less that it is very hard to tell the difference. 
I examined a plantation where this and the 
Sharp]ess were growing side by side, and the 
grower declared that they were identical. In 
examining them with great care, we found 
more misshapen, crooked monstrosities among 
the Sharpless than among the Ontario, and 
this is all the difference. 
Belmont.— This is a good growor and is 
free from rust. With me it fails in product¬ 
iveness, and the fruit is far less perfect in 
form than 1 was led to expect. 
Cov ell.— 1 This is the earliest berry; too 
small for market, but desirable for home use. 
Fruit round, bright-red, firm and of fair 
qualitj'—better t han Crescent. 
Lida. —This was one of the most promising 
varieties on my place until the fruit was 
nearly ripe. The plant is very stocky, healthy 
and vigorous, aud has a great hold on the 
soil. Blossom, pistillate. Fruit of regular 
form and produced in great aduudunce. It; is 
of good color, ripens all over, is quite firm, 
aud of medium quality. It is rather hard to 
pick, hard to prepare for the table, and the 
size is little if any larger than the Crescent. 
Henderson. —This is the best flavored berry 
on my place. The plant is perfectly healthy, 
of large size and sends out a good number of 
stout runners. The fruit is of large size, dark 
red, and nearly egg-shaped. The first berries 
ripened unevenly, but. this was not noticed 
later in the season. It is fairly productive. 
This variety was in a less favorable place last 
season, and i was somewhat disappointed in 
it, but I am now satisfied that it will be a 
favorite with those who want the very best. 
Sunapee.—T his was of good quality, but 
too small. I destroyed all I bad before the 
season was over. 
Anna Forest.— jDf large size, light color 
and too unproductive to be of any value. 
Cuyahoga Falls, O. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Loans in the West. —In an article in June 
25tb, page 418, Eastern loans on Western farm 
property are spoken of. This is certainly a 
secure investment for Eastern capital, as in 
the ten years during which the mortgages 
run, land will generally increase in value 
about double—sometimes more than that. 
But if we could get the money which Eastern 
farmers and others have to spare, at something 
near the same interest which they receive, our 
country would improve faster than it does; 
but as to the Western loan companies 
being a benefit to us, they are almost the re¬ 
verse. Take an example out of many: A 
farmer got in debt #200 or #200 when the 
Couutry was new, perhaps through a failure 
of crops, or some other misfortune beyond his 
control. The loan company will not loan him 
enough money to enable him to invest a few 
hundreds more in improvements on his farm, 
so that, he might be aide to make more money. 
The first question is: 
“How much are you iu debt?” 
“Three hundred dollars.” 
“ Well, we caunot let you have over $ 401 ) 
ou that farm, as It is not worth over #1,000. 
We charge 30 percent, commission forgetting 
you the loan, and the interest will tie 13 per 
cent.; abstracts and recording will bo about 
#10, which leaves #210.” 
For this pittance the unfortunate debtor has 
to pay $48 interest; taxes are about as much 
more. He was barely making a living before, 
and now ho manages to make his interest aud 
taxes and nothing more during the five years, 
only to be forced to take a new loan or sell 
out and go further west, with probably the 
same results in either case. As the farm will 
probably sell for $2,000, be generally sells. Jf 
it had not been for the heavy commission and 
other charges, and if he could have- got #300 
more than he did get, ho could have bought a 
better team and broken the most of his place 
up, and been able to pay his mortgage, be¬ 
sides, perhaps, building a good ham. It is to 
t’ne advantage of the loun companies to make 
as many loams as possible, hence they make 
them as small as they can, knowing that to be 
the surest way to force the debtor to get an¬ 
other loan, with its commission und other 
charges. If it could bo arranged so the farm 
or could get his loan directly from the person 
who bus the money, utul get enough to put. up 
a good burn, there would be much more to be 
made here than in the East, aud when West- 
era land has the same kind of buildings on it, 
it is worth just ns much as Eastern land. 
Clay Center, Kaus. s. w. m. 
