457 
JULY<7 
THE R U B A L NEW-YORKER. 
their breeders to turn the capital invested in 
them, in half the time before consumed, and 
adds an additional profit in raising them. 
We recollect seeing au account in the Eng¬ 
lish papers some years ago of a Sussex bleeder 
who had such a conceited estimation of the 
superiority of his cattle as to challenge any 
herd of Short-horns in the Kingdom to be 
shown against them. The late Earl Spencer 
immediately accepted the challenge for his 
own herd; judges were then appointed aud 
the rival animals brought iulo the ring. Upon 
careful comparison of the two breeds, side by 
side,the Short-hornB were declared to be much 
superior, to the great mortification of the Sus¬ 
sex breeder. They have since this been 60 
greatly improved as to be considered now 
among the best of the second rank of England’s 
beef cattle, aud in time may probably take 
their place among the first. 
Jgbflnraitural, 
RAINFALL AND FORESTS. 
A recent article in the Rural reiterates 
what has been constantly preached for several 
years past—namely, that the destruction of 
forests causes drought. This is constantly 
stated to be suceptible of proof—and, to use 
the expression of the present age •'scientific 
proof.” Science has the exalted place uow-a- 
days, aud proof is no proof unless it is scien¬ 
tific. Why this droughty effect of the destruc¬ 
tion of forests is so often reiterated 1 cannot 
imagine, since uo one seems to doubt it. 
Never have I seen the least contradiction of 
this philosophy. Aud this seems 6trange to 
me since facts do not favor it in the broad ex¬ 
tent of our couutry. There arc two notable 
facts that afford such clear proof to the con¬ 
trary, that apparent proofs of the theory 
drawn from narrow, isolated sections cannot 
affect them. The first is this: In Indiana, 
Illinois, Wisconsin,Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, 
Kansas, and Nebraska there is a region, in 
area, say, 300,000 square miles, that is now 
and has beeu while known to the white 
man, practically treelesB, and it is a recent 
discovery that this vast extent of couutry 
is a desert. For, taking this theory that the 
loss of forests causes drought, aud drought, 
sterility, it follows that we are mistaken in 
thinking that we live iu a fertile plain that 
groans with millions of bushels of corn and 
wheat and other productions that eanuot 
thrive without the proper ainouut of moisture 
What has been the fact iu regard to this vast 
region? It is that, without forests, it has had 
from time immemorial as large a rainfall, on 
the average, as those States which ate largely 
covered with forests. Is there any possible 
way to get around .hat fact ? It will not do to 
point to droughts that have prevailed from 
time to time iu varying localities. They do 
not militate agaiust the great truth stated; for 
they were local, aud, besides, droughts have pre¬ 
vailed eimiluily iu wooded districts. 
Tne next great faet is, that our rainfall does 
not come, to any considerable extent, from tHe 
evaporation of moisture from the surface of 
the land, held there by the forests aud liberated 
as needed according to this theory; but 
from vast masses of vapor projected over us, 
drawn from the Gulf of Mexico aud the Pu- 
cillc Ocean, aud which by natural laws 
are precipitated on us, regardless of wide 
prairie or thick forest. These two facts, it 
seems to me utterly destroy the theory. 
How does experience affect the question, 
looking at it from a local point ? In Indiana 
and Illinois, and perhaps iu a larger extent of 
country, our seasons were dry for several 
years previous to 1875. Then we had a flood, 
aud for five years past there has been an 
abundance of rain. In those dry years it was 
common to cry out about the cutting away of 
the forests. Have the forests come back, that 
we lack not for moisture ? 
Here we are suffering from rain—farmers 
(this middle of June), in some parts have not 
been able to get in their corn, and one flood 
follows another in our bottoms, in the East 
you have been burnt up. How about the 
forests—are ourB growing and yours lessoning 
so rapidly ? 
This is only another instance of arguing 
from hand to mouth, as it were. j. a. f. 
Terre Haute, Lnd. 
Jkictitifu aut) (Useful, 
CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERI¬ 
MENT STATION. 
BULLETIN 45.— JUNK 18, 1880. 
HORN, FISH, BLOOD. 
