three years ago, and had been used since as a 
potato patch. One'kernel was planted in a 
hill, rows two by three feet apart. The w eight 
of the corn in the ear was298 pounos; shelled, 
with a hand cultivator both times. After this 
the corn was cultivated twice and hoed three 
times. All flat culture. About the 25th of Oct. 
1 cut up and busked the corn: most of the 
hills had from three to four stalks, some five, 
and many bad two ears on a stalk aud a few 
three ears, so that the average per bill was 
something over three ears. Those of only one 
ear on a stalk were very large, 12 of the best 
earsweighing 25 3-16 pounds when first husked. 
These ears had from 16 to 20 rows each and 
were 13 to 15% inches long, filled out plump. 
The main center stalks stood 18% to a trifle 
over 10 feet high. One ear of 18 rows, 14% 
inches long, measured 11 inches around and 
weighed two-and one-half pounds when first 
hmked. On the 29th of Oct. I counted the 
ears and found there were 328; weight of the 
same being 310 pounds, and of the shelled 
corn 240 pounds. Alfred Rose. 
[On hauling his stalks to the barn, Mr. Rose 
found several ears that were overlooked at 
time of husking, w hich on being shelled gave 
nine pounds more of corn, which was added 
to the above named 240 pounds making a total 
of 249 pounds shelled corn. Eds.] 
THE EURAti PRIZE CORN REPORTS, 
How the Crops were Raised, etc 
off worms and insects, and the potatoes come 
out in the Fall beautifully smooth with skin 
intact, and with high perfect health, to be 
carried into their future development. 
D. S. Marvin. 
[We write for the majority of our readers. 
FIRST ro THE FIFTH PRIZES INCLUSIVE. 
Roselle, Carroll Co., Iowa.—My Rural 
Dent Corn I husked about the 25th 
w ’ of October. I had 7% bushel baskets 
full, which weighed 339 pounds. I 
1 V* shelled my corn November 221, and 
found that it weighed 274 pounds. 
' The frost hurt the Rural corn some- 
' ° what, but, taken all in all, it was the 
finest corn lhat I ever saw. I had 
j- . several ears that bore over 850 
©> grains. There was one ear that had 
^ 1,188 grains ou it, but my pigs got 
the stalk down before it was quite 
, ripe so 1 could not save it. The plat 
o of ground was fallow last year and 
»a_ was plowed twice, once in July and 
( again in October. Last Spring I 
i hauled two good loads of rotten bam- 
J. 13. r yard manure on tbeplotand plowed 
it under and marked the rows four 
feet each way, putting one good handful of 
hen manure in each hill at planting, which 
was on May 17th. The corn came up badly, 
and where the hills were missing 1 took the 
Beardsley's Method—Top Plan—Figs. 
19 and 20. 
200 pounds. The corn ripened in October, 
did not give it extra culture. J. W. Good. 
zaxm 
Collin’s Hop Frame: Sectional-view— 
Most of them are not provided with hot¬ 
beds.— Eds] 
Ovid, Clinton Co., Mich —I received 146 
kernels of the Rural Flint Corn and planted 
them May 15, 1882—one plot 33 feet square. 
The Rural Thoroughbred Flint Oocn as a 
Fodder Plant. 
“ This corn is frost proof 1 ” So exclaimed 
a farmer to whom I showed my Rural Flint 
Corn. And, sure enough, to the north, west, 
and south of the patch-only separated by 
some four or live rows of potatoes—there was 
the common dent corn all killed by frost, 
while, like an oasis in the desert, like a little 
island of ceatury plants, this three-months’ 
planted corn loomed up. When the earlier 
planted dent corn had begun to glaze,* this 
corn was not in the milk yet. Judge how 
pleasantly I was surprised, iate in October, to 
find two-thirds of the ears all right for seed. 
For several years it has been my practice 
to plant corn for feeding to cows, as soon as 
it begins to tasseL Thrown over the fence 
into the pasture, in a time of drought, it is 
surprising how clean eattle will eat it so long 
as it holds green. Why will not the Rural 
Flint Corn be the identical fodder for soiling ? 
On the same land here the yield of wheat, 
oats and rye has dwindled from 20, 30 and 25 
bushels down co 6, 15and 12 bushels; but corn 
still holds nearly its own. On many parts of 
these farms sand dri tts at such a rate as to make 
the raising of clover out of the question, and 
corn thus becomes the only hope and expec¬ 
tation. Cut up the corn in season ; put ou 
extra force to haul it just as the ground closes 
up. Let the husking go. Unload and stack 
with a team aud horse forks, and the way 
cattle, sheep and horses will pile down this 
sort of foliar in cold weather will be a hint 
for the Dext season. J. P. 
Oasis, Wis. 
FIVE METHODS OF TRAINING HOPS, WHICH 
MAY BE USED BY ANY ONE SO DISPOSED, 
THE PATENTS FOR TRIM HAVING 
EXPIRED AND THE DEVICES 
BEING PUBLIC PROPERTY. 
