accurate and valuable that was ever written 
on the subject. He showed a table which 
covered every point in over 150 varieties, but 
did not read it on account of its length. He 
is the only person who has ever undertaken 
such a work. His table already contains over 
3,000 separate facts, and he proposes to keep 
ou until the entire work is completed. No' 
abstract of bis paper would do it justice. It 
was loudly applauded. Presidout Barry said 
‘’As far as I atu able to judge it is the most 
important paper ever read ou the subject be¬ 
fore the society.” Mr. Campbell .thought it 
was perhaps the most valuable ever written. 
“This subject of classification bas been the 
most troublesome thing I kuow of, and I re¬ 
garded it as almost impossible.” A vote of 
thanks was extended to Mr. Munson. 
A brief paper by Mr. Moore was then read, 
giving bis experience with some of the newer 
grapes during last year. Prof. Budd spoke of 
grapes at the East; he said recent grapes there 
equaled those of Spain. The grapes of Europe 
belonged to the Viuiferous class he said, al¬ 
though others differed from this opinion. 
Speakiug of preserving grape cuttings and 
cions, Mr. Barry recommended wax at the 
ends, then wrapping in silk, or oiled paper, 
which would keep them for mouths duriug 
loug transportation or other use. Mr. Dreer: 
“Grapes can be most successfully pre 
served in cork dust, and I think the grape 
seed from the East could be obtained 
in that way.” Mr. Pierce: “I think Mr. 
Weltz, spokeu of by Commissioner Col man, 
should be,kept in Russia by our Government; 
bis services are too valuable to lose.” Prof. 
Budd: “In the West, we find it necessary to 
plant grapes very deep, or even the roots will 
be killed; 18 or 20 inches is not too deep. Then 
we bend the vines over on the ground, and 
place soil around the crown, and also at the 
end of the canes. We fiud this a perfect pro¬ 
tection.” Mr. Hooper spoke much to the 
same effect; aud other members joined in 
some discussion on this point After this, 
President Barry called for the experience of 
members in the growth of the different newer 
grapes. These most interesting reports will 
be given in the next Rural. h. h. 
farm 0ccmomi]. 
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS IN THE 
CORN AND CATTLE REGIONS. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
In a late issue, the Chicago Farmers’Review 
says: "The Rural New Yorker for last 
week was a special number devoted almost 
exclusively to the subject of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers. It will be of interest aud doubtless 
of value to the farmeison the worn soils of 
the East.but the Western farmer, with his not 
yet worn-out soils, clover meadows, and big 
corn fields, to furnish food for stock on the 
farm, has but little call to worry over the 
subject of commercial fertilizers, if he makes 
good use of the agencies within his reach for 
keeping up the fertility of the farm.” 
need of fertilizers for grass. 
It doesn’t seem credible that the editor of 
the Farmers’ Review can have a just idea of 
the preseut condition of pastures, meadows, 
and the weak side of the corn crop of this 
year,and thus refer disparagingly to the value 
of commercial fertilizers for the "not yet 
woru-out soils” of the coru and cattle counties 
of the West. Can he be aware of the fact that 
the average pasture is over-run with rag¬ 
weed aud other coarse growths; that Red Top 
and the sedges are crowding out Timothy, 
Blue Grass and clover, and, in fine, that the 
more nutritious grasses und clovers are giving 
place to the less, aud for the simple but suffi¬ 
cient reason, that the phosphates iu the soil 
are in progress of exhuustion—a downward 
course, nothing but the direct application of 
the commercial phosphates cau arrest. Clover 
aud grass crops, to be sure, enrich the surface 
soil for the time, bv extracting phosphates 
aud potash from the subsoil; but they add 
nothing to the sum of the mineral elements of 
plane food iu the land, and utter exhaustion 
soon follows, as, for example, on the deep, 
rich, orgiually very strong tobacco lands of 
the more fertile portions of Virginia, Ken¬ 
tucky, and North Carolina, where the laud 
wont produce clover at all. 
AND FOR CORN. 
And referring to the weak side of the coru 
crop, is the editor aware of an opinion exten¬ 
sively prevailing among farmers, that the 
“stuff that makes large, sound coru ears has 
been pumped out of the soil,” when it has 
beeu long in corn, uud that some new depar¬ 
ture iu farming must be takeu, iu order to 
make anything like the old crops? Certaiuly 
clover helps for a time, and Blue Grass or 
Timothy sod produces the same beneficial 
effects by hastening the growth at the start, 
enlarging the ears, and securing earlier 
maturity; still the results are not lasting, and 
in course of a few years, the laud becomes 
clover-sick; Timothy gives place to Red Top, 
and every five or six years, rag-weed domin¬ 
ates aud the coarse bull thistle. 
