<335 
fHE RURAL #tlW-YORKEK 
tions of frowy lard and maggotty tallow, and 
even that would be too good for such fellows. 
Trek Planting. —Nebraska has now about 
250,000 a^rcs of growing forests, in which 
have been set 600,000,000 young trees. Besides 
these, there have been planted over 12,000,000 
fruit trees, over 2,500,000 grape vines, a vast 
number of berry bushes and plants, and 
countless quantities of ornamental shrubs. 
So says the reportof her Horticultural Society. 
Wesav Nebraskians have level heads; and 
by-and-by the people of the East will be look¬ 
ing at. those Hue forests, and wonderiug why 
they bad not sense enough to plant thousands 
of acres of their rocky hillsides, that are so 
well adapted to this purpose and to no other; 
but which are now allowed to lie bare in the 
sunshine, raising nothing but weeds to make 
foul the rest of the land. Consider this mat¬ 
ter now. 
Thk Russian Mulberry.— In regard to 
this much puffed tree, Dr. Hoskins, very sen¬ 
sibly. remarks that he does uot consider it of 
any value at all, except asa curiosity for the 
lawn. Most of the seedlings produce fruit 
that is hardly eatable, and even wbeu it is 
fairly good, it is hardly worth while to grow 
it for that purpose, as only a few ripen at a 
time, and the birds are pretty sure to get 
them. The Russian Mulberry is in every re¬ 
spect a fraud. 
No More Pounding.— The pork packers 
doing business in Kansas City And that many 
hogs received of late have been badly injured 
by harsh treatment. From the looks of the 
cured bams it is evident that the bruises were 
produced by kicking, prodding aud striking. 
The packers claim that an allowance for 
bruised hogs must be made hereafter. In a 
circular recently issued it is said that no 
prods, whips or sticks of any kind should be 
allowed in the bauds of persons engaged in 
driving liogs, and that the only implements 
of persuasion should be pieces of one-inch hose 
or old harness tugs cut two or three feet long. 
Tois is a needed reform, and we hope it will 
be carried out. Thousands of dollars are lost 
every year through the brutal handling of 
stock. 
Green Food for Poultry in Winter.—M r. 
James Rankin, in the N E. Homestead, says 
he always sows a piece of rye iu August quite 
thickly, aud by fertilizing freely, he gels it 
18 inches high—a mass of green vegetation. 
When frozen solid, and just before the suow 
covers it, be cuts and packs it away iu an out- 
buil ling where it will keep frozen until needed. 
Each day or two iu Winter be exposes a 
quantity of this to the warm airuniil thawed, 
aud then ehops It line for his hens. A free 
use of this greeu food alternately with boiled 
potatoes, cabbage and other refuse, gives 
healthy fowls and pleutv of eggs. The great 
mistake iu keeping poultry iu Winter is the 
neglect of giving plenty of suceuleut food. 
No stock on the farm needs It worse. 
THE LATEST AND BRIEFEST. 
0yeji}tu!]?re. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. 
XXXYIII. 
cause she can’t earn her living in any other 
way. You have no right to thus deliberately 
burden the young horse with disease... 
J. K. Brown, Dairy Commissioner of New 
York, thinks the present low price of dairy 
products will lend to increase the consump¬ 
tion of pure butter and cheese. Iu due time 
comfortable quarters, and at the same time 
permit his pigs, that any day represent a con¬ 
siderable sum of money, to suffer night and 
day from extremes of heat or cold, and there¬ 
by fail to return him so much as 10 cents per 
bushel for the food they consume. 
Mr T. B. Terry says the farmer who px- 
want healthy, thrifty and vigorous pigs at all 
seasons of the year.. 
Z. A. Gilbert, in the Maine Farmer, says 
that a meal ration will be fonnd most profit¬ 
able when cattle are at pasture. We want 
the steers to grow and the cows to keep up 
the flow of milk. The pastures at this season 
will not do this work without help... 
The Scottish Gazette wants a greater vari¬ 
ety of greeu crops grown for feeding purposes. 
For general usefulness it thinks there are no 
two green crops to compare with vetches and 
cabbage. 
In many parts of England the practice of 
shearing lambs is on the increase. This shear¬ 
ing doe3 nob take place till midsummer or 
later. The practice t“nds to diminish the 
next clip, but the animal makes greater pro¬ 
gress in the inter val....». 
An Ohio farmer claims that the use of 
Paris-green for destroying potato beetles is 
unnecessary, as he has completely cleared his 
field of them with a single application of five 
pounds each of lime and copperas, dissolved in 
20 gallons of water.. 
Feltham says, seeing all men are not 
CEii puses to read the riddle of another man’s 
inside, and that most men judge by appear¬ 
ances, it behooves a man to barter for a good 
esteem, even from his clothes and outside. 
We guess the goodness of the pasture by the 
mantle we see it wear... 
The Indiana Farmer says those who have 
young colts should bear in mind that the first 
Summer tells on them in all the future. If 
they have been well kept, well fed, and grow¬ 
ing. tbere is a future for them. But if not, 
there is little hope for a good horse. 
MARY WAGER FISHER. 
Wk fiud the following circulating 
without any owner, but. notwith¬ 
standing, it is a very convenient rule 
for reckoning postage; A silver 
dollar weighs less thau an ounce. 
Hence any letter not heavier tbau a 
dollar cau go for a single two-cent 
stamp. A tive-ceut silver piece added 
to the dollar will give the ouuce. If 
you have not the silver dollar, five 
nickels aud a small copper cent will 
give an ounce weight. 
