4834 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
804 
PRIZE ESSAY.— Class IX. 
I. H. MAYER. 
RYE—ITS VALUE AS GRAIN, ETC. 
Rye (SecAle cerekle) Is a valuable grain, as 
it can be grown in many soils ami climates 
where wheat fails. The yield, without manure 
or artificial fertilizers, is much greater than 
that of wheat. I have known it to grow for 
eighteeu years upon the same soil without any 
manure or fertilizer other than the long stub¬ 
bles, and grass, and weeds turned under at 
each plowing; this was on rich limestone land 
that was never pastured. The straw and 
grain were both removed, and the last crop 
was considered a paying one. 
It is comparatively exempt from the ravages 
of insects, and for this reason may be sown 
very early in the season and a good growth 
secured before cold weather sets in. From 
half a bushel to a bushel—on an average three 
pecks—Is the proper quantity to sow to the 
acre. The amount of seed required is less, 
and the crop grouter than in the case of wheat, 
so that the profit on the grain, in many cases, 
is much higher per acre for rye than for 
wheat. The yield of straw per acre is from 20 
to 50, and m some cases, even 100 per cent, 
greater than that of any other straw-produc¬ 
ing graiu. The price per ton for the straw 
also averages from 25 to 80 per cent, higher, 
thus making it decidedly the most profitable 
crop for straw. Anyone can readily calculate 
which, in any particular cose, will prove the 
most profitable crop. Of course, whore wheat 
succeeds and straw is abundant ami has no 
marketable price, rye w ill not be selected. 
As a food for man, rye is not popular, 
though rye bread and rye mush are not des¬ 
pised. by many; they are certainly wholesome. 
As feed for horses rye is very desirable. From 
a pint to a quart, two or throe times a day 
with other feed, will greatly Improve the con¬ 
dition of a horse, rendering the coat bright 
and glossy, and will usually make the auimal 
appear darker In color. 
As a green manure rye is not generally ap¬ 
preciated as it should be; while it is not equal 
to clover where clover will grow, it certainly 
will prove a success in many places where 
clover fails. It, too, absorbs gases from the 
air, and in this way makes a positive addition 
to the fertility of the soil. Butin many in 
stances its meclmnieai action, as a green ma¬ 
nure, is most valuable. On heavy, clayey soil-, 
the roots of the rye penetrate at least as deep 
as the plow, and greatly assist in comminu¬ 
ting the soil. The stems and blades or green 
straw, have, within my experience, never 
soured the soil. It has been found '‘sweating” 
a week or ten days after it had been tinned 
under, and that, too, in one of the driest sea¬ 
sons ever experienced in Southeastern Penn¬ 
sylvania. W ben turned under it has never 
been followed by the much-dreaded “drying 
out,’’spoken of by those who never use rye as a 
fertilizer. It has not been turned under until 
in bloom. 
No one would turn under a good stand of 
clover in the Spring to make room for rye to 
be used as a green manure; but there are 
many fields destitute of any coat of grass, 
clover or any other herbage. Hero rye can 
be used most profitably. It can be sown any 
time when the ground can be worked. Sown 
in August, it usually produces the greatest 
amount of straw and consequently w ill be 
worth most as a fertilizer. No ground should 
be allowed to remain unoccupied even for half 
a season; if no other crop is desired, pat in 
rye to be plowed under as a green manure. 
For this purpose potato patches and corn¬ 
fields need not be plowed; simply harrow the 
seed in; if it is only covered, it will grow. 
On hill-sides it is very objectionable to plow 
the ground for rye,following corn or potatoes; 
the rye will not grow any better and the soil 
will be in fine condition to be carried away by 
autumn rains and the water from melting 
snows. More surface soil and manure are car¬ 
ried away in a single season of heavy rains 
than can be replaced by the average farmer 
in years. Lightly harrowed in, the seed soon 
grows, and the roots and blades unite in form¬ 
ing a sort of turf like mac strong enough to 
retain the soil in its place and at the same 
time bold the water and prevent washing: in 
this way, its mechanical action is very desir¬ 
able, and, in sandy soil or on bill-sides, this 
alone will more than repay the cost of seed 
and labor. 
For soiling stock, rye is ahead of clover by 
several weeks, and this fact alone makes it 
very valuable. It fills a gap between _an 
empty hay mow and a short grass field. 
