Thk Wall’s Orange Potato. —In a lata 
Rural Mr. Talcott goes back on Wall’s 
Orange Potato. I bought a quarter of a 
pound last Spring; planted them alongside of 
White Star, Brownell’s Best and White 
Elephant, and the Wall’s Orange did better 
for me than any of the others. The vines 
were large and full of seed-balls. I had some 
cooked and like them better than any of the 
other kinds that I raised this season. I have 
about half a bushel of them left. They 
would have done better had I not plauted 
them in too much shade. P. e. 
The Queen of the Valley Potato I 
raised last season; vines of medium growth; 
quality and yield good. The variety is 
worthy of all the praise given in Rural of 
December 16. a w. 
farm (Topics. 
RURAL PRIZE SERIES, 
-- 
PROFITABLE FARMING FOR 
A POOR MAN. 
SECOND JPR.IZK. 
J. H. CROZIER. 
[The above Is the title of a series of essays, for the 
best of wbleh premiums were offered by the Rural 
New-Yorker last year, the object being to assist 
those farmers who have limited tnenns or those hav¬ 
ing a small capital, about to engage In farming. They 
are for the most part written by those who have 
passed through the trials of an Impoverished begin¬ 
ning to real success.] 
(Concluded ) 
And now having fairly launched our young 
farmer in his occupation, the subsequent sug¬ 
gestions I shall make will apply as well to the 
old farmer as to the young one in stocking his 
farm and cultivating it. 
The farmer, to make a profit by his occupa¬ 
tion, besides his household and kitchen fur¬ 
niture, should have a horse, one or two cows— 
two if he is able to own them—as many hens— 
say fifty—as he can feed, and his wife attend 
to, a sow and pigs besides the necessary ag¬ 
ricultural implements which will not be 
many or costly to cultivate a small and rather 
sterile farm. 
The principal profits of the farmer who has 
no monied capital, must necessarily be de¬ 
rived from small industries. And in many 
instances a good housewife makes quite as 
much—if not more—money from her butter, 
chickens, eggs, feathers and the like than the 
husband does from the farm. When the 
young farmer commences life these are the 
first sources from which he derives money 
and they are a constant source to him and the 
old farmer throughout the year. 
Butter to the farmer who has no monied cap¬ 
ital is a luxury that he can not indulge in—it 
is too costly. He should sell all he makes. I 
know of many farmers of considerable means 
who never have butter on their tables unless 
they have “company,” and they are very 
thrifty. The juice or gravy from meats is a 
very good substitute for butter, and a family 
can get along very comfortably in this way. 
To make butter for market requires cousidera- 
ble skill which the young wife may not, and 
many older do not, possess. Every farmer 
therefore should take the best agricultu¬ 
ral paper. It will well repay him for the ex 
penditure. Besides obtaining valuable in¬ 
formation from it on many subjects, it will 
furnish him and his family with interesting 
entertainment on Sundays and especially dur¬ 
ing the long Winter evenings. 
It cannot be expected, in a treatise like 
this, that I should give the housewife infor¬ 
mation how to make butter or to raise chick¬ 
ens and ducks and do other work about the 
house. If she does not possess this knowl 
edge, she must acquire it from experience and 
agricultural papers; but I propose to make 
some suggestions to the farmer, which, I hope, 
will prove valuable. The farmer, like his 
wife, must not neglect the small industries, 
but pay particular attention to them, for 
from this source much, if not most, of his 
profits will arise. The farmer without money 
should not attempt to raise more corn or 
wheat than he can harvest hiinBelf; other¬ 
wise he will have to hire help that will take 
off much of his profits, and if not inconvenient 
he should have his wheat grouud and sell the 
flour. By so doing he will get full price for 
his wheat aud save the offal to feed to stock. 
As I have takeu it for granted that his land 
js not very fertile, if he attempts to raise corn 
he must manure in the hilL A half or full 
spadeful of good manure will generally pro¬ 
duce one or two, and in an extra-good season, 
three good ears of corn. It is better to sow 
wheat in dry weather, but corn may be 
planted when the ground is moist. 
