r 
egg contains 66 per cent, of water, and the 
yolk contains 52 per cent. The egg is purely 
animal food, and yet there is none of the dis¬ 
agreeable work of the butcher necessary to 
obtain it. Most people prefer eggs fried 
moderately hard. This is, however, one of 
the poorest ways to cook them so far as the 
health is concerned; for, so cooked, they are 
hard to digest. The most healthy way to cook 
them is to boil them about four minutes, which 
takes away the animal taste which is offensive 
to some, but does not harden the yelk, making 
it hard to digest. To be sure, eggs are very 
valuable and bandy for the farmer to take to 
town and sell for cash or trade for provisions, 
and sometimes he stints himself too much in 
order to have a large supply for market. 
It would be found much better, however, to 
use all he wants at home instead of paying a 
higher price for less nutritious meat. 
H. S. WALDO. 
Feeding Sorghum. —The attention of the 
Farm and Home was called to the growing 
and feediug of sorghum to milch cows this 
season, and the results were highly satisfactory. 
The ground was light sandy soil, and was in 
every respect prepared the same as for corn, 
with the exception that the fertilizers were 
scattered in the rows that had been laid off 
for the seed. The seed was sown somewhat 
thickly and came up uniformly, growing well 
until just about to head, when it was cut, 
cured, and carried to the barn. As soon as 
the crop was cut off a second growth sprang 
up, whifch though injured by the drought, 
produced nearly as well as the first crop. 
The growing of .sorghum for sirup and for 
feeding has two different objects, and the 
methods of cultivation are not alike. The 
object in sowing it thickly in the rows is to 
make the plants as numerous as the condition 
of the soil will allow, as the finer the stalks 
the more acceptable to the stock but it is best 
to allow the crop to approach maturity, even 
to let it send out the shoots for the seed heads, 
but it should be cut before the seed leaves the 
milky state. Thus grown and harvested, no 
part of it will be refused or rejected. 
As to its value as feed, it was given entire 
and also when cut. The cattle in both cases 
seemed to prefer it to fodder corn when fed in 
connection with it. The saccharine matter in 
sorghum being proportionately greater than in 
fodder corn, it was consequently more nutri¬ 
tious, and must necessarily, therefore, be more 
productive of fat. No test was made as to the 
richness of the milk giveu by the cow s as com¬ 
pared with the yield when fed upon fodder 
corn, but the flow was increased. 
As this crop seems specialty adapted to light 
soils, and is easily grown, there is no reason 
why it should not be extensively cultivated 
and made an annual crop on all farms. It can 
certainty be produced at a low cost, consider 
ing its many advantages. 
The Spanish Chestnuts. —Some years ago 
I saw articles every now and then in the 
agricultural papers recommending the plant¬ 
ing of these. Can any one now inform me 
whether it has been done, and if so what has 
been the success of the plantations? There 
are thousands of acres of rough, rocky and 
stony ground in the country, which might 
be profitably planted with different sorts of 
chestnuts, shell-barks, hickory and black wal¬ 
nuts. In addition to the annual crop of nuts 
when fully grown, the timber of these trees 
would be valuable, and especially that of 
black walnut, which is now bringing about 
the same price, in the Eastern State market*, 
as mahogany. a. b. allen. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
We have to thank the General Land Office, 
Washington, D. C., for the following pam¬ 
phlets relating to the public domain: 
Circular Instructions relative to entries 
under the Homestead, Pre-emption and Tim¬ 
ber Culture Laws. 
Instructions for making final proof on 
Timber Culture Entries. 
United States Mining Laws and regula¬ 
tions thereunder. 
Coal-Land Law and regulations there¬ 
under. 
Rules of Practice in eases before the 
United States District Land Offices. 
Annual Report of the Commissioner of 
the General Land Office for the year 1883. 
Little Ballantyne, Carlisle, England, 
A catalogue of forest trees, fruit trees, Rho¬ 
dodendrons, shrubs, etc. 
J. G. Borrow, Fishkill Village, N. Y. 
Wholesale price-list of grape-vines. The 
splendid grape Jefferson is a specialty with 
Mr. Burrow. 
Sixteenth Annual Report of the Ohio 
State Horticultural Society, George W. 
Campbell, of Delaware, secretary. 150 page* 
and much valuable information. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. DEC 6 
J. T. Lovett, Little Silver, N. J. Circular 
of the new white grape Jessica. Mr. Lovett 
believes it to be as early as the Talnian, while 
it is of fine quality. 
