650 
SEPT 23 
Pei*, made at the Rural Grounds, and lately 
putdi hed, similar remits obtained at Hough- 
ton Firm A c lrdinglv we send y<m the fol¬ 
lowing tabular statement. It will be seen 
that the varieties tested wei e different, smaller 
in number, an I « lit-r croo The details of 
the examination differ somewhat fiom yours 
Trial of Garden P-a* at Houghton Farm 
1832 
o g* a a o 
f y ! 4 5 
1 1 ;; J 
c ^ *<" © 
K ~ 7^ § a 
g r» 5 iv £. 
ci. : * 2 . : : 
: • r : : 
t = 5 
r -O R 
S p H 
I | § 
II £ 
$ * g 
i s a 
1 -, <_ C* C-I I 
P 5 C p * C | 
K E £ 5 T j 
Date of plcklrg for table. 
1 
W ^ 4. M , 
^ £ -% • 
«* r» n ft 
E 3 *” S’ S’ 
w » » * * 
Average hfpht of haulm—10 
plants. 
[tf » fB Jfl J j 
Pods generally single (S.)or In 
pairs (P). 
eico>J3»- 
oc 05 c y* 
Av. number of pods p 3 r p'ant. 
2 i S 
g £ * K & 
r o c c 
JN N N fit N 
j 
VTeight rf 500 pod« n« picked. 
(Average pods.) 
1 
li Tt v- ™ 
c, X 2 X X 
& s ? .« t 
Weight *t p«as from 200aver¬ 
age pods. 
n i m 
L,i c cS w* 
Number of pens In 200 average 
pods. 
Season: Fair to good, growing unfavorable 
towards matin i y. 
Notes —Tbe ft' s7 and last named withstood 
dioiitn better than 'he others. 
F,- hi 4 it of haul t, i"B’e<d of g anv 
number of vines consecutively in a row, ten 
single plan's were selected for measurement, 
of averai e -ize and thriftiness. 
The sani“ ui ch >d of sel-cli m was pursued 
in counting number of pids per plant: well 
set blos«orrB we e eouuted as p d*. In ob¬ 
taining p .ds lor weighing and counting con¬ 
tents, those wers t .ken as if picking for table 
use. except that verv imperfect pods were 
rejected. Hexhy E Alvord, 
G-neral Manager. 
Sam'l B. Green, Gardener. 
SOME FIRST- ATE PEAS. 
lHAVEb'en much interested in your exper¬ 
iments with die diff-rent variet es of plants 
grown side by side, and the report ia the 
F dr N un'ier of your trial of m my varieties 
of peisis worth mo-e »han a year's subscrip¬ 
tion, to any o e notaeq tainted with the va¬ 
rious peas therein nam'd. For a number of 
years I ha*e been testing new ppas in order 
tofi iditn best for family use. Among all 
of the re orts of p-a t’ials, not ordv in the 
Ritual hut el-ewhere, i o one has tri*d CLr- 
ter’s Extra E irlv Premium Gem [Tne Rural 
tried it amonti 2(5 othcs tour \ ears ago. The 
report w i l be fo md in Rural New-Yorker 
ofS-pt. 15. 187-5. El-] We have b*en using 
it ever since it was intro'iimd and tbrok it 
the be-t fi~st early pea grown. Three years 
ago l piirchs«f d of B. K Blis- & Sons h fresh 
stock ■ f C E E Premium Geni pea seed, and 
at the same tone 8 li—>’s American Wonder. 
They veere id anted side bv side on the same 
dav. The G -ms broke grouu i one day sooner 
than the Wonder; iioth grew the sau e bight: 
the G» ms bln med tiro days ahead and 
were fully t«o days ahead in filling the 
pods suH lently for eating. In flavor the 
Gems were so much the superior of tbe Won¬ 
der. that the lit er was abmd med wiihouc 
further trial. President Wilder says: “The 
American Wonder is good enough forms.” 
