1885 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
531 
would use the old gun. Honor it for the good 
it has done and let it go. 
Mb Chamberlain says that the first duty 
of the statesman should be to increase the 
production of the laud. Here is a gi’and 
chance for our farmers to become statesmen. 
The American Cultivator says there is un¬ 
doubtedly a natural balance between insects 
injurious to man and the parasites that pray 
upon them. Man is always disturbing this 
balance, and often to his serious hurt. 
The Stockman says that farmers' wives 
have more work to perform in securing water 
for household purposes than any other class 
of women as comfortably situated as they are. 
They have the purest water at command, and 
husbands possessing more than the average 
ability of men to provide their homes with 
labor-saving conveniences. 
The Southern Cultivator says whenever 
parties, who happeu to disagree about busi¬ 
ness matters, can settle their differences by 
arbitration, much money will be saved there¬ 
by and ill-will avoided. The jury will other¬ 
wise agree on a compromise and do it for 
you. A large number of verdicts are com¬ 
promise verdicts .. 
The Rural Home says that old trees have 
no sap aud vitality to waste on extra branches. 
Bearing trees want their vigor encouraged. 
Don’t bo greedy—be content with a good 
yield. Don’t let generous trees cripple them¬ 
selves in your service by overbearing. 
Now comes the time when the farmer sits 
down to his dinner of salt pork and potatoes 
and thinks how many times he has eaten of 
the same fare. It is a good time for him to 
figure out how much he has gained by not 
keeping up his garden and orchard. 
Sir J. B. Lawes says in the Agricultural 
Gazette that there can be no doubt that well- 
made red clover silage is a very good food 
for fattening oxen.... 
The N. Y. Tribune says that Mr. E. G. 
Fowler is good authority for the statement 
that “of all the colossal liars on earth the 
medicine men take the palm.” The extent to 
which they gull the public is shown by the 
alleged fact that “enough money is spent for 
drugs each year to nearly pay the National 
debt........ 
Do uot forget to plant sweet corn for suc¬ 
cession. ...... 
Now is the time to prepare beds for new 
plantations of strawberries. Plow or spade 
deeply and thoroughly. Use all the old man¬ 
ure you eau afford. Unleached wood ashes 
are excellent. Bone flour is also first-rate in 
connection with the wood ashes. 
Mr. A. W. Chkkver says that Prickly 
Comfrey is a uuisance aud should be let alone 
by all who live where Red Clover and other 
valuable forage plants will thrive. Mr. 
Cheever calls it a “much puffed” and “much 
advertised pest”..... 
C. A. Green thinks that the Charles Down¬ 
ing is the most profitable strawberry. He has 
tried all kinds..... 
If you have a choice of fairs, attend the one 
that prohibits horse racing, side shows aud 
gambling. It is your duty so to do. 
Keep the soil about cabbages mellow. A 
good way to force extra-fine heads is to use 
liquid manure. Any soluble nitrogenous ma¬ 
terial is good—blood, nitrate of soda, sulphate 
of ammonia, etc.... .. 
From this time forward the Rural New- 
Yorker will give extra attention to the 
markets of the world .. 
If successful with your celery plants you 
ought ere this to have cut back the tops twice 
or even thrice so as to give stocky plants. 
Early celery ought to have been planted a 
week or more ago. There is yet time for the 
latest ....... 
Sow Strap-Leaved Turnip seeds. 
The time to cut pereuuial weeds is just be¬ 
fore the formation of seeds. It is theu that 
the roots are weakened and have the least 
power to send forth uew shoots.. 
Have you any budding to do?. 
Move the sweet potato vines to prevent 
them from rooting. 
Remember that Buhach—the powder or a 
solution in water—will kill the cabbage worm. 
Ice-cold water does not harm them. 
During these hot days, wo conjure our 
hard-working friends to bathe freely every 
night, and to change or at least to air their 
under garments daily.. 
There is no living creature that should be 
obliged to work iu the suu when the thermom¬ 
eter stands 90 c or over in the shade. 
A small purslane plant will produce thou¬ 
sands of seeds. Pull the plants up for the heus 
or pigs before they mature seed. 
The Ohio Farmer advocates the election of 
farmers to the Legislature. Other things be¬ 
ing equal, a farmer will best represent a 
farmer. But he must be a real farmer, not 
simply a land owner or speculator in real 
estate, while all his sympathies are with other 
classes....... 
