APRIL 29 
298 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Blount says, came from New South Wales 1 
It is not offered for sale in America that we 
know of under the above name, but only as 
“ Golden Grains” and we are sorry to see that 
several reputable seedsmen, knowing that they 
are the same, still offer this grain under its 
false name. Prof. Blount thinks it is the 
heaviest wheat, known, weighing with him 
(Colorado) 74 lbs, to the struck bushel. It is 
not, however, a good milling wheat. 
A WELL-known agricultural writer, speak, 
ing of the cruelty which check reins often 
cause, adverts to the subject jn a private note. 
He admits that they are serviceable if not 
checked too short , especially for a horse when 
bitched, to keep him from reaching down to 
eat ETass, etc. But when driving and es¬ 
pecially when going up hill, they should be 
quite loose. “I can’t bear,” he says, “to look 
at the carriage horses when standing in New 
York, they are usually checked up so tight. 
Only see how painfully they turn and toss 
their heads for relief. I would like to give 
every one of the cruel, heedless coachmen sit¬ 
ting at ease and comfort in their seats a good 
thrashing with their own whips snatched from 
their hands.”........... 
Dr. Stonebraker, of Texas, sent us for trial, 
some corn which he called “ Strawberry 
Gourd seed.” The kernels were very long and 
heavy and of a color indicated by its name. 
We planted these iu our favorite sized plot, 
one-fortieth of an acre, the rows three feet, 
10 inches asunder, one kernel every foot. The 
plot was well manured with concentrated fer¬ 
tilizer and pig pen manure. The corn grew 
vigorously and attained the bight of 10 feet 
in spite of the drought, but many of the stalks 
were barren and not one perfect ear matured. 
To Make Barren Fruit Treks Bear with 
certainty the following year, cut through the 
bark around the trunk below the branches. 
Don’t remove any bark Do this the last 
week in June, and the trees will fruit next 
season, without being in the least injured. 
Harvard, Neb. G. d. w. 
- 
The Rural is an excellent paper and yet 
we have somewhat against it. Page after 
page is fill d with advertisements, while once 
in a while one or two little columns are de¬ 
voted to the ladies and children. We very 
much fear that you receive too much praise 
and not enough criticism. w. d. 
Mercer Co., Pa. 
[We certainly desire and have often re¬ 
quested criticisms. We would print them as 
readily as we print compliments.—E ds.] 
!3.rboriatUm*ul, 
(Continued from page 275.) 
FORESTRY-NO 9. 
DR. JOHN A WARDER. 
Planting. 
Pitting, as a means of preparation has al¬ 
ready been alluded to. It consists in dig¬ 
ging a hole, generally a foot square, except 
where the tree-roots require more space. This 
work is best done long before the planting 
season—and the soil is given a Winter fallow; 
the sod, if any, and the top soil are thrown to 
one side of the pit—the lower, or the sub-soil 
is then dug as deeply as convenient, well- 
stirred, and left in the pit. 
Notching is a plan very generally prac¬ 
ticed iu European forests. A strong spade is 
used—this in Germany is made heavy, thick 
but narrow, about eleven inches in the blade 
by five inches wide, and about three iuches 
thick at the top or foot place. The lower 
edge is kept sharp. In its use this tool is 
thrust down into the ground veitically and 
as deeply as possible, aided by the foot— 
when withdrawn it is again forced into the 
soil so that the two cuts shall meet at a right 
angle, and the notch is formed or opened by 
drawing the handle of the spade toward the 
person of the workman, when he, or usually 
his assistant, introduces the little seedling 
larch or other tree into the notch, and then 
very firmly presses the earth to the roots with 
the heel of his foot. The Germans call this 
tool tbeir kiel-spaten. A modillcatiou of this 
kind of spade planting is often employed in 
this country, and is a favorite with some 
nurserymen. It consists of two motions of the 
spade also, but in a different mode of proceed¬ 
ing. A good steel spade is held iu front of the 
person with the concavity next to him, and 
thrust vertically into the ground, assisted by 
the foot, to the full length of the blade, the 
handle is then drawn toward the operator so 
as to open a wide cleft, into which the little 
tree or catting is introduced, and the spade, be¬ 
ing reversed, or with the concavity looking 
away from the workman, is entered some two 
inches nearer to him than the first cut, and 
again pressed down to its full depth, so that its 
cutting edge shall meet the track of the first 
cut. The handle of the tool is then pressed 
away from the workman until the cleft is 
closed and the earth is pressed firmly upon the 
roots; this pressure may be emphasized by the 
feet. This, it will be seen, is a two-motion 
plan, and may be practiced in any soil that is 
not too stony, or too hard and dry, but we 
should think it a poor plan to plant trees 
where the plow had not first been used to 
prepare the soil, and yet many millions of 
forest trees have grown after just such rude 
treatment at their out set. 
