884 
s the favorite dairy cow of English farmers. 
So says the Breeders’ Gazette. 
Mb. Abbott said that cream was a commo¬ 
dity that would be had by a certain class, and 
it is because of that that skim-milk is pro¬ 
duced. If, however, skim-milk should be put 
upon the market and distinctly sold for exact¬ 
ly what it was, in his judgment there would bo 
a greater demand for it than for pure milk... 
Mr Browning, of Camden, said he knew it 
to be a fact that the quality of milk varied 
with the different seasons, and admitted that 
sometimes the milk from bis herd fell below 
thestandard fixed by law, but he did not want 
to be arrested so long as he sold whole milk, 
even if it should not come up to the legal re¬ 
quirements. ..... 
Mr. Dodd has been engaged in the milk 
business over 40 years, and he knows that the 
quality of the milk can be raised or lowered 
by feeding strong or light food. He likes the 
law...... 
Mr, Neilson thinks that if the same plan 
that has been pursued with fertilizers should 
be adopted in reference to milk, It would set¬ 
tle the whole matter. Let samples be taken 
from raisers and dealers in all parts of the 
State, and when analyzed let, the result be 
published, with the name of the party from 
whom the. sample was obtained, Tn that way 
poor milk would bo driven from the market.. 
Says Mr. Olcott of the Courant: “If your 
sink drain offends you, cut it off.”. 
Ok 20 varieties of winter wheat tested at 
the Ohio Agricultural Station, Finley was the 
first to ripen and gave the heaviest yield of 
grain and the heaviest weight per measured 
bushel. The Egyptian held the second place 
as to yield, and produced the heaviest straw.. 
Experiments in thick and thin seeding 
show that four peeks, in one series, and six 
pecks, in another, gave the heaviest yields. 
Four pecks gave the heaviest yield of straw, 
If there was uny difference in ripening, it was 
in favor of thick seeding. This is plainly the 
case at the Mural Grounds... 
It is rather remarkable that the weight of 
grain per bushel increased as more seed was 
THE RURAL HEW-YORKER. 
During 1877-8 similar experiments gave the 
greatest, yield to seven aud eight peeks of seed 
per acre. In 1878-9 the greatest yield was also 
raised upon plots seeded at the rate of seven 
pecks to the aero..... 
Hoeing between the drills at the station, as 
at the Mural Farm, gave no increase of crop. 
The results of early plowing and early sow¬ 
ing as against late plowing and sowing were 
contradictory. In the Rural's tests, early 
plowing for wheat has always shown advan¬ 
tages over late plowing. Tn two tests, wheat 
was sown from Wept,9, to Oct. 7. Thut sown 
Sept. 28, in both eases gave the best yield. 
Chemical fertilizers gave contradictory 
results. Hots lertilized with stable manure 
at the ruto of 1,8 tons to the acre, produced 
less than unfertilized plots. Lime, wood ash¬ 
es, and a special wheat manure, composed of 
per cent, of ammonia, three per cent, of 
potash, and 1% per cent, of available phos¬ 
phoric acid, gave the best yield. 
Sow some millet—plenty of it—and cut 
when well in bloom, and it will bo found a 
good investment, says the Kausas City Live- 
Stock Indicator...... 
Iowa has a now road law, “ which pro¬ 
vides for working roads, instead of sitting on 
fences, and spinning long yarns.” Good out¬ 
look for better roads, remarks the Farm 
Journal....... 
It is a good time now to pluut the Black 
Mexieau Sweet Corn for family use in early 
October. It is the richest of all varieties of 
sweet corn, aud would take the lead in the 
market were it not for its color. 
Prof. Maynard, of the Mass. Ex. Station, 
says that pyrethrum powder, if mixed with 
five times its bulk of plaster and dusted into 
the center of the leaves with sulphur bellows, 
is certain destruction to every insect pest. 
Really this is an error. It will not kill every 
one if used in a pure state. Why doesn’t 
the Professor test it for himself before mak¬ 
ing such a positive statement. 
CumjiuljcnL 
transcontinental letters. 
Mary wager fisher. 
When Anaximander proposed to me that 
we spend six months or more on the Pacific 
Coast, the undertaking loomed up before my 
mind with vast objections; for what were we 
to do with the thousand and one things that 
pertained to house and home? But after a 
season of reflection, it became evident that 
we could not eat our pudding and have it 
too, and that if I were to see California ever, 
now was my opportunity. The laddie, who 
I had just celebrated his seventh birthday, re¬ 
belled loudly at “going West,” and the very 
last thing ho did before leaving home was to 
come tugging a huge branch of ash to the front 
piazza, saying that he wanted it to stay there 
until he came back! His grandfather com¬ 
forted him by carrying it into the carriage 
house for safe keeping. We gave a final pat 
to the dog, said good-bye to the great trees 
and the rose bed in full bloom, shook hands 
merrily with friends at the railway station, 
and were whizzed away toward Baltimore iu 
the afternoon of June 14th. 
