634 
THE BUBAL «EW-Y©BKEB 
SEPT27 
year, when sold, the latter was 30 pounds the 
heavier. The next year the Berkshire had 
one of its legs cut with a scythe atld wu* lame*a 
Jong time; when sold both weighed just alike, 
though the Poland looked to !«• the larger. 
That was the only time in my experience 
when a Boland of the same age and with the 
same feed and care has equaled a Berkshire in 
weight. Both breeds are good, and no one 
will be fur wrong in using either for raising 
good |»ork at the least cost, when they are 
properly cans] for. w. H. c. 
Columbia Co., Wis. 
farm (Topics, 
CUTTING AND SHOCKING COHN. 
Corn cutting and shocking are among the 
hardest labors of the farm, and if not very 
carefully and systematically done a large pro 
portion of the “stoota" at husking time will 
be found prostrate, and the fodder greatly 
injured or ruined. To do it rapidly the opera¬ 
tor must so understand the business us to 
make every move count. A single second 
lost ul each hill w ill amount to a loss of one- 
ten I h of the efficiency of the day. 
Some writers recommend the use of a 
‘‘shocking” horse made of a smooth pole 12 
feet long, having near the larger end a pair 
of legs three feet long, and having a cross- 
piece* put through a hole bored horizontally 
some three feet from the larger end. The 
corn is set up in the angles of the cross¬ 
piece, and when hound this is pulled out, and 
the horse is then drawn along to the place of 
the next shock. While this is a very easy and 
neat way of shocking corn, it is a very slow* 
way, and one who has a large crop to cut will 
not feel like wasting so much time. 
A very practical method of cutting corn is 
to put six row s of corn into one row of shocks, 
Commence by stepping between the middle 
two rows and cutting each as you pass aloug, 
until you have all you can carry, which, if the 
corn is heavy, w ill usually lx* three hills of 
each row; wit h this step past the next hill and 
place the corn standing squarely iu the 
vacant space between the four hills, and 
securely bind it with a sucker or the top of 
some pliable stalk. Next cut the four hills 
surrounding this center, and set the corn 
on the back side, or the side from which yon 
come; next, cut two hills on each of the two 
right-hand rows directly opposite the shock, 
• and place the armful on that side; next, cut 
three hills on each of the center rows beyond 
t he shock, and place this corn on the forward 
side of the shock; then cut the two hills on 
the left band two rows directly opposite the 
shock, und place this armful on that side. 
This leaves six hills, throe on each row, in the 
corners of the square to be placed in each 
shook, and ns each six hills make an armful, it, 
is immaterial which are cut first; but when 
cut., the armful should be placed on Its side of 
the shock, and care should be taken that all is 
set as nearly upright and as compactly as 
possible. With this care, if attention is given 
that, cacti shock is securely bound around 
the tops with two bands, there should be no 
trouble trout its falling down or being Idowu 
over by the most severe wind, so long 
as it is desired to leave it in the field. 
It is very desirable to have several acres, 
more or less, so put up as to be conveniently 
drawn to the barns or sheds to be husked in 
cold, windy, or rainy weather. As it is very 
hurd work to load whole shocks, and as it 
takes much time to separate and bind the 
stalks into bundles after they are cured, it is 
a much better v ay to put them into suitable 
bundles at cut ting time. To do this, cut three 
hills tin a row. and throw the stalks down; cut 
the three bills on uu adjoining row, and 
place the corn carefully on top of the other, 
so as to have it in good shape for bindiug; 
commencing iu the morning, cut in this way 
till two or three o’clock, p it,, before any is 
bound: this will allow the stalks to wilt und 
become much more pliable and tough, and 
enable the operator to bind much more rapid 
ly. Iu bindiug the bundles, be sore to place 
the bauds so near the tops that the eoru can 
be husked without, disturbing the bauds or un¬ 
binding ; set about four rows of bundlas and 
about four bundles of each row iuto a shock, 
using care to set them up straight and com¬ 
pactly, and bind the tops with two good bands 
each. By this method the corn will euro much 
more quickly than wheu iu compact shocks, 
and can be handled easily with a pitchfork 
both iu putting on the load and in pitching 
upon any mow or sea (Void In the burn. 
This method will, iu the aggregate, consume 
but little more time than the ordinary method 
of shockiug. and as we sometimes have much 
rainy weather, and much very dry, cold, 
windy weather, wheu the stalks break like 
‘pipe stems” and much fodder is wasted, you 
will be surprised to see how much this method 
will facilitate the corn harvest; and, besides, 
1 
how much more pleasantly you eau handle 
the core ataer it has Iain in the mow or sheds 
a short ti met 
' 
• ('4 kn <tn sandy land. 
