iUf 
THE BUBAL 
am gradually working my whole farm, 1 laiy 
about 100 bun-els of ashes a year, paying for a 
considerable portion in market stuff, and some¬ 
times making wiles for ashes where there is no 
cash, 
My market wagon also collects a great many 
bones, and these, with more brought to me by 
boys as a circulating medium good for the 
purchase ol' fruit, make a pile of one or two 
tons each year, costing less than a cent per 
pound. 1 have tried all suggested ways for 
reducing these bones. The perennially recur¬ 
ring directions in agricultural papers to bed 
them with ashes and lime and keep the mass 
wet, has failed to do more than soften a few 
of the thin ones at. the end of a year. Moiling 
in strong caustic lye will soften and disinte¬ 
grate any bone, however hard, in time, but 
the cost is too great. I have sent, hones 40 
miles by rail to a bone mill, had one-half tak¬ 
en as toll and paid freight both ways, but only 
once. I have tried beating them, and my fin¬ 
gers too, line with a hammer, hut not long. Fi¬ 
nally, 1 have burned them white, and with a 
heavy rammer and a sieve I have made them 
fine on the barn floor. Three or four duys’ 
work will reduce a ton in this way, the most 
of ft quite fine, and it is the most effective and 
economical way I have attained to. The ni¬ 
trogen is lost., it is true, but this item is com¬ 
paratively small. When I want more phos¬ 
phoric acid than I get in this way, I have 
bought ground Ik me, plain acid phosphate, and 
lately South Carolina fine rock, or floats. 
This, I think, is going to prove quite as good 
and as cheap as my burnt bones, though a 
part of the latter is paid for in produce that 
would not otherwise l»o sold. 
As a source of nitrogen I depend mainly on 
stable manure, though T have used bran, 
shorts, ground refuse, or damaged beans, hen 
manure, etc., besides purchasing an occasion¬ 
al bug of sulphate of ammonia. But good 
stable manure shows by analysis about as 
much nitrogen as phosphoric acid, while crops 
require about four times as much of the last 
as of the first. So I get all the nitrogen a 
crop requires (some need but little) with a 
light dressing of dung, adding whatever of 
phosphoric acid and potash the plot may 
stand in need of. Quite often, on a plot 
dressed previously with burnt bones or other 
phosphate, a light dressing of dung and one 
quart per rod (two barrels per acre) of ashes 
will give me a heavy crop of peas, beans, po¬ 
tatoes or sweet corn. Onions must have much 
more nitrogen—preferably in sulphate of am¬ 
monia. 
The profitable utilization of manure de¬ 
pends, far more than most fanners think, 
upon the way in which it is applied. Stable 
manure I draw on the laud iu the fall, after 
crops are removed. The fall-rains and melt¬ 
ing snows wash all soluble matter from this 
into the soil, and the plow, in spring, turns 
the insoluble matter under. After plowing, 
all flue fertilizers are sown upon the furrows 
and harrowed in. They are theu just where 
the young plants spread their first roots. My 
ana is not to manure for more than the cur¬ 
rent season, except with slowly soluble fertil¬ 
izers, of which the chief, in fact almost the 
only one, is bone or S. C. reck. 1 keep the 
laud pretty well stocked with this, so that I 
am sure there is enough of it available for 
the crop, and a good deal more to become 
available for succeeding crops. 
Stable manure costs me $1.50 per t wo horse 
load, delivered and spread upon the laud. 
Upon my system a little of this goes a great 
ways, provided it is good, since 1 buy it main¬ 
ly as a source of nitrogen, and. feed the crop 
with potash and phosphoric acid from cheap¬ 
er sources. Yet it will be soon that I get 
phosphoric acid lu a quickly available form, 
both with this and with ashes. 
As nearly all of my small territory (13 acres) 
is under the plow all the time, I can get no 
benefit from turned sod. If 1 could, I should 
farm to still better advantage, for no fertiliz¬ 
er costs less than sod, which pays its way 
from t he start, in grain and grass, and makes 
the best possible manure, with a little aid, for 
two succeeding crops. Of course, this means 
a strong, heavy sod, such as you get quickly 
on land in very good heart. The marked 
point in my farming, in which I differ from 
all my neighbors, is that I use very little of 
any manufactured, composite fertilizer, and 
yet farm almost wholly on chemicals. My 
aim has been to do this us cheaply as possible, 
and yet secure profitable results. The meth¬ 
od is simple, scientific and effective, as well as 
cheap. Everything counts, and nothing 
wastes, or lies idle. 
Newport, Vt. 
- - - - 
DEVICE FOR FEEDING HOGS. 
A euiknd, whose name we have unfortu¬ 
nately mislaid, sends us a sketch of the ar¬ 
rangement shown at Fig. 76. As will be seen, 
the trough is placed upon the outside of the 
pen, either nailed to the boards or held by 
stout hooks. Holes are cut in the boards 
through which the hogs thrust their heads to 
eat. A hinged door drops down to cover these 
holes when there is no feed in the trough. 
With such a trough the hogs are unable to get 
their feet into the food and the feeder can 
handle the food to better advantage. 
