474 
JULY 
THE BUBAL MEW-YOBKEB. 
SAMPLES AND COMMENTS. 
Pour a strong ash lye on onions infested 
with the maggot. The Connecticut growers 
find this quite a sure remedy, says the New 
England Farmer.. 
Referring to the wild potatoes of Arizona 
discovered last year by Mr. J. G. Lemmon and 
hit- wife, of California, he mites that he can 
testify to their excellence as he lias eaten them 
prepared in several different ways. They 1 e- 
miud one ot small potatoes of cultivated varie¬ 
ties. but are harder of flesh, with thicker skiu s 
and more pronounced qualities—as it were, a 
large potato condensed to these small tubers.. 
Mr. Raven el, of the Weekly News. re. 
commends the Japan Clover for lawns in the 
South. It grows slowly all Winter, sets 
thickly from seeds and forms a green surface 
which soon breaks the monotony of bare 
ground. It grows more rapidly in Spring and 
during the Summer it forms a most delicate 
and uniform green sward. Growing wild it 
establishes itself simply by crowding out other 
grasses and weeds.-* * •... 
John Johnson thinks, according to the 
Rural Home Editor, that wheat yields from 
three to five bushels more after barley than 
after oats on the same soil. 
We do not believe any man ever made any¬ 
thing by trying to get more than one days 
work at a time from his men, says the Fruit- 
Grower. No, we do not believe be ever did 
except, it may be. the dislike of his men... 
Mr. G. W. Hoffman says that it is certain 
that skimmed milk will increase the flow of 
milk surprisingly though the quality will be 
reduced. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
California 
Modesto, Stanislaus Co., July 4.—Harvest 
has commenced here. Grain is cut with head¬ 
ers 13,14, 15 aud 16 feet wide. The outfit for 
a 12-foot machine consists of six horses, two 
four-horse wagons, six men, two wagon driv- 
ers, two loaders, one stacker. A header lim¬ 
ner will cut and stack 36 to 35 acres per day. 
Hands get $2 per day except the header runner 
who gets *3.50 to *4 and board per day. A great 
many farmers are using the combined header 
ami thrasher. From 18 to 22 horses are used on 
them with four to five men. They cut and 
sack 30 to 40 acres per day. The c acka are 
scattered all over the field. Grain is yielding 
very well—Summer fallow, 25 to 35 bushels 
per acre; Winter plowing, 10 to 10 bushels 
per acre. Hands are very scarce. Meats of 
all kinds are high, and fat beef hard to get. 
Work stock too is high and scarce. New 
potatoes 4 cents per pound; string beans, 7K 
cents per pound: cherries, 15 cents per pound; 
currants, 15 cents per pound; apricots, 4 
cents per pound; peaches, 6 cents per pound; 
apples, two cents per pound. 1 hrasliers are 
paying the following wages for hands and 
board per day. Engineer, *5: two forkers t 
*8; two tablemen, *8; foreman, *5; piler. *3; 
fireman. *2,50; two fork drivers, *5; man to 
haul cook wagon, *2; oiler, *2,50; sack filler. 
*2.50; straw buncher, $3.50; water handler, 
*2.50; sack sewer, *4; cook, *2. J. L. c. 
Canada. 
Collingwood. Ontario. July 6,—I have 20 
plants from the Rural Niagara Grape seed. 
They are promising well. 1 put them into 
gcod earth in an old cheese box in my study 
where the sun could see them. J. b. a. 
Illinois. 
Cobden, Union Co., July 4.—Our wheat 
crop is all cut, but it is not nearly so good as 
last year. Corn is looking well where it has 
been cultivated. The fruit crop is not very 
good. Apples are knotty and rather small, 
as the trees are too full. Peaches are rather 
too full, but will be a fair size; I am shipping 
the Amsden now. The Rural Thoroughbred 
Corn is in silk and tassel, away ahead of any 
other corn I have. „ c - T - v - 
Lee Co., Ills., July 9.—The articles on tile 
draining by Mr. Chamberlain are sound and 
worth double the price of the Rural. My 
Welcome oats are now heading out. The 
Blush potato has six hills nicely in bloom. 
Failed with the Niagara Grape seeds. Oats 
will make a large crop. Com is late. Rye, 
good. Not much barley or wheat. Potatoes 
promise well. s> w - 
Ridott, Stephenson Co., July 10.—Spring 
commenced late here—about April 12 and 
then it was cold, wet and backward but the 
weather has changed now. For the last two 
weeks it has been quite warm. Small grains 
look very promising so far; there will be 
plenty of straw. Rye will be ripe within a 
week. A large acreage of oats sown and the 
prospect is good. Corn a good acreage; pros¬ 
pect better than last year. Potatoes good. but 
plenty of beetles—more than year before. 
