SEPT a 
605J 
forests (Mittel-wald) in which some section 8 
contain coniferous trees as well, but on the 
mountains, appropriated more largely to the 
most valuable timber for lumber, the trees are 
chiefly nursery grown and planted so soon 
after felling by a clean cut of the sections of 
the natural herbage has become established on 
the cleared land. 
Hence nurseries are needed on every exten¬ 
sive forest to furnish the young plants—and 
even in the mixed forests, where moth ir-trees 
are used to supply seeds for the natural repro¬ 
duction, it is fonnd desirable to nurse or 
“school” certain species, and to grow them 
to a considerable size before setting them out 
in their forest stations. This, of course, greatly 
enhances the expense, for the planting of the 
yearling pities, larches, firs and spruces as 
there practiced by notching or setting with 
the planting spade Kiel-spaten, is a very sim¬ 
ple process, cheaply performed. The reader 
is referred to the article No. 9, on planting 
at pages 273 and 298 of this volume of the 
Rural. 
It is indeed very desirable that our fellow 
citizens should realize the importance of pre¬ 
serving what remains of our forests, that they 
should study the best means for their proper 
conservation and improvement, yes, and that 
greater efforts should be made by conjoint 
action if necessary, as corporate companies, 
and to a certain extent by all land holders to 
increase the area of our woodlands by plant¬ 
ing new trees, especially on the open regions 
whether in the natural prairies and plains, or 
in districts that have been stripped of their 
native woodlands, more trees are needed for 
beauty, for climate, for health, and for use in 
the various arts of civilization. Besides, the 
timber crop pays. 
We have good accounts from the great plains 
of the progress of plantations of trees where 
they are so much needed and where planting 
has been stimulated and encouraged by the 
General Government and b r State legislation, 
as well as by the popular establishment of an 
annual Arbor Day, the happy thought of Hon. 
J. Sterling Morton, formerly the Territorial 
Governor of Nebraska, where the Secretary 
of Agriculture, D. H. Wheeler of Omaha, re¬ 
ports the planting of 20,000 000 as a result. 
Mr. Geo. C. Brackett, Horticultural Secre¬ 
tary of Kansas, reports very extensive plant¬ 
ing in that State, and also that the character 
of the species set out embraces some valuable 
timber trees. It Is owing to his untiring 
efforts, aided by the Hon. D. C. Haskell, M. 
C., that a new ruling has been established in 
the U. S. Land Office, by the Commissioner, 
N. C. McFarland, which cannot fail to prove 
of great importance to those who are entering 
timber claims on the public domain. 
Whereas, by former rulings of that Depart¬ 
ment, the Catalpa, Ailanthus and Maclura, 
(Osage Orange) had been rejected as timber 
trees, the efforts of Secretary Brackett and 
the representation of their great value, have 
caused them to be accepted. 
To his report, the Secretary adds this fitting 
tribute to the good sense of the Commissioner: 
“ For the prompt and uio3t practical action of 
the Honorable Commissioner of the General 
Land Office in this case, the people of Kansas 
as well as all persons interested in the forestry 
of our nation should feel deeply grateful.” 
Pain) ipisbnrwinj' 
BRANDY CHEESE. 
for information respecting what he calls a 
delicious morsel ,” I shall take the risk of 
giving it. 
Now when the cheese manufacturer has a 
rich, ripe, mellow cheese that by accident or 
otherwise gets cracked or broken, and is in 
danger of being lost on account of skippers, 
he has what he considers good stock for mak¬ 
ing brandy cheese. The cheese having been re¬ 
moved to a convenient place, it is divided up 
jn sections, the rind is pared off, and the sev¬ 
eral pieces are carefully examined for skip¬ 
pers. These, if found, ai e cut out and thrown 
away. The sound pieces are now broken up 
fine and mingled with hrandy. The mass is 
worked with the hands or with a wooden 
paddle in a clea n tray or some suitable vessel 
until all parts become smooth and plastic. If 
there are any hard particles they are broken 
down with the paddle, bo that the mass is in 
a uniform, smooth and plastic condition. The 
whole is then closely packed in layers in a 
stone jar, brandy being sprinkled between 
the layers if not sufficiently moist. After the 
whole has been packed down solidly, the top 
is covered with a thick, oiled paper, nicely 
fitting the surface in all its parts, and then 
wet down with brandy. A suitable cover is 
then placed on the crock, and it is set in a 
cool place, and in a short time it will be ready 
for market. It may be thus kept for months 
by occasionally sprinkling the surface with 
brandy, and it makes an article of food 
highly esteamed by many. Of course brandy 
cheese can be made in this way from any 
kind of stock. I have only referred to that 
commonly employed by dairymen who make 
the article to save themselves from loss. 
