THE RURAL HEW-YORKER, 
4-19 
W. Cheever, of the New England Farmer, 
says that Alsike Clover, in localities where it 
does well is very valuable, but he can only 
recommend it as a crop to be experimented 
with in a small way till one learns of its 
adaptability to his soil and climate. In Aroos¬ 
took County, Maine, and in Western New 
York, Alsike is giving excellent satisfaction 
to those who have experimented with it, while 
in some portions of Southern New Eugland it 
is very short-lived, seldom making more than 
a single crop before it is nearly all dead. 
Mr. Cheever considers Hungarian Grass 
equal to Timothy; that barley makes an ex¬ 
cellent late green crop, the beards being the 
only objection. Hut few cattle or horses ob¬ 
ject to the beards. 
Sow Hungarian Grass now. 
Dr. Salmon says that considering that 
tuberculosis is caused by a specific germ, and 
that consequently it does not originate spon¬ 
taneously, and also that it is not often trans¬ 
mitted from one person to another by con¬ 
tagion, it seems very probable that the disease 
is largely kept up by affected animals; and of 
all animal food the most dangerous is the 
meat and milk of tuberculous cattle . 
The Press remarks that the most refreshing 
and satisfactory landscapes have few blotches 
of the sickly yellow and sombre brown of 
these so-called aureo-v&riegatas and atro- 
purpurcas ... 
Coii. F. D. Curtis tells the Husbandman 
that Live Forever, Wild Morning Glory, 
Quack and Canada Thistle may all be exter¬ 
minated if we will plow the ground and turn 
in hogs. It might be well to scatter shelled 
com about to induce the swine to root, and 
keen appetites should be induced by a some¬ 
what scanty supply of food. 
Oats are commonly allowed to get fully ripe 
before they are harvested, whereas they should 
be cut while the straw yet shows somewhat 
green, remarks the above journal. Cut at this 
stage they' are rarely lodged, and the feeding 
value of both grain and straw is greater. 
Advance sheets of Prof. C. V. Riley’s forth¬ 
coming report give us some further informa¬ 
tion as to emulsifying kerosene. The white of 
eggs with a little sugar may be used as a satis¬ 
factory substitute l'or milk where this is not 
accessible. If the white of two eggs, about 
three tablespoonfuls of sugar, three-quarters 
of a quart of water, and t ' 4 quart of kerosene 
are worked through a force-pump and cyclone- 
nozzle for from five to ten minutes a cream¬ 
like emulsion is produced, which can be diluted 
with water to auy desired amount without any 
separation of the oil, provided that the emul¬ 
sion is not allowed to stand for auy length of 
time.... .......... 
A telegram from Elgin, Ill., Tuesday, 
says there was a large attendance at the Board 
of Trade on Monday, many buyers being pre¬ 
sent from New York, New Orleans, and other 
cities. Butter sold on call for 18)4 cents, with 
a very active trade. All sales were made at 
the uniform price, with a single exception. 
The regular sales on the call amounted to 50,- 
040 pounds, with private sales of 88,580 pounds. 
Tin re were also 12,000 pounds of cheese sold 
at an average price of seven cents. The ten¬ 
dency of the market seemed upward. 
The Scientific American tells of a method 
employed in Norway for preserving telegraph 
poles. In each pole a hole is bored with a 
small augur, beginning at a point two feet 
above the ground and boring obliquely down¬ 
wards at as small an angle as possible until 
the point of the augur reaches the center of 
the pole. The hole thus made is filled with 
sulphate of copper, which is renewed, from 
time to time. The hole is kept plugged. It is 
fouud that the crystals of copper sulphate dis¬ 
appear slowly, while the wood gradually as¬ 
sumes u greenish tint... 
The cattle round-ups are reported to be do¬ 
ing better than was expected. This is the sea¬ 
son, however, when reports tend us strongly 
toward being too favorable as in the winter 
they did toward being too unfavorable. 
There is ground for believing, though, that 
the round-ups will show lighter average losses 
than were anticipated at the opening of the 
season.... . 
The local authorities in Great Britain dur¬ 
ing 18841 paid £585,525, according to the Lon¬ 
don Live Stock Journal, OS conq*ensntiou for 
the slaughter of diseased animals and of 
healthy animals in contact with disease. Of 
that sum $101,700 were paid as compensation 
for animals affected with pleura-pneumonia, 
and $88,205 for animals in contact with the 
disease; and $00,585 for swine directed with 
swine fever, and $51,080 for healthy animals 
in contact with the disease.. 
English agricultural statistics show that of 
live stock imported iu 1888 no leas than 5,007 
foreign animals were thrown overboard, 281 
were landed dead, and 270 were so much in¬ 
jured or exhausted that they were killed at 
the place of landing, making a total of 6,467 
animals which were either lost in the passage 
or so much injured that it was necessary to 
slaughter them at the place of landing; which 
indicates that a good deal of cruelty is neces¬ 
sarily connected with the export live stock 
trade..... 
