could find customers on his route, who could 
buy three quarts of this milk for nine cents 
with more advantage than one quart of whole 
milk at 10 cents. The difference would be 
equivalent to a full meal in place of semi-star¬ 
vation for many a poor family; while for 
others the extra two quarts of good milk would 
mean pies, puddings, custards, aud many other 
delicacies for thousands of families who are 
not poor, but are forced to practice economy.” 
“I don't see how the poor women in the 
towns aud cities can get along and feed their 
families with so little milk,” remarked Miss 
Martin. “ I believe a pint is the average quan¬ 
tity delivered, and that will simply color a few 
cups of tea and coffee. For cooking, skimmed 
milk, and sour milk, too, are indispensable; 
and what a number of nice dishes may be made 
of it. I never throw out sweet skimmed milk 
to the pigs without feeling as if I were wasting 
good human food, ‘taking the children’s bread 
and casting it to the dogs,' as it were. I wish 
I could sell my skimmed milk for one cent a 
quart. That would add to our income aud I 
have no doubt, as you say, be a great help to a 
number of poor people." 
“There is a good deal of foolishness in the 
world” said my old neighbor “ and I notice it 
more now than when 1 was younger. What a 
pity folks cannot be honest; then we should 
not need to be troubled with so many laws and 
rules at every turn. But why i3_it that the 
dairymen get two cents a quart for their milk, 
and those who buy it pay eight or ten cents ?’ 
“ There is a good deal squeezed out of milk ” 
I replied. “ A farmer can make milk for two 
cents a quart, with a fair profit. The rail- 
higher price than any other cattle, ana a 
greater demand immediately sprang up for 
them from the butchers than Mr. Clark has 
been able to supply. 
Mr. Clark is now going to Import both bulls 
and heifers from Scotland, for the purpose of 
breeding the pure stock in Kansas hereafter. 
He will, doubtless, be able to dispose of their 
calves as soon as fit to be weaned, at high 
prices, and thus make the importation not 
only profitable to himself, but highly advan¬ 
tageous to the country. 
The late Mr. Wm. McCombio. ot Aberdeen, 
Scotland, was the greatest improver of An¬ 
gus cattle, and took first prizes wherever 
he exhibited his auimals, not only in Scot¬ 
land and England, but also in France. On 
one occasion, at the Falkirk market, his father 
exhibited about l,f>00 head of black polled 
cattle, but he was a cattle dealer rather than 
a breeder, and these were then of the unim¬ 
proved Bort. The son, of whom we have spoken 
statements on the fertilization of Kalmia by 
bees. 
Plantago lanceolata has often been men¬ 
tioned as a plant the. flowers of which are not 
visited by insects. The pollen is dry and shakes 
out easily. The wind no doubt aids in scatter¬ 
ing it, but 1 have repeatedly seen bugs, flies, 
and small wild bees crawling about these 
flowers. Many examples of a similar nature 
could be given. 
the spaces between the plants of the first row. 
As the plants are set. fill the earth into the 
trenches and press it firmly round the stems of 
the plants with the foot, and, finally, level the 
whole off nicely with a rake or hoe. 
Previous to planting, the plants from the 
seed-bed should be carefully sorted out, and 
those of corresponding size and strength 
planted together. Each plant should be cut 
down, before planting, to within two inches of 
its ground line in the seed-bed. and all the 
larger roots shortened back about one-third of 
their length. Care must be had not to allow 
them to become dried by the wind or sun The 
season after they are planted each plant wi 1 
throw up several shoots j these are to be short¬ 
ened back the ensuiug spring to within six 
inches of the ground; and then for the ensuing 
five or six years the growth of each year is to be 
shortened back to twelve inches, making the 
hedge five and a half or six and a half feet.high 
at the end of the term. The hedge should be 
kept gradually trimmed on the sides as it 
grows, to make it thicken, observing to so trim 
it that the sides have a sloping form, and not a 
perpendicular one. The sloping form gives 
the light and rain a better opportunity to act 
on the foliage than does the perpendicular one, 
and so prevents the hedge from becoming bare 
at the bottom, and also prevents the top of the 
hedge from being broken or spreading out of 
shape owing to the weight of heavy snows in 
winter. Early in the spring or in the autumn 
is the best season for trimming a hedge; sum¬ 
mer trimming in this climate, owing to our in¬ 
tense summer heats, Is always injurious, as the 
plants are too suddenly checked in their growth, 
and are rendered liable to attacks of mildew or 
other diseases. 
