soul for a digger. This did not give equal sat¬ 
isfaction. It iloes well where the ground is 
not grassy and weeds do not bother, hut Crab 
(trass grows up here after the potato tops die. 
It makes a stiff seal that will choke; anything 
and easiest of all a potato digger that has all 
the dirt to move besides throwing the potatoes 
out. Those who grow potatoes on a large 
scale neglect their business when they fail to 
get these tools. They will last for years and 
almost pay for themselves in one season. We 
plant all early potatoes. Late ones are uncer¬ 
tain here. We have much trouble with scab 
and wire worms. These are worst on old land. 
Tubers grown on new timber land are best. 
Shawnee Co., Ivans. j, a. thomas. 
farm {Topics. 
CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS. 
Colts: Husking Cohn.— Not long ago Sec¬ 
retary Russell was quoted as saying the far¬ 
mers should not raise colts. He wished his 
would die. If he has any now and will ad¬ 
vertise in the Rural, there will he no need of 
his killing them. I like colts and have raised 
several. I never had one that I wished to die. 
Some have died that I wanted to live. 
Somebody asks about busking corn. While 
in lew a and Kansas I averaged 30 bushels of 
4,300 inches per day, and cribbed it. The best 
1 did was 40 bushels, but men who are raised 
to it average SO bushels easily. An iron husk- 
ing-pin is used. Miue is a piece of nail rod 
pointed and bent to fit across the fingers to 
meet the thumb, with a leather string around 
the middle finger to keep it in place. They 
like to have the wagon body 10 feet long and 
three feet wide inside, and count one inch in 
bight a bushel, although it measures a little 
more. I husked that way for three cents a 
bushel. char. n. wtnans. 
Union Co., N. .T. 
Farmers to the Front !—“ Where the 
farmers might and ought to stand in poli¬ 
ties ! * Your picture tells the story well. 
The laboring class iti general should have a 
larger share in the government of this coun¬ 
try. Fanners are willing that lawyers should 
have a proper representation, but the truth is 
they have pretty much all to say. Why is this? 
You came very pear answering it in a recent 
editorial upon “odd jobs for the farmer.” 
We have not studied enough, have not read 
enough. We give too much time to the little 
details of farm life, forgetting that there are 
other claims upon us, and we allow others to 
usurp our place. 1 have, with my wife, 
been taking the “Chautaugua Course” for 
the past three years. Farm work makes it 
hard to keep up sometimes, but we have per¬ 
severed and feel well repaid for our effort. 
Queens Co. N. Y. p. e. terry. 
Brisk Husking, — T live in a corn country 
and can tell s nnething about busking. Here 
iu Nebraska a fiat steel or iron pin is used, 
fastened on two or more fingers with a leather 
strap, the point being sharpened and bent to 
suit the busker. An average husking is 50 to 
75 bushels of corn at 70 pounds per bushel in 
the ear per day. One man iu this county 
husked and cribbed 132 bushels iu one day last 
fall. A man that cau't crib 50 bushels per 
day is uot considered worth hiring, f. a. b. 
Risiug City, Neb. 
The horticultural societies of the older 
States lose somewhat of their earnestness after 
years of service. The members tell all they 
know and have to repeat and iu repeating for¬ 
get that what is simplo to them is hard for 
new beginners. In States like ours, where 
such societies are young, far more earnestness 
is shown. Colorado is making rapid strides as 
a fruit State. In a few years we shall be able 
to place in our markets all the fruit we can 
use. For quality, our fruits are unsurpassed 
by those of any other State in the Union. 
Loveland, Colorado. p. n. o. 
farm Camaimj. 
\N ICE HOUSE, 
Two years ago, having to handle milk for 
another party, I fouud it necessary to have 
an ice-house. I planned one from a design 
of my own, and having used it for two 
summers with satisfactory results, 1 show 
readers of the Rural the plan at Fig. 
