4884 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
common school of the country district or 
village. G. E. MORROW. 
Industrial University, Champaign, III. 
CUTTING FODDER CORN WITH A SELF-BINDER. 
Yesterday we cut several acres of corn, 
sowed in drills S' j' feet apart for fodder, with 
an ordinary self-raking reaper. It did tho 
work well and rapidly, cutting one row at a 
time, leaving the stalk in bundles of conven¬ 
ient size. I see no reason why the entire corn 
crop may not be cut to advantage in this 
way. Do you? c, a. orekn. 
The Illinois State Exhibit at the New 
Orleans Exposition in the line of farm pro¬ 
ducts, forestry, etc., is to be collected and ar¬ 
ranged at the Industrial University at Cham¬ 
paign. It is designed to make as complete an 
exhibit as possible, both of varieties and qual¬ 
ities. A complete pictorial representation of 
farm buildings, machinery, processes, animals, 
etc., is also proposed. Samples of any farm 
products, photographs and other pictures of 
appropriate objects are desired at once. Par¬ 
ticulars can be learned by addressing Dr. S. 
H. Peabody, at the University. 
How to Save Corn Fodder. —Prof. San¬ 
born, of Missouri, says the complaint that 
stock will not eat corn fodder well, or over 
one-fourth to one-third of It, arises from our 
method, or lack of method, of securing it. 
Most of our corn is allowed to stand as it 
grew, and to have its nutrition washed out of 
it, and then it is fed where it grew to cattle 
roving through the field, Tho bleached stuff 
is little liked and little eaten. A few cut it 
and put it into large shocks, but not until 
after the corn is dead ripe It should be cut 
while the stalks are yet quite green, the corn 
being in the latter stages of the dough state, 
or before the corn is too hard to crush easily 
in the Angers, and before it is dry throughout. 
It should be put into shocks made from four 
hills in place of the old 16 hills square, and 
bound round the top by rye straw twine, ora 
green corn stalk. It is well to betid tho tussel 
down, binding the tops under, thus turning 
the rain. In tho course of two to four weeks, 
depending upon the weather, the small shocks 
may easily be husked out. aud the com crib¬ 
bed. Tho band will not have to be removed 
or the shock taken down in husking. After 
husking, tho hills of com. around which the 
shock is made, as fast as the shock is wnuted, 
may be cut, anti tho fodder of the shock may 
be quickly and easily, by oue man, passed to 
the wagon for Hacking, the band around the 
shock always remaining on. Thus treated, it 
will be tender, more palatable, and more nu¬ 
tritious, and when fed with clover, cotton¬ 
seed meal, or middlings, will be nearly all 
eaten. It will also be handled from the start 
at less expense per acre than by the system of 
Id hills square shocks. 
Poultry in France and America.—As 
an instance of the inferior product of Ameri¬ 
can poultry as compared with that of France, 
a country where poultry' rearing is carried on 
very skillfully, Henry Stewart gives the fol¬ 
lowing figures: The number of fowl 3 kept in 
France is 43,858,780; the average product of 
chickens reared Is three to each hen, and the 
average product of eggs per hen is 100 per 
year. The total money product is 8101,000,000. 
According to the last census the number of 
fowls in the United States is 102,272,135: the 
product of chickens is not giveu, but if it is in 
proportion to the yield of eggs, it would be 
about three to every two hens, the average 
yield of eggs being 54 to each hen. The dif¬ 
ferent reports are probably near the truth, 
judging from the prevalent opinion here that 
“hens are poor stock," while the French¬ 
woman, with her industrious and hen com¬ 
pelling ways, makes friends of her poulets 
and cherishes them as she does her love let¬ 
ters, which she also calls by the same word, 
while the estimation in which she holds her 
pullets may be realized by the name she givos 
them, which Ispoulette, and means not only a 
pullet but a darling: thus giving her heart 
to her work, she succeeds in it and makes it 
profitable. This is a lesson for our poultry- 
keepers. 