USE THEM AT HOME. 
Chicago fertilizer manufacturers produce 
millions of pounds of commercial phosphates, 
the products from the offal of the vast 
slaughtering establishments there. These fer¬ 
tilizers, though largely from stock raised, fed 
and fatted in Illinois, should be returned to 
the land, yet four-fifths of them are sent 
abroad, and the Farmers' Review seems to be 
lending its influence to perpetuate the disas¬ 
trous and destructive policy. At the last ses¬ 
sion of the Legislature of Illinois, provision 
was made for the creation of a commission to 
take charge of the sale of commercial fertil¬ 
izers and see that they are what the 
manufacturers represent them to be, and this 
move may be regarded as a sure sign that in¬ 
telligent farmers are awakening to their 
worth. If it were possible to expend for 
the next 10 years on the pastures, meadows, 
corn, wheat and other grain fields, all, or 
even half the yearly output of commercial 
fertilizers manufactured iu Chicago, the re¬ 
sult would be, if not to double the yield, to in¬ 
crease it 30 to 40 per cent. Two or three hun¬ 
dred pounds per acre would go a great way 
towards banishing the barren stalks aud nub¬ 
bin ears now so commou in corn on old land. 
The same quantity would increase the yield 
of winter wheat one-half, and doable the 
yield on spring wheat fields, and would restore 
to us the crops of 30 years ago. Give the pas¬ 
tures a liberal dressing, and we shall hear 
little of their being verily smothered with rag¬ 
weed every few years, aud were meadows 
treated in the same liberal and enlightened 
manner, Red Top and the coarse grasses and 
sedges would disappear. The soil has been 
robbed of so much of its phosphates by con¬ 
tinual cropping of grass, hay and grains, that 
there is not enough left to make large crops 
of these, but still enough for the coarse grasses 
aud the weeds, and these flourish a3 we see. 
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 
I have been using commercial fertilizers in 
a small way for the last 15 years, and much to 
my satisfaction. I have sown nitrate of soda 
on pasture and meadow both, aud have seen 
astouishing results on land good for 50 to 75 
bushels of shelled corn to the acre. Sown in 
March, 300 pounds of nitrate of soda to the 
acre produced in May a Timothy growth so 
strong and large that the herbage rather re¬ 
sembled rank wheat than grass. About the 
same quantity of superphosphate increased the 
grass yield in pastures so much that they fur¬ 
nished a full bite for one mature milch cow to 
the acre, from May to November. I have found 
the boueand potash of the Syracuse Farmers! 
Fertilizing Company to be equally good, and 
by its use have been able to rent grass land 
for $15 an acre for the season. I believe if 
fertilizers were liberally used on our Central 
Illinois black-soil meadows, the yield of hay, 
from one ton and a half to the acre, might be 
raised to two and a half for the average, and 
in a like maimer, the old rule of "three acres 
of the best Blue Grass pasture for each steer,” 
might be reduced to two acres, aud in favor¬ 
able seasons to one ucre. On the black soils of 
Illinois, a very little phosphate produces re¬ 
sults of growth out of all proportion to the 
amount used, suggesting it acts iu a manner 
similar to the trifle of yeast which leavens the 
whole lump. So true is this, that when the 
clay loam of the subsoil is thinly spread on 
black soil pasture or meadow land, the in¬ 
crease in the growth of grass and clover is as 
nearly distinctly marked as after a coating of 
manure from tbebaru. 
AN OBJECTION ANSWERED. 
One reproach to the effects of the phosphates 
is that they quickly exhaust the vegetable 
matter aud its inseparable associate nitrogen 
iu the average soil, by promoting a rapid and 
rank growth of vegetation, so that after their 
use for a year or two or more, the laud be¬ 
comes poorer than ever. Suppose this to be 
the case ou the average soil with its average 
amount of nitrogen and vegetable matter, the 
reproach will not apply to it where phos¬ 
phates are used ou the black prairie soil, be¬ 
cause the latter is notoriously rich in both 
these essential food elemeuts, humus and nitro¬ 
gen. No; Illinois black soils have nothing to 
fear from the use of commercial fertilizers, 
aud everything to gain, and they can be safely 
recommended as the best, cheapest aud 
surest means for arresting the downward 
course of black soil prairie agriculture. 
Champaign Co., 111. 
