APRIL 8 
home and sank them under water, keeping 
them there until I wanted them in the follow¬ 
ing Spring. Then 1 plowed the ground well 
and dragged it until it was well pulverized 
and then went over it with a light cultivator, 
making furrows about three feet apart and 
four inches deep, and the last of May or the 
first of June I took the vines out of the water, 
separated them (being careful not to break 
them when it could be helped), stretched them 
along the bottom of the furrows and covered 
them up except that at 
intervals of six inches 
or thereabouts I left 
parts of the vines ex¬ 
posed so that the sun 
could shine upon them. 
They grew well and the 
third and fourth years 
bore crops sufficient to 
pay me well for all ex¬ 
pense and trouble; but 
in 1874 the patch was 
burned over and I lost 
the use of the vines 
for two years. They then covered the ground 
welland have borne well from that time until 
lastseason. This patch of vines is only 102 feet 
by 71 feet, and one season I picked 25 bushels 
of berries from it; but last Fall I got only 
about 14 bushels. In 1870 I planted out an- 
»ther bed of vines in the same way as the first 
and they have done fully as well. This bed is 
222 feet by 42 feet, and last Fall I gathered 33K 
bushels besides 20 bushels that were injured 
by the frost and left on the vines. 
Rake.—Fig. 115. 
Rake, Side View.—Fig. 116. 
And I am satisfied that cranberries are a 
profitable crop, as there is but little trouble in 
taking care of them after plantiug; for they 
will soon cover the ground and then take care 
of themselves, if one keeps the fires from run¬ 
ning amongst them. As to the different var¬ 
ieties, 1 have only three, and what I consider 
my best is a large, round, dark-red berry 
when ripe. It is a good bearer and sells well 
in the market. The other two varieties are 
the Bell and Cherry as they are called here. 
They are good bearers, but the fruit is small 
and does not sell as well as the first named. R. 
xarm (topics. 
COLORADO FARMING. 
PROFESSOR A. E. BLOUNT. 
For a farmer to live and try to raise crops 
on a desert wiiere it seldom rains and the sun 
shines perpetually nine-tenths of the time, 
appears certainly very strange, to say the 
least, to some who never go abroad. So per¬ 
fectly preposterous does it seem to people 
living in wooded and rainy sections that their 
incredulity cannot be overcome except by 
actual observation. Perhaps in the past de¬ 
cade more curiosity has been excited in the 
country about the agricultural resources and 
mineral wealth of Colorado than of any other 
State or country in the world. Here people 
think there are good reasons for such curiosity. 
In one season every new-comer’s (“tender¬ 
foot’s") curiosity becomes a surprise and his 
surprise is turned into wonder and he realizes 
that what he has heard are facts, and that 
those facts have in no way been exaggerated. 
In most respects farming iu Colorado—on 
this Great American Desert—is carried on just 
about as it is in the other States, with one or 
two exceptions. Aside from the general 
routine of farm duties, the Colorado farmer 
irrigates everything—in other words, he puts 
water upon all his crops when they need it, 
and keeps it off when they don’t need it—hence 
he never loses anything by too much wet 
weather nor does he ever suffer from failures 
by drought. This wonderful advantage of 
handling the elements at his will bestows a 
benefit no farmer in rainy sections can enjoy. 
In states where he is dependent upon rain, 
when we take into consideration how mucb 
he loses by too much wet uud too much dry- 
weather, it is not to be wondered at that our 
crops are so much larger and so much surer, 
when our mining interests lie alongside of our 
agricultural, making our markets the best. 
AY hen I say that water (“water rights" they 
are called) is worth as much and more iu many 
cases thau the laud under it, people who have 
never boon here are perfectly surprised at 
such assertions. Our made soils, or those of 
these plains, are naturally very rich—not iu 
alluvial elements but mineral. They seem 
never to have been wet through, hence are 
not as yet robbed of their valuable virgin 
properties. 
