42 
JAN.47 
THE BUBAL NEW-YORKER. 
(Sbtmtobm. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Kentucky, Miltou, Trimble Co., Jan. 3.— 
The Rural has repeatedly expressed the opin¬ 
ion that the price of potatoes would rule low 
the present season, But the light crop in Ken¬ 
tucky, Indiana and Ohio induced me to believe 
the Rural would be mistaken ; and I refused 
40 cents per bushel early in the season. But 
now, after paying 10 cents per bushel for coop¬ 
erage. five oouts per bushel for freight and 10 
cents per bushel for drayage, storage and com¬ 
mission. I would gladly accept 50 cents per 
bushel. In other words, had I taken the 
Rural’s advice, I would have been at least 15 
cents per bushel better off to-day than 1 am. I 
am now holding my hogs npon the strength of 
the Rural's statement that the present depres¬ 
sion in the price of hogs would be only tem¬ 
porary. We shall see. The thermometer went 
down to 15® above zero on Christmas Day-, 
which was the coldest day of the season, so 
far. We have had hut one snow, and that was 
barely enough to make a while instead of a 
green Christmas. 8. E. h. 
North Carolina. Raleigh, January 0.— 
I have been quite familiar with " Cat Tail," 
or, as the Rural calls it. “ Pearl Millet,” for 
tlfe past twenty years, and cau bear testimony 
to its value as a green food for cattle, and 
especially for milch cows, lu these parts we 
have not used it as a dry food to any extent. 
I wa« quite successful with it the past summer, 
cutting it four times, and 1 think in an ordin¬ 
ary summer it might have been cut six times. 
We suffered from an excessively dry season, 
aud hence the crop fell short. I should not 
hesitate to recommend it in this part of North 
Carolina, and think it will do belter south of 
this; indeed I have seen it made profitable 
south, and if I am not in error, our first seed 
was brought to North Carolina from Charles¬ 
ton, S. C. 1 think the Doura, which by some 
is called Pearl Millet, would prove a valuable 
crop; but the birds play havoc with the seed, 
as they do with Cat Tail Millet seed, and a 
planter must purchase his seed every year or 
keep a ‘‘darkey” with musket and final! shbc to 
shoot or scare the birds away. 
I read the Tea Plant article that lately ap 
peared in the Rural, with some interest, cepe^ 
daily as I know a gentleman in this State who 
has for the past twenty years raised his own 
tea, and that of n flue quality, from seed 
planted by himself. The seed was sent out 
from the Department of Agriculture some 
twenty or twenty-five years ago. 
I am glad to see Prof. Ledoux writes for the 
Rural, I a u one who thinks that our “ Ex¬ 
periment Station ” is a long step ahead for 
North Carolina, and sincerely believe we are 
already feeling its good effects. Your speci¬ 
men of Cow Pea would do credit to us who 
raise them in perfection. The pea vine forage 
is equal to the best hay, if the vine is cut when 
the pod is just formed. It is, however, harder 
to cure than any other forage; but it pays for 
the trouble. 
If your seedsmen who have 11 Pearl Millet," 
Doura,” or “ Teosinte ” seed for sale would 
adveriise, we would know where to buy. I 
desire to try some ol each to test them, but do 
not know where to find the beed. p. 
N. Y., Crumb Hill, Madison Co.. Jan. 0. Corn 
was about half a crop here; oats were good ; 
potatoes fine both in quantity and quality; 
fruit light aud it rot6 in the cellars badly. We 
have had a large quantity of snow, but little 
remains now. It was a good fall for fall work 
of all kinds. l. p. n. 
Ohio, ML. Vernon, Kuox Co., Jan. 3.—We 
have had very cold weather here this winter, 
the thermometer standing a good part of the 
time at from 5® to 8® below zero. The winds 
have been very cold; the trees are covered with 
ice from sleet; but there is very little snow. 
The prospects for ice are so far poor, as the 
waters are high and ice cannot, form. X have 
mulched my winter spinach with beau vines 
which I find to be the best covering. They are 
not too warm or close, catch what snow there 
is aud cau be easily removed. Potatoes are 
still very low; No. 1 stock 80e. per bushel. 