Influence of Pollen on Strawberries. 
—Director Lazenby, of the Ohio Ex. Station, 
has made some experiments which seem very 
decidedly to show that the shape, color, firm¬ 
ness aud quality of the so-called pistillate 
strawberries are influenced by the pollen 
which ferti’izes them. Boxes covered with 
glass were placed over different pistillate va¬ 
rieties, aud the pollen was applied by hand. 
Although somewhat imperfect, in every in¬ 
stance there was a marked resemblance in 
shape, size, color and general appearance to 
the fruit of the male parent. All of the du¬ 
plicate tests showed exactly the same results. 
Owing to an - early and long-protracted 
drought, strawberries grown in Central Ohio 
the past season were not nearly as largo or 
perfect as they usually are. The same cause 
affected the cross-bred berries. Yet, despite 
this, the characteristics of the male parent 
were plainly evident in each case. Ho strongly 
did they predominate that there was little or 
no resemblance to the fruit of the female pa¬ 
rent. No one would have named any one of 
tho four cross-bred samples ns Crescents, 
while every one acquainted with the varie¬ 
ties from which the pollen was taken could 
readily identify the fruit it had fertilized as 
the same variety. Where the pollen of the 
Cumberland Triumph was used tho color was 
very light and the lierries exceedingly soft. 
Those fertilized with the pollen of the James 
Vick were small but very firm aud remarka¬ 
bly perfect in outline. The cross with the 
Charles Downing showed a marked resem 
blance in shape, color and consistency to this 
well known variety. It showed, also, the cha 
racteristic gloss of this fruit. Whore the 
Sharpless was used as the male parent tho ber¬ 
ries were large and irregular. The fruit of 
this cross was much more imperfect than 
that of any other. Thus fur we have only 
spoken of the effect produced by cross-fertil¬ 
izing oue well known pistillate variety of the 
strawberry, the Crescent. A farther test was 
made in the same manner by polleuating a 
comparatively new pistillate variety, the Man¬ 
chester, with the Sbarploss aud the James 
Vick, two of the four varieties used to fertil- 
record by 9 pounds, and any record ever made 
by a two year-old. She was milked three 
times a day, at six a. m., two and ten p. in., 
jnst eight hours apart, and was milked perfect¬ 
ly clean each time.". 
Prof. W. A. Henry regards salt simply as 
a solvent, since sodium and chlorine, of which 
it is composed, are always present iu soils. He 
compares it in its effects, with lime, in that it 
Bets free or renders available food otherwise not 
immediately available to the plant. He 
makes the following apt comparison: “Salt 
aud barn-yard manure are to the growing 
crop, as a whip and oats to a horse. You 
may get. work from a horse for a time by the 
use of the whip, but sooner or later, oats must 
bo given or the work will cease.”,,.. 
Prof. Sanborn, of the Mo. Ag. Coll., says 
that in certain combinations of food, like clo¬ 
ver or cotton seed meal, within tho farmer’s 
reach, corn fodder has, pound against pound, 
substantially the same value as timothy. 
TnREE varieties of oats were sown last year 
at the Ag, Ex. Station of the University of 
Wisconsin. White Schcenen yielded 70 bush¬ 
els; White Australian 79; White Belgian 05 
within a fraction. Prof, Henry of the above 
station, sowed four plots of oats; two without 
salt, two with—at the rate of 150 aud 300 
pounds to the acre respectively. The plots 
with, the salt yielded at the rate of six hush 
els to the acre more than those without salt, 
the smaller quantity serving about as well as 
thelurger......... 
Prof, Wm. Brown, of the Ontario Ag. 
College, says that it requires no science to 
know that a mixture of nearly all the crops of 
the field is a good thing for cattle life. Still 
CRAZY WEED. 
ize the Crescent. The results obtained were 
precisely similar to those already describe*!. 
