upon the choicest fruit, for they love well to 
steal into the garden in early morning and 
help themselves to your strawberries or cur¬ 
rants or grapes while yet the dew is upon 
them. Then the sunshine iu which the child¬ 
ren revel, and which gives them health and 
strength no money could buy. No, it is not all 
down in the old ledger, for the horn's spent in 
the fruit garden were life-giving and healing 
to ourselves, and helped to make us contented 
with our lot. The credit balance of that year 
was doubled in the next, and as the time came 
when the little farm was offered to us for sale, 
we found ourselves able to buy. and to begin 
once more without having rent to pay. The 
holds between the woods and the orchard were 
alternately iu hay or pasture or green crops, 
with as much oats as could be used by our 
three horses. Sometimes Naboth went out in 
search of cheap fertilizers, and one year bought 
the right to cart a way the ashes from a de¬ 
serted potash kiln, the owner of which did not 
value the little hillock of burned treasure. 
Some of the poorer neighbors, who had no 
land but kept a cow or horse, were glad to sell 
t he little pile of manure, only asking a trifle or 
glad to get a little hay iu exchange, and one or 
two years the ashes from a steam ferry were 
bought to be spread around the currant bushes 
and grape-vines; this, however, was stopped 
by the adoption of coal instead of wood in the 
furnace. 
As the children grew up they early evinced 
great observing powers in studying the habits 
of insects and the injury done by them, and 
not a caterpillar or beetle could escape their 
notice in orchard or garden. It was a happy 
thought of mine to make Eli a Christmas pres¬ 
ent of Harrises “ Insects Injurious ton Vegeta¬ 
tion,’' and it has proved ol’ great value to us. 
saving many times its cost bv teaching us to 
know our enemies. And long before the Ru¬ 
ral passed into the present able hands we 
studied its pages for the best methods, and 
trusted ourselves to its guidance, The children 
were taught early to save their pocket-money 
and subscribe for some useful magazine, thus 
gaining a small library for themselves and ac¬ 
quiring a taste for good l eading—an inestima¬ 
ble boon in the necessary isolation of a fann¬ 
er’s home. 
In writing this account I have endeavored 
to give in simple detail the work and profit of 
a small fruit farm. It is no fancy sketch; but 
if I am asked should I advise others to do like¬ 
wise, I should pause before answering. A love 
of gardening, ataste for this kind of varied la¬ 
bor, flauked with constant vigilance, are neces¬ 
sary for success; but if these arc* inherent., and 
one owns the land, I should only say: “ C4o on 
and prosper, but be sure to * pay as yon go." ’> 
An untimely frost, a Summer storm, au Au¬ 
tumn hurricane may Llight all your hopes; 
but in this, as in every other business, we must 
just “take oue year with another.” 
The profit of fruit-growing will vary more 
than that of any other farm crop, as some 
seasons one fruit, is more in demand than 
another, but for a northern Climate we find 
grapes and apples, currants and raspberries 
the safest; yet, one year, not long ago, the 
grape-vines were so injured as to bear no fruit, 
the wood being affected in early Spring by 
unseasonable weather, and another season the 
apples were a mere gleaning. We found dur¬ 
ing our early struggles that strawberries were 
our most expensive crop, as they require so 
much labor to keep them clean, and the trouble 
of transplanting for new beds adds to their 
cost, and if I were asked what er< >p I prefer 
and what fruit I like best to grow for pleasure 
and profit, I should still say grapes. Naboth’s 
vineyard is a very delightful and much fre¬ 
quented spot now-a-days, and the oldest vines, 
of fourteen years’ growth, still bear a fail- crop 
and have thick, gnarled stems. We have found 
the Concord a friend not. to be despised, for it 
was a friend in need many times, and of late 
years we have made annually sales of young 
vines at fairly remunerative prices. 
But the vineyard of to-day comprises many 
new varieties, and is still a source of pleasure 
and profit to us. Do I put pleasure first? So 
would you, reader, if you had been with me 
to-day among the vines on this warm hill-side. 
