465 
JULY 17 
THE BUBAL J3EW-Y0BKEB. 
yet the total crop certainly gave a profit to 
the producers, although the average yield 
throughout the country was only 13.7 bushels. 
—Eds ] 
To prevent failures, which come every few 
years—and in some states every year—is a 
question not so easily solved. They will come 
like “ accidents to the best of familiesbut I 
think very unnecessarily sometimes. Smut, 
rust and the ravages of insects can all be in a 
measure prevented, at least in some seasons. 
8omc varieties resist the attacks of almost 
every enemy, while others are liable to injury 
by the most harmless. Hybrids, when well 
acclimated, are generally much stronger and 
more thrifty than the parent wheats, and 
should be adopted by farmers In place of the 
old kinds that have “ run out." 
State Agricultural College, Fort Collins, Col. 
—-♦- 
TIMELY NOTES. 
Jatra ®opirs. 
THE OUTSIDE AND THE INSIDE. 
The editorials and other matter in the Rural 
issue of June 26 seem worthy of both commen¬ 
tary and compliment, and, if you will allow 
It, I will add compliment. 
Colorado Beetles.—I have had a 'good 
deal of experience with this pest, and have been 
taught by costly experience there is no way of 
mastering him when he and his progeny ap¬ 
pear in force, except by the use of Paris-green, 
extended tome twenty or thirty times in dry 
arises from the fact that the salting and the 
rolling are of value enough to the land and 
crop to pay the expenses incurred—just as in 
the case of the dusting of potato viues as above 
described—the benefit to the soil from the use 
of plaster is worth more than it costs. 
Big Corn Crops —Some years ago, on avery 
rich soil and under quite favorable circum¬ 
stances, I made several attempts to grow 100 
bushels of dry corn to an acre. But I never 
came nearer than 00 bushels, and possibly not 
nearer than 85. But in getting at the outcome 
I did not content myself, as is usually done, 
by measuriug the product of one, two or three 
square rods and then multiplying for the whole 
—bnt I planted, cultivated and harvested a 
which have occurred this month of June, fat 
cattle reach Chicago and other markets half 
dead with thirstaad fever; and swine equally 
thirsty and half suffocated, for those which 
a.re alive, and in a partial state of decomposi¬ 
tion for those which have died on the way. 
That these atrocities will and do tell on the 
public health and remotely on the public 
morals, there can be no manner of doubt, and 
if in the near or remote future an avenging 
Nemesis should appear in the form of some 
awful epidemic, and devastate cities where 
these cruelties are practiced in their worst 
form, who could sav the scourge was not ap¬ 
plied where the scourge was deserved. 
But it is a pleasure to be able to make the 
fact known that one railroad company in the 
West is farin advance of all otheis in providing 
for the health aud comfort of Jive stock trans¬ 
ported over its Hues, and that is the Chicago, 
Burlington & Quincy railroad, a corporation 
owning and controlling many hundredmilesin 
Illinois, and many more hundreds in Western 
and Southern States. The management has 
so arranged and ordered that it is within the 
power and pleasure of every shipper of stock 
to atop freight trains at any one of the numer¬ 
ous water tanks provided for the purpose, and 
there water or deluge the heated live contents 
of the cars by floods of water taken and con¬ 
veyed by hose and other appliances attached 
to the tanks. The first consequence is that 
the animals reaching the Chicago market on 
the C. B. & Q. and its connections, arrive in 
better condilion and fetch better prices than 
from any other line; and the second conse¬ 
quence is the value of the lesson that the hu¬ 
mane and enlightened management of a rail¬ 
road is pretty sure to be sooner or later 
associated with great financial success, for 
the stock and bonds of the company under 
notice, are among the best reputed and highest 
priced of the stock market lists. It is to be 
hoped the management of other lines will, as 
soon as may be. follow the example of the C. 
B. & Q. and before they are brought to it by 
the compulsion of statute law enacted and en¬ 
forced. 
Agricultural Colleges.— The faculties of 
some of these which have been uuder the 
domination of literary presidents and doctors 
of divinity, where the agricultural student has 
come to feel as the negro is made to feel at 
West Point, have accepted the criticism of the 
Rural as an indication that the farmers of the 
country arc in earnest in demanding a change 
in management, which will bring these institu¬ 
tions back to the point they departed from 
some ten years ago. They see. too, that the 
modern farmer, like himof old, is about to give 
up the throwing of grass and will begin even 
to throw stones aud without much re¬ 
gard to those who will be hit or hurt in the 
rnelet. In course of this mouth there has been 
a sort of informal and private convention of 
many of the agricultural professors of the 
country at one of ihe centrally situated Western 
colleges. Just what was done or just w bat con¬ 
clusions were arrived at, the writer has no suf¬ 
ficient information of, but it is plain an effort 
is about to be made by those at preseut having 
control, to lift these institutions from the liter¬ 
ary insignificance into which they have fallen 
and make of them, what it was originally in¬ 
tended they should be made, institutions for 
practical and scientific instruction io agricul¬ 
ture aud mechanics, and nothing else. 