Very little fruit in this vicinity. Pasturage 
excellent. Meadows yield abundantly. Gar¬ 
den truck looks well, but we have to fight the 
weeds. H - 
.llichiunn. 
Sturgis, St. Joseph’s Co., July 5. Some 
time ago I saw the question asked iu the Ru¬ 
ral why small patches of strawberries in the 
garden did not get better care. It s because 
those having those patches know but little 
about cultivating the berries, but are very 
fond of them when they come on the table. 
But with us iu this locality the neglected 
patches that had grown up to weeds an 1 grass 
have the best berries on them. Those that 
were kept tree from weeds aud grass were 
uearly destroyed by the late frost. Ihus 
those who placed small value on the old straw¬ 
berry patch ax e reaping a reward for their 
negligence. Sometimes it seems those who do 
the least, get the most, which almost proves 
the old saying, that there are but six cents be¬ 
tween the man who works and the one who 
does not work, and the one who does not work 
gets the six cents. The cyclone took a part of 
the roof off my house, moved my barn, blew 
out 40 nice apple trees and blew all my fences 
down, besides doing a large amount, of other 
damage. The storm was very destructive 
through this section. It drilled small holes 
through window glass without making a crack 
in the glass; the edges of tko holes nad the ap¬ 
pearance of being melted, for they were 
smooth instead of being sharp aud ragged, h R. 
DlinueaotB, 
Wyoming, Chisago Co., July 7. So much 
is said for and against Dakota that a man 
hardly knows which is the better—to remain 
where he is or emigrate. In my opinion a 
man with small means had better buy cheap 
fluid near big towns than go to the Far West 
prairie. For the benefit of such a class 1 here 
state the advantages and drawbacks ot' this 
part of the State. The soil is sandy; the coun¬ 
try is cut with marshes and lakes; the high¬ 
land is covered with timber; the marshes con¬ 
tain muck; grass land is plentiful and easily 
cleared. Cattle run at large. Tamarack 
marshes furnish the best of feucing. Com, 
wheat and potatoes are the staple crops, Veg¬ 
etables are extensively cultivated at a good 
profit. Small fruits form no small item. Our 
market facilities are excellent. Wo are 
30 miles from St. Paul, Minneapolis and 
Stillwater, with Duluth and the great 
lumber regions north of us. People who 
work here can get rich and some who 
don't work make a living picking berries, 
hunting and fishing. The drawbacks are: 
the soil is sandy, aud has to be worked and 
needs plenty of manure. Our Winters are 
long, but with plenty of wood they can be 
rendered more cheerful than on the prairie. 
The flies and mosquitoes arc about the worst 
drawback we ha we: but they are uo worse 
than iu New Jersey. Laud is sold under the 
installment plan, and is owned by Eastern 
men; but the St. Paul aud Duluth R. R. Co., 
has the selling of it. It is worth from *2 to 
*4 per acre. T - K - s< 
New York. 
Cato, Cayuga Co., July 0.—We had a very 
wet Spring Com and grain on hill-sides have 
been washed out badly. A great man \ pota¬ 
toes of early planting have rotted iu the 
ground and so has com. Wheat Is looking 
line. 1 have a piece on gravel which will go 
30 bushels per acre from all appearance. J. R. 
CoOPERSTOwn, Otsego Co , July 2.—Potato 
bugs are plentiful. I applied a very light dose 
of plaster and Paris-green, four tablespoonsful 
of the latter to 40 pounds of the former, which 
wus sufficient for 1000 hills. The flea beetle is 
very troublesome to beaus this year and also 
on the potato vines to some extent. Same 
remedy applied as for potato bugs with suc¬ 
cess, but I have not determined whether the 
bean vines have been injured. We bad a 
very favorable June—plenty of raiu aud no 
frosts to speak of. Oats a re looking splendid. 
Cora is also of a healthy, strong growth. My 
Wysor's Shoe-peg Corn is very good. I ap- 
plied phosphate on six hills, but found little 
difference between these and those not fer¬ 
tilized. Three hilLs, however, which had a 
top-dressing of old hen manure and plaster are 
superb. I apply my fertilizers always on 
1 covered seed. A neighbor w ho applied hog 
manure and lien manure in different plots is 
* astonished at the wonderful growth of the 
hog-manured plot and the poor growth of 
the hen-mauured plot. The cause of this is 
i easily explained—sowing on the manure 
i instead of applying the manure on the seed. 
> Hog manure is usually safe as it is well 
> worked by the hogs; but rank hen rnan- 
> ure ought never be applied to any crop. I 
i use sifted coal ashes in the hen house to catch 
j the droppings, aud certainly the little extra 
• labor expended iu doing this is amply repaid 
by the splendid fertilizer obtained. I find 
Bowker’s phosphate excellent for beets, ap¬ 
plied after the hand drill has sowed the seed, 
on the covered furrow made by the drill, 
The rows not phosphatod looked very poor in 
comparison. Hops are looking very well, al¬ 
though there is a tendency among some 
growers to make the crop appear doubtful. 
