AU8 IB 
RURAL 
99EW-YORKER. 
SIR 
a farm of 40 or 50 a ores to pay $2,000 for a cow 
or $5,000 for a bull; but that fact alone falls 
far short of proving that it will not pay that 
farmer to owu and breed good stock. 
It is the most natural thing in the world for 
a tarmer to like good stock, fancy porkers, 
fast horses or heavy draft horses, well-bred 
sheep, and good cows, whether Jersey, Ayr¬ 
shire, Holstein or Shorthorn. Tt causes many 
good farmers quite a pang to be deprived of 
the pleasure of owning and breeding such 
stock. It is well enough for farmers to have 
their aspirations for the very best, for tins is 
the source of excellence; but all cannot excel. 
Everyone cannot own the very highest-priced 
cow or bull, or the fastest horse; but this 
Should not preventevery farmer from improv¬ 
ing his stock. Stock companies are formed 
every day for breeding fancy stock, and I be¬ 
lieve that in the main they are very profitable, 
I suggest to the farmer owning 50 acres of 
land and keeping a half dozen cows and a 
dozen sheep, that he has neighbors in the same 
condition. It may not pay one of these farm¬ 
ers to buy a bull at $250 or $500, but will it not 
pay two or three or five or six of these farmers 
to join their means together and procure the 
very best animal they can get. I think so. 
Supposing farmers owning from 50 to 00 cows 
should procure a bull even at the cost of $500; 
this is a good sum of money and will procure 
a good animal, and a good animal well kept 
will serve that number of cows, and the cost 
to each farmer interested is of small account; 
while it would be impossible for one farmer to 
incur the expense alone. The animal can be 
kept for three or four years—loug enough, iu 
tact, to furnish all the farmers interested in 
his ownership with his l>est daughters for their 
dairies. No $500 bull should ever be sent to 
theshamblesprovided he can be controlled ami 
proves a good breeder. Such a hull always 
has a value like one’s farm or team, and when 
it becomes advisable to dispose of him, he can 
be sold for a fair price or exchanged for 
another desirable bull with other farmers sim- 
] larly situated. By following up this course 
until the farmers who have thus united their 
interests, have dairies with three or four crosses 
ot the breed adopted for the improvement of 
the stock, the farmers will have satisfied them¬ 
selves in regard to the actual profit of im¬ 
proved stock. That such stock is profitable in 
dollars and cents no one who has had experi¬ 
ence cun or will deny. 
In the matter of sheep breeding, or in the 
breeding of other farm stock, the same 
course may he pursued. Each farmer may re¬ 
alize the full benefit and divide the burden 
w-ith his neighbors. 
Any farmer eau estimate the profit from in¬ 
creased quaits of milk and pounds of butter, 
the profit from fineness of wool and weight of 
fleece is patent to every one. These are all 
sufficient reasons for investing in such stock. 
1'he most effective reason, the cause that in¬ 
fluences the largest number of farmers to in¬ 
vest in well-bred stock, which is a thorough 
honest admiration and love for good-looking 
well-bred stock, and satisfaction iu the pus. 
session of such stock, cannot be estimated in 
dollare and cents. The town and county fairs 
held all over the count ry and the more import¬ 
ant cattle show s held in States and Provinces 
offer a most excel, ut opportunity for the pur¬ 
chase of such stock. Breeders of good stock 
don't take their stock to shows merely to take 
the jjotty premiums; not at all. They desire 
the public to see their stock, appreciate and 
purchase them. Now do not imagine that 1 
urn advertising any fancy stock. 1 am uotaud 
have nono to sell, I wish I had, 1 would go in¬ 
to the country among my neighbors and by 
sheer force of argument and by the production 
of figures which could not be disputed, 1 would 
compel them to buy of me to my own immed¬ 
iate profit and their future good. 
»St Lawrence Co., N. Y. 
ifutn Ccflttotmj. 
TILE DRAINAGE-No. 12. 
SEC. W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
The Junctions, the Outlets, etc. 
In Number 11, l think, I mentioned that 
when a small lateral enters a main, the top.aud 
not the bottom of the two tiles should be on a 
level at the junction. This gives the water a 
fall of two inches (where a two-inch lateral 
flows into a four-inch main), and prevents the 
water from setting back from the main into 
the lateral, and increases the pressure, and 
hence the velocity iu the water in the main iu 
case it is flowing full. 
The joiuts should be carefully made. If the 
common red brlck-cluy tiles are used, the hole 
in the main can be cut wit’ a little wedge- 
shaped steel ham.ner, or with a mason’s trowel. 
