DEC 22 
842 
seed. Arrangements are now being made to 
increase the number eventually to 1,000. It is 
expected that these waste products from the 
sugar house with the seed will fatten pork 
enough to pay the expenses of planting and 
cultivating one thousand acres of cane. 
Carp Culture.—A writer in the Mass. 
Ploughman says that 25,000 persous in this 
country have already commenced the business 
of carp culture. He thinks that a large pro¬ 
portion will fail—not because there is no profit 
iti it or that it costs too much to begin prop¬ 
erly : but merely because they do not begin 
systematically. Many seem to tbiuk that if 
they have a permanent supply of water, uo 
matter whether a lake, mill-pond, ice-pond, 
brick-yard bole, open stream, ditch, or eveu a 
permanent mud-hole, they have only to intro¬ 
duce a few carp, when, after a brief time, 
they expect to gather a perpetual harvest. 
These people will in due time learn their 
mistake and many of them will pronounce the 
carp a fraud and its culture a humbug, when, 
at. the same time, had they commenced the 
business, aud prosecuted it with the same de¬ 
gree of system required for any successful 
business, they would find it a simple, interest¬ 
ing, profitable industry. A proper system re¬ 
quires three ponds, according to this writer. 
They must all lie shallow in the main, but 
each must have a deep place next the outlet. 
Each must have a Collector in the deepest 
point made of wood or masonry. This is a 
sort of trap in which to collect the fish, espec¬ 
ially intruders, such as predatory fish, eels, 
etc., which are sure to get into all ponds. 
Connected with the collector must be a sluice 
which will drain the pond dry at will. This 
should be done early in the Spring and late in 
Fall. All wood aud masonry should be 
avoided in the construction of embankments 
except the simple sluice referred to, and tins 
sluice should answer the double purpose of 
holding the water to its standard level and of 
drawing it all off w hen desired. It) regions 
where the water freezes, a hibernating ground 
should be prepared adjoining the sluice, where 
the carp can burrow in Winter. This should 
be the deepest place in the pond excepting the 
collector. The bottom of the pond should be 
muddy so as to produce a rank growth of 
aquatic vegetation, preferably lilies, but any 
indigenous growth. This makes the pond an 
aquatic paslure in which the carp w ill subsist 
without artificial food, which should not be 
given them till a short time before marketing 
or preparing for the table, aud then only in 
fattening boxes or vats which can be kept 
clean aud which will beep the carp from the 
earth. The regular discharge of water must 
be from the bottom instead of the surface. 
There must be no other fish with the carp. 
Geese, ducks, and all domestic fowls and ani¬ 
mals should l)e kept aw'ay from carp ponds. 
Caip are comparatively scarce as yet, butsuf 
ticientquantitesto start with can be bought at 
reasonable prices?. 
Shallow" Cultivation of Corn. — The 
Rural New-Yorker has not as yet received 
any credit from agricultural publications for 
its persistent advocacy of shallow cultivation 
for com. Prof. J. W. Sanborn of the Missou¬ 
ri Agricultural College, as a result of care¬ 
ful experiments has this to say in a recent bul¬ 
letin: 
“Deep tillage in times of drought of 
surface rooted orops, like corn, is an erroneous 
practice, founded on erroneous views. “Plow¬ 
ing out corn” not only involves too deep tillage 
in drought but adds to tbe mischief by severing 
the roots of corn, needed at such times. Our 
double-shovel plows work too deeply. Our true 
policy, in drought, for corn is frequent and 
shallow tillage. For this we now' have after 
the corn gets beyond the smoothing harrow, 
no suitable implement on our market with a 
possible exception. ” 
■-**-»- 
Subsoiling.— As there is, by some, miscon¬ 
ception of what subsoil ing is, Prof. Sanborn 
explains that it consists of following an ordin¬ 
ary turning plow by a plow of special construc¬ 
tion, that loosens the soil to the desired depth 
below' the point moved by the turning plow', 
aod yet merely loosens without turning or 
bringing to tbe surface tbe subsoil. 
Two areas of similar land, side by side, of one- 
tenth acre in area, each, were plowed 7 inches 
deep at the Missouri Agricultural College. 
No. 1 was snbsoiled nine inches deep, or 
stirred lfi inches iu total. 
Sept. 12th, when the severe drought had 
become very pronounced, Prof. Sanborn drove 
an inch gas pipe 15 inches deep iu four places 
on each plat, mixed thoroughly the dirt on 
each plat and then tested for moisture. From 
5(60 grains of subsoiled plat 97 grains of water 
were evaporated, or 10.10 per cent. From 
IKK) grains of soil of uusubsoiled plat but 80 
grains of water wore lost, or 8.35 per cent. 
