THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
58 
ideas, or their farms will never be self-sus- 
taining. An Old Hand. 
be mechanically assisted to discharge it before 
the best crops can be grown. Thus is removed, 
with the water discharged, the organic acid left 
by decaying vegetable aubstanceS. Drained 
land is warmer than when nndrained. The im¬ 
provement of soil for plant-growth makes it 
more healthful for animal life, this being due 
largely to the growth of sweeter and more nu¬ 
tritious herbage. The thorough drainage of 
land not only iucreaaes the productiveness 
thereof, but it also diminishes the coat of tillage, 
Diaiuage, thorough aud deep, must go hand 
in hand with thorough tillage. 
Suffolk Co., Mass. Leandbp. Wetiiekell. 
Tetofsky, whioh was praised so highly some 
years ago, here at the West, does not meet my 
expectations. It makes a fine compact tree for 
the garden, but, in productiveness and quality 
of fruit, it is not nearly equal to the Duchess 
of Oldenburg or the Red Aatrachan. The fruit 
is inferior to either of these varieties both in 
quality and size, and the tree much behind in 
productiveness, while in hardiness the trees are 
much the same. For a late fall apple, the Fa- 
meuse is the best we have. The old Talman’s 
Sweet takes the lead as a hardy and productive 
winter apple. 
Grapes are about a failure this year. Pears 
and plums we do not raise to any extent; al¬ 
though one plum tree left, stands heavily loaded 
with fine, smooth fruit, free from curculio. I 
think it is of the Yellow Egg variety. Black¬ 
berries are beginning to ripen freely, and, al¬ 
though nst a garden fruit with ns, we expect to 
gather them iu abundance from their native 
fields and woods. I have sometimes found plants 
beariug extra-choice berries and have tried 
transplanting them to our garden, but they do 
not seem to stand civilization well. 
„ John Rusticcs. 
Outagamie Co., Wis., Aug. 15 . 
quite uiisausraotory ; ail or wnicn may be owing 
to different or varying causes. 
When we can grow ‘'thorough-bred,” “full- 
blooded ” wheat, thou we can recommend that 
variety; but so long as we can go into a field 
of wheat and gather many distinct varieties all 
growing from one named variety sown, there is 
little nao iu recommending particular varieties, 
as all such degenerate from careless culture, 
harvesting, threshing, etc. 
ent hasty culture, etc, 
so long will change of locality of seed 
THOROUGH TILLAGE 
This is an avt that every farmer and gard¬ 
ener Bhould thorougly understand and effectu¬ 
ally practice, if he would grow good remu¬ 
nerative crops, either on the farm or in the gar¬ 
den. Soil well tilled is rendered productive, re¬ 
gardless of its particular class, provided it be 
not destitute of the elements of plaut-food. This 
is done by plowing, harrowing, crushing, with 
all the other methods of stirring it. Old 
Jethro Tull claimed from the lessons of 
experience as a farmer, that thorough tillage 
would entirely obviate the necessity of using 
manure. Soils, he maintained, contain all the 
elements of plant-food, which are set free and 
ready for use by thorough tillage. 
So long as our pres- 
, of wheat continues, just 
I . i prove 
benefioial, if the change bo made judiciously— 
that word judicious is a very convenient one here 
and elsewhere. When we can obtain and cultivate 
a “ thorough-bred ” wheat universally, and do it 
iu the same caroful way in which we propagate 
choice plants, blooded stock, etc., then we shall 
be able to rely upon the produce of the former 
coming as true to straiu as that of the latter. In 
proof of this assertion, witness the culture of 
wheat on the banks of tho Nile in Egypt, where 
the same seed has been cultivated for a,000 or 
more years, yet change of seed there has not 
been found necessary. 
My readers may feel disappointed that I have 
failed to go more into the details of onlture, 
mode of improving seed, varieties, etc., but such 
information has been repeatedly given in our 
agricultural literature, so that I have thought it 
best to take a somewhat different oonrse, and in 
preference, to ndvooate principles of careful, in¬ 
telligent culture—though but imperfectly. Per¬ 
sonal inspection aud inquiry among observant, 
intelligent farmers, will teach more iu a few hours 
than can he gathered in a much longer time de¬ 
voted to reading details of culture, even if these 
are given by the most successful wheat-grower; 
for often many things are brought out in con¬ 
versation that one would never think of while 
writing down his experience, or which, at least, 
he might think unimportant. 
Worcester Co., Mass. 
UNITED STATES’ vs. ENGLISH AGRICUL 
THEE. 
i Aits are altogether much heavier iu Eng¬ 
land, than in this country; implements are more 
numerous and more expensive and more labor 
has to bo expended in harvesting the crops 
and in cleaning the land, because the cli¬ 
mate is so much more showery. On the other 
hand, all kinds of tools and machinery are far 
stronger and will last much longer. 
