7777/ 
i.Moreton.) Manure maclu in box-stall having 71.04 
water, dried ut 76 deg F,, gave 2.37 per eout. anirno- 
ference of the omnivorous middleman, and 
greatly to the enrichment of the farmer," 
Bacteria.—W e copy the following remarks 
from an able address delivered before the Brit¬ 
ish Medical Association by Mr. Lister, upon 
the action of those extremely minute plants 
kuown in a general sense us bacteria. Under 
certain circumstances, earth, air, water, our 
very bodies teem with living organisms of 
such extremely minute size that the highest 
powers of the microscope uloue suffice to 
make them obvious to the eye; other means 
of observation show the great probability that 
still more minute organisms exist in myriads. 
It will suffice for our present purpose to speak 
of all these ub bacteria. Assuredly our fore¬ 
fathers would have laughed to scorn the idea 
that there was any ubc in studying creatures 
of such infinitesimal minuteness; in our own 
times the so called practical man has been 
known to sneer at and deride such investiga¬ 
tions. But what if it be proved that the vari¬ 
ous processes of fermentation, to which he 
owes his wine, his beer, his vinegar, depend 
essentially on minute organisms ?—what if it 
be proved that still smaller orgauiams inter¬ 
fere with his digestion.and, worse still, putrefy 
his tissues and poison hiB life-blood till he, 
and thousands like him, are laid low with 
epidemic pestilence ? And in a general 6ense, 
all this is proved. It is proved that if certain 
organisms enter the blood, putrefaction and 
blood poisoning of necessity occur ; that if an 
organism of a certain kind gain entrance one 
particular form of disease occurs in conse¬ 
quence; and that if some other organism gain 
access to the body another disease shows itself. 
Ou the other hand, it is proved that if these or¬ 
ganisms can be kept out no putrefaction, no 
ulceration, no disease occurs. Mr. Lister has 
turned his knowledge to practical account, and 
by its means sensibly redneed the sum of human 
misery and suffering. His address contains a 
brief statement of the facts of the case as at pres¬ 
ent known, and justifies the hope that the pro¬ 
longed study of these minute plants and their 
ways of life may lead to the adoption of prac¬ 
tical means of prevention, in the case of many 
fevers and blood diseases, as efficacious as 
properly performed and properly renewed 
vaccination is proved to be in the case of 
small pox. 
Black Grapes — Eumklan. — Speaking of 
this grape in the Gardeners’ Chronicle of Lon¬ 
don, Mr. W. C. Barry says: The bunch and 
berry, though not large, are of good size, aud 
the flesh is tender, juicy, sprightly, refreshing 
and very agreeable. No grape that he knows 
has such a pleasant vinous flavor, and it is 
surprising what a quantity of the fruit can be 
eaten without causing any uneasiness. The 
only defect which this variety exhibits is the 
habit of the vine. Had it the vigorous consti¬ 
tution of the Concord or Hartford it would 
undoubtedly be cultivated almost to the exclu¬ 
sion of all other black varieties, Mr. Barry 
thinks. It is such a poor grower that it re¬ 
quires to be grafted upou a vigorous variety, 
then it succeeds admirably. 
Linuley, or Rogers's No 9, is in Mr. Bar¬ 
ry’s judgment, all things considered, one of 
the best red grapes we have. The bunch is 
large and long; berry of medium size; flesh 
sweet, juicy and high-flavored. The Delaware 
has long been regarded as the best table grape, 
but he thinks that the Liudley, when it be¬ 
comes known, is destined to supersede it. The 
fruit is certainly equal in flavor, much larger, 
more showy, and the vine is a stronger grower. 
(&trtrpj|irrf. 
NOTES FROM CENTRAL KANSAS., 
According to a totter from Frank Wilkeson in the 
New York Sun. 16.000 people in Western Kansas are 
now etarviuy.otvliiK to the failure of their crops on 
railroad lands sold to them as fertile, but in fact bar¬ 
ren wastes on which no crop can be grown, the repre¬ 
sentations of the railroads to the contrary notwith¬ 
standing. 
This item, which I clip from au Eastern pa¬ 
per, refers to a letter written to a New York 
paper by a nephew of the Secretary of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad. A uuuiber of 
years ago, before the Northern Pacific Rail¬ 
road gotuoderway, the VVilkesous bought a 
large tract of railroad land heru in Central 
Kansas and Frank was forwarded out here 
with a great fiuurish and a monstrous array 
of machinery, and was going to open up a 
grand ** bonanza farm" that would uot- only 
astonish the natives but make a sensation in 
New York; but somehow Frank took more 
kiudly to boon companions, his dog and gun, 
etc., than to steady business, and his fields did 
not get sewed right or his crops harvested 
right. A consultation was held by the "ciders” 
aud the conclusion reached that their interests 
were in another direction, that they had vast 
quantities of land at the north (acquired under 
the Jay Cook fiasco) and they wanted immi¬ 
gration turned northward, and they said to 
Frank, "You are an utter failure as a farmer, 
but we have hit upon a plan to make your 
failure a success after all. You stay where 
you are, and write down the Kansas Pacific 
lands; and your failure to raise crops will 
serve as a good illustration —it is the land . not 
you, that is in fault. You can write good let¬ 
ters ; do it, and we will pay you a good salary." 
