SIS 
1884 
Farmer, that, unless there should be a de¬ 
cided prospect of advance in price of ugar, 
tb* factory at Champaign, will not bo oper¬ 
ated next year. He docs not believe sugar can 
be made there, with present appliances, so as 
to be safely sold at live cents a pound. The 
reports frotn the establishment at Franklin, 
Tenn.. are unfavorable—inability to get crys¬ 
tal! zed sugar . 
After the ground becomes frozen, cuttings 
of currants, gooseberries and grapes may be 
made ami stored in sand during the Winter. 
Store them away in a cool cellar. 
Quince cuttings had better be placed in 
boxes of sand—first a layer of sand, then a 
Fig. 500. 
layer of cuttings about eight inches long. 
Place these boxes in trenches below the frost 
line...... ........... 
Cuttings of the (ireafc panicled Hydran¬ 
gea (the latest wood), weigelas. lilacs, honey¬ 
suckles, Rose of Sharon, deutzius, spiraeas, 
etc., mav be planted in trenches. Firm the 
soil about the lower end-fill in the trenches 
with mellow soil, and cover with strawy 
manure. 
Colman’b Rural World gives the good ad¬ 
vice not to take stock in tbe fraudulent speci¬ 
fics imposed upon an easily gulled public, 
called remedies for hog cholera, but rather 
in your iwu intelligence in keepiug clean and 
feeding properly every head of stock owned 
by you. An ounce of prevention is worth 
much more than a pouud of cure wheu the 
euro comes from tho factory of the quack and 
the humbug. This is true in the case of both 
man and beast ... 
Mil. Garbetsee, of tbe Western New York 
Farmers’ Club, has fed his hogs on Prickly 
Comfrey the past Summer, and they have 
thriven ou it He kept six hogs on a patch 
about 30 by 50 feet. 
Mr. U. C). Cowan, of Kansas City, says 
that the fact Is. the disposition of cattle, like 
that of people, is largely due to education. 
Early handling by a careful aud competent 
person, and plenty of wholesome food given 
with an unsparing hand, will usually make 
Fig. 501. 
cattle tractable and well disposed, while rough 
treatment will render them unpleasant, shy 
and vicious ..... 
Mr F. D Coburn says that while “early 
beef ’ does not always mean “curly maturity, 1 ' 
it is an undoubted fact that choice beef can be 
produced in two years, aud there is certainly 
no reason in feeding an animal any longer 
than 80 to 30 months at most. 
Mr. Atkinson thinks that it is time for the 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
people to take monopolies in haDd and choke 
them to death. 
The Farm Journal correctly states that 
sheep can endure almost any amount of cold. 
It is the wet that kills them. Shelter them 
from pitiless storms. 
The Massachusetts Ploughman refers to the 
old way of boiling down cider three-fourths, 
when it becomes jelly—very much relished by 
some ..... 
“Aut scissors aut nullus”. 
The Ilcsxinu Fly has appeared in Kansas. 
Oue farmer lost a field of wheat from this 
cause last year... 
“A Kansas man climbed to tbe top of a 
corn-stalk before retiring, to inspect tbe state 
of the weather. His foot slipped, and he fell 
iutoa neighboring tree-top," etc., etc. 
J. B. Olcott, of the Connecticut Corn ant, 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. XVII. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Salem has a population of 5.000 and is not 
so large but tlint next morning we bad time 
enough to see it to very good advantage, and 
found it to be a pretty town, with many neat, 
white cottages, but very few elegant resi 
donees. In regard to the cultivation of flowers 
and ornamental shrubs, Oregon is as different 
from California, as it is possible for two coun¬ 
tries to be. The people In California are aglow 
with an instinct for beauty and adornment, 
while these seem to be the last things for which 
the Oregonians care, and oven u town of the irn 
portance of Salem, the capital of the State, 
the seat of tbe Willamette University—one of 
says that for the first feeling of soreness in 
the throat there is no better remedy or safer 
gargle than a mouthful of strong salt and 
water, repeated several times. 
In a report of the New York Agricultural 
Experiment Station, the Director says the Ru¬ 
ral Thoroughbred Corn was scarcely ready to 
harvest October 20, and that tbe same might 
be said of Blount’s Prolific, We have repeat^ 
edly said that the Rural Thoroughbred is very 
late, and that it requires the whole season to 
mature even on Long Island. No other claim 
has ever been made for It. Its great value 
north of this latitude is for the great amount 
of fodder it will produce. Every plant will 
produce |u average of half-a-dozen suckers, 
which grow so large that there is really no 
main stalk. As a fodder or ensliage plant, it 
will bo found there is no other variety of com 
approaching it. As for Blount's Prolific—that 
is too late for tbe climate of the Experimental 
Station, and the same may be said of the 
Chester County Mammoth... 
the most important schools on the Coast—and 
a place of residence of presumably as refined 
and intelligent people as are in the State, is 
strikingly lacking in such adore merits as na¬ 
ture can be made to yield. The largo grounds 
of the University were painfully ill-keptand 
unattractive—neither trees nor well-kept grass. 
The University has a collegiate department 
open to women, and most of the schools for 
higher education on this coast are for both 
sexes. Tho Capitol, begun in 1870, is a very 
good-looking building; one wing is not yet fin¬ 
ished, and the Court house is quite attractive 
in appearance. 
