706 
THE BUBAL fSEW-YOBKEB. 
OCT. 23 
Ayrshires, tbe Polled breeds of Scotland and 
England, the Welsh breeds, the West High¬ 
landers, and the Kerrys—we can speak no 
more definitely, and we must be content to 
assume that to natural and artificial selection, 
coupled with the influence of climate, of Boil, 
and of herbage, are attributable tbe diversities 
of character in our breeds of cattle, which are 
at once so interesting and so marked. 
Early Pansies and Violets. —Few things 
are more valued in Winter than a bunch 
of Sweet Violets says Prof. Meehan. A few 
may now be potted, and they will flower in the 
window towards Spring; or a small bed of 
them may be made in a frame, which should 
be protected by a mat from severe frost. To 
have pansies flower early and profusely in 
Spring, they may be planted out in a frame, 
as recommended for the violet. 
The Best Rose.— In France recently they 
tried to find out what was the best rose by 
vote. La France had 79 votes, while Marie 
Van Houtte had but 25. The old La Reine had 
42. and Geueral Jacqueminot 52. These votes 
are like our fruit votes. The one which is the 
most extensively grown will get the most 
votes, because half the voters do uot know of 
many other kinds. 
“La France” Rose.— Here in Rochester, 
says Mr. Hooker, in the Gardener’s Monthly, 
the La France Rose is proving itself worthy of 
its name dud fame. Nothing can excel it in 
beautiful, delicate color, exquisite and abun¬ 
dant perfume, and profuse, constant blooming 
from the commencement to the close of vege¬ 
tation; just as long as growth is maintained, 
beautiful bloom will follow ; in fact, the habit 
of overflowering is its principal drawback. 
Moss Mulching.— For want of a better name 
Mr. Peter Henderson bas given tbie to a prac¬ 
tice that he bas recently introduced into his 
greenhouse department. Some time about tbe 
first of January of this year, one of his young 
men suggested mulching with moss (sphag¬ 
num) a lot of roses, grown in seven-inch pots, 
that had become somewhat exhausted by being 
forced for flowers for tbe holidays. Believing 
the idea to be a good one he at once had a lot 
of nearly 3,000 plants so mulched, mixing, 
however, with the moss, a gjod portion of 
bone dust, perhaps one part by weight of bone 
dust, to thirty parts of moss. Iu two weeks 
tbe effect began to be easily perceived on 
all the roses that had been so mulched, and 
without shifting they were carried through 
until May with the most satisfactory results, 
many of the plants having by that time attain¬ 
ed a bight of from four to five feet, and though 
they had bloomed profusely during a period of 
nearly six months, they were in the most per¬ 
fect health and vigor. Among the plants after¬ 
wards so treated, were azaleas, begonias, cala- 
diums, carnations, crotons, drucamas, eucharis, 
gloxinias, palms, pandauus, poinsettias, prim¬ 
ulas, roses, hotrhouse grape-vines, and hun¬ 
dreds of other genera. Iu strong-growing 
plants the roots can be seen striking upwards 
into the mulch in four or five days after it is 
put on, and in nearly all cases within two 
weeks. _ 
One great advantage is that by this system 
plants can be grown as large and fine in a four- 
inch pot as in a six-inch pot without the mulch, 
for the reason that the plant is now fed by 
the moss and bone from the surface of the pot— 
the best feeding point, as most cultivators of 
experience now believe. Another advantage 
of the mulching system ia ita great saving of 
labor, for it just takes about one-fourth of tbe 
time to mulch the surface of a pot as it does to 
shift it. Another, is its saving of watering—the 
moss acts as a sponge, retaining and giving 
out the moisture to the plant just a6 it is 
wanted. Another, that it crowds down all 
weeds, and does away with the necessity of 
stirring the soil in tbe pots or borders. Another 
and most important advantage to Mr. Hender¬ 
son is, that it lightens the weight of his goods 
by one-half, that is, he gets aB large a plant 
with half the weight of soil. In his practice 
of thirty years, he has never seen a method of 
culture that he believes to be of such import¬ 
ance; hundreds who have visited him this 
season have been equally impressed with its 
value. 
