f HE RURAL HEW-YORKEKo 
those sections where they make the rankest 
growth more than in others.” 
Prof. Arthur does not tell us what these 
germs are, but we suppose them to be bacteria. 
One thing is certain, these germs or bacteria 
that are risiDg from “damp spots” iuto “the 
air when dry” have great power of discrimiu 
ation, and select the same kind of trees though 
situated hundreds of feet apart, neglecting 
the intermediate trees The only trees I had 
killed the first year, 18S1, were the new Freder¬ 
ick of Wurtemberg, one growing on high land, 
with a gravelly subsoil; one on soft, black soil 
with clay underneath; and the thirdsomewbat 
similarly situated, but each one from 300 to 
1,000 feet from the others.. The next year four 
St. Michael Archangel trees were attacked just 
in the same way; three of them recovered, 
but the fourth is in a bad way, full of blighted 
limbs, with pears hanging on the live ones. 
My crop from the four trees this year was 
eight bushels. 
I do not see that any of the experiments in 
inoculation are of any value. There is no 
doubt that there is just as likely to be Fap 
poisoning among vegetables as blood poison¬ 
ing among animals. We all know bow care¬ 
ful surgical men are of blood poisoning from 
diseased animals, and a diseased limb is quite 
as likely to contain a substauce sure poison to 
living tissues. Inoculating a tree does not tell 
us what is the cause of the blight. That is 
what we want to know. 
I do not look upon the blight with any great 
fear. With about 8,000 pear trees 30 to 40 years 
old on my own grounds, and neighbors 
adjoining with 1,000 more, where no blight 
has ever appeared except upon a few of my 
own trees, and all that were attacked having 
fully recovered except some 20 or 30 quite 
dead, and bearing this year one of the largest 
crops, without ever cutting off a blighted 
twig or limb at any time, I read with com¬ 
placency'the dictum, “promptly remove every 
trace of the disease, and burn the branches,” 
and enjoy the enthusiasm of the theorists. 
NOTES ON PEARS. 
REV. E. P. POWELL. 
The list of really valuable pears is much 
shorter than our nurserymen would have us 
think, although some of the catalogues are 
epitomes of reliable information; among 
others, that of Ellwanger & Barry I always 
refer to as authority, as I do to Campbell’s on 
grapes. These catalogues when trustworthy, 
are the most valuable of all helps to the 
am iteur growers. 
From experience with most of the leading 
varieties, I should now plant the following for 
a general home orchardFor Summer: Bart¬ 
lett, Clapp, Petite Marguerite, Tyson. For 
Autumn: Belle Lucrative, Burro Superttn, 
Duebease, Howell, Seckel, Sheldon, Onondaga, 
Aujou, Clairgeau. For Winter: Lawrence, 
Jones, WiuterNelis and Josephine de Malines. 
To this list five or six others might be added 
that would be generally quite as satisfactory. 
Of summer pears, I would class the Tyson 
as my favorite. The Bostiezer, though a 
straggliug grower, has a quality of high rauk. 
Of aututnu peal's and of ail pears, the Sheldon 
is the most perfect. It should be gathered in 
September, before it is in any way mature, 
except in growth, and placed in a fruit-room 
or cool cellar. Here it will keep until the 
middle of November, aud then—well, it is 
worth gold, for on the table it is uuequaled. 
The Onondaga is uot often ripened just to a 
dot, but if so, it is very fine as well as superbly 
beautiful. It is also a good keeper. But the 
noblest Roman of them all is the Aujou. 
Almost as good as the Sheldon, it is a wonder¬ 
ful producer, bearing every year and keeping 
until December or even January. I do not 
kuow of one fault in this pear in either tree or 
fruit. The tree is perfect lu form, anti has a 
rich foliage, and is uot at ail inclined to blight. 
The fruit, borne every year, is large, smooth 
and ripens a bright yellow. If picked early 
in October, it keeps as easily as an apple, and 
can be eaten or marketed when the market 
calls for it. The ripening of all such pears 
can be hastened by bringing them out of cool 
aud dark into warmer rooms. The Clairgeau 
is the showiest aud grandest of all, and with 
me a delicious fruit. Others complain of it, I 
think, because they do not properly ripen it. 
It must not be kept beyond November 1st or 
thereabouts. 
A list for market would depend a good deal 
on the locality. If planting a large orchard 
for profit, l would select Bartlett, Clapp, Ho¬ 
well, Sheldon, Anjou, Onoudaga, Clairgeau 
and Lawrence. But I would make the or¬ 
chard to consist one half of Anjou and follow 
hard after with Sheldon, Onondaga and Clair¬ 
geau. Bartlett is unquestionably im¬ 
mensely profitable if one is close to a first-class 
market; but without good culture it is sure tc 
be knobby, aud it is not a long keeper. 
