'4 
\ 
THE BUBAL UEW-VOBiEB. 
foreign growers whom men are so anxious to 
tax, are the one assistant force which is staving 
off riot, disease and death from our crowded 
towns.—Ag. Gazette (Eng.) 
manure will restore the sod, provided the seeds 
or roots are there to make one, 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
labor needed to prepare the ground well. I 
have much better soil on my farm, but I chose 
the present spot on account of its sloping 
and offering no place for the water to stand. 
I am told that it does well seeded down with 
barley. This knoll of land does not keep the 
snow aud is, of course, not well protected 
during the winter; in fact, it is one of the 
most exposed places on my farm. If I had 
read some of the books, I would not, perhaps, 
have chosen this spot. Now- of the roots have 
been winter-killed, so that it has proved hardy 
so far. 
face, provided it lies in soil constantly moist. 
The proper depth to obtain the most favorable 
conditions, is between one-half iuch on heavy, 
moist loams and clays, and two and one-half 
on dry, sandy loams. 
Plants, like animals, have their periods of 
infancy, youth, maturity and old age. The 
perfection of the two last, depends materially 
on the developing influences of the first two. 
A hot-bed growth which crowds the plant 
through all these periods with nnnatural ac¬ 
tivity, is not favorable for the best develop¬ 
ment in either of these, and lessens the result 
sought in large returns. Tillering is effected 
in the period of iufaucy and youth. The 
shorter tills period and the more unfavorable 
its attendant circumstances, tbe less the de¬ 
velopment. ThiB is illustrated in the growth 
of spring wheat sown from the 20th of April 
to the 10th of May; after the copious rams of 
spring have passed, the elear, warm suu-light, 
and comparatively dry soil of June hurry it 
rapidly to the July harvest, it tillers very 
little; it has no time, and produces but few 
more stalks bearing heads than the number of 
seed grains sown. Therefore we sow a bushel 
more of spring thau of winter wheat to the 
acre; aud of winter we sow more the middle 
of November thau the first of October. Those 
circumstances of abundant moisture, cool but 
not cold weather, which give the time and 
power for wheat to tiller freely, exist iu the 
The wheat grower, therefore, if 
Diseased .Meat. —Dr. Carpenter says that 
animals fall an easy prey to every kind of epi¬ 
demic; for all sanitary laws are, as a rulu, 
ignored by farmers. He was not surprised 
when an inspector from the Metropolitan Meat 
Market declared upon oath in Ihe Croydon 
Police Court that 80 per cent, of the meat 
which was sent to the London market was the 
subject of tubercular disease; aud that to ex¬ 
clude diseased meat from the market would be 
to leave the metropolis without an adequate 
meat supply. 
Tomatoes. —In this latitude (84° N.) toma¬ 
toes come into general bearing by the 1st of 
July, and by August they rapidly deterioiate. 
being no longer good for salad, and calling for 
For autumn use in 
much sugar in cooking 
cooking and for catsup, we have always re- 
sortud to the volunteer tomato, which is spher¬ 
ical aud about the Bizo of a Chickasaw plum. 
With reference to the Acme, we noticed, as 
have many others iu your columns, that the 
first, earliest fruit was curiously defective in a 
ring of the size of a dime at the “ flower eud.” 
After the first week of ripening this defect en¬ 
tirely disappeared ; the fruit was abundant, 
beautiful aud maintained its superiority of 
quality up to our first frost, ou the 3d of No¬ 
vember. They were never bitter, aud contin¬ 
ued to make good salad to the last. Hence¬ 
forth we abandon all other sorts until a 
better oue appears. In cultivation we give 
abundant space, two feet apart, in the row. 
Wo take our pea brush, which is then ready 
for removal, aud stick it iu two rows on cither 
side of the tomato row, with top3 inclining in¬ 
wards. When the tomatoes get above the 
brush, we clip with a sickle, giving the row the 
uniformly rounded top of a hedge, which we 
maintain by subsequent clippings during the 
season. It makes an ornamental hedge, giving 
abundance of delicious fruit. The vines are 
frequently relieved from ripened and defective 
fruit, and uuy excess is token to the poultry 
yard, to the great comfort aud benefit of its 
voracious denizens. c. w. s. 
