MARCH 3 
have tried diligently. Cions may be inserted 
in one or all of the canes. 
ORIGIN OB' THE PLYMOUTH ROCK FOWL, ETC. 
C. L. R, Lawrence, Mich. —1. Wba breed 
of fowls were crossed to produce the Plymouth 
Rock? 2. Is the James Whitney nursery of 
Rochester, N. Y., trustworthy? 3. Are berry 
plants and cuttings propagated in New Jersey 
and the South us good as those grown at the 
North? 4. Is the Devonshire Tree Bean what 
is claimed for it? It is said a quart of seed will 
plant an acre. 5. Do kidney beaus yield well 
and where can the seed bo procured? 
Ans.— 1. There seems to be a good deal of 
uncertainty as to the origin of this fine breed 
of poultry. Commissioner Dol ing says it is 
probably made up from the Black Malay and 
Dominique ; Lewis, in his Practical Poultry 
Book, reports that it was produced by crossing 
a Cochin China cock with a hen that was a 
cross between the fawn-colored Dorking, the 
great Malay and the Wild Indian. The gener¬ 
ally received account of it assigns its origin to 
Dr. Y. C. Bennett, who showed it at Boston 
for the first time in 1840. In the controversy 
as to its origin the Java, Cochin, Gray Chit¬ 
tagong Dominique, Gray Dorking, and even the 
common dung-hill fowl have all figured. 2. The 
firm is not reported by the Commercial Agen¬ 
cies and we would not advise anybody either 
way, 3. Yes. 4. We never have heard of 
it before, nor is it known to the trade. If one 
of the broad beans of English catalogues it is 
worthless here. It is very likely to be a fraud 
or a humbug, like the Tree Strawberries by 
which many have been swindled. 5. All 
dwarf-growing beans are called “ kidney” 
beans. They are generally good yielders, and 
can be obtained from any reputable seedsman. 
DEATH FROM PARTURIENT FEVER IN A COW. 
T. IF. Plainfield. Mass.—A nine-year- 
old cow of mine had been well fed during Sum¬ 
mer; got four quarts of wheat bran daily and 
was in full flesh. She dropped a calf on the 
afternoon of January 30, having been dry for 
two months. Next morning she seemed well; 
gave a good mess of milk; bag soft. At 5 p. m. 
she looked dull, acted as if weak, refused to 
drink, ate a little bran, laid down soon after 0 
p. M. ; nose and horns were cold; appeared to 
suffer very little; breathed naturally until her 
death at 7 p. M., after au illness of 14 hours. 
After death her eyes were bloodshot. On 
opening the uterus a small quantity of yellow¬ 
ish matter was found in it, and a number of 
ulcers or tumors, the size of a butternut, were 
of box at bottom? 7, width of box at top? 
8. depth of feed box next to cattle, under neck 
piece? ft, Should the stanchions stand perpen¬ 
dicularly? 10, Should bottom of feed box be 
level with standing space? 11, What should 
he the width of neck space when closed? 
12, what, when opened? 13. size of stuff for 
stanchions! 14, length of stanchions? 15, Should 
feed box l hi as long as the width of the stall ? 
16, Depth of feed box on opposite side of 
stanchions? 17, Depth of partition in bottom 
of feed box for feeding meal or other fine 
stuff? 18, Are there stanchions that can lie 
opened and closed at once? 
Ans. —1. Four-aud-a-half to five feet. 2. Eight 
inches. 3. Three feet and a half. 4. Four-and- 
a-half feet. 5. Three foot. IS. Fourteen inches. 
Twenty inches. 8. Six inches. 9. Yes. 10. Yes. 
11. Niue inches. 12. Twenty-four inches. 
13. Four by four inches. 14. Six feet. 14. Yes. 
15. Yes. 1(1. Six to thirty-six inches. 17. Six 
inches. 18. It is not practicable to close the 
stanchions all at once, hut they can be easily 
opened all at once by arranging a cord. 
CONCRETE WALL. 
G. A,. Richardson Co., Neb .—Will a wall 
laid up roughly with limestone and plastered 
upon the outside with mortar made of common 
lime and sand withstand the action of the frost 
and be durable, or is it necessary to use water- 
lime or cement for the outside finish? Would 
it be a good plan in making such a w'all to use 
a box or frame, as is done in building walls of 
concrete, and fill in a space between the stones 
and boards, both outside and inside of the wall, 
with concrete in preference to putting on the 
mortar with a trowel ? 
