THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
As a model in ordinary potato culture, we 
should select as seed just such potatoes as have 
the readiest sale at the best prices; and these 
we shall hud to be medium-sized, smooth, 
nearly round or oblong, with eyes nearly or 
quite level with the surface, and of good cook¬ 
ing and keeping qualities, and with the fewest 
possible small ones. These qualities command 
the best prices, because potatoes possessing 
them are most easily cooked, pack in the 
smallest space, and waste least in preparing 
for the table. 
The early origin of the Beauty of Hebron 
and the White Elephant is somewhat clouded 
in uncertainty. They are said to have origin¬ 
ated in Washiugtou County, New York, and 
to have been grown for several yearn by the 
originator, who is unknown. They are said to 
ha ve 1 >oth grown from seeds of the same seed- 
ball produced on a Garnet Chili or Red Chili 
Potato, fertilized by a Wlnte Peachblow. 
The R.N.-Y. had the pleasure of seuding the 
Beauty of Hebron to its subscribers in its free 
seed distribution of 1878 and ’79, and we are 
pleased to say it at once became, and still is 
very popular. 
In 18S0 and ’81 we sent out the White Ele¬ 
phant, and that is also quite popular: aud if 
we had never sent out any other good thing, 
tbo wide distribution of these two varieties 
would have been a source of much pleasure to 
us, and of much profit to our subscribers. 
Of late we notice considerable controversy 
as to the color of the White Elephant, some 
claiming that it is pink and some white. In 
regard to this, we would say it varies consider¬ 
ably in different soils, but its normal color is a 
light pinkish buff, with yellowish-white spots 
or blotches about the eyes and sometimes on 
the stem-ends. We have never yet seen one 
that was white; and the white spots, are not 
the white of St. Patrick or of the White Star, 
but rather like those found on the Peachblow. 
Though by keeping over Winter it may fade 
somewhat and might carelessly be called 
white, on putting it into water it will always 
show its pinkish hue. 
THE BEST POTATO. 
“Which is the best potato to plantEvery 
“potato man” or seed dealer has been asked 
this question a hundred times in every plant¬ 
ing season, and tried to answer it correctly 
just as often! All have generally been quite 
ready to recommend their respective favor¬ 
ites, whatever they may have been—Snow, 
flake or Ohio, Beauty of Hebron or Sunrise, 
Blush, Wall’s Orange or White Elephant. I 
have made up my mind to be more cautious 
in future, for until we come across another 
Early Rose, it will never do to recommend 
any particular kind without reserve; aud the 
equal of tho Early Rose has not, as yet, turned 
up. 
The Early Ohio is, with me, the best early 
potato for garden culture on rich, moist, 
heavy soil. It is the variety for the Chemung 
Valley, N. Y., aud probably many other sec¬ 
tions, where it is grown profitably as a field 
crop. But its value is decidedly local, and 
many who have tried it on my recommenda¬ 
tion, pronounce it “good for nothing. - ’ I 
helped to nurse the fame of the Burbank in 
its infancy. It has grown to be the market 
sort of to-day, but it is unreliable as to quali¬ 
ty; very good on light, it becomes soggy and 
watery on heavy soils. 
My voice has been loud in the concert sound¬ 
ing tho praises of the White Elephant, and I 
have induced hundreds to plant it. Many are 
pleased with it; some feel disappointed and 
are inclined to blame me. The Elephant, like 
the Burbank, does best in light soils. Inquir¬ 
ing about the Mammoth Pearl, right in the 
home of its iutroducer (Everit.t, Cumberland 
Co., Pa.,) I find it grown extensively there, 
where it is recognized as “one of the best po¬ 
tatoes farmers ever had.” With me it is an 
inferior sort, and was discarded long ago. 
Each variety of potato seems to thrive best 
under certain conditions of soil and climate; 
every soil and locality are best adapted to a 
certain variety, or certain varieties. Each 
can be helped but little by other people’s ad¬ 
vice. Every man must try for himself. Let 
eueh grower make a selection of the most 
promising varieties, among which I include 
the Early Ohio and Beauty of Hebron for 
early: the Burbank, White Star, White Ele¬ 
phant, and perhaps the O. K. Mammoth Pro¬ 
lific, for late. Let him buy aud plant a small 
quantity, say a peck or so, of each, and he 
will soon find out which is the variety or 
varieties for his particular soil aud climate. 
If 3 r ou are not wide-awake, but have a neigh¬ 
bor who is not afraid of investing a few dol¬ 
lars in this way, knowing that it will pay him 
a hundred-fold, go aud consult him, but do not 
stop to ask me, “Which is the best potato to 
plaut?” “JOSEPH.” 
