330 
MAY 26 
alike, than any boy out of Boston can with a 
hand-hoe. By planting the garden in rows 
the length of the lot, the sulky will do nine- 
tenths of the hoeing. To cultivate with two 
horses may at first look awkward, but when 
one once gets a little used to the machine and 
learns to •‘swing 1 ’ the shovel beams to and 
fro with his feet, and for the first time in his 
life performs perfect work, further ni>erations 
with the o d “ jump 11 or creeping cultivator, 
leading the horse, holding the machine and 
trying to kick off stones, clods and extra dirt 
from the hills, which the old tool will roll on 
to the choicest hills, will seem too closely allied 
to rheumatism, to be healthy, With a plow- 
sulky and a riding cultivator and a Whipple 
harrow, all of which are advertised in the 
Rural,, the possibilities of one man, aided by 
a good team, are wonderfully and profitably 
extended. 
It is too much to expect that sulky plows, rid¬ 
ing cultivators and improved harrows will do 
satisfactory work among roots, in excessively 
stony soils, or newly cleared land; but in our 
improved lands, freed from the debris, these 
implements mark an advance that only finds 
a counterpart in the twine binders and im¬ 
proved grain drills. John Gould. 
Portage Co., Ohio. 
CbCUJXbl'ijCVf. 
ANOTHER VIEW OF DAKOTA. 
I have just read with some interest the two- 
column article by Prof. Levi Stockbridge, 
published in the Rural of April 7 in regard 
to Dakota aud Montana. 1 consider the article 
very unfair and calculated to mislead thou¬ 
sands of the readers of your valuable paper, 
for the reason that the title of Professor pre¬ 
fixed to a name is looked upon as indicating 
superior authority by most readers: and as so 
many are now looking for opportunities to 
improve their condition and are looking for 
facts to guide them, this article should not be 
passed without notice. 
The Professor takes a railroad line of 650 
miles, not mentioning any places except the 
Red River Valley, a farm in Kidder Co.; 
“ Troy Farm" aud the Yellowstone Valley in 
Montana. He says on the Dalrymple Farm of 
27,000 acres the yield was less than 16 bushels 
to the acre. The Graudin Farm on the Goose 
River, 1,800 acres, yielded 22 bushels per acre. 
The Troy Farm at Tappiu, Kidder Countv. 
500 acres, yielded 30 bushels j>er acre, while the 
year 1882 was the best wheat year ever known 
in the Northwest. These crops looked small to 
the Professor, for he says: “ We are told that 
lauds in wheat yield 40, in oats 100. aud pota¬ 
toes 300 to 400 bushels per acre; farmers and 
business men were becoming wealthy and in¬ 
dependent.” It is evident that the Professor 
had fallen in with some of our shrewd settlers 
who took him for a “ tender-foot.” and were 
“ giving him taffy.” What are the facts of 
the crop of 1882 in the Red River Valley 1 It 
was probably the poorest ever raised in that 
section, for owing to the extremely wet 
Spring much of the flat lands was under 
water, including much of Dalrymple’s, at seed¬ 
ing time and continued so until it was thought 
it could not he seeded at all; but it was seeded 
very late. The ground was so wet at harvest 
it was with great difficulty that the machines 
could be made to work at all, and some fields 
were abandoned entirely; some fields were so 
wet the wheat choked out and the ground 
was covered with weeds—still the Professor 
says the " rainfall is deficient and the fault, is 
aggravated by the remarkable dryness of the 
air which absorbs the slight rainfalls from 
the soil very quickly.” The Dalrymple yield 
was a good one under the circumstances. The 
Graudin Farm is higher and the yield was 22 
bushels per acre. The " Troy Farm ” is more 
sandy and better suited for a wet season yield, 
and 500 acres yielded 26 bushels per acre; but 
the Professor says the yield was only 10 bushels 
per acre in 1881 on the “ Troy Farm,” but he 
does not tell you that it was cut off by hail 
and other causes. 
The Professor does not notice any of the 
many fine villages along the road backed up 
by fine farming communities of Eastern 
people of the better class. He does not tell us 
of the fine hotels, churches and school-houses 
which can be seen on eveiy hand, and that 
every township has 1,380 acres of land re¬ 
served for school purposes. He does not speak 
of the thousands of happy, prosperous and 
contented homes scattered over these rich, 
rolling prairies. It is no wonder that some 
are enthusiastic and maybe a little extrava¬ 
gant when they talk to a "tender-foot.” 
Some articles written about this county may 
have been a little colored; but exaggeration 
s not confined to our people; we have had 
H&zens and many others o misrepresent us. 