Correction.— My wretched MS., I suppose 
is responsible for several errors of sufficient 
importance to require correction, to be fouud 
ou page 407, issue of June 26, line 28 from the 
bottom, for “03 per cent." read ‘*93 hun¬ 
dredths of one per eeut., or .93 " and for •• 25 
per cent." read *• 21 percent., or 2.S." There 
are several other errors iu the paragraph on 
loire fencing, the most of which will, if the 
piece is carefully read, correct themselves. 
Champaign, III. F j. 
gain) Itiskaiirir, 
HISTORY OF A POOR FARM.-No. 27. 
Adjuncts to the Dairy. 
“Mllk butter, cheese, pork and poultry, 
may be called dairy products" I remarked. 
“ What has pork to do with a dairy." sharply 
asked my old neighbor. “Yon are always 
saying that everything about a dairy should be 
perfectly clean and that no bad smells or filth 
should bo about where milk is kept.. How are 
you going to keep pigs clean 1 should like to 
know and have a pig-pen without bad smells ?” 
“ That can be doue too if one wishes," I re¬ 
plied. “ There is no necessity to confine pigs 
in filthy pens. If cows were neglected as much 
as pigs are, they would be equally filthy. If 
the stables were not cleaned out twice a day, 
and the cows scraped and washed aud carded, 
there would not be much to choose between the 
cow-house and pig-pen. flow often do you clean 
out your pig-pens,” 1 asked. 
“ Once a year,” replied the old man;" I ex¬ 
pect the pigs to make manure and the yard 
High temporatnre with seasonable rains has 
hurried vegetation along till we find haying 
and harvesting crowding closely upon corn 
cultivation. Fortunately in this respect the 
wheat acreage is so small in this locality that 
little hindrance will be felt from that, but Tim¬ 
othy is already shedding its bloom; clover is 
past its best and oats have been a week in 
head. The marketing of the old corn crop and 
the cultivation of the new are claiming so 
much attention that much grass must stand till 
over-ripe before it is cut. Timothy intended 
to be fed to horses is probably equally good if 
left to ripen; bnt when mixed with clover and 
Intended for cattle it shonld be cut at once. 
The plan eommended by Mr. Stewart of put¬ 
ting up hay before entirely dry and leaving it 
to cure in large 200-pounds cocks, I think a 
good one, and if the caps cannot be had or are 
thought too expensive, Ihc tops of the cocks, 
may be secured against blowing off by binding 
over with pieces of woolen twine 10 or 12 feet 
long with pinB of wood or heavy wire attached 
to the ends as recommended for caps. Two of 
these strings laid over the cock at right augles 
and secured firmly to the ground, will keep the 
hay in a condition to shed rain, and where 
hay is cheap would, perhaps, be more econom¬ 
ical than covers of cotton cloth. 
Much old corn still remains In first hands 
and considerable will be held over, as the price 
has dropped to 29cts. Many refused S5cts last 
winter and have held their crops till the steady 
decline in price and the excellent prospects for 
the new crop dispelled all hope of improve¬ 
ment. Owing to the excessive rains in the 
midst of the planting season the growing crop 
presents a very uneven appearance, some fields 
standing waist-high and some only six to 
twelve inches. The standing of both early and 
late corn is good, and the weather all that 
could be desired. 
Thus far oats and flax stand up well, though 
the ram the past week caused flax to lean for 
a day or two and reveal to view a considerable 
crop of weeds before unnoticed. Flax is fam¬ 
ous for harboring mustard both in plant and 
seed, as the seed of both ripen at about the 
same time, and being of about equal size and 
difficult to separate, growers of flax should 
spare no pains to obtain clean seed. While on 
the subject of weeds, I beg to remind farmers 
that this is the season to look out for cockle- 
burs. Whenever a patch is noticed, 6top the 
cultivator and pull them up by the roots. This 
is the plan practiced on farms where no cockle- 
burs are permitted to remain, and is little 
trouble it commenced in time. As Illinois 
farmers have no Canada thistles, elders or 
Quack-grass to contend with, they can afford 
to keep under this one great pest. 
