38 
JAN 4© 
THE BUBAL HEW-YOBKEB. 
times, since the first of November, there have 
been some sharp frosts, forming ice in the 
water tubs out-of-doors, half an inch thick, 
more or less; but, generally, the weather has 
been very flue, bright and pleasant., with a 
smoky looking sun morning and evening. It 
has been splendid weather for husking corn. 
The wheat is in superb condition. The 
weather here in Central Kansas has been 
simply superb this Fall. h. b. t. s. 
Muscotah, Atchison Co., Dec. 38.—Corn is 
a good crop here, but was badly broken 
down bv a hail-storm in October. It is now 
selling for 32 cents. e. j. C. 
IHIchlirnn. 
Breedsville, Van Buren Co., Dec. 15.— 
The Rural New-Yorker comes to me like 
an old friend, ripening and improving with 
age. It. is many years since I saw it, and the 
general improvement is so striking that I 
thiuk it ought to change its name from the 
Rural New'-Yorker, which was appropriate 
a quarter of a ceutury ago, to the Rural 
American, or some other name which should 
tell of its present character. We had a wet 
Spring, a dry Summer, frost ou the 8th and 
9th of September, with a warm Fall and Winter 
up to the 13th inst. Winter wheat has gone 
into “winter-quarters” in fine condition, and 
bids fair to do much better than last year; 
then the crop did not average ten bushels to 
the acre, Coni was a failure. I have yet to 
see a load of good com raised in this county 
this season. For lots of good reasons, fann¬ 
ing has been a failure here in 1883. Peaches 
and small fniits were extra tine, many choice 
late varieties bringing $0 per bushel in Chica¬ 
go. I believe it is conceded by horticulturists 
that the eastern shore of Lake Michigan pro¬ 
duces finer peaches and a surer crop than the 
sand flats of New Jersey and Delaware. Our 
apples were inferior and not half a crop. 
Small fruits an average crop. Wild black¬ 
berries—the squatter’s first, fruit crop—were a 
failure. Our iron interests are not paying at 
present—charcoal iron is down to $28. Stave 
and Leading mills are doiug but little. Lum¬ 
bering in tbe northern part of the State is 
being pushed along as usual. Our common 
schools are run on the “cheap John” prin¬ 
ciple: we get all we can for the money. 
Teachers average £1 per day and board, aud 
they are thought dear at that, and usually the 
sort we can get at that price are dear at any 
price. We need au invoice of Yankee scbool- 
mar’ms, that can teach our children now and 
their own eventually. The crop of bright, 
well-traiued teachers for our common schools 
is very small. As to theologians, lawyers aud 
M. D.’s, we have enough, unless they are 
better. Perhaps the moral, honest, healthy 
people are as well off as they are, aud we 
have few others. Our railroad facilities are 
unsurpassed, our water-ways unequaled, and, 
taking it all in all, Michigan is a good State 
to come to. Men of energy and little means 
can go to no better place. Lands are cheap, 
and we have a variety of soils suitable for all 
branches of husbandry. h. 
Ohio. 
Leipsic, Dec. 64.—Wheat was a poor crop. 
Corn almost an entire failure. Every farm 
product is very cheap, which makes all kinds 
of business dull. Fine weather for December. 
T. J. w. 
Oregon. 
The Dalles, Wasco Co., Dec. 21.—After a 
severe Winter we had a very dry Summer. 
The last rain that fell was on May 12. After 
that date we had not rain enough to wet the 
ground a quarter of an inch deep until No¬ 
vember 23, yet the crops in Eastern Oregon 
were good. The wheat, oats, barley and iye 
were above an average. Potatoes were about 
an average crop, but cabbages, turnips, car¬ 
rots and vegetables of all kinds were way 
above the average. H - R - 
Pennsylvania. 
Spring Hill, Bradford Co., Jan. 2.—We 
are situated from two to four miles from the 
Susquehanna River, about midway between 
Towanda andTunkhauuock, iu a good farm¬ 
ing section. Tbe laud is mostly a rather 
heavy clay; but it is well adapted to mixed 
farming. The principal products are butter, 
corn, wheat, oats aud potatoes. The past 
season has been not very fiatteriug tor fann¬ 
ers in this section. The Summer was wet aud 
cold aud frost came early, so that our corn 
crop was the poorest we have ever had, and 
buckwheat was next to nothing. We re¬ 
joiced, however, in a good oat crop with a fair 
crop of wheat and hay, so we are not so badly 
off as we might have been. Prices at present 
are: Wheat, *1.10; corn, 70 cents; oats, 38 
cents; rye, 00 cents; potatoes, 30 cents; but 
ter, 22 cents; pork, C*K cents; beef, six cents. 