Itisuof good enough for me when I know 
there i- a better in Carter’s Extra E iriy Po m 
ium Gem. Readers, if you want something 
early anil good, try it. Yorkshire Hero is 
another pea of great merit, A great number 
oflatepeis were tiied including the Cham¬ 
pion < f England, and all were abandoned for 
the Hero. Jn flavor it is tbe equal of the 
best, and dots not grow more than half so 
high. •* AUGUSTUS." 
Tae Eve green*, Ind. 
Wood's Extra^arly Pea. 
In the Fair Number you state tbe result of 
your trial of peas grown on the Rural Farm 
You must have overlooked the f ict that mine 
were plauted i-otue days later than the other 
varieties, as thry were uot sent from Rich¬ 
mond until the night of the 4:h of April, 
w hereas the others were p 1 mted on the third, 
jo, >n fiirnes», will you, please, state promi¬ 
nently iu your next issue how many days 
laUT mine were planted than the other va¬ 
riety s, and considering the late date of plant¬ 
ing they evidently proved the quickest grow 
ing as well as the heaviest early peas H mor 
to whom honor is due! T. W. Wood. 
Richmond, Va. 
[All were planted April 3. except Wood’s 
E\tre-Emly end the Old Philadelphia, 
w hi'h were planted on the 12th. Mr. Wood 
wanted his peas tested beside Landre'b’s. 
This was ont of the question, as they were 
received too late—so we u-ed the other in¬ 
stead. It wili be observed that we reported 
that the Wood peas “matured with the Phila¬ 
delphia,” v bleb it seems to us fairly covered 
the case.— Eds.] 
FAY’S PROLIFIC CURRANT. 
(See engraving page 657.) 
KNOWING that a sp-eimen iif this currant 
wa< growing at the Rural Ex. Grounds, we 
have been asked by a number of frieuds and 
Bub* ribers what we think of it The speci¬ 
men was kindly sent to us by Mr, G. S. 
Ji sselyn in the Spring of last year. It was 
planted in ordinary garden soil and made a 
sturdy growtn. This season it bloomed and 
set well but many of the racemes we e de¬ 
stroyed by Rose Bugs and some of them were 
injured,as sh iwn in the engraving,which pre. 
seuts one of the best clusters of fruit which we 
succeeded in saving. The racemes average 
longer than do tho.-e of tbe Cherry Currant, 
thi ugh in other respects it is hard to distin 
guish one from the ether. Great fruitfulne s 
is the foremost claim made for the Fay, and 
of this we cannot, of course, speak from the 
experience r f a sinsrle rear’* fruitage. 
Clural £oyks. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS. 
T, H HOPKINS, M.D. 
Rural, Aug. 5—Isv't M>. Ritter rather 
too severe upon the Crescent Strawberry 1 
“God never made a better b -rry than the 
strawberry,” and even the poorest are mighty 
good. In thi-, the Bt'U'vberry differs from 
nearly every other f>uit, for even the worst 
kinds would be ac *ept«-d as delicious if there 
were none better. Some of our experts an 1 
amateurs are not only critical on this point, 
but hypercritical. Tne Wilsm has stood 
their abuse uam >ved for many years. Perhaps 
the Crescent will do the same. 
Mr. Cn amserlaix on “Farmers’ Sons” is 
good. B it were our ancestors entirely wrong? 
My father n*ed to say that it spoiled boys and 
hi ed men to praise them onenlv; that it 
male them think they were doing a little too 
well, an 1 caused to»m to stack up L thong it 
it hard once; but. lat*r experience has changed 
my riaiud. It is bitter, in general, to show 
appreciation ratbsr by fayor ani enlarged 
privileges than by direct words of laudation, 
except under unusual circumstances. 
“E. D. C” is right about planting potatoes 
deep in light, dry soils Six to eight incha* is 
not too deep for a good crop. B it there is 
an “out” io everything; when planted deep 
they are much more apt to be cut in digging. 