Another thing. The labor of preparing our 
land for putting in the various crops is much 
less than in rainy climates. The soil is never 
too wet to plow, and when dry- all we have to 
do is to irrigate and go ahead. All this 1 say 
when all circumstances are favorable, if the 
farmer attempts too mucb, of course he fails, 
and his crops suffer. If he does not under¬ 
stand bis business,of course he will not always 
succeed. Nature has done and is doing more 
for our agriculture than we as farmers appre¬ 
ciate, or our neighbors in other States realize. 
In Winter she locks up vast stores of snow in 
the vaster mountain recesses, which when 
Spring opens, comes down through natural 
channels as regularly and uniformly as are 
the law-s that govern her works. At the very 
time the Colorado fanner needs the water 
most, the river and smaller streams are fullest. 
The snow melts gradually and feeds the plains 
all Summer long. At the mouth of every 
canon huge canals and ditches turn to the 
right and left, extending hundreds of miles. 
THE TEETH ABOHT IT—Ho. 3. 
(The object of articles under this heading Is not so 
much to deal with "humbugs” as with the many un¬ 
conscious errors that creep Into the methods of dally 
country routine life.— Eds. 1 
SELLING FARM PRODUCTS. 
W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
The farmer is not a speculator, or at least 
should not be. But he, if any man, has a right 
to a fair price for what he raises. If scarcity 
of any product justifies a high price for it, he 
ought to get that price, for he has a much 
smaller quantity to sell as the result of bis 
labor. Do farmers show as much intelligence 
in selling as in raising their crops? I was talk¬ 
ing with a commercial traveler the other day, 
and he gave it as his opinion that they do not. 
Said he, “ Now' we commercial men know the 
bottom dollar and cent for which the houses 
we travel for can afford to sell so many chests 
of tea, sacks of coffee, cases of prints, boxes of 
shoes, suits of clothing or whatever we sell on 
the road. And if we can’t get that price, we 
say to the country' merchant ‘Good-day, sir; 
we cannot irade with yon to day.’ But the 
farmer says, Tve worked a whole yeav jn 
that wheat, and I want all it’s worth, 
blame it, what is it worth?’ And so the farmer 
is about the only man that every time lets 
somebody else set the price on his goods." 
This was what the commercial traveler -aid, 
and much more of tue same sort. And it was 
true. 
How many farmers really know by a care¬ 
ful system of accounts what their grain, w'ool, 
meat or dairy products have really cost them, 
year with year, and therefore what should be a 
fair average price? and which product it pays 
best to raise? How many know w'hat should be 
a fair price auy given year as regulated by the 
general abundance or scarcity of the crop 
within the range of its possible shipment. Iu 
fact this last problem it is impossible for the 
individual farmer to solve. Fortunately the 
Boards of Agriculture in many of our States 
are at last taking efficient measures to ascer¬ 
tain this point, month by month in Summer and 
Fall, and when our systems shaii have been per¬ 
fected and made to work in real harmony with 
the National Department of Agriculture, and 
the latter shall have solved the problem of 
ascertaining the grain prospects in the Old 
AVorld, as it seems likely soon to do, there will 
be within the reach of every farmer a knowl¬ 
edge of the facts, and therefore the means of 
selling or holding wisely as the case may be. 
If the wheat crop of the world, for ex¬ 
fair and just price for their wheat, and it put 
several millions of dollars into their pockets. 
There were plenty of apples this year in a few 
counties along the Ohio River; but our re¬ 
ports Bbowed great scarcity elsewhere. The 
farmers there who were Ignorant of these 
facts contracted their apples in August at one 
dollar per barrel: while those who read and 
believed the crop reports sold their apples at 
picking time at two dollars per barrel. And 
the speculators that bought of the farmers 
who didn’t know the facts got as much for 
their knowledge, without touching a hand to 
the apples, as the farmers did for growing and 
picking them and furnishing the barrels! 
The truth about it is, in these days farmers 
cannot afford to work with their eyes shut. 
Brain and uot muscle wins in the struggle for 
price. Akuowledgeof the iawsandfactsof “de¬ 
mand and supply" is as essential to the farmer 
as to the buyer. The farmer should not be a 
speculator, but be should be a business-man. 
