these native plums, in spite of the curculio, 
but they seem to have a particular spite 
against me. % 
The Apple Crop. —From reports every¬ 
where. we are to have very few apples in New 
England. Last year’s crop was immense, and 
last winter was extremely cold, much enfeeb¬ 
ling the fruit buds of even very hardy sorts. 
I notice that even on Russian aud Siberian 
trees the low branches, which were under the 
suow, have about all the fruit there is. This 
matter of bud-killing from hard winters is as 
real, though not so conspicuous, with apples 
as with peaches. I can grow the trees of a 
number of apples (also of cherries and plums) of 
which I only see the fruit after a mild winter. 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
mo logical. 
COLD STORAGE F.OR FRUITS. 
> Some modification of opinion has taken 
place within the last year in reference to the 
value and desirability of ice refrigeration, 
especially for grapes, pears, apples and the 
tenderer fruits. It has been demonstrated, as 
was expected, that the severe exactions of suc¬ 
cessful refrigeration are outside the means 
and methods of the average grower, and that 
only the careful, methodical and paiustakiug 
will be benefited by it. It has also been satisr 
factorily shown that fruits held back by ice 
refrigeratio. must necessarily be used very 
soon after exposure to a change of tempera¬ 
ture. Impairment of flavor is also conceded. 
Within the past few months a new, patented 
process has been brought out in this vicinity 
for the preservation of perishable goods, 
fruits, etc., by purified air. This is known as 
Dr. Foote’s patent, and is entirely distinct 
from the enterprise referred to a year ago as 
being tried entirely here aud not promising 
satisfactory results, aud which has since been 
abandoned. But this new process is yet an 
experiment, and not sufficiently approved to 
warrant its recommendation or to particu¬ 
larly describe it bore. The object of this arti¬ 
cle is to auswer, or to suggest an answer, to 
the inquiry of those who cannot afford to 
erect costly refrigerators, entailing high run¬ 
ning expenses. At Cliutoudale a few have 
stonehousos or rooms where they have kept 
grapes for eight or ten weeks in good condi¬ 
tion, and when removed from storage they 
have withstood the atmospheric change with¬ 
out apparent injury, and endured the change 
incomparably better than those from “cold 
storage.” Experience auil observation show 
that the best location for such a room or 
house is iu a northern bank or side-hill. It 
should lie double-walled—that is either there 
should be dead-air space between the outer 
sidiug and lining, or the space should be 
filled in with saw dust, or other insulating 
material It should be well veutiluted and 
dramed, and there should be windows on two 
sid< s for night veutilatiou, the room being 
opened at, night for the cool air, and closed in 
the morning. These conditions might bo 
modified according to circumstances, the main 
points lieiug adequate insulation, ventilation 
and drainage, to ensure the lowest tempera¬ 
ture and dryness of atmosphere. With a 
house built on thus plan, it is believed a great 
desideratum will be supplied, lu many cases 
these conditions may be formed or perfected 
iu rooms or buildings already erected, with 
slight improvements. ward d. guns. 
Marlboro, N. Y. 
* SHIPPING APPLES 10 ENGLAND. 
I sent a car-load of apples to Englaud iu 
1885, and at the time gave iu detail, for the 
benefit of my fellow-farmers, the result. 
Taking into account the high price of new 
barrels here, the freight to Now York, and 
trucking across the city, there was left only a 
small price for the apples, as the rough hand¬ 
ling injured their condition. There is issued 
weekly an exact account of sales, aud a great 
many are reported wot or slack-packed. The 
market reports only refer to sound fruit m 
good order, aud ure hence misleading, as ou a 
full market many are classed as iu bad order. 
The price varies very much from week to 
week. Large shippers watch the prospective 
demand, and meet it. The place iu which 
apples ure loaded in the steamer has much to 
do with their condition on arrival at the other 
side. My conclusion was that to large ship¬ 
pers, with skill and care iu selecting and 
handling fruit and studying the markets, the 
export trade proved profitable; but unless 
very favorably located for shipping, as on the 
Hudson River, growers had better not take 
the venture. I sent two lots of 50 barrels 
each about five yeurs ago. The price of one 
lot was satisfactory; the others ou a crowded 
market, proved a failure. T. s. gold. 
