357 
MAY 27 
a 
account of the Bermuda Grass in your section 
being all killed by the Winter. Last year we 
had in our beds of experimental grasses a 
small bed of this grass which proved to be 
wonderfully enterprising, Bpreading over sev¬ 
eral times as much ground as was at first 
allotted to it It was left unprotected during 
the Winter, and this Spring it seems to be as 
vigorous as ever, and ready for another cam* 
paign. In another bed was the Johnson Grass* 
(Sorghum balapense). This grass produced 
seed last Fall, was left unprotected during the 
Winter, and comes out in fine shape this 
Spring.”. 
Malus Halleana. We have had this 
handsome shrub about six years and except 
that it is Hall’s Apple and comes from Japan 
we have no other record regarding it. It is 
very hardy, blooms profusely from May 10 till 
June and never fruits—or rather our specimen 
(we have but one) has never fruited. The 
flowers, borue in corymbed cymes of five gen¬ 
erally, are of the rich, vivid color of Gen. 
Jacqueminot Rose outside and of a rosy color 
within. The leaves are small and leather of 
the pear than the apple shape. We should feel 
obliged for further information as to this 
handsome shrub... 
Under date of April 23 a friend writes us 
that Dr. J. B. Ward, of Newark, New Jersey, 
had Beurrij d’ Anjou Pears yet to market. 
“No doubt,” the writer adds, “they will keep 
this fruit the year round.”. 
A letter to the Rural states that a friend 
of the writer recently sold over seventy head 
of crossed Devons and Short-horns to a single 
breeder in Colorado, and this breeder writes 
that he is greatly pleased with them and that 
they suit him better than any other improved 
cattle he has taken there. 
A friend sends us the following bit from 
the Beebe (Ark.) Times-... 
“Who can beat it? Mr. T. M. Battle, 
from his Btrawberry patch 75 feet square, real¬ 
ized this season $52.50 clear of all expenses. 
After the berries were gathered he sold about 
$15.00 worth of plants. They were of the 
Crystal City variety.”. 
This is certainly a fine early strawberry 
and yields its full crop in a comparatively 
short time. It is, besides, of good quality, 
bright color and firm. But we had supposed 
it was not very productive. 
Mr. A. M. Purdy says that the Hovey 
yielded with him last season on a light, 
sandy soil one of the heaviest crops of straw¬ 
berries he ever saw and ‘ the rows of fruit 
were a facsimile of the foot picture sent 
out by Messrs. Hale, of Glastonbury, Conn.” 
As has been said, we have never tried the 
Hovey and can therefore make no comparison 
between it and the Manchester, which in the 
Rural Grounds has proven both fruitful and 
vigorous. Evidence seems to accumulate that 
they may be the same) though this is bard to 
admit) in which case we must go back to 1S34 
to find the “Perfect”—the “Coming” Straw¬ 
berry I Such men as Peter B. Mead, F. M. 
Hexamet-, E.P. Roe, E. Williams, P. M. Augur, 
Wm. Parry, C. W. Idell, J S. Collins, J. T. 
Lovett, the American Drawing-room Agricul¬ 
turist and many others have seen the Manches¬ 
ter and, being small-fruit authorities, are pre¬ 
sumably familiar with the old Hovey, yet never 
Head Carried Horizontally.—Fig. 164. 
a whisper of the identity has been breathed in 
print. What are we to thiuk? What says 
Mr. Hovey himself? He has seen the Manches¬ 
ter and of all beri’ies still prefers his own 
Hovey. Must we admit that to get the best 
strawberry in the world—the coming straw¬ 
berry, the perfect strawberry—we must go 
back to 1834? Must we suppose that the lead¬ 
ing small fruit growers and authorities of to 
day are capable of bringing forth to the pub¬ 
lic as a very decided improvement over all 
other kinds a berry- tnat for years they have 
neglected as unworthy of appearing in their 
. 
The objections to tobacco, as stated by 
Professor Hinds in his recent work, entitled 
“The Use of Tobacco,” says the Journal of 
Chemistx-y, are the following: 
1. While it is a source of great present rev¬ 
enue to the people who cultivate it, it will in 
the end be detrimental to the country, be 
cause it is a crop which is very exhausting to 
the soil and soon wears out the land. Besides, 
it is not to the buyer a just equivalent for the 
money he pays for it. 