Maturity op the Cow Pea.—J. A. F. 
writes us from Terre Haute, Ind., that the Cow 
Fca has been grown there, in latitude 3'J° 30’, 
in a small way for mauy years, fully maturing 
its seed. Indeed, so far as he knows, it has 
beeu grown for its seed alone, to be used as 
food in winter, lie has kuowu aud heard of 
its being grown there for 20 years. The Crow¬ 
der aud Lady Pea are those mainly grown 
there, and they are esteemed by some for 
tabic use. 
Possibilities of an Acre. —Waldo says in 
the Ohio Farmer that he remembers one year 
making a very large profit from an acre of 
land, managed in this way: He first grew a 
crop of Tom Thumb peas, which matured in 
time for cucumbers, for pickles, and then be 
grew 500 bushels of turnips, sowed broadcast 
among the cucumbers. He found that these 
crops will mature without crowding each 
other, if properly managed. 
Polled Angus— The Earl of Airlie, writing 
to the North British Agriculturist, under date 
December 26, 1878, says“ I have at preseut 
seventeen pure Polled Angus milch cows in 
my dairy. The greater number of these give 
from 13 to 14, and sometimes 16 Scotch pints 
for a considerable time after calving. The 
milk is admitted to be much richer thau that 
of either the Short-horn or the Ayrshire.” 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT, 
[The object of articles under this heading is 
not so much to deal with “ humbugs” as with 
the mauy unconscious errors that creep into 
the methods of daily country routine life.— 
Eds.J 
fall mouths. 
he would avail himself of this habit of the 
plaut, should sow this grain about the first of 
September in middle New England, while in 
the southern part of t he Middle States the same 
result might I e reached if it was sown three or 
four weeks later. 
The next cause of abundant tillering is food. 
Good cattle arc the result of good and abun¬ 
dant food judiciously supplied, aud that con¬ 
tinuously through all the period of their de¬ 
velopment. It is exactly so with wheat. There 
may be over-feeding which will umuuut to un¬ 
natural growth and injury in both cases. 
Stuffing aud starvation should both be avoided 
and the best food for the young calf and the 
young plant, may not be the best for Lhu ox or 
the plant iu an advanced state of growth. 
Tillering takes place iu the infancy and youth 
•of the plant, and if at that time, its short and 
not fully developed roots arc surrounded by 
an abundance of actual food, which can he 
taken up by simple absorption, their complete 
■development does not occur, tillering is defi¬ 
cient, the plant is over-fed aud baateued on to 
unnatural maturity, at which time its root 
power is not sufficient for Us perfection. The 
young plaut to tiller well, should bo well, but 
not over-fed and stimulated to a too rapid 
growth. Yard manures aud composts which 
have passed through their active stage of de¬ 
composition, but iu which that change willyet 
go slowly ou for weeks and months, will pro¬ 
duce the result we seek, and carry the work ou 
to completion. The same result may be pro¬ 
duced by more active chemical elements; hut 
iu this case the manures should bo intimately 
mingled witli the soil a sufficient time before 
sowing the seed, to have their intense activity 
modified hv action ou the soil Itself. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT SORREL 
Color in Butter.— The Channel Islands 
breeds almost invariably possess the faculty of 
conveying a yellow hue to the butter. This 
gift is personal. Some cows of all breeds 
have it when in full milk, but the Chauuel 
Islands breeds have it in the greatest measure, 
and retain it for the longest period after 
calving.—Dairy Farmer. 
T. II. HOSKINS, M. 1), 
Col. Curtis is quite correct, as far as he goes, 
in what he says (p. 803) about the use of lime 
to prevent the growth of sorrel. But he is sin¬ 
gularly iucorrect iu saying that " Men of sci¬ 
ence sometimes tell us that sorrel is an effort of 
nature to get rid of the acid in the soil, aud as 
a remedy for theacid condition of the soil, aud 
to get rid of the sorrel they rccouimeud the 
free use of lime to sweeten the ground, thus by 
removing the cause, to cure the evil.” I am 
astonished that the intelligent Colonel should 
say this, and 1 think it would puzzle him “ aw¬ 
fully ” to produce the first line or word from 
the writings of auy mau having any title to be 
called a "man of scleuce,” iu proof ot his . 