A few varieties, especially Louise Bonne, 
need to be left on the trees till ready to fall. 
Others, like Clapp, must be picked a good 
many days before they are ripe and mellow. 
Others, like Belle Lucrative, must be taken 
just at the turn. The Lucrative is delicious, 
but too dull for market. It is now understood 
that certain conditions must exist before the 
blight can be developed. Our business is to 
prevent, not the blight, but the conditions. 
These may all be summed up iu rapid changes 
of temperature affecting the sap of the tree. 
The best preventive is mulch. Mulch pears 
heavily and always. The best material is, in 
rich lands, coal ashes; in barren lands, long 
manure. The mulch should, once a year, in 
midsummer, be lifted away aud the soil be 
carefully loosened with a fork aud all grass 
and weeds removed; the mulch must be then 
replaced; but an ignorant hand must be care 
fully watched during this process. The mulch 
tends to develop roots near the surface, and a 
careless use of the fork will destroy' these. 
Pear trees should invariably be beaded low. 
The objects are, 1, to make the trees compact 
and shapely; 2, to render it easy to gather the 
fruit, using only step ladders; S, to keep the 
fruit from injury when it falls; 4. to help to 
“hade the body and roots (in the Western 
States this is very important.); 5, to make it 
easy to prune the trees: 6, to make the trees 
come earlier into bearing. A low-headed 
tree, say, three to four feet from the ground, 
will bear as early as a dwarf; while if 
trimmed up to eight feet, or even six, it 
will not come into bearing under six or seven 
years. Of course, this plan prevents plowing; 
but a pear orchard, if mulched aud forked 
regularly, need not be plowed. My most 
miserable hours are when a plowman is gee- 
ing and hawing around my trees. With my 
culture I rarely have a touch of blight. 
Some of our fiuer varieties, such as Flem 
ish Beauty, crack and mildew so badly in 
many sections that they are nearly worthless. 
Puchesse, Howell and Louise, I grow wholly 
on quince. The Bose is a grand pear, but 
never fruils with me sufficiently to make it 
profitable. The tree is a bad grower. 
Of all things keep the professional trim¬ 
mer out of your pear orchard. Pear trees 
despise him; and a tree lover hates him. He 
will cut your trees after preconceived pat¬ 
terns, whereas no trees are more individual¬ 
ized than the pear. The Buffum is as erect 
as a Lombardy Poplar: while the Nelis 
sprawls like a lawyer when not on his legs. 
The Clairgeau is stiff as a parson discussing 
Ingersoll, and the Anjou is as shapely and 
graceful as the Seckel is round and sym¬ 
metrical. 
Oneida Co , N. Y. 
Dainj ijiisharamj. 
THE BUTTER GLOBULES. 
L. S. HARDIN. 
Every one interested in the dairy is anxious 
to have more definite knowledge upon some of 
the vital points in the art of butter making. 
One of these is the nature and controlling 
forces of the butter globules. 
In a well written article by Mr. T. D. Cur¬ 
tis. in the Rural for September 26th, “But¬ 
ter Making for Beginners,” I (iud these words: 
“The fat globules in milk have been found to 
range from one lifteen-hundreth to cne three- 
thousandth of an inch in diameter. The 
larger ones rise the most reaoily, churn the 
most easily aud make the best quality of but¬ 
ter.” While there may be a measure of truth 
in these three propositions, yet some of them 
are very questionable, while the others must 
be accepted with considerable caution. 
do the largest globules risk first? 
Comstock’s Philosophy tells us that the 
velocities of solid bodies falling from a given 
bight toward the earth ure equal, or. in other 
words, an ounce ball of lead will descend in 
the same time asapouud ball of lead.” This 
statement is afterward qualified as follows: 
“This is true in theory and in a vacuum, but 
there is a slight difference m this respect iu 
favor of the velocity of the larger body, owing 
to the resistance of the atmosphere.” The 
gravitation theory of cream rising is that the 
more solid milk atoms seek the bottom aud 
by displacement force the lighter cream 
globules to the top. so that it is not so much 
a question of howto get the cream to the top 
as it is to luduce the heavier portion toseek 
the bottom. These solid atoms are iutinitesi- 
tnal in size, and as they seek the bottom 
should reall.y retard the ascent of the large 
globules more than the small ones, just as a 
large baloon would probably uot rise so well 
iu a heavy rain storm as a small one There 
are, however, undoubtedly other elements as 
forces than gravitation, entering into the pro 
cess of cream rising. All the changes of milk 
caused by age, as souriug, ete., affect the 
risiug of the cream aud allow the larger glo- 
1 bqles to struggle to the top iu advance of 
the smaller ones owing to their greater 
buoyancy compared with the surface ex¬ 
posed. It is, therefore, only in systems of 
milk setting, where the milk is allowed to ob¬ 
tain considerable age. that there is any ma¬ 
terial difference in the size of the globule 
that rises first, and it may be said, for the 
benefit of beginners, that recent tests are 
condemning both the setting of milk for 48 
hours in shallow pans, when the big globules 
get first to the top, with sour milk at the 
bottom: and the separation of the cream by 
the centrifuge, when the milk is fresh from 
the cow, and no one can tell which globule is 
on top. Would it not be well for the begin 
ner to bear in mind that he must measurably 
spoil bis milk before he can get the large 
globules first, and it is a bad sign to see a 
dairyman looking for them. 
