FEB 24 
OATS—THEIR DETERIORATION. 
Two years ago we prepared one acre of clay 
loam (rather moist) land upon which potatoes 
had been raised the season before, by plowing 
and thoroughly harrowing until the surface 
was level and mellow. Wo then sowed broad¬ 
cast 350 pounds of chemical oat manure, and 
then drilled in by hand, the drills six inches 
apart, one-and-one-half bushel of white oats, 
called “Australian Oats,” received from Gen. 
Le Due, the then Com. of Agriculture, weigh¬ 
ing 64 pounds to the bushel—the heaviest we 
have ever seen, The stems were nearly six 
feet high before the panicles appeared, and 
averaged six feet two inches afterwards, being 
of remarkable thickness and strength, while 
the leaves were often an inch in width. 
Good judges who saw this acre of oats pre¬ 
dicted that the yield would reach 100 bushels— 
some said move. A gale which occurred while 
the oats were milky lodged a part, of them, and 
a subsequent gale, a day or so after, the rest; 
so that an entangled mass of straw, mowed by 
hand, was all that remained of our fine ex¬ 
pectations. 
We have repeatedly sown oats weighing over 
40 pounds to the bushel, but never harvested 
oats weighing over 33 pounds. We have sown 
scores of reputed different varieties of white 
oats to find them in a season or so essentially 
the fame. They had been modified by selec¬ 
tion, soil Or climate. The heaviest yield of 
oats we have ever raised was from five acres 
of Mold’s Ennobled black Tartarian. These 
gave us a yield of over 70 bushels to the acre; 
but the season was very favorable. They 
weighed 32 pounds when sown and 28 pounds 
when harvested. They have been sown every 
year since in larger or smaller quantities, and 
we have now simply the old Black Tartarian 
Oat, wholly divested of the “Mold’s Ennobled.” 
farm (Topics. 
RURAL PRIZE SERIES, 
■—— 
PROFITABLE FARMING FOR 
A POOR MAN. 
THIRD PRIZE. 
MRS. ANNIE L. JACK, OF CANADA. 
[The above is the title of a series of essays, for the 
best of which premiums were offered by the Rural 
New-Yorker last year, the object beinj? to assist 
those farmers who have limited means 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. 1 
When Naboth and 1 were married we came 
home to a rented farm, and were none the less 
tenants that his father w as our landlord. The 
rent was $120 per annum, the size of our estate 
barely 60 acres. Of this, five acres were a 
newly-planted orchard, and five at the rear 
formed our wood kit. The soil was a rich, 
gravelly loam, the laud fine and rolling, but 
in shape the farm was a narrow strip, as 
all French farms were laid out in this Prov¬ 
ince. Ten acres of grass, 10 of pasture, left us 
30 for grain, as we utilized the orchard for our 
garden during those first years of hard toil. A 
daily of six cows kept ine busily employed, 
and 1 tided to make the butter pay the rent, 
while the rest of the crops barely paid 
excuses- and the wages of our Hired man. 
Then the children came. It was a delight to 
us to have them toddling around—little Amos, 
and Eli, and Rachel—but the cost of boots and 
flannel and other necessities soon added to our 
store bills, though I let them run about the 
farm barefoot from June till October, and 
used up old pieces of cloth for house shoes for 
t hem, that were at once warm, and kept them 
from making too much noise with their feet, 
for they made plenty with their tongues. 
But when the fourth baby came and we 
were still living from hand to mouth, I 
thought it was time to strike out in a new 
path. That year the trees in our orchard be¬ 
gan to bear, and wo realized our first $50, net 
cash, from the sale of apples. The children 
were useful picking up the fallen fruit; little 
Arnos could even climb trees, and bring down 
the beautiful red-cheeks from the tree-tops, of 
which he was veiy proud, and one day he said 
to me: “1 wish it was all orchard, mamma.” 
