706 
degrees to 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Potatoes 
lose their germinating power when exposed to 
a temperature below 30 degrees, and com¬ 
mence to grow in a temperature above 50 de¬ 
grees. A light sprinkling of lime upon pota¬ 
toes stored, is a preventive of rot: the lime 
destroys the parasitic fungus which constitutes 
rot. 
An editorial appeal’s in a late Husbandman, 
which we are very glad to see condemning 
the practice followed by some farm journals 
of writing up favorable reports of any arti¬ 
cles exhibited whose owners are willing to pay 
for such reports. It is not assumed by the or¬ 
dinary reader that the report is made to order, 
that it is wholly a mercenary affair with its 
price, cash in baud, paid by the exhibitor, yet 
such is the fact in many cases, and the custom 
of making reports for exhibitors is a dis¬ 
grace to journalism. Upon what grounds 
publishers can defend the practice of bribe¬ 
taking in this way, we do not understand; but 
when the public learns that 7’eports of fairs in 
papers whose reporters solicit fees from ex¬ 
hibitors, embrace mainly the interested opin¬ 
ions of exhibitors Crowded into the columns 
of their journals at a price for every word, 
such reports will cease to have value—the vo¬ 
cation will be gone. 
The well-managed Breeders'Gazette agrees 
with the Mark Lane Express that Herefords 
have a grand future before them; but when 
it comes to the question w ill they supplant the 
Shortehorn and other meritorious breeds, it 
answers, without the slightest mental reserva 
tion,“No.” There are places, perhaps, where 
it would prefer Herefords to any other breed 
of cattle; and there are also circumstances 
under which it would select Polls, Short-horns 
Holsteins (Friesians) or Jerseys. 
Heavy Fleeces. —Mr. J, S. Woodward's 
attention, as he states in the N. Y. Tribune, 
was lately called to the abundant enthusiasm 
of a writer over the very great improvement 
made in sheep in the past fifty years, aud the 
waiter cited as instances the weight of fleeces 
produced the past season. A Michigan sheep 
had shorn a fleece of over 41 pounds; a New 
York sheep, one of 40 pounds; a yearling, one 
of 32 pounds; aud a ewe, one weighing nearly 
2? pounds, aud the writer urged every one to 
try aud produce “such wonderful fleeces.” Mr. 
Woodward asks if he did not know that fully 
seven-eighths of the very heavy fleeces are 
only grease, yolk and dirt, and that two of 
these—grease and yolk—are produced at great 
expense to the vitality of the sheep; that it 
takes as much feed to produce four pounds of 
these utterly worthless products as one pound 
of the finest wool or two pounds of meat, a nd 
knowing this fact, Mr. Woodward is surprised 
that he did not frankly say so iu his article. 
He wonders how long the craze for wrinkles, 
grease and yolk will continue before some 
man will show sufficient independence, enter¬ 
prise and sense of practical utility to strike 
out in a new departure and try what can be 
done in breeding sheep, first for wool and, sec¬ 
ondly, for mutton, and not as now, first for 
grease, secondly for w’ool, and thirdly for 
meat. 
Shoeing Vanderbilt's Horses.—A Sun 
reporter interviewed the man who oversees 
the shoeing of Mr. Vanderbilt’s fast horses. 
He asked: 
“What has been your practice with Mr. Van¬ 
derbilt’s horses'? 
“Simply keeping them as near level as pos¬ 
sible, so that all the parts of their legs and 
feet could do their proportionate work.” 
"Which is to be preferred, a low heel or a 
high one ?” 
“Either extreme loses the advantage of bal¬ 
ance. Try an experiment with a chair. First 
make it high belaud, then very low; then bal¬ 
ance it between those two extremes, and you 
will see bow the change of base affects the re¬ 
sultant strain on the parts above. Lower one 
side of the chair more than another, and the 
effect is quite apparent. The centering of a 
strain produces congestion; the diffusion of a 
strain produces equilibrium.” 
“Are you in favor of wliat is known as frog 
pressure ? 
“Not with normal conditions. I use it tem¬ 
porarily sometimes.” 
“Does the great increase in the number and 
value of fast horses tend to create an interest 
in the science of horseshoeing ?” 
Certainly. Some of the more enlightened 
horse owuers are giving personal attention to 
the shoeing of their important horses. This 
science has proven that nearly all the derange¬ 
ments of the feet aud legs of the horse can be 
corrected or mollified by shoeing. Some of 
the leading veterinary surgeons are applying 
new school methods. It is the same with this 
as with all other discoveries. We must wait 
for time to modify the identity of discovery 
ere the practice can be called regular.” 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKIR. 
