DEC 45 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
soes not indicate the source of the nitrogen in 
any compound sold in the market. Another 
step must be stated, but also the name of the 
substances which hold it. Out of the confusion 
and ignorance which have so loug prevailed 
among farmers in regard to the forms and 
value of plant-foods, order and knowledge are 
slowly emerging aud light is fast supplanting 
or dispersing the darkness of past centuries.— 
Onion Ohowino.— The onion bed of Mr. T. 
Wheeler of Vermont (nearly 100 rod') is now 
manured, plowed, cross-plowed and har¬ 
rowed, ready for the fertilizers and harrow 
next Spring, oeccrding to the New England 
Homestead. Onion beds should always be pre¬ 
pared in the Fall, and sown iu April or earlier 
if the weather will permit; as late as May 
sowing often proves a failure. After several 
years of onion growing experience, he has 
learned to sow at the rate of six pounds to the 
acre instead of four. And a vain he has 
learned that heavy manuring (once in the Fall) 
and much fertilization with two or three appli¬ 
cations of the same are essential to a profit¬ 
able crop. He regards these facts as being of 
much importance to those who raise onions. 
A (Jitoiok of Pears for Home Use 
and Market, from July to February.— 
Mr. Charles Downing favors the 24. Y 
Tribune with the following article, which 
should be preserved by all of our readers who 
are interested in pears, it is the result of a 
long life of careful observation:—“As re¬ 
quested, I give below a list of pears 
that ripen in succession from the last day of 
July to the first, of February. A single tree 
of each kiud will be sufficient for a moderate- 
sized family, and two of each kind for a lar¬ 
ger one. The list is long, and though some of 
the varieties named ripen nearly at the same 
time, yet in unfavorable years some kinds 
might fail when others of the same season 
might not. This list is for family use, and for 
those who have sufficient room to grow them: 
1. Doyenne d’Etc. 
2. Beurrc Gilford. 
3. Dearborn's Srodlina. 
12 Gray Doyenne. 
13. Reurre Bose. 
M. Frederick Clapp. 
Manning'll Elizabeth. 15. Doyenne mi Cornice 
5. Tyson. 
fi Petite Marguerite. 
7. Bartlett. 
8. Doyenne Boussoek. 
9. Seekel. 
10. Sheldon. 
11. White Doyenne. 
IS. Souvenir d’Esperen. 
17. DucbeBse d’Angouleme 
18. Emile d'Heyst. 
19. Lawrence. 
20. Beurre d'Anjou. 
21. Dana's Rovvy. 
22. Josephine tie Mallnes. 
23. Vicar of Wlnkfleld. 
For those who have room for only one tree, 
my choice would bo No. 13; yet the majority 
would probably choose the Bartlett. Second 
choice. No. 21, then the following numbers, 
according to the size of the garden: Nos. 4, 
5, 6, 8. 10, 11, 16.18. 30. 21. 23. For market: 
Nos. 7, S, 9. 10. 12, 17, 10, 20, 21. 23. The last 
one is mainly for culinary uses, yet in some 
localities, when well grown and well ripened, 
it is a very good eatiug pear. The above- 
named kinds are for this section and the Mid¬ 
dle States generally, yet they will vary more 
or less according to soil, locality, culture, etc. 
The number of trees or each kind to be gov¬ 
erned by the demand in the market where 
sold. For either home use or market 1 would 
advise standard trees, which will give the best 
returns for the amount of land, aud the labor 
given them. 
Speaking of the Uansell Raspberry, Ed. B. 
Silva, of Newcastle, Cal., says, in the enter¬ 
prising Pacific Rural Press, that the vine is a 
good grower and the foliage stands the hot 
sun. Ho has made raspberries a specialty for 
many years, and has never seen a variety yet 
which promised more on so slightnn acquaint¬ 
ance, and he believes it is destined to be the 
leading market berry everywhere. He thinks it 
will do well all over the State, even where the 
tenderer varieties are a failur e. Its claim to be 
the earliest is fully sustained, as it is proven 
so by the tests made on its own grounds by 
the Rural New-Yorker, and he knows of 
no higher or more disinterested authority. 
WORTH NOTING. 
“My lad, always trap for big game—it is 
just as easy to catch a woodchuck as a mouse, 
and then only look at the difference in the 
amount of meat you get.” So advises Zeke 
Fairchild in the Manhattan.... 
There never was a fool yet who was uot in 
a great hurry to prove it, whereas If he 
would sit down and keep perfectly still no one 
would suspect him of it. 
Politeness is a lawful tender the world over: 
it will win nine times out of ten on mankind, 
aud is a good risk to take on the mule. 
