by reference to it and the drawings, will, with 
the help of an iron-founder, to furnish the cast 
mgs, bo able to get it up without much 
difficulty. ‘ ‘ Elm. ” 
farm (Ikcomnni). 
“DEATH TO THE WEEDS I’’ 
The Farmer’s Motto. 
PROFESSOR I. P. ROBERTS. 
What hard and persistent labor it takes to 
conquer them, especially this wet Summer! As 
the nutriment that sustains a weed will nour¬ 
ish a useful plant, it becomes of the utmost 
importance to study methods of eradication. 
In many localities tho Canada Thistle and 
plantain—Plantago major—are the greatest 
pests. In some localities the yields of grain 
and grass are diminished one-half by them. I 
have found the following method most econ¬ 
omical and successful for their destruction:— 
Tho field designed for corn the following year 
is- mowed early, and such portions as are 
thickly set with weeds are i mmediately plo wed, 
thoroughly harrowed and rolled. In one 
week it is cultivated aud again rolled. Ten 
days after wards—if clover sod—it is replowed; 
if Timothy, it is gang-plowed two inches deep 
or cultivated, aud again rolled. About two 
weeks may now elapse before it is again at¬ 
tacked with whatever tool appears best adap¬ 
ted for the purpose, aud the operation is re- 
neated as often as there is the least indication 
that any plant is about to get its head above 
ground. 
The frequent “fining,” inverting and com. 
pacting of the soil will cause roots and seeds 
to start in great profusion and vigor, and, 
strange as it may seem, though the sole object 
is to destroy the noxious plants, the more nu¬ 
merous and vigorous they grow the better. 
About the flirt of October the land should 
be seeded to rye—whic h may be pastured by 
sheep in the Spring if the laud is not too wet 
—aud the following Spring replowed. By this 
method no crop has been sacrificed, and the 
chances are that the greater yield of corn and 
the diminished cost of its cultivation will 
fully offset the expense of clearing the land not 
only of thistles and plantains, but of a multi 
tude of other intruders. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
TWO OHIO NOTES. 
Fining Manure. — I am a strong believer in 
the virtue of fine manure and believe that, 
other thiugs being equal, ouo load made fine 
so that it can be spread evenly, is worth two 
or three loads coarse and half rotted. I also 
keep manure near the surface and use as much 
as I can of it for a top-dressing on small grain 
where I intended to seed with grass and 
clover. In this way 1 make the manure do 
double duty. Last Full I spread just one 
bushel of flue manure to tho square rod on an 
experimental plot of wheat. An adjoiniug 
plot was sown at the same time aud with ex¬ 
actly the same amount of seed per acre. Both 
were sown broad-cast, and the past Spring I 
found the w heat all killed on the iwmauUred 
plot and a promise of a fair half crop on the 
manured one. If auy ouo objects that it is too 
much labor to handle the manure till it is fine, 
I reply that the reduced bulk and greater 
ease iu handling when it is drawn to the fields, 
will go far towards paying for all the work of 
“ fining ” it. In tur.iing munure, when you 
wish it to heat, fork it up loosely and draw iu 
the pile to a point. When you wish to check 
the fermentation, flatten down the pile aud 
tramp it solid. You can hasten the work by 
dripping or pumping water over the pile, if 
dry; water that leaches from the manure is 
best. 
Fenders.— Do all the readers of the Rural 
use fenders on their plows or cultivators in 
cultivating small corn I I remember when I 
was a boy, thut at the first plowing of the 
corn wo did nut try to get nearer than six or 
eight inches to the plants, and then nearly half 
tho corn would have earth or clods on it, and 
often one man could not keep up with the 
plow. Now with our doublo plows and fen¬ 
ders, one man will plow' six acres a day of 
corn throe inches high, aud will run w'ithiu 
two or three inches of it, and spill a little fresh 
earth round every hill and never think of hav¬ 
ing any one to follow him. The work done is 
nearly perfect, and the damage to the crop 
not one-half of one per cent. On tho cultiva¬ 
tors with small shovels, 1 use a shoot-iron 
fender shaped like a sled runner, and so at¬ 
tached us to run botw’oen the shovel and the 
corn When 1 use the bar-plows, and turu the 
earth aw-ay from it (a method which is growing 
more popular each year with our farmers; 
he rolling cutter acts as a fender and does 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
the work perfectly. You can shave within an 
inch of a stalk with the rolling cutters and not 
cover it, and the cutter will loosen and crack 
the ridge so as to let it warm up and start the 
corn quickly and vigorously to growing. 