This is 1.77 per cent, less moisture, or for 15 
inches of soil 110,625 pounds of water, an 
Till BUBAL NIW-Y0BKEB 
amount of much importance. The yield 
per acre for subsoiled plat, of corn, at 76 
pounds per bushel, 76.1 bushels, and of stover 
or fodder 4,751 pouuds. The uusubsoiled plat 
gave of corn 49.3 bushels and of stover 4,022 
pounds. Prof. Sauborn is satistied that this 
result is no accident, for Lhe proportion of 
corn to stover falls heavily off on the uusub- 
soiled plat, showing that at a critical period 
the subsoiled plat furnished moisture and, 
probably, excess of plant food over the niisub- 
soiled plat, to mature a heavy proportion of 
coru to stover. On suhsoiled plat the propor¬ 
tion of corn to stover was, per bushel of corn, 
67.5 pounds stover; on uusubsoiled plat, stover 
per bushel corn 81.6 pounds. 
The silos at Northallerton, Scotland, are 
each fitted with a small pipe, from their low¬ 
est part inside to a tap outside, for the pur¬ 
pose of drawring off whatever juice may have 
collected at the bottom. This juice, accord¬ 
ing to a writer iu our esteemed Edinburgh 
contemporary, the North Britisli Agricultur¬ 
ist, is of the consistency of oil, aud conies 
from the tap, of a bright amber color. It has 
been drawn regularly since the last week iu 
September, and given to the pigs, mixed with 
their ordinary food. These animals have be¬ 
come so exceedingly fond of it that some 
Of them don’t care to take their food unless 
they have with it their “gill of juice.” It has, 
moreover, proved of undoubted benefit to 
their general health and appearance. 
- 
BOILED DOWN AND SEASONED, 
Pay w hat you owe before the New Year, in 
so far as possible. If you cannot pay all you 
owe, pay all you can... 
Dr. Voelcker said, iua recent lecture, that 
bethought he would show the Gloucestershire 
farmers what could be done with bone dust. 
In front of bis house he had a large grass 
field, ami he procured a considerable quantity 
of bone dust, and laid it on the field in the 
shape of strikingly bold capital letters, A V- 
He thought, these letters would in the next 
Spring stand out boldly in the luxuriant her¬ 
bage induced by the application. To his as¬ 
tonishment he could not see the least effect; 
he never saw the least indication of where the 
dressing was applied. He used a large quan¬ 
tity too, perhaps something like at the rate of 
10 tous to the acre. It is clear that bone dust 
does not answer iu those parts of the world. 
He could account for it only from the cir¬ 
cumstance that the soil contained a sufficiency 
of sulphuric acid and phosphate of lime. 
In another part of the lecture he remarks 
that "astringent, food has a wonderful influ¬ 
ence on the quality of the milk. There is not 
a better food for producing rich milk than a 
mixture of oatmeal aud bean meal,". 
“We agree with all that Mr. H. Stewart 
says iu the Rural New-Yorker, so far as 
milk-producing is concerned, but milk-produc¬ 
ing is not all that is wanted of a dairy cow in 
England." remarks the Mark Lane Express. 
“ The Ayrshire is worth next to nothing when 
dry, aud for general dairy purposes in Eng¬ 
land that is a very important, consideration.”. 
As a matter of experiment we are mulching 
some of our cross-bred wheats. As with 
strawberries, we take tbe view that it is bet¬ 
ter to mulch after the first hard freeze. 
The N. Y. Herald makes the surprising 
statement that by ensilage aud partial soiling 
a fifty-acre farm can be made to keep fifty 
cow s and a team. 
We find by readiug the English papers that 
there is more than one Bailey of Billerica in 
Great Britain. 
Mulching Staw berries. —That it is better 
not to mulch strawberry plants until after 
the first freeze, wms first advocated, so far as 
we know, by the Rural New-Yorker. J. 
H. Hale now calls attention to tbe importance 
of this in the Connecticut Farmer. 
He also says that after fruiting if the bed is 
not near a building, or there are no other 
plants or trees in the field, it is a great advan¬ 
tage to the strawberry to loosen up the mulch 
with a rake or barrow, aud after it is thor¬ 
oughly dried, so that It will burn quickly, set. 
fire to it some day when there is wind enough 
to euuse it to spread rapidly aud not injure 
the crown of the plant... 
Tins will kill all insects and fungus that 
may be on the plants, and they will at once 
start up uud make a new' growth that will us- 
tonish anyone that has not tried it. If the 
variety grown is one having a very tall or 
rank foliage it may be well to mow it before 
loosening up the mulch preparatory to burn¬ 
ing. 
