1685 
547 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Dishorning. —An important decisioR was 
recently arrived at in Ireland, where it is be¬ 
coming quite customary for farmers to cut 
the horns off their cattle. The Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,believing 
the practice to be cruel and unnecessary, 
brought suit against several parties. The 
cases attracted considerable attention in the 
agricultural world. The defense claimed, 
among other things, that the practice of dis¬ 
horning increased the value of the animals, as 
they wore rendered more gentle; that the 
suppression of the practice would be attended 
with enormous loss to the country, this loss 
being stated to be between £200,000 and £300,- 
000. It was also claimed that no practice 
causing less pain could be substituted for it. 
Chief Justice Morris decided that dishorning 
is not to be considered illegal if skillfully per¬ 
formed. The Parmer's Ornette calls the 
practice a horrible one, however performed. 
The dishorning is often unskillfully done, 
portions of the skull have heen cut away with 
the horns. The Gazette thinks the S. P. C. A. 
may yet be able to put some check on the 
practice. Dishorning, as there practiced, con¬ 
sists in sawing off the horns close to the head. 
Cattle of all ages are treated thus. This 
means cutting not only through the horn, but 
through the “pith” as well. This “pith” may 
safely be asserted to be the most sensitive 
part of the animal’s body. It is like the 
“quick” of our own finger Dails. Does it not 
make one’s flesh creep to think of cutting 
into this with a saw! It is said that 60,000 
cattle at the least are annually dishorned in 
Ireland; can this torture be necessary! Is it 
not possible to allow the horns to remain, or 
rears breed of polled cattle, or prevent the 
growth of the horns when the animals are 
young, by touching the button of the nascent 
horn with a very hot iron? 
Strawberries in the Boston Markets. 
—Mr. A. S. Fuller, who is a good author¬ 
ity upon small fruits, remarks that the Ameri¬ 
can Cultivator says that the most popular 
berry iu the Boston markets at the present 
time is the Charles Downing. It is of fine 
quality, desirable size, good color, and a fair 
keeper. For all purposes it seems to best suit 
the popular demand. Among Southern grow¬ 
ers the Crystal City is popular, as it is one of 
the earliest, and this is followed by the 
Crescent and the Wilson, the latter being a 
great favorite everywhere. It must be rather 
discouraging to the strawberry growers of 
Massachusetts to find that, after 40 years’ ex¬ 
perience iu raisiug rare varieties of the 
strawberry, not one of those now most popular 
iu the Boston market originated in the New 
England States. The Charles Downing was 
raised in Kentucky and the Wilson at Albany, 
N. Y. The once popular Hovey Strawberry, 
which was raised in a Boston garden, seems to 
have disappeared, or, at least, is rarely seen 
in market. 
City Boarders.— Mr. F. C. Robinson, of 
the Dudley (Mass.) Farmers’ Club, finds a 
tough conundrum iu the question—Does it pay 
farmers to take city boarders! He say3 that 
no oue would take them for pleasure. It 
must be for money. With the farmer the 
price is the first consideration. With the 
boarder it is the food. Many boarders are 
very exacting in their requirements, fruits 
and vegetables are not as much appreciated 
as one might suppose. The city markets are 
well supplied before the fanners oau raise 
them. Fresh meat is hardest to obtain. 
When much of it is demauded, the price of 
board should rise accordingly. Milk and 
cream with good butter are always expected; 
are they always to be found ou the farmer’s 
table! Good help is absolutely necessary. 
The farmer with a large family to help him 
will succeed best. Boarders for less than a 
mouth are to be avoided. It costs about as 
much to board children as to board adults. 
People who live in city boardiug houses are 
most desirable. It takes something of an 
education to make a good boarder. A pleas¬ 
ant sitting-room, with piano or organ, will 
prove a strong attraction. A stove is always 
necessary. Summer boarders are like New 
Englaud weather—changeable. The farmer 
and his wife must possess unlimited natience. 
The Cultivutor has some good thoughts upon 
much the same topic. Both city and country 
people need to understand each other better. 
Country people in these times <iro apt to be 
about as well informed as their visitors. It 
will not do for the latter to air a supposed 
superiority. Again, many country people 
needjio get over the idea that their city 
friends lead a butterfly sort of existence. 
Work in cities is, perhaps, more exhaustive 
than country work; as country life approaches 
the conditions of city life, the mental strain 
increases and life contains more care. 