The Manchester fertilized by the Sharpless 
produced large berries resembling tho Sharp¬ 
ies,s, and possessing few of the characteristics 
of the Manchester. When artificially pollen- 
ated by the James Vick, the Manchester pro¬ 
duced a small, firm, perfect and regular berry 
like that of the rnalo parent. 
Director Lazenby must be credited with 
having made the first careful, systematic ex¬ 
periments to determine the effect of pollen 
from different varieties upon the pistillate 
kinds. 
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS. 
Director Lazenby’s experiments seem to 
show that well-marked pistillate strawber¬ 
ries must depend chiefly upon bisexual or 
perfect flowers for fertilization. 
Mr. E. Williams, in the Philadelphia 
Weekly Press, says that some nurserymen re¬ 
serve the right to substitute plants in case they 
are out of those ordered. Ho asks: “What 
would be thought of a merchant who sent 
green tea when you ordered black, or rye 
flour when you ordered wheat.'” The cases 
are analogous, and if submitted to without 
protest would furnish very good evideuce that 
a knave was at one end of the transaction and 
a fool at tho other. The sooner buyers refuse 
to submit to such impositions the better for 
all concerned. 
Messrs. Smiths & Powell write us:— In 
July of the present year our t wo-year old Hol¬ 
stein heifer, Aaggie Constance, gave, in one 
day, 67 pounds and 6 ounces of milk. We con¬ 
sidered this a wonderful record for a two-year- 
old. Since that time she has given 76 pounds 
and 6 ounces iu just 24 hours, in the presence 
of several witnesses, exceeding her former 
we do not kuow much about the effects of 
special foods or certain combinations of them 
under precisely similar conditions. 
Do your painting before cold weather. Kill 
all cracks, nail-holes and crevices with putty. 
Decay does not begin upon smooth surfaces, 
but iu the cracks, etc., which hold water. 
It is a good time to clean out the cisterns 
thoroughly before the fall rains... 
How long an apple keeps depends very 
much upon how (t is kept, says Mr. Gibbs_ 
Prof. Budd, of Iowa, says that the much- 
talked of rose, Rosarugosa, should be dissemi¬ 
nated over his Htate, as it is very hardy. He 
thinks it is indigenous to Russia. A double¬ 
flowering form of it is found as far north and 
east as Kazan and Simbirsk .... 
The Herald says that all you have got to do 
is to plant the cabbage and nature will come 
along after a little while aud put a heud on it. 
Cumjiuljm. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. 
X. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
The Coast Range of mountains is intersect¬ 
ed at intervals by numerous valleys, aud 
through one of these—the Santa Clara—the 
Southern Pacific It. R. runs from Sau Frau- 
cisco to Monterey Bay, which was the old cap¬ 
ital of the State. At this season there is no 
green grass to be seen, as the rain fall ceases 
in June, aud this dry time furnishes a long 
harvest season. Wheat ripens about June 20 
and is cut, bound, thrashed, put into sacks, 
and taken to market at any time from the 
time of ripening until October. So as wo rode 
down through this most beautiful and fertile 
valley, we saw the gathering of the wheat 
crop in every stage of the work, it suffers 
no loss by standing uncut for weeks, or lying 
on the ground in sheaves. There is danger 
from fire, and so it is usually insured. In 
many a field the sheaves lay so thickly that a 
good walker might almost have gone over the 
entire area by stepping from one sheuf to an¬ 
other. The wheat crop is not reckoned at so 
many bushels per acre, but by sacks. The 
yield is from 20 to 40 sacks per acre; and a 
sack weighs 100pounds. California barley is 
very fine, but oats for grain canuot be raised 
in all the valleys, because tin* beat is too great 
for the perfection of the grain, hut it is cut 
for hay, and all the hay made in this valley, 
aside from Alfalfa, is from immature wheat, 
oats or barley, and is called wheat, bay, etc., 
etc. The thrashing of the grain is done by 
steam power in the open field. In hauling the 
sacks of grain to market, large wugonsare used 
which are drawn by four or six horses, which 
wear hells, and the train moves along like a 
triumphal procession. 
fn some parts of this valley which lias hith¬ 
erto been largely cultivated for wheat, stock 
ami fruit raising are now receiving first at¬ 
tention, as being more profitable. The fruit 
market of California is rarely, if ever, over¬ 
stocked ; as its market is the world. Standard 
fruits and grains are raised without irrigation, 
aud as wo sped on, it was by gleaming or¬ 
chards as well as past waving grain-fields. 