We want legislators of integrity and char¬ 
acter. who will regard party interests second¬ 
ary to public welfare, and who can not be 
bribed by any lobby, however strong, to vote 
against the interests of the people aud in 
favor of monopolies... 
Lawyers make laws in their own interests, 
and a radical partizan will sacrifice the pub¬ 
lic welfare, every time, to party success. 
If farmers will unite for this purpose, and 
exert themselves, they can take the reins from 
demagogues and party hacks, and redeem 
the Slate from corruption and misrule. 
The Michigan Farmer says that every busi¬ 
ness enterprise depends, for success, upon 
well considered plans; an attempt is always 
made to fortify every weak point. Yet when 
the most perfect plans have been made there 
is almost always a shadow of portending evil, 
a ghost like Banquo*s that “will not down.” 
It is this fear oftentimes that pushes men on 
to their best work. If the ghost ever can be 
forgotten it is in the quiet, peaceful life of 
the farm..... 
What is the use of trying to produce “gilt- 
edged” butter? Why not have it gold all the 
way through? ... 
The Baltimore American tells of a cow 22 
years old. She has been the mother of 21 
calve3 and has produced over two tons of 
butter. The cow is Queen. Who doubts it?.. 
A good sheep makes the ideal farm scaven¬ 
ger. It will eat what other stock leave. The 
soil takes on new life at the touch of the 
“golden hoof”..... 
The Charleston News and Courier thinks 
Southern farmers have found something bet¬ 
ter than cotton. It is silk culture. Better 
try grass first. 
Go over the tomato vines and search for the 
tomato worm. Use a pair of scissors and cut 
them in two. Their copious droppings will 
tell of their whereabouts. 
It is a good time to soak the felloes of 
wheels with linseed oil. A good way is to put 
oil in a shallow trough, raise the wheel just 
so that the felloe is covered and turn it. 
The Report of the Fruit Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion, of Ontario, Canada, says that the Hardy 
Catalpa (C. speciosa) is hardy there. We 
should have doubted it. 
The Report deems Grimes's Golden, Ontario, 
Swayzie Pomrne Grise, aud Canada Baldwin 
the most valuable of apples; Clapp’s Favor¬ 
ite, Beurre d' Anjou, Flemish Beauty of pears, 
and McLaughlin and Glass’s Seedling of 
plums; Brighton, Moore’s Early aud Prentiss 
of grapes; Cuthbert, Turner, Caroline and 
Ohio of raspberries . 
The Snyder and Taylor’s Prolific Blackber¬ 
ries are best for Canada aud the cold North 
and West. 
Mr. Beadle, of Canada, is of the opinion 
that the Champion Grape is the most worth¬ 
less to grow to eat and the best to grow to sell! 
Rural readers; Tell us of your successes 
and failures of the season—in as few words 
as you will... 
A writer in the N. E. Homestead thinks a 
good sized board fastened over the eyes is the 
best thing to prevent cows from jumping 
fences. The board should be so loug that the 
cow must turn her head to see in front of her. 
The Canadian Breeder urges its readers to 
set out more shade trees ami hedges on the 
farm. The old settlers found in the forests 
the greatest enemy to their progress and pros¬ 
perity. They appear to have hated all trees. 
The present; generation of farmers seem to 
have inherited this hatred. The man who lets 
a hatred or prejudice run away with his com¬ 
fort, is remarkably foolish......... . 
TheN, E. Homestead says that many a 
mortgaged farm has upon it a barn with no 
manure cellar or shed. The rain washes the 
goodness out of the manure and the profit out 
of the farmer’s pocket at one time.. 
The American Cultivator says that every 
farmer who owns a flock of sheep should apply 
tar to the nose of each member of his flock. 
Put tar also at the bottom of the salt trough, 
and there will be little trouble from grubs iu- 
the-head. If the sheep have au abundance of 
“grub” to put in their bellies, there will not be 
the least trouble with the “grub” in-the-head. 
The farmer is a manufacturer. Sheep, 
horses, cattle, hogs and poultry are his ma¬ 
chinery. Other manufacturers are obliged to 
keep pace with now methods. Why should 
the farmer uot study at his profession?. 
The Farmer’s Call says, prepare now* for 
eggs in Winter. Iu egg production, it pays 
to be unfashionable. You want the hens to 
be at work while the rest of the hens in the 
country are having a rest.. 
