308 
THE BH1AL fJEW-YOMEB, 
MAY 19 
plant growth; of the nutritive power of the 
soil. If we bad t.o supply all the plant food, 
it would soon bankrupt the whole body of 
farmers. It is clear that all soils contain an 
almost inexhaustible amount of plant food, 
and what we want to know, and what, such 
lectures teach ns, is how to make this avail¬ 
able. 
Science and Sugar.— Dr.Collier, in hisnew T 
work on sorghum, its culture and manufacture, 
says the beet sugar industry is one of the 
proudest triumphs of science, and shows wbat 
persistent effort will accomplish in the face 
of natural obstacles. By the aid of all the 
sciences, in improving, simplifying and cheap¬ 
ening its manufacture, a product that, lessthau 
70 years ago, cost SO cents per pound, is now 
made so cheaply that the beet is to-day the 
only successful rival of the sugar-cane in pro¬ 
ducing a sugar supply for the world. This 
success has been achieved only by the aid of 
the fostering arm of the various Governments 
in whose territory the production of beet 
sugar has become an important industry. 
France for many years spent one per cent, of 
tbe value of all her sugar importations.even for 
a time prohibited, by a decree, the importa¬ 
tion of all sugar; while our Government has 
never given in any' year, over one-seven-tbou- 
sandtb part of one per eeut. of the value of its 
sugar importation to aid in the home produc¬ 
tion of sugar. What the sorghum industry- 
now needs is tbe careful supervision of science, 
aud when this shall be given as thoroughly as 
it has been given to the making of beet sugar, 
the beet must retire, aud sorghum take its 
place, as a rival to the tropical sugar-cane. Dr. 
Collier makes a statement, the truth of which 
has been too evident, to many, that many ag¬ 
ricultural writers, instead of fostering this 
infant industry, delight to write it down, and 
gives an instance where one of much promi¬ 
nence declared that the conversion of Amber 
cane into merchantable sugar in paying quan¬ 
tities at a fair profit, was a matter made im¬ 
possible by' the force of natural laws, aud yet 
within three months of that time and within 
300 miles of this writer’s home, 160 tons of 
excellent sugar were made at a very satisfac¬ 
tory profit, mainly from this very variety. 
Weight of Eggs.— “Eggs are eggs,” no 
doubt, but they differ greatly nevertheless, 
remarks a writer in The Times. A short time 
ago he weighed six average eggs of Light 
Brahma hens, and the weight was 15V a ' ounces. 
Eight Dominique eggs weighed 15% ounces 
At the same price per dozen, for 24 eggs the 
purchaser gets 47% ounces of Dominique eggs 
aud 62 ounces of Brahma eggs, or about one- 
t.hivd more in tbe latter. If the smaller eggs 
are worth 24 cents a dozen, the larger ones are 
clearly worth 82 cents, and yet there is no 
such difference in the selling price This is a 
strong argument against keeping and feeding 
large fowls for producing eggs for sale, or 
rather against selling eggs by count. But for 
rearing chickens, it is the other way. A 
Dominique chicken three months old will 
weigh about 1), pound. A Light Brahma of 
the same age will weigh 4%' pounds, or as 
much as three of the smaller ones, but the 
chickens are sold by weight. It would be all 
right if eggs were to be sold by tbe pound. 
Who would think of selling rolls of butter by 
tbe dozen, as eggs are sold* 
P. J. A. Bkrckmans.— The Rural New- 
Yorker gives, in a recent issue, a most ex¬ 
cellent and life-like portrait of this distin¬ 
guished horticulturist, which, in artistic exe¬ 
cution and likeness, is as superior to the ordi¬ 
nary newspaper portraits as cream is to skim- 
milk. The R. N.-Y. is doing praiseworthy 
service in thus introducing the prominent men 
of the profession to its readers. So says Dr. 
F. M. Hexamer, in his well-edited paper, the 
American Garden. 
Mrs. Bonham, aware that the rose-bug 
is partial to flowers of delicate perfume, 
thought it might keep away from of¬ 
fensive odors. She therefore hung on part of 
her grape trellis, among the vines, opeu- 
mouthed bottles, in which she placed bisul¬ 
phide of carbon, as the worst-smelling drug 
of her acquaintance. The result was, the part 
of the vines not protected thus had no grapes, 
while the protected part had a good crop. We 
find the report in the Ohio Farmer. 
The authorities of the Iow’a Agricultural 
College make the following classifications of 
the relative values of various foods as milk 
producers: Corn, per 100 pounds, 50 cents; 
oats, 00 cents; barley, 55 cents; wheat, 65 
cen s; wheat bran, 70 cents; oil meal, $1.45; 
clover hay, SO cents; timothy, 50 cents; pota¬ 
toes, 10 cents. 