The valley lies as level as a barn floor, guard¬ 
ed on each side by the mountains, and is as 
beautiful a vale of fertility as human eyes 
can hope to see. Land varies in price from 
$150 to $300 per acre. The farmer knows 
nothing of the hurry and drive of a busy sea¬ 
son, for he enjoys his leisure in harvesting as 
in all other things. A slight shower in the 
month of August occurs once in ten years, 
perhaps. This friendliness of nature to tho har¬ 
vest-time undoubtedly begets u proportion¬ 
ate amount of indolence. Smull fruits have to 
be irrigated, and this branch of fruit raising 
and gathering is largely attended to by Chi¬ 
nese. They are the host of strawberry pick- 
el's, as with their loug nails they pinch off the 
berries and lay them in orderly rows in the 
boxes, without touching tho fruit itself; and 
nowhere else, I ween, does oue see such firm, 
well -01 derod, and clean-looking berries, free 
from all hint of mussiness; ami they are con¬ 
stantly in market until November. Near the 
city, terraced gardens and ground cultivated 
iti strips and patches wear a look of France and 
Italy. Many rows of Lombardy Poplars 
were to bo seen. Along the railway grew 
ranks of eucalyptus and cypress; this cypress, 
by the way, which looks so like cedar, is the 
Monterey Cypress, aud, is I believe, unlike 
any other existing species, and its aueestors 
are alone to bo found on the bay, at u place 
called Cypress Point, tho oldest, wlcrdest- 
lookiug trees in the world, blown and twisted 
as they have been for years by the ocean tem¬ 
pests. The farm-houses are nil painted white. 
The grain fields are beautified with many Live 
Oaks, which are not cut down for better con¬ 
venience of tillage. As wo near the sea, these 
trees grow in more grotesque and curious 
shapes, with long branches reaching out to 
the south, as if the whole force of the trees 
longed and reached out for the sun; and from 
these branches hang moss in fringes of un¬ 
equal leugths. 
Monterey is no longer a town of any im- 
poi tanoe. It was settled and built by Spanish 
Jesuits, and a quaint old church with moss- 
grown roof, is still kept as a house of worship. 
But u mile from the town in oue direction, is 
a hotel of such unique and une< pm led attrac¬ 
tions, as to bo world-famed, and two miles in 
another direction is a camping ground, called 
“Pacific Grove Retreat,” where there are 
tents and cottages, like camp meeting grounds 
in the East, and both these resorts are on the 
bay, with bathing grounds. The sea life of 
the Pacific is much more prolific than that of 
the Atlantic, at least at any point that L have 
visited. At low tide are revealed a multitude 
of curious sea things,clinging to the rocks, and 
living in the eternal dash of tho waves. On 
the beach are coils of kelp, like heaps of sea 
serpents, 20, 80, 40 feat long; immensely long, 
hollow stalks, strung with balloon-like appen¬ 
dages, that bear them up in the sea; bones of 
whales, which are often captured here; a dead 
seal now and then, and wrecked sea birds. 
The distinguishing feature of the Hotel del 
Moute, is the park of 126 acres, which spreads 
out from it in every direction, a vista of 
beauty impossible to describe. Originally it 
was a great grove of magnificent Live Oaks 
and pines, to which the gardener's art has 
added a wealth of trees, shrubs, flowers and 
grass, for which the whole world has been 
ransaeked, aud which grow here with a luxu¬ 
riance that is as rich as it is elegant. It is, in 
fact, a realization of what one may dream of 