DO THE LARGEST GLOBULES CHURN THE MOST 
EASILY 1 
I think the Scotch verdict of “not proven” 
applies here. If Mr. Curtis he allowed to take 
from the surface of shallow pans the first 
cream that rises, ripen and churn it, and then 
wait for the small globules to get up with their 
accumulation of sour milk and what-not, I 
will grant his conclusion; but if the cream 
was separated bv a centrifuge when absolutely 
fresh, and the small could be separated from 
the large globules. I am not so certain about 
his position. Taking for granted wbat is uni 
versally claimed, that the milk of Holland 
cows contains much smaller globu’es than the 
milk of Jersevs, are the breeders of Hollands 
willing to admit that the cream from their 
breed is universally harder to churn than that 
from Jerseys ? I have never heard a com¬ 
plaint that Holland cream, whea properly 
bandied, was harder to churn than that of 
other cows. That Mr. Curtis’s proposition is 
generally accepted as true, I grant: but in 
dairyine there are many other glib sayings 
that will Dot bear close scrutiny. The fact is. 
we know little or nothing about the principles 
of cream-churning, and as an evidence of this 
fact, a late issue of the Student's Farm Jour¬ 
nal contained the following novel theories: 
“Dr. Salexlet held that daring churning, the 
mechanical motion causes the fat coutents of 
the butter globules to solidify, which makes 
them shrink.and roughens their surf ace.and on 
this account they unite with others and form 
larger globules till the butter grains appear. 
Dr Storeh bolds that the solidification of the 
fat contents has nothing to do with the butter 
formatiou.bat that during churning a sub¬ 
stance called caseine-hydrate is formed, which, 
layering around the globules, acts like mucil¬ 
age and causes them to stick together.” Here 
is a fine field for the genius of the beginner to 
disport itself. Where so ranch difference of 
opinion exists among scientific experts, or 
those who are generally eousiiered such, 
proper modesty must prevent ns. who have no 
such pretensions, From being dogmatic. 
DO THE LARGEST GLOBULES MAKE THE BEST 
BUTTER ? 
Granting the conditions again of time and 
8ge. as in shallow setting, he is undoubtedly 
right; but judging by the work of the modern 
centrifuge, is he not in danger of doing 
a noble breed of cattle a grievous wrong ? 
Why should the large globules contain 
better fat than the small ones ? Has anal¬ 
ysis ever proved tbi«, both globules of 
course being taken from fresh milk i That 
is, does analysis prove that Holland cream 
makes poorer butter than Jersey cream? I 
use these instances simplv because these breeds 
are said to represent the two extremes of 
large and small globules. What d'-es the churn 
say i In a late issue of the Farmer and Dairy- 
mau, edited by Mr. Curtis, is this item: “The 
Treasurer of the Elgin Cooperative Butter 
Company, which makes up the milk of about 
7(H) cows. 200 of them Holsteins, says that as 
an experiment, one week the milk of the Hoi- 
steins was kept separate from that of the other 
cows, and the cream was made iuto butter. 
The yield was greater than that front tHe 
other cows, and the quality of the butter was 
so superior that, when it was shipped, the com¬ 
mission merchant, knowing the butter was all 
of the same week’s make, wrote to know what 
caused the difference.” This is one of the 
famous factories of the country. All the fac¬ 
tories about Elgin are supplied from herds 
with generally large infusions of Holland 
blood. Without intending to discredit any 
other breed, 1 believe that butter made by a 
finished butter-maker from native cows or 
Hollands, cannot be told from the butter of 
any otber breed. This statement I make with 
confidence, because I have often tried at fairs 
to determine, by the taste and quality, what 
breed furnished the milk that made the best 
samples, and 1 never succeeded, and I have 
seen many otber good butter judges fail So 
far as quality of butter is concerned, there is 
infinitely more in the skill of the maker than 
there is in the breed of the cow or the size of 
fhe globule. 