Horses and cattle do well on it until it gets 
too old, and by that time the grasses or clover 
should take its place. When quite young it 
should be fed mixed with hay, straw, or corn 
fodder; if fed too freely alone, it will some¬ 
times produce diarrhea. For early soiling, 
it should be sown thickly, on good laud, 
about the first of August; sowing later on 
thinner land, «ill lengthen the season several 
weeks. Rye, as green feed or grain, should 
not be given to brood mares, to co*s with 
calf, or to other animals in like condition. 
V\ hile green rye makes one of the best pas¬ 
tures for poultry late in Autumn and early 
in Spring, the grain should be kept carefully 
from the fowls, particularly from the laying 
hens. Sheep thrive well on rye pasture. 
It is scarcely worth while to try to convince 
the average American that roasted rye used 
instead Ot coffee would be conducive to good 
health, particularly of the nervous system. 
Lancaster Co , Pa. 
RURAL PRIZE ESSAY—CLASS V. 
JEROME WILTSE. 
SWINE. — THE BEST BREEDS, AND HOW TO 
FEED AND CARE FOR THEM. 
All the known breeds of swino belong to 
one of two great groups; the Sus Scrofa, or 
those descended from the wild hog, and the 
Sus Indicus, comprising all those of the small 
China hog. American breeds are made up 
of an admixture of these two great families. 
The best representative of the former is the 
wader and rooter, so common at the frontier. 
The latter is best represented by the Short- 
Faced Lancashire, the Small Yorkshire, and 
the China hog. 
Beginning with tho hog of the frontier, in 
which little blood of the improved breeds is 
supposed to exist, the various breeds approach 
the type of the Sas Indicus much in iho fol¬ 
lowing order: Jersey Red. Chester White, 
Poland China, and Berkshire, with uu endless 
variety of intermediate breeds that purtuko 
more or less of the characteristics of oue group 
or the other, according as they have been da 
veloped or deteriorated by their environments, 
including the feed that has been furnished 
t hem. Breeds in which the blood of the for¬ 
mer wild hog predominates, attain greater 
size and age, and are longer in reaching matu¬ 
rity; those in which Chinese blood predomi¬ 
nates fatten more readily while young, and 
are available for market at un eurlior age, 
and, when mated with the former, are gener¬ 
ally sufficiently prepotent to impart their color 
and many of their characteristics to their oil- 
spring. They are, also, more quiet aud not as 
much disposed to destroy their Offspring. For 
those who raise but few for market or for 
family u.-e, where grain is scarce and high, or 
where infectious diseases prevail, the small, 
tine-boned breeds are undoubtedly the best. 
In the West, where grain Is cheap, and hogs 
are bred and fattened in largo numbers, those 
of large size arc preferred; for on account of 
their greater weight, they bring more per 
pound, and they can be held aud fed longer 
with profit, when prices are not sufficiently 
high. They are, also, bettor adapted to feed¬ 
ing with cuttle. The Poland-China is now 
preferred by many, and is rapidly superseding 
the other large breeds. 
To avoid exposure to infectious diseases, 
hogs should bo kept, us much ns circumstances 
will permit, within inclosures tbuc contain 
springs of wafer, from which they should ob¬ 
tain their drink exclusively. By the use of 
water from running streams cholera and 
other infectious diseases are frequently com¬ 
municated from one herd to another, though 
widely separated. All stunted or unthrifty 
shouts should be removed, for disease first 
assuils them, und is then communicated to 
others, To prevent the iurger hogs from pi¬ 
ling upon aud crushing the smaller ones, they 
should he inclosed in separate yards. Home 
weeks before farrowing, the brood sows 
should be removed from the others and al¬ 
lowed to range where vegetable food is pleuti 
ful, and slops of wheat bran and ground rye 
or oats should be given them; aud fed to them 
and their pigs until the latter are of sufficient 
size to be put into separate inelosiires, when a 
never-failmg supply of corn should bo given 
them, and continued until they are fit for 
market. Sows should be allowed to farrow 
from early Spiing until August, after which 
dale it is usually unprofitable to raise pigs, as 
they do not reach sufficient size before cold 
weather to endure the exposures of Winter. 
Shelter and protection from rain, snow and 
cold winds should be furnished the year 
rouud, and shade during the hot part of the 
year, Bigs farrowed during Spring and the 
first part of Summer attain sufficient size to 
Winter well, aud are of the right age to fat¬ 
ten in the folio wing Hummer aud Fall, while 
vegetation is plentiful and corn is yet tender 
and easily digested. This, too, is the part of 
the year most favorable to the secretion of 
fat, aud as hogs have not at this age arrived 
at maturity, a greater percentage of their 
feed is taken up in growth than later. 
