40 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. JA1HF 
before dark feed all the whole corn the fowls 
will eat, that they may have something that 
will be nearly all night in digesting. With 
all these and plenty of fresh water, or, better 
still, milk, ground oyster shells and green 
food, such as cabbage, mangels, potatoes or 
turnips, and with quarters kept clean, warm 
and well ventilated, they will reward the 
owners with baskets full of eggs. 
Orchard Protection in New Zealand. 
—The Otago Witness, of New Zealand, re¬ 
ports the measures used by New Zealanders 
to protect their orchards. The Codling Moth 
Bill, as passed by the Legislative Council, pro¬ 
vides that the Borough, or County Council, 
may, on receipt of a petition signed by not 
less than five occupiers of orchards, proclaim 
any portion of the county as a clean or un¬ 
clean district under the Act. The occupier of 
every orchard in an unclean district is to pay 
a contribution, not exceeding a halfpenny, for 
every tree growing in his orchard. If this is 
insufficient, he is liable to a further call of a 
halfpenny per tree, Out of this fuud are to 
be paid the inspectors, who are empowered to 
enter orchards to examine the trees, etc. The 
borough and county councils are empowered 
to make regulations for stamping out the pest, 
and penalties are provided for neglecting to 
furnish the proper returns, obstructing the 
inspector, removing infected cases, etc., out 
of the district...... 
PITHS AND SUGGESTIONS. 
Wherever, says the Massachusetts Plough¬ 
man, a good, live Farmers’ Club exists, there 
is but little chance for swindlers to succeed; 
this they have learned, and bo, as a rule, con¬ 
fine their operations to farmers who stay at 
home, and do not read the papers. 
A writer in the Weekly Press says that 
some evergreens are never green, citing as an 
instance Retin is pora plumosa aurea. There 
is no conifer whose early growth is of a bright¬ 
er. lighter, more pleasing green. It does not 
become golden until late...... 
TnE Dispatch, of Florida, says that a gen¬ 
tleman has raised a persimmon weighing 17 
ounces.......... 
Mr. C. S. Plumb, now of the New York 
Experimental Station, and previously of the 
R. N.-Y , makes a very sensible discrimina¬ 
tion, in the Albany Cultivator, in favor of 
side oats, because they present a much lea® 
surface to wind and rain Their liability to 
lodge is not therefore so great as that of those 
kinds of oats having spreading panicles. 
Puck calls a deadhead a lively corpse. It 
also considers that a bird n toast is worth 
eighteen in the hush. Again it says that 
there are several kinds of eccentric men. The 
man who practices what he preaches is very 
eccentric. The man who takes advice and 
never gives any is also highly eccentric. 
Another eccentric individual, we might 
mention, is an agricultural editor that will 
heartily publish the advertisement of a farm 
journal that he knows to be better than his 
own. 
Another eccentric indivival would be the 
seedsman or nurseryman who prints in bis cat¬ 
alogue the bad as well as the good that is said 
of the novelties be desires to sell at a high price. 
Sumatra tobacco leaf is in demand. The 
seed is offered by some seedsmen. Does it 
thrive i n this country ? W here?. 
We do not see why the Rural’s crossed corn 
should not prove of immense value to farmers. 
Bear in mmd that these crosses are of the 
best kinds grown in the United States. Farm¬ 
ers should plant the seed carefully and give 
the plants good care. Then save the best 
kinds for future planting and to fix a strain 
of their own. ... 
Here Is the amount of seed required for 
two rows,—75 feet each: Turuips, \% ounce; 
onions, 4 ounces for sets; onions, 1 ounce for 
large bulbs; peas. 1}4 quart; radish, 3 ouoces; 
squash, l}-£ ounce; tomato, 1)4 ounce; green 
corn, 2 gills; cucumbers, 2 ounces; lettuce, 1 
ounce; celery, 13 ^ ounce; cabbage, % ounce; 
beets, 2 ounces; asparagus, 4 ounces; beans, 
pole, 2 gills; beans, bush, 1)4 quart; beans, 
Lima, 1)4 pint. Send for the catalogues soon 
to be announced in the Rural, and select 
your seeds carefully.... 
Well, you may now prune your trees, 
grape-vines, currants, shrubs, etc., if it has 
not been done before. Be careful not to 
prune shrubs which will bear their flowers 
upon last year’s wood—like the lilac, mock 
orauge, magnolia, craia?gus, honeysuckle, etc. 
Collect all the manure you possibly can. 
Make compost heaps. Collect bean pole6 aod 
brush for peas. Cover the strawberries, 
make a hot-bed (see catalogues for instruc¬ 
tions). A box, sash, manure and soil are 
needed. Then you can start your tomatoes, 
egg-plants, flowers, etc., later. 
