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bushels of oats from two ounces of seed.” 
I have also heard the assertion made with 
equal positivencss. that the earth is not round 
and does not revolve. But a simple deuial 
does not alter facts any more than a simple 
statement establishes them. Now two bushels 
from two ounces means 512-fold. I have often 
counted over 100 stems and well filled headsof 
oats from one seed: while 200 and 300 grains 
to the head are common, it is easily possible 
to raise 10,000 grains from one, but, of course, 
not in large quantities. These big yields are 
secured by planting the oats like corn, and 
cultivating it in the same way. 
Bast year Mr. R. Parkhurst, of Stevensville, 
the grass for 1,000 head of stock, a sum fully 
equal to the value of the annual increase of 
the herd, leaving the interest on the cost of 
the 1,000 head and the cost of herding, etc., to 
be charged to “glory,” to say nothing of the 
profits, to which even some stock raisers are 
partial. 
Besides that, “Stockman” wants the Govern¬ 
ment to require of each renter of such parcel 
of land, to put down an artesian well at a 
cost of $3,000 to $5,000! Next? 
Como, Mont. w. B. h. 
mor, and. once a week or so. we search the 
green hills for the pale points of Incipient 
runners and pinch them out while as tender as 
pith. Thus the plants are guided into the way 
of making blossom buds instead of long run¬ 
nel's, and my little aids have already seen, in 
their own small beds, that they can fairly ex¬ 
pect n cluster of blossoms in lieu of every run- 
tier point they nip out, and these blossoms, on 
the strawberry plant, rarely fail to give fruit. 
I am becoming more convinced every year 
that there is little foundation for all the fuss 
CORN IN SOUTH-EASTERN DAKOTA 
S. S. F. takes me to task for what I said 
about corn in South-eastern Dakota in a man¬ 
ner to make one suppose he knew all about it, 
and I, nothing. My statements were based on 
what I had seen in Clark and a number of the 
adjoining couuties, and so far as B. S. F. is 
concerned, they are as yet unan¬ 
swered. Not only is Clark County 
strictly in South-eastern Dakota, but 
it might be described as in the south 
east of Southern Dakota. I had no 
intention of making my remarks to 
iplease the people of South eastern 
Dakota, but only to state facts, and 
fro ‘" birds, which pierce 
■> v,v ' v wSwu tbe black grapes with their 
<•»«*» ng them to spoil 
from admission of air, and 
■ Ai.t * 80 ruining the appearance 
it ^he hunches. I count 
fc hat t * 10 * ,a R 8 < pins, and 
* work cost about two dol¬ 
lars for each 100 pounds of 
pound tfi'iipes, or two cents a 
WEEDS; PROPER AND IMPROPER. 
M o had no trouble with currant worms at 
a "' T fa W 0,1 industrious niece the other day. 
“ We have found a remedy that applies itself. 
Wo hoard that catufp would keep thorn off; 
we allowed some plants to grow at, each bush, 
and the loaves are all unhurt: they are not 
cut. like yours”—.for mine, unluckily, are near 
V —-- v*” j »• *-• uiuut >u\,ue, u till. 
so long ns I write for the Rural, 
such will be the case In my article 
i stated 1 had seen corn put in on old 
ground, and that it would compare 
favorably with any in the adjoining 
States; why, therefore, K. S. F.'r 
cynical remarks about the need that 
1 should extend rnv experience? 8. 8. 
I’Vs statements may he quite correct 
as regards Turner County; I will not question 
them, but they certainly do not apply to Clark 
County. Further, Dakota covers a wide terri¬ 
tory. atid I did not, neither would L presume to 
say what.could or could not be cultivat ed in it. 
My statements had reference to the district lu 
which I was located, and S. S. F.’s would 
have been more to the point had they 
shown what could lie done in Turner County 
as compared with Clark County. However, 
if he considers Turner County to be of so 
much i • portance as to lie in itself South-east¬ 
ern Dakota, then I guess I have made a 
mistake. 
Clark County. t. mac alpine. 
Squantum 
Montana, raised 332 pounds from two ounces. 
In proof of this, we have his sworn statement 
(where lie is known his simple word is all-suffi¬ 
cient), besides the word of several of his 
neighbors, who were Interested enough to see 
it harvested, thrashed and weighed. A year 
or so ago some one in New England made the 
emphatic assertion (in the N. E. Homestead, I 
believe), that wheat did not stool or tiller, 
just because he had confined his observations 
to the poor lands of his section. 
I have a three-acre lot of wheat now in head, 
sown on rough, soddy land, and plowed-in, 
and not harrowed afterward, upon which I 
can find many stools of 100 good heads each. 
Asylum Sweet. Fig. 279. 
made about a necessity for planting hermaph¬ 
rodite sorts among the pistillate ones in 
setting a strawberry bed. VVe found to-day, 
July 96, a hill of Manchester bearing healthy* 
looking blossoms partly set with fruit, t sent 
in fora “magnifier,” got. down close to the 
blossoms, and oxumined them minutely with¬ 
out finding anything like u stamen, but the 
full stigmas well developed. There are. no 
sources of strawberry pollen about now, so I 
bent a rod arch-wise over the hill to mark it, 
intending to see wbutit will do. The weather 
is now cloudy, dump and favorable. 
