There is yet another consideration which boars 
ou this poiut, viz : the influence of the sea. 
You will notice that the native habitat of our 
best milking breeds is, in each case, more or 
less directly, under the influence of the sea, 
aud this is particularly the case with respect 
to the Jerseys. Tho British Islands, generally, 
in fact, are very much influenced by the sea 
air, iu which the warmth of the Gulf Stream 
plays au all-important part; but in America, 
where there are. such vast distances of inland 
couutry that is far away removed from the 
influence of the sea, it is reasonable to infer 
that our insular cattle will change more or 
less in character, iu ceurse of time, unless that 
character is maintained by repeated importa¬ 
tion from the Old Country. 
It does not appear to me in the least degree 
likely that the Short-horns will lose populari¬ 
ty as dairy stock in these islands. You in 
America regard them as bcefers rather than 
milkers, but this is probably owing iu part to 
your having imported so many of our pedi¬ 
gree Short-horns, which are notoriously poor 
milkers. In the breeding of these cattle the 
question of milk iu many cases has been re¬ 
garded as of little or no importance, beef and 
beauty being the points aimed at, and the con¬ 
sequence is that many of our most fashion¬ 
able tribes and families of Short-horns are 
very indifferent milkers, being in many in¬ 
stances unable to raise their own offspring. 
Now with such cattle as these it is not surpris¬ 
ing that the climate of America should have 
produced beef instead of milk, and hence the 
reputation which the Short-horns have with 
you. But the prevailing dairy stock of the 
northern aud midlaud counties of England, iu 
many parts of Wales and Scotland, and al¬ 
most everywhere in Ireland, is Short-horn; 
not pedigree Short-horn, of course, but good.’ 
practical, rent-payiug farmer’s stock. These 
cattle are as a rule very fair milkers, and 
they have the additional merit of turniug off 
well into beef at the last. A hundred years 
ago the old Long-horns were the prevailing 
stock iu many English counties, but they have 
been displaced by the Short-horns during that 
period so thoroughly that only a few herds of 
them are now' kept, and these more for fancy, 
and as curiosities, than for any other reason. 
We, iu Eugland, theu, whatever you in 
America may do, regard the Short-horns as 
very good dairy stock, hardy, docile, fair 
milkers, and quick fatteners, aud this is the 
stock we must keep. 
ing the pulley may ha ve a hole bored into if if 
wished, and by means of this attached to 
the tree, a person is enabled to draw' the 
line in anv direction. The front of the box 
may be made to slide, or to work on a binge, 
as shown in the illustration. I think this a 
cheap and durable clothes line stretcher. 
Allegheny Co,, Pa Jab. H. Anderson. 
It makes griddle-rakes much more healthful 
than buckwheat, as they do not affect the 
skin or cause dyspepsia. Barley is not so im- 
povishiug to the soil as oats, aud is as good a 
crop to seed with as wheat. Forty years ago 
barley was one of the most extensively grown 
and profitable crops. About thirty five years 
ago it began to fail, or. as the farmers said, 
run out. Like wheat, the soil under con¬ 
stant culture of it became depleted of the con¬ 
stituents required to make a good crop of bar¬ 
ley. A rest of over thirty years has “ re¬ 
newed ' the soil, and now barley is hereabouts 
one of the most reliable and remunerative 
crops It finds a ready sale at good prices, and 
may be utilized on the farin.going further than 
oats, and being better suited for all kinds of 
stock. It is more valuable than rye. The 
straw is excellent for fodder, cattle preferring 
it to every other kind, aud it ranks at the 
head of the list for making growth. It can 
be raised much more cheaply than corn, which 
gives it an advantage over that useful crop. 
There is no other grain which fits in so gen 
erally for the Spring rotation, and especially 
for seediug with clover or grass seed, since 
Spring wheat is far more uncertain, and 
yields only about a fourth as much per acre. 
Barley will produce as well as oats, if not 
better, and may be sown later in the season, 
which relieves the rush of work in the Spring 
and allows the farmer to prepare his ground 
better, which is also an important considera¬ 
tion. On this account moist ground mav be 
utilized which could not be well sown with 
oats and to which barley is especially suited. 