It may be that this moss and bone mulching 
is nothing new in the culture of plants, as it 
is an idea, from its simplicity that may very 
likely before have occurred to others, and may 
have been long ago practiced ; but it is new 
with him, and if any one has before done so 
and withheld the knowledge from the public, 
more shame to him, if the result with him has 
beeu as gratifying as it has been with Mr. 
Henderson. 
Preparation rob an Orchard —“If we 
were going to prepare a piece of ground for 
an orchard,” says the Horticulturist, “ we 
should manure it heavily and put in a crop of 
potatoes; then in October manure again light¬ 
ly and put in rye. On this, in April, we 
should sow red clover. The rye off, we should 
then consider it ready to plant trees. For ap¬ 
ples, pears, plums or cherries, we should mark 
out the rows ten feet apart, and put the trees 
ten feet from each other. This will bo twice 
a6 thick as they will be required when lull- 
grown, but they grow much better when thick 
together; and they will bear more than enough 
fruit to pay for the room they occupy, before 
the time comes to cut every other one away.” 
Dr. Hoskins, of Newport, Yt., finds the fol¬ 
lowing in the N. Y. Times of Sept. 1st. 
"Lost Nation Wheat,— A.M. A., Orleans County 
N. Y.: This variety iR frequently mentioned in news 
pa pore, but is not heard ot' else where. We hare seen 
llo mention of it in any lists of wheat grown for ex¬ 
periments In which every known kind was procured. 
The first mention of it was in Oregon papers, and it is 
hardly probable that any excellent kind of wheat 
could come into use without being- very soon widely 
known, and it is, therefore, unlikely that this kind, if 
it exists at all, is worth much." 
Dr. Hoskins comments upon the above as 
follows: “As the Lost Nation wheat has for so 
many years led every other sort in Maine, and 
has for half a dozcu years at least been very 
popular in Vermont and New Hampshire, and 
as all (I believe) of the premiums offered by 
the Maine Fanner last year went to crops of 
Lost Nation, it would seem that our brother 
who runs the agricultural department of 6ueh 
an eminent metropolitan journal as the New 
York Times ought, at least, to have beard of it. 
It has certainly been pretty liberally discussed 
in some other New York journals, especially 
in the Rural New-Yorker, the editor of 
which has been successful iu transforming the 
Lost Nation from a Spring to a Fall (Winter) 
wheat which promises even better in produc¬ 
tiveness than the famous * Clawson.’ ” 
Wheat Hybrids.— In the Bulletin of the 
Botanical Society of France, February 27, 
1S80, says the Gardeners’ Chronicle, we find a 
note of M. II. Vilmorin on the hybridization 
of wheat, the general result of which is that 
Triticum sativum and T. Spelta cross recipro¬ 
cally with the greatest ease, and give origin to 
an offspring absolutely uniform, and In which 
all the individuals seem to have borrowed their 
characters from one or other of their parents 
in rigorously identical proportions. M. Cos- 
son, in adverting to M. Vilmoiin’s researches, 
recalled similar phenomena in iEgilops triti- 
coides, a fertile hybrid, the characters of 
which are so fixed and invariable as to consti¬ 
tute a species. 
Ex-Gov. Furnas.— We find the following 
iu the Omaha Daily Herald. “ Ex-Gov 
Furnas has been a member of tbe State Board 
of Agriculture for twenty-one years, and one 
of the foremost promoters of the interests of 
Nebraska’s farmers and horticulturists. It 
was quite fitting, therefore, that his associates 
should present him with a testimonial. The 
token is an ebony cane, highly polished and 
handled with a solid gold crook, richly en¬ 
graved and chased. The inscription from the 
donors is engraved on the crook, and their 
names appear on a shield. The following are 
the sentiments and names of the donors : 
“Presented September 25th, 1880, to Robert 
W. Furnas, ex President State Board of Agri¬ 
culture, by members of tbe Board, as a token 
of regard and appreciation of his valuable la¬ 
bors, for twenty-one consecutive years of active 
service as a member of the Board.” Then 
follow the names. 