Part of the Western Slope of the,Coast 
Range, California, much exposed to fogs aud 
mists, is said to be especially favorable to the 
growth of potatoes. They are sold in market 
there at 25 cents per bushel. The same pota¬ 
toes prepared for shipment bring at the rate 
of $1.50 per bushel in London. A machine 
presses the tubers into concave cakes and lays 
them regularly on trays. These are put into 
a drying apparatus for two hours and then 
coarsely ground into grains resembling rice. 
So Californians tell us. 
Cben]iR!)crf. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.— 
LXXXI. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
In Mobile; an enterprising and refined land¬ 
lady; disappearance of “poor whites;" the 
authoress of “Bulah Ll St. Elmo;" etc.; 
from Mobile to Montgomery; on the Ten¬ 
sas; dercrsified husbandry; Montgomery; 
preparing for Jeff. Davis. 
For the night we spent in Mobile we had 
lodgings (which we obtained, as a school girl 
would say, iu a most “romantic” way) in the 
house of a Southern lady, who was one of the 
most intelligent women we met, and who 
seemed to retaiu in no degree any of the bit¬ 
terness engendered by the war. She was an 
only child and had been reared in the indolent 
manuer of Southern girls. But eight years 
ago she bad been thrown upon her own re¬ 
sources—apparently by the death of her hus¬ 
band, aud her mother who was dependent, 
upon her, became at that time stone-blind. 
During these eight years the lady had sup¬ 
ported herself and her mother by keeping 
boarders. She sometimes had as many as 32, 
and she thought in all that time that she had 
netted about $75! Anent the w T ar, she said 
that up to the very close of it the thought 
never occurred to them that the South might 
be conquered; that her family had converted 
all their property into Confederate money, 
and when the end came, they awoke one 
morning to find their dwelling surrounded by 
Yankee officers and they themselves, in fact, 
without so much as a nickel! She spoke 
kiudly of the officers, who proved to be quite 
different from what she had supposed them to 
be. She said the negroes of the present gener¬ 
ation were far inferior to those of the preced¬ 
ing one, and very idle and dishonest. Sho 
thought this was the uatural result of imme¬ 
diate freedom to an ignorant aud irresponsible 
race. She gave it as her opinion that the peo¬ 
ple in the South who had been most benefited 
by the outcome of the war were the “poor 
whites, "and at none of the stations we stopped 
at, and in none of the cities, did l see that 
peculiar class that had been so conspicuous iu 
the South before the war. In one generation 
they seemed to have risen in the process of 
evolution to the level of the average working 
classes the country over, and they would all 
improve fully 50 per ceut. in another genera¬ 
tion, if they would let tobacco alone. 
One of the most distinguished literary 
women of the South lives iu the suburbs of 
Mobile, and I made inquiry concerning her of 
our hostess, who, as it happened, knew her. 
Formerly she was Miss Augusta Evaus, but 
some years ago she married a man named Wil¬ 
son aud they live in a very simple and plain 
way, hut Mrs. Wilson has a beautiful dower 
garileu. My hostess expressed regret that I 
had not gone out and called upou her, as I 
would have had a ebarmiug visit, and the 
horse-cars take one quite to her door. As I 
had failed to improve this opportunity, I 
asked her to tell me of Mrs. Wilson’s appear¬ 
ance. “Oh, she is very like you iu style,” 
she replied, with vivacity, “only, of course, a 
much older woman.” Aud then, of course, I 
was the more eager to see her, but refraiued, 
as l had no right io intrude upou her. 
Among the favors we received from our 
gracious hostess were directions where to go 
for our meals, if we wished nice, home cooking 
and there was nothing that we louged for 
more, tired out as we were with hotel and 
restaurant fare. The place she named was 
the St. Francis Refectory, opened by two 
Creole gentlewomen, who were in the same 
plight as so many Southern women since the 
war- reduced to poverty. They went brave¬ 
ly at their work and cooked and served with 
their own hands. On® of them—a most gen¬ 
tle aud attractive woman—said that she had 
suffered and still did, very much, from being 
so much upon her feet, not having been accus¬ 
tomed to it. But how nice it was being served 
by a lady, and how thoroughly we enjoyed 
the supper she brought us! She said she was 
as yet unable to tell how their undertaking 
would result; but if good wishes avail one 
anything, she certainly should amply succeed. 
We left Mobile very early on the following 
morning, and as the railroad for several miles 
north of the city was under water—the coun¬ 
try having been flooded by a heavy rain—we 
were transferred by steamer down the Mobile 
River into the Bay and then up the Tensas to 
where the river is crossed by the railroad 
bridge a distance of 20 miles. But before 
leaving Mobile I wish to mention the exquis¬ 
itely clean rail way waiting room there, with 
a scoured and sanded floor and satirical pla¬ 
cards banging about “Gentlemen will please 
not spit on the floor”—as if gentlemen ever 
did! The room was cared for by a colored 
woman and the colored people in Mobile were 
the finest looking of any we had yet seen. 
