765 
NOV II 
My barnyard did not supply quite enough to 
dress all of the wheat. A look over the fai m 
discovered, where the cattle had lain, several 
loads winch could be gathered up to enrich 
the wheat ground. It took two men and a 
team a day to do the work. Tne above facts 
should suggest the feasibility of saving the 
droppings lrom the cattle iu bummer as lar 
as possible. When the animals are left in the 
held overnight they usually scatter the drop¬ 
pings about, where they dry up and do very 
little good. If the cattle were driven into a 
yard overnight and the droppiugs collected 
mixed in a compost heap with other refuse 
which should be gathered from time to time, 
enough extra feriilmng material could be 
made for un entire crop of wheat, and the 
benefit would also be extended to succeeding 
crops of grass. This would be far more sen¬ 
sible than to let the natural accumulations go 
to waste and then buy commercial fertilizers. 
One is in and the other is out. 
The nicest eked koh vkiiy young pigs is 
sweet corn. They will thrive on it with very 
little milk. The evergreen variety of corn is 
the best, because it remains in the milk Che 
longest. A large patch of sweet corn has be¬ 
come a necessity at Kirby Homestead for pig 
feed. The stalks are fed to the old hogs and 
the ears to the young pigs. Tnere is uo food 
other than milk whicn seems to be so perfectly 
adapted to the wants of the pigs as the latter. 
They will not cloy on it; neither does it pro 
due© fever. It is easily digested and makes 
very rapid growth. 
Feeding Fattening Hogs. —It has taken 
two weeks of careful observation to find out 
just how much to feed fattening hogs and 
keep up their appetites. It may be put down 
as an established fact that when a pig has not 
a keen appetite it is not in a healthy condition. 
Nine ears of corn a day were allowed to each 
old hog at the start and the number was 
gradually Increased up to 36, or a basketful 
for a pen of eight. This is all that hogs will 
eat of corn and keep up a vigorous appetite. 
They have had each day an arrnf ul ol Bweet 
coru stalks which they ate greedily. A few 
raw pumpkins have also been given which 
they relished very much. When the corn 
stalks are all fed out, sorghum stalks will be 
given. I consider these corn stalks to be 
almost invaluable to feed in this connection. 
Sulphur and charcoal have been put in the 
pens. Pigs wifi eat of these every day. Clear, 
cold water is kept in the troughs ail of the 
time. These old hogs are now fairly started 
for fattening. The corn will make the fat, 
and the green corn stalks and the sorghum 
the necessary coarse material to fill the 
bowels, and at the same time lighten the 
stomach. By this expression we mean, keep¬ 
ing the stomach from becoming packed with 
solid food like corn meal, or clear corn eaten 
by the pigs. For these reasons it is better to 
grind cob and all, and corn should always be 
fed in this way to any animal: something 
must be taken into the stomach more than 
what is digestible, or all of the functions of 
the animal beyond the digestive will be in¬ 
active. How long can they remain in a dor¬ 
mant condition and be healthy'! Not long. 
1 he gastric juices can better penetrate food 
mixed with some coarse material than when 
in a dense or compact form. Raw roots, 
pumpkins or apples are most beneficial to fat¬ 
tening animals for the above reasons. They 
also help to cool the blood, and prevent the 
animal from becoming feverish. 
Oainj 
SKIM MILK AND WHEY. 
PROFESSOR k. h. storer. 
It seems certain that, as population in¬ 
creases, and, especially, as correct informa¬ 
tion concerning the character, quality, and 
methods of using foods becomes more widely 
diffused among the residents of cities, much 
larger quantities of skim-milk and whey will 
lie used us human food than is now customary. 
Improved methods of preserving, transport¬ 
ing, and marfeting these secondary products 
from milk will be devised, to the great advan¬ 
tage both of farmers living at a distance from 
the city, and of persons of limited means 
within it. Even now, the demand for cream, 
on the part of wealthy and well-to-do citizens, 
necessarily leads to the production of much 
skim-milk near the cities, a good part of which 
(in Boston, at least) finds legitimate sale as 
skim-milk, to the manifest benefit of the 
poorer classes, and especially of their children 
for whom it would hardly be possible, in 
any other way, to obtain so good food, at 
so reasonable a cost. 
