4884 
THE BUBAL HEW-YOBKEB 
449 
farm and plantation machinery, manufactur¬ 
ed by this firm, consisting of clover hullers 
and separators; rice thrashers, hullers sepa¬ 
rators and polishers; sugar mills and evapo¬ 
rators for farm and plantation use; centrifu¬ 
gals. juicepumps.horse powers, steam engines, 
water-wheels, com mills, etc., etc. This is a 
neatly bound book of 130 pages, fully illustra¬ 
ted. and it will pay any ono needing any ma¬ 
chinery of the kinds mentioned to seud for 
this book, aud this firm has a very enviable 
reputation. 
In these days of progressive farming, no 
good farmer thinks of sowing his grain with¬ 
out a drill any more than he would cut his 
grass with a scythe, or his grain with a cradle. 
That there is much difference in grain drills, 
we know from practical experience. Many 
are very good; some are ordinary, and some 
so poor we could never see for what they were 
made, unless to teach men patience. We are 
reminded by a catalogue just received, that 
among the best is the Empire Grain Drill, it 
has a splendid fertilizer attachment, and, iD 
these days, who wants to sow grain without 
some sort of fertilizer; and, if you have 
sowed much of the stuff, you know it is much 
more difficult to sow than graiu Send to the 
Empire Grain Drill Company, Box H, Shorts- 
ville, N. Y., for a circular, aud see what they 
make and what they claim for it. 
Location and Arrangement of Farm 
Houser. —Henry Stewart gives the readers of 
the N. Y. Times some valuable hints as to the 
location of new houses and their general ar¬ 
rangements. The hope of the farmer and the 
dream of the farmer's wife is the new house 
which, when fortune comes and the savings 
suffice for it, crowns the life-work of the in¬ 
dustrious pair and fulfills all the desires of the 
children. For many years the farmer has 
promised his faithful companion and help¬ 
mate that, when this and that had been ac¬ 
complished and uothing else remained to be 
done, the new house should be built. And the 
time has come, and all the suggestions that 
years of work, and experiences of discomfort 
have called forth, have been noted down as a 
basis for u plan that should be perfect. But 
in how many eases it has happened that 
when this, the climacteric point of one’s life 
has been reached, the plan has been found only 
a source of disappointment at. a time when it 
is really too late to mend; and all for want of 
experience in such matters. Mr. Stewart 
thinks that one must build three houses at least 
before he can avoid even serious blunders. 
First.—The site must ho chosen where the 
cellar will be perfectly dry or can be made so 
by easy and thorough drainage; where the 
house can he sheltered from the uortb-west 
winds and be open to the east aud south, and 
where the surface water will flow away in all 
directions, leaving the foundations quite free. 
Second.—The water supply must be ample 
and perfectly pure, aud be brought so close 
to the house as to bo easily reached. 
Third.—The necessary outbuildings should 
be located conveniently for access, but with 
perfect safety as regards drainage, that the 
water supply shall not be contaminated. 
Fourth.—The kitchen should he the pivotal 
point of the establishment, around which the 
rest of the house may be grouped with regard 
to convenience aud comfort. It should bo 
large, well lighted, face the east, have a high 
ceiling, and be provided with a range, water- 
back with boiler, a sink provided with a drain, 
and a pump from the well, or by means of a 
two-way pipe this pump should be connected 
with the well and the cistern both. It should 
have a large closet and a store-room large 
enough to hold a full supply of groceries for 
at least half a year. 
Fifth.—The cellar should not be more than 
five feet below the ground aud be fully three 
feet above it, having plenty of windows to let in 
light aud air whan necessary. There should 
be no wood about the cellar; the floor should 
be cemented and the walls and piers made of 
brick. 
Sixth.—The main living-room should be on 
the soulli side of the house aud have large 
bay-windows, through which the blessed sun 
may come aud bring life and health and hap¬ 
piness ail the day. .Never mind if the carpets 
fade or the furniture covers are bleached 
white; the mother’s cheeks will have the roses, 
aud the children will he brown and hearty. 
Seventh —There should be a hall through 
the house, runniug from west to east, so that 
with both doors open a stream of pure, fresh 
air, laden with the sweet scent of the roses 
outside, may pour through the house. 
1 he parlor may be on the west and north, 
and here the good, careful housewife may 
cherish her bright carpet and her unstained 
furniture, fearless of the sun’s rays, excepting 
those golden ones which come low, slanting in 
from the west. A broad veranda may run 
from the west front around the north corner, 
providing a cool retreat, for summer evenings. 