Prof. Henry says, dismiss all prejudice 
that a skim-milk calf must be a stunted, un¬ 
sightly thing. 
Low prices, when they come, always bear 
more heavily on those who produce special 
products than on those who follow mixed 
farming . 
The Farmer’s Advance would like to seethe 
whip wholly discarded. An Arab would as 
soon strike his wife or daughter as his horse. 
The whip is the parent of stubbornness. It 
will be found in the pedigree of every balky 
horse..... 
The New Orleans Times-Democrat thinks 
the condition of the mass of cotton planters 
at the South is deplorable. The “all-cotton” 
system ha3 driven the grasses and cereals from 
the farms and located the Southern smoke¬ 
house and corn-crib at Chicago. Every planter 
must become a farmer before the trouble can 
be removed. Cotton must be used as a sur¬ 
plus crop.... 
Thomas C. French, of EDglaud, says that 
of all the vast improvements of the present 
century, he looks upon silage as second only 
to the general introduction of the turnip in 
the importance of its bearing upon agricul¬ 
ture...... 
Shade for the pasture, but sunshine for the 
garden. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Seeley’s Bay, Ontario, July 24.— 
The Rural peas and beans are doing very 
well and the corn is growing well, The rye 
also is doing finely, but the wheat winter- 
killed. w. c. 
Stewart, Kent Co., Ont., July 24.—Crops 
are a great deal better than last year. The 
soii iD Kent and Essex Counties is mostly clay 
aud clay loam, with lighter soils along Lake 
Erie and the River Thames. Our staples are 
fall wheat and corn. The former is just being 
cut, and should average at least IS bushels per 
acre; some fields will nearly double that. 
Corn is late owing to the wet, backward 
Spring; but it is g^pwing fast now under 90 
degrees in the shade. Oats also are rather 
late, but promise a good crop. Barley was 
injured in many places by too much water. 
Most of it will be housed this week. Fruit 
prospects are good. Sorghum for sirup is 
grown here to some extent, w. h. p. 
Connecticut. 
Middlebury, New Haven Co , July 27.— 
We are having a very dry time. The grass 
crop, owing to the dry weather, is very light; 
won't average over half a crop. Pastures 
don’t seem to grow, consequently feed is very 
scarce. The crop of apples is very promising, 
for most trees are loaded with fruit. Potatoes 
early planted will be a light crop, few in a 
hill aud small. Oats, owing to the dry 
weather, will be short and light—inclined to 
rust. J.K. B. 
District ot Columbia. 
Washington, July 16.—We are enduring 
the warmest weather here for two years; we 
have had drought for nearly three weeks.every- 
thing suffering terribly for rain. We only 
had a half crop of strawberries and rasp¬ 
berries. Among several kinds of red raspber¬ 
ries, the Hansell is a little the earliest and as 
large as the Marlboro. Crimsou Beauty is 
identical with Marlboro (!) Cuthbert is the 
largest of all. None stood the Winter very 
well. Brandywine is the finest of all. My 
crop only averaged me eight cents per quart. 
The competition is so great that it does not 
pay to grow any market crops. Farmiug pays 
very little at present; but I only own 15 acres 
of land and nearly all is in trees aud small 
fruit, and after paying the costof pi.kiug and 
other expenses, l am as “flat'' as I was before 
this crop ripened, so l have a notion of emi¬ 
grating to a new country. w. d. p. 
[If emigratkm were a sure remedy for hard 
times, what a splendid passenger business the 
railroads would be doing, aud what a sight 
would be presented by every highway and 
by-way in the land, white with “prairie schoon¬ 
ers,” or dingy with wayfarers! The tide of 
truvel would be flowing from and to all points 
of the compass, and “several others,” and 
“uew” neighbors would be objects of such 
curiosity and speculation iu nearly every 
township that regret would be small over the 
old neighbors whom they had succeeded, aud 
who had gone in search of fortune perhaps to 
the very place which the “new" ones had left 
because they couldn’t find it there.— eds.] 
Florida. 
Rixford, Suwannee Co., July 15.—The 
cotton area has been increased 20 per cent. 
We raise the Long Staple or Sea Island, and 
the condition is good. As usual we hear of 
the cotton worm. Corn is better than for two 
years. The sweet potato crop is always good. 
Sugar-cane is doing finely. Quite a number 
of orchards of the Le Conte Pear have been 
started, but not many are old enough to fruit, 
but promise well. The general condition of 
all crops is good. G. c. R. 