In arable land well prepared the plow or 
corn marker is used to indicate the station 
for the trees, with the intersections at four 
feet distance where it is desirable to cultivate 
both ways or simply in rows for planting 
more closely as, say, at intervals of two or 
three feet. Then the plauting may proceed, 
whenever the soil is in good condition, being 
neither too wet nor too dry. The cuttings 
which should have been prepared beforehand, 
and may have formed their callus, are inserted 
into the lines, sometimes by simply pushing 
them into the mellow soil by hand; but the 
use of a strong, flat planting trowel or even a 
dibble is better, to open a cleft for the cutting 
which is firmed by pressure of the foot. Some 
prefer to stand up to their work and with a 
spade open the cleft into which the cutting is 
inserted and then fixed by reversing the spade 
as above described, or simply by tramping 
the soil with the foot: in very soft soil large 
cuttings are sometimes driven into the earth 
by using a wooden mallet. 
Long cuttings of the cottonwoods and wil¬ 
lows are often laid lengthwise in the furrows 
and covered with the plow, and very good 
results have followed, but in this plan the 
roller should be applied to compress the soil. 
The cuttings are usually made from 8 to 12 
inches long, and they should be covered so deep¬ 
ly as to have but one or two buds projecting 
above the surface of the ground. In planting the 
little trees themselves, these may be taken di¬ 
rectly from the seed-beds of nature or the 
nursery, usually at one year old, or, as is 
requisite with some species, after they have 
been lined out and cultivated one, two, or 
more years in the nursery, when they are 
called “ transplanted" stock. With many 
kinds of slower growth in their infancy, this 
is very desirable, not only for the greater 
development of the plants, which enables 
them to withstand the hardships of removal, 
but because, with the more stocky growth of 
the tops, there is a corresponding develop¬ 
ment of the root system. Crowded as they are 
in the seed-beds, there is but a meager growth 
either of side-branches or of side-roots, and 
though many kinds of trees will attain suffi¬ 
cient size in their first season’s growth from 
the seed, many others will be too small for 
successful planting at the end of two or three 
years. Some maples, some oaks, and other 
plants must have several years of nursery 
treatment before they attain sufficient size. 
TJds is notably the case with some of our 
most desirable evergreens, which, however, 
will afterwards grow fast enough to please 
the most enterprising. 
In the prairie plantations which are largely 
made up of White willows. Cotton-woods, Box 
Elders and White Maples, the former, and 
indeed all these species, are often set as cut¬ 
tings, but all named after the willow, are 
chiefly one year-old seedlings. A lazy man’s 
method has been pursued by some who were 
pressed with work; this consisted in dropping 
the plants, with their roots, into a rather deep 
furrow and covering them with a furrow slice 
thrown against or upon the roots and follow¬ 
ing with the roller—no special care was taken 
to have the trees erect, for a strong shoot 
would start up from near the collar to form 
the future stem. Very fair results were seen 
following even such crude planting of young 
Cotton woods in the charming soils of Kansas. 
Furrow-planting with similar trees has 
been successfully practiced. This requires 
a gang of three persons to each row ; the 
first, who may be a boy, drops the trees 
at their stations; he is at once followed 
by the planter, who spreads out t he roots and 
with his hands covers them with sufficient 
earth to make them stand erect when well 
pressed by hands or feet; the third follows 
with a common hoe, and drags ike dirt of 
freshly-made furrow into the track of the 
plow and to the plants. 
A better plan, which Is also adapted to 
larger trees and those with more roots, has 
been introduced by Mr. Douglas in setting out 
trees on nis iar ;e railroad contracts for iree- 
planting. This he calls the threemotion sys¬ 
tem, and is conducted as follows by three 
hands, but the gang carries two rows at once 
—one boy setting for two men with spades, 
each of these last on the track of a corn- 
marker, at the proper point inserts his spade 
vertically, one motion: removing it the tool 
is again inserted, at an angle of about forty- 
five degrees, until it meets the first cleft, and 
with the earth thus cut loose it is lifted up Into 
the air, while the boy inserts the roots of his 
little tree, drawing it towards himself in such 
a way as to spread the roots, when the first 
man drops the earth, third motion, and sets 
his foot firmly upon it, when the tree is planted; 
meanwhile the second spade-man has made his 
first and second motion, and the pit is ready 
for the boy to introduce a plant that is in turn 
fixed as was the first. In this way, when a 
gang of hands is once organized and somew r hat 
practiced, the planting goes on with great 
rapidity. 