Butler Co., Ohio. Waldo F. Brow'N. 
Hoe Early. 
I presume that nine out of ten of the Rural 
readers believe in the old maxim that “ what 
is worth doing at all is worth doing well,” and 
probably ninety per cent, of them never act 
up to their belief. Few persons, outside of 
professional gardeners, fully appreciate the 
advantage of early hoeing. A great many 
unthinking people, whohave “ made gardens ” 
for years, and who have had more or less hoe¬ 
ing to do all their lives, scarcely seethe import¬ 
ance of hoeing until they see the weeds. They 
don’t realize it. 
I know a man who was born and raised on a 
farm, who owned a nursery for ten years, and 
who was called an intelligent man, yet he 
never would do any cultivating until he could 
see plenty of weeds—he wanted to see that he 
was doing something. 
Now. aside from the necessity of keeping 
down the weed, is the importance of stirring 
the grouud to aid the growing roots, and the 
mellowing of the soil for the better retention 
of moisture. But, supposing your only idea 
is to kill the weeds—simply to keep them from 
choking the crop. A little calculation will 
show a man that he has to cultivate just so 
many times during the season anyhow. Now, 
the most economical use of time is to begin 
before you can see the sign of a weed. If any 
man questions this, let him try an experiment: 
Take, for instance, a piece of ground that has 
been plowed iu the Fall. In the Spring the 
soil is fine and mellow. Now, just as the weeds 
begin to make their first appearance, go over 
the ground with a garden rake, and, by stir¬ 
ring the soil to a depth of only one or two 
inches, you will discover myriads of very 
small weeds just below the surface, fully 
formed and ready to break through the 
ground. At this stage they are verv tender, 
and the misplacing of their tiny rootlets and 
exposure to the sun readily kill them. In 
fact, you destroy thousands that are too small 
to lie discernible. 
If this is not sufficient proof, then cultivate 
a strip of land in this manner, say, ten feet 
wide, and by the side of it leave a strip the 
same width undisturbed for a month. Then 
you may see what has been accomplished. 
Whatever else you do, whether you hoe once 
a week or once a season, hoe early. 
• Pueblo Co., Col. Clem Auldon. 
-- 
A Motto for Farmers. 
BEN. PERLEY POORE. 
“ Dollars for comforts, but not a cent for 
luxuries!” is a good home ir.otto for every 
farmer. The largest, sunniest, apartment 
in every farm-house should be in daily use by 
the family, and the most cheerless room 
should be used for tho parlor, w hich is rarely 
opened, except at funerals aud for the meet¬ 
ings of the sewing society. The freshest eggs 
aud the sweetest butter and the earliest fruit 
should not all be sent to market aud a good 
share of the proceeds invested in bananas, al¬ 
monds, raisins, coffeeand tea. Itis bad policy to 
cut down the shade trees along the wayside to 
raise money for the purchase of fashionable 
parasols for the woman folks. It is time mis¬ 
spent. for those w ho “ haviug eyes see not,” to 
stroll through the grounds of au agricultural 
fair, with their bauds iu their pockets and a 
perverse expression of discontent on their 
countenances, as they witness on every ban 1 
the evidence of a progressive success which 
the}' affect to disdain Soldiers are given the 
brightest, sharpest aud most effective weapons 
—so every farmer should have the very best 
machines and implements for tho war which 
he has to wage against vegetable aggressors 
and insect depredators in the field, the orchard 
and the garden, and every fanner's wife should 
have every appliance for economising muscle. 
All thut remains for a farmer to do, is to sub¬ 
scribe to a first-class agricultural paper, and to 
say, as did Shakespeare's working man: “I 
owe no man hate, and envy no man’s happi¬ 
ness; am glad w ith every man’s good, and con¬ 
tent with my own farm.” 
Profits of Little Thing’s in Farming. 
Farmers make a serious mistake by despis 
ing, or affecting to despise, the small thiugs 
that come iu their way. In dairying the 
principal profit comes, it is true, from the but¬ 
ter or cheese sold ; but the sour milk fed to 
calves or pigs, constitutes an important part of 
the income from the dairy. Pork manufac¬ 
tured from sour milk, as well as store calves 
and fat calves, all receive consideration from 
the careful dairyman. So it is iu other thiugs. 