Editor Benedict, of the N, Y. World, 
speaks of the enormous increase in carp cul¬ 
ture in this country. Wherever “planted” 
uuder favorable conditions, receiving reason¬ 
able care, they have grown, bred and multi 
plied rapidly in nearly every State aud Terri¬ 
tory in the Union. We can't make auy 
report as yet of the carp “plauted” in the 
Rural lake one year ago. 
In speaking of the iniquities and disrepu¬ 
table practices upon the Agricultural Fair 
Grounds, the New York Times says it is 
hardly fair to pile all the blame upon the 
managers. The farmers who patronize these 
exhibitions deserve to bear their share of the 
responsibility, for if they refused to attend 
such shows, the managers, as a matter of busi¬ 
ness, would not permit them. We think that 
if all who deprecate these objectionable fea¬ 
tures would absolutely refuse to attend, one 
year’s experience with its empty treasury, 
would effectually cure the evils; and yet. this 
state of things relieves the managers from 
none of the blame. It is their business to 
provide a show that is instructive, decent and 
honest, and they have no business to permit 
anything which defileth, even though it 
should prove a bonanza .... 
Ensilage is making slow progress in the 
West, and is not regarded with favor, espe¬ 
cially by dairymen—says our esteemed cor¬ 
respondent, B. F. J. in the Albany Cultiva¬ 
tor .... 
Another writer referring to the fat beef 
exhibition at the late show in Chicago.asks if 
it was beef at all, or was it only a sort of 
exaggerated veal? Is a bovine fit. for beef 
until it Is matured by age, and can you force 
maturity by mere feeding? . 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. 
XXII. 
MARY WAGER FISHER. 
We left Wallula Junction at half-past six 
in the morning for Spokane Falls — pro- 
nouuced Spokan— in a caooose, the distance 
being something over 160 miles, and the road 
the main line of the Northern Pacific. We 
beard many complaints, particularly at Wal¬ 
la Walla and The Dalles, concerning freight 
brought from the East, whicu is all charged 
for and detained as if carried on to Portiaud 
and brought back, where the parties to whom 
it is sent are ooliged not only to pay the 
freight charges to Portiaud, but back from 
Portland also. A lady living at The Dalles, 
said that when they came from the East, 
seven years ago, they had their household 
goods shipped from Maine to Portland by 
water, and that the freight was no more than 
from Portland to file Dalles! But much as 
the people complain of the railroads, they 
certainly have many things for which to be 
thankful; for before the completion of the N. 
P.R.R., kerosene oil cost in some places three 
dollars pergallon, aud nails 75 ceDts a pound, 
and a lady who lives in Eastern Washington 
told me that it had only been within the last 
year that dry goods could be had at reasona¬ 
ble prices of the local merchants; that she 
had found it much cheaper to sead East for 
waat she wanted, and have it sent by mail, 
From Wallula. to Sprague, a town 40 miles 
south of Spokane, the road runs through 
what is called a coulde , probably an old water 
course—a valley or an extended piaiu utterly 
destitute of a green thing—alkali,and as desert¬ 
like a region as auy part of the great basiu 
which so long went by the name of the “Great 
American Desert.” It has been pretty gen¬ 
erally ascertained thut all that the G. A, D. 
requires lo make it produce abundantly, is 
water. But in this coulde, several miles wide, 
there is little or no water, and the soil being 
less pulverized than that iu the Dayton neigh¬ 
borhood, does not absorb moisture sufficiently 
to support useful vegetation. It is cov red 
with 8uge Brush and there is some Bunch 
Grass. Outside the limits of this coulde, ten 
to twenty miles back, we were told lay good 
agricultural lauds. At Ainsworth, 14 miles 
north of Wallula, the railroad crosses the 
Snake ltiver, as it. there flaws into the Colum¬ 
bia, which from this point beuds off to the 
west. We had au hour at this place, which 
gave us an opportunity to see the inillion-dollar 
railroad bridge, very substantial aud finely 
built, and to bathe our hands in the water of 
the Snake—a noble river, indeed, at tins 
point. The next station, nearly forty miles 
further on, is Palouse Junction, from which 
diverges a branch railroad running out to 
Colfax, through the Wasutuena and Endi- 
cott neighborhoods, where are “rich agricul¬ 
tural lands,” eoinmouly spoken of as the “Pa¬ 
louse Country.” 
Before reaching Spokane we met an intel¬ 
ligent gentleman who had been living for 
three or four years at Cclfax, and he reported 
the country to be very good aud to resemble 
that about Dayton. He said they had some 
good farming aud some good cattle; but as 
yet, not much experimenting had been made 
with trees. It is warm euough in Summer 
for tomatoes to ripen well, but in Winter, the 
cold is iutense at times, but of short, duration, 
the snow melting rapidly and in low'places, 
frost is liable to occur any month in the year. 