He should know the real value of the goods he 
has to sell, and not always let the buyer set 
the price on the seller's goods. When prices 
of non-perishable products of easy transporta¬ 
tion are below the world’s facts, then “our 
strength is to sit still" till prices adjust them¬ 
selves to those facts. And farmers should in 
every way encourage our State and National 
Departments in ascertaining and publishing 
these facts, and should see that they them¬ 
selves make good use of them when they are 
published. 
ADULTERATION OF MAPLE SUGAR. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
One would hardly suppose that successful 
efforts to improve a farm product could lead 
to suspicions regarding its genuineness. But 
such is the fact iu regard to maple sugar; and 
an extensive maker of that popular delicacy 
has appealed to me to set the matter right by 
telling “the truth about it" in the columns of 
the Rural New Yorker, as the leading agri¬ 
cultural journal and the one whose articles 
are most frequently copied in other newspa¬ 
per. 
Within the last 10 or 15 years very great 
improvements in the processes of sugar mak¬ 
ing have been Introduced among the sugar or¬ 
chards of Vermont, especially those more 
extensive ones where the sap of from one to 
five thousand t rees is made up. The improve¬ 
ments begin at the tree, where patent sap- 
spouts and covered pails prevent contamina¬ 
tion from rain and wind. Tin pails, kept as 
clean as the best dairy utensils, still further 
secure the purity of the sap, which, under old 
methods, was often both dirty and tainted be¬ 
fore it was gathered. The gathering and re. 
ceiving tubs are equally w ell attended to, and 
by the use of patent heaters and evaporators 
scarcely twelve hours elapse from the time the 
sap drops from the spout until it flows from 
the evaporator in the form of “Maple Honey," 
nearly as white and clean and quite as pure 
as the honey of the hive. Many of our best 
sugar makers find so good a market for their 
goods in this form that they make compara¬ 
tively little sugar. When they do, their 
sugar is of so delicate a fawn color, and is so 
free from the strong and semi aci l flavor 
which is permanently associated in the minds 
of many with the idea of maple sugar, that 
the thought of adulteration appears to be at 
once suggested: and this is strengthened by 
the fact that in the cities this fine maple sugar 
and sirup are sold at perhaps double the price 
of cane sugar. The purchaser should know, 
however, that this difference does not exist at 
the point of production, the farmer rarely 
\ r ARIETlKS OF CRANBERRIES.—FlG. 117. 
ample, is “ short" we have a right to expect 
“long” prices. If the crop is “long” we must 
be content with “short” prices. And a knowl¬ 
edge of the facts before or by harvest time, is 
of great service to the farmers. For example 
this year wheat was fairly good iu Ohio, but 
little more than half a crop in most of the 
other Western Winter-wheat States. These 
facts were widely published officially by the 
Agricultural Boards, and so the farmers got a 
ly and carefully. When this inferior sugar is 
mixed with cane sugar in the manufacture, or 
subsequently, the dirt still remains; and, worse 
than all, the acidity extends, iu an intensified 
degree, to the whole mass- Nothing, there¬ 
fore, resembling pure maple sugar of good 
quality, can be made by the admixture of 
cane sugar with poor maple sugar. 
Regarding the flavor, the comparatively 
rank taste which many, from old experiences, 
associate with maple sugar, is not present in a 
first-rate article. But in its place there is a 
clear, delicate, wild-woods savor in it, as far 
superior to the “old maple taste" as bass¬ 
wood or white clover honey is superior to 
West India molasses. 
By far the greater part of the maple honey 
and sugar manufactured for sale in A*errnont 
is made iu the northern part of the State, 
where I live, and 1 am personally acquainted 
with many in the business. I can say that I 
never knew of any adulteration being prac¬ 
ticed, and do not believe it ever is practiced 
by the makers, if for no other reason, because 
there is no profit in it. Our best maple sugar 
rarely sells for more than eleven cents a 
pound, aud it could not be adulterated with 
cane sugar of a lower grade than ‘ ‘Cviffee A, ’’ 
which sells at the same price. Any darker 
grade would injure the color of maple sugar 
and reduce its price. 