The United States’ farmer can now send fresh 
meat and every kind of produce to England at a 
much higher price than they made formerly, yet 
tho farmers complain of hard times. The 
farmer here, even if a gentleman with an abnud- 
ant capital, does not keep his land in the high 
state of fertility to be found across the Atlantic, 
consequently his returns are less. Then, in 
addition to this drawback, the American has a 
great deal of waste land, and oven that which 
is in cultivation, is not in use all the time. 
For instance, rye, wheat, oats, barley and peas 
are all ripe and hauled to the barns about 
the first of July or by the middle of that month 
at tho latest, and where there are no grass seeds 
sown, the ground will ofteu be idle till the next 
spring, whereas there would bo ample time to 
grow turnips, rape, Hungarian-grass or several 
other crops. 
Then, the American farmer does not sow his 
turnip seed in a way to produce the best crop 
and on some farms aspiring to bo models, there 
are no beets for oows, no carrots for colts, no 
swedes, aud the few common turniDS erowine- 
NOTICES OF SOME OF THE NEWER 
STRAWBERRIES. 
T. T. LYON. 
America is understood to have originated in 
the State of New York, although, for some un¬ 
explained reason, it seems to have been dissemi¬ 
nated from Kalamazoo, Michigan, about the 
year 1874. It is early, the quality superior, and 
the size fully medium; but it lacks color and 
firmness, and is hence unfitted for the markets. 
In 1876, it was the most prolific variety I saw; 
Out it can hardly be sard to have Bince main¬ 
tained that character. 
Bidwfxl is the name conferred by the South 
Haven Pomological Society, upon a strawberry 
understood to have originated with Mr. Bidwell, 
formerly of this place, (South Haven,) and 
which was characterized, in the report of the 
Committee of the State Bornological Society, aa 
the best and largest berry exhibited at the 
session of the Society held here, in June, 1877. 
The plant is very vigorous, even on light sand, 
trait very large, loDg, ounical, bright orimson ; 
but with less color at the tip. Firm, fine quality, 
productive. Season medium. 
SELF - SUSTAINING FARMS 
Every farm ought to be self-sustaining in a 
monetary sense, and, if away from any supply 
of manure which could be had at a price to pay 
for hauling, it should be self-supporting in the 
matter of fertility, and this, of course, must de¬ 
pend on the system pursued. A farm managed 
upon a regular course of cropping, similar to any 
good system where every alternate crop or the 
disposal of tho crop returns all that the two 
crops have taken from tho soil, will be a remu¬ 
nerating one if the farmer understands his busi¬ 
ness sufficiently to keep the right kind of stock 
to pay for raising, fattening, Ac. 
In England, when farmers have what is oalled 
“the refusal” of a farm, that is, so many days 
to make up their minds whether they will rent 
it or not at tho price asked, it is a common 
practice among them to take a friend or two, 
and then to make calculations, and these are often 
made simply by starting with the opinion that 
the whole produce sold should,to make the tenant 
safe, amount to three timos the rent or, as the 
oommon expression is, “ it ought to make three 
NOTES FROM A BACKWOODS FARM 
CHEESE-MAKING ON A SMALL SCALE. 
The weather being hot and butter very cheap 
—8 or 10 cents per pound—I decided to use my 
knowledge of cheese-making in manufacturing 
the milk from our half-a-dozeu cows into cheese. 
A neighbor proposed to add the milk from his four, 
so that I have the milk from ten cows, weighing 
from 160 to liO pounds daily. A tub in which to 
set tho milk, a lever-press aud other utensils 
were provided, aud I went to work, making 
every day a cheese weighiug from 18 to 20 
pounds, when taken from tho press. I have 
now been making them five or six weeks aud the 
cheeses are pronounced good by those who have 
tried them. I hope to have plenty for home 
use during the fall and winter, besidoB some to 
Cowing a Seedling, ou light soil proves very 
productive, of large size, bright color, and high 
quality. It is hardly firm enough for distant 
marketing. On heavy soils, and especially with 
irrigation, complaint is made that it frequently 
becomes overgrown and misshapen. 
Cumberland Triumph has only shown us a 
single crop; hence I will only say that, in size, 
color, texture and flavor, it seems entitled to 
high praise. A little more firmness would 
doubtless improve its charaoter as a market 
berry ; still should it establish a reputation for 
productiveness, it would donbtluss assume a 
high position in this respect. 
Damask Beauty has shown us its fruit for a 
siugle season only, and has not, so far, develop¬ 
ed any very strong points, as compared with 
several others on our lists. Farther experience 
is requisite to establish its comparative merits. 
Duohesse, although but partially tested, 
seems destined to sustain its reputation at the 
East as one of the most desirable of the recent 
introductions. We await its performance in the 
future. 
