FES. 25 
425 
closely on account of trying to better my con¬ 
dition. Three years next March I landed in 
Beebe with two good young horses, two 
good Durham cows and seven Berkshiie hogs, 
some fancy chickens and a large lot of furni¬ 
ture and a full line of farming utensils, and 
paid $325 on the place and the improvements, 
and now all I have is the horses and wagon. 
My girls had to work out here, which they 
never had to do up North, and my boy went 
to school when there, but here all had to go to 
work froni the least to the largest and worked 
harder and lived harder and went poorer 
than ever before, While writing, a neighbor 
came to see us. Before leaving, he said one of 
his neighbors had been to Beebe and wanted 
some pork on time and the storekeeper asked 
him 25 cents per pound. I know some have 
no meat and no way to buy it, and some have 
no meal and have to borrow from those 
that have. Cows, $10 to $15; mules, $50 to 
$75; horses almost any price—no money to 
buy. Some merchants are selling goods and 
taking mortgages on everything, Yesterday 
we had a seven-inch snow, and it is 
making a stir; a groat many have no cotton 
seed or fodder of any sort for their stock and 
such weather will make a great amount of 
suffering among the poor beasts as well as 
among the poor people. I am off to-morrow, 
thank God ! a. p. 
Del aware. 
Laurel, Sussex Co., Feb. 3.—The wheat 
crop for 1881 was very short. Corn crop 
good. The prospect for all kinds of small 
fruit is very good at this time, aud so is the 
prospect for peaches and apples. w. j. r. 
Florida. 
Archer, Alachua Co., Feb., 1.—Corn, 
$1.20 ; oats, $1.33 ; sweet potatoes, 52c ;butter, 
30c.; eggs, 25c. Cool weather, 00 °. Roses, 
peaches and phlox in bloom—plenty of straw¬ 
berries ripe. Farmers making gardens ; plant¬ 
ing com ; plowing for early vegetables. 
Tacienne. 
Indiana. 
Roanoke, Huntington Co., Feb. 3. — 
Weather rough aud cold for two or three 
weeks past. Much mud. A bad Winter for 
lumbermen here. Hay is worth $10 to $20 per 
ton; wheat, $1.2S per bushel; corn, 50@G0c.; 
oats, 40c,; eggs, 18@20c.; butter, 18@32c.; 
potatoes, $1; wages good. Several new rail¬ 
roads are being built near here. Prospect for 
wheat fair to good. No smallpox in our 
county. a. c. H. 
New York. 
Randall Road, Niagara Co., Feb. 3.—This 
is one of the most extensive fruit-producing 
counties in the State. One peach orchard of 
60,000 trees in this vicinity produces 50,000 to 
75,000 crates in bearing years; but the yellows 
are spoiling many extensive orchards. Our 
roads are lined with one continuous orchard 
of various fruits and some extensive vine¬ 
yards of choice grapes. The climate is mild, 
owing to the proximity of Lakes Frio and 
Ontario. Fruit evaporators and fruit ware¬ 
houses are found at every depot, and the 
amount shipped reaches a very high fig¬ 
ure. L. r. 
Sherman, Chautauqua Co., Feb. 3.—The 
Winter has been remarkably mild so far,good 
for almost all kinds of work except teaming 
on the roads. The ground is frozen hard now, 
with no snow. The past year was a good one 
for the farmers. Dairy produce brought a 
good price; dairying is the main business of 
most of the farmers in Chautauqua County, 
consequently times are better than they have 
been before in six years. I have been con¬ 
siderably interested in the controversy be¬ 
tween Stockman and others in regard to 
“horned vs. mu ley ” cattle. This being a 
dairy region, a good deal of attention has 
been paid to breeds of cattle the most suitable 
for the dairy. As long as eighteen yearn 
ago the polled cattle were introduced to a 
limited extent in this vicinity, and some far¬ 
mers tried to get up a muley boom, but it 
proved to be a very weak one. To-day you 
could hardly find a polled cow in this section. 
They proved to lie uo better as milkers, and 
were fully asvieious as horned stock, besides 
being ungainly in appearance. In my ex¬ 
perience of about tweuty years in the dairy, I 
have never known a cow permanently injured 
hy the horns of another. Cows whose horns 
are too sharp, should either have knobs put 
upon them or they should be sawn off. 
