MAY If} 
343 
drills of early peas; they should be planted 
just as early in Spring as possible; they will 
be sure to germinate. Later on in the season 
a few more drills should lie planted, thus in. 
soring a succession. I know of nothing that 
gives the same amount of pleasure as the first 
mess of early green peas. There are other 
things which the farmers should not neglect 
in making his garden, such as early corn, let¬ 
tuce, beets, radishes, cucumbers, cabbage and 
cauliflowers, and the list might be exteuded 
almost indefinitely. All these vegetables are 
actually necessary to the well-being of the 
family during the hot weather. Every fanner 
out of due regard t > the comfort of his family 
should make as extensive a garden as possible 
and now is the time to do it. F. K. Moreland. 
iHiscellaru'otis. 
NOTES FROM KANSAS. 
When fruit trees are girdled by rabbits or 
mice, a good remedy is beef tallow melted 
and smeared on the gnawer! part of the bark: 
then wrap with newspapers saturated with 
the tallow, and then wind with rags, and bank 
with dirt. I had 15 badly gnawed trees a year 
ago and after this sort of treatment they are 
now covered with as nice a green bark as one 
can find anywhere. The tallow aud paper 
keep out both suu and wet, while the dirt pre¬ 
vents drying too much. Tallow will prevent 
rabbits from gnawing, if applied iu the Fall. 
A few apples cut iu pieces and sprinkled with 
a little strychnine, if scattered in the haunts 
of the pests, will soon finish them. 
A year ago hist Summer I trimmed my 
grape-vines (Concords) as recommended iu the 
Rural, i. e., I cut oil runners beyond the 
fruit to let in sun and air, aud nearly ruined 
both fruit and vines, for the hot sun cooked the 
fruit aud killed some and injured all my vines. 
It may do in some places but not in South¬ 
ern Kansas. 
[Our frieud must lie mistaken. We have 
never favored Summer pruning further than 
pinching the ends of strong-growing canes or 
pinching out laterals. This is good for Kansas 
or any other place.—E ds.] 
Barbed wire for fencing, about the use of 
which the Rural is amusingly cautious, is an 
article of prime necessity to us on the prairies; 
in fact, I do not see how wo could do without 
it, and the sharper it is the better. Some 
stock were badly cut. when we first began to 
use it, but one lesson was enough. Animals 
raised along it hardly ever get cut. unless run 
into it by dogs or frightened in some other way. 
As to the level culture of com, 1 believe it, 
or a modification of it, is the only rational way 
to raise corn. We plow deep at flrat and -lose 
to the corn, keeping the ground nearly level, 
then at the last plowing we set the shovels to 
throw to the corn dirt enough to cover all 
weeds. My futhor first tried it in Susquehanna 
County, Pa., in 1856, and in spite of all the 
assertions of the neighbors that it, would be a 
failure, had the best com in the neighborhood. 
Woodson Co., Kansas. E. A. Hibbard. 
Some Choice Ornamental Trees.—Cay- 
wood's Grape Trellis. 
The Rural's praise of C’ladrastis tinctoria. 
or Virgilia lutoa, or Yellow Wood, as it is 
variously called, is thoroughly well deserved. 
'Tis a most elegant tree, not half so widely 
known or planted as it ought to lie. The Ken¬ 
tucky Coffee Tree (Gymnocladus Canadensis) 
is also well worthy of culture as an orna¬ 
mental tree. But let me protest against your 
condemnation of the Weeping Willow (Salix 
Babyloniea). This Willow is to me—and. in¬ 
deed, is to most people, I think—one of the 
handsomest trees iu existence. Its thread-like 
emerald streamers are just now the very type 
of grace and beauty. Plant it near water if 
possible, put u pyramidal tree of some kind 
near it by way of contrast, and the effect is 
well-nigh perfect. See, for example, the 
Willow and the Southern Cypress (Taxodium 
distiehmn), on the south side of the little hike 
iu Central Park. N. Y., between Fifth and 
Sixth Avenues, bordering on Fifty-ninth 
Street, and then tell us whether you would 
banish the Willow to a cemetery. 
The plan of training grape-vines illustrated 
in a late Rural is objectionable in theory 
aud must be unsatisfactory in practice. The 
whole plant is exposed to excessive radiation 
and I should expect to tind on a horizontal 
trellis of this kind tender shoots and foliage 
ruined, where on a vertical trellis they would 
remain uninjured. What, is the experience of 
those who have tried such a trellis? Narcisse. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Third Biennial Report ok the Kansas 
State Board of Agriculture, Vol. VIII. 
