AU0 40 
550 
THE BUBAL 
of culture, for no such remarkable results 
have been obtained elsewhere; but, neverthe¬ 
less, in all these attempts to produce large 
crops by tillage without manure, greatly in¬ 
creased yields have been obtained, and the 
more frequent and thorough the tillage the 
larger the increase ” The Doctor refers to 
the fact that “ Lawes and Gilbert, at Rothara- 
sted, did not succeed with the Lois Weedon 
system ; they found, by chemical analysis, 
less nitrogen in their Boil tban in the Lois 
Weeden soil, and attributed their failure 
largely to this difference, and the consequent 
lack of material for production of nitrates.’’ 
In the Rurai/s present corn expel iments, the 
unmanured plot has received enough tillage to 
keep the soil mellow and free from weeds. 
The soil is naturally poor, and has received no 
manure in at least 20 years. But the com is 
weak and yellow, and we cannot think that if 
it were tilled every hour in the day it would 
produce a fair yield. 
The Draft op a Plow Sulky.— Why is the 
draft of a plow sulky less than that of a walk¬ 
ing plow ? asks and answers a writer in the 
Ohio Farmer: Simply because the plow is car¬ 
ried through the soil instead of being pulled 
through. In the common walking-plow the 
weight of the soil upon the mold-board causes 
the plow to rest upon the bottom of the fur¬ 
row, with to much additional friction. With 
the plow sulky this weight is transferred from 
the bottom of the furrow with its friction, to 
the wheels, including the weight of the soil 
that is being overturned. With a common 
plow it will be noticed that the under edge of 
the land-side makes a very smooth track in the 
furrow, which can only be produced by con¬ 
siderable pressure: but this disappears when 
the plow is suspended upon an axle between 
two wheels. Then again, there is no plung¬ 
ing of the plow, going deeper than is needed, 
no rnuning to land and making a wider fur¬ 
row, with increased draft, or running out and 
taking off only a strip. At the ends of the 
furrow the plow is hoisted and wheeled into 
its place, instead of being dragged about; and 
in starting a furrow or closing up a landing 
no walking plow can do as easy and as satis¬ 
factory work as can be accomplished by a 
sulky. 
Experiments with Moles.— Prof. Weber, 
a distinguished naturalist of Zurich, Switzer¬ 
land, performed some interesting experiments 
with moles to prove their character and tbeir 
destructiveness to larva?, says the Scientific 
American: In the stomachs of fifteen 
moles captured in different localities, not the 
slightest trace of vegetable matter could be 
found. He shut up two moles in a box in 
which fresh grass was growing, and also in¬ 
closed in the same box a case of grubs and 
earthworms. The moles devoured 841 white 
worms or grubs, 193 earthworms, 25 caterpil¬ 
lars and a mouse—bones, skin and all—in nine 
days. He next gave them raw meat, cut in 
small pieces and mixed with chopped vegeta¬ 
bles. The moles ate the meat but did not 
touch the vegetables; and when vegetables 
alone were given them the animals soon died 
of starvation. It has been computed that a 
single mole may destroy 20,000 grubs in a sin¬ 
gle year. In the lace of these experiments it 
is positively asserted by some that moles will 
eat grain with avidity, and that poisoned 
wheat introduced into their burrows through 
holes punched with a stick is sure death to 
them. We have tried the latter without im¬ 
pairing the health of the moles. 
The Live Stock Journal of London, de¬ 
scribing the show of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, regards the Herefords as the best of 
the English beef-makers, and the most pictur¬ 
esque cattle in England or anywhere else. 
That they have not in times past borne a high 
reputation for milk-giving is their misfortune, 
not their fault That they are anxious to re¬ 
move this stigma from their race has of late 
years been proved over and over again, by 
men who have given them a fair chance . , . 
. . . The Norfolk and Suffolk Polled is for 
many reasons, the Journal thinks, a favorite 
breed in England. They like it for milk, for 
beef, and for beauty. It ought to become 
some day one of our most popular breeds of 
dairy cattle. 
Paper Floors. —A new and apparently 
good process for covering floors is described 
as follows in the Journal of Chemistry: “The 
floor is thoroughly cleaned. The holes and 
cracks are then filled with paper putty, made 
by soaking newspaper in a paste made of 
wheat flour, water, and ground alum, as fol¬ 
lows: To one pound of flour add three quarts 
of water and a tablespoon/ul of ground alum, 
and mix thoroughly. The floor is then coated 
withthis paste, and then a thickness of manilla 
or hardware paper iB put on. If two layers 
re desired, a second covering of paste is put 
on the first layer of manilla paper, and then 
the secoai thioka J33 of in mill a piper i3 put on 
This is allowed, 1 to dry thoroughly. The 
manilla paper is then covered with paste, and 
a layer of wall paper of any style or design 
desired, is put on. After allowing this to 
thoroughly dry, it is covered with two or 
more coats of sizing, made by dissolving one 
half pouud of white glue in two quarts of hot 
water. After allowing this to dry, the surface 
is given one coat of ‘hard oil-finish varnish, 
which comes and is bought already prepared. 