All the manure that can be made from the 
chickens and all other farm animals,’should be 
carefully saved. If there is any woodland on 
the place time will not be wasted in gather¬ 
ing up the leaves and making bedding of them 
for horses and cows, and turning them into 
manure. To save the fertile gases of the 
manure when put in a pile it should be cov¬ 
ered with dry clay. If clay cannot be ob¬ 
tained. dry earth or other soil must be sub¬ 
stituted. Rye is one of the best and most 
profitable crops that a farmer of small means 
cau raise. Every farmer should sow rye 
enough at least for pasturage for his cattle 
during dry woather, throughout the Winter 
and the early part of the Spring. The rye 
will make the butter from his milk cow of 
a golden color. If he will cut his rye 
when in bloom it will make an excellent hay 
which hia cattle and horses will eat almost, 
if not quite, as greedily as they will Timothy 
or Red Top, If the farmer has an old field that 
is not profitable to cultivate in anything else, 
let him sow it down in rye, and pasture it. 
He should take the cattle off iu the middle 
of Spring or even later, and let the rye ma¬ 
ture and the grain get perfectly ripe. Then 
he may take a pole and beat it down or run a 
harrow’ over it so as tothrasb out some of the 
seed and mash out the straw. Then he may 
turn his cattle on it and they will tramp 
enough of the seed in the ground to produce 
a second crop. Of course, he must turn the 
cattle off as soon as the rve begins to sprout, 
and keep them off until it gets a fair start. 
In this w-ay he may keep up a crop of rye 
without resowing or plowing until finally 
bis field is made fertile enough to produce 
wheat or something else; and in the mean¬ 
time he will derive a profit from it by the pas¬ 
turage. Land not fertile enough to produce 
wheat or any of the grasses will bring a toler¬ 
able crop of rye. 
If an old field Is grown up in bushes and 
briars,cut them down. Fill up the gullies with 
them, If there are any, and leave the remain¬ 
der on the ground. 1 prefer leaving to burn¬ 
ing them, because they will help to shade the 
ground, which all sterile soils very ranch 
need. If any of the trunks are large enough 
to be used for fire-wood, so use them. Grass 
of some kind will soon spring up, for Nature 
is always striving to restore herself. If a 
man gets wounded in any way, Nature strives 
to heal the wound. If a tree or vegetable 
is wounded, Nature heals the wound. If a 
field is worn out bo that it will not produce by 
cultivation anything valuable to man. Nature 
will grow something on it to improve it. But 
Art should assist Nature. When the bushes 
are cut down, sow rye to grow with any 
grasses that may come up, and pasture and 
treat as heretofore suggested. If the farmer 
chooses he may sell his rye straw to a harness- 
maker to stuff horse-collars with, and in this 
way make a considerable profit. 
If the farmer has an ©Id field grown up in 
sedge grass, let him turn his cattle and hogs 
in on it as soon as the new grass begins to 
grow aud pasture it as closely as possible 
throughout the year. There Is a good deal of 
nutriment in the new sedge grass and cattle 
eat it greedily. It will make yel’ow butter 
and by pasturing it closely and not permit¬ 
ting it to come to seed, in two or three years 
it will disappear and other growth will make 
its appearance, when you may treat it to a 
crop of rye and manage it a3 heretofore de¬ 
scribed. In commencing to restore worn-out 
or exhausted lands with rye and pasturage 
probably a peek of rye to the acre will be 
enough for the first sowing. The farmer will 
perceive that the droppingsof the cattle, while 
feeding on the rye, will be a considerable fac¬ 
tor in improving the laud. 
As I have before said, it is the small in¬ 
dustries of the farmer of scanty means that 
produce the best and most profitable results. 
Oue of the most profitable crops Buch a far¬ 
mer can raise is Irish potatoes, and for the 
value of the crop they require the hast work. 
So the farmer of small means should grow as 
many, especially of the late potatoes, as he 
can. They generally bring eighty cents to 
the bushel in the Winter, aud probably a dol¬ 
lar or more in the Spring. An acre of first- 
rate land ought to produce from 100 to 200 
bushels. But as the farmer of small means 
has generally a sterile soil, he must depend 
on manuring, unless his land is fresh. If he 
has woodland, he might clear some of it for 
this purpose every year. A great assistance 
in growing Irish potatoes is leaves from the 
woods. These, when put iu the furrow with 
the potatoes, not only furnish the nutriment 
for their sustenance, but retain the water 
from rains and counteract the injury of dry 
weather. If leaves cannot be had, straw is 
the next best thing for this purpose. 
Cabbage is another good crop that should 
be raised by the farmer who has no capital to 
employ labor. Cabbage requires a rich soil, 
but I think I can put the farmer on a plan by 
which he can grow excellent cabbages on a 
comparatively sterile soil by little labor and 
at a small expense. That way is by the use of 
liquid manures. Take a barrel with both 
ends out aud place it on a platform just as 
you would make an ash hopper. Fill this 
with barn-yard manure. Pour water on 
it aud catch it in a tub or other vessel. 