And so Frank has staid here and written let¬ 
ters for Eastern papers. 
Frank has a magnificent crop of wild sun¬ 
flowers and pig-weeds as big as four-year-old 
cherry trees, etc. The sulky plows, the im¬ 
proved harrows, the harvesters lie rusting 
about the fields. 
Tho town bummers when they want to hunt 
prairie chickens, fill their flagons aud go out 
to Frank Wilkesou’s; when they want to 
hunt Jack rabbits, they fill their flagons and go 
out to Frank Wilkeson’s, and so on. And 
when country life palls on the noble Frank, the 
Bteeds are harnessed to the imported wagon, 
aud the green baize door closes behind the 
seeker after the pleasures of life in town. 
Now other capitalists who live East have 
large farms in Frank’s immediate vicinity and 
contract all the work done and raise big crops. 
They have not only made ten per cent, per an¬ 
num on their investments, but doubled and treb¬ 
led their original capital. Men on all sides of 
him, who live on their land, raise good crops, 
have flue herds of blooded stock, horses, cat¬ 
tle, sheep and hogs that would draw attention 
at a New York State Fair. The county ships 
off annually over one million dollars’ worth of 
grain and stock. Where does it all grow ? 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Illinois, Champaign, Champaign Co., Nov. 
21.—Since the 16th inst. we have hud the cold¬ 
est spell in November I remember in 25 years’ 
residence in Illinois. There are a few inches 
of snow on the ground, but it has not melted 
at all. The mercury has been at zero or below 
at suurise for five or six days. b. f j. 
Ohio, Bennington, Monroe Co.—The cow- 
peas, beets and raspberries did well; but I 
can't get more than four cars to grow on a 
stalk of Blount Corn. t. w 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and 
address of the writer to insure attention.] 
pay which husbands the fertility of the farm. 
My observation teaches me that In the State 
of New York during tho last year, double the 
amount of fertility that has been purchased iu 
the form of commercial fertilizers, has been. 
waDtonly wasted around the barns. Anyone 
who has passed through the country and ob¬ 
served the old grain barn modified into a dairy 
barn by the addition of a lean-to for cattle, 
will readily appreciate the perfect arrangement 
for leaching out all the valuable constituents 
of the manure, by the followingsiugle diagram: 
Farm Manures. 
E. E. II., Scotia, N. Y., inquires whether it 
is advisable to draw out manure in the Fall, 
and spread it on land to be plowed in the 
Spring for corn, and also if it will pay to build 
a cistern in the barnyard to catch the Cach¬ 
ings. 
ANSWER BY PROFESSOR I. 1*. ROBERTS. 
No better method can be practiced than to 
draw out all manure, whether fresh or other¬ 
wise. between the 1st of October and the 1st 
of March, and spread it directly from the 
wagon or Bled upon the ground, whether it be 
plowed or unplowed. There might be a slight 
danger of waste by washing where the manure 
was spread on steep hill-sides or upon an 
unusually deep fall of snow; but this waste 
is much less in practice than in theory and 
ueed scarcely be avoided iu most cases. In 
my experience, manure of the same quantity 
and quality, spread on the soil iu November, 
has given 20 per cent, better yield of corn than 
the same amount spread on immediately be¬ 
fore plowing in the Spring. My reasons for 
wintor manuring are several: The manure has 
to be handled but once, and that at a time 
when work is uot pressing and Lime therefore 
not so valuable, and when the fields are not 
wet as iu Spring. The chief difficulty in 
spreading manure is to make it perfectly uni¬ 
form so that the fertility of the soil shall be 
uniform. By wiuter manuring we really dis¬ 
tribute twice as the plowing in Spriag per¬ 
forms a redistribution. As rnauure is usually 
kept at least one-half, and frequently a greater 
proportion, is wasted by leachiugs and escape 
of ammonia; practically, in this climate the 
wastage of rnauure when spread in the Wiuter 
on the field is very slight—not one-tenth of 
what it is when left in the yard in a hot heap; 
aud in this way aCo all theloucbings are saved. 