This is allowed to dry thoroughly, when the 
floor is ready for use.” The process is repre¬ 
sented to be durable and cheap, and liesides 
taking the place of matting, carpet, oil clothe 
or other like coverings, makes the floor a ; r' 
tight, and capable of being washed or scrubbed* 
HAA r E Short horns Been Lately Im¬ 
proved, —The London Mark Lane Express 
asks, What have the fanciers done? Are Short¬ 
horns better for meat or for milk, or for both, 
than they were 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, 
or 20 3 r ears ago? Probably the general answer 
would be that they are not better in any one 
respect than they were before the Short-horn 
craze fairly set in. Their glaring faults have 
not been eliminated, and the general standard 
of the breed bas not been raised for anything 
the fanciers have done for it from first to lari* 
With the plain facts of I he case open to view 
it is useless to expect the Philistines to believe 
now that these long prices wore paid with an 
idea of improving the breed; they were paid 
for “ fancy ” cattle having a theoretical value 
on purely fancy Hues, and were “seed” for 
future “ fancy ” or gambling stock. 
The bubble has burst, the cr ize has collapsed, 
the long prices no longer exist, and the Short¬ 
horn breed of cattle is no better than, if as 
good,as before the mania came into existence. 
JERSEY Bulls —The Am. Dairyman, com¬ 
menting upon the brief account given in these 
columns of the attack which our young Jersey 
bull made upon the foreman of the Run l 
Farm, makes some suggestions regarding the 
treatmentof Jersey bulls, which are worth act¬ 
ing upon. We believe in downright kindness 
to all animals as a rule, but we prefer to be 
prepared to mingle coercive measures when 
dealing with Jersey hulls which, it may be 
feared, do not always di-criminate with suf¬ 
ficient nicety between playfulness that does 
not harm and playfulness that endangers 
human life. The writer in the Dairyman says 
it is rarely that any man handles Jerseys for 
any length of time without having one or 
more set tos with a bull, sometimes a young 
one, but generally those of matured years are 
the most dangerous. It must be borne in 
mind that these cattle are light, active and 
intelligent, with every disposition toward 
playfulness, and a bull’s play is a man’s 
serious business. It is also but one step from 
a bull’s playful humor to his angry mood, and 
to prevent the latter he should not be 
allowed to indulge in the former. Those 
who do not concede the natural vileness of 
Jersey bulls, advocate the kindest practice 
to subdue young bulls; that is, con- 
stunt handling, petting, leading, hand-feeding, 
and everything of the kind, except playing 
with the children. This, in our experience, is 
altogether wrong. The ouly way a young 
Jersey bull should ever be treated is with 
firmness and roughness. We use this la t 
word advisedly. The man who handles or 
feeds him should always have a cow-hide 
whip in his baud, and at the least intimation 
at using his horns he should have a vigorous 
lash over the nose or face. Milder ways are 
only thrown away on his bullship, and only 
tend to irritate him. The sound of the lash 
is like the bark of a dog to him, carrying 
with it some sort of terror. The use of a club 
is not have so effective, as it is very hard to 
hurt a bull with a club, and it has no sound 
to the blow.Men are killed or 
maimed for life by these vicious brutes, and 
no effort is made by breeders to mitigate the 
evil by breeding off the horns or selecting for 
gentler natures. If we should try keeping 
another Jersey bull we would cut his horns 
off close up to his head. 
The Rural New-Yorker has urged it 
upon implement men to construct a machine 
that will drop a single graiu of wheat at 
Btated distances. Until such a machine is in¬ 
vented, the advantages of thin seeding will 
never be widely tested. A writer in the Mas¬ 
sachusetts Ploughman, quoted by the Southern 
Planter, commenting upon the seed plots of 
the Rural says; “ If a machine can be made 
to dibble a hole one inch deep and put one 
seed in it, the hole could be easily pressed 
by any roller after examination as to correct¬ 
ness of the work. When this is done the sow¬ 
ing of seed and the yield would be such as no 
man has thought out. Liebig used to say that 
the worst enemy a grain of wheat had was 
auother grain too near it. It could cost no 
inventor much to think of this want. Pegs 
on a cylinder will make the holes with perfect 
accuracy. One seed for each hole is the only 
want to cause a new departure in wheat 
growing.” This may or may not be true. 
