©GT 14 
THE RURAL MEW-YOMER. 
•s 
703 
Illinois. 
Edwards VXLUB, Madison Co., Sept. 21.— 
We have had quite a drouth in thiB neighbor¬ 
hood making Fall plowing very hard; never¬ 
theless the ground ia in fair condition for seed¬ 
ing, which is now in progress. The acreage 
ready for the same is as large aa last year. 
Corn is only about a two third crop and is out 
of danger from frost. We had an immense 
yield of large, well-formed potatoes. The 
White Elephant came out splendidly. All 
fruits were full crops, except late Winter 
apples which promise to be scarce, c. P. B. 
Michigan. 
Athens, Calhoun Co., Sept. 25.—Of the 
Flint corn only 72 seeds germinated out of 138 
and it is late on account of the late, wet 
Spring. We had a frost on the night of Sept. 
23d and it may be injured. I have an ear 
amongst them that measures 16J^ inches or 
over. I have some kernels that produced four 
or five ears a foot long. My Lima beans did 
not germinate on account of wet and cold the 
first, three weeks after planting. The Gem 
Squash produced only large vines and squashes 
as big as a tea cup. The celery proves to be 
splendid and I have five or six Cbater Holly¬ 
hocks, and I saved three of the Catnlpas. A 
large number came up but something destroyed 
them when quite small; they are from nine 
inches to one foot high and look hardy. I 
have a nice lot of White Elephant potatoes, 
s ome weighing 1]^ pound apiece, I intend to 
sell about six bushels for seed. r. d. b. 
• New York. 
East Elma, Erie Co., Sept. 22.—The Rural 
Heavy Dent corn I planted on May 25, four 
feet by two, one kernel in a place, only 70 
grains germinate 1 and some of them did not 
grow, but wbat did grow is awful corn; it 
stands from 10 to 15 feet high with from one 
to three ears on a stalk. I guess it will not 
get ripe. Only one Lima bean grew' and that 
is not going to get ripe. From the Holly¬ 
hock seed I have eight nice plants. Two Per* 
feet Gem Squash seeds grew but they never 
set any fruit until the last week in August, so 
I shall probably get no ripe squash. j. h. 
Ohio. 
Camden, Preble Co., Sept. 27.—Our corn 
crop is fair, two or three weeks late. I think 
there will be one-fourth less wheat sown this 
Fall than there was last. The Rural Corn did 
not come up well; Lima beans an entire failure. 
Hollyhock seed all grew, I have planted my 
wheat, also four other kinds. 1 got a state, 
merit from one of our thrashing machine men, 
of 572 acres, and the average of wheat per 
acre is 18 bushels. 'w. m. 
Etna, Licking Co., Sept. 26.— The Little 
Gem Squashes are excellent. The Rural Dent 
Corn promises to be an euormous crop—the 
largest in the neighborhood. j. n. r. 
Virginia. 
Disputanta, Prince George Co., Sept. 35.— 
Rural seeds did well, Catalpa seeds, planted 
April 12, nine came up and made a vigorous 
growth; largest plant 40]^ inches high, length 
of leaf 14>£ inches and 1inches wide. The 
Gem Squashes, planted May 1, grew finely 
until they began to bloom when I noticed 
they were fading; upon examination I found 
the bugs and worms had concluded they were 
little gems for them, and were making sad 
havoc, all the vines save one were so badly in* 
fested, e*pecially with a white grub at the 
roots, that I was unable with all my efforts to 
save them. I then turned my attention to the 
one not infested, and by constant watching 
and applying strong soap-suds around the 
roots two or three times a week, saved it t 
The vine bore six perfect squashes and I have 
gathered them. The Flint Corn did not come 
up w r ell, but what did grew finely; it is a very 
early corn here, have gathered mine. One 
ear measured nearly 14 inches. One peculiar¬ 
ity about it is it sets its ears very low on the 
stalk, some of mine nearly touched the ground, 
and it suckers astonishingly. 1 gathered one 
bushel of ears. Celery seed came up well 
Am not very successful in raising celery here; 
think the climate is not suitable. Celery re¬ 
quires a cool moist climate to come to per¬ 
fection, does it not? [Not if it is watered well. 