It is easiest to cut half of the hole in each of 
two tiles of the main. But if hard, vitrified - 
tiles made of potter’s clay, are used, they are 
too hard to cut, and a sufficient number of per¬ 
forated main tiles (perforated before bakingi 
should be obtained from the factory. This is 
handiest at any rate, and one really gets abet¬ 
ter joint. A piece or two of larger-sized, 
broken tile should be placed over the joint and 
the clay be packed tightly over it, so that sur¬ 
face water may never soak down to it and 
work its way in and carry dirt or “ silt ’’ with it. 
The angle of intersection between the main, 
and laterals should be. if possible, a little ob¬ 
tuse down stream. This may be secured, even 
when the general direction of the laterals is at 
right angles with the main, by curving the 
laterals slightly down stream for the last rod 
or so before their intersection. The upper end 
of each lateral should be simply stopped with 
a flat stone. 
The outlets of the mains demand care and 
attention. If they empty into a broad, deep, 
open ditch, up a foot or more from its bottom, 
no special protection is ueeded. If the water 
must seek the general surface again by a short, 
open ditch running in the same direction with 
the main, theu this open ditch should be bev¬ 
eled back very slanting so that it will not 
cave or slump in, aud the perpendicular or 
vertical surface of the eai*th should be bricked 
or Stoned up around the outlet, as iu figure 423, 
where o is the outlet, and a h and d c represent 
the bevel of the sides of the open ditch into 
which the main drain flows. The slopes a b 
and d c should be turfed over too, to prevent 
their slumping in. 
If the ditch or creek into which the main 
or mains flow is infested with frogs, muskrats, 
crawfish, etc., it will lie well to have an iron 
grating over the end of the outlet, to prevent 
their crawling up the mains and into the 
laterals and choking them. But the grating 
must not be too fine or the silt will lodge or 
catch ou it aud obstruct the outflow, and the 
grating will require to be cleaned occasionally. 
A patent trap-gate has been invented, opening 
outward so as not to obstruct the flow, aud 
closing down as the flow subsides and shutting 
tight when the flow ceases. 
In tilling the drains a team and plow may 
be used to advantage after the first foot-and-a 
half has been tilled by baud. One home can 
be made to walk constantly in the ditch and 
this will pack the earth thoroughly. A ridge 
should be plowed up over the drain to allow 
for the earth’s settling, and to prevent surface 
Bricking Around Drain Outlet.—Fig, 
423. 
water from soaking straight down to the tiles. 
If the field is plowed in Spring aud the furrows 
thrown towards the drains, their fixation can 
hardly be discovered after liar rowing, and will 
cause no inconvenience iu tillage. Potatoes 
com or Hungarian Grass are good crops topuj 
on a newly drained field, as they may be put 
in (especially the Hungarian) even if thedraiu 
is finished rather late in Spring, uud the 
necessary cultivation thoroughly levels the sur¬ 
face and mixes in any clay that may have been 
left on top. 1 should never drain a field in 
turf aud leave it turf. It digs harder and it. 
is impossible to level it properly, without great 
labor, and leave a uniform and unbroken turf 
Special difficulties in draining aud obstruc¬ 
tions iu drains will be discussed iu the next 
number. 
METHODS OP HANGING TOBACCO. 
I was much pleased with the method of 
hanging tobacco as described and illustrated 
by “Elm,” in a late Rcual. The general sys¬ 
tem of suspending the plants upon lath is the 
one commonly adopted in all the larger 
tobacco-growing sections of the North, and 
has several advantages over the method of 
hanging upon scantlings with twine, as prac¬ 
ticed to a large extent iu some localities, When 
hung upon lath, tobacco is drawn from the 
field to the curing-barn in a hanging position, 
which prevents bruising aud breukage of 
leaves which always follow to greater or less 
extent wheu the plants are thrown flatwise 
upon a platform rigging and hauled to the 
barn; and the leaves do not adhere together 
ami to the stalks us they do with the other 
management. Another advantage of con¬ 
siderable importance in favor of using lath, 
is that the work of harvesting can he con¬ 
tinued during damp or cloudy w eather w hen 
the plants do uit wilt readily. 
I have tested the use of loose hooks to my 
satisfaction, and am fully convinced that their 
uso implies unnecessary labor and exjiense. 
The use of the spear by which the plants are 
strung upon the lath by simply placing the 
spear, which is made with a socket, upon the 
end of the lath and thrusting the butt of the 
plant over the spear and upon the lath is com¬ 
mendable; but it requires some little experi¬ 
ence to perform the work well and with 
rapidity. 
