APRIL U 
9 
233 
Aaron D. Capen mentioned that he had 
stools of the Franconia which had remained 
for 20 years in the same place. Two years 
ago he had canes 10 feet high. 
Dr. Sturtkvant remarks that the milk of 
Ayrshire cows is the nearest to human milk 
and the most easily digested of any produced.. 
Puck calls the phylloxera the only con¬ 
sistent apostle of total abstinence. 
Tire New England Farmer states that so 
long ns grain (com) is worth more per pound 
than stalks, the advantage of the silo over the 
corn-crib and hay-mow is more apparent 
than real.. 
A writer in the N. Y. Tribune says that 
it is often a question whether recourse to 
seeding ground with a special view to green 
manuring will prove profitable in a given soil. 
Even clover, plowed down deeply in clay soil, 
while in teuderest., freest growth, has been 
known to “sour” the soil so fatally as to ren¬ 
der it infertile for many years so far as the 
green stuff was turned down. 
Mr. Beecher points out that the ever-faith- 
ful horse has but one privilege in this life, 
that of dying w hen his time comes.. 
The idea, says the Philadelphia Press, that 
good roads are to be bad without makiug some 
sort of an investment in the work is absurd... 
Prof. Steele calls the carp an aquatic 
buzzard..... 
Mr. Reed remarks in the Rural Home ihat 
a neighbor had a piece of low land on which 
wire-worms destroyed everything. He raised 
three crops of buckwheat, and had never been 
troubled since.... 
than any other variety. So far as hardiness 
and size of berry are concerned, the Rural 
from its own tests can subscribe to the above. 
it is better to cut it down, says Mr. Wm, H. 
Hunt.............. 
The American Silk Journal reminds its 
readers that the Morus multicaulis fizzle was 
due measurably to the fact that this species 
w f as not at all adapted to the climate of the 
Eastern, Western or Middle States, having, 
in ordinary Winters, frozen to the ground_ 
orado, Western Nebraska and Utah, com¬ 
prising six millions of acres. English and 
Scotch capital is being largely invested in 
cattle-growing on the plains. The prospects 
for a season of success are very encouraging 
in Nebraska. * j. T. a. 
Ensilage and Gluten Meal for Milch 
Cows.—Dr. Sturtevant, in his pains-taking 
experiments, concludes that gluten meal seems 
potent towards milk flow, while ensilage 
seems not favorable to milk production, while 
the return to grain seems to show the unfavor¬ 
able effect of the provious ensilage feeding. 
His conclusions, therefore, so far as they are 
taught by this one experiment, must lie that 
ensilage, while valuable for maintenance, is 
not particularly favorable to the flow of milk; 
that gluten mpal is extremely favorable to¬ 
wards milk-giving. This gluten meal, a refuse 
from glucose factories, is very nitrogenous, 
but it surfeits the cattle easily, and becomes 
unpalatable to them. His impressions are, 
that unless fed with care, it may prove an in¬ 
jurious food. Its rich feeding character is 
shown by the following analysis, made by the 
Station chemist, 8 . M. Babcock, M. D. 
analysis of gluten meal. 
Water...,. 7.31 
Ash.74 
Albuminoid (N. x 6.33). 28.08 
Crude fiber.73 
Nitrogen, free extract. 54.46 
Fat (ether extract). S.T3 
)t (Oitmsl 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention.) 
Missouri. 
Opel, Sullivan Co., March 25,—This part of 
Missouri has had the coldest 
Winter experienced for years. 
The thermometer indicated 
from 20 to 30 degrees below- 
zero a number of times. Snow / 
was about 20 inches deep, with / 
the best sleighing, and lasted / 
longer than any snow- we have / 
had for several Winters. Cattle / 
are in fine condition. Sheep | 
not doing very well—they are I 
lousy-, and some farmers have f 
lost heavily. The yield of I 
crops per acre in this part is \ 
as follows:—Corn, 50 bushels; \ 
wheat, 20 bushels; oats, 30 \ 
bushels. Prices are:—Cora, 40 N. 
cents; wheat, 00 cents; oats, 35 \ 
cents; butter, 15 cents; eggs, 
1-31 cents. Hogs, stock, £0 per 
hundred. A large amount of 
hay is left over for another 
Winter. Land Is worth, unimproved, £10 to 
£12 per acre; improved land, from £15 to £25 
KEEPING VEGETABLES. 
