4883 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
the student is able to form a tolerably accu¬ 
rate judgment of the quality of cattle when¬ 
ever he sees them. 
Quite an important part of the training at 
this college is in the mechanical department. 
There are two shops, one for wood and one for 
iron work. In the wood shop, the students are 
taught to make boxes and joints of various 
kinds. They are required to make models 
from drawings of different devices, including 
frames for buildings. In the iron shop are 
forges, lathes, planers and sufficient machinery 
to enable a student with a mechanical turn of 
mind to build a steam engine. The Editor of 
the Vermonter was told that one boy built a 
two-horse power steam engine the pastseason, 
took it home and set it upon his father’s farm. 
When a student leaves this department he 
knows how to make a sled, repair almost any 
machine on a farm, mend a chain, and do al¬ 
most any job on woodwork that is required on 
a farm. 
The veterinary department is ably con¬ 
ducted. There is such an amount of gross 
ignorance displayed by the ordinary horse and 
cow doctors, that it really seems like a blessing 
to dumb animals to have such a department 
connected with an agricultural college. In 
this department, all kinds of deformities and 
diseases of different animals are treated by a 
skillful veterinarian. Bodies of animals are 
dissected and studied with as much care and 
assiduity as human subjects in a medical col¬ 
lege, and the bright student cannot fail to 
obtain a knowledge of the diseases of dumb 
animals and their treatment, which, if put in 
practice, will allay much suffering and save 
the lives of many valuable animals which 
would doubtless be killed by quack doctors. 
The Michigan Agricultural College is a great 
institution, and every one, be he a farmer or 
not—for every one is benefited by agricul¬ 
tural progress—should bless its existence. 
Ensilage. —According to investigations 
made by the N. E. Farmer ensilage is all the 
while growing popular in Massachusetts. One 
farmer says that some important changes 
have been made in the manner of putting in 
the silage. He now grows corn that will 
mature earlier than the varieties at first used. 
Many now use the dent corns of the Middle 
States, such as the Learning or the Northern 
flint varieties. It has been proved that a 
more mature fodder will produce better 
silage, even as unripe fruit or fodder is a 
source of danger. As a usual thing less seed 
is sown than formerly, 12 to 16 quarts per acre 
being as much as is now used in his vicinity. 
When flint corns are grown it is common to 
break off the ears before putting the fodder 
into the silo. In his own case, he has put ears 
and all into the silo, saving the breaking off, 
husking, shelling and grinding, a matter of 15 
cents a bushel, and he has the corn evenly 
mixed through the silage. . . . It is 
best, says another, to have the silo small in 
area and deep, as by this method he can feed 
from the whole top of the silage and with 
no waste, while by the old method of cutting 
down the side, as practiced by him for a year 
or two, there was always more or less waste, 
together with much hard work. He thinks 
no better feed can be had for milch cows than 
good silage and clean Hungarian hay to¬ 
gether with a grain ration containing a lib¬ 
eral portion of shorts or glaten meal. . . . 
In looking at different silos, remarks a third, 
two or three in a single day, and seeing the 
silage and the methods of feeding, his own 
opinion is that it is best to let the crop get 
well advanced toward maturity and cut it fine 
when put in, and then depend on it for only 
about half the ration to be fed. Some farm¬ 
ers who cannot get power readily to cut their 
corn are putting it in whole. Some like it 
quite well, others find it much more trouble 
to feed, and there is much more wasted by the 
cattle. ... A fourth farmer says he finds 
that farmers now prefer to let corn that is in¬ 
tended for the silo stand longer and become 
more mature than was the former custom, 
claiming that the silage is less sour and more 
nutritious than when cut earlier. There is a 
diversity of opinion in regard to weighting 
the silage. He found the sweetest silage 
where the least weight was applied. Almost 
all of those who believe in the silo have be¬ 
come convinced that a mature plant is more 
nutritious than one cut in the earlier stage of 
its growth,being a complete change of opinion 
from that held five or six years ago. 
THE RURAL’S LUNCH. 