It is well enough to sell pork alone, but the 
profits from the piggery may be greatly in¬ 
creased by keeping a brood sow. Many an 
industrious farmer’s wife has realized a hand¬ 
some income from the care bestowed upon 
turkeys, geese, hens and ducks. The poultry 
alone, without intrenching upon other more 
important matters, has often supplied the fam¬ 
ily with groceries aud clothed the wife and 
daughters. Itis capable of even greater re¬ 
sults. A quarter of an acre of berries may be 
eared for at odd times, and return a handsome 
profit. The vegetable garden, too, is often 
neglected. Bees return a greater pier cent, of 
profit than anything else a farmer* can keep. 
Every farmer should produce honey, and 
thus add to his income. It is safe to say that 
the income of auy farm can be more than 
doubled by the small things that w ould not 
interfere with the number of cows milked or 
tons of hay produced. 
Forrest K. Moreland. 
St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. 
THE AGRICULTURAL NEEDS OF THE 
VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
B. F. JOHNSON, 
If I were asked to state in the broadest 
sense the chief among the many subjects re¬ 
lating to, or intimately connected with the 
agriculture of the Valley of the Mississippi, 
above Cairo, which call for investigation in 
the flirt place, discussion in the second and ac¬ 
tion in the third, I should name: 
1. The re-foresting of the country because 
of its beneficial effects on climate, drought, 
rainfall and agricultural production generally. 
2. A proper recognition of the importance 
of the restoration of potash to the soil, for all 
grains,fruits aud vegetables containing notable 
quantities of starch or acids, one or both, and 
potash and phosphoric acid where the chief 
constituent element is sugar, aud a further 
recognition of the importance of incorporat¬ 
ing the surplus vegetable matter of crops and 
weed growths into the soil, instead of burning 
as very generally practiced. 
3. Giving more attention to meadows and 
to pastures, with a view to increase the num¬ 
ber of grasses in actual general cultivation 
and the quantity ot hay grow^i on the average 
meadow and the grass on the com¬ 
mon pastures on what is acknowledged to 
be the grass, corn, hogs and cattle sections of 
this portion of the middle West. 
4. A perfected system of reports of the 
weather, that is, the average daily mean of 
the thermometer and barometer and the total 
daily precipitation, w hether in rain, sleet, hail 
or snow, so distributed through the commer¬ 
cial and agricultural press, they w*ould be 
within the easy reach of every farmer of av¬ 
erage intelligence. 
5. And in connection with weather reports 
and proved, explained and enforced by them, 
weekly reports from each State Board of Ag¬ 
riculture and a monthly formulation of the 
facts, sent out from the Department of Agri¬ 
culture at Washington, 
6 . A further extension of the system of special 
organizations for the several specialties in agri¬ 
culture so as to embrace all the leading indus¬ 
tries with a parent body, which might be 
called the Society of the Agriculturists of the 
United States. 
The power of the individual having declined, 
except in the case of men controlling vast 
sums of money, the influence of the unassoci¬ 
ated farmer has been reduced to a minimum; 
and thanks to tho hostile attitude of the law ¬ 
yers and politicians, who are the hereditary 
enemies of the agriculturist, the latter has 
been uniformly the victim of unjust laws 
and the sufferer from unfriendly legis¬ 
lation; until, though he fceils all, he is both 
cheated and robbed by all. Laboring men, 
outside of agriculture, those who practice the 
industries aud the arts and the professions— 
manufacturers, merchants, bankers and rail¬ 
road men, have formed societies Open or secret 
to protect themselves, and it is time the. farm- 
era of the country shall also associate for pro¬ 
tection against their natural enemies the pre¬ 
daceous professions, for the repeal of unjust 
laws, for securing a fair representation iu the 
councils of the Nation, and, if need be, active 
aggression by constitutional methods. 
-- 
CAN PLANTS BE “STIMULATED”! 
There is, iu animal physiology. a broad dis¬ 
tinction between nutrition and stimulation. 
The former is effected through the digestive 
organs, the latter is accomplished bv direct 
action, through the circulation, upon the 
nerves. The first sustains aud accumulates 
force: the latter releases and discharges it. 
Now, plants have no nerves, yet w e ofteu find 
in the writings of educated agriculturists ex¬ 
pressions like the following, which we cut 
! from an article from tho pen of au agricultural 
college Instructor: 
“Fermentable, hoat-produciug manures are 
always productive of more or less rauk grow th 
in plants on account of their stimulating qual¬ 
ities. Such stimulation, when carried beyond 
certain limits, is in turn productive of weak¬ 
ness, and thus the way is opened for the intro¬ 
duction of disease through secondary influ¬ 
ences.” 