With this liquid manure water the roots of 
your cabbage every two or three days when 
the weather is dry. After a rain when it is 
comparatively dry they need not be watered. 
The first liquid manure will probably be richer 
than required, and one third or onehulf wa¬ 
ter may be added to it. Continue to pour 
water on it while it comes out discolored. 
When this ceases to be the case the mauure 
must be renewed in the barrel. When the cab¬ 
bage is so well grown that the lower leaves 
fall to the ground, go at daylight and raise 
them up so that the dew on them will ruu 
down to the roots of the cabbage. The fore¬ 
going plan of watering cabbage may seem 
tedious and laborious, but it is not. A large 
patch can be watered in a few hours and the 
labor is easy. It i3 better to work the rows 
between cabbages with a spade than with a 
hoe. Spading will more completely destroy 
the grass and weeds, and the ground will re¬ 
tain all the rain that falls. One will not have 
to spade oftener than once in five or six weeks, 
whereas if one uses the hoe he will have to go 
over the ground every few days. 
The farmer of scanty means should have a 
garden or truck patch. As he will have to go 
to market with his butter, eggs and chickens 
every week or two in the Spring or Summer, 
be should always have vegetables to take 
with him, such as peas, beans, radishes, lettuce, 
onions and early potatoes. To raise the earliest 
Irish potatoes in some climates, if not all, they 
may be planted in November or tbe last of 
October. They should be covered pretty 
thickly on top in the furrow with leaves or 
straw. In this way you may have Irish 
potatoes ten days or two w r eeks sooner than if 
planted in the Spring. If the farmer of scanty 
means will be temperate, industrious and 
economical, he will succeed in life unless he 
be very unfortunate. And if he makes 
yearly accumulations in property or money, 
though they may be small, he will lead a life 
more happy and enjoyable than many kings, 
potentates or rich men. 
East Tennessee. 
FARM NOTES. 
In the Rural of January 13, appears a de¬ 
scription of several ways of training hop vines 
formerly patented, among them the Collins 
method. 1 once saw that tried on five acres of 
a fifteen acre hop-yard, ten acres being set 
with long poles. All were properly trained and 
ground well cultivated. At picking time the 
long poles bore a crop of a thousand pounds 
to the acre, while there were not a hundied 
pounds to the acre on the other vines. The 
evaporation (steam) and heat from the ground 
killed every blossom on the vines trained by 
tbe patent method, except a few protected by 
the foliage. Considering that hops that sea¬ 
son were 50 to 60 cts. per pound, the experi¬ 
ment was tolerably expensive. From obser¬ 
vation and experience in hop raising, I am 
quite certain that any one trying any plan 
of training the viues that brings the bearing 
arms within two to seven feet, of the ground 
will decidedly wish he hadn’t. If long poles 
are too costly, better quit hop raising—in the 
West at least. 
“Spasmodic salting of stock” is no doubt 
objectionable; bat why salt them at all ? Can 
any one tell what good it does; how it benefits 
horses, cattle and sheep to eat salt? What 
would happen to them if they did not get it ? 
I am aware that they like it after having ac¬ 
quired the taste; and so they do sugar, and no 
doubt many other things seldom given them. 
In “A Chat about Corn” there is truth and 
sound advioe enough to fill a book. Buch ar¬ 
ticles as that are certainly very valuable if 
heeded. In view of the fact, however, that 
so many farmers will, year after year, plant 
poor or doubtful seed to save paying a little 
extra for first class, reliable seed, there seems 
some doubt about profitable disposition of any 
lurge amount of even “ pedigreed” seed corn. 
Of thirty varieties of potatoes grown the 
past season, for crop and experiment, the 
most conspicuous failures were Scotch Cham¬ 
pion, American Giant, Whipple’s and Pal¬ 
mer’s No. 2. The largest yields were from 
Mammoth Pearl, Magnum Bonum, Beauty of 
Hebron, Early Ohio and Burbauk. The last 
and Mammoth Pearl are not first class in 
quality but fine in appearance and late “keep¬ 
ers..” White Elephant and Queen of the 
Valley yielded a large amount, but both rot¬ 
ted quite seriously, as did some older varieties. 
The best very early potato 1 kn >w of is the “Ek. 
tra Early Peachblow”—very productive for so 
early a sort and of first-rate quality. I cannot 
commend the “ Improved Peachblow” when 
there are so many better kinds. 