The price of improved land is from $20 per 
acre up, and he readily conceded that laud 
throughout all this couutry aud in Oregon as 
well is rated at much too high figures. He 
alluded, iu ti enchant terms, to the local news¬ 
papers aud other publications which persis¬ 
tently lie aboutthis country, aud induce many 
people to come here, who upou Hading it so 
very different from the Paradise they ex¬ 
pected, turn away in disgust aud return to 
“the States.” (Even in Oregon which is no 
longer a Territory, the people talk of “the 
States,” meanmg those east of the Rocky 
Mountains.) 
I had also a conversation with this gentle¬ 
man’s wife, who told me that their home was 
was really in Corvallis, Oregon, where she 
preferred to live; but that they had come to 
Washington to get rid of ague, from which 
they suffered iu Oregon, and that they had 
greatly improved iu health at Colfax. I 
asked her how women liked to vote, and about 
domestic help. She said that women were 
not yet educated to the intelligent exercise 
of sufrage, and were somewhat in the political 
condition of the freedmen after the war; but 
would learu iu due time. As to domestic ser¬ 
vice, she said the Chinese were needed to do 
the work, as white women could not be had. 
She said her family bad not much society, 
mostly bachelor neighbors, but that they 
would compare favorably with Eastern fami¬ 
lies iu familiarity with current literature, as 
they took fifteen newspapers an l magazines. 
Sue said they had for years read the Rural 
New Yorker and they had stacks of them 
on file—it being one paper that they carefully 
preserved. She said that a lady who wrote 
considerably for it. Mrs. Mary Wager Fisher 
of Philadelphia (giving “g” in the middle 
name the soft sound when it should be hard) 
was making a tour across the continent and 
writing letters, and she had got as far as Salt 
Lake! 1 was naturally much amused aDd re¬ 
marked that a good many people from the 
East were visiting tue Pacific Coast. How¬ 
ever, she looked at tue laddie who had fallen 
asleep, and her husband talked with Anax¬ 
imander, learning whence he cauie, aud they 
concluded that we must be the party in ques¬ 
tion, aud upou our “owning up,” gave us a 
most cordial invitation to visit them if ever 
in Colfax. They were en route for Pennsylva¬ 
nia to spend the Winter visiting relatives. 
At Ritzville. the station succeeding Palouse, 
some 45 miles further on, we saw some 
“claims” taken up—a few i ough board houses, 
cattle aud horses—an 1 some plowing being 
done. There is a spring at this place, and it 
may fitly be called an “experimental station,” 
Of the trees plauted, about four out of six die. 
Before reaching Sprague, 24 miles furtneron, 
the road for six or eight miles runs along 
Lake Colville, a baautiEul sheet of water, with 
great colonies of pond lilies aud thousands of 
ducKS—an almost iuerediblesight. At Sprague 
the railroad company has workshops aud a 
round-house, and there is an effort to “boom” 
the town. We stopped there two or three 
hours, had supper in a restaurant kept by a 
woman, and walked over the town, which is 
an excessively new country village, with the 
invariable outlying feature of all these “new” 
Wc-itei u settlements—au extensive aggrega¬ 
tion of emptied tin cans. 
We had for fellow travelers from Wal- 
lala a man, with his wite aud three-year old 
son, who had come up from Oregou, and was 
gomg to Sprague to “locate” a photographic 
business, tie said he was from Iowa—“a good 
State, too’’—but, like a good many others, he 
fe’.t that he was not getting ou fast euough, 
and hidcoineweit to better himself; but he 
wa< quite disgusted with his ill success; had 
be ird a good deal about the business outlook 
at Sprague, and thought he would try it. He 
teamed his child every moment when it was 
not asleep, until l thought it must have a ner¬ 
vous convulsion, aud the conductor told me he 
gave it bis cigar to smoke and some whiskey 
to drink, aud still the little fellow looked 
healthy in spite of his outrageous training. 
Upon our return from Spokane to Portland, 
this same party was in the train—the man de¬ 
nouncing Sprague as giving a fellow no chance 
wh itever. Between Sprague and Cheney, the 
uextsttttiou—so called after Benj.L Cheney,of 
Boston, who has erected the Cheney Academy 
—there are some miles of curious country,form¬ 
ed of circular mounds from one to two feet 
high, aud from 10 to 15 feet iu diameter. The 
mounds are covered with Bunch Grass, and 
the intervening spaces with sage and gravel. 