1881-83. William Sims, Secretary. Topeka’ 
A handsomely gotten up volume of 717 pages, 
finely illustrated and well printed, in which is 
to be found much interesting matter concern¬ 
ing the agriculture, etc., of this enterprising 
State. Accurate maps of each county, with 
descriptions of the same, giving valuable sta¬ 
tistics concerning live stock, dairy products, 
gardens and poultry, agriculture, horticulture, 
apiculture, valuation and indebtedness, etc., 
occupy the first 500 pages. Among the various 
crops grown in this State, strictly speaking 
“Corn is King,” far out-ranking all others in 
acres grown and in value. 
In 1881, 4,171,554 acres produced 80,760,.542 
bushels valued at $44,850,063.20, while in 1882, 
4,441,838 produced 157,005,722 bushels, valued 
at $51,838,366.27. 
Iu 1881, 1,974,693 acres of Winter wheat 
were grown, producing a crop of 19,164,896 
bushels, valued at $20,457,277.45, while in 1882 
1,465,745 acres were grown, producing 33.943,- 
398 bushels, valued at $22,077,996.72, showing 
an increase of over $2,000,000 on a less amount 
of land. The Spring wheat crop is compara¬ 
tively small, the crop of 1881 being valued at 
$1.$47,998.35; that of 1882 at $1,025,824.38, 
showing a slight decrease. 
The grasses in Kansas come in for their full 
share of attention, prairie meadow being third 
in value on the list, with Millet and Hungarian 
fifth, their values in 1882 being $7,500,536.50 
and $4,765,323 respectively. The value of all 
field crops for 1882 is $108,172,520.93, against 
$91,910,439.27 for 1881. The increase iu the 
total value of farm animals for 1882 was $14,- 
060,198. Iu 1882 there were 139,995 acres of 
artificial forests, consisting of trees one year 
or over of age. The horticultural products 
are steadily iucreasing. The number of farm 
dwellings erected in 1882 was 12,325, valued at 
$4,045,353, and the value of agricultural imple¬ 
ments in use, $5,473,035. The total number of 
acres under cultivation for 1882 was 11,043,379 
against 2,476.000 in 1872, showing an increase in 
10 years equal to the united area of Massachu¬ 
setts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Sorghum 
has made quite a showing for the better, pro¬ 
ducing 6,181,030 gallons in 1882 against 3.S99,- 
440 gallons in 1881. The last 150 pages are de¬ 
voted to reports upon the geology, meteorolo¬ 
gy, schools, etc., of the State. At the end of 
the volume is to be found a finely-colored map 
of Kansas, 
Agriculture of Pennsylvania for 1SS2. 
Thomas J. Edge, Secretary, Harrisburg, Pa. 
This volume consists of 654 pages, the con¬ 
tents of which are well worthy of the atten¬ 
tion of farmers. It contains many valuable 
articles, prominent among which arc “ Carp 
and Carp Culture," by Capt, Milton B. Peirce, 
in which the carp question is thoroughly dis¬ 
cussed. To any person who is engaged in carp 
culture, or who meditates engaging in this 
growing industry, we should think this 
treatise would lie of much value. The en¬ 
silage question is discussed in a very thorough 
manner; 67 pages are given up to the State 
Dairymen's Association, while 80 pages report 
the work of the State Horticultural Associa¬ 
tion, in which are included its by-laws, list of 
officers, and annual members. The work is 
graced with a number of fine, full-page illus¬ 
trations, noticeable among which are fine 
likenesses of the celebrated Jersey cows Coo- 
massie aud Eurotas. 
RURAL BRIEFLETS. 
Did yon ever see a jet black oat?.. 
Thunberg's Spir.ea is the first of our 
Spiraeas to bloom. It is a little spray-like, 
hardy shrub with innumerable very small 
white flowera.... 
Now is a good time to make new planta¬ 
tions of the red raspberries. The suckers from 
an inch to a foot high, if taken up with a 
little soil adhering, may be transplanted with¬ 
out wilting... 
Our first smiling Magnolia is now in pro¬ 
fuse bloom. It is from the seed of Soulauge's 
Magnolia though differing from it essentially. 
The flowers white within and streaked with 
purple without, bear 12 petals They bloom 
just one week after the parent. The leaves 
are rather smaller and the habit of the tree 
or shrub is more compact. There is no hardy 
plant that we prize more than Magnolias, aud 
we should sav this for the large tropical leaves 
alone even though their flowers were insig¬ 
nificant.... 
Now blooms the Spice-bush, or Benjamm 
Bush, as it is sometimes called, in low, swampy 
places, though it thrives just as well ou higher 
ground as we know from our own specimens 
transplanted frem the woods. This is botan- 
icallv Lindera Benzoin or Lamms Benzoin, 
according to some botanists. Its little flowers 
are of a bright yellow, borne in great pro¬ 
fusion. and the Golden Bell, (Forsythia) almost 
alone bears it company. 
Wb see by the Garden iLondon) of a late 
date that Air. B, S. Williams has produced a 
new cross-bred Amaryllis which he has named 
Mrs. Garfield. The flowers are crimson, striped 
and reticulated upon a white ground.. 