The following method of renewing grape¬ 
vines I learned from an addresH made by Mr. 
A. F. Roffer of McGregor, Iowa. By what¬ 
ever plan the vines have been trained, when 
they begin to show marks of age or unfruit¬ 
fulness, dig around the base of the vine a hole 
three or four feet across, fourteen or fifteen 
inches deep, cutting such surface roots as are 
in the way, being careful, however, uot to 
disturb the main root. Then press the whole 
vine, crown and all, down into the hole, peg¬ 
ging it fast to the bottom. Bring the bearing 
wood only above the ground in any position 
desired. Fill the excavation. Bet a pole to 
each vine and tie the bearing canes to the 
pole. Train up one or two shoots to the pole 
till the latter part of August and then stop 
them. Pinch fruit-bearing shoots two leaves 
beyond the last cluster of blossoms; rub off 
suckers and prune out laterals. When tbe 
vine begins to get old again dig around it and 
again bury all but the bearing wood. In this 
way vines may be kept perpetually young, 
vigorous and fruitful, be multiplied to any de¬ 
sired extent, and without sacrificing a single 
bunch of grapes iu the process. w. p. w. 
farm Ccomimij. 
EASTVIEW FARM NOTES. 
Fall and Spring Calves: Corn Fodder, 
Fodder Corn and Bran. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
I find more profit from the cows that come 
in fresh in the Fall than from those that are 
fresh in Spring. Not only does butter bring 
a better price, but I think the cows give more 
milk in a year under this management, for 
just as they come to the time when they 
would naturally begin to shrink largely in 
their milk they go on fresh pasture aud in¬ 
crease the flow, while a cow that is fresh in the 
Spring begins to shrink just at the season of 
failing pastures and the transition from 
green to dry feed, and a great falling-off in 
milk is unavoidable. 
I think the most profitably managed dairy 
I ever visited was one in which the cows were 
bred for September and October calves, 
which were raised by hand. Butter was 
made and sold till May, and then a calf was 
bought and put to each cow, and after she 
had owned it the little thing was allowed to 
run on the pasture with her. These calves 
soon began to eat grass and did well, although 
they did not get a large amount of milk; but 
they were in good condition for the butcher 
by the time tbe cows were ready to dry off. 
“ But what about raising Fall calves ?” 
some oue asks. After considerable experience 
with both, I prefer them to Spring calves. 
We have more time to care for them; there 
are no flies to trouble; tbe milk does not sour, 
and the feeding-troughs do not get foul, and 
if early taught to eat a little grain there is no 
trouble in keeping them thrifty all Winter. 
I prefer shelled corn to ground food for 
them, and perhaps the next-best food is bran 
and oats mixed in equal parts. I find they 
do well ou corn fodder for the rough feed, 
but think early-cut grass or good rowen 
Is best for them. 
The great advantage these calves have over 
those born in the Spring is that they are 
w'eaued at a season of the year when every¬ 
thing favors a rapid growth. Instead of six 
months of dry feed, as is the case with Spring 
calves, they go at once to fresh pasture and 
start into a vigorous growth. The first Win¬ 
ter they are kept thrifty by milk feeding, and 
by the second Winter they are old enough to 
get along nearly as well as fall-grown cattle. 
I find corn fodder much better for cattle 
than fodder corn. By the latter I mean corn 
which has been sown or drilled thickly for 
fodder alone. 1 find that the stock never ap¬ 
pear to relish it as veil, or eat it as clean, as 
they do that from corn which bos produced 
ears. I think the mistake is made of sowing 
too thick by most persons who grow fodder 
corn. Some years since, when visiting one 
of o«r most prominent Short-born breeders, 
he told me that his most profitable crop was 
corn planted about twice as thick os in or¬ 
dinary field culture, and thoroughly culti¬ 
vated. In this way most of the stalks made 
small ears, just suitable for cattle,and the yield 
of corn and fodder combined made the crop 
worth more than when grown for grain alone. 
This kind of feed, if run through a cutter, 
w ould be eaten up almost without waste, and 
would, I think, furnish a ration for stock cat¬ 
tle on which they would thrive well without 
any addition. For milch oows I should add 
bran, and for fattening stock some grain and 
a little oil meal, or, if bran was cheap, I 
thiuk it a very good substitute for the oil- 
meal. Many years’ experience in feeding 
bran leads me to place a much higher value 
on it than most farmers do. In the latest 
works on agricultural chemistry its value is 
put at about two-thirds that of corn; but 
practically, when mixed with other foods, I 
believe that it renders them more digestible 