The subject of hop culture occupied the 
minds of American inventors a9 early as 1850, 
and of late years a great number of improve¬ 
ments have been made. In ISOS Frederick 
W. Collins patented a method for training 
hop vines. His arrangement consists in set¬ 
ting a short pole, A, in each hill of hops, 
which pole is of the length necessary to train 
the hop perpendicularly to the bight at which 
it will commence bearing fruit, aud connect¬ 
ing each of these poles at the top with each 
contiguous hill by means of horizontal twines, 
B, in such a manner that the pole in each hill 
will be supported by its fellows, and the 
bearing portion of the hop trained horizon¬ 
tally upon the twines. Before the date of 
Collins’s invention the usual manner of train¬ 
ing hops was upon poles of sufficient hight to 
train the vine wholly in an upright direction. 
The effect of wind upon s’ ch poles frequently 
blew them down because of their hight, or 
else whipped the vines about so much as to 
destroy a considerable portion of the crop, 
and their being unsupported by each other 
left each pole to resist independently the ac¬ 
tion of the wind, and threw a great leverage 
upon the supporting earth in the hill of hops, 
thereby affecting ihe root as well as the top 
of the plant. Collins’s arrangement, as 
shown in elevation in Fig. 13 and in top plan 
view in Fig. 14 is intended to obviate these 
objections. 
Linus S. Mason, in 1864, devised a way for 
training hops, shown by the accompanying 
drawings, Fig. 15. Mason employs training 
sticks, D, suspended from the main wire, B, by 
means of hooks, c, and connected by short 
cords or wires, b, to a stake C, driven in the 
Mason's Method—Fig. 15. 
Owing to wet, cold weather only 80 grains 
grew. Soil, black sand, undrained; manured 
with two bushels of hen manure, sown broad¬ 
cast. Cultivated three times and hoed twice. 
I cut it October 20. but it did not all fully 
ripen, but got dry enough to shell. It was 
weighed November 3d, the weight of ears be¬ 
ing 226 pounds. It was shelled November 
10th; weight of shelled com being 170 pounds. 
Ears were from eight to 15 inches in length. 
As many as six suckers came from one grain 
planted, with from one to two ears on each 
stalk. Corn was planted in rows four feet 
apart, one grain in a hill. A. F. Barnes. 
outside hills and filled up the spaces until I 
had 99 hills in rows in a plat 9x11 feet. I 
plowed my corn twice and hoed it four times; 
there was not a weed left to grow in the plot. 
Peter Thkin. 
Penn Yan, Yates Co., N. Y.—Of Heavy 
I think it safe to say that the Beauty of 
Hebron is the best early potato now known; 
if not, then there are some 1 do not know 
anything about. The yield is much greater 
than that of the Early Rose ever was and the 
quality far better,especially for table purposes. 
In the Fail of 1881 1 noticed some stalks of 
the Beauty green while the main crop was 
fully ripe; in digging, the tubers that adhered 
to the green stalks when pulled were saved 
and this year they were planted. While the 
crop was better than that of the earlier ones 
Beardsley’s Method—Sectional View—Fig. 21. 
it all, i ground in such a manner that the stake and 
c. In I sticks combined take the place of the training 
By the use of the sticks, D, a firm 
wires, 
support is given to the bcps^h ch is not 
liable to sway to and fro, ai d preserves the 
hops frem injury by high winds. Further¬ 
more, the sticks can be readily reached and 
unhooked from the ground, and the gather¬ 
ing of hops thereby consii erably facilitated. 
Each hill is provided with a stake, C, firmly 
driven Into the ground, and is made four or 
more feet high. Near itB top it is provided 
with two buttons, a, to which the training 
sticks, D, are connected hy tho short cords, b 
so that the sticks can be easily turned in any 
direction. The hook c shown in Fig. 10, by 
means of which the hooks are suspended on 
the wire, B, has its eye, e, through which the 
pivot passes, arranged past the center line 
drawn through the bight of the book, so that 
when the hook is made to catch hold of the 
main wire any strain of the training stick in 
a downward direction will have a tendency to 
throw the hook in the direction of the arrow, 
and the main wire will be pressed up against 
the edge of the stick aud firmly confined 
between it and the hook eventing any 
lateral slipping. 
Mason prefers training sticks to training 
Large Yield of Potatoes. 
On page 849 of the Rural for Dec. 16 I see 
that a subscriber at Tiffin, Seneca Co., Ohio, 
charges the Rural with exaggerating the 
yieli of the Blush Potato He says that bad 
the alleged yield lieeu 400 bushels he would 
still have doubted In the potato-growing 
districts of New York 500 bushels per acre 
have been grown. Here in Delaware, on a 
E oor place for the giowth of potatoes, 300 
ushels have been grown. W. R. j. 
Harrington, Del. 
Aylesworth’s Trellis—Fig. 18. 
Cameron, Clinton Co., Mo. Nov. 8.—I 
planted 161 grains of the Rural Dent corn 
May 17th, and 150 grew. Soil was a sandy 
loam; no manure was used this year. The 
lan d had ft thin coat of barn yard manure 
the corn was up about four inches, I dusted 
it with plaster and ashes, aud made a similar 
application in eight or nine days thereafter, 
and bot b times hoed and stirred the soil in and 
around the corn. 1 also cultivated the same 