Premium List of the First Annual Fat- 
Stock Show to be held in the City of Toronto, 
Canada, on December 14 and 15. Henry Wade, 
Secretary, Toronto. 
Johnson & Stokes, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Trado price-list of novelties and new varie¬ 
ties of seeds of special interest. It offers some 
very excellent things. 
Address of the Hon. Geo. B. Loring, U 
S. Commissioner of Agriculture, before the 
American Forestry Congress, St. Paul, Minne¬ 
sota, August 8 , 1883. Government Printing 
Office. 
Official Catalogue of the Foreign 
Exhibition held at Boston in 1883. Com¬ 
piled by C. B. Norton, Secretary. Pages, 
445. This report contains much valuable in¬ 
formation concerning the 45 uations exhibit¬ 
ing at the fair. 
Bush, Son & Meissner, Bushberg, Jeffer¬ 
son Co., Missouri. The Bushberg Illustrated 
Catalogue of American Grape Vines, Third 
Revised Edition. This is the most valuable 
treatise on the Americau grape ever pub¬ 
lished. and we should be glad if it were in the 
hands of every one of our readers. 
The American Fruit Drier, or Pneumatic 
Evaporator. A pamphlet of 48 pages issued 
by the American Manufacturing Co., of 
Waynesboro, Pa. Evaporating fruit. The 
Importance of this Industry, Characteristics 
of Evaporated Fruit, Evaporating Fruit as a 
Business, Profits, Principles of the Evapora¬ 
tor, A Household Necessity, How to Operate 
the American Evaporator, are among the 
topics discussed. The pamphlet will be sent 
gratis to all who apply as above. 
3ropinvents, &£. 
ABOUT HARROWS. 
WflAT THEY WERE, WHAT THEY ARE, AND 
% 
WHAT THEY SHOULD BE. 
Harrowing is the most important part of 
farm work. It is of greater necessity that 
the harrowing be well done than the plow¬ 
ing; because when the harrow is of the right 
kind and is well used, the ground can be fitted 
for a crop, although the plowing may have 
been poorly done; and, indeed, with such a 
harrow as will combine ail the essential points 
of a perfect implement, soil in some condi¬ 
tions may be better prepared without any 
plowing at all, by the use of such an imple¬ 
ment, for the reception of the seed. But bar- 
rows have been very imperfectly made from 
the very beginning up to very recent years. 
A very good idea of the poorness and ineffect¬ 
iveness o £ the common kinds of harrows, and 
of the disappointments and disgust at the 
general inefficiency of them may perhaps be 
gained from the popular impression in regard 
to them, from the most ancient times, to the 
present. Harrows were considered as imple¬ 
ments of torture, and to harrow was synony¬ 
mous to torment. The words were used in 
this sense in the Scriptures. Virgil speaks of 
“tormenting the earth with harrows,” and 
Shakespeare makes Hamlet’s ghost speak of 
“ harrowing up the soul,” and so we now talk 
of harrowing tales to express our ideas of 
some great horror. No doubt there is some 
connection in this significant use of the word 
with the tormenting sense of the helplessness 
of the farmer condemned to use the wretched 
implements which have been called harrows, 
for one of his most important labors. 
Until recently there has been a most ex¬ 
traordinary' want of ingenuity and mechani¬ 
cal skill in the construction of harrows. The 
first harrow ever used was as good and as use¬ 
ful for its purpose as some that are in use to¬ 
day. Originally the harrow' was the top of 
a tree; by-and-by this was flattened ; and, os 
the brush was worn off by use, it was the 
forked branches, and then it was the mere 
log. When a suitable tree was not at hand 
a bunch of bushes or boughs was tied toge¬ 
ther in the form of a fan, and as the slow 
genius of invention of those days became capa¬ 
ble of improving the common implements, a 
log was thrown across the boughs. This led 
to the use of a forked branch with a cross 
bar at the end, and wooden tooth sup* 
planted the rough projections of the small 
branches of the bout* hs. In course of time 
iron Bpikes w'ere used, and the Romans who 
had some brains and used them, changed the 
triangular form into an oblong hurdle shape 
and drew it by one corner; they also used 
planks studded with iron spikes, and thus 
originated the smoothing harrow. After the 
fall of the Romans there came a period known 
as the “ Dark Ages,” in which invention of 
peaceful implements gave place to that of 
warlike weapons, and up to about two hun¬ 
dred years ago, the barrow seems to have re¬ 
verted to its original form of a bush or a log. 