Better results are reached by breeding sows 
to males of the same breed than by introduc¬ 
ing foreign blood, even if tho males are near 
akin. [? ?.—Eds.] Disease is not generated 
by breeding in-ami iu, but, it is intensified 
when existing in both mule and female. As 
each par nt. imparts to the offspring its own 
characteristics, and superior physical develop¬ 
ments, a strain of hogs may be developed by 
judicious management and careful selection, 
more uniformly good by breeding to animals 
closely related than by auy other manage¬ 
ment. 
In the Spring of 1874 I purchased some 
Short-Faced Lancashire and some Berkshire 
pigs. When crossed, the Lanensliires, iu every 
ease, imparted their color to the resulting off 
spring; but their characteristics and those of 
the Berkshires were nearly equally blend 
ed. Increase iu size and in constitutional 
vigor resulted from the first, cross. When 
those offspring were mated with the Lnncft- 
shires, tho result wus endless variety in form 
and color. Race characteristics were broken 
up, and the progeny did not roach so great a 
size as specimens of either parent race. I 
continued to breed grade after grade to the 
pure Lancashire, and not until the sixth or 
seventh cross had been made was anything 
like uniformity reached. 
Richardson >'o., Neb. 
•HUsccllaneous- 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Eulalia Japonic a varlogata aud E. J. 
zebrina are, in my opinion, two of the pretti¬ 
est aud most desirable ormitneutal grasses we 
have iu cultivation, and both should be grown 
by all who possess the necessary facilities. 
They do best, when grown in a rich, deep soil, 
and after they have become well established, 
so that it, is well to avoid frequent removals. 
Piopagattou is effected by division of the 
plants early in the Spring, just before they 
start iuto growth. 1 know that seeds of these 
Eulalias are often advertised; but as far as 
my experience has extended, 1 have never 
been enabled to raise a plant, of them with va- 
riegatud foliage. 
For the benefit of those who are not ac¬ 
quainted with tho Eulalias, I would say that 
they are reed-like plants, attaining a hight of 
from four to six feet. E J. variegata has 
foliage that hears a fcriking resemblance to 
tho old ribbon or striped grass of the gardens; 
while the foliage of E. J. zehrina has tho 
striping or marking across the lt-af instead of 
longitudinally. Un this account, it Is a plant 
that will always attract attention; but I will 
here say that I consider the former the pret¬ 
tier and more desirable of the two. 
Tho Eulalia usually flowers about tho mid¬ 
dle of September, the flower panicles being 
produced from the summit of the -talks. At 
first they are brownish, and not at all showy; 
but as the flowers open the branches of the 
panicles curve over gracefully in a one-sided 
manner, thus presenting the appearance of 
ostrich plumes. It the fiowors are out when 
fully developed, and dried in a dry, airy situ¬ 
ation, they will lie found to he very desirable 
for decorative purposes during the winter 
season. 
A correspondent says that the flowers of 
her Clematis Jackinanii are quite small— 
about half the siz9 they were a few years ago, 
and asks the reason of it. I advise her to 
give it a good dressing of well decayed stable 
manure tins Fall, and to dig it in in the 
Spring. To obtain line bloom* of the clema¬ 
tis, the plants should be grown in a rich soil, 
and be given an abundant supply of water 
duriug their flowering season. 
I think that it is an excellent plan to give 
the large flowering clematis a slight protec¬ 
tion during the winter season. For this pur¬ 
pose the stems should be taken down in the 
Fall, and rolled up and placed in a bunch over 
the roots. Cover with leaves and place a few 
branches over them, so that they cannot be 
blown away. Early in Spring remove the 
covering; trim the plants and tie them in 
their places. Charles e. parnell. 
CHINESE WALLS. 
CHARLES M. HOVEY. 
I was quite surprised to read iua late num¬ 
ber of the Rural Nkw-Yokbr the following 
remarks: 
“It is a hard thing for us to realize that 
such farm papers as the Massachusetts Plough¬ 
man refuse to publish the advertisement of 
the Rural Nevv-Yokker. The reasen offered 
is that they decline the advertisements of the 
Rural because it is a competitor.” 
I could not believe this, and cannot do so 
now. If, however, such is the fact, it must be 
for some sufficient reason unknown to me. 
