OCT 20 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
hat would end the difficulty at once. No man 
who lacks the courage to exact from the'petty 
officers of his town and the pettv 'dog owners 
of the world a decent compliance with a de¬ 
cent law, is entitled to" any of the privileges, 
honors or emoluments of a true shepherd. 
The man who cannot pluck up courage to help 
himself in such a ease is not entitled to the aid 
or sympathy of anybody else. 
But the farmer who desires to' keep a few 
nice sheep and shrinks from any controversy 
over dogs and dog-laws, may easily and quite 
inexpensively protect his flock by adopting the 
hurdle system of pasturing, using barbed wire 
hurdles which are dog-proof. A discussion of 
the economy and efficiency of this system of 
pasturing with a description of the hurdles 
may be undertaken at some future time. 
SHEEP THAT THRIVE W THOUT 
DRINKING. 
In Central Arabia, on the border of the 
region kuowu as Nedjed or Nejd, there is a 
peculiar desert called Nefud, which is roughly 
estimated as being some 400 miles long by 150 
miles wide. It is covered for the most part 
with coarse sand of a peculiar bright red 
color, which is so little affected by movements 
of the wiud that uo small amouut of useful 
herbage grows upon it, in spite of the ab¬ 
sence of springs and streams. With the ex¬ 
ception of occasional rains, and of a few 
deep wells at great distances from one 
another, the locality affords no water accessi¬ 
ble for human beings, and is consequently 
wholly unfit for permanent human habita¬ 
tion. But several kinds of animals have, in 
the course of ages, become so habituated to 
the lack of liquid water that they live and 
thrive in spite of its absence. Hares are 
plentiful throughout this desert, and there is 
a great white antelope (Oryx beatrix) which 
frequents every part of it, and which, as the 
Arabs believe, “never drinks.” This antelope 
is found a hundred miles or more from auy 
spring, therein differing markedly from the 
gazelle which, in spice of its swiftness, haunts 
only the outskirts of the arid tract, aud other 
places where water is accessible. The Arabs 
have a great, guaut, long-legged sheep also, 
with long, silky hair, aud pendulous ears, 
which has a remarkable power of liviug in 
places where no water is to be had for driuk- 
ing. There is really no great cause for sur¬ 
prise iu all this, in view of the well kuowu 
abstemiousness of the camel. It would ap¬ 
pear, indeed, that the same causes which, in 
process of time, have endowed the camel with 
the peculiarities which make him so valuable 
for man,have acted in an analogous way upon 
the sheep and some others of the animals of 
the desert, and have produced corresponding 
effects. A recent English traveler. Lady 
Blunt, from whose book entitled “A Pilgrim¬ 
age to Nejd” I have gathered the foregoing 
particulars, affirms of the Bedouins who live 
on the outskirts of the Nefud desert, that in 
the Spring, when the grass Is green after the 
rainy season, they care nothing for water, as 
their camels are in milk, and that they go for 
weeks without water, wandering far into the 
interior of the well-less desert of red sand. 
It is noteworthy that, in spite of the general 
aridity of the place, various bushes and grasses 
which serve as pasture for horses, camels and 
sheep, grow freely in the Nefuddosert, at least 
in the Winter season, and that there is one 
particular kind of forage, called Adr, which 
appears to be the source whence the animals 
obtain water enough to keep them alive. It is 
said, at all events, that the desert sheep are 
able to live on this Adr for a month at a time 
without needing water. 
Both the plant, and the sheep whi .'b thrive 
upen it are assuredly worthy of careful study, 
with the view of determining whether one or 
boil of them may not perhaps be adapted for 
the stocking of other hot, arid regions, such 
a« those of Central Australia, or some of our 
oc possessions at the Southwest. 
farm (Topics. 
SOME OHIO NOTES. 
WALDO S. BROWN. 
Save your seed corn now.—I wish the 
Editor would print the above five words in the 
biggest type he uses in his paper across the first 
page and keep it standing there till Thanks¬ 
giving. But as ail the fanners don't read the 
Rural— though I wish they did—it would lie 
a good missionary work for some rich mau to 
hire “ artists” to travel through the country 
and paint the above advice on the fences 
just as the patent medicine men paint the 
names of their nostrums. 
