420 
of the RboDe. The rules framed by the Min¬ 
istry to govern the school follow. The four 
requisites for admission are, 1, application by 
the parents; 2, certificate of birthright; 8, 
pigiof of vaccination; 4, evidence of good con¬ 
duct at school during the past year, ,-pr its 
equivalent. The half of each day is to be 
•applied to study, and half to practical work. 
If a pupil at the end of a session proves too 
weak to enter the next class, he may repeat 
the previous course. Ages for admission 18 
to 18. This programme tills five pages. Then 
folKSws a report by M. Risler on the agri¬ 
cultural condition of the Department of 
L'Aisne, filling 85 pages with interesting 
matter. American and Indian supplies have 
made prices low. Railroads have wakened 
up the peasantry and attracted them to other 
pursuits, and to towns where they have better 
pay and better usage. Many landlords are now 
obliged to till lands themselves or get no re¬ 
turns. Those who live on their lands are gen¬ 
erally willing to lower the rents, as is being 
douein England: but absentees there, as well 
as in Ireland, are very unwilling to allow 
any reduction, and are getting into trouble 
in consequence. Sixty-eight pages treat of 
agriculture in other countries, of which the 
UnitedStatesoceupv 20. 
A few years ago Dr. Aitkin took some bone 
meal, and by sifting, divided it into three 
portions—fine, medium and coarse—and ap¬ 
plied the three sorts to three adjacent plots 
of one twentieth of an acre each. He took 
off three crops, viz.: turnips, oats and turnips; 
and, as expected, the flue meal gave by far 
the largest return the first year, the medium 
meal was the next, and the coarse meal was 
the poorest. The effect on the oat crop was 
of the same kind, though not so marked; but 
what surprised him was to notice that the 
crop of turnips in the third year told the same 
story as the first year’s crop—the plot where 
the fine bone meal had been applied was 
nearly as much ahead as it was the first year. 
Since then the plots have been under barley 
and beans, and be has not been able to detect 
any difference between the three plots. It 
may be that next year, if turnips were grown 
on the field, the coarse meal might begin to 
. show a slight superiority over the others, but 
even if it did, it would be a matter of little 
• importance compared with"fcbe fact that for 
six years the money has been buried iu the 
ground, whileiu the case of the others it has. 
been put out .to usury. This ho tells iu the 
North British Agriculturist, and,as it is a fact 
that country makes no difference in Nature’s 
ways of feeding the crops, we can learn from 
his experience the great necessity in using 
bone meal, to have it exceedingly fine, if we 
would find a profit in its use. 
A New Lactometer. —An infallible test 
for gauging the quality of that curiously sub 
tie compound denominated milk, bas after 
iuanv-years been discovered lying idle all the 
while in the family work-basket. All we 
have to do is to take a highly polished knitting 
needle, dip it into a deep vessel of milk, and 
withdraw it in an upright position. If the 
milk is pure a drop of the fluid will hang on 
to the needle, but if there be the least presence 
of water it will prevent the adhesion of a 
drop. We are indebted to Bell's Messenger, 
of London, for this Bimple test, and if its 
operations are as correct as its use is simple 
and easy, it will only prove the efficac 3 T of 
little things, when we know just how to use 
them. It is worth trying at all events. 
Our good friend, Major Alvord, says, in the 
N. E. Homestead, that butter shows the salt 
crystals upon its surface either because bad 
salt has been used, or salt by far too eoerse 
in grain, or the salt bas not been properly 
worked in, or, lastly, because more water has 
beeu left iu the batter than it will hold. The 
plain meaning of all these reasons points to one 
remedy. Use a churn that brings, the butter 
in granular form, wash thoroughly, and, 
when well drained, add salt of the best quality 
made very fine (as fine as dust), and incorpor¬ 
ate well with the butter; let it stand several 
hours, and then give the final working, suffi¬ 
cient to removal all the brine. But even then, 
if kept in a drying place, exposed to the air, 
it will show more or less salt on its surface. 
The Philadelphia Press says the popular 
delusion that yellow corn is richer in food 
elements than white is without any basis in 
facts. Chemistry shows that if there is any 
difference, it is in favor of the white, and yet 
looks have something to do with it, as even a 
pig will, if left free to choose, first select the 
yellow. _ 
It further, very sensibly, says that an ever¬ 
green tree trimmed up a few feet from the 
bottom, is an intolerable offence to good taste. 