---- 
WORTH NOTING. 
According to the analysis of Prof. Goess- 
manu, salt mud-taken from a dock dug in a 
salt marsh, and black mud from the flats near 
Weymouth, Mass., aud fresh water mud from 
a little pond, were practically worthless. 
No matter how good the seeds may be, oue 
cannot raise fine vegetables on a poor soil ... 
Unleached ashes and raw bone flour; 
there are no better special fertilizers . 
Puck says that, a king or queen never knows 
what honor is until some seedsman names a 
potato or turnip after him or her.. 
Now sow any of the following seeds: early 
turnip, tomato, artichoke, crauberry pole 
beau, beet, cucumber, kale, lettuce, ouion, 
pea, asparagus, late cabbage, celery, parsley 
radish, salsify, herbs of all kinds, spinach 
melon. cauliflower, carrot, sweet coru, field 
corn....... • • • 
Feed tbe little chicks often—five times a 
day will not be too often—with hard-boiled 
egg, bread crumbs, boiled potatoes, little 
scraps of meat. Supply them with fresh water 
twice a day. All this, if you want line, healthy 
birds...... 
Scaly legs ought never to be tolerated. At 
the first appearance, dip or wash the legs in 
kerosene. The ointments offered for sale are 
well enough; hut why pay for them and have 
the trouble of application when the above 
remedy is always efficacious if persisted in?.. 
Never, on auy account, allow anything 
but fresh ewe’s milk to go into a lamb’s stom¬ 
ach for the first 24 hours, says the Live Stock 
Indicator... 
Mr. Wier speaks, in the Western Rural, 
as to what wo may expect in the way of fine 
uew fruits from the seeds of apples and pears. 
Do the best we can in selecting the seedlings, 
be says, our chances are about as slender for 
getting a first-class fruit in every way of apple 
or pear, as for getting tbe fi r.st prize in t he 
Louisiana lottery from the purchase of one 
ticket. Yet we may be so lucky as to obtain 
a first class prize from a very few seedlings.. 
Mr Weir gives the good advice, also, that 
ir we grow seedling fruits aud think we have 
something very nice, we should test t hem very 
thoroughly before we clutter up the world 
with more named varieties. 
liliscHiaitfous. 
CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Field Force Pump Co., Lockport, N. Y. 
A descriptive catalogue ot their leading 
pumps, among which is the Field Force Pump, 
particularly designed and adapted to apply¬ 
ing Paris-green, London-purple or the kero¬ 
sene emulsion to all kinds of fruit trees, 
vines, aud vegetables for the destruction of 
insects. This little book also gives reeipes 
for preparing the various insecticides. Send 
for it, and keep it handy as a reference when 
you need to use any of these preparation*. 
American Berkshire Record, sixth 
volume. Published by tbe American Berk 
shire Association, P. M. Springer, Secretary, 
Springfield, 11L A bcok of 358 pages, sub¬ 
stantially gotten up, containing a registry of 
450 boarsaud Mil) sows; ulso an index in a con¬ 
cise form, of all the animals with their sires 
recorded in this and all the preceding volumes. 
This must be a great convenience to those who 
are not so fortunate as to own those volumes. 
We are glad tbe breeders of thoroughbred 
animals are so generally adopting the prac¬ 
tice of registering their stock; it is u great 
safeguard to purchasers against being de¬ 
frauded by the purchase uf Impure stock. 
H. A. Moyer, 32-30 Wolf .Street, Syracuse, 
N.Y. Annual catalogue of carriages, wagons, 
carts, cutters and sleighs, a finely illustrated 
pamphlet of 48 pages, showing every form of 
vehicle made by Mr. Moyer, and clearly show¬ 
ing the points wherein he claims they are 
superior, in road carts, a form of vehicle 
now very popular, ho claims to have discov¬ 
ered a method by which he entiiely over¬ 
comes the very objectionable horse motion 
that makes so many carts a nuisance, and 
which, unless overcome, must soon make them 
unpopular. If you are contemplating buying 
auy thing new in cart or wagon, you had bet. 
ter send for this catalogue and “see how it is 
for yourself. ” 
The Seventeenth Annual Report of 
the Connecticut Board of Agriculture; 
T. S. Gold, Secretary, West Cornwall, Conn. 
This is a book of nearly 500 pages, full of in¬ 
formation for the farmer and fruit grower. 
Over 800 pages are filled with a very complete 
report of the Winter Meeting of the Board 
and the Annual Farmers’ Convention, held 
under its auspices ut Waterbury, December 10 
to 81st, 1883. It also eoutains the report of 
the Pomologist, Mr. P. M. Augur, aud in ad¬ 
dition it contains the annual report of the 
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, covering 120 or more pages, giving accu¬ 
rate analyses of nearly' all the various fertil¬ 
izers made, or offered for sale in the State. 