432. Buffalo horn dust, sold by F. S. John¬ 
son, Piaiuville, sent by J. W. Hemmuigway, 
Plainville. 
433. Quinnipiac Fertilizer Co.’s dry ground 
fish, sold by J. M. Belden, New Britain, sent 
by E. F. Blake, New Britain. 
391. Dried blood, made by Sperry & Barnes, 
New Haven, sampled and sent by R. E. Pin- 
ney, Suflleld. 
392. Dried blood and hair, made by Strong, 
Barnes, Hart & Co., sampled and sent by R- 
E. Pinney. 
439. Dried blood, manufactured by Strong, 
Barnes, Hart & Co., New Haven, sent by J. J. 
Webb, Hamden. 
Estimated 
432 
433 
891 
392 
439 
. 14 50 
0 15 
8 14 
7 28 
6 20 
6 02 
8 80 
3 55 
8 25 
6 41 
843 71 
$30 00 
$42 76 
$38 00 
$33 23 
$26 00 
$36 63 
1 
$41 07 
$30 00 
BONE. 
434. H. J. Biker & Bro.’s strictly pure 
ground bone, sent by J. J. Webb, Hamden. 
440. Ivory saw dust, manufactured by F. S. 
Johnson, Plainville, sent by J. W. Heming¬ 
way, Plainville. 
441. Bone sawdust, made by Holyoke Man¬ 
ufacturing Co., Holyoke, Mass., and sold by 
R. T. Prentiss, Holyoke, sent by J. W. Hem¬ 
ingway, Plainville. 
443 and 443. Ground bone, made by Atwood 
Bros., Watertown, sent by M. S. Baldwin, Nau¬ 
gatuck. 
434 
440 
441 
442 
443 
Nitrogen. 
.8 94 
5 42 
3 64 
8 76 
4 29 
Phos. acid.... 
.19 66 
24 38 
26 16 
20 02 
21 95 
Passed holes 1-60 in. 40 
94 
87 
2 
27 
• I «* 
1-25 in. 29 
6 
11 
11 
26 
44 44 
1-12 in. 28 
2 
20 
23 
14 4k 
1-6 in. 3 
23 
14 
Coarser than 1-6 iu. 1 
43 
10 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
Estimated value per 
ton.. 
$63 44 
$49 24 
$33 96 
840 80 
Cost per ton 
$30 30 
$35 60 
$30 00 
$30 1)0? 
443 and 443 are respectively the finer parts 
of the same ground bone. 
The finer bone, 443, is seen to contain more, 
both of nitrogen (0.5 per cent.) and of phos¬ 
phoric acid (1.9 per cent.) and partly for that 
reason and partly for its fineness it has an es¬ 
timated value nearly $7 greater than the 
coarset bone, 443. 
POTASH SALTS. 
428. Sulphate of potash, H. J. Baker & Bro., 
New York, sent by Mr. P. M. Augur, Middle- 
field. 
438. Muriate of potash, sold by H. J. Baker 
& Bro., sent by J. J. Webb, Hamden. 
428 
438 
Potash. 
53 18 
Sulphate o I potash. 
Muriate of potash. 
. 87 60 
82 50 
Estimated value per ton. 
$46 96 
Cost per ton. 
$40 00 
PLASTER. 
414. Land plaster, manufactured by E. B. 
Alvord, Jamesville, N. Y., sold by 8. A. Wel¬ 
don & Son aud sent by S. R. Gridley, President 
of the Farmer’s Club, Bristol, Conn. 
419. Gypsum or laud plaster, Nova Scotia(?) 
grouud aud sold by George Abbott, Braueh- 
ville, Conn., sent by D. H. Van Hoosear, Presi¬ 
dent Farmers' Club, East Wilton, Conn. 
431. Plaster, manufacturer unknown, E. N. 
Pierce, dealer, Plainville, Conn., sent by T. N. 
Bishop, Piaiuville. 
414 
4iy 
481 
. 35 
09 
43 
64 
84 
96 
. 24 
56 
30 
56 
24 
47 
. 15 
79 
19 
63 
15 
73 
. 76 
44 
93 
83 
75 
16 
. 7 
48 
8 
85 
7 
81 
. 17 
08 
17 
03 
Cost per tou. 