Eds.] The Hollyhocks planted early this 
Spring made prodigious growth; one stalk 
bloomed in August and is now seven feet high 
or was before it blew down; it is loaded with 
blossoms. How did your White Belgian Oats 
turn out? [Not very well. Eds.] g. w. p. 
Si )e lOucrist. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Everv query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention.] 
GROWING MUSHROOMS. 
H. M ., Ontario .-What is the cheapest method 
of raising mushrooms in a cellar or meadow ? 
Ans.«-I» flat beds or ridges on the cellar 
floor, also on boxed side shelves. The cellar 
should be dark and have a uniform tempera¬ 
ture of 50 degrees to 60 degrees—56 degrees is 
best—and not be subject to the drying in¬ 
fluence of a furnace, or draft by open ventila¬ 
tors. Take fresh stable manure freed from 
the rough, strawy litter, and mix with it 
about one-fourth or one third of its bulk of 
moist pasture loam; when mixed build firmly 
into a pile some two feet high. Fork this over 
three or four times at intervals of some four 
days, to prevent it overheating; then if you 
are satisfied that there is no further fear of 
violent heating, make up your beds. These 
may be of any length and width convenient 
to yourself, and from nine to 15 inches deep. In 
building them pack the material as firmly as 
you can with a mallet or by treading, as you 
proceed. The beds should heat a little, and 
when on the decline, say down to 80 degrees, 
they are ready to spawn. Break the spawn 
into lumps about two inches square and insert 
these into boles about 10 or 11 inches apart 
and bury them two inches deep; fill up the 
holes and leave the surface smooth and firm. 
If the cellar is quite dark no covering will be 
needed, but if it is not, cover the beds with 
some rough straw; in about ten days the 
spawn should be “running,” that is a mold 
should pervade the mass, then it is time to 
apply a coating one to two inches deep of the 
loam; beat all firm as before and cover over 
with three or four inches deep of straw unless 
the cellar be quite dark. If the manure and 
loam be naturally moist to begin with and 
properly worked throughout, no water should 
be needed before mushrooms appear. The 
manure should be prepared for the beds in a 
close shed, and at no time subjected to rain or 
drying winds. Mushroom growing, except by 
Ihose who understand it, is often very disap¬ 
pointing. In English market gardens mush¬ 
room growing in ridges in open fields is 
practiced to a considerable extent, but we are 
not aware of that or any other systematic 
effort at meadow or field culture of mush¬ 
rooms being practiced in this country. 
STRAWBERRIES AND BEETS FOR TEXAS. 
W. A. C., Temple Place, Bell Co., Texas .— 
1, What strawberries will do well heie? When 
shall I plant them and how—in beds or rows? 
2, How Boon should I plant beets for market 
and what kinds would be best? 
Ans. —1. By trial only are you likely to 
learn the best sorts of strawberries for your 
place; these plants differ much in behavior 
in different sections of the State, soils and 
conditions of cultivation. Charles Downing, 
Wilson’s Albany, Duncan, Bidwell, Cum¬ 
berland Triumph, Capt. Jack, Crescent and 
Rharpless have given good satisfaction in 
Texas. Strawberries like deeply cultivated, 
well enriched, moist soil and that which 
is of a free rather than clammy nature. 
Your cleared timber lands, black sandy and 
clayey soils are good, but without special care 
your black waxy prairie lands are not so 
favorable. Plant in rows two feet apart and 
one foot asunder in the row, and keep the 
surface soil mellow and open till the runners 
begin to spread out, then apply a mulching of 
littery stuff as grass, old pea-vines or other 
haBdy material, between the rows to help 
keep the soil cool and exclude drouth. In this 
way let three rows run together to make a 
bed, and between every third and fourth row 
keep an open pathway about a foot wide for 
convenience in weeding and berry pickiof. 
