1885 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
515 
almost entirely, but last year it appeared in 
strong: force and did us much injury. There 
is no remedy for it that I am familiar with. 
We have attempted to dig it out and destroy 
it, but have doubts about its being a paying 
enterprise. 
Hill culture of strawberries is not as desir¬ 
able at tha North as at the South, for the rea¬ 
son that they are more liable to be heaved by 
frost in the Winter. On some soils it is easy 
to protect them by mulching, but on others it 
is very difficult; but in matted rows the 
foliage protects them better than mulching. 
In fact strawberry growers at the North do 
not design to cover the plant, with mulch, but 
simply cover the space between the rows. We 
prepare the soil for strawberries the season in 
advance of planting, by plowing under a good 
dressing of yard manure and thoroughly sub¬ 
duing the weeds by cultivation with a good 
cultivator. When Winter approaches, we 
ridge the land to let off the surplus water in 
early Spring and eive free action to the frost. 
An excellent fertilizer for the strawberry is 
the hoe and horse cultivator. Indeed so bene¬ 
ficial are the results of these implements on 
ordinary corn or wheat soil, that strawberries 
may he grown successfully without the aid of 
any other fertilizer. Bone dust and ashes are 
considered the special fertilizers for the straw¬ 
berry. The good resulting from yard manure 
applied in the coarsest condition, is largely 
owing to the mechanical condition which it 
gives to the soil by decaying after it is plowed 
under. If the soil is very tenacious we some¬ 
times plow under a crop of fodder corn sown 
broadcast, after the same is two or three feet 
high; or a crop of buckwheat, or anything of 
that nature. Irrigation at the North is not so 
essential for the strawberry as some have sup¬ 
posed, although it would be exceedingly de¬ 
sirable in all cases. It is, however, an expen¬ 
sive operation, and should be undertaken with 
great caution. The strawberry lacks quality 
after irrigation, and is liable to be soft. Pew 
are aware of the quantity of water required 
to irrigate an acre of land artificially. It re¬ 
quires experience to irrigate, and a novice will 
find that he has much to learn before he can 
succeed in irrigation. 
STRAWBERRIES AND RED RASPBER¬ 
RIES. 
I HAVE cultivated various sorts of these for 
the past 14 years, and like you, as detailed on 
page 438 of the Rural, have been quite dis¬ 
appointed in my crops, though trying all sorts 
of fertilizers and different methods in the 
care of them. I have made up my mind that 
the soil is chiefly to blame for this, and it 
cannot be fully remedied except by irrigation 
and partially by heavy mulching. 
My soil is a light mixture of saud and very 
fine gravel. If the weather happened to be 
exactly right, as would be the case ouce every 
four to five years, then 1 got a good yield of 
berries; if not, I realized only half, down to 
one-tenth of a crop, and now and then scarcely 
any at all. There must be just so much cool 
and rainy weather in May and June, or the 
strawberries will be a failure. The past season 
was favorable till 1 had a week's picking; then 
caiae au unclouded sun for two days, the 
thermometer rising, on the first, to S9 degrees 
in the shade, and the next day to 96 degrees. 
This sadly wilted all the leaves and stalks and 
dried up the remaining unripened berries so I 
got no more from tbem this season* although 
some cooler and rainy weather followed. A 
friend who had strawberries in a rich, clay 
loam suffered very little loss of berries; and 
another who could irrigate, lost none at all; 
but had abundant pickings for oyer four 
weeks. The three most certain sorts I have 
cultivated are the Wilson, the Charles Down¬ 
ing and the Kentucky. 
Red Raspberries suffer in the same way as 
strawberries, even the “iron-clad” Cuthbert— 
as it is called—wilts and proves of little 
account; while the black caps do moderately 
well under a hot sun aud a drought The Miami 
and Gregg 1 like best, because they are of the 
largest size, and prove quite as hardy as the 
Doolittle aud other smaller sorts. I have got 
tired of trying other kinds, for they do not 
suit my soil aud climate. I tvish some oue 
could instruct me how to succeed better than 
1 have done. A. B. allen. 
THE EVERGREEN BLACKBERRY. 
