Vol. XLIV. No. 1843. 
NEW YORK, MAY 23, 1885. 
PRICB HTVH CENTS. 
12.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress. In the year 1385, by the Rural New-Yorker In the otHce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
ijorticultmal. 
COLORADO CANTALOUPES. 
S the years go by, the myths 
■ of our childhood, one by one 
fade away and we are brought 
face to face with the solid reali¬ 
ties, by experience. Among 
those myths was the great 
American Dessert which, we 
were told, commenced only a 
few miles beyond the Missouri River and ex¬ 
tended very nearly to the Pacific coast; audit 
was said that on its sterile acres nothing 
would grow but a few stunted cacti and sage 
brush. 
Year by year, as civilization has reached 
out, this desert lias dwindled until now it is 
extremely bard to find it on the maps, and 
would be much harder were we to attempt to 
locate it by an actual visit. Even the Rocky 
Mountains, among whose frosts and snows 
the intrepid young Fremont, in attempting to 
find a passage to California, came so near 
sacrificing his own life and those of his fol¬ 
lowers, are now • 
found to contain 
some exceedingly 
fruitful valleys from 
which we receive 
specimens of fruit 
that seem incredible 
to people of the older 
Eastern States. Such 
specimens wo show 
in Fig. 188. These 
are from a photo¬ 
graph taken from 
life from melons of 
the cantaloupe class, 
grown by Mr, F. E. 
Bird, near Denver, 
Colorado. The three 
large melons weigh¬ 
ed 01)^ pouuds; the 
smallest was 81 by 37 
inches in circumfer¬ 
ence, and weighed 19 
pounds; the second 
in size was 32 by 38 
inches, and weighed 
20)£ pounds; while 
the largest was 34 by 
38 inches in cir¬ 
cumference and 
weighed 22 pounds. 
The little one was 
put in the picture by 
way of comparison, 
and is a large sized 
Netted Gem. 
Mr. Bird writes us that he believes the large 
cantaloupes are of a new variety, a sport 
from Green Montreal, uud that they run very 
large, averaging from 10 to 22 pouuds, and 
that they are earlier than the Montreal and 
of as fine a flavor. Mr. Bird emigrated for¬ 
merly from Boston, but has now a fine fruit 
ranch near Denver, and has been remarkably 
successful. 
RUSSIAN ELDERBERRY. 
PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
The Red-berried Elder ( Sambucus race- 
mosa) of Europe and Asia, is an exceedingly 
varied species. In central and west Europe 
it forms a large shrub which is prized for or¬ 
namental planting in certain positions on large 
lawns. Its foliage, on well kept specimens, 
is ornamental through the Summer, and its 
display of large panicles of scarlet fruit dur¬ 
ing the autumn months makes it specially at¬ 
tractive. Loudon quotes 8, E. Cook’s opinion 
s follows; “The pauicles of fruit resemble 
miniature bunches of grapes of the most bril¬ 
liant scarlet. WheB in perfection, it is the 
most beautiful wild fruit I have ever seen.” 
On the steppes of the great East Plain this 
fine species makes very rapid growth and at¬ 
tains tree size. We saw specimens in central 
Russia, on the black soils, fully six inches in 
diameter and from twenty to thirty feet in 
bight. But its natural tendency is to form a 
very large shrub with many Stems from the 
base. I have two plants before me, as 1 write 
this, two years old from short cuttings, and 
they now have stems nearly two inches in 
diameter and are in bight from eight to ten 
feet. The cold, backward Spring has kept 
the fruit and forest trees nearly dormant, yet 
this elder is expanding its foliage and every 
bract shows a rosette of purplish young leaves 
with the lilac-colored panicle of flowers which 
will soon unfold. 
It will prove hardy as far north as Winni¬ 
peg, Manitoba, and cannot fail to become a 
useful plant for ornament, shelter, and even 
fruit, on the great prairies of North Dakota. 
It may soon be common in the nurseries as it 
grows readily from cuttings. 
Ames, Iowa. 
obtainable, would indeed be very foolish to 
attempt the rearing of winter lambs for an 
early market, the feeding of lambs coming 
one-year-old, or even the feeding of sheep at 
all with a view to the largest profit; while 
with the right kinds of grain, such forage 
would be very suitable, and could be profit¬ 
ably fed to fattening steers, or cows for the 
production of milk or winter butter. 
Then, as the greatest success in feeding de¬ 
pends upon the housing of the an imals to be 
fed, in warm, well ventilated quarters, the 
character of the buildings we have, or if we 
have none, of those we propose to provide for 
the accommodation of the stock, must be 
taken into consideration. It should be re¬ 
membered that each steer or cow while con¬ 
suming about as much forage as from six to 
ten grown sheep, or as 10 to 12 coming one- 
year-old, it will not occupy more than one. 
fifth as much surface room, so that if the sta 
ble or barn room is limited in comparison with 
the amount of forage to be consumed, other 
things being equal, cattle should be chosen. 
