MAY 8 
THE RUHAL 
I^EW-YO.BKEB. 
ar.tjrnilub'crt. 
’ 5 “-. c? 
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE. 
Paris, France, April 12,18S0. 
Just a year aero L much enjoyed my rambles 
through the various beautifully laid out parks 
of this magnificent city, admiring, at this time 
of the year, the remarkable beauty and deep 
green- tinted foliage of the many varieties of 
Rhododendrons, Holly, Laurel, Aueubas and 
conifers, adorning the landscape. But, alas! 
how disappointed wheu during the quiet hours 
of this beautiful morning, I again paid my 
visit to these well-known promenades. It is 
true, the stately Elms, Maples, Plane Trees, 
Chestnuts and other deciduous trees greeted 
me as of old. with their delicately tinted, vir¬ 
gin foliuge, but the glory and pride, produc¬ 
ing the wonderful effects of these parks 
by euu and gas light, have, at least for the time 
beiug, departed. Alt the large and massive 
groups of the beautiful Rhododeud rons were de¬ 
stroyed by the severe cold during the past win¬ 
ter ; no foliage or llower buds grace the 
stems, and in all probability notbiug will save 
the plants but the most severe cutting back. 
The Laurels and Aueubas, the chief evergreen 
decorative plants here in Parisian parks, have 
already been cut down to tbe very roots. The 
Holly will have to share the same fate. All the 
magnificent specimens of the Magnolia graudi- 
11 ora, of which there were so many in the 
grounds of the Champs d'Elyecd, are dead—so 
are all the large and beautiful specimens of the 
WuUingtonia gigantea, Cedrusdcodorus, Cryp- 
tomoria Japouk a, Araucarias uud many of the 
rarest and finest conifers. 
In the Jardin de Tuillenes nearly all the 
old, large and firm-headed standard Roses have 
died and must be replaced. The few evergreens 
arc dead. In Pare du Moneeau, the most 
beautiful iu tbe city of Paris, all the fine aud 
large specimens of the rarer conifers are dead, 
all the Maguolias graudiflora, several groups, 
containing over a hundred elegaut specimens 
from 15 to 20 feet in Light, have died. The 
Laurus pru infolia, the various varieties of He- 
derae which adorned the maguificent entrance 
gates aud the iron railings inclosing the park, 
have also died down to the roots. The same 
fate has befallen all the city parks and orna¬ 
mental grounds. It will take years and mil¬ 
lions of fraucs to restore the beauty aud glory 
of the parks in Ibis city, destroyed during the 
past severe cold winter. 
The floral establishments exhibit just now 
magnificent collections of Azaleas aud Rhodo¬ 
dendrons covered with a mass of flowers of 
the most brilliant colors, from the purest white 
to the most fiery red and dazzling crimson. 
The llemonlants and Bourbon Roses are also 
very fine. Of cut flowers, the Lily of the Val¬ 
ley and the deep-blue, sweet-scented Violet 
predominate. The streets are abundantly sup¬ 
plied with thousands of pretty flower-girls 
offering bouquets of those fragrant Violets at 
from two to ten cents each, varying in size 
from one to eight inches in diameter and con¬ 
taining from 15 to over 100 large, well developed 
flowers each. I suppose they would cost at 
least ten times as much in New York. Fine 
bouquets of Rose buds, artistically arranged 
aud interwoven with delicate sprays of green, 
sell for from two francs up to 25 each, ac¬ 
cording to size. The markets are well sup¬ 
plied with early vegetables, such as lettuce, 
radishes, endive, cucumbers, asparagus, toma¬ 
toes, uew potatoes, etc. W. R. Bergholz. 
--- 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Illinois, Balleyville, Ogle Co., April 20.— 
The first two weeks of this month were favor¬ 
able, and during that time most of the Bpriug 
wheat, oats and bailey, were sown. There 
was a heavy rain on the night of the 15th; 
then it got cold and suowed a little on the 16th. 