Secretary, Connecticut Board of Agriculture. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Weeds. —Last year our garden was cov¬ 
ered with weeds, and owing to difficulty in 
obtaining help, they were suffered to go to 
seed. This year the land is almost entirely 
free from the pests. Chickens were allowed 
to run in the garden after the crops were tak¬ 
en off, and the land was plowed about the 
usual depth this spring. Were theseeds of the 
weeds covered too deeply to germinate, or 
were they eaten by the poultry, or is the ab¬ 
sence of weeds due to other causes? j. h. g. 
Queens Co., N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We believe the weeds will show 
themselves another year. It has been proved 
that many weed seeds can lie for several 
years in the ground without germinating and 
yet retain their vitality. They may be bur¬ 
ied too deeply one season aud be brought to 
the proper depth by subsequent workings. 
Chickens eat some weed seeds, but many are 
so small that chickens never could find them. 
A Farm-house Privy.— I read with pleas¬ 
ure the article by Prof. A. J. Cook, on the 
Farm-house Privy. The privy he described 
seems easy to build and to reach, and so inex¬ 
pensive that every house ought to have oue. 
I will describe the privy I have had in my 
house for more than 10 yeans, I would not go 
back to the old system for anything. The 
room is 8x8 feet aud is on the second story. The 
seat has an opening with a hinged cover. In¬ 
stead of a vault, I have a large galvanized iron 
pail, and from the seat I have a four-inch tin 
pipe connecting in the chimney, and I use 
ashes instead of dry earth. There is no more 
bad smell in that privy than in a dining-room. 
We use that privy in winter time only. I 
have one a few feet from my kitchen for 
summer time, made like that discribed by 
Prof. Cook, and I am well pleased with 
both. My privy in the house cost, pail *4; 
pipe $2; and seat about *2; in all, $8. The 
chimney drains the bad smell completely. 
Roxton Falls, P. Q. j. s. L. 
Rats and Trichinae in Pork.— I saw one 
of my neighbors throw some dead rats to his 
hogs the other day. I would not, under any 
circumstances, let my hogs eat rats if I could 
help it. I am well satisfied that rats are the 
great breeders and carriers of trichinae. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. h. w. snow. 
R. N.-Y.—We believe you are right. Ex¬ 
periments have so clearly traced trichinte 
from rats to pork that we do not consider 
there is any doubt about it. From our own 
observation, we are satisfied that cats often 
suffer from these loathsome parasites. All our 
best mousers are at times dumpy and out of 
sorts. We should not care to eat pork from 
hogs that we knew had eaten dead cats or 
rats. Hogs will oftentimes catch rats in 
their pens and eat them. This cannot be pre¬ 
vented, but the feeding of hogs on rats 
caught in a trap should be prohibited. 
It is thought by many that cases of trichi¬ 
nosis are always fatal. This is an error. 
Many' cases of diarrhoea, rheumatism, and in¬ 
flammation of the bowels' could be traced to 
trichina?. The smoking and salting of ham 
will not destroy the parasites, should there be 
any present. Even large boiled bams as 
cooked in rnauy saloons or hotels are danger¬ 
ous. The only safe way to prepare pork for 
the table is to cook it thoroughly. 
The Collie as a Cow-Drivkh. — Some 
farm writers paint a terrible picture of a 
herd of cows coming from the pasture, with 
a dog at their heels. To hear them, one would 
think the dog worried about half the milk out 
of the cows. There may bo curs that worry 
cattle; a man is foolish to permit such on his 
place. I have a Collie dog that is worth as 
much to me as any cow in tile herd. He will 
bring the cows up to the pasture bars every 
night as regularly us a clock. He never will 
run or worry them, except it may be some 
foolish young heifer that tries to run past 
him. I calculate that dog saves us a great 
many miles of walking every year. The cows 
get so they start of their own accord for the 
bars, after a few weeks, with the dog. All 
farmers know how tiresome it is to hunt up 
the cows after a hard day’s work. s. h. w. 
Ulster County, New York. 
A New Hay Press —I have just been ex¬ 
amining a new hay press designed for use in 
South America. Its capacity is about three 
tons per hour. It compresses t he hay so com¬ 
pactly that it has the appearance of wood. 