The season for cherries and raspberries is 
abont over, and one noticeable fact of the sea¬ 
son is, that the market for small fruits has 
been better somewhat back from railroads aud 
about small towus than in the larger towns 
aud cities. A considerable population of rent¬ 
ers and those who have neglected to plant 
fruit, and the cheap facilities for preserving, 
make a good home rnarkot for all that is grown 
In many localities. Those who havehad a sur¬ 
plus have been able to dispose of them for $1 
per bushel for cherricB, and six cents per quart 
for raspberries, the purchaser doing the pick¬ 
ing, aud there has been no lack of customers. 
A neighbor who has a cherry orchard of 300 
trees has blosed out his crop at from $125 to 
$1.50 per bushel, while at Champaign and Chi¬ 
cago they were down to 75 cents. This orch¬ 
ard, during the past three weeks, has been a 
scene of activity qnlte novel and interesting. 
People from all directions for miles around 
have resorted thither to buy cherries, young 
and old of both sexes often bringing their 
lunch baskets and making it a day of frolic 
and to the proprietor it has been a hand¬ 
some little harvest. It would be well for other 
fruit growers too. and also for the raisers of 
several other horticultural products, to try 
and create a home market for their goods; 
for even if the prices got there are no better 
than those obtained in the towns and cities, 
delay, risk of loss, or damage of perishable 
goods, bad debts, etc., are then avoided, “g." 
Ludlow, Ill. 
calcined, or common ground plaster-of-Paris. 
My practice has been to pay little or no atten¬ 
tion to the parent bugs, but to wait till the 
larvce appear on the leaves, and then give the 
vines a thorough dusting with the mixture, us¬ 
ing the commou instruments for the purpose. 
Then the second or third day after repeat the 
process, and that brood is done for. Those 
who talk about hand-pickiDg, killing the 
eggs and the like, really know nothing of the 
scourge when it appears in ils worst form. 
Why, I hare seen them appear in such num¬ 
bers that if twenty persons were set to work to 
clear an acre, by the time they had gone over 
the vines, old and young ones enough would be 
found on them to require the work to be done 
over again, the same or the succeeding day. 
But like most insects the Colorado beetle is 
a lover of heat and drought and levels in the 
burning rays of an intensely hot mid-summer 
sun, and I conclude your cool climate of New 
York and New England will never feel the 
scourge as we of the West felt It in 1874 and 
the series of dry years which brought the great 
droughty year in. 
The Armt Worm wrought a great destruc¬ 
tion topastures and meadows in Central Illinois 
two or three years ago, and here and there 
some 15 years since, did a vast deal of damage 
toSpring grain. Butthey appeared so suddenly 
and in such numbers little or no attempts 
were made to destroy them or arrest th«ir 
course. Iu the case of pastures and meadows 
where a heavy roller can be used, if they are 
discovcted in season, the sowing of a barrel, 
or a barrel and a half of salt to the acre and 
then giving the surface a thorough going- 
over with a heavily weighted roller, has been 
found, If not sufficient to exterminate them, 
at least enough to reduce their numbers so 
the crop of herbage would not be wholly lost. 
Perhaps the greater part of the advantage of 
bucIi a course of treatment of the Army worm 
whole acre, and then when the crop was dry, 
weighed it. I suppose 100 bushels of corn can 
be grown on an acre, or even 125; but the 
season must be very favorable and all the sur¬ 
rounding circumstances fortunate; for five 
times out of six under average circumstances, 
the experiments will fail. And in this connec¬ 
tion let me ask what is the special good of 
growing 100 or 125 bushels, over aud above 
the demonstration that that quantity of grain 
can be grown on that area? Where land is 
n' ( 4 worth more than $40 to $50 per acre, I 
think there will be found more profit in grow¬ 
ing 50 to 75 bushels of corn to the acre than 100 
or 125; because the extra labor, money expendi¬ 
ture and trouble consequent on an attempt to 
grow these big crops are not made good by the 
outcome, however large it may be; while crops 
of 50 or 75 bushels are pretty sure to pay. To 
my mind the farmer who grows 50 bushels of 
dry corn to an acre, by the 40 or SO acres, in 
average seasons, and 75 in very favorable ones 
has attained the best point of profitable corn 
production, and if he attempts to do better than 
that, he will lose more than he will gain. 
The Cruelties or Transportation. — 
There never was a more opportune word 
spoken than the Rural’s appeal for the dumb 
creatures, our servants and our friends, that 
are now going through all the horrible suffer¬ 
ings of transportation during hot weather. A 
ride of some 250 miles during the hot days of 
the present week, revealed to me the horrible 
cruelties to which hogB and cattle are yearly 
subjected on their way to market. It scarcely 
seems possible that these cruelties can go on 
much longer without the active interference of 
laws enacted and enforced by the humane 
sense of civilized society. On most railroads 
little or no conveniences have been provided 
by which cattle and hogs can be cooled and 
watered in course of transportation, and con¬ 
sequently in weeks of intense heat like those 