If you had seen the purple clusters that count 
in thousands all festooned along the vines, 
with the rich, purple haze of the Indian Sum¬ 
mer over the laud, with clusters of pale green 
or yellow dotting here and there. Ah! rich 
laud of Canaan, where those wonderful clus¬ 
ters grew! There is a chain i and fascination 
about the grape that does not attach to other 
fruits, and as the vines are cleared Eli follows 
up the ridges with a dressing of rich, black 
swamp muck, au element that, seems to agree 
well with their constitution. But they will 
not endure neglect with impunity, aud, to suc¬ 
ceed well, must be iu well-drained land, freed 
from insect pests at times, eared for in late 
Autumn, with pruning and protection, and in 
Summer all the superfluous branches that 
would waste their substance must be tenderly 
pinched down. Their rich g'rowth needs watch¬ 
ing, and the tying and training must not be 
postponed too long. Given these little atten¬ 
tions, which with us are the work of the daugh¬ 
ters of the household, and the vineyanlist may 
count on success, unless some untoward event 
occurs, and our own experience has been such 
as to cause us to be grateful for the happy 
thought that Naboth should plant a vineyard. 
THE RURAL PRIZE CORN REPORTS. 
How the Crops were Raised, etc. 
Knox Co., Ill.—1 planted the corn on the 
first day of May on one-fortieth of an acre of 
ground—S3 feet square. The location was 
the lower side of my garden lot and had been 
tile-drained, but never had been manured, 
and had been only used as a garden two years. 
The lot is prairie and was cultivated last, year 
in potatoes and tomatoes. 1 planted 157 grains 
of corn in all, I had nine rows four feet 
apart one way, and 1 7rows, two feet apart the 
other way, which left me four grains over, 
which I planted Upon one side, but inside of the 
one-fortieth acre lot. In consequence of the 
severe rains late in May and early in June the 
lot was submerged three different times aud 
washed so badly that only Kti grains grow to 
make a crop*. The bight of some of the stalks 
was 12 feet, and it suckered to live and seven 
stalks to the lull, It ripened October In, so 
that 1 gathered it to save it from the chick¬ 
ens. There were 249 good ears, besides some 
25 or 30 partially formed, Many of the ears 
were 15 and 10 inches long and were all eight- 
rowed except two which were 12-rowocl. The 
eais weighed, November 1, I OS pounds, and the 
shelled corn, on November 3, 110 pounds, aud 
the cobs, 52 pounds. It is proper to add that 
it was cultivated with the hoe sufficiently to 
keep the ground clear of weeds, and was left 
entirely flat. H. P, CORKY. 
[The above is 15th oil the revised list. Yield 
at the rate of 131.1 bushels shelled corn to t he 
acre.] 
the ground and weighed the potatoes, and 
made an estimate of the yield per acre: 
Bushels 
nor aere. 
Pride of America.-inMj 
Genesee Go. King,, ltd 
Mammoth Pearl.rj.iL, 
Magnum Romun.5S2 
Beauty of Hebron... 
White Elophnnt..v'2-J^, 
Early Vermont.2-<>lL 
St, Patrick. SStl 
Trophy. I2JU, 
Manhattan.IftSa*, 
Onarga, Ill. 
Bushels 
per acre. 
Early Ohio.2-t3fci 
Clark’s No. l. 
Andrus White Rose. ,284«.ji 
Late Rose. .-isic, 
Jordan's Prolttie.S2ii4j, 
El Paso.2US 
Grangur.:ir§U 
White Star.504 
("li leogo Market.252 
Scotch Champion_50 
H. H, C. 
TESTS OF POTATOES. 
The past season l t ested the following varie¬ 
ties of potatoes, planting 23 hills of each 
variety one eye in a hill, all having the saute 
soil and treatment. The results are as follows: 
Pounds. 