Have you received the new Rural poster! 
Not sent for it f We thought you were a friend 
of the R. N.-Y. 
“All things considered,”says Mr. Rand, in 
the New England Homestead. “Burbank 
Seedling is as good a potato as there is at pres¬ 
ent.”. 
Another writer says, in the same excellent 
journal, that apple trees set out in a long, 
single row by themselves bear larger and 
much brighter-colored fruit thau when set in 
orchards, because they get more sunlight on 
all sides.. .. 
The average actual life of a cow is eight 
years. The possible productive life of a cow 
is 2o years. Henry Stewart’s best cow is the 
thirteenth calf of her dam. An Ayrshire cow 
once gave in his presence 37 quarts of milk in 
one day with her thirteenth calf, aud at the 
sa me time she was too old for her age to be in¬ 
dicated l>y her boras. A Jersey cow dropped 
her liest calf, now a cow, when she was 19 
years old .. 
Here are a few opinions expressed in a late 
meeting of the W. N. Y. Farmers’ Club, as 
repeated in the Rural Home: Leghorns are 
great wanderers. Change breeds often. 
Brahmas are good and gentle, but per¬ 
sistent sitters. Plymouth Rocks are the 
best of all. Brahmas are often sick. Give a 
great variety of food. A cross of large breeds 
and common fowls gives about as good results 
as pure breeds. Anything that will exclude 
air aud close the pores of egg-shells null pre¬ 
serve the eggs. Fowls can not lie profitably 
kept longer thau two years. Eggs should be 
sold by weight..... 
Jones, of B., says, in the Husbandman, that 
some manfacturers of baking powders buy 
starch by the car-load at less thau four cents 
per pound. Alum is quoted at four cents, as 
is also carbonate of soda, which comprise the 
constituents of most of the warranted pure 
baking powders. The rest of the cost is in the 
can, the wrapper and the advertising. 
The. Yorkshire, according to Joseph Harris, 
is the ideal pig. No other animal of the pig 
genus carries so great a proportion of flesh to 
the quantity of bone, or flesh of so fine a qual¬ 
ity . . 
Whereas we require a supply of water for 
our cleansing purposes, poultry, on the con¬ 
trary, require a supply of dust. . 
“What is beer?” That’s the question 
which the Farmers’ Alliance of England pro¬ 
poses to investigate. It is said to be a very 
complex question........ 
Mr. J. E Rogers, M. P , has this to say of 
the farmers of England: “Most stupid and 
servile people are suspicious, and the British 
farmer is the most, suspicious, grumbling, can¬ 
tankerous creature under heaven.” It may 
be true, but it is a question iu our minds 
whether the tenant farmers of England are 
not justified in being so. 
“ What are you doing to make your farm 
attractive to the boys ?” asks Home and Farm. 
A wet soil, like a wet person coming out of 
a bath, is cold. If this surplus water cannot 
pass off below in due time, it must he evapo. 
rated off into the air at the cost of a great 
quantity of heat, which would otherwise have 
served to warm the soiL Hence the necessity 
for draining, remarks the N. Y. Tribune.. 
Grade petroleum, says Mr. J. J. Thomas, in 
the same journal, may be bought for about 
four dollars a barrel of 40 gallons, or 10 cents 
per gallon. By “crude” is meant the oil a s 
it comes from the earth. Probably there is 
no better preservative of wood. All of our 
readers are advised to try it upon out-build¬ 
ings, upon shingles, aud upon the parts of 
wood that are sunk iu the ground. 
A writer iu the Iowa Homestead is advised 
to keep a dog for the sake of agreeable com¬ 
panionship. He replies that he bus a wife 
aud eight children—companions enough.... 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Knnima, 
Parsons, Labette Co., Nov. 24.—In October 
we had eight inches of rain; in the first two 
weeks of November, not a drop. The past week 
gave us about t wo inches. Our corn has become 
merchantable, and is moving to market from 
this place at the rate of 15 to 80 car-loads per 
day. Texas, St, Louis and Chicago are our 
markets. Not an unusual quantity is going 
to the rlrst-uamed country. The quality is 
very good, the quantity is more than realizing 
my former statements. The price is 28 cents 
per 70pounds m the ear. The quantity being 
marketed here is astonishing, considering t hat 
within the past three years a number of depots 
have been established ou east aud west rail¬ 
roads. Farmers generally expect better 
prices, but some of us who look beyond this 
“pout-up Utica” to mercantile troubles, and 
the state of the manufacturing districts, and 
the wheat and pork markets here aud in Eu¬ 
rope, cannot see much promise of the realize 
tioo of their expectations. Europe persist¬ 
ently refuses to buy at our low prices, auil 
there is uo depletion in her stocks—even wheat I 
of which we had but two-thirds of a crop, is | 
artificially propped up in Chicago. Besides, 
freights eastward are to be increased on the 
20th, and lake and canal navigation must 
close in a few days. [Both were closed a week 
ago.— Eds.] Our growing wheat looks first- 
rate; acreage about the same as last year. Ap¬ 
ples were a fair crop, and so were potatoes and 
hay. I think I told you Kansas would lead the 
States in the quantity and quality of com 
raised the past year. The Washington au¬ 
thorities give Kansas and Missouri the same 
quantity. In consequence of our portion of 
the State being ahead of the other portions 
both in quantity, quality and early maturity 
of the com crop, many farmers are coming 
in now and purchasing farms, two being 
respectively two-and-a-half and eight miles 
from town, sold for 511,000 and 89,000, each 
of them being 360 acres, with good Kansas im¬ 
provements. Seven years ago farms without 
improvements sold 84 to $10 per acre. The 
same now readily bring $10 to $25. j. b. 
