414 
JUNE 28 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
28 days—1,623.^; total, 23,775)^ pounds. As 
a butter cow, she is what may be called 
good, having made 17 pounds 3 ounces of salt¬ 
ed butter in one week, from 528 pounds of 
milk, which is one pound of butter from 30 
pounds of milk, f. c. stkvens. 
Attica, N. Y. 
A Remedy kor Scours in Calves con- | 
gists in giving each affected animal a table¬ 
spoonful of powdered burnt bones, put into the 
milk at feeding time. One or two doses are 
generally sufficient. In very bad cases it can 
be given two or three times a day till cured. 
m. k. A. 
<l\)t Sxintt*>l)a'lD. 
BERKSHIRE vs. ESSEX HAMS. 
On page 368 of the Rural, Dr. Hoskins 
seems to think he has me greutly at a disad¬ 
vantage, because I compared Berks!) ires and 
Essex as examples of l ooting and non-rooting 
breeds, and says that the “Berkshire* make by 
far the best hams ” I am well aware that 
Berkshire*, especially the small ones that 
have been restrained so long from rooting, 
liave developed very good hams—much better 
than those of the original coarse, long-snouted 
Berkshires; but that Berkshire* make a 
higher-flavored, liner-quality ham than an 
Essex, will surprise those who have kept the 
two breeds, and have marketed the hams to a 
class of customers who know and appreciate 
a good thing, and are willing to pay forit. I 
have for many years kept (lie two breeds, and 
have uniformly found the Essex with the soft¬ 
est, thinnest skins, the smallest ears, the finest 
bones, and with a much larger proportion of 
ham and shoulders as compared with gross 
weight, and 1 have never failed to realize from 
1% to three cents more per pound for them. 
No fault can be found with an Essex pig, ex¬ 
cept that it lacks a little in size, and it is even 
claimed that the high point to which the Berk- 
shires ar© now bred, both as to form and qual¬ 
ity, is due, to a great extent, to judicious in¬ 
fusion of Essex blood, “rustic.” 
Cl)f|)uultri) JJjanl. 
POULTRY RAISING IN LOUISIANA. 
I well rememher, when I was a child, one of 
our neighbors went into the business of rais¬ 
ing fowls extensively, building beautiful 
quarters for them, but for some reason they 
didn't seem to lay hs many eggs a« he thought 
they ought, and some one told him to feed 
them plenty of salt, and they would lay. 
Well, he ordered a barrel of salt put into their 
quarters, and they soon died. Again, I once 
lived in a small town, and a neighbor kept 
fowls, which were left to range at will in all 
the gardens, which greatly Incensed a Ger¬ 
man lady who cultivated her own garden, 
and she said, “A feeds her hens for her; I 
makes her hens lay.goot for her,” and she 
mixed some salt with dough and scattered it 
in her yard, and was troubled no more with 
predatory fowls Now 1 would like to know 
how P. M. G. can feed his fowls salt so liber¬ 
ally, or did he think, perhaps, it would cure 
them. l. law. 
SUPPLYING RUNNING WATER TO POULTRY. 
I consider running water very desirable 
for poultry, and have supplied it. in this way: 
I bored a small gimlet hole near the bottom of 
a 10-gallou keg, and placed the latter on 
blocks, four Inches from the ground. I then 
put an old stove spider just far enough under 
the keg to catch the little stream from the 
hole, and four pailfuls of water poured into 
the keg in the morning, supply fresh, running 
water to over 100 fowls during the day. 
“PARMER.” 
grower of mangel and turnip seeds for sale, 
and find the business much reduced by the ad¬ 
vent of the silo. 
For the last 12 years I have given much 
personal attention to poultry; because in 
Hummer it is almost the only meat of which 
wo make use; therefore every Spring 1 make 
a point, of rearing from 100 to 200 chickens, 
not for sale, but for my own household. I am 
always well pleased when most, of my broods 
come off in March, as at that early time of the 
year there is less risk of vermin, and the 
young chickens also have time to feather 
before the gnats come. Last Winter was so 
cold that it was a long time before the hens 
began to lay, which, of course, retarded their 
time of sitting; so up to April 1, I had only 
62 chickens; but their health fulness and rapid 
growth exceeded anything I have ever bad in 
former years. The universal custom here is to 
feed young chickens on cracked corn, mois¬ 
tened only with enough water to make it stick 
together. 1 thought. I would try feedingtwo- 
tbirds oat-meal and one-third cracked corn, 
and this has produced Die sturdiest, healthiest 
chickens 1 have ever had. My first brood 
hatched on February 14, and from that day to 
this I have not lost one bird, nor do 1 see a 
weakly one among them. 1 may mention that 
my liens are mostly of the Creole stock Of the 
country, somewhat improved by selection, 
while the roosters are pure llouduus. My poul¬ 
try arrangements are very simple: all the 
year round the entire flock Tanges in a pos¬ 
ture about an acre and a-balf in extent. For 
the young birds I have feeding coops, made 
of laths, nailed at distances wide enough for 
the chicks to run out and in: the sleeping 
rooms for the little ones ure under a shod, and 
consist of a row of boxes, which are every day 
swept out, and twice a week washed vvitti 
w T ood ashes and water. In this climate our 
fowls are only housed during tlio night. 