It was veiy tight work living iu those days, 
and one evening, when wo had paid off the 
hired man at the end of the year with money 
that was needed for household expenses, 1 sat 
down to read my Bible with the baby on my 
knee, iu a very perplexed state of mind. 1 
was tired, too, for I had been spinning on the 
big wheel, and 1 opened the Ix iok rather haphaz¬ 
ard. It chanced that ray eyes fell on the fol¬ 
lowing words: “And it came to pass after 
these things that Naliotli, the Jezraelite, had a 
vineyard-” I did not read further, nor did 
I think of the fate of poor Naboth, who suf¬ 
fered with his life for being the envy of his 
neighbor; but I closed my eyes and related, 
“Had a vineyard I” I remembered that four 
years ago m;/ Naboth had bought a dozen vines 
of the Concord Grape; that they hadlieen weak¬ 
ly for aycarortwo; but had fruited the past sea¬ 
son, and alter we had given the minister some, 
and treated our V isitors, we had sold 20 pounds to 
the leading hotel, and a basket holding about 
30 pounds ton fruit jobber who called in apple . 
time, ail at. 10 cents a pound. There were two 
rows of cutt ings that had been taken off in the 
different yearn, and I talked to Naboth that 
night about setting out the field next to the or¬ 
chard half in young apple trees and t he rest hi 
these grape-vines that were no use in their 
present position, nor could we sell them in our 
locality, where neighliors usually “swapped” 
ami were unwilling to purchase plants. 
All the rest of the Winter I studied the col¬ 
umns of the Rural New-Yorker and Fuller’s 
Grape Culturist for information as to the best 
methods Of planting and cultivation, and as the 
treatment of those first five acres has proved 
successful for all our subsequent plantings, I 
may as well explain here our mode of culture. 
The vines were planted six feet apart each 
way, and in order to utilize the ground while 
they were small, we bought 8,600 plants of 
Wilson's Albany Strawberry, and planted one 
row between each row of grape-vines. After 
the third year this practice was discontinued 
and t he passage of the plow between the rows 
through the season gave us earlier grapes than 
if the soil had been left unstirred or another 
crop grown. In Autumn the vines were pruned 
according to directions in the Ri kal, and the 
plow passed once on each side of the row, 
throwing up the earth and thus protecting the 
vines from Winter frost, a precaution neces¬ 
sary in a cold climate, and a safeguard against 
early and late frosts. In Spring the vines were 
trained each on two cedar poles 11 1 n e or four feet 
high, the object being to keep them as near 
the ground as possible, as fruit thus placed 
comes sooner to maturity. The year after 
planting the grapes, our orchard brought us a 
return of $400; but 1 had a severe illness and 
our expenses were heavier. Yet many a time 
did we say to each other, when speaking of 
our improved prospects, “Comfort me with 
apples,” for they were Indeed a help and com¬ 
fort to our home. The strawberries fruited 
the second season after planting, and we mar¬ 
keted 1,500 quarts, which, after paying for 
boxes and the help I had to procure for pick¬ 
ing, netted nine cents per quart. Amos and I 
cut all the grapes that season, and though the 
vines only bore three or four bunches each, we 
sold 10 20-pound baskets at 10 cents per pound 
from the new vines. 
Then Naboth planted out five acres more in 
the same way, and that year he set, currant 
bushes between the young trees in the new 
orchard, and two rows of the Clarke Rasp¬ 
berry in the outer rows on each side next to 
the fences, where they would gather snow for 
Winter protection. Our land is a rich, gravelly 
loam with a limestone bottom, and everything 
grew wonderfully. We seemed to find a mar¬ 
ket at once for our produce, and 1 devised 
many ways of making a little money. We 
purchased the best of seed for our garden use, 
and saved it when ripe, exchanging often with 
the city seedsmen for anything we needed. 
Naboth worked early and late for the lirat, live 
years of our new venture; then, as t he fruit 
crop increased, his labor Was lighter and more 
interesting. We made It a particular point 
to pack our fruit honestly, every strawberry 
picker being obliged to sort the berries, and 
none but our own ImniJy have been allowed to 
pack the choice apples. We do not believe in 
the meanness that, will put inferior fruit into 
the middle of an apple barrel: apart from the 
dishonesty of the transaction, it does not. pay, 
for dealera ar e not long in finding out that the 
fruit is unfairly packed, and when once confi¬ 
dence is lost, it is not easy to regain it. Happy 
is that fruit grower whose mini is taken and 
trusted. 1 know it. is a groat temptation to 
put a few “culls” at the bottom of the basket; 
but it pays better in the end to send them down 
in a separate package. There are always buy¬ 
ers for such second-class fruit—people who 
cannot afford t.he highest rates; and if the 
fruit is fresh and good it will prove re¬ 
munerative, while the dealer, seeing such culLs, 
is assured of the soundness of the first-quality 
package, and will be more likely to sell both. 
