iu 
THE m 
NEW-YORKER. 
vertising on a promise (qualified with a 
“hope”) of sending ever so many hundreds of 
thousands of copies. In one case 250,000 to 
500,000 copies were almost guaranteed; the 
actual number issued did not eome anywhere 
near 80,000, aud of these the larger portion 
were scattered promiscuously at fairs, largely 
to boj s. Few busy men stopped to read them, 
or even to carry them home for future peru 
sal, as is usually the case with papers distribut¬ 
ed in the hurry aud scurry of such exhibitions.” 
Now why doesn’t the editor of the Prairie 
Farmer mention that he has reference to the 
American Agriculturist, iustead of reflecting 
upon farm papers in general by his general 
statement? We happen to know that the 
American Agriculturist was meant. Let Mr. 
Judd correct us if we are wrong. 
The New York Weekly Witness suggests 
that there should be a fall Arbor Day, as there 
is more leisure time at that season. The 
weather is pleasanter then for the work, and 
it is the best time of year for the planting of 
hardy trees, if they are set in place early 
enough for the roots to heal and become com. 
petent again to absorb and send upward suffi¬ 
cient liquid supplies to meat the parching 
effects of winter winds and frosts. The Wit¬ 
ness suggests the first Thursday in November. 
This will suit the isotherm of Philadelphia. 
A week earlier would be better for New York. 
The editor of the Orange County Farmer, 
and we take him to lie a pretty lively sort of 
a man, says that he never feels so well, never 
has a clearer brain and never is more opti¬ 
mistic than at this season of the year, when 
fruit is so abundant and it forms the staple of 
his diet. He makes it the principal part of his 
breakfast, it is his only dessert at dinner, and 
often makes a large part of the evening meal. 
The more he eats of it, the better he likes it, 
the better his health and the more enthusiastic 
he is in his praises of fruit as food. Try it, oh 
ye bilious ones, whose eyes are yellowed and 
whose tempers are soured by a laggard liver, 
and see how soou the appearance of all things 
will change for the better. 
PITHS AND REMINDERS. 
The Kausas City Live Stock Indicator says 
that a Western editor met a well educated 
farmer and informed him that he would like 
to have something from his pen. The farmer 
sent him a pig and charged him $9.75 for it.. 
Our friendly contemporary. The Garden, 
mentions’ a case where potato beetles did not 
attack those vines in the hills where a tea¬ 
spoonful of sulphur had been applied, while 
they did attack those not so treated. It was 
not owiug to the sulphur, we imagine. At 
the Rural Grounds sulphur was used liberally 
in the trenches of a number of different 
varieties, the object being to repel wire-worms. 
But the potato beetles did not discriminate 
between those thus treated and the others, 
though the wire-worms did. 
The Agricultural Gazette (England) priuts 
a number of maxims which, if fixed in the 
memory, should possess a money value: 
•’For age and want save while you may, 
No morning sun lasts a whole day."... 
•‘Frugality 1* an estate alone.*'. .. . 
“The early sower never borrows from the late one.” 
“It is better to have one plow going than two 
< cradles.”....... 
“He has a hole beneath his nose that all his money 
runs Into."... 
“He that has it and will not keep it: 
He that wants it and will not seek It; 
He that drinks and is not dry, 
Shall want money as well as I.”.. 
“He that gets money before he gets wit, 
Will be but a short time master of it.”. 
“They are as lazy as Ludlatn’s dog that laid his 
head against the wall when he was going to bark.”.. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
St. Gills, Quebec, Oct. 13,—About the same 
area of crops was sown as usual. We had 
two seasons of drought, which made our bay 
and potato crops light. Wheat is splendid. ' 
Oats generally a heavy crop. Barley and < 
buckwheat generally poor in consequence of 
heavy frosts in early August. Wild fruits so 1 
abundant, that thousands of bushels were 1 
wasted for want of pickers. Corn (with the '• 
exception of early flint), beans, tomatoes, 
pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers were cut I 
by the frost. (I have been unable to save i 
Flageolet Beans for seed, but they were fairly 
crowded with pods). I planted 12 rows of ' 
potatoes according to the Rural’s system, j 
and 20 rows according to my own system J 
(shallow planting overa green crop turned in), i 
and the remainder in the ordinary manner < 
here, under the furrow with manure over the 1 
seed. There was no perceptible difference in t 
the yield of both our lots; but mine is the cheap - ( 
er way; but both yielded double the amount of 
potatoes planted in the ordinary way, and 
were certainly 15 days earlier. I have found 
by several years’ experience that the stem end 
gives a better quality of potato than the seed 
end. I find that peas do better here after they 
have become acclimated. Carter’s Stratagem 
haviug by far the largest pods—some six 
inches long and quite full—are the easiest to 
gather. The Prince of Wales have a greater 
number of pods, so that the yield is about the 
same. Champion Oats good, bright, and 
heavy. w. H. s. 