SOME EXPERIENCE WITH POTATOES. 
I have tried the Vanguard Potato this year. 
It is too much like an apple dumpling to suit 
me as an early potato. It has a firm, indi¬ 
gestible outside, inclosing a very watery cen¬ 
ter, when dug as early as the Early Ohio. It 
is not the equal of the Early Ohio us an early; 
but now when it is more thoroughly matured 
it is of the finest quality. The Early Ohios 
are rotting this season, so I have heard; 
mine have not as yet, but I planted on sod 
ground, and where it was stumpy. I planted 
the potatoes as 1 broke the ground, harrowed 
five or six times, and let them go. I planted 
this year the Early Ohio, Mammoth Pearl, 
White 8tar. White Elephant, Telephone, Belle, 
Victor, and Vanguard. From my ex¬ 
perience with the above, I will not raise 
any but the Ohio, Pearl, and White 
jk Star. The Telephone is the best potato 
S in quality I have ever grown, but pro- 
gffik duces too many small tubers, and is a 
poor keeper, being not fit for the table 
after Christmas. The Belle is nearly 
always hollow, second-rate in quality, 
and very poor in the Spring, being a 
SB?” poor keeper. The Victor is a poor 
jjr keeper, and second rate in quality. The 
White Elephant is about the same as 
the Mammoth Pearl; but not so pro¬ 
ductive of smooth, salable potatoes, and 
it yields more small ones. H. A. c. 
Bourbon, Ill. 
FRUIT NOTES, 
Reference was made in a 
recent Rural to the Lost 
which were dug by himself 
from the originator’s garden, for testing 
beside Lost Rubies. I find the two en¬ 
tirely distinct. The opinions given by Char¬ 
les Downing, and John J. Thomas settled 
the identity of the Lost Rubies long ago. 
I or years 1 had Lost Rubies growing near 
Kirtland, Turner uud Brandy wine. In this 
location they accomplished astonishing results, 
being nearly equal to the Marlboro in size 
aud beauty. More recently I have planted 
them elsewhere, near the Cuthbert, and they 
produce imperfect fruit, showing that they 
are not proparly fertilized by the Cuthbert, 
or that they require closer proximity to other 
varieties. The variety is exceedingly hardy, 
aud gives good satisfaction where it perfects 
its fruit. Lit is not exceedingly hardy with 
us.— Eds.] But as it is uncertain in this re¬ 
spect, I do not recommend it for general cul¬ 
ture. 
SOME NOTES FROM AN AMATEUR’S 
GARDEN. 
Amber Cream 
The large grower, impatient of pottering, 
takes short ways of accomplishing work, 
something after the manner of Alexander’s 
method of loosening the Gordian knot—which 
he did with one blow of his sword. A neigh¬ 
bor who works a good deal of land has a 
sharp, steel hoop with a handle, so that he can 
with one downward stroke cut off all the run¬ 
ners from a strawberry hill, that have ad¬ 
vanced far enough to be reached by it, and he 
thinks it a good invention. But I object to it 
from my amateur point of view. I have leis¬ 
ure, and i want to see and to show all that 
plants will do with really good treatment. I 
don’t like to see green, active leaves clipped or 
harmed in any way, or to have my plants 
waste their means in making any runner ex¬ 
tensions at all. I get two or three sets of little 
fingers to help. I keep them in animated hu- 
If there is any doubt on this point I will send 
one or several stools to the office of the R. 
N.-Y., and will agree to pay Mr. Alexander’s 
Rural subscription for Dextyear if the Editor 
cannot find 100 heads and, say, -4,000 grains in 
each, provided Mr. A. will do the same by me, 
if the stools come up to my assertion. 
In the same Rural “Stockman” makes some 
suggestions w h icli M on tana stock-rai sers w ould 
hardly take kindly to: in fact, were they 
adopted, the stockmen of the Plains would be 
compelled to go out of the business “too 
quick.” He wants the Government to rent 
grass lauds to stockmen at J2>£ cents per acre, 
and figures that 10 miles square would graze 
1,000 head of cattle. That is, 64,000 acres, the 
rental of which would be $8,000 per year for 
Hickox. 
Having the “magnifier” in hand, I ex¬ 
amined the leaves on some of the few apple 
trees in my garden, which have been looking 
pallid and pinched, while leaves in general 
have a glorious green, grape leaves especially 
show ing no signs or mildew, not even an un¬ 
protected Vinifera. I soon found, by very 
close looking with the best power of my glass, 
the ugly, spiky red spiders ruuning actively 
about on the leaves like colts in a pasture, the 
surface of the leaf looking for all the world 
just like a rough pasture, full of holes, tussocks 
The Marlboro has astonished me this season 
with its size, beauty and productiveness. I 
also have a better opinion of its quality. 
While not sweet, like the Turner, or sprightly, 