In the early part of the seventeenth century 
there seems to have been a revival of inven¬ 
tion regarding harrows; for in 1634 the Irish 
Parliament made a law to forbid the drawing 
of harrows by the horses " tayles,” a practice 
which was thought to impair the breed of 
horses; another fact which tends to show the 
“ harrowing'’ defects of this implement as it 
then existed. 
After this time agriculture began to ad¬ 
vance. “Book farmers” began to appear 
here and there, and wherever they appeared 
something new and good appeared with them. 
The system of culture was wonderfully im¬ 
proved; wooden plows gave place in time to 
Iron ones, but still the harrow seemed to be 
au insurmountable difficulty. The wooden 
or iron teeth fitted into frames of various 
shapes, triangular, square or oblong, or made 
in parts, to fold, or with wings, so as to con¬ 
form to the uneven surface, still “ harrowed 
the farmer’s soul,” and tormented him with 
their inefficiency. In course of time, inven¬ 
tors turned their attention to this implement 
and endeavored to reform it in various ways; 
but chiefly by different arrangements of the 
teeth, still retaining the frame very much 
of the same character as before. The teeth 
were sloped backward, frames were made of 
iron, a series of links combined into what 
were called the Chain Harrows, Spriug Tooth 
Harrows, Disc Harrows, Coulter Harrows; 
all were devised and brought out, hut still 
the “harrowing” objection remained. The 
tootb harrows certainly stirred the soil, but 
when a farmer had carefully plowed under 
stones, weeds and sod, to bring them out of 
the way and put them where they would do 
the most good, by rotting and enriching the 
soil by their decay, the tooth harrows tore 
it all up again, undoing the farmer’s work, 
and resowing and replanting the weeds and 
grass, which he wanted to bury and get rid 
of. They would not even cover the seed, but 
so mixed and stirred tbesoil that the seed was 
even brought to the surface more than it was 
covered, and so annoyed and “ harrowed up 
the soul” of the farmers who were sowing 
oats or peas, which, work as he would, he 
could not cover. 
The smoothing harrows were no better. 
They smoothed aud dressed up the surface, 
but they only covered up a multitude of de¬ 
fects. AJ1 the roughuess of the plowing, the 
misfits of the sods leaving vacancies and hol¬ 
lows, where tho air come and dried out the 
3oil and killed the young plants which had as 
firm soil for their roots; all the rough, hard 
clods; everything that was wrong was left 
unrighted; only the surface was smoothed 
and made to look fine, just as a velvet cloak 
might cover up the rags and filth and vice of 
some degraded tramp or professional beggar. 
So the chain barrows did not fill the bill; and 
when farmers saw them they merely shook 
their heads and passed by on the other side. 
The spring-tooth harrow was a novelty 
only; it was not even an improvement, for the 
intervention of the springs was little help at 
all, and the work of the teeth w'as precisely 
the same as that of the common teeth, except¬ 
ing that there was more scratching done than 
tearing of the soil, and the disc harrows and 
the coulter harrows were BtilJ unable to meet 
the needs of the farmers. What was wanted 
was an implement that would level the fur¬ 
rows of a plowed field; break up the lumps 
and clods; smooth the surface; press down the 
sods and all weeds or manure, without tear¬ 
ing them up, but leaving them where the 
farmer wanted them; consolidate the soil 
where the seed should lie, and make it com¬ 
pact and free from cavities and air spaces into 
which seed might fail uselessly; and that 
would pulverize aud mix up and turn over the 
surface thoroughly, so that it should be smooth 
and mellow, and cover the seed and each 
und every one of them regularly and evenly 
as to depth; and, moreover, that could be 
put upon a poor meadow to tear up and loosen 
the surface where the grass might be thiu, 
and make a mellow bed for fresh seed, and so 
avoid the necessity of breaking up the rest of 
the field, or could be used to fit a graiu stubble 
or a corn stubble for asucceeding crop of fod¬ 
der or grass or Fall grain, and do it more 
quickly and even better than it could be done 
by a plow; such an implement would, indeed, 
reach the very summit of excellence as a 
harrow. 
