322 
MAY H 
(Continued from page 321.) 
The cost I cannot exactly estimate as I raise 
most of the feed and have kept, no account, 
but it might run a trifle over N. C.’s, as the 
climate hero is colder, though the hens have 
had no arti flcial heat. They have all run to¬ 
gether in one room. This year I crossed old 
hens with White Leghorns again and pullets 
with Light Brahmas. With part of them sit¬ 
ting, they laid in April 159 dozen eggs. I 
think it would be hard to find a flock of thor¬ 
oughbreds that has done better. 
Against Ensilage. —Prof. Sanborn, of 
Missouri,expresses himself quite emphatically, 
in the Prairie Farmer, as to silos and ensilage. 
He does not believe that Western farmers 
should be advised to go into the use of silage, 
unless under exceedingly exceptional condi¬ 
tions of affairs. His reasons are various and are 
partially stated,without argument, as follows; 
1. The food has no more feeding value than 
when secured by drying, if properly done, 2. 
As much food can be grown per acre to bo 
secured by drying as can bo grown for putting 
into a silo. 3. It necessitates handling, incase 
the crop is corn, nearly 8** tous of water for 
1% ton of dry matter, and the cost of hand¬ 
ling these tons of water must be charged 
to the 1)4 ton of food left, which often is 
nearly enough to buy ton of hay. 4. The 
food in the silo loses weight from its sub¬ 
stance, and also is followed by more or less 
spoiling of the material left around the edges 
of the silo. 5. Experiments in Europe and 
America show that any artificial method of 
preparing food, whereby it undergoes heat¬ 
ing, etc., detracts from its feeding value. 6, 
The silo is costly for building, if a good one, 
and if a poor one, costly of food contents. 
He must not be understood as wholly object¬ 
ing to silos, or affirming that our agriculture 
has no place for them. He believes, however, 
that where their real merits are known, few 
farmers would as yet make use of them. 
Quality of Peaks.— The late Charles 
Downing, says the Albany Cultivator, made a 
more accurate distinction iu the shades of 
difference iu quality thau most of the writers 
on fruits, and would not speak highly of a 
variety which did not possess real excellence 
in flavor. Hence, in rating the quality of 
1,200 varieties described in his work, he pro¬ 
nounces only six sorts as unqualifiedly “best” 
according to the standard of the American 
Pomological Society, the Seckel, however, 
preceding them all, which he says is the 
“richest and most exquisitely flavored variety 
known.” The six marked as best are, Bose, 
Dana’s Hovey, Rostiezer, Gray Doyenu^ 
Winter Nells and White DoyenmS. The fol¬ 
lowing 13 are placed a little lower, or “very 
good or best,” namely; Anjou, Superfin, 
Comice, Dix, Dr, Reeder, Urbaniste, Tyson, 
Belle Lucrative, Emile d’ Heyst, Henkel, 
Lawrence, Manniugton, Manning’s Elizabeth. 
English Dairy Prices.— Dairy prices get 
miserably low on this side of the Atlantic 
sometimes, but it is a comfort to know that 
our dairymen are not alone in the struggle 
with insufficient pay. A Yorkshire man 
writes to a London paper that butter does not 
average (taking the year round) more than 30 
cents per pound. He 1 telieves that the calcula¬ 
tion is correct that if a farmer gets 24 cents 
per pound for butter, he does not make more 
than nine cents per gallon on the new milk, 
including the value of the skim. In some dis¬ 
tricts butter has been sold at considerably lass 
than 24 cents. Skim milk is not worth more 
than two cents per gallon for pig feeding. 
Milk is sold in a neighboring town at five 
cents per quart, and at some well frequented 
watering places iu Yorkshire, even during tho 
season, it is six cents. Contracts for some of 
our public institutions and schools have lung 
been taken at 30 cents, and even 18 cents per 
gallon. When it is considered that American 
dairy products are supposed to be exported at 
a profit, these prices seom pretty low for Eng¬ 
land. 
SPICES. 
The true reason, says Dr. T. H. Hoskins, in 
the N. E. Farmer, why agricultural journals of 
a high grade, edited by men skilled iu husband¬ 
ry, and published by men who arc of too high 
principles knowingly to allow rogues of any 
sort access to their patrons through their ad¬ 
vertising columns, do not always have a very 
extensive subscription list is, that tho farmers 
who most need tho information they contain 
have too little education to appreciate their 
value and too little practical skill to effective¬ 
ly carry out their advice and instruction. 
Everywhere it will be seen that the better 
educated a farmer is, the more he is interested 
in books and papers which discuss the pro¬ 
blems of agriculture, and which open their 
columns gladly to the contributions of men 
who have made a success in any agricultural 
specialty. 