PITHS AND SUGGESTIONS. 
Cut off the tips of the new raspberry or 
blackberry canes. Nothing is gained by 
letting them grow too tall. Cut out the old 
canes as soon as they have borne their fruit. 
Pick pears before they are ripe and in 
doing so be carebil not to injure the fruit 
spur. Attention to a proper selection and 
assorting of fruit for market, always pays 
well..... 
The Western Rural says there are weeds 
enough in the streets of Chicago to furnish 
seed to cover a whole State.. 
Seeds of many kiuds of plants are best 
collected by cutting off the stems and 
lettiug them dry. The seeds meantime 
mature and are saved, while if left upon 
the plants longer they would in part be scat¬ 
tered over the ground. This is the case with 
such flowers as columbine, haidy geraniums, 
portulaca, phlox, etc. For this reason such 
weeds as purslane should be carried from the 
ground and never thrown upon the manure 
pile. 
A contemporary remarks that “soil that 
will yield good clover will bear good 
wheat.” The heaviest clover we ever 
raised grew upon a field upon which the wheat 
was entirely killed out. Again wo often have 
fiuo wheat upon fields too high and dry for 
clover.... 
Buddinu is now iti order. The method has 
often been fully described and illustrated in 
this journal. When the bark will peel from 
the wood is the proper time. Select plump 
buds and cut them off with a shield of wood. 
Insert this shield in a T-slit made in the bark 
of the stock. Any knife will answer for the 
amateur. Bind with yarn or bass bark. 
Professor Ferguson writes again to the 
Irish Farmers’ Gazette,ad vocating the removal 
of the horns from young cattle... 
Potatoes, when dug in an unripe state,says a 
writerin the London Mark Lane Express, may 
be at time6 watery and not fit to ea t,but if those 
tubers are spread as thinly as possible in a dry, 
airy place, they will in time become as mealy 
as if they had been left to ripen in the ground. 
At the late show of the Royal Agricultural 
Society there was a great falling off in 
the number of white breeds of swine exhibited. 
Truth to tell, says the English Live Stock 
Journal, our great agricultural meetings, 
even at their bast, do lack a little of that 
living interest which such a competition 
should give. They are somewhat solid and 
solemn even in fine weather; and the result is 
shown by the fact that a Royal visit, in good 
weather, outweighs in attraction all the rest. 
Pinch off the tips and laterals of Lima 
beaus........ 
Substitute for Quinine. —There seems to 
ba no doubt hut that a species of “Sage 
Brush” which grows on the alkali plains 
of the West, Artemisia frigida, one of 
the wormwood family, has properties so 
nearly akin to quinine, that it may possibly 
take the place of real quiniue. One tea¬ 
spoonful of the extract is used in agues, in a 
glass of hot lemonade, before the chill comes 
on. So thinks Mr. Meehan... 
TnE Journa\of Chemistry says,quoting from 
an unknown exchange: “These four—daily 
cold-water bathing, good food, fresh air, and 
exercise—form together the only specific 
blood purifier known. Medicine, drugs, and 
herbs will not alone purify the blojd; the 
most they can do is sotnoti mes to assist nature 
in making a start on the right road.”...... . 
A writer in the Gardeners’ Monthly say 
perhaps it is not known that the apple is good 
stock on which to graft the Seckel Pear. 
When is the best time to dig potatoes? 
Dr. Hexamer, having had much experience, 
thinks that to raise good keeping potatoes, 
they should not be planted so early as to 
mature during mid summer, but so as to 
bring their ripening after the greatest heat 
has passed. The tubers as soon as dry should 
be taken directly into a cool, dry cellar. 
0b enjiu I] ei’tc. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Ramins. 
Parsons, Labette Co., July 22.— During 
the last two weeks we have had continuous 
cool, cloudy and showery weather. Texas 
has had the same. Her corn crop will be 
large, she expects to send her early ripe corn 
to St. Louis prior to the maturity of the 
Westeru corn. Our corn never seemed better. 
We feel assured of a fair crop and the outlook 
is excellent for Kansas (as it was in 1809) lead¬ 
ing every other State in the quantity per acre. 
Wheat is turning out excellent. The com¬ 
monest I have seen weighed over 60 pounds 
tx> the bushel. J. A 
Maine. 
