MAY 20 
3,f>4fi, a three-year-old, was struck off to S. 
M. Shoemaker, of Baltimore, at $3,550, The 
five-year-old cow, Garonne, 13,041, was struck 
off to H. S Russell, of Milton, Mass., at $3,700, 
and her yearling daughter went to the same 
buyer for $1,825, and her calf, three months 
old, to J. II. Walker, of Worcester, Mass., for 
$1,810, making an aggregate of $7,335 for the 
cow and her two calves. Victorine of Oxford, 
a three-year-old, was sold to Ex-Mayor Pierce, 
of Boston, for $2,525. During the week’s sale 
250 Jerseys were disposed of for $108,400, 
making an average of about $433. 
Instead of overloading the market the great 
number of cattle sold seemed to increase the 
demand, and to all appearances the market 
would have taken as many more. The next 
sale, at the same place, will be held on May 
23 when Hoe & Meads herds of Jerseys and 
Guernseys will be sold. 
fit'll Crops. 
NOTES ON THIS AND THAT. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
Hard Ground Crops. 
I sometimes think in preparing land for 
crops, not enough respect is paid to some of 
the more striking peculiarities of each, and 
especially in that which relates to tfoe roots. 
This leads me to speak of bard ground crops, 
among which I reckon wheat, onions, turnips, 
sweet potatoes and several others, not neces¬ 
sary to enumerate. To be sure, each of these 
plants is as fastidious as most others as to the 
fine tilth and fertility of its seed bed, but be¬ 
yond this requirement, they require down¬ 
ward a certain measure of compactness in the 
sub-soil. 
In the case of wheat, new beginners are al¬ 
most certain to err in preparing a deep and 
mellow seed-bed. This error is so nearly a 
universal one that wherever it is seen to ex¬ 
ist, there wheat will be found to be a compar¬ 
atively new crop. Thus, within the upper Cot¬ 
ton Belt in Southern Tenuessee and Northern 
Georgia, the popular idea prevailing that too 
much land and labor are devoted to cotton, 
recourse has been had to the Winter wheat 
crop, and largo acreages have been plowed 
and sown, upon which, in almost every case, 
the curse of a loose and spongy seed bed may 
be recognized. But in sections where the 
wheat crop has been more or less a success for 
half a century, the cultivator strives for a 
clean, well drained and compacted sub-soil, 
and no more than three or^our inches of a 
loose and mellow seed-bed, which, the seed be¬ 
ing once sown aud covered, he thereafter 
makes as solid as possible by the well weight¬ 
ed roller, or where the land is very cloddy, 
by the heavy drug plauks. A part of the ex¬ 
planation of this need for a compacted under 
seed-bed for wheat, arises from the peculiari¬ 
ties of the roots of the plant, which, though 
they travel hist aud far, even in the early 
stages of their existence, require that there 
shall be no solution of continuity in the me' 
dium through which they make their way. 
And so in regard to onions, in the mass of 
current information respecting them, who has 
recognized, or if recognized, who has suffi¬ 
ciently emphasized the fact that the chief 
secret in growing onions lies in knowing how 
to prepare the land to suit the reculiar re¬ 
quirements of the vegetable. The onion, like 
wheat, demands a very rich and shallow seed 
bed and a compact soil below. Where these 
conditions are found onions are sure to be a 
successful crop, apparently regardless whether 
the soil be dry or wet. The Calumet marshes 
south of Chicago, where a thin black soil lies 
over a compact blue clay, aud the Berea 
swamps iu Northern Ohio,where nut lc and per¬ 
manent moisture come within an iuch or two 
of the surface,are both remarkable for the pro¬ 
duction of onions. In these spots the nearly 
uniform moisture is offered as the secret of 
success. But what shall he said of the black 
prairie soil in a se&sou as dry as last year, 
which, properly treated, produced as fine 
onions as I ever saw—Silver Skins, Yellow 
Danvers, Weatlierfields, and other well-known 
varieties i And what explanation will be of¬ 
fered for those sandy soils along the Gulf 
coast, that grow onions as big as saucers, aud 
as sweet and mild as new milk ? The true ex¬ 
planation is, that in each and all of these soils 
the radicle system of the onion is separated in 
affording it a shallow seed-bed rich euough to 
feed the plant freely aud compact enough 
below.to offer that amount of resistance which 
compels the bulb to form at the so rface, but 
not compact enough prevent the small roots 
from penetrating it for the moisture required 
to sustain the whole plant. 
