1885 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NEBRASKA AT THE EXPOSITION, 
Nebraska was the first State to get its 
allotted space into presentable shape. She 
has told, in a very unique way, her story of a 
teeming soil, yielding Immense crops of corn 
and small grains, of her orchards and forest 
plantations. On six large panels she illus¬ 
trates her natural resources. 
One of these rands is covered with an im¬ 
mense map of Nebraska, showing the location 
of every school-house, railroad and farm in 
the State. On the reverse of this is the now 
famous “Corn is King” panel. Across the 
top it bears the legend, in large letters made 
of sections of corn on the ear, “Corn is King.” 
Below the inscription is an arch composed of 
ears of com in several colors. Various decora¬ 
tive devices wrought out in the same material 
surround the central tigure of King Corn, 
who sits there with a calm countenance, curi¬ 
ously wrought in relief with corn kernels, 
imbedded in some plastic substance. Upon 
the bead is a massive crown of golden grains. 
This pauel has great artistic merit. At the 
base are arranged samples of Nebraska corn 
—a fine display iu quality and variety. 
Another pauel is devoted to the small 
grains. The name of the State is beautifully 
spelled in letters formed with oats, and the 
panel is covered with wreaths and other de¬ 
vices in wheat heads, rye, millet, barley, 
and every kind of small grain. Piercing 
through the central wreath, which thus be¬ 
comes a railway tunuel, appears a small loco¬ 
motive, apparently just leaving the fruitful 
land to bear away a portion of her riches. At 
the base of this pauel are samples of small 
grains in bags, three rows showing the national 
red, white and blue. 
Another panel is the grass panel. Nebraska 
is here boldly spelled with long grasses, and 
the panel is covered with specimens of native 
and introduced grasses which flourish in the 
State. A beautiful screen, called the “Rising 
Sun” panel, has “Nebraska” in letters of flax, 
aud a huge rising sun on a blue ground, with 
the body of the luminary in cross sections of 
com, with long rays of rye extending round 
the half circle. Between the rays, in faint 
letters, appear suggestions as to the preemi¬ 
nent fitness of the State for the production of 
all the articles presented. 
The last panel is a beautiful and suggestive 
page of statistics so prettily arranged that 
they are sure to attract the aye. Across the 
top the word “Nebraska,” appears iu letters 
of barley, and below, on tbo blue ground, in 
letters tiuoly executed with sections of white 
corn-cob, are the following statistics of the 
annual cereal production of the State: Cora, 
125,060,000 bushels; wheat, 20,000,000 bushels: 
oats, IS,000,000 bushels *, barley, 10,000,000 
bushels; rye, 4,000,000 bushels; llax, 300,000 
bushels. No description of these panels can 
do much justice to their real merit aud beauty. 
They are everywhere ultilizcd to emphasize 
the story of the natural fertility and the 
teeming productions of that young State. 
In an equally striking manner are illus- 
strnted the great facilities enjoyed iu the 
State for the thorough education aud enlight¬ 
enment of the people. In a striking position, 
with reference to the whole Nebraska court, 
stands a collossal figure of Liberty Enlighten¬ 
ing the World, modeled after Bartholdi’s 
celebrated statue. There she stands on an 
immense pedcstul of Nebraska products, the 
base of which is constructed of bales ot hay, 
capped with green Bine Crass sod growing as 
freshly as though it had uot been transported 
from its prairie home. The figure itself is 
draped in a mantle of green, and holds aloft 
a golden torch to illumiuate a huge world 
poised below it. Theshuftof the pedestal has 
inscriptions on the four sides, which are good 
to read and ponder. Ou one side, “3.7S6 
school houses”; on unother,“$00,000,000school 
funds”; on auotbor, “209.387 pupils.” 
Other statistics, appearing ou the panels, 
or among the various devices for exhibiting 
seeds, aud other products of the farm aud 
garden, read like this: 55,000,000 acres of good 
laud, 25,1X10,000 iu farms, 3.000 miles of rail¬ 
roads, 240,:15(5 acres in artificial forests, 1,203,- 
112 fruit trees. Add to all this the Depart¬ 
ment of Woman's Work, and the State's able 
aud energetic Commissioner, ex Gov. Furnas, 
may well feel gratified, tie demonstrates here 
to the world a complete fulfillment, of the 
prophecies he made in regard to his State 
when it was yeta Territory,and a treeless, arid 
plain. His own display of timber specimens 
is labeled “Timber specimens, indigenous and 
introduced, grown and growing in Nebraska, 
since the extinguishment of Indian titles in 
1854, 138 varieties.” He ought to feel gratified 
at the success of his own labors, and his State 
ought to appreciate the value of her excellent 
Commissioner. m. t. e. 
horticultural. 