(Concluded next week.) 
♦ ♦ ♦ 
Recipe for Preserving Shingles. 
J. C. Eviehon asks in a late Rural, “ What 
is the best way of preserving shingles?” and 
proceeds to give his method, which I have no 
doubt is good and effectual. I will give my 
way, which Is also effectual, I give the roof 
a coat of blight varnish, put on in Summer, 
when the weather is dry— the drier the better. 
It Ls immediately absorbed, filling the pores of 
the wood. A second coat, will give the shingles 
a dark; glossy appearance and render them 
impervious to moisture. 1 have used it, and 
know of nothing so cheap, easily applied and 
effectual. Ready to apply, it costs, by the 
barrel, 20 cents, and can be obtained of any 
wholesale dealer iu paints iu the seaboard 
cities. H. o. o. 
floriatliitral. 
♦ « ♦ 
RAYS. 
If any of your house plants wilt badly and 
get dry often, the reason probably is that the 
ball of earth is dry in the middle or at the 
bottom. By turning the plaut out of the pot or 
otherwise, satisfy yourself whether or not, this is 
the ease, and if it is, let the plant stand in a 
tub or pail full of water for an hour or more, 
so that the hall of earth may become thor¬ 
oughly wetted. If your Paris Daisy or any 
other of your plants is growing a good deal 
but not blooming, and the growths are soft 
and sappy, probably the temperature is too 
high for them, and in that case you had bet¬ 
ter remove them to a cooler room. 
* * 
When Jie snow has passed away and the 
frost has left the ground, and before the leaves 
grow out upon tlic trees and bushes, is a good 
time to secure u quantity of wood leaf-soil. In 
places where t he wood is so thick as to kill out 
the grass, peel off the surface sod about an inch 
thick—it. will bo almost pure leaf-mold hi a 
mat of fine tree and bush roots—and lay it up 
in a heap. This will give you some good open 
material to mix with loam for potting, or, mixed 
with a little sharp sand it is excellent to start 
cuttings and other young plants in, and as a 
mulching for a choice shrubbery or lily bed 
there is scarcely anything better. 
* * 
While the ground is hard and dry on the 
surface and walking in the woods is pleasant 
and the underbrush is leafless, is the proper 
time to got a lot of stakes for are iu the gar¬ 
den next season. Tie them into long, straight 
bundles and set them uside to dry. Get them 
while they are most “at rest,” and they will Vie 
stiffer and stronger than if you delayed cut¬ 
ting them till April, when they would be sap¬ 
pier. Arrow-wood makes excellent small 
stakes. Birch, hazel and maple, too, ure good. 
Bushy birch brush makes neat and excellent 
pea stakes for the kitchen garden, and for 
maurandias, sweet: peas, nasturtiums and other 
vines in the flower gaixlen. And a lot of 
brushy birch stakes, too, are excellent to lay 
over seed-beds in Spring to prevent the surface 
of the ground from drying up too quickly; also 
over seedlings in bods and newly-transported 
young plants for the same reason. In largo 
nurseries, like Douglas's, at Waukegan. Ill., 
aud the i’hmnix, at Bloomington, where for¬ 
est-tree seedlings are raised by the million, you 
may see acres of seed-beds covered with brush 
shade in Summer, but the brush is supported 
on rails high enough to permit of the workmen 
walking under it to clean the beds. Limbs of 
elm and other forest trees are mostly used for 
this high shading. 
% * 
Phacelia campanularia is a new Califor¬ 
nian annual of the first importance; but I do 
not find seeds of it advertised in any American 
catalogues that 1 have received. Most of you 
who grow annuals know the Whitlavla; well, 
this new Phacelia is another species of Whit- 
lavia, with blossoms of the most brilliant, in¬ 
tense blue color. I had a few plants of it. last 
year and was charmed with its beauty. At the 
meeting of the Iloyal Horticultural Society, of 
London, July 25, last year, it was awarded a 
first-class certificate. 
