THE RURAL HEW-YOBKER. 
appliances may be seen, should interest and 
instruct all florists. The R. R.’s generally 
have offered a rate and a third. That is to say: 
a full fare must be paid to Chicago, and the 
reduction is made on the return trip on the 
presentation of a certificate, duly signed, etc. 
Take note: when purchasing tickets for Chi¬ 
cago, get the local ticket agent's certificate, 
with R. It. stamp affixed, certifying that full 
fare has been paid to Chicago. This is neces- 
sary, in case the members or delegates may for 
any reason forget or fail to produce regular 
certificates. 
THE EMPIRE STATE GRAPE. 
In the Rural of June 18, it is stated that 
this grape, at the Rural Grounds, was killed 
down to the roots last winter. Mine were not 
quite so badly hurt, but the eanes were killed 
half way back. There must be some mistake 
about the botanical classification of this vari¬ 
ety; it resembles much more a cross lxstween 
Riparia and Vinifera, than between Riparia 
and Labrusca. I can see but little appear¬ 
ances of Hartford in its make-up. Strayiug 
grains of pollen from some Vinifera, or Vini¬ 
fera hybrid must have got their work iu some¬ 
how. lain unable to expla in the matter, for the 
Hartford is claimed as the stigmatie parent. 
If (his be so, it certainly is a mystery. Let 
us hear from Prof. Munson about this. I 
have more confidence in his opinion than in 
my own. There certainly seems to be some 
Riparia about it, but not enough to make it 
hardy. d. s. marvin. 
Jefferson Co., N. Y, 
taxm 
DANGER FROM ARSENICAL INSECTI¬ 
CIDES. 
In my business I sell various insecticides— 
Paris-green, London-purple, Slug-shot and or¬ 
dinary insect powder. I learn much of the 
results—some expected and others unexpected. 
For instance. I have learned of the death of 
two horses and three cattle in this county 
through the use of Paris-green during a 
period of 13 mouths. I have been told also of 
injury from the same cause to two persons 
and the probable death of a third. It is not 
at all probahle that I have heard of all the in¬ 
stances of iujury due to this poison: nor is it 
probable that more harm has resulted here 
than elsewhere. Supposing that the instances 
reported be taken as an average of those hap¬ 
pening throughout the couutry, and that it is 
used elsewhere as liberally as it is here, what 
an appalling array of disasters we have! At 
this rate the statistics of iny State would show 
the loss of nearly 500 horses and cattle, and the 
losses of the nation would be in proportion, 
besides the injury and death of hundreds of 
men, women aud children. This seems almost 
incredible, but are not the premises aud the 
inferences probably just? It is true that most 
of these injuries have been caused through 
carelessness, but that does not argue that the 
use of an article should lie continued when it 
is liable through carelessness to cause so much 
harm. Pistols carried about the person are 
little to be apprehended if handled with great 
care, yet sensible people object to them be¬ 
cause of the danger of careless handling. 
My own duty seems plain to me—I shall not 
offer these violent poisons for use where com¬ 
paratively innocuous substances can be sub¬ 
stituted for them. j. A< f. 
Crawfordvijle, Iud. 
DEBT-LADEN NORTHWESTERN FARMS. 
The majority of farmers here ait* over¬ 
burdened with debt and a failure in crops 
would be ruin to a good many. The average 
man coining to this country comes with little 
or no money. He will look around a little 
ami in a very short time he will conclude that 
this is a “soft snap.” With a pencil, paper 
and lively imagination he will figure out a 
very respectable income in about !0 minutes. 
On the strength of this income he will shake 
•ill ot his old Eastern notions of economy, and 
in u short time finds himself iu the regulation 
fix of thu Northwestern farmer; ». e., raising 
■Hand 80-ceut wheat., paying a big lionus on 
everything he buys, aud IU per cent, interest 
mi all he has bought, bonus included, striving 
best to keep all his friends,tho loan agents, 
1 abroad presidents, implement manufacturers, 
millers and elevator gentlemen, from getting 
uni” 1 y eld. Last of all, he thinks of bim- 
and family, and takes what is left, if 
an>,for his own use. What a remarkably 
generous individual our Northwestern farmer 
I do not waut to discourage any one from 
coming here, and I will add that if a person 
will come here and be economical, go slow, or, 
in fact, do the same as he would in the East, 
he is almost certain to succeed. H. 
Mentor, Minn. 