I have hung all my tobacco for several 
years upon nails driven through the lath and 
find the method, all things considered, the best 
I have tested. But as suggested by “Elm/’ 
there is s ime inconvenience in loosening the 
plants from the nails when taking the tobacco 
down, and a good many of the nails are neces¬ 
sarily broken off during the process and while 
handling the lath. Wire or box nails driven 
straight through the laths and bent in the 
form of a hook, as described, would doubtless 
prove less objectionable than the nails, 
and if the work of bending the nails could 
be performed without too great expense, I am 
inclined to think this system would be superior 
to anyjn practice for hanging tobacco. The 
work of placing the plants upon the hooks 
would be very simple and might be performed 
by a small boy, and the lath could be handled 
with the plauts upon it with perfect ease and 
without the danger of their falling off, even 
when drawn for long distances. This I know 
from experience iu hanging upon common fin¬ 
ishing nails, driven through the lath at an 
angle, which comprises the same principles as 
the method the correspondent describes. 
Chemung Co., N. Y. G. A. Goff. Jr. 
ipomuLojjkul 
KIEFFER’S HYBRID PEAR. 
WILLIAM PARRY. 
In a recent number of the Rural, F, S. P. 
raises an important question, as to the preser¬ 
vation of the health of trees. If the stocks 
are not congenial to the cions or buds inserted 
in them, he asks, does it not invite disease- 
—[Unquestionably Eds.] 
“If the original Kieffer tree has never 
blighted, has not the Might disease infected 
the young stock bv reason of being worked 
upon diseased seedlings! Cannot the health of 
the original tree be fully maintained iu young 
stock by rooting cuttings direct from the 
original tree?” Certaiuly, or cuttings taken 
from the roots or layering the tops would re¬ 
produce trees of the exact qualities of the 
parent, the same as strawberries and raspber¬ 
ries are perpetuated and increased in their 
original purity. It is a well-known fact that 
in the South large quantities of Le Conte 
Pear trees, are grown from cuttings in prefer 
euce to budding them on pear stocks. We 
once made an exchange of standard Kieffer 
Pears for Le Contes, which were grown from 
cuttings, and they are now perfectly healthy, 
while some Le Contes ou pear stocks have 
blighted, aud ou quince stocks they all die 
within two or three years. 
The Kieffer does better than the Le Conte on 
quince, and sometimes may live to bear a few 
fine specimens, but dwarf Kieffer Pears will 
Might and die, ami trees propagated from 
them are more likely to do so than if there 
was no trace of quince in their ancestors. 
Bmis takeu from dwarfs, carry with them the 
seeds of their own destruction uud when set 
back ou pear stocks they will develop the In¬ 
herent weakness of the dwarf tree from which 
the buds were taken. The principle that there 
must be congeniality, or an affinity, between 
the cion and the stock u jou which it is worked 
to produce perfect healthiness, is well estab¬ 
lished by abundance of testimony. It is not 
sufficient that the stock and cion should both 
be healthy, but there must be a similarity in 
sap, pores and iu all other conditions—a lik¬ 
ing for each other, so that they will adhere 
and grow together kindly, to make a perfect¬ 
ly harmonious union of the two parts lutoone 
healthy tree. 
The quince stock may be as healthy as pear 
stock, yet the Kieffer, Le Conte and many 
other Oriental and hybrid trees will not thrive 
ou them. 
The vital powers of a pear are avowedly 
checked in favor of the reproductive, when it 
is grown on a quince, ail apple or a pear that 
is not entirely congenial to its growth, and 
plants that are propagated from such trees 
will partake of the low vital powers engen¬ 
dered, aud be more liable to disease. Buds for 
propagation should uever be takeu from trees 
growu ou quince in any case, nor on any stock 
not congenial to the tree worked on it. It 
would lx* much better to get them direct from 
the original tree or from a tree growu from 
cuttings of the roots, tops or layers, so as to 
prevent the introduction or any other sap. as 
there* is a great difference in the health and 
tluiftiness of seedling pears themselves, some 
being much better thau others, although all 
may be treated alike with a natural desire to 
make ull in the nursery produce salable trees. 
If the practical farmers in the United States 
w ho subscribe for the Rural New-Yorker 
(and all should do so) would keep a record of , 
and report to the Editor, their own observa¬ 
tions on the growth of trees, plants and crop s 
produced, under the varied treatment, soil and 
climate in which they are grown, many im¬ 
portant facts might be preserved for compari¬ 
son with the results obtained on the Rural 
Experiment Grounds, and a system deduced 
adapted to the various requirements of our 
national domain. 