The most compact bale weighed nearly 800 
pounds, and yet was uot much larger than a 
soap box. it weighed about fiO pounds to the 
cubic foot, while ordinary oak wood only 
weighs from 40 to 50 pounds. It is thought 
that compressing hay so compactly will add to 
rather than detract from its nutritive quality, 
as the pressure crashes the joints and increases 
its power of absorbing moisture. The ten¬ 
dency in our markets is to give the preference 
to hay closely baled, because it takes up so 
much less stable room. As a matter of conrsei 
any decrease in bulk decreases proportionately 
the cost of transportation. It is a question 
whether green hay compactly pressed will not 
keep as well in bales as in a silo. At auy rate, 
it is impossible for the air to get to it enough 
to do any serious harm. Another advantage 
of compact baling would be its greater keep¬ 
ing qualities. In a year like this, when the 
crop is excessive in some localities, the hay 
could be baled and at a nominal expense kept 
over for another year, when perhaps the crop 
would be short. haydealer. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Rye for Spring Pasture.—I hope farm¬ 
ers will heed one point that the Rural has 
been teaching: that is sowing rye for spring 
pasture. I have tried it on a small scale, and 
feel satisfied there is money iu it. I shall sow 
an acre of rye close to the barn yard. The 
cattle will revel iu the green food next spring, 
before the pastures are ready, and the horses 
won’t refuse a bite. It is getting near the 
time for sowing, farmers. Make up your 
miuds that you want that spring pasture. 
Hillsdale County. Mich. s. H. r. 
Ensiloing Corn Stalks and Ears — 
As to the plan of putting the entire corn 
crop, ears and all. into the silo, I have had no 
experience in ensilaging corn, hut should ex¬ 
pect the eai-s would become moist and so be 
easily digested without grinding. Several 
farmers who have tried it have stated to me 
that such is the case. It can effect no serious 
loss any way to try it one year, at least on a 
small scale, which I shall do. a. j. cook. 
Ag’l CoL.Mich. 
Diunj 
TESTS OF COWS AT DAIRY SHOWS. 
Such tests seldom satisjactory; room le ft for 
complaint; a different system needed; the 
object of such tests: the best dairy cow is 
a bumness cow; the value of the feed 
should be taken into account; the feed 
should be left to the option of contestants; 
various suggestions. 
After every dairy show where cows are 
entered for competitive tests in the produc¬ 
tion of milk or butter there is always more or 
less discussion. There is an effort to fight the 
battle over again on paper, and to show how 
the animal which lost the prize is really a 
better animal than the one which won it. It 
seems evident that the rules governing such 
tests are not satisfactory. The tests settle 
nothing. They should be conclusive. The 
victory should mean but one thing There 
should be no chance for the owner of the los¬ 
ing animal to prove from the figures of the 
test that his cow is really better than the 
winner. With a view of discovering what is 
desired in the way of regulations and what it 
is thought the object of such tests should bo, 
the Rural sent the following questions to 
a number of those who are interested in the 
matter. 
1. Should the valueof the food consumed by 
the cow be taken into consideration in award¬ 
ing the prize? That is to say, should the cow 
producing the greatest amount of milk or 
butter regardless of the cost or quautity of 
feed, be judged a victor over a cow which 
produces less butter or milk from less feed? 
Should dairy tests be designed to determine 
the relativo profit of oar breeds of cattle, in 
changing food stuffs into milk or butter, or 
should they be confined to the task of deter¬ 
mining the milking possibilities of the breeds, 
without regard to profit? 
A Should the cows be fed upon the same 
kind of feed, the mixture to be determined by 
the judge, aud the quantity left to the exhi¬ 
bitors, or should it be left to the option of the 
exhibitor to feed whatever he pleases.'” 
The following replies will be read w ith in¬ 
terest. 
FROM E. BURNETT, PRESIDENT OF THE N. Y. 
DAIRY SHOW. 
My opinion, expressed iu a nutshell, is that 
to the cow that makes the most butter from a 
given amount of food, belongs the prize. To 
the practical butter-maker, this alone deter¬ 
mines the profit and wins success. To accom¬ 
plish this, however, several important points 
must be taken into consideration. 
First: For oue week before the test (if for 
24 hours) the cows should be fed under the 
supervision of a competent committee, and 
the cost of their feed, measured and by weight, 
should be kept. All experts know that many 
dairy cows can be trained by a system of feed¬ 
ing to produce an extraordinary amount of 
butter, and that the effects of this feeding 
can easily be made to extend over a period of 
several days. 
Secondly: The milk of all contesting cows 
should be treated alike, and all the butter 
should be made by the same process. The 
importance of this was clearly demonstrated 
at the late dairy show, where some of the bat¬ 
ter churned from whole loppered milk was of 
most inferior quality. 
