SEPT. 4 
§88 
THE RURAL (NEW-YORKER. 
e d to the sun, and the Monarch where somewhat 
shaded. The Sharpless ranked first in health 
and vigor and size of single berries, but sec¬ 
ond in quality and qnautitv of fruit. Miner’s 
Prolific, on tny grounds which are principally 
a sandy loam with light clay sub-oil equals it 
in everything except vigor and excels it in 
quantity and especially in quality of fruit. 
The Crescent Seedling gave very fine returns 
where grown in narrow matted rows, on 
semi-lieavy, deep and very rich soil. With me, 
Miner’s Prolific has given excellent returns 
under all kinds of fair treatment. The Glen¬ 
dale is only' second to the Sharpless in vigor 
of plant, in health and prolificness, and has 
fruit of good quality, and excellent stayiug 
qualities as to length of bearing season. 
Bartlett pears were ready for picking by 
Aug. 10th. Souvenir du Congres on the 16tb. 
Among grapes, the Champion, Hartford, 
Israella, Adirondack and Moore’s Early are ripe 
except an occasional duster. They have ripened 
quite unevenly, and the season has rather In¬ 
tensified the unpleasant qualities ol some of 
them. Among grape novelties set on my 
ground this season, the Bacchus at this writ¬ 
ing has excelled all in growth of wood; the 
Prentiss ranks second ; Jacob Rommel’s Elvi¬ 
ra seedling, Faith, third; Pocklington, Ver- 
genneaand Don Juan, and several of ltommel’s 
Taylor seedlings, fourth on a scale of 10. The 
Lady Washington, Eldorado, Highland, Jeffer¬ 
son, Advance, Imperial, W yorning, Florence 
Concord. Muscat Concord, Chassclas, Centen¬ 
nial, Sharon, Noah, Du chess, Poughkeepsie, 
Linden, Lexington, Eugenia, Augusta, Belinda, 
and Antoinette are especially healthy for such 
a season. 1 am fruiting the last two ot the 
above list, and will report in detail at a later 
time. The Brighton vines, with me, have been 
slow growers the first season, but vigorous in 
growth after that. Their foliage this season, 
is very fair, but it has been injured Bomewhat 
on youDg plants, as has also that of the Duchess, 
and of a few other varieties by the rose chafer. 
Livingston, Co., N. Y. R. A.Waterbury. 
-»♦ » 
The Peach Crop of I lltnoU and Missouri 
is reported as very large in quantity, but 
poor iu quality, few of the best specimens 
even being free from worms. From present 
indications, peach-growing, already In Us de¬ 
cay in the old 8tates named, will have to be 
remitted to the newer portions of the far 
Southwest, as, for example, to Northwestern 
Arkansas, which is said to possess a soil and 
climate admirably suited to the peach and the 
grape. 
Conversing with an intelligent lady from 
Louisiana recently, she said no small part of 
the failures in orange, fig, tea, and olive grow¬ 
ing was due to the frequent attempts made 
to force their growth beyond the naturul 
climatic limit assigned to each, for above 
SO 4 ' or 81° fruitfuluesB and healthy develop¬ 
ment could not be counted upon. b. r. j. 
Diittpri), 
TRAINING AND PRUNING GRAPES. 
8. B. PECK. 
I find many beautiful illustrations of various 
methods of performing the above operations, 
but I have never seen any one of them carried 
out to the perfection Bhown in the plateB. In 
fact, I have rarely Been any one plan, as they 
appear in the books, attempted and persisted in 
for aDy leng tti of time, except that recommended 
by Strong—u flat trellis about two and a half 
feet high and about as wide, allowing the vines 
to run over aud hang down the sides as they 
please. This plan has with me worked very 
well, hut it lakes more work than Borne others 
with the hoe, and less can he done with the cul¬ 
tivator. For this, I set postB eight feet apart; saw 
them square at the top before setting, and set 
by a line, lay 2x0 inch blocks across the top, 
and fasten them with spikes; then nail lG /oot 
strips on the endB of these blocks; then nail, 
as may be needed, a half length of lath across. 
I see that there is some controversy about 
the distance apart at which grape-viues should 
be planted, aud 1 know two growers who, hav¬ 
ing planted in rows eight feet apart, the vines 
eightfeet apart in the row, have eventually dug 
up every other vine in the row, and claim to 
have thereby increased the yield of fruit. That 
the increased yield should be the result of thiB 
process, if the vines aro trained by the ordi¬ 
nary bap-hazard method, I can easily believe, 
without admitting any benefit from the in¬ 
creased room for the roots or vines. 