We may uow again remind our readers that 
tornuto plants may be so trained up the side 
of a barn or other building or arbor as to ex¬ 
cite a good deal of wonderment on the part of 
those who have never seen the experiment 
tried. Set the plant in strong, mellow soil, 
water it as needed, and confine it to one shoot 
by pinchiug out all lateral buds asthey appear. 
Rank-growing varieties of tomatoes may in 
this way be made to grow to the hight of 16 
feet in a season. We are merely stating what 
we know to be true from our own trials. It is 
very well to train two kinds, red and yellow, 
beside each other, so that the fruit will make 
a showy contrast... 
Mr, A. B, Allen writes us that all the 
kinds of sweet com which we mentioned on 
page 269, are put down as not growing so high 
by 12 to 18 inches as upon his poor gravelly 
soil. Our tests were also made upon gravelly 
soil and without any manure. The hight of any 
kind of peas, etc., depends very much upon 
the richness of the soil. It is best therefore to 
make such tests upon soils of moderate fertil¬ 
ity without applying any fertilizers. 
Mr. Caywood recommends wetting the 
roots of grape vines and sprinkling them with 
flowers of sulphur as a preventive of, and rem¬ 
edy for, phylloxera. 
It is surprising, says Air. Burpee, with what 
rapidity Jersey Red pigs have become popu¬ 
lar in the South. We have over 100 to ship 
next week... 
AIr. Milton P. Pierce (author of Mono¬ 
graph ou Carp and Carp Culture) writes us 
that we cannot say too much in favor of eaip 
culture. There must be, he says, nearly or 
quite 20,000 persons ab'eady engaged in the 
business in this country. But he thinks a large 
proportion null not at first make a success, for 
the reason that they will not commence and 
conduct the business with system. It will be 
difficult to procure pure carp for stoek for 
years to come, because so many will have 
other members of the family iu the same 
ponds and the progeny will be worthless 
cross-breeds... 
- ♦-*-* - 
“Seed' - Potatoes. —So far as the experi¬ 
ence of one year can determine. Dr. Sturte- 
vant feels warranted in asserting that all the 
data that he possesses go to show that the 
character of the seed used is an important de¬ 
termining factor of the crop gained; that sin¬ 
gle eyes have yielded better results than whole 
potatoes used as seed, and that the form of the 
cutting seems more influential than the size of 
the cutting. In the experiments carried on 
under glass, under circumstances which give 
warmth of soil aud uniformity of conditions, 
together with the soil richer aud in better 
physical condition than is usually obtainable 
in the field, he has obtaiued resnltswkich seem 
to indicate that under these circumstances the 
size of the seed and the growth of the top seem 
to have no correlation. The small seed may 
give large top. and the large seed small top, or 
rice versa, the character of the growth seem¬ 
ing to lie more influenced by the position 
which the eye held upon the potato than by 
its size. All of his data go to show that the 
roots thrown out by the shoot absorb their 
nutriment for the plant from the ground, 
rather than that the plant absorbs nutriment 
from the seed. In no case has he found the 
structure of the seed broken down through ab¬ 
sorption. and when destruction of the seed 
has occurred, it has come about through ordi¬ 
nary decay, commencing at the extrremities. 
A correspondent of the Live Stock Indi¬ 
cator, of Kansas, likes the lister after two 
years' experience with it. There is one thing 
he impresses upon those about to use it. viz., 
that, listed corn requires more working than 
check-rowed corn. Just as soon as the sprout 
appears it should be harrowed. Sometimes 
harrowing twice is necessary according to the 
condition of the ground. This will check the 
weeds until the corn is high enough to be cul¬ 
tivated. which should be thoroughly done. 
Some object to the deep furrows left in the 
field, but these are wiped out by the cultivation. 
W. T. Dudley writes to the Kansas Live 
Stock Indicator that he like's the lister greatly. 
He last year put iu 160 acres of corn with a 
Deere lister, besides 45 acres of Amber Cane. 
Both came up finely. He gave three cultivat- 
ings ns soon as the corn was up. which leveled 
the land perfectly. He mentions that while 
the listed corn made a good, yield, that planted 
iu the usual way dried up aud was used for 
fodder. 
Pres. R. AY Gentry admonished the mem¬ 
bers of the Missouri Wool-Growers'Association 
instead of being afraid of starving to death to 
go home and boldly put their entire farms in 
grass, sell off nearly all other stock and fill the 
farm choke-full of sheep! AA'Quid the business 
be overdone? “Gentlemen, do you suppose 11 
men will overdo the sheep business in a State 
like ours—a State larger by over 11,000 square 
miles than England, which contains 35,000,000 
sheep.” 