This report is sent to all members, and, we be¬ 
lieve, to all applicants while the available 
supply lasts, even though non-residents of the 
State. The report of the Farmers’ Meeting is 
very full, and contains many seusible papers 
and much useful information on fruit grow¬ 
ing, farming and bee-keeping; iu fact, it is a 
sort of farmer’s hand book. Tbe report of 
Experiment Station will well repay careful 
study by all who need more manure (and who 
does not ?) to enable them to produce the lar¬ 
gest and most profitable crops. 
Third Volume of the Percheron Stud 
Book of America, by «T. H. Saunders. Pub¬ 
lished by J. H. Saunders & Co., Chicago, IU. 
This is a well piinted aud bound book of 200 
pages, containing a complete record of all 
Percherons, imported or bred from imported 
animals, since the issue of the last previous 
volume, it also contains the proceedings of 
the meeting of the Percheron Horse Breeders 1 
Association, held at Chicago, Nov. 15, 1888, at 
which meeting tbe Association did a very wise 
thing in dropping Norman from the name by 
which this noble and justly popular breed of 
horses had been called, and hereafter they are 
to be known simply as Percherons. This was 
a very sensible thing to do, as the name Per¬ 
cheron is distinct, giving the source from 
which the breed sprang, aud being the ouly 
name by which they are known on the other 
side. The book gives also the full pedigrees 
of Coco It., Luther, and Favori I—the three 
noted Percheron sires from which so many of 
our best animals have descended; all three of 
them trace to the noted Arabian stallion Gal¬ 
lipoli. The importations of this breed have 
done much to improve our horses, and if we 
cannot do so now, the day will very soon come 
when we can boast of better auimals than can 
be found in their native home. 
A FEW REMARKS. 
The Rural likes to pat the farmer on the 
back and call him a good fellow, nature’s 
nobleman, and all that, which is all very good, 
but the average farmer is about as penurious 
and short-sighted, penny-wise and-pound-fool- 
ish a man as we would wish to see. I have 
spoken good words for the Rural to a num¬ 
ber of farmers in this vicinity, aud tbe almost 
invariable reply is, “Oh! the Rural is good 
enough for rich farmers, but it won’t do for 
us middling New England farmers.” They 
can’t seem to comprehend me when 1 tell them 
that if they took the Rural and followed its 
advice, they would cease to be middling New 
England farmers in a very short time. 
Dr. Caldwell (page 198) says that the English 
Ag. Gazette is a level-headed paper (for it 
agrees with him on the ensilage question) and 
its words of praise will justly carry much 
weight. Have we no level headed agricultu¬ 
ral papers in this country that disagree w ith 
him on the subject, and do their words carry 
no weight? Perhaps it is not necessary to dis¬ 
cuss the usefulness of thissystem of preserving 
fodder, but I think it is necessary to discuss 
the propriety of feeding ensilage to our butter 
cows, when our butter buyers object to hand¬ 
ling butter made from ensilage milk. 
Henry Stewart (on page 198) says that but- 
>r and cheese sell on their merits Perhaps 
icy do around New York; but it is cot so in 
ioston. One may make an extra-line quality 
f butter and put it on the market without a 
ame, and it will ouly sell for market price; 
ut if oue gets customers to call for his butter, 
is commission merchant will pay him an extra 
rice. That being the case, where is the in- 
entive for a man to expend money for emun- 
rs, butter-workers, patent churns, etc., when 
e can make a good, sweet, article with shal- 
>w pans in a clean room, and with a ladle for 
torking, and a common up-and-down chum? 
Hillsboro Co., N. H. e. a. h. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Kantian. 
Pittsburg, Crawford Co., April 21.—To 
say that the farmers of Southeastern Kansas 
are surprised and disgusted this morning, is 
to express it mildly; for they opened their 
eyes upon an expanse of horrid snow 1 . We 
hud a heavy shower on the night of the 18th, 
aud last evening it commenced to rain again, 
uud this morning there are nearly three inches 
of suow aud more coming. As the ground 
was very wet, as much more must huve melted. 
The heaviest fall of mow we had last Winter 
did not exceed three inches. Is it any wonder 
that we are disgusted? Over a third of the 
coru is planted. With favorable weather. 
most of the farmers would have finished plant¬ 
ing this week. Oats are up nicely; early po¬ 
tatoes just coming up. And oh! our gardens! 
What will become of our tender vegetables if 
it should freeze as well as snow? Plum trees, 
gooseberries and strawberries are in bloom. 