West Baton Rouge Parish, La. MRS. D. c. 
SALT FOR POULTRY. 
On page 250 of the Rural P. M. G. tells us 
to give chickens their feed as strong with salt 
aud lime as they can l>e induced to eat it 
Now here is my experience with the use of 
salt for poultry. Not long since many of my 
fowls died, aud I thought they had cholera. 
But a gentleman caller, happeuing to see 
them, declared they did not have cholera. 
On looking for the cause of the trouble, it was 
fouud that the water in which pickled pork 
had been freshened, had been poured into 
their drinking trough. We immediately 
stopped doing this, and lost no more fowls, 
Rural May 31 . — I think Pres’t Lyon is right 
in praising Grimes’s Golden to Mr. Beecher (p. 
350). It is not quite hardy enough for the 
hyperborean climate of North-eastern Ver¬ 
mont; hut it is entirely at, home in the Cham¬ 
plain Valley, and the fruit is bard to beat In 
every respect. The trees are productive, and 
there seems no reason why it should not be 
extensively grown as a market apple in New 
York and Southern New England. 
It seems to me that “Veritas” failed to re¬ 
member the name be writes over so pleasantly 
in his criticisms (p. 306). He entirely omits in 
his quotation my remark in reference to wine 
drinkers, that “if they have common sense 
they can” * * * “know that 60-cent wine 
cannot be pure.” If he had not done so, his 
paraphrases upon oleomargarine, lard cheese 
and glucose would have been quite pointless, 
because something more than common sense 
is required in order to know that, these are 
false or adulterated products. I do not object 
to harmless imitation foods when the consumer 
is plainly informed, or can easily kuow from 
the price what he is using. Our wives make imi¬ 
tation apple pies of crackers and lemons or 
vinegar, and many such things, and sometimes 
they rather pride themselves that we don't 
know that, they are not genuine, until we are 
told. Would “Veritas” send the dear, economi¬ 
cal creatures all to the State prison? Or will he 
“try again?” That I am not given to “con¬ 
doning fraud,” the readers of the Rural 
ought to know by this time; but 1 will not be 
bard on “Veritas’s” fraudulent quotation. 
NOTES ON BACK NUMBERS. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M.D. 
“ Stockman” talks with his usual good 
sense (p. 888), alxrnt the tariff on wool. Pity 
all farmers are not as independent thinkers. 
By the way, I have just been reading Orant 
White’s account of what be saw of the drink¬ 
ing habits of the laboring classes in Englaud, 
and I could not help thinking that any coun¬ 
try which has and enforces a prohibitory law, 
could easily beat England out of sight, in in¬ 
dustrial matters, so long as so much time, 
money and health is wasted there through 
the use of drink. Ho says that in many 
trades the mechanical class do not begin to 
“make time,” as a rule, until W eduesday iu 
each week, being drunk the first three days. 
what you do go over deeper and richer." 
(Brevities, fourth item.) It is only in a very 
limited and special sense that “tillage is ma¬ 
nure,”—even deep tillage. As for senffling, it 
has its very important uses, but the young 
farmer who tries it as a “good substitute for 
manure” will begin to doubt “book-farming” 
.very seriously. [The necessity for good tillage 
should lie impressed upon all, dear Doctor, 
don’t you know, and brief paragraphs may 
convey important truths, though they cannot 
tell the whole truth.— Eds ] 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
Professor Sheldon's notes on Derbyshire 
dairying (p. 384) are very interesting. Prof. 
Jenner-Fust (Professor of Agriculture in 
Lincoln College, Horel, Que.), an English 
farmer of large experience, informs me that 
the dairy farmers of Englaud have boon about 
the only ones that have not felt like emigrat¬ 
ing during the past, seven years. Agricultural 
England seems to be shut up to a choice be¬ 
tween small garden-farming after the Chinese 
fashion, and grass-farming. The former 
would support the larger population, by far, 
but it makes too many intelligent voters to be 
favored by a land-monopolizing aristocracy. 