Prof. Roberts, of Cornell University, says 
that a cow that makes six pounds of butter a 
week on cold water will make seven pounds if 
the water be warmed. He further says that 
cows will drink one-third more when the 
water is warmed to 80 degrees than they will 
at 32 degrees and that the milk will increase 
one-fifth without deterioration. 
Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, Cal., says 
that many of his Japan chestnuts bear large, 
fine nuts the “second year from seed in the 
nursery rows.” “These enormous nuts,” he 
says, “ripened on the trees only 18 months 
from the time the seed was dropped in the 
ground. The nuts average nearly an ounce 
each.” Such cases, which are, of course, ex¬ 
ceptional, show what the Japan chestnut is 
capable of. Now what we want is to propagato 
from early bearing seedlings which bear the 
largest nuts of the best quality. 
The results of an experiment made by our 
contributor, Mr. E. S. Goff, at the New York 
Experiment Station and published in the 
Weekly Press of Philadelphia, show the in¬ 
jurious effects of the deep cultivation of corn, 
fully supporting the Rural’s experiments 
made 12 years ago and since repeated. The 
root-pruned corn yielded 37 bushels to the acre, 
while that not root-pruned yielded 60 bushels. 
The cultivation in the root-pruned plot was 
done by a lawn edge cutter at first when the 
plants were three to six inches tall and again, 
June 24, cutting three inches deep and three 
to four inches from the hill. 
The London Garden finds the Double-flow¬ 
ered Wistaria an “ugly monstrosity.” The 
R. N.-Y. purchased a plant some seven years 
ago, but it has not bloomed. 
We also find in the above journal a notice 
of a new rose which is said to be a cross be¬ 
tween Rosa rugosa and the Tea rose Sombreuil. 
The Rural made its announcement of hav¬ 
ing originated hybrids between Rosa rugosa 
and Harrison’s Yellow last March. An ac¬ 
count of them appeared in the London Garden 
of last September. 
W. Atlee Burpee & Co. announce a new 
strawberry named Louise. The originator is 
Mr. N. Hallock, of Queens County, Long 
Island, a good, true man, and we do not believe 
he would aid in introducing a new variety 
that did not possess first-rate merits. 
An interesting fact is mentioned by Profes¬ 
sor Storer in “Agriculture,” that it is no un¬ 
usual thing for the chemist to find substances 
in the ashes of a plant which he cannot detect 
by his most delicate experiments either in the 
soil in which the plant grew or in the water 
of that soil. It is well-known that an abun¬ 
dance of iodine for use in medicine and in the 
arts is obtained from the ashes of sea-weeds, 
though we are wholly incompetent to obtain 
iodine directly from sea-water, or even to 
detect its presence there with certainty. 
One of our exchanges, we have forgotten 
which one, says that Mr. Ed. Lefort, Secre¬ 
tary of the Horticultural Society of Meaux, 
has seen peaches grafted on the English Haw¬ 
thorn. He says the trees are remarkably vig¬ 
orous, and produce annually abundant crops. 
It is hard to believe . 
The Japan Umbrella Pine.— The Gar¬ 
dener’s Chronicle says that a correspondent of 
the Garten Zietung communicates some par¬ 
ticulars of a specimen of this singular and 
distinct conifer that is growing in the garden 
of Max Daniel Wolterbeck, Valenburg, near 
Arnheim, in Holland. It was planted where 
it now stands, in a very exposed situation, 
20 years ago, and is a healthy and beautifully 
formed tree. Moreover, it has never suffered 
in the least from frost or other climatal in¬ 
fluences. Of pyramidal shape, it is nearly 13 
feet high, with a circumference of a little 
over 21 feet. Last year—or rather the year 
before last now—it bore for the first time two 
ripe cones, and the seed produced 15 seedlings. 
It is only a matter of time before this fine tree 
willl be planted by all who prize variety. It 
is one of the hardiest and most distinct of 
coniferous evergreens. The R. N.-Y. procured 
a tree some 10 years ago, and we have kept its 
merits before our readers ever since. The 
only objection to it is that, like the Red Cedar, 
it assumes a brown color in the winter. 
