■e m 
Heads win in this life. Not he who violates 
the hours of sleep by early rising; not he 
who toils unceasingly, and scrimps and saves. 
No I heads win in the battle, though hands are 
worn, blister®d, knotty and callused. I 
know of men who have “ succeeded at farm¬ 
ing” whose success I would not take for my¬ 
self or my children as a gift, and accept what 
these men have lost in intelligence, in knowl¬ 
edge of the ways of the world, of the arts, 
and of literature. They are dwarfed men in 
this respect—have contracted narrowness of 
view, narrowness of feeling, narrowness of 
the highest endowments. Not that there are 
not farmers who are intellectual, and who 
make farming intellectual work. There are 
many such. Bat with the masses the mind 
is not developed, and, whatever they gain in 
gold, they are becoming poorer daily in the 
true sense Some people do not dare tell the 
truth about these matters through fears of 
hurting others’ feelings or injuring the great 
cause they wish to advance. All a mistake! 
Let the truth out—it will hurt no one. You 
can advance a cause in no other way. One 
cause of the feebleness of the influence of the 
agricultural press to-day is the fear of pre¬ 
senting unpleasant facts—facts that are real* 
ized, without the courage to advance them. 
If a man studies law, and is able, he may 
well, but work alone will not accomplish 
much. The farmer whose time is not worth 
more in planning and superintending than 
the wages of his hired men—yes, five times 
more—is not making his business intellectuaL 
There is enough about farming to engage the 
deepest thinker perpetually. If the farmer 
studies his farm and his farming as men Btudy 
astronomy and geology he will become intel¬ 
lectual. He cannot help it. I hope I have 
not stirred np a hornets’ nest. I shall believe 
I have not. for my motive is good. I would 
give a new impulse to rural life—the grandest 
and noblest of all lives if we knew how to get 
the sweetness out of it. 
or is quoted as having said that he had eaten 
a specimen which was equal in lusciousnessto 
any pear he ever ate. I wonder if there 
were soy more specimens like that. It must 
have been better than Mr. Downing’s, for his 
was only of “very good quality.” 
I recently attended a little gathering of 
fruit-growers, where several good-looking 
specimens of the Kieffer were sample I, and 
T must say, in all candor, my first impres¬ 
sions have not, been improved nor removed. 
Out of curiosity I took a few notes at the time 
as the sampling went on: 
Mr. W. proposed that we should have a 
little refreshment—it would, perhaps, make 
business easier. He theu passed around sam¬ 
ples of grapes well preserved, pronounced ex¬ 
cellent “Now, gentlemen,” said he: “here 
are some pears I want you to taste;” and he 
passed samples around, and asked a suspen¬ 
sion of opinion till all were sampled, as some 
might be mu *h better than others; but some 
one, on tasting one, exclaimed, “Kieffer!” 
Mr. K—“Is this the Kieffer? I have never 
seen nor tasted one before; it is perfectly hor¬ 
rid—would make a good nutmeg-grater! I 
have just, ordered a couple of trees r for a cus¬ 
tomer. If I had known what I do now I 
would not have done it.” 
Mr. B —“This specimen is a little better, 
but none are fit to eat." 
Mr. J—“Sour; has a smoky taste. What 
ia it good for, anyway f’ 
Mr. W.—“To sell! It might do for cooking 
or canning.” 
Mr. J. was doubtful if vinegar would 
change the flavor. “Would customers buy 
such fruit a second time?” 
Mr. I., a commission merchant—“No! It 
is the poorest pear I ever ate; not as good as 
Le Conte.” 
Mr. S —“ I am sure I never tasted so poor 
a pear.” 
Mr. W.—“Here is a finer-looking specimen; 
if it was d’Anjou we should expect a first- 
class specimen. Yes!” tasting it; * 'no better,” 
was the general response. 
Mr. W.—“Now, gentlemen, perhaps these 
are not fair samples; but I have kept them as 
well as I know how to. When Mr. G., Mr. 
R., myself and others went to see the trees, 
and fruit on them, they made such a fine 
show I confess I felt inclined to plant some, but 
thought I would like to handle a few first and 
see how they kept in comparison with others, 
and I confess I am not now so strongly in¬ 
clined that way as I was. However, I will 
suspend judgment until further trial.’’ 
Are these gentlemen all wrong? 
E. Williams. 
tureone full-grown animal to two acres in good 
seasons, but prefer not to stock so heavily, as 
a dry season may oblige me to sell even 
if at a loss. 
