22 
JAW 43: 
botanists) between the half-bred, Allen’s Hy¬ 
brid and Concord, it if of one-fourth foreign 
parentage, and hence is liable to the suspicion 
that, with increased age, it may be too liable 
to the attacks of mildew. With me, however, 
this has not, so far, been the case, and I may 
be warranted in the hope that, as in the simi¬ 
lar case of the Brighton, this tendency of its 
foreign parentage will be overcome by the na 
tive hardiness of the indigenous parents—the 
Isabella and Concord. 
So far as the fruit is concerned, its time of 
ripening is stated by Charles Downing, in bis 
description, to be with Concord or a little 
later; which will, to a great extent, preclude 
its cultivation nnrth of the latitude of Massa¬ 
chusetts and Central Michigan, I have had 
several opportunities of comparing the flavor 
and other qualities of the fruit with those of 
many of the other newer grapes; and, if we 
may judge from specimens of these, as they 
have appeared on our exhibition tables, we 
will be warranted in saying that, in size of 
bunch and berry. In beauty of color, tender¬ 
ness of pulp and pleasantness of flavor, it 
ranks high among the newer white grapes; 
and if it shall prove permanently healthy, 
hardy and productive, it must, take a high po 
sit,ion both for dessert and market. 
I bear statements that, this year, it has 
lacked qualify in some places; but I imagine 
that at least something of this may fairly he 
attributed to the unfavorable peculiarities of 
the past season. So far as flavor and, per¬ 
haps, high quality are concerned, I do not con¬ 
sider it the equal of certain other varieties. 
South Haven, Mich. T. T. Lyon. 
The year when our specimen was received 
from Mr. Ricketts is obliterated from the la¬ 
bel The first season it made a very strong 
growth which was killed nearly to theground 
by the following Winter. The next season it 
grew more vigorously than before, and last 
season the vine fruited, setting many bunches 
of grapes which had they matured, would 
have been the largest of any we have ever 
raised. But rose bugs destroyed most of them, 
and the only perfect bunches were ripened in 
bags. One of these is shown in our outline 
sketch at Fig 22. The Lady Washington re¬ 
quires the entire season to ripen at the Rural, 
Grounds. When nearly ripe, the berries as¬ 
sume a rosy tint on the sun-exposed side, which 
afterwards deepens somewhat and spreads 
over the entire berry. In quality they were 
scarcely superior to the Concord, though free 
from foxiness. They were ripe September 25. 
The vine mildews considerably. 
Bontius. 
CHICAGO AGRICULTURAL CONVEN¬ 
TION. 
The National Convention of Agriculturists, 
held at Chicago, Dec. 12 to 16, uuder the aus¬ 
pices of *the American Agricultural Associo- 
tion, was claimed by those who attended 
all the meetings, to be the best in all respects, 
ever held. There was an excellent attendance 
of representative men from over two-thirds 
of the States in the Union, as well as from 
England, Ireland, Scotland, Russia and Can¬ 
ada. A large number of able papers were 
read, and much valuable information ob¬ 
tained and imparted, both by means of the 
addresses and of discussions following them. 
Such national meetings are important, and 
can be made more so as they increase in fre¬ 
quency of sessions, and number in attend¬ 
ance. Much is to be learned by coming to¬ 
gether from various sections, interchanging 
views, and discussing matters and questions 
in which producers, manufacturers and con¬ 
sumers are vitally interested. They should 
be continued. 
While, as said, the meeting was a good one, 
showing good results, there was much proper 
to be said and done, unattended to. The or¬ 
ganization claims to be. is and should be, non¬ 
political. The avowed purpose of its meet¬ 
ings is for discussions purely. Why mem¬ 
bers should be denied the privilege of discus¬ 
sing Free Trade or Protection, simply because 
political manipulators assume control of these 
topics important to all classes, is past com¬ 
prehension. Are not the producers and con¬ 
sumers of the country quite as much inter¬ 
ested in these subjects as the politicians ? 
Considering their bearing on the public weal, 
will some one point out the dividing line be¬ 
tween economics and politics 1 Or why one 
class of Americans should be permitted to 
discuss only one and not the other? If the 
objects of Government be, as announced, “to 
make life easy and the people happy,” and if 
our Government Is “of the people, by the 
people and for the people,” why abridge any 
means by which desired ends may be accom¬ 
plished ? These suggestions, like all others, 
are given for what they are worth. 