1 i * • 
Last Spring bb*- flood deposited on a meaVnw^ 
or mine a very Wrse^sa^ J 
over two feet th\?k. On th\p a *,n. >,„^- ro 
through the extremely dry , 
>wn 
green and thriftily, and uow nasears nslari^ 
und well tilled us one can desire; a part of the 
land was manured and (t part not, but I can 
see no difference in the growth of the crop. 
Where does it get its nourishmentf Do not 
the roots go through the sand to the sod be¬ 
neath; and if the roots run so deep, why be so 
careful to plow' shallow ( 
I was somewhat inclined to put faith iu the 
Rukal’k practice of shallow, level <*ulture: 
but. will adhere to deep, level culture, until 1 
receive further evidence of the advantage of 
a change. This season as the corn was shoot¬ 
ing, after a slight, shower, I plowed a part of 
the ground, allowing the plow to run deep, 
and 1 wish it had all been plowed iu this way. 
K. G. 81 LVU 8 . 
Remarks —Unquestionably the roots go 
through the sand to the soil beneath. We 
have never advocated shallow plowing, except 
for shallow soils. What we do advocate is, 
shallow cultivation after the roots have ex¬ 
tended so far that they would be severed by 
deep cultivation. The sand deposited may be 
far richer in plant-food than you suppose. 
t’iflt) ClJOjiS. 
merit it is necessary to stir the earth, or weeds 
t gin to appear, set to work with the culti¬ 
vator or other proper implement to destroy 
hem. Thin out the beet* in the rows us 
needed, and get rid of the weeds with a hoe 
with a yery narrow blade at one end and a fork 
^at the other. With suitable implements the cul- 
| tivation of roots of all kinds requires little 
‘more stooping »hau that of corn, and this is 
the method I have seen the farm hands pur- 
saein England and in our own country,and not 
get down on their knees and bend over pain 
fully to weed. 
As my soil is very light and friable, one of 
the best implement* 1 have found to stir it 
well and kill the weeds iu an early stage of 
their growth, is a harrow cultivator. It is 
made to expand from two to three-and a half 
feet. The teeth are small and project about 
six inches from the lower side of the bars. 
They are quit/* sharp at the ends, and are set 
sloping behind to such an angle as to pro 
vent the gathering of the weeds into heaps 
after pulling them out. Another implement 
used when the weeds are larger, is the ordin¬ 
ary one-horse cultivator, with a bar fastened 
across behind all the blades, being sot with 
sloping harrow teeth. This cultivator thus 
plows up the weeds, aud the harrow teeth 
following, level the furrows, tear the weeds out, 
and leave them lying on top of the soil. 1 
directed the making of these implements my 
self. The harrow* teeth are set, pretty closely 
together, and the harrow* is so light that a 
small horse easily works it. I do not think 
such a harrow cultivator would be heavy 
enough for good service in a stiflisb loam or 
clay soil, and especially w-ben they were 
rather dry. 
BEETS FOR SUGAR AND FOR LIVE 
STOCK. 
A. B. ALLEN. 
Mr Htbwakt (page 4115) has shown how 
unprofitable it, would b© tor American farmers 
to grow beets for sugar, as is done in France 
and Germany; und so far as 1 know, all at¬ 
tempts to do this among us for nearly AO years 
llast,, have resulted in large jx'cuniary loas. 
No port of our rural population is poor and 
degraded like much of that in Europe, and 1 
trust iu the mercy of u kind Providence it, 
never will be sufficiently so to make t,lu* pro 
duetion of sugar from beets a paying business 
among us. But we do not require to grow 
beets for this purpose, as sugar is 11101*6 easily 
aud profitably made from sorghum in our 
northern latitudes, and from the sugar cane in 
the Bouth. For our live stock, however, I 
wish to see an increased cultivation of sugar 
beets iu the Middle and Northern States, aud 
regret Mr. Stewart has been so unfortunate 
iu his effort*, as beets would make such an 
excellent ration for his milk cows. I have 
lieen successful in growiug them iu moderate 
quantity for 13 years past in a poorer and 
lighter soil than his probably is, and about 
one degree farther sdtith, no matter whether 
the season happened to be extra hot and dry, 
or cool and wet; although, in the latter case, 
the crop was considerably larger; but in the 
former, it paid fairly for the labor and ma¬ 
nure devoted to it. 