Another severe storm—wind, lightning, thun¬ 
der, rain and bail—set iu on Sunday afternoon, 
18th, doing considerable damage to mads, 
bridges, fences, etc. Cold, windy aud snowy 
yestc rda} 7 , froze at night; fa r this moin- 
iug—thermometer, 32 c . This cold storm has 
injured tender plants, and has checked garden¬ 
ing and farm work. Some fear it has injured 
the fruit, but I think not materially here, as 
the buds were not far enough advanced. A 
large portion of the winter wheat was so badly 
frozen out in March that it lias been plowed 
up, and the ground seeded to other crops, but 
it did not all winter-kill, us some fields have a 
promising appearance—that which was drilled 
in, is better in general than what was sown 
broadcast, Spring wheat that was sown early 
is up and looks well. The prices of wheat, 
corn aud oats, etc., are lower than during the 
past winter, and farmers that have any to sell 
feel disappointed. w. b. d. 
Kansas, lolit. Allen Co,, April 19.—We have 
had very high winds for several days and the 
ground is extremely dry, and needs rain very 
much. The prospects for fruit so far are fa¬ 
vorable. There is a heavy immigration pour¬ 
ing into this county, and among us there is but 
little sickness, B. B. 8. 
Minn., Howard Lake, Wright Co., April 19. 
—Farmers are resting to-day, after having put 
in what wheat they could during the thaw of 
last week. This is the third cold spell since 
April set in. Wc had beautiful weather during 
a large portion of March, and pome gardeners 
would uncover the shrubs and Grape-vines 
against my advice—probably, few Roses or 
Grapes will appear. Alarmed last month at 
the report that all fruit trees were killed, I 
hastened out to make an examination, and 
found our owu apparently all right, as well as 
some of the neighbors’; while the trees of one 
or two are positively killed ; that is, all of the 
standard varieties. Our Transcendent Crab, 
and some other varieties, wc suppose, will 
stand as long as tbe Oak docs. Early Rich¬ 
mond Cherries have delighted us by bearing a 
few cherries for two years, but are now 7 dead 
from the unusually cold weather of last win¬ 
ter. Sorry to have to make this statement, as 
many were hopeful that we could raise Cher¬ 
ries in this region. Strawberries, Raspberries 
and Grapes are generally so abundantly grown 
that wc ought to be reconciled to the loss of 
Cherries, yet we are so greedy and ambitious 
that wc w ish to raise or cultivate euccesfully 
all our neighbors have. Fall wheat is all 
killed in this neighborhood, so far as heard 
from, as the snow went off before some severe 
freezings. But little effort has been made to 
raise fall wheat in previous years, farmers 
generally taking it for granted that they could 
not do so. s. A. m. 
Ohio, Cardington, Morrow Co., April 27.— 
April has so far been more stormy than for 
years. On the 23, 34, 25 of this month we had 
heavy thuuder showers. Streams are over¬ 
flowing. To-day was quite stormy, with some 
rain aud sleet. Feed is scarce—hay, -9s 10<S)15 
per ton; wheat, $1 10; oats, 32 cts.; corn, 42 
cts.; rye, 00 cts.; butter, 15 cts.; eggs, 8 cts.; 
potatoes, 35 cts. Plums, Peaches, Cherries aud 
Apples are blossoming. Prospects for fruit of 
all kinds arc good. Our wheat looks splendid 
—better than for years,and the acreage has been 
a third more. J o. 
Oregon, Long Tom, Lane Co., April 12.— 
The culture ol wheat here has been very suc¬ 
cessful, the berry being unusually large and 
plump, unsurpassed. I believe, in any country. 
Add to this the fact that it is the chief staple 
here, aud you can form some idea how disas¬ 
trous the failure of this crop would be. It had 
long been our motto that 11 Oregon never fails.’’ 