Of all crops Fall t urnips (that is, those of 
the round English varieties, which according 
a 
to the proverb, must be sown “ Twenty-fifth ” 
of July, whether wet or dry) are perhaps the 
most uncertain on the black soil. Why? In 
most cases because, as in the case of the onion, 
the root system of the plant is not respected. 
Generally in Illinois the land is plowed,harrow¬ 
ed aud fined just previous to sowing the seed 
and at the hottest and driest season of the year; 
if the seed germinates, it is because rain falls 
immediately or soon after the sowing, and if 
the plants live they are pretty sure to refuse 
to bottom, producing roots more like a beet 
than what turnips should be. If, however, the 
land is plowed at the time of corn planting or 
before, immediately thereafter liberally man¬ 
ured and the surface then harrowed and the 
weeds kept in subjection to the time of seeding, 
and after, just previous to it, the surface is 
gone over with a sharp-toothed harrow, and a 
seed-bed nut exceeding two inches in depth 
is prepared, and the seed then sown, the sur 
face rolled down hard and smooth, the result 
is pretty sure to be turnips w’hich are at the 
same time, large, round, smooth and good. 
But why failure in the firet instance and 
success in the last? Plainly because in the 
one, the peculiarities of the plant are not con¬ 
sulted and in the other, they are. In the South 
they have a way of growing turnips called 
“cow penning.” which, when the work is care¬ 
fully done, rarely fails to produce good crops. 
That is, the piece of land selected for turnips, 
is fenced in and cattle are confined thereon at 
night, for several weeks or months. When 
the time for sowing arrives the cattle are 
turned off, the land plowed shallow, fined and 
the seed then sown and the result is good 
crops. This method no doubt would prove a 
successful one on the mellow soils of the North, 
always provided there was no stirring of the 
soil beyond preparing a fine, mellow seed¬ 
bed, not exceeding two or three inches deep. 
I have said no crop so often fails on the black 
soil as Fall turnips; I will modify that state¬ 
ment and make the exception of sweet pota¬ 
toes , so far as the production of edible roots 
is concerned I question whether on rich aud 
mellow garden or other good soils, a bushel of 
fair-sized sweet potatoes has been grown within 
the last ten years for the five hundred plants 
set. Why ? Because the soil, being rich and 
mellow and also thrown into large ridges, 
does not offer the amount of resistance ne 
cessary to produce good single roots, but a 
multitude of small ones, together with a pro¬ 
digious amount of vine growth, which covers 
the ground like a mat upon, and three or four 
feet away from, the top of the ridges When, 
however, a soil with a sufficient proportion of 
sand can be found to offer resistance to the 
formation of potatoes, it may be fertilized to 
an almost unlimited extent and the result will 
Spring I sowed the seed in a hot-bed, and 
transplanted the young plants when about 
four inches high, setting them in hills, four 
plants to the hill. They were thoroughly cul¬ 
tivated, and kept entirely free from weeds 
through the season. In the Fall I dug the 
potatoes and was surprised to find tubers, not 
the size of a hickory nut, as I expected, but 
merchantable potatoes, many of which were 
from three to five inches in length. I sorted 
out a few that showed signs of variation, and 
the remainder I added to the heap of potatoes 
in the cellar. Was this a unique experience? 
[We have heard of potatoes from seed weigh¬ 
ing three-quarters of a pound the first season. 
