484 
MARCH 22 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
PEA EXPERIENCE. 
K. WILLIAMS. 
Which are the best peas to plant for fam¬ 
ily use, is an ever-recurring question to the 
amateur. If he consults seedsmen’s cata¬ 
logues he finds so many that are best or 
nearly so that he is puzzled to make a selec¬ 
tion. I have been trying to solve this ques¬ 
tion for my own satisfaction for the past few 
years with little progress. Sometimes the 
season, defective seed, or other contingency 
prevents a fair determination. One season 
my failure was complete, which I attributed 
to poor seed, or a too liberal use of commer¬ 
cial fertilizer. Caution in using these in con¬ 
tact with seed is advisable. Thorough mix¬ 
ing with the soil is the only absolute safety at 
all times. Here are the results of my last 
season’s observations: 
First trial seeds planted April 21, 1883. 
1 . American Wonder, fit for.table June 21. Cl days. 
2. Stratagem “ '* July 8. 78 “ 
8. Challenger “ “ July 10. 80 “ 
4. Pride of the Market “ “ July 10. 80 “ 
5. Little (Jem “ " July 22. 92 “ 
6. Prem. Gem “ “ July 23. 93 “ 
7. Advancer “ “ July 28. 98 “ 
8. First and Best “ “ July 24. 94 •' 
Second trial, seeds planted May 3, 1883. 
1 . American Wonder, lit for table June 27. 55 days. 
2. Stratagem “ “ July 12. 70 " 
5. Little Gem *• “ June 27. 55 *• 
6. Prem. Gem “ “ June 27. 55 “ 
8. First and Best *• “ June 24. 52 “ 
Although there was a difference of 12 days 
in planting, there is a remarkably wide mar¬ 
gin in the time of maturing. This is espec¬ 
ially notable in Nos, 5, 6 and 8, and is, I think, 
almost entirely attributable to the difference 
in the soil,as the seeds were alike in both cases. 
It also shows the unreliability of single tests 
of this kind, and the importance of duplicat¬ 
ing trials before arriving at positive conclu¬ 
sions. 
The American Wonder is a very good early 
dwarf pea, but I have never been able to get 
tbe crop that others have claimed. One pick¬ 
ing is all I can obtain. The Gems are also 
good, and from a second trial [ judge fully as 
early, but they were poor croppers. Those 
particular strains were not particularly de¬ 
sirable. I have had better. The Advan¬ 
cers were badly mixed, not more than one- 
quarter to one-third being true. First and 
Best very fair, and the most productive of all. 
Stratagem, fine, large and excellent. Chal¬ 
lenger, very good and promising; not more 
than one-quarter of the seed came up. Pride 
of the Market, an extra-fine, large pea, and 
noble pod; superior in these respects to any I 
have ever seen, and the quality was thought 
to be quite as good as that of Stratagem. I 
shall try it again. I am indebted to the 
Editor of the Rural for the privilege of test¬ 
ing the three last-named kinds. 
Montclair, N. J. 
Care of an Asparagus Bed.— Samuel 
Hartwell said, in the course of his remarks 
before the Massachusetts Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, that he has a bed of asparagus of an 
acre and a-quarter, which has been planted 
10 or 12 years, and which has yielded a net 
profit of $400 in one year. He usually man¬ 
ures in Spring, though the Fall might be 
preferable, but the Spring is more convenient 
because he collects most of bis manure in the 
Winter. It will take all the manure one can 
afford to give it, and tbe finer it is the better. 
The bed can only be plowed shallow, on ac¬ 
count of the danger of injuring the roots. 
He plows as early as the weather will permit, 
and harrows a week or fortnight later, and as 
late as possible without injuring the shoots, 
goes over it with a bush harrow, to make the 
soil fine. He cuts from about the 30th of May 
to the 20tb of June, though some cut until 
the 4th of July. The time depends somewhat 
on how it sells, but too late cutting will in¬ 
jure tbe roots. In an old bed, the rows 
spread and make more work hand-weeding. 
He weeds only once until after ceasing to cut, 
and then goes over it with a shares harrow. 
He does not like to have seedling plants come 
up between the rows; they are as bad as 
weeds. Seed-bearing exhausts the ground, 
just as cucumbers allowed to go to seed ex¬ 
haust the ground more than if cut for pickles. 
