at seven or eight percent, interest, and repairs, 
and then sell the cream outright, usually an 
inch of cream being rated five or six cents less 
than the best quotations for creamery butter 
in New York. Borne patrousget trapped into 
selling cream at the price for store butter in 
their village, and it is quite ns well at first 
thought as to make butter and soil it at those 
figures, the cream bringing money, while the 
other brings only store pay, but in this world 
of dairy progress, this inch of cream actually 
represents No. 1 creamery butter, and is en¬ 
titled to the pay of No. 1 material. This plan 
can be made to conform to almost any locality, 
or the “sharpness” of patron or buyer. 
The third system is, for a speculator to build 
and equip his own factory, buy the cream on 
the best terms lie can, and run the business as 
best suits himself. 
fiflti Crops. 
LUCERNE OR ALFALFA. 
This is botanicallv Medicago sativa, a pe¬ 
rennial clover, growing, according to the soil, 
from a foot to three feet high. The pea-like 
flowers arc, us shown by Fig. 331, reproduced 
from the United States Agricultural Reports, 
borne in short racemes of a blue or blue- 
purple color. The French name is Lucerne; 
Alfalfa is the Spanish name. Ten years ago 
a plot of one-tenth of an acre was sown with 
this clove". It made a fine growth the first 
season, but was accidentally plowed up in the 
fall. The Rural has, therefore, no experi¬ 
ence of its own to offer in regard to this plant, 
which is now known to be of the first value in 
many parts of the country. At the N. Y. Ex. 
Station Lucerne produces an abundance of 
foliage, and it is hardy under a temperature 
of 15° below zero even In a cold soil. It be¬ 
gins to grow vigorously aa early as mid-April, 
and in early July the first cutting is made. 
Ono plot yielded at the rate of 10 tons per 
acre of green fodder, another seven. The 
plauts of these plots have made a fine, growth 
for four years. All animals relish them. One 
tap-root was traced nearly four feet below the 
surface. In sandy soil they have been traced 
to a depth of 13 feet. The land should be pre¬ 
pared as for clover and 20 pounds of seed to 
the acre sown 
Prof. Shelton says that at the Kansas State 
Ag. College Lucerne makes the earliest 
growth, with Meadow Oat Grass and Ken¬ 
tucky Blue (trass second and third and Red 
Clover and Orchard Grass fourth and fifth in 
the order of development. A large propor¬ 
tion of those who attempt to grow Alfalfa 
will fail in the first attempt. Let it be kuown 
that it must have old, rich and well drained 
laud to begin with, and the freer this is from 
weeds the better. So says Prof. Shelton, and 
many others who raise Alfalfa corroborate 
the statement, lie further says that for hay, 
if cut, a little too late in the season, the leaves 
f ill oir in handling, leaving the hard, woody 
stalks, which are worthless. It must bo cut 
early ami given plenty of field room; but if, 
while in the field, a rain happens to full, the 
Alfalfa is reduced to the condition of manure 
in a short time. For early and lute pasture 
Alfalfa, ho thinks, has no rival among the 
so-called grasses 
Prof. Beal, in his incomparable “Grasses of 
North America,” says that Alfalfa was known 
and prized by the Greeks and Romans 2,000 
years ago, and it was alluded to by Colum¬ 
ella as a most valuable plant for fodder. Lu¬ 
cerne, lie says, is “u child of the suo;” it likes 
a rich loam or sand with a deep, porous sub¬ 
soil; it utterly refuses to thrive on a compact 
clay subsoil, or in a hard bottom of any kind. 
While young it is a weak plant and a poor 
fighter. It requires two years anyway to be¬ 
come well rooted. It should be sown, Prof. 
Real says, after settled weather iu the spring, 
without another crop. lie advises that we 
sow in drills ubout eight inches apart, ami 
hoe and cultivate once at least, to keep the 
weeds in check. The plant is a perennial that 
on suitable soil can be relied on to produce 
good crops for many years in succession, it 
stands dry weather admirably, and is very 
nutritious. It is a favorite for irrigated 
meadows and soiliug, and is frequently cut 
from three to eight times in tho year, yield¬ 
ing enormous crops of valuable fodder for all 
kinds of live stock. At the Ag. (.’oil., 
Lansing, Mich., Lucerne, when hood and 
properly started the first year, has not killed 
out during severe winters, while it beats 
everything to endure prolonged droughts. It 
is not suitable to mix with clover, ns the clo¬ 
ver overtops it. Prof Real knows of no at¬ 
tempt, however, in Michigan, to establish, 
mow and feed crops of 1 .accrue. 