2. The use of tobacco is a habit which con¬ 
tinually grows stronger, at the same time 
weakening the will, and finally making man 
its abject slave 
3. Its physiological effects, unless it is very 
carefully and moderately used, are such as to 
warrant its abandonment, even if there were 
no other considerations. 
4. All its ill effects are transmitted from pa¬ 
rent to child, and usually with a weakened 
constitution and a disposition to intemper¬ 
ance. 
5. It is a filthy habit. 
6. It an expensive habit. 
7. It is of doubtful morality, because its 
consequences are bad. 
Inferior Butters, says Prof. Sheldon 
(England), are now being thrust out of the 1 
markets by oleomargarine. This is made 
from the fat of animals, melted down, and 
divested of all the fiber or stringy matter, the 
fat then being churned with milk or butter¬ 
milk. As a matter of fact, it was not butter 
at all; but he preferred it to inferior butter. 
To Protect Farm Tools.— The prepara¬ 
tion used by Professor Olmstead for the pre¬ 
servation of the scientific. apparatus of Yale 
College and which is just as good for many 
farm implements, is made by the slow melt¬ 
ing together of six or eight parts of lard to 
one of resin, stirring till cool. This remains 
semi fluid, always ready for use, the resin 
preventing rancidity and supplying an air¬ 
tight film Rubbed on a bright surface ever 
so thinly it protects and preserves the polish 
effectually, and it can be wiped off nearly 
clean, if ever desired, as from a knife-blade; 
or it may be thinned with coal-oil or benzine. 
Nothing Valuable Lost in Drying.—I n 
response to Mr. 
Hovey who 
doubts that in 
curiug, hay loses 
none of its nu¬ 
tritious prop¬ 
erties, Dr. J. R. 
Nichols says in 
the Mass., Plough¬ 
man, that if a 
SHEEP-FACE HEAD.-FlO. 163. pound of fresh 
grass or corn-stalks is placed in a glass x-etort 
and heat applied at a temperature of about 100 
deg. Fah. moisture arises from the mass, and if 
it is condensed by a refrigerating apparatus, it 
will be found to be pure water and nothing 
else; the grass will be gradually dried into 
hay, aud iu the hay will be found all, the nu¬ 
trient principles which existed in the grass. 
If the water which escapes from a field of 
mown grass, in drying iu the suu, could be 
condensed, it would be found to be pure water 
and nothing else.There is a rich 
odor to grass which is very volatile ; it escapes 
while growing, and when the grass is cut tChd 
vitality is arrested, it escapes freely. This 
principle is the same in nature as the od®r of 
flowers; it is ethereal, extremely minute in 
quantity, and has no value whatever. It 
makes a great manifestation of itself on every 
hay field in the season, aud has led many to 
think that it gave evidence of great loss. 
Such is not the case. In drying fruits the 
same changes occur; nothing but water es¬ 
capes; the pectin, gum, sugar remain be¬ 
hind. In drying, slight oxydation occurs, 
and the juices are thickened or hardened by 
the loss of water. 
Normandy Butter —Mr. Barter in an ad¬ 
dress published by the Irish Farmers’ Gazette, 
said that last Autumn he visited some of the 
dairy farms uear Bayeaux and Isigny, cele¬ 
brated as producing the best butter in France, 
and that which commands the highest price 
in the Paris market. The farms are gener¬ 
ally large, from thirty to ov er 100 cows being 
kept. The land is very rich, and the fields 
are divided by hedges, which give quite an 
“ English” look to the country. Nearly all 
the cows are tethered, and regularly shifted 
every day. By this means more stock can be 
carried on the land. They are kept out on 
the pasture as much as possible, and are given 
hay, bran, flour, mangels, aud carrots. These 
latter are highly recommended as a butter- 
producing food. The Cotentin breed of cat¬ 
tle is almost universally used. The cows ai-e 
large and heavy-looking, far too thick necked 
and bull-headed, he thought, for milk, but he 
was assured that some of them gave 53 pints 
of milk per day for a considerable time after 
cal vine. On some farms two or three Jer¬ 
seys are kept to improve the color of the but¬ 
ter. The cows are kept very clean, they are 
daily curry-combed, and their udders care¬ 
fully washed and dried. They are milked 
three times a day (at about 4.30 a. m., 11.30 
a. M., and 0 p. M.) The milkers go out to the 
fields on donkeys, with a kind of pannier 
slung on each side containing large brass 
vessels, which are always used in this dis¬ 
trict, having narrow openings, which can be 
securely fastened by a stopper, so that there 
is no danger of the milk being spilt on its way 
home. The farm houses within are a model 
of cleanliness; the kitchen and dairy utensils, 
which are nearly all of brass, being polished 
to the highest degree of perfection. 