He used three or four barrels of fish-salt on 
his asparagus bed, but could not say whether 
it did any good. 
says that it is a no less fatal error to despise 
labor, when regulated by intellect, than to 
value it for its own sake. We are always, in 
these days, trying to separate the two; we 
want one man to be always thinking and 
another to be always working, and we call one 
a gentleman and the other an operative; 
whereas the workman ought often to be 
thinking and the thinker often to be working, 
and both should he gentlemen in the best 
sense. As it is, we make both ungentle, the 
one envying, the other despising his brother, 
and the mass of society is made up of morbid 
thinkers and miserable workers. Now, it is 
only by labor that thought can be made 
healthy, and only by thought that labor can 
be made happy, and the professions should be 
liberal, and there should be less pride felt in 
peculiarity of employment and more in ex¬ 
cellence of achievement. 
A very persistent effort is making to boom 
the new mechanical device for separating the 
cream from milk by centrifugal force, says 
the farm editor of the New York Times. No 
doubt it can be done, but as a steam engine is 
required to operate it, and few dairymen 
have such a thing in their dairies, the new 
machine is of very limited use. 
Milk from Ensilage-fed Cows.—There is 
growing dissatisfaction with the milk from 
ensilage-fed cows among Boston contractors 
and dealers, says the N. E. Homestead. It is 
claimed that the milk will not keep as well as 
that from cows fed on hay, and that it is of 
inferior quality when delivered to the con¬ 
sumer 24 hours after milking. A Fitchburg 
railroad contractor refused to take the pro¬ 
duct of a dairy fed exclusively on ensilage 
and grain. The ensilage ration had to be re¬ 
duced to only one feed a day before he would 
receive the milk. The same contractor com¬ 
plained of several other ensilage dairies, and 
thought he might be obliged to take the same 
course with them. 
■ ■ »♦«-- 
Annual Yield of Average Cows.— 
What is the average yield of an ordinary 
farm cow annually! There seems to be a mis¬ 
taken idea about it, says Henry Stewart. 
Some current estimates put it at 1,80(1 quarts, 
which is equivalent to six quarts a day for 300 
days. This is about the yield of the best com¬ 
mon dairy cows. The writer’s dairy herd of 
selected and highly fed cows yielded seven 
quarts a day for the whole year—tiiat is, 
counting in those which were dr}- and waiting 
to calve. But there are probably nine farm 
dairies which give less than an average of five 
quarts a day for every one that gives more. 
This estimate has an important bearing upon 
another question, viz., What is the actual 
value of a quart of milk! A cow will consume 
15 pounds of hay and six pounds of meal to 
give five quarts of milk a day for the whole 
year, or 1,800 quarts. At $15 a ton for hay 
and one cent and a quarter a pound for meal, 
which are fair average values, the cost of the 
feed would be 18% cents, equal to 3% cents a 
quart for the milk. Then something should he 
allowed for care, labor, wear and tear of uten¬ 
sils, and depreciation of the cows, which in a 
dairy of 10 cows would easily V>e equal to 10 
cents per day for each, making, in all, the cost 
of milk 5 % cents a quart. The Writer puts these 
figures thus from a long personal experience 
in dairying. Then it may be asked, How do 
the dairymen manage to live and enjoy their 
being? As a rule they live by growing crops, 
but not by feeding them to cows, and their en¬ 
joyment of life is not very exhilarating. The 
man who buys their milk for obj cents a quart 
and sells it for 8 or 10 cents has all the enjoy¬ 
ment which can be got out of the business ) 
while the dairymen—they live, and that is 
about all. 
THE LATEST AND BRIEFEST. 
Working and Thinking.— Mr. Ruskin 
failure; that the Snowflake is the standard as 
to smoothness and quality—only lacking in 
productiveness; that no early potato stands so 
high in the general estimation of the public as 
the Beauty of Hebron. What Mr. TalOOtt says 
about potatoes may be trusted as the result of 
careful tests. 
Ben Perley Poore says that it is a mis¬ 
take to suppose that the same kind of tree 
may not be continued successively and suc¬ 
cessfully on the same ground, and that 
“every nurseryman will say that the same 
kinds may be raised on the same piec.e, not 
merely twice, but twenty times, and with 
the more success the greater number of repeti¬ 
tions, but that farm crops cannot be profita¬ 
bly planted year after year. Why, then, do 
our leading nurserymen branch out into fresh 
grounds, renting miles away while their home 
land rests, and recommend their trees in their 
catalogues by statiug that they are raised in 
fresh ground? It Is not.that thesimple growth 
of carbonaceous, woody structure exhausts the 
land, but that pernicious insects peculiar to 
each tree increase so that tender, young 
plants are liable to destruction by them. A 
change of crop, or a fallow starves these out, 
and leaves the field free for a safe return to 
the same growth... 