As'we have no coni to shell to speak of, let 
us spend part of our time this Winter writing 
for the good old Rural, telling wherein we 
have been most successful aud what has 
caused our failures, aud iu so doing 1 thiuk we 
can all be benefited. [This is a friendly sug¬ 
gestion we heartily recommend to our read¬ 
ers.—Eos.]. l - 
Saegertown, Crawford Co., Pa.—Dec. 28. 
—This has been a remarkable season all 
through. Spring cold and backward. Sum¬ 
mer wet aud cold. Pleasant Fall and IV inter 
so far: splendid sleighing now. Wheat looks 
well. Grass was a good crop; oats aud pota¬ 
toes good; wheat poor. Corn did not amount 
to anything iu most of the places in this sec¬ 
tion. Some did not get. ripe corn enough for 
seed. D - A - K - 
Tennessee. 
Keeling, Haywood Co., Dec. 29.—Corn was 
two thirds of last year’s crop, and about one- 
third of it fattened hogs. Cotton 20 per cent, 
short. Prices poor. More wheat has been 
planted this season than for a number of 
years, and it is looking well. We have more 
home-raised meat than has been made any 
year in tbe last ten years. Money scarce. 
Plenty of good laud for sale cheap. R. L. M. 
Texas. 
Senior, Bexar Co., Dec. 20.—We have had 
fine rains of late, aud consequently farmers 
are busy sowing small grains. Cattle are suf¬ 
fering from tbe cold and wet, as they wore in 
poor condition before cold weather set in: 
they can be bought now for one-third the 
pricethej r brought last Spring; but there are 
no buyers. This is becoming more and more 
a farming country, and the time will not be 
long before the present mode of raising stock 
(letting them take care of themselves) will 
have to be abandoned, aud fine cattle will be 
raised, as it will hardly pay to feed a Texas 
cow for either milk or beef. I see much 
writing about sorghum as fodder for stock; 
and as ueailyall farmers in Western Texas 
grow it for that, purpose, it seems to be a 
proven fact with us that it isgood for all kinds 
of stock, if fed judiciously; but there seems to 
be a certain time during the growth of sor¬ 
ghum when it will hurt and even kill cattle. 
1 know of three different instances iu this 
neighborhood where cows were found dead in 
the sorghum patches, audiu one particular in¬ 
stance the cow was seen to go into the patch; 
a man went to drive her out, so that she did 
not eat longer than 10 or 15 minutes, still she 
fell and died in the field. f. g. w. 
RURAL SEED REPORTS. 
Cunuecttcut. 
WiLLlM antic, Windham Co.—My small 
Blush Potato had 10 eyes. I planted them 
where I had the Rural Flint Corn the year 
before, one eye in a hill. From one lull I only 
got four small potatoes; the other nine hills 
produced 85 bushels of good tubers. Tbe bhoe- 
peg Corn grew well until the dry weather and 
frost came. I only had one good ear that got 
ripe. I had a heaping half-bushel of ears, but 
the com was shriveled; but it dried hard. We 
had three good Perfection Watermelous. 
Owing to the dry weather and the hens, the 
Garden Treasures did not do very well. 
W. K. A. 
.Massachusetts. 
Dighton, Bristol Co.—My Blush Potato, 
weighing about two ounces, yielded 137 
tubers weighing pounds. My Shoe-peg 
Cora came up well, but wire-worms aud spin¬ 
dle worms held it between life aud death 
several weeks. Yield, 88 ears and nine 
nubbins. J - • I - 
Sew York. 
Buffalo, Erie Co.—My Blush Potato yield¬ 
ed splendidly. It had nine eyes, was planted 
in nine hills, and yielded seven pounds five 
ounces. [That’s a picayune yield, bless you! 
—Eds.] The Shoe-peg Corn froze. '1 he Ru¬ 
ral dowel's did finely. c. d. b, 
Caledonia, Livingston Co.—From the 
small Blush Potato I got twenty-six pounds of 
nice tubers. The peas yielded well. The 
flower seeds were satisfactory. The corn did 
uot do very well. Melons a failure, d. .l c. 
Loyvvillk. Lewis Co.—The small Blush Po¬ 
tato I planted produced forty-six potatoes, 
which weighed eighteen pounds. They were 
large and nice but rather late. Frost killed 
the tops. The Shoe-peg Corn grew very large, 
but did not mature, I have one grape-vine 
growiug. The flower seeds did well. The 
wheat was destroyed. O. H. c. 
Pennsylvania, 
Sakgerstown, Crawford Co.—My small 
Blush Potato was cut to eight pieces, aud pro¬ 
duced 20}{ bushels of beautiful tubers. The 
celery was splendid. The Garden Treasures 
were nice. The corn grew tall, but was too 
late for this section. The wheat did uot head 
out. The melons did not amount to a tty thing 
My White Elephants anil Ilebrous did well. 