Dr. Beadle says that the fruit growers of 
Canada may get a hardy race of peaches by 
raising seedlings. If a tree can thus be ob¬ 
tained to ripen its fruit, plant its pits. Go on 
planting the pits from the tree so produced 
for several generations. It was in this way 
that Dr. Beadle raised Arbor-vitees that stand 
the climate perfectly. 
Dr. Beadle says, further, that if you mulch 
grape-vines or plants of any kind, keep the 
mulch on the year round. There is nothing, 
he thinks, that will kill the trees of forests 
like raking the leaves away and thus exposing 
the roots feeding upon the surface soil. 
WHICH MAY REMIND YOU. 
The Duke of Argyle, after a visit to the 
United States, remarked that everything in 
this country was a matter of “waves”—there 
were “waves” of business depression, homi¬ 
cidal “waves,” speculative “waves,” and hot 
and cold “waves.” 
Gen. Baker, in an address before the Min¬ 
nesota Dairyman’s Association, said that the 
cow sends the children to school and buys the 
sugar, tea and coffee of the best regulated 
farm families. She takes the mortgages from 
the debt-ridden farms and kindly calls at the 
bank to lift the note just due. The rearing 
of stock is the best appliance yet discovered 
for the recovery of the soil. 
O. C. Griggs says the best cheap paint for 
barns he has ever used was made with sweet 
skimmed milk, lime and red ocher. 
Prof. L. H. Bailkv, discussing the mis¬ 
takes in rural embellishment, wisely remarks 
that a farm-house cannot present a good ap¬ 
pearance unless it stands four or five rods or 
more back from the road. Such a situation 
is also a matter of convenience in escaping, 
dust, noise and publicity. 
Prof. Lazenby, in a late bulletin of the 
Ohio Experimental Station, very sensibly con¬ 
cludes that ripe Orchard Grass makes very 
poor hay. We are curious to know what ripe 
grass does not? 
Prof. Knapp, in the Iowa Homestead, says 
Red Clover is a gross feeder and rapidly de¬ 
vours barn-yard manure, ashes and gypsum. 
He also thinks the reason it dies out of past¬ 
ures so quickly is because it is pastured so 
closely that it cannot seed. Being a biennial, 
if it is not allowed to seed, it dies out at the 
end of the second year. Iu our experience 
upon our Western N. Y. Farm, if not pastur¬ 
ed, it remains perpetually in'the ground. 
The Western Rural says that the man who 
is always claiming his exact rights does not 
get along any better than the man who sacri¬ 
fices something of his rights for the.sake of 
peace........ 
Miss E. A. Ormerod advises the English 
farmers to kill the warbles or “grubs” in tbe 
backs of their cattle by touching the small 
openings in their skin with mercurial oint. 
ment. Prof. Riley advises the same treatment. 
A very little of the oiutment will answer. It 
strikes us as bad advice, as we have explained. 
The Farmer’s Gazette says keeping bulls 
confined with neither rain nor sun touching 
them, and then beeping their progeny out in 
all kinds of weather, is a contrast in stock 
management, which cannot fail to affect the 
interests of the farmer. 
Mr. Libby, editor of Our Country Home, is 
severe upon the President of the Massachu¬ 
setts Agricultural College. He says: “Take 
a walk over the hill aud cross the presidential 
kitchen garden. A few straggling hills of 
corn and potatoes struggle with weeds to do 
honor to the head of an agricultural college.” 
According to the Scottish Agricultural 
Gazette there are annually raised iu Great 
Britain 2,839,000 acres of turnips, which aver¬ 
age 21 tons per acre, or over 29 millions of 
tons, which are mostly fed off on the ground 
where growu. This shows how this erop is 
regarded in a country where farming is car¬ 
ried to its highest development, and should 
have great weight iu inducing American 
farmers to give more attention to the growing 
of root crops for stock feediug.... 
Mr. F. Collingwood, one of the architects 
of ths Brooklyn Bridge, thinks the supply of 
white pine in the United States is sure to be 
exhausted before the end of this century. He 
recommends tree plauting in regions where 
timber is scarce, as making as fair return as 
crop planting. 
Prof. Cook finds that flies don’t like th 
air in' bis stable, owing to the fact that he 
keeps his barrel of carbolic acid and soft soap 
—used in destroying insects—there. Flies 
I will alwuys runjaway from this mixture. ~ 
“Life” considers that compositors are rather 
set in their ways. 