Adulteration of London-Purple.— Those 
who have made much use of London-purple 
as an insecticide have probably bad trouble 
to get it to mix with water. It will often roll 
like oil upon the surface and seem to defy all 
attempts to stir it iu. During the summer I 
have had a little experience with such a lot of 
Loudon-purple, while another lot mixed with 
no difficulty whatever. Samples from these 
two packages were sent to tho chemical 
laboratory for analysis, where the per cent, 
of arsotiious acid in each was found to be ns 
follows: That, which mixed readily in water 
had 55 per eent; that which mixed with much 
difficulty, 25 per cent. The difference in the 
strength of the two articles is considerable, 
but the difference in the time required to mix 
the two is of still greater importance, ns it. 
actually took more time to stir a spoonful of 
the adulterated article into a pail of water 
than it took to sprinkle it on the potato vines. 
Paris-green is often preferred to London-pur¬ 
ple because it mixas so much quicker in water; 
but I find the Loudon-purple the easier of the 
two to mix when l have the unadulterated 
article. C. P. gilkttk. 
Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich. 
Fertilizing Corn. —1 was interested about 
the effect of fertilizers on corn, os given in 
late Bubals, and would like to add. just a bit 
of my observations this season. 1 planted my 
corn—six acres—May 17, or rather my two 
boys did it while I finished marking, kicking 
a little dirt ou it, and stepping on it. My 
man followed after, putting fertilizer over the 
hills, using one ton on the six acres. It took 
him two days. I covered a part with a 
Thomas harrow, and the rest with the hoe, as 
I feared some would be dragged out by the 
stones. 1 u a week it was up nicely. We had 
left two rows in the middle of the field with¬ 
out any fertilizer, I did not think to look at 
them until two weeks after planting. There is 
such a great difference that I have shown it 
to neighbors. Either row at the side has 
three times more weight of corn thau the 
“two orphans.” One is up to my shoulders; 
the other to. my knees. I had plowed under 
eight loads of manure per acre, spreading it 
on the sod. The fertilizer was Mapes’s, “A” 
brand. J. W. H. 
Elizabeth, N. _J._ 
How to Bind the Rural New-Yorker. 
—Arrange the papers according to numbers 
regularly, placing them so that the backs will 
be even, like a book. Now, take small iron 
bars of an old umbrella-frame or something 
similar in size and stiffness, and cut two pieces 
the length of the Rural, or a little shorter. 
Next procure a strong waxed-end of your 
harness-maker (or make one), and thread each 
end with a small darning-needle, and you are 
ready to bind. Take a good sized harness- 
awl, aud, being careful not to disarrange the 
papers, pierce a hole within an inch and a-half 
of the ends, and through the backs as near the 
hack us you can, without eausiug the boles to 
break out. Then lay a bar over these holes 
on each side. Pass the needles through the 
holes so that oue cord will be on each side of 
each bar. Draw tightly, and tie with a 
hard knot. Cut the cords close' to the knot 
and proceed with the other end of the bars. 
Ry springing t he Vial’s aside you can make two 
similar ties near the center of the bars, which 
will be sutlieient. If you wish to cover, take 
thick mantilu paper, cut it of the size of the 
papers, and bind in with them. Perhaps 20 
numbers will make a more convenient volume 
to handle and bind. G. O. G. 
Kankakee, Ill. 
Washing Wool.—L ees thau a quarter of 
the wool grown in the United States is now 
washed, and I see very little advantage in 
washing tho rest where it is not perfectly con¬ 
venient. to do so. It would require but little 
more skill to estimate the shrinkage thau it 
does now. The difference in shrinkage iu 
washed wool as marketed 40 to 50 years ago 
and to-day is very great, owing to breeding 
up with very greasy stock as well as to less 
care in washing. g. w. b. 
Boston, Mass. 
Cotton-seed Meal for Hogs. -Cooked 
cotton seed can be fed to hogs with safety, if 
fed with other food. We did not. get good 
results from feeding it alone; tho hogs lost 
appetite. It seemed to be too rich, Cotton¬ 
seed meal as part of a ration works well. 
Row cotton seed alone will often kill hogs, 
but if they run out aud have It. where they 
cun eat it when they feel like it, it will not 
often hurt them. No careful experiments 
have been made iu feeding hogs cotton seed, so- 
far as-I kuow. f. a. Gulley. 
Ag’l Coll., Starkville, Miss. 
I have a beautiful stand of tho Brazilian 
Flour Com. It, does my eyes good to look at 
it. it grows handsomer than uny corn 1 ever 
saw. The Pedigree Corn must have been 
originated by Tom Thumb. l. s. e. 
Osage, Iowa. 