A Cheap Food —Sneaking of the attempt 
of the people of Vickshurgto make bread out 
of rice flour during Grant’s siege, the Corn 
Miller says that a chemical consideration of 
rice flour shows that it is not possible to make 
hread outof it;tbeamountof glutpri is too small. 
Rice has an important place in domestic econ¬ 
omy, however. Too many people look upon itss 
the “heathen's food.” yet. as compared with 
manv common articles of food, it stands high 
in nutritive value. It contains, for instance, 
three times as much nutriment as an equal 
weight of potatoes. Notonlv is this true, but 
all the rice is capable of b^rag assimilated, 
while over 30 per cent, of the potato can be 
regarded as waste. In many citv families 
riceislargely used as a partial substitute for 
potatoes. It is cheap, healthful, agreeable to 
the taste, and can be prepared in a multitude 
of forms At the South it is Iargply used in 
soup in place of our crackers. The consump¬ 
tion of rice might be largely increased in 
temperate climates with excellent results. 
Orchard Pastures —The Michigan Farm¬ 
er, in answering a question as to clover for 
bog pasture in an orchard, says that half the 
orchards in Michigan are starving to death. 
Young orchards are often treated to a bind of 
savagery that would bill most other farm 
productions. They are planted on a light soil 
which is kept in crop. In most neighbor¬ 
hoods, the farmer who would manure a young 
orchard, and not grow a crop on the strength 
of it, would he considered a crank in farming. 
The soil is kept In cultivation until the crops 
cease to be profitable, and the trees have ceased 
to grow. The orchards that continue to bear 
are those that stand on naturally strong land, 
or are invigorated by manure either spread on 
the surface or distributed by hogs. The latter 
plan is much the readiest way of keeping up 
the fertility, aud it doesn’t matter if the soil is 
never broken, except bv the hog’s snout. 
Forage Plants.— J. W. Sanborn, of Mis¬ 
souri, has been trying many forage plants 
on the College Farm, and among others 
Prickly Comfrey which on the College soil 
does not make the four or five cuttings in a 
season so positively promised by its intro¬ 
ducers, and, what is worse, there the stock 
will not eat what is produced, and he cannot 
recommend any farther trial with it His 
experience fully agrees with ours. The Soja 
Bean, in its second year, grew- well, reaching 
three and-one half feet in higbt, and yielding 
a large quantity of fodder rich in food ele¬ 
ments, but he is not fully decided that it will 
prove worthy of general in'roduction. The 
Rural Branching Sorghum, which we intro¬ 
duced a few years ago. be thinks should re¬ 
ceive more favorable notice as a forage plant 
as when first grown and cut to the ground anew 
growth, with an increased number of stalks 
springs up and makes a large leaf-development 
for a second crop,which the cows relish great¬ 
ly. For all places, from the 43d degree of 
latitude south, he believes this plant will be¬ 
come a valuable green food producer' 
Egvptian Rice Corn, another member of the 
sorghum family, yielded a large amount of 
grain and stalk well liked by stock. 
Preserving Apples—A writer in the 
American Cultivator tells how he has preser¬ 
ved apples and kept them fresh aud fair for 
18 to 20 months. He takes the apples ripe and 
fresh from the trees, at this season of the year, 
and covers them up with dry, fine coal ashes', 
to a depth of 14 to 18 inches. He has apples 
that have passed two Winters thus preserved, 
out of-doors, exposed to rain aul frost, and 
yet the fruit came out fresh and fair. How 
much longer the apples would keep under these 
circumstances he does not know. Possibly 
pears, eggs, and some other perishable articles, 
he thinks, might be kept by this simple and 
inexpensive process much longer than by 
present methods. 
The Rural Ne\v -\ orker was the pioneer 
iu its persistent opposition to all sorts of gam¬ 
bling at agricultural fairs. But the N. Y. 
Tribune has done its full share. It quotes and 
comments as follows: “He who starts a child 
on the wav to ruin is a wretch of the worst 
kind, aud that is what the accursed features 
of the fairs do.' Such is a seutence of Ibe 
justifiably stroDg language with which the 
Kansas Farmer seeks ‘to arouse a feeling of 
hate toward evil which would shame the di¬ 
rectors Into respect for the decencies. Drive out 
the damning scenes aud the vicious and de- 
1 grading characters, or burn the buildings and 
1 turn the grounds into corn fields.” 
■ The editor of the Prairie Farmer says that 
he could name journals that have taken ip ad 