Wh. Horne, a veterinarian of Wiscon¬ 
sin, says, in the Live Stock Indicator, that 
any person might almost wash in tur¬ 
pentine and not feel much inconvenienced 
by the operation. Let a person put ever so 
small a quantity upon any abraded surface, 
or into the smallest wound, and the pain will 
be quite intolerable. The opposite is just 
the case with the horse. He firmly believes 
that he could kill any horse in America with 
one half pint of turpentine quickly applied 
by a sponge on the outside when there was 
not even a sign of abrasion whatever, while 
any reasonable quantity may be put into a 
wound on a horse without much inconvenience 
or pain....... 
Turpentine is quite a good dressing fora 
wound of any kind, providing it does not sup¬ 
purate sufficiently to allow of the healing 
process. Turpentine should never be allowed 
to touch the outer skin of the horse upon any 
condition, for it always causes excruciating, 
long continued pains. 
The London Farm and Home says that 
while maize is the very best food for fattening 
hogs, it is far too heavy a food for growing 
pigs. It thinks no food so good for this pur¬ 
pose as wheat middlings. That pigs grown ex¬ 
clusively on middlings will have a larger 
frame, more lean meat or muscle, and a much 
less proportion of fat than those fed in tbe or¬ 
dinary way. There is undoubtedly much that 
may be done in the way of selecting proper 
food to produce just the product most desir 
able, and when our feeders become wise 
enough to make the proper selection, an ani¬ 
mal maturing early will afford just as desirable 
meat a3 oue several years old... 
Squirrels, in speaking of their progeny, 
never use the expression, “He is a chip of the 
old block.” They have it, “He is a chip of 
the old munk,” says Life. 
The Pennsylvania Farmer well savs that 
there is scarcely anything that will do pigs 
more good than good clover. Among the 
Western agricultural practices that might 
well be introduced more generally at the East 
is that of giving the hogs a run iu the clover 
that is to be plowed under.. 
The Housekeeper wisely advises as follows: 
Teach the sons and daughters first of all not 
to expect to accomplish in a day what others 
have taken a life-time to do. 
The Queen thinks the love of country is 
universal. There are some unhappy spirits 
who prefer existence anioug brick and mortar 
at all times, yet even these people will take 
delight in the parks and open places. In our 
own coimtry, every man or woman traces 
back to the farm. The city is made up of 
country people. Small wonder that we love 
the farm........ 
The breeders of Short-horns, Jerseys, Hol¬ 
lands and all the rest, are doing their best to 
prove that their particular animals are best 
suited to wear the title of the “poor man’s 
cbw.” In the mean time, few consult the 
“poor man” himself as to his wants and ueeds. 
As a consequence, he clings to his ideal—the 
scrub.... 
Many a man who tries to raise pure sheep 
or cattle has been beaten by having strange 
rams or bulla break into his flock: and herds. 
In Canada, these stray animals give much 
trouble. The Canadian Live Stock Journal 
would like to have a “scrub tax.” It would 
have every bull owner take out a license 
which should vary in amount iu inverse order 
to the bull's breeding. Under this system, 
a good bull would cost very little, while the 
license for a scrub—“the son of somebody’s 
cow by nobody’s bull”—would cost much. 
Our Country Home says that an agricul¬ 
turist who spends his money in experimental 
farmiug for the good of his race deserves well 
of mankind. He is obliged to take his reward 
chiefly in the knowledge that he is trying to 
do some good. Mauy “faucy farmers” are 
ridiculed by their practical neighbors. This 
is not a very good way to make tham useful. 
If they have money and time enough, let them 
test aud experiment. Let the practical people 
stand back if they will, and watch these ex¬ 
periments, prepared to take advantage of 
every good feature. No oue in this age stands 
ready to claim that agriculture is perfect yet. 
Let the experimenters work on; but be care¬ 
ful how you follow them until their new 
systems are absolutely established . 
Mr. H. A. Haioh, in his history of the 
alumni of the Michigan Agricultural College, 
notes the fact that a comparatively small per¬ 
centage of the graduates at agricultural col¬ 
leges are actually engaged in farmiug. He 
thinks this percentage will increase. The 
ordinary college graduate is poor, oftentimes 
in debt for money hired to complete his edu¬ 
cation. That such boys teach or engage iu 
some work that will enable them to pay their 
debts and Ig«tI»[good start, does not prove that 
agricultural colleges are a failure by any 
means. The probabilities are that a good 
majority of these young men will in time be¬ 
come farmers or gardeners. They will not 
hurt agriculture any because they first paid 
their debts, and looked over the world a 
little.,...... 