President lngersoll, of the Colorado Ag. 
Coll., says that Alfalfa is tho only forage 
plant that will grow there and keep green 
without irrigation, 
POTATO NOTES. 
Large Potato Yield.—W hat has lieen 
said about potato yiehls on the Rural Ex¬ 
periment Grounds led me to estimate the 
yield of one Early Goodrich potato cut in six 
pieces, and in our average garden soil where 
strawberries bad grown for four years pre¬ 
viously, and without mauure at auy time. 
The pieces were planted in six hills about 20 
inches apart, allowing three square yards for 
each plant. We have ms a result 25 pougds of 
merchantable potatoes and two pounds of small 
ones, which figure at 7?TJ^ bushels of good 
salable potatoes, or RIO bushels, all told. All 
this without any manure or extra cultivation, 
and with only one good rain—about June 15. 
Pomeroy, Wash. Territory. a. h. h. 
Profits ox Potatoes. —I drop my pota¬ 
toes iu every third furrow as the ground is 
plowed. Two men with a team can plant two 
acres per day. I make, clear of expenses, $25 
or $30 per acre. I have never used any fer¬ 
tilizer. My Early Ohio potatoes were planted 
LUCERNE OR ALFALFA 
April 2, came up May 5, and furnished pota¬ 
toes as large as hens’ eggs Jane 10. They were 
planted and cultivated as iu ordinary field 
culture. E. K. M. 
Stuart, Kans. 
Using Small Potatoes.— Many farmers 
around here sell their small potatoes rather 
than go to the trouble of feeding them out. 
They sell to dairymen near the city. I can 
make more by holding mine and feeding them 
to the cows or chickens. I feed half a peek 
of raw potatoes to a cow every day. Mixed 
with meal or bran tho cows like them. They 
are good for chickens when fed with grain. 
Fed alone, chickens get tired of them. R. n. 
Bergen Co., N. J. 
Fall Manuring.— On one field of potatoes 
I spread my manure last fall and plowed it 
iu. This spring I went over it with tho 
Acme. It is the finest piece of potatoes I ever 
had. On another piece I spread aud plowed 
in the manure in the spring. Tho crop is not 
up to the average. People tell me it is the 
“season” more than anything else. I might 
think so if it had not happened just so for 
several years before. H. k. l. 
Bucks Co., Pa. 
DROUGHT RESISTED. 
I rave just traveled about thirty miles to 
my farm. En route I saw many fields of corn, 
most of which, because of the severe drought, 
would yield almost nothing. There was hardly 
a field the whole distance that would bear 
half a crop. Realizing the importance of the 
corn crop to a farmer who raises stock, I felt 
anxious as to my own crop, and eager to see 
it, as I had not visited my farm since the 
week the fields wore planted. I need not say 
that I was most happy to find that I have an 
excellent crop, nearly up to the average, aud 
the best I had seen. Now what is the explana¬ 
tion l T can only suggest the following: 
1. My fields are thoroughly drained. I be¬ 
lieve such drainage helps materially to resist 
(Medicago Sativa). Fig. 331. 
the drought, else why such a grand stand of 
coru aloug my drains. 
2. The ground is rich; he who would suc¬ 
ceed despite the drought must feed his land as 
liberally as he would his Short-horns to secure 
good beef. 
3. The line-toothed harrow was used freely 
just before aud for some time after the c ru 
came up. Thou the ground was damp, aud 
this harrowing kept the weeds down, and 
gave the coru a start, the very momentum of 
which pushed the evil effects of drought 
aside. I do not believe the importance of 
this thorough early harrowing can be over¬ 
estimated. 
4. The ground has been kept mellow by fre¬ 
quent. stirring ever since the Stalks came up. 
Abundant tillage is ever desirable, but >t is 
especially necessary In seasons of drought. 