In our own experience we have never raised 
them larger than a black-walnut. Eds ] 
Your suggestion that farmers should raise 
their own new varieties, is a good one. If we 
could get a hundred thousand farmers inter¬ 
ested iu growing seedling potatoes we could 
expect great results in improved varieties. 
Before we bid farewell to the Wilson Straw¬ 
berry, as being a reproach as compared with 
the newer and possibly better varieties, let us 
pay its disseminator a tribute of respect, by 
finding out who he was, and under what cir¬ 
cumstances he succeeded in giving to our 
country this great boon. Downiug says the 
Wilson was originated by the late James Wil¬ 
son, of Albany, N. Y. Who knows anything 
more about it? Also I wish to iuquiro when and 
by whom the Trtomphe de Hand Strawberry 
was imported from Belgium. E. S. Goff. 
N. Y. Experiment Station, Geneva. 
[The Rural cannot answer. Who can? 
Eds.] 
SmjfUmrnte, kc. 
BULLARD'S IMPROVED HAY TEDDER. 
The illustration which accompanies this ar¬ 
ticle ;See Fig. 151) represents the above-named 
implement, manufactured by the Belcher & 
Taylor Agricultural Tool Co., Chicopee Falls, 
Mass. Compared with some others of the 
many useful implements to which we have so 
many times referred our readers in these 
columns, the Hay Tedder is comparatively 
young, but its practical utility is fast becoming 
known to the progressive farmers, and the 
more it is used by them, the more indis¬ 
pensable it becomes. It not only saves much 
labor and time in spreading, but its use en¬ 
ables the farmer to cut and take care of near¬ 
ly double the quantity of hay be otherwise 
could; for, when stirred by the tedder, it dries 
much sooner than when left in swath; and 
Bullard’s Hay Tedder.—F ig. 151. 
be heavy crops of good sized roots, which, 
however, will be of poor quility. Why, 
again ? Why of poor quality ? Probably be¬ 
cause of too much nitrogen in the soil and the 
atmosphere and too many of the nitrates in 
the soil so highly fertilized. Too much nitro¬ 
gen always interferes with the production of 
sugar in plants, and hence the failures in beet 
sugar cultivation West, and hence the appre¬ 
hension that sorghum sugar growing will not 
-but here, being at the end of the sheet, let 
us stop. 
POTATOES FROM SEED BALLS. 
IN the Rural of April 29th, it is stated that 
potatoes grown from the seed will the first 
season form tubers from the size of a pea to 
that of a marble. I have had but one year’s 
experience in raising potatoes from the seed, 
but the result was quite [different from this. 
I saved seed balls from the old Prince Albert 
variety, washed out the pulp and dried the 
seed, precisely as we save tomato seed. In the 
another point of even greater importauoe to 
be kept iu view-, is the improved value of the 
hay secured, it will thoroughly turn aud 
spread four acres of heavy grass in an hour, 
and does the work so quickly that the process 
of turning can be several times repeated, turn 
ing ihe hay so thoroughly that it can be taken 
to the barn in the best condition, the day it is 
cut, aud the tedder will pay for itself in a 
single season on a farm producing 40 tons of 
hay. There are many other good reasons, 
which the discerning farmer will readily see 
why we use this space iu bringing this imple¬ 
ment to his notice. Until recently the present 
manufacturers have ouly had a local interest 
in the Bullard Tedder, which they now almost 
entirely control, and the reputation of the 
company for turning out first class agricul¬ 
tural implements will be carried into the man¬ 
ufacture of this implement, and our readers 
may be assured of its being made of the best 
material and iu a thoroughly workmanlike 
manner. Circulars and information will be 
furnished by the manufacturers. G. B. B. 
344 
ittxgcellcmmts. 
RURAL BRIEFLETB. 