Mr. G. L. Allen const ructs an ex¬ 
ample of syllogistic reasoning that 
is worthy of tho old philosophers. 
Without the bumble bees there 
would be no crop of Red Clover; the 
euerny of tho bumble bee is the field 
mouse; the sworn destroyer of the 
field mouse is the cat; the old maid 
is the solid friend of the cut; hence, 
the more old maids, the more clover. 
A writer iu Home aud Farm 
thinks “spontaneous combustion” is 
ofteu caused by a tramp's pipe. He 
speaks of an instance w here a bright 
tiu can sot fire to a wood pile. The 
sun's rays, redacted by the bright tin, 
were concentrated upon a dry, rot¬ 
ten piece of wood. The moral we 
learn is, keep the cans bright, but 
don't put them too near the wood pile. 
Mr. W. L. Cole discovered a 
new’ “scare-Crow” or “scare bug.” 
He noticed that tho little black cucumber 
bugs always rau away at any movement 
about the vines. He stuck a small stake iu 
each hill with a w hite rag just long enough to 
clear the vines. When the wind blows the rag 
flaps about and the bugs get away. 
Don’t commit a crime against horse flesh 
by breeding the old spavined mare, just be 
BLUE POUTER. (From Loudon Live Stock Journal.) Fig. 393. (See page 594.) 
the dairyman who will be patient, true to 
himself aud his customers, will again secure 
fair compensation for his products and labor. 
Tuk “Department of Domestic Economy” 
is a regular feature at some of the Western 
agricultural colleges. These departments are 
doing good work, if we can credit the reports. 
A young woman student recently sent home a 
box coutaiuing “a poem in the shape of a loaf 
of bread, an essay in the form of a roasted 
pects the little, delicate wheat plants to do 
their best among lumps and clods, no matter 
how rich they might be, will be mistaken.. .. 
The Colorado Live Stock Record thinks 
that Alfalfa will become a power in the land. 
Good, sweet pork, raised on Alfalfa alone, 
can be found in the Denver markets. 
Mr. J. N. Muncey. late of the Iowa Agri¬ 
cultural College, concludes the result of experi¬ 
ments in feeding swice by saying that all 
BLACK MOTTLED TRUMPETER. (From London Live Stock Journal.) Fig. 394. (See page 594.) 
chicken, and various other compositions'in the 
forms of pie and cake.” That is the kind of a 
diploma to carry some weight. I is better 
thau a gold medal won after nights of study 
at a literary college.. 
F. D. Coburn, in Our Country Home, says 
it is a fact that a farmer will frequently 
spend money to provide a useless dog with 
young animals ax*e the most profitable, givingj 
the greatest increase in live weight from the 
lea^t. food. This statement Is uot generally 
believed among feeders, and yet it remains a 
scientific truth, nevertheless .. 
The construction of pig-pens is a matter 
which should have more thought aud care 
than is usually given jt, particularly if you 
ALASKAN CRUISE, 
The morning of June 11 dawned on a per¬ 
fectly clear sky, the sun rising over the moun¬ 
tains at 3.40 o'clock. Our thermometer, hung 
on the east side of the ship, marked a tempe¬ 
rature of 6U 0 at nine in the morning, and at 
nine p.m 5?A Breakfast was served at half 
past eight, but coffee aud crackers were to be 
had in the dining saloon by all early risers 
who wished them. About nine o'clock, being 
in Finlay son. Channel, we enjoyed for half an 
hour or more, a rare and exquisitely beauti¬ 
ful panorama on both sides of the steamer 
caused by the reflection in the water of every 
thing on the land in the most perfect and min¬ 
ute way; trees, rocks, waterfalls leaping from 
the mountain tops, snow covered peaks from 
two to three thousand feet high. Every wave 
upturned by the prow of the ship acted as an 
inclined and separate mirror, while the water 
along the shore iu advance of us lay without 
a ripple, and formed a perfect reflector. 
From Finlayson Channel we pass¬ 
ed into Graham Reach, thence into 
Fraser Reach, which led us into 
Wright’s Sound; then we entered 
Grenville Channel, from that into 
Arthur Passage, thence to Malacca 
Channel or Passage, aud thence into 
Chatham Sound. The Scotch engi¬ 
neer told me that the Norway coast 
afforded no such inside passage as 
this, that the islands were nude of 
vegetation, and the high tun beat 
fiercely down upon them. The bays, 
or fiords, were deeper, the mountains 
immediately along them from two 
to three thousand feet high, while 
some farther inland rose to a bight 
of 8,000 feet. He thought the scenery 
here far finer than that eff Norway. 
The scenery from Finlayson Chan¬ 
nel on through Malacca Passage 
reminded me iu its character, very 
much of that along the Columbia 
River, where the river breaks its 
way through the Cascade Moun¬ 
tains, and Rural readers may re¬ 
member lhat I thought that the 
finest river scenery in the world—a 
venturesome verdict, as I have by 
no means seen it all. But here we 
rode from dawn until six o’clock in 
narrow’ passages—iu places not over 
one fourth of a mile wide—between 
mountains, uiauy of them wooded 
to the top with spruce and cedar 
from 50 to 75 feet high—many dead—rocks 
jutting out from the shores, mountains all 
around, peak? above peaks topped with 
snow, high cascades aud waterfalls, now 
and then white cliffs like quartz, in the 
water au occasional canoe with Indians who 
come into these mountains to hunt goat and 
deer, but no Habitations in sight. We saw 