Tlie principal reason why cultivators are 
not, successfu 1 in growing beets is, that after 
proper preparation of the soil for the crop, 
they do not sow the seed sufficiently early. 1 
always sow from the 15th to :35th of March, 
aud the heels come up well and grow steadily 
along, and a little frost in April or May 
does them no injury. Last April, May and 
June were uncommonly dry; iu fact, 1 
never knew so great a drought, here in these 
three months. My cisterns have always given 
a full supply of water, but tills season they 
have failed to do so about half the time. 
Strawberries of half a dozen of the hardiest 
sorts gave only a fortieth part of a crop, und 
early peas and some other things suffered 
badly; but the beets have grown steadily 
along, Although the lust Spring was a late 
one, I had plenty for my table early in June, 
and began to market t hem of good size at our 
village by the 30th of the same mouth. One 
of the sorts I nh\ ays grow is the White Kile 
siuu Sugar; others, Lane's Improved Imperial, 
the Early Turnip Blood, etc. The last is usual¬ 
ly growu in the garden for family use. Still, 
I find it a fair field crop, some attaining a 
diameter of six inches, and few being lots than 
four inches. For the table, J sow at different 
times from March to June. 
My method of cultivation is cheap. In 
November I spread about, six cords of w ell lit¬ 
tered stable manure per acre over the soil, 
and let it lie there till March, just before 
planting. It is then plowed iu. furrows are 
st ruck out, seven to eight inches deep, and t hen 
filled with rotted stable manure four inches 
deep. Over this two inches of soil are hoed, 
and the seed planted, covered two inches, aud 
spatted down hard, thus reducing the cover to 
only about an inch of solid soil over the seed. 
The rows are three feet apart, aud the mo- 
MANGELS WITHOUT “KNEE AND 
FINGER” WORK. 
Mr. S. M. Macomber, of Grand Isle, Vt., a 
Rural reader, sends me the following account, 
of his method of growing mangels, apropos of 
some discussion on the subject in the paper. 
Mr. M. is a farmer, and also makes a hand- 
planter for corn and lieans, that, has a special 
attachment, for plauting beet*, as described in 
his article. He says; 
“We plow the ground in the Fall; then iu 
the Kpring, as soon as it will do to work the 
soil, we give it a good thorough working with 
the Randall Harrow. After the weeds get pret¬ 
ty well started, we go over It in the same way 
again, and repeat as often ns necessary to kill 
weeds until time to plant, about the 1st of June. 
Just before planting we sow broadcast from 
300 to 400 pounds of superphosphate to the 
acre, according to the richness of the soil, har¬ 
row it well, and roll, then murk 30 inches 
apart and plunt, with the hand-planter which 
we make, which lias a cell purposely for plant 
ing beets. It is better to sift out the small seed, 
and plant only the largest. We plant from 10 
to 13 inches apart iu the rows. Iu this way we 
have each hill right where we want it. As 
soon as they come up, we go through them 
with the Planet Jr. wheel-hoe, which straddles 
the row*. The knives are Bet to run within half 
an inch on either side of the row. This cuts 
every weed for a space of six inches ou each 
side of the row. Thou we reverse the knives 
and go through aud back between the rows, 
which cleans out everything except thenar- 
row strip iu the row itself. A man now goes 
through with a hoe and cuts out between the 
hills, but does not thin the hills until the 
plants are three or four inches high. They ure 
then well rooted, and with a sharp-pointed lux* 
a man cuts out all but one plant in a hill. 
They are thou kept clean for the rest, of the 
season bv the Planet, horse-hoe. The Planet, 
Jr., usect in the preliminary culture, is a hand 
wheel-hoe.” t. h. hoskins. 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
-» » 
CROSS-BRED RURAL CORN. 
Referring to our cross-bred corn, between 
60 or more different kinds, Mr. IV, H Cook, 
of Columbia Co., Wis., says: “My opinion is 
that of ull the useful and valuable seeds sent 
out by the R. N. Y., there has been none that 
would be of as great benefit to the whole coun¬ 
try as the proposed distribution of that errms- 
brod corn for seed. With so many crosses 
each will find some one kind that will be espe 
ci illy valuable in his locality. That he can 
cultivate and discard the rest. I am experi¬ 
menting in crossing different kinds myself, 
and from my experience so far. am led to 
believe it is the best way to procure a variety 
adapted to the State where I reside. By all 
meaus include the corn. w. h. c 
inrm (tcontmuj. 
SILAGE AND MUCK. 