Set out your plants as soon as possible; give 
the roots a good hold of the earth, but do not 
bury the crowns, pack the Roil firmly about 
the roots, and aa soon as set out give the 
plants a good soaking of water. Plant in dull 
or moist weather if yon can. 2. Sow beets 
for Fall and Winter use as soon after the 
second week in August as you get a good 
soaking rain, and for early Spring beets about 
the first of February, or if your land is light 
and warm, in January with one or more suc¬ 
cessions later—Early Blood Turnip, Dewing’s 
Improved Blood Turnip, Egyptian Turnip, 
and Long Smooth Blood. 
BROOM CORN. 
E. < S. S. , Schenectady, .V. Y. what is the acre¬ 
age and condition of broom corn in Kansas, 
Illinois, Ohio and Indiana l 
Ans. —We have no statistics of Broom corn 
in Ohio. It is only raised in Franklin, Fair 
field, Champaign and a few other counties. 
Probably 5,000 to 10,000 acres in the 8tate, but 
this is only a rough guess. In Kansas the 
acreage as returned by the assessors, is 107.- 
608. Mr. William Sims, Secretary of the 
State Board of Agriculture writes ns: “Our 
correspondents have not yet reported fully 
on its condition, but from what has been 
received and from what I have heard from 
other sources, I should estimate four-fifths of 
the acreage in good condition, and the other 
fifth not more than a half crop.” Mr. E. A. 
Carman, Acting Commissioner of Agriculture, 
writes us from the Department of Agriculture 
at Washington: “Broom Corn is a minor 
crop which has not been estimated by this 
Department heretofore. From casual reports 
the crop is not in very good condition. The 
acreage as reported by the State Assessor of 
Illinois last year was 17,887, and the crop 
25,708,251 pounds. In 1870 with about the 
same area,less than half the product was made. 
Kansas has given much attention to this crop. 
Iu 1870 the State official returns made 14,273 
acres, and 8,005,145 pounds. Iowa also culti¬ 
vates broom corn, but no exact statistics of 
area or products are extant. So little is grown 
in Ohio and adjacent States that the quantity 
is not officially reported.” 
POTATOES AND GRAIN FOR HOGS, ETC. 
F. R. P., Delavan, Wis. —1, Are potatoes 
good feed J or fattening hogs? Are they best 
raw or cooked? 2, Is not thoroughly-soaked 
small grain, rye, barley, etc., almost as good 
feed for stock as when ground into meal? 
Soaking is so much cheaper than grinding. 
3, Is there any mill or process for grinding 
or cutting sweet corn into meal for bread and 
cakes—and if not, why may and should there be? 
Ans. —1, Potatoes are most excellent feed 
for fattening swine, but they should always 
be cooked, as cooking is necessary in order 
that the starch (t.be fattening substance in 
them) may be made digestible. When fed 
raw the starch will not be digested and assim¬ 
ilated in the stomach—cook them and mix 
with meal when boiling hot. 2, Small grains 
will not be thoroughly masticated by pigs 
although they may lie soaked, and a consid¬ 
erable portion will be voided whole. When 
cooked there will be no waste. This is the 
most economical way t> feed any kind of 
grain to pigs unless fuel and labor are too 
high. The next best method is to have the 
grain ground and the meal slightly fermented, 
which makes it more palatable as well as di* 
gestible. 3, We do not know of any. Sweet 
corn is usually scalded and then dried, and 
boiled when desired for eating. Meal made 
from it would not be likely to keep any 
length of time. 
TREES ALLOWED UNDER TIMBER CULTURE 
ACTS. 
L. M., Lancaster, Neb. What kinds of trees 
are considered timber trees under the Timber 
Culture Act? 
