KocicbA.No Favorite: pulpy and worthless. 
Secretary: among the highest in flavor of 
those sent out by Ricketts, but its extreme 
lateness and rugged bunches are against it. 
Senasqua: beautiful clusters of well-flav¬ 
ored berries. A late Bort worthy of more at¬ 
tention, from amateurs at least, than it has 
received. 
Vermont GrANT: as poor in quality as it 
is large in size: biguess and badness are com¬ 
bined. 
Worden: an old but long-neglected sort. It 
is some days earlier than the Concord, better 
in quality and should take its place in all 
amateur collections. 
red grapes. 
Amber Queen: this is of the highest qual¬ 
ity, but it is not satisfactory in habit: it is 
worthy of trial by those who grow Rogers’s 
Hybrids successfully. 
Jeffhrson: a splendid grape, but not equal 
in flavor, as some admirers claim, to its pa¬ 
rent the Iona. It is, however, possible for a 
variety to be soma degrees inferior to the Iona 
and yet be of very high quality. It is so with 
the Jefferson, and though the Concord blood 
detracts from its flavor it is an element of 
strength in its habit. This is probably the 
most promising of all the grapes (for ama¬ 
teurs at least) enumerated iu this list. 
Lixdlky: au old variety but one that until 
recently has been throwu aside in favor of 
Salem and Agawam, neither of which is 
wortny of its company. The Lindley is the 
best of all Rogers’s seedlings. 
Poughkeepsie Red: I know nothing about 
the growth, etc., of cnis kind, but its flavor is 
so excellent that all vine-growers should give 
it a trial. 
Rochester: a chestnut-colored sort that 
ha» this year proved its value. While so 
many kinds chat ordinarily set well bore so 
few bunches, and they often ragged, the 
Rochester gave as many full clusters as ever 
it did since first it bore, lu quality it ranks 
with the Diana. 
Vkbgenxks: an overpraised novelty, but 
one not without merit. 
Wyoming Red: this was represented to be 
a large and improved Delaware, but it is a 
very pronouaeed Labrusoa, one of the most 
detestable grapes I have had the misfortune 
to taste, much worse than the old Perkins. 
WHITE GRAPES. 
Duchess promisee to be the best white 
grape for the amateur as yet sent out. It 
bears long, well tilled bunches, equal in flavor 
to the Croton. It may not thrive in the ex¬ 
treme north, but it should be carefully tested, 
and doubtless will be, all over the country. 
Golden Drop: one of Pringle’s seedlings? 
a good little grape, bat subject to mildew. 
Rady Washington: the most vigorous 
viuc iu the list. Tae bunches are long and 
showy, but the fruit is not of high quality. 
There is an absence of foxiness but of good 
flavor as well. It is a disappointment. 
Miner's Seedlings: we have tested a num 
ber of these. Ail of them have large, hand 
some berries which drop from the stem when 
ripe; they are as bad m this respect as the 
Hartford, aud all are very foxy. The Vic¬ 
toria m the best of tue Bet, and if introduced 
10 years ago wjuld have tilled a useful place 
us a wmte market grape; but I am not dis¬ 
posed to make room for it now. It seems to 
differ from the Niagara only' iu being inferior. 
Niagara; this large grapo is becoming 
pretty well known as tne most showy white 
sort, except it be the Pockhngton, thus far 
seat out. it has all the characteristics of the 
Concird, but is rather more sweet to the 
taste, rather more strong to the smell. It is 
not a kind to eat when you can get the 
Duchess, but I believe it will be an exceed¬ 
ingly prolitable market grape all over the 
country. 
Pocklinoton : a rival of the Niagara, per¬ 
haps less marked in flavor and aroma. It 
wiu be largely grown as a market grape, for 
wnich purpose it Is well fitted, aud with the 
Niagara will also be desirable for all amateurs 
who cauuot grow more delicate varieties like 
the Duchess aud Iona. [L'he Pockliugtou is 
not a vigorous grower at the Rural Grounds. 
Eds.] 
Prentiss: this claimant tor honors has a 
very maiked resemblance to the Rebecca? 
both in appearance of fruit and in flavor. 
We do not think both sorts will be required 
aud it is likely the Prentiss, by common con¬ 
sent, will be the one retained. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
THE HUDSON RIVER ANTWERP-THE 
MARDBORO—PROFITS OF RASPBER¬ 
RIES—rilZE OF COPS, ETC. 