GROWING MUSHROOMS. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
Mr. Samuel Henshaw, of New Brighton, 
Staten Island, is considered the most success¬ 
ful grower of mushrooms in the vicinity of 
New York. Being considerably interested 
myself in mushroom growing, I called to see 
Mr. Henshaw at his place the other day and 
observe bis mode of cultivation. His method 
is the easiest and simplest that I know of, 
and I am informed by Peter Henderson and 
others that it is always attended by bouute- 
ous results. He does not attempt to raise 
mushrooms between the end of May aud No¬ 
vember, as high temperature aud insect ene¬ 
mies are against raising a crop worth bother¬ 
ing with, at that season; but he works for a 
continuous crop between December and 
May. 
The Mushroom House is a lean to, tight, 
wooden shed, 50 feet long by eight wide, aud 
bailt alongside a warm greenhouse. In the 
roof are three windows, or sashes, two by five 
feet, for ventilation aud the admission of 
light Except against direct sunshine, no 
attempt is made to darken these windows, 
and Mr. Henshaw assured me that darkness 
is not at alluecessary to success. A four-inch 
hot-water pipe from the greenhouse runs 
around inside the mushroom house aud some 
three feet above the floor, and by this an 
equable temperature can be maintained. The 
floor is a common earthen one, level and as 
hard as the road. Mr. H. prefers an earthen 
floor to any other, and insists that it is more 
natural, and that the beds do better on it than 
they do on wood, brick or cement floors. 
The Manure for the Beds is common 
stable manure where straw has been used for 
bedding, obtained from stables in the 
vicinity. It is not necessary that it be quite 
fresh. When received the roughest of the 
straw is shaken out, but no attempt is made 
to rid the manure of all the straw; on the 
contrary, Mr. H. prefers a good deal of straw 
in it, and claims that in strawy manure the 
spawn spreads better than it does in manure 
of horse droppings only, or in droppings and 
loam mixed. The manure is then thrown 
into a roomy shed to preserve it from the 
drying influence of sun and wind or being 
wetted by rain, piled iu a loose heap and 
turned over every day or two to “sweeteu’’ 
it and prevent it from “burning.” In three 
or four weeks’ time it is generally subdued 
enough to be in good condition to introduce 
to the mushroom house aad make a bed of. 
On examining Mr. H.’s beds, 1 observed how 
very gritty the manure was, as if it contained 
a deal of sawdust. “So it does,” responded 
Mr. H., "but that does uot hurt it in the 
least. I get part of the manure from the coal 
and wood yard stables, where they use con¬ 
siderable sawdust In bedding.” 
The Beds (or rather bed) are made upon 
the floor, beginning at the far end of the 
house. The whole floor is covered; no room 
is left for a pathway. In spawning, earthing 
and watering the bed and gathering the crop, 
the men walk ou the top of the bed, taking 
care not to step on the bunches of mushrooms, 
hence no walk is necessary. Three beds are 
made in a season; that is, the first bed made 
occupies one third of the house; six weeks 
later another bed, or addition to the first one 
is made, and five or six weeks later the third 
or last bed is made, and the house is full. In 
making the bed, the muuure is introduced, 
spread evenly over the space and some 
four inches deep, und then tramped down as 
firmly as possible. Successive layers are laid 
over that aud tramped as before till the bed 
is about 15 inches thick. If the manure has 
been in proper condition and packed firmly, 
there is not much danger of its “burniug.” Iu 
a few days the mauure will be likely to heat 
to 120 u or 136", and in a few days more to de¬ 
cline considerably. As soon os the heat de¬ 
scends to 08°, the bed is spawned. 
Spawn. Mr. H. uses English brick spawn; 
it is retailed in New York at 10 cents a pound. 
li<* sometimes makes his own, or uses other 
American makers’. He does not like the 
French spawn. In spawning, he breads the 
bricks into pieces t he size of a hen's egg, and 
iuserts them in the surface of the bed nine 
iuches apart and four inches deep, fills up the 
holes aud packs as firmly as before. From 
spawning till bearing time is usually six 
weeks. Mr. H. also uses what he calls "Flake 
Spawn.” This he gets by breakiug the brick 
spawn into two-inch square pieces and mix¬ 
ing them in a small pile of gently fermenting 
manure, leaving them there for about three 
weeks. By that time they are a mass o 
spawn and in proper condition for using in 
the beds. When flake spawn is used the 
spawn, begius spreading in the bed at once, 
and a crop of mushrooms is secured two or 
three weeks in advance of what would be the 
case were ordinary brick spawn used. 