To the half of a plot of peas we applied salt 
at the rate of five bushels per acre. These 
have not germinated as freely as the portion 
not salted.* 
Tie up the grape-vine canes securely; per¬ 
mit but one shoot of feeble vines to grow; 
use bone-flour and unleached ashes as fertili¬ 
zers. The old way of burying old shoes and 
bones and other rubbish about grape-vine 
roots, except as they tend to drain the land, 
is an utterly worthless practice. Such articles 
may be exhumed 10 years after burial and 
they will be found intact. If cuttings of 
grape-vines in bud or even in the first leaf are 
made and firmly pressed in the soil nearly up to 
the bud or leaf, and they be kept moist (almost 
wet) for two weeks, a large majority will 
strike roots. It is well to cover the soil about 
the cuttings with moss or some mulching 
material. We have struck green i.hoots out- 
of-doors in this way. 
We have never before unearthed in our 
gardening work so many potato beetles, all 
of them torpid to be sure but in an excellent 
state of prebervation... 
The season is a backward one and the 
promise of an abundant fruit harvest was 
never better at the Rural Grounds. We have 
had enough of frost during nights to retard 
the fruit buds; enough of cold during the days 
to preserve verdure in a haray, healthy, sup¬ 
pressed condition that soon, when frosts cease, 
will help to insure a full fertilization and set¬ 
ting of the blossoms. From fine fruit pros¬ 
pects we must except the strawberry. Plants 
never at this season promised less. The 
drought of last year, together with the depre¬ 
dations of the grub—all the more apparent 
because of the weakened condition of the 
plants—will insure a short strawberry season 
for this part of the country.... 
Let us again ask our friends bo provide a bar- 
relf ull—more or less—of tine sifted coal ashes. 
Dry them thoroughly so that they are like 
flour. There is no better substance with which 
to mix hellebore, Paris-green, London-purple 
or other insecticides—no other that can be 
used with less trouble in reaching the under 
as well as the upper side of the leaf. The 
fine ashes themselves are objectionable to 
the striped beetles which infest melon and 
cucumber plants, aud if applied when the 
leaves are moist with dew, they form some¬ 
thing of a paste much of which remains unti 
washed off by rain. This mixture (any poison 
in dry, fine coal ashes) may be thrown up in 
trees 10 feet high by the hand ami if there ia 
no wind a cloud of it envelops the foliage, 
settling upon every part. We first alluded to 
this mixture four years ago. It has been used 
and approved of by a number of our readers. 
For the currant worm, two tablespoonfuls of 
hellebore to a pailful of ashes will thoroughly 
rid 50 currant bushes during a season, if ap¬ 
plied while the leaves are moist—a far more 
economi cal and effectual method than that of 
mixing it with water, or applying it dry.... 
Mr. Adam says, in the N. Y. Tribune, tnat 
Mr. A. W. Cheever suggests that beat might 
be turned to good account in destroying the 
eyes and thus, by preventing germination, 
preserve potatoes for table use in Spring and 
early Su water. The plan is practised in this 
country, and is easily done. Simply pouring 
scalding water over the tubers destroys the 
germs, and if dried and put away in a good 
place they will keep indefinitely. Mr. Adams 
knows whereof he speaks for, being engaged 
in the grocery business, he has bought and 
sold them repeatedly. 
True. —While vinegar is a staple article, 
kept and sold by every grocer in our cities, says 
the above quoted journal, yet it is almost im¬ 
possible for our farmers to rind a market for 
u barrel of cider vinegar. This is not owiug 
to an overstocked market, but because the 
merchants in the cities can make a vinegar 
from the rinsings of molasses barrels, by add¬ 
ing acids and the like, that will sell and costs 
them almost nothing, and so this vile com¬ 
pound is sold to customers, while the pure, 
healthful eider vinegar is crowded out of the 
market. _ 
Staining Floors. —The best and cheapest 
and only permanent stain for floors is per¬ 
manganate of potash, says an[exeellent little 
book—“Hints for Painteis.” Buy it by the 
quarter pound, and at a wholesale chemist’s; 
mix about one-quarter ounce in a quart of 
water. Apply quickly and freely to a dry 
floor with either cloth or brush, the latter if 
you care fo« staining your hand. Repeat the 