CniCKKN FEEDER. 
By using the arrangement shown at Fig. 77, 
young chickens are enabled to eat their food 
in peace and not be troubled by the old bens 
and larger chickens. It may be placed where 
a growth, making the leaf coarse, and though 
it had greater weight, it sold for much less 
per pound; but at this time color is the im¬ 
portant quality, and the producer who can 
furnish the largest leaf with the bright, gold 
en color, gets the best returns for his labor, 
and consequently all the manure the planter 
can scrape up goes on the tobacco patch. 
With a small plow, rows are run three feet 
apart. In these drills fertilizers are distribut¬ 
ed at the rate of from 200 to 400 pounds per 
acre, and covered by turning one furrow from 
each way, called “bedding” or “listing.” 
Formerly the hills were then made up with 
the hoe; but that practice has been pretty 
much abandoned. Furrows ore run three 
feet apart across the beds. This gives a square 
yard to each plant, or 4,840 plants to an acre. 
A stroke or two clears the hill of sticks, stones 
or anytbiug likely to interfere with planting, 
and the place for the plant (which is on the 
bed half way between the cross-furrows) is 
firmed with the hoe and, providing the plants 
are large enough, (the cover should lie re¬ 
moved several days previous so that they may 
harden) and there is sufficient moisture in the 
soil,and the weather is favorable, wo ore ready 
to plant. Where the working force is suffic¬ 
ient, if dry weather occurs it is better to leave 
the land level until the plants are ready and 
rain comes, when the woik must be pushed to 
the fullest extent. In this way a light rain 
may suffice to insure a good stand, whereas, 
if the ridges once dry through, much rain is 
necessary to wet them sufficiently for planting. 
Some planters ]dace great importance on early 
planting, a saying among them beiug, “A bud 
in May is worth a large plant in June.” Be 
that as it may. I notiecthat a good-sized plant 
(and by that I mean one whose largest leaves 
are four inches in length' gets the start and 
keeps it. One thing is certain—planting, like 
all the operations connected with this crop, 
must be done at the right time and everything 
else must give way to it to succeed. 
done by putting’cobalt in the flowers of the 
Jamestown Weed on which the fly feeds. 
Could a whole neighborhood be induced to 
practice this plan persistently, this pest might 
be so subdued as to cause but little in jury and 
save a vast amount of disagreeable labor. 
Here are a few other insects which sometimes 
do a little damage: The cut. worm, an old ac¬ 
quaintance of every farmer; the little “bud- 
worm” which eats the bad from the center of 
the young plant; and, lastly, “Mr. Flea Bug,” 
which attacks the full-grown leaf and when he 
is done with it, it appears like very fine lace- 
work. Whether this is the same chap that is 
so fond of the young plants in the bed, I am 
unable to say. Nothing can be done from the 
time cultivation ceases until cutting but to 
keep off the worms and suckers. 
NEFAUL BARLEY. 
This is the species known by botanists as 
Hordeum trifureatum. It is six-rowed, hav¬ 
ing three breasts or spikelets on each joint of 
the raebis. The part of the flower ordinarily 
producing the awu (palet) is awnless, termi¬ 
nating in a tbree-lobed or eared point, the 
central lobe assuming a hooded form, while 
the lateral lobes are merely ears of variable 
length that sometimes terminate into twisted, 
short awns. The grain is not firmly adher¬ 
ent to the palet. as is usually the case with 
barley, but is loosely inclosed within it, 
falling from the palet when beaten or thrashed. 
As grown under my observation, the- culm is 
stout, slightly decumbent at the very base, 
then becoming erect, averaging in bight two 
feet three inches. The leaves are very coarse 
and broad; the leaf sheaths are very loose. 
Although the value of measurements may be 
questioned they serve well for comparison 
with other varieties, if averages be taken. 
My note-book gives the following figures: 
length of leaf, S' . to 1 • • inches, average seven 
and one-half; width of upper leaf lin widest 
part) five sixteenths to one inch, average three- 
fourths: width of lower leaf, three-sixteenths 
to one-half inch, average five-sixteenths; pan¬ 
icle, average length three and one-fourth 
inches; thickness,three-eighths to one-half inch 
average seven-sixteenths; breadth, one-half to 
nine-sixteenths inch, average one-half. The 
panicle of this variety nearly always produces 
a number of sterile flowers, or very weak ones, 
on the terminal portions. As a result the seed 
is quite uneven in size, there being many small 
ones produced from the more feeble flowers. 
The grain is of medium size, rather plump and 
short, and deep amber or dark brown in 
color. 
This variety is not often grown as other 
than a curiosity, it being very inferior in 
productiveness, and not thrashing cleanly 
from the head. Nepaul Barley was first in¬ 
troduced to the civilized world, by being 
brought from the Himmalaya Mountains in 
the province of Nepaul, in Hindoostan, Asia, 
to Great Britain in 1817, and was known as 
Nepaul Wheat. It. has never been cultivated 
to any extent iu Britain. Dr. Lindley, the 
celebrated English botanist, says that “ the 
pales are apparently iu a monstrous form, 
the ends being three-lobed, and curved back 
in the form of horns, which sometimes extend 
into arms.” The earliest record 1 have of its 
culture in America under the above name, is 
iu 185'J. 1 have had it sent to me from Colorado 
under the name of Del Norte Barley. Hors- 
ford's Bald is, practically speaking, this vari¬ 
ety although rather more awned than Nepaul 
usually is. 