The query box brought out some interesting 
discussion. It was Fhown that wheat sown 
early was damaged by the fly and that sown 
late had not made a good growth. Deep sow¬ 
ing and seeding when there was not moisture 
enough to cause the seed to grow at, once, 
were given as causes of failure to realize a full 
crop. “Shall we make permanent pasture on 
our best or poorest land ?” was answered: “On 
that least adapted to the plow and most liable 
to wash.” 
“What is the best ration for Winter feeding 
of cattle?” brought out the opinion that it 
always paid to feed some bran, the proportion 
depending upon whether growth, milk or fat 
was the object sought. A Short-horn breeder 
of large experience had found a ration con¬ 
sisting of one of oats, one of corn and two of 
bran gave the best results. 
“Is it an advantage to feed the hnsk with 
the ear in feeding the whole corn?” was 
answered affirmatively, the reason given being 
that the corn would be raisrd Bnd remastica¬ 
ted in chewing the cad • “Does it pay to let 
cattle run out in the Winter?” was answered 
in the negative by most of the members. 
Mr A. J. Caywood, the originator of the 
Po’keepsie Red, has spent many years in pro¬ 
ducing seedling fruits with a view to intro¬ 
ducing new and improved varieties. None of 
bis fruits have been so well tested throughout 
the country as to enable the public to judge 
of their ultimate value. The Duchess grape 
i3 probably best known of all the fruits he has 
originated. Among the most promising of 
the new fruits not yet disseminated are the 
Po’keepsie Red, the Ulster Prolific, and a 
new black grape not yet named, of which we 
shall give an engraving in a few weeks, and 
the Marlboro Raspberry. At present we have 
only to speak of the Po’keepsie Red. 
The specimen which is represented at Fig. 8 
was sent to this office by Mr. Caywood in 
November. It was so much injured that on 
lifting it up the shoulder dropped off, hence 
our portrait may not do it justice. The w eight 
of the bunch was one-half pound, and proba¬ 
bly when first picked it might have weighed 
three quarters of a pound. Mr. Caywood 
briefly described this grape in a recent num¬ 
ber of the Rural New-Yorker, as follows: 
“The Poughkeepsie Red is a cross of Iona 
and Delaware; the vine is a strong grower ; 
the leaf resembles that of Delaware more than 
any other. It has been proved perfectly 
hardy in the latitude of Toronto for the past 
10 years. The clusters run in size from that 
of Delaware to twice as large, many of them 
having from three to four shoulders. Clusters 
have been grown that weighed a pound each. 
The crops are heavy. There have been but 
two seasons in the past 15 years when it has 
ripened as late as September 10th; it usually 
ripens in August.” 
He farther says that it has no foxy or offen¬ 
sive aroma, nor any disagreeable or unpleas¬ 
ant taste. We have nothing to say about this 
grape from our own experience except that 
the quality is all that is claimed for it, and is 
so considered by all experts who have tasted 
it. We are promised a vine next Spring, and 
shall report on it in due time according to its 
merits. 
iatm (topics 
(Rural Special Report.) 
Mr Jones sowed LUO acres of wheat this 
Fall which was looking weii, and he estima¬ 
tes bis crop for 18s1 at 2,400 bushels or 20 
bushels per acre. He was disgusted with 
clover for any other purpose than to pasture 
hogs and enrich the land. He had lost one 
fine cow from clover bloat and had great 
trouble in getting clover hay cured. Had 
sown 40 acres with a mixture of Blue Grass, 
Orchard Grass and Timothy for perma¬ 
nent pasture. 
W. F. Brown said; “My experience with 
corn this year is favorable to planting near 
the surface. I plowed 10 inches deep; but 
laid off with a three-row sled marker which 
made a straight, narrow furrow not three 
inches deep. Plowed first time with a double¬ 
bar plow, turning the soil away from the 
corn, cultivated twice and then turned the 
earth to the corn at the last plowing. My 
com on clover sod yielded 70 bushels to the 
acre; on land which had been in corn three 
years, only 35 bushels. I drilled in my corn 
for the first time in 12 years, and was pleased 
with the result. I grew S3 acres of wtaeati 
averaging a little less thou 20 bushels to the 
acre. I have sown 18 acres for uext year, 
which do not look promising. My pasture 
land gave me the best profit this year, as grass 
was good the entire season. Good yearlings 
paid from $12 to $10 each for the season. I 
had 43 acres of permanent pasture, and as I 
hsd not fed short the previous year 1 turned 
out tny stock the first, day of April, and kept 
them on pasture just eight months. I shall 
have 70 acres in pasture the coming year. 