A few miles from Cheney are one or two 
bodies of water called Medical Lakes, which 
have quite a reputation for the irhealing qual¬ 
ities, especially for rheumatism, skin diseases, 
and wounds. The water, when rubbed upon 
the skin, produces a lather like soap-suds. 
Some enterprising person evaporates the 
water, and sells the residuum—a powder—as 
a curative of dyspepsia, among other ail¬ 
ments. We had it in mind to visit the lakes 
and take a bath, but the weather was chilly, 
it threatened rain, and we concluded that a 
carriage drive across the country would not 
be very agreeable. 
It was dark when we reached Spokane, but 
we had nearly the whole of the following day 
to see this greatly “boomed” town, which is 
practically about tln*ee years old. It is loca¬ 
ted in the timber edge, and the trees—pine- 
stand from 10 to 20 feet apart, and the porous, 
gravelly soil is entirely free from under brush 
or under growth. The town, built upon this 
almost level piaiu, with a wall of mountains 
iu the distance, is nicely laid out with streets 
■SO to 100 feet wide, and building lots 50x142 
feet. On account of the nature of the soil, 
the streets and roads are ready-made, and are 
admirable; but the soil is good for nothing else, 
and there is no good arable land within a dozen 
miles. Spokane River, which rises iu tne Cceur 
d’Alene Lake, and Hows into the Columbia, 
is pleased, at this point, to leap over the rocks 
in a succession of most picturesque and beau¬ 
tiful falls, so divided and distributed as to 
furnish fine water power at various points. 
Tnere are some saw-mills and a “roller” 
flouring mill. The population of the town I 
judged to be from four to six thousand. The 
business blocks of brick, the many pretty 
residences, the tidy looking trees, the water¬ 
falls and the general location and appearance 
of the place greatly pleased me, and 1 thought 
it the prettiest to wu 1 had seen ia the Territory, 
But it is fearfully cold and wiudy iu Winter; 
snow fails waist deep, aud malaria fever 
the terror of so many new prices, has afflicted 
the people, although it would seem from the 
location that the town would be in no dauger 
from malarial influences. Wood is cheap, 
but fruit is dear. The towu was putting in 
water-works when we were there, and the 
people talk as if the place would be a city of 
25,000 inhabitants wichiQ the next live years. 
But imagination aud the must glowing possi¬ 
bilities form the stock-in trade iu these new 
Western "cities.” In returning, we traveled 
by express to The Dalles, rinding r.be passenger 
cars of the N. P. exceedingly handsome, aud 
the dining car service very nice; but, alas! 
for all transportation companies that carry 
tobacco users without obliging them to sit in 
a cattle car, where, maybe, they wouldn’t 
disgust their fellow passeugers! 1 noted with 
much satisfaction that the O R and N. Co, 
had placards put up iu their boats and wait¬ 
ing rooms in regard to smoktug—a terse liter¬ 
ature in general need. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Colorado. 
Colorado Springs, El Paso Co.— I have 
lived in Colorado two years, aud consider Fall 
and Winterthe pleasantest part of the year, as 
compared with otner climates. We do not 
expect n drop of rain before March or April. 
Hay and oats are good crops here aud pay 
well where properly cared for, it being ne¬ 
cessary to irrigate everything here in order 
to get a crop. Alfalfa or Lucern iMedicago 
sativa) is the most profitable and prolific hay 
here at present, as with good care throe crops, 
aggregating five tous to tne acre, can be growu 
ou ordinarily good land with moderate ferti¬ 
lizing. 
I have done this ou a trial plot of 2)4 acres 
this season. Cattle and horses like tne hay, 
and are doing well on It. We feed it to milch 
cows with a bran ration, and to both road and 
working horses, with the usual amount of 
grain. Wheat, as everyone knows, is a good 
crop in Colorado, but I am afraid it is not 
very profitable, as our farmers must compete 
iu the market with a supply from other places 
where irrigation i9 not necessary, and where, 
in consequence, the crop can be grown at less 
expense. Corn is a good aud paying crop 
hero, if au early-maturing vanetv is planted. 
Ducch or Common Millet is also grown as a 
forage crop very successfully and profitably. 
Potatoes have not, as yet, been grown in 
this immediate vicinity with anything like 
success, though, strange to say, they are very 
successfully grown 10 to 20 miles farther up 
the mountains without irrigation, and 1 buy 
very fine, mealy potatoes for table at $1,00 
perewt., retail. Those who grow them say 
they make a good profit at that price. The 
following vegetables are grown here very 
successfully and profitably:—artichoke, (Jeru¬ 
salem and Globe); asparagus, beaus, (bush); 
beet, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, 
sweet corn, cucumber, lettuce, onion, parsley, 
parsnip, peas, radish, spinach, squash, turnip 
and salsify. 