Two dollars a bushel were paid last year for 
the seed of the Mensury variety which wassowu 
when more fire is needed. Its structure is 
readily seen iu Figure 64. G is a plain black- 
walnut. board one by four hy twenty-four 
inches, to which E, which is one hy two by 
four inches is screwed. F is composed of a 
strip of hard rubber half an inch wide and a 
quarter of an inch thick, to which is firmly 
riveted a strip of brass of the 
same width aud one-sixteenth 
of an inch thick. The rubber 
piece is 18 inches long, aud the L B 
brass 20 inches, two inches ex- \—f-1 —r- 
tending beyond the rubber at 
the lower end and bent as D i 
shown. This combined piece * 
is fastened to E by screws at E P ° 
C and J. A and B are ordinary 
telephone wires, B being coiled I® j 
around the screw C. so as to I 
be held firmly between the 
screw head and the brass strip. 
A is held in the wire clamp D, 0 
which is connected with H by 
a copper wire on the back side 
of the supporting board. H q 
has a regulating screw which p 
can be run out or in so as to 
bring the inner end of it at the 
proper distance from the bent 
end of the brass strip. The * 
wires A and B run to the room 
where the fireman sleeps, and 
are there connected with a 
small telephone bell and a Le- • 
clanche battery of two cells. 
So much for the apparatus; I • 
its working is very simple. The 
rubber expanding more rapid- 
ly than does the brass when 
heated, the end of the brass - _ _ 
strip is warped away from the " ur * LH,1 &nTZT 
screw at H. On cooling, of Fig - 
course, the reverse takes place, and finally 
when the brass touches the screw at H. the 
WHY WET LANDS SHOULD BE 
DRAINED. 
SIR J. B. LA WES, BART., LL.D., F. R. 8, 
ui miis i enmity, atm oy its means to grow 
agricultural plants, he must remove the super¬ 
fluous water. Just as without pumping you 
cannot avail yourself of the coal or copper 
which lies in the mines beneath the surface, so 
in like manner you cannot unlock the fer¬ 
tility of the soil unless you allow air to take 
the place of the water. 
In agriculture, the plants perform the part 
of the miner iu separating the valuable mate¬ 
rial from the mass of the soil, which material 
they afterwards, by the aid of the sun. and 
the atmosphere, manufacture into food for 
man and animals. The inherent properties 
of the soil arc tlras made available, and that 
which was before of little or no value becomes 
most valuable; corn and meat are produced 
and are sold in the market, and the landlord 
receives gold as rent in exchange for a portion 
of the inherent properties of his soil. 
GRADE JERSEY VERSUS SCRUB. 
I wish to say to Mi’s. Hudson, who wrote in 
favor of scrub cows in a late Rural, in order 
to conviuce her that it does not pay to keep 
that sort, that I have since the 15th day of 
April last, made 450 pounds of butter from one 
grade Jersey cow. aud that without feeding 
any grniu during the Summer, aud on a test 
of one w'eek she made 17 pounds. 
Susquehanna Co., Pa. mrs. p. l. Norton. 
From Nature.— Fig. 53.- 
on Kirby Homestead and produced a fine crop 
without any manure. It, was thought so well 
of that it has all been saved for seed to sow 
again this year. The Hensury is a six-rowed 
variety and was distributed a few years ago 
by the Agricultural Department at Washing¬ 
ton. It has the advantage of standing up bet- 
tei than the old kind, aud should be cut as soon 
as it turns, as the heads are so heavy that they 
are liable to break off if it is over-ripe. The 
seed may now be obtaiued at half the cost of 
last year. Two bushels are ample for an acre 
on rich soil, but two-uud-a half are required 
for land of moderate fertility, as it will not 
stool so much ou the latter. It is better to be 
put iu with a drill, aud when this is done less 
seed is required. The ground should be mel¬ 
low for barley and harrowed to a tine tilth. A 
corn stubble is good aud it will also do well on 
a clover sod. It should not be put in until the 
ground has become warm, as, unlike oats or 
wheat, it is not suited to cold conditions. 
DUN MORE POTATO. 
After land is drained, lime is sometimes ap¬ 
plied, aud on a certain class of soils its bene¬ 
ficial effects are very great. One of the most 
important and interesting scientific facts in 
relation to agriculture is connected with nitric 
acid. The formation of nitric acid from the 
stock of organic nitrogen exisfiug in the soil, 
the inert condition of such organic nitrogen, 
and the great influence of the liberated nitric 
acid iu promoting the growth of agricultural 
crops, may be considered to have got beyoud 
the regiou of probability into that of estab¬ 
lished fucts. 