S. C., West Northfield, Mass. —1. Is there 
Brewers’ Grains for Butter. —Prof. Ar¬ 
nold says, in the N. Y. Tribune, that there are 
but few foods that will stiinulate a large flow 
of milk equal to brewers’ grains, but there is 
no butter in it. When used as an exclusive 
diet the milk of cows consuming it soon ceases 
to produce any butter. When used as a par¬ 
tial feed the butter product will be gauged by' 
the other food used with the grains. As the 
grains increase the weight of milk and de¬ 
crease its value for butter production, it is 
very unfair for patrons of a creamery to feed 
grains to their cows unless all the patrons do 
the same. It is an artful way r of watering 
milk—the milk being watered before it comes 
from the cow instead of afterward. It means 
something for nothing; or, to phrase it a little 
more exactly, it means money for w r ater. 
Cows supplying milk to a creamery should 
have no sour or fermented food, Prof. Arnold 
says, which does not speak well for ensilage. 
Florence No. 52—Fig. 172. 
any successful way of keeping spinach for 
Winter use f 2. How can cabbage be kept to 
early Spring economically ? 3. How should 
cucumbers be treated from the time they are 
taken from the vines for pickling until fit for 
market ? 
Ans.— 1. Spinach may be sown in this lati¬ 
tude as late as Oct. 1. In well-exposed fields 
cover it lightly with hay, though in warm, 
well-drained soil no covering is necessary. 2. 
Cabbage must be kept in a dry. frost-proof 
but not warm, cellar. The method employed 
by many market gardeners is to place the 
cabbages, head down, in trenches in the field, 
covering them with litter and soiL 3. Cut off 
the cucumbers, leaving a short piece of the 
stem on. Be careful not to braise them. 
Wash them in cold water and lay them in a 
cask two or three iuches deep; cover the layer 
with salt—the coarse quality—and repeat until 
all are in. It will be necessary to throw in 
a little water with the first layer. Have fitted 
a board that w ill go inside of the cask, keep¬ 
ing all the cucumbers under, and place a 
heavy stone on top. Add fresh ones as before 
when you desire. Any top ones that seem 
soft throw away. When the cask is full straw 
over with salt; cover with a cloth and replace 
the board and weight When wanted for use 
take out what you wish and put into a vessel 
that will hold two or three times as much 
water as pickles. Cover with cold water and 
let stand three or four days, or until fresh 
enough, changing the water every day. A 
little alum is a good thing to preserve the 
green color with, but it should be judiciously 
used. 
cow peas. 
G. A. C., Strathroy, Canada. —Is there such 
a cow-pea as the Chowder, and would it be 
suitable for Canada. 
Ans. —The “Clay” or “Crowder,” we sup¬ 
pose is here referred to—one of the numerous 
varieties of the cow-pea so largely raised at 
the South both for stock feed and enriching 
poor lands. It is a clay-colored sort, the largest 
of all the varieties; but neither prolific nor 
easy to raise. It gets its name from its color 
aud the crowded position of the seeds in the 
pod. A large first-page illustration of it was 
given in the Rural of Dec-ember 20, 1S80 
Quite a large number of varieties were in¬ 
cluded in the Rural Free Seed Distribution 
of 1879. Eleven different sorts were tested at 
t he Rural Experiment Grounds and the results 
reported in the issue of October 9, 1880. Of 
these the earliest to mature were the Poor 
Laud Pea, the seed of which was ripe on 
August 15; the Goose Pea. w hich ripened early 
in September,and the Whip-poor-w ill or Java, 
which began to ripen seed on September 5. 
Tbe Tbree-erop Pea ripened seed by Septem¬ 
ber 15. The Crowder produced low vines 
that spread out covering the ground for a 
space of six feet; hut uo fruit was formed. 
From the reports of the large number of ex¬ 
periments made with our seed, all over the 
country, in 187!) and 1880. w e do not think any 
variety of cow- [tea can be profitably grown 
so far north as Canada, Both for feed and 
soil enrichment clover is more desirable. 