Corn is King here this season, bringing 50c. 
at the crib by the 100 bushels. Wheat sells a t 
$1.25; oats, 30e ; beans. $1.40; onions, $1.75 
and scarce at that. Real estate is on the rise, 
and that is a good sign. Good farms cannot 
be had here close to the town, under $100 per 
acre. Our farmers are beginning to be alive to 
worth 20@25c. Oats were good, worth 30c. 
per bushel; wheat, $1.05; hay, $10.00 per ton. 
I don’t think very much of the Pearl Millet; 
our season is not half long enough : of the 
Blount’s corn we had about three-quarters of a 
bushel of ears—about the size of our common 
pop-corn, and stalks about 14 feet high. The 
Beauty of Hebron potatoes did well, consider 
lag the hot and dry weather we had when they 
were setting. j. & n. 
O., Jerry City, Wood Co., Jan. 4. So far we 
have had a mild winter, with only two or 
three cold days, and but little 6now. Wheat 
was injured considerably in the full by dry 
weather and the fly. Pieces that escaped in¬ 
jury look splendid and have not been 
damaged by freezing as yet. A large acreage 
wus sown, of which a small percentage will 
probably be plowed up in the spring for oats 
or corn. All kinds of stock are looking well, 
but should the winter prove a long one, rough, 
feed will be scarce except straw. There is a 
iair amouut of grain in the country for this 
time of the year. We have a large quantity of 
fine timber principally Cottonwood, Sycamore, 
Oak, Elm and Ash. There are four stave 
factories in tue couuty, that manufacture mil¬ 
lions of staves every' year. Mouey is " toler¬ 
ably - ’ abundant; prices for stock aud produce 
tolerably” good. Good work-horsed are 
worth from $75 to $125; milch cows, $25 ; fat 
hogs, $1 per HKI lbs ; cattle, $3; chicken*, 
4 ecu is per pound ; turkeys. Scents; butter, 
18 cents; eggs, 18 cents ; wheat, $1.25; corn, 
43 cents; oats, 30 cents; laud $40 to $50 per 
acre. h. w. 
Pa., Poughtown, Chester Co., Jan. 5.—The 
weather was very fine here the past fall, so that 
a great deal of out-door work was done. 
Lately we had a good deal of rain so there i6 
plenty ol water in the rivers aud springs. 
D. u. 
Virginia, New Market. Shenandoah Co. 
Jan., 4.—l'irnes are belter here than they have 
been for some time; this is owing to belter 
prices for produce aud a better prospect, 
for wheat etc., for next harvest. This is a 
grain-growiug section. Wheat is just recov¬ 
ering from the long drought we had here. 
Some wheat has not come up yet. We did 
not have rain enough to settle the giouud 
from the 15ih of Sept, until the (kh of Dee. 
Since then showers have been seasonable, 
aud grass aud wheat have grown a great deal. 
We bad very little raiu iroiu the time the c-j.-u 
was planted until it was matured, and con¬ 
sequently wells aud springs iu some parts of 
the country dried up. We did not have au 
average wheat crop, and not more than two- 
thirds ol a eoru crop ; other grains in propor¬ 
tion. Plenty of garden truck. Farmers here 
feed their surplus corn mostly to cattle and 
hogs, aud ship very little; freights are hi^h 
here. Prices are:—beeves, 3l,c. to 4^c. per 
pound ; hogs. 31. to 3^ j ; chickens, live, 5c. to 
0c ; ducks, 20 to 25e. each ; turkeys. 7 to 8c. 
lb gross; waeat, 81.83 to $1.87 ; corn, 50 to 53r 
rye, 60 to 70e ; oats, 40 to 42c ; bacon, 7 to 0c. 
per lb ; butter, 20c; eggs, 20c; lard, 5 1 to 6c; 
clover-seed, S to 8ie; onions $1.00 to $1.25; 
flax-seed, $1 00 to $1.25; beans, white $1 80 to 
$1.00; mixed 75c. lo$1.00, apples, 40 to 45«. 
