18 . White Elephant. ? 134 
14. Matchless. „ 25, 129 
15. Drummnrul’s Seetllliiif. ? 129 
lfi. Mammoth Pearl. ? 128 
17. Crawford* Seedling. 18, 12fi 
13. Startler. 11, IB 
19. Early Klr-errle. ? 125 
20. I'rentdcnt Arthur. ? 125 
21. Blue VtetOr. .. ? 124 
22. Beauty of llebron. 4, 128 
28. Empire State . ? 121 
24. i*uliner’? Early. V 121 
Average of 24 varieties (nearest even bushel), isti 
„ „ 10 beat varieties „ „ „ 150 
By examining the table it will be seen that 
the best 10 varieties yielded at the rate of 
almost exactly 150 bushels per acre, and the 124 
given yielded at the rate of 1,3(5. As n rule, 
the kinds that ripened earliest yielded best; 
that is, they made their growth more while the 
moisture lasted. The Beauty of Hebron is an 
exception I do not understand. It is a far 
better yielder than the Early Ohio, as a gen¬ 
eral thing, both in Ohio and In Iowa; but this 
year in Iowa the Early Ohio headed our list 
in productiveness, and the Beauty of Hebron 
stood No. 23. The Early Oh lo has always been 
noted for demanding the richest possible soil 
or much manure, and it had it this year. 
The objeet.of the above experiment was sim¬ 
ply to test the relative productiveness of S5 
varieties, mostly now seedlings. The terrible 
drought lasting until after Sept. 1st. threw out 
all the late maturing kinds from competition. 
They never ripened. The experiment turned 
our. to l»e mainly valuable as showing which 
varieties do bust under extreme July and 
August drought and intense heat with hot 
winds like the breath of Sahara: also as 
showing the power- of good manure to help 
the potatoes to resist drought. This will be 
shown best by two or three outside compari¬ 
sons. 
1st. The steward of our large boarding 
halls rented laud adjacent to ours, and of 
quaUty as good, and planted potatoes. His 
had as good seed aud tillage, I think, ns ours, 
but no manure. His yielded 40 bushels per 
acre, and our standard varieties from 1.3(5 to 
150. 
2nd. As nearly as I can get at the facts, 
Story County in which the college is situated, 
did not harvest 30 bushels per acre of potatoes 
for the area planted, and the whole State of 
Iowa did not harvest 40 bushels per acre for 
the area planted. 
3rd, Mr. T. B. Terry, of Hudson, Ohio, is 
one of the most, successful potato growers in 
the United States. He has cotue to believe 
much in clover as a manure for potatoes. His 
land is excellent, partly newly cleared and 
partly heavily manured in the past. One lot 
of six acres, rather new land, had, last fall, a 
very heavy crop of clover plowed under, that 
he says would have yielded "three large loads 
of hay per acre.” That Held this year yielded 
only about 100 bushels per acre, and lie had 
almost four times as much rain as we for the 
last II weeks, aud 18 times as much for the 
lust eight weeks to August 15th. His tillage 
was as good as ours, and we planted the three 
or four varieties that have proved most pro¬ 
ductive with him in the past. Ou another six 
acres heavily manured m previous years, aud 
with a light dressing recently, ho had about 
150 bushels per aero. Difference iu manure is 
the only principle on which I can account for 
the difference in yield. Clover can never 
compete with well-rotted stable manure for 
pushing potatoes in a dry time. Even iu a 
year of abundant rains, past heavy manuring 
tells. Mr. Terry, in 1883, grew at. the rate of 
500 bushels per acreon land manured the year 
before for Hubbard Squashes, at the rate of 
about 50 tons per acre of rich compost of 
stable manure and swamp muck. Just, over 
the fence, on laud where no manure had been 
applied for ruuuy years, there were only 200 
bushels per acre. Mr. Terry, iu writing of 
the matter iu 1883, said: "Difference in soil 
and kinds of potatoes might account for some 
of this great variation in yield, but 1 think it 
fair to say that 200 bushels per aero of the best 
yield was owing to the manure put on the 
ground for squashes the previous year." He 
adds: "The potatoes were uone of them sold 
for less than 40 cents per bushel, so we have at 
least $80 per acre cash henoHt from that heavy 
manuring the second year, to say nothing of 
$240 an acre which the squashes brought.” 
It looks os if good stable or yard manure, 
properly saved and used on potato laud was 
“big motley” with potatoes in any year, espe¬ 
cially a dry year. 
Potatoes were so scarce in Iowa this year, 
owing to the most severe drougth ever known 
there, that they retailed all the fall at 90 cents 
to $1,00 per bushel -good pay, where they 
yield 150 bushels per acre. 
to be sure, gone by for such prices as tempted 
the planting of so many Bartlutts: yet there 
is always a paying market, for good fruits. 
