THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
great extent while suckling the colt, as such a 
course would be, but imposing a double task 
upon her to her injury and that of the colt,as it 
must far a long time depend upon her for its 
food. Breeding alone will not insure a well de 
veloped draught horse. Mere breeding will not 
counterbalance the bad effect of an empty 
feed box or a barren pasture. The colt should 
be weaned and halter-broken when about four 
months old. The first colts in St. Lawrence 
County, N. Y., the result of crossing a Perebe- 
ron stallion on common mares, were worth at 
four months old, from $75 to $100 each. 
As soon as the colt is taken from its ilam, it 
should be confined iu some soft paddock or 
box-stall, and fed a small ration of grain in 
addition to an abundance of good hay during 
the first Winter. Nor should it ever be 
slighted in the matter of pasture, for it should 
have tire best upon the farm. This is a part 
of the system that will result in good farm 
horses. Grain fed to a growing colt is a good 
investment, the dividends are bone, muscle, 
size and constitution, and the second Winter 
the grain eaten should bo increased. At this 
age the colt may bo broken to drive, but uot 
be required to perform heavy tasks. The far¬ 
mer wants a draught, horse and a road horse, 
in the same animal so far as snob combina¬ 
tions may bo possible. The breeding will insure 
this result if the trainiugdoos uot prevent it. 
All the team work on the farm is performed 
at a wnlk; crops and produce are drawn to 
market at a walk, and bonce it follows that 
the walk should be quick, as this is the most 
important gait to the farmer. Colts arc apt 
scholars, and cau bo taught to acquire tho gait 
of tho horse they are trained with, so it is im¬ 
portant that they be first used with good 
walkers. Such colts as these should, at four 
years old, weigh 14 cwt.. be able to perform 
twice tho work, and sell readily for throe 
times as much money as the common 
mongrel, while the satisfaction to bo de¬ 
rived from working with and driving such 
a team cannot be estimated. If a farmer’s 
road-horse can trot a mile in four minutes 
with a light wagon the owner should be satis¬ 
fied. I know that it is a fact that heavy, pure¬ 
bred Percheron and Clydesdales have done 
this, and it is not asking too much that they 
transmit the same power to their offspring. 
When the farmer succeeds in combining the 
[ from long-continued droughts, the weevil and 
many other evils, yet we persist in trying to 
grow it, and, nine times out of ten, reap only 
half a crop; and when we have a few bushels 
to dispose of, we are at tho mercy of specula¬ 
tors, who tell us yearly that wheat is a drug 
in the market. Rye is liable to much fewer 
injuries; It will grow with lass cultivation 
on a greater variety of soils and succeed 
well, and pay from 25 to 50 per cent, 
better. The flour ranks next to that of wheat 
for bread. The crop stands the cold and 
changes of Winter well; for last, year 
when our wheat fields “bowed to the destroy¬ 
er,” the rye, bidding defiance to the cold, 
waved and bowed iu conspicuous superiority 
to its less fortunate neighbor. Its growth is 
very rapid, and when sown for green feed, it 
is very valuable, coming, as It does, very 
early, and the dairymen cau have no better 
early crop. Should any douht the truth of 
this, I would invite them to visit some of our 
thrifty German farmers, and look at their 
sleek, well-kept cattle, that get some rye each 
day. When plowed under for manure, It 
greatly enriches the land, leaving heavy soil 
light. Growing biller and stronger, it pro¬ 
duces more straw than any other grain, and 
its value is at least 50 per cent, more, and it is 
never a drug in the market. Tho straw isnsed 
for almost every kiud of article produced from 
paper or wood. It is claimed that by far tho 
greatest part of all the rye raised is yearly 
converted into spirits, being considered tho 
best for medicinal purposes; blit ouo barrel of 
good rye flour would go further towards plant¬ 
ing fresh roses in tho cheeks of that poor 
woman round the corner, thun all the medi¬ 
cated “old rye whiskey” in Christendom. 
Springbrook, N. Y. 
some of the species, but they are more freely 
produced. c. e. p. 
Queens, L. I. 
SUNDAY MORNING AT PLYMOUTH 
PRIZE ESSAY.— Class VI. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER, 
F. K. MORELAND. 
“To-morrow we must go to Plymouth 
Church,” I reuiaiked on a Saturday evening 
in New York, to Anaximander. “It 1ms 
been a loug time since [ heard Mr. Beecher 
preach, and I wish the laddie to see and hear 
tho greatest preacher of the ago, and in many 
respects the greatest man our country has pro¬ 
duced.” 
