THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
mill. The center gear has a sleeve extending 
upwards and arouud the centerpost of the 
mill, forming a standard upon which the in- • 
side grinding burr rests, and when the outside 
part or bell is caused to revolve in one direc¬ 
tion, the inside grinding burr revolves three 
times as fast in the opposite direction. Thus 
it has an advantage over the stationary Cone 
Mill, or where the inside grinding burr does 
not revolve. Ic is actuated by the usual means, 
and is termed a " Sweep Mill.” The sweep, 
however, is longer than those used in any 
other mill we ever saw, giving a more natu¬ 
ral circle for the team to operate in. Another 
very important feature of the mill is its excel¬ 
lent means of anchorage. By reference to the 
cut it will be seen what is meant and why it 
is better than the old way of driving stakes 
against the box. An adjusting arrangement 
is located in the rear of the mill—a small 
hand-wheel turned easily at the operator’s 
will to the right or left, and while the mill is 
being operated, this causes the meal to pass 
through fine or coarse as desired. 
PROTECTING PLANTS. 
For bare ground freezing and thawing this 
Winter promises to be very trying on Fall 
planted, tender or weak-rooted things. To 
prevent hen ving out or root and top-killing, all 
such things as strawberries, raspberries, 
grapes, etc., should be well mulched; straw¬ 
berry plants and evergreens should be cov¬ 
ered loosely or lightly; other things will bear 
a good covering of earth if there is nothing 
denser. Fall plautedtre.esshould have a good 
mound of earth a foot high at base. f. k. p. 
reely and its aroma changes so greatly, I 
cannot recommend it, although the vine is of 
an energetic nature and quite fruitful. 
RAYS. 
It was uot till this year that I had seen an 
Akehia quinata vine in fruit, but I did see it 
a few months ago in the most copious pro. 
fusion arouud the front door of neighbor 
Burgess's house. This vine, or rather these 
vines, for there are at least two of them, are 
old, and have thick, woody stems. One vine 
has much darker flowers than the other, and, 
moreover, far darker colored fruit. When 
the fruit is ripe the 1 * pod” opens and displays 
the caterpillar-like pulpy mass inside, This 
pulp is pleasant to the taste, but so full of 
seeds as to be “mighty poor eating.” Seed 
lings spring up thickly arouud the old vines. 
Mr. Burgess and some others exhibit Akebia 
fruits annually at our Queen’s Co. agricul¬ 
tural fairs. 
Our mushroom grower tells me that he has 
tried many sorts of soil, as garden soil, leaf 
soil, old pasture soil, decayed sods, composted 
soils, and different kinds of loam for covering 
the mushroom beds; but none of them is 
nearly as good for this use as rich black wood- 
soil. And, indeed, on a bed now in full bear¬ 
ing in our cellar, where two or three sorts of 
soil in patches were used in covering, the 
mushrooms are decidedly more plentiful on 
the wood-soil surface than on any other. 
For mushroom-growing he prefers horse 
stable manure where straw and not hay- 
sedge or other materials had been used in bed¬ 
ding, and is somewhat particular in getting 
manure that has remained under the horses, 
feet for a day or two. The driest and most 
stra wy part is shaken outaud only the short¬ 
est used. He does not like the droppings 
alone any more than the strawy part, but 
prefers it mixed, and that which has been 
well wetted by urine in the stable. When he 
has secured enough manure for a bed, he 
shakes it up well and moistens it with water 
if need be, and then builds it up in a firm, 
compact, square heap, and covers it up with 
boards and shatters to exclude rains and pre¬ 
vent much evaporation. As soon as it begins 
to heat briskly, it is turned, shaken up very 
loosely, moistened with water if need be, and 
again built up firmly as before. This turning 
is repeated three or four times, for it is abso¬ 
lutely necessary that the manure should never 
become over-warm or begin to “burn.” 
When further danger of violent heating is 
past, it is removed to the cellar and the bed 
is made up. But even after that, should vio¬ 
lent heat take place, the moment it is discov¬ 
ered the beds are pulled down and opened out 
to cool. 