[We doubt If the Brazilian corn will ripen 
with you, as may be judged from the Rural’s 
report of a trial last year.— Eds.] 
BRINE-SALTING BUTTER. 
T. D. CURTIS. 
Nothing gained by the “rune” process; its 
“perplexitiesadva ntages of apply ing the 
salt direct. _ 
Though 1 have frequently described the 
process of brine-salting butter, as it is called, 
l have not been able to see either its utility or 
economy. Of course, I refer to the process of 
making and pouring brine over (lie butter in 
the churn or some vessel, and letting it stand 
for a time. I think your correspondent, H. S., 
of Macon Co.,N. C., is not far out of the way. 
All butter is brine-salted, if it is properly salt¬ 
ed. There is only one other kind of salting, 
and that is dry-salting, the water being so ef¬ 
fectually expelled from the butter before tho 
salt is applied that the salt remains undis¬ 
solved iu tho butter to grit between the teeth 
when eaten. Nobody wants butter salted in 
this way. All preier brine-saltiug, and they 
care not how the brine is made, nor how it is 
applied, so long as it is evenly distributed 
through the butter and is not deficient; or ex¬ 
cessive in quantity. Making a brine inde¬ 
pendent of the butter and then soaking the 
butter in it has no advantage, in fact, over 
leaving just water enough iu the butter to dis¬ 
solve the salt and then stirring in the salt to 
melt on every single atom of butter and cover 
it with brine. If the salt, mid the water are 
properly proportioned, the brine will he a 
saturated one. There will lie no waste of salt, 
the butter will be evenly suited and all the 
ends for which salt is used in butter will be 
subserved. In case of making brine and pour¬ 
ing it on tho butter, the water already in the 
butter lias to bo taken into consideration and 
an allowance of salt must be added to convert 
the water into a saturated briuo, or the brine 
left in the butter to season it will be too weak 
to give sutlieient tlavor and to preserve the 
caseine matter remaining in the butter. This 
is doubly perplexing, as you have to bother 
with the brine, besides making calculation for 
converting the water iu the butter into a sat¬ 
urated brine. 
By applying the salt direct, this last calcula¬ 
tion is all that is needed. Besides, making a 
separate briuo is not only extra work and 
trouble, but occasions an unnecessary waste 
of salt iu a lot of brine which has ultimately 
to bo thrown away. Salt manufacturers and 
dealers will not object to this, nor is it likely 
they are selfish enough to encourage extra 
work and waste for t he sake of the small addi¬ 
tional amount of trade it will bring them. 
But the simplest and easiest way of salting 
butter is tho preferable one—and that is to 
stop the churn when the butter is iu the 
grauulur state, draw off the buttermilk, wash 
the butter repeatedly until the water runs 
clear, drain the butter until by experience it 
is known that about the right amouut of 
water remains, carefully stir iu the salt, and 
as soon as it is all dissolved press the butter 
into a solid muss and pack it fur keeping or 
for market. If tho cream is iu the right con¬ 
dition and the churning and subsequent 
handling are properly done, the butter 
will be all right. 
BRINE-SALTING AND DRY-SALTING 
BUTTER. 
Does brine-salting “ adulterate ” but ter? 
“Dry" salting and brine salting compared; 
the tatter the less work. 
Am I cheating my butter customers? H. S., 
Macon Co., N. O., in tho Rural of July 9th, 
says that I am, or what amounts to the same 
thing, says 1 am adulterating my butter by 
brine-salting it. I don’t think II. S. believes 
what he says iu his first paragraph, viz: 
“Brine-salting butter is one of the fads or new 
J’ungled customs of the day, without sense or 
reason, like nil other fads.” If that is the case 
there is no room for improvement, as there is 
uo “sense or reason in new-fangled customs.” 
II. 8., says, “butter won’t take up any of the 
salt from the brine.” Iu n chemical sense 
that is true, as butter has no atlluity for suit, 
but as he says, further on, each small particle 
of butter will be enveloped by a Him of brine, 
and that is all wo want in salting butter. Iu 
brine suiting butter the churn must be stopped 
when tho granules are the size of a pin’s head, 
and after being thoroughly washed—prefer¬ 
ably with weak brine, to facilitate the separa¬ 
tion of the buttermilk—strong brine is poured 
on it (after the weak brine has been drained 
out thoroughly), and allowed to stand awhile. 