OCT 27 
“How about the use of weights on horses 
feet to regulate speed 1” 
“Weights on the lower extremities of 
horses" legs givepositiveuess of motion, which 
is sometimes mistaken for excellence of gait. 
It might more properly be called four lurches 
in concert. The extra speed produced by foot 
weights is artificial aud transitory.” 
SHORT AND FRESH. 
Prof. Shelton, of the Kansas Agricultural 
College, writes the following to the Kansas 
City Live Stock Indicator: “We have just 
performed the feat of cutting the fourth crop 
of Alfalfa from the same ground this season. 
Our Alfalfa has given us fully six tons of hay 
per acre this year.",.... 
Fifteen millions of horses are now owned in 
America, and more than a million a year must 
be bred to keep up the supply. The largest 
portion of these are used for agricultural and 
heavy draft purposes, and such horses bring 
from |175to $250each. We learn that M. W. 
Dunham, Wayne, Ill,, sends to all parts of 
America more than half a million dollars' 
worth of Percheron-Normau stallions annu¬ 
ally. 
Is there a better time to paint tbe houses, 
fences, barns, wagon-houses or corn-cribs than 
now? .. .. 
Now plant the Spring bulbs—the hyacinths 
and tulips; the narcissus and jonquils; the iris 
and Crown Imperial. 
Plant currants, gooseberries, raspberries 
and blackberies, grape-vines and cuttings 
thereof. Cover them in one month with straw, 
manure or leaves. 
Cut out the oldest wood of currant bushes 
now. Confine the bushes to a reasonable 
number of strong, clean shoots. 
Dr. Hexamer—and we know of no better 
small fruit authority—calls attention to the 
fact that, at the late meeting of the American 
Pomological Society at Philadelphia, a short¬ 
hand report of which has been given iu these 
columns, th Cutbbert Raspberry received 
more praise than any other on the list aud is 
nearly everywhere recognized as the best 
hardy red raspberry in cultivation. This was 
first introduced through the Free Seed Distri¬ 
bution of the Rural New-Yorker. 
Do you want an asparagus bed? Prepare it 
now. Throw out the soil to the depth of one 
spade on either side, the plot being 12 feet 
wide and as long as desired. Then with a fork 
loosen the sub-soil. Throw in a layer of old 
farm manure aud then one of the soil dug out. 
Then set the roots a foot deep, two feet apart 
in the row, the rows five feet apart. Then fin¬ 
ish with a layer each of manure and soil. Pur¬ 
chase strong plants two years old. This will 
last for ten years at least without any further 
care than a forking over in the Fall aud a de¬ 
struction of weeds and volunteer seedlings.... 
Artesian wells are thus far a success iu 
Denver.-. r . 
No entries will be received after the 25th 
inst. to the great Fat .Stock Show of Kansas 
City. It promises to he a grand affair.. 
Potatoes are rotting badly in many places— 
still the crop is a heavy one.. 
Iu reply to questions;—It is best to set 
cranberry plants in late Spring. The Mass. 
Ploughman says that if the object is for profit, 
never set cranberries in a clay soil, or on laud 
where the water cannot be readily drained off , 
and never set them where they cannot be kept 
well covered with water during the entire 
Winter..... 
Some instructor of a Swedish college speaks 
in the highest terms of suu-ttower seed cake as 
food for cattle. It improves the quality and 
increases the quantity of milk, the butter from 
which is also very fine. Cows eat it greedily.. 
There is something giieviously wrong, 
says the Daily, when, out of eight cents paid 
for a quart of milk, the farmer gets only 
three; or out of $2 paid for a barrel of apples 
he gets but 40 cents: and so on all through the 
list. It is easy to see the reason. The farmer 
is at the bottom, and everybody climbs on to 
him, and he has not a word to say for himself 
except to himself... 
No cows or calves should be left in the pas. 
ture at night at this season. The consequences 
of a chill may easily be fatal. So says Dr. 
Stewart... 
The Dairy says that when Jay Gould was a 
boy he used to milk 20 cows a day; but now 
that he has become a man be has put a way 
childish things and spends his spare time iu 
watering stock, and looking after the lambs 
who flock in Wall Street. 
Prof. Arnold questions whether the natural 
color of butter Is not a thing entirely apart 
from its flavor, and whether its presence or 
absence is at all material to the taste and merit. 
Experts who handle butter every day can not 
distinguish between natural and artificial col¬ 
oring'. As a rule, customers prefer well-col¬ 
ored butter. Butter of low color suggests 
hay-feeding, aud so color and flavor have be¬ 
come associated together. 