Thk Evergreeu Blackberry attracted my 
attention some 25 years since on account of 
its luxuriant growth and wonderful bearing 
quality. As to the land of its nativity, I am 
unable to sav. Borne claim it to be a native 
of the British Isles; others of Japun. It 
annually throws up canes from 15 to 85 feet 
in length—usually about 20 feet. The next 
year it throws out from each eye fruit-spurs 
about 16inches in length, from which the fruit 
grows in clusters of from six to 12 berries, the 
size of an undersized Lawton of a rather 
sweet flavor, ;lt is ycry palatuble to most peo¬ 
ple, while many rather dislike it on account 
of its peculiar sweetish, spicy flavor. It is 
exceedingly productive, often producing from 
two to three bushels of fruit from one root. 
It throws up its canes, or vines, from the 
same old stump or root each year, like hlack- 
cap raspberries, rarely sprouting from the 
roots, unless they are broken; then sprouting 
very readily. Unlike other blackberry vines 
or bushes its canes (after it becomes well 
rooted) live and bear several years—from 
four to six. 
It is an evergreen—its leaves hanging on 
until new leaves come in the Spring, then 
dropping off. They are deeply serrated or cut, 
and are of a very dark green. The vines are 
a very little hardier than the Lawton: I have 
never seen them killed down in this climate, 
but once—aod have known the Lawton being 
billed down three times in 30 years. They 
are very thorny, full of hooked thorns of an 
unusual length. The fruit ripens just after 
the Lawton and until frost in the Fall. 
Woodburn. Oregon. j. h. s. 
[This we take it is the old European Black¬ 
berry, Rabus frutieosus or, in some cata¬ 
logues. R laciniatus. It is, as we have stated 
many times, essentially worthltss.— Eds. 
HVLisctiiantims. 
A NATIONAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
Is there any good reason why there should 
not be a “National Experimental Farm” when 
the Government owns the Arlington estate! 
This land is conveniently situated, and not 
one-half of the 1.100 acres is occupied by the 
Arlington National Cemetery and Fort Myer, 
the Signal Service Station. There are about 
300 acres of bottom land on the Potomac River 
well adapted to the growth of plants of any 
kind that it may be desired to test. 
If the agricultural press of the country agi¬ 
tates this question, and the farmers Dotify their 
representatives in Congress that they desire 
such a farm established, there will be little 
doubt of its accomplishment, especially as 
there is no necessity of outlay for land suitable 
for the purpose. c. A. user. 
Fairfax Co., Va. 
Remarks.— Six years ago the Rural dwelt 
at length upon the great advantages of a 
national agricultural station connected with 
the Department of Agriculture, near Wash¬ 
ington; but while the fundamental principles 
of profitable agriculture are applicable to the 
industry in every part of this country and of 
every other country on the globe, there are 
certain local conditions, more or less peculiar 
to each section, which affect the success of the 
business within certain limits: hence we have 
also steadily advocated the establishment of 
agricultural experiment stations in every 
State in the UniOD, at the expense either of 
the State or of the general Government, be¬ 
lieving that the necessary outlay would be 
amply reimbursed by the consequent increase 
of wealth due to improved and more profit¬ 
able agriculture. Our views on the question, 
and our reasors therefor have been editorially 
set forth a number of times in the Rural 
The matter has been taken Jn hand by the 
Department of Agriculture, and one of the 
principal objects of the convention of agricul¬ 
tural educators held the other day at Wash¬ 
ington, was to elicit a strong expression of 
opinion from so influential a body in favor of 
Congressional legislation for the purpose of 
establishing a National Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station at Arlington, as well as other 
experiment stations in connection with the 
agricultural colleges in all the States. Both 
measures received the hearty approval of the 
assemblage — Eds.] 
Woburn Experiments with Fertilizers. 
—The experiments made in the use of various 
manures at the English Experiment Station 
at Woburn, clearly demonstrate the fact that 
nitrogenous manures are essential to the pro¬ 
duction of wheat aud barley,* and that the 
production is greatly increased if phosphates 
and potash be added; but that the use of the 
latter alone gives no perceptible increase over 
plots with no manure whatever. Another 
point fully settled is that both sulphate of 
ammonia and nitrate of soda are completely 
exhausted in a single year, scarcely showing 
at all in a succeeding crop. These experi¬ 
ments also demonstrate that a dressing of 
barn yard dung endures for several years, and 
gives even better results than could be expect¬ 
ed from the amount of plant food contained 
therein. [One plot, after six years, showed 
I produced much better results than an adjoin¬ 
ing plot with double the application of nitro¬ 
gen in ammonia salts. Another series of ex¬ 
periments was undertaken to show the com¬ 
parative value of manure made by the use of 
cotton seed meal and corn meal as stock food. 
