260 
APRIL IS 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
enjoyment of that full measure of health and 
prosperity that mates life worth living. He 
ventures to hope that he may yet have many 
pleasant and useful chats with them all. 
* * * 
The law in some States, backed up by pub¬ 
lic opinion, has recently decided that the Eng¬ 
lish sparrow “must go .’ 1 The Society of Or¬ 
nithologists has established "stations'’ for ob¬ 
servation on the habits of the sparrow in par¬ 
ticular and other birds in general, in order 
that, some definite knowledge may be obtain¬ 
ed of what and how much they destroy in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the country. This is a move 
in the right direction, and one of much inter¬ 
est to the farmer and fruit grower, and these 
are especially iuvited to help. The Rural 
might be made very helpful iu this work if 
its readers could be prevailed upoutogivea 
little time to the subject, and make a record 
of what they really see and know, and iudulge 
as little as may beiu mere conjecture. Blanks 
have been prepared, which reduce the labor 
of making a record to a mere minimum. 
* * * 
As an addenda to the preceding note, I will 
state that I have for years past studied the 
ways of the sparrow, but particularly this 
Winter. 1 can see hundreds of them from my 
library windows at almost all times of the 
dey. The Winter has been one of exceptional 
severity and decidedly dry, the wells and cis¬ 
terns in this vicinity being now very low. 
The sparrows, consequently, have found it dif¬ 
ficult to get water to drink. In January I 
several times noticed scores of them on the 
roof of my greenhouse. I thought they came 
there to get warm. They did not come to get 
warm; watching them closely, 1 found I was 
mistaken; on the contrary, they came to get a 
drink. The little fellows had discovered that 
the moisture which condenses on the under¬ 
side of the glass during the night and fills the 
laps, could be drawn through the laps from 
the outside. In a inau this would be called 
reasoning; in a bird it is called instinct. Per¬ 
haps it is. Be that as it may, scores of spar¬ 
rows came every morning to get a drink; and 
this they continued to do till they could get 
water elsewhere. It was amusing to see their 
efforts to recover their position after sliding 
dowu the roof a foot or so. 
* * * 
0 
The preceding note presents the sparrow in 
a very interesting aspect. What follows is 
also interesting, but from a quite different 
point of view. Every day, during most of 
the Winter, 1 have seen the sparrows Hocking 
in the trees and shrubs, industriously pecking 
at something along the branches. Close aud 
repeated examination proved that they were 
eating the buds, chiefly the axillary buds, the 
terminal ones being difficult to get at. I 
noticed, also, that they usually fed on the 
buds twice a day, morning aud afternoon. It 
may have beeu oftener without nay knowing 
it. They are particularly fond of the Loni- 
cera, Wistaria aud Exochorda. The last 
seems to be a special favorite, a large plant of 
it having scarcely any but terminal buds left. 
They are also very fond of the fruit of the 
Exochorda. The sparrows are very nice, too, 
in tbeir selections. The flower buds of the 
peach may be more succulent and nicer tid¬ 
bits than the leaf buds, and hence their pre¬ 
ference for the former. In sowing grass 
seeds l have found the sparrows an intoler¬ 
able nuisance; other birds, however, being 
open to the same charge. The sparrows have 
always been more or less destructive, but this 
Winter particularly so, owing, doubtless, to 
the peculiarities of the Winter and the 
scarcity of food. Besides this, we mifs the 
snowbird, the chickadee, the bluebird and 
other familiar friends we all love. I think 
the sparrow should go. Let us bear, how¬ 
ever, what farmers aud gardeners have to say 
iu its favor, if anything. Pennsylvania aud 
some other States have already passed laws 
permitting the destruction of the sparrow at 
all times of the year, and I have seen park 
keepers shooting them with great apparent 
satisfaction. Perhaps some of them would 
shoot a useful bird with the same degree of 
pleasure. 
* * * 
A Long Island agricultural society proposes 
to offer this year $100 in prizes for the best 
crop of peanuts to be grown on the Island. 
The idea is to ascertain whether the peanut 
cau be successfully grown on Loug Island. I 
rather like this, and wonder it has not been done 
before. The soil of Loug Island is well adapted 
to the growth of the peanut, aud I should not 
be surprised to see some pretty sharp compe-^ 
tition for these prizes, provided the $100 are 
not frittered away in small sums. For the 
purpose of encouraging those who propose to 
compete for these prizes, 1 will state that pea¬ 
nuts were successfully grown in Kings County, 
L. I., upwards of 50 years ago. As slave 
labor is not now a part of the problem, I do 
not see why they should not be grown, not 
only successfully, but profitably. Then will 
come the question of quality, which we may 
reasonably hope will be good. 