Little flies are sometimes troublesome in 
our mushroom cellars and the mushrooms be¬ 
come wormy, but as a preventive of this 
we set a small kerosene lamp without a chim¬ 
ney on a plate on the bed. In the plate is a 
little water and kerosene, and the lamp is lit. 
The flies flicker about the flame, get scorched, 
and fall into the plate, where death is certain. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
Dain) 
DAIRY NOTES FROM ENGLAND. 
PROFESSOR J. P. SHELDON. 
The ensilage question is exercising men’s 
minds a good deal just now in England. Yet 
are they not specially enthusiastic about it, 
save in ouc or two instances in which enthu¬ 
siasm might have been predicted. This ensil¬ 
age fever took on only a mild form at the be¬ 
ginning, for the most part, save in the in¬ 
stances already alluded to, and so it has re¬ 
mained all the time. Our Professor Rogers, 
an Oxford man and a Member of Parliament, 
visited your country last year and, on his re¬ 
turn, gave us a book on ensilage. 
The book is a clever book, clear, incisive, 
bright, but it is enthusiastic—a property 
which its author derived from various Ameri¬ 
cans of that ilk, with whom he came into con¬ 
tact in the United States. The book aud, as 
we may assume, the writer, is "over head and 
ears in love” with ensilage. It claims that 
ensilage is going to double the cajiacity of our 
farms, aud to enable a man to feed a dozen 
cows where he fed only half a dozen before. 
Within a short time, then, we shall make 
twice as much cheese aud butter, drink twice 
as much milk, raise twice as much young 
stock, and be able to snap our fingers at 
American competition. Hurrah! hurrah ! 
But, as I have said, we are uot all as enthu¬ 
siastic as Mr. Rogers's book is, on this ques¬ 
tion. I think we British are somewhat less 
liable than you Americans are to be carried 
off our feet by enthusiasm. This, uo doubt, 
is a climatic question. But we were quite un- 
eommouly enthusiastic, a couple of yours ago, 
on the exhaust Ian method of curing hay iu 
the rick. Not u few arnoug us jumped to the 
conclusion that we should henceforth tie inde¬ 
pendent of the sun. and that we could make the 
hay, in the rick instead of the field, by simply 
draw ing out the heat which was generated by 
fermentation, and with it the surplus mois¬ 
ture. A groat nurnuer of men purchased 
these exhaust-fans, the makers of which did 
a brisk trade for a time. I believe these fans 
can now be bought, second-hand, at a very 
low figure. Well, then, we were so "done” on 
this question, that we do not allow ourselves 
to get too hot on the ensilage business. Quite 
a number of silos have been built or adapted 
in various parts of England, and the agricul¬ 
tural public is waiting with some anxiety to 
know the result. One or two silos have very 
recently been opened on the Cheshire estate 
of Lord Tollemache aud elsewhere, and the 
result, is pronounced to be satisfactory. Many 
others will be opened iu the course of the Win¬ 
ter, aud in a few mouths’ time we shall know 
how far we may employ with advantage this 
olu, but recently-revived, system of preserv¬ 
ing forage in a moist condition. I, person¬ 
ally, do not believe that it will bear out all 
that has been claimed for it, thought 1 am pre¬ 
pared to admit that, used as au auxiliary, it is 
a valuuble article of food for stock. I am 
afraid, however, that its preservation re¬ 
quires more care aud skill than the rank and 
file of our farmers are prepared to devote to it. 
SPRING-TOOTH HARROWS. 
In an article about harrows in a late Rural 
Mr Henry Stewart makes some statements 
in regard to spring-tooth harrows, which, to 
say the least, are unjust and misleading, inas¬ 
much as some small farmers using but one 
barrow, might be induced to buy au Acme 
harrow for all kinds of work. Iu my experi¬ 
ence there is no better harrow made than a 
spring tooth one for all kinds of work, and 
that is what a small farmer wants The state¬ 
ment in the article referred to—that it only 
scratches the surface instead^if tearing it—is 
untrue according to my experience, for I 
have seen none that excelled it iu tearing up 
hard ground, and leaving a nice, fine, level 
surface for seed; and as for broadcast sowing, 
a drill is the best barrow for covering the seed, 
for if it is used, less seed will be required; it. 
will be put iu at an even depth, and distributed 
evenly, insuring au even growth. There is 
one serious objection to Acme harrows 
in this section, which will be met with in 
Other places also, and that is, that on a stony 
soil they must ride over stones, while a sulky 
spring-tooth will work under them and do the 
work just as well, aud when t he harrowing 
is done, the spring-tooth will cultivate two 
rows of corn just as well as a walking culti¬ 
vator, doiug therefore the work of two ma¬ 
chines; aud as for crushing clods aud clay 
lumps there is nothing as good as a roller. 
