OEC 22 
were ready to be picked from this variety only 
one day or so after them. Another season 
will be required to determine whether in 
these grounds it is or is not the earliest of 
those tested. The vines grow to the hight of 
three feet. The stems are slender, the foliage 
of a yellowish-green color without bloom. 
The peas ripened with unusual uniformity. 
One hundred pods weighed 13ounces—the 
seed alone, si x ounces. The number of seeds 
in one hundred pods was 576, or nearly six to 
a pod. The quality for a smooth pea was 
judged to be rather sweeter than that of this 
class in general. The pod shown in our en¬ 
graving (Fig. 7 Hi) is that of one of the largest. 
farm Cranamij. 
BEDDING FOR STOCK. 
JOHN M. STAHL. 
The first object of bedding stock is to retain 
the bodily heat of the animals. Animal heat, 
which in the higher order of animals is ever 
[) resent in life and as invariably absent in 
death, is generated in the body, and is con¬ 
tinually escaping. In Winter this escape is 
too rapid for the well-being of the animal un¬ 
less man affords some protection in addition 
to the* heavier coat of hair or wool provided 
by nature. To this end the stock raiser erects 
shelters, or rather should erect them, and lit¬ 
ters the sleeping-idaces of the animals. As 
the office of the bedding is to prevent the too 
rapid escape of animal heat, it should be a 
poor conductor of heat. One of the best non¬ 
conductors known is sawdust. For this rea¬ 
son it is placed around ice. Another excellent 
non-conductor of heat is straw. But bedding 
is expected to serve another purpose—to hold 
the manure of the animals. It should catch 
not only the solid but the liquid manure, which, 
in the case of every farm animal except the 
hog, surpasses in value the solid excrement. 
To do this it must be a good absorbent. Saw¬ 
dust is one of the best absorbents known. 
Straw is almost equally good. 
From this it would appear that sawdust 
would form the best bedding, and that straw 
would be but slightly inferior. There is this 
objection to sawdust, however: it is extremely 
difficult for many farmers to obtain it. Un¬ 
less situated in a wooded country the farmer 
will likely be miles from a saw-mill. In such 
a case the demand for it for other uses may 
cause him to pay a good price for it. On the 
other hand, there are very few farmers who 
have not an abundance of straw for bedding 
over aud above that needed for feed, and the 
straw is always at hand and can be conven¬ 
iently used. The use of straw for this pur¬ 
pose has the additional advantage of more 
speedily reducing it to manure. It and the 
voidiugs of the animals become mixed aud 
have in them the elements of a first-class com¬ 
post heap. The straw not only catches the 
solid excrement of the animals, bat also ab¬ 
sorbs the urine, and these hasten its decompo¬ 
sition and reduction to such a form that its 
elements are available to plants for food. It 
is thus seen that the farmer’s preference for 
straw for bedding is not an unwise one. 
It may be said, in a general way, that bed¬ 
ding should be given with a liberal hand. It 
is poor economy to give it sparingly. Yet 
this advice must be taken with some qualifi¬ 
cation. There may be too much as well as 
too little. If provided in too great an abund¬ 
ance, the escape of heat will be retarded too 
much, the animal will become heated and 
sweaty, its pores will open, and when it 
leaves the bedding and the colder air strikes 
it, it will become chilled, the blood will be 
driven inward, producing congestion, and 
the result will be a cold, if not a far more seri¬ 
ous evil. 
Some animals require more bedding than 
others. This is true of classes and of indi¬ 
viduals. We find a pretty clear dividing line 
for this distinction between those animals 
bred for their work and those bred for their 
flesh. The first, as the horse, are disposed to 
bone aud muscle; the second, as the bog, to 
fat. The first should be liberally bedded; the 
second less liberally. The disposition of ani¬ 
mals forms another dividing line. Some are 
sociable and gregarious, and sleep close to- 
gather, as the hog; others are solitary in their 
habits, as the horse. As the contact of one 
body will prevent the eseape of heat from 
another, it follows that the first class of ani¬ 
mals will require less bedding than the second. 