Frederick, Md., is a quaint old town, and iu 
one of its church yards lies buried Key, the 
man who wrote the “Star-Spangled Banner.” 
I had made a note of Harper's Ferry as one of 
the points of interest on the route, and when l 
announced my desire to stop off there, Anaxi¬ 
mander. who had visited it shortly after the 
close of the war, assured me that an hour 
would be as long as I would wish to remain at 
H. F., aud that there was no decent lodgiug 
place in the town I However, as the train, 
ever following the course of the Potomac, 
passed between the rocky mountain-walls 
where the Shenandoah joins the Potomac and 
at the junction of which lies Harper s Ferry, 
we alighted, to run the risk of lodgings, and 
speedily found a hotel, where we deposited 
our hand luggage. I was enehuuted Horn the 
outset at the wild, magnificent beauty of the 
place, whose rampant luxuriance of vegeta¬ 
tion had fairly over-run the degenerate old 
town, which had been the scene of such a ter¬ 
rible tragedy; with the spirit of old John 
Brown Htillmarching on, Anaximander, who 
seemed suddenly to be imbued with enthusi¬ 
asm, at once led the way up a steep mountain 
path, to the summit of Bolivar Hights, on 
the Virginia side, to “Jefferson’s Rock.” This 
rock is so called because of Thomas Jefferson’s 
fondness for it. He is said to have written his 
Virginian “Notes” on it, and he declared, that 
to see it was well worth a visit across the 
Atlantic. And 1 fully agree with him. ft is 
in immense rock, 15x20 feet, I should say, and 
m the top of it is another rock, supported in 
ihe center by a small rock which acts as a 
pivot; but this pivot had been so reduced iu 
lize by relic hunters, that the United States 
Joverumetit placed a support at each of the 
bur corners of the upper rock, in the way of 
•ed sandstone pillurs. The upper rock forms 
i sort of umbrella or roof to the lower one, so 
hat there is abundant shade even iu midday, 
u sitting on it, the distance to the earth below 
s so great, that one feels to he above and be¬ 
yond earthly things—a most restful, serene, 
luiet, wonderful seat in the heavens, with the 
nost extraordinary landscape of mountain and 
vater lyiug immediately in view. Across, on 
Maryland Hights, where battle had raged, 
Anaximander, on his previous visit, had 
mind two shells in perfect condition, which 
lavesiuce served as ordnance to place against 
he hull-doors at homo, to keep them open 
rhen a sweeping breeze was required. Some 
ay, they may conclude to explode. 
But we could not stay all the afternoon on 
efferson's Rock, and see the town as well, so 
we descended the mountain, finding, all the 
way down, ruins of churches aud houses, 
dilapidated terraces aud walls, and the re¬ 
mains of a “high civilization,” for, prior to 
the war, the Government had an armory 
there, a vast building with huge machinery, 
but iu order to keep it out of the hands of tlio 
“rebels” it was burned to the ground, and 
now vines festoon the great water wheels in 
their pits, and trees grow ou the top of the 
arched walls that remuin as remnants of the 
old time. The downfall of the armory was 
the destruction of the town, and the only live 
thing now about it, is its historic interest 
which attracts an occasional tourist, and the 
educational advantages “ Storer College” 
affords colored pupils. After the war, Mr. 
Storer, of Maine, gave $11,000 towards the 
founding of a Normal School there for 
colored people, and the Government con¬ 
tributed one of its buildings, and various other 
donations have been made, so t at there is a 
cluster of fine, large buildings, and a class of 
250 pupils. The college has just celebrated its 
17th anniversary, at which 12 graduated from 
the Normal and two from the academic de¬ 
partment. I met oue of the pupils, a young 
man, who was sitting under trees in an Island 
Park in the river—fitted up for picnics by the 
railroad—aud he was busy getting bis lessons. 
A more immaculately dressed man I never 
saw than that “darkey"—the whiteness of his 
linen passing that of the snow, aud ha took 
such exquisite care of his person and dress 
that it was a delight to look at him. He 
earned money as a waiter, and was fitting him¬ 
self for teaching. Some squalid Irish people, 
living with their pigs, whom we passed on our 
way to John Brown’s Fort, spoke of the col¬ 
lege as the school for “ niggers.” 
The ‘Fort” is the only one of the armory 
buildings remaining, it having been the hose s 
and engine house; small, of brick, and at the 
entrance to the grounds. It consists of but one 
story, is divided in the middle, aud in one end 
is an old mounted cannon, and in the other a 
sleigh, as it is rented by a party for a shelter 
to his vehicles. But it was in that, that John 
Brown sought refuge for himself and such of 
his men and of his prisoners as ho could com¬ 
mand, and defended himself for two days. 