* * * 
Do we not sow our peas too thick? So it 
has seemed to me very often while looking at 
others tumbling them into the drill as thick 
as sardines in a box. This thick sowing, if 
not a waste of seed, is not, in my opinion, 
favorable to tbe largest and best crop. I 
have made a number of experiments having 
in view the yield from a given length of row, 
and I have invariably obtained tbe best re¬ 
sults when the peas were placed from two to 
four inches apart, and even four to six inches 
with many, if not all, of the dwarf varieties. 
The effect is to make the plants bushy, in¬ 
crease the yield, and prolong the time of bear¬ 
ing. This may not be very important to the 
man who grows peas for market, and thinks 
it most profitable to have his crop confined to 
one or two pickings; but in the home garden 
most of ns want a "mess'’ every day, and for 
a good many days in succession. Thin aud 
deep sowing, in connection with proper selec¬ 
tion of kinds, will considerably prolong the 
season. Late sowings should be put in four 
or five iuebes deep, and the ground kept 
level. There is this additional labor in thin 
sowing, that pains must be taken to see that 
every pea put in is a sound one. horticola. 
NOTES ON THE RURAL FOR MARCH 14. 
E. P. POWELL. 
The criticism on potatoes places the St. Pat¬ 
rick below the White Star. I have tried a 
large number of potatoes, aud for quality first 
and yield second, I place Late Rose first and 
St. Patrick next. I want a first-class, rich flav- 
orei table potato, that is good when dug, and 
good late in tbe Spring. Burbank is a case of a 
potato had enough in the early Winter, but 
good enough iu the Spring. St. Patrick and 
Late Rose are always good. White Star is 
poor when dug; and for boiling never as good 
as for baking. 
You are rightabout Concords. Those who 
wish to plant for money, can throw away 
money on Concords, except in favorable cli¬ 
mates, because, say in Central New York, be¬ 
fore we cau decently ripen them, they have 
been two weeks iu market from a distance. 
For table, the Concord is immensely behind 
Lind ley, Brighton, Lady and more of the new 
varieties. Moore's Early should not lie classed 
very high. The quality of the grape is uot 
equal to that of lirst rate Concords: the bunch 
is poor, and otherwise it is much inferior to a 
halt dozen other early grapes. 
The Ruhal’s advice about plauting Bartlett 
Pears is uot correct Very few make money 
on Bartletts. Tuke the country through, the 
pear for profit must be a long keeper and an 
easy shipper. The Bartlett does not keep more 
than two weeks. The Anjou, picked in Sep¬ 
tember, will keep in a cool cellar till Christ¬ 
mas. It is the best market pear iu the list so 
far. Sheldon, Howell, and Onoudaga follow; 
and Lawrence and Josephine de Malines for 
Winter. 
EXAGGERATED PRAISE OF NOVEL¬ 
TIES. 
In the Rural for Jan. 24th, I notice that A. 
J, Cay wood & Son do not like to have anything 
said derogatory to any new fruits that have 
originated with them. That is the old story. 
I have received a number of letters from per¬ 
sons who had originated new fruits or vege¬ 
tables that did uot succeed with me; and for 
that matter did not succeed anywhere well 
enough ever to get into general cultivation. 
It is hard to see our pets fall, and when there 
is a prospect of increasing our yearly income 
by their sales, it is hard to see their faults, 
and the probabilities that they are not worth 
the public’s notice, as much better varieties 
of the kinds are already in the hands of the 
farming public. 1 like what the Rural says 
about the new varieties of oats, as I have test¬ 
ed most of them only to be disappointed, yet 
I am not sorry that, I have done so; and in 
some cases two or three uew sorts, so-called, 
were grown side by side, all drilled at the 
same date, and on the same soil, and when 
growing or ripening, good farmers who were 
called to look at them, decided they were 
identical. I now have three sorts of oats— 
the Schcenen, Welcome, and a variety sent 
me to test In 1888 by Mr. Gregory, of Marble¬ 
head, Mass., that are the best T have ever tried. 
From Mr. Gregory’s catalogue of 1883, I sup¬ 
pose the oats are the White Zealand. 1 would 
like to know, without testing them side by 
side, if tbe White Zealand, White Belgium, 
and White A ustralian are not one and the same 
variety—who will tell? [Can’t you add the 
‘‘Welcome,” Mr. Talcott? Eds.] 