For a series of eight years one acre received 
manure made by feeding cotton-seed meal, and 
another acre that from corn meal. The for¬ 
mer produced, on an average for the whole 
time, 14 tons 700 pounds of Swedes, and the 
latter 13 tons 1.400 pounds. The former acre 
produced of barley, after the turnips were 
eaten off by the sheep each year, an average 
of 40 bushels; the latter acre produced of bar¬ 
ley in the same manner 45.9 bushels on an 
average. Estimating the money value of the 
crops, the acre receiving the manure from 
the cotton-seed meal produced *177 63 worth 
of props, while the oue with the corn-meal 
manure produced $176.54, showing that the 
manure made from maize was essentially as 
valuable as a crop producer a9 that from the 
cotton seed meal, though the latter had an 
estimated value at least, five times as great. 
Dr. Voelcker explains this seeming inconsist¬ 
ency on the hypothesis that the heavy crops 
of clover, which were plowed down, supplied 
the necessary amount of nitrogen. 
Remedy for Bowel TROUBLES.-Tbe Farm¬ 
er’s Review recommends a safe and reliable 
remedy for any disordered state of the bowels. 
It is composed of equal parts of laudanum, 
tincture of rhubarb and spirits of camnhor. 
We add another ingredient—tincture of cap¬ 
sicum, thinking it an improvement, and for 
a good many years have kept it in the house 
and never failed to find it effectual. The dose 
for an adult is 20 drops, to be repeated after 
each evacuation, till relief is obtained. For 
children, five to fifteen drops, according to 
age. It is administered in a little water sweet¬ 
ened. It can be obtained at slight cost at any 
drug store. Of course in severe cases which 
do not yield readily to such treatment, no 
time should be lost in calling a physician. 
The Students’ Farm Journal, in talking of 
pastures, says, very sensibly, that there is 
nothing the farmer can so ill afford as short 
pastures. It is such a sin against good sense 
that nature refuses any substitute. During 
the hot days in Summer the fresh grass ap¬ 
peals to the cow’s appetite like a dish of ice¬ 
cream to a girl's. She must have an abund¬ 
ance of it—no five-cent dishes. With this the 
cow will eat her fill in an hour, and then, if a 
shade is handy, will go to it and work this im¬ 
mense load of clean salad aud sweet-scented 
vernal grasses into the richest of milk with no 
fever in it. Such pastures make good cattle 
and give a good milk record. 
Sir J. B. Lawes says.in a late Agricultural 
Gazette (London), that not only is there a loss 
of nitrogenous food-material in silage, but 
a very considerable proportion of the nitro¬ 
genous substance which remains is degraded 
into compounds, some of which are of uo value 
as food (ammonia for example), aod others, 
forming a much larger proportion, to say the 
least, of reduced food value. Further, besides 
tbe loss, and the degradation of nitrogenous 
substance, it has been shown that there was 
also more or le=s loss of oon-nitrogenous mat¬ 
ter; whilst there 13 no evidence of woody 
fiber of a certain degree of induration haviqg 
been rendered more soluble. It remains to 
see what are the results of the experiments on 
the feeding of animals with the silage. 
Dr. T. H. Hoskins says that it is not an un¬ 
common remark that such and such articles 
published by an agricultural journal are 
each “worth a year’s subscription.” The 
truth of the matter is. that the worth of 
printed information depends fully as much 
upon the man who reads it as upon the man 
who writes It. Water doesnot run off aduck’s 
back easier than facts, of the utmost value and 
consequence, roll from the mind of the care¬ 
less, the stupid, or the uninterested reader or 
bearer. “You may lead a horse to water, 
but you can’t make him drink.” 
Forest Growing —Mr. H. G. Russell, 
of East Greeuwlch, R. I., has been testing 
the practicability of forest planting on an en¬ 
larged scale, having already planted, as we 
learn from the Phila. Press, 130 acres to 
larch, cedar aud White Pine. The trees of a 
larch plantation out only since 1879, are now, 
on au average, 15 feet high aud remarkably 
thrifty, some having made a growth, last 
year, of over three feet, notwithstanding the 
land is the poorest kind of Rhode Island sand 
and gravel. So well pleased is Mr. Russell 
that he is preparing another large tract for 
next Spring. The tract devoted to this use is 
along the shores of an arm of Narragansett 
Bay, and so poor that nothing grows upon it 
but gray moss and Poverty Grass, and but 
little of these. There are undoubtedly thou¬ 
sands of acres in every State that would be 
most valuable if planted in trees. 