We have had very little cold weather yet, 
just u slight skim of -mow and sleet together 
a few weeks ago. We had a pretty heavy lot 
of icicles on the night of the 13;h of Dee ; they 
broke do wu u good many trees aud tree-tops 
etc., but by evening of the 14th, nearly all the 
ice had disappeared. The col ties l weather wo 
had this winter was four deg. above zero. 
Corn is mostly husked and cribbed aud the 
fodder is nearly all gathered. People predict 
a mild winter. Wo have good pasture yet. 
E. 8. w. 
®j)f gainst. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
the advantages of tile drains. 
Ohio. Hillsboro, Highland Co., January 8. 
We have had an open winter thus far. There 
have been a few cold snaps only last week, 
the severest being when the mercury stood 
6 degrees above zero; to-day it stands at 54 
degrees, and we are having plenty of raiu. 
The mud-roids are iu a worse condition than 
they have been for three years. Corn was Icsb 
than an average crop aud is now worth 40 
cents. Early potatoes were a short crop; 
worth 50c. PeachhlQWB were a good crop, 
Coarse or Fine Feed. 
It, A. H., of Menno, Pa., asks the relative 
effect and value of coarse, medium nod finely 
ground feed upon fattening cattle, remarking 
that some who were once in favor of the fin¬ 
est grinding, now prefer coarser ground feed. 
Ans. —There will always be different opin¬ 
ions upon this question until feeders study the 
effect of concentrated and bulky foods upon 
the bovine stomach. Naturally oatLle feed 
upon bulky g'-asses, and have four stomachs 
to manipulate this food. If you grind corn 
very fine aud moisten the meal, it iorms into 
M. w. I a very solid mass of adhesive dough. In this 
state it goes in the stomach when led alone, 
and forms a plastic bolus there. It is easy to 
see that the gastric j uice cannot circulate freely 
through this adhesive mass, aud can only 
work slowly upon the outside. Now, if ihe 
corn be merely cracked up into small granu¬ 
les, leaving small spaces between them, the 
gastric juice cau circulate among these, and 
when they are fed alone it may therefore more 
perfectly digest the food ju that form than 
wheufit is pulverized so as to form adhesive 
dough. Besides, the adhesive dough, lying 
in the stomach for some time undigested, will 
often produce a feverish aud unhealthy state 
of the system. But again, if we look to the 
real object of grinding grain, we see that the 
benefit must he derived from the comparative 
fineness of the particles, the finest ones being 
most easily saturated with the digesting fluid, 
aud therefore most easily digested. If you 
mix the most finely ground corn meal with Cut 
hay or gome bulky food, yon will prevent it 
from forming a plastic dough. The fiue par¬ 
ticles of meal being separated by the cut hay, 
the food will go into the stomach in a loose, 
spongy state, and the gastric juice can now 
circulate through the whole mass, and digest 
these fine particles of meal with greater ra¬ 
pidity. The finer llm meal, the more easily 
it is digested. The cut hay or straw should 
be first moistened so that the meal will adhere 
to it.. If there is any true philosophy in grind¬ 
ing at all, this reason is good all the way 
down to the finest grinding that can be done 
without heating the meal. The fault Is in feed¬ 
ing this very liue concentrated food alone. 
If our inquirer has not facilities for cutting 
hay, then the next best way is, to spread a 
thin layer of hay in the manger, sprinkle it 
with water and then sift on the linemeal; this 
will so adhere to the hay that the cattle must 
eat much of the latter with the meal and thus 
give hulk in the stomach. 
These are a few of the principles concerned 
in this question ; but we have not space to dis¬ 
cuss all the incidental points. Suffice it to say. 
that the writer has found very line meal to 
produce 20 per cent more milk when fed with 
cut hay, than when fed alone, iu a carefully 
tried experiment; and this must be caused by 
a more perfect digestion of ground feed, and 
the same rule will apply to fattening cattle. 
If the concentrated lood is to he fed alone 
(which never should be peimilted.), then it 
should be fed dry. 
The Southern Cow Pea Once More. 