In potatoes also, I would like to know how 
a farmer can tell, by the catalogues of the 
seedsmen, what varieties are good, and what 
are poor; as from my own experience iu test¬ 
ing, I find so many sorts that are compara¬ 
tively worthless*, which the catalogues praise 
highly. I think there b too much said in 
praise of almost all new sorts. I have been par¬ 
ticularly unfortunate during the past two 
seasons in testing uew sorts so highly praised 
in the different catalogues, not one of which 
is of any value as a table potato on my farm, 
compared with such sorts as the Snowflake, 
Beauty of Hebron, both Early and Late, 
White Star, Early Mayflower, and Early 
Ohio, all of which, with the exception of the 
Early Mayflower, are of the old standard 
sorts and well known and very popular, as 
also is tbe White Elephant. Some sorts that 
were and are highly praised in the different 
catalogues for 1885, after testing for two 
years, I shall not plant again, wondering why 
seedsmen will keep raising them. 1 have 
tried the publishing of the rejected sorts, and 
presto I down comes a shower of letters on my 
head, none of which calls me a wise mau, or 
praise the firm of J. Talcott & Sou. We have 
made it our business for the last twenty-five 
years to test and grow the best sorts of pota¬ 
toes and oats for seed, and desire to have the 
very best at all times. 
Now, what shall we do? We know by ex¬ 
perience that what is said of new sorts in the 
catalogues of those who have them for sale, 
will not hold good when tested by us; but 
how can we tell what they will do till we try 
them? According to some trials, a very few 
pounds of seed will produce a car-load of 
grain. In Peter Henderson & Co.’s catalogue, 
an offer is made to send out three bushels of 
their uew Clydesdale Oats to sow an acre. This 
looks as if they did not expect, by putting a 
few' grains of oats on an acre or two, to grow 
such great crops from so little seed. Now 
here is another temptation to test the uew 
Clydesdale Oats; but will they prove as valu¬ 
able as the Seboonen or Welcome, which we 
now have, as also Pringle's Triumph, which 
we fear will prove so late iu ripening, that 
they will not succeed with us, as late oats 
almost, invariably rust in this locality, and so 
prove worthless. J. talcott. 
Rome, N. Y. 
farm <£cono»u}. 
THE WATER SYSTEM AT THE RURAL’S 
WESTERN NEW YORK BUILDINGS. 
Successful stock feeding depends as much 
upon an abundance of water as of food, and 
with no class of stock is it more important 
to have pure water aud plenty of it always 
accessible than with sheep, especially in the 
case of those rearing lambs. In our experi¬ 
ence no work on the farm is so reluctantly 
done or so liable to be neglected as the pumping 
or drawing of w r ater, and it is uot too much 
to say that ou not one half the farms so sup¬ 
plied. do tbe animals have a sufficiency for 
their comfort, or the owner's profit, because, 
no matter how well fed and cared for in 
other respects, no animal can thrive if in¬ 
sufficiently supplied with moisture, without 
which the food cannot bo digested or assimi¬ 
lated. 
As our barns were dependent upon wells for 
the water used, and having previously had 
experience in feeding, aud knowing the large 
amount of water needed, we determined to 
have an abundance; to that end we commenc¬ 
ed operations by having an iron pipe, six 
inches iu diameter,driven in the bottom of an 
old dry well until it reached the rock, which 
it did at six feet, being 24 feet from the sur¬ 
face. We then had a four inch hole drilled, 
and at 52 feet below, or 7fi feet, from the sur¬ 
face, obtained an unlimited supply of pure, 
cold, soft water. Having been thus fortunate, 
we decided to arrange for a cotstant supply 
at all the barns and the house. To secure this, 
we had three things to provide for; the eleva¬ 
tion of the water to a hight suffi dent to give 
head to force it where wanted, storage, aud 
the protection of the pipes against frost. 
To accomplish the first we decided to use 
a wind-mill and pump, aud as we knew that 
to get the desired head, the storage tank 
would have to be elevated, and that the whole 
distance necessary to raise the water would be 
some 8 U feet or more, and that ut the above 
depth we were liable to have most trouble with 
the pumping apparatus, we decided to use a 
simple lift pump. We therefore had a cylin¬ 
der aud piston made of brass, three inches in 
diameter. We used bra-s because, if made of 
iron, the action of iron on the leather pack¬ 
ing would soon render tbe leather brittle und 
ruin it; while, in brass, it will remain soft 
and In good working order until entirely 
worn out. We placed the cyliuder near the 
bottom of the well, so it should be constantly 
submerged, and used 1 ’ 4 -inch Iron pipe for 
the connection between cylinder and pump 
head. It has now been in constant use for 
some nine or more years, aud has needed to 
be repaired but once, and then, not because 
the packing had to he replaced, but because, 
the uot holding the piston to the sucker-rod 
had worked off: but as the cylinder was apart 
it was then repacked. 