The hall should be wide, giving room for 
broad stairs, and these should have an easy 
slope, with low, broad treads and landings 
between the floors, so that the old folks may 
go up and down with ease and comfort to their 
now stiffened limbs and their wearied muscles. 
The living room should have au open fire¬ 
place, and no account should bo mude of the 
dust of it as compared with its cheer and com¬ 
fort. Space forbids more than a word or two 
as to the upper rooms, but if we cau fully 
appreciate and understand these hints, so far 
ns given, it will not be difficult to arrange 
these successfully; but one must never forget 
that abundant fresh air Is indispensable to 
healthful rest, and sleeping rooms should have 
high ceilings and, if possible, every one of 
them an open fire place and large windows. 
Ensilage Again.— Mr. Clark Mills said at 
the last meeting of the New Jersey State 
Board of Agriculture, that eusilage is com¬ 
monly spoken of as one would speak of molas¬ 
ses or any other article that was almost inva¬ 
riably alike, but there was, in reality , as much 
difference in it as there is in wiire aud apple 
juice. If the fodder is cut in the proper time 
aud is properly stored, it is good for cattle, 
but if it is not done in time aud is carelessly 
put up, he did not think the results would be 
good. The essential thing is to put the mass in 
as fresh as possible, and to get it so compact 
that there is no room for anything else. He 
preferred to put the stalks in without cutting 
them up fine, for the very act of cutting dis¬ 
places a quantity of the juices, and of course 
air forces itself in the place of the juice, there¬ 
by promoting fermentation, in putting on 
the weight, care should be taken to have it 
even on all parts, os an even pressure made it 
less likely to form gases. In planting it, he had 
drilled it in as fast as the ground was plowed, 
which prevented the weeds from getting a 
stai t. As a proof of the value of ensilage as a 
fodder, he said his cattle milked heavier and 
richer than ever before, and he received 
double the usual prieo for all his milk, which 
showed that others appreciated the good milk 
produced by it. 
Dn. Hunt remarked that farmers are not as 
healthy as they ought to he. Rheumatism is 
common among them on account of exposuto. 
Indigestion is also common, and is produced by 
a sameness of diet—au overplus of one kind of 
food. They are also beset with malarial dis¬ 
eases on account of a lack of drainage about 
their homes. The butter and milk business in¬ 
jures the wives. The women suffer more than 
the men from defective drainage about the 
house and cellar and from decaying matter in 
the latter. Keep the cellar dry and clean. 
THE LATEST AND BRIEFEST. 
Some seeds of the Rural’s Black Champion 
Oats produced 47 stalks, says one of our Mis¬ 
souri correspondents... 
Our friend, Mr. Bellavv, states that “any¬ 
body ought to easily see that oats ought to be 
planted iu small, round plots, so when they 
are ripe you will only need to tie a string 
around each sheaf standing aud theu saw it 
off. It will be a natural sheaf, and nature is 
better than art.” There is uothing like brains 
in farming.... 
Keep the hams during the Summer in a 
dry, cool place... 
Wa hear many good accounts of manure 
spreaders. The manure is spread very evenly 
and much time is saved. We want a fertilizer 
spreader in which the fertilizer, if dry and fine 
like bone flour, may be first moistened and 
theu evenly distributed upon the laud in just 
such quantities as may be desired. 
A. E. Blount, of Colorado, says, in the N. 
Y. Tribune, that if farmers will only hand¬ 
pick enough seed from the tallest heads of 
wheat to sow an acre, and put it aloue upon 
some good ground, they will find so much im¬ 
provement made the first year, that they will 
continue to pick year after year. Such an 
operation, he says, cannot fail to convince 
any intelligent fanner that there is great im¬ 
portance attached to the selection of seed 
wheat........ 
“ The lister may be all right, but we have 
failed to see an average field of corn this 
Spring, that was put in with the lister,” says 
the Nebraska Farmer.... 
Mr. Powers, mentions, in the Ohio Far¬ 
mer, as a curious and interesting experiment, 
though perhaps devoid of practical value, that 
he once grew a hill of potatoes by moonlight. 
He planted a large potato in a box full of rich 
earth, and.carefully excluded it from all sun¬ 
light, keeping it In the dark during the day, 
but setting it out in the moonlight whenever 
there was any. The plants grew pale and tall, 
but he obtained from the hill seven pounds and 
nine ounces of average-sized potatoes, which, 
when cooked, were rather weak and watery.. 