Last epriug was a very wet one, and wheat 
grew 7 rank, and visions of full granaries and 
good p rices gladdeutd the heart of the tired 
farmer. Either the excess of dampness, or 
the extreme heat that followed it, or both 
causes combined, produced rust; but it was 
not until nearly harvest that it began to be 
whispered around that rust bad struck the 
wheat. Fall wheat was not affected nor the 
earlier-sown spring wheat. It would be im¬ 
possible ju so short a Epace as this letter, to 
tell you half .he disasters resulting from this 
failure of the crop here. The farmer, how¬ 
ever, notbiug daunted, strives to remedy the 
evil, and starts the plow still earlier, and much 
fall grain was sown. The winter has been 
rather unfavorable for the early sowing; cold 
rains and hard frosts, gave it a yellow, sickly 
look; but the last few days of warm sunshine 
have improved its appearance, aud hope is 
ugaiu revived that the calamity of last year 
will not be repeated. The prospects for fruit 
are good. Apples have never failed here yet; 
they arc of good size aud flue flavor. Roars 
do well, and Plums arc unsurpassed anywhere. 
While attention is paid iu some places to the 
cultivation of Ferns, whole fields are covered 
with them here, end it is quite au object to get 
rid of them. E. b. b. 
Oregon, TaDgeut, Linn Co., April 14.—There 
has been quite a d.maud for horses and men 
iu this Wallametto Valley lately to go to work 
on the North Pacific railroad. The Company 
is pushing the work with vigor, aud we live iu 
hopes of being connected with the United 
States one of these fine days. Wheat was 
badly rusted last summer, but we are going to 
try it again to see if we wou’t have better luck 
next time. We depend too much on the wheat 
crop to bring money into our country; if we 
get low prices and poor crops, we are all 
" hard up ”—it is not a good state of affairs. I 
feel greatly interested in reports of the New 
Amber sugar cane; if we can only grow it here 
with success, it will help us farmers a great 
deal and make us more independent, and if we 
could grow our own tea, it would stop another 
of the big leaks. It is not what a nation or a 
person earns, it is what either saves that 
makes it or hitn wealthy. R. l. s. 
Oregon, Goshen, Lane Co., April 15—Fall- 
sown wheat is good ; very little damage from 
the frost; none from the Hessian fly or from 
disease, the former never having been seen in 
Oretou. The prospect is good for a full average 
yield per acre on twice the acreage of any 
former year. Our principal crop has been 
spring wheat; but the prevaleuce of rust on it 
for the last two years caused farmers to sow 
j the winter varieties largely last fall. A large 
acreage of spring wheat also has been sown. 
The cold weather in March made wheat 6low 
in coming up. w. R. d. 
Wash. Ter., Walla Walla, Walla Walla Co., 
April 14.—From the lime of lbs first settle¬ 
ment of this Territory to the present day, em¬ 
bracing a period of 25 years, there has not 
been a failure of the wheat crop of Washington 
Territory. No insects have ever put in an ap¬ 
pearance to harm it. No diseases of the wheat 
crop are known in the Territory. It is prob¬ 
ably true that in some, locations, where the 
soil is a heavy, clay loam, injury from frost 
sometimes has occurred, but such injury has 
been slight and does not often happen. In 
the poorest seasons known here the wheat 
crop has averaged 25 bushels per acre aud up¬ 
wards. Fall wheat looks promising, and farm¬ 
ers are busily engaged putting iu the spring 
crop. The season is unusually late, but great 
confidence is felt that there will he a bountiful 
harvest. The acreage is increasing rapidly 
from year to year. This will exceed any pre¬ 
vious year in the acreage of the crop. c. s. 
®|jr (|wrist. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Chicken Cholera. 
r A Subscriber, Burlington, Kans., asks for 
some remedy for chicken cholera. He has 
lost 100 fowls in the last few tnonlbs by the 
disease, and is beginning to thiuk he had bet¬ 
ter clear away the remainder and begin anew. 