A haycock on a bean pole would be a 
. reputable substitute. An evergreen should be 
a pyramid springing from the ground, or it 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, JUNE 20 
hould be nothing. No class of trees add 
more to a landscape than evergreens when 
properly grown, and no trees so disfigure it 
when turned into inverted tops. An ever¬ 
green is at its best when it is a “part of the 
lawn,” so closely connected with the sward as 
to be distinguished only by its color. 
Prof. Atwater emphasizes the position 
the R. N.-Y. has taken, in the following sound 
advice: “As long as soils and seasons con¬ 
tinue to differ, then formulas to fit all cases are 
simply out of the question; at the same time, 
there are many cases in which a man does not 
know what the soil requires.and can better af¬ 
ford to use a complete fertilizer and pay the 
penalty of his ignorance in the purchase of 
superfluous material, than to run the risk of 
losing his crop. Formulas are irrational, but 
they mark the first step in the progress to¬ 
wards rational fertilization .” 
Orchard Grass for Stock.— A writer 
living in Oldham County, Ky., says in the N. 
Y. World, that Orchard Grass will graze more 
stock to the acre and can be grazed ten days 
earlier in Spring than any other grass. 
When eaten off to the ground, it will grow 
three inches high again in ten days. He 
grazes annually from 200 to 400 bead of cattle 
for the New York market., and grows all kinds 
of grasses, but be finds he makes more piounds 
of beef off the Orchard Grass than off any 
other. For milch cows and sheep it has no 
equal, and it will grow more in a week during 
July and August than any other grass will iu 
a month. 
BOILED DOWN AND SEASONED. . 
Our friend Stiles, of the Philadelphia Press, 
says if there has been introduced from Europe, 
Asia or the Isles of the Sea, a more beautiful 
small tree tbau our native Dog-wood bas been 
for the past week, he has failed to notice it. 
As we came down the Hudson the other day, 
everybody was admiriug the Dog-wood trees 
then just in full bloom, and they were a beau¬ 
tiful sight indeed. The tree, however, never 
assumes a compact form. Many may not be 
aware that the so-called tiovrers are not flow¬ 
ers at all, but merely floral bracts. There is 
now a red-blossoming Dog-wood offered for 
sale ..... 
Vick's Magazlue says that Paris-green, ap¬ 
plied to rose bashes and grape-vines, mixed 
with water, flour or plaster, will effectually 
rid them of rose bugs; to all of which wo 
say, it will do no more good than would the 
flour and water without the Paris green. The 
rose bugs simply laugh at any one who ap¬ 
plies it. Nothing so far‘tried will give them 
a quietus but Buhach or Pyrethrum, and this, 
either in dust or solution, will fetch them. 
Try it..... 
The Poultry Monthly gives the results of 
some experiments made to test the effect 
different conditions as to moisture would have 
upon the hatching of eggs. Ten hens were 
set on 180 eggs in a basement on the damp 
ground with just enough straw to bold the 
eggs together; 10 other hens were set on the 
upper floor on 130 eggs, with only straw 
enough to keep the eggs from breaking. The 
result was almost exactly 100 chicks from 
each lot of hens. So it concludes that with 
good eggs, the surroundings make but little 
difference. 
Mr. Waldo F. Brown, as illustrative of 
the rapid growth of Soft Maples, says, in the 
Cultivator, that tree6 planted by bim in 18G3, 
two years old, now girth five feet, one foot 
from tbe ground. In 1877 he mude a planting 
of five-year-old trees, and these now girth 81 
inches, aDd he advises everybody to plant a 
sugar bush. While maple sugar is by no 
means bad to take, we hardly think it will 
pay to try to produce it by growing a sugar 
orchard on land worth from $75 to $150 per 
acre. It is all right to plant trees on suitable 
land for profit; but we sbofild plant other 
trees in preference to Soft Maples, say hick, 
ory or White Ash, or, best of all, black wal¬ 
nut.... 
Cassell’s Dairy Farming concludes, after 
a long review of the matter, that there are 
now living in the United States, of registered 
Short-horns, not far from 88,000 animals, with 
22,000 more full-bred but not registered; that 
while their influence is mostly felt in their 
improvement of beef cuttle, many dairymen 
hold them in high favor. We believe that 
renown and a fortune await him who shall 
carefully develop the milking qualities of the 
Short-horns without seriously affecting their 
form and hardiness. * 
Prof. Cook makes the kerosene emulsion^ 
as explained in the Philadelphia Weekly Press, 
Ly first makiDg a strong suds by mixing and 
heafinjj soap and water to the boiling point. 