Late Beauty Heliron K 5 
Grunge. tMU 
M. Pearl .51 
Dunmore. 50 
White Star. is 
Gen. Co. King. is 
American Gtanl. II 
Queen of the Valley. 45 
Pride of America .. :i!l 
Burbank .. :V> 
Belle.;t! 
White Elephant. 
Matchless. .12 
st. Patrick. MB., 
Snowflake.22tfi 
Quality. 
excellent, 
poor. 
poor. 
poor. 
excellent, size large, 
excellent, size large, 
size large, weight of 5 tu¬ 
bers 8 pounds; good but 
not extra, 
excellent size, large, 
excellent, size large, 
fair, 
poor, 
excellent, 
good, 
good, 
good. 
I also grew, besides the above, Early Beauty 
of Hebron. Clark’s No. 1, Bliss’s Triumph, 
Early Ohio, Early Rose, American Magnum 
Bouiun, Vermont Champion. Early Vermont, 
Peachblow and Late Rose. Early Beauty of 
Hebron is ahead of all the early ones, but the 
Late Hebron will yield at least a third more. 
The quality of Clark's No. 1 is not nearly as 
good as that of the Early Hebron, nor does it. 
keep tus well—-yield the same. Early Ohio is 
not as early or as productive as Early Beauty 
of Hebron. Bliss’s Triumph is in yield the 
same as the Early Ohio but not so good iu qual¬ 
ity. Vermont Champion is the poorest yiolder 
of all; American Maguum Bonum next. [We 
very much desire such reports. Eds.] 
South Bend, Lid. T. a. p. 
poitllnj JWlb 
Baltimobe Co., Md.—Received 110 graius 
of Rural Dent Corn: planted 117 grains 
—one in a hill—hills 2x4 feet apart, on the 
eighth day of May. 1882. The soil was a clayey 
loam and was in corn last year. In November 
last it was manured with barnyard manure at 
the rate of fit5 two-home loads to the acre, 
evenly spread over the surface, and remained 
in that condition until March 3u, 1NS2. when it 
was plowed about six inches in depth, and 
thoroughly harrowed. Immediately before 
planting it was again harrowed and after the 
rows were marked off, about one ounce of a 
fertilizer called “The Maryland f! range Agen¬ 
cy’s Favorite” was thoroughly mixed with the 
soil around each hill, and the corn dropped 
thereon and covered two inches deep. Out of 
the 117 grains planted 44 failed to germinate, 
which fact I cannot account for unless it was 
because there was some defect in the seed, as 
seed grown in this section planted in the same 
kind of soil at the same time and noth much 
less care, germinated aud came up very regu¬ 
larly. although not so early as in former years 
when the weather was not so cool as it was 
this season. It was hoed the first time on 0th 
of June, leaving ground perfectly level. Com 
about four inches high. Hoed second time on 
June 19th, corn one foot high; worked the soil 
with a heavy iron garden rake to the depth of 
three inches, making the ground perfectly level 
on the 1st of July, applying at the same time, 
broadcast, about one ounce of “Agency’s Favor¬ 
ite” to the hill and thoroughly mixing it with the 
soil; corn from two to two-aud-a-lialf feet high, 
59 hills growing. July 19th stirred the roil to 
the depth of two inches with heavy iron rake, 
cut Oct, 7th, average hight of stalks 12 feet, 
husked Oct. 24th, yield, 119 ears ami 1* nub¬ 
bins. weighed on cob Nov. 1st, 127 pounds; 
shelled Nov. 2d, weight of shelled com tieing 
90 pounds; shelled com measured one bushel 
two pecks and five quarts, or one pound four 
and two-tliirds ounces from each grain that 
grew. The yield would have been larger had 
the “suckers” all been allowed to grow, but I 
had pulled them off nearly half the number of 
hills before I knew they would be allowed to 
grow, I then left one growing in each of the 
hills not previously* thinned. P. S. Cross. 
[The above is 18th on the revised list,; yield at 
the rate of 119.7 bushels to the acre,] 
YIELDS OK POTATOES. 