Practice on the Farm,— The Royal Agri¬ 
cultural Society very rightly, when adopting 
its motto “Practice with Science," placed 
practice first. It is in close attention to de¬ 
tails that tbe elements of success in farming 
are to besought. Economy in general manage¬ 
ment cannot be attained and habitually prac¬ 
tised unless a man understands '* even to tbe 
nail’s breadth " the particular departments of 
his business. This particular knowledge can 
ouly be acquired on a farm step by step and 
day by day, as tbe working of the farm goes 
on. The ornamental famer, like the ornamen¬ 
tal manager or director in commercial affairs, 
is a complete [allure. We flud the above in an 
editorial of the London Agricultural Gazette. 
(fctojitDjjm. 
A TRIP THROUGH SOUTH JERSEY. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
Yielding to tbe wishes of a friend to ac¬ 
company him, I have recently revisited South 
Jersey after au absence of 15 years or more, 
and was pleased to note the changes that have 
taken place iu that time. Taking an afternoon 
train on the Central Railroad at Newark, a ride 
of about two hours brought us to Manchester, 
where we stopped for the night. My first visit 
to this place was before the railroad was built, 
and, with the exception of two or three settlers, 
all was then one vast wilderness. Now two or 
three substantial brick stores, with the cosy 
cottages of the settlers, are a pleasing con¬ 
trast with “ the olden time,” and a large jute 
factory—which I regretted not being able to 
visit—affords employment to a large number 
of the town people. 
My friend’s object being to see tbe country, 
we were up early the next morning making a 
tou r on foot oyer the town and the surround¬ 
ing country, giving him a pretty clear idea of 
what once was known as the “ Pine Barrens ” 
of New Jersey. The soil ia sandy and natur¬ 
ally poor; to many who are only acquainted 
with heavy soils it would be considered worth¬ 
less; yet the fine and thrifty maples that line 
the main street show, beyond question, there 
are elements of fertility beneath the surface, 
that the casual observer would not suspect; but 
surface-rooted crops need and demand manure 
for success, and the ignoring of this fact, and 
ibe difficulty or inability to supply it, are the 
chief causes of failures and dissatisfaction. 
“ Feed the soil if you would be fed by it” is 
empbutieully true here. 
At Mr. Battey’s, two miles east of tbe town, we 
saw very good corn on the poorest white sand 
with the aid of a little fish scrap, and where 
lime had been applied a few years previous, 
its benefits were plainly apparent. His graces 
—Concords—with little care were doing very 
well; there was very little rot, and the clus¬ 
ters were large and well ripened. He also 
showed u» a fine crop of Amber Sugar cane 
eight to eleven feet high with three to seven 
stalks In the hill on laud without a particle of 
manure. I hope he will give Rural readers 
the results of his sugar aud sirup experiments. 
Mr. B. also keeps bees with profit, but an ex¬ 
amination of bis onions induced my friend to 
conclude they would be one of the most profit¬ 
able crops he could raise. I have never seen 
such wholesale destruction of strawberry plants 
by cut-worms as in a patch of about three acres 
of his seedlings which were almost entirely 
destroyed; in fact, this is the first well authen¬ 
ticated case where the veritable cut-worm has 
done tbe mischief. He said they were dug out 
by the handful from about a single plant, and 
thus vanished one of the finest prospects of a 
bountiful crop he had ever had. The soil 
thereabout ia well adapted to grape growing, 
as Mr. B’s. vines attest; but the rot, over-pro¬ 
duction, and subsequent low prices had caused 
the abandonment of acres of vines near bis 
place, by the owners who, having invested their 
all in one pursuit, had been compelled to re¬ 
turn to mechanical labor for their bread aud 
butter. 