A good paper is worth its price, be it one 
dollar or three dollars, remarks the Husband¬ 
man, and it is to the interest of the farmer to 
take the paper which supplies His wunts best, 
while it is poor policy for him to select a paper 
merely on account of the price, especially 
when the price is guaged by the long intervals 
between tbe issues. What we would like es¬ 
pecially to see would he greatly extended sup¬ 
port for every worthy agricultural paper 
published, whether weekly, fortuightly or 
monthly; for it would be a very great gain if 
a larger proportion of farmers would become 
readers... 
Mr. Scoville, of Sterling, Kausas, writes to 
the Rural World that the compauy lately es¬ 
tablished there to make sorghum sugar, has 
already made over 100,000pounds,and they an¬ 
ticipate making over half a million pounds if 
frost does not overtake them before the crop 
is worked up. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Peel Co., Out., Oct 5.—Hay, oats, peas and 
Spring wheat areimmense crops. Fall wheat 
and barley are only very middling this year. 
Small fruits, such as raspberries, strawberries, 
and particularly plums, are very plentiful al¬ 
though high in price on account of the scarc¬ 
ity of apples, which are far below an average 
crop. Potatoes generally good, but rotting in 
some places. White Elephants are becoming 
quite popular at our fairs aud exhibitions. 
Roots are only a poor crop this year, s. J. L. 
Dakota. 
Cavour, Beadle Co., Oct. 6.— All small 
grain did well this season. Wheat yielded 
from 20 to 38 bushels and it grades No. 1 hard; 
price, 75 cents. Oats last year and this have 
been very heavy. Some of us got 90 bushels 
an acre last year of oats that weighed 48 
pounds per measured bushel. Oats are now 
selling readily to new-comers at 30 cents. 
Potatoes are excellent, they al ways are here 
aud no market is ready for them, I prize the 
Rural very highly and find valuable infor¬ 
mation in every number. G. e. f. 
Florida. 
Altoona, Orange Co.—I arrived at Lees¬ 
burg about one year ago to settle; but after 
eight mouths of hard fighting with sickness 
by myself aud family, we at last concluded to 
try this part of the State. W e find it very 
healthy here, aud expect to settle down in 
parnest. It is a fine country for any poor 
man willing to rough it for a few years, as I 
think a poor man can more easily make for 
himself a good home here than in the older 
States. Lauds are cheap though “homesteads” 
are getting scarce near settlements. Farm¬ 
ers, laborers, carpenters, etc., very badly 
needed all the year round, os men can work 
hero every day in the year, the thermometer 
iu Winter seldom fallingbelow 32degrees, and 
seldom going above 94 degrees in Summer, 
The nights in Summer are always cool and 
pleasant. j. i. 
Kansas. 
Parkerville, Morris Co., Oct. 0.—Crops 
all very good. Wheat is making from 20 to 
over 50 bushels per acre. M r. G. Trager, of 
White City, thrashed 53 bushels aud 18 pouuds 
per acre of Rod Russian Wheat. Oats are 
making from 40 to 00 bushels. Com is very 
good. Potatoes not as good as last year, 
making from 75 to 125 bushels per acre. Cat¬ 
tle of all kinds are high; so are stock hogs. 
Milch cows from $25 to $45: Spring calves 
$15 to $18; fat hogs, $4 per hundred, gross; 
wheat, 70 to 80 cents per bushel; outs, 20 to 
28 cents: com, 28 to 32 cents; potatoes, 40 to 
50 cents. There is some good “raw” land here 
yet for $4 to $8 per acre: improved farms 
810 to $25. c. L. T. 
Michigan. 
Oshtemo, Kalamazoo Co., Oct. 9.—Every¬ 
where on the 9th and 10th of September we 
had a freeze that killed every green thing. 
Corn is of no account, aud a new thing under 
the sun is to see ears at every station laden 
with com, aud it is the farmers who are draw¬ 
ing it home for present and future use, and, 
mind you, this corn is being purchased by 
men who have raised 10 to 25 acres of corn 
this season aud the freeze has blasted aud 
totally destroyed it. All it is good for is fod¬ 
der to turn stock iu, to glean wliat they can- 
Tbe destruction of the corn crop of Michigan 
means a loss to the farmers thereof of $30,- 
000,000. The corn States west of us must fur¬ 
nish us our supply for the next year. There 
was but little wheat sown till Sept. 25, and 
from that time up to the 6tb inst. seeding has 
been going on aud so cold has the weather 
been that the first sown is barely through the 
ground. Now the question Is what will the 
next harvest be? Who can answer? [Why 
run so far ahead to meet trouble? The im¬ 
portant question just now is what is the pres¬ 
ent harvest. Let us do what we can to 
answer this; and having done our “level best” 
to insure good crops next harvest, leave the 
outcome to Providence and the Clerk of the 
Weather. Eds.] t. p. d. 