On April 7 1 planted 29 varieties of potatoes, 
all on one plot of ground. Seeds of one 
row of each variety were cut two eyes 
to each hill, except those of the El Paso, 
which wore cut one eye to the hill. The hills 
were one foot apart, and the rows 28 inches. 
It was a black prairie soil that had been ma¬ 
nured the Fall before with barnyard manure, 
aud Fall plowed. The rows were cultivated 
four times aud hoed once. The ground was 
kept very nearly level. The rows were slight¬ 
ly raised. I dug them on October 1, measured 
feeding hens in winter. 
In feeding hens for eggs I have come to use 
only' butchers' hones for a meat diet. 1 have 
learned from experience that they are far su¬ 
perior to clear meat for making eggs. 1 break 
them on a rock and pound the meat so the 
hens can pull it to pieces. I give for green 
food Russia turnips chopped fine. For warm 
feed, iu the morning, I give meal and middlings 
in. equal parts, wet tip with boiling water. 
For dry feed I keep corn and wheat in their 
rack all the time. I keep water by' them 
constantly, and also oyster shells and gravel. 
Once a week 1 mix fine salt, in the meal be¬ 
fore wetting. Twice a week I sift hi a little 
cayenne pepper. Last year I wintered 72 
liens, and they paid me $225 more than the 
cost of their feed, counting the pallets I now 
ha ve, at 59 cents each. 1 have built a new 
hennery and am keeping 150 hens. I did not 
begin to feed for eggs until late, as J did not 
get the hennery done until December, but I 
am getting five dozen eggs daily, worth $2.00, 
while feed costs a bout 59 cents. My hens are 
Leghorns crossed with different sorts, and 
they are of all colors. rr. n. \v. 
-*-♦-»- - 
GETTING READY FOR EGGS. 
Now is the time to begin to feed the hens to 
get eggs. They want to be fed grain of some 
sort early in the morning, and also a mess of 
carrots or beets cut flue, and plenty of water. 
Keep coal ashes and cinders, charred oyster- 
shells and gravel on hand for them. Give 
them a second feeding of grains in the after¬ 
noon. p. d. c. 
£l)c 
0HR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
THE PRIZE FAT SHORT-HORN HEIFER, 
LILIAN. 
[For Illustration see pane IMS.] 
This heifer was bred, fed and exhibited by 
Mr. Richard Stratton, at the English (Smith- 
field) Christmas Fat Stock Show in London. 
She was then three years and eleven months 
old, and weighed 1884 pounds. She was 
awarded the highest prize 4:20, as the best ani¬ 
mal of her class; a silver cup of £50, as the best 
cow in the yard; another cup of £105, and the 
champion plate and gold medal, as the best 
Short-horn, and the best fat animal in all the 
cattle classes then exhibited. Those wore great 
prizes to obtain, and are rarely won by a siugle 
animal. Her owner may well be proud of 
such winnings, and we hope they will encourage 
him to go on and be again successful at the 
next. Christmas Fat Stock Show in London. 
Allowing for the roughness of a photograph, 
and we may also add, its imperfections—for 
the fact is, photographs always show the ob¬ 
jects they represent more or less imperfectly— 
SEARCH S 
Lilian is a very line animal, a splendid model 
of beef, and we should judge worthy all the 
honors bestowed upon her. Another likeness 
of the animal, larger and we think a better 
picture, though, never having soon the beast, 
we cannot cal) it a better likeness, was given 
on the first page of the Rural for January 29, 
Our portrait is re-engraved from the London 
Agricultural Gazette. 
STABLE AND STOCK NOTES. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
I can’t see how any ouc is willing to do with¬ 
out a manure ditch in the cow stable. With 
it a cow scarcely ever gets dirty, and without 
it she is seldom clean.* I have the ditch eight 
inches deep and two feet wide. I keep a hoe 
hanging in the stable and morning, noon and 
night we scrape down into the ditch any 
manure or soiled litter there may be on the 
floor. I prefer to have it cleaned out every 
day, but can let it go three days if necessary. 
