out hilling, is deep enough. Our tests were 
made all the way from two to eight inches. 
—Eds.] 
I like the Rural’s ringing words on the 
evils of strong drink. It is the greatest curse 
of our country. There is danger in it too, for 
the liquor men have combined, and combina¬ 
tion makes them powerful. But they could 
not pasB the bonded whisky bill. Thank for¬ 
tune there was that much virtue in Congress. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS 
T. H. HOSKINS. M. D. 
Rural, April 5. —“Samples and Com¬ 
ments'’ (p. 217) repeats the so common advice 
to pack cions in sand—very vexatious to the 
grafter, who has carefully given his knife a 
keen edge. Pack in damp sawdust or moss. 
If an American staggers before Karabow- 
, or Belborodooske, in a list of Russian 
pies (p. 217), how would a Russian feel when 
XER. 
ground nearly level on top. They should be 
hilled just enough to keep water from stand¬ 
ing around the vines. Potatoes want a good 
depth of bed; you can give this by piling up 
a big hill or by planting deep. I prefer to 
plant deep. But that potatoes do best on 
rough, unprepared ground, I do not believe. 
Yes, we had a big crop of potatoes last year, 
with low prices, and now the area planted in 
potatoes this year is to be short; result, high 
prices next year, and every man buying a big 
lot of seed potatoes at a dollar a bushel. It 
has al ways been so. When potatoes are twen¬ 
ty-five cents a bushel, plant a good crop, for 
your neighbors won't; when they are a dollar 
a bushel, plant but few, for nine times out of 
ten the next Fall you can buy of your neigh¬ 
bors at less than the cost of production. 
I think Mr. Barrow’s essay on potatoes good, 
except in one point—depth of planting. I 
would plant two inches deeper than he says. 
But very likely the soil may have much to do 
with this. [The Rural’s experiments on a 
clav-loam eo to show that four inches with- I 
he came to Westfield-Seek-no-Further, or 
Summer Bellflower of Pennsylvania; Rop- 
ka, Titouka, Arabskoo and Woskaroe, are 
easy names. Grand Sultan is not Russian, 
Indeed, it looks to me like English. 
Tea may lie described as “the tobacco of 
women” (p. 227), but how about snuff and the 
cigarette? 
Rural, April 12,— The cow-stall diagram 
(p. 233) has far too much slope for the comfort 
of the animal, and much more than is needed 
for drainage. 
after the very severe cold'of last Winter—very' 
near to 40 degrees below zero, two or three 
times,—never having been in the least affect¬ 
ed before. And the Onondaga is a large, 
handsome, and good pear, and a productive 
tree. Howell, Clapp’s Favorite, and Winter 
Nelis are quite as hardy as Flemish Beauty. 
The Rural’s spirited rebuke of “Public 
Robbers” (p. 240), has the right ring in it. 
and greatly"admiredjit. Like/all thelheavy, 
“high-qualitied” potatoes, it requires a natu¬ 
rally good soil; but when it has t hat, the yield 
i is good enough—over 300 bushels per acre, 
here, in a good season like the last. 
It is said on p. 258, that vegetables matur¬ 
ing rapidly (radishes, lettuce, etc.) must have 
very soluble fertilizers, which is true. Yet I 
find that they grow as quickly and well in soil 
r - *-■«- 
\vr fips> 
ni \ '' X - * — 
DESIGN FOR COTTAGE. Fig. 152 
These facts must be ding-donged into the ears 
of the people by the press, until they awake 
to the dangers of speculative combinations 
and every sort of monopoly, and put forth 
their strength to suppress them. 
The cut of the Lady’s Finger Potato (page 
251), if this is the same as the variety I have 
long known under that name, Is not at all char¬ 
acteristic, being too rough and deep eyed, and 
enriched with fine raw bone as where “solu¬ 
ble” fertilizers (which “revert” iu 48 hours 
after coming in contact with moist soil) are 
used. This question of solubility is not yet 
understood. Solubility in distilled water is 
one thing, and solubility in soil water, and in 
the juices of the root-hairs, is quite another. 
Did you know that the roots of sorrel would 
make distinct lines across a piece of slate 
where they run, and that lichens will dissolve 
of the firstensilagists” of Vermont, says he 
has “long known” this fact. Perhaps it is 
true, as 1ms been suggested, that the heat of 
fermentation kills the germs that generate the 
acid. But it must bo a nice calculation just 
how much to allow. 
Col. Curtis’s remarks about, Alfalfa roots 
(p. 2(56) lead mo to say that very few people are 
aware how deep roots run for water. I have 
just boon digging out a roadway on the border 
of a marsh, at the bottom of a rather steep 
slope planted with apple trees—young trees, 
not over two or three inches in diameter yet 
I found the roots down to the edge of the 
marsh, being at, least; three times ns long as the 
hight of the trees, and six feet beneath the 
surface. The filtering galleries of the Lowell, 
Mass., water-works wore dug along the bank 
of the Merrimack, through an orchard at 
least 30 feet above the river; apple roots were 
found as big us a man’s arm, clear down 
below the level of the water. 