I)r. Hoskins says, in the Vermont, Watch¬ 
man, that a ton of average superphosphate 
contains about 4(5 pounds of nitrogen, 230 
pounds of phosphoric acid in various degrees 
of solubility, aud 40 pounds of potash—in all, 
315 pounds of these plant-foods. A ton of 
average yard manure contains about 12 
pounds of nitrogen, five of phosphoric acid, 
and nine of potash. Now, we want to ask the 
Doctor why he calls this a phosphate at all; 
why a superphosphate? It is a good way to 
make an evevlastiug hash of chemical fer¬ 
tilizers, that no farmer can ever digest. 
The Nebraska Farmer remarks that those 
who have taken advantage of the past two 
favorable Springs for starting tame grasses, 
are uow rolling in Blue Grass aud clover. 
“And now,” says the Agricultural Gazette, 
of England, “the silo is on the agricultural 
bruin”....... 
More than ever should we thisseason antici¬ 
pate a scanty bay crop by sowing Hungarian 
Grass, fodder coin, etc... 
The Breeders’ Gazette says: “Wo never 
could understand why our English cousins 
aud their American imitators should attach so 
much importance to the hair on the legs of 
cart-horses.” And the Kansas City Live-Stock 
indicator remarks that: “As between a hors© 
so much encumbered and another with limbs 
devoid of all superfluous hair, it would esteem 
the latter worth the most by twenty or twenty- 
five per cent., at least. 
The Indicator further remarks that no horse 
in the world has bone of a better quality than 
the Thoroughbred race-horse, aud no horse in 
the world is more free from long hair about 
the legs and fetlocks. Surely the presence of 
this great mass of hair is a positive detriment 
to horses that aro to be used upon muddy 
roads, especially in freezing weather. 
Nitrate of soda is thought, iu Germany, to 
increase the yield of sugar beets greatly, but 
it does not increase the sugar. 
Mu. G. W. Farlkk makes butter and dis¬ 
poses of all of it to customers at fancy prices, 
and lie thinks that if there was any peculiar or 
disagreeable tastes in the butter, from the use 
of emilttgo, bis customers would have found it 
out. It Is Ins experience that roots keep cattle 
in excellent condition, hut make no increase 
in the flow ol’ milk, while eusilage gives a very 
perceptible increase iu the flow of milk. 
Chairman Taylor, of the New Jersey State 
Board of Agriculture, has used ensilage three 
years, and he likes it better now than at first. 
His cattle grow more fond of it every day.... 
B. F. J. asks, in the Prairie Farmer, to what 
are the fatal discuses destroying our 
orchards aud fruit trees attributable, if not to 
starvation by sudden and excessive drain¬ 
age. 
The lino of the vertebral (back bone) of a 
horse, says Wallace’s Monthly, indicates the 
sort of work for which the horse is fitted. If 
it is high, the weight must be on the top to 
press it together; if low, the pressure must be 
from below for the same reason. A down¬ 
ward curvature is, therefore, the best form of 
spine for a draft horse. 
TnREK - and - a ■ half feet high for Orchard 
Grass is good. It was of that hight when 
cut (early in June) at the Kansas Agricultural 
College..... 
Sink little pots, or even strawberry baskets, 
in the soil just under strawberry runners. Fill 
the pots, or baskets, with soil and peg the run¬ 
ners to the soil so that they cannot be dis¬ 
placed. They will be well rooted in a month. 
The stem of the runner may then be cut and 
the rooted plants thumped out of the pot 3 , and 
planted in new beds. These will bear next 
Spring. It costa too much to buy potted 
plants. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
A rizomt. 
Phienix, Maricopa Co., June 20.— Here is a 
splendid chance for some enterprising man to 
start a creamery or cheese factory. Markets 
are first-rate the year round. Alfalfa and 
Sorghum Halapense grow spontaneously, af¬ 
fording abundance of green food, and grain 
foods are cheap; shorts can be bought for 75 
cents per 100 pounds; wheat and barley grow 
well, but they are used for human and horse 
food. I never get less than 50 cents per pound 
for butter, and cheese never retails for less 
than 25 cents. '1 his is also a good hog country, 
as pigs grow and fatten on the Alfalfa aud sor¬ 
ghum alone, being finished on the wheat and 
and barley stubble. No. 1 wheat land, a little 
back, can be had from $5 to $20 per acre; land 
partly improved nearer town is worth more: 
some choice pieces bring as high as f 100, and 
one 160-acre tract sold for $8,000. Haying 
began in May and was finished last, week, and 
we are now in full blastcutting wheat. Fruits 
also do well. Apricots were ripe two weeks 
ago. Beef, pork and mutton worth seven 
cents per pound live weight, and are always 
in lively demand for the mines. We are pre¬ 
paring to hold a Territorial exhibition in the 
hall. We have miners and mine speculators 
enough, but we would like a few more good 
farmers. l. r. s . 