Nathaniel Hallock is a gentleman over 
80 years of age, who nas been iu the fruit¬ 
growing business nearly all his life. He has 
a fine fruit farm situated near the village of 
Milton, Ulster Co., N. Y. Mr. Hallock was 
the first to plant the once famous Hudson 
River Antwerp on the west bank of the Hud¬ 
son, and from its culture he has realized a 
competency. Mr. Hallock is considered an 
authority on the different fruits cultivated 
hereabouts for market. A few days ago he 
was called upon, and the following conversa¬ 
tion occurred: 
•‘You are aware, Mr. Hillock," said the 
visitor, “ that much has been said and written 
about a new raspberry called the Marlboro, 
aud fruit growers generally are anxious to 
learn what they can of it; aud how it will 
compare with the old Antwerp when it was 
doing well.” 
‘‘Oa the failure of the Antwerp—which 
was once considered nearly perfect—l have 
thought,” said the old gentleman, “that no 
variety would ever appear that would equal 
it; but having watched the new berry closely 
I am free to say that it has no qualities worse 
than the Antwerp, and many superior. It Is 
hardy, fruiting from the extremities when 
not protected; the most firm berry 1 have 
ever handled. It is of excellent flavor ; keeps 
a greater length of time after being ripe aud 
it does not lose its brilliant crimson color. 1 
know of none that will equal it in quantity, 
size of fruit and growth or bush.” 
Mr. Hallock was asked if he was cultivat¬ 
ing the Antwerp, and he said “No,” as it 
had shown a weakness for several years past 
aud this difficulty is increasing. 
“ When the Antwerp was in its prime, and 
you cultivated it largely, what did you realize 
on an average for one third of a quart cup'f” 
“ About flve cents.” 
“ How many cups would you average from 
a hill during a season ?” 
“ The season usually lasts about four w-eeks, 
and I have picked a one-third cup every other 
day from two hills. There are about 2,700 
hills on an acre pianted four feet each way. 
1 have realized as high as $1,000 in a season 
from the fruit of one acre of Ancwerps, not 
iucluding the sale of plants.” 
1 ‘ Do you think copious manuring pays 1” 
“Yes, undoubtedly. The red raspberry 
will pay for heavy manuring better than any 
other fruit. A starved patch of raspberries 
is worth very little.” 
“ Will you state how the profits of straw¬ 
berries, blackberries and black raspberries 
compare with those received from red rasp¬ 
berries i” 
“I never have made much money from 
blackberries of any kind. I have made some¬ 
thing from strawberries; but the profit of 
good red raspberries will exceed that of any 
of the varieties you name by one-halt.” 
“Is New York City the best market for 
raspberries 1" 
“ 1 think it is, as they are sent from there 
to other cities aloDg the coast from Baltimore 
to boston and north to the Bummer resorts. 
“ Do you not think they would sell as well 
in quart baskets as they do in quarter or 
tbird cups !” 
“ If the quarter baskets were made wide, so 
there w ould be no more direct weight on the 
under berries, I thmk it would be as well; but 
it is a difficult matter to break np old cus¬ 
toms. It is said quarter quart cups return the 
most money.” P. M. Gillies. 
farm topics. 
RURAL PRIZE SERIES, 
—- 
PROFITABLE FARMING FOR 
A POOR MAN. 
FIRST FKIZE. 
CLEM AULDON. 
[The above is the title of a series of essays, for the 
best of which premiums were offered by the Kvuai, 
N&w-Yokkkk last year, the object being to asslat 
those farmers who have limited means or those hav¬ 
ing a small capital, ubout to engage iu farming. They 
are for the most part written t?y those who have 
passed through the trials of an impoverished begin¬ 
ning to real success.) 
[Concluded.] 
For stna 1 industries apart from the regu¬ 
lar routine of farming, supplying milk to 
neighboring towns is generally profitable; 
but as a general thing the business is well rep¬ 
resented, and your only chance for an open 
ing is to buy some one out. It the place is 
fully supplied with milk, you may be sure of 
a sale for butter, besides being able to raise a 
few of your beat calves. 1 know that in many 
sections there is not much inducement to 
make butter at the prices offered, and I am 
also aware of the fact that many persons can¬ 
not make butter; but if you make a really 
choice article, it will always And a market on 
a railroad, aud by proper management will 
command from 25 to 75 per cent, more than 
the merchants can pay. I am speaking now 
of choice roll butter made by ordinary fann¬ 
ers, in the old-fashioned way, without the use 
of ice-houses, and the expensive paraphernalia 
of a creamery. I knew a family living in 
Minnesota, six miles from a town of 4,000 in¬ 
habitants, who engaged their batter one sea¬ 
son at a private boarding house for 30 cents 
a pouad. During the Summer, choice roll 
blitter was sold to the merchants for 15 cents 
a pound I recall another instance of a man 
living near a village of 500 inhabitants, who 
shipped his butter to St, Paul, a distance of 
200 miles where he eugaged it the season 
through for 25 cents. The very best butter 
made in the county could have been bought 
for 12 to 15 cents, at his home market, that 
Summer. In the latter case, the butter was 
made into pound rolls, with a “stamp,” and 
wrapped in cloth. 