Stories of blight, insects and huge worms are 
freely circulated. Perhaps they will try and 
kill the hop crop every year as they do the 
peach crop. Hops will eventually run many 
a farm into debt There is an unhealthy specu¬ 
lation about this crop that is not legitimate, 
and which destroys the comfort and security 
of a farm home. Fanners who could have 
sold their hops for *1.10 per pound last Win¬ 
ter have been obliged to sell for 50 cents last 
week. The latter price even is unusually 
high. Hops are reigning supreme in this old 
dairy part of Otsego; but it would be far 
better if there w ere less hops aud more cattle 
raised, less woodland destroyed and better 
pastures. J- H. n. 
Norton Hill, Greene Co., July 6. —Crops 
iu this section are very fine. Wheat is good, 
fully up to the average, but a great amount 
was uot sown here. Rye is the best for years; 
but most of it is now badly tangled and 
down. Oats are lodging: tbe straw is the 
best for years. They have just commenced 
heading. Corn far better than last year—a 
good stand everywhere. Potatoes look extra 
fine, but bugs are more plent iful than for sev¬ 
eral years. Tbe rains washed off the Puria- 
greeu. Grass superb, and it is just being cut. 
Apples very scattering on the trees. Pears 
plentiful. Plums aud berries ditto. Buck. 
w'heat just being sown—uot so much as usual 
on account of failure of that crop for two 
years past. So far it has beeu a good season 
for butter, as pastures are excellent, and the 
weather has been mostly cool uutil the last 
few days. The Ennobled Oats that 1 have 
now (about. 1% acre, from seed I got from 
the Rurali are the finest of any I ever saw. 
They stand erect while my other oats are go¬ 
ing down. The season is the most promising 
of any for years. w. h. i. 
£1 )t 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
(Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention.! 
RAISING CREAM.—RAISING WATER. 
T. O , Howe's Cave, N. Y. —1. llow are 
we to know how to manage our milk 
with a creamer to the best advantage, when 
some say, “cool the milk as rapidly as pos¬ 
sible," aud others say, “sudden changes in the 
temperature of either milk or cream injure 
the quality of the butter;” and again, some 
say, “the temperature should be 45“ or less to 
get all the cream within twelve hours.’’ while 
another says. the temperature should not Vie 
reduced below 50 c aud the milk should stand 
24 or 50 hours to obtain the best results. 
2. Which would be the most economical 
way of raising water to the bight of 50 feet iu 
a distance of 18 to 25 rods—hydraulic ram or 
wind-mill and force pump; aud what would 
be the probable cost? If with hydraulic rain, 
how much fall would it need to raise the water 
that hight ? 
1. “ Too many cooks spoil the broth,” will 
apply to a good deal of what is said aud writ¬ 
ten now in regard to dairy matters as well as 
other matters too. Few persons possess the 
requisite patience, care, close observation, 
good judgment and caution to make experi¬ 
ments or even arrive at accurate results in their 
own practice. Now, the writer knows that 
the cream raised in 12 hours at, a temperature 
of 45“ makes precisely the same quality of 
butter as that raised in 24 hours at 50“, or that 
raised in shallow pans at 02° in 86 hours. 
There is not the slightest difference to be ob¬ 
served in the quantity of butter or the quality 
of it made from either kind of cream; al¬ 
though the cream raised in 12 hours will be; 
larger in quantity, that is, have more milk in 
it. It is all a matter of convenience. If it is 
more convenient to have the cream raised anil 
the milk skimmed off in 12 hours, so that ouly 
one set of pails will be needed aud so much 
less space in the creamery, then the extra con¬ 
sumption of ice required for the lower tem¬ 
perature will be compensated for. A very 
sudden chuuge in the temperature of milk 
cannot be made, Milk parts with its heat 
quite slowly, and it requires some hours t“ 
reduce 20 quarts of milk in a nine-inch pail 
from 80 s1 when it is strained, down to 45“ iu 
ice water. The milk warms the water and 
the water cannot exert all its cooling effect 
un til the whole heat of the milk is absorbed 
and circulated through the mass of the water, 
and the cooling iu a creamer goes on very 
much more slowly than it would do in moving 
water or if the water is kept stirred. This is 
so strongly a habit of milk that it will lie no 
lower than 45“ at the end of 12 hours 
standing iu ice water at 32“. 2. A 
hydraulic ram is the cheapest mauner 
of raising water, as it acts automatically and 
of its own movement. A fall of three feet in 
a supply pipe of 12 feet is required. A 1)4- 
inch supply pipe aud a half-inch delivery pipe 
will bo required, and the cost for all—that is, 
for 800 feet of lead pipe and 14 feet of iron 
pipe with the ram—would be about $50. The 
ram costs about *15, a good force pump about 
*20, and a wind-mill about *120; the pipe 
would be the same for all. 