Ans. —The best wail made is one of concrete 
in which large stones are bedded as closely as 
possible with their faces to the outside. Strong 
concrete can be made of two parts of good 
lime with one of water-lime (hydraulic cement) 
instead of all water-lime, and the expense is 
less. By making the frames carefully a very 
smooth wall may be made. Such a wall would 
be air and water-proof; but in filling the 
frame the concrete should lie rammed well to 
prevent air spaces or porosity. We would 
never recommend a dry wall or plastering a 
rough wall. The plaster will scale off. A bet¬ 
ter wall can be made by merely pointing care¬ 
fully between the stones with cement, which 
will not scale or break. 
RICH MILK. 
T.'A. E.. Roanoke, Md .—We began to save 
the milk of a half-blood Duchess Short-horn 
A # " - -MM 
<£}&", 7 I ry. 
lT 
m 
icy 
ft. A Tip 
m 
& 
WM 
■K'eic 
Vs 7 /re- 
Mt \ . 
W 
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: 
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i&J* it... 
B >r v '* *5$ * 
. ■■ ■■ 
Prize Fat Short-horn Heifer, Lilian— Fig. 95. 
not broken down are bent down and frozen into 
the ice; no signs of thawing out yet. h. 
Rossville, Vermilion Co.—Com was not 
over one-half a crop here; oats about three- 
fourths of a crop; hay extra good. Prices 
arc:—Corn, 55 and 60 cents; oats, 35 cents; 
hay, £10; hogs, £0.25. h. w, 
Kansas. 
Yates Center, Woodson Co.—This part of 
sunny Kansas has had the severest touch from 
the Ice King this season, that it has had since I 
have been in the State, the thermometer rang¬ 
ing down to 15 deg. below zero accompanied 
by snow and sleet. But feed of all kinds is 
pi mty, so the stock will not suffer much. 
We had good crops last year of everything 
save oats, which the dry weather in May 
and the chinch bugs got away with. Prices 
are about as follows: corn 25 to 35c; wheat, 
65 to 80c ; oats, 25c; potatoes, 75c; apples, 50c; 
flour, 90c. to £1.35 per sack; hay, £2 to £3 
per ton. Wages for farm hands only £8 to 
£15 per month, and as a consequence there is 
not an over supply. They work at other kinds 
of business. f. w. 
Nebraska. 
Springfield, Sarpy Co., Feb. 12.—The 
Winter has been the coldest for years—about 
15 inches of snow r . Stock doing well. The 
yields of crops per aero were: com, 50bushels; 
wheat, 12; oats, 40. Prices are; com, 31c; 
wheat, 80c; oats, 25c; potatoes. 40 to 50c; but¬ 
ter, 25c; eggs, 80c; hogs, live, tic; and almost 
nil gone to market. Land, unimproved £10 
to $20 per acre; improved farms £20 to $40 
per acre, and a great changing of hands, e, e. s. 
Vermont. 
West Paw let, Rutland Co., Feb. 5.—Snow 
in abundance here. All live farmers busy 
hauling out manure, getting up wood, etc., 
etc. Potatoes are 75 to 85 cents per bushel; 
oats, 40 bo 45 cents; corn, 75 cents. I wish to 
advise all farmers who waut to find out any¬ 
thing they don’t know just to write to the Rural 
about it and have it explained through the 
Querist column, os 1 did about sheep-racks. I 
have now two kinds illustrated, and between 
now anil Spring they will save me many times 
the cost of the Rura l. My neighbors all want 
to know whore I got the plans of such excel¬ 
lent racks, and I take pride in answering 
through the farmers’ friend, the Rural New- 
Yorker. E. & M. E. C. 
RURAL SEED REPORTS. 
lltnh. 
Ogden City.— The Rural flint corn I planted 
late on account of late Spring. Soil a sandy 
loam which got a good dressing of barnyard 
manure. The com grew 10 to 12 feet high and 
suekered until it covered the ground. But. 
alas! the gate to the garden was left open, and 
the cow's made a raid on it. I felt very much 
annoyed, for every one that saw' it was prais¬ 
ing it. I managed to save a few ears—two of 
them were 15’j inches long—very fine com. 
The Beauty of Hebron is a No. 1 potato in this 
neighborhood. The White Elephant is also 
very good. w. j. H. 
<T;)C 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address or the writer to Insure attention.] 
GRAPE QUERIES. 