An Unfailing Remedy for the Cabbage 
Worm is said to be to sprinkle or, better, sift 
Cayenne pepper on the cabbages while the 
dew is ou. Two or three applications will be 
sutfijieut. But Pyrethrum powder is better. 
A LARGE MILK RECORD. 
Smiths, Powell & Lamb, Lakeside Stock 
Farm, Syracuse, N. Y., write us: “We have 
milked through the past year 20 cows, includ¬ 
ing every mature cow and every four-year- 
old that bas completed a year’s record, and 
their records average 15,507 pounds 9 ounces. 
During the same time 15 two-year-olds 
averaged 1:2 307 pounds 8 ounces, and 24 two- 
year olds, all that have completed their year’s 
records, and two which have not yet fully 
done so, have averaged 10,810 pounds. 
In our herd we have three cows whose yearly 
records average 20,051 pounds 7 ounces: ten 
cows whose yearly records average 18,110 
pounds 7 15 ounces, and 20 cows whose yearly 
records a verage 10,016 pounds 1 ounce. This 
list includes 12 mature cows, nine four-year- 
olds, three three-year-olds, and two two-year- 
olds. 
As evidence of the influence of high-breed¬ 
ing, as indicated by milk records, ten of the 
above list are of the Aaggie family, seven of 
Netherland family, two of Aegis family, two 
of the Clothilda family aud five of all other 
families combined. We are milking this 
season more cows than ever before, and our 
records promise to surpass those of any former 
year. The following averages, including our 
entire milking herd, giviug the highest daily 
yield of each, will convey au idea of what oar 
cows are doing: five cows averaged 85 pounds 
7 4-5 ounces; 28 cows, entire uu tuber of mature 
cows, averaged 70 pounds ounces; five 
four-year-old heifers, averaged 75 pounds 14 
1-5 ounces; 18 four-year-olds, entire herd, 
averaged 03 pounds 4 1-6 ounces; 11 three- 
year-olds, averaged 57 pounds 4 4 11 ounces; 
24 three-year-olds, entire herd, averaged 49 
pounds 3 1 12 ounces; 44 two year-olds, aver¬ 
aged 50 pounds 2 1-5 ounces; 06 two-year-olds, 
entire herd,averaged 44 pounds 11 7-8 ounces.” 
STRAINING BOOMS. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
The boom is considerably strained on three 
breeds of cattle. Too many big stories are 
told about the yield of Jerseys, and I know 
there are big stories which may be told, and 
the tale may be well told, but the trouble is 
the “everlasting muchness.” The thing may 
be overdone. Who comes next? 
There are some good things coming out of 
the Jersey boom. I used to raise my feeble voice 
against the solid color and the deer-like form 
craze. How people used to go into ecstacies 
over the eyes, the legs, the hair and the sweet 
expression! I used to venture to remark, that 
Jerseys were really inteuded for something 
besides ornamenting lawus, and that they 
should not be selected “on the Island,” and 
bred here for this purpose alone. The craze 
went on, however, until it ran out. And now 
Jerseys are “on their natural heath,” with the 
beauty thrown in. This is all right; oue color 
is as good as another if the butter-tub is only 
filled, and there is no doubt that the homeliest 
sometimes can fill it best. "Handsome is that 
handsome does.” 
One of my neighbors says he makes twice 
the amount of batter from his Jerseys that he 
used to get from the same number of the best 
selected uative cows. I do uot doubt it, for 
it accords with my owu experience It is an 
extra good uative cow which will make a 
pound of butter a day on ordinary pasture. 
It is a common thing for Jersey cows to make 
from 9 to 12 pounds of butter in a week, and 
not at all uncommon for them to make from 
10 to 14 pounds with liberal feeding, and so 
thoroughbred are they and so fixed and per¬ 
fect are their peculiar characteristics, that 
many of them are made to exceed these 
amounts with better care and feed. I have 
no doubt that, with extra food, a great mauy 
Jersey cows which have never made more 
than ten or a dozen pounds of butter iu a 
week, could be fed up to produce several 
pouuds more. I am a believer iu the superior 
value of this wonderful batter breed. 
If the breeders of the Holland cattle would 
shorteu their boom a little aud just confine it 
to the milk flow, we should uot be so staggered. 
Would not this be boom enough ? These cows 
have big stomachs and big udders, and they 
will hold a great deal of milk, but the secre¬ 
tion of butter fat is another thing. This work 
goes on slower and requires machinery,— 
glands, ducts, and food, to briug it all about, 
Aud my observation teaches me that a large 
secretion must be watery,aud lacking in those 
butter fats which must require orgaus adapt¬ 
ed to eliminate them from the blood. The 
secretion of mere milk is quite another thing, 
and it is almost a certain rule that milk is 
weak or watery in proportion to its quantity. 