Next to the consideration of forage, the 
question of greatest importance is the pecu¬ 
liarities of the available market. Near large 
variety in forage crops, it is often the best way 
to divide the stock to be fed among the differ¬ 
ent classes. We commenced our feeding op- 
perations many years ago. Becoming possess¬ 
ed of what was then considered one of the 
poorest farms in the county, being of light soil 
and for many years worked on shares and bad¬ 
ly run down, we determined to force the pro¬ 
duction of good crops, even if we did so at a 
loss of money iu the production of manure; 
and naturally we selected that class of stock 
most easily obtained and most cheaply accom¬ 
modated—a lot of three year-old steers—and 
we depended for forage as well as grain al¬ 
most entirety upon purchase. Putting the 
animals into different quarters, some warmer 
than others, we found on close observation 
that the gain was much in proportion to the 
warmth of their stables. On the whole, when 
fattened and sold and a close calculation 
made, we found, contrary to our fears, that, 
beside the manure, we had, after paying all 
expenses, a fair profit for our trouble. We 
next added the feeding of full-grown wethers, 
and these also gave a profit. Our next exper¬ 
iment was in the rearing of winter lambs, and 
in this, owing to a want of knowledge and 
consequently a fail¬ 
ure to comply with 
the necessary condi¬ 
tions, we made a bad 
failure, having in the 
Spring a lot of ewes 
in all stages of flesh 
and a few scrawny, 
pinehed-up lambs 
(the greater pai t hav¬ 
ing died p that in all 
Summer did not re- 
gai n of nd 
as the 1 } 6 
mamu^pPLld ha-* 4 
much Vp jf mc-^ey 
than if^v had pur¬ 
chased it and paid 
wull for the hauling. 
Not discouraged, 
we tried again and 
again, and having 
by accident discover¬ 
ed the cause of fail¬ 
ure, we succeeded in 
making this the most 
roll table of all our 
auehes of feeding 
or ji**-- 
\ 
COLORADO MELONS. (From Nature.) 
Fig. 
188 . 
farm Craaaimj. 
$uval Western £t. *J. farm flote$. 
WHAT STOCK WE FEED. 
The making of more or less manure is in¬ 
separably connected with the feeding of any 
class of stock; the quality of the manure de¬ 
pends largely upon the food selected to be con¬ 
sumed ; but the question of profit or loss, and 
if of profit, how much,depends upon the prop¬ 
er relation between the stock to be fed, the 
food to be consumed aud the market to be 
supplied with the resulting products, so that, 
in decidiug what section of the wide field oue 
will occupy, careful consideration should be 
given to the character of forage and grain 
most available, the accommodation for the 
stoek to be fed, and the demands of the mar¬ 
ket expected to be reached. He whose de¬ 
pendence for forage is Euglisb hay, corn fod¬ 
der and straw, no matter what grain may be 
cities, there can be no more profitable branch 
of winter feeding than the growing of lambs 
for early market; but these cannot be sent 
long distances either alive or dead, and in the 
smaller towus would be used only in limited 
numbers and at comparatively low prices. 
The same difficulty, only to a lesser extent, 
lies in the way of feeding lambs coming one 
year old, so that, while with a large city 
within reasonable distance for a market, 
either of these lines of feeding promises large 
profits, or the keeping of cows for rniik may 
pay well; those more remotely situated can 
feed cattle for beef production or full-grown 
sheep for wool and mutton, or may keep cows 
for the production of winter butter, as either 
of these will bear long transportation. An 
important adjunct to the keeping of cows for 
this purpose is the proper use of the skim-milk 
for pig feeding, and especially so where a 
creamer is used. Properly mixed with mid¬ 
dlings, corn meal, barley or pea meal, it w ill 
add much to the measure of profit. 
As in our own case, with a largo town uear 
giving a limited demand for varied products, 
and with a system of mixed husbandry giving 
jur latest depart?^, 
as in the feeijU. g 
of young cows for 
winter butter pro¬ 
duction, and for fat¬ 
tening for beef, at 
the same time, and 
. this we have also found very profitable, so that 
now we ore feeding each year steers, cows, 
' lambs coming one year old; rearing winter 
lambs and feeding pigs, putting in each, in pro¬ 
portion to the accommodations aud the super¬ 
abundance of any class of forage, as the 
grain we can easily supply according to our 
wants. 
In future papers we propose to show our 
method of feeding aud caring for the differ¬ 
ent kiffds of stock. As we believe that what 
we do, others may do as well, aud as we desire 
to make these papers as helpful as possible, 
by beiug plain, we hope the Rural's readers 
will suggest points which they wish to have 
particularly touched upon. All such will be 
carefully considered and discussed each in its 
proper place. 
FARM MANURES.—IV. 
RECOVERY OF MANURES BY CLOVER. 
PROFESSOR I. P. ROBERTS, 
A field that had received liberal applica¬ 
tions of manure and hud been under the plow 
■*4 