A single experiment which 1 performed will 
illustrate the loss occasioned by bad haudling; 
Laud No. 1, no manure ; laud No. 2, a given 
amount of manure which had been exposed to 
loss by leaching and heaving for three or four 
months; laud No. 3, the same amount of 
manure as on No. 2 from a covered barnyard 
where all the urine had beeu saved. No. 1 
yielded 20 bushels ol oats, (roundly stated); 
No. 2 yielded 40 bushels; No. S yielded 00 
bushels. 
In regard to whether it will pay to build a 
cistern, I would say, yes; almost anything will 
fig. 413. 
I can point out a far better way than to build 
a cistern, but if circumstances and means will 
not admit of it, a durable cistern can be built 
very cheaply in the following manner: 
Dig a hole of the desired diameter and 14 
feel deco. shaping the bottom like that of a 
large kettle: lay a flat stone, one to two feet 
square, in the middle of the bottom and about 
it lay brick flatwise until the curved portion is 
passed and the walls become perpendicular. 
Then make a four-inch wall the remainder of 
the distauce. An expert mason can arch the 
top or "draw it in" without any frame and 
leave a hole about two feet in diameter across 
the top. which should be a little distance below 
the surface of the ground. About this hole 
build a curbing two to four feet high aud cover 
the arch with earth to secure it from frost. 
The cistern should not only be laid with good 
cement but should have two coats inside. 
Throughout the prairie countries of the West, 
this is the universal method of building cis¬ 
terns, and it is admirably successful. Place in 
it a good boat-pump of galvanized irou. 
The leach mgs are not only worth saving but 
contain a large percentage of the most valua¬ 
ble constituents of the manure. A little care 
must be exercised iu their application. If 
strong, they should be applied just before or 
after a rain; or, if put on when the soil is dry, 
they should be diluted, or else the first effect 
will be to " burn" rather than to cause an im¬ 
mediate or rapid growth. Joseph Harris 
claims that "the drainage from the barnyard 
contains a little more than half as much nitro¬ 
gen as the cow-dung ; and it is probable that 
the nitrogen in the liquid is in a much more 
available c ondition thau in the dung. It con¬ 
tains nearly five times as much potash as the 
dung. * * * * On an average, a ton of the 
urine of our domestic animals contains more 
than twice as much nitrogen as a ton of the 
dung.” A cow'voids of urine from four to 
eight tons a year, according to character of 
food. 
The waste of keeping manure in uncovered 
barnyards is beet illustrated by a few tables 
from reliable authors: 
Nitrogen, 
(J. Harris.Jotonsfresilin November.64.3 
Same 5 April.'.'. 46 ' 
*' 5 August.25 
(Moreton.) 5 tons fresh. 4 ti 
5 when half-rotted.35 
5 ehee-ev state .......30 
5 completely decomposed ......20 
join, u-o uum. yuuo. aeju. a pur ceni, pouisu ana 
soda. 
Manure made in open barnyard at the sometime, taav- 
ingrTl per cent or water aud dried at 75 deg b\, gave 
1.7 per cent, ammonia, .21 per cent, phos, acid, .8 per 
cent, potash aud soda. 
The better way to save leachings—where cir¬ 
cumstances will admit and where you have 
sufficient absorbents—is not to have them. This 
may be accomplished by having a covered 
barnyard, which pays for itself in a short time, 
not only by preserving the manure, but by 
protecting animals from the inclemency of the 
weather. I am now using one 60x46 and 11 
feet deep, two sides of stone and two of wood. 
The bottom is paved and cemented, rnakiDg it 
solid aud water-tight. This accommodates the 
droppings of 18 cows and 12 horses. The 
cattle ate largely fed on cut cert-stalks; the 
coarser pieces not eaten are used for bedding, 
aud, with tho manure from the horse sta¬ 
bles, form sufficient absorLeuts to take up all 
the urine. So much of the cows’ horns is re¬ 
moved as is safe, aud into this covered barn¬ 
yard all the cows are turned for exercise aud 
water, remaining there most of the day, This 
is the most successful experiment I have ever 
tried. Every particle of urine is saved; the 
tramping of the cattle prevents too rapid heat¬ 
ing ; the cold cow manure is mixed with the 
warm torse manure, and, what is best of all, 
it is neither damp nor offensive. The cows, 
when they become accustomed to their close 
quarters, are about as peaceable as so many 
sheep. Eleven wiudows and three large vontil- 
atiug shafts furnish abnndauce of light and 
air. Iu Bummer, when there is comparatively 
little cow manure, the horse manure is spread 
and wet with water enough to keep it cool. If 
it is not convenient or dealruble to have the 
animals over the barnyard, a barnyard serving 
the same purpose can be built very cheaply. 
Cornell University. 
The Albemarle Fertilizer. 
H. L. L., Westfield, Mass , asks whether the 
Albemarle Fertilizer sold by parties in this city 
is as valuable as its circulars claim it to be. 