Then stir in, while still hot, a pint of kerosene 
to a gallon of the suds. He has used a quart 
of soft soap to a gallon of water. Hard soap 
or whale -oil soap is equalfy good. The precise 
quantity of soap is no? material, though he has 
found it very desirable to have a’ strong suds. 
He has never found this mixture to injure any 
kind of foliage...... 
The N. Y Herald says that outside of great 
cities no class of men work harder and get 
less for their labor than farmers. 
Sir J. B. Lawks was recently asked if food 
softened by the silo would not be more easily as 
similated iuto tbe system of the animal than 
food not softened? He replied, no; adding 
that animals seem to have a great power of 
acting upon dry food. 
He was also asked if he did not see his way 
to keep a large hert^ of stock on silage? His 
reply was that he thought bis mangolds would 
give more food per acre than he could get out 
of the average silage crop. He was further 
asked; But if you could produce the silage, 
which is an appetiser, of which the stock would 
eat ravenously, would it not be possible to 
consume a much larger proportion of rough 
straw and coarse food, looking at it as a con¬ 
diment? He replied: “But are not mangolds 
a good condiment for straw.”. 
“STILL,” says Dr. La we?, “I have not a 
word to say against silage; in fact, all my 
evidence is that it is a very good food.”... 
W. C. Latta, Professor of Agrieulture.Pur- 
due University, La Fayette, Ind., after careful 
experiments upon the college farm, concludes 
that 
1. At the present prices of fertilizers and 
farm products, an increase in tbe yield per 
acre of 10 bushels of corn, oats or potatoes, or 
of five bushels of wheat, will not repay the 
cost of using 200 pounds or more per acre of 
such fertilizer. 
2. At present prices, it is doubtful, at least, 
whether commercial fertilizers can be used at 
a profit on half-worn soils similar to that of 
the College Farm. 
8 The fertility of farms that produce grass 
and clover cau doubtless be maintained ana 
improved more profitably by a judiciong 
system of farming and stock raising than by 
the extensive use of commercial fertilizeis.... 
A Glasgow Herald correspondent joins in 
the opinion that although scientists have well 
established the fungoid character of the po¬ 
tato blight, and shown all its developments, 
they have not been able to give any effectual 
preventive or remedy. New vigorous sorts, 
and blue skins especially, are tbe main reli¬ 
ance, as being most capable of resistance. 
Dry keeping, and dry weather while growing, 
favor exemption; a continuance of muggy, 
damp.weather in the growing season always 
favoring the disease, which then develops 
with wonderful rapidity. Much stress is laid 
on the necessity of planting before the seed 
has been exhausted by sprouting. For some 
reason, probably connected with the upward 
and downward direction of growth, the rol¬ 
ling over now and then of a box or barrel 
containing potatoes, imposes a check on their 
disposition to sprout... 
W. Crumf, a correspondent of the (London) 
Garden, says that he has been converted, 
against his will, to a belief in tbe power of 
the divining rod. He joined in tests and in 
researches made on Earl Beauchamp's estates, 
and the results were so unfailingly and exact¬ 
ly correct as to remove every doubt of the 
ability of the water finder, an honest mason 
named Mullins, to trace flowing drains or 
springs beneath the surface, and to give the 
depth almost exactly. Not a single failure 
w as known to occur. Of many who trieu to 
use the rod, only one person, a young lady, 
had success with it. 
The Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
Society gives the reports of the use of chemical 
manures in the Woburn experiments.iu which 
the unlimited use of potash and phosphoric 
acid alone gave no iuerease of w heat over plots 
that had had no manure for a series of years; 
but tbe addition of nitrate of soda, or ammo¬ 
nia salts doubled the crop. These experiments 
show conclusively the correctness of what wo 
have so often said iu the Rural, that the use 
of chemical manure requires the careful study 
of the soil by experiments to ascertain which 
of the elements, potash, phosphoric acid or 
nitrogen,is in the soil in quantity too small to 
produce a paying crop, and until we have 
ascertained this by experiment, it is safer to 
make the application of a manure with the 
three elements in proper proportion to pro¬ 
duce crops..... . ... 
Cuf ojm) Ijm. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Fern Hill, Out., June 1.—Spring came in 
very late, and cold; being two weeks behind 
the usual time, but the weather was well 
suited for working and consequently every¬ 
thing has been got in the ground in good time 
and condition, and I believe (owing to very 
apid growth) is now further ahead than it 
was at this time 1884. Crops generally look 
very well. Apples, by all appearances, will 
be a very good crop, while pears, plums and 
cherries are grown only to a limited extent, 
and currants, gooseberries, raspberries, black 
berries, and strawberries are very poorly*at 
tended to, as a general rule. Bees suffered 
very much this last Winter from cold and 
long confinement, and some have died since 
the Spring opened without any apparent 
cause. Peaches are killed down nearly to the 
ground,and the Cutbbert Raspberry was killed 
to the snow line. Strawberries look splendid 
and promise and excellent crop. j.m.w. 