Y *t the ab*e ics of greened tubers perhaps 
offsets that, leaving the larger crop as profit, 
less ihe extra labor of digging. 
The E iglish gentium m who was afraid to 
bay Au-*ricaa Coe liar Cieese lest it were 
adulterated w{r,h lard, ought to read Dr. 
Arthur HdL H issalfs big h iok oi fooladul 
teration in E igland. Hi will flad things 
recorded there that should make him starve 
himself to death. H >w much more hurtful is 
lard in cheese than in pie crust? 
Wqat is the use of experimenting with 
coal asnes, or anythiag el-e, f>r curraat 
worms, when we have so simple and sure a 
remedy in hellebore? As the E litor truly 
sa\ s: cnal ashes are worthless for the purpose, 
notwithstanding Major Freai’s apparently 
successful experimeut. 
Rural, Aug. 12 — Bkrtly Wilder’s cure 
for pig killing sows is not infallible, though 
the advice is good to let the sow have free 
access to the earth. Bat in Vermont this is 
Impossible for our early pigs, whi*h come 
while the ground is frozen hard. Later far¬ 
rows, the sow having free access to an out¬ 
door pen, or yard, are sometimes eaten. The 
reason for this trick is not easy to find. I 
never knew a sow oared of it, except with a 
butcher-knife. 
A square lie is not so mean as the wilful or 
stupid misrepresentation of facts, in regard to 
the sugar experm on ts of the Department of 
Agriculture last Fall, which have appeared 
in moat of the papers, not excepting some 
agricultural journals. And perhaps the worst 
feature of the case is that Commissioner 
Luring has seemed perfectly willing that such 
misrepresentations should continue current. 
Would he have been so silent in defense of 
himself as hi has been of his predecessor, who, 
so far as I can see, was much bis superior in 
the conduct of the Department? 
Professor Forbes's discovery of a cheap 
cbineb-bug killer, If it works, will be worth a 
hundred times more than all that has ever 
Heen paid from the public funds for entomo¬ 
logical investigation. Do readers of ihe 
Rural, by the wav, note.as they should how 
niggardly our legislative bodi-s are in regard 
to agriculture, and how lavish of the people’s 
money they are t tward* anything proraotive 
of "practical politico?” Tne people are sin¬ 
fully patient with the politicians. 
Rural Aug. 19. — What a big thing it Is 
for the 8 >uth that it can "swap” its cotton 
seed for Northern corn to the advantage of 
both sections This ought to greatly reduce 
tne net cost of cotton to the growers, without 
any natural corresponding reduction in price, 
tbn* enabling prudent planters to get rapidly 
out of debt and become "forehanded ” The 
biggest of all hindrances to ge mine national 
prosperity is theindebted condition of tbe pro¬ 
ductive classes. Tae enrichment of men like 
Vanderbilt and Gould is a curs 3 , b it what a 
blessing to all the people would be cash 
dealings and freedom from debi! 
“Stockm \N” strains a point greatly, (p 546) 
it seems to me. when he objects to full blood 
males in distinction from ‘-pure-bred.” Are 
there any purebred males, strictly speaking? 
If tbe true p 3 digree of distinguished sires for 
ten generations even were kuown, how many 
would be founo free from taint or “alloy V 
There are lots of humbug and fraud covered 
up and smoothed overeyeu in the herd book*. 
A great deal has beeu pxpoaed. What re¬ 
mains hidden no on 9 can tell. And what 
wretched stock we sometimes see from t e 
least doubted pedigree! Closely bred, not a 
few of the choicest strains have entirely 
“petered out.” 
Why di l Mr. W J 8 uith go to North 
Holland for H dsteiu c-tt ? D lesany Neth¬ 
erlander bill the selection - from his herd as 
"Holstein?” Verily, no. I don’t beli-ve Mr. 