Eastwood, Oxford Co., Ontario, Oct. 8th.— 
Up to the present time we have not bad frost 
hard enough to kill the corn that is still uncut; 
had it come as early as usual, coru would have 
beennearly worthless; as it Is, it will turn out 
a fair crop of good, hard grain. Potatoes were 
an immense crop, but three fourths of them 
wererotteD, so that they must be scarce and 
dear before planting time. A11 other roots a re 
very large crops, and there area good many 
of them planted here. Grain is turning out 
very well from the machine, except spring 
wheat, which is almost, an eutire failure owing 
to rust. Feed of all kiods is plentiful, and so is 
stock, and the prices of most things are very 
low, Applesare a fair crop for the “off "year 
—plenty for home use and a few to ship, for 
which the shippers are offering -51.25 per bar¬ 
rel. I planted the Rural corn May 25th, and 
cut it two days ago and most of it is bard, 
but if the frost bad come when it usually does, 
it would have been worthless. The Garden 
Treasures added not a little to the attraction 
of our flower garden. I have taken the Rural 
for over 20 years. I take several monthly 
agricultural papers, but I would rather have 
the Rural than any of them. It seems to 
come so fresh and spicy every week, and full of 
matter that is just what we farmers need. 
R.L. 
Iowa. 
Osage, Mitchell Co., Oct. 10.—We have had 
an unusual amount of rain the past season. 
Where the growth of crops was heavy and the 
prospect never brighter, the constant rains 
caused great damage to the ripening crops. 
There was as fine a growth of potatoes as 
could bo wished; tops died at the proper time 
of ripening, but the tubers have generally rot¬ 
ted. My White Elephants grew large enough 
for exhibition at the fair; some were eight 
inches in length and large in proportion, but 
they were rotten when dug. Hills so large 
that ten of them would make a bushel, con¬ 
tained only one or two good tubers in each. 
The Rural method of planting was tested. 
In a rich ganten soil there does not seem to be 
good reason for flat cultivation, Many of the 
potatoes a re ex posed to the light and when the 
rot comes those in the hill suffer the least. 
The rot is so sweeping this season that no va¬ 
riety but the Blush could withstand it. Bur¬ 
pee’s Empire State rotted less than the White 
Elephant. The mulch system will increase the 
yield, but will retard the early crop five or six 
days- The fertilizer -barn yard-should be placed 
below the mulch, and for the early crop the 
mulch should be wet with manure water which 
will make the vines come through the ground 
sooner. My Early.Vermont Potatoes, planted 
after the Rural plan, yielded a bushel from 
nine hills—but they were a little later thau 
usual for that variety,. L. 8. E. 
Kaunas. 
Parsons, Labette Co., Oct. 17.—Frost made 
ice in shallow troughs a few days ago. Vege¬ 
tation was not affected, except tomato vines. 
Corn is beyond danger, but oar crop is hardly 
as mature as the Iowa crop. The acreage 
throughout the State is large and the general 
crop is good, but tn the southeastern corner 
where we are, the crop is not more than live- 
eighths of a full one. Grass and millet are 
heavy crops. Potatoes may be considered all 
but an utter failure. Fruit, excepting 
peaches aud blackberries, a full crop. Apples 
have been a drug, though Iowa has none, and 
we look fora market there. A mistake has 
apparently beeu made in planting too many 
fall apples. These come in with grapes, 
peaches and tomatoes, and this makes the de¬ 
mand slim, as they must be used from day to 
day in this climate. Our best winter kinds, 
are, in their order,Missouri Pippin, Jonathan, 
Ben Davis,Gennetting and Willow Twig. Or¬ 
chards have suffered much during the past 
three or four years from what is termed sun- 
scald, from the siroccos of the Southwest. 
People are seldom right here in regard to 
the distance between the trees. Ten years 
ago I planted a thousand trees 14 feet apart 1 
People thought it was designed for a nursery. 