It would seem, after the experience of last 
year, that the farmer who does not save his 
teed corn so that he can know beyond perad- * i 
venture that it will grow, is not deserving of 
pity. Last Spring more than halt the farm- 
el's in half a dozen of our best corn States, 
bought seed corn at prices ranging from one 
to three dollars a bushel; aud many of them 
got corn grown so far south or west that it 
has not ripened and the untimely frost has 
greatly damaged the crop. Any of them 
might have had good seed, by spending an 
hour's time for each bushel they needed; for 
corn that has barely passed the roasting car 
stage, will grow' perfectly if properly cured. 
As soon as you begin to feed the new crop of 
com, watch for every good ear till you have 
euough for the next Spring’s seed. If you 
have a kitchen or other room where there will 
be a fire each day, put the corn on racks over 
the stove and leave it there till Spring. If the 
room is not plastered you can nail some lath to 
the underside of the joists and it will make a 
good place for the corn. Don’t be afraid of 
its getting too dn\ [ kept my corn in this 
way last Winter, and one row on each side of 
the stove pipe came within a foot of it. It was 
in my seed office where I kept a hot fire all day 
during the entire Winter, and the ears would 
get about as hot as one would care to baudle. 
Iu Marchit was suggested that this corn would 
never grow, that the life would be baked out 
of it, but on putting it into the ground it 
sprouted as strong as a poke stalk. 
If you have not a good room to cure the 
corn in, fix some racks in the smoke-house so 
as to fill it loosely, so the smoke can circulate 
through it. Then put in an olrl stove without 
auy pipe aud make a fire every day, enough 
to heat up the. room and fill it> with smoke. 
Follow this up till the coni is so dry that it w ill 
shell easily aud then it can be put away iu 
barrels or sacks. It is claimed by those w ho 
have tried this plan, that not only is the smoke 
distasteful to w orms, but that it also fertilizes 
the grain so that tLe plant, comes up stronger 
aud of better color. I am inclined to believe 
that smelting the corn is an advantage; for 
when I have smoked my seed coru I have had 
a perfect stand and a very strong growth. 
It takes so little corn to plant an acre—only 
four or five quarts—that there is no excuse 
for not having the best, at least the best that 
your own farm produces. I have little doubt 
that on many farms the yield of corn could be 
increased from ten to twenty per cent, in three 
years, by careful selection of seed, and there is 
no other way in which as large an increase 
can be had at so little expense. 
Why don’t farmers all grow’ a supply of 
Hubbard Squashes for Winter? I suppose it 
is because they do not know r bow Up to five 
years ago I could never raise them, but now I 
never miss The secret of my success is, late 
planting and planting among potatoes. I do 
not know whether potato vines are distasteful 
to the striped bugs, or whether the pests do 
not find the squashes among the vines, but. the 
fact remains that I have never had the latter 
disturbed when planted in this way, 1 man¬ 
ure a strip altout a rod wide, in the garden, 
for my earliest potatoes, aud about, the middle 
of June I make a row of hills through the 
oenterand plaut'Hubbard Squashes. I'turn the 
vines away from the hills, and the first pota¬ 
toes we use are dug nearest the hills. 1 planted 
a single row seven rods long this year on the 
26th day of June, and they have covered a 
strip on w’hieh eight rows of potatoes grew’, 
aud the crop is matured now, Sept. 20th, so 
that a frost would not injure it. One of 
these vines grew in three weeks, 14 feet. 
This Fall has given another forcible illustra¬ 
tion of the importance of early plowing for 
wheat. It is uow r Sept. 2’3d, a date at which 
our farmers have usually finished sowing 
wheat, but hi a ride of three miles a few days 
ago, I counted five fields that were partly 
plowed and abandoned, aud this is the case all 
through southern Ohio. Such fields can be 
counted by hundreds in every county. That 
there is no necessity for this is proved by the 
fact that three-fourths of the farmers finished 
their breaking, and of course the others might 
have done so. I had twice as much to plow on 
Eastview Farm as a near neighbor, and yet 
1 have finished and he is not half done. So my 
team plowed four times as much as his; and 
yet I lost three days w hen the grouud was in 
the best condition for plowing, by assisting my 
neighbors to thrash. 
The trouble with farmers is that they do 
not plan wisely, and when they have laid out 
their work for a week they go through with it 
according to programme, no matter what 
changes there are in the conditions. This 
neighbor of mine devoted a week to hauling 
manure when the land was in the bast, condi¬ 
tion to plow. He could have done this more 
easily a week or two later when the land was 
too dry to plow; but when he began hauling 
manure there were five or six weeks before he 
would want to sow, and he thought there 
would be time enough for plowing, and so, 
after plowing half the field, he went to top¬ 
dressing it, and uow the other half of the field 
is unplowed. 