Another questionable statement is that 
tillage land loses much of its strength by 
evaporation, and woodland retains it because 
little evaporation takes place there. Why, 
then, is the soil in regions of dry climates so 
exceptionally rich and productive when 
watered? The gain of soil-strength in wood¬ 
lands is owing to less surface evaporation, 
only so far as the retention of moisture 
through warm weather secures a constant 
progress of decay and reduction of the veget¬ 
able matter covering the soil. The water 
that evaporates from a bare fallow is distilled 
water only, “ pure as mountain dew.”.. 
Wind-Mills. —When once adjusted a good 
wind-mill will not cost five dollars per year 
for repairs of every name and nature, said 
CoL Wilson before the Massachusetts Hor¬ 
ticultural Society.. * *. 
Again he remarked that for irrigating an 
ordinary farm or market garden, the small¬ 
est wheel, to lie of real practical benefit, should 
be at least fourteen feet in diameter, elevated 
from forty to forty-five feet above the ground. 
Such a wind engine would cost, all set up, 
ready for duty, about. $300, besides, the pump, 
and could be safely calculated to operate on 
an average about eight hours per day through 
the Summer months in any locality; it.could 
be depended upon with certainty to elevate 
from eight to ten thousand gallons of water 
in twenty-hours to a bight of fifty feet, or to 
draw It from a well twenty-five feet deep and 
raise it twenty-five feet above the surface, 
if more water is required tlmu one wheel 
of this size will furnish, it will be found in 
most cases more desirable to increase the 
number than the size beyond sixteen feet in 
diameter..... 
When Marshall P. Wilder plants peach 
trees he heads them down to two feet, instead 
of to four, as recommended by many others.. 
In windy localities, says J. J. Thomas, good 
screens of evergreens on the exposed sides of 
the cattle yards have the three-fold advantage 
of ornament, comfort to the cattle, and econ¬ 
omy in feed and in saving of flesh. This kiud 
of protection from wintry winds, with its 
great saving and little cost, is so important 
that there appears to be no excuse for its 
omission by any farmer .. 
A Western paper advises adding salicylic 
acid to cider to prevent fermentation. Any 
drug that will arrest fermentation will as ef¬ 
fectually prevent digestion, and should be 
shunned by all who have regard to their 
health. 
The water is mostly soft or freestone water, 
very pure and healthful. The Louisville, 
Nashville and Mobile Railroad passes through 
the center of the county north and south, 
crossing the Tennessee river at Decatur. 
w. M. 
Indiana. 
Mexico, Miami Co., March 7. —We have 
had a very cold Winter, the mercury having 
fallen as low as 30® below zero. There were 
about 50 days of excellent sleighiug. The 
prospect for wheat is flattering. Stock in 
good condition. Health good. N. b. h. 
Kangris. 
Burlingame, Osage Co,, Feb. 24.—The 
last two months have been exceptionally cold 
compared with the four years we have lived 
in Kansas. January was ushered in with the 
mercury four degrees below zero, and it 
ranged through the month as follows: 
2, 12 degrees below zero. 
3, 3 
« i 
above 
t 1 
4, 10 
ts 
below 
(f 
5, 28 
a 
below 
it 
6,12 
ff 
below 
U 
7, 4 
ff 
below 
u 
8, 4 
a 
below 
it 
9,22' 
ft 
above 
ff 
10,24 
ff 
above 
ff 
11, 5 
it 
below 
It 
22,22 
u 
above 
(t 
armer 
weather until 
9, 7 degrees below 
zero. 
12, 1 
ft 
below 
<f 
12, 8 
cf 
below 
ff 
14, 4 
ff 
below 
ff 
E. P. Roe says, in Nature’s Serial Story, 
that the blue-birds always pay their way in 
notes which he is glad to accept. 
Our neighbor, the Orange County Farmer, 
is enlarged and improved for 1884 very decid¬ 
edly. It isn’t every farm journal that can af¬ 
ford to add to its expenses this year, and it 
speaks well for our neighbor’s enterprise that 
it is enabled to do so. It is a bright, wide¬ 
awake paper anyhow.. 
Did you ever hear so many well-to-do 
people say they wanted to sell out in any 
Spring before? asks the Connecticut Courant. 
Ten persons, the other day, dined bountiful¬ 
ly on a single egg and had some left. So says 
the Anaheim (Cal.) Gazette. It was an os¬ 
trich egg, and equaled in weight 28 hen 
eggs. 