Ans.— There is a great mnnoer of ‘’sure 
cures” for this malady, although, in spite of 
them all, fowls are dying of it every day, often, 
doubtless because the owner has no idea of 
what sort of treatment to give the affected 
birds, From a large number of “cures” which 
correspondents of the Rural have mentioned 
in the last few years, as having proved thor¬ 
oughly effective in their own hands, we cull a 
few of the best:—Make a mixture of two 
ounces each of red pepper, alum, rosin aud 
flowers of sulphur, and put it in the fowls' 
food in proportion of one tablespoonful to 
three pints of scalded meal. In severe cases give 
one-third of a spoonful in a meal pellet, once a 
day, to each fowl, and put a small lump of 
alum in the drinking-water. A Kansas corre¬ 
spondent says he has cured fowls iu the last 
stage of disease, with the above mixture. 
Our correspondent, Mr. H. Hales, places the 
ailing birds in boxeB or clean 6traw and cuts 
away such feathers as have become soiled by ^ 
their evacuations, and as a means of sustaining 
life, feeds them twice a day with oatmeal gruel, 
into which is put 6ome finely-chopped rue. 
This, of course, has to be poured down the 
throats of the 6iek birds. Iu addition, he 
sprinkles carbolic powder upon the straw in 
the boxes where the fowls are placed, dusts 
6ome into their feathers and gives them a tea¬ 
spoonful or two of water slightly impregnated 
with carbolic acid, which can be obtained of 
any druggist. The ailing fowls are kept apart 
from those in health, and after the administra¬ 
tion of this remedy they recover rapidly, lie 
treated tw 7 o or three dozen in this way aud 
thinks he would have lost all of them had they 
not beeu so treated. 
A lady correspondent 6uya she fed bran 
mash, in which was a liberal do6e of the com¬ 
mon garden pepper—feeding every other day for 
two weeks, aud had no more loss from chicken 
cholera. She says, “ Whenever I see a chicken 
appear droopy, I give it a dose of pepper, and 
all is well." 
Another writer says;—“To one gallon of 
sour milk add a tablespoonful of alum, set it 
in shallow vessels where the chickens cau drink 
as often as they ehoo;c. We have used it three 
years and none of our ehickeus die of cholera 
when we attend to it in time." 
Another cured her chickens of cholera by 
taking a lump of alum as large as a hen’s egg 
and dissolving it iu a half gallon of water. This 
she thickened with corn meal and gave it to 
her fowls three times a day. 
Klcc Corn. 
J. G. G., South Gilboa, N Y., a6ks, 1, for 
some information about Rice or Egyptian 
corn ; 2, where can the seed be bought, aud, 4, 
at what price. 
Ans. —This supposed-to-bc-Dew cereal is var¬ 
iously called Pampas rice, Rice corn or Egyp¬ 
tian corn, and is thought to have been brought 
to the United States by the Monnonitee, who 
lately came from southern Russia, and settled 
in western Kansas aud elsewhere iu the West. 
The kernels grow in a tuft like that which 
crowns sorghum. Each grain is a trifle smal¬ 
ler aud rounder thau u kernel of wheat, and is 
inclosed iu a “shuck.” The meal is not unlike 
that of Indian corn, and in colons intermediate 
between that of the white and yellow sorts. The 
grain can be eaten ground into flour or cracked 
like wheat, or used generally like any other 
cereal. A chemical analysis shows that Its 
percentage of starch, fat, dextrine and sugar, 
which produce heat aud fat iu the animal or¬ 
ganization, compares favorably with that of 
Indian corn, wheat, rye, and oats ; and in its 
contents of flesh-forming albuminoids it sur¬ 
passes all Indian corns, and ranks witli wheat, 
rye and oats. It has a very small percentage 
of cellulose, or nearly uon-nutritious woody 
fiber. The stalk, it 1 b claimed, makes as good 
fodder as corn docs, aud a few acres will fur¬ 
nish a family with fuel for the winter in the 
Western praivies—a consideration of the first 
importance in that nearly treeless country. 