The above shows that the horse should be 
liberally bedded. His body contains a small 
proportion of fat, and is the opposite of com¬ 
pactness. He is not of a sociable disposition 
at bed-time, and lies down by himself. On 
the contrary, the hog should have but little 
bedding. Its body is compact and largely 
composed of fat, and these brutes lie as closely 
together as they conveniently can, and ' > ry 
often closer still. I believe that hogs are often 
injured b} r too great kindness in the matter 
of bedding. Much of the bronchial catarrh 
and catarrhal pneumonia among hogs is clearly 
attributable to this source. If they have a 
moderately wann shelter, one that will keep 
out wind and weather, they need no litter 
whatever if any considerable number are al¬ 
lowed to herd together. Isolated hogs may 
be bedded; but under no consideration should 
hogs be allowed to burrow around straw 
stacks. Cattle occupy a middle position be¬ 
tween hogs and horses. While they are bet¬ 
ter prepared than horses to withstand cold, 
they are very little more sociable in their 
sleeping habits. Sheep have a warm covering 
of nature’s providing, yet are very susceptible 
to cold. They should have warm shelter 
rather than an abundance of bedding. 
Common sense would indicate that there 
would be a difference also as regards individ¬ 
uals of the same class. Young animals are 
generally more vigorous than old animals; 
their digestion is better; their blood circulates 
more rapidly; in short, all the vital functions 
are stronger, and as a result the production 
of animal heat is greater. They will require 
less beddiugthan older animals. We find it 
so among men, and the bodily constitutions of 
human beings and of these lower animals are 
sufficiently similar to furnish au analogs in 
this particular. Old pei-sons require more 
covering thau younger ones. So old hogs, 
sheep, cattle and horses should have more 
l>edding than young ones It is apparent, also, 
that weak and sickly animals should have 
tnorp beddiug thau those which are strong 
and healthy. 
The amount of bedding should be regu¬ 
lated according to the severity of the 
weather. This is very rarely done. Win¬ 
ter weather is variable, yet the amount 
of litter is never varied. When per¬ 
mitted to do so, hogs will regulate the amount 
of their litter to a certain extent, but other 
farm stock will not. The right amount of 
litter for a temperature of 20 degrees below 
zero is too much for a temperature 40 or 60 
degrees higher. We put extra blankets on 
the bed when the weather is unusually severe, 
and take them off again when it becomes 
more moderate. On the same principle, we 
should vary the quantity of bedding given 
farm animals The bedding should be fre¬ 
quently changed. The perspiration and seba¬ 
ceous secretions from the bodies of the ani¬ 
mals, and the offensive matters resulting from 
respiration, combine with more or less manure, 
liquid and solid, deposited in sleeping quar¬ 
ters, to make the beddiug foul and soon unfit 
for the purposes intended. Hogs, of all ani¬ 
mals, befoul their bedding, and yet it is very 
rarely changed. They are also peculiarly sub¬ 
ject to diseases, or a disease produced by micro¬ 
scopic germs, and it has been found that these 
genus (bacilli sui) exist with unimpaired 
vitality for months in filthy bedding. The 
oil* in contact with filthy bedding cannot be 
otherwise than foul, and as the animals 
breathe this air while in their sleeping quar¬ 
ters, this is another reason for changing the 
bedding frequently. Filth is always inimical 
to health, and the wise stock-raiser will be 
careful to guard against it. especially when 
and where it can do so much injury as in 
sleeping quarters. 
fxtlt) Crops. 
WHEAT TESTS IN CULTIVATED 
PLOTS. 
R. P. GREENLEAF, M. D. 
A plot of ground (one-fortieth of an acre) of 
a brick clay character and as poor as such 
soil generally is, was turned into a garden 
some 15 years since. It received a liberal sup¬ 
ply of stable manure, was trenched each Fall 
at the commencement of Winter, and got a 
dressing of coal ashes every three nr four 
years. All this has made a very fine soil six 
to eighth inches in depth, with a sub-soil 
almost impervious to water. On this plot 
was planted the Rural dent corn in May, 
1882, and on it was sown, after the corn was 
planted and carefully raked in, at the rate of 
800 pounds to the acre of M apes’s Coni Fer¬ 
tilizer, The season was very unfavorable; 
smut destroyed much of the growth; much 
of it was broken down by storms; yet the rate 
of yield was over 80 bushels per acre. 