My opinion is that there is no better milker 
than a good native cow; in fact, the popular 
custom here now is to cross (be Short horn on 
our best native stock. This rounds up the 
beef qualities lacking in the native, while you 
also get good milkers. In regard to fruit 
raising there are spots here that can boast as 
fine apples as can be raised in Western New 
York, Peaches, grapes, etc., can only tie 
raised to any advantage along the Lake Erie 
shore. The apple crop of Chautauqua last 
Autumn was fair as to quantity and quality 
and in my ow n individual case w>as exception¬ 
ally good. For myself and this locality I 
have cut the varieties of apples down to two 
kinds for profit, and those are the Roxbury 
Russett and the Baldwin. Last Fall I picked 
as high ns seven and eight barrels,each, of No. 
1 fruit from moderate-sized Roxbury Rus¬ 
sett trees. Home people seem to think that an 
orchard needs but little care, but I find this is 
not so. A. E. B. 
Ohio. 
Bristolville, Trumbull Co., Feb. 2.—We 
are having a very open Winter so far. We 
have had no sleighing of any account on the 
roads yet. This has been a poor Winter for 
saw-mill men, anil for lumbermen in general. 
Business is pretty lively, but not so much so 
as if we had good sleighing. Grain and pro¬ 
duce are pretty high. Wheat fluctuates 
somewhat in price, sometimes up to $1.40 per 
bushel; then down a cent or two. Hay was 
up to $10 per ton; but the open Winter has 
caused it to fall to about $8, Oats are about 
50c. per bushel; corn about 70 cents ; potatoes 
$1 to $1.25 ; eggs 25c. per dozen. j. s. B. 
Texas. 
Austin, Travis Co., Feb. 3.—Cotton, corn 
and oats are leading crops, and very few are 
governed by a plan in producing them, except 
to plow- iproperlv called cut and eover); put in 
seed, and prevent grass and weeds from over¬ 
running the crop. We are a careless set, ow¬ 
ing greatly to mildness of climate, richness of 
soil and abundance of unoccupied space for 
animals to live or die upon. I find the Rural 
very interesting and instructive. Many dis¬ 
eases of horses and cattle (known by me for 
the past forty years) have been so intelligibly 
described that I comprehend what were mys¬ 
teries before. P. B. 
RURAL SPECIAL SEED REPORTS, 
Delaware. 
Laurel, Sussex Co., Feb. 2.—My White 
Elephant Potato was cut into fifteen pieces, 
and these were planted two feet apart. Every 
eye sprouted and the vines grew finely, but 
the yield was not very good. 1 dug 246 very 
small tubers that weighed 18 pounds The 
Washington Oats grew very well, but lodged 
badly. 1 shall try them again. The Rural 
Branching Horglmm did not germinate, neither 
did the other seed. w. j. r. 
Florida. 
Archer, Alachua Co., Feb. 1.—The Rural 
Branching Sorghum is the best forage plant 
for this climate we have tried. Cut when 
eight feet high, a little trial patch made dry 
fodder at the rate of 16 tons per acre for one 
cutting. Another patch made three cuttings, 
in May. August and November, and perfected 
seed. We like it much better than the Pearl 
Millet. It dries more easily, and our mules, 
horses, cows and sheep eat it green or dry. It 
evidently is very much at home in Flor¬ 
ida. Tacienne. 
lllitioin. 
Baldwin, Randolph Co.—The Washington 
Oats were the nicest oats I ever saw grow; but 
I only saved one quart. The horses broke into 
them and destroyed two-thirds of them or 
more. The dry weather got the upper hand 
of my W. E. Potatoes and R. B. Sorghum, 
foot apart, but this was too close. They grew 
well till “ heading time,” when a steer broke 
in and ate them. '1 hey grew again, but they 
were attacked by smut; still I have saved a 
quart for next year. The sorghum grew 
finely, but the seed did not ripen. Some 
of the flow'er seeds did splendidly others 
failed. J. H. M. 
Michigan. 
Lansing, Ingham Co., Feb. 5.—The White 
Elephant Potato did very well. I had 54 
pounds of nice tubers, though cut-worms de¬ 
stroyed three hills. The Rural Branching 
Sorghum did very well. The Ennobled Oats 
sent me last year did the best. I got the first 
premium on them at our Union fair at Lan¬ 
sing this year. A. a. 
Minnesota. 