The modem Short-horn as a dairy cow has 
another boom which will tux our credulity. 
f vonn the 2tuv al^ . Jar m 
FATTENING LAMBS. 
LAMBS HAVE MANY ADVANTAGES 
as feeding stock, over older sheep. When 
bought, they carry more wool in proportion to 
carcass, and even in these low-wool times, one 
pound of wool is worth as much as five or six 
pounds of carcass. They will uniformly make 
more growth both of wool and meat during 
the same time; having the vigor of youth, if 
properly cared for, they are less liable to dis¬ 
ease, aud when ready for market they are 
worth from l>£ to 3 cents per pound more 
than old sheep. At the same time, to do their 
best, they must have better quarters, better 
food and better care than the old sheep. Of 
course, there is not nearly so much money in 
feeding a lot of lambs as in raising early 
winter lambs; but, then, all people are not 
prepared for the latter business, and if they 
were, tbe market for that sort of stock could 
be more easily glutted than that for fat year¬ 
ling lambs, and thousands of farmers whose 
lambs now shrink away and die before Spring, 
with the so-called grub-in-the-head, an entire 
loss, might feed them in such a manner that 
they would sell, fat, at a good profit. 
PROPER WINTER-QUARTERS 
are of the greatest importance; in fact, they 
are indispensable for success in lamb-feeding 
—almost as much so as in winter-lamb rais¬ 
ing. While a flock of full-grown weathers 
will rough it through Winter out-of-doors, or, 
at- most, with a rude shelter, and with plenty 
of feed make a small average gain and per¬ 
haps a little profit, it is almost impossible to 
make a lot of lambs hold their own, if treated 
in the same manner. With all stock it has 
been shown, time and again by experiments, 
that warm quarters save from one-fourth to 
nearly one half the food necessary to fatten 
them; but under no circumstances, except in 
breeding, are warm, comfortable quarters so 
essential as in feeding Iambs. There is no 
need of elaborate barns, ornamented and 
painted at great expense; they maybe only 
one story high and made of rough boards aud 
paper; but they must be icann and well ven¬ 
tilated if the greatest gain in weight, at the 
least expense of food, is to be secured. Stone 
or brick basements are good if wholly or par¬ 
tially above ground aud made dry. Upper 
floors may be used, if the sides are sheeted 
with roofing felt, or paper and ceiled inside 
with thin boards, to such an extent that they 
are warm. As we have before stated, some 
of our pens are in a stone basement and some 
on the main floor of the barns, with the out¬ 
sides papered and lined with lumber, and we 
can see no difference in the thrift or health of 
the lambs in either place. 
“FROST IS DEATH.” 
is a motto the stock-feeder, and especially the 
lamb-feeder, should have painted in large 
letters in every stable, pen or yard where 
stock is to be kept, and whatever the sur¬ 
roundings or wherever the quarters, frost 
should never be permitted to enter. Its 
presence is a sure indication that the stock are 
consuming much food weieh is being wasted 
in counteracting tbe evil effects of cold, and 
which in warmer quarters would go to mak¬ 
ing flesh. 
“FOUL AIR IS DISEASE,” 
is another motto equally important for the 
shepherd to remember, and while protecting 
his barns against the cold he must be equally 
certain to provide p»>per ventilation so as to 
secure pure air, and plenty of it. But in so 
doing he must permit no strong currents of 
air to blow upon the stock. This can be pre¬ 
vented easily and effectually by haviug trunks 
or tubes leading up to, and out of the roof. 
The proper temperature for lamb-feeding is 
as uear 55° as it is possible to keep the pens, 
with a variation of 108 above or below that 
point; aud the careful attention of the feeder 
should be given to maintaining, at the same 
time, the temperature and a full supply of 
pure air. 
THE APPLE CROP. 
The Western N. Y. Farm never had a larger 
crop of apples or those of tiuer quality than 
uow. For years we have kept from 30 to 50 
hogs, and duriug the first part of Summer 
from 150 to 200 sheep in our orchard, and 
year after year the codling moth has done less 
and less damage to the fruit. This year we 
have in the neighborhood of 3,000 barrels, 
mostly Greenings, Baldwin, aud Roxbury 
Russets, and there is scarcely au apple not fit 
for the barrels, aud while the Summer has 
been too cold and wet for the coru and beans 
to do their best, it has worked wouders on the 
apples. Greeniugs are large and colored as 
high as Maidens Blush, aud Roxbury Russets 