Ireland shows what hopeless antagonism 
arises between small holdings and landlord¬ 
ism. It would be far worse with a community 
of small-garden farmers, who would neces¬ 
sarily be thinking men, 
Henry Stewart’s lossou to “E. A. H.” (p. 
335), is a lesson to every dairy farmer, which 
one would suppose might, not be so ver 3 ’ diffi¬ 
cult to learu. But butter-making—choice 
butter-making, I mean—seems really t.o be a 
fine art, which requires considerable native 
refinement to attain. There are too rnauy 
stack, dirty farmers, aud farmers’ wives, too, 
who “can't see why their butter is uot just 
as good as anybody’s,” yet in whose barns aud 
butteries a blind man could tell them “why” 
in a minute. 
“,7. B. B ,” in his article on “How to Grow 
Mangels,” (p. 335), says truly that no farmer 
can expect the best results from winter feed¬ 
ing without succulent feed for his stock. 
This is a truth that all progressive farmers re¬ 
alize. But be is mistaken when he says that 
American farmers dou’t grow roots cn account 
of their imaginary cost. The true reason is, 
that the help on American farms are not ac¬ 
customed to the work, dislike it, audavoidthe 
farms where large fields of roots are grown. 
In Canada, and especially in Ontario, there is 
a large farm force which was trained to root¬ 
growing iu the Old Country, and do not dis¬ 
like it. The reason, dear Rural, why I plead 
with you to insist on skillfully made and mod¬ 
erately fed eusilage, rather than to go against 
it entirely, is that it is our only hope for a 
sufficiency of succulent feeding material on 
American farms in Winter; and I do this, 
although I have been for nearly 20 years a 
farm (Topics. 
Mr. Nagle (p. 352) is right in saying that 
there are some honest tree peddlers. As a 
nurseryman, 1 have known some. But I think 
he takes too favorable a view when he says 
they average quite as well as other men in this 
respect, and especially as farmers. It is a 
very tempting trade for rogues, because they 
are entirely safe from detection while eon - 
raiting their frauds. In fact, as the worthless 
varieties of trees almost always look better 
than the good ones, there is an actual pre¬ 
mium on dishonesty. Stock that will “de¬ 
liver well” is preferred to that which is true 
to name. 
On what grounds do you call the advice of 
the Journal of Health (p. 353) not to eat fruit 
after four o’clock, and not to drink water 
within an hour after eating it, “sensible”? I 
never knew harm to result from eating good, 
ripe fruit for supper, in moderation; and os 
for forbidding any one to drink water when 
thirsty, it is more than folly, it is wrong. I 
think that prohibition is merely a survival 
from the old times, when doctors, constantly 
giving mercurials in all diseases, prohibited 
water for fear of salivation. As the reason 
was uot generally understood, the impression 
got abroad that, in some mysterious way water 
is a very dangerous thing. How l have seen 
little sick children, and inuny adults, suffer iu 
agony from this terrible error! 
Rural, J line 7.— If anything more were re¬ 
quired to demonstrate the need of early train¬ 
ing in science for those who are to be farmers, 
the errors which Mr, Ferris falls into on p, 
367 would be enough, ft hardly seems possible 
that any reader of agricultural books aud 
papers should huve the idea that potash and 
phosphoric and nitric acids are not plant 
foods. It appears that after middle life the 
minds of a largo majority of maukind become 
inaccessible to the facts of nature, even to 
those by means oi which they get their living. 
For what, is stable manure used, if not to 
supply plants with these very things? 
Of course, dear Editor (p. 368) there is nitro¬ 
gen in raw bone, and sometimes a little in (old) 
unleached ashes. Perhaps 1 was wrong iu as¬ 
suming that “the court knows some law.” If a 
plain acid mineral phosphate is used in place of 
bone, for a soil and crop requiring nitrogen, 
some nitrogenous material must, tie added. But 
this does not invalidate the point of my query, 
why acid South Carolina phosphate is not 
a cheaper source of phosphoric acid than hone. 
I think it quite important to draw the atten¬ 
tion of farmers to this point, now that there is 
at least $15 a ton difference in cost between 
an acid S. C. phosphate, and an acid bone 
phosphate of the same phosphoric acid con¬ 
tent. We sorely need field experiments on a 
liberal seale, extending over a four-course ro¬ 
tation. to determine the relative value of tine 
ground, unacidulated IS. C, phosphate iu 
competition with ground boue as an ingredi¬ 
ent of fertilizers. There is, I believe, no record 
of any such test, at least in America. Here is 
a job for Dr. Sturtevant. 