In the evening wo called upon a man who 
had been one of J. B. ’s prisoners iu that fort, 
an eye and ear u ituess to all that happened, 
and who had seen him hung. This man is a 
Southerner, and although regarding the act 
of Brown as one of the most diabolical in 
history—as it. was—he st ill related the story in 
all its thrilling details without bitterness, and 
as T never before had heard or read. I wrote 
it down in my note-book after I had left him, 
and will some day add it as a further contri¬ 
bution to the most dramatic episode iu Ameri¬ 
can history. 
Wo had fried chicken for supper, which re¬ 
minded me of delicious Southern cookery— 
iu some ways. An F. F. V, at the table said 
that Jefferson County—in which is II. F._is 
the “flower garden of the world” agricultur¬ 
ally. The Marylanders and Virginians that 
wo met were social and pleasant; but every 
solitary soul of them squirts tobacco juice, 
and nothing under the blessed sun is moredis 
gustiug! How a tobaeco user can get a docent 
woman who loves all sweet aud cleanly things 
to nian-y him, is a grout deal more than l 
know I While we had a good supper, our 
lodging was bad enough, the beds being in¬ 
fested with that dreadful insect which the 
English call “Norfolk Howards,” aud which 
started the luddio off into a dissertation on 
natural history, as it was liis first encounter 
with the species. I asked him how ho liked 
“going West,” and ho said ho liked Harper’s 
Ferry, and ho asked me if I had ever before 
seen anything “so very grand,” and I am free 
to confess that 1 never waut scenery any 
grander! 
-»♦» 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS, 
Canada. 
Cornwall, Ontario, June 80.—The crops 
ou the whole are very fair in this vicinity so 
far. The late frost did not do so much dam¬ 
age here as it did in some of the States, owing, 
perhaps, to our proximity to the St. Lawrence 
Rivor. We are just, having a very refreshing 
rain after almost a month of dry weather. 
Crops all over were suffering, and hay is pro- 
bably gone too far to get the full benefit, of the 
rain; but it will be good, though rather short. 
Fall wheat prospect* are good. Oats and po¬ 
tatoes are very fair, though the dry weather 
has encouraged the potato bug to greater ex¬ 
ertions, but Paris-green is being more gener¬ 
ally used. The strawberry crop will be rather 
short this season, though mine is excellent, 
thanks to the teachings of the Rural. I am 
giving the Rural seeds a fair trial. I have 
over 150 tomato plants set out, aud I have 
sold about $2 worth of plants besides. How 
is that forth© Free Seed Distribution? I think 
it quite an institution. w. 8. t. 
Oakland, Ont., July 2.—We arc having a 
lot of rain. Crops are mostly looking very 
good. Fall wheat, looked bad in the Spring, 
but is now a very good crop. All spring crops 
look very promising. Hay on aid meadows 
is not very good. Corn is doing well. Pota¬ 
toes good; lots of bugs. I think the seeds sent 
out by the Rural well worth the price of the 
paper. The Mold’s Ennobled Oats do splen¬ 
didly hero. I sold mine tor 70 cents a bushel 
for seed, when other oats were selling ut 5(5 to 
65 cents. The White Elephant potatoes are 
splendid tubers. r, 
Sandfield, Out, July 1.— Crops look well 
here, notwithstanding the long, dry spell of 
weather wo have had. Hay will be light. 
Early sown grain looks splendid. The R. N.- 
Y. would help the farmers here if only they 
would follow its teachings. j, r, 
Connecticut, 
Walcott, New Haven Co., July 3 .—The 
outlook for the farmers of Connecticut is not 
as good as usual; the late frosts, together with 
a continuous spell of dry weather, has had a 
depressing influence on them The hay 
crop is very light; even the oldest inhabitant 
does not remember the liko of it. The early 
potatoes were either killed or damaged by the 
frost, as was also the grass. Eurly corn, beans 
aud other vegetables were cut down, and, al¬ 
together, the outlook is discouraging. Follow¬ 
ing this is also a stagnation in business, ready 
money being hard to get; failures of promi¬ 
nent bankers have also helped to fill the meas¬ 
ure of losses for many. On the eve of a Presi¬ 
dential campaign business naturally suffers. 
Many hands in the factories have short work, 
and yet they will not farm even fora comfort¬ 
able living. I admit woman's work is harder 
on the farm than in the factory; but there is 
not the dread of want of work and of neces¬ 
sary supplies, that comes to the shopman’s 
wife; for has not the Lord promised that seed¬ 
time and harvest shall not fail? Is not His 
promise sure? Hi B> c _ 
Delaware. 