Elmira, N. Y. 
-«♦» 
MILLO MAIZE. 
Last Spring I bought, for a dollar, half a 
pound of Millo Maize seed, said to have been 
imported from South America. It was plant¬ 
ed on April 28,1883, in rows four feet apart 
and about two feet apart iu the drill, two to 
three seeds iu a place. The ground was a 
medium clay soil, aud the rest of the lot on 
either side, made about 40 bushels of corn to 
the acre. The plot was not quite one-third of 
an acre, and no fertilizer of any kind was 
used. We bad a severe drought, lasting about 
eight, weeks, during tho latter part of the sea¬ 
son, and, notwithstanding these disadvan¬ 
tages, about December 1st, I gathered 1,640 
pounds of well-matured seed, aud about 18 
tons of forage, including stalks, leaves, etc. 
It grew from 10 to 13 feet high. It resembled 
sorghum iu appearance, but did not sucker at 
all, but stooled up from the roots like wheat, 
having from Cve to twenty stalks to each 
plant that come up. The seeds were very 
dense on the head, many heads weighing from 
eight to twelve ounces. I don’t think it will 
mature seed north of the Ohio River, but it 
will be quite an acquisition to the South. An¬ 
other man in this county, Mr. J. D. Carne, 
had equally good results. 
Hogs eat stalks, heads and all, greedily, and 
I think I can soil 20 head to the acre from 
July 1 to December 1, while gu acre of clover 
will feed only from two to three head, and 
only for about one month longer. Stock of 
all kinds eat it well. In my opinion, it will 
grow tall and make a wonderful crop of for¬ 
age iu the North, but it cannot possibly ma¬ 
ture seed. I think every farmer south of the 
Ohio would do well to try a small patch. 
Humboldt, Tenn. e. c. 
Sl)f|3oultnj Dartr. 
EXPERIENCE WITH POULTRY. 
Last year I sold my turkeys for ten cents 
and chickens for V4 cents per pound (we read 
with longing eyes of those places where eggs 
sell for 81 per dozen and two-pound chicks for 
§1.50 per pair) and received §80 for what I 
marketed, which were mostly turkeys, as the 
hawks, skunks and village thieves had use for 
nearly all my chickens and ducks. My pres¬ 
ent stock are Partridge Cochins aud Brown 
Leghorns and their crosses. The Leghorn is 
a fine little hen and attends strictly to busi¬ 
ness, whether laying, sittiug, or scratching; 
and, what is better, she is hard to kill, young 
or old. The Cochin is hard to get aud hard 
to keep, as many of the eggs are unfertile and 
the chicks tender. The Cochin hens are so 
large that they make bad work with the eggs; 
when one puts her big foot down on an egg it 
is of no more use except for her to eat, which 
she seems to enjoy doing, and I sometimes 
think she bears down on purpose, being 
ashamed to break it with her bill. 
Somehow, I used to raise about 200 chicks 
with but little care, when I kept a mongrel 
breed that no one dared to name; but the more 
blood I get, the more worn I have and the less 
to show for it. Some one may say I do not 
give them sufficient care. A farmer’s wife 
has something to do besides watching hens 
and chickens all the time, and I uever spent 
all my time taking care of the old-fashioned 
native hens, aud they didn’t get sick aud die 
either: but niue out of 10, if set on 13 eggs, 
would produce an even dozen chicks, and the 
tenth one, would bring off the full 18, sound 
and healthy.” 
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” I 
had a longing for an incubator, and not being 
able to pay §50 for what I knew nothing about, 
I read carefnlly all the articles that had ap¬ 
peared in the Rural on this subject, aud then 
went to work aud made a sort of box, which 1 
call my wooden heu. The first regular brood 
was brought out on the 8th of April, aud the 
little fellows are lively and nice, but are mak¬ 
ing me some trouble, while I am waiting for a 
ben, to bring off a brood to mother them. My 
first box, including lamp, cost 90 cents, and I 
used five quarts of oil to the hatching. The 
one I am now using is a little larger, uses two 
lamps, and will hold lour dozen eggs. 
Apple River, Ill. mrs. j, w. 
GOOD EXPERIENCE WITH POULTRY. 
Having received much valuable informa¬ 
tion about poultry through the Rural, I feel 
disposed to tell a little of my experience ou 
the subject. On May 1, 1883, I began keep¬ 
ing an account of the eggs sold from 85 hens, 
and in six months from that date I had dis¬ 
posed of eggs to the amount of §80, had used 
all that were wanted in a family ranging from 
five to seven persons, and had hutched 500 
chickens, of which I raised about 350, the 
others falling a prey to hawks, crows, skunks, 
aud rate, and some were lost by being caught 
out in storms. Tho eggs were sold at prices 
varying with the market—from 10 cents to 28 
cents per dozen. My chickens are Heathwood, 
Duck wing, and Black-breasted Red Games (of 
these I like the Heathwoods best, as they are 
larger than the others and good layers) and 
White Leghorns. They run together, and the 
ciosses make excellent layers and good 
mothers. 
