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THE RURAL N£W-YOKKCR. <85 
some of the “promoters,” particularly those 
of the St. Andrew’s Bay humbug, for using 
the United States mails for fraudulent pur¬ 
poses. Lately, however, several attempts 
have been made once more to “boom” some 
of these pretentious elysiums; hence this 
caution to Rural readers. 
Agents of the Welcome Oats Company, 
under the direction of J. H. Chase, have 
been operating quite extensively in Western 
New York much to their own gain and the 
loss of farmers who do not read the Rural. 
They have been selling Welcome Oats at 815 
per bushel, Kaffir Corn at §20 per bushel and 
other grains reported to be of marvelous 
value at like figures, agreeing to buy back 
double the quantity of next season’s crop at 
the same figures. Of course, this is the old 
Bohemian Oat swindle under another name. 
The schemers, however, managed to get a 
large aggregate sum out of the farmers. Fin¬ 
ally when the fraudulent nature of the enter¬ 
prise became known through newspaper expos¬ 
ures, the wily agents, after having disposed of 
most of the promissory notes, cleared out, and 
now the deluded farmers are angrily trying to 
have the swindlers indicted by the Grand 
Jury. They should remember that the Mich¬ 
igan Supreme Court on February 3d last de¬ 
cided that contracts of this nature are fraud¬ 
ulent, and that notes given for them are null 
and void. They should therefore refuse to 
pay them, and club together to defray the 
expenses of carrying a test case to the Court 
of Appeals if necessary. 
Away out in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, 
a sharper calling himself Powell, has been 
swindling stock raisers quite extensively. 
He purchased cattle at a good price, paying 
in checks on a bank in Mason City. He took 
from the farmers receipts which were so 
worded that they could be easily altered into 
promissory notes. The altered receipts were 
promptly sold to local banks and note shavers. 
Powell”s checks were, of course, worthless, 
as he had no money in the bank. He has dis¬ 
appeared. 
Concerns Censured —Under this caption 
the Eye-Opener will, from time to time, give 
the names of various concerns he has seen 
-spoken against in other papers, but