1 have been a resident of Dakota during the 
past four years; have experienced the cold of 
THE RURAL WEW-Y0RKER. 
Winter and the heat of Summer. The Sum- 
mere I have found delightful, commencing 
about the tilth of April and running until the 
15th of November, the dates varying some¬ 
what w ith the seasons. The plows were running 
up to the 10th of November for the past two 
seasons, and seeding commences from the 10th 
to the 20th of April. This year it began here 
on April 9. From November 15 to April 15 
covers our Winter. I can make it only five 
months, and that leaves seven months of 
Spring, Summer aud Autumn, which is quite 
different from the Professor’s statement that 
we have seven months of Winter. We have 
some very cold weather, the mercury often 
running down to 40 and 45 degrees below zero 
for short periods; of course, this is not pleas¬ 
ant, but we expect them and prepare for them 
generally. On the other hand, we have 
many bright sunny days and delightful moon¬ 
light nights. There are very few if any 
thaws during Winter, Some Winters are 
quite mild, the snowfall is quite light during 
Wiuter; sometimes it blows hard when it 
snows ; this combination of wind aud snow is 
called a blizzard. 1 have never-seen it blow 
and snow as hard here as 1 have in Chicago; 
there they call a blizzard a squall. The Pro¬ 
fessor could not see any trees on the prairies 
along the railroad; this reminds me of the 
Scotchman I took out to see the country be¬ 
fore it was settled. "But,” said he, "there 
are no houses here.” 
The Professor made a mistake about the 
difficulty of getting good water here, and in 
saying that the streams all turn to ice in Win¬ 
ter; there is much very line and some poor 
water, and the water of the streams aud lakes 
is available at all seasons. Only think for a 
moment—how could the antelope, deer and the 
thousands of buffaloes have lived liore for 
years, as they have, without water, ami 
the thermometer at 40° or more below zero 
most of the timef Some of the largest herds 
of cattle to be met with On this continent are 
being herded ami kept in Montana at the pres¬ 
ent time, and there is no Winter feeding. 
The lamls west of the Missouri are called the 
"Bad Lauds”; there cau be no deception about 
their character, and people have to irrigate to 
raise crops all through the Yellowstone Valley 
and iu all the country about them. The coun¬ 
try becomes drier as you go west of James¬ 
town. We have had plenty of rain here for 
years—sometimes a good deal too much, The 
Professor does not say anything about the 
great advantages of getting Government lands 
here: they are not sold but given away to actual 
settlers for the simple office fees. Lands are 
got under Homestead. Preemption and Tree 
Claim Acts —100 acres under each—making 
480 acres. Along the railroad line for 40 miles 
on each side of the track of the Northern Pa¬ 
cific- Railroad half the land belongs to the Gov¬ 
ernment aud half to the railroad. While the 
the Government lands are given away, the 
railroad lauds have been and are selling on 
very favorable terms on long time, low inter¬ 
est and a quarter discount on all plowed in¬ 
side of two years from date of purchase. It is 
true that a good deal of these lands has been 
sold in large blocks to speculators as well as to 
othere. It lias been a most desirable invest¬ 
ment for moneyed men and they havoimprov? 
edit. Still tin-lands can be bad at desirable 
rates. There are yet large tract* of Govern¬ 
ment lands to lie had and speculators, can’t get 
them until the settlers get title and choose to 
sell them. These lands are all exempted to 
the settler from all debts contracted before the 
patent Is issued by the TJ. S. Government. 
The Professor complains because we send 
our products to fairs and don’t send the poor¬ 
est. People generally wear their best when 
they go among str angers 1 believe. It Is true 
that we send on i- products to fairs and off on 
care to show the East what grows in this great 
unexplored "American Desert.” We gen¬ 
erally get the premiums and banners from 
other sections. But they do not raise potatoes 
here to compare with those grown on the 
sandy soils of Long Island and New Jersey, 
says the Professor. 1 don’t Iielieve ho would 
have made the comparison had he visited 
some of our gardens along the James River 
and seen our products. I am aware that in 
New Jersey and Long Island they use ex¬ 
pensive fertilizers, while we use none. There 
Is no place to he found in this fair country 
that can heat us on vegetables of any kind. 
Now for u moment compare the price of lands 
on Long Island uud New Jersey and here and 
the expense of keeping up their sandy soil, 
while we have no expense to meet for fer¬ 
tilizers and our lands are comparatively free. 
One other point—our wheat is "No. 1 
Hard,” and brings from eight to ten cents per 
bushel more than all other varieties of Spring 
wheat, and it is better than any Wiuter 
wheat grown. It is this wheat that has en¬ 
abled the Minneapolis mills to take the lead of 
St. Louis with their fine Winter wheats, and 
to-day the Hour stauds* without a rival iu the 
markets of the world. 