M«. J. Taloott, of Rome, N. Y,, tells the 
Cultivator that the Early Mayflower is the 
best early potato he has ever raised. He 
thinks that the Rubicund will suit most peo¬ 
ple; that the Blush has too deep eyes; that 
* Wall’s Orange has proved close upon a total 
0)10 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Alabama. 
Sand Sprino, Limestone Co., March 1.— I 
came from Northern Indiuna six years ago, 
and I find that all kinds of agricultural pro¬ 
ducts that grow in Indiana will grow here; 
and many other kinds that would not mature 
there, thrive here. This county is one in the 
northern tier next to Tennessee, and is rolling, 
not mountainous. The Teunesee River bounds 
the county on the south, and numerous tribu¬ 
taries afford good water power and drainage. 
The soil is red clay, with black loam along the 
streams, anti yellow clay and gravel, on the 
“mulatto” lands—the lauds back from the 
streams and the high lauds. Plenty of lime¬ 
stone and flint rocks, along the streams and 
bluffs. The timber is White, Red, Black, and 
Post Oak, poplar, chestnut, hickory, Black 
Walnut, Black and Sweet Gums, with beech, 
birch, and Hard Muple along the streams. 
To-day the trees, fences, and, in fact, every¬ 
thing out-of-doors, is covered with ice, and 
the bright sunshine has made but very little 
impression on it. Hogs are worth $6,25; 
beef, $4; hay, $4; corn, 32 cents; butter, 25 
cents; eggs, 20 cents; dressed chickens, 8 
cents. Wheat was looking well before the 
last snow and sleet. Fruit buds are injured 
somewhat. £. L t. 
Kentucky. 
Finchville, Shelby Co., March 3.—Snow 
four inches, and a very strong wind. Most 
farmers who have given any care to their 
sheep, have had good luck with their lambs, 
in spite of the bad weather. One of my neigh¬ 
bors has over 200, and we have nearly 100 
already sold for June and July delivery, at 
, r t% and 4% cents per pound. As good lambs 
were shipped East from this place as from any 
part of the State last year. This is one of the 
Blue Grass counties. Corn is selling at 40 
cents per bushel; butter, 20 cents per pound; 
eggs, 12% cents per dozen, A great many 
farmers are going to raise tobacco this year. 
Farmers will be quite late with their work 
this Spring; for no plowing has been done 
yet. Even if we had good weather now, we 
could not plow, for the soil is so full of water 
that it would take some time to dry enough 
to be lit for working. Most kinds of stock 
look well, in spite of the hard Winter. A 
great deal of hay has been used for feed. Last 
Summer some people thought they had too 
much hay; hut if bad weather continues much 
longer there will not be much surplus, m. p. 
Manitoba. 
Qu’appelle, Assiniboia, Feb. 21.—That re¬ 
porter mentioned in “HomeNews,”on page i)2 
of the Rural, must be very green to believe 
such a story as that said to be told by the man 
who escaped with his life from the cold of 
Winnipeg. Such a temperature as 75®, or even 
(50°, below zero is uuknowu in Manitoba. I 
have records, etc., for Manitoba from 1871 to 
1881 inclusive, and in those years the ther¬ 
mometer went down only once so low as 50 w . 
Once more it went down to 47®, and twice 
more to 45®. During the current Winter, 
which hus beeu partly unusually mild and 
partly, unusually severe, the temperature at 
this point has not boon lower than 47®, and 
that for only oue night, and there has been 
scarcely a day in which ray children have not 
been out of-doors a great part of the the time, 
frequently for amusement. L. G. B. 
Minnesota. 
Lambehton. Redmond Co., March 6. —This 
southwestern part of the State is rapidly 
coming to the front as a dairy region. We 
have tried wheat without much success. Still 
lust year the average was about 20 bushels 
per acre, and the year before,about 15 bushels. 
Oats usually average about 40 or 50 bushels, 
aud corn is generally a good crop; as high as 
125 bushels of shelled corn i>er acre have been 
reported. Stock raising and butter-making 
seem to be the best for us. Creameries are 
starting up all over the county. IV e have 
good water and plenty of grazing laud. 
E. N. H. 
Missouri. 
West Hartford, Ralls Co., Mareh 1.—The 
weather has been very cold, the thermometer 
having reached 30 degrees below zero on Jan¬ 
uary 5. This is a fine prairie country, well 
adapted to raising stock and corn. Beef 
o r*ck tunrfh nlifillt ^4 UfiT CWt. St>0ei*5 