La Crescent, Houston Co., Fob. L—Our 
Whre Elephant Potato weighed 21^ ounces, 
and had 12 eyes. It was cut to single eyes, 
and planted late in May one piece in hill on 
good loamy soil without mauure. Ten eyes 
sprouted. Hoed twice, suffered from drought 
and some hills were injured by white grub. 
Harvested 16 pounds of averaged-si zed 
tubers. Compared with some other new 
varieties planted the same day on the 
same soil, with same treatment, they were 
muehthe best. The Rural Branching Sor¬ 
ghum was injured by drought and chinch 
bugs, and did not fully mature any seed. It 
makes a valuable fodder, but unless it should 
prove capable of being more easily saved, I 
do not think we shall like it so well for forage 
as some of the varieties of the sugar corn. 
My daughter planted the dianthus and they 
came up and bloomed well. They were 
just splendid. We gave our chickens too 
wide a range to enable them to capture in¬ 
sects, and so could not test the oats. The 
asparagus came up welL The Beauty of He¬ 
bron Potato is lo.-ing nothing in its popularity 
as the best early potato for this State. Our 
Winter thus far has been mild and pleasant, 
aboutlO ° below zero was the coldest day of 
the Winter. J. s. H. 
Minnesota. 
Windom, Cottonwood Co., Feb. 2.—The 
White Elephant I cut into ten pieces, and 
planted one piece in a hill and dug 34 pounds, 
although the season was very w-et. The 
Branching Sorghum did not get ripe, but 
made quite a vigorous growth. The aspara¬ 
gus was killed by putting brine on it. d . c. a. 
New York. 
Randall Road, Niagara Co., Feb. 3.—The 
seeds sent out for lSSt proved very valuable 
iD this section. Rural Branching Sorghum 
withstood the drought and grew to the bight 
of pight feet. Several heads of seeds turned 
a red and a dark brown, and will soon be 
tested to ascertain their worth. The White 
Elephant Potato had a hard fight with beetles 
and dry weather, but I succeeded in saving 
about six quarts of good tubers for seed.— 
Either the sorghum or White Elephant Potato 
would be worth the subscription to the Rural 
New-Yorker. l. r. 
Lowell, Oneida Co., Jan., 31.—I have 
noticed that a great many are complaining 
about the Washington Oats smutting so badly 
but my oats did not smut any worse than 
August. These waterings were not mere sur* 
face sprinklings. The earth was drawn care¬ 
fully away from the stalks, leaving a basin¬ 
shaped cavity in the top of the bill. One or 
more pails of water were then poured into the 
hill, and alter it hai settled away, the earth 
was replaced. I think, after all this preamble, 
you will be somewhat disappointed to learn 
that on digging the Elephants, October 11, np 
to which time the haulm had remained green, 
the yield was pounds. They were very 
nice tubers—several one pound apiece, only 
two or three small—but the whole weight was 
very far short of that obtained by others, with, 
presumably, a good deal less labor than I be¬ 
stowed. The growth was not too luxuriant; 
in fact, I believe that without the watering 
the fearfully dry weather would have caused 
an almost complete failure of the crop. And 
yet 19% pounds from a three-ounce tuber is 
about 104 to 1—not so bad a result, after all. 
Has anybody called your attention to the 
fact, or have you observed, that in form the 
White Elephant differs from the cut of it pub¬ 
lished by you ? The latter is more like the old- 
fashioned Flake. The Elephant is rounder at 
the ends, and of a more uniform breadth 
throughout. The Washington Oats, the Rural 
Branching Sorghum, and the two varieties of 
asparagus I did not sow, not having a suita¬ 
ble place for them. The Dianthus, Carna¬ 
tions and Pieotees were sown in the hot-bed 
and transplanted carefully into the open 
ground, where the first two bloomed very 
finely. The Dianthus was equal to a very 
beautiful strain I had previously obtained of 
James Vick. I am not sure that what I call 
Carnations are not in reality Pinks. I ut 
though somewhat smaller than the Dianthus, 
they are quite pretty. What I am inclined to 
consider Pieotees became nice plants, but did 
not bloom. They have narrower and more 
grass-like leaves than the others, and they 
may prove, perhaps, to be partly Carna¬ 
tions. R. J- F. 
Somerset, Niagara Co., Feb. 4.—I sowed 
the seeds of the asparagus, flowers and oats 
on the 30th of April. The asparagus made a 
growth of 1}^ to 2 feet. The flowers bloomed 
profusely and were very beautiful. The 
Washington Oats made a growth of about 
four feet in hight, but rusted and lodged very 
badly. They were sown in drills about eight 
inches apart and one inch apart in the drill. 