* 
Increase in Hay-Raising.— As the land 
gets poorer the tendency to raise more hay 
and less grain is noticeable. A few farms 
are increasing in fertility, and on these the 
average yield per acre is increasing. The best 
farmers supplement their large stores of farm 
manure with commercial fertilizers, and grain 
and live stock form leading branches of agri¬ 
culture on the best lands. Mo6t farmers are 
iu a corner, and receive with eagerness any 
hints that look towards improvement, 
Ithaca, N. Y. x. p. R. 
farm 0canaim|. 
CARE OF TOOLS. 
Farmers in Iowa lose thousands of dollars 
every year by the careless neglect of then- 
tools. There is one farm in sight of me, that 
has $1,200 or St,500 worth of machinery lying 
around the barn-yard, aud much of it is out 
of repair, besides being badly eaten by rust. 
This lot embraces everything from a McCor¬ 
mick reaper down to a garden-hoe. On this 
same farm staud two large, empty barns, be¬ 
sides various sheds, I know from experience 
that it is a task to clean up and oil so many 
tools, yet I find it pays in the long run. My 
neighbors say I have enough of farm imple¬ 
ments on my 30-acre garden place to stock 100 
acres. 
My tools consist of horse-hoes, haud-hoes, 
horse and hand-drills, steel plows aud har¬ 
rows, besides many other implements used 
in gardening, and all these I keep cleaned and 
free from rust. I have my plows brought in 
every night, and rubbed off dry and set in the 
barn, out of the dew or dampness. Any plow 
or tool not iu constant use in the ground, I 
keep oiled with common box-axle grease. In 
spring, as soon as I get through with a stirring 
plow, I grease it and put it away in a dry 
place for the fall plowing. Then, when the 
fall work is over, the tools are greased aud put 
away for spring. So I treat every tool as 
fast as I get through with it, I use coarse 
sand-paper to clean off all rust, if there is 
any, before greasiug. The axle-grease, dur¬ 
ing winter, will dry aud harden on the tools, 
and it will be some trouble to dean it off in 
spring. For this purpose I use a mixture 
of turpentine and coal oil; rub well with 
this, and let the plow stand over-night, and 
a few furrows will scour it off cleau, 
and if there should be any rust spots, they 
can soou be removed with coarse.sand-paper. 
I would like to see every farmer who will 
make a team pull a rusty plow, have to plow- 
one day w ith one of his own Planet Jr., or hand 
plows, all rusted; and when it has been cleaned 
let him try it awhile. I think this would 
break him of usiug rusty plows. It did me. 
It is the same with hoes; iu fact, there is no 
tool fit to work with when it is all eaten up 
with rust. There is not only the great saving 
iu labor in keeping tools clean, but a great 
saving in expense; for a tool taken care of will 
last for years; while if left to lie around all 
over the farm where last used, repairs will 
have to bo made, or now ones must be bought 
every Spring. f. s. white. 
Des Moines, Iowa. 
SARATOGA CHIPS. 
The market for Saratoga chips or fried 
potatoes is very good and constantly improv¬ 
ing. It would be a very hard matter to state 
the quantity used during the year, as the New 
York and Philadelphia manufacturers keep 
no record of the quantity sold. The time the 
chips will keep depends entirely upon the 
amouut of starch left in them. The potatoes 
are peeled aud sliced into water, after which 
they are dried between tw-o towels before they 
are put into the hot grease. The value of 
potatoes for this purjwse depends upon the 
time they are dug and the amount of starch 
they contain, which can be determined only 
by good judgment or testing. The more 
starch in the jiotatoes the browner they are 
when fried, aud as our potatoes are perfectly 
white we extract all the starch by a secret 
process. They are packet! in one-pound ear- 
tous, 10 and 35 pound boxes and barrels. A 
barrel holds from 35 to 40 pounds. We ship 
either by freight or express, and the chips re¬ 
tail at from 25 cents to 40 cents per pound - 
wholesale at from 10 to SO cents. We send 
potatoes to New Orleans and San Francisco 
by freight, and have never kuowu any to 
spoil even if kept three mouths, as warming 
iu the oven makes them as crisp as though 
freshly fried. s. B. a. 
Saratoga Springs, N. Y, 
fturol (Topics. 
SORGHUM AS A FODDER. 