D. A. K. 
Spring Hill, Bradford Co.—My two very 
small Blush Potatoes were cut iu IU pieces aud 
planted in a drill. Result, half a bushel of 
nice tubers. The Shoe-peg Corn grew finely; a 
part of it got ripe; some of the stalks grew 
L2Lf feet high; too tall and late for me. l. 
Ohio. 
Leipsic, Putnam Co —From my two small 
Blush Potatoes, planted in twelve hills. I dug 
about forty tubers, weighing twenty pounds— 
a yield of 485 bushels per acre, which I con¬ 
sider extra good, all things taken into ac¬ 
count, The Shoe-peg Corn tailed to ripen in 
time to escape frost It would have required 
at least fifteen days more to ripen it, making 
108 days from planting. My Niagara Grape 
seeds failed to grow. As the Rural re¬ 
quested, I tried Early Ohio, Beauty of He¬ 
bron aud Early Rose Potatoes side by side, 
aud I find that Early Ohio stands first iu 
curliness, size and productiveness. Hebron 
chines next for size and yield, and for earli¬ 
ness Early Rose is about even with it. For 
quality any of them is good enough when a 
“ feller ” is hungry. T - J - w - 
<£l)e (^literal 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must he accompanied by the uame 
aud address of the writer to Insure attention.! 
PEAS AND PIGS. 
H. -S'., Fort Collins, Col.—Col. F. D. Curtis’s 
experiment iu feeding pigs, as stated in the 
Rural of November 3d, exemplifies what is 
certainly a cheap method of producing pork 
and as I have been experimenting on a similar 
plan with 20 hogs the past year. I wish to ask 
Col. Curtis a few questions through the Ru . 
ral: 1. What kind of pea was used for seed? 
2. What was the dote of seeding, and the 
amount per acre? 3. Were the peas sown j 
broadcast or in drills ? 4. How many hogs j 
will one acre of i>eas fatten ? 5. What was 
the breed of hogs t 
ANSWERED BY COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
I prefer to reply to the above questions in a 
general way rather than numerically, it does 
uot make any particular difference what kind 
of pea is sown for a crop. In thus latitude the 
small Canada peas do as well as any. 1 sowed 
these aud also the Black-Eyed Marrowfats, 
and both did equally well. I think tbe Mar¬ 
rowfats yielded the largest crop. Of course, 
peas should never be sown, or the ground be 
worked until the latter is in good order, and 
this time will vary according to circumstances. 
All of the old farmers iu my neighborhood in¬ 
sisted that peas, to till well, should be sown in 
the “old of the moon.” I followed this no¬ 
tion, so that if there was any virtue in it, 
the moon should be on the side of the peas, 
aud, accordingly, hurried the crop into the 
ground the day before the moon changed. 
Whether the moon smiled on my efforts, or 
uot, I am uuable to say; but the yield of peas 
was the astonishment of the whole town. 
The sowing was done in the “old of the moon” 
in the month of May, aud this, according to 
old funnel's, is always the time to sow peas in 
this latitude. 1 had, however, sowu green 
Marrowfats the last of June aud obtained a 
remarkable yield. Old farmers insist that 
when peas are uot sown in the “old of the 
moon,” they all go to vines- that is to say, 
there is a great growth of vines without any 
pods. Peas are liable to grow in this way, 
which makes the crop sometimes uncertain; 
but as it is so easily cultivated the risks are 
not so great. A good crop of peas will afford 
from 4U to 60 bushels to the acre, aud a bushel 
of them will go further iu making growth than 
n bushel of corn, because peas, being nitro¬ 
genous, supply all the wants of the system and 
make healthful and firm ilesh; whereas com 
goes more to fat, which is not so good for food 
and makes softer pork with more waste in the 
cooking. Mv peas were sown broadcast, at the 
rate of two bushels to the acre and covered 
with the cultivator. Two bushels and a-half 
ure not too much seed,and sowing with a drill is 
a better way. 
The number of hogs which an acre of peas 
will fatten depends, of course, upon the crop 
aud the size of the hogs. It may lie accepted 
as a fact that an acre of peas fed ou the 
ground, commencing before they are fully 
ripe, so that the hogs will eat, a portion of the 
vines as well as the pods, will go further in 
making pork then an acre of corn fed iu the 
usual way. The cost of labor is decidedly ou 
the side of the peas as well us a more perfect 
■mastication, which latter makes u decided 
gain iu favor of tbe peas. This more complete 
mastication is secured by the fact that the 
pigs eat the peus in the pods, and the pods go¬ 
ing into their stomachs with Lhc peas make a 
combination of food exactly suited to a health¬ 
ful action of the stomach and the bowels; 
whereas an exclusive com diet is the reverse. 
A healthful action insures a complete absorp¬ 
tion, without which there is a proportionate 
loss. The passing of food through the stom¬ 
ach and bowels does not of itself insure 
growth. Peas make the firmest and best meat 
of any single kind of grain. 