But the average orehardist studies but little 
over the way to reach tie; best returns. In 
fact, few who look for profit from their crops 
put enough bruins and study into their busi¬ 
ness. In the first place, ns to fruits, the best 
are not to be had haphazard. The trees must 
have care, and the ground they staud on, en¬ 
richment; before a yield of big crops of the 
highest quality is to be had. The trees must 
not bo allowed to over bear. This unbred is 
the cause of more poor fruits than any other. 
Courageous thinuing will alone insure line 
fruits. This will bring us not only splendid 
specimens, but annual crops. \ tree is not so 
much exhausted and overtasked by a crop of 
large, fully developed fruit as by the same 
measure of small, insignificant, half-grown, 
tasteless “nubbins”. 
This thinning will not only give us better 
fruits, but will enable us to have luscious 
kinds of pears, which will not otherwise ma¬ 
ture in our Northern States. Thus, the Easter 
Bourrg, so rarely perfected iu New York, 
Pennsylvania and England, if thinned with 
resolute hands right after the first sets swell 
out, will give us largo fruits that will rival 
its specimens from California or France. The 
same regimen will work the same results with 
all the late pears. This is no theory; 1 speak 
from what 1 know and have done. There is 
no reason why the farmer and orehardist 
should not go on planting his orchard, ami 
striving by care and enrichment to increase 
the fruit crop of every season. Fifty cents 
ami many varieties iu their vineyards to look 
more sharply after the profits to be hud out of 
the jtear for months after the grape has gone 
out of eating. If the farmer looks to the 
counsel “Put money in tby purse, Horatio,” he 
cannot do it quicker and more largely than 
by a well cultured orchard of late pears, care¬ 
fully stored aud ripoued. 
Bridgeport, Cfc. 
for the Southern States calls, first, for a de¬ 
crease in the amount of work expended on the 
acreage of land,'and, second, for a change 
from tlie present system of exhaustive crop¬ 
ping, to farming that does not constantly tend 
to impoverish the soil to the extent, of render¬ 
ing it unprofitable to work at all. I wish to 
call attention to the former. Much the larger 
part of the cultivated land is planted to cotton 
and corn, while probably four-fifths of the 
uncultivated land that is cleared makes no re¬ 
turn, as it is not fenced aud cannot be pas¬ 
tured. The stock is lacking to consume the 
feed that can be grown at a profit iu these 
States, yet such stock as is grown comes out of 
the winter “spring-poor.” On the old plant¬ 
ations of l.nOit acres only about 400 acres are 
considered worth cultivating: 3(H) acres of 
this will be planted to cotton, 100 to corn. 
One hand and one mule work about 25 acres, 
so that 10 unties atul 10 full hands—which 
means about 550 to 40 nerrsons, old and young— 
have to be supported on the place. 
When we estimate the value of the crops, 
which will average about 1,500 bushels Of corn, 
not enough to feed the mules and the hands, 
aud 100 bales of cotton, worth *4,out), all sup¬ 
plies having to be bought, it can be readily 
understood why Southern lauds are cheap and 
why Southern farmers are having hard times. 
The system followed is not only unprofit¬ 
able but the lands are rapidly wearing out, so 
that instead of 400 acres out Of the thousand 
being planted, on many places not more than 
one acre in ten is planted, and the proportion 
grows less with each succeeding year. 
Four years ago we commenced operations 
on I,4iH)acres of cleared land of which but 400 
acres were considered “worth cropping. The 
remainder was all washed hill, land such as is 
found all through the South, aud can be bought 
for from four to seven dollars an acre. We 
have considered economical labor the thing of 
prime importance, and the plan adopted was 
to crop only th • best laud and w ork that well, 
and fence off the poor land aud use it for pas¬ 
ture. Three hundred acres are cropped, 1,000 
are pastured. Ten mules and five teamsters 
do all the team work, and labor-saving im¬ 
plements are used as far as is possible. We 
grow some cotton, sell some corn, buy large 
quantities of cotton-seed, for feeding and look 
principally to sales of beef, milk and butter 
for returns. From the increase iu stock and 
sales of stock products, 1,000 acres of our poor 
land will return this year $2,000, and not a 
dollar expended ou the lund for labor in any 
way, except a little repairing of fences. This 
is simply from the natural growth, the soil not 
having been stirred since the cotton aud corn 
last grown upon it were “laid by,” and no 
grass seed of any kind having been sown. 
Iu place of working 20 or 25 acres per 
hand aud mule, we are working 140 acres per 
man and team, or at least we are makiug pro¬ 
ductive returns on that acreage. Our worn- 
out farm of four years ago is now paying for 
new fences, new buildings, all running ex¬ 
penses, anil we will have a nice little cash sur¬ 
plus at the end of the year. At the same time 
the productive capacity is increasing from 15 
to 30 per 06nt. each year. 
I hold that the important factor of the suc¬ 
cess attained is economical labor, nmkiug a 
small outlay lor labor and running expenses. 