Genesse Co., N. Y. geo. f lowe. 
SPECIALTIES IN GARDENING. 
As it is impossible for one manager to grow 
in full perfection a variety of plants, all re¬ 
quiring different modes of treatment, the 
gardening art is being sub-divided into in¬ 
numerable specialties. A grower takes up 
oue or mors kiuds of plants for which there 
is a demand, and which his soil and situation 
enable him to grow iu high perfection. When 
the excellence of his produce becomes known 
through fairs, others, who want to supply 
customers with the best, prefer to obtain their 
stock from that superior strain rather t han to 
attempt to grow it themselves and run the 
risk of inferiority. This is greatly to the 
advantage of every consumer or planter, 
whether of fruits, flowers, roots, vines, vege¬ 
tables or grains. Even aspuragus, which 
gardeners ami authors ou gardening long as¬ 
serted to be of only oue sort, not ruuntng into 
varieties, has boon found amenable to the 
same laws of selection and perfection as other 
plants. Seed was sown here taken from the 
strongest plants in the beds, and in an ad¬ 
jacent row, seed of “Moore’s Cross-bred.” 
This seed was heavy and plump. It came up 
thickly. Some of the plants were set out 
wheu quite small, in a separate row. They 
are all strong, branchy plants now at the 
close of the season —decidedly better than any 
of those from the home seed. “w.” 
ADVANTAGES OF HEREFORD^ FOR 
THE PLAINS. 
The Rural, under this head, page 757, 
quotes the substance of an article from a cor¬ 
respondent of the Breeder’s Gazette, iu which 
he states that the Hereford cattle are quite 
superior to all others for stocking the Plains. 
On the other hand, T have seen articles iu 
this same paper from other writers quite as 
strongly asserting that the black polled, the 
Short-horn, and I think also the Devon, were 
superior for the above purpose. Now ull these 
prove excellent animals, aud the bulls are es¬ 
pecially useful for crossing ou the half-wild 
native cows of the Plains, the produce from 
which is a great improvement over the pure 
native cattle. The reusou why Short-horn 
or any other improved breed of cattle fall 
away aud show r delicacy of constitution on 
the Plains is because, wheu bred in the hither 
Western States, they are forced by extra feed 
of milk, corn and ou rich pastures, in order 
to obtain the largest possible growth during 
their first year. Then when taken to the 
short., thin pastures of the Plains and turned 
out, with uo other food, to shift for them¬ 
selves, of course they lose flesh rapidly, grow 
slowly thereafter and show delicacy of consti¬ 
tution. This treatment is especially bad for 
the bulls, for when let loose in this manner to 
follow their animal inclinations they give so 
excessive a service to the large herds of cows 
among which they run as to make this alone 
very injurious to them—iu fact, it rapidly ex¬ 
hausts their vital powers. 
Years ago my brothers and self kept Here 
fords and Short-horn cattle side by side for 
some time on our farms near Buffalo, N.\., 
aud we found uo difference in them as to 
thrift, hardiness and other qualities uecessary 
to grow up fine, profitable animals. 1 he 
writer in the Breeder’s Gazette asserts that 
“the Hereford cattle will mature at two years 
old.” This is news to me. They will get a 
good profitable growth for the butcher at 
this age, but I never heard of one fully ma¬ 
turing at this age, or even at three years old. 
They do not generally till four years old—I 
mean, get their largest, fullest growth. 
A. B. ALLEN. 
CHOKING CALVES. 