Thus it is that 1 have a grand crop of corn, 
even tins terribly dry year. I have to thank 
this blessed quartette: good drainage, rich 
soil, the early stirring with the harrow, and 
the frequent late cultivation. a. j. cook, 
Lansing, Mich. 
RUMINATION. 
HENRY STEWART. 
One of the most important services ren¬ 
dered to farmers is the testing of seeds, es¬ 
pecially those newly introduced as of great 
interest anil value. Practical services thus 
rendered by the Rural Experiment Grounds, 
I think to be of far greater value than the ab¬ 
stract aud often abstruse questions dealt with 
at the professional stations, the analyses of 
various substances, the meteorological reports 
and other matters most interesting to students 
and teachers—including editors—of agricul¬ 
ture. The determination of the negative 
value of Polish wheat or Montana rye, as 
given in the Rural of August 13, should give 
this quasi fraud its quietus. I remember 
paying 25 cents for 25 grains of it, as Mon¬ 
tana rye, about 20 years ago, and losing my 
money and labor of trying it, excepting for 
the experience gained. 
* * * 
The search for some new thing is as active 
to-day as it was in those ancient days when 
“the Athenians spent their time in nothing 
else.” This applies to the numerous new fruits 
that are introduced, especially strawberries. 
How many new kinds are brought out every 
year, and what labors of love ure lost by the 
growers! A mun whom I knew once bought 
a Jersey bull and half a-dozen cows to start a 
fine butter dairy. He put them on a rocky, 
barren New Jersey pasture and wondered to 
me why these cows made no more butter than 
his neighbor’s scrubs. “If,” said be, “these 
cows won't do better than common cows on 
the same feed why do the breeders ask $200 
apiece for them?” He never thought he was 
paying this price for a more capable machine 
for turning feed into milk anil butter; but 
which could do nothing without plenty of 
raw material to work upon. It is the same 
with new fruits, vegetables, grains, etc.; 
these improved plauts are merely better ma¬ 
chines for producing fruits by means of more 
manure and better culture than common 
ones, and without these means the advantages 
gained by high culture of the plants are uever 
secured. 
* * * 
“ Complete fertilizers.” as I understand the 
term, are compounds which contain all the ele¬ 
ments of stable manure, and hence are sub¬ 
stitutes for this rarely come-at-able in suffi¬ 
cient quantity, and supposed complete plant 
food. But every experienced farmer knows 
that manure is uot a complete fertilizer iu the 
sense of sufficiency for crop growth. Lime, 
plaster, potash, phosphoric acid aud nitrates 
have all been used to make it more effective 
for at least 40 years back that I can remem¬ 
ber. Many farmers have found that better 
crops can be grown with fertilizers at less cost 
than with manure; and the sooner this fact is 
realized (as remarked so truly in the editorial 
columns of the Rural) and farmers learn to 
buy manure in bags the better off they will be. 
* * * 
What changes have occurred in everything 
during the past generation! In religion, 
politics, social affairs, business, mechanics, 
medicine, surgery, transportation, communi¬ 
cation, the world is wholly uew and agricul¬ 
ture is fast taking a foremost place in the 
revolutionary column. Hence, we must not 
be tied to old notions, aud may be sure that 
the soil is merely a machine in our hands in 
which we put certain substances, and by work¬ 
ing our machines we produce certain desired 
combinations. Many fanners have a sort of 
lingering idea that tho soil is a perpetual- 
motion machine—or they act as if they did— 
and think they can go on growing small and 
smaller crops and still live as they did when 
competition was less active and a dollar went 
ten times further than it does now because a 
farmer aud his family have ten times as many 
uses for it now as formerly. 
CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS. 
Workers and Thinkers.— How would it 
do for some of our great preachers and teach¬ 
ers to spend a summer right amoug the work¬ 
ingmen—not as spectators, but as workers in 
common with tho rest? I believe many of tho 
so-called “ leaders in thought” are talking to 
imaginary audiences who don’t exist except 
in their imaginations. One reason why they 
cannot reach the eonimou people is because 
they don’t know them. c. c. B. 
Montcalm Co., Mich. 
R. N.-Y.—It would be woi’th five years’ 
study for some of our leading “ thinkers” to 
work through one summer’s vacation among 