Professor Alexander Mueller, of Berlin, has 
1 eeently called attention to this subject, in 
the German “Mllch-Zeitung,” and has de- 
\ 
scribed some improved methods of preserva¬ 
tion, devised for the purpose of increasing the 
use of skim-milk and whey in that city. He 
urges that the chief reasons why so little use 
has hitherto been made of these products in 
populous places are the ignorance which pre¬ 
vails in respect to their high physiological 
value as food; the lack of practical knowledge 
as to the manifold, useful and appetizing pur¬ 
poses which they could be made to 3erve in 
cooking and baking; and particularly the 
difficulty of marketing such cheap and perish¬ 
able materials, i. e. of transporting them 
cheaply, and of preserving them effectively 
for periods long enough to relieve both buyer 
and seller from anxiety as to the risk of spoil¬ 
ing. With regard to the trouble last named, 
he considers it as good as proved that partial 
concentration of skim-milk or of whey, by 
evaporating in vacuum-pans, will be sufficient 
for all ordinary requirements. By evapora¬ 
ting skim milk to one-fourth or one-fifth its 
bulk a product is obtained which can be kept 
without special care lor a week or fortnight, 
according to the season and the temperature. 
Whey conceutrated to one-seventh or one- 
eighth its bulk, or still further, or even to 
dryness, if it is to be carried far—is by no 
means an easily perishable article. It has, in 
fact, long been prepared, in a somewhat crude 
way, in Norway, and in Switzerland. 
As regards the city of Berlin at the present 
time, the concentration of whey seems to be 
more important than the preservation of 
skim-milk, since the common practice there is 
to sell, in its natural state, as much skim- 
milk as there is a demand for, aud to make 
cheese from the remainder. The whey thus 
obtained, was formerly thrown away, because 
of the difficulty of keeping a large number of 
hogs in the city. The concentrated whey has 
been found, practically, to serve an extremely 
useful purpose in bread-making. Professor 
Mueller remarks that the quality of the bread 
is surprisingly improved, and that for this 
particular purpose, whey is decidedly better 
than fresh milk. 
Pfltiwltfgkjfti. 
DELAWARE PEACHES. 
P. M. AUGUR. 
Taking a Summer vacation, I went on board 
an Old Dominion line steamer at New York 
for Lewes, to spend a week among the Dela¬ 
ware orchards, about August 20. Of course, 
everywhere through Delaware peaches were 
in profusion. Wherever I stopped evapora¬ 
tors were at work, each establishment using 
anywhere from 100 baskets upwards daily, 
and taking many which could not ba shipped 
except at a loss, and by thus takiug up the sur¬ 
plus, allowing better prices for those shipped. 
In the course of my trip I fell in with the 
Williams, Alden, Automatic and Phillips 
Evaporators, and, so far as I could judge from 
the finished article, there was no important 
difference, all doing good work. But my 
chief errand was to see the orchards, with 
their bending loads of fruit, and so I proceeded 
on. from point to point, everywhere meeting 
double-deck wagons loaded with peaches and 
nothing else. In short, during my stay in 
Delaware outside the cities, I hardly recollect 
meeting a team loaded with aught but peaches. 
At Milford there were not less than 20 wagons 
at the station, either unloading or waiting for 
an opportunity to do so, and as fast as a half- 
dozen teams went away empty, as many more 
loaded came up behind. 
My special desire was to see the general 
health and productiveness of the orchards, to 
learn the longevity of the trees, the modes of 
culture, the list of varieties, and to see if the 
growers used any specific to prevent or cure 
yellows in the peach. The sum of my con¬ 
clusions would be about as follows: 
1 st. Peach grow mg in Delaware is a suc¬ 
cessful specialty, like the work of the Willim- 
antic Thread Co , the Cheney SUk Works, the 
Dalrymple Bonanza wheat farms, and many 
other specialties which are successful simply 
because there is an intelligent understanding 
of the work and a will and power to do it. 
As a rule, with here aud there an exception, 
the peach growers of Delaware are success¬ 
ful—eminently so. 
There is an appearance of age, health and 
maturity in the most of Delaware peach or¬ 
chards, that would surprise a Yankee exceed¬ 
ingly and lead one to say, How is this » Well, 
first, the soil is well suited to the peach. The 
surface In most of the Peninsula is level, the 
soil only moderately fertile; but it is com¬ 
posed of coarse sand, mixed with clay and 
loam in such proportions as to make it very 
friable and easily worked; indeed I think there 
is just enough calcareous and saline matter 
to make it a good soil for the peach; and on 
just such a soil, anywhere from Georgia to 
Maine, I believe, with Delaware management, 
the peach will succeed; and yet, in this soil of 
Delaware with bad management the peach 
does sometimes fail. In the tobacco district 
of the Connecticut Valley success is general, 
and yet it is always conditional; precisely so 
with the peach in Delaware—to tail to comply 
with the requisite conditions means to tail of 
success; aud yet I believe Delaware to be the 
best peach district in the world. 