Our uext point was Tom’s River, the quiet 
county seat of Ocean County, where we spent 
several days. Here much of the land, espe¬ 
cially north of the town, is heavier and more 
substantial than much of tbe sandy lands, and 
is well adapted to the growth of grasses and 
cereals. Here we saw finer crops of corn than 
we have seen in my county (Essex), not even 
excepting my own, which, however I think 
fully as good as the average hereabouts. 
A mile or so east of towu is “ Cranmoor 
Farm " ou whicb is a flue herd of Jersey cattle, 
where the proprietor, a N. Y. city merchant, 
aud his wife spend their Summers and surplus 
funds in developing the herd and the resources 
of the farm, In preference to visiting the fash¬ 
ionable mountain or seaside resorts, and not 
only do they take pleasure in it, but benefit tbe 
whole community by giving employment to 
scores of laborers. At the time of our visit 
the farm buildingB were being remodeled, and 
a large force was engaged in reclaiming a 
piece of swamp land along the liver, which in 
time will be the best grass-producing portion 
of the farm. A steam engine at the barn grinds 
all the feed used on tbe place and that for the 
neighbors besides, and steams the fodder in 
Winter. 
A short distance east is the residence of your 
contributor, the venerable A. B. Allen, whose 
evergreen and deciduous oinamentals on the 
lawn as well as the fruit trees in his garden, 
show what au apparently poor soil ia capable 
of producing iu the course of 10 years. His 
cherry trees were particularly fine, and his 
pears and apples, both standards and dwarfs, 
were very creditable. 
A mile or so further east is the new Summer 
resort of Highland nights, the camp-meeting 
ground occupying a natural grove on a bluff 
80 to 40 feet above the river, the surrounding 
ground being disposed of iu lots, many of 
which are already occupied by handsome cot¬ 
tage!, and more are in course of erection, thus 
opening up a demand for tbe surplus products 
of the surrounding country. 
To the north of the town, on what is called 
the Freehold Road, for several miles extend 
nice productive farms that would be a credit 
to any portion of the State, whose crops attest 
the generous aud productive capacity of the 
soil, proving to the most casual observer that 
South Jursey is not all a Bandy, barreu wilder¬ 
ness. Here we saw a farm of 500 acres (far 
too much for any one person to own iu such a 
locality), used for dairy purposes, the pasture 
fields affording abundant evidence of their 
ability to produce the cultivated grasses satis¬ 
factorily. 
Falling into the custody of the Sheriff and 
the editor of the Courier, we were shown over 
the county as far as Whitesville and beyond, a 
distance of about 14 miles, not excepting the 
cranberry bogs, where the yield was expected 
to reach two hundred bushels per acre at the 
lowest estimate. During the trip we passed 
over thousands of acres of wild land of good 
quality, which, cleared and put under cultiva¬ 
tion, would yield bountiful crops. Tbe trouble 
is, it is held in large tracts by individuals and 
companies who neither improve it themselves 
nor dispose of it at such prices as will justify 
otliers to step in and occupy it. A good deal 
less of this “dog in the manger” policy would 
be a benefit all round. 
Near Lakewood we called at the extensive 
fruit farm of Capt. Perry, managed and di¬ 
rected by Mrs. Perry. The orchards, though 
young, were very promising and her Clairgeau 
trees, heavily laden with fine specimens of rosy- 
cheeked fruit, were declared by some of the 
party to be the finest sight of the kind they 
ever beheld. May present hopes be realized 
in the future, for the lady deserves success. 