The corn was removed in the first week in 
October; the corn roots were grubbed out, and 
the surface fined some two or throe inches in 
depth. No manure was applied except a light 
coat of fine stable manure sown by hand after 
the wheat was up. Iu the second week in 
October wheat was carefully planted one 
grain iu a place one foot apart each way 
which would allow 43560 grains per acre, 
The varieties were Fultzo-Clawson, Fultz, 
Clawson, Surprise, Rogers's and Tuscan Island 
Mediterranean (Uogers’saud Surprise were ad¬ 
jacent to the one-fortieth acre plot'- They made 
a tolerably good growth before Winter set in: 
but in the Spring most of the roots of the 
majority of the plants were thrown out by 
the freezing and thawing. I had it re-planted, 
although the ground was quite wet, and as 
soon as the ground was sufficiently dry, I 
had it gone over with a small hand fork 
(garden fork) and carefully loosened up, after 
which it grew finely and stooled out very 
rapidly. From one grain of Surprise there 
were 92 stalks, which ripened 57 heads, from 
small to large. Had it been planted 18 inches 
apart each way, the result no doubt would 
have been at least one-half as much ruore 
wheat. As it was, there was not room for it 
to grow and ripen. Some of the heads had 
five grains abreast, and many of them meas¬ 
ured and5 inches in length, straw 4 and 4}4 
feet in hight. 
Of the Fultzo-Clawson the stools ranged 
from 35 to 80. The largest one ripened 69 
heads, from large to small. Many eff the heads 
measured seven inches i n length; the majority 
six and five-and-a-balf; straw, four-and-a- 
half to five and-a-half feet high. 
Tuscan Island Mediterranean vied with the 
Fultzo-C’lawsou.asmanyof the headsmeasured 
seven inches, and three of them seven-aud- 
three-quarters inches each. Rogers’s made a 
splendid growth, stooled well, and ripened 
the earliest; heads three-and-a-lmlf and four 
inches in length. 
The above were all cut in the second week 
in July, each stool being cut and bound sepa¬ 
rately. They were thrashed on August 28 
with the following result: 
Fultzo-Clawson . 
Rogers’s. 
Surprise . 
Tuscan Island Mediterranean.. 
Fultz. 
Clawson ... 
VARIETY. 
ca oo a, oo ss 
jc x is; x s x 
_ 3 
s £ is 2. 
B c g « 
o o 2. ~ 
? o 
£ § S 3 3 § 
M. P « 
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«■* e- 
3 2 S’ 3 
c » o x* 
-09- 
‘ * & 3 
7 
5 
5« 
e % q b S 
« ~ P 7! T, 
CP ^ i-* 
•® ! b " o 
38 
51 
68 
41 
88 
50 
tr B * a 
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p 5 & B 
■ ! H 
® 
3 
15 
21 
11 
14 
17 
o x o 
x j- e 
g - 5 jj 5 
g a 2, S 
1 = B 5 
S? JS £ 
5- <**■*»■ *-* 
O'. 1 1 1 fw 
£ h s s * & 
•o o a ^ 
n k g % 
=r 2 2 n 
ra £. 5* p 
g a » « 
P- S •» ® 
21 S 53 § £3 cj 
a» -3 cE a> •» w 
c ^ O' K IX 
t* ® 55 
» B "7 V 
O O c 
O P to =L 
r- o a* 
O’ g % 
1058 
1288 
1127 
700 
1002 
645 
% * Sj 
5 2. 3 2. 
3 - r 
p S 5 w 
co O _ 
* o c O 
^ S ^ ^ ^ 
S >s 5 S § b « 
c* o» c* oc w 
r, £ » S: 
Q n S re 
3 9 § £ 
5 » 3 g 
en O f- _ 
* o o © 
•U. Ci » 
2 S 2 g | 
% & si k $ 
o p p 2. 
= 2 3 93 
a - * * 
3 S, 
^ S p S 
1 8 £ 8 8 h 
8 -b a * 
x 1 & c 
P g § B 
a 2 nr c' 
2 ft S 
9 6-10 
9.610 
8 7-10 
8.73261 
7 3-10 
7.723 
6 67-100 
6.670185 
8 1-10 
8.11266 
6.1987 
S- 3 
H p 3 2. 
§ I * B 
® ? -3 «■ 
5 o 
•Five stools ot Fultzo-Clawson contained 801 heads, 
longest head seven Inches. Number of grains In larg¬ 
est bead, 41: smallest, 8; average, 29 89-801. Number 
of grains, 8,918; weight, 6,290 grains. 
The yield would have been greater had tne 
rust not overtaken it and the storms lodged 
the crop. As it was, many of the heads were 
not properly filled, and rnnch of it was 
shriveled. Had it been planted at tbe proper 
time for this locality (from 15th to 20th of 
September), the result would undoubtedly 
have been different. I have not the least 
doubt the Fultzo-Clawson, Surprise and Medi¬ 
terranean would have much exceeded the 
Rogers’s in yield. 