I am trying the method of raising chickens 
without the hen, aud keeping them warm by 
means of a hot water tank. Mine are two 
weeks old aud doing very well indeed. I have 
covered the floor of their box two inches deep 
with fine, dry clay, which I stir up thoroughly 
ouce or twice a week. J. p. u. ; 
£kcqi Ijitshmu'n), 
THE ADVANTAGES OF SHEEP ON THE 
FARM. 
COL. P. D. CURTIS. 
factors in increasing the manure. When 
others go out, it is. a good time to go into 
stock. Certainly this is a better policy than 
to rush with the crowd aud make the extremes 
which unsettle markets, by overproduction at 
oue time and scarcity at another. The whole 
section of country around me is now a loser 
on account of selling tbo sheep, and some of 
the best f irmers have resolved to begin sheep 
raising again—this time to stick. 
Dainj tjusktmfrnu 
DAIRY NOTES FROM ENGLAND. 
Wool is so low in price, with no certain 
prospect of any material increase, that the 
keeping of sheep except under favorable cir¬ 
cumstances, Will require very close and eco¬ 
nomical calculations if any profit is to be real¬ 
ized. I have not much faith in securing an 
increase of the duties on foreign wools by a 
revision of the tariff laws; and if an increase 
of the duties should he obtained, it is eminent¬ 
ly proper to consider sheep husbandry upon 
the basis of small protection and small re¬ 
turns. Sheep fit in so nicely upon the farm 
that they can hardly be dispensed with. They 
have an advantage over other stock, inasmuch 
as they may be made to furnish an income 
twice in the year—first, the wool, aud then the 
lambs. They may he made to do more tban 
this, and really to afford another income in 
the Autumn or Winter, by the fattening aud 
sale of the old sheep, or the surplus stock. 
After trying all kinds of stock, I have return¬ 
ed to sheep, believing them to be indispensa¬ 
ble for a complete development of all the re¬ 
sources of the farm. There is no stock so well 
calculated for rugged hillsides or rough pas¬ 
tures, and to prevent the growth of weeds and 
bushes. Whore sheep have the range of a 
field, very few weeds will ever go to seed, and 
bushes will be so thoroughly enpped that they 
will either die or be kept from makiug much 
of a growth. When a farmer can thus easily 
turn the weeds and bushes of a farm into ex¬ 
cellent manure, aud at the same time have 
them converted into mutton aud wool, it is 
certainly a good thing. Sheep will always 
do this. They will tlirive in pastures aud get 
fat where cattle would almost starve. They 
also scatter their droppings over the field, and 
never fail to enrich lauds where they are 
kept. Ou poor farms they are most emphatic¬ 
ally the best factors for increasing fertility. 
On rich lauds the same rule holds good, as 
they will make them richer. By the simple 
means of a portable shed, which can be moved 
about the field aud under which the sheep will 
readily congregate, the poorest spots may be 
made fertile, aud the whole field, by frequent 
and regular changes of the flock, may be thor¬ 
oughly enriched. 
When i was a small boy, my father pur¬ 
chased a large farm, which had been devoted 
to sheep husbandry for years. He went heavi¬ 
ly into debt in the purchase, and I recollect to 
have heard him suy, a number of times, that 
the sheep which had belonged to the former 
owner paid for the farm. What he meant was, 
that they made the farm so productive and 
caused it to yield such bountiful crops, after 
he became its owuer, that he was thus enabled 
to make his payments. This productiveness 
lasted for years, aud made the farm famous 
for large crops. There are in the older States 
a great many farms, now run down with con¬ 
tinuous grain culture, which hardly pay the 
cost of the labor bestowed upon the crops. Iu 
the keeping of sheep, although the direct re¬ 
turns from them may not be ns great as they 
have beeu in former years, the advantage to 
be derived from them In the improvement of 
the soil should be taken into account. If, by 
these means, better crops cun be grown, there 
is additional inducement for stocking tho 
farm with sheep. There cannot be any doubt 
about this result. A number of years ago, 
whan a large flock of sheep was kept ou Kirby 
Homestead, a strip of land, the most exposed 
of any in the Held, was well dressed with 
sheep manure. The entire field was sown with 
rye and seeded with clover. The portion 
where the sheep manure was put produced 
three times as much rye, to the acre, as the 
rest of the field. The clover grew so rank that 
its very nature was changed, and instead of 
dying out the second year, as it is likely to do, 
it lived for years and made au excellent 
growth. 