T. B. Terry, as he tells the Ohio Farmer, 
used to have to hunt up extra help to plant 
his potatoes, and pay out considerable money. 
He puts that money in his own pocket now, 
and rides on the planter and does tho work 
himself aloue. He has paid £-10 or £50 to a 
man to boo for him. Three or four days’ 
work with the harrow at just the right time 
enables him to put that money iu his pocket 
also. Last fall be did the digging, saving, say 
$50, and no running after help, no boarding 
of them, but a good deal of independence and 
big feeling when he was sitting quietly and 
doing the work of 15 men with beut backs and 
strained muscles... 
The Live Stock Journal says that it would 
be as reasonable to expect good bread from 
flour made of damaged graiu as pure milk 
from cows with rations of food tainted by age 
or soured through exposure to heat and moist¬ 
ure. The putridity contained in decaying 
food enters and poisons the blood, and it is 
from the blood that the milk is extracted in 
the udder. Let no mau flatter liimself that 
the digestive organs can separate the putrid¬ 
ity, casting it aside; on the other hand, the 
damaged material goes wherever the blood 
goes—to the lungs, liver, kidneys, and udder, 
and iu the latter enters the milk. 
We often speak of farm, cow, stable and 
hen manure as if a fixed value attached to 
either. Hen manure is especially variable in 
its mauurial elements, Au analysis made by 
Dr. Goessmanu of one sample (dry) shows a 
value of £10.55 per ton. It contained the 
usual mixture of feathers, earthy substances, 
etc. Of another (fresh) the analysis shows it 
to be worth but $3.42 per ton. 
Dr. Gokhsman remarks that the value of 
hen manure depends not less on the care 
which is given to keeping it than on the kind 
of food the fowls eat. The excretion of birds 
undergoes a rapid change; a large amount of 
ammonia is soon formed which reduces ma¬ 
terially its manurial value incase it is allowed 
to escape. A liberal use of plaster or of good 
loam, or kieserite is first-rate for absorbing 
the ammouia. The safest way to secure the 
full benefit of the droppings is to gather them 
often aud to add directly the plaster or loam. 
A sandy soil is of little use as an absorbent... 
Dr. Goessmann, of the Massachusetts Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station, values one sam¬ 
ple of tobacco stems, as manure, at $14 (SO per 
ton. It’contained of soluble potash 7.22 per cent, 
aud of nitrogen 2.05. Another sample ana¬ 
lyzed showed a value of but $8.83 per ton, 
showing less thau one per cent, of nitrogen. 
Farmers, he says, will do well to be careful in 
buying tobacco stems without a stated guar¬ 
antee of composition... 
An analysis of hop refuse shows it to be 
worth £3.02 per ton. Supplemented by some 
phosphoric acid and potash, it might serve iu 
place of barnyard manure. The average 
barnyard manure (partly rotten) usually con¬ 
tains but 0.5 per cent of nitrogen, 0,20 of phos¬ 
phoric acid, and 0.0 of potash... 
Dr. Goessmann finds a sample of rotten 
brewers’ grains to give a value of £2.71 per 
ton, chiefly on account of 0,72 per cent, of 
nitrogen aud 0.43 of phosphoric acid. They con¬ 
tain more uitrogen and phosphoric acid than 
barn-yard manure aud less potash.. 
Glucose refuse (dry) analyzed to be worth 
£0.33 per ton, containing 2.02 of nitrogen. 
Damaged cotton seed meal was valued at 
£14.07 per ton, aud contained 1.26 per cent, of 
phosphoric acid, 1.21 potash and 3.73 of ni¬ 
trogen . 
The swindle with regard to Bohemian Oats 
lies in the manner in which they are sold, not 
in the grain itself. Of this a writer in the 
National Stockman says that the oats make a 
good chicken feed, but for horses and cattle, 
fed either ground or whole, they are too rich, 
as the hull of an out aids digestion. Tho Bo¬ 
hemian Oats are hulless, or should bo, to be 
like the original seed. Many horses refuse to 
eat them. Those that do are liable to colic, 
from eating too rapidly. They can no doubt 
be used to advantage in the manufacture of 
oatmeal... 
Dr. Newton, connected with the enforce¬ 
ment of the oleomargarine law in New 
Jersey, says that since the State and National 
laws have been enforced the sales of oleomar¬ 
garine in New Jersey have decreased 60 per 
cent. 
THE supply of horses for Eastern markets a 
few years ago came mostly from the northern 
part of tho New England States and Canada. 