If Mr. Castor, of Vespra, Ontario, had an 
orchard of seedling apples he would top-graft 
them with the Ben Davis. He says it will 
keep until June, and any apple that will keep 
sound and rosy until then is the apple to sell.. 
The Cuthbert, disseminated in the Rural’s 
Free Seed Distribution four years ago, is 
everywhere praised as the best and hardiest 
late, red raspberry.. 
The Sheep Breeder admits that there are 
drawback-*, serious and many, in the produc¬ 
tion of mutton and wool in America, but -ays 
it seems to be an easily demonstrable fact that 
sensible men, comfortably prepared for prose¬ 
cuting sheep husbandry, who make sacrifices 
to get into other kinds of stock-raising, are 
truly “jumping from the frying-pan into the 
fire”....... 
The New England Farmer, speaking of our 
experiments in crossing wheat and rye, says: 
“Whether anything valuable comes from the 
operation or not, tbe experiment is a very 
interesting one, and will involve the old ques¬ 
tion so long discussed: What is a speeiesand 
what a variety 1”.. 
Mr. Dempsey, of the Fruit Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation of Ontario, harvested 2,000 quarts of 
strawberries on two acres. 
Arkanma. 
BEEBE.White Co.. July SO.—This region is in 
close proximity to the foot-bills of the Boston 
Mountains near the center of the State—312 
miles south of Bt. Louis, and directly on the 
main trunk of the Iron Mountain R. R., and 
33 from Little Rock, the capital of the State 
The country is diversified by rolling lands, 
sloping hills, green valleys and shaded streams. 
The soil is a dark sandy loam, well adapted to 
grains of all kinds, as well as to the growth of 
atl the tame grasses: and, owing to the 
quality and quantity of water and grasses, 
thisisan excellent location for a dairy, as 
there is none within 40 miles of our town. 
Beebe alone will support a first-class dairy, 
and owing to the mild winter, stock raising is 
a success. Lands are selling now from $2.50 
to $5.00 per acre, while close to town land can 
be had frem $7 00 to $10.00 per acre. The 
mercury seldom falls to zero in Winter, or 
reaches 05 degrees in Summer. This is an ex¬ 
cellent fruit region. We never fail in having 
fruit of all kinds. G. w. m. 
Indiana. 
Greenfield, Hancock Co .July 29.—Wheat 
about one-third of a crop. Cora is the best 
for many years, but needs rain. Grass is very 
heavy, some fields making as much as three 
tons per acre. Potatoes and other vegetables 
are as good. Stock looks well. There will be 
a large acreage of wheat sown this Fall. 
J. w, p. 
W.akarusa, Elkhart Co., July 30 — Usual 
area of grain planted Wheat, average crop 
in this, the northern half of Elkhart and St. 
Joseph Counties. Wheat all cut, but not all 
housed yet. Oats, prospect good. Corn very 
uneven owing to worms, poor seed and dry 
weather. The latter part of June and the first 
part of July were very dry, but we are having 
nice rains every few days and corn is improv¬ 
ing very fast. The hay crop is good. There 
will be a few apples; a great many trees are 
dead and more are dying: tbe past cold Win¬ 
ter is supposed to be the cause, j. h. n. 
Iowa. 
Toledo, Tama Co., Julv 2S.—People are 
cutting their golden gram, which never was 
better. Corn promising more than an aver¬ 
age. The Rural I am well pleased with; I 
find abundance of valuable information in it. 
d. c. s. 
Maryland. 
Talbot Co., August 3.—We are in a good 
wheat district. Our county has a variety of 
soils, varying from the heavy white-oak clay, 
to light loam with but littie sand. We have 
a complete net-work of water-courses, making 
innumerable necks, dividing and subdividing 
almost every part of our county. These necks 
and lands bordering on the salt water gener¬ 
ally have mi clay subsoil with heavy loam, 
being our best lands for both wheat and corn. 
It is not many years since most of this 
county had the appearauce of a piece of cor¬ 
duroy. Farms were cultivated on the three- 
field system. Wheat was seeded after corn, 
plowed in with treble plows, making lands 
four feet wide. This would be pastured after 
wheat aud followed with corn, the ridges.being 