From a head of Nepaul Barley planted at 
the Station in IS$4, four strikingly different 
varieties were grown, two black, two white. 
Of these two colors, one was bearded as with 
common six-rowed barley, the other was of 
the Nepaul form, that is, we had one white- 
bearded, and one black bearded,and one white 
Nepaul, aud one black. This is a striking 
illustration of reversion, if we can consider it 
such. C. s. PLUMB. 
N. Y. Exper. Sta., Geneva, N. Y. 
“NEPAUL WORTHLESS.” 
I bought a bushel of Nepaul Barley a few 
years ugo aud sowed it on an acre of good 
ground. I thought I would let it do its best, 
so gave it room. Both Sibley aud Ferry, iu 
their catalogues, praised it very highly for 
feedmg, being a “heavy yielder,” etc. The 
barley made a poor growth and a miserable 
yield, aud it is altogether worthless, except as 
a curiosity, it being Imlless, like wheat. 
Ann Arbor, Mich. w. f. b. 
R. N.-Y.—Grains of this Nepaul Barley 
were sent to us about 10 years ago. Suppos¬ 
ing it to be some sort of wheat, we sowed it iu 
the fall. Of course, that was the last of it. 
Later samples have been sent to us fur name 
from many places. Under date of Nov. 22, 
Mr. C. J. \V right, residing near Fergus Falls' 
Minn., sent us a small quantity of the Nepaul 
with the following note; 
SUFFOLK RAM BISMARCK 4th. Re-engraved from the London Live Stock Journal. 
Fig. 78. (See page 70.) 
Usually we have 10 or 15 days of rainy 
weather in May, known as “the loug season in 
May,” and fortunate is the planter who gets 
his plantsset ar that time, as very few fail to 
grow. All available hands—men, women and 
children—are pressed into service, and the 
work is rapidly accomplished. A good hand 
sets as fast as a lively youngster can drop the 
plants. The setting is done by two strokes of 
the “ planting peg”—which is made of wood 
about six inches long and one inch in diame¬ 
ter—one to make the hole and another to press 
the soil to the roots. Re-planting is always 
resorted to for securing a perfect stand. As 
soon as the young plants are well established, 
the hills ar© “scraped”—lightly hoed. From 
this on until August, plowing and hoeiug are 
performed as the ueeds of the crop aud condi¬ 
tion of the land seem to require. “Priming” 
is mainly done when the plants are about one 
foot high, aud “topping” when the flowerstalk 
shows itself, except in cases of very vigorous 
growth and the desired number of leaves 
i from 10 to 14) has been secured wheu this 
operation is performed earlier. 
We have now arrived at the season wnen 
the great warfare w r ith the larva of the Caro¬ 
lina sphynx,known here as the “horn worm," 
begins only to end when the tobacco is in the 
barn. Many old planters who in ante helium 
days were largely engaged in growing tobacco 
now plant ouly tens of thousands to hundreds 
of thousands then, for the reason, as they say, 
that they' cannot control the labor at this crit¬ 
ical time. Where hand-picking alone is de¬ 
pended upon for the destruction of the posts, 
it is often necessary to hand-pick twice a week. 
Turkeys are a great^help aud large flocks are 
raised for this purpose, but the surest way to 
destroy the worm is to poison the fly, which is 
half a dozen flocks cau find it easy of access. I 
The little chicks will soon learn to run to it. I 
have used one with good success for two years. 
Make two square frames of t wo by two-inch 
stuff, about three feet square. Slat them up i 
on the outside with slats about 2’ 4 " inches 
apart, placing the lower frame about live 
inches above the bottom, so that the chickens 
can run under. Then nail slats oil the top, or 
it may be made whole with a small door 
through which to drop food. 1 made my slats 
from waste strips from a box factory. Com¬ 
mon lath could be used. p. e. t. 
Port Jefferson, N. Y. 
fkltr Crops. 
TOBACCO RAISING IN NORTH CARO 
LINA.—II. 
M. B. PHI NOB. 
The light-gray, sandy lauds, with a clay 
subsoil more or less mixed with sand and of a 
light-yellow color, once considered almost 
worthless, are now in demand at very much 
improved prices for growing bright tobacco. 
Virgin soil is always preferable, especially 
during a wet summer like that of ’86, when 
there was but little really fine leaf made on I 
old lands. 
The usual custom is to break up the land in 
February or March, in which condition it re¬ 
mains until May, or a few days before the 
plants are expected to bo largo enough to sotf. I 
If any manure is to lie used, it is spread broad- | 
cast, the subsequent cultivation mixing it I 
with the soil, A few years ago stable manure 
was thought to be injurious, causing too rank | 