Pain} ijusbantin). 
INFERIOR DAIRY STOCK. 
getting more than the price of an equal quan¬ 
tity of cane sugar for hisproduct. 
No successful imitation of maple sugar or 
sirup can be made by tie admixture of cane 
sugar with a low grade of maple. Poor ma¬ 
ple sugar is both dirty aud sour —dirty from 
the d rt which drops or is blown into un¬ 
covered pails; aud sour, because not properly 
gathered, or gathered in soured vessels, or 
kept in soured receivers, or not boiled prornpt- 
X. A. WILLARD. 
One notable source of poor success in dairy¬ 
ing is inferior cows. It is said that even in 
the oldest and best dairy districts of New 
York, one-third of the dairy stock will not 
more than pay the cost of its keep. This is 
not to the credit of good dairymen and shows 
they do not give proper attention to their 
account of profit and loss. Poor milk-yield¬ 
ing cows are“a crying evil” and the annual loss 
from this cause keeps many dairymen in 
straightened circumstances; and so long as 
they' | ersist iu retaining this kind of stock 
ther i is for them but little hope of bettering 
their, fortunes in the dairy. 
Inferior milkers are not wholly confined to 
the scrubs and common cows of the country, 
for they are found among all breeds of 
thoroughbred stock. Professor Roberts, in a 
recent address at a dairy convention, affirmed 
that inach of the thoroughbred stock of the 
country is a positive damage in the dairy. 
AA r eak in constitution, with the milking habit 
bred out, they transmit these characteristics 
to their progeny, and thus become the source 
of infinite mischief and loss to the dairyman 
who is trying to improve his herd by intro¬ 
ducing pedigree blood. Every poor milker 
when found out, he said, should have its head 
cut off and not be turned away indiscrimin¬ 
ately to cheat and cause loss to other dairy¬ 
men. No matter how renowned its pedigree, 
let it go to the shambles or to the beef pro¬ 
ducer but not to the dairyman. Harris Lewis 
facetiously urged at the same convention, that 
any dairyman having a poor milker would 
make money by giving her away, and if he 
had scruples iu this regard, “he might make 
a present of the beast to his mother in law”. 
Some years ago one of the best dairymen in 
Herkimer County, New York, desiring to 
ascertain the profit he was realizing from dif¬ 
ferent cows in his herd instituted a series of 
tests. He had found from actual experiment 
that the average cost of keeping his dairy 
stock through the year was at the rate of $35 
per head, and this sum was embraced under 
the following items: 
214 tons of hay at $3 per ton . , . . $ 20 00 
Pasturage during the season .... 750 
200 pounds ground feed in Spring . . . 8 00 
Interest on cost of cow at $45 aud depreciation 
111 per pi'Ut. 4 50 
Making, per cow, a total of . , . . $ 35 00 
Now selecting five of his best cows and five 
of his poorest cows, and measuring the quan¬ 
tity of milk on certain days of the month 
during the season, he found that the five best 
cows yielded 554 gallons of milk each, which 
realized in butter and cheese sold at market 
rates, au average for the season of Il>^ cents 
per gallon or a total of $63.11 per cow.* This 
gave him, after deducting cost of keep, $28.71 
per cow clear profit. 
On the other hand, the five poorest cows 
yielded only 243 gallons of milk each,which at 
UK cents per gallon, amounted to $27.95 each, 
or $7 06 less than the cost of keep*. As a re. 
suit of this test, it is needless to say the poor 
I cows were not kept over the second season. 
If this result was obtained by one of the best 
dairyman, what could be expected from the 
herd of the average dairyman? 
I can lustance cheese dairymen who are 
keeping dairies averaging from 25 to SO cows 
who obtain, one year with another, a yield of 
600 pounds of cheese per cow and often mors, 
while other dairies in the vicinity do not get a 
yield of much more than half that amouut 