No weeds, especially coarse-growing ones, 
should be allowed to grow near a hedge ; they 
are sure to injure it, and often produce gaps in 
It by smothering its growth. It is only vexa¬ 
tion and vanity of spirit to plant a hedge un¬ 
less you mean to take good care of it. owg 
that, it is the cheapest and most beautiful 
fence you can have, and fully repays the cob 
and time it requires to get it into 6hape. 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS 
“ Prime Minister.” 
We have frequently here given portraits of 
choice Short-horns belonging to aristocratic 
tribes or families, which from the earliest days 
of their calf hood were carefully fed and handled 
Mil. VERNON-WENTWOKTll’3 SHORT-HORN BULL. 
for the show yard. As a rule, these were more above, 
useful as specimens of what care and good mats 1' 
treatment might do for an animal of choice Queen 
THE AGENCY OF INSECTS IN FERTILIZ 
ING KALMIA. 
original stock, than for any good they did by 
perpetuating the special excellencies for which 
they won prizes and renown, for the prepara¬ 
tion for the show yard is hardly conducive to 
prolificacy. In the accompanying portrait of 
Prime Minister, reproduced from the English 
Agricultural Gazette, we present to our readers 
a beast of a character entirely different from 
that of these showy selections, although an 
animal as well-shaped as need be, but heavy 
and useful rather than calculated to catch the 
public eye aud win the crowd's admiration. 
With the exception of winning 1st prize as a 
yearling at the Malton show, in Yorkshire, in 
1S77, his life has been happy in that it Las been 
uneventful. His owner, Mr. F. W. J- Veruon- 
Wentworth, has since used him in a good herd 
of heavy Yorkshire cows, and the calves of 
his “get', which are not Deeded in the herd, 
are eagerly sought for by the tenantry in the 
neighborhood, a demaud satisfactorily ex¬ 
plained by his good outlines and serviceable 
pedigree. His immediate progenitors, like 
himself, were useful rather than showy aui¬ 
mals, both on the side of sire and dam, though 
he has in him the blood of Lord Ducie's Bessy 
tribe, the Honeys of KLngseote and the cele¬ 
brated PriDcesses. Although his sire and dam 
are both iu the Herd Book, his name finds no 
place there. It is to bulls of this homely soi t, 
whose prime lineage is enhanced by desirable 
personal qualities, aud which have not been 
deteriorated by pampering, that we must look 
for the improvement of our herds, rather than 
to animals whose dead ance6toia are their 
chief merits, or whose highest glory is that 
they have been the pets of the show yard. 
-- » ♦- 
ANG US CAT TLE, 
This is a black polled breed of cattle, pe¬ 
culiar to Scotland; aud its improvement from 
stolen crosses of Short-born bulls on the fe¬ 
males, has increased their size, refined their 
points aud enable them to mature at almost as 
early an age as Short-horns. Taking a re¬ 
mote cross thus, and then breeding strictly 
over, which she aia wim me greaieHi, auuiu »- 
tion. When will our cattle breeders exert 
themselves in the same way to gratify the 
bovine taste of their fair countrywomen? 
We regret to see that a prejudice is enter¬ 
tained against these superior auimals in New 
Mexico, and some parts of Texas, simply be¬ 
cause scrub Mexican black, hornless bulls and 
cows of Spanish descent, have been long bred 
there. This causes the ranchmen to think the 
Scotch the same as their own natives. But if 
they would only consider their much greater 
size, superior form, and finer pointB, their 
prejudices against them would immediately 
give way, We fear, however, they are too 
ignorant to do this, and in consequence of it 
will deprive themselves of the means of mak¬ 
ing a great aud rapid improvement iu their 
herds, unless they resort to Short-horn bulls, 
which, of course, would improve the native 
stock still faster, except in the matter of 
leaving more or less of horn upon their pro¬ 
geny. 