Brown ville, Neb. Robt. W. Furnas. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES. 
PROF. C. V. RILEY. 
A New Enemy to Wax Beans. 
The plant-feeding habits of our common 
squash beetle (Epilaehna borealis) are well 
known, but nothing has hitherto been record¬ 
ed of the food-habits of its Western congener 
which, originally described by Mulsant. from 
Mexico extends to Colorado and Western 
Kansas. The very first notice we received of 
the habits of this species shows that it is ca¬ 
pable of doing serious injury, as will be seen 
from the following letter of Prof. Geo. H- 
Stone, Colorado Springs, Colorado, dated 
August 26th, and accompanied by numerous 
specimens of the insect; “ By this mail I send 
you a tin box containing larvue and perfect 
beetles which promise to have almost as un¬ 
enviable a reputation as Dorypbora 10- 
lineata. From the egg to the grave they are 
voracious. They are good judges of food. 
With me they have confined their attacks to 
black-wax beans, and the inclosed leaves and 
pods will show their mode of attack. The 
early broods ate nearly all kinds of vegetables 
in a neighboring garden. They are rapidly 
spreading in this vicinity. I judge there are 
two or tnree broods in the year, like Dory¬ 
pbora. The adult beetles are not quite so ac¬ 
tive as their ten-lined relatives, however. 
They do not drop when the plant, is shaken 
quite so readily as the potato beetle. I have 
bad but little chance to study them, as they 
appeared in my garden a few- days ago. 
Within that time they have eaten almost 
every leaf on a good-sized patch of wax- 
beans, and to-day I have made arrangements 
to have them all picked by hand as they shall 
not have a chance to hibernate.” 
SPREAD OF THE 12-PUNCTURED ASPARAGUS 
BEETLE. 
Mr. Otto Lugger, of Baltimore, Md., has 
already recorded the recent introduction in 
this country of a secoud asparagus beetle, the 
Crioceris 12-punctata, Linn., which In Europe 
occurs commonly wherever asparagus is cul¬ 
tivated, without, however, doing serious iu- 
jury. Mr. Lugger found it first in the Sum¬ 
mer of 1881 near Baltimore in small numbers 
and quite local, but it has recently proved 
even more troublesome than C. asparagi. 
From the latter species this new enemy may 
at once be distinguished by its less elongate 
form and by the bright, orange-red of the 
upper surface, each elytron being marked with 
six small black dots. 
AN INTERNAL MITE IN FOWLS. 
Prof. Thomas Taylor, Microscopist of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, had occa¬ 
sion recently to dissect a sick chicken and be 
found that all parts of the lungs, the bronchia 
and the linings of the thoracic and abdomidal 
cavities were covered more or less thickly 
with a mite. An examination we vcere re¬ 
quested to make showed it to be in all respects 
identical with Cytolvichus sarcoptoldes, Md- 
guin. This parasite is known in Europe to 
inhabit the air passages of gallinaceous birds, 
giving the transparent and membraneous 
linings of these passages the appearance of 
gold-beater’s skin speckled with flour. It is 
likewise found in the bronchial tubes and 
their divisions, and even hi the bones with 
which the air sacs communicate. Mdguin be¬ 
lieves that while the mite may be extremely 
numerous so as to cause mucous irritation and 
induce asphyxia and congestion by obstruc¬ 
tion of the bronchia and that birds may thus 
die, yet it is incapable of causing, as Gerlach 
and Zundel believe, enteritis or inflammation 
of the peritoneum. 
£l)c ^orsanATi. 
SULKY PLOWS AND LARGE HORSES. 
One method of obviating the injury of the 
pole jerking from side to side and bearing 
heavily on the neck, is to have horses to work 
the sulky plow, so large ami strong that they 
can better control the pole. There is the 
same jerkiug of the pole in wagons on rough 
roads, and four-wheeled trucks in towns and 
cities, and this is one reason why in such 
places, and indeed in all rough, heavy work, 
horses of increased size aud strength have 
during the past few years been selected for 
these purposes. A pair of horses weighing 
about 1,500 to 1,600 pounds each are the best, 
and of such two will be sufficient for the 
work and supersede the necessity of putting 
on a third horse, which is always incon¬ 
venient to add to a team. To prevent injury 
to the legs of the horses, the pole should be 
well padded where it is likely to strike against 
them. Is it not possible to joint it iu a way 
that it will not jerk up and down, or from 
pide to side? I should suppose the ingenuity 
of our mechanics could get up some device 
that would do this. Perhaps a double joint 
or slide might effect this desideratum when a 
single joint could not. 