Answer by Dr. A. R Ledoux.— The "Albe¬ 
marle Fertilizer” is simply alba marl— white 
marl. It owes its fertilizing and mechanical ef¬ 
fects almost entirely to the carbonate of lime it 
contains. It is not a complete rnauure in any 
respect. I have examined it and seen Dr. Dore- 
mns’s analysis. Lime is of great value as an 
application to very many soils, especially to 
clay soils, and ou this account the fertilizer in 
question would, in many cases, show a really 
beneficial effect for one or two seasons, but 
after that it would do injury on most soils. 
Marl of the same character is found in Vir¬ 
ginia and North Carolina in great abundance. 
In the latter State it underlies 33 counties. In 
the South an application of lime or marl will 
often produce a sudden and marked improve¬ 
ment in the crop, but n second application will 
nearly always show no result, or else an injuri¬ 
ous one. As to the price, I should be guided 
by the cost of ordinary ground lime in any lo¬ 
cality. There is only a minute quantity of as¬ 
similable plant food in the "Albemarle.” 
Analysis of Ox Gall. 
M. Y., Cincinnati, Ohio, asks for an analy¬ 
sis of beef gall or bile. 
Ans.—T he bile of the ox has been examined 
by chemists with much care, and the results of 
these investigations have beeD as follows: Ox 
bile is a variety of soap, made by the union of 
two distinct resinold acids with the alkali 
soda. These acids are known as glycocholic 
and tauroctiolic, and both contain nitrogen. 
The latter acid contains sulphur. Ox bile also 
contains a portion of mucas, very small quan¬ 
tities of cholcsterine. a 3mall proportion of 
stearic, oleic and lactic adds combined with 
potash and soda. Besides these, there is a 
peculiar coloring matter which is joined to an 
alkaline base. More recent examinations of 
this exceedingly composite substance have led 
to the discovery of another component to 
which the name of lecithin has been given. 
This substance contains oleo-phosphoric acid. 
No quantitative analysis has been made to our 
knowledge. 
Feeding Oats to Sheep. 
A Subscriber, Linn, Iowa, asks whether it 
will pay to thrash oats for sheep—oats are 
worth 20 cents jier bushel and it will cost 
seven cents per bushel to thrash them.” 
Ans.— It is best to feed the oats in the 
sheaf. The sheep will thrash them cleaner 
than any man can do, not wasting any grain, 
and will eat up nearly all the 6traw. It will 
be best to feed the sheaf oats in a rack so that 
the sheep will not trample them underfoot. 
Sheep grind their food so thoroughly that the 
grain need not be ground, nor need any fod¬ 
der be cut for them. 
How t 
Inquirer, Chester Mill, N. Y.. asks how to 
feed a pet Baltimore oriole iu Winter. 
Ans.— We have never had experience in keep- 
iug this biid, but trust some one of nur read- 
ers can answer the inquiry through our col¬ 
umns. 
Miscellaneous. 
L. B., Yates Go.,N,, Y., 1, asks if we are per¬ 
sonally acquainted with the merits of the Lion 
feed-cutter advertised iu the Rural Nov. 13 ; 
2. where he can obtain one and. 3. if it will 
work as well in corn fodder as in struw and hay. 
Ass.—1, We have often seen the workings 
of the feed cutter mentioned, and it does its 
work well. 2, Wo suppose from any general 
hardware dealer. If not obtainable there, 
write to the manufacturers, Messrs. Belcher 
& Taylor, Chicopee Falls, Mass., (3) Yes, just 
as well. 
G. G. Dayton, Texas, says that the leaf rollers 
play sad havoc with his Isabella grape-vines, 
though they do not touch t're Scuppernong 
growing near by, and he asks for a remedy for 
the pest. 
Ans.— Whale oil soap and water will kill 
them. It is not very efficacious, however, as 
the trouble is to touch them. Picking off the 
leaves is the only other remedy that we know of. 
E. G., North Bend, Neb., asks the cause 
why the small twigs of apple trees die. 
Ans. —It is due to the twig-blight. The 
cause is uot positively known. It may be an 
insect, it may be due to the weather. This 
sort of blight rarely proves of a serious nature. 
Communications received for the week end¬ 
ing Saturday, Nov. 27. 
W. V. A.—J. W. B—n. J. M.—I. P. R.— 
F. II. S.-G. G.—U. T.-J. S.—W. F., Jr.-J. B — 
J. B. S.-C. D., thanks.— L. E. K. T.-A. L. J.-E. 
P. P.-W. H. F.-N. K. K.-E. W.—M. W. F.—M. 
E. S— A. J. C. S.-C. S.—L. S. n.-B. W. P—W. H. 
O.- C. C. Y.-G. H. F.—A. P. A.-E. B. H.-R. G.. 
thanks. —M. W. i-’. —A. B. A. * 
©EC. 4 
803 