W. O. Jr., Tra/ipe. Md., desires us to answer 
the following questions : 1. How thick ought 
the peas to he sown at tbelast working of a corn 
crop, to be plowed under in October for wiuter 
wheat? 2. How would it do on light laud to 
plow the wheat stubble the latter part of June 
or the first part of July and sow in peas; the 
latter to be turned under for wheat iu October? 
What quantity should be Used and how planted? 
3, Is not the yellow pea the best for fertilizing 
purposes on thin laud ? 4. What quantity of 
lime should be used? Should it tie applied 
before or after the vines are plowed'uuder, or 
later with the drill when seediug the wheat. 
5 IIow would it do to sow Bermuda grass and 
red clover with oats iu spring iu an orchard to 
secure a standing pasture after harvesting the 
oats? 6. Wbat proportion of each per acre. 9 
How would herd’s grass do to mix with them ? 
7. Where and at what price per bushel can the 
Bermuda grass be obtained ? 
answer by dr a. r. ledoux. 
We referred the questions to Dr. A. R. Le 
doux; he answers them as follows: 1. Sorm 
farmers sow them broadcast before the las 
plowing of the corn. The plowiug serves tc 
cover the peas—a rather slovenly way bu 
saving much time and work. A better way if 
to drop four or live peas three or four feel 
apart in a furrow run between the rows, anc 
cover them with a block, small harrow, or in 
any other simple way. They then require 
little cultivation—at most a single plowiug oi 
light lioeiug to keep down the weeds until the 
peas obtain a fair start. 2. That is a good 
plan often followed. Sow broadcast or, better, 
iu drills, three or four feet apart. Cover with 
the harrow followed by a hoard. When four 
or five inches high give them one good plow¬ 
ing. Au easy way is to sow in every fourth 
furrow when plowing the stubble. Plowing 
the succeeding furrows covers the peas. 1 con¬ 
sider cow-pea vines better thau clover for 
turning under as a fertilizer for wheat. 8. Ttie 
black pea is most esteemed for turning under, 
as it makes very much vine. The “ Glay ” pea 
is also very good. 4. From ten to fifty bushels 
of lime may be used pei acre according to the 
soil. Itis not always necessary, especially on 
light soils. It should be sown upon tue vines 
before plowing them under. 5 aud 6. Mixtures 
of Bermuda grass, blue grass, and white 
clover are often sown and give satisfac¬ 
tion. In warm climates the blue grass and 
clover afford pasturage during the greater part 
of the wiuter. while the Bermuda disappears, 
reappearing in spring 7. Bermuda grass bears 
no seed iu this country. It is propagated by 
setting out cuttings. 
Some varieties of the Cow-pea not only 
‘make little vine,” but uoue at all. They 
form a hush aud occupy little more space thau 
bush beaus. 
Best Breed for Improving Texan Cattle, Etc. 
A reader, Pleasanton, Texas, asks, 1, whether 
Durham and Short-hoi n cattle are the same; 2, 
what breed ol bulls would lie the best to cross 
On Texan cows for beef and milk; 3, from 
whom aud at what price cau he obtain helio¬ 
type copies of the great master painters. 
Ans. —1. Yes. The race was known about a 
century ago as Durham or Toeswater cattle, 
and both names, especially the former, aic 
sometimes applied to them still. Short-horn, 
however, is the more appropriate name for the 
modern, improved breed. 2 For beef and 
milk combined there is no breed that excels 
the Shprt-liorn. A large proportion of those 
takeu to Texas, however, have died before 
they could become acclimated, principally 
from " Texan fever.” The survivors, too, are 
reported to have deteriorated considerably, 
and to have lost somewhat of their power of 
impressing their special characteristics on 
their progeny. This faculty is possessed by 
several otherbreedsmore powerfully than by the 
Sort-lioms under circumstances widely different 
from those under which the breeds were formed ; 
inasmuch as some other breeds, such, for in¬ 
stance, as the Jersey aud Devon, are of longer 
standing and less contaminated by outside 
blood. At an auction sale of an imported herd 
of Short-horns, that lately occurred at San An¬ 
tonio, Texas, the prices were very low—lower 
than those often realized at the North. The 
reason assigned was that. 6to< kmen in that 
section did not find the improvements by the 
cross, of sufficient value to pay for the extra 
care needed to keep the new-comers in fair 
condition and to insure against the large per¬ 
centage of loss among them. Yet by all accounts 
most of what improvement is being made in 
Texan cattle is due to just such crosses. The 
Polled Angus would be an excellent breed for 
improving the long-horned Texans, if there 
were any certainty that they could become ac¬ 
climated without serious loss or deterioration. 
