and Bize of tho leaves. Formerly the color was 
very dark, but during the war and some few 
years after, tho demand was for a leaf of a light 
cinnamon color. To meet this demand tho 
growers selected light soil for the plants, and 
used freely of horse manure, and the color was 
ueually light. Of late the demand haB been for 
dark-colored leaf, and so the growers have cho¬ 
sen dark loamy soil aud applied stable manure, 
tobacco stems, castor pomace, etc., and have 
again secured the color in demand. It will be 
seen, then, that tho color and size of the leaf 
may be regulated by the selection of soil and 
the fertilizers applied- 
The grower then inquiring what variety to 
plant, should bo governed in a great measure by 
his lands, their situation, color, the elements 
composing the soil, etc. If his lands are light 
in color, then by nature they are better adapted 
for the growth of light-colored tobacco than for 
the dark. If the soil iB dark, then dark-colored 
leaves will be the more readily and surely pro¬ 
duced. Meadow lauds usually produce darker- 
colored leaves than the uplands, while there is 
less liability to sudden frosts which spoil the 
leaves and render them wholly unfit for U6e. 
When the culture of Havana tobacco was first 
attempted in the valley, sumo few years since, 
tho lightest-colored soil was selected and the 
very warmest situation was chosen, frequently 
planting the crop betwoen two hills. Many sup¬ 
posed this was tho method adopted by the Cu¬ 
ban growers, but such is not tbe case. They 
usually plant the tobacco in land bordering 
small streams and rivers or moist land, and in¬ 
stead of setting out the crop in tbe spring, plant 
in November or Deoember. At tho South and 
West " new-cloared” land is considered the best 
as the product is thought to be better-flavored. 
For years tho tob&coo soil was not manured at 
all, and, as a consequence, vast tracts of laud 
were ruined by tbe cultivation of tbiH great ex¬ 
hauster of soils. Now, however, large quanti¬ 
ties of guano aud tobacco growers are used 
and the lands are improving by the use of ferti¬ 
lizers. New England is doubtless a better secd- 
leaf-growing section thau either the IVest or the 
South, but in 6omoof tho Southern States seed- 
leaf haH been tested and with tbe best results, 
lu Florida seed-leaf is grown in one county 
(Gadsden) with much success. It is a variety of 
Havana, aud though less pleasant of flavor, it 
closely resembles that famous variety of the 
plant. Experiments made with both cutting 
and cigar-leaf can be tried and the result will be 
apparent. I hope the day is not far distant 
when the growth of cutting-leaf will bo tried 
by the growers in New England. 
THE TRUTH 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”—hut with the 
many unconscious errors that creep into the 
methods of daily country routine life.— Eds.] 
IMAGINARY DISEASES OF ANIMALS.— 
No. 2. 
D. E. SALMON, D. V. M. 
When an animal is sick, it is perfectly natural 
lor the owner to endeavor to discover the nature 
of the disease, no matter how ignorant he may be 
of such subjects ; consequently, an examination 
is always made in such cases, aud if anything is 
notioed whioh has escaped observation in the 
healthy condition, or if real peculiarities are 
seen, these are generally associated with the dis¬ 
ease and considered its cause. Aud, in case the 
supposed peculiarity exists in a single organ, 
there is a tendency to consider that similar 
symptoms are caused by tbat organ in other 
oases where tho peculiarity does not exist; thus, 
in my first article on this subject, I stated that 
all oases of loss of appetite with horseB are apt 
to be referred to Latnpas whether there was 
congestion of the palato or not, aud that lame 
back is treated by cutting the eyes even if 
known to be caused by a strain, Aud this is not 
surprising, for people naturally refer all effects 
to some oause—and such cause must be within 
their powers of observation. As most stock- 
owners know hut little of anatomy, physiology, 
or tho symptoms to be expected in different dis- 
soases, It is not to be expected that they cau 
detect the diseases of deep-seated organs or dis¬ 
criminate between them; consequently, they 
recognize but few diseases. I havo given somo 
examples of this, and shall now give more. 
DOTS. 
Perhaps these insects should not be classed 
with the imaginary diseases or causes of disease ; 
but so much more is ascribed to them than they 