How about the orchards .- 1 saw large or¬ 
chards well cultivated aud managed, in which 
I failed to see a single diseased or unproduc¬ 
tive tree. In oue orchard—that of Win. R. 
Phillips, of Milford—1 lound trees whose 
girth was 36, 37, 4(1, 43, 48 %, 44 inches, aud 
having a proportional head, all loaded with 
beautiful, delicious fruit, a large proportion 
of which went to the owner's three evaporat¬ 
ors which, like huge monsters, were using up 
peaches as fast as they could he provided, and 
the finished article was almost equal iu quality 
to the luscious fruit in his orchard which it 
left two hours before. Such wonderful speed 
in drying fruit would have been thought im¬ 
possible ten years ago. in nearly every in. 
stance where 1 supposed I had found diseased 
trees, I found, on examination, the borer at 
the base of the tree. This year’s peach 
crop, however, has injured many trees 
by breaking down the trees and exhaust¬ 
ing their vitality: the orchards will need 
one or more years’ rest, with good culture, to 
regain vitality sufficient to produce again. 
Meanwhile, we who have vigorous Northern 
orchards may, if the season favors us, have to 
supply an active demaud the coming year. 
In regard to varieties, those who have held 
to old, well tried sorts, have been most suc¬ 
cessful. Most of the very early varieties have 
rotted badly; still, those who had good Alex 
anders did get <2 to #3 per basket wheu they 
reached market in good order. Hale’s rotted 
badly; Beatrice were too small; Early Rivers 
rotted also. The best kinds this year were 
Mountain Rose, Crawford's Early, Crawford’s 
Late, OldmLxon Free, Reeves’s Favorite, 
Moore’s Favorite, Ward’s Late, Stump the 
World, and Smock. Salway does fairly well 
in some orchards, but is said to do better up 
the Hudson. Mary’s Choice I found all the 
way from very poor to best, according to cir¬ 
cumstances. With good care and culture aud 
not too heavy a load for the tree, it is fine; 
when overloaded, like all others, it is poor. 
Where persons find peaches shy of setting a 
crop, I should say try Mary’s Choice, and 
thin out if necessary—a thing, however, that 
very few will ever do, though those who 
have done it admit it is a paying practice al¬ 
ways, when needed. The Shakers at Enfield, 
Conn., last year thinned their Crawford’s 
Early, so that 140 made a bushel, and received 
at their nearest market $8 per bushel cash; 
when they have a crop they will try it again. 
Let all remember that fancy fruit brings fancy 
prices; it is the poor article that l>egs a market. 
The Mountain Rose takes the place of the 
Early York now. The Oldmixon Free is re¬ 
garded as having many good qualities, and 
can be raised probably more cheaply than al¬ 
most any other peach, and is excellent for can 
ning, except that the fashion now runs to 
yellow-fleshed peaches. Hence Reeves’s Favor¬ 
ite, Crawford’s Late and Smock take first 
places for canning. Richardson & Robbins, 
of Dover, use these varieties largely for can¬ 
ning. and a look through their establishment, 
from the receiving-room on, would satisfy 
the most fastidious epicure. Richardson told 
me that the Susquehanna peach would lead 
all othA if it were ouly more productive. He 
who can raise fine Susquehanna peaches may 
set his own price for them. 
Space forbids going over the whole list of 
peaches. Suffice it to say, that au early peach 
of good size and beauty, free at the stone and 
with good shipping qualities, ripening before 
or with the Alexander, might be a fortune to 
its first owner if rightly managed. Rumor 
says such a peach is iu hand in Southern Dela¬ 
ware; time will determine. Again; a peach 
as large and as good as the Susquehanna, suffi¬ 
ciently prolific and hardy, would be a de¬ 
cided acquisition. 
--- 
FRUITS IN NEBRASKA. 
The show of fruit at the State Fair which 
closed on the last of September, maintained 
the reputation of Nebraska as one of the best 
fruit-growing States of the West. Apples— 
the great staple—area full crop and the quali¬ 
ty is very fine. The long continued fine weather 
has given excellent color to the Winter fruit. 
Among the varieties shown the following are 
some of the most successful in this region. 
Summer: Cole’s Quince, Trenton Early, 
American Summer Pearmain, Keswick Codliu’, 
Hocking, Dyer, Striped Gillittower, Jefferis, 
English Red Streak. 
Autumn; Porter, Rambo, Autumn Swaar, 
Fall Pippiu, Autumn Strawberry, Vermont 
Strawberry, Mother, Maiden’s Blush, Rams- 
del Sweet, Fall Wine. 
Winter; Fameuse, Jonathan, Northern 
Spy, Winter Wine, Winesap, Ben Davis, 
Rawle’s Genet, Willow Twig, Grimes’s Golden, 
Dominie, YellowBelieflower, Stark,Wagener, 
Westfield-seek-uo-further, Missouri Pippin, 
Milam. 