Now but few come from those sections, the 
most of them coming from west of the Alle- 
ghauies. Western breeders have au advan- | 
tage in climate and the cost of feed, aud 
buyers have found that better stock is to be 
fouud in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys than 
in any other section of the United States or 
Canada. In horses, as in other kinds of stock, 
tho West is m the lead, and is liable to remain 
in that position... 
The National Agricultural Department re¬ 
port makes tho decrease in tho hog supply one 
and one-half million from last year, and the 
hog cholera still devastating the herds in some 
parts of the country. This points to good 
prices for a year at least. But the pig multi¬ 
plies so fast that under favorable cireumstan- 
cos for this increase a shortage caunot be de- 
pended ou for a very long time to keep up the 
price. The high prices throw on the market 
hogs of low quality that should remain on the 
farm. But prices iu the past have fluctuated 
so much that there is a feeling of uncertainty 
with mauy as to the future, aud as a result 
hogs are thrown on tho market as soon as they 
can find a buyer. 
Dry, dusty hay makes a very unpalatable 
meal for horses that have to work hard. The 
best of hay is liable to be a little dusty at this 
time of tho year, and is not injured at ail by 
being dampened a little before fed. 
Every well-bred stallion brought into your 
neighborhood will have an influence ou the 
future value of the horses in it. So will every 
poorly-bred one. Which do you think you 
should encourage. Which kind will bo the 
more beneficial for horses?... 
Prof. Forbes, State Entomologist of Il¬ 
linois, from careful experiments made, con¬ 
cludes that 70 per cent, of flio loss commonly 
suffered by fruit growers fpom the coddling 
moth may be prevented at a nominal expense, 
by thoroughly applying Paris-green m a spray 
with water, ouce or twice, iu early spring as 
soon as the fruit is well set... 
Daniel Batchelor’s mixture of seeds for 
lawns is composed of Kentucky Blue, Bent 
Grass, Meadow Fescue, Paoey’s Dwarf Rye 
Grass, Crested Dog’s Tail. 
W hen the soil to become the lawn is moist 
he prefers Rough-stalk Meadow Grass (I’oa 
trivialis), Red-top, and Meadow Fox-tail. He 
considers that Paeey’s Dwarf Rye Grass aud 
Crested Dog’s Tail are especially adapted to 
light, dry soils. They will continue green, he 
says, in the dryest weather, even when Ken¬ 
tucky Blue Grass is apparently dead.. 
A pamphlet issued by the Cauadiau De¬ 
partment of Agriculture says that the total 
cost of convoying a steer from Toronto to 
Liverpool is £80, made up as follows: Rail 
from Toronto to Quebec, £2,50; feed, £2.50; 
attendance, 75 cents; insurance, £1.75; steam¬ 
er freight, £12.50. Thus, the cost of laying 
down a 1,600-pound steer in Liverpool is 
cent per pound live weight,. . 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.— 
LXXIX. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
From San Antonio to New Orleans; fine, 
fertile ranges; negro life; droughts; the 
cotton belt; Louisiana swamps and bayous; 
sugar-cane; arrival in the Crescent City, 
Wk left San Antonio at eight o’clock in the 
morning (April 10) and all that day tho coun¬ 
try wo traversed was as beautiful as Western 
Texas had been forbidding. Tho country was 
level and fertile, great prairies magnificent in 
luxuriance of grass aud brilliancy of flowers 
and thousands of cattle feeding on the beau¬ 
tiful pastures. But cuttle raised for tho sole 
purpose of being slaughtered are to me a pain¬ 
ful sight—second to that of a cattle train 
bound for a slaughter house. Negro women 
were working in the fields, plowing with one 
horse, and not having tho sense to wear 
short instead of loug skirts. A largo party 
of colored women, very nicely dressed, some 
of them with far more white blood thau block 
iu their veins, were passengers in the train 
from Sun Antonio. They paid first-class fares 
and were obliged to sit in the smoking car. 
The conductor, who had been born and reared 
in New York Slate, told as that sometimes 
colored women came into the “white” cars 
and he never ordered them out—it was not 
his business. But always there were Southern 
men aboard who forced them out. Again and 
agaiu they had sued iu tho courts for ila mages, 
but iu every case, eventually, the decisions 
were against them. Ho admitted that it was 
unjust that colored people could not got jus¬ 
tice in tho courts, but then what could one 
dot No one wanted to ride iu a car with “nig- 
gers.” It seemed easy ouough, I thought, to 
give them a separate first-class car, aud the 
conductor said the plan had been adopted in 
some of the States aud^was required by legisla¬ 
tion as we would see during our trip through 
the South. 