"You had better go and hoar Felix Adler,” 
exclaimed our hostess. “He is doing more 
good In New York than all other preachers 
put together. Ho comes of the same race as 
Jesus Christ, and is like unto him in more 
wuys than of being of Jewish lineage”—all of 
which I knew to bo true, and admired the 
brave young reformer and teacher, as much 
as did she. But Plymout h Church triumphed 
the next morning, and wo started, accompan¬ 
ied by our host, for the famous Brooklyn meet 
In g house. We walked across the Brooklyn 
Bridge—that amazing structure, which, ns I 
looked at it, from a ferry boat on our return, 
reminded me of tho bridge over which Adam 
and Eve passed in thoir passage to the land 
that allured them from the stony Island on 
which God had placed them,as runs the legend 
in the Bible of the Vedas- but which, luckily, 
unjiko that, did not molt away, and disappear 
from view tho moment, wo had crossed it. Wo 
were longer lu making the passage than was 
counted on, for the lad with boyish eagerness 
wished me to see all that his observant eyes 
had spied on a previous visib—all the cords 
and cables, tho places where the bridge con¬ 
tracts and lengthens, the cable that, moves the 
cars, the carriage roads wide enough for 
wagons to pass, the massive towers, tho boats 
sailing beneath, tho fort and the island iu tho 
distance, all the wonderful panorama that lay 
stretched out nil about us from the bight of 
that unparalleled high way in mid air. Ho when 
wo had reached the Brooklyn side and hurried 
onr steps toward the well known Orange 
Street, we found ourselves late—the opening 
FARM HORSES. 
Throughout the entire season the work of 
the farm is dependent upon the Ixme ami 
muscle, and the education and intelligence of 
the horse. There is no place or positiou in 
our modern agriculture for anything but 
horse teams as a motivo power. We are a 
shrewfi, enterprising people, not apt to be 
blinded to our own interests, and not at all 
liable to be backward in anything that prom¬ 
ises a profit, and hence we ought not to be 
laek'ng in good horses. Iu fact, wo ought to 
have no poor horses. We have had at differ¬ 
ent times breeds of horses with much local 
celebrity. Probably the Morgan was at one 
time the most famous American horse, and 
even now a horse of Morgan breeding possess¬ 
es additional value. Tho Conestoga of the 
Dutch farmers of Pennsylvania was a won¬ 
derful horse, and would command respect 
even now. And so it was of other breeds. 
The modern importation of horses from Europe 
has worked a revolution in breeding in this 
country. Those most popular and most exten¬ 
sively imported for this purpose are, in the 
order of thoir importance, Percheron, Clydes¬ 
dales, and Shire horses. The use of these 
heavy horses for crossing upon common mares 
for the improvement of tho common stock, is 
no longer a doubtful experiment. Sales of 
stallions at long prices for use upon common 
mares, are some slight indication of the Interest 
felt In the systematic improvement of farm 
horses. 
The ordinary unimproved farm horse is a 
very useful beast, cheaply bred and easily 
reared. The colts aro worth, at four months, 
about $25, and at three years, and as horses, 
from $75 to $125. They are cheaply reared, 
but at no time can they be sold for a sum that 
represents any profit to the farmer. They 
weigh, on au average, about 1,000 pounds, but 
are too small for much of the farm work re¬ 
quired of them. 
There is very little of the work upon the 
farm that is not now done by machinery, and 
much of this is heavy and difficult of opera¬ 
tion. To keep pace with the Improvement in 
machinery, wo must work a radical improve¬ 
ment in our farm horses. In nothing are they 
more deficient than in the massiveness of the 
Percheron and tho Clydesdale; and yet neither 
of these is the ideal of a farm horse. No 
farmer would care to use a team weighing 
from 8,200 to 8,(500 pounds. Such a team might 
be very dosirable for dray-work in cities, but 
something lighter is more to be desired on the 
farm—a sort of a medium between the heavy 
draught horse and the ordinary farm horse. 
Both Clydesdales and Percherons have good 
action; for heavy horses they aro excellent 
travelers, and possess considerable endurance. 
1 thiuk a modified Percheron or Clydesdale, 
weighing from 12 to 15 cwt., would prove most 
desirable, and meet the requirements of the 
present. 
A farmer should exercise great care and 
^tisceUcmcoits 
CATALOGUES,;ETC., RECEIVED 
The Practical Dog Book for the profes¬ 
sional and amateur fancier, published by the 
Philadelphia Kennels, office 287 South Eighth 
Street, Philadelphia, Pa., 10 cents. This little 
book of 100 pugos contains a general treatise 
on the management of dogs, which alone is 
worth to the keeper of a dog more than the 
price of the book. It is filled with the illus¬ 
trations and descriptions of nearly all the 
best breeds of dogs iu existence, so that by 
studying its pages alone, one could get really 
well posted ou tho subject of dogs. 