E. B. VOORHEES. 
Why not more widely adopted for soiling 
and ensilage; analyses of sorghum and 
corn plants and meals; variety adapted to 
Northern culture; easily prepared for feed; 
seed not injurious; excellent for stock. 
While much Interest is now- being mani¬ 
fested concerning many of the fodders suitable 
for soiling or ensilage, sorghum has not re¬ 
ceived the attention to which it seems to be 
justly entitled. Its value for these purposes is 
not widely known, though it has been advo¬ 
cated for soiling both in England and this 
country for the past 25 years. One reason, 
perhaps, why sorghum has not been more gen¬ 
erally adopted as a fodder, is because the 
study and investigation concerning it have 
been directed almost entirely towards its de¬ 
velopment as a sugar producer. Its habits of 
growth show it to be well adapted for soiling 
and to supplement nicely other green crops; 
while its chemical analysis compares very 
favorably with that of corn fodder. In the 
following table are tabulated the analyses of 
fair average samples of topped sorghum and 
green com fodder. 
Percentage of 
• 1 X 1 J3± 
I © 1 
Cfl S- S >. 
< I i I oi 
Topped Sorghum .. 71.50 0.13 6-95 I 1.08 | 0.35 I 19 34 
Green Corn Fodder. 7.3.79 0.44 6.20 | 1.43 | 1.86 | 16.28 
These are chiefly valuable as furnishing 
carbohydrates, i. e., sugar and starch: neither 
is a well balanced ration nor is either profit¬ 
able as food without the addition of fat and 
protein. 
The amount of carbohydrates is practically 
the same in each, hence any comparison of 
value between these two must be based upon 
the rate of digestibility of this class of nutri 
ents. Feeding trials made to test this point 
were carried out by the N. J. Ag*l. Expt. 
Station in 1S83 {fide Annual report 1884.) 
The results then obtained demonstrated pretty 
clearly that sorghum could be substituted 
for corn fodder in a ration without affecting 
the flow of milk, thereby indicating that the 
rate of digestibility was practically the same. 
Sorghum seed is also a valuable food when 
properly cleaned and ground, and is preferred 
by some to corn meal which it resembles very 
closely in analysis, as indicated by the fol¬ 
lowing table: 
i -Percentage of—> 
_ .. Pro- Carbo- 
_ . ... Fat- fiber, tela, hydrates. 
Sorghum Meal. 8.85 1.88 8.25 71 27 
Cora meal.... 4.10 2.03 8.60 69.82 
Owiug to the very few comparative feeding 
trials that have been made with sorghum 
meal, no positive figures as to its digestibility 
bave been secured, though, pound for pound, 
it is believed to be slightly less digestible than 
corn meal. 
Having shown the theoretical value of the 
sorghum crop as compared with corn fodder, 
the questions of practical importance are: 
1. Cau sorghum be successfully grown in the 
Northern States! S. Can the topped caue be 
prepared at a reasonable expense, so as to be 
eaten without waste by farm stock? 3. Can 
the seed be fed without injury? 
L Sorghum can be grown successfully aud 
certain varieties will mature in any section 
suitable for the corn crop. On light sods and 
in dry seasons much heavier crops cau be 
grown than cau be secured from corn. Sorg¬ 
hum being much slower to start iu the spring, 
requires more care than corn in the early part 
of the seasou; later, however, it grows very 
rapidly and cau be kept clean by plowing. 
As soon as the seed ripens it is in its best 
condition for food ,aud its values will continue 
practically without change even after a 
light frost. It should, however, be harvested 
before hard freezing; it cun then be profitably 
saved iu stacks for a month or so, or {lacked 
iu u silo. 3. A Lion Cutter and Crusher will 
put sorghum iu excellent shape for food; 
in this condition cattle eat it without waste, 
and is preferred by them to corn fodder. 3. 
The seed tops should tie removed in the field 
and allowed to lie in small heaps a few days in 
order to dry thoroughly, then passed through 
a thrashing machine, and the seed cleaned and 
ground. Tho thrashing removes the seed 
hulls, which are considered injurious iu feed 
on account of tho small amouut of tauniu 
which they contain. Sorghum meal makes * 
an excellent food for all kinds of stock, aud 
has been found especially good for fattening 
hogs. 
The Early Amber variety is preferable for 
the Northern States, since it readily matures 
aud produces, under ordinary condition of 
soil and seasou, from eight to 15 tons of 
opped cane, and from ten to 30 bushels of 
cleau seed per acre. 