As readers of the Rural seem inclined to 
try weighting their silos with muck or other 
absorbent#, to be used afterwards in the com¬ 
post, here is a timely suggestionI have 
weighted with wet, gravelly earth, and after¬ 
ward screened out. the dry earth and used it 
as au absorbent. I doubt, however, whether 
there is any economy of lubor over weighting 
w’itb stone, which, ou removal, may be taken 
away at once, instead of lying by until an oc¬ 
casion may arise for using it. I would rather 
put up a cheap shed close to the stable, iu 
winch to store tbeubsorbeuts which certainly 
must, lie used, If ensilage forms a large part of 
the ration, and use stone for weights. But 
the point, I wish to call attention to is this: 
with muck or earth put on the silo wet and 
allowed to dry, we lose the coni in uo us pres¬ 
sure up to the time of feeding, without which 
the silage will certainly mold and spoil. 1 
would rather increase than decrease the pres¬ 
sure as time passes. The Rural correspond¬ 
ent of August 23d. will find that either the 
muck will not dry out so much as he antici¬ 
pates, so retentive is it of moisture, or else it 
will, on drying, lessen the weight on the 
silo, and also absorb the juices of the upper 
layer of silage unless very closely covered. 
In the latter case, on removing the planks, 
he will also lx* compelled to remove a large 
quantity of decayed and moldy silage. It is 
also to be noted that wet muck containing 7(i 
per cent, of moisture, will weigh less than 
one-third as much when air-dry, or when 
it contains 32 percent, of moisture That is, 
in the wet muck the 24 per cent, of dry mat¬ 
ter, apart from its 7ti per cent, of moisture, 
represents the 78 per cent, in air-dry muck, 
which, with 22 per cent, of moisture, makes 
up the whole. Thus 10U pounds of wet muck 
on becoming air-dry would weigh about 30 
pounds. 
I shall put up cow stables adjoining my 
silo this Fall, and cover the entire space— 
00 x 32 feet—with a double floor, with tar 
paper between the boards. On this floor and 
under a roof on which the sun beats, with 
windows allowinga free sweep of heated, dry 
niroverit, I shall yearly store sufficient dry 
muck to treble my manure supply, and while 
thus storing it so as to insure it* drying, 
(which is no easy matter), I shall also be able 
to shoot it directly into the trenches. 1 will 
also weight the silo with stone—the only sat¬ 
isfactory weight in general use. w. it. u. 
Poughkeepsie. N. Y. 
— ■ ■ 
SORGHUM; 
ITS GROWTH AND THE MANUFACTURE OF 
SUGAR AND SIRUP—THE WHOLE STORY. 
VIII. 
PROF. It. W. WILEY. 
APPLICATION OF SULPHUR. 
(3) But the best way of applying sulphur to 
can** juices, especially when the manufacture 
is carried on in a small way. is in the form of 
lime hi -sulphite and sulphurous acid solution 
A simple apparatus for making lime bi sul¬ 
phite is shown in Fig. 372. Milk of lime is 
placed in the tank A, of a density proportion¬ 
ate to the strength of the solution which is to 
be made. The furnace contains a retort, E, 
which is l>eotmade of cast iron iu case such 
a retoi t, cannot be had, a large stone jug well 
glazed inside, can be used. This must lie 
placed in a sand liath, since it cannot be ex¬ 
posed directly to the fire. The fire should be 
made of such material as to allow of its easy 
control. A gasoline stove would lie much 
better than the furnace figured The retort, 
E, is nearly filled with charcoal iu small pieces. 
Oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) is now poured 
in until the liquid fills a little more thau half 
of t he retort. The tube (lead or glass) P. con¬ 
nects the retort with the wash bottle, L. It 
should pass nearly to the bottom of the bottle. 
The wash bottle should tie filled with water 
or (to avoid accident in cu e of the retort 
foaming) moderately concentrated sulphuric 
acid. A safety tube (flf) should lead from a 
short distance below the level of the liquid iu 
the whbIi bottle to the open air. The tube (5) 
begins just below the stopper of the wash bot¬ 
tle. and leads to the bottom of the barrel (B). 
To make a barrel of bi sulphite with this ap. 
parntus, the following procedure is followed: 
The barrel (B) is filled with milk of lime 
from the tank. The retort containing the 
charcoal aud sulphuric acid, is slowly heated 
until the ga- passes freely through the wash 
bottle. The wash bottle should tie of glass, so 
that the speed of evolution of the gas can 
easily be observed. The sulphurous dioxide 
bubbles up through the milk of lime, cotnoin- 
iog with the lime to form bisulphite of that 
base. Through au opening in the top of the 
barrel its contents can be stirred, and the ex¬ 
cess of lime prevented from settling to the bot¬ 
tom. As the lime is gradually neutralized, 
the contents of the barrel become clear. After 
the lime is ull combined with the sulphurous 
dioxide, the operation is continued until the 
water present is saturated also with the gas. 
At the end the sulphur fumes escape from the 
top of the barrel, and its contents are strongly 
acid to the test paper, 