Iowa. 
Brush Creek, Fayette Co., Nov. 23.—Corn 
here has been nearly a failure, and the longer 
It remains in the field the worse it is getting, as 
it is now rotting. A great many farmers have 
fed it out. Oats, potatoes and grass were 
good average crops. a. b. 
New Vork 
Andes, Delaware Co., Nov. 30.—We have had 
a week of very cold weather; but just now it 
has turned quite warm. Farmers are sending in 
their butter; but it does uot bring as much as 
last year, so that we can hardly live at the 
price we get for it. Pork, too, is very low 
this year—not over five cents per pound. 
Horses are high and scarce. Cattle, too, are 
bringing good prices. Sheep are low, and 
hired help is high and very scarce, in spite of 
the heavy immigration into this country told 
of in the Rural. j. e. d. 
Gilboa, Schoharie Co., Nov. 36.—Season 
favorable ai d moist until the fore part of July; 
since then very little rain: wells and springs 
dry, which were never so before. Oats were 
very heavy. Hay fair; corn and bnckweat 
nearly ruined by the frost. Apples, a very light 
crop. Plums, abundant. Pears, very fine. 
Potatoes, good. L . 
Ohio. 
Greenville, Drake Co.— Wheat here¬ 
abouts yielded from 19 to 80 bushels per acre, 
aud as far as I have gathered, corn will give 
60 bushels of solid corn per acre. I have 
gathered only 15 acres—half my crop. j. b. 
Texas, 
Honey Grove. Fannin Co.. Nov. 21.—Our 
Summer continues, and prospects for present 
wheat crop are fine. Our crops for this year 
were extra. X. B. G. 
RURAL SEED REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Waverley, Ont.—My Blush Potato I cut 
to one eye; yield 15 pounds of medium-sized 
tubers. The Shoe-peg Corn grew from eight 
to ten feet high aud formed a few ears about 
five feet from the ground, but they did not 
ripen. The flower seeds did well and made a 
good show. j. B _ 
Iowa. 
Brush Creek, Fayette Co.—The Blush Po¬ 
tato has done well; but of all the good things 
I have received from the Rural the White 
Elephant is the best. It is not only a large 
yielder, but the tubers are of the finest qual¬ 
ity- A. B. 
New York. 
Gilboa. Schoharie Co.— My small Blush 
Potatoes were cut to one eye, planted in the 
garden, dusted with plaster before covering, 
and plowed once. Yield, an even lot of very 
fine tubers weighing 21 pounds. Am much 
pleased with them. They strongly resemble 
the Chili in color and appearance. L. 
Ohio. 
~ Greenville, Drake Co.—The Perfection 
Watermelons and the Niagara Grape seed 
were failures; but T am very proud of my 
Blush Potatoes. From five hills, with one 
eye in a hill, 1 have a big wooden pail even 
full of nice tubers. The Garden Treasures 
were nice. .i « 
(J)umst. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the uame 
aud address of the writer to Insure attention.1 
THE HESSIAN FLY, ETC. 
H. A. C., IFartrac-e, Tenn. —1. Will the 
Rural give some information about the Hes¬ 
sian Fly? My wheat, sowu September 20, 
came up well and grew finely for a short 
tim e, but began to look yellow, and on exam¬ 
ination I found the larvae of the fly at the 
roots of the plants. The plants are tillering 
at the surface, and where the seed was two or 
three inches deep sprouts are appearing as 
though the grain had sprouted again. 2. Will 
the larvae leave the original stalks for these 
sprouts? Will the pests be in the wheat 
stalks next Spring! 3. Will sassafras poles 
six inches thick do well for fence posts? 