Having carefully studied the operations of 
farmers in some of the Northern States, I be¬ 
lieve the matter of devoting more laud to pas¬ 
ture and planting less, thereby reducing cost 
of labor, and other expenses, but not necessar¬ 
ily curtailing receipts, is the important thing 
to consider. 
AgT Coll., Starkville, Miss. 
THE HORACE GREELEY PEAR. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
The Horace Greeley Pear, shown at Figs. 
4-5, was raised from seed by the late Dr. John 
I. Howe, of Derby, Ct., about 30 years ago. 11 
was oneof some 50 seedlings he produced, and 
the only one of much value. The tree is an up¬ 
right, vigorous grower, the most so of the 
whole lot, and proves to be a splendid bearer, 
some of the trees bearing every year. This 
season they have borne fuller than usual and 
the fruit runs a little smaller in consequence. 
The Doctor died in 1870, and the land on which 
the original tree stood has since been sold for 
business purposes and the original tree has 
been destroyed. 
The Doctor’s brother, an octogenarian from 
whom I obtained the above facts and a 
sample for illustration, has all the stock 
of this pear now extant. It has nev¬ 
er been disseminated, though he has con¬ 
templated doing so, but his advanced age 
compels him to abandon it to other hands. 
He further adds that its keeping qualities are 
superior to those of any other varieties he has 
ever raised. It keeps longer after “yellowing 
fNaifl./ZA '•* * .'l x* 
7? V-y 
Horace Greeley Pear. From Nature. 
The same. Half-section. Fi 
per bushel for the fruit-harvest will pay a bet¬ 
ter average than any annual farm crop, cereal 
root, or grass. But the shiftless lack of sense 
in the orchard, which leaves the pear tree to 
struggle unkempt and uncultured, has led to 
plantiug too many Bartlutts and pears of its 
season. They over-stock the market while 
pears of an earlier and very largely of a later 
season, are almost entirely neglected. Such 
are the fruits that it will pay to cultivate; 
late pears, especially those ripening through 
the winter, are not likely to over stock the 
market. They require care not only in their 
culture blit iu their storing. In some way 
there must, bo provided for them cool quar¬ 
ters, where they will not tin) readily reach 
ripeness in (lie warm days of (lie late fall. 
They need to be kept until towards their peri¬ 
od of maturity at a temperature of about 40 
degrees, and then to be ripoued in a warmer 
atmosphere. For this purpose a fruit room is 
needed where au even degree of heat can lie 
comfortably kept; where neither the dampness 
of a moist atmosphere, nor the dry ness of the 
fall and winter winds can reach them. One 
of the greutest difficulties iu pear preservation 
is their tendency to shrivel. The juices of the 
pear evaporate much more readily than do 
those of the apple; when once its skiu has 
shrunken from their loss, the task is very dif¬ 
ficult to bring it to a luscious maturity. 
In this regimen with the pear, the amateur 
who cultivates only for his own household, and 
the orehardist who looks for a profitable mar 
ket. must follow the same routine to insure 
fine fruits. There is no reason why the mar¬ 
kets of the Northern States should not he sup¬ 
plied with the pear from July through to 
April or May of every year. And this, not by 
the process of retardation in refrigerating 
houses, but by keeping the pear at au even 
temperature of about 40 degrees till it reaches 
the season of its special maturity, l commend 
to those who are so eager for a large acreage 
RUMINATION 
HENRY STEWART. 
“Any faults f” Certainly. In this world of 
imperfections there is nothing perfect. The 
Ayrshire cow has her faults; the Jersey; the 
Dutch; the Short-horn, every cow and every¬ 
thing has its faults. This is why the “general- 
purpose” cow is a myth, a creature of the im¬ 
agination, and if a man thinks he can produce 
any one cow having all the excellencies of every 
breed and none of the faults of any one, he 
w ill certainly be mistaken and disappoiuted. 
It is so with men; some arc good for one thing 
anil some for others; but “a perfect mun, who 
can find I” * * * 
It is the same with grasses; hence Orchard 
Grass will never supplant Timothy. It has its 
uses, w hich I have found are for early pasture 
or soiling cow's, or for cutting for hay with 
clover, and when youug, when it is excellent. 
The after-growth also makes the very best late 
summer and fall pasture. But Timothy aud 
clover, mixed, with all the drawbacks that 
can be urged against them, will produce the 
con enm J 
THE FARM LABOR PROBLEM 
PROr. E. A. GILLEY 
In the Rural of Nov. 15th, Prof. Shelton 
calls attention to the labor problem on the 
farm, and in his forcible way refers to needed 
reforms. While agreeing w ith the Professor, 
that more work must be doue with machinery 
and less by bond to reduce the cost of produc¬ 
tion to conform to tho times and prices, I 
believe the solution of the farm labor problem 
MONEY IN THE REAR CROF 
GEN. WM. H. NOBLE, 
Fink pears can be at every seasou a source 
pf health, comfort and profit. The day has, 