A writer in the Orange County Farmer 
{•leans and oils his harness by first putting it 
out in a heavy rain. Then he takes it apart, 
aud with Castile soup aud u tub of warm 
water scrubs off all the dirt and gum. Then 
he hangs It in a warm place to dry partially, 
when oil is applied... 
Mr. Olcott, of the Connecticut Courant, 
deems the oil of fowls an excellent emollient 
for old leather.. 
Beware of those grapes that ripen “about” 
with the Concord, says a writer in the N. E. 
Homestead. Ho thinks it. means “two weeks 
later every time.”. 
The December number of the Gardener’s 
Monthly presents a portrait of our respected 
friend, Mr. J. J. Thomas. 
The Herald speaks of a trial that was made 
last season in Scotland to test the feediug 
value of an acre of cabbage compared with an 
acre of Swedish turnips for fattening sheep. 
It was fouud that the cabbages were worth 
very nearly 820 the most. . 
Why not. make the wood pile of the farm a 
tidy heap, instead of scattering it in a helter- 
skelter manner?... 
It is better to get your own living and 
make a name for yourself than to live in a 
house built by your father and own a vineyard 
planted by your grandfather. . 
“We like the Editor of the Ruhal New- 
Yorker because he does not subordinate his 
editorial columns to bis advertisers—a com¬ 
mon failing of agricultural papers.” So says 
the editor of the New England Homestead, a 
paper that can well afford to recognize merit 
outside of its own columns... 
The books the farmer’s boy studies should 
tell him of the soil be is to cultivate, of tbe 
plauts he is to raise, of the stock he is to feed, 
and of the tools he is to use, says Mr. Case iu 
the Husbandman. All of these subjects aud 
others connected with agricultural pursuits 
are of surprising interest and importance, aud 
yet of these things the boy that is to make a 
farmer learns not one fact from the books he 
studies. 
CALIFORNIA NOTES. 
the land of the redwood. 
J. B. ARMSTRONG. 
The Redwood forests of California are con¬ 
sidered a bonanza on top of the ground. But 
they are becoming exhausted uutil we see the 
“beginning of the end” in the rapidly advanc¬ 
ing itrices of lumber. This huge timber is 
without a doubt a living remnant, of tho flora 
existing at the pre-glacial period, ns might be 
proved but for the limits of a newspaper arti¬ 
cle. However this may be, it is assumed iu 
this paper that the soil producing these for¬ 
ests is the same, with accretions, that existed 
in that remote epoch. It never suffered by 
glacial erosion, and remains to this day rich 
iu all the components, fouud no where else on 
the face of the globe, to grow this monstrous 
vegetation. 
A little narrative of its productiveness, from 
an instance personally well knowu to the 
writer, may serve to turn the attention of 
farmers to the value of these neglected lands 
on this coast, and reference is made to the 
ranch of Korbel Brothers, on Russian River, 
iu Sonoma County. As far back as the year 
1874, aud for a period several years later, the 
environs of their Redwood saw-miU, near Lhe 
Pocket. Canon Ford, were dense groves of Red¬ 
woods anil unsightly wastes of hull-cleared 
land, marked with c harred stumps and piles 
of di'-bris, remains of logging camps. No one 
then thought of undertaking the heavy aud 
costly work of cleaning off the ground for 
farmiug purposes, eveu on the river bottom. 
Stripped of the huge trees, tbe land was held 
of slight account.. Transactions for the pur¬ 
chase of timber for u mill site embraced the 
“stumpage” as alone of any value, and it was 
considered a very fair joke indeed, if the 
owner declined to throw iu the laud when 
some far-seeing purchaser insisted ou it. Long 
after the plains of Santa Rosa were well im¬ 
proved with farms and orchards the region 
referred to, as well as that about Ouerueville, 
was a forlorn waste of big stamps, where the 
butt ends of great Redwood logs were half hid 
in thickets of briars and hazel brush, and 
strayed cattle foraged fora precarious liveli¬ 
hood. The timber then was doomed inex¬ 
haustible. No railroad penetrated the viciu 
ity. Population did not overflow into the 
lulls and gulches. Nor did it dawn on the 
minds of people that the climate, so balmy 
and mild iu all the region, was adapted to a 
soil the superior of which cannot be fo ind out¬ 
side of California for growing tender vari¬ 
eties of fruits, nuts and grapes. 