Oregonians certainly have little cause to 
complain of a salary grab among their legis¬ 
lators, who. if I am correctly informed, receive 
but 83 per day, and the legislative session is 
limited to 40 days. 
Naturally, as we journey in a leisurely way 
over the country, and from place to place, we 
talk with a great many people and hear a 
variety of opinions, and therefrom draw some 
conclusions which are more or less accurate. 
We had heard considerable said concerning 
the indebtedness of farmers in the Valley, 
and that n great many farms were heavily 
mortgaged, particularly among those ownod 
by the pioneer settlers who came here 30 or 
more years ago. and from all we could learn, 
there seemed to be much truth In tho allega¬ 
tion. Concerning this, T had an hour’s con¬ 
versation with a gentleman in tho train be¬ 
tween Portland nut! Salem, and he said that 
the majority of fanners about Salem bought 
their lard, butter and egg-*; that they were 
too luzy to make money enough to keep them¬ 
selves out of debt; that they often moved 
Into town, hired the worn done on their 
farms, and spent, their own time chiefly loaf¬ 
ing in shops and stores; that their daughters 
considered it degrading to do bouse work, and 
that Chinamen filled the kitchens He gave it 
as his opinion that 200 girls could get ernidoy- 
meut in Salem at wages ranging from $3 to 
$5 per week, and with uo washing to do—the 
“washing ’going to the Chinese. The farm¬ 
ers, he said, are in the bahit of having their 
farm implements—machines costing 8100 
more or loss—out in tho “weather” all Winter, 
unsheltered and unprotected, and wo had am¬ 
ple illustrations of this statement, We did 
see. at oue pluce, some farm machinery under 
such shelter us boards laid on the top of posts 
could give; but wo saw several costly ma¬ 
chines simply left under trees, or ulong a 
fence. He further said (as did other’ subse¬ 
quently) that many farmers had mortgaged 
their farms for machinery, ami that they 
found it easier to put another mortgage on 
tho farm in order to buy new reapers and 
binders, or “headers," than to take care of the 
old ones I 
When we reached the Umpqua Valley_ 
rather a succession ot small valleys, and a 
very attractive country—we saw many sheep 
grazing in the valley and on tho mountain 
sides, and a man in the train, who amused us 
very much with his manner of describing the 
couutry, said that many horses were raised in 
this section; that it didn’t cost over ten cents 
ahead to raise them,and that they could be 
bought for f301 This man gaveasan excuse 
for tho lack of energy shown by the people, 
the absence of electricity in the atmosphere; 
it never lightened, aud there w» s no elec¬ 
tricity to ‘touch up'’ the people. Then, too, 
it was a famous country for sleeping. Ho 
himself slept 10 hours out of the 24; in the 
East ho had slept but four, and here ho was 
four thousand timosas lazy as he was there! 
He pronounced tho Chinese the curse of this 
Coast, as they would always work for Jess 
than any body else, and on the top of this he 
voluutee'cd the information that nobody 
would have vegetables to eat. if tho Chinese 
didn’t raise them, for the farmers were too 
lazy! Ho said there was nothing in the pro¬ 
ducts here to make bone and muscle—the 
wheat was all gluten (!) There was no lime 
in the soil or in the wator, which explained 
why none of the women had teeth! He de¬ 
clared the egg-shells were so tbiu as hardly 
to hold together, and that it took more eggs 
in Oregon to make a cake than would be re¬ 
quired oast of the Rocky Mountain).; the yelk 
was light colored ami small And Hour was 
different, too, it took an Eastern woman a 
year to learn to make good bread with Oregon 
flour, etc , etc. He spoko as cxtrayagantly 
In praise of the fertility of the Valley as he 
vigorously denounced the sbiftlessness of the 
people. Ho thought the Pacific Coast a hard 
place for women, and. so far as ho knew, 
women did not generally like it; but ho had 
never been in a country where women did so 
little work. Ho pronounced everybody lazy 
and shiftless, as making money easily for 
their present needs, not caring a cent for 
the future, and ho said the people were the 
most merciless and cold-blooded under the 
sun in their treatment of poor men, whom 
they fairly run out of the country I 
We continued our journey that day as far 
as Roseburg, a pretty village m tile mountains, 
and at tho railway staiiou wore two hotel 
carriages for prospective guests. When we 
hail secured Oiu* “traps” we found 000 carriage 
full, and Anaximander, whose sympathies 
rarely act in his own behalf, suggested that 
we patronize the empty carriage, which we 
did. and which soon rolled up in front of a 
dilapidated hotel, which at first glance filled 
me with distrust. Wo were ushered into a 
small, low room, in which, luckily, a wood fire 
was burning in a fire-place, and tbo landlady, 
whose face wore a troubled look upon seeing 
us, drew up a rocking-chair in front of tbe fire 
for me to sit in. Tbe landlord hurriedly un¬ 
locked a door leadiug directly from tho room, 
revoaling a sleeping apartment of meager 
dimensions, upon wbieh.the laddie loudly up- 
spoke, “I think, mamma, this is a very 
small buuse.” Upou saying that we would 
like a larger sleeping room, the landlord, 
who looked as despairing as his wife, said he 
could give us a double room, if wo didn't 
mind going up stairs—and ho soomed rather 