Ans. —The trees specified were; “Ash, 
alder, beech, birch, black-walnut, basswood, 
black-locust, cedar, chestnut, cottonwood, 
elm, fir, including spruce, hickory, honey- 
locust, larch, maple, including box elder, oak, 
pine, plane tree, otherwise called cotton-tree, 
buttonwood or sycamore, service-tree, other¬ 
wise called mountain ash, white-walnut, other¬ 
wise called butternut, white-willow, and 
white wood, otherwise called tulip-tree.” This 
list was intended only as a general guide, and 
is not to be construed as excluding any trees 
recognized in the neighborhood to be of 
value for timber, or for commercial 
purposes, or for firewood and domestic 
use. This ruling was made by the Land 
Office on Feb. 10, 1882. In addition to 
the above list any of the following trees may 
be found worth cultivating in certain locali¬ 
ties and several of them may be classed among 
valuable kinds: ailanthus, blue-beech, cherry 
(especially the black cherry) gum trees, hack- 
berry, iron-wood, osage orange, peach, 
pear, apple, maple, etc. The omissions in the 
first list gave rise to severe criticisms, hence 
the more liberal ruling of Commissioner Mc¬ 
Farland. 
ASPARAGUS. 
E. P. R., Edwardsville, III., wants to know 
1, if Fall is a good time to plant out asparagus; 
2, how to plant. 
Ans —1. Yes. 2. There are two methods of 
planting commonly practiced, one being to 
open a trench about a foot wide and six 
inches deep and spread out the roots on the 
bottom in a natural manner; the other con¬ 
sists in cutting an edge perpendicularly along 
the line, and laying the roots out somewhat 
fan fashion, dividing the roots about equally 
at the crown. The crowns are to be placed 
about six inches beneath the surface in either 
case. Fill the trench only half way up until 
the plants are well above ground. In field 
culture, the rows should be four feet apart, 
though iu the garden a less distance will be as 
well. The advantages of wide planting are 
the ability to use the horse hoe, etc., instead of 
doing all the work by hand; the increased 
yield and longer life of the plants. Moder¬ 
ately rich soil well prepared with occasional 
Fall dressings of manure, we believe to be 
better than the plan usually advocated of 
filling the soil with manure. A light loam or 
sandy soil is best. 
PICOTEES, CARNATIONS, ETC. 
D. JV., Oakville, WY T .—What distinguishes 
picotees, carnations and dianthuses from each 
other. 
Ans —Carnations and picotees are very 
near akin, indeed so much so that seeds sowed 
from one plant of either sort may produce 
both sorts; they merely differ from each other 
in the color of their flowers, carnations may 
be self-colored or striped, a picotee is neither, 
but, instead, its flowers are white (in poorer 
varieties, often yellow) and edged with red, 
rose or purple. And among a batch of seed¬ 
lings we often find some that have flowers at 
once striped and edged; such are neither true 
carnations nor picotees, and in the florist’s eye 
they are unworthy of recognition. Both car¬ 
nations and picotees are dianthuses, and bo‘ 
tanically belong to the species D. Caryophyllus. 
Miscellaneous. 
T. R. II., Mooresville, Ind .—1, Am I in 
time to compete for the prizes offered for 
largest yield of Fultzo-Clawson and Surprise 
wheats? 2, How will the prizes offered for the 
largest yield he distributed? In the order they 
are printed or will the winner select? 
Ans.—1, Certainly. 2, We shall first settle 
who the winners are and then by corres¬ 
pondence or by the inspection of some one 
acting for us substantiate the claims made. 
The best will take first prize; the second best, 
the second prize, and so on. 
J. E. B,, Middlebury, Conn. —1, What 
will exterminate runniug briars—plowing un¬ 
der seems to suit their constitutions well? 
2. Is the Monarch Lightning Saw, made in 
Chicago, what it claims to be? 
Ans. —After plowing them under ns well 
as may be, go over the field and pull up all 
that can be seen. Then cut off the shoots that 
afterwards appear, and cultivate as often as 
needed. Wo know of no easipr method. 2> 
We cannot recommend either the saw or the 
manufacturer of it. 
S. E. L., Maple City, Kansas .—1, In the 
Querist Department of the Rural for Sept. 9, 
information is given as to the manner of prop¬ 
agating the Cnthbert Raspberry. Can the 
Cap varieties be prouagated in the same way? 