NEW JERSEY AGRICULTURAL EXPERI¬ 
MENT STATION .-3. 
gypsum. As a mineral it is known as alabas¬ 
ter aud selenite, and when found as it is some¬ 
times without water in it, it is called anhydrite. 
It is so soft as to be scratched with the finger 
nail, and it dissolves slightly in cold water, 
about one pound of it dissolving in 60 gallons 
of water. 
Plaster for farmer’s use is to be found in all 
our markets. 
The following samples have been sent to the 
Station for analysis and they are the kinds 
most commonly sold. 
The comparative value of these samples is 
calculated very nearly by assuming that pure 
boiled plaster is worth $10 a ton or a half-cent 
a pound. This price would make the value of 
the specimens to be set down in the table. 
(2.) <3.) a.) <s.y m.) 
Snlpuric acid. 44.64 29.52 45.14 45.08 58.47 
Lime... 31.24 20.68 31.69 31.56 39.o6 
Sulphate of lime. 75.88 50.18 76.78 76.64 96.03 
Water. 20.08 13.32 20.33 20.28 UO.OO 
Value per hundred...38 0 25 0 38 0 38 0 48 
Value per tou.$7 59 5 02 7 67 7 66 9 60 
Selling price.$8 00 7 00 9 00 8 10 
(2.) Scut by S. L. Burrougb, of Merchaut- 
ville, from the stock of Fitzgerald Jc Co., Cam¬ 
den. Its brand is pure Nova Scotia land plas¬ 
ter, and its price $8 per ton. 
(3.) Sent by I. W. Nicholson, of Camden. 
Cayuga Plaster Co., Union Springs, N. Y. De¬ 
livered at Uaddonfield, by car-load, at $7 a ton. 
The analysis accompanying the plaster gave 
its percentage of pure gypsum as 80.78 per 
cent. 
(4.) Sent by William C. Nicholson, of Had 
donfield, Brand, laud plaster. From stock of 
Taylor Bros., Camden. Price, 49 per ton. 
(5.) Sent by Hon. E. Burrougb, Merchaut- 
viile. Brand, French’s laud plaster. From 
stock of French, Richards & Co., of Philadel¬ 
phia. Price not given. 
(25.) Sent by Samuel L. Burrough, Merchaut- 
ville. Brand, Nova 8cotla land plaster. From 
stockof W. Fitzgerald. Price 48 10 per ton. 
Of these specimens, two, four and five are 
samples of Nova Scotia, 3 is a sample of plas¬ 
ter from central New York, and 25 is a sample 
of boiled plaster or plaster of Paris. Their val- 
lues in the table are estimated by considering 
the sulphate of lime as the only substance de¬ 
sired by the farmer in buying them. 
The Cayuga plaster is perhaps worth a little 
more than this estimate, on account of other 
substauces in it, and the boiled plaster may not 
be worth so much as estimated on account 
of ite liability to set if it should be wet before 
the time for using it. 
The dressing used for an acre is very small, 
from 100 to 300 pounds. This may be the rea¬ 
son that the poorer plaster gives as good re¬ 
sults as the best. But if so the dressing of the 
latter may well be diminished in amount. 
Geo. H. Cook, Director. 
100 00 100 00 100 00 
. 87 60 86 00 $7 00 
W. Johnson, Director. 
l$isrtUaiimis. 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
ANALYSES OF LAND PLASTER. 
this substance has been very extensively 
used iu New Jersey as a fertilizer. It was form¬ 
erly thought to be almost indispensable for 
producing a good crop of clover. It is not so 
mueh used for that purpose uow, though em¬ 
ployed to some extent, but is found beneficial 
in hastening the germination of seeds, iu pro¬ 
moting the growth of young coru and pota¬ 
toes. It is much used ou composts for absorb¬ 
ing or decomposing gases aud for hastening 
the decay of coarse manures . 