In some of the agricultural papers, Holstein 
men have accused me of having tried to con¬ 
ceal something in publishing the tests of the 
late N. Y. Dairy and Cattle Show. Through 
the Rural New-Yorker columns I wish to 
state that, as Chairman of the Testing Com¬ 
mittee, although a Jersey breeder, I always 
favoi'ed the Holstoins in any little points that 
came up during the test, and I think that 
both Mr. Gerritc S. Miller and Mr. Otis, the 
Holstein representatives, will confirm this 
statement. I purposely omitted, in the pub¬ 
lished tests, that of one Jersey cow whose re¬ 
cord was incomplete, the owner having with¬ 
drawn her after the first milking, and perhaps 
this may be the cause of the accusation. 
from major h. e. alvord 
A few dairy cows are kept merely for 
pleasure, and to be shown off, on occasions, 
like race-horses. Such may be kept at high 
pressure and put into competitive tests in pub¬ 
lic, and the “ribbon,” in such cases.should cer¬ 
tainly go to the auimal making the most re¬ 
markable “spurt” in a short-term dairy trial. 
Thank Heaven! such cows are very few—an 
insignificant fraction of the total number, 
with their natures aud functions sadly per¬ 
verted. 
Good dairymen and all true lovers of the 
aii-useful cow, must recoguize iu her a quiet, 
domestic auimal, shrinking from publicity 
and excitement and change, whose true place 
is home, and who, as a dairy animal,will nev¬ 
er do as well anywhere else. The phlegmatic 
Short-horn or Hereford, although somewhat 
disturbed by public exhibition, will carry 
most of her avoirdupois with her to the show. 
But the finely constituted dairy row, of what¬ 
ever breed, with her highly nervous type and 
temperament, a characteristic, when forced 
into public, leaves most of her butter and a 
large part of her milk at home, or loses it up¬ 
on the road. For one, I thmk none the less of 
her for it, and hold that the only proper place 
to test the capability or value of a dairy cow 
is at her home, under usual and natural con¬ 
ditions. 
Thousands of cows are kept for profit to 
every one kept as a mere toy, and the practi¬ 
cal question arising in regard to the compar¬ 
ative merits of the thousands, is oue of econo¬ 
my. The net profit on the single cow, and on 
the herd, should be the standard ou which to 
select and maintain. In judging any cow on 
her performances, business principles should 
govern—there must be two sides to the account 
and both should be considered. In any test of 
the merits of a dairy cow, therefore, we 
should know fully the kind and cost of main¬ 
tenance, every detail of care and keeping, with 
the composition and value of food consumed, 
and, equally iu detail, the quantity, quality 
and composition of the product. But food and 
care do not give immediate results; hence, for 
a comprehensive judgment, the debtor side of 
the account, complete, is as important, in the 
case of a short test, for at least a month prior 
to it, as during its continuance. 
Cows vary in the kind of food best adapted 
to profitable production as well as in the 
quantity they consume The observant and 
judicious feeder therefore makes changes in 
both kind and quantity in dealing with differ¬ 
ent cows. In comparing the finest cows, two 
distinct practical questions may arise, and 
they must be differently treated to get an¬ 
swers ; first, which cow, or cows, will be most 
profitable under certain fixed aud necessarily 
limited conditions of care and keeping ? and, 
second, which will be most profitable, treated 
under the very best conditions found adapted 
to them? 
While short trials, or tests of dairy cows, if 
conducted rationally, with common sense con¬ 
ditions. aud a complete record of the facts, will 
always be interesting and instructive, it must 
not be forgotteu that the business of farm¬ 
ing, aud, especially in this latitude, of dairy¬ 
ing and cattle husbandry, is the business of a 
year There can be no separation between 
the agricultural year aud the calendar in 
balancing accounts. Every good dairy cow 
is kept well fed and cared for, or should be, 
3(35 days in every year. The ultimate and 
only true estimate of economy or profit in 
regard to a cow is the balance sheet of a strict 
account with her for twelve consecutive 
months. 
This is why the full year records of single 
cows and herds are so much more valuable 
than all others. _ 
FROM H. B. RICHARDS, SECRETARY DUTCH 
BELTED CATTLE ASSOCIATION. 
No fair or business-like test cau be made at 