Mr. Editor, do yon truly believe that “an 
active hoe is a good substitute for manure, 
(Brevities, first item) or, “rather, to make 
<8ttf unite of the $urat 
WHICH IS THE EARLIEST PEA? 
TESTS FOR THE FIFTH YEAR TO ASCERTAIN. 
According to last year’s tests, Landreth’s 
Extra Early proved to be the earliest tried in 
that or any of the preceding years. It was, 
therefore, taken as the standard for this year. 
Breck’s Excelsior, Cleveland's Rural New- 
Yorker, Kentish Invicta, Lax ton’s Earliest of 
All, Reedland. Laxton’s No. 1. and six others 
are now under text, but the “six other’’ claim¬ 
ants are so evidently not the earliest, that no 
report of them need be given. The Kentish 
Invicta was tried merely to show how much 
gain in earlmess has been made since our trial 
of 27 varieties six years ago, of which the lu- 
victa was one. They were planted during tho 
morning of April 7th, and the peas were 
picked during the morning of June 10th, the 
best peas of 10 feet of row being carefully 
selected. 
Landreth's Extra Early: 50 pods, weigh¬ 
ed seven and one-sixteenth ounces, contain¬ 
ed 331 seeds (peas) which weighed two and cwo- 
fifths ounces. The liight of the vine was two 
feet six inches. These were received from 
Landreth. of Philadelphia, Pa. 
Brkck’s Excelsior: 50 pods weighed 
seven ounces, contained 318 seeds (peas) which 
weighed two and one-sixteenth ounces. The 
bight of vines was two feet four inches. Re¬ 
ceived from Joseph Breck & Hons, Boston, 
Mass. 
Cleveland’s Rural New-Yorker: 50 
pods weighed seven and one quarter ouuces, 
contained 332 peas, which weighed two and 
one-lialf ouuces. Hight of vines two feet four 
inches. ♦ 
Kentish Tnviuta: 50 pods weighed six and 
one-half ounces, contained 312 seeds, which 
weighed two ounces. Hight of vines two feet. 
Laxton's Earliest of All: 50 pods 
weighed six and one-half ounces, contained 
316 seeds which weighed two aud oue-quarter 
ounces. Hight of vines two fejt nine inches. 
Received from Thomas Laxton, Bedford, Eng¬ 
land. 
Reedland: 50 pods weighed five and three- 
quarter ounces, contained 294 seeds which 
weighed two ounces. Hight of vines from two 
to two feet six inches. Received from Lan¬ 
dreth, of Philadelphia. Pa. 
Laxton’s No. 1: 50 pods weighed seven 
ounces, contained 382 seeds which weighed 
two and oue-sixteeuth ounces, V’ines three 
feet high. Received from Thomas Laxton, 
Bedford, England, and uot yet introduced. 
Arranged iu the order of heaviest weights, 
they should be placed os follows: Cleveland’s 
R. N.-Y., 882 seeds. Weight two and one-half 
ouuces. Landreth’s Ex. Early, 331 seeds. 
Weight two aud two-fifth ounces. Laxton’s 
Earliest of All, 316 seeds. Weight two and 
one-quarter ounces, Laxton’s No. t, 332 seeds. 
Weight two and one-sixteenth ounces. Breck’s 
Excelsior, 318 seeds. Weight two aud one- 
sixteenth ounces, Keutish Invicta, 312 seeds. 
Weight two ounces. Reedland, 294 seeds. 
Weight two ounces. 
It is quite possible that had we waited a 
day or so before picking, the order of weights 
would have been changed. 
A dwarf pea (six inches), sent to us from 
William Taylor, of Allendale P, O., Ontario, 
Canada, is within a day or two as early os 
any of the above. Vermont Wonder, from 
our friend Dr. Hoskins, grows 16 inches high, 
and will give pickings in two days. His yel¬ 
low dwarf grows 13 inches high, and is rather 
later. 
crossing peas. 
We have spent a good deal of time in cross¬ 
ing peas duriug the past week, and experience 
so gained, strengthens our opinion that vari- 
ties may be planted closely together without 
any danger of intermixing. In every fiower 
examined, the pollen was ripe and the stigma 
receptive, while the petals were quite imma¬ 
ture aud just emerged from the calyx. Our 
methbd has been to cut off the tips of the 
buds, split the “keel,” remove the 10 anthers, 
and apply the pollen then, and the next day. 