The ride up the river afforded us a view of 
the islands raised for batteries during the war, 
and of the country lyiug along the river, flat 
as far as we could see, trees growing not 
merely to the river edge but directly out 
of the water—cypress intermingled with de¬ 
ciduous growth—some low, flat islands starred 
with a peculiar white lilly. After a ride of 
two hours we disembarked on the railroad 
bridge, on which the cars stood to receive pas¬ 
sengers, and our course from that point was 
up through Alabama as far as Montgomery. 
There is a great deal of wooded land still in 
the South. Dogwoods were in full bloom, 
purple wistarias shook out their royal clusters 
high up in the trees—trees of pine, maple, oak. 
magnolia, aud every now and then there were 
trees fringed with white bloom—“graudsire 
gray beard” here called—(Chionanthus Vir¬ 
gin ica). 
At half-past ten in the morning we were at 
Pensacola Junction, a station some 200 yards 
from the Florida line. The country all the 
way seemed sparsely settled, the surface level 
and unattractive, occasionally a saw mill, 
with drying houses topped with tall wooden 
chimneys, a few peach trees, a cotton country 
with the soil too poor for that, without the 
application of “ guanner ” as a man informed 
us who lived there. He said the cotton crop 
would tie short, owing to its low price: that the 
people were just beginning to raise grain, corn, 
oats, rye, ground peas, etc.—the products to be 
used at home. Fruit would do well, but there 
wasn't much enterprise for fruit ! Laud 
worth from $2.50 to $15 per acre. Govern¬ 
ment land plentiful. Farming slovenly; 
stumps left in the fields, land plowed around 
them until they disappear from decay ! 
“Niggei's” were reported as refusing to 
work—occasionally a good family—but all 
steal ! During the entire ride from Mobile to 
Montgomery we did not see an attractive 
home, or a pleasant station. 
We reached Montgomery at three in the 
afternoon and remained there five hours. We 
walked up into the city and found the leading 
hotel being gorgeously draped with bunting 
in the National colors, aud upon inquiring the 
reason, of a very respectable and solid-looking 
man who spoke with a German accent, he 
replied that it was in honor of Jefferson Davis 
who was to come in a day or two to be present 
at the laying of the corner stone of a monu¬ 
ment to the Confederate soldiers, and he imme¬ 
diately went on to tell us that the said J. 
D. was a very great man; that he had been 
Senator from Mississippi and had been 
inaugurated President of the Confederate 
States in the State House here in Montgomery. 
Even Auaximander’s grave face relaxed 
into a smile at this gratuitous information, 
and be remarked that we already knew 
somewhat of Jeff. Davis. We went up 
to the State House, with Corinthian pillars 
in front, and a little wav off saw the exca¬ 
vation made for the base of the Soldiers’ 
Monument The site is on high ground over¬ 
looking the city and its environs. Fountains 
are frequently seen, fed by artesian wells, 
with which the city is watered. There are a 
few large, old brick houses and fences with 
brick foundations. The streets are well 
shaded, and, withal. Montgomery is a pretty 
city. We rode here, for the first time in our 
lives, iu a street car propelled by electricity, 
which had been in operation a fortnight. It 
was a beautiful car, with carved wood aud 
windows of stained and cathedral glass. Here, 
as everywhere in the South, colored people 
ride in the street cars ou an equality with 
whites. The colored population of the town 
appeared to be very large, and in the suburbs 
we saw many neat and comfortable dwellings 
occupied by blacks. It was Sunday, and they 
were all out in their “Sunday best.” Wo had 
supper iu a restaurant off lettuce salad aud 
chicken fried iu the toothsome Southern sty le, 
with which we concluded the Blessed Day, 
which had been anything but a day of rest, 
and much to our distaste. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Dakota. 
Bridgewater, McCook Co., June 5.—All 
kinds of crops in this county are simply im¬ 
mense, including the Colorado Beetle. The 
grass crop will be extra. w. w. w. 
Michigan. 
Hcbbardston, Ionia Co.. June C.—Rain, 
rain in great abundance and almost everyday 
since May 30, and now the ground is more 
than full. AJ1 farm work has come to a stand¬ 
still Wheat is doing well; oats growing 
finely; corn has too much water; grass, clover, 
and Orchard Grass are in full bloom and fairly 
good. G. a. s. 
Pennsylvania. 
Mt. Morris, Greene Co., June 11.—It has 
been quite wet the past two weeks. Cora looks 
as well as I ever saw it at this time of the 
year. Wheat not so good as last year, but 
there are some very good fields. Oats look 
well—great improvement in last few days. 
Fruit scarce—apples nearly a total failure, 
berries plenty, and peaches a good crop. Or¬ 
chard Grass ready now for mowing, but 
weather not fit j. b. mcc. 
Virginia. 
Hampden Sidney. Prince Edward Co., June 
5.—Wheat looks healthy, and is filling well; 
prospect good for a good crop on good land; 
on thin laud it will be fight. Oats are looking 
splendid. Cora is making a good start. A 
smaller crop of tobacco than usual will be 
planted. Clover and grass, now being cut, 
are fair crops. Gardens uncommonly good. 
h. c. 
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