hasty allegation. " The truth about it is that 
this belief is a popular error, against which not 
ouly men of science, but mauy practical farm¬ 
ers, have been contending for years. The con¬ 
clusion that the acid of sorrel comes from the 
acids which exist in sour soils, is oue of those 
hasty generalizations, the apparent plausi¬ 
bility of which is very attractive to people 
with uo scientific training. But even a tyro in 
science knows that the acids of acid plants and 
fruits come ,not from the soil, but from tke.at- 
mosphere; while the observing, practical farm¬ 
er rcluses to swallow the theory because he 
has frequently observed sorrel to grow luxuri¬ 
antly alongside of a lime-kilu, or by the side 
of a pile of ashes, and has also noticed that 
sorrel is hardly over secu iu auy abundance 
upou sour soils, while it thrives aud grows 
abuudantly ou the very sweetest lauds, wiieu 
other aud stronger plants are prevented from 
ehokiug it out. 
Nevertheless, we sometimes find iu p ractice 
that in a field dressed with lime or with ashes, 
the sorrel will disappear, aud that a heavy 
growth of grass and clover takes its place. 
Buch occurrences are oftcu quoted by those 
who hold to theaour-sOil ” theory, regardless 
of the fact that such au event never happens in 
a really sour soil. The explanatiou of such a 
change, wheu produced by the use of lime and 
ashes, is very simple indeed. We find sorrel 
takes possessiou of our mowings under two 
conditions 
An Excellent Example.— Our friend, 
W. C. H., of Walden, Orange Co., N. Y., hav¬ 
ing sent iu a number of subscriptions, refers 
to one of them as follows “ This address is 
that of a boy sixteen years of age, who has 
been employed by me during the last eight 
mouths, aud who, during that time, has taken 
each a great interest in the Rural, and, con¬ 
sequently, so much the greater interest in my 
work, that I have decided to present him with 
the paper for the ensuing year. His wages 
have beeu paid to his father, aud hia portion 
-for his summer work is represented by a pair 
of skates. To-day I offered him a preseut of 
$2 or a year’s subscription to the Rural. He 
did uot hesitate iu his choice for a moment, 
but thanked me for the gift, and said he 
thought the paper would do him the most 
good. Wise boy ! Every week he has had the 
privilege of reading my copy, and I have been- 
surprised at the large and useful fund of in¬ 
formation he has gleaued from its rich col 
umus. Although l have made it a practice to 
have my Rukxls bound, I have found that by 
letting my work boys read them, they take a 
much greater interest in the work, aud my 
papers are but little injured.” 
Scotch Polled Cattle. —Mr. W. B. Allen 
says that the black Scotch Polled, though ad¬ 
mirably suited for breeding bullocks on the 
ranches of our Western plains, cannot be made 
generally popular among Eastern farmers, on 
account of their color aud usual deficiency for 
The Victory Corn Mill. 
This efficient mill for grinding corn, corn 
and cob, oats, barley aud all other grains for 
feediug stock, as well as bones, shells aud 
charcoal, weighs 400 pounds, costs $45, aud is 
manufactured by Thus. Roberts, Springfield, 
Ohio. Of the advantages of grinding feed for 
stock we have spoken so often that it would 
be superfluous to repeat them here. All these 
advantages can be secured by the use of this 
mill. Every part of it is duplicated, so that 
any broken piece can be readily replaced at a 
WHAT OTHERS SAY 
LUCERNE HARDY IN CANADA 
Catalpa speciosa. —Professor C. S. Sar¬ 
gent, of Cambridge writes to the London Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle as follows: "Permit me to 
correct an error which appears in the account 
of Catalpa speciosa in your issue of Nov. 1. 
The fact that there are two species, or two 
very distinct forms, of North American Cat¬ 
alpa was first noticed and made kuowu many 
years ago by Dr. J. A. Warder, of Ohio, to 
whom, and to Mr. E. E. Barney, ot Ohio, is 
due the credit of having brought the very re¬ 
markable economic properties of this tree to 
public attention, my own connection with the 
matter haviug been entirely subordinate to 
theirs. I take this occasion to call the atten¬ 
tion of European planters to Catalpa speciosa. 
It is in every Avay a far finer, aud a more 
rapid-growing tree thau Catalpa biguouioides, 
and should it succeed iu Europe, as from its 
geographical range iu this country I am led 
to believe that it will, it will prove a most 
valuable addition to the list of your ornamen¬ 
tal and timber-producing trees.” 