For bedding there is nothing 1 can get so 
good as sawdust. It. swells when wet and does 
not stain as straw will, and is cleaner and 
pleasanter in every way. A much less bulk of 
it than of straw will save the liquid and keep 
the stock clean. 
1 have never used stanchions for tying my 
cows, for it seems to me they cannot be so com¬ 
fortable as a rope tie, and I think they are no 
more convenient if the mangeis are so ar¬ 
ranged that you can walk through them in 
front of the cows to tie them. My plan is to 
keep a strap or rope round the horns, with a 
sliding ring on it, aud then have a short rope 
with a snap attached to the manger. The 
snap can l>e fastened or loosened in a second. 
It I were to remodel my Stable, 1 would make 
the manger tight and dispense entirely with 
feed boxes, feeding the meal or corn on the 
floor of the manger. My reason for this is that 
the cows will drop some of their meal over the 
box where they cannot reach it, and the dirt 
and sour meal gather in the comers made by 
the boxes, With a manger made as 1 direct, 
one conkl sweep it clean, for there would lie no 
partition or obstruction from end to end. 
1 have visited two successful cattle feeders 
lately, and find that they both feed com cut 
into lengths of about two inches with a hatchet, 
and neither of them would feed ground corn 
or if you would take it to mill and grind it for 
nothing. They tell me the cattle eat the corn 
bettor than meal, and are less liable to iudiges- 
fcion or scoura, and that with hogs to follow 
there is absolutely no waste. They estimate 
the corn to lie worth nearly half as much for 
hogs as it would be if fed directly to them. 
These men follow different plans in feeding, 
but both depend entirely on straw for rough 
feed. One of them teedsin l)Ox stalls, measuring 
out to each animal its ration. The other never 
stables his cattle, but has stacks for shelter, and 
feeds in boxes set up on legs out of reach of the 
hogs. He begins feeding corn sparingly and 
increases gradually until his cattle are on full 
feed, which will take perhaps n month, and 
then he fills the troughs and keeps com before 
them all the time. If the corn in a trough gets 
soiled, it is thrown to the hogs and the box 
filled with fresh. He tells me that he has had 
years of experience, arid finds t here is no more 
danger of cattle overeating and injuring them¬ 
selves on corn than on grass, if proper care is 
taken at the beginning. 
1 find the men who make the most money 
out of cattle, as a rule do little Winter feeding. 
They either sell in the Fall or else winter with¬ 
out grain except for a few weeks before turn¬ 
ing to pasture, and then market early in June 
when the butchers find it. most difficult to get 
beef, and arc obliged to pay the best, prices. 
The farmer who feeds cattle from November 
till April ought to get an advance of two cents 
a pound if he expects to make anything, but il 
he buys good cattle in April aud gr azes through 
the Summer he ean sell at the same per pound 
that he gives, aud make a good profit. There 
is no more important point in handling 
cattle than to know when to sell. The owner 
should never let a week pass without care¬ 
fully inspecting his herd. If any are not 
thl'iviug well, the sooner they are sold the bet¬ 
tor, while the thrifty ones should be kept. No 
wise farmer will allow the butcher to cull his 
herds of young cattle. It is often wiser to sell 
a scrub at a loss than to keep it to cause a still 
greater loss; while a smooth, thrifty young 
animal can often be kept with more profit than 
can be realized if it is sold even above the 
market price. 
In buying cattle to pasture, I try to get an 
oven lot, and think it best to get all steers or 
else all heifers. If I buy steers, I reject stags, 
even though 1 can get them half a cent a pound 
cheaper. Quite a largo per cent of calves are 
not castrated till a year old, aud the horns and 
necks of these will show it, and prevent their 
ever making first-class animals, and it does not 
pay to handle them at all. 
1 have adopted the plan of salting with rock 
salt, so as to keep it always before the stock. I 
ean buy it in lumps of 100 pounds, and I find 