Illinois. 
Farmingdalb, Sangamon Co,, July 21.— 
The weather has been favorable for farm 
crops, with the exception of wheat, A dry 
spell of ten days has secured most of the hay 
and some of the oats in good shape. Small 
fruits have done well, but prices have been 
unremunerative. The codling moth and cur- 
cuiio are too much for the average farmer in 
the raising of apples and plums: the apple 
worm is also starting his network of holes in 
our apples, and, all in all, the outlook for 
apples is not encouraging for the planter. 
B. B. 
Springfield, Sangamon Co., July 17.— 
While the most of the farmers of Central 
Illinois are rejoicing in the prospect of more 
than an average corn crop, in some localities 
more rain seems to be needed to bring the 
crop forward, and yet along the river in San¬ 
gamon County hundreds of acres have been 
overflown this month, and the growing corn 
almost wholly destroyed. The hay and oat 
harvests are about over. Both have done 
well and the product generally saved in good 
condition. All who can afford to do so are 
stacking and holding their wheat for better 
prices. p. f. 
Strasburg, Shelby Co., July 23.—Winter 
wheat was all killed except in sheltered places 
next to or in the timber. About oue-fourth 
more corn and oats were planted than usual. 
Some corn very good; some very poor on ac¬ 
count of poor seed. Oats good. Early potatoes 
good. Late potatoes have been killed by 
drought. Apples few, and other fruits almost 
a total failure. Peaches all billed with the ex¬ 
ception of a few young trees. H. B. 
INDIANA™ 
Mexico, Miami Co., July 24.—Wheat har¬ 
vest is over. It wa3 the latest we ever had in 
this section: some fields were cut as late as 
July 18. Thrashing has commenced and, as 
far as beard from, the yield has been about 
13 bushels to the acre; quality medium. Oats 
are ready for harvest: a fair crop. The hay 
harvest is about over; the crop has been put 
up in splendid condition. The season, as a 
rule, has been very favorable for corn, though 
on undrained clay ground it has beeD a little 
too wet. The crop as a whole is in splendid 
condition. The prospect for an abundant 
crop of potatoes is very flattering. Stock of 
all kinds are in prime condition. The most 
doleful sight one sees now in passing over the 
country is that of the dead and dying or¬ 
chards caused by the severity of last Winter. 
There are some orchards that will bear a light 
crop of apples, but these are exceptions and not 
the rule Orchard products will be scarce here 
for some time to come. Thrashing is mostly 
all done here by machinery, aud yet all who 
wanted work have been busy at good wages. 
This country was recently noted far and near 
as the Wabash chills-and-fever region, but, 
thanks to a thorough system of drainage, the 
right to that title is a thing of the past, and a 
healthier country than we have now would be 
hard to find. 
The Rural peas—Stratagem and the Rural 
New-Yorker—were fully worth the price of 
the paper. The Rural corn is doing well. 
The flower seeds were a failure here. I was 
afraid to sow the Johnson Grass. Success to 
the best farm paper in America—the Rural 
New-Yorker! n. b. h. 
Iowa. 
Osage, Mitchell Co., July 19.—The usual 
areas of grain—oats, barley aud corn—were 
sown and promise a full harvest. Thus far 
the crops have not suffered from unusual 
storms. Rain has been copious, with but 
short intervals; but there has beeu no drought 
to cheek the growth of plants. We may look 
for more than au average wheat harvest; say 
110. Corn and hay 120 throughout the 
county. Potatoes promise a very large 
yield, but they are not safe yet from rot or 
other calamity. Cabbage, stand excellent— 
worms take a good drink of Prof. Riley’s ice 
water and go on eating, greatly refreshed. 
L. S. E. 
Osage, Mitchell Co., July 19.—I have plant¬ 
ed my potatoes after the trench-mulch system 
except that I dug very large holes instead of 
trenches, and cultivated flat. It was hard 
work to keep from hilling up, as the hills fill 
up, the potatoes begin to crowd out. Our hills 
yield better than yours East. One of your 
own farmers estimated 40 hills to the bushel; 
I estimate 10. I think it was the mulching 
that caused the plants to be so late in making 
their appearance. I thought that my early 
potatoes were spoiled; but when they tasted 
the air, how they did grow ! I would not 
mulch early potatoes for the table. It re- 
i tarded them at least one week. L. s.[e. 