The late introduction of the large French, 
English and Scotch horses for the purpose of 
breeding a stronger class of animals for heavy 
farm and truck work has been highly bene¬ 
ficial, and they ought to be encouraged heart¬ 
ily by the farmers till the wants of the country 
are fully supplied, and it will take many 
years yet to do this fully, A. B. Allen. 
iitiscdlaiwous. 
STRAY THOUGHTS. 
There are two things in this world that 
some people make a terrible botch of—farm¬ 
ing and religion....... 
The farmer who has no house for bis tools 
and no baru for his animals, ought to go 
somewhere and serve an apprenticeship long 
enough to learn his trade. 
I have never known n man to be injured 
by education. Bigotry some1irae9 hurts a 
man, and folly is liable to affect him in the 
same way...... 
Many who pass for intelligent persons as¬ 
sume to know a groat deal; 1 had rather as¬ 
sume to know very little... 
I once heard a friend remark of a neighbor: 
*'I wouder if that man ever did anything 
that he was sent to do when a boy ?" “Why ?” 
“ Because I have never known him to accom¬ 
plish anything that he has undertaken since 
he became a man.”..... 
A foul ought to be a happy individual, for 
he finds more to laugh at than eight wise 
men can see..... 
“ I dislike to be caught out so late,” re¬ 
marked the polecat as the farmer opened his 
hen-house door and found the chicken eater 
sitting on the steel trap. Clem Auldon. 
Full Milk for Babes. 
I have read many of Henry Stewart's ar¬ 
ticles in the Rural New-Yorker with deep 
interest, and having come to regard him as 
reliable authority on all subjects pertaining 
to the dairy, I fear the pffect of u part of his 
article on “Purity of Milk ” in a late Rural 
may not be for good, should all parents who 
read it entertain the same opinion of him that 
1 do, and follow his advice respecting the 
feeding of infants. While “sweet skim-milk'' 
may be for some children more wholesome 
and digestible food than whole milk, it is not 
for all. Some need cream, and will die if fed 
skim-milk. A neighbor of ours had a hube so 
feeble as not to be able to sit alone when one 
year old. Six months later it nearly died with 
cholera infantum, aud our physician advised 
the use of cream, saying, “The top of the milk 
is not too good for most people.” At first its 
stomach would retain only two tablespoon¬ 
fuls, but soon it required more, aud until 
weaned took “the top of the milk” and throve 
on it. Skimmed milk would have rendered 
that neighbor childless. Good pasture fur¬ 
nished the food of a good butter cow in the 
above case. m. k. s. 
Fulton, N. Y. 
-»-♦-»- 
Are Bluckwalnut-Trees Injurious to 
Near-by Growth? 
In the Rural of Dec. 33 I noticed au article 
wherein was the statement that blackwalnut 
trees were poisonous to anything growing 
near them. Several years ago I saw about 
the same thing iu the Albany Cultivator. It 
stated chat apple-trees would not grow near a 
blackwalnut tree. Now I cannot let this 
statement pasB without telling what 1 know 
about the matter. When 1 was a boy I lived 
on a farm, and we had an apple orchard that 
had several large trees of blackwalnut grow¬ 
ing close by it, and there stood one tree and 
an old stump of the same kind in the orchard; 
and yet the apple-trees grew and bore fruit 
almost under the shade of the blackwalnuts. 
Cleveland, Ohio. w. w. dk g. 
Ear “ Drums.”—I wish to say one word in 
regard to the Gan more ear drum advertise¬ 
ment. 1 am quite deaf and have tried these 
“drums,” and others in this neighborhood 
have done the same, and we all have found 
them the grandest humbug ever invented, 
puid $3 for mine; they do not cost over 10 
cents to manufacture. d. m. d. 
New Providence, N. J. 
Ditto.— The Rural has all along been giv¬ 
ing us “living, breathing” animal portraits, 
but who ever saw such an “eating ” likeness 
of a potato as the picture iu the last number ? 