The natural tendency of the vine is to keep 
increasing Us length from year to year, bear¬ 
ing its fruit further and further from the stock, 
leaving at the base bare wood, constantly in¬ 
creasing in length. All pruning has for its 
mam object the keeping of the vine within the 
prescribed bounds, and the occupying of the 
trellis with bearing instead of bare wood. Is 
it not possible that the thwarting of nature in 
this matter is one of the causes of rot and mil¬ 
dew so prevalent in places ? I do not assert 
this as a fact, but I could give my reasons for 
believing it to be so. 
To avoid this necessity for short pruning to 
prevent bare wood, I have hit upon the follow¬ 
ing plan, which I intend to put in practice at 
the next Fall pruning with my three-year-old 
Concords and other rank growing sorts. We 
will suppose a trellis of four bars or wires and 
two main canes. Tie these two canes to the 
lower bar 12 to 14 inches apart, then fasten the 
upper end of each to the third bar at an angle 
that just allows them to reach that point, 
both running parallel with each other in 
the same direction to form the angle, the 
acuteness of which will depend on the length 
of the cates. Allow these main canes to In¬ 
crease in length from year to year, two or 
more feet, giving them a more acute angle as 
their length increases; prune to short 6purs ; 
their length depending on your experience and 
judgment. By this process you will see that 
the bearing wood of one vine overlaps the bare 
wood of its neighbor, occupping all the trellis, 
and year by year approaching nearer a hori¬ 
zontal position. 
I am aware that this plan is open to criti¬ 
cism, and that there may be found objections 
that I have not forseen; bnt objections may be 
made to all the plans I have ever seen, and the 
most forcible objection is, that to carry them 
out needs more care and close attention than 
one man in a hundred has the patience to give 
them. 1 shall follow the same plan with my 
fiat trellises—train all the canes one way, the 
way the prevailing wind blows as nearly as 
may be, and let the fruit-bearing part overlap 
the barren part, thus giving Nature more of 
her own way. 
I propose now to give some of the observa¬ 
tions that have led me to this plan. The first 
specimen of grape pruning and training that I 
ever saw was attended to year after year by 
an old man, who had been much in foreign 
countries and who pruned close to a single 
cane trained horizontally Borne four feet high, 
giving it all the length that his limited area 
could afford. The varieties were Isabella and 
Catawba, his latitude Western New York, and 
his success satisfactory to him. In sight 
from where I now sit, I have a single old Con¬ 
cord vine trained on a trellis 12 feet long and 
eight feet high. In theFsH-piuning the bearing 
wood is brought to any point * 1 where there is 
the most room for it, up, down or horizon¬ 
tally. The trellis abuts upon a fence, and 
some five, yiars since I trained a rampant 
shoot upon the fence, giving it all its length. 
It has been annually pruned to spurs of three 
to four buds, has always borne a monstrous 
crop, and has now about nine feet bare at its 
base; while 18 feet are loaded with fruit, and 
there is an extension of six feet, the growth of 
this year—S3 feet in all. 
I have other grape-vines bearing fruit 25 or 
more feet from their bases. They are on trellises 
six feet high and eight feet apart, with long 
canes thrown across them, and trained on cross¬ 
bars six to eight feet apart. The best fruit has 
always been overhead, but now. after five years’ 
bearing, there is little on the side trellises, 
which Is not the case with the vine first men¬ 
tioned, no part of it beiDg shaded. 
Sheboygan, Mich. 
Hairp iushittirp. 
FALL-PACKED BUTTER. 
HENRY STEWART. 
The harvest of the “ farm dairyman ’’ is just 
at that time when the Summer creameries cur¬ 
tail operations. Then the market is relieved 
of a pressure, prices stiffen up and inquiries 
become more active for choice butter. Then 
is the time for the private dairyman to push 
his goods forward. “ Dairies ” are then want¬ 
ed, and if the quality of the butter is right, the 
prices are just as “ right,” The aim of every 
butter maker should be to become independent 
of market prices, aud to produce such a qual¬ 
ity of goods as shall sell at special rales and 
shall also secure a constant purchaser. To do 
this he must make a choice article, of course ; 
but it is far more important that his butter 
should he packed to keep. 
Some years ago I packed a 50-pound pail of 
butter in Juue, aud put it away for a year. 
When it was opened I thought the butter as 
good as, if not better than, the newly packed, 
aud it was sold as new-packed without ques¬ 
tion. Some years before that 1 examined some 
tubs that were packed by an Ohio dairymun 
10 mouths previously, and the quality was so 
excellent that the memory of that butter re¬ 
mains as a bright, indelible spot upon my 
mind. 