Salt on Potatoes.—M r. Charles J. Edic, 
of Many, Oneida County, N. Y., informs us 
that during the season of 1881 he tried salt on 
soil in which lie planted potatoes. He broad¬ 
casted about 1 , 001 ) or 1,200 pounds of salt to the 
acre and harrowed it in. The potatoes were 
then planted, and others were planted along¬ 
side in the same field without salt. The effect 
was most striking. Just as far as the salt ex¬ 
truded the potatoes were smooth, sound, and 
of good size. The next rows adjoining, where 
the salt did not reach, the potatoes were small, 
wormy and rough. We may add to the above 
that we have tried salt on potatoes without any' 
such effect as that attributed to its use above. 
per acre, and in 
sro od demand. 
Wages for farm 
hands from £15 
to £20 per month, 
and laborers in 
good demand. 
SAMPLES AND COMMENTS, 
A. W. C’heever gives a very good definition 
of a jKitato tuber in Sibley’s Almanac. He 
says that it is really nothing but a potato vine 
telescoped into itself and gone into winter- 
quarters—hibernated, as it were. 
Hints on Fruit-growing.— We learn from 
the late proceedings of the Mass. Horticultural 
Society that if we want to raise the large 
English gooseberries we must prime severely 
and manure heavily. They should also be 
shaded from the mid-day sun. 
Mn. John B. Moore deems it a mistake to 
plant raspberries in hills, as is commonly 
done. He puts his rows six feet apart, and 
the plant* two-nud-a-half feet apart in the 
rows. He then sets a braced post twu-and-a- 
half or three feet high at each end of the row, 
and stretches a galvanized wire, to which the 
canes are tied with cotton twine, about six 
inches apart, This is cheaper than stakes, 
ami the canes do not smot her each other. You 
want to do all the cultivating you cun by 
horse-power. Most kinds throw up suckers, 
which should be chopped off.... 
Colonel Henry W. Wilson said that he 
trains the Lawton Blackberry on the northern 
side of the fence, and pinches off the shoots so 
as to cause it to make laterals. The crop is 
perfectly bewildering; the bunches of ten or 
twelve berries were ull ripe at once. 
Ho says also that the currant will thrive 
where no sunlight reaches the soil. We should 
like to ask tile Colonel for how many years 
Nebraska. 
Omaha, Douglas Co.. March 
24.—After a long Winter and 
^ more than the usual amount 
4 A of snow. Soring seems to have 
arrived. Farmers in AVestera 
W Nebraska were seeding ten 
davs ago, and plowing is 
p going on. Early planting is 
' a maiu point in this county 
so the plants can make a 
strong growth before ex¬ 
tremely hot weather. A large 
and increased area of com will be planted, a 
crop which never fails and affords the most 
profit. At present there is a great demand for 
Nebraska seed corn by Illinois. Indiana and 
Eastern Iowa. One man took 20 car-loads East 
yesterday, bought from fanners in Central 
Nebraska. Our corn was thoroughly ripened 
during our late Fall. The price of prime seed 
corn is £1 to £1.50, which gives a good profit 
to farmers. Immigration has already set in. 
and cars are daily missing westward loaded 
with household goods and stock. This is a 
way of moving which is much in advance of 
the old covered wagons of early days. The 
farmer who wants to come A Vest from Ohio. 
Pennsylvania, etc., loads his effects iu a car 
and is quickly transported to his new location. 
There will lie a great influx into Nebraska of 
people, a great proportion of whom will lie 
well-to-do fanners with plenty’ of capital to 
commence farming and stock-growing com¬ 
bined at once. Reports from the Western 
cattle ranges indicate scarcely any loss front 
the severe Winter storm. The snow is all 
gone and stock are haviug plentt of feed. 
The Union Pacific Railway have just offered 
■or sale their’gi azing lands in Wyoming. Col- 
Rkrbkkry Cluster—From Nature— Fig. I7L 
F. R. Pierson calls Perle des Jardins the 
finest monthly rose in culivation.. 
A WRITER in the Iowa Homestead says that 
the Snyder Blackberry may be depended 011 
every season in Middle aud Southern Iowa. 
If a vineyard cannot In- properly eared for. 