Earthing the Bed. As soon as the spawn 
has begun to run in the manure, the bed is in 
proper condition to earth over. Mr. H. does 
uot use fine or loose earth, as most growers 
do, but, instead, fresh sod from a pasture, 
turned grass side down. The sods are about 
two inches thick, browu, loamy, and packed 
up close against each other. He does not use 
saltpeter in the soil, as do the French gar¬ 
deners. 
Watering. When the surface of the b^d 
gets dry Mr. H. waters it with tepid water. 
Also to encourage a moist atmosphere, he 
sprinkles the walls and pipes. When the beds 
begin to deteriorate he waters them liberally 
with tepid, weak manure water, and prefers 
for this purpose the diluted drainings of the 
manure pile. 
Queens Co., N. Y. 
EARLY VEGETABLES. 
The Northern farmer who is battling with 
the fierce gales and deep snows of the long 
Winter, is apt to think with envy of his fa¬ 
vored competitor who is filling the February 
markets with cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, 
onions, potatoes and other "truck," which 
take off the edge of the appetite from the 
Northern consumers aud tne cream from 
the Northern farmer's profits. And he often 
thinks, and sighs as he thinks, what a favored 
land that must be where the seasons are re¬ 
versed aud the Winter of “the farmer's dis¬ 
content is made glorious Summer” by the 
Southern sun. And perhaps he thinks by 
day and dreams by night of Bermuda and its 
sunny, balmy winter climate, where the ten¬ 
der tomato is even now rapidly growing, and 
the cauliflower is preparing for its snowy 
bloom. The early cabbage, the cucumber, 
green peas, snap beans, egg plants and tur_ 
nips come chiefly from Florida, and the second, 
early from Southern Georgia and South Caro¬ 
lina, the later crops gradually creeping up 
the coast of the Atlantic until Virginia is 
reached. 
The fine onions, potatoes and tomatoes that 
appear in the Northern markets before W in¬ 
ter has gone, come from Bermuda, a small 
coral islaud in the ocean several hundred 
miles east of Florida. The whole island is 
given to these three crops, and the prosperity 
of the inhabitants depetnls upon the success 
of them, and the price obtained for the pro¬ 
duce. The ground is prepared in the Fall, 
being heavily manured; and is sown or planted 
in November. Ouious are sown from Sep¬ 
tember to November, both mouths included. 
The plants are transplanted into beds four 
feet wide, when quite small, and are set about 
seven inches apart each way. The crop is 
cultivated io the usual manuer by hoeiug 
and weediug. When the bulbs are mature, 
they are gathered, left to dry on the ground 
for two or three days and then shipped in 
crates of fifty pounds each. Each producer 
is compelled by law to put his name on every 
box or package in a conspicuous manner. 
This crop realizes from #400 to 500 an acre. 
The red potatoes, so well known as Ber¬ 
mudas, were formerly grown from seed raised 
in the United States. The seed is now im¬ 
ported from Nova Scotia aud other parts of 
Eastern Canada. This choice of seed indi¬ 
cates that the rule which operates here—viz., 
that potatoes are best growu from Northern 
seed—also prevails in sunny Bermuda. The 
seed is cut into two eyes, and large potatoes 
are preferred for cutting. The soil is plowed, 
or spaded, and raked smootn aud flue; the 
seed is then forced into the soft, mellow soil 
four inches deep and eight inches apart in 
rows 20 inches apart. Only one hoeing is 
given; this is when the plants are six inches 
high, after which no attention is given, the 
soil being made free from weeds by long cul¬ 
tivation iu previous years The method of 
growing tomatoes may give a useful hint to 
our market gardeners and others. The seed 
is all imported, and is sown in seed-beds in 
October. The young plants are moved into 
the pertuauent beds in December, into rows 
six feet apart, and are set four feet apart in 
the rows. As soon as the transplanting is 
finished, the beds are covered with brush, 
through which the vines uud plants grow, 
aud which supports the fruit aud keeps it from 
the ground. The brash is lifted once by push¬ 
ing sticks under it aud raising it clear of the 
ground, by which auy weeds are torn out, no 
cultivation being required. The yield is equal 
to about 4.800 quarts per acre. The fruits are 
wrapped singly in paper aud packed iu seven- 
quart boxes, each box being considered as a 
peck. The yield of an acre of tomatoes'is 
from $500 to $600. With the genial climate 
and the rich soil, the outlay for the growth 
of a crop is quite small, and as, from the 
absence of competition in the market, the 
prices realized are high, the Bermuda culti¬ 
vator is truly an individual to be envied by 
the American market gardener; but he pays 
for his good fortune in having to give $200 an 
acre for his land, a very small portion of 
which is tit for cultivation, the greater part 
being bare coral rock. In round numbers, 
350,000 boxes of onions, 50,000 barrels of po¬ 
tatoes. and 500.000 boxes of tomatoes are 
annually shipped from the island, all of 
which And their way to the wharves of New 
York City, whence they are distributed 
through the country. 