The :.:nu v.ith small means and the young 
man or woman with good health can find no 
better point to locate—the more money the 
settler has the better. Of course it is very 
hard for a n an with no money to get a start 
here, as it would be elsewhere; but life rights 
are valuable to him if he can only make them 
available. There is no other such chance to 
get a start in the world as that which the U. 
S. Government offers to-day to settlers. The 
best way is to come to the land of the Da¬ 
kotas, and judge for yourselves of the many 
advantages from your own stand-point. If 
you have to go back a little for claims, you 
will soon have plenty of neighbors, for the 
country is settling rapidly everywhere, and 
you will soon have railroads and schools and 
all the comforts of modern civilization, with 
an independent home of your own. 
Jamestown, D. T. f. e. j. 
DEFENSE OF DAKOTA. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of May 5th 
there appeared a short comment, upon an arti¬ 
cle written by Professor Stoeicbridge, in which 
the Editor uses the following lauguoge; "Not¬ 
withstanding the present lioom I believe that 
Dakota will prove to be one of the very poor¬ 
est agricultural States in the Union. There 
is no need of dividing it. The whole Territory 
will not be over-populated for a single State. 
When the wheat is skimmed off the boom will 
end." I It was not "the Editor” that used the 
above language; but Dr. Hoskins, a contribu¬ 
tor whose opinions we generally value highly, 
though we do not share in his responsibility 
for them.—Ens.l To a resident of South¬ 
eastern Dakota the above remarks sound very 
unjust, and will be apt. to grossly misrepresent 
large portions of Dakota to those who at this 
time are lookiug towards the Territory with 
interest. 
Dakota Territory' is an extensive tract of 
country. The climate of the country inter¬ 
sected by the Northern Pacific Railroad in Ma¬ 
nor th is as different from that of the regions 
of the extreme south as is that of Northern 
Minnesota from that of Iowa. Would it not 
be in a spirit of fairness to take notice of this 
fact when describing the climate, soil aud peo¬ 
ple of the Territory f I write from the line of 
the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Rail¬ 
road, on its main branch from Milwaukee 
west to Chamberluin, D. T., on the Mis¬ 
souri River. The letter written by Profef- 
sor Stockbridge does not apply iu any par¬ 
ticular to our section. This part of Dakota 
has been settled long enough for farmers to 
know that the soil produces as abundant crops 
of wheat, oats, flax, corn and vegetables as 
does that of Huy State or Territory in the 
great. Northwest. We have no bonanza wheat 
farms. Thu settler comes here exjjecting to 
engage in mixed farming and stock raising 
and for that purpose he comes prepared with 
all the farm machinery Used in Iowa and Illi¬ 
nois. Could the Editor of the Rural Nkw- 
Yorker lay aside his peu for a few hours aud 
ride with me in the vicinity of Mitchell, un¬ 
der a genial sun and in the most invigorating 
of atmospheres, after witnessing the comfort¬ 
able larrn dwellings and barns, the thousands 
of acres being put. under cultivation, and the 
evidence i n every hand of thrift, prosperity 
and successful fanning, he would beg the par¬ 
don of his many Dakota friends for making 
the statement which prompted these few lines. 
.Mitchell. 11. T. A. K. H. 
<Tl)C lOlUTlSt. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
(Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention.) 
RENEWING A WOODLAND. 
/»*. />’ , Mount Vernon, A T . I r .—I am about 
to cut 150 acres of woodland, consisting chiefly 
of Chestnut, and White-Oak trees, and I wish 
to have the trees renewed, Should I clear the 
whole growth and replant, or merely cut the 
'mature trees and wait for a sfxjutaneous 
growth from self-sown seeds and shoots from 
the stumps? Some of my neighbors tell me 
that if 1 wait for a spontaneous growth, in¬ 
stead of Chestnut and Oak, Birch, Alder aud 
other soft, wood trees w ill spring up. Others 
say leave a few vigorous young trees to seed 
the ground around them, uud the Chestnut and 
Oak will be renewed without any further 
trouble being taken with them. Which is 
light? 
ANSWERED BY DR. J. A. WARDER. 
This query involves some of the deepest 
problems of forestry, and would require for 
its satisfactory answer a much fuller state¬ 
ment as to the conditions of the woodland. 