It is the experience of most farmers that 
wheat in small lots, or garden plots, especially 
if planted late, is very apt to rust or mildew, 
or is blown down before it has time to fill. 
New Castle Co., Del. 
■ — — 
NOTES ON SEED CORN FROM ILLINOIS. 
Referring to Mr. Sturtevaut’s public state¬ 
ment of the probability that seed-corn of 
dent varieties, if picked in an immature stage 
of growth, would not prove as safe for seed 
as flint corn gathered at the same stage, 
because the former ripens from inside out , 
while the latter ripens from outside in, I 
venture to say that just the contrary conclu¬ 
sion seems to be the reasonable one; because, 
in both cases the germ lies near the cob, and 
if dent corn, as it does, ripens from inside out, 
the germ part is the first to mature. 
But here is a case in point for the flint side. 
In the Spring of 1875, I procured an ear of 
corn from Cuba, obtained tliere from a don¬ 
key’s bed, brought into Havaua iu February. 
(In Cuba both the corn aud tobacco crops are 
made in what are to us the Winter months). 
The ear was about five inches long, flinty and 
very tapering, being, say one-and-a-half 
inch in diameter at the large, and one inch 
at the small end. Of this I planted some 
kernels in May. They all germinated, aud 
the stalks made a prodigious growth during 
the season. But the Bummer was very wet 
and cold, and when killing frosts came iu 
October, my Cuba corn had not reached the 
milk stage, the most advanced ears having 
kernels scaj’cely larger than buckshot, I 
gathered several ears before they had been 
much frosted, and saw they were thoroughly 
dried out without being over-heated, and suc¬ 
ceeded in getting several kernels to grow the 
following Spring, * 
Let me say, however, that while the Cuba 
corn was flinty and without the sign of a 
dent, the size and shape of the kernels were 
those of the dents, both being common to hot 
climate varieties—at least, so far as I have 
seen them. What can be the peculiar con¬ 
ditions which give to cool and hot climates 
varieties their flinty character, aud to corn 
of the middle regions between the two—the 
true coni zone—the greater or less denting or 
shrinking of the kernels; I had thought dent, 
ing might be a sign of immaturity, and if 
the dents had a long, warm season enough, 
they would, in a few years, lose that pecu¬ 
liarity; but having seen lately the magnifi¬ 
cent show of Kentucky dents and horse-tooth 
corn at the Louisville Exhibition, I have 
abandoned that idea. 
In regard to the germinating powers of 
immature dent or horse-tooth corn, I am of 
the opinion that if gathered even before the 
kernels bad reached the full milk stage, aud 
placed where it would dry completely out 
before frost, the kernels would germinate, a s 
w r ell as, if not better, than those of corn ripened 
in the field under ordinary circumstances. 
At any rate, that is the result, of my observa¬ 
tion and experience iu seed corn I have writ¬ 
ten these paragraphs partly because the corn 
crop of 1883, over a best portion of t he West- 
ern corn zone, is of a lower grude even than the 
cropof 1883. It will, therefore (with theexperi- 
ence of this year iu mind about going abroad 
for seed corn), be more difficult to procure 
that which will be at the same timesound and 
suitable seed for the crop of 1884, than in 
1883. Under this state of facts, it may be 
well for many to know they may safely plant 
seed from immature ears, provided they have 
been dried thoroughly out previous to being 
frozen, aud have nut been exposed iu situa¬ 
tion provocative of moisture and mold. 
Champaign, Ill. b, f. Johnson. 
-» ♦ ♦- 
VARIATIONS IN YIELDS OF POTATOES. 
The Rural says: “We are every year sur¬ 
prised when we dig our potatoes, that bills of 
the same variety, manured and cultivated In 
the same w ay, should so vary in size and yield. 
To what are such variations due f” They are 
partly due to difference in seed. I think there 
is as much difference between individual seeds 
of the same kiud as there is between different 
kinds, or more. Of the Blush Potato, 1 cut 26 
eyes, besides five sprouts, which I planted in 
25 hills, one eye or sprout iu each hill. They all 
grew*, but the yield from each evo seemed to 
l>e about in proportion to the size of the eye 
planted, and the five sprouts did not yield as 
much as ouo good eye. I planted Burbanks 
and Beauty of Hebron Potatoes together, with 
two eyes, one of each in a hill, and some hills 
yielded nearly all Burbanks, while others 
were nearly all nobrons. j. h. n. 
Charlevoix, Mich, 