TRUE INWARDNESS. 
The enterprising little Students’ Farm 
Journal, of Ames. Iowa, says they have dis¬ 
covered at the college farm that the hogs 
are greedily fond of Bokhara Clover 
(Melilotus alba), a rank, early grower and a 
great producer, but which has hitherto been 
regarded as a weed. The next trial will be 
of it as a plant for hog pasture. 
A whiter in the Prairie Farmer says: 
Ward C. White, the most successful dairyman 
in Wisconsin, uttered that aphorism that has 
gone over the whole world; “I always speak 
to a cow as I do to a lady.” When I asked 
him to tell me the answer to the whole dairy 
problem in one word, he replied: “Well, my 
boy. I should spell it c o-m-f-o-r-t.” Remem¬ 
ber that milk giving is a maternal function, 
and no man should abuse a mother. 
A writer in the Sun only repeats what we 
have always urged, when it says, there is no 
advantage in buying low grade fertilizers of 
any kind; for. if there is any adulterating to 
be done, or increasing of hulk, to aid in a 
more equal distribution, the farmer can do 
this by adding good soil, and thereby save the 
cost of hauling materials that are of little or 
no value....... 
The Western Rural says we have been 
rapidly drifting toward a nation of dudes and 
well dressed loafers. Industry, as applied to 
manual labor, has come to be regarded as a 
badge of disgrace, and the farm is being de¬ 
serted for the already over-crowded profess¬ 
ions and *10 a week clerkships behind the 
counters of our city stores.. 
We believe that farming is as respectable 
as any other business on earth. We believe 
that there is scope npon the farm for the exer¬ 
cise of the brightest, broadest intellect, and 
that the intelligent farmer may not only accu¬ 
mulate a competence, but that he may rise to 
an honorable position among his fellow men. 
Is there an earlier potato than Early Ohio? 
We raised this question five years ago and 
have not yet been answered.. 
Another question asked a long time ago 
by the Rcral. that remains unanswered, is 
whether salt helps asparagus? ... . 
Prof. Knapp, of Iowa, says that milking 
cows three times a day does not pay, accord¬ 
ing to the experiments made at the State 
Agricultural College... 
Prof Blount, of the Colorado State Agri¬ 
cultural College, says that the kernels of corn 
on the tops of ears should not be used as seed, 
because they have less vitality and suhstauce. 
Let him explain to Dr Sturtevant how he 
has arrived at this conclusion. They are 
smaller, certainly; but why have they less 
vitality?.... 
Our old friend W J Fowler says, in the 
Cultivator, that the Diehl Mediterranean has 
proven nearly or quite exempt from the Hes¬ 
sian flv. He says that it stools so much that 
a seeding of five or six pecks to the acre is 
enough. He further says that it has a stiff 
straw and a compact head. 
The N Y. Tribune says that Com. Colman’s 
speech before his convention would have pass¬ 
ed for a creditable eff art if delivered 20 years 
ago by a rural orator before a county agricul¬ 
tural society; but as addressed to a select body 
of really scientific men. it was a distressing 
exhibition of the speaker’s ignorance. 
According to the Tribune. Com. Column 
thinks the Department's seed distribution is 
all wrong. But he does not propose to be the 
bull to butt this locomotive. 
Prof. Knapp deems the Government seed 
distribution an unmitigated outrage, and that 
is just what it is...... 
Editor A. W. Chkever of the N. E. Farmer 
says that the two principal crops that the 
dairy farmer in Massachusetts should raise 
are Indian corn aud grass, each to be liber¬ 
ally fed, both greeu and dry. 
Every year adds to Mr, Cheever’s faith in 
the soiling or stall-feeding system of keeping 
dairy stock. Western farmers are adopting 
it to a considerable extent to help them through 
unfavorable seasons; aud if the system is pro¬ 
fitable there, with their cheap, rich lands, it 
certainly should be many times more so on the 
longer cultivated soils of New Euglaud, and 
where the good land is worth more per acre. 
Stall feeding saves manure, economizes food, 
and enables us to nearly double the productive 
capacity of our farm lands. 
The Philadelphia Weekly Press, in describ 
ing iusecticides and telling how to use them 
mentions bisulphite of carbon, which is a mis¬ 
take as this is not poisonous at all. Bisulphide 
of carbon is the substance used, and it is very 
effectual..... 
Sec’y T. S. Gold says that shade trees 
should be planted only on the hightest points 
of the pastures and under no circumstances 