Presumably the owner laid better cut the trees 
as they ripen, aud by judicious thinniliy main¬ 
tain a constant succession of annual income 
from the property. Chestnut will reproduce 
itself from t he stump, especially if cut in the 
dormant season. So w ill the Oaks and many 
other kinds, and very rapidly, too. If the 
other growths are of inferior sorts they had 
better be also removed by a clean cut, if 
there be enough good species to produce an 
immediate covering to the ground. Most of 
our woodlands are abundantly stocked with 
young seedling plants to furnish a succession 
of forest. On the contrary, if the woods have, 
already been culled over, heavily pastured, 
and deprived of the best trees, with a tolerable 
shading of original growth, it might piove 
best to make a thorough cut and begin over 
again, either from the.stumps aud from young¬ 
er stocks or by planting anew. The neighbors 
are probably right in their auguries respecting 
the inferior character of the new growth that 
may follow the clearing, but where the wood- 
lands producing valuable kinds, like those 
specified, are chopped, we usually expect to 
see a sufficiency of the same speeies on the 
ground ready to occupy the spaces opened to 
the light. Your duties then will consist in 
subordinating their rivals of the inferior 
class. The essential thing is to keep out 
all cattle. 
PETROLEUM EMULSIONS. 
Z. II. R , Femdale, W, T .—The Apple Aphis 
is doing much damage here; how can “kero¬ 
sene butter” be made to "fix” him without 
injuring the trees? 
Ans, —In the Rural of December 9th last, 
Professor C. V. Riley, in an article under the 
caption of "Emulsions of Petroleum and their 
Value us Insecticides,” gives the best, and 
safest known way of applying this oil to 
plants as an insecticide. Passing over the or¬ 
dinary method of soil emulsions by phos¬ 
phates, laetophosptmtes, aud hypophosphites 
of lime, and various mucilaginous substances, 
he say's that for the ordinary practical pur¬ 
poses of the farmer and fruit-grower soap and 
milk are among the most, available substances 
for the production of petroleum emulsions. 
Ordinary bar-soap scraped and rubbed into 
a paste at the rate of 20 parts of soap to 10 
parts of water, 30 purts of kerosene, and one 
part of lir balsam, will make, when diluted 
with water, an emulsion stable enough for all 
practical purposes, as the slight cream which 
in time rises to the surface, or the tin lei ness 
that often follows is readily dissipated by a 
little shaking. Soap emulsions are,however, 
less satisfactory and efficient, than those made 
with milk. Emulsions with milk may be made 
of varying Strength, but one <>f the most satis¬ 
factory proportions is two parts of refined 
kerosene to one part of sour milk. This must 
be thoroughly' churned (not merely shaken) 
until a butter is formed which is thoroughly 
stable and will keep indefinitely in closed ves¬ 
sels, and may be diluted nd libitum with 
water when needed for use. The time required 
to bring the butter varies with the tempera¬ 
ture, and both soap and milk emulsions are 
facilitated by heating the ingredients. Ordi¬ 
nary condensed milk may also be used by 
thoroughly stirring and beating in an equal 
or varying quantity of kerosene. The diluted 
emulsion when prepared for use should be 
finely sprayed on to the insects to bo killed, its 
strength varying for different insects or 
plants, and its effect being enhanced when 
brought forcibly' in contact with the insects. 
HEIFERS COMING IN, 
A. S., / 'nrhlo, Col —How early is it advisa¬ 
ble to have a valuable heifer "come in” when 
the object in view is the future development 
of the cow and the best results in her progeny? 
Ans. —The time when a heifer should come 
in will depend a good deal on the way she has 
been handled and fed since ealfhood and the 
condition of flesh she may be in. If fed on 
good muscle-making food so that her growth 
has been unstunted she may safely come iu 
when from two years to 26 months old, if she 
is intended for the dairy. In such a case if, 
would be advisable that the bull should be 
rather small, t hus p reliably' producing a smaller 
foetus and calf than if bred to a larger male 
and so drawing less fo-tal nourishment which 
the heifer is obliged to furnish. The advan¬ 
tages of breeding thus early for the dairy arc 
that the milking faculties of the growing 
heifer are more easily stimulated than if copu¬ 
lation with the. hull is deferred unt il the heifer 
is 27 mouths old, and in this way she is likely 
to become a better milker. Again if slie comes 
in thus early she is likely to be more docile, 
more easily haudlable and manageable. More¬ 
over, she arrives at full piodurtion a year 
earlier, and thus a year is gained in profit. 
The first calf, it is true, may not l><* so good as 
if the dam were of muturer age, but if the dam 
is well fed the second calf will be fully as good 
as if the offspring of an older cow. Where 
the highest development of the heifer and of 
her progeny is the only object, however, it 
would be advisable to defer her "coming in 
until she is three years old, or even later un¬ 
less she has received good feed aud care. 