A writer in the Vermont Watchman for 
liming shingles finds, after many trials of dif¬ 
ferent ways for many years, the best way is to 
hang the largest kettle he can find over a good 
fire; fill it about two-thirds full of water, and 
add one peck, or more, of quick-lime to a bar¬ 
rel of water, and put in as many shingles as 
you can keep under water and boil them about 
10 minutes. Then with an old manure fork 
pitch them into a tub of water to rinse off 
what lime may adhere to them. From this 
tub replenish the kettle and add more lime. A 
bushel will do 10,000 shingles, and after rinsing 
the workman will find no fault in laying. 
Mr. Qu inb y, of the W estern New York Farm¬ 
ers’ Club, as reported in the Rural Home, many 
years ago bought a farm on which there was a 
15-acre field of wheat. The laud was poor, 
sandy, and the wheat yielded but seven bush¬ 
els to the acre. His neighbors laughed at him 
for buying such poor land; declared that he 
hail been taken in. The next year he plowed 
the land again and sowed, broadcast, from 
three to four bushels of corn to the acre. The 
corn did not grow very rank but when it was 
about five feet high in some places, three feet in 
others, he turned it carefully underand sowed 
to wheat again. The corn had rotted pretty- 
well before seeding time and be harvested 25 
bushels per acre of wheat, and had a good 
catch of clover. 
The Scientific American says that when a 
tool gives out in the using, or a machine breaks 
down, the user and owner does not console 
himself with the reflection that he “got it 
cheap,” but he execrates the maker as heart¬ 
ily as though he had paid the highest market 
price; and he goes no more to the low-priced 
manufacturer, neither does he recommend liis 
productions. AA*e are running “cheapness” in¬ 
to the ground, and the day has come when high 
prices do not repel provident people as first- 
class workmanship attracts. 
There seems to be a growing conviction on 
the part of many Western farmers that A A'in¬ 
ter fattening of cattle and hogs, with ordinary 
methods, does not pay. An experienced fann¬ 
er who has made money fattening hogs on an 
Illinois farm, said to the Editor of the Breed- 
era' Gazette: “1 have made up my mind that I 
will feed my Spring pigs in the Fall, up to 
abou t December 1, and then, fat or not fat, I 
will sell them.” It washis opinion that AA'inter 
feeding of hogs “is generally done at a loss.” 
He often buys, in the Spring, young hogs 
•which his neighbors have wintered, he fatten¬ 
ing them In the early Summer, and making 
money from the work. 
-- 
MULTUM IN PARVO. 
The Industrialist (the Kansas State Coll, 
paper) says that the prettiest tree you can set 
out is the Virginia Creeper. The word "tree 1 ' 
is here used for vine: but we have seen the Vir- 
ginia Creeper grown into tree form by giving 
it support while young—and very beautiful 
they are, too. This native Creeper, the In¬ 
dustrialist says, is more easily cultivated than a 
grape-vine—which, next to a wind storm, is 
most easily raised in Kansas.The Farm 
Journal’s plan of raising a good crop of farm¬ 
ers is to give the young folks a patch of good 
ground aud let them grow what they- please 
on it.Mr. Graham says that though the 
hoe is a very simple instrument, yet in its use 
there are very few experts.... . 
..Puck speaks of the maternal 
hen that tries to make a square foot of wing 
cover about half-an-aere of chickens. 
Puck thinks Ben Pereley Poore's article on 
Making Farm Homes Happy very nice, but 
thinks it “doesn't exactly plow the subject 
thoroughly.” Puck's idea or making a farm 
home happy is “to kick the mortgages off the 
premises'.Professor Shelton remarks 
that the beauty of tree cultivation is that it 
pays every year, and in that which money 
cannot always buy....... Prof. AV altera thinlcs 
that successful farmiug implies more chan 
the practice of a certain number of tricks. 
.Of the seventeen wheats grown this 
year on the farm of the Kansas State Agri¬ 
cultural College, the Early May, Turkey, 
Orange and Zimmerman have suffered the 
least: aud all of these, with the exception of 
Turkey, are old Kansas varieties.--- Prof. 
Shelton says, in the Kansas Industrialist, that 
although the use of barbed-wire fences has 
there increased a hundredfold in the last two 
years, he has not in that time heard of a single 
case of damage to stock or “children” by their 
use. The barbed-wire, he thiuks. has come to 
stay. It is the cheapest aud best fence within 
general reach of the West; and he who hopes 
to bauish barbed-wire because animals are 1 oe- 
casionally injured by it. might as well expect 
to do away with railroads because an innocent 
person or cow is often killed by them, or tele¬ 
graph wires because of the numerous birds 
that are killed or maimed by coming in too 
violent contact with them.... Here is some 
science: The pericarp of the oat contains a 
substance which has the property of stimulat¬ 
ing the motor cells of the nervous system. 
The black oat genera 11 v contains the most. So 
says a member of the French Academy 
of'Science.. 