C. R. B., Williamsport, Lid. —1. Would 
Delaware vines be hardy in a climate w’here 
the thermometer declines to 10 degrees in 
ordinary' Winters, and to 80 degrees in extra¬ 
ordinary Winters; where Isabellas are killed 
to the ground once in three, and Catawbas, 
once in two, yea in ? 2. Are hybrids, that are 
natives, hardier than hybrids that are crosses 
between the native and the foreign grajie ? Is 
the tenderness proportioned to the admixture 
of foreign blood ? 8. Is the chance of raising 
tender sorts of grapes helped by grafting on 
such hardy stocks as Clinton or Concord ? 4. 
1 s the gra ftiug of grape-vines done above or lie- 
low ground—on one or all the canes, springing 
from a given root ? 
Ans.— 1. Wo think not unless beut down and 
protected. 2. That depends. A hybrid be¬ 
tween the Northern Fox and the Southern 
Fox might not prove any hardier than one be¬ 
tween any Northern species with Vitjs vinifora, 
the foreign speeios. Seedlings from the Euro¬ 
pean grape are not necessarily tender. We 
have known them to live out-of-doors w ithout 
protection for years. But the foliage mildews 
so badly that the vines puss a feeble existence 
and finally die. 8. Yes, no doubt. That is, 
many of Ricketts’s hybrids, for example, 
grow more vigorously and ripen their wood 
more perfectly on such stacks than when not 
grafted. 4. Usually below ground, or if above, 
the earth Is drawn about the cion and its in¬ 
sertion. We have seen vine-grafting success¬ 
fully done three feet above ground, but have 
been unublo to effect it ourselves though wo 
scattered all over the inside of it. What ailed 
her, and how should she have been treated.' 
Ans.— The cow died of parturient fever. The 
tumors, as you cull them,on the uterus, are the 
maternal cotyledons by which the foetus is at¬ 
tached to the uterus, and the yellow fluid a 
natural secretion known as the uterine milk, 
which is produc'd from the mucous membrane 
of the uterus. There is no indication of any¬ 
thing w rong here. The congested eyes and ud¬ 
der indicate the true cause, width was as above 
stated. Had you given the cow a dose of 24 
ounces of Epsom salts on the first appearance 
of the disorder, she would probably have re¬ 
covered, The cause of the disease is the nat¬ 
ural reaction of au animal in good condition 
after the nervous and physical r xcitemeul of 
calving. It is advisable to avoid giviug any 
grain food w hatever to a cow for four weeks 
before calving. 
stable arrangements. 
D. A. M., Ashland, Ind .—In a stable for 
milch cows and stock cattle, 1, what should be 
the length of floor for standing-room from 
back of feed box to edge of ui^nure gutter? 
2, the depth of manure gutter? 8, width of 
stalls for milch cows? 4, width of stalls for 
stock weighing from TOO to 1,(300 pounds each? 
5, length of partition between stalls? 6, width 
cow’ of mine eight day’s after site had dropped 
her second calf last December. The cream on 
the first milking was unusually thick, and it 
was lifted directly into the butter-bowl and 
worked up with the butter ladle as if it were 
churned butter, aud in less than three minutes 
there was a lump of nice butter. Since then 
we have never had any use for a churn for 
the ercniu from that cow. A neighbor has a 
cow that gives milk of the same character. 
Are such cows common? 
Ans. —Occasionally such cows are heard of 
aud it is sometimes the ease that fresh Jerseys, 
or grade Jerseys, or very good cotumou cows, 
yield cream that can be worked into butter in 
the way mentioned. A cow was not long ago 
reported, iu Michigan, w hose milk had lumps 
of butter iu the pail, where butter gathered in 
the milking. Another, yielding similar milk 
is reported from Georgia. One of the writer’s 
cows, a cross-bred Jersey aud Ay r rshire, from 
very rich butter families, gives such milk al¬ 
ways for a week or two after calving. The 
reason for it is that the follicles of the milk 
glands are much excited in such cases and give 
off their fat globules iu excess. 
catarrh in cattle—lick on hogs. 
C. L. D.,Flemin\jton, W. Vo.—1, For three or 
four mouths my cattle have beeu affected with 
a bad cough. Some of them discharge from 
the nose an offensive, filthy-looking matter; 
some lose flesh, others do not. What is the 
matter with them, and how should they be 
treated? Other cattle hereabouts are similarly 
affected. 2, What is a remedy for lice on hogs? 