Proof spirits are often used instead of brandy 
for making this kind of cheese, and often a 
little brandy is used with the proof spirits to 
give it flavor. I have known brandy cheese 
to sell at a very high price, and many people 
who are fond of old cheese, and like to have 
it always on hand, put up a supply in stone 
pots or crocks, because it is easily kept iu this 
way for long periods without loss or deteri¬ 
oration. 
Brandy cheese on the table iu these tem¬ 
perance days I know may be regarded as 
somewhat suspicious by some, still I do not 
think any one would be likely to get much of 
“a nip” from a bit of cheese to do him injury. 
At any rate I have never heard it objected to 
on this account even by the strictest of tem¬ 
perance people. 
X. A. WILLARD. 
Mr. Graff's, and she flatters herself that for 
her first attempt she is doing remarkably well. 
She bought the eggs and after they had 
hatched, at which time they are as flue as a 
hair and have to be lifted about with a carn- 
el’s-bair brush, immediately proceeded to 
feed them on mulberry leaves. Their growth 
is very rapid, and in six weeks’ time they are 
of full size, being nearly three inches long. 
They are perfectly ravenous in their appe¬ 
tite, and it is no small job to ftud enough food 
for them, and the country for miles around 
was scoured in search of mulberry trees which, 
as is well-known, are not numerous in that 
vicinity. When the whole mass woull be¬ 
gin their feast upon the leaves the noise 
made by them sounded like rain falling on 
the roof. 
A CORRESPONDENT writes me a long and 
enthusiastic letter concerning “brandy 
cheese.” He says: “You may talk about 
Cheddar, Stilton, Bri6, Pine Apple, Edam 
and other varieties of foreign and domestic 
cheese: I have tried them all, but I have 
found nothing so delicious to my taste as 
good old brandy cheese which I have occa 
sionally eaten in my travels, but cannot get 
in market, nor can I find where it is manu¬ 
factured, If you can direct me to a factory 
or dairyman that makes this superb delicacy, 
or tell the readers of the Rural where it can 
be had, you will confer a favor on me and 
others which will be duly appreciated.” 
In reply I would say that I know of no fac¬ 
tory or dairyman that makes a regular busi¬ 
ness of producing “braniy cheese;” nor do I 
remember to have ever seen a description 
of its manufacture by any of our writers on 
the dairy. The process of making, however 
has long been an “open secret" among cer¬ 
tain dairymen, care being taken not to give 
all the details or particulars to consumers or 
purchasers of this kind of goods. Almost 
every kind of business has its secrets, and 
the dairy is no exception. Perhaps 1 ought 
not to divulge all the circumstances connected 
with the origin of brandy cheese, or tell whut 
characterizes most of that offered for sale, or 
supplied to customers; but in view of the 
Earnest appeal made by my correspondent 
The National Tribune in its Rural Depart¬ 
ment, which is conducted by the experienced 
William Saunders, speaks of the cause of the 
yellows in peaches, opposing the conclusions 
arrived at by the Michigan Pom. Society. 
The writer has taken buds from diseased trees 
in the orchard and set them in healthy trees 
which were planted under glass and the disease 
was not communicated to the healthy trees. 
. . He considers that soil, cultivation, 
and climate are all factors in the origin and 
spread of the disease. It is probably true 
that no remedy is known that will cure diseas¬ 
ed trees, although he has known cases where 
diseased trees ultimately become healthy, but 
these were under conditions which could not 
be generally secured or profitably applied. 
He condemns the destruction of all diseased 
trees with the view of stamping the disease 
out of a given State. This would be akin to 
advising the destruction of the population of 
a malarious district in order to stamp out the 
“fever and ague;” the two cases are precisely 
alike; they are both resulting from certain un¬ 
healthy conditions of soil and atmosphere. 
. . It is a significant fact that yellows 
in peach trees is not found in climates which 
permit the full and healthy ripening of the 
yearly growths of the tree. 
case, if the views of those who hold that 
agriculture should be carried on with out 
any reduction of the fertility of the soil 
are correct, it is evident that an application 
of lime should be accompanied by an appli¬ 
cation of all those ingredients which are 
carried away in the crops, or by feeding 
with stock. 