Mr. Berg, Howard presumes in the Boston 
Weekly Globe, is a pious man, and his society 
is well paid, and his servants might quite as 
well spend part of their time in examining 
the appliances for torture indulged in by the 
careless servants of the ignorant people who 
own the horses. The fact that a man has $2,500 
to invest in a carriage and a pair of horses 
by no means qualifies him to be a judge of 
animals. “See how my horses toss their heads, 
with what spirit they flick foam here and 
there,” said one of these fellows. “Yes,” was 
the reply, “and perhaps if some donkey were 
to put an iron ring about your neck, holding 
your chin up at an angle of 52 degrees, were 
to put a gag in your mouth so held by curb 
and straps as to agonize the cords of your neck, 
you, in a vain search for rest by change of 
position, would toss your head and flick your 
foam.” Eight in every 10 horses that stand 
in front of Grace Church, and up and down 
that pavement, are in torture, while the mis¬ 
erable sinners inside are staring at each other 
with their eyes, while their lip service ascends 
to the Imperial Majesty that sits upon the 
everlasting throne above. On the boxes sit 
| coachmen and footmen, whose sole pleasure 
consists in swapping stories, squirting tobacco 
i juice, touching gently with the lash the al¬ 
ready tortured horses in their merciless con¬ 
trol. 
A man in Pennsylvania, says the N. E 
Farmer, reports to a dairy convention that he 
began feeding a peck of pomace per day each 
to his cows, night aud morning with marked 
increase in the quantity of milk. The increase 
j continued as the pomace ration was increased 
till a bushel and a half was fed to each cow 
per day. Another found the pomace a com¬ 
plete substitute for the grain he had been feed¬ 
ing to supplement a short pasture. Pomace, 
like apples or other rich food, must be fed 
with caution or ill results-may follow. 
The difference between fresh green peas 
and those that have lain awhile after being 
picked is well shown by the following trial 
made by a Michigan lady. One mess of peas 
was picked the night before and the other 
just before dinner of the day both were eaten. 
Her husband thought she had used sugar in 
the lot picked before dinner. 
In Professor Shelton’s ensilage experiments 
this fact was very apparent from the first: that 
the capital required for machinery, men, and 
teams, in making ensilage, puts the system 
quite out of the reach of farmers in general. 
Sir J. B. Lawes says, in the Journal of 
the Iron and Steel Institute,that there can be 
no doubt that the phosphate in the basic slag 
will prove a very valuable addition to the va¬ 
rious phosphates in use amongst agricultur¬ 
ists . 
Mr. Hoard has seen, in a great many in¬ 
stances, where, by too liberal feeding of corn, 
heifers of great promise were given a beefing 
bias of growth, and their future as cows com¬ 
pletely ruined. An effort should be made to 
develop bone and muscle and not fat, and to 
this end there is no better food than skim- 
milk . 
DIRECT. 
Mississippi News: “There is one good 
thing about wire fences. They can’t be used 
for posting patent medicine advertisements.” 
-Husbandman: “In ordinary ailments, 
no doubt, the best restoratives are rest, sleep, 
and plain food, with judicious exercise. Em¬ 
ploy these agencies wisely and throw physic 
to the dogs.”-Professor Storer states, in 
his fine work,“Agriculture,” that he “noticed 
some years ago that Indian corn, which had 
been made to sprout in a flower-pot that was 
watered with milk, had white leaves.”- 
“Experimenters have observed that grass-sod 
may give off as much as from two to five 
pounds of w ater for each and every square 
foot of surface every 24 hours.”-“The 
farther north grain is grown, so much the 
shorter is the term of its vegetation. Barley 
ripens 20 days earlier in Alten, in 70 degrees 
of north latitude, where on the average of 
years the mean summer temperature is only 
54 degrees, than it does in Christiana, in lat¬ 
itude 50 degrees, where the mean summer tem¬ 
perature is 60 degrees; aud yet the plants are 
as well developed in the one place as in the 
other.”-“Curiously enough, this power of 
ripening speedily becomes hereditary in the 
course of some generations, so that plants 
springing from seeds that have been brought 
from the far North to more Southern locali¬ 
ties, grow as fast, at first, or about as fast, as 
they would have grown at home.” 