The supply of plaster for this State comes 
mostly from Central New York or from Nova 
Scotia. That from New York is commonly 
of a grayish color, aud besides the sulphate of 
lime and water which are ite proper constitu¬ 
ents, it contains some carbonate of lime, some 
carbonate of magnesia, and other impurities. 
The Nova Scotia plaster is white and usually 
contains only a small percentage of any im¬ 
purity. 
Pure plaster is composed cf— 
Lime......32.6 per cent. 
Sulphuric acid. 46.5 per cent. 
Water.20.9 per cent. 
100.0 
When the plaster is heated a little above the 
temperature of boiling water, it gives off the 
water that was combined with it, and is then 
known as boiled plaster or plaster of Paris. 
This is the plaster which sets aud becomes 
6tone agaiu when it is thoroughly wet with 
water, and is used for making plaster casts, 
cornices, hard-finished walls, etc. 
In addition to the chemical names of calcium 
sulphate and sulphate of lime it is also called 
ish horticulturists—are entirely ignorant of 
what has been done for their benefit by Messrs. 
Lawes and Gilbert at Rothamsted ? Was he 
not right when he pointed to the results ob¬ 
tained iu sixty-two experimental stations in 
Germany, fifteen in Austria-Hungary —127 
stations in Europe generally, and asked how 
much our British cultivators had profited by 
them? What are our horticultural societies 
about? Is it well that their labors should 
practically be confined to the establishment 
aud conduct of flower Bhows? The countries 
we have named are right, and wc are wrong. 
We are tamely letting them get the better of 
us, and complaining of bad seasons and hard 
laws, all the time doing next to nothing to meet 
the altered elrcumBtauces. Scientific training 
in the Universities for those who are to become 
possessors of estates or managers of property 
in the future, chairs aud classes of agricul¬ 
ture, botany, physiology, physics, chemistry, 
geology, entomology—all these are wanted, 
and should be supplied in our great Univer¬ 
sities and elsewhere, with special reference to 
practical needs and requirements. For the 
working classes of the board school or the 
village school should furnish the basiB, not 
only of a common education, but also such a 
knowledge of the soil, the air, the waters, the 
plants and the animals as may be made availa¬ 
ble iu the daily routine of the farm or the gar¬ 
den. We cannot too emphatically repeat our 
conviction, that progress in gardening aud 
farming in the future depends far more on the 
results to be got from a thorough training in 
the various branches of natural knowledge, 
than it does in any readjustment of land laws 
or lightening of fiscal regulations. These are, 
as it were, local accidents—limited in their 
area, restricted iu their rauge, bat Nature is 
universal, the application of a knowledge of 
her laws to the business of life is limited only 
by the Suite faculties of man. 
The Credit System.. —We find the follow¬ 
ing in Dr. Hoskins’s department of the Ver¬ 
mont Watchman: “The Rural New-Yorker, 
like the faithful farmers’ paper that it i3, has 
for the last two years enforced iu a series of 
able articles the evils of the credit system, aud 
has expressed the desire to see it abolished. A 
recent writer of the Couutry Gentleman thus 
speaks of this Moloch : * Laud-poor, beggared, 
crushed under the load of a thousand acres, 
might be written as the epitaph of many a lost 
home. But time, which cures all ills aud cor¬ 
rects all abuses, is freeing the debtor, and at 
the same time the wheels of business aud pros¬ 
perity, which have beeu so loug clogged. In¬ 
debtedness, like a malignant disease, must, if 
not removed soon, prove fatal.’ A striking 
instance, but only one iu a thousand, of ruin 
thus worked Is the ease of Thomas Baker, 
who for the last twenty years has carried ou 
one of the largest, be6t aud most profitable 
dairy farms in Orleans county, and whose fine 
herd of Dateh cattle has so often been a 
feature of our State fairs. In the ' flush times’ 
he could have sold his land, paid his debts and 
had 415,000, with all his stock, implements aud 
household goods clear. Within a year the 
whole has passed into the hands of a mortgagee, 
leaviug Mr. Baker with hardly enough to 
carry him and his family to the wilds of 
Dakota. Mr. Baker has always beeu a pru¬ 
dent, hard-working mau, and has sold his large 
product of butter at extra prices. His wife is 
a model dairy woman. But they had to go 
down under the weight of a 415,000 monguge. 