Itis the function of nutrition to produce 
growth, rauk or otherwise, and it is a misuse 
of terms to employ the word “stimulation” in 
place of over-nutritiou, or to mean, as in this 
case it evidently means, ill-balanced nutrition. 
The kind of growth here spoken of is produced 
not only by “fermentable, heat-producing ma¬ 
nures,” but by all nitrogenous fertilizers where 
the assimilable nitrogenous compounds are in 
excess; while “fermentable or heat-producing 
manures” (which include all manures of or¬ 
ganic origin) by no means necessarily produce 
such a growth as is spoken of, though they fre¬ 
quently do. Their fermenting and heat-pro¬ 
ducing quality has no relation to their “stim¬ 
ulating” quality, or to their content of nitro¬ 
gen, since it is due to the oxidation, princi¬ 
pally, of their carbon and hydrogen com¬ 
pounds. The “weakness” complained of as 
the result of the use of these manures is due 
probably iu most cases to the lack of a due 
proportion of the necessary mineral substances. 
When a well-balanced condition in this respect 
exists a strong growth is a healthy growth, too. 
T.H. Hoskins, M. D. 
A Good Rule, With Exceptions. 
As a variety of productions in a State pro¬ 
motes the welfare of a co mmuni ty, so mixed 
husbandry advances the interests of the indiv¬ 
idual farmer. This idea w*as suggested during a 
recent walk along the wharves of San Fran¬ 
cisco, where large quantities of produce from 
the temperate aud semi-tropical parts of Cali¬ 
fornia are*daily handled. There were arrivals 
of the best wool from Humboldt and Mendo¬ 
cino Counties; of hops ami butter from Sono¬ 
ma:—of oranges from Los Angeles;—of wheat 
and barley from Sacramento, and of wine 
from the foothills; though, of coarse, these 
products are uoc confined to the places best 
adapted for growing them. So it is that no 
season when auy particular crop is short ever 
proves ruinous to the community. 
It would seem that whatever is good for a 
State is good for tho individual farmer: that, 
on suitable land, the climate favoring, it is 
best to raise mixed crops. But, though the 
rule is a good one, still, if a farm will not 
raise corn, but is suitable for fruit, or grazing, 
or something else, then, by all means, follow 
that industry for which the soil is best adapted, 
for there are exceptions to all rules. 
Sonoma Co., CaL J. B. Armstrong. 
Burnt (Topics. 
(Experiment (Ground,$ of the giurat 
ISjeur-ilorfcet. 
PEA TESTS. 
Of the 19 different varieties planted this 
season, four were selected as being the “earli¬ 
est iu cultivation,” and planted side by side in 
moderately rich soil without fertilizers, in 
drills three feet apart, the seeds dropped every 
one inch and a half, three inches deep. The 
first three were planted April 6 th; the fourth 
April 9th. 
Carter’s New Pea. —Exp. Record No. 2. 
This will be introduced next year by the Lon, 
don (Eng.) seedsmen James Carter & Co. A 
note from this firm accompanying the seed, 
said: “Test them beside your earliest Ameri. 
can peas. They are the earliest in cultiva¬ 
tion.” Tho seeds wore very small, smooth and 
of a buff color. This is our report: Juue 12th. 
Average hight of vine three feet. For every 
13 feet of row there are at this date 120 pods 
ready to pick. Leaves rather small. A few 
flowers still on the topmost stems. One hun¬ 
dred pods weigh 5 ; t ounces; seeds alone weigh 
2’ A ounces. There are 550 seeds in the 100 pods, 
which gives 5.50 seeds to a pod. The illustra¬ 
tion shows (Fig 609) that both the pods aud seed 
are very small. Juue 15.—The lower pods too 
hard for eating. On the tops of the vines 
there are 40 blossoms to 13 feet of row. June 
19.—Peas oil top stems not mature enough for 
use. Very prolific. 
Ferry's First and Best.— Exp. No. 3. 
From Prof. W. W. Tracy, of D. M. Ferry & 
Co., Detroit, Mich. Peas medium size, slightly* 
dented; some slightly wrinkled—some smooth; 
buff color. June 13.—Average hight of vines 
two feet nine inches. There are 95 pods ready* 
to pick at tliis date for every 13 feet of row. 
Leaves larger than No. 2 aud same as No. 4 
The entire crop will mature quite evenly. 
Very few blossoms on top sterna. One hun¬ 
dred pods weigh H 3.3 ounces; eetis i^one 
weigh 4 .V s ' ounces—nearly twice as muea as 
No. 2. There are 689 seeds in 100 pods—6.89 