A NEBRASKA ORCHARD. 
W hen the pioneers of that day crossed the 
Hudson and plunged into the woods seeking 
the Uenessee V ally, they thought they had 
left behind the land of orchards. In later 
years when men came from Ohio and Michi¬ 
gan to settle on the prairies they bid farewell 
to cider and apples and the delightful Winter 
evenings spent in their company. 
Let me now tell what a “ York State” 
man has done in planting an orchard 
100 miles west of the Missouri River. J. R. 
Kinnan, of Folk County, Nebraska, has an 
orchard of 70 acres in very excellent condi¬ 
tion, all seeded down with Timothy, clover 
and Blue Grass. This he intends tor pasture 
as we have an abundance of native grass 
lands for hay; but what he cut this year 
yielded tons to the acre. Commencing 
with the great staple fruit—apples, he has 
5,000 trees seven to eight years old, which com¬ 
menced to bear this year. Next Spring, as 
he says land is cheap, he will add 40 acres all 
of Ben Davis Though this is acknowledged 
to be an apple of moderate quality, yet it is 
a great bearer, and one of the best lor profit. 
Among his varieties are many of the old 
standard kinds of the Eastern States, which 
have been thoroughly tested here aud found 
successful both in hardine s of the trees and 
good bearing qualities. These are Red 
June, Red Astracuau, Duchess of Oldenburg. 
Maiden's Blush, Tetofsky, fiameuse, Wealthy, 
Winesap, Willow Twig, Jonathan, Kawies 
Genet, Do mine, Grimess Golden, Talman’s 
Sweet, etc., with eight varieties of Crabs, 
Whitney’s No. 2 D being oue of the best. These 
are planted 28 feet upart, show a strong 
growth of wood, and will measure seven to 
nine inches one toot trom the ground. Special 
atteutiou has been given to forming tine Ueails 
aud all are heavily mulched, which is very 
important iu this eouutry. 
He has also 200 pears of bearing size 
none of which show any sign of blight 
at present except some Jblemish Beauties. 
He double-works them in the nursery 
and while young shades the trunks from the 
hot sun of J ulv and August. Of these there 
are twelve varieties among which he ranks 
as number oue Bartlett, Lawrence, Seckel, 
Sheldon, and Duehesse. Tljere are tour hundred 
and 50 of which bore a heavy crop this year 
for the first time and offer a great promise 
for next year. The varieties are Early and 
Late Richmond, English Morello and a Black 
Heart Cherry. Of five thousand peaches a 
great share are seedlings, some of w nicU have 
produced as tine peaches a - the standard kinds. 
The severe Winter ot toso Knud many of the 
budded sorts but the fol.owuig pro veil per¬ 
fectly hardy and bore a good ciop this year: 
Alexander, Foster, Early and Late Cruwioid, 
Auisden. Beatrice and hale's Early. The 
seedlings commence to bear at three years. 
One hundred plums are as hardy as uatives. 
Halt an acre of strawberries—Charles Down¬ 
ing and Wilson—have borne abundant crops 
for five years. He has just, built a brick water 
tank to hold UK) barrels which is filled by a 
windmill and with this he will have abnnd 
ance of water for his small fruit should a dry 
season occur. The crop w as sold at the near 
est. rail way station at 25 to 30 cents per quart. 
This year he has picked 100 bushels of black¬ 
berries— Lawton, Kittatiuuy and Snyder. 
The last has proved iron-clad while the 
others huvo suffered in severe Winters. These 
sold for 20 to 25 cents per quart. He esti¬ 
mate's the return from an acre of two-year-old 
plants at $300. This is a very profitable fruit 
to grow as it bears transplanting aud there 
w ill beau endless demand for it m the mining 
regions just west of us. Five hundred grape* 
vines five years old trained to stakes gave* a 
heavy crop, mostly Concords; but Delaware 
does well and commands a better price. 
Gregg, Mammoth Cluster and a native 
equal to the Gregg have born abundant crops 
of raspberries for three years. Currants and 
gooseberries bear heavily. Mr. K. is a great 
advocate of heavy mulching with old hay or 
straw, and w ith this the trees and plants grow 
aud bear as well iu a dry season as in a wet 
one. He illustrated this by a grow th of cab¬ 
bages which were planted J uly 1st, hoed once 
and well mulched. A wagon load from a 
small piece of ground could be cut of heads 
weighing from 20 to 30 pounds. His orchard 
thus far has flourished on the high prairie 