In this country we usually prefer to plant 
but one tree in a station, and have very little 
replanting to fill gaps. Where seeds are at 
once set where the trees are to stand, it is cus¬ 
tomary to drop more than one, and if more 
grow they are either cut off, or removed at 
one year old and transplanted; but in Europe 
where plants from the seed bed are very cheap, 
the plan called by the Germans Buschel-wiise 
Fjlanzvng is very often pursued—we may 
translate this Bunch or Clump Planting. In¬ 
stead of one seedling, a cluster of half a-dozen, 
as drawn from the seed-beds of Scotch Pine 
or Norway Spruie, are set together. The ob¬ 
ject of this is that the chances of life are in¬ 
creased by the greater number; the little plants 
shade and protect one another, and eventually 
one of them obtains the mastery and goes ou 
to make the future tree, and meanwhile some 
of the supernumeraries die away, and some 
struggle along for many years making an up¬ 
ward growth, but increasing very little in 
thickness, and thus becoming long and slender 
they are very useful. In the absence of pliant 
young trees, like our thicket-grown hickories, 
these young spruces, especially, are brought 
into play for use as wythes, with which the 
logs are coupled into the timber rafts that 
are sent out of the forests by water transport 
to markets hundreds of miles away. 
When larger trees are planted larger holes 
must be made to receive the roots; but it is gen¬ 
erally considered a better plan and much cheap¬ 
er in transportation, in first cost, in labor of 
plauting and with greater certainty of life, to 
set out small trees. In this our American 
systems correspond with the experience of 
centuries in Europe, though an exception was 
observed in German forests in the case of oaks. 
The favorite method of making a plantation 
of this tree seemed to be to school them iu 
nurseries for several years, and plant them 
after they had grown six or eight feet high — 
they were planted at rather wide distances, 
and the interspaces filled with beeches, and 
some other plants. In Bohemia, on flat land, 
near some of the glass-works, was seen a large 
forest of pines of fifty years, which when cut 
r,o supply the furnaces, enabled one to dis¬ 
cover slender young oaks standing about 
thirty feet apart, which seemed to have been 
designed to form the succession of the future 
forest. 
When to plant forest trees is an important 
question; this will depend upon the species, 
and as a general rule it may be answered, de¬ 
ciduous trees may be set out either in Fall or 
Spring, and even in mild weather during the 
Winter, whenever the soil is in good condition. 
Thus, on the hills of Scotland larches and other 
trees are often set out during most of tjio Win¬ 
ter season, but with evergreens the Spring is 
the proper time—becaus.- the continued evap¬ 
oration from their persistent foliage causes a 
fatal exhaustion of their juices, which the 
ruptured roots cannot compensate. Most 
planters prefer to wait until the terminal buds 
begin to unfold. The larch must be planted 
quite early, if set in the Spring, and before 
the buds show any sign of awakening to life. 
The next paper of the series w r ili be on the 
grouping of trees and mixed plantations. 
Domestic (£anumuj 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE. 
THE TIRED MOTHERS’ CLUB. 
ANNIE L. JACK. 
"A little elbow rests upon your knee, 
Your tired knee that liaB so much to bear.” 