Smith would dare to call them by that name 
anywhere aiuon st stockman and dirytnen 
io the ‘ Hollow lan i.” It was first used by 
W. W. Cnenery to distinguish his importa- 
ti ms from the much earlier imputations 
made by C insul J irvis. Mr. Ch>-nery was 
not strong in geography and made a stupid 
blunder. No necessity exists for continuing 
such an absurd misnomer. 
Yes; Jersey b ills must be treatei with 
firmness and roughne-s, and also with great 
cau'ion, if they are k*-pt up, and used solely 
for breeding purpose*. But why nut say the 
same of all bulls? One of my neighbors was 
not long since nearly killed by a young Short¬ 
horn bull, and the hired man of anoth. r was 
slain outright bv a Devon. I would soon-r 
meet a be»r than cross a pasture where there 
is a hu 1 Of course, I might go safely many 
times, but 'he ri-k is too much for anysensihle 
man to take unnecessarily. Only last week l 
went unawares with the owner into such 
a pasture, and had to take to th- fence while 
my friend fought his bull with a big bog hoe. 
Was it I who was the "contemporary” that 
sai l “ sod that will yield good clover 
will bear good wheat.” I seem to re- 
reraemb a r sayinf so lately. It is true that 
diver may he killed out where the wheat 
survives, and rice v^rsa; and also that a piece 
may do for wbe it that is too dry tor clover; 
but does either of these facts touch tbe point, 
which was directed simply to tbe qualify of 
the <oil, location not being considered. 
Rural, Aug 2R.-Fiir Number! And 
what a splendid number it is, too 1 Sir J. B 
Lawes on “ Clover Sickness ” is very interest¬ 
ing. Is that di-ease known in America, and 
is it in any true sense a disease? It seems to 
me to be merely an inap i ude of the s '*11 for 
the present free growth of the plant, allied in 
principle to marked inaptitude of soils once 
excellent for the potato to the continued 
g-owth of that crop. There are fields in 
Vermont that have once produced 300 and 
even 400 bu-hels of potatoes to tbe acre that 
now' cannot be made to give us 100 bushels by 
any knowo process Of tillage or ferti izition, 
though In first rate condiion for other crops, 
and giving as full a yield of them as ever. 
Could we call this potato sickness. The plant 
comes up well and looks well and, as Sir John 
says of clover ou his clover sick land, “the 
crop was not diseased io any way, but there 
tuae no active growth," I fancy that a num¬ 
ber of oi her crops have tbe same peculiarity in 
a greater or less degree. 
While thanking you for yonr impartial 
comments upon the "American Rtcer” pea, I 
want tet ask If there was not a lapsus memorial 
in vour a*se r tion that "as to quality tbpre is 
very little eh dee between the smooth kinds.” 
I assume that, you mean tbe smooth ypllow 
kin Is. of course, hut do you remember or did 
you never taste, or try to taste, the old "Tom 
Thumb” pe*, which was as dry a* a chip and 
« good deal tn >re tasteless than some chips? 
You notice, T see. a difference in quali'y in 
th« wrinkled peas To me th-re i* quite as 
much in the smooth sorts But there i* no 
disputing about tastes. Mr. Bli-s, when try¬ 
ing tbe Rivers at my t-b'e la-t year, called 
them almost as good as the wrinkled kinds. 
Thanks for the editorial on "Railroad 
Monopolies” It is one of the special merits 
of the Rural among a gricultural papers (at 
least in the Eastern Stites) that it dare® to 
discuss public question 3 frankly, and does it 
fairly and intelligently frtm the farmers’ 
point of view. We have not, as they have in 
England, a powerful aristocracy behind the 
farmine interest, to represent it and advocate 
its rights (at least from the landlord’s point 
of view) in ib« national legislature. S i much 
more we need an independent agricultural 
press, conducted by men who are at lea*t as 
much farmers a« city men. The Rural 
wonderfully fl 1* mv ideal in this respect. It 
is the only paper printed in the city that has 
a real country fl ivor, even in its editorials, I 
hardlv *=ee how you cm do it, wi h your sur¬ 
roundings T'ulv. Rural editors, you roust 
be “sons of the s dl.” 