In these instances it was the packing that 
not only preserved the butter, but improved 
the flavor and deepened the color. From those 
Ohio tubs I learned a lesson, for I could see 
the points in the packing, and gained a wrin¬ 
kle for my own future use. Now, for the 
credit of that Ohio dairyman, who was and 
still is a farmer of Cuyahoga county, in that 
choice region known as the Western Re¬ 
serve, I will describe how his butter was 
packed, and merely say that my own method 
later used, was Bimilar to his, with the excep¬ 
tion that I used the “ Weatcott return butter 
pail," holding 50 pounds, while he used new 
white-oak firkins nf 100 pounds each. 
The butter was well made and salted to 
keep, with the usual proportion of one ounce 
of 6alt to the pound. The tub was not all 
packed at once, and in opening It, the contents 
were found to be in layers, with distinct strata 
of what had been salt, hut was then briny 
moisture between them. The firkin was new 
and sweet; It had been well soaked in brine 
before the butter was packed. Each layer of 
butter was packed BOlidly, with no holes in it 
and no open seams around the outside against 
the staves. As each layer was packed it was 
covered with brine, until another was ready, 
when the brine was poured off for a new 
packing, a little salt was scattered over the 
surface of the last layer and upon the Bides of 
the firkin. Three packings filled the tub in 
six days. When the tub was filled a piece of 
fine white muslin soaked in brine was spread 
upon the top (a similar piece was placed at 
the bottom previously), salt was sprinkled 
upon that aud the head was pressed in with a 
lever; then the hoops wore driven down, and 
this tight packing made the butter as solid as 
It could possibly be made. The tubs were kept 
in a spring-house, the hoops were tightened 
occasionally, aud when the tubs were shipped, 
the hoops were again driven down and nailed 
with tin tacks, which did not go through the 
staves and stain the butter as iron nails do. 
The butter was made in Septemder. The 10 
tubs which I examined were Bbipped to the 
backwoods in Northern Michigan, in May, and 
were not opened uutil after midsummer, and 
the last was not all used until September, and 
this butter brought joy to our lonely camp. 
Afterwards I found the maker, a Mr. W-, 
from his brand on the butter, who told me his 
Btory. The secret of this success is easily 
seen. Mr. W-made good butter, packed it 
in perfectly clean, air-tight packages in such 
a manner that they were kept air-tight, aud 
so the good butter was well preserved. What 
is to hinder any other farmer from doing the 
same? If Mr. W-.who was then, and is 
doubtless now, a reader and a friend of the 
Rural New-Yorker, should Bee these lines, I 
am glad to assure him that the occurrence re¬ 
ferred to helped very much to make a dairy¬ 
man of me, and that I do not think I ever 
made butter equal to that lot of his, for it was 
the best I have tasted, to the last pound. 
Jam topics. 
CO-OPERATION AMONG FARMERS. 
We are apt to suppose that what is natural 
is about right. Now, it seems to he natural 
that there should be a flow of population from 
country to city, and that the increasing popu¬ 
lation of cities should stay there. But there 
seems to be something wrong about this. City 
life is so wearying and exciting that it burns out 
the energy, life and vigor of the inhabitants, 
that must be reuewed by constant influx of 
people from the country. Imagine New York, 
for iustance, with an embargo against immi¬ 
gration for fifty years, what would be its con¬ 
dition at the end of that time? Ttiere are too 
many people iu our large cities. This is evi¬ 
dent by the amount of poverty and destitution 
among certain classes. There are thousands 
ot acres of land within a buudred miles of 
New York that need the labor of the starving 
populace of that city. These aeres offer homes 
aud subsistence in return for labor. The 
trouble is that our people are not satisfied with 
those. They want palaces and luxury. Coun¬ 
try people hoar of the fortunes that are occa¬ 
sionally made in cities and impelled by that 
gambling spirit that seems to be almost inhe¬ 
rent in humanity, rush off with hopes as high 
as their knowledge of the world Is deficient 
expecting to strike a bonanza and get rich in 
four or five years. So broad acres are left 
untilled for waut of tillers, and others are only 
halt worked, ul an expense of labor and capi¬ 
tal which, if confined to smaller space, would 
better repay the In vestment. 
My thoughts, while here, have been called 
to the need or advantage of co-operation amoug 
neighboring farmers, that could, I think, be 
readily had through the medium of farmers’ 
clubs. For instance, two progressive farmers 
have determined to build silos and try the ex¬ 
periment of making ensilage from maize. 