The other was made according to a peculiar 
process, or rather, recipe of the woman’s own 
devising, and packed in three-gallon stone 
jars, and I think it excelled anything I have 
ever seen. My wife paid $5 for the reoeipe, and 
she calls it the best bargain of her life, though 
there are doubtless plenty of professional bu- 
ter-makers who can make just as good I re¬ 
member, years after this, that when this but¬ 
ter maker had quit the farm, and gone into 
business in a small town, a commission mer¬ 
chant who was familiar with the quality of 
his butter, paid him a visit and told him that 
if he would go to making butter again, he 
(thee, m.) would pay him 40 cents a pound 
for all be could make from 100 cows, pro¬ 
vided it was as good as that he had formerly 
made. Just think of it I Forty cents a pound, 
when the best butter the farm ere brought 
into town was selling at 15 and 20 cents ! 
There is butter and butter. But persons 
who have never given the matter any atten¬ 
tion, have no idea of the difference in price 
which a choice article and an ordinary arti¬ 
cle will fetch in the city market, where you 
have discriminating buyers. In the section 
of country of which i am now speaking, the 
man who can dispose of his butter for 25 cents, 
can make money. 
Near most towns, no matter how new, there 
is a limited market for green vegetables, and 
especially for the early crop; and for the sta¬ 
ple vegetables you are generally sure of a 
price in any quantity, that is more remuner¬ 
ative than grain, where yon have shipping 
facilities. 
Many suppose that if they go on to wild 
land they can raise nothing but sod corn, or 
sod grain, for tne first year, or until the land 
is thoroughly subdued; but do not let this de¬ 
ter you from having your garden even on 
wild land. By Minuting the surface with a 
sharp breaker, say two inches, or just deep 
enough to turn a furrow and cut tne grass¬ 
roots, then following with auother plow in 
the same farrow, and throwing up four or 
five inches on top of the aod, you have a good 
surface soil that may be pulverized with the 
harrow and made quite mellow. Tnis might 
not be done in ail soils, but in Western Da¬ 
kota 1 have seen a good crop of potatoes aud 
other vegetables raised on gronnd prepared 
in Ctiia manner, in a dry year, where " sod " 
potatoes planted at the same time were a fail¬ 
ure on account of the drought. Bo do not 
neglect putting in a good garden because you 
are not on an old farm. Fut in a good patch 
of potatoes. You can eat a good many, and 
sell what you don’t eat. Many years there is 
not a very big thing in them, but if they are 
“ big,” they ure a good deal bigger than 
wheat. So with Winter cabbage, unions, and 
Navy Beaus. Tuey are something tnat c*u 
tie disposed of by the ton, and you do not have 
to be near town to raise them. Early melons 
are somethiug tuat always bring a good price, 
in any market, no matter whether it is your 
own little country town, or the distant city. 
Even m a country where a man will not look 
at a melon after the season is a little ad 
vanned, still he will pay a big price for the first 
cantaloupe. “ It is the early bird that gets 
the worm,” in this case, aud if you cau drive 
into town with a load of melons the week be¬ 
fore your neighbor’s are ripe, you have “ the 
inside track.” If you have mauure you cau 
make a hot-bed, and by using inverted sous, 
you can start tfie seed a mouth before they 
are ready to plaut in the open ground, and 
they will not receive much “ back set ” on be¬ 
ing transplanted to the open field. 
The great objection to the growing of 
this kind of produce is the valuation 
of prices different years. One reason why 
wheat is so extensively grown is that it is a 
staple article in any market, and has always 
a uniform value. It can be disposed of at 
some price wherever it is raised, while a load 
of potatoes or cabbage may glut your local 
market. One season a farmer may get 40 or 
50c. for his potatoes, and find that his little 
patch has yielded more profit than a whole 
field of wheat. Accordingly he next year 
puts in several acres of potatoes, fights the 
bugs all Bummer, and has to sell for 15c. Tnis 
disgusts him with the potato business. These 
things must all be taken into consideration, 
the matter of crops and prices studied, and 
the market watched closely If potatoes 
have been 15 b. one year, and especially if 
two such years follow each other, then it is 
usually quite safe to venture something the 
next season, and vice versa. 