The breeds of hogs which I fattened in the 
peas were the Victorias, (not the spurious 
breed of Indiana) and the Duvoc-Jerseys. 
The butchers said that this was the best pork 
which came into their markets. 
SAGE CULTURE. 
R. D. M., Davenport Center, N. Y .—I want 
information about sage culture—when to pick, 
how to dry, etc. 
A ns. —Sage requires a rich, light soil, and 
good thorough cultivation, as the size and 
quality of the leaf iu a great measure depend 
upou these conditions. Some grow it from 
cuttings; but it is much more readily raised 
from seed, which should be sown in a gentle 
hot-bed about the end of March. Sow thinly 
and cover lightly, and when the young plants 
are well up, give air freely, and use all means 
to obtain a stout, robust growth, aud to pre¬ 
vent the young plants from becoming drawn. 
Gradually expose to the air, and plant out 
towards the end of May in rows two feet 
apart, tbo plants being one foot apart iu the 
rows. Keep well cultivated until it is time to 
gather the crop, being careful to remove all 
flowering stalks the instant they are noticed. 
The leaves can lie gathered when fully grown, 
cither by pickiug them off where the plants 
stand, or by paitially pruning the branches 
and picking off the leaves iuside. They are 
dried by spreading them thinly on eleau 
boards in any dry. airy situation. In order 
to obtain satisfactory results, a new planta¬ 
tion should be made every year, so that after 
the crop is gathered, the old (two-year) plants 
can be destroyed, new plants generally hav¬ 
ing the largest leaves; but they are not as 
pungent as those from older plants. We are 
unable to give our correspondent any informa¬ 
tion as to prices, as they vary considerably, 
being influenced by the quality and condition 
of the crop, hut we would advise our friend 
to make inquiries of those who are likely to 
purchase before disposing of it, and wo sug. 
gestthathe make these inquiries before com¬ 
mencing its cultivation on an extensive scale. 
queries about stock feed. 
J. A. F., Coldwater,Mich. —1. Which is the 
cheapest teed for horses—oats at 85 cents per 
bushels, corn at 60 cents, wheat at $1, or oil 
meal at *2.25 per cwti 2. Would tbe oil meal 
be good for mares? 3. Is wheat bran at *16 
a ton as cheap Winter feed for hogs as oats at 
85 cents per bushel or fine middlings at *20 per 
ton? 
Ans.— 1. Cora is the cheapest grain at the 
prices mentioned. Wheat is not a good food 
for horses at any price. But while com may 
be cheaper than oats, because oats have more 
husk than corn, yet it. does not follow that it 
is the best or most economical. A horse will 
do more work on twelve pounds of oats than 
on twelve pounds of corn, because the former 
have more iu uscle-foru dug substance. As the 
oats and corn are precisely the same value ]>er 
pound as the corn, it would be better to mix 
these grains in equal quantities by weight; 
that is, a bushel of com to two bushels of oats, 
aud feed the mixture. 2. Oil meal is not a 
proper lood for horses; there isuoihlug better 
than oats aud corn for a steady diet; but a 
quart or two of linseed (uot cotton-seed) oil¬ 
cake meal would be useful aud beneficial oc¬ 
casionally. If given too often it would be too 
laxative, while cotton-seed meal is wholly too 
costive. 3. As regards the feed for hogs, at 
60 cents a bushel corn is worth only 820 a ton, 
and is far cheaper at that price for Winter 
feeding than brau at *16. But corn alone is 
uot a sufficient food,and a mixture of one-half 
corn and one half bran costing $18 a ton, 
would be preferable to middlings or to bran 
alone, and the two mixed would help the full 
digestion of each other. 
PULVERIZED SPANISH FLIES FOR STOCK. 
R, G, B., Bo ton ltouge, La .—In the Rural 
of November 10, in answer to a query as to 
the method of making a cow taku the bull, the 
advice is given to administer 10 grains of pul 
verized Spanish flies; how often should the 
dose be given? How long will it he after that, 
till the cow comes in heat? Is it dangerous t o 
give a cow iu calf the dose? How should it be 
given? Will the result be the same, if a dose 
is given to a mure? I have 80 head of ordin¬ 
ary cows, that, with a few exceptions, calve 
only every second year, sometimes going 
longer, though the bull runs with them all the 
time. 
A.\s —There is a slight mistake in your ap¬ 
prehension of the reply to the query referred 
to. There is no certainty that the medicine 
prescribed would be effective. Its effect is 
in the way indicated, aud it usually brings the 
desired in. suit by producing ovarian excite¬ 
ment. It may bo given daily for two days 
and then suspended and repeated iu three 
days if necessary, aud the animal should bo 
watched and looked after carefully mean 
while. The drug may produce un effect in 