In depending upon wind power for furnish¬ 
ing water, it is necessary to provide storage 
sufficient to last duriug the few days when 
there is not wind enough to operate the rnilL 
We use for this purpose n rouud tank eight 
feet in diameter, and the same in hight. It is 
made of two iuch heartpine plank, and is 
hooped with four "i’-inch round-iron hoops. 
Each hoop is made in two pieces with threads 
and nut on each end; 011 opposite sides of the 
tank are pieces of oak scantling 4x4, and the 
same hight as the tank, and each piece of 
hoop passes through these, and the hoops are 
made tight by screwing up tbe nuts as needed. 
This tank stands in the house that was 
shown on the end of the barn, in Fig. 115, 
page 199. This house is built fast to the barn, 
the outer end being supported by a frame, 
aud is elevated some 10 feet above the barn 
sills. The water is pumped over the top of 
the tank, and the supply for use is taken from 
the bottom iu an lji-inch iron pipe connect¬ 
ing with the system of pipes, as shown in Fig. 
116, page 200. In order to prevent freezing, 
we double-boarded and floored tbe bouse,leav¬ 
ing an air-space all round, and also sheeted 
it inside with felt paper. We also construct¬ 
ed two air-duets about 12x15 ioches inside 
from openings, between the joists into the 
basement, up alongside the barn, the one 
reaching just above the floor, and the other 
reaching up near the eeiliugof the tank house. 
We reasoned that the warm air ’of the base¬ 
ment would ascend the taller of the ducts,and 
the colder air of the tank house would fall, 
through the duct just reaching above the 
floor.into the basement, and that if we brought 
the water pipe down the duct carrying the 
warm air, there would be no trouble with 
freezing. At first these ducts were only single- 
boarded of inch lumber, aud the first Winter, 
the pipe did freeze a little twice; we then 
covered the w'arm-air duct with sheeting pa¬ 
per, aud a second boarding, leaving a space 
between, which was packed with chaff, since 
which time, even in this extremely cold Win¬ 
ter, there has never been the least trouble 
from frost. The pump pipe is incased in a 
tube four inches square madeof pine; two feet 
below the well platform a cock is inserted in 
the pipe with an opening of one eight of an 
inch, which, being left open iu cold weather, 
drains tbe water out of the pipe to a safe dis¬ 
tance below the surface. The pipes that lead 
about the basement, never freeze, because the 
temperature never goes below 45 degrees 
even in the coldest weather ; and those leading 
to tbe other buildings, are laid below ground 
at a safe distance. 
We have beeu somewhat minute in this 
description,because of the completeness of the 
system and because there are thousands among 
our readers who need something on a similar 
plan, and from this description no one should 
have any difficulty in constructing something 
that should be satisfactory, aud any man hav¬ 
ing a large number of stock and depending 
upon pumped water,who may provide himself 
with such conveniences, will wonder how he 
ever lived so loug without them. 
tariff (Topics. 
FARM MANURES. 
PROF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
A few years since, I was called to take 
charge of a farm that for many years had 
beeu run on the theory, two can be taken 
from two, and two yet remain. Fertilizers 
were applied, but iu most cases they failed to 
give satisfactory returns. After spending 
two or three years in trying to make the 
farm more fertile, or, at least, more produc¬ 
tive and hence more protitable, by the use of 
expensive fertilizers, the effort was measur¬ 
ably abandoned. 
Subsequently it was found that there was a 
large per cent of lime in the soil, which, 
without doubt, caused the phosphoric acid 
to become temporarily insoluble. It was 
noticed that the fert ilizers were often of more 
benefit the second, and even the third, year 
after their application, than the first. 
In the village a ruile-and-a-half away aud 
400 feet below us, was plenty of manure 
which could be purchased at from 40 to 50 
cents per load. The cost of drawing and 
spreading in the Winter was 75 cents per 
load. This rnuuure was usually mixed with 
a superabundance of straw; contained but 
little of tbe liquid voidings, and was either 
fire-fauged, or leached, contained a large per 
- cent of rain-water, or snow. This method 