[The Blush in Rural of Nov. 18 is referred to 
—Eds.] I should liKe to know just how many 
two-dollar subscriptions that picture will 
briug to you. a. w. 
-- - -■ 
Sorghum for Feed —From a late bulletin 
of N. J. Ex. Station we learn that the yield 
of amber seed and stalk is about the same 
as that of Indian corn; but after the seeds 
are ripe aud hard the stalks are still green, 
and apparently suitable for ensilage. This 
point is especially important. Should sorg¬ 
hum prove suitable for this purpose the same 
field might be made to yield from 10 to 15 
tons of green fodder per acre, with from 20 
to SO bushels of clean seed, equal in weight to 
shelled corn, which it approaches closely in 
feeding value, as will be seen below. An ex¬ 
periment with 20 tons of cut and crushed 
sorghum, now packed in a silo on the College 
Farm, will be reported as soon as completed. 
Conclusions arrived at from carefully con¬ 
ducted feeding experiments were: 
1. Sorghum meal, from amber seed, freed 
from hulls and fed as above staled, had no 
injurious effect on the health of milch cows. 
2. It exerted no noticeable influence on 
either the taste, color or chemical composi¬ 
tion of the milk. 
3. Indigest ibility it probably stands slightly 
below corn meal, for when fed pound for 
pound the corn meal ration y ielded seven per 
cent, more milk. 
American or Irish Potatoes ?—The Sun 
points out that the name of Irish Potato iB 
employed to distinguish it from the sweet po¬ 
tato, and yet few persons seem to be aware 
that this so-called Irish potato is a native of 
North America, and should be called Ameri¬ 
can potato, if any common name is required 
in place of its scientific one, Solanum tubero¬ 
sum. To call it Irish is not o ily incorrect, 
but misleading, and every child has to unlearn 
when he grows to manhood what he has 
learned through using a wrong name, or else 
remain in ignorance of the fact that our 
American potato is not of Irish origin. 
Farrow Cows. —Prof. Arnold, speaking of 
the physiological and economical reasons 
which are opposed to the farrowing of cows, 
says, in the N. Y. Tribune, that cows which 
have been giving milk for a year or more 
generally have their milk become so difficult 
of digestion that infants and invalids cannot 
use it, when they can use that from cows 
which have recently come in. The man who 
keeps but one cow to furnish bis family with 
milk and farrows her for the purpose of hav¬ 
ing a continuous Jsupply, must be content to 
use milk depressed in flavor and inferior In 
digestibility and wholssomeness, during the 
greater part of her term of milking. He 
must also expect a depreciation in yield. 
The liberal flow’ of milk which follows for a 
few months after dropping her calf soon begins 
to fall off, and continues to diminish till, sooner 
or later, she becomes dry, it may be two or 
three years. Perhaps one cow in a thousand 
may continue to give milk continuously for 
five or six years, but uine-tenths cease at the 
expiration of two years, and the yield of the 
second year Is but half that of tbe first. The 
milk of a farrow cow costs, for the second 
year, double that of the same cow fresh in 
milk, besides being inferior in quality and 
wholesomeness. It is therefore neither de¬ 
sirable nor economical to farrow a cow to 
protract her season of milking to the end of 
two years instead of one. The short interrup¬ 
tion in the supply which it prevents does not 
compensate for the greater cost and inferior 
quality. Professor Arnold has found by' ex¬ 
perience ns well as from the study of milk, 
that it is much cheaper and more satisfactory 
when a single cow is wanted, to select one 
which will hold out milking through, or near¬ 
ly through, the year, or till she comes in 
again, which is not difficult, aud let her come 
in fresh at intervals of a year or a little more. 
There will be a few days just before and just 
after dropping her calf when the milk will not 
be fit for use, otherwise the supply will be 
continuous,aud be cheaper and more desirable. 
-»»♦ 
Selling Milk not 1 Profitable. —Major 
Alvord believes that when the many item 1 ’ 
of cost arc figured up correctly, it will be 
found that milk rarely sells at a profit, but 
that its sulo is simply one of the methods by 
which farmers are disposing of the fertility of 
their lands. They are really selling their 
faruis by the quart and pound. Oue thousand 
pounds of milk contain, beside other elements, 
in nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid, the 
three things we pay for when we purchase 
manures, not less than what would cost us oue 
dollar and fifty-four cents, so that really a 
gallon of milk is worth one cent aud a-half to 