We were re organizing our Club to discuss 
home matters when some one repeated these 
lines, and little Mrs. Walton said, quietly, 
“ That will do for a new name,” and it was 
at once adopted into our heai ts. We made no 
pretensions to constitution or by-laws, but de¬ 
termined to meet every three weeks at the 
minister’s cosy manse, and discuss the best 
way of doing our duty, taking any phrase, 
sentence or verse that pleased us, and giving 
our practical experience. The first speaker 
was Mrs. Chandos, after whose ancestors the 
town was named, and I sat quietly in a corner, 
as she spoke, admiring her stately figure, sil¬ 
very hair, and placid expression. Really, 
such a woman commands our reverence, and 
makes one in love with old age. Now r Solo¬ 
mon is no favorite of mine; it is a case of 
precept ,, not example with him, but I could 
not gainsay the speaker when she chose for 
her selection, “ Every wise woman build- 
eth her house.Of course we all knew the 
gist of the address, but the terse, plain lan¬ 
guage had a force and distinctness that 
brought the facts home to us. “ If,” she said, 
“ you have a house and enough of this world’s 
goods to keep from poverty, nothing is want¬ 
ing to make that house a home but the will of 
its inhabitants. Let affection be sincere and 
faithful, utility and beauty aided by honest 
endeavor, and all other things shall be added 
unto you ” Mrs Riebson, the minister’s wife, 
asked timidly “how thiscould apply to worn- 
out carpets, aud heel less stockings, for she 
could uotmanage to keep things from wearing 
out with her six active boys, arid she was glad 
Mrs. Chandos put “ utility ” before “ beau¬ 
ty,” though in the heart she sighed for more of 
the last-named. With married women of 
limited means the chief aim in life was how to 
make “ends meet,” and she was very often re¬ 
minded of the story read somewhere, of the 
little boy who ran away from home “ because 
the pie wouldn’t go rouud.” There was a 
smile of sympathy as she closed this pathetic 
appeal, and then after a brief consultation 
the request was made that at our next meet¬ 
ing, I should give them a few ideas on “ Small 
Economies,” 
♦ 
“ LEEKY BUTTER.” 
When I read May Maple’s article on this 
subject in the Rural New-Yorker of Feb. 
11, I concluded I would give the Domestic 
Department our ways of using the milk and 
cream and butter during the “leek” season. 
Fish effectually destroys the leeky flavor. 
Even trout, most delicate of fish, may be 
fried in the butter and it would never be de¬ 
tected. Codfish, dry or pickled, may be 
cooked in any way, using the milk, cream or 
butter freely, aud no leeky flavor be percepti¬ 
ble. Also in mashed turnip the butter and 
cream may be used, seasoning to taste wit h salt 
and pepper. Leeky butter may also be used for 
shortening cake, seasoning with a little cin¬ 
namon or cinnamon and cloves. Now just 
one word to butter-makers. If a woman 
values her reputation as a flrst-class butter- 
maker, she must not offer “ leeky butter” for 
sale anywhere. Should a neighbor, knowing 
its quality and the cause desire to purchase 
some, I would sell, but I would never dis¬ 
pose of it as May Maple says some do. I 
would have plenty of fish and use sweet cream 
and milk freely, and if there was a surplus of 
butter, save it hy putting into brine and use 
it in cooking fish, aud for shortening, during 
the Summer. I think there would be uo loss 
pecuniarily, as more of the butter made after 
leek season may be spared for market. 
Gladdys Wayne. 
•-*■*■■*■— - 
HOUSE-CLEANING. 
Lilian sat down toconsiderthe house-clean- 
iDg problem, determined thus to banish the 
Elf who persisted in appearing to her when¬ 
ever she stole time for a good re6t or a half- 
hour’s reading, maliciously insinuating “How 
about that house-cleaning?” 
“ Yes, sir” she said as she sat down energet¬ 
ically. “ Now, I'll tell you about that house¬ 
cleaning.” BubshefeJl into a brown study, 
murmuring. “ Given a house to be cleaned: 
conditions, no strength for extra work, no 
help.” 
It did look impossible. But, she added 
desperately, “It must be done. Ah! I have 
it: substitution. The regular work must be 
diminished to take in the interloper. ” 
But dismay followed the bright thought, as 
she said “Where? I feel like a shirk already, 
and am scarcely able to keep up the appear¬ 
ance of a good housekeeper.” 
She could think of no part that could pos¬ 
sibly be contracted except the regular cleaning, 
two days in the week. So she decided that 
just as far as decency would allow, this should 
be substituted by washing windows and ceil¬ 
ing, taking up carpets, arranging closets and 
the like. She would, as much as possible, 
adhere to her rule not to work about the 
house in the afternoon, and yet would try to 
keep some part of the house home like, so that 
the family should not feel the difference 
greatly. 
She allowed the month of April for her 
house-cleaning, which could easily have been 
done in a week by a well woman with no other 
work, and put in the proviso that she could 
use the month of -May, too, if it should be 
necessary. She would not worry about it, 
and was bound not to become sick, if it took 
her all Summer. Here visions of various in¬ 
terruptions ruffled her complacency a little, 
and she realized that the problem was not 
solved, but that she had only constructed a 
theorem which remained to be proven. How¬ 
ever she determined to put the matter out of 
mind so that it should not be a dread to her 
knowing that: 
*• We fear the things we think. 
Ami not the things that are, 
And that: 
We live In vain, each day we master not a fear.” 
Zena Claybournk. 