1U8. The building is 12x16 feet on the ground, 
with 1‘2-foot posts and studding 2x6 incites, 12 
feet long and covered with novelty boards, 
lined with hemlock, anil the intermediate space 
filled with sawdust from the ground to nearly 
the top of the rafters. ^Through the center, 
the 12-foot way, I built a passage four feet 
wide, six feet high, with a partition on each 
side of four inch joists, covered and filled with 
sawdust, with three-inch plank four feet long 
across the top for flooring. The door opening 
into the room is six inches thick, packed with 
sawdust and built like a refrigerator door, 
fitting tightly. In the rear of the passage I 
have a tank built into the ground for holding 
water and cans; immediately over the door an 
aperture 2x4 inches, opeus from the room into 
a ventilator of the same size, passing up along 
the inside of the building and opening at a 
small open window nearly at the peak of the 
roof, which keeps the room free from all foul 
and disagreeable odors. This arrangement 
leaves for ice a space 6x12 feet on each side of 
the room, and six feet high, above which the 
whole huildiug is packed as full as it can be 
conveniently, and covered with sawdust or 
hay. The house is filled at the rear. By keep¬ 
ing the door closed as much as possible, the 
temperature within the room can be kept as 
low as 46 all the time, and as no warm air 
gets to the water it seldom has to be changed. 
The ice need not be disturbed until the middle 
of July, and then not much is wasted at a time. 
Meat, butter and eggs cau be placed upon a 
shelf out of the wav and kept as well as in a 
refrigerator. m. n. 
Fine Brook, N. J. 
DEVICE FOR LIFTING A CARCASS. 
I use the device shown at Fig. 105, and like 
it well. It is simple aud easily made, and 
much more serviceable than anything that I 
have ever seen, short of a regular butcher’s 
fixture. A pole four to six inches in diameter, 
is laid across the high beams of the barn. To 
this are fastened chains, as shown in the cut. 
A pole live feet long and three inches in diam¬ 
eter is run through the chaiu ami the hocks 
of the animal to be lifted. The hocks are 
kept apart by a spreader. Hand-spikes are 
placed under the pole and steadily turned un¬ 
til the carcass is lifted as high as desired. They 
can then be fastened by tying with a small 
cord around the chains, or by placing a fork- 
handle or hoop-pole hack of the chains aud in 
front of the hand-spikes. d. c. 
Yates City, Ills. 
MILKING STOOL. 
At Fig. 107 is sliowu a milking stool I have 
^UiKfUattJCou.s -Mvertwiittg, 
SKIN WITHOUT BLEMISH 
No organ is so perfect and so beautiful as the skin. 
Soft as satin, sensitive as a camera, tinted with the 
loveliest delicacy, it yet has the strength and elasr Icily 
suiHcieiit for the protection of all the underlying 
frame, tissue, muscle, bone, anil nerve. Everywhere a 
network of sudorlllc ducts, veins, and pores, it con¬ 
stantly renews Itself, and not only with its ceaseless 
desquamation, bill with Us natural functional action, 
eliminates all waste, acclimation, and disease. Hence, 
a skin without blemish means more than heauty: it 
means health. 
Cttocura, the great skin cure, and UrncrttA So at, an 
exquisite skill beautiller, prepared from it, exter 
ually, and CrriccnA Resolvent, the new blood pu 
rlfler, internally, are a speedy, economical, and In¬ 
fallible cure for every species of torturing, disfiguring, 
Itching, scaly and pimply diseases of the skin, sculp 
and blood, with loss of hair, from pimples to scrofula. 
For the last year 1 have bad a species of Itching, 
sealy aud pimply humors on my face to which I have 
applied a great many methods of treatment without 
success, and which was speedily and entirely cured by 
the Cuticcra Remedies. 
Mrs. ISAAC PHELPS, Ravenna. O. 
Ctjticvra Remedies are absolutely pure, and theonly 
Infallible skin beautlfiers and blood purifiers. 
f7?"Send for "How to Cure Skin Diseases." Hi pages: 
5(i Illustrations and 100 Testimonials. 
1 have suffered all my life with skin diseases of dif¬ 
ferent kinds and have never found permanent relief, 
until, by the advice of a lady friend, I used your valu¬ 
able Cdtictra Remedies, t gave them a thorough 
trial, using six bottles of the OrnccRA Resolvent, 
two boxes of CmanA and seven cakes or Curie or a 
Soap, mid the result was just what I had been told it 
would he—a complete cure. 
BELLE WADE. Richmond, Va. 
Reference. G. W. Latimer, Druggist, Richmond. Va. 
Some five months ago I had the pleasure to inform 
you of my improvement irr the use of the Ccticcra 
Remedies in my case of severe Chronic Eczema Erythe¬ 
matosa, and to day cheerfully confirm ait 1 then said. 
I consider ray cure porrect and complete, and attribute 
it entirely to your remedies, having used no others. 