H. 8. asks: “Why is tin butter left iu the 
brine for two or three hours?” In hot weather 
to cool aud burden; and in cold weather it is 
sometimes ueceSsury to warm the brine iu 
order to soften tho butter so that it may easily 
be worked into a compact mass. 
I would like to know why brine-salted but¬ 
ter cannot be worked as dry as dry-salted? 
There is no mechanical or chemical reason 
why it should not, although H. 8. claims that 
brine-salted butter coutains more moisture 
than dry-salted. Give both kinds the same 
workinguud the result will he the same; that 
is, work the brine-salted sample until it con¬ 
tains but. 12 per cent, of water, then work the 
other sample until it contains bur, 12 per cent, 
of water; now we have the two samples of 
equal purity but one is salted and the other 
is fresh. Is there any adulteration here? 
Butter can possibly be worked perfectly free 
of nil moisture, but not I think without de¬ 
stroying the grain. We want to get nil the 
water out of it that is possible, but do not 
want to make it salvy. So we will take H. 
8. ’s estimate of but ter thoroughly well worked 
without iu the least injuring the grain, the 
water being reduced to 10 or 13 per cent.; 
now we have the two samples as above, both 
well worked and so far neither adulterated; 
my sample is salted at the rate of one bull' 
ounce to the pound; H. 8. adds three quar¬ 
ters of an ounce of dry salt, per pound and . 
thereby adulterates his sample with one-quar¬ 
ter ounce of salt to the pound, fur according 
to an accurate experiment curried out at Cor¬ 
nell University, butter, brine-salted, and dry- 
salted, one ounce per pound, and then well 
worked, will each contain one-half ounce per 
pound of salt. 
But H. 8. says: “If this dry butter lias 
brine poured over it and stands two or three 
hours, by the process of diffusion the brine 
becomes mixed with this water and adds more 
moisture to the butter.” I have never heard 
of butter being treated that way, as the brine 
is poured over the butter while in a granular 
state and, of course, before being worked. 
Even il' the brine was poured on the dry but 
ter, as H. 8. supposes, it would not add any 
water to the butter, but by the diffusion pro 
cess would substitute brine for fresh water 
and tho butter would have no more water in 
it thau before, aud would only weigh more, 
in proportion, as salt water is heavier than 
fresh, which, I take it, is not enough to base a 
claim of adulteration upon. 
H. 8. concludes by saying: “There is work- 
enough about the dairy without loading it. 
with more in tho shape of brine-salting.’* 
Yes, there is work enough about the dairy, 
but brine salting is easierthan dry-saltinguud 
saves labor, makes butter better, cleaner and, 
according to H. 8.’s own showing, freer from 
adulteration. Tho butter is cleaner because 
the brine is strained and till t he specks taken 
out that H. 8. ami nil others who dry-salt 
leave in. It is better, because it docs nut. liavj 
the grain injured by putting dry salt. Into 
well-worked butter aud then reworking, aud 
it is not adulterated as much [calling salt in 
any shape an adulteration) by olio quarter 
ounce per pouud. a. l. c. 
Catonsville, Md. 
the coming dairy cow. 
Beyond a doubt, the coming dairy cow, 1 
think, will be the grade Holstein, either one 
half or three-quarters blood. Iu good grades, 
from the best native cows, size, good feeders, 
and hardy cows are obtained, together with 
a large millring capacity. After several years 
of close attention to this matter, and looking 
carefully at the grades, I am satisfied about 
thus, from the appearance of my own stock. 
Out of 1(1 head 1 have only two giving milk. 
The first, two years old on January 15 lust, 
dropped her calf June 28. 8bc is m>w giving 
13 quarts of milk per day. The second, two 
years old ou February 13 last, dropped her 
calf July 8. 8bo is uow giving 10 quarts of milk 
per duy. These heifers are not fed tuwakoa 
large flow of milk, as I do not think it. best to 
push thorn. The weather is very warm, aud I 
am afraid of garget or something of t he kind. 
1 do not tliiuk it desirable to feed them too 
heavily while so young. 1 have no doubt that 
I could increase the How of milk ono-fourth 
more in each, by proper feeding. If the rest 
of the herd turn out as good as these two, 1 
can safely say 1 am well paid for the expense 
of raising this stock. J. J- M - 
Whippuny, N. J. 