B. K. Boyd: “On clover sod my corn aver¬ 
aged 45 bushels to the acre; on wheat stubble 
only 25 hushtK I have found grazing more 
profitable than cropping. I find a straw stack 
in a clover field will prevent clover hloat. I 
have sown cousideraole Orchard Grass at the 
rate of two bushels to the acre. I expect to 
grow seed from it and then let It grow up for 
Fall pasture. I find that good'cattle will gain 
from two to three pounds a day on pasture, 
and this gain gives a fine profit. I can pas- 
iiliscflUttfons 
I CATALOGUES E7C., RECEIVED. 
Vick’s Floral Guide for 1SS3. Mr. Vick 
during his life took a pride in making each 
number of this very handsome work superior 
to the last—a pride which Mr. Vick’s sons 
seem also inspired with, since the present 
number is a model of excellence and beauty. 
It has 134 pages, highly calendered paper, 
richly illustrated with 1,000 wood cuts and 
three showy colored plates—one of flowers, 
another of the Chicago Market Potato, and a 
third of vegetables. It will please all. Ad¬ 
dress James Vick, Rochester, N Y. 
D Landrkth & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa, 
Landreth's Rural Register, Almanac and Cat¬ 
alogue for 1888. A costly book considering 
that 800,000 copies have been issued for gra¬ 
tuitous distribution. The covers are illumin¬ 
ated—there are several colored plates and 
many eneravings. This house was established 
in 1784, and is one of the most extensive seed 
houses in the world. The catalogue, besides 
the usual lists, prizes, novelties, etc., gives 
farm and garden hints for every month in the 
year. It will be sent on application to Rural 
readers. 
The Great London' Tea Co., 801 Wash¬ 
ington Street, Boston. Price list of b as, cof¬ 
fees, broma, chocolate, etc. This circular 
explains the premiums which are offered to 
purchasers of tea from $2 50 upwards. The 
establishment is one of the largest in the 
country and highly responsible. 
Little & Ballantyxk, Carlisle, England. 
Catalogue of forest trees, ornamental trees, 
shrub*, roses, rhododendrons, clematis, fruit 
trees, etc. 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
The roller, while helping to secure even 
germination of the seed, by pressing it into 
close contact with the damp soil and retaining 
dampness, has otherwise an ill effect, we be- 
THE NEW GRAPE P UGHKEEPSIE RED-FROM AN OUTLINE SKETCH-FIG 
“How much should cattle gain in a Summer 
on pasture?” was answ ered by Mr. Jones. He 
had once bought 15 bead in June; they gained 
300 pounds each in six months without grain, 
and 150 pounds in 100 days on grain—from 
Christmas. Waldo F. Brown. 
receive thousands of dollars for a single 
opinion. What man is there on earth whose 
opinion is so valuable in agriculture? None. 
Not for the reason that we have no meu 
whose opiuious are valuable, but for the rea¬ 
son that, as a class, farmers do not value 
their opinions. They are self-satisfied—con¬ 
tented with their inferior methods and the 
position which they occupy. Scientific men 
are to day making herculean efforts to help 
agricultural interests, but the prospect is not 
flattering. How shall we doctor sick men if 
they will not take medicine ? 
I will ask the reader if he is satisfied with 
the class of men that the present methods of 
farming build up. Now, I am a farmer—was 
born and bred a farmer. I love farming and 
farm life. I admire some of the grand char¬ 
acters of the farmers I know, yet, when I 
look over a congregation of farmers at fairs 
or other gatherings, and gaze into their faces 
and study them in a body, I am not satisfied 
to have my boys follow the same methods. 
No, the man who so conducts his farming 
as to make^himself and his family drudges, 
dwai flng intellectual endowments and growth, 
is burying himself and them in a living grave. 
Do not wonder that the boys try to “dig out ” 
But how shall farming be made more intel¬ 
lectual work? Simply by thinking more, 
planning more, and working less. Work i9 
SOME UNPALATABLE TRUTHS 
CHAS. A GREEN, 
The man who succeeds in making farming 
among the masses more intellectual work and 
less physical will benefit his feliows more than 
did Columbus, Washington or Lincoln. We 
are asked why do not farmers more frequently 
occupy seats in Congress and in other legis¬ 
lative halls I Why do not professional men 
look up to the farming class with greater re¬ 
spect? Why do farmers’ boys Lave the farm? 
I answer for the reason that farming, as 
managed at present, does not exercise, stimu¬ 
late and develop the intellect as it might, aud 
as the professions do. It is useless to point to 
the usefulness of the farmers’ vocation alone 
as a reason for their advancement. What 
matters it if a man does some little good to 
his fellows if he neglects that bettter port, that 
God given spark of divinity, the mind, uutil 
he is unfitted for the greater good, the greater 
influence that he might wield I 