2, Is the Caroline a Cap variety? 
Ans.— 1. Yes, ar.d also from the tips. 2. It 
is thought to lie. Some think it is a cross be¬ 
tween the Purple 'Cane (Rubus occidentalis) 
and Brinckle’s Orange (Antwerp). It strikes 
us there is no Antwerp about it. 
Z. H., Darien, Wis.—How should my young 
catalpas be treated this Fall? They were 
planted in Spring, and are now two feet high 
and still growing. 
Ans. —Throw straw or loose litter over 
them with sticks so as to hold it. Perhaps 
you could make a little hut over them with 
evergreen boughs, and then cover with straw. 
If you do not care to take the risk they may 
be removed to the cellar after the leaves have 
fallen. Plant them in boxes. 
Pansy, Nunda, N. Y .—Is there any way 
to exterminate mallow and plantain from a 
lawn save by hand-pulling? 2, My canary 
has not bathed since last March, though re¬ 
peatedly given water for that purpose. Is 
hoalthy and bright. Can he be induced to do 
so, and will any harm result from the neglect? 
Ans.— 1, Hand-pulling is the best way when 
the ground is moist. Gather all tho leaves 
in the hand before pulling. 2, Keep the bird 
always and entirely out of any draught of air 
W. L. P.,Port Leyden, N. Y., asks, 1, which 
is the best medium early sweet corn, and 
2, cabbage, 3,is there any work on bee-bunting. 
Ans.—1, The Excelsior is a good variety. 
3, Early Winnigstadt, Early Ox heart, Fot- 
ler’s Brunswick, 3, We know of no such work; 
we shall, however, be able to present an 
article on this subject in a week or two. 
.4. S. M., Pattenburg, N. J. When is the 
Rural Thoroughbred Flint Corn to be cut? 
Ans. —When mature. No definite time can 
be named, as corn is harvested at different 
dates in different parts of the country. Each 
must use his own best judgment in the matter. 
J. n., Merchantville, N. J. —Who was the 
originator of Fay’s Prolific Currant and what 
is his address? 
Ans. —Mr. Fay was the originator. He died 
about a year ago. Mr. G. S. Josselyn, Fre- 
donia, N. Y., is the introducer. 
J. B. O., Columbia, Pa., sends a climbing 
vine for name. 
Ans —It is Celastrus scandens—the Climb¬ 
ing Bitter-Sweet or Wax-Work. 
Several Subscribers .—Grape-vines will some¬ 
times, if properly cared for, fruit the second 
year from seed. Many will fruit the third. 
Let all heartily join the Rural army of seed¬ 
ling grape growers! 
Communications Received for the week Endino 
Saturday, October 7. 
8. E. L —E, W. T.—J. P. B.—“Hope”—J. K. W.. We 
would thank you for the car—Ira E. Benton, thanks. 
—B. O. N.-R. P. B.—Mrs. M- B., thanka.-Z. H.— 
G. K. F.—» T . B. G.-S. U. T.—Mrs. E. Me. Me., Poor 
Farm Series. Please give me full address.—C. J. B — 
J. B. G.-J. B. M. & S„ thanks.—J. W. P.-L. W. B.— 
R. P. C.—E. E. thanks.-J. H.—N. J. S.-T 8.-A. C.— 
G. N. S.—J. S.—A C. N.—W H I. for the Poor Farm 
Series.—W. I. C-H. C. B.-H. S.-E. T.—J. C.— 
H. W. R.—B. P.-T. F. M -J C. C., answer by mail. 
—C. E. P., thanks.—E. P. S —P. A. S —A. B. A.— 
A. L. L. W.-C. R.—J. W G.-J. P. J. A. S.. thanks. 
-M. W.—A. B. J.-F.S.—W C.—G. W. L.—R, A. N.— 
S. O—P. J. B.-L. F. S.-H. L. S.-F. R. W.-T. H. B. 