And I am free to say, with the confidence 
that no reuder of these lines will fail to agree 
with ine most completely, that the “Acme” 
Pulverizing Harrow, Clod Crusher and Lov- 
eler is just this very implement which has 
been wanted, which fanners “long have 
sought, aud mourned because they found it 
not;” and I say this because I have used it for 
all these purposes, and have experienced its 
excellence. Moreover, many neighbors and 
friends have done the same. Said a neighbor 
this Spring, who looked over the fence as I 
rode at my ease upon the convenient seat of 
one of these implements: “That looks like a 
good thing. What is it, anyhow ?” “ It’s a 
harrow, you see; and n plow, or a gauge plow, 
rather; amla clod crusher; and a inanureand 
sod coverer and a seed coverer; aud, as y< u 
see, it does about as much work, and us well, 
in oue hour, as your tooth harrow' will do in 
several.” “ Won’t you lend it Die i I have a 
piece of rough swamp over there that 1 
plowed that’s awful lumpy, and I think that 
will be the boss to bring it into shape for sow¬ 
ing ” “Certainty. You can use it and see how 
it works.” In a few days he brought it back. 
“ Well, bow did you like it P’ “1 must have 
one,” said he; “ I can’t get along without one 
of them.” I cannot add more than that for 
the benefit of every farmer who may read 
these lines. henry stewart. 
Hackensack, N. J. 
[We have used the Acme Harrow at the 
Rural Farm for four or five years, and we 
agree w'ith Mr. Stewart fully as to its value. 
As to smoothing, disc, and spring-tooth har¬ 
rows, however, we do not agree with him. We 
use them all, and regard each as valuable, if 
not invaluable, for special purposes.— Eds.] 
Cbmju) Ijm. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Kansas, 
Ellingwood, Barton Co.— This Fall has 
been very wet, compared with last year. 
Wheat and rye are good stands, and if they 
go through the Winter all right, we may look 
for big crops next year in this part of Kansas. 
J. G. s. 
Maryland, 
Rayville, Baltimore Co., Md., Nov. 27.— 
The past season was a favorable one for the 
growth of nearly all farm crops. Tli 3 yield 
of wheat and rye was above the average. 
The corn crop is good, but net so large as 
usual on account of so much having to be re¬ 
planted. If our brother farmers would select 
their seed corn at husking time and store it 
where it will become thoroughly dry without, 
freezing, much labor and vexation would be 
avoided, aud our crops would become more 
profitable, as replanted corn, in this section 
at least, only yields fodder and nubbins. 
There is some complaint of corn becoming 
moldy in the crib, owing to the warm, damp 
weather of the past two weeks. Apples are 
very scarce and high in price. Hay plenti¬ 
ful. Stock in good condition. p. s. 
Missouri, 
Ash Grove, Green Co., Nov. 24.—Wheat 
looks fine. We had excellent crops of every¬ 
thing except apples. Wheat is worth 80c. to 
85c.; corn, 25c.; oats, 10c. to 20c.; hogs, 8%e. 
per pound, gross; eggs, 25c, a dozen; butter, 
25c. per pound. Immigrants from nearly 
every State are coming here to settle; conse¬ 
quently, this town is growing rapidly. 
J. w. s. 
Wisconsin. 
Lynxville, Crawford Co.—Wheat is selling 
at from 70c. to 95c. per bushel; oats, 20c. to 
28c.; rye, 40c. to 50c.; beef, live, *3 to *8.50; 
hogs, *3.50 to *4.50 per cwt; butter, 17c.; 
eggs, 20c. per dozen. w. D. 
RURAL SEED REPORTS. 
Illinois, 
New Windsor, Mercer Co,— My Blush Po¬ 
tatoes had 18 eyes, and were cut to single eyes, 
which were planted one in a hill oue footupurt 
in black soil. Yield, 19X pounds of tubers. No 
fertilizer was used. Of the Shoe-peg Corn I 
have 20 ears six inches long. There were 
some nubbins, but I didn’t save them. There 
were ten watermelons, ranging from nine to 
15 pounds in w-eight. The Black-bearded Cen¬ 
tennial Wheat was a failure; it grew nicety 
till June, and then died. w. e. k . 
Mlanour!. 
Rocky Comfort, McDonald Co.—My two 
small Blush Potatoes weie cut into 18 pieces, 
with an eye in each, and planted in a drill oue 
foot apart. Yield 38 pounds of beautiful 
tubers, all larger than tho seed. My Niagara 
Grape seedlings are doing well. The Garden 
Treasures were fine. d. b. h. 
Nebraska 
Rising City, Butler Co.—Here is my expe¬ 
rience with the potatoes sent out by the 
Rural. Commencing with the Beauty of 
Hebron, the 11 rat crop from my single potato 
was a heaping half bushel; tho second crop 
was equally good, and so was tho third. The 
fourth crop was 1,800 bushels. I sold ail of 
the third crop for *1.50 per bushel for 
seed, except what I planted, and the fourth 
crop I sold for five to ten cents above tfce 