My experience with the Downing Mulberry 
as to hardiness, is the same as Mr. Green’s 
(p. 267). It is more tender than the peach. 
But the Russian Mulberry was almost un¬ 
harmed here, even last, W inter. 
For many years I have been preaching in a 
country which lives by its grass, that it does 
not pay to seed grass with grain. It is just n 
question whether the one crop of grain is 
worth more than the loss on the succeeding 
grass. Experience emphatically says no, and 
I an! glad to be reinforced by so competent an 
authority as Mr. Cheever, quoted on p. 268. 
Two tons of hay per acre without grain, one 
ton after grain, for more or less years accord¬ 
ing to thesoil, is my experience. 
Otarljittclurf. 
DESIGN FOR COTTAGE AND STABLE. 
and the other for a stable, to cost from $1,000 
to $1,200. In the cottage every inch of space 
is utilized, as the front door opens directly in¬ 
to the dining or sitting-room, connecting 
with the parlor by foldiug doors. A small 
conservatory for flowers, adds much to 
the pleasure to he derived from this room. 
The parlor has a slate mantel of a very pretty 
pattern, an article of house building, which, 
for its cheapness and variety of design, can be 
put into almost every house, no matter of 
how little cost. Such mantels are sold at $15 
and upwards. 
The elevation Fig, 152 is very striking, 
Tnw primary object for which the great ma¬ 
jority of mankind is striving, is a home, as 
around it. is centered most of that which makes 
life enjoyable, and worth living. At the pres¬ 
ent day, thunks to the skill and art of the 
architect, we are enabled to rear buildings 
embodying room and much architectural 
beauty, at, an expense not much greater than, 
if as groat n.s, that for erecting the plain, not 
to say, homely, incommodious structures of 
20 or 80 years ago. In building a home, we 
should strive to make it ornamental, as well 
as useful; a place upon which the eye might 
rest with pleasure and satisfaction; an orna¬ 
ment to the town, and a joy to ourselves. 
With the idea in view of aiding those who 
wish to build a new house or barn, we present 
in Figs. 152, 153,154 and U56 admirable designs, 
one for a cottage, to cost from $1,800 to $2,300, 
Plan of First Floor of Cottage, 
Fig. 153. 
It seems to mo that the Houghton Farm 
view of ensilage (p. 234) ib that moderate and 
practical one which will in the end prevail. It 
confirms the result of my own observations, 
t hat ensilage is very close to sugar beets in the 
feeding value, and much more cheaply pro¬ 
duced and handled. I will offset the dreaded 
acid of ensilage against the sand of roots, in 
injury to teeth and stomach. 
To those who howl so loudly and unintelli- 
gently against the bacteria, fungi and ani¬ 
malcule of ensilage (p. 234), allow an old mic- 
roseopist to Ray that there is no feed for cattle 
in which all of these are so abundant as in 
hay. Steep lmy u few days in water, and then 
put a drop of it on a microscope slide tor proof. 
Is the Old Purple Mercer Potato, illustrate 
ed on p. 235, the same as that called, va¬ 
riously, Neshannock, Chenango and Philadel¬ 
phia—a potato, as I remember it 45 years ago, 
of a lightish-blue with deep-blue or purple 
eyes, with flesh streaked with purple when cut? 
It was a fine potato in those days, and the fact 
that it will still yield 400 bushels to the acre, 
is rather a blow to the theory of “running 
out,” as applied to this esculent. [Yes, as to 
the first two. We don’t know as to the last._ 
Eds.] 
The Rural’s reprobation of tarred paper 
(p. 240) to protect apple trees is good, and its 
recommendation of carbolic acid white-wash 
better, so far as the borer is concerned; but 
why not tie on the strip laths and barrel 
staves, as I have so often recommended, and 
sleep soundly the year about, free from dread 
of mice, rabbits, and borers? In October turn 
the strips and tie afresh, and let the birds pick 
off the thousands of codling moth larvae that 
have sheltered there. This is multwn in par- 
vo, and no patent! 
Rural, April 19.—Mrs. Jack’s remarks 
about pears and apples in Canada lead me to 
say that of all well known pears so far tested 
hy me, Onondaga (Swan’s Orange) is the 
nearest to “iron-clad” of any American sort, 
its wood is only slightly discolored this Spring 
DESIGN FOR STABLE. Fig. 154. 
not tapering as it should. Such as I have seen 
would not discredit the name, but a lady says 
of your cut, “If I had a finger like that, I 
would tie it up in a rag.” 
I have grown the Snowflake Potato since the 
year before it was offered to the public, and it 
is still the favorite on my table. Mr. Parker 
Earle, of Cobden, Ill,, (the “Strawberry 
King”) dined with me yesterday (April 27), 
marble, and even granite, upoD which they 
grow? See Johnson’s “How Crops Feed,” p. 
141, ed. 1870. 
Rural, April 26.—There seems to be a con¬ 
siderable accumulation of testimony like that 
of Mr. Taber (p. 265) to the effect that the en¬ 
silage of a slowly filled silo comes out with less 
acid than when quickly filled uud heavily 
weighted at once. Capt. Gilbert Morton, one 