Ans.— 1. Of tne Hessian Fly (Cecidomia de¬ 
structor! there are two broods, and sometimes 
three, the first appearing in Spring and the 
others in Autumn. Occasionally an early 
Autumn brood produces another late in the 
season; but this is not considered a common 
occurrence. The eggs, of which from 20 to 30 
are laid by each fly, are deposited in longitud¬ 
inal creases in the leaves of the young plants 
of wheat, barley, rye and other cereals. 
Those of the first brood are laid from early in 
April till the end of May, the time varying 
with the latitude and weather. The second 
brood of flies, appearing in August and Sep¬ 
tember. lay the eggs in those months. The 
eggs hatch in from four to 20 days, according 
to the state of the weather, though they sel¬ 
dom take over five or six days. The pale red 
larva?, maggots or grubs, crawl down the 
leaf, working their way between it and the 
main stalk till they come to a joint where 
they remain with the head towards the roots 
of the plant. Here they suck the sap of the 
plant, causing the latter to swell, turn yellow 
and die. The larvse attain their full growth 
in from four to six weeks. About December 
1, the skin of the Autumn brood Hardens, be¬ 
comes brown and then turns to a bright chest¬ 
nut color, when they are said to be in the 
“flax-seed' state, and on removing the lower 
leaves, they may be seen as little brown, oval, 
smooth bodies, a little smaller than grains of 
rice. In this condition they remain during 
Winter, until the warm weather of April or 
May, when the larvae are rapidly transformed 
into the pupa? within their “flax-seed” skins,the 
flies emerging from their “flax-seed” cases in 
April or May, according to the latitude and 
temperature of the season This Spring brood 
lay their eggs for about three weeks and then 
disappear. The maggots hatched from these 
eggs take the “flax-seed” form in June and 
July, and it is the flies from these that lay the 
eggs, the larvae from which injure the crops 
in the Fall. Great numbers of the pup* 
may be destroyed by burning the stub¬ 
ble immediately after harvest and plowing 
and harrowing the land. The great objection 
to this practice is that the useful parasites of 
the fly are destroyed as well as the pest itself. 
Among the parasites are several destructive 
Ichneumon insects, whose combined attacks 
are supposed to destroy nine-tenths of all the 
flies hatched. The Chalcid four-winged fly 
(Semiotellus destructor) which infests the pest 
in the “ flax-seed” state, and the egg parasite 
Platvgaster, are the most important. As pre¬ 
ventives or remedies several plans have been 
found more or less successful. By sowing a 
part of the crop early and plowing this under 
if affected by the fly, and then sowing the rest 
after the first frosts, about September 20, in 
this latitude, the crop has been saved; but 
then, there is danger that Winter will seriously 
injure the crop. If the wheat is only par¬ 
tially affected, it may be saved by liberal fer¬ 
tilizing. A preventive, also, may be found in 
the selection of seed less liable to attack; thus 
it is claimed that the Hessian Fly has not 
troubled Lancaster or Fultz; while Under¬ 
hill's Mediteranean and, still more. Clawson, 
tiller so vigorously that they are exceptionally 
able to resist the attacks of the pest. Steep¬ 
ing the seed and rolling it in plaster or lime 
tend to promote a vigorous growth, and are 
therefore beneficial. The strewing of quick¬ 
lime over the field immediately after the 
grain has been cut, is also recommended as 
destructive to the pupte; while sowing the 
field with wood ashes, two bushels to the acre, 
in Autumn, and then agaiu the first aud last 
weeks in April and as late in May as the field 
can be passed over without injury to the crop* 
has been found beneficial. Pasturing with 
sheep and the consequent closet-t opping of the 
Winter wheat in November and later in more 
southern latitudes, will cause many of the 
eggs, larva* aud “flax-seed” to bo destroyed, 
and rolling may have the same effect Sow¬ 
ing the seed after the first frosts, however, is 
the only sure way of avoiding injury from 
the fly in the Fall. In the ease of our in¬ 
quirer's wheat, the second growth is due 
to the fact that the stem below the injury 
wrought hy the fiv still possessed vitality, 
aud hence it grew. 2. The ubove sketch 
of the “life-history” of the pest answers these 
questious. 3. Sassafras wood, when stripped of 
its bark aud seasoned, is very durable as fence 
posts. 
FITTING UP A DAIRY. 
J 1 ’. .4. L., Vallejo, Cal ,—In detail what is 
the best way to fit up, with the latest improve¬ 
ments, a dairy of from 50 to 100 cows, aud 
what is the best system of ‘ * operating ” it ? 