Now, this may or may not prove successful. If 
it should, they have taken a risk which benefits 
the whole neighborhood. If It proves a failure, 
the whole loss falls upon these two enterpris¬ 
ing individuals. Now, why ought there not 
be a contribution from all Interested, including 
all farmers in the vicinity, to furnish the tunds 
necessary to try this experiment. These funds 
the treasury of a farmers’ club should supply, 
as a loan, to be returned only in case the ex¬ 
periment proved no loss. Through such an 
organization also should other experiments be 
made, such as testing new varieties of fruits, 
grains and vegetables. Tl runners indifferent 
parts of the township would cultivate the same 
kinds of seed on different soils and in different 
situations, their reports at the end of the sea¬ 
son would be of great value to others. Why 
should the time and labor of 50 be spent in 
making experiments when those of five would 
be just as conclusive. 
In this connection, I would again call atten¬ 
tion to a matter to which I have before called 
attention in the Rural —that is, the importance 
of establishing a museum of natural history in 
every township. Every town should have a 
Town Hall. Against the walls ot some room 
in the building should be cases In which to 
place specimens of insects, birds, vegetables, 
plants, wood, fruits, in fact, of every thing of 
suitable size found In the township. To pre¬ 
pare these may seem at first thought to be 
great labor; but it would not all be done at 
once, and when persons become Interested in 
doing it, the collection would grow rapidly. 
With an active farmers’ club to give incentive 
to such a beginning, aud make It a duty for 
6uch as are chosen to parform it at first, the 
work would go on rapidly, and in a few months 
a collection would be made the value of which, 
for educational pnrposes, can hardly he over¬ 
estimated. L. A. Roberts. 
NOTES FROM MEADOW GLEN FARM. 
A systew of mixed husbandry is carried on 
on this farm. Hay is the principal crop ; 75 
or 80 tons are cut annually. A sod field is 
plowed for corn, which is followed by oats 
aud wheat in rotation. Several acres in or¬ 
chards give a good supply of apples aud pears, 
which are sorted, barreled and sold to special 
customers. The land has a gentle slope to the 
south and east, while the northern and west¬ 
ern portions are dry upland, and the remain¬ 
der natural meadow and pasture. The upland 
is a clay loam, the meadow a mucky soil. 
A herd of grade Jersey and Ayrshire cows 
is kept and the milk made into butter and 
sold to special customers in Saratoga. A flock 
of Meadow Glen Downs, with a few South- 
Down sheep are kept for mutton and wool. 
Berkshire swine are raised for home use, with 
a few of the beat for sale. Several broods of 
pure-bred poultry are also kept for home use, 
also for sale. None but thoroughbred males 
aro kept or used, and the best of youug ani¬ 
mals of all kinds are raised for use aDd for 
sale. Large heaps of manure are made and 
applied to the corn-field, and large heaps are 
also drawn out, to become well rotted for 
wheat in the Fall. Phosphate of lime is the 
principal artificial manure. The seed is often 
changed and obtained from a distance, as I 
think a change of seed increases the vigor of 
the grain. A fine row cf maple treeB along 
the road, set out many years ago, make a fine 
shady drive through Meadow Glen Avenue. 
In layiug stonewalls we bank up with dirt on 
each side to make it more firm. Young fruit 
treeB are beiug set out from year to year for 
improvement. 
WHEAT ACCOUNT FOR 1880. 
Plowing land. $9 00 
Harrowing....... 4 00 
Drilling in seed. a DO 
Seed. 12 110 
Phosphate. iu 00 
Harvesting. lu uo 
Thrashing. 15 uo 
Interest on laud.. 27 uo 
>$89 UO 
Ok. 
UO bushels of wheut, $1.25 per bushel. $175 00 
Htraw (estimated). 26 00 
(Ul 
Deduotoxpenses. 89 00 
Net profits. $111 00 
Tliis from 41 acrcB; the soil being a clay loam. 
Yard manure waB well harrowed in at the 
rate of 10 loads per acre, and the phosphate 
was applied in the drill at the rate of 100 
pounds per acie, the wheat was very plump 
and nice and of the Diehl variety. The yield, 
it will be seen, was a trifle over 31 bushels per 
acre. a. h. 
THE QUEEN BEE. 
This most important member of the busy 
commonwealth has been appropriately called 
the mother bee. Laying all the eggs in the 
hive she is truly the parent of the entire popu¬ 
lation — drones as well as workers. The 
aneieuts, indeed, having an imperfect knowl¬ 
edge of the internal economy of these commu¬ 
nities, misnamed her king , conceiving it to be 
the office of bo distinguished a personage, to 
regulate and goyern the masses. 'This erro¬ 
neous notion has perpetuated itself in various 
countries, even to our day ; aud we not infre¬ 
quently meet with beekeepers who receive it 
with implicit faith. Yet, whatever be the 
special opinion of some, the large majority of 
intelligent apiarians concur in assigning to her 