Sitarpstown, Sussex Co., June 38.—Spring 
was very unfavorable for crops, haviug been 
wet and cool. Wheat medium. Corn looks 
well, owing to wet weather. Peaches two- 
thirds of a crop. Blackberries three fourths 
of a crop. Weeds and grass in the crops are 
doing well where labor is scarce. j. t. e. 
Iowa. 
Stanton, Montgomery Co., July 3.— The 
prospects of nil kiuds of grain are very good. 
Cora is doing well. It. has been very dry here, 
aud weeds were easily kept out of the coral 
fields. Grass is very good. Potatoes are do¬ 
ing well. No bugs. Fruits 0 f all kinds are 
pleuty. The past two nights wo have had 
very heavy‘rain-storms; the ground is thor¬ 
oughly soaked now. Some of the grain was 
blown down; some corn aud a few trees were 
broken off and blown down. j, s. b. 
Kiuiniih. 
Clyde, Cloud Co., June 35.—I think that if 
every farmer would take the R. N.-Y., all 
would receive 10-fold more benefit than could 
bo got in any other way for the price of the 
paper. I certainly have learned more from 
the Rural every year than I could have 
learned iu two years’ hard work on the farm. 
I lmvo lots of cherries, raspberries and grapes, 
all saved through the Rural New-Yorker; 
while my neighbor, with trees and vines as old 
as mine, lias not a cherry, raspberry or grape. 
We are now iu harvest. Wheat, rye and oats 
never were better. Corn looks splendid. The 
eurly planted of early varieties is now tassel- 
ing. The R. N.-Y. Pea, planted April 28, was 
ripe and gathered June 25. Hereford's Mar¬ 
ket Garden is now iu good eating condition. 
A. G. M. 
ItTlehlcnn. 
Mendon, St, Joseph Co., Juno 30.—Crops 
are doing quit© well. Wheat will not be a full 
crop, but it has improved a good deal lately. 
Cora is looking well whore not injured by the 
grub aud cut-worm. Oats promise a full crop, 
and potatQO* are looking splendid. Small 
fruits in abundance except grapes, the rose- 
bugs having left but Tow, and the pests are 
now turning their attention to apples, which 
will be a full crop if the “bugs” do not destroy 
them; but on some trees of early sorts nearly 
every apple has a cluster of bugs resembling 
a miniature swarm of bees. Rain to-day, 
which is much needed, as it has been a little 
too dry lately. G . A . a. 
Minnesota. 
Ortonvillk, Big stone Co., June 26.— 
Crop*are looking tine. My Rural Union Cora 
I planted in 30 lulls, which all grow and are 
looking very nice. The peas came up all 
right, but the Jack rabbits ate them as fast as 
they came up, T> 
HI ImmOII l‘l. 
IIolt, Clay Co,, June 24.—Our wheat crop 
will be over the average. Cora looks well, 
but ou account of the unfavorable season and 
bad seed it is late; yet we think it will mature 
if the latter part of the season is favorable. 
Oats, grass and potatoes good. Apples a fair 
yield. Peaebos a complete failure. Candi¬ 
dates very numerous aud of the best quality. 
W. H. W. 
New York. 
Williamson, Wayne Co., June .30.—My 
Cleveland Rural New-Yorker Peas were sown 
May 15th, und were ready for table on June 
25th. Does any one beat that for time? They 
(lowered full and show a very fine pod. Here¬ 
ford's Market Garden Js not yet iu bloom. 
I started the tomatoes in a hot-tied, sowing 
part of the seed, and have a stand now of 108 
plants ull doing well. The Rural New-Yorker 
Union Cora, planted May 16th, stands 10 in¬ 
ches to the top of the bush, is a deep green, 
hurdy and strong. I sowed my Bloek Cham¬ 
pion Oats in drills three inches apart iu the 
row, one seed in a place, and am afraid I have 
“missed It,” as they are too close by three 
inches; considering this, they have made a 
fine show. The Garden Treasures are grow¬ 
ing, but did not com© up very well. We are 
having good corn weather, and are now in 
need of a good rain. Wheat never looked 
better. Barley very good. Oats look well. 
Potatoes stand well but are covered with bugs. 
Beuus ure not doing very well. The prom¬ 
ise for fruit of all kinds is good. Wool is 
worth from 25c. to 29c. c. f. p. 
Wright’s Corners, Niagara Co., July 6.— 
At length, after six weeks of continuous, se¬ 
vere drought, without sufficient rain to wet 
down one inch, on the “Glorious Fourth” we 
had a glorious rain, which gloriously soaked 
the thousands of picnickers just as they were 
eating their dinners. The drought had become 
very serious; it had considerably shortened 
the wheat crop, had reduced the average yield 
of barley at least one-half, aud much corn, 
especially on heavy soil, and that late plant¬ 
ed, had scarcely come up, and some had not 
even sprouted. Early potatoes cannot make 
more than half a crop, aud oats and root 