Something that you are always safe on in 
a new country is small fruits. No matter 
how far north or west you go, you are sure 
I of a fair price for strawberries and rasp 
berries, because this is something that nearly 
everybody neglects for several years, until 
they see that some enterprising neighbor has 
made a handsome thing out of it, I don’t 
know why it is—unless it is one of those pe¬ 
culiarities of human nature that continually 
stare us in the face—but it is a fact that people 
who have been surrounded by these things in 
the East all their life-time, and people who 
ought to have them for the novelty of the 
thing, all with one accord neglect to set out a 
tree or plant a vine when they go West to try 
their fortune among strangers. They will 
work hard, toil early and late, try every ex¬ 
pedient to make ends meet, and still refrain 
from doing that which ought to afford every 
civilizid man a little pleasure and a good deal 
of comfort—starting some small frnit. No 
matter how miserable you are willing to be 
yonreelf, you may have a family dependent 
upon you who look at life through a differ¬ 
ently colored glass. I have seen persons who 
seemed to delight in their misery; and the 
only enjoyment some people appear to derive 
from this life i3 the contemplation of their 
own misfortune, and some of these men live 
on farms. Bat I am not trying to persuade 
you to be happy. I refer to this matter in 
the light of dollars aud cents, and there is no 
way in which you can look at the thing but 
what you may see profit. If you raise 
enough to sell it is a paying crop, and if you 
raise no more than the family consumes it is 
economical food. The berries are wholesome 
and delicious and they save the bacon, grease 
and beans. And in starting your strawberry 
bed, or raspberries, or whatever it may be, 
don’t be satisfied with anything short of the 
best. By this I do not mean novelties or 
fancy varieties that have only been partially 
tested, bat plants and vines of unquestioned 
purity. Ascertain what varieties are best 
adapted to your soil and climate, or in ease 
you have to experiment, select some standard 
varieties that are known to succeed over a 
wide range of country, and then procure your 
stock of some reliable nurseryman. The dif¬ 
ference in first cost on a hundred strawberry 
plants will not be very much, and in a few 
years it may make a great difference with 
you to know that you have the-best. Your 
neighbors will soon see wnat you have been 
able to do and you will have a chance to 
sell them plants and vines if they are satisfied 
you have the genuine article. 
Bo with whatever you undertake. If you 
are working into stock on a small scale get a 
Saort-horn or a good Jersey to begin with, 
or as soon as you are able to do so. If you 
are going to keep hogs, get the best. Send 
off to some noted breeder and get a pair of 
the best Foland-China or Berkshires (or 
whatever else the breed may be! that you 
can find. You may think it is too expensive: 
“putting too much money into an animal,” 
some of your neighbors may say; but if any 
one tells you that, just ascertain what paper 
he reads, and tiie chances are ten to one you 
will fiad he never subscribes*, for an agricul¬ 
tural paper in his life. Never mind such talk. 
No matter how far West you may go, or how 
ignorant you think the people are, you will 
always find some men who appreciate 
thoroughbred stock, and who believe in the 
maxim that “ Blood will tell.” 
Bear in mind that a “scrub” eats just as 
much grain and requires just as much room 
as a valuable animal. Let us figure a little. 
I recall to mind an instance where a former 
neighbur of urine sent to the origiuator of 
tbe Magie strain of “ Poland-Cbina,” in But¬ 
ler County, Ohio, for a pair of pigs. They 
were about eight weeks old, and tne two cost 
him $40, in addition to the expre&sage, which 
was $2(5, making tne pair $6t5. Common pigs 
at that time couli have been bought in the 
neighborhood for $6 a pair. This, you may 
say, was paying $6o just for the sake of hav¬ 
ing something fancy. But the pigs were fine 
ones. They were the best in the county, and 
farmers for miles around came to look at the 
new hogs. Every one admired them, and 
men who were so poor that they couldn’t 
effort a pair of overalls with both legs made 
out of the same colored cloth, would lean 
over the pen and say: 
“What are you going to charge for the 
pigs? I must have a pair of them hogs.” 
Within 18 months he sold $180 worth of 
pigs and disposed of the original pair for $100. 
And times were not *‘ flush.” The country 
had been “boppered” for several years and 
people were poor. But this is an illustration 
of what may be done, for you will always 
find that it pays to keep good stock of any 
kind. To do this, a man shoo'd have a taste 
for the business. There are some men who 
never ought to have a good creature; they do 
not appreciate the value of one, aud only 