According to the Kansas State Board of Agri¬ 
culture it resists drought iu a marvelous man¬ 
ner. Moreover, it is claimed to be worm and 
frost-proof aud to yield, even under very un¬ 
favorable conditions, as much as sixty tiO-pound 
bushels per acre. According to the brief 
notices of it that have appeared in our “Every¬ 
where ” from time to time, and the Jougthy 
report made by the Kansas State Board of Ag¬ 
riculture, no crop grown iu the vast prairie 
regions of the West, subject to severe droughts 
and scorching winds from the Llauo Estocado 
and the South generally, is so rich iu fair 
promises for the fanner. 2 and 3, For seeds 
and prices write to the Plant Seed Company 
St. Louis, Mo. 
How to Build n Stone Cistern. 
M. B., Snvilhville, Ont, Can., being about to 
build a large stone cistern above ground so 
that the water cau be drawn off in pipes at 
the bottom, asks what is the strongest shape, 
the best means of preserving strength to resist 
the pressure of the water, and whether the 
pipes and faucets would be liable to get out 
of repair. 
Ans.—A stone cistern may be built as fol¬ 
lows ; —The shape which gives the most 
strength is au oval, and the walls must be 
thick at the bottom, gradually decreasing to¬ 
ward the top. This will give a cylindrical, 
or a truucated-cone shape ou the outside, as 
shown in the engraving. 
section of stone cistern. — fig. 148. 
The stone must be laid in water-lime cement 
consisting of one part of ltosendalc cement, 
aud three parts of sharp, clean sand- When 
the wall is finished, the inside should ho 
smootly plastered (bottom included) with a 
coating of cement, without saud, at least half 
an inch thick, if the cistoru is a large oue. To 
make accurate calculations as to the strength 
of the wall, the size aud depth of the eisteru 
should be known. If the pipes arc well laid 
they should not get out of repair in 50 years, 
if carefully used uud laid below reach of frost. 
Karty Setllern In the United Stntc*. 
W. N- It., Bubbartisville, N. Y., asks, 1, is 
there any book that gives the names of the 
immigrants that arrived in this country be¬ 
tween 1630 aud 1635, and where can it be 
found ; 2, was Roger Williams a married man ; 
and if so, did lie leave any children. 
Ans.—W c don't know of any such hook; but it 
js not unlikely that many of them could lie dis¬ 
covered by a diligent search iu trie old archives 
of the various settlements made in that period 
of 15 years. These include the Plymouth Col¬ 
ony founded by the Pilgrim Fathers who left 
England iu the Mayflower, 8cpt. 6, 1620; tbo 
Massachusetts Bay Colony, iu which Eudicott 
founded Salem in 1028, and which received a 
reinforcement of 400 newcomers in 1629, aud 
an additional 700 the year following, wheu 
Boston was settled. Iu 1623 settlements were 
also made at Portsmouth and Dover, New 
Hampshire; another at Monhugun, Maine, iu 
1622, aud another ut Saco, in the same State 
about the same time, or at the mouth of the 
Pemaquid iu 1626, according to Bancroft. 
Although Connecticut was settled in 1635, sthl 
as it was by emigrants from Massachusetts, 
they do not count in this connection. It would 
be necessary, however, to hunt up the archives 
of the Dutch settlements ou Manhattan Island 
(New York City) as well as at Fort Orange 
(Albany), at both of which places the first per¬ 
manent settlements were made in 1623 , aud 
both or which received considerable additions 
before 1635. All things considered, it is more 
thau doubtful whether years of research would 
enable our friend to learn the names of all the 
immigrants to the Euglish Colonies iJ this 
country during the above 15 years, to say 
nothing of the Spanish settlers in Florida, 
which is a part of this country—even in tbo 
most limited meaning of the term. 2. Roger 
Williams was certainly married, as we are tola 
that he arrived at Boston on Feb. 5, 1631, ac 
eoinpanied by his wife, Mary, but whethei o 
left apy children we do not know. 