But the advance iu all the arts of husbandry 
and horticulture at Sonoiua and older settled 
places, stimulated cautious experiments here 
in these directions. S. H. Torrence, an old 
settler residing lower down on the river, tried 
Alfalfa on the soil of the alluvial bottom. It 
was a surprising success. His squashes and 
pumpkins grew like Jonah’s gourd where the 
Redwood trees once stood, and his water¬ 
melons were the admiration of stray bull 
whackers who patronized the patch on Satur 
day nights, and then stole back to the mill 
shanties across the river. By-and-bye his or¬ 
chard of thrifty, growing apple and peach 
trees began to yield fruit such as might have 
been borne in the garden of the Hesperides. 
The trees grow apace, and everybody said 
their thrift was due to the sandy loam of the 
land. Yes, it was the bottom land that did 
the business. But all these years the hill-sides 
of yellowish, gravelly loam and clay were 
neglected. 
When the trees were felled and logged off, 
raiu began to furrow the surface, and wild 
clover and other grasses invaded the patches 
open to the sunshine. The Korbel Brothers 
pushed the busmens of their saw-mill ou the 
site near the Pocket, aud, at last, reached the 
lower boundary of their claim. Then, but not 
without foreboding, they ventured on the Her¬ 
culean task of clearing off the ground for a 
farm, They possessed capital and pluck, and 
were not scared off by an expenditure of fifty 
dollars an acre, which tbe clearing alone cost. 
They persevered, aud iu about two years suc¬ 
ceeded in rooting 75 acres of Alfalfa. From 
the start it was a success. Overflows did not 
hurt it. nor did any drought check its growth. 
They established a dairy, and were soon known 
as breeders of cattle as well as makers of 
cheese aud butter of approved quality. A 
gang of a dozen or more laborers, some with 
families, were constantly employed on the 
ranch. Further improvements [ were made. 
More houses and barns and fences were 
erected. Additional land was cleared for root 
crops and other purposes. Sugar beets grew 
to monstrous proportions—twenty tons per 
acre. A very large cattle barn was built for 
the storage of feed with shed room forshelter, 
and more men wore employed. By this time 
the railway had reached the frontiers of 
“Stumptown,” as Guerneville was euphoni¬ 
ously called, and the further industry of chop¬ 
ping cord wood wus added to tho usual em¬ 
ployments of the ranch, so that a thriving 
colony was subsisting on the groimd once only 
occupied by a forest of Redwoods. 
Thrifty as the brothers were, a new revela¬ 
tion was in store for them: a very little thing 
changed the entire plan of their pursuits. 
Whether planted for use or ornament* it is 
hard to say: but, nevertheless, a few slips of 
grape-vines were stuck iu the ground about 
their dwelling, which stands on the hill more 
than 56 feet above tho river bottom. Lus 
cious bunches of Black Hamburg aud Cliasse- 
las Grapes bung on these vines in great profu¬ 
sion, after two or three years of careless cul¬ 
ture. The fact was suggestive to the quick 
minds of the owners; for it was very well 
known that grapes flourished vigorously on 
the hill sides towards Cloverdale and about 
Santa Rosa. But those slopes were never 
clothed with Redwood. 
Their soils were reddish and clearly of vol¬ 
canic origin, deemed the best of all locations 
for vineyards, and possibly they are. The 
Korbels concluded to plant, vines. They are 
Hungarians aud knew something about these 
mutters in other times and places. Clearing 
was resumed; this time, along the low, swell¬ 
ing hills. Expenses were heavy; vines were 
rooted; stakes prepared and 60 acres of the 
best varieties known were planted three years 
ago. The following ycur 40 acres more were 
added, aud now the owners are making brick 
for a largo wine cellar. Judging from the 
healthy appearance of the vines and the qual¬ 
ity of the berries, the vineyard will prove a 
magnificent success. In fact, it is assured so 
far us to show that these soils, once capable 
of growing heavy timber, are rich with most 
valuable ingredients for vines and fruit trees. 
'Plie superb condition of the friable loam, 
stirred with frequent culture during the sea¬ 
son, explains the healthy appearance of the 
vines ami orchard, where, so far, there are no 
signs of insect pests. 
That the experiment is deemed successful 
maybe inferred from the fact that the Korbel 
Brothers last your brought the remaining 
members of their family, 17 in number, from 
Hungary and settled them on their tract of 
1,500 acres adjoining. 
Sonoma Co., Cal. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
IIIIuoIm, 
Jerseyville, Jersey Co., November SO.— 
Wheat, hogs aud beef are the only kinds 
of farm produce shipped from here ; 
other things fiud a ready home market. 
Wheat is looking flue for Ibis time of year ; 
early sown was somewhat injured by the 
Hessian fly. Corn yielded about 50 bush 