It should be the rule on every farm where 
Wiuter wheat is grown, to let uo other work 
interfere with breaking the wheat land. In 
Southern Ohio our Summer rains are nearly 
always followed by one or two cold days; aud 
the teams can work 12 hours with less weari¬ 
ness that they can eight hours a few days later 
when the mercury has climbed into the nine¬ 
ties, and the ground has become hard. The 
farmer who neglects plowing at such a time, 
and puts his teams at work which can be as 
well or better done in dry weather, deserves 
no more pity if he fails to get his wheat in 
in time and iu good order, than he does who 
has no seed coni that will grow. 
Another mistake is made by many of our 
wheat growers In ueglecting to pulverize aud 
pack their wheat land as fast as they plow it. 
It is a safe rule to roll each day as you plow 
There has not been for a month a rain that 
moistened a field that was left to dry and bake 
rough, just as it was plowed; but the fields 
that were at once mellowed are moist enough 
for the seed, and on some of them the wheat 
is up. A gentle shower will put the fine field 
in good condition, but will have no effect a f 
all on the rough, cloddy one. There is no 
other way in which 1 eau increase the yield of 
wheat on my farm so cheaply as by extra 
pulverization; and 1 consider one dollar spent 
in extra labor on an acre, worth more than 
two or three dollars paid out for fertilizers. 
THE CROP SEASON IN ILLINOIS AND 
THE NORTHWEST. 
Those familiar with some of the fundamen¬ 
tal truths of vegetable physiology, will easily 
understand how disastrous to the corn crop 
were the frosts of the 8th, 9th and 10th of 
September in the corn and cattle counties of 
the Western State-, when they learn the 
mean temperature of the whole growing season 
for latitude 40 degrees belonged to latitude 
43. Thus the Signal Service Station at 
Springfield, 111., latitude 39°, 48', longi¬ 
tude 80°, .‘HU west, reports the rneau tem¬ 
perature to have been: for May. 50.74 degrees; 
for June, 00.10 degrees; for July, 74.00 de¬ 
grees; for August. 70.50 degrees—the mean 
average for the three Summer mouths being 
a little over 71 degrees Fahr. The Weather 
Station at Springfield, Ill., on account of its 
location in a city of considerable size and I te- 
ing partially surrounded by a heavy old and 
new timber growth, would give a higher 
mean for the warm season than the average 
prairie outside on the same parallel by two at 
least, if not three degrees. We may therefore 
safely assume the mean temperature for the 
three Summer months for Central Ohio, Indi¬ 
ana aud Illinois to have been not far from 09 
degrees, or 5.50 degrees below the average 
mean of the ten years 1871-1880. Consulting 
the Signal Service Reports’ Isothermal Lines 
of the United States, I find 09 to 70 degrees to 
be the mean Summer temperature of a con¬ 
siderable portion of the Northwest lying be¬ 
tween the 43rd and 44th parallels, showing 
pretty conclusively, as stated above, that the 
center of the great corn zone lying along the 
40 degrees parallel, had in 1883, a Summer 
temperature which in average seasons belongs 
two or three hundred miles further north, 
and to have ripened them should have planted 
crops common to those latitudes. 
De Candolle and other eminent vegetable 
physiologists and botanists teucb us, corn and 
all other crops and vegetable growths require 
a certain number of degrees of accumulated 
heat aud a certain time to accomplish all the 
phases of their existence, Indian corn de. 
inanding frora'2,500 to 2.800 degrees centigrade 
and four or five months. I have a small patch 
of corn a few rods only from where I write, 
which was planted the 19th of April, and three 
days more than five calendar months ago. 