Hillman, Montmorency Co.. Oct, 6. —Wheat 
both Winter and Spring, good. Oats a large 
crop. The true White Russian Oats, where 
sowed early and on good ground at the rate 
of about nine pecks per acre, turned out from 
50 to 00 bushels per acre. The only fault I 
can fiud with them is that it takes them too 
long to mature. They are about 14 days later 
than the Sprangled-head Oats I have been 
raising. The White Russian Spring Wheat 
does better here than any we have tried. 
Peas do well here—never buggy. I generally 
get about 40 bushels of Blue Prussian Peas 
per acre. J. h. s. 
Mississippi. 
Crawford, Londes Co.—Progress aud de¬ 
cadence are seen side by side in many parts of 
the South. Over one town broods the torpor 
and listlessness of dry-rot; over another the 
angel of progress hovel’s, with radiance in his 
face aud healing iu his wings. You pass one 
town in Alabama hardly a decade old, and 
life is instilled into it by niglit and dark¬ 
ness; for out of the red-throated chimneys of 
the furnaces shoot the tongues of flame; and 
the clang of a sturdy industry thunders in the 
ear of night. At another town, the dry-rot 
dominates and night is still, save here aud 
there a drunken shout from a “doggery.” 
These are types. In Georgia. Alabama and 
Tennessee, towns have the bustle and stir of 
many Yankee towns. These are in the mining 
regions, or where cotton factories subsist. 
In the ordinary country town, the very dogs 
aud cats all seem asleep, and the fowls look as 
though they were anxiously awaiting night 
for an excuse to join the lazy concourse. 
In agriculture iu different sections the situa¬ 
tion is just as chequered. A few miles' ride 
completes a perfect transition. Twenty or 
thirty miles back it was bumble-bee cotton; 
corn eared knee-high; gaunt, sallow, wiry- 
haired, dyspepsia-ridden, care-sodden folks. I 
jump off the cars and inquire the price of 
land. “Fifty cents to two dollars an acre,” 
comes the answer. I think the party is at¬ 
tempting to impose upon me, and inquire of 
others, aud find the first speaker told mo the 
truth. 
But, uow, I am thirty miles away. Hardly 
a man but lias clover. See tbe stacks of 
wheat and oat straw. Look how fine coni is. 
Admire the cattle. Back yonder, in tbe fifty- 
cent land are hovels, poor mules, scrawny 
scrub cattle; miserable fences, whenever there 
are any, often none at all:no clover, and 
only attempts at corn and cotton raising. 
Here are green fields, tidy residences, an all- 
pervading air of thrift and comfort, and land 
thirty to fifty dollars per acre. Progress has 
thoroughly permeated this section. A few 
years ago you might not have seen clover in 
almost every field, only here and there in 
one. Do soil and climate make all these dif¬ 
ferences ? No, sir! It is the people. 
Shall 1 tell you here where the fifty-cent-an- 
aere coimty is ? “Not much.” Too angry a 
howl would be raised against me. 
Now’ I will mention a country where there 
is a fine farm next to a poor one. One man 
raises clover aud cotton, w’beat aud sugar¬ 
cane, Blue Grass, oats, fine stock. Next him, 
nothing butcoru and cotton is raised. No dis¬ 
tinct belts about: that old-fogvism explains 
the contrast. The explanation is in the men. 
Progress and development run iu streaks yet. 
The country at large in the South reminds 
me of the tide of the ocean. At one place the 
tide seems running ebb; at another it is sta¬ 
tionary; at another it is young flood; at an 
o.ber there is a strong current of progress; at 
another the waves dash high and dance aud 
laugh iu a met ry, resistless manner. 
There are some men in the South who are 
in the laudscape-at large of their fellows w hat 
the mountain peaks are in nature. As thu 
latter catch the earliest beams of morning 
aud first rejoice iu the light of the sun, so 
these men first catch the light of progress. 
They are pioneers. Such has alw ays been the 
case and will ever be. Progress, development, 
do not leap full-grown upon a land as though 
mid-day should burst at ouce from niglit. 
The growth of what is excellent is slow. 
There is a great deal of room iu this world 
and a place for every uiau, and iu parts of the 
South, particularly, there is ample space for 
individuality to spread itself, aud a man of 
nerve, “snap” and sagacity finds a certain 
plasticity here that he does not in the North, 
aud can mold the future more in accordance 
with Ids own views, I like the sentiment of 
Whittier about this:— 
“The tissue of the life to be, 
We weave with colors all our owu, 
And on the field of destiny 
We reap as we have sown,” w. B. H 