W heu we add that the conversion of organic 
nitrogen is due to the operation of a living 
organism, which cannot perforin its work 
without there is sufficient lime iu the soil to 
combine with the nitric acid as quickly as it 
is formed, we get n clear iusigbt as to why 
it is that lime is far more beneficial upon soils 
where the amount of vegetable matter is 
largo, and the amount of lime is small, than it is 
upon soils where the lime is ahuudaut and the 
vegetable matter is small. As iu draining, so 
with liming, the inherent properties of the 
soil are made available. 
Rothamsted, England. 
CHESTERFIELD [SEEDLING RASP¬ 
BERRY. 
In the Rural of January 12 there appears 
a description of a black cap raspberry, which 
is said to be in the possession of a fanner near 
Richmond, \ a., which he has named Chester¬ 
field Seedling. It would be gratifying to the 
Southern people, and especially to the North¬ 
ern people in the South, to know that a rasp¬ 
berry could be obtained suitable to this cli¬ 
mate. It is quite a sacrifice for a Northern 
man who has been accustomed to the rasp¬ 
berry to do without the luxury of this whole¬ 
some truit. It, seems that the raspberry above 
alluded to should be tested throughout the 
South, as all raspberries so far have proved 
a failure. While they are cultivated to a lim¬ 
ited extent, it does not pay to raise them 
either for home use or market, and the fruit 
of vines that should be sufficient to furnish a 
family is generally picked up by the birds. 
We need a raspberry that can stand more 
dry. warm weather than varieties tried here- 
tofore. c D 
Atlanta, Ga. 
THE WINTER RADISH. 
We are now enjoying the White California 
Radish, and as it is considered a treat bv all 
who are food of this vegetable I think it 
will be found satisfactory to cultivate. The 
seed is uot to be sowu until the time for lute 
turnips, and as tho black fly is very foud of 
it, the same treatment auswers for hoth 
DEVICE FOR TIGHTENING CLOTHES 
LINES. 
Here is a drawing of a device for tighten¬ 
ing clothes Hues, which I putin use three years 
ago, and w hich is serviceable yet. It can be 
made of several other desirable shapes, and 
can be fastened to a tree, house, post, etc., and 
can lie made ornamental as well as useful. It 
looks like a bird box, if made as shown at Fig. 
»S2, and small strips are nailed ou toform win¬ 
dows and doors, or even if it is painted so as 
to represent thorn. I can stretch a line 60 
feet, holding it up when full of clothes, without 
props. Indeed, my line is 87 feet long, and I 
don’t use props. 
COMPARATIVE POTATO YIELDS. 
V ith me the past season, and ou moder¬ 
ately good soil, with hill culture, oue-eye 
pieces planted in alternate rows, respectively, 
one piece six inches and two pieces 12 inches 
apart iu deep drills covered lightly at first, 
the drill being gradually filled up as I culti¬ 
vated; the Early Ohio yielded at the rate of 
iw bushel* per acre. Beauty of liebrou 150, 
Mammoth Pearl 198, White Star 250, and 
White Elephant 330 bushels per acre. The 
seasou was favorable to early varieties, un¬ 
favorable to late ones, so I think I note one 
point favoring deep drills as above for late 
sorts in dry season. The Blush yielded about 
double the yield of the White Elephant, e h 
Polo, IU. 
WHAT SHALL WE RAISE ? 
COL. F. D. CURTIS, 
BARLEY. 
This used to be a staple crop, aud was valua¬ 
ble in many ways. There is no better graiu 
for the hens or hogs. It is the very best to 
grind aud feed to sows when suckling pigs. 
It is superior food to give cows to produce 
milk. It Is the best grain to mix with oats 
for horses either for driviug or woj-k. It gives 
them strength aud at the same time is not so 
heating as rye or corn. Last, but not least, it 
is exceUent to make into flour for griddle- 
cakes. The barley “ bannocks” have been an 
inspiration to the pen of the Scottish bard. 
Rur+L Nrur-Yorktt. 
Clothes Line Stretcher.—F ig. 62. 
In Tig. 62, No, 3 is the box, attached to a 
i tee, and Nos. 2 an 1 are pulleys fusioned to 
bees. Ihe pulleys can be made by cutting 
‘ "t a piece of wood and placing a common 
thread spool in tho slot, as is seen in the draw'- 
ing to the right of the base of the box. The 
j’Pool may turn on a piece of round iron, run 
through the projecting arms of the piece re¬ 
ferred to. The end of this piece of wood hold- 
A GREEN-HOUSE FIRE ALARM. 
PROFESSOR S. M. TRACY. 
During the past three Winters I have used 
an automatic fire alarm in our college green- 
soft berry, when 