Colorado. 
Pueblo, May 31.—Frost remained in the 
ground until March 10th; but March and 
April weather was fine and dryMay cooler 
and showery. We have to irrigate to pro¬ 
duce crops. Corn is four to six inches high. 
I have just cut fall rye, nearly full, for hay. 
Peas are ready to pick next week, June 4th. 
Cauliflowers are budding; Alfalfa is ready to 
cut the first time; it makes three crops. Grass 
plenty. Picked a ripe strawberry to-day. 
Emporia, Lyon Co., June 0.—We had an 
unusually cold, wet Spring. The outlook for 
corn is rather discouraging; everybody that • 
planted in April bad to re plant There are 
some who have not planted a grain of corn 
yet. I commenced going through mine. 
Everything else looks well except some fields 
of wheat, which were badly winter-killed. I am 
ever so much pleased with the Cyclopedia, 
although it cost me 65 cents (it’s worth a dol¬ 
lar to anybody) for I paid part of the 
subscription: ray subscriber thought tbe Ru¬ 
ral too high at $2, but I believe be doesn't 
think so now. Market: Wheat, 85 cents; 
corn, 45 cents: oats, 85 cents; prairie hay, $9 
per ton; butter, 10 cents; eggs, 10 cents; the 
best cheese retails at 20 cents native ship¬ 
ping steers, best, $4.25 aud $4 50; best ship¬ 
ping hogs, $3 and $8.25 per cvi t; sheep, $1.50 
and $2. w. h w. 
Maryland. 
Catonsville, Baltimore Co., June 5.—This 
is our “locust” year.and we now have some to 
spare. I notice my doge are very fond of them 
as a lunch. I am glad my contemplated 
peach orchard is not yet planted, as the locusts 
arfe very severe pruners of young fruit trees. 
A. l. c. 
Westovrr, Somerset Co., June 8. —The 
people of our section cannot complain of dry 
weather; we are having and have had an 
abundance of raiu. The heaviest shipments of 
strawberries and peas have been made the 
past week; the present week will finish them 
in our section, aud ours will be well out of the 
market before New Jersey puts sufficient iu to 
injure the sale of our fruit. This is muchjn 
favor of our growers; we fill the interval be¬ 
tween Norfolk and New Jersey in the way of 
supplying the markets. Berries have brought 
fair prices thus far, ranging from 25 cents per .• . 
quart, at the start, down to 10 cents. A few 
choice lots at first, by express to Boston, 
brought .50 cents per quart. Reas have done 
better than usual, tb£ lowest price reported to 
date being $8.25 per barrel; the maximum, 
$8.00. Of course, the quality has much to do 
with the price, and in both cases the quota¬ 
tions include tbe inferior along with the 
choicest. The weather is quite cool; in fact, 
we have had but little very warm weather 
during the season. s. c. 8. 
Michigan. 
Jonesyille, Hillsdale Co., May 30.—Our 
late Spring was followed, iu May, by dry, 
backward growing weather; but we are hay¬ 
ing rain at present. There are a few pieces 
of corn and potatoes to plant yet. Oats 
are growing very slowly; a larger acre¬ 
age than usual was sowu this Spring. Wheat 
is iu prime condition, and a large crop is ex¬ 
pected. There will be a fair amount of small 
fruit, and the indications ure that we shall 
have a larger yield of apples than for the past 
three years; but there is scarcely a live - peach 
tree in this section. Cut-worms ure abundant, 
and will undoubtedly do much injury if the 
weather remains cold. I have found a large 
number of the 17-year locusts in the pupa 
stage, so their music can be expected soon. 
R. J. 0. 
Wisconsin. 
New Casbel, Fond du Lac Co., June 6.— 
We have had a very cold, backward Spring. 
Wiuter wheat nearly all killed out, and what 
is left is poor. Barley is poor; the dry, warm 
weather of the last few days has turned it, 
yellow, but I think the late rains will bring it 
on so there will be two-thirds of a crop. Oats 
and spring wheat are looking pretty good. 
Hay is poor, as a goueral thiijg clover has 
beeu winter-killed, and the dry weather hurt 
the grasses. Corn is not all up yet; some of 
it had to be planted the second time. 
Wheat is worth from 80 to 85 cents; oats, 