From the facts set forth in this article, and 
others, I have been led to add a flock of sheep 
to the stock on the farm, with the intention 
that the farm, under my plan, must be made 
to keep them, aud the certainty that they will 
be aids in its improvement, and most useful 
PROP J. P. SHELDON. 
Though the Short-horns have displaced or 
arc displacing, the old Longhorns of the Mid¬ 
land Counties of England and the Glamor¬ 
gan and Peinbrokes of Wales, they do not 
appear likely to supplant the Ayreshires in 
Scotland, or the Devous in the southern coun¬ 
ties of Britain. The 3 ' are known in the genial 
climate which prevails in the south of this 
island, and no doubt they answer well as a 
rule, but the milking and beef-makiug capaci¬ 
ties of the Devon red-skins are so generally 
satisfactory that this very ancient and un- 
rnixed race of cattle is likely to maintain its 
ground for along time to come. It is said that 
of our purely English breeds, not reckoning the 
Welsh black races, the Irish Kerries, and the 
Scotch West Highlanders, the Devons are the 
Ottly cattle we have that are not more or less hy¬ 
brid in character. The Short horns arc just as 
much a composite breed as we, their owners, 
are, which is saying a good deal; and the 
origin of the Longhorns and Herefords, as also 
of the Norfolk Red Bolls, the Scotch Black 
Polls, aud the Ayrsbires, must be traced to 
the crossing, more or less, of different, breeds, 
and this to au extent aud in a manner which 
cau uever now be known: but the Devons are a 
pure breed, self-colored, and indigenous to 
the beautiful county from which they take 
their name. The breed has spread through 
other counties, where it has been more or less 
changed by the influence of soil and climate— 
factors of uot inconsiderable importance iu 
the history of races of men as well as races of 
animals. So far as the Devons are concerned, 
we see this iu the heavier-framed, more mass¬ 
ive, aud less cornel}' Sussex cattle, which are 
generally admitted to have descended from 
the Devons; and we see it again in the South- 
hammers, as they are called, a race of cattle 
pertaiuiug chiefly to the southern part of 
Hampshire, red indeed, like their progenitors 
the Devons, but wautiug in compactness and 
symmetry. yet useful dairy stock, withal. 
The Herefords are a noble race of cattle, 
and, as I think, the most picturesque of the 
English breeds. The deep-red color which 
covers the greater part of them, is very cheer¬ 
fully relieved by' tho suowy-white of their 
faces, dewlaps and shoulder points. These 
beautiful cattle present a very pleasing ele¬ 
ment iu the beautiful landscapes of the Mid¬ 
land Counties of England, aud they are ad¬ 
mitted to make the choicest beef of auy Eng¬ 
lish breed. They have not much reputation 
as milkers, but this is less their fault thau 
their misfortuue, for they have not been 
trained to milk as our other races have, aud 
liave only been expected to raise their off¬ 
spring, just us iu the case of marcs aud ewes. 
This sort of thiug would make poor milkers in 
the course of a few generations, of au}' breed 
of eattlo whatever. In some cases, however, 
where the Herefords havu been used as ordi¬ 
nary dairy stock, they have been found to 
develop into good milkers, which property is 
found to iucrease as the generations succeed 
each other. 
The Norfolk Red Polls arc a hornless race 
peculiar to the counties of Norfolk aud Suf¬ 
folk, aud au excellent race withal. Until re¬ 
cently they have not commanded much pub¬ 
lic attention, and of their origin nothing very 
definite is known. Some suy they are de¬ 
scended from the Galloways; but then the 
Galloways are black and tbeNorfolks are red. 
It is curious to know that there once existed, 
within definitely historical times, a race of 
white wild cattle, which had no horns, iu oue 
of the con titles on the eastern side of England, 
and we cannot toll how far tho Norfolks mav 
be related to them; it is tho color, in this case 
again, which puzzles the origin hunter. But 
iu any case, tho Norfolk Polls of to-day are a 
iixod race, excellent at tho milk pail, and use¬ 
ful beofers as well. They are rising in public 
estimation in England, and have already at¬ 
tained popularity on your side of the Atlantic. 
1 have only one other brood of British dairy 
stock that for tho present demands our notice, 
viz., tho Kerry cattle of Ireland. The pure¬ 
bred Kerries are black, with occasional patches 
of white, but whether, or not, the bits of white 
are evidences of other blood, 1 am not sure. 
The Kerries are very small cattle, the small¬ 
est of the British breeds; but they are proba 