Orleans Co. V e. 
INGERSOLL ON FARMERS. 
In the RUR*Lof August 12, I not'ce under 
the heading of “ Farm L'fe as it Might be,’’ 
an extract from a spee. h by Robert J. Inger- 
soll, in which he says: 
"It is not ne e®sary, in this age of the 
worl 1 , for tbe farmer to rise in the middle of 
the night and begin his work. This getting 
up so eirlv in the morning is a relic of bar¬ 
barism. Tnere is no need of gat ing up at 
four o'clock in the Winter morning. The 
farmer wb•> per l.-ts in dragging his wife and 
children from their beds ought to be visiL d 
by a missionary. It is time enough to ri*e 
after the sun has set th** example. * ♦ * * 
When you .ise at four and work till da>k, 
what is life worth ? Of wbat use is all the 
improved machinery unless it tends to give 
the farmer a little more lei>ure f * * * You 
should uot rot) your families of sleep.” 
There are three classes of farmers In this 
busy world of ours. There is the practical 
farmer who sows and reap* bis crops for 
money; then th-re is the “fancy farmer,” 
who experiment for his own pleasure and tbe 
bene it of his neighbor; there is the profes¬ 
sional man who doesn’t know anything about 
farming, but who is always ready at every 
agricultural m *e ing au 1 county fair to make 
the farmers a little speech and give them lots 
of cheap advice. 
Robert Ingersoll is aviry smart man. and, 
like many other v*»ry suirt m *n, he i ides his 
hobbies and riles them pretty hard Ho 
enj >ysthe reputation of beiuf a very “funny” 
ma i, and when ihe fit c mi-** on him it takes 
him like tbe cramp c die. H* bis to give it 
his entire attention. He “ get* fnuny” at the 
exoense of argument, ani uses sarcasm as a 
substitute for reason: aud it i* q iite probable 
that Robert knows a g eat deal more about 
the o h-r world ani “ orth > tox perdici-m’' 
than he does ab >ut farming. His remarks are 
calculated to throw oil 1 wat>-r in th* face of 
th«* energetic man who g-ts up in the morn¬ 
ing, and it is safe to venture the assertion 
that auy man who d preca'e* early ri-ing for 
the farmer i< either to) 1 zy to work on the 
farm hiin-el( or else he kniws nettling about 
the business. 
Above all thing* to be cultivatel by the 
successful farm r l* thi hiblt of early rising ( 
no m itter if he is “pur as J *b’s turkey,” or 
w h**tber he has “1 inde 1 estates” to look after. 
There has never b->en an argument advanced 
against early rising in any ap'mre of life; 
while on the farm there is not only much in 
its favor but ratuy ca-es when it is an actual 
necessity, Franklin says: “ Take time by the 
forelock, for he is bald behind.” Tais is not 
done by lying abed in he m irning. Who¬ 
ever heard of the successful farmer advising a 
man to lie ab>d in the morning so as not to 
overwork himself f It seems to me that this 
is not only foolish advice, but that it lias a 
most pernicious tendency, Tne coming gen¬ 
eration of American farmers have enough 
“ elevated” ideas and enough aversion to work, 
without being told that they should avoid 
early rising Who are the farmers of thrift 
and enterprise ? Who are the shiftless, care¬ 
less, three-handed farmers f Go through any 
wealthy farming community and see who own 
the fine houses and tbe good fences and the 
large, well- 6 tored barns. Ask them if they 
surrounded them selves with comforts by lying 
abed in the morning I Look at tbe man whose 
tools and machinery are exposed to tbe 
weather, whose barn is old and rickety, whose 