Pears grow well here, but the blight has 
been very discouraging to planters. Fine 
specimens of the foliowiug were exhibited: 
Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Belle Lucrative, 
Howell, Seekel, Buffum, White and Gray 
Doyenne, Sheldon, Beurrfe Diel, Louis Bonne, 
Beurre D' Anjou, etc. 
The display of seedling peaches was the 
best ever seen here aud cue crop was very 
large. The State Horticultural Society has 
for years been doing good work in circulat¬ 
ing printed matter iu relation to orchard 
growing and giving every year corrected 
lists of the varieties of fruit which have 
proved successful. There are now between 
four and five millions of fruit trees planted 
in orchards in the State, and 45 millions of 
forest trees. 
Small fruits have yielded well and found a 
ready home market. Kictatinny Blackberries 
bore well, but they are uut entirely hardy. 
Snyder is iron-clad aud Black-cap and Turner 
Raspberries are always popular because relia¬ 
ble. There is a great opening here for small 
fruit growing. The great market to the west 
of us in the mountain region within twenty 
hours’ reach, calls for all that can be grown. 
The soil and climate are all that could be de¬ 
sired and any aspect can be obtained on the 
rolling prairie or in the warm Platte Valley 
The Horticultural Society exhibited 1000 
plates of fruit at the fair and the Union 
Pacific Railway 400 from counties along 
their line aud its branches in Utah and Idaho. 
The fine pears, plums anu peaches from Utah 
were very attractive. Apples there are suf¬ 
fering from a severe attack of the codling 
moth. The Union Pacific had a building on 
the fair grounds, which they will enlarge 
next year to double the present size. In it 
are exhibited each year samples of agricultu¬ 
ral products—fruits, minerals, specimens of 
natural history, fossils, etc., collected along 
the maia line and branches in Nebraska, Wy¬ 
oming, Colorado, Utah, Montana and Idaho. 
These make a very attractive and varied 
display. Around the building specimens of 
of eight varieties of the beautiful pines, 
spruces and firs, six to eight feet high, from 
the Rocky Mountains were planted for the 
occasion. Some of these were entirely new 
to many of the visitors thesilveiy spruce, and 
fir attracting special attention among the 
dark pines. A collection of grapes grown 
by Wm. Stolly of Hall County, Nebraska, 
150 miles West of" the Missouri River, was 
positive proof that the soil and climate of the 
great Platte \ alley are well adapted to grape 
growing. This vineyard has 1000 vines in 
bearing, a large proportion being 10 to 15 
years old. Thirty varieties are in bearing 
some being on trial, and the product this 
year will be four to five tons. Those shown 
were: Catawba. Delaware, Ives, Elvira, 
Taylor, Hartford Prolific. Hermann, Clinton, 
Concord, Cottage, Cythiana, North Carolina, 
and Goethe. Orchard planting reaches out 
three hundred miles west, and each year 
demonstrates that Western Nebraska will soon 
be a land of forests, orchards and vineyards. 
Omaha, Neb. » ^ 
Slrborkuiluml. 
LARCH-WOOD. 
DR. J. A. WARDER. 
A Plan for Tree-Planting on the open Prai¬ 
ries of Iowa and Elsewhere—Groves, Shel¬ 
ter Belts, Wind-Breaks and White Wil¬ 
low Sedge-rows on every Farm of 160 
Acres, or Quarter Section—Species Plant¬ 
ed— Modification of the Climate. 
An enterprising citizen of Illinois, who has 
already done good work at tree planting npon 
the open prairies, in anticipation of the settle¬ 
ment of the town of Normal, which has sprung 
up around the State Normal School of Illi¬ 
nois, has thus made himself a name, and de¬ 
servedly a fame also, as a benefactor. This 
will be acknowledged by all travelers on the 
two railroads that cross at that point, and cer¬ 
tainly by all the dwellers in that pleasant 
town, who may thank Jesse W. Fell for thus 
anticipating their need of shade by his exten¬ 
sive planting of street trees on the new town- 
plat some years ago. 
This inspired him to further effort, and he 
located a tract of land in the northern portion 
of Iowa—a region of open prairie that was 
absolutely without trees; Tor, in all that por¬ 
tion of the State taken together, the timber 
land amounts to but a single acre to the sec¬ 
tion—of a mile square—or one acre to 640 
acres. Here, then, was as fine an opportunity 
to test the benefits of systematic tree planting 
for shelter as could be desired. 
With the aid of some capitalists, a large 
tract of land was purchased; of this nine sec- 