Manchester, Kennebec Co., August 5.— 
Almost every farmer is now through with 
haying, all but a few laggards. The bulk of the 
crop was in by July 25 or 29. TV e had uncom¬ 
monly good weather nnd the crop was un¬ 
commonly large. The good ■weather has now 
become altogether too good. We need rain, 
and the sky and winds promise it to us day 
after day but the promise is never redeemed. 
If rain comes, the earliest sweet corn will be 
ready for the canneries in about 15 days, it is 
thought. Potatoes and other crops are look¬ 
ing well as a general thing, though some are 
very late. In the gardens vegetation lags. 
Neighbors commiserate each other on the 
absence of cucumbers which the cucumber 
beetle has destroyed, and boast of the size of 
their new potatoes, which they have just be¬ 
gun to use. Champion peas have been in use 
here about two weeks, string beans 10 days. 
In an ordinary season we could give a better 
account of ourselves, but au excessively wet 
term in May put everything back. Apples 
have beeu dropping a good deal, which, in 
conjunction with an unusually poor set of 
fruit from a plentiful blooming bas disap¬ 
pointed early expectations. Apple worms 
abundant as usual after such a full crop as we 
had last year. The first brood began to form 
cocoons about July 25. Rn-'e chafers (beetles) 
were quite abundant and in July did much 
damage to apples, gnawing ravenously at the 
fruit, but they ceased to operate before July 
22. Wild raspberries lu their prime now. 
Blackberries will be plenty if rain comes in 
time. Both these wild crops are important 
here where neither species is cultivated. c.o.A. 
Nebraska. 
Blair, Washington Co., July 29 —Spring 
wheat about 75 per cent, in acreage; condition 
about 100. Some kinds scabby, others good; 
about two thirds cut and in shock, but very 
little in stack. For three days wo have had 
rainy weather, aud so much water has fallen 
that unless it clears up soon grain must sprout 
in the shock. Oats heavy; partly cut. Corn 
a good stand; acreage 125;condition 75. Corn 
in this county did not commence growing well 
until about the middle of June, aud early 
planted is just tasseling, two or three weeks 
late. No ears yet formed. Grass good— 
mostly prairie as yet, but little tame grass is 
gro- 1 Fruit light; ou mauy trees the leaves 
are blig * >g. Our only hope for a good corn 
crop is in a hot August and very late 
frosts. E - s - 
Pennsylvania. 
Waterford. Erie Co , July 24.—Crops here 
are, as a general thing, good, with the ex¬ 
ception of corn, which is very poor owing to 
the cold Spring. Wheat is a good crop. Oats 
are good with a heavy growth of straw. 
Barley is nice and will average about 25 
bushels per acre. Potatoes are very large 
and a good yield in each hill. Hay is the best 
it has been in many years—barns are filled to 
overflowing. F • Si 
Texas. 
PatTONVILLE, Lamar Co, July 22.—This 
month so far has been wet for this latitude 
and time of year. I have been in Texas 15 
years and I never saw^ as good a promise for 
cotton. The plant is now over an average in 
hight, being between four and five feet high 
and full of forms. If we could have one 
month of dry weather, the yield would tie 
more than could be gathered by planting 
time again. *>• R * 
HaWKINSVIlle, Matagorda Co., July 28. 
—The acreage of Indian corn is more than 
last year. Cotton about the same. Cane less 
on account of the freeze Winter before lost. 
Potatoes more thau last year. Small grain 
none. No tame grass for hay; plenty of wild 
grass. Stock in good condition. Plenty of 
good land and fine timber. We want immi¬ 
gration. A - J - 
San Patricio, San Patricio Co., July 26. 
_No wheat raised here; too close to Mexi¬ 
can Gulf. Principal productions are Indian 
corn, sweet potatoes and cotton. Area 
in cultivation about 1,500 acres. Crops are 
fine, never better. Abundance of liay can be 
made both in the prairies and cultivated 
grasses. This is mostly a stock raising country, 
and is fenced into pastures, the stock alto¬ 
gether being horned cattle. Not much atten¬ 
tion has been paid to farming until lately. I 
have seen as fine Irish potatoes raised here as 
anywhere. N - Mcc - 
Vermont. 
Shelburne, Chittenden Co., July 31.— 
Weather very dry, although the surrounding 
counties have an abundant supply of rain. 
Potatoes aud corn are looking well, but if we 
do not have rain soon these w ill be short crops. 
Farmers are in the midst of a plentiful harvest. 
The hay crop was rather above the average. 
Fruit of all kinds will be light crops, as this 
is not the bearing year through the Cham¬ 
plain Valley; the trees, however, blossomed 
unusually full. w. h. R. 