Canada. 
Headinoly, Manitoba, June 14.—We had a 
very fine Spring, and, so far, no summer 
frosts, so that everything in the gardens is 
flourishing. I sowed all of the Rural vege¬ 
table seeds, except tomatoes, which 1 kept for 
another year, as 1 always sow them in March. 
The peas wore sown about the 24th of May, 
and on the same day three other kinds were 
put in, the American Wonder among them. 
To-day I find Cleveland’s Rural New-Yorker 
in bloom and none of the others, so l am sure 
this variety is all that is claimed for it in re¬ 
gard to curliness. The corn, planted about a 
week Inter, is now nine inches high. I started 
it aud the Egyptian iu sand, and planted 
thorn carefully after the seed had sprouted, 
but the Rural Union leaves all the others in 
the shade. The zinnias and French marigolds 
are in bud now, und all the others are growing. 
I am going to try for that, $10 prize offered for 
the largest potato, as I have some grown from 
seed last year, which 1 think will be just as 
large and handsome as any one could wish. 
My ouly fear is they will grow too large to he 
seut by mail, os we are not allowed to send 
more than four pounds iu one parcel, so that 
if they were heavier I should have to cut 
them. Yesterday 1 transplanted about 500 
celery plauts, and a good heavy rain came im¬ 
mediately afterwards, aud although to-day 
lias been hot aud bright, not one of them is 
drooping. If we have no summer frosts we 
shall have a good crop of muskmelons; al¬ 
ready they are planted out, and some are in 
bloom. 1 have just two kinds—the Montreal 
Nutmeg und Golden Gem. I know they will 
ripen here, because we have tried them before. 
Tomatoes are just coming into bloom and 
promise a good crop. “amateur.” 
Dakota, 
Winifred, Lake Co., June 20.-*All of the 
Rural seeds I planted look well. The wheat 
and rye I did not plant, as they were fail varie¬ 
ties. IV hy do not. some of the young men iu 
the East, who are depending on their day’s 
labor for a living, come out here and get 
homes. I know young men who came hero 
four yours ago and took up homesteads, the 
same os I did, and they are well off uow. I 
don’t advise men with helpless families and 
no money to come. Such people would run 
too big a risk, although some of them do come 
here aud come out all right. Crops of all 
kinds look well. j, q 
Illinois. 
Dan ver, McLean Co., June 19.—The Spring 
was somewhat cold and backward, yet the 
farmers got along pretty well with their 
spring work. Seeding and planting, as a 
general thing, wore done in season, aud up to 
the present time the season has been quite fa¬ 
vorable. True, we had two or three late 
frosts; but they did but little injury in this 
neighborhood. There is only a small acreage 
of winter wheat, but what there is looks well. 
Wo have a large acreage of oats in fine condi 
tion. Grass could not look any better, and, 
surely, the hay crop will bo immense. Pota¬ 
toes are “booming,” aud the acreage is large; 
but there are some bugs. All kinds of garden 
vegetables are very good. The corn crop is 
hopeful—the stand being pretty good, and, as 
a geueral thing, it is doing very well. Early 
Richmond Cherries, a fair crop; currants 
and gooseberries, plentiful. There will be no 
peaches, but the prospect is good as yet for a 
fair crop of apples. Business is not very brisk 
for merchants and mechanics, but the farmers 
are busy. The general health has been and is 
still very good, therefore wo ought to be a 
thankful and happy people. Success to the 
Rural ! p t yv. r # 
Indiana. 
Organ Springs, Washington Co.—Some of 
the Rural seeds do well here, especially the 
Blush Potato and Black Champion Oats. 
Wheat and oats good. a. M . 
Kalman. 
Agricola, Coffee Co., Juno 23.— We are 
having fine growing weather now after a cold, 
backward Spring. Wheat is the best that has 
ever been seen in this part of the country. 
Oats one-third of a crop in area, and not an 
extra stand. Corn small but clean, and in 
splendid condition, and growing very fast. 
Small fruits splendid. Apples one-fourth of 
a crop; peaches, none. Horses and cattle 
doing finely. x. w. t. 
Cedarvale, Chautauqua Co., June 23.— 
Wheat is being harvested, and is said to_be 