An old farmer made it\, practice for a 
number of years to keep his calves in the 
orchard. Whenever he found a calf choked 
with an apple he would catch it aud, with 
another man or boy to help, he would take 
a woodeu mallet and a flat block, put the 
block ou one side of the calf’s throat, holding 
it tight against it, aud then with the mallet 
give the other side of the throat a blow suf¬ 
ficient to mash the apple so that it would pass 
down the throat. N. J. shepherd. 
Miller Co., Mo. 
A Substitute for Milking Tubes. —Last 
Summer my cow cut her teats on a barbed 
wire so badly that I could hardly touch them. 
I had no milking tube, so 1 used a small quill 
In place of one fora few days till the teats got 
better. Care should be taken not to injure 
the inside of the teats with the sharp edge of 
the quill. ' b. c. w. 
3 mp If infills, &c. 
if 
STOVER’S GEARED FEED MILL. 
The general appearance of this mill is not 
unlike that of other mills made for the same 
purpose, but the mechanical construction is 
entirely uovcl. A substantial three pronged 
casting forms the base or main support of the 
mill; at its center, and at right angles there¬ 
with, a post of wrought iron two-aud-one- 
eighth inches in diameter is rigidly fastened. 
This is the axis of the mill, and upon it rotate 
the bell and center gear. At a given distance 
from this center post on the upper side of the 
three-pronged base, three studs are formed 
upon winch three gears operate. These three 
gears engage with the center gear and the cir¬ 
cle of cogs turn the bell, and serve to produce 
reverse motion to the grinding parts of the 
ppultnj J)artL 
ARRANGEMENT OF PERCHES. 
O. S. BLISS. 
It is often, almost generally, recommended 
that the perches for fowls be placed near the 
ground. This is an objectionable arrange¬ 
ment on many accounts. Iu the first place, it 
isnot natural. Fowls liketo sit high, and they 
will always seek the highest place accessible. 
Iu t his they are guided by instinct, and 
the instiuct accords with reason. If pro¬ 
vided with proper ladders for going up and 
coming down, with a broad walk iu front 
aud below-the perches, every objection to high 
roosts, even for Asiatics, is fully met. In a 
well constructed house the highest temperature 
and the purest air are tioth at the top of the 
apartment.. The fresh air should he admitted 
only at the bottom. This obviates all harm, 
ful drafts, so often complained of. The ex¬ 
haust flue, wliich need not be large (for fowls 
do not require a large amount of fresh air,) 
should be low, if practicable, under the win¬ 
dow-, which should always be on the side of 
the house opposite to the roosts. There is 
scarcely an hour in the year, except wheu the 
sun is shining upon it, iu which the glass in 
the windows does not cool the air iu contact 
with it sufficiently to cause it to deseend in a 
current of greater or less force. The fowls on 
the perches on the other side of the room at 
the same time warm the air ou that side, caus¬ 
ing it to rise to the ceiling, whence it flows 
across the room under the ceiling to descend 
at the front as cooled by the glass, and eventu¬ 
ally to escape by theexha'ist flue. The exter¬ 
nal pressure regulates the supply; the size of 
the flue regulates the escape; the heat genera¬ 
ted by the fowls on the oue side aud the cool¬ 
ing influence of the window on the other side 
regulate the flow across the room so that the 
fowls get the pure air, while the vitiated air 
passes out by the flue. Of course, it is not 
claimed that cold, fresh air just admitted to 
the house mounts up in a broad sheet all uxi- 
inixed to the fowls, nor that all the vitiated 
air flows out iu a constaut stream, but the air 
which reaches them is pure enough for all 
practical purposes, while that which flows out 
HANDY MILKING TUBES. 
If your cow’s teats are sore and you want 
tubes to draw the milk without hurting the 
animul, go to your wheat-straw stack aud 
cut a supply of tubes there of any size you 
may need, and about an inch aud a half long. 
The end that is to go into the teat should be 
cut with a slight slope, and the outside edge 
of the straw should be rubbed smooth. I 
have used just such milking-tubes lor all four 
teats of an inflamed udder, and also for a teat 
skinned off two days before calving. Pull 
the tube out when the udder is empty. 
E. MELDAHL. 