American Apples. —We find the following 
in the London Garden: The reports which we 
have received from Messrs J. W. Draper & 
Son, Covent Garden, the principal London 
agents for the sale of these fruits, indicate 
that the crop is most prolific this season. 
From personal observation we gather that 
in England the crop is comparatively a 
failure; in France a poor half crop is calcu¬ 
lated upon; in Germany one-third crop only; 
in Holland only half a crop and in Belgium 
not half a crop—thus the prospects were 
never more favorable for shipments from 
America to England than they are this year. 
The American apple trade, formerly mo¬ 
nopolised by Liverpool, has during the last 
few years (in consequence of direct steam 
commuuication, been gradually diverted to 
London which market now competes favora¬ 
bly with that of Liverpool. 
Salaries ok Railroad Officials. —Here 
is a paragraph from an address by ex-Chief 
‘Justice Agnew, of the Supreme Court of Penn¬ 
sylvania, which should set people to thinking 
and acting: “ A remarkable fact attending all 
the great railroads of the I nited States is the 
immense wealth of their leading officials. It 
is confined to no State and is exceptional to 
all other employments. The grandest talent 
and greatest learning in law, physics and 
other learned vocations accumulate a few 
thousand in a lifetime; but railroad officials 
often rising from mere clerkships, roundsmen, 
ticket and other agents, with salaries running 
from hundreds to a few thousands, eventuate 
as possessors of mauy millions. It is no un¬ 
common thing to see a railroad president ris¬ 
ing from the humblest station, in the course 
of fifteen years, become the owner of five, 
ten, or even twenty millions, at a salary 
which would not average for the whole time 
over ten or twelve thousand dollars. These 
are mysteries that the common people cannot 
understand.” 
Silk Culture. —The Philadelphia Press 
says that about 60,000 silk worms are 
at work on the farm of Frauk Groff, iu 
Birmingham, Delaware County, Pa-, and 
right lively, too, some of them being almost 
done, and straw colored cocoons are piling 
up thick and fast. The worms are being su¬ 
pervised by Miss Martha Hamilton, living at 
The Effects of Lime on Land.— All 
farmers should understand the effects of lime 
upon their lands. Dr. Lawes of England 
publishes an article on lime iu the North Brit 
ish Agriculturist. He says that wheu we 
consider that the influence of lime upon a 
soil which is naturally deficient in this sub¬ 
stance, is due to several distinct causes; and 
further, that the after treatment of the land 
which has received the lime differs much in 
different cases, we have no difficulty in un¬ 
derstanding that there must be considerable 
variations in the periods of time during 
which the beneficial effects of lime will 
be apparent. Two of the crops which are 
grown at Rotbamsted in hisordinai-y rotation 
—roots and clover—contain large quantities 
of lime in their asb, and when potash is not 
abundant in the soil they possess the property 
of utilizing this lime in its place. The ash of 
leguminous plants growing in an ordinary 
pasture which had been well supplied with 
potash, contained 32 per cent, of potash and 
22 per cent, of lime; but on pasture where 
potash was not supplied, the ash contained 
83 per cent, of lime aud 14 per cent of potash. 
Lime therefore economizes the use of potash. 
He observes that although the amount of 
lime dissolved, and removed in drainage 
waters is considerable, still, the necessity of 
repeating the application after a few years 
appeal's to be rather due to a descent of the 
lime to a lower level in the soil, where it is 
less accessible to the roots of the plants. 
Lime also acts as the medium by which ni¬ 
trification takes place; and the almost entire 
absence of nitrates in the water passing 
through the peat soils in Scotland—which 
abouud in nitrogen—must be mainly due to 
the absence of lime. A reference to the re¬ 
turns in the table shows that the effect of 
lime is most durable upon pastures that are 
grazed; that its effects are very good upon 
virgin soil; that it lasts longer upon good, 
than upon bad land, and upon clays and 
heavy loams, than upon light land. The 
amount of soil nitrogen which is nitrified 
each year must depend somewhat upon the 
amount that the soil contains; but where 
each application of lime is attended with less 
benefit than the preceding one, we may feel 
tolerably sure that the resources of the soil 
have been too largely drawn upon, and that 
the export of fertility has been too great. 
Lime therefore acts in a double capacity; it 
furnishes an important ingredient in the food 
of roots aud leguminous plants; aud in addi¬ 
tion, it furnishes the key by « hick the stores 
of organic nitrogen iu the soil are unlqcked. 
and rendered available as the food of plants. 