The following is a letter sent to us by a 
friend in answer to our inquiries. He resides 
at St. Lambert’s opposite Montreal :— 
In reply to your inquiry about Lucerne, l 
have to say that I have about three acres of it, 
which I have cut over for three years past. 
The soil is light aud deep upon a clayey base ; 
the laud slopes iu two directions aud no loafer 
can stay upon it. I cleaned it well with root 
mops two years previously. I sowed the land 
in the spring broadcast, of course, after fall 
plowing aud thorough harrowing. Iu a mouth 
I was disappointed aud disgusted with a crop 
of weeds. Being busy with other work, I let 
them grow some time louger. Wheu, how¬ 
ever, we mowed the weeds the Lucerne was 
up about six inches. We happened to have 
summer showers and it started up immediate¬ 
ly and in another month we had a fair crop of 
it. I cut it a second time, the weeds haviug 
beeu killed out. We cut last year aud this ou 
the 1st day of June and of the following July, 
August and September. After having obtained 
four ciops each season, feeding four horses 
and two bulls (one feed of hay per day for the 
animals), I am quite satisfied with it. The 
roots have gone down over two feet, 1 gave 
it a top-dressing of plaster this year, but do 
not think it did much good. I intend to top- 
dress it with a compost of barnyard manure 
and earth from ditch cleaning. I should pre¬ 
fer well rotted manure if I had enough of it. 
We had fine crops this year. One month 
we had no wetting rain whatever, yet the Lu¬ 
cerne was undiminished and gave us a good 
cut. Iu starting this crop, look out for water; 
some of my furrows were not well made, and in 
the spring retained the water wliich killed the 
Lucerne in those spots. I can improve in my 
next attempt by worklug the luud more care¬ 
fully. They say it will last tweuty years with 
careful top-dressing, so that it is worth the 
•First, the clover or grass may be 
winter-killed, in which case the miuute plants 
of sorrel (which are to he found all through and 
among the grass in all mowings on light soils) 
rapidly grow and multiply from their innumer¬ 
able branching roots, aud iu a very few 
weeks entirely till the ground, so that where, 
the preceding year, hardly a spear of sorrel 
would have been apparent in the thick growth 
ot larger plants, we now find, early in June, a 
crop which seems, by the prevailing redness, 
to be all sorrel. The second condition under 
which sorrel takes the lead is where the 6oil 
has become exhausted by continued pasturage, 
or by successive mowings without auy fertiliz¬ 
ing application. Here the weaker sorrel grad¬ 
ually get6 the upper hand as the stronger 
plants perish, or become weak for lack of sus¬ 
tenance. 
Now, in either of these cases, if we dress lib¬ 
erally with lime or ashes, the weakened grasses 
and clovers may start up with renewed strength 
aud overgrow the sorrel, thus reducing it to its 
normal state of subjection ou all fertile soils 
that are seeded with anything better. If the 
alkaline application fails to give the grasses 
superiority over the sorrel, It is because some¬ 
thing more (probably nitrogen) is needed. Iu 
such cases a top-dressing of good, fine stable 
Planting the Branches of Apple Trees.— 
Henry 8. Young, of England, says that a 
neighboring farmer, sume six years since, 
planted two branches of an apple tree, one 
the size of an ordinary walking-stick, the 
other four times the size; both were planted 
in a garden, about six inches deep, and both 
bore fruit the following year. They bear well 
now, look healthy and vigorous, and bid fair 
to do so for many years to come. These 
branches were cut with a cross piece at the 
bottom: they were uot pruned, aud were plant¬ 
ed the middle of December. 
The Optimus Return Butter Pails, manu¬ 
factured by James B. Gilbcrds, Jamestown, N. 
y aud favorably noticed in our last issue, 
bore away the first premium iu articles of that 
kiud at the late International Dairy Show. 
Th« same enterprising manufacturer took first 
premium tor butter firkins also. These goods 
are strongly made aud are deservedly gaining 
a large sale and wide popularity. 
Why Complain ?—America gets our cash, 
ouly because wo waut her grub. It is idle to 
complaiu because we have to pay for what, 
this year, we sorely want, and to snarl because 
we cannot tax those who are saving us from 
famine. This is the truth of the position. The 