The car in which wo rode was very long, 
with a stove in tho middle of it, and had been 
built by Morgan & Co., of Louisiana. While 
the country seemed to bo so well watered and 
wooded, there being always trees iu the dis¬ 
tant horizon,yet spine natives of the State told 
us that agriculture was not very profitable 
owing to the droughts that so frequently 
“strike” the State. Nearly all of the dwellings 
wo saw were negroes’ houses, but all were 
shabby and unpainted. 
As wo rolled on toward Houston we came 
into the cotton belt. The plants were just 
above ground, and lookod quite like young 
beans. But it was early tho next morning 
that we saw miles of cotton, a sugar-cane and 
rice plantations. The negroes were at work 
in them at five o’clock in tho morning—the 
usual time for the beginning of a day’s work 
here—a fine field for the Knights of Labor! 
But happily for the South, both for tho em¬ 
ployer aud employed, “strikes” are as yet 
unknown in coitntry places. At all the. sta¬ 
tions were bales of cotton aud the planters 
bev ailed the low prices received for it. Tho 
approach of Houston is very pretty, and for a 
city located on a plain, the place is very at¬ 
tractive in appearance, as we saw it from the 
railway train. The consensus of opinion as 
we heard it expressed iu regard to the welfare 
of the freed people, was that they were doing 
fairly well, especially such as lived In the 
country and had little houses of their own. 
It was with regret that we saw the sun go 
down ou eastern Texas, a country iu every 
natural sense so beautiful and with no end 
to the (lowers—great masses of a lupin-like 
flower, sisyrineliium, piuk mallows, prim¬ 
roses, pink and white, and forests of the ex¬ 
quisite mesquite in the tenderest green. For 
the three morning hours which we had next 
day, prior to reaching New Orleans, we 
rode through swamps and bayous. The trees 
were heavily fringed with the long, gray moss 
peculiar to the (South. Tho great fields of 
sugar canc looked very like fields of young 
corn, the blade of the cane being moresluuder; 
and the rice plantations—but tho surface of 
the ground,laid off in squares for irrigation, as 
yet betrayed no hint of sprouting rice. One 
new thing we learned about sugar-cane, and 
that was that the cane does not grow in tho 
plantations from seed, as a rule, but is propa¬ 
gated from cuttings of the rhizomes, aud 
Wood says in his Botany that it is seldom 
permitted to waste its sweetness in flowering. 
About seven o’clock we were in sight of the 
levee (locally pronounced lev vy) of the Mis¬ 
sissippi. Small cottages of blacks were all 
along the route. The orange trees that wu saw 
had for the most part been severely injured by 
tho frost of the past winter, unprecedented 
for forty years, We crossed the wide muddy 
Father of Waters in a ferry—the river lined 
with steamboats,the wharfs piled with cotton 
bales and lounging men of two colors. We 
alighted at the station of the Morgan's Louis¬ 
iana and Texas R. R. It was new, clean— 
delightfully so—with first-class appointments, 
aud no smoking was allowed. We deposited 
our hand luggage there and found that our 
tranks, sent on from Los Angeles .had arrived 
several days before, and for tho first and only 
time during our long journey, had our tranks 
remained iu a railway station beyond 24 hours 
without being charged 25 cents each for the 
first day, aud 10 ceuts each for the succeeding 
days—iu the loug run quite an item of ex¬ 
pense. Moral:—when you go jourueyiug be¬ 
ware of much luggage. 
Although it was not overlate in the morn¬ 
ing, we went directly to tho French Market, 
veiy near the station, and had breakfast. This 
market is one of the sights of New Orleans, 
and is entirely, I judge, in tho hands of the 
Creole population. It is a vast caravansary, 
and oqa can buy ulmost anything In it from 
an onion to a full suit of clothes. I thought I 
never bad seen so many line vegetables else¬ 
where, aud fruits were iu greatest abundance. 
There are counters all through the market 
where one can be served with refreshments; 
but we fouud nothing really very nice but 
strawberries and French pastry—a marvel of 
lightness. From the market we walked up to 
the Post Office, on Canal Street—which 
divides the French quarter from the new 
town, where we found letters, which we read 
and answered in that very convenient and 
well arranged Post Office. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Delaware. 
Dover, Kent Co., April 89.—Our little 
State has been very backward iu puttiug ou 
its spring suit of green, but at last tho trees 
and plants have begun to look as if spring had 
at last arrived. Peach trees are in full bloom 
as well as cherries anil pears. Strawberries 
are beginning to show a few blossoms. Wheat 
never looked better at this season. Oats are 