The dairies consist of three apartments—1, 
milk dairy; 3, churning room; 8, washing 
room, with boiler. They are generally flag¬ 
ged, the floors having a good fall to caiTy 
off water. It is considered most im¬ 
portant that the supply of water for 
the dairy thould be very pure and good. 
The milk room is kept at a temperature 
of 50®, and is heated in Winter either by 
stoves or pans of charcoal. The milk is set 
in brown earthen pots, about 13 inches deep, 
which are placed on raised brick benches. It 
Flat-nose Head. — Fig 166. 
is skimmed three times, the first only stand¬ 
ing for twelve hours. The cream of this first 
skimming is kept separate. In some farms 
it is churned alone; iu others the cream of the 
second is mixed with it immediately before 
churning. The third skimming is only used 
to make inferior butter for home use. The 
skim-milk is used for vealing calves. In hot 
weather the cream is often changed from 
vessel to vessel to remove any deposit of sour 
milk at the bottom, which is considered to in¬ 
jure the quality of the butter if allowed to mix 
with the cream. The cream is put into the 
churn at the temperature it is in the dairy; it 
is not heated. 
The art of dairying in its practical bearing, 
and the manufacture of butter of the highest 
quality, are not, after all Mr. Barter said in 
conclusion such a very difficult subject. 
Scrupulous cleanliness and close attention to 
detail are the great secrets of success. 
Dr. Lawes says, in the North British Agri¬ 
culturist, that there is very little doubt in his 
mind that ammonia and nitrates are com¬ 
pletely washed out of the soil in the absence 
of living vegetation, or to put the same view 
in other words, that the only part of the am¬ 
monia or nitrates that escapes being washed 
out of the soil is that which, being arrested 
by the roots of plants, is deposited respect¬ 
ively in their stems, leaves, seeds and roots. 
Col. Piollkt characterizes hilling up po¬ 
tatoes as building water sheds over them 
while, during d ry weather, they need all the 
water they can get. ..... We im¬ 
patiently whip a horse for shying at a shadow 
and yet we are constantly doing the same 
thiug ourselves.Our funny con¬ 
temporary, Puck, talked ab >ut strawberries 
in a late issue—or rather the article was 
written by a Newburgh Professor of Straw¬ 
berries. We give the following specimens: 
Reddy the Blacksmith Round Top Seed¬ 
ling is described as a good family berry; but 
of no use in general society. The last crop 
was a failure, owing to the name, which 
wuighed heavily on the berry, and retarded 
its growth. 
Calithumpian Aurora is a beautiful 
boarding house berry, much admired by deal¬ 
ers. Owing to its modest and retiring habits, 
which impel it to grovel on the cold, cold 
ground, it is enabled to pick up and retain 
large quantities of sand and dirt: on which 
account it is sometimes called “Triumph of 
Real Estate.” or “True Grit ” This berry 
may also bo used by careful housekeepers in 
place of Bath brick. 
Salathiel Single Twist Prolific is a 
new and extremely popular berry. The orig¬ 
inal plant was crossed with a pumpkin, which 
gives the fruit a rich, spongy flavor, much 
admired by connoisseurs. It is large, oblate, 
and equinoctial about the zenith, and has a 
rich, yellow color which reminds one of the 
dusky maidens of Seville or an epidemic of 
yellow fever in the South. 