Ho uow writes from the wilderness his last 
word to the young farmers of Vermont, * Don’t 
go iu debt for laud.” 
Agricultural Education.— What, (asks 
the London Gardeners’ Chronicle) said Mr. 
Church the other day. at the Congress held at 
the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, 
on the occasion of a thoughtful address of 
Professor Tanner ? Was he not right when 
he said that the bulk of British farmers—and 
the same remark applies, in its way, to Brit- 
Soil Exhaustion.— The following is from 
the pen of Dr. J. B. Lawes to the London Ag. 
Gazette. It should be carefully read by all 
farmers. “It is uow exactly flirty years since 
we begau to exhaust a portion of one of my 
fields by continuous unmauured wheat crops, 
it may therefore be interesting to show the 
evidence we are in a position to briog forward 
upon the subject of exhaustion as regards the 
6oil at Rothamsted. It would appear probable 
that the annual deeliue due to exhaustion may 
amount to from, one-quarter to one-third of a 
bushel of wheat per acre per annum. If we 
take the smaller quautity and add to it the 
ordinary proportion of straw, the result would 
be equivalent to about 40 pounds ol produce; 
and, as there is but little doubt that the bulk 
of the orgauic matter of the crop is obtained 
from the atmosphere, the amount of matter 
annually taken from the soil by these 40 pounds 
of produce (including the nitrogen it contain¬ 
ed) would be between two pounds and three 
pounds, The evidence derived from other ex¬ 
periments in the same field proves that the de¬ 
cline in produce is due to an absence of nitro¬ 
gen, as also that minerals are in excess, but 
the actual amount of nitrogen that these 40 
pounds of produce would have contained would 
be less than one-half pound in weight! It 
will, 1 am afraid, appear to your agricultural 
readers something like an absurdity to suppose 
that one-half pound, more or less, of any 6ub- 
stauce upon an acre of laud, could have au ap¬ 
preciable influence upon a crop. I may ob¬ 
serve, however, that this annual decline of 
40 pouuds of produce, small as it appears to 
be, amounts in forty years to 10 bushels per 
acre. Analyses of the soil made at different 
times show that the nitrogen is declining, and 
as the free use of minerals in au adjoining ex¬ 
periment does not preveut the decline of the 
crop, we can come to no other conclusion, 
than that the gradual decline in the produce 
Is due to the diminishing amount of nitrogen 
iu the soil- As far as the wheat crop is con¬ 
cerned, it would appear that the total amount 
of produce to be obtained from any soil must 
depend very much upon the stores of nitrogen 
already in the land- It is true that the soil 
obtains a certain amount of ammonia from the 
rainiail, and it probably eoudeuses more or 
less from the atmosphere; but, ou the other 
hand, drainage carries aw'ay every year more 
or less nitrogen in the form of nitric acid ; and 
it is evident the atmospheric supply, whatever 
it may amount to, does not suffice to prevent a 
decline of iheerop; it is therefore also evident 
that the source, irotu which the torty crops 
obtained their supply, must have been the 
stores of nitrogen already existing iu the soil 
when the experiment commenced -, further, it 
seems most probable that the yield o£ lttiure 
crops will depend upon tbeauiuuutoi nitrogen 
liberated each year from the soil.” 
Feeding Calves. —* Mr. O. S. Bliss,” the 
N. Y. Tribune says, " who has tried all ways 
of raising calves, prefers uncooked food, 
aud espemaliv a mixture of grouud oats and 
barley, to auy other addition to the skim milk. 
He begins with a small quantity, led dry, aud 
gradually increases it alter a week or two; 
when Ike calf is four to six weeks old it is 
allowed to have ail it will eat of this meal, 
giveu just alter it has taken its milk, with, 
afterwards, ail the pure water it will ar.nk. 
Mb. Geddes, according to the Syracuse Jour¬ 
nal, using plaster ou potatoes ou alternate 
rows, found that the vines where a haudlul uf 
plaster had beeu thrown gave double the yield 
of potatoes and double the size of vines in an 
unusually dry year. __ 