Wm. Knabe & Co., ware-rooms, Baltimore, 
204 and 206 W. Baltimore Street, and New 
York, No. 112 Fifth Avenue. A catalogue 
Hhowiog every style of piano-forte made by 
this very substantial and popular house. Com¬ 
mencing in obscurity nearly 50 yours ago, tho 
firm has gradually gained in extent and popu- 
larity, till now it is very justly in the front 
ranks of piano manufacturers, and one cau 
scarcely go to a corner of the lund so remote 
that lie will not be entertained by the music 
of a Knabe piano. 
Wm. E. Lincoln Co., Warren, Mass., and 
Atkinson, Wis. Circular of tho Automatic 
Butter-Worker, aud full directions for its 
most successful use. This is a very plain, sim¬ 
ple butter-worker, entirely free from all 
gearing or cogs, aud so made that the butter 
can be worked more or loss close os desired. 
It is made in four sizes, varying iu capacity 
from ten to fifty pounds. It seems as though 
any one having much butter to work, would be 
the gainer by studying this matter. The cir¬ 
cular should be seut for. 
PRIZE ESS AY.—Class IX. 
BY A FARMER’S WIFE. 
RYE. 
“ Oh, for a harvest, rich and rare, 
Where golden rye waves In the air!” 
Who could wish to contemplate a scene 
more lovely than broad fields of golden grain 
waving in the bright rays of a harvest sun, 
reminding us of the precious promises of Him 
who hath said, “There shall beaseed-time and 
a harvest;” and again, “As ye sow, so shall 
ye reap.” 
I have always believed that if the same 
careful attention were given to the cultivation 
of rye ihat has been given to wheat, It would 
prove the best, or at least oue of the best 
crops any farmer could grow; while all possi¬ 
ble care has been given to wheat, it rarely 
pays better than a crop of rye. 
Rye haB been raised so long, that to tell any¬ 
thing about its merits or worth, would seem 
like telling something interesting or new about 
the old cradle which our fore-fathers used in 
harvesting it. Presuming, howevor, that the 
farmers of the present know but little of the 
"good old times,” when our grandmothers 
baked the sweet rye bread, or our grandfath¬ 
ers went forth with cradles on their shoulders, 
to hai vest their ample fields of rye, much 
could be said that would be both interesting 
and profitable. 
Rye was so extensively used in Sweden at 
one time, that wheaten bread was seldom seen 
on the tables even of the rich; and we are told 
a baker, when requested to bake $5 worth of 
wheat rolls, refused to do so, unless secured 
for payment, feariug, if so large a quantity 
was left upon his hands, he could not dispose 
of it, even though he lived in a town of 25,000 
inhabitants. It was also the “staff of life" to 
the early settlers of some of our Eastern couu- 
ties, where the Hessian fly entirely destroyed 
the wheat. 
if it proved a valuable crop to our fore¬ 
fathers, who labored under so many disad¬ 
vantages, and without the aid of machinery or 
the help derived from the many agricultural 
papers of the present day, why, with all our 
improvement of the present, should it not 
furnish one of the very best crops now? It 
costs much less to raise 10 acres of rye than of 
wheat, and yet we see 10 fields of wheat to 
one of rye. Wheat winter-kills, suffers 
the stallion. But at the same time, there are 
certaiu qualities which she should possess, 
and the absence of which ought to prevont 
her use. Freedom and quickness of motion 
are more generally found in small horses, and 
as the object in breeding mares to large stal¬ 
lions is to increase the weight of the offspring, 
it is wise to select mares of good action. Fast 
walking is a valuable quality, and the first 
steps towards securing this in the offspring is 
to secure it in the mare. Let her have well- 
developed respiratory and digestive organs, 
be broad, deep, short-bodied, and compactly 
built, with strong, clean limbs, and hoofs 
DANDELIONS HARD TO “START.” 
The New England Homestead says the dan¬ 
delion crop is a very hard oue to start. Noth¬ 
ing truer was over written. I have had a crop 
growing iu my front yard for a great many 
years. I have cut them, salted them, used 
acids, and everything else ever recommended, 
and still they remain. I have completely ex¬ 
hausted my ingenuity upon them, and still 
they don’t “start” worth a cent. If I manage 
to kill one, a dozen are ready to take its place. 
If I make the ground rich and mow often, the 
next morning the bright, yellow dandelion 
blossom is there, to welcome the sun. Hnrely, 
the dandelion is hard to “start;” but bow can 
it be started, is what I am anxious to know. 
J. B. B. 
Allamanda Neriefolia is one of the hard¬ 
iest and most free-flowering species of this 
beautiful genus. I thiuk that a plant or so 
should be grown by all who have the necessary 
facilities to give it sufficient head and mois¬ 
ture during Winter. When these essential 
requisites can be given, it will flower for at 
least nine months in the year. It is of bush¬ 
like habit, and produces its deep-yellow 
flowers in panicles from the end of tho shoots 
as well as from the lateral branches. The 
individual flowers are not as large as those of 