In an editorial of the rural ior Apia 
there are some sound remaiks about “ The de¬ 
dependence of flowers upon insects for their 
pollenation,” and “jumping at conclusions.’ 
The writer says, “ It has been stated that 
Kalmia latifolia is of this class.” “ The theory 
is that insects at this stage of the flower’s de¬ 
velopment, working at the nectar tubes below, 
free the anthers from their pockets, whence it 
follows lhat insects are essential to the fertili- 
vation of the Kalmia ovules!” He adds “ The 
writer of this note lor a week or more past, 
has had the opportunity, among the Kalmia 
groves and thickets of South Carolina, of ob¬ 
serving how entirely mistaken this pretty 
theory is.” He goes on to say that he has 
seen the ambers liberated from their pockets 
in the corolla without the aid of any insects. 
He has seen these tliingB with his own eyes, 
and I have no doubt he has seen correctly. 
This shows the need of caretul observations 
and frequent repetitions of observations in 
different places and uuder different circum¬ 
stances. The author referred to, if he is well 
read on the subject, must know that many ex¬ 
amples have been discovered in which plants 
were developed in a different manner in dif¬ 
ferent countries, and that Insects act differently 
on plants in different countries. We must be 
careful and not do what the author of the 
article has done iu this case—“jump at con- 
HISTORY OF A POOR FARM.—No. 25 
Some time in 1866, when a student at Har¬ 
vard, I spent many hours watching the be¬ 
havior of honey bees aud wild bees on Kalmia 
angustifolia, and took notes on the spot. The 
plants were thriving in their own home. Two 
years later some of these notes were printed in 
volume first of the American Naturalist. The 
particulars aie given describing the behavior 
of the insects as they are 6een to pull the 
from their pockets. “A single visit 
stamens 
from an insect Is sufficient to release an me 
anthers. By noon it was a difficult matter to 
find a flower which had not been visited iu this 
wav-” Further ou the notes read. “ Insects 
seem to be absolutely necessary for the perfect 
fertilization of Kalmia angustifolia and K. 
latifolia (planted in the gardens), for I tied 
small sacks of mosquito netting over some 
flower clusters, and found that when the bees 
were kept away, the flowers withered and fell 
off, most of the anthers Btill remaining in the 
pockets, and the filaments so decayed that 
their elasticity waB entirely gone.” Other re¬ 
marks follow. My conclusion, so far as the 
plants I studied in that place iu 1866 are con- 
eerued. I still have no reason to doubt, but I 
sons who live in iowus suu muco, mwuuu 
breaking the law. At least this is the case in 
the large places, where the milk business is 
under the strictest regulations. 
“Thatis all wrong” remarked Dr. Jones. 
“ Skimmed milk is as healthful a food as pure 
milk *, It is not so rich, that is all. The Boards 
of Health, who have charge of thiB business 
might as well prohibit bakers from selliug 
bread without butter as a dairymen from sell¬ 
ing milk without cream. Thousands of poor 
people are olten glad to eat their bread dry, 
and would as gladly drink their milk without 
cream. Iu fact, skimmed milk and bread are 
a most excellent food for young and old per¬ 
sons, and for some the skimmed milk is better 
than full milk." 
“Skimmed milk could be sold In the cities and 
towns for three cents a quart; any milk-man 
the quality of its beef, which has ever Dome 
the highest price of auy sort iu the British 
market except that of Ike Highlanders. 
Being extra hardy and thrifty, it is a mat¬ 
ter of congratulation that a few Angus bulls 
were imported into Kansas in 1873, by the 
late Mr. George Grant, to help stock his Vic¬ 
tor settlement there. Mr. Clark, who was as¬ 
sociated with Mr. Grant iu stock breeding, 
took four of these Angus bulls for himself, 
and crossed them on the poor native cows of 
the State, called Cherokee. The half-bred 
produce of these was a wonderful improve¬ 
ment, about two-thirds of the calves coming 
black, and growing up hornless. The steers 
are of extra-quiet disposition, hardy, thrifty, 
and fatten easily and kindly. When brought 
to the Kansas City market they brought a 