experimental horticulture. 
A note from professor j. l. budd 
In my notes on the Chinese Pears in a late 
Rural.I referred to the" Rochester Collection” 
in a general way. An Eastern friend writes: 
“In our country we have had too little work 
done in the way of experimental horticulture, 
foresty. and agriculture, especially as such 
lines of work are labors of love rather than 
of profit. Hence co laborers in such much- 
needed lines, should not hesitate to give each 
other due credit. The general public you 
know, is slow in giving credit for such work 
as Ellwanger & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., 
have been engaged in for the public good for 
many years.” 
As I referred to the collection of Messrs. Ell¬ 
wanger & Barry, due personal credit should 
have been given, as they have given an un¬ 
told amount of time, thought and money to 
non-paying lines of experimental work. 
Ames. Iowa. 
Sij e SlpiariatT. 
ARE MOVABLE FRAME HIVES SUPER¬ 
IOR TO BOX HIVES. 
G. M. DOOLITTLE. 
It has been taken for granted for a long 
time that the movable frame hive is greatly 
superior to the box hive for the production 
of comb honey, although but little thought 
has been given to the subject. If a prominent 
bee keeper was asked the question.—Which is 
preferable for producing comb honey, the 
frame or the box hive? the answer nine times 
out of ten would be “Why the frame hive, of 
course. If this were not so, all the writers 
in the bee papers would not be praising 
frame hives.” But the simple reason that 
writers on bee culture use frame hives amounts 
to but little. The thing we wish to know is, 
why these writers use the frame hives in pref¬ 
erence to well made aud well proportioned 
box hives. The late M. Quinby, who was one 
of our most practical apiarists, kept the greater 
part of his bees in box hives, but when his 
son-in law, Mr. L. C. Root, took the apiary 
in charge, he transferred all the bees to the 
movable frame hive, thus showing a differ¬ 
ence of opinion between the two. 
Paul, the great apostle to the gentiles, told 
the early Christians that they should always 
be ready “to give a reason of their hope.” so 
all the bee keepers should be ready to give a 
valid reason for the wav they manage their 
bees, and any writer ought to be able to give 
a good reason to supoort what he writes for 
publication. If anvbody cannot do this, he 
may rest assured there is something wrong. 
As I nse the frame hive and am a strong ad¬ 
vocate thereof, according to the above I 
should be able to tell why I use and advocate 
such a hive. 
Believing I have good reasons for so do¬ 
ing. I will give them to the readers of the 
Rural, and let them draw their own conclu¬ 
sions as to the correctness of the same We 
are to supposse each stvte of hive is well made 
and of the same dimensions, and that the box 
hive gives as easy access to the surplus ar¬ 
rangement as does the other, so that we may 
be fair iu our reasoning. 
As Spring is the time when we first begin 
to prepare, or lav the foundation for the sea¬ 
son's succeess, I will commence with that 
period. Upou the first warm days we wish 
to know i f each hive has honey enough in it 
to last till the flowers bloom, so that the bees 
can secure a living. To this end we wish to 
examine the inside of the hives. We come 
to the box hive, take it from the bottom board 
and hold it up to the sun, driving the beesdown 
with smoke to see if we can discover auy 
sealed honey, and after inspecting all as best 
we can, we have to guess at the matter and 
trust that our “guess” is right. 
If bars are used at the top in connection 
with a honey board, we can remove the honey 
board and guess a little closer than before. 
With the movable frame hive all we have to 