The season at which the crop matures and 
the fact that it can be kept in stacks for a 
month or two while still retaining its sweet¬ 
ness and juiciness, would make it especially 
desirable to some farmers in bridging over 
the period from the middle of October to the 
middle of December, when pasture is often¬ 
times scarce and other green crops are har¬ 
vested. 
Experiments have shown, too, that it can 
be preserved as silage quite as well as ordi¬ 
nary corn fodder and, as before stated, it is 
as readily eaten by stock. Thus far both 
science and practice unite in showing the feed¬ 
ing value of sorghum. Where dairying or 
stock raising is carried on to any extent, an 
acre or two of sorghum, would, I think, prove 
a profitable addition to regular farm crops. 
New Brunswick, N. J. 
THE POWER OF WIND-MILLS. 
PROFESSOR R. C. CARPENTER. 
Experiments in developments of power; 
power of mills overrated; Smeaton's experi¬ 
ments; small mills proportionately less ef¬ 
fective than large; work of a mill. 
In 1880 I spent considerable time in deter¬ 
mining the efficiency of two windmills. Each 
mill had a ten-foot wheel made of wooden slats 
set in the ordinary way. One mill was new and 
turned very rapidly in a light wind, the other 
was old with bearings iu bad shape, and gave 
very poor results. The following were the re¬ 
sults of the best mill. 
»© 3 
S3 | 3 
© 1 
m 5.- 
^ P ..A 
“ x on 77 
2 - ~ 5 o 
Velocity 
of 
wind. 
-j 
— = © 
2 t 
12 
17.6 1 
11 
16.8 
1 10 
14.7 | 
Horse 
power 
that 
would 
have 
been de¬ 
veloped. 
lit Hi 
ITU 132.5 1-20X 
1096 131.5 1-20- 
8.56 102.7 1-25 
By consulting the meteorological tables com¬ 
piled at the college, I fiud that the wind blows 
faster than eight miles per hour, only about 
one-fifth of the time, while it is less than eight 
miles per hour fully three-quarters of the 
time. The wind is less than four miles pier 
hour more than one-haJf the time. 
These results of actual trial show that the 
power of the wind-mill is very much less 
than claimed by the agents or even generally 
sup{K>sed. Thus in the region of Southern 
Michigan the ten-foot mill cannot be counted 
as averaging 1-70 of a horse power. This 
would be sufficient to raise about 57 gallons 
of water one foot per minute, or about two 
gallons 38 feet per minute. Two gallons per 
minute is nearly four barrels per hour and 
about 90 barrels per day of 24 hours. In this 
region the windmill will not run for lack of 
wind more than one-half of the time, and 
there are few ten-foot wheels that will raise, 
on the average, even when running, one gal¬ 
lon per minute, simply because the wind is 
too light. 
The philosophy of the windmill was investi¬ 
gated by Sineatou in the 17th century and by 
Professor Rankiue iu our present century. 
Smeaton made a great number of experiments 
on the mills then in existence, and these ex¬ 
periments form the basis of most of the 
theories of the windmill. In Smeaton's rime 
the windmill was the principal power avail¬ 
able for pumping or grinding grain, as the 
steam engine had not then been perfected. 
The mills of his time had canvas sails, and we 
find from his experiments that they were 
more effective than our present wooden slat 
mills. This is, of course, reasonable. 
Smeaton found that a windmill SI feet in 
diameter in a breeze of nine miles per hour, 
would develop one horse power of work, or 
would raise about 4,000 gallons of water one 
foot each minute. He found tho power varied 
with the cube of the velocity of the wind aud 
also with the square of tho diameter of the 
wheel. Small mills are not proportionately 
as efficient as large ones, because the friction 
is a greater proportion of the work. 
I was interested in a statement made in the 
Rural of June 18 by Mr. Whittemore of the 
actual work of a windmill. His statement 
was that a 12-foot wiudmill in a breeze of 10 
to 1- miles per hour, raised 150 gallons per 
hour; the water is raised 44 feet, aud pumpd 
a distance of 550 feet, doing work no doubt 
equivalent to raisiug water 60 feet. The work 
of the mill would then be two And a half gal¬ 
lons raised 60 feet, or the equivalent of 150 
gallons raised one foot per minute; this 
amount would weigh about 1,250 pounds. 
As a horse power is 33,000 pounds lifted one 
foot each minute, the mill would be doing 