THE GRAPE-VINE HOPPER. 
/<’. G. G., New Britain, Conn.—The young 
canes of ray grape-vines are infested by a very 
small, white insect of a cottony appearance, 
remaining iu the spot where it first appears, 
and forming a cottony nest along the eane, 
where it breeds. It hops away quickly when 
disturbed, but soou returns, disappears later 
iu the season and reappears as a violet-colored 
“ miller.” What is it, and what is the remedy? 
ANSWERED BY W. L. PEVEREAUX. 
From the very brief explanation, the insect 
seems to be a Homopter aud therefore could 
not be connected with the appearance of the 
“ miller," or Lepidopterous insect. Without 
specimens to examine, I can ouly conjecture 
the “ small white insect ” to be a vine hopper. 
Iu their larval stage, through the month of 
June, pests of this sort present an appearance 
not greatly differing, to a casual observer, 
from that of plant bee, not exactly cottony, 
but of a greenish-white color, semi-transpar¬ 
ent, aud slightly clothed with tine bristles. 
Their white flaky skins, cast off at the 
several inoultings during their growth, pos¬ 
sibly might give the appearance of a cottony 
nest. They do not quit the vine to pass 
through pupal stage to acquire wings and ma¬ 
ture form, but remain on the vines feeding 
and hopping as lively as ever, carrying about 
with them the mask covering of the develop¬ 
ing wings. We have several grape leaf-hop - 
pers, of which the most common is Erythron- 
eura vitis, which measures one-tenth of an 
inch and is of an amber color, with red or 
purplish markings. Remedies, like fumiga¬ 
tion with tobacco, syringing with dilute car¬ 
bolic acid, and dusting with insect powder 
have been recommended, but uo practical 
and efficient method for vineyard use lias 
yet beeu employed. Indeed, the need hardly 
exists. Notwit hstanding the fact that the pests 
abound iu swarms sometimes, and that through 
their whole lives they are much of the time 
occupied in puncturing the foliage and young 
branches, and imbibing the sap, disastrous 
results seldom occur. At the writer's home, 
a thirty-years-old vineyard of eight acres has 
always been infested with three very abun¬ 
dant species, but no injury has ever been as¬ 
cribed to them. 
spent tan-bark ashes. 
G. C. II., Johnstown, Pa .—What is the 
value as a fertilizer of the wood ashes made 
from tan-bark, a specimen of which is in¬ 
closed ? After the bark is ground all the 
soluble matter is leached out tor tunning, aud 
the remainiug bark is burned under the boiler, 
anil it is the ashes of this residue (which 1 can 
get for $2.50 a ton) which 1 inquire about, 
A ns. —Thu leaching of the bark removes 
considerable potash and phosphoric acid. In 
some analyses of tun-bark aud of the spent 
tan, made by Prof. Sterer and published by 
him iu the Bulletin of the Bussey Institution, 
the following figures were given: 
IN THE ASH OF. 
Percentage of. | 
Tau hark. 
Spent bark. 
Phosphoric iteld, | 
2.06 lo 3.(18 | 
1.79 to 2.51 
average of three| 
samples, | 
2.50 
2.06 
Potash. 
6.07 to 9.43 
8.19 to 5.68 
average of three j 
samples, 
8,02 
4.68 
From a cui'sory examination of the sample 
of ash scut, it appears to be exceedingly poor 
in potash, and to lie worth $2.50 a ton, it should 
have at least three per cent, of it. It does not 
appear to have as much us that. 
SMALL-FRUIT QUERIES. 
T. F„Bethesda, Out ,—1. What kind of small 
fruit would grow best between the trees iu my 
orchard t 2. How should the land be culti¬ 
vated before planting? 3. W hut time is best 
for planting gooseberries, raspberries, cur¬ 
rants and strawberries/ 4. (.’an gooseberries, 
currants and raspberries be grown from seed? 
5. Are the above-named fruits profitable to 
grow? 
Anh.— 1. Currants, gooseberries aud raspber¬ 
ries do well among young apples. Some grow 
strawberries in such a place, but unless heavily 
manured they cheek the trees quite as much as 
grass. 3. Unless very rough or weedy no pre¬ 
liminary cultivation is necessary, other than 
plowing and harrowing previous to setting 
the bush fruits. 3. Currants, gooseberries and 
raspberries do best set iu the Spring. Straw - 
berries, either iu the Spring, or ns early i» 