Ans.— 1. The disease is probably catarrh 
with bronchitis, the inflammation affecting 
the bronchial tubes and the nasal passages. It 
will doubtless result in pneumonia in time, 
even if the lungs are not already affected. A 
disease of this kind should not be neglected for 
so long. The treatment should be as follow's: 
Give a dose of one pound of Epsom salts with 
one dram of chlorate of potash. Afterwards 
give, once a day, one ounce of hyposulphite of 
soda, with two drams of saltpeter. Stir the 
drinking water with a stick dipped in pine tar. 
Give warm bran mashes and sprinkle the cat¬ 
tle-pens or stables with carbolic acid, diluted 
with 25 times its bulk of water, 2, A mixture 
of four parts of lard and one part of kerosene oil 
with a little carbolic acid will kill lice on hogs. 
chronic sore throat in a horse, etc. 
J. M., Nnnda, N. Y., About three months 
ago one of my horses caught a severe cold and 
began coughing very hard. There is no dis¬ 
charge from the nose, but he drinks with dif¬ 
ficulty, and often on opening his mouth the 
water flows back into the pail. He eats well 
but appears dull, and exercise causes h i m to 
cough severely. His breath sometimes smells 
very bad. Another horse is getting similarly 
affeeted. What is the proper treatment? 
ANS.—The disease is chronic sore throat 
with catarrh and fetid raucous secretion. 
Give a pound of Epsom salts and, after it has 
operated, give an ounce of acetate of potash 
daily in a bran mash, or linseed gruel with an 
alternate dose, also daily, of the following 
mixture: solid extract belladonna, half an 
ounce; tannic acid, one dram: hyposulphite of 
soda, four drams; hone}-, four ounces; dose a 
tablespoonful. put on the back of the tongue 
and teeth so as to be swallowed gradually. 
butter coming slowly. 
C. H., Waterford, Fa., Why is butter a 
long time in coming in little lumps that won’t 
’ gather? 1 
Ans. —The milk is probably kept at too low 
a temperature, or the cream is kept too long 
before it is churned. Winter churning re¬ 
quires that the milk should be kept at 60 de¬ 
grees and not more than two days before it 
is skimmed; the cream should not be kept 
more than four or five days, and should be 
churned at a temperature of not less than 62 
tei 65 degrees. The butter will not gather if 
the temperature is too cold. It would help it 
to put a quart or two of hot water in the 
churn. The plan will be given as desired as 
soon as it can be designed and drawn. 
fasti; re crop for hogs, etc. 
A. S., Marshall, Mich.— 1, At what stage do 
millet and oats contain the most nutriment for 
feeding. 2. What would be the best crop on 
15 acres of land adjoining 12 acres of timber, 
for early pasture for 24 brood sows, live calves 
and four colts; land very rich. 
Ans. —1. All fodder plants are in then - best 
stage for cutting when just past the blossom; 
then the nutritious elements are contained in 
stem and leaves; the fodder cures softer and 
is more palatable. 2. The best crop in our 
judgment for pasture would be oats and peas, 
two bushels of oats and 1of peas. On rich 
ground this mixed crop yields as much feed on 
one acre ns on an acre of each singly; thi 
mixed crop grows rapidly, is very sweet and 
palatable and the ground is left in fine, clean 
condition after it. 
RING-WORM IN CATTLE. 
IF. R. UAshland. O .—Scabs entirely cov¬ 
er the hide of a cow which has nibbed her hide 
bare here and there; what is the matter? 
Ans.—T he information is scarcely sufficient 
to indicate the exact character of the disease 
and should have been given more particularly 
as to the nature* and form of the scabs. But 
all such cutaneous disorders call for similar 
treatmeut. It is probably a form of ring-worm 
known as favus or honeycomb ring-worm. The 
treatment should be as follows: Soak the 
scabs in warm water to which a little carbolic 
acid has beeu added, and remove them as ten¬ 
derly as possible. Then apply an ointment 
composed of lard, four parts; flowers of sul¬ 
phur, oue pan; and creosote, one-fourth part. 
Rub well together aud apply once a day. Give 
the animal au ounce of hyposulphite of soda 
daily while under treatment. 
ASHES AS a FERTILIZER. 
J. IF. R., Concord, -V. H. r Would the use of 
wood ashes be advisable on light, sandy 
land for com, potatoes, beans, beets and tur¬ 
nips ! How many bushels per acre should be 
used ! Which would lie the more profitable— 
leached ashes at 15 cents per bushel or un¬ 
leached at 25 cents ? 
Ans. —Wood ashes are good anywhere at 
any time: and no one ever yet used too much. 
The pocket is the only limit in using wood 