Kafoozleum Fur Tippet Low Seden 
tary the Professor consideis one of the finest 
berries he has ever seen. This berry is so 
phenomenally intelligent that, it can be trained 
to jump through a hoop and do light chores 
about the house.Mr. Pjiklps 
says: “In keeping a record. I found that I 
had several cows that I could not afford to 
keep another year.” .... The size of 
egg and size of fowl have no regular relation¬ 
ship—in fact the size of the egg has nothing to 
do with the size of the fowl.“ The 
freest govern- 
m e n t cannot 
loDg endure 
where the ten¬ 
dency of the 
law is to con¬ 
centrate wealth 
in the hands of 
the few, while 
Rhinoceros Head.— Fio. 167. the masses are 
left poor and dependent.” — Daniel Web 
ster. ..... Money cannot buy firuit 
trees in full bearing. .... Mr. Robert 
McCrone writes to the Iowa Homestead, sa\ s 
the N. Y. Tribune, that the secret of raising 
Winter squashes is to plant late, and when, 
the borer gets in, cover the vine six inches 
deep with earth. “ Burying the worn kills 
it,” he says, and “saves the crop—a sugges¬ 
tion which gardeners who have suffered from 
depredations of this pest will certainly 
think worthy of trial.” 
NEBRASKA CATTLE NOTES. 
This country hasbe«=n praised as a farming 
country by our State and county papers, 
which have been giving specimen instances of 
large yields of grain etc., when, in reality, 
these large yields were merely isolated cases. 
Now the truth is that half a crop is all that 
we can depend upon, on an average. We 
have too much of hot winds, drought, and in¬ 
sects, for a success f ul farming country. The 
old saying that God made nothing in vain, is 
true as regards this country, as we have one 
of the best if not the very best stock-growing 
regions in the United States. Cottle rnisthg, 
if carried on for five years, pa s enormous 
profits to the investor. Any man can see that, 
where pasture is free the year round and a 
quarter of a ton of hay per head is sufficient 
for our usual Winters as stock need care for 
only three to four months in the year, the 
business must be profitable. Plenty of free 
range here yet for thousands of cattle; but 
hay ranches will have to be bought, and there 
are occasional opportunities to buy, as some are 
always ready to soli aud go further West; and 
some have made their pile—as they 3ay here. 
This county also raises millet, yielding two 
to three tons of good hay per acre, as well as 
corn fodder, etc. We have good timber on 
our streams, good, pure living water, build¬ 
ing stone, and the healthiest climate in the 
Union. Our snow-fall averages six inches 
during the entire Winter; most of it -drifts into 
the canyons and the ground is usually bare 
in three or four days after the snow stoi-m. 
Scarcely any cloudy weather; nearly always 
clear and sunshiuy; nights cool so that the 
tired man or wife can enjoy a good night’s 
rest. Our bottom lands yield annually large 
crops of vegetables, corn, oats, barley, millet, 
vines, caue, etc. They are too rich for wheat, 
Bench and uplauds raise half crops of corn, 
wheat, barley and oats, good millet, cane, 
vines, beans, peas, upland rice, etc. We count 
the cost of raising cattle until maturity at $4 
to $8 per head, the difference in cost depend¬ 
ing on the hired help, losses, etc. The cattle 
sell at the following prices: cows, native, $30, 
aud if broken to milk, $35 to $50. If graded 
at all with the Short-horn, a three-year-old 
steer sells at $35; a two-year old at $35 to $27; 
a yearling at$lS to $20; calves $13. Now these 
cattle cost to raise, say $2 per year, and all 
can see the profit in the business. Our losses 
do not exceed two per cent, on fed and accli¬ 
mated cattle. Sailing them twice a week beeps 
them at home, on the l-ange, and the stock 
raiser’s time at work is spent in riding the 
range, feeding in Wiuter what little is needed, 
and putting up bay not to exceed, all told, 
euough for four months in the year. A man 
that cannot make 40 to 60 per cent, on cattle 
here, is of no account any whex e. Let no poor 
rp«n think that this is the place for him, for 