* * 
Nicotiana affinis is another new plaut 
that has boon more or lass in cultivation for 
the past two years, and it is a good thing, too, 
and still I cannot find seeds of it advertised by 
our American seedsmen. This is an evening- 
blooming tobacco plant, with loug-tut>ed, 
large, showy, white flowers, that exhale a de¬ 
licious jessamine-1 ike perfume; indeed, Mr. 
Cullingford, of London. write's to me that for 
fragrance he believes it rivals the tuberose. 1 
had a patch of it last year, that blossomed all 
through the Summer and was much admired. 
English growers complained to me that it did 
not set seeds with them; now, with me it. seeds 
very freely. It is a tender perennial, but. 
treated asunannuul, il I dooms copiously, i.KON. 
<£l).c Swim-ljrnL 
FEEDING HOGS IN WINTER. 
In the Rural of December 30, 1882, is a 
statememeut of Mr. Henry Stewart concerning 
the economy of feeding hogs in Winter, which 
ought to arrest the attent ion of every farmer 
who reads it. 1 have never made an experi¬ 
ment like that related of the Ohio farmer, but 
I have long been convinced that it was poor 
policy to be making pork iu the Winter. As 
Winter iu this part, of Wisconsin usually com¬ 
mences about the 20th of November, I aim to 
have my pigs ready for market by the middle 
of November. I aim to have early pigs and 
to keep them growing well till September. 
Then, as the weather gets cooler, I crowd them 
as fast as 1 can safely. Here, near Milwau¬ 
kee, as a rule, pigs command the best price 
early in the season. Last Fall my pigs were 
iu good condition for the market by October 1. 
As I had five more than I wanted for my own 
use, and as pigs were then bringing from seven 
to eight cents per pound, live weight, 1 thought 
that by selling the surplus I would, in all prob-’ 
ability, just about save my feed were I to keep 
them one or two months longer; so I sold them 
on October 15 for $05. My neighbor hail five 
pigs heavier than mine, which he fed about 
six or eight weeks longer and sold for $100, to 
the same man who purchased mine. Cora was 
then bringing 70 cents per bushel and i 
was feeding nearly three bushels in the ear 
per day—say nine bushels of shelled corn per 
per week. That, at 70 cents per bushel, for 
six weeks, would amount to $37.80, whereas 
my neighbor’s pigs brought only $5 more than 
mine, leaving $82.80 to the credit of my early 
sale, an item surely worth saving. 
I have had u varied experience in the fatten¬ 
ing of pigs. From that experience I can say 
“amen” to all that Col. Curtis has written for the 
Rural from time to time about fattening 
pigs. 1 have marie pork when the cost to me, 
aside from the trouble of feeding, was not a 
cent a pound. I have made it, too, when every 
pound cost me twice as much as it was worth. 
Experiences are worth nothing unless from 
them we learn how we came to make a failure, 
or how we were able to succeed. Hence the 
“double how” is what we want to dearly un¬ 
derstand. Thkron Loomis. 
In-Breeding Pigs. 
An old farmer told me his father bred his 
pigs together without any new blood for 80 
years, without any damage to them. At the 
end of 8<) years the pigs were bora blind and 
he gave up in breeding. This story does not 
accord with my experiments. After three in¬ 
breedings 1 noticed defects, and at four, con¬ 
stitutional weaknesses and deformities. In- 
breeding will speedily run out any breed of 
hogs, and in-crosses should never be made 
more than twice. Brothers and sisters may lie 
in-bred without reducing the value of the 
stock, provided their sires and dams are not re¬ 
lated. I say “ may be,” not “ should lie.” The 
offspring of in bred pigs are weak and hard to 
raise. There is no task so hard in stock-breed¬ 
ing os to fix types in pigs, on account of the 
damage in in-breeding and the dilficulty of es¬ 
tablishing uniformity except by close-breed¬ 
ing. It Is an art requiring time, patience and 
careful observation, and these are the reasons 
so few Americans have ever attempted to es¬ 
tablish new breeds of pigs. F. D. CUKTl.s. 