We have no poaches to be hurt. The cold 
weather the first week iu January killed them. 
Apple trees are budded full. My oue Niagara 
Grape seedling, which killed to the ground 
last Winter, though carefully covered, was 
just starting. A good many cattle have been 
turned out to pasture, though the grass is 
short. Many farmers are out of hay—the 
Winter has been so much longer than usual. 
Plenty of bay was put up, but has been sold 
and shipped off. Corn is worth 35 cents per 
bushel; potatoes,40 cents; hogs, $4.75 to $4.80 
per hundred; butter, 25 cents per pound; eggs, 
12% cents per dozen. Everything looks pros- 
porous, and Pittsburg bids fair to be the lar¬ 
gest town iu Southeastern Kansas in a few 
years. K - M - c - 
Oxford, Sumner Co., April 10.—Peaches 
are in bloom. Corn planting is the order of 
the day just now. Wheat is looking fine, and 
the prospect for a good crop is Mattering. 
Stock that have been cared for are looking 
well; those that had to hug a barbed-wire 
fence all Winter as a shelter from winds and 
storms, arerathertbin The Rural will have 
a subscriber in me so long as I stay on a farm. 
w. h. p. 
New York. 
Wright’s Corners, Niagara Co., April 27. 
—A week of good weather has enabled the 
farmers to sow much barley* and oats, and 
most of them will be done sowing here this 
week, which nearly assures good crops of 
these, as I notice that, when sown iu April, 
they seldom fail to produce well. Wheat now 
covers the ground finely, but 1 can see quite a 
difference in favor of two bushels over one, 
and-oue-balf for seed; where the greater 
quantity was sown the stand is thicker, and at 
present taller, yet I have no doubt that at 
harvest time on good, strong ground, the thiu- 
nor seeding will yield the better. The field 
mice are very numerous aud have done con¬ 
siderable damage the past Winter, both to 
fruit trees where not protected, and to the 
clover fields, eating the crowns out of the 
plants. I have oue field seeded last Spring 
with wheat, that was very large and nice last 
Fall, but I shall have to plow it up, as the 
pests have not left enough clover to swear by. 
Occasionally they are a groat pest, and we 
need some cheap method of destroying them. 
H. M. J. 
Cohocton, Steuben Co., April 20.— Spring 
is backward here. Nothing has been sowed 
yet, excepting a few garden seeds. Farmers 
have started to plow, but the ground is rather 
soft yet. Of the Rural tomatoes I have up¬ 
wards of 100 plants that look thritty. I think 
the Rural is the best paper lor the farmer that 
1 ever saw, aud hope it will always be as good 
as it now is. I think it should bo in every 
man’s house—farmer or meohauu—whether 
he be rich or poor, for every issue is worth 
the subscription price of the paper. Auy way, 
count me as a subscriber as long as it is pub¬ 
lished aud conducted as it now is. H. F. s. 
Pennsylvania. 
Edgewood, Bucks Co., April 10.—Farm 
work has been very much retard* d here by 
the wet weather. Oats are not half sowed, 
and no plowing has been done for corn. Some 
have planted potatoes. Prices at the station 
for those are 25 cents per bushel; wheat, $1.09; 
corn, 05 cents; oats, 40 cents. Winter wheat 
looks well. Young fruit trees were very much 
injured by mice and rabbits. Older trees are 
well set with fruit buds. Stock looks well. 
Dairying is booming here. Butter sells in 
Philadelphia at S3 to 35 cents; milk, 8% cents 
per quart. Choice cows bring from $00 to 
$100, according to quality. J. 
Texas. 
Dayton, Liberty Co., April 12.—The Cleve¬ 
land Rural Pea is now ripe for eating, fifty 
days from planting. The pods are plump, 
and look all that could be desired in a pea. 
There are plenty of blooms still remaining. 
Of course, I cannot suy anything about their 
edible qualities, as I shall keep all for seed. 
The Horsford Pea is just alongside and doing 
well. Of the 80 kernels of the Rural Union 
received, 1 have managed to save from the 
birds, etc., 37 stalks, nearly a foot high. 1 am 
more interested in this thuu iu anything else 
the Rural hasseut me. If 1 can have corn to 
grind in ninety days from planting, there will 
be one happy man in Texas. The tomatoes 
have been transplanted. I have not planted 
the Rural Garden Treasures, os 1 am waiting 
for settled weather. My solitary Niagara 
Grape seedling is six iuches high—the survival 
of the fittest, out of 31 seedlings. There are 
reports of a very severe drought iu the west¬ 
ern part of this State; herbage is all dried up 
j and stock are dying of starvation. u. o. 
A 