The White Elephant was planted May 27, one 
eye to the hill and produced an average yield 
of pound to the eye. Most of the tubers 
were under market size. The vines grew very 
thriftily but the yield was seriously affected by 
the drought. The seed of the Rural Branch¬ 
ing Sorghum was planted May 31, Lut failed 
to produce a single plant. The soil in which 
the seeds were tested is a sandy loam in a fair 
state of cultivation. The season from early 
Spring until July 1 was unusually wet, and 
from that time until October 1, there was not 
enough rain to lay the dust. w. t. m. 
Virginia. 
Edgewater, Grayson Co., Jan. 30.—White 
Elephant Potato had 13 eyes, three of which 
were destroyed by bugs; the rest yitlded a half 
bushel of the finest tubers I ever saw. The 
Washington Oats grew six feet high and were 
very fine, though there was some smut. The 
yield, however, would have been good were it 
not for birds; I gathered over a peek of seed. 
The R. B. Sorghum grew about 10 or 12 feet 
high, with from 15 to 20 stalks to the seed. I 
cut a few hills on Sept. 1, and it branched 
again and attained about three feet in hight 
before frost. Some of the seed matured; fine 
for fodder, but no juice in the stalk. The as¬ 
paragus did not come up, neither did the 
flower seeds. w. a. g. 
Wisconsin. 
Neenah, Winnebago Co., Feb. 4.—I planted 
my White Elephant in nine hills, in rich, sandy 
soil, and got 47 pounds. My oats did well— 
smutted a little. The flower seeds did finely. 
My asparagus came up nicely. f. w. 
(The lOumst 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention.! 
THE BEST COW FOR BEEF AND BUTTER. 
E. B. P., Kearney , Neb,, asks which breed 
of cattle are the best for beef and butter. 
Ans.—F or beef and butter probably no 
breed surpasses the Holstein; but for satisfac¬ 
tory results animals of this breed need rich pas¬ 
tures and good care. Some strains of Short¬ 
horns have justly a high reputation for beef 
and dairy products; but good care and abun¬ 
dant feed are also needed by them. For beef 
and milk, butter or cheese the Ayrshire is en 
excellent little beast, yielding a large mess of 
rich milk, good for either butter or cheese, 
and, being smaller and more active than eith¬ 
er the Short-born or the Holstein, the Ayr- 
The New York See 
but they held their own better than any of the 
other kinds I had. j. s. m. 
Iowa. 
Dubuque, Dubuque Co., Feb. 4.—The White 
Elephant. Potato, although planted late, gave 
a very satisfactory return—a bushel of large 
tubers. The Washington Oats grew finely and 
headed well, but smutted badly. The Rural 
Branching Sorghum planted the last of May 
matured its seed. I cut a few hills the last of 
August, which my cows ate with a relish. 
The growth on the hills cut was over a foot 
high when killed by the frost. 1 consider it 
of great value to the Northwest. The aspara¬ 
gus aud pinks did not grow. k, r. s. 
Nora Springs. Floyd Co., Feb. 2.—My 
White Elephant Potato was planted toward 
the last of May—17 eyes; 15 grew, ami. at the 
end of September, I dug 70%|poundsof tubers, 
many of which were large. For a late potato 
I think the Elephant did very well. The 
Washington Oats were planted in drills one 
d Drill—Fig. 64. 
our common oats and I had over a peck of 
very plump, nice-looking grain. It was al¬ 
most too dry in this part of the country for 
potatoes to do very well, but I saved enough 
to plaut next year to give the White Ele¬ 
phant a fair trial. J. K. 
North Greece, Monroe Co., Feb. 3.—My 
White Elephant being quite small, was cut 
into eight pieces. On May 31 I planted one 
piece in a hill, making eight, hills. The ground 
was a nice spot, from which early green 
onions had just been removed, the surface 
having received a dressing of fine, well-rotted 
manure when the onions were planted the 
previous Fall. One of the pieces failed to 
grow, but the others sent up healthy sprouts, 
which became in course of time luxuriant 
stalks. I hoed the hills about'four times, 
sprinkling nearly a pine of superphosphate 
thinly around each hill at the second hoeing, 
and watered them about six times during the 
long, dry spell which commenced .early in 