The young pear trees of Mr. McBean near-by 
were also looking remarkably well, producing 
exceedingly line specimens of fruit. A large 
vineyard of Concord grapes adjoining his 
place, the property of a city gentleman, after 
about $10,000 had been expended on it, had 
been abandoned on account of the rot, and 
left to take care of itself, the owner returning 
to city busiuess. Mr. McB. informed us that 
siuce it was left in this neglected condition, it 
had borne more and better grapes with less 
rot than before. Can wo see any connection 
between good care, severe or excessive prun¬ 
ing, and rot in this case? There are plenty 
more cases of like character all about us. 
I hope no one who gets into the custody of 
the aforesaid Sheriff aud editor will fare any 
worse than we did, or fiod it a more difficult 
task to escape from them. 
From Tom's River we went west by rail over 
a poorer portion of the county to Pemberton 
in Burlington County; thence on foot 14 
miles to New Egypt in Ocean County, near the 
line of Burlington. This i6 a purely agricul¬ 
tural district and probably there is no better in 
the State, and such crops of corn and such an 
extent of corn fields I have not seen ou this 
side of Illinois. My companion, who by the 
way was from Hunterdon County, had pretty 
elevated views respecting the corn-producing 
abilities of his suction, and while admitting 
Ocean County was well up beside it, he acknowl¬ 
edged Burlington was ahead, without dispute; 
aud yet iu couversiug with farmers en route as 
to the probable yield per acre of these fields, 
the estimates varied from 50 to 70 bushels of 
shelled corn. Now if they wore anywhere near 
correct, how must a field look that yields 100 
bushels of shelled corn to the acre, as is often 
claimed. If 70 bushels are the maximum of 
such fields as we passed on that tramp, I 
want to see one of a hundred bushels and have 
a hand in measuring it. [Hasten, friend Wil¬ 
liams, to the Rural Farm-— Eds J 
Going to Higbstown, in Mercer County, by 
rail, tbe crops, as seen along tbe route, were 
not so good. At this place Mr. Charles Black 
kindly showed us over a flue agricultural dls- 
trictiu the vicinity of the town. The apple crop 
here is very abundant. His trees of Smith's 
Cider were a sight to behold, loaded down with 
fruit literally like ropes of onions, and this 
variety being an annua) bearer, it istio wonder 
it stands so high in public favor in Southern 
New Jersey aud Eastern Pennsylvania. He 
also took us to see the original tree of the 
Reed Plum, a seedling of the Illinois Plum 
grown by Mr, Reed. There were several trees 
besides the original one, all loaded down with 
an immense crop of the beautiful scarlet fruit, 
aud this was said to be the case every year. 
The fruit is round, nearly or quite an inch iu 
diameter, and is probably tbe best of all this 
class, and where our finer kinds do not suc¬ 
ceed, it will prove a valuable acquisition, es¬ 
pecially for canning purposes. Passing through 
Middlesex County to South Amboy and over 
into Monmouth Couuty, we spent a day or two 
among the tanners aud truckers from Keyport 
to Middletown aud Port Monmouth ; bat space 
forbids further particulars. [We Bbould like 
the particulars.— Eds ] 
Horace Greeley's advice “ Young man go 
West” was all well enough, but I am the 
more fully convinced from this trip that iu ac¬ 
cepting it, one might go further and fare worse 
than to anchor in New Jersey. I know the 
broad aud fertile fields of the West are entic¬ 
ing, but low prices and cheapness are not 
always "synonymous terms, whether applied 
to lands or crops; and society, schools, trans¬ 
portation, proximity to markets, etc,, are all 
important factors in determining the choice 
of location, aud are too often lost sight 
of. The query put Lo the Connecticut Board 
of Agriculture last Winter “ Whether the cost 
of moving the corn crop of the West to the 
seaboard would produce the same crop at 
home ?" was a pertineut one, and such ques¬ 
tions should receive careful and mature con¬ 
sideration from all farmers who contemplate 
a change of residence. Pages might be writtet 
on this one subject alone, but these brief notes 
have already exceeded the limits designed. 
Montclair, N. J. 