For beef and milk the polled Norfolk would be 
even better. For beef alone if would be hard 
to beat the Hereford, and as this is even a 
purer breed than the Short-horn, it shdhld be 
able to stand better the difference in climate 
between Texas aud England. Further experi¬ 
ments seem necessary to determine which breed 
of cattle is best fitted to improve the Texan 
herds; but at present, despite some drawbacks, 
the Short- horns are ahead. 3. Heliotypes of 
the best pictures by Millais, with portrait and 
descriptiveletter-press, large 4to, $10. Hough¬ 
ton, Osgood & Co., 220 Devonshire St., Boston. 
Another Humbug. 
J. D. F. asks: 1, whether J. C. Boyd’s mini¬ 
ature galvanic battery is what it claims to be. 
Ans —Wu have had half a dozen or more in¬ 
quiries aboutthis Boydhumbug, most of which 
wc‘ve answered by letter ; but as it seems that 
the country is being flooded with circulars 
claiming marvelous merits for the little device, 
it becomes our duty to warn our readers that 
the thing is an arrant humbug. The fellows 
who try to palm such frauds off upon the rural 
population—s^pd too oiten succeed iu doing 
so—would never dream of tryiug the experi¬ 
ment on townsfolk, except, perhaps, among 
the ignorant masses iu the lowest neighbor¬ 
hoods. It is the success such rascals meet with 
iu country places that has beeu the chief cause 
of the low opiuiou entertained, by many of bu¬ 
colic intelligence. Isn’t it time that country 
folks should learn that the receipt of a high- 
colored circular is a pretty certain proof that, 
the object it puffs is a humbug or a swindle? 
Every week wu cornu across accounts of suc¬ 
cessful frauds perpetrated iu this way iu one 
part of the country or another, aud for out- 
ease that comes toiight hundreds never become 
known to the public. This special humbug is 
a little metallic device about the size of half a 
dollar, about whieh the circulars—a number 
of which have been sent us—talk a farrago of 
quasi-scieutifle nonsense. Very earnestly 
would we urge it upon our readers never to in¬ 
vest a centiu any device, speculation or enter¬ 
prise which is brought to their uoiice by ful¬ 
some circulars or glowing descriptions iu 
newspapers that do not even profess to discrim¬ 
inate iu the advertisements admitted to their 
columns. If auy of our friends should led 
greatly tempted to make any such investin' nt, 
let him at least wait until he has consulted us 
with regard to it. Wo promise a speedy answer 
and an honest one, and there isn’t the slightest 
danger that the opportunity for beiug swindled 
will come too late after the receipt of our 
answer, however loud the swindler may shout 
“This is the last—the very last—chance.” 
Bone Spavin. 
B. C. R., Colfax. N. C., asks, whether the 
following recipe will cure bonu spavin of 
two or three years’ standing:—“Corrosive 
sublimate, quicksilver, and iodine, of each 
one ounce, with lard sufficient to form a pa-te : 
apply as much as will lie on a three-eent piece, 
each morning tor four mornings only.” lie 
also asks for any practical information on tin- 
nature aud treatment of spavin. 
Ans. —The recipe is good, but we doubt if it 
will cure a bone spavin of two or three yearn’ 
standing. Applied when the disease first 
shows itself it might arrest it. Applying a hot 
iron to the part is a more active absorbent, and 
would bu more likely to arrest Ihe leakage 
from the joint. Such leakage, which produces 
the spavin, is caused by a strain which may be 
produced by ba 1 shoeing (not keeping the loot 
level), by slipp.:g, or by too severe work. A 