That from Illinois and Kansas seed is nearly 
mature and is beyond the reach of harm from 
any hut a very killing frost. Now assuming 
this corn, planted on the 19th of April, had very 
little benefit from accumulated heat before 
the 1st of May, we have the mean for that 
month and June, July and August to multiply 
by the number of days and the productta, 
2667 97 degrees centigrade of accumulated 
heat—aud this too, estimating the moan ns 
71 degrees for the three summer months, in¬ 
stead of 69 degrees. But the main crop for 
this region nnd this parallel, was got into the 
ground fully a month later, aud is just so much 
behind time in growth aud so much more liable 
to damage from frost. If then, the earliest 
planted eora only, in Central Illinois, was 
barely out of the way of frost by the 8th of 
September, what hope could there have been 
for the maturing of the great bulk of the crop 
in the hither and further Northwest, even if 
the frost of the second week in September had 
been postponed a mouth? But there are other 
features of this growing season which help 
further to con viuoe us that practically,latitude 
40‘ enjoys this year the Summer,climate of 
New England, New Y ork and Miehigau; there 
lieingthe severe aud unusually lute frosts of the 
22 aud 23 of May and the early ones of the same 
character of Sept. 9. 10. 11 and 12. The grow¬ 
ing season is only a trifle cooler than that of 
last year; but last Autumn was warm and wet; 
this one is dry, and unusually hot and cold by 
turns. Similar cool Summers, though excep¬ 
tional, are encountered two or three times iu 
a generation. The mean of the ten years, 
1881-1890. is likely to be as high as that of the 
previous ten, 1871-1880 which was 75.50 Fahr., 
and as compensative for the cool Summer of 
’S2 and ’83, we are pretty sure to experience 
within the uext five years, a succession of 
Summers quite as remarkably warm as these 
have been cool. b. f. j. 
f arm Crotwrmq. 
DRAINAGE OF CLAY LANDS—SMALL 
FARMS—JUDICIOUS FERTILIZING. 
Perehauce some of the Rural readers may 
be interested in some of the things I have 
learned about farming. 
First, never undertake to till land too wet 
in an average season to produce a good crop, 
until you have first laid sufficient under drains 
to insure the crop against too much water 
where aud when it is not wanted. Well 
drained land rarely suffers from a “rainy 
season,” and if made rich in the elements 
needed to produce a crop, it is equally proof 
agaiust a “dry season.” All land with a clay 
subsoil, naturally springy, should be under- 
drained before a plow is put into it. There 
can be little or uo profit in cultivating such a 
soil without thorough drainage. If you wish 
to purchase such a farm, add to the price of 
the land the cost of drainage, unless already 
done, in which case the seller will not forget 
to do this himself. If you think of renting or 
sharing the profits with the owner, insist on 
drainage, or take a long lease with a renewal 
elaiLse at its expiration, and a proviso that 
permanent improvements shall be paid for by 
the owner. Without drainage there will be 
uo profits to share on such laud. Y ou might 
as well think of doing without buildings. 
W ith drainage there are no other lauds so 
profitable in all seasons and for all the pur¬ 
poses for which a farmer needs land at all. 
Second, ten acres are not enough for all, 
hut this area is more than euough for some. 
It is fully as large as the average farm on the 
Island of Jersey where there are no paupers. 
Land there is dear: aud yet the average prof¬ 
its and comforts are probably quite equal to 
those of similar classes in this country who 
own ten times the number of acres. Many 
thousands of acres may be profitably fanned 
by or under the direction of a single owner, 
iu some parts of our country. Land, rich in the 
elements of plant food, aud costiug but a few 
dollars per acre, can be profitably cultivated 
for a few years without fertilizers. Of the 
high-priced lands of the East, it is not profit¬ 
able to plow an acre which is not rich enough 
to grow 30 bushels of wheat, 00 bushels of 
corn or two tons of good hay in an average 
season. Iu other words, the farmer who can¬ 
not furnish enough of barnyard manure or 
other suitable fertilizers to make these enps 
on fifty acres, will be wise to limit bis plowing 
to just so many acres as hecuu enrich by suffi¬ 
cient fertilizers, and if he has more land than 
fertilizer, then he should allow the surplus 
land to rest. If well seeded, there may result 
profit as well us improvement. In any case it 
is a waste of time and money to spread upon 
ten acres the fertilizer which five acres need 
to make a paying crop. Nor cun the majori¬ 
ty of farmers afford to purchase expensive 
fertilizers or mauuro to apply to ull the acres 
of their farms. Such as are near large cities 
may profitably do more of this thou those re¬ 
mote from large markets. Better get into 
grass all the farm which will sustain its 
growth. For all parts of the farm distant 
from the barns, rely upon clover us a renova¬ 
tor. To make a good sod on every acre which 
will grow it, should be the first object in 
view. Make all the manure possible, and 
spread it heavily upon a few acres late in the 
Fall or early in the Spriug. So continue to 
treat one field or a few acres at a time until 
a good, heavy sod is produced upou every 
acre that will bear it. This will take time aud 
patience. 
In the meantime some fertilizers may be 
profitably purchased. Here, much judgment 
will lie required to justify such au expense. 
Generally, for grain aud grass farms, pure 
bone, lime and plaster will prove the cheapest 
aud best. Avoid those very expensive com¬ 
pounds the value of which you can only as- 