At any late, 1 thought the remarks a good 
text to present some ideas which I have often 
tnkeu up mv pen to write. In my younger 
days I read the wonderful story of the famous 
Chinese Wall, miles and miles long, hundreds 
of feet high, and broad enough to drive an 
eight-horse team on top. I could hardly real¬ 
ize its stupendous size, its huge gateways, and 
the labor required to build it. It was to me, 
then, the most wonderful of all that I ever 
read, even more so than “Aladdin and his 
lamp,” aud it has been oue of the mysteries of 
thp times that I should be brought to realize 
its immensity or to understand how such a 
freedom loving people as the Americans, who 
admit Germans, Scandinavians. Irishmen 
and all other nations to the privileges of 
citizenship, should, through government 
action, pass such stringent laws to exclude tho 
Chinese from our shores, when we long ago 
adopted their customs and still continue 
them. 
'I he United States has built just such a wall 
as the Chinese, only many thousand miles 
longer and quite as high; and watchmen are 
stationed nt every port to see that the gates 
are kept closed, not ovoti allowing one who 
has the right to pass to wear his own dress, 
unless n shabby one, or tocarvy his little flask 
of medicine. Under the guise of protection 
they have built a wall tbut excludes them 
practically from nil the world, aud tax the 
hard wcrking agriculturists—who, according 
to the ln-t census comprise eight tent hs of tho 
population—to pay all the cost. A farmer 
raises his wheat in Dakota, sends it5,000 miles 
by rail or steamship, at enormous rates, to 
furnish funds for watered stock, and under¬ 
sell the English grower; but a manufacturer 
with his cotton almost at his doors cannot 
compete with the Eugll-h producer unless he 
receives from Government 40 to 60 per cent, 
bounty. 
But I atu led away from my subject. What 
surprised me more was that tho Rural 
singles out our papers in Boston, who have 
done such naughty things, and overlooked 
the gardening journals of its own city and the 
flourishing city of Rochester. As it called 
names I presume 1 can do the same. The 
American Garden and Vick’s Magazine, 
which call themselves gardening journals, 
though only supplementary seed catalogues, 
Issued probably to evade catalogue postage, 
boast, or did boast of the fact, that no rival 
paper or t rade of the publishers should adver¬ 
tise iu tinir papers, and I understand they 
have just found out that according to the 
Postal Law they are obliged to do so, and re¬ 
luctantly admit this to bo the fact, and now 
insert, them because they are compelled to. 
This same game was tried just fifty years 
ago. The old New England Farmer, then a 
most valuable paper iu the hands of a seeds¬ 
man, refused uu advertisement, and I have 
lived long enough to see it go to decay, as all 
agricultural papers should, founded and pub¬ 
lished on the same basis. 
Why, you kuow. Mr. Editor, that you pride 
yourself in making known new seeds, new 
plants, new fruits, new trees, new vegetables, 
etc., and you know too, very well, that no one 
uiau ever raised ull that is good and worth 
cultivation, and you take up, say a foreign 
journal, not to find out what Messrs. Veitoh 
raise or introduce alone, but what Williams, 
Cartor, Sutton, Turner, Bell and other Eng¬ 
lish growers offer; aud what Lemoine, Van 
Boutte, Linden, Crouse, Verdier, aud the 
continental cultivators have spent their time 
and money iu producing ant offering for sale. 
The advertising pages are, in fact, worth a 
good deal more than all the other reading 
in some of the so-called gardening journals. 
What great thfugs have some of these ex¬ 
clusive men accomplished t Apparently noth¬ 
ing. They have to be sure, introduced 200 
varieties of potatoes raised by somebody and 
sold at fabulous prices, only 10 of which are 
possibly worth growing, aud probably 200 va¬ 
rieties of strawberries, less than five of which 
arc us good as we hud 40 years ago. flow 
should we ever have bad our gardens enriched 
with the many bpautiful asters, uew gladioli, 
begonias, dahlias, calendulas, body hocks, etc., 
had the advertisements of these new tilings 
been refused an opportunity to be read? The 
time was when some gardening operations 
were thought a profound secret. But, thanks 
to the late Mr London, with his large and 
liberal views, he soon dispelled all such crude 
Chinese notions among his countrymen, and 
taught them that gardening was an art, and 
that intelligence could not be made too broad, 
it is only ignorance that gropes iu tho dark. 
Even to-day there are nurserymen in London 
who have introduced hundreds of uew plants 
(and beautiful ones too), but llit y never con¬ 
descended or at least offered to impart one 
single word of information, how to propagate 
or cultivate them, and hundreds have been 