FERN AN ESEXCHARDO. 
3SM5 Pcnna Avenue. St. Louis, Mo. 
I was almost perfectly bald, caused by a Tetter of 
the top of the scalp. Ci ticdra Remedies in six weeks 
cured my scalp perfectly, and now my hair is coming 
back as thick as It ever was. 
J P. CHOICE, Whitesboro’, Texas. 
* 
Sold everywhere. Price, CrTtCfBA, 50c.; Soap. 25e.; 
Resolvent, $ 1 . Prepared by the Potter Drug and 
Chemical Co.. Boston, Mass. 
D I RJPLES. black heads, chanped and oily skin pre 
i 11*1 vented by OrnrruA medicated Soap. 
used for 15 years. It beats any patent stool I 
ever saw. The pail is held firmly between 
the cleat e and the knees. It is just the thing 
a farmer needs iu the cow stable to keep the 
bottom of the milk pail clean, and wife good- 
natured, and home happy. A is a one-inch 
board 6x22 incites: bb are legs, 6x0 nailed on 
four inches from the bottom: eseat, size to suit: 
d front leg four inches loug; e an inch piece 
cut iu a circle to Hr the pail nailed on top of a. 
Auburn, N. Y. j. w. m. 
Clmcaiiottat. 
CONCERNING THE AGRICULTURAL 
COLLEGES. 
PARKER EARLE. 
(Concluded*) 
Now, I believe the Rcral is partly right 
iu its criticisms and wholly right in its 
intentions. I am told, aud do not doubt, 
that there are many of the old colleges—mostly 
at the East—which received these laud grants 
from the several States, but which have neg¬ 
lected to provide for the education intended. 
But I do claim that there are many institu¬ 
tions—largely at the West, with some in the 
South—that have been aud are carrying out* 
the intentions aud the express provisions of 
the land grant laws with intelligence and 
great fait hfulness. Some of these are agricul¬ 
tural colleges by name and some are universi¬ 
ties—institutions with a broader purpose, 
which embrace several different colleges under 
one general management. The Rural asks 
for a Congressional investigation of the man¬ 
agement of these institutions. 1 second the 
motiou most earnestly; for l sincerely wish 
that an intelligent canvass of the work and 
usefulness of all these institutions could be 
made by a competent commission. If this 
should not be provided for by Congress, and I 
fear it wul not be, I w ish that the leading ag¬ 
ricultural and politico-agricultural newspa¬ 
pers of the country would join iu sending out 
U A II I) G so],f as dove’s down and as white, by 
nHHUa using Clticvka Medicated Soap. 
such a commission. If the sum of twenty-one 
millions of dollars resulting from the National 
and State grants for education, has been 
largely misapplied, as the Rural, says it be¬ 
lieves it has, it is a very grave matter. Let us 
by all means find out in some authoritative 
manner if this is a fact aud where the fault 
lies. It is quite time tlmt the public discus¬ 
sion of this agricultural college question was 
worked round on to a basis of facts, and not 
left to proceed on somebody's theory of what 
the facts ought to be. 
Now I believe I am safe in speaking for a 
dozen State colleges and universities—for 
Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Mis¬ 
souri, Mississippi, Colorado, California and 
some others—atul 1 know I speak for the Uni¬ 
versity of Illinois, when I earnestly invite the 
most complete investigation possible by a Con¬ 
gressional or a press commission. Let us find 
out where we all stand in the agricultural ed¬ 
ucation business. Let the great public know’ 
what is being done with its money. No 
greater service could be given to the cause of 
higher education, or to the general public, 
than to have this whole system of schools ex¬ 
haustively examined and faithfully reported 
on. 
The University of Illinois has enjoyed the 
distinction of receiving more assaults from 
the party of hostile critics alluded to in thebe- 
ginuiug of this article than any other of this 
class of schools. 1 can sjteak with great posi- 
tiveness concerning the management of this 
great State school, and 1 must say a word here 
to place it right with the intelligent public 
which* the Rural New-Yorker reaches. 
There are a few disappointed men who have 
for years assailed us with loose charges that 
the University was being lead away from its 
primary purposes and “prostituted” to courses 
of literary and classical study. No attention 
whatever hius been paid to the actual facts of 
the every-day life of the school in these 
charges. It has even been asserted that the 
agricultural courses had been suspended, so 
little was it true to the purpose of its founders- 
that it had become a simple literary college; 