The trees grew well under good care aud the 
pruning consisted chiefly of thinning out* 
My son told me one day that two men, pass¬ 
ing in a wagon, were looking at the orchard; 
one said, “Old man B. would have had a 
fine orchard if the old fool had not planted 
them so close.” Perhaps there is no orchard 
of a thousand trees within ten miles where 
there are so many healthy trees. Eastern 
people who plant apple trees in this latitude 
as far apart as they do in the East, will never 
raise them. The high, hot winds will burn 
and shake them to fragments. They must be 
close aud low. Winter wheat is growing well; 
the usual area has beeu seeded. Prices here 
are: potatoes, 00 cents per bushels; apples, 25 
to 40 ceuts per bushel; butter, 25 cents per 
pound; eggs, 15 cents per dozen; hay, prairie, 
$S,00 per ton; Timothy, $4.50 per ton; flour, 
$3,20 per 100 pounds; wheat, 80 cents per 
bushel; corn, 25 cents per bushel; oats, 20 
cents per bushel: coal, 11 cents per bushel- 
hogs, live, $3 00 per 100pounds; beef on hoof. 
$3 00 to $4.00 per 100 pounds. j. b. 
New York. 
Honeoye Falls, Monroe Co., Oct. 12.— 
Potatoes in this section are about three fourths 
rotten. s.w. H. 
Pennsylvania. 
Merryall, Bradford Co., Oct. 12.—Of the 
Diehl-Mediterranean I had three kinds when 
harvested. 1, a large square-bearded head 
with large kernels, of which I had three pouuds 
to plant this Fall; 2, a few bald heads from 
4 to 5’^ inches long, which have been planted 
separately; 3, some [inferior bearded heads 
that l discarded. My chickens nearly destroyed 
the wheat last Fall, hence the small yield. 
The rye did well—the largest kiud I ever 
saw; was praised by all that saw it; one stalk 
had two heads. The tomatoes are excellent. 
About one half of the corn was ripe when 
frost came on 8eptember24. The peas were 
good bearers; saved all for seed. The Flageo¬ 
let Beans were of good quality. J. T. c. 
Wisconsin. 
Evansville. Rock Co.,Oct. 12.—Hardly in 
the history of the State have our crops been 
more generally good than they are this sea¬ 
son. In some instances some littie defects 
have, of course, shown themselves; as, for 
instance, potatoes have rotted iu the ground 
somewhat; but we tbiqk not seriously, though 
this trouble has been growing, and in time we 
may find it difficult to raise potatoes profitably. 
Corn, as a rule, is a magnificent crop; yet in 
some few localities, especially on low ground, 
the season being so wet, it was poorly worked 
and the result was that the weeds succeeded 
in choking out the tender blades, aud in these 
places the crop is almost a failure. Pork 
aud beef are so extremely low that there is 
little or no profit in them. In the Southern 
tier of counties the tobacco crop constitutes 
the main dependence of the farmers. It is 
generally as good as ever before, yet there are 
exceptions, as in all the other products. The 
early-set fields were somewhat injured by 
heavy winds and pelting rains, and owing to 
excessively wet weather during the ripening 
period of the early tobacco, it rusted some¬ 
what. In the latter part of August and the 
first of September, the Signal Service sent 
out reports warning the farmers in the to¬ 
bacco-growing sections of an approaching 
frost, even setting the time for it; consequent¬ 
ly planters hired help at exorbitant wages, 
and cut and harvested their tobacco fully two 
weeks before it was ripe. The result of this 
will be a light, flimsy leaf that will not find a 
reaily market. Instead of doing the favor 
the Bureau intended, it has fooled the raisers 
sadly, aud their loss from this cause will 
involve half a million dollars in this State 
alone. We have raised iu Wisconsin this year, 
29,2110 acres of tobacco. Dane County has the 
most, and Rock is next. No sales have been 
made yet. “progress.” 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS 
(Every query must be accompanied by tbename 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
aaklug a question, please *ee If It Is not answered In 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions 
at one time.) _ 
BEST SHAPE FOR AN APPLE TREE. 
N. G, t New York City .—What is the best 
shape for an apple tree in an orchard—best 
for health and fruitfulness of the tree; for 
presenting the greatest surface to the action 
of the sun and air, aud for preventing serious 
damage by high winds? 
ANSWERED BV T. H. HOSKINS. 
The best form of bond for an apple tree, 
having regard only to the purposes uained iu 
the question as put, is as nearly that of a pyr¬ 
amid as possible. Some varieties will grow 
in that form with but little training, yet the 
pyramidal form is not so easily obtained 
with the apple as the pear. My entire expe¬ 
rience as an orchardist conllrms the opinion 
that the healthiest, most productive and loug- 
lived apple trees are those which are branch¬ 
ed low, and this is, iu fact, their natural habit 
of growth. The tiuest specimen 1 have iu my 
orchard, and one that always attracts the at¬ 
tention of visitors, is a Lady Elgin Crab tree 
which has grown naturally to form a head 
the mid-section of which would be an equilat¬ 
eral tr'angle. Trees allowed to branch low 
grow more rapidly, come into bearing sooner, 
bear more fruit, and larger fruit, than the 
same varieties trained high. But many ob¬ 
jections are made to this way of growing ap¬ 
ple trees. The first in point of time, is the 
nurseryman's objection, for a three to five- 
year old tree so trained is almost unshipable. 