It is in this latter capacity that its functions 
are more liable to be abused. As lime does 
not furnish any of the more important, 
or of the more costly ingredients which 
plants require to form their structure and 
seed, it is quite evident that these must 
be derived from the Boil; this being the 
The North British Agriculturist utters 
a word of warning to polled cattle breeders: 
In the Royal showyard at Reading south 
of England a “Short-horn man" informed 
the writer that he had heard on pretty good 
authority that the Americans were seriously 
contemplating something like “ring work” 
with the polled cattle of Scotland. That is to 
say, they had the purchase of whole herds in 
their eye, and failing that, the purchase of 
every animal that would be put on price. The 
English editor had no means of testing the ac¬ 
curacy of the supposed “ring” work, but when 
he considers that as yet the polls are, from a 
national point of view, in comparatively few 
hands, the accomplishment of it might not be 
very difficult. Of one thing he is quite cer¬ 
tain, and that is that there is to be a heavy 
American drain this Summer aud Autumn on 
Scotch polled herdB. Then he goes on to put 
polled breeders on their guard against the 
•’ring.” 
French Horses.— What the English say. 
The British Quarterly Journal of Agricul¬ 
ture says: “The horses of Normandy are a 
capital race for hard work and scanty fare. 
Have never elsewhere seen such horses at the 
collar. Under the diligence, post-carriage, or 
cumbrous cabriolet, or ou the farm, they are 
enduring aud energetic beyond description. 
With their necks cub to the bone they flinch 
not. They keep their condition when other 
horses would die of neglect and hard treat¬ 
ment.” The excellence of French stallions 
for crossing ou the common mares of America 
has given rise to the largest importing and 
breeding establishment of these horses in the 
world, M. W. Dunham, of Wayne, Ill., hav¬ 
ing imported and bred nearly 1,000, and hav¬ 
ing now ou hand some 400. 
From Dr. Sturtevant’s third Bulletin from 
the Ag. Station of N. Y. State we quote as 
follows: On July 13, one-half plot of corn 
was spaded deeply so as to loosen the hills and 
to cause the plants to wilt badly, and so 
thoroughly was the spading done that for 
three days the plants showed no symptoms of 
recovery, and even at date present a misera¬ 
ble appearance. On July 21st one of the ex¬ 
cessively manured plots was also spaded be¬ 
tween the rows but the spading was not car¬ 
ried quite so near the plants as in the first 
case. These plants also wilted badly and 
have scarcely yet recovered an appearance 
of vigor. The object of this treatment was 
to study the influence of root-pruning upon 
the pi nt v beu carried to excess. On June 
2 nd an ear of corn was taken and the kernels 
planted in eight rows in the or ler that the 
kernels occupied on the cob, thus diagram¬ 
ming the ear of corn upon the field, in order 
to know what difference, if any, existed be¬ 
tween the butt, the central and the tip ker 
nels when used for seed. The vegetation of 
the various kernels was alike, and there was 
no difference observed in the period of bloom- 
iug, but the first ten butt kernels ou the row 
have at date grown to a less hight than the 
kernels from other positions on the ear. The 
same remarks can be made concerning a du¬ 
plicate trial. . . . The potato is a deeply 
feeding plant. August 5th. we selected a 
potato plant which was growing on a high 
ridge, the seed having been planted six inches 
deep, and by digging a trench alongside so 
as to expose a section of the soil, and then 
washing out the roots with a stream of water, 
we found one root reaching thirty-four inches 
below the top of the ridge, or twenty eight 
inches below the tubers, or twenty two inches 
below the surface of the ground between the 
ridges. The deeper roots appeared more 
fibrous than those that were near the surface 
and they diminished very little in size after 
attaining a distance of* six inches from the 
stem. Very few roots were found above the 
tubers and such as were found were short 
and thick. 
To Keep Felloes from Shrinking.—A 
writer iu the Farmers’ Review offers a plan 
which we shall try on occasion. He says that 
he has a wagon of which, six years ago, the 
felloes shrunk so the tires became loos®. He 
gave it a good coat of hot oil, and every year 
since it ha 3 had a good coat of oil or paint, 
sometimes both. The tires are tight yet, and 
they have not been set for eight or nine years. 
Many farmers think that as soon as their 
wagon felloes begin to shrink, they must go 
at once to a blacksmith shop and get the tires 
set. Instead of doing that, which is often a 
damage to the wheels, causing them to “dish.’ 
if they will get some linseed oil and heat it 
boiling hot, and give the felloes all the oil 