-“BEAUTY 
Cuticura Remedies Cure 
Skin and Blood Diseases 
from Pimples to Scrofula* 
N O PEN CAN DO JUSTICE TO THE ESTEEM IN WHICH 
the Cuticura Remedies are held by the thou¬ 
sands upon thousands whose lives have been made 
happy by the cure of agonizing, humiliating, Itching, 
scaly, and pimply diseases of the skin, scalp, and 
blood, with loss or hair. 
Cuticura, the great Skin Cure, and Cuticura Soap, 
an exquisite Skin Beautlfier, prepared from it, exter- 
ntlly, and Cuticura Resolvent, the new Blood Purifier, 
Internally, are a positive cure for every form of skin 
and blood disease, from pimples to scrofula. 
Sold everywhere. Price, Cuticura, 50c.; Soap, 25c.; 
Resolvent, $1. Prepared by the Potter Drug and 
Chemical Co., Boston, Mass. 
S 3 ? - Send for “ How to Cure Skin Diseases. 
S 3 ?" Pimples, black-heads, chapped and oily skin 
S 3 ?" prevented by Cuticura Soap. 
Rheumatism. Kidney Pains and Weakness 
speedily cured by Cuticura Anti-Pain 
Plaster, the only pain-killing plaster. 
How to SAVE re-shingling, STOP 
leaks effectually and cheaply in 
roofs of all kinds, or lay NEW roofs. 
Particulars FRKE if you mention this paper. 
UNEQUALED 
For House, Barn, 
and all out-buildings. 
_ ANYBODY CAN PUT IT ON. 
HF PRICE LOW. 
~~i Write for Sample and Book. 
ISHt41ttSMJT4:* ISimne St., New York City. 
INDIANA PAINT & ROOFINC CO. 
DELAWARE COUNTY 
CREAMERY 
—We will pay Freight.— 
Write for our wholesale offer 
to first purchaser. Address 
Delaware County Creamery Co, 
" RENTON HARBOR, MICH. 
SCROLL SAWS, TOOLS, 
and all material used by the Scroll 
Sawyer or Woodworker. Send 4 cts. 
in stamps for large Illustrated Cata¬ 
logue of Saws, Tools, Designs, etc. 
Or send 10c. in stamps for the Cata¬ 
logue, a handsome 10 cent Pattern and 
SO COUPON OFFERS. We have 
the Largest Stock of Scroll Saw 
Goods in tho U. S. J. WILKINSON 
CO., 7? State Street, Chicago, ILL 
riding^o/waPkVngPsteel CULTIVATORS 
With Double Row Corn 
Planter nucl Fertilizer 
complete in one machine. 
Crowned with Medals 
since 1870. 
ZING of tho COEN FIELD 
TIiouhiiimIh hi u hc giving 
entire satisfaction. 
Agents wanted. Cata¬ 
logues free. Name this paper 
1IENC1I & DKOMUOLD, 
York, Pa. 
* 
\y 
O 
GOULDS h AUSTIN, 
MANUFACTURERS, 
167 & 160 
LAKE STREET. 
CHICAGO, ILL 
EXCLUSIVE 
TERRITORY 
GIVEN TO 
ACTIVE 
AGENTS. 
A VALUABLE AND BEAUTIFUL 
GARDENING SUPPLEMENT 
TO 
1ME RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
c 
o 
]V 
s 
o 
L 
I 
D 
A 
T 
E 
I> 
30th. Year; 
AND HORTICULTURIST, 
A9rl 'V r p q r»« 
THE FLORAL CABINET, 
17th Year; 
16th Year; 
Have united to make one large, strong, hand¬ 
some, reliable, illustrated, monthly magazine 
of horticulture under the name of 
THE AMERICAN HARDEN, 
for the garden , orchard , house, greenhouse , 
conservatory , lawn , farm and nature. 
Written by Meelian, Falconer, Hoskins, Saunders. Manda, Bull, Munson, and 
other successful gardening folk in all sections, fully describing the culture of Fruits, 
Vegetables, and Flowers, out-doors and under glass; also Ornamental Gardening and 
Tree Planting. Address The American Garden, 751 Broadway, New York. 
Only $1.00 a year; 10 cents a copy ; in club with B, N.-Y, $3.50. 