If apple trees are to be branched low the or¬ 
chardist must buy his trees when one or two 
years old, without branches, and branch them 
himself. The second objection, aud in fact 
all subsequent objections are the objections of 
the orchardist. One cannot get under or into 
a low-branched Iree without great difficulty; 
an orchard of such trees canuot be pastured or 
mown ; and the only access to it is by the 
spaces between the extended branches of the 
rows, spaces that are continually narrowing 
as the trees become older. These objeeiious, 
especially in a commercial orchard, are gen¬ 
erally held to overbalance the advantages. 
Yet I have doubts on this point. I know an 
orchard of Fameuse trees near Montreal, 
trained on this plan, which must be at least 50 
years old. They are perfectly healthy, im¬ 
mensely productive, and when you have 
worked yourself into the center of a tree be¬ 
tween the pendant aud heavily-ladeu branches, 
which overlie each other, with the fruit hang¬ 
ing like ropes of onions, aud look upward, 
you seem to be in a great green tent, with 
scarcely an opening through which the sky 
can be seen. From 35 such trees I was told 
that $800 worth of apples were taken in one 
season. They occupied about three quarters 
of an acre of land,and pretty nearly covered it. 
FURUNCULOSIS IN A COW. 
O. G. S., Fair View, Aid —For some time a 
cow has had sores along the back from hip, to 
shoulders. At times they are all dried up, 
nothing remaining but drak, rough scabs; at 
other times fresh sores, like large boils, ap¬ 
pear, break open, aud blood with a very 
offensive odor, runs out. What is the mat¬ 
ter. 
ANSWERED BY F. L. KILBORNE, B, V. S. 
The condition is kuowu as furunculosis (a 
succession of furuncles or boils) and is due to 
faulty nutrition iu some part of the animal 
economy, with the presence in the system of 
morbid products, which have failed to be eli¬ 
minated by the proper channels. Treatment 
should be directed to the improvement of the 
general health of the animal and the elimina¬ 
tion of these morbid products by the bowels 
and kidneys. Give one pound of Epsom salts 
with two ounces of ginger, to stimulate the 
action of the bowels. Allow frte access to 
pure water; then give, twice daily, two drams 
of sulphate of iron, and one ouuce each of 
bicarbonate of soda, nitrate of potash aud 
ginger. After four or live days, withhold the 
medicine for a day or two, and then continue 
as before. The diet should consist of easily 
digested, nutritious foods, avoiding all coarse, 
injured or unwholesome fodder. Daily card¬ 
ing, plenty of exercise, and suitable shelter 
are very essential. This treatment should be 
continued for two or three weeks, or until the 
boils disappear. In the early stages, while 
the boils are single, inflamed swellings, they 
may sometimes be checked by making two in¬ 
cisions across the swelliugs, like the letter X, 
and applying cold-water bandages. If this 
does not check them, or if t hey were not ob¬ 
served early enough, apply warm poultices to 
favor and hasten the formation of matter. 
When a boil points, it is to be freely opened 
with the lance, if it does not burst and dis¬ 
charge spontaneously. It is then to be dressed 
with carbolatedcr other autisceptic dressings. 
TREAD. 
IF. S., Ferguson, Colo .—Three months ago, 
one of my horses “calked” himself; the place 
did not bleed, but it swelled aud became very 
sore. I put blue vitriol on it, and after it 
stopped running, I applied carbolic salve, but 
it does not heal, and the horse is quite lame; 
how should it be treated? 
ANSWERED BY F, L. KILBORNE, B V. S. 
If ail discharge has ceased and the wound 
is superficial, the sore should soon heal by 
keeping it clean, and dressing it with tar, 
vaseline, or some simple oiutment. An ex¬ 
amination may show that the wound was deep, 
aud that its mouth hus become closed so as to 
preveut the discharge of the pus, which is 
burrowing in channels extending down within 
the hoof-wall, forming an abscess, which will 
eventually form a quittor or fistula of the 
coronet. Should such be found, it must be 
freely opened and un iujection made of some 
weak caustic solution, injecting with consid¬ 
erable force so ns to reach all parts of the 
ubscess. Bichloride of mercury, five grains, 
spirits of wine, one ounce, and hydrochloric 
ucld, five to ten drops, make an excellent 
solution. With a small syriuge, inject this 
into the abscess at least three times the first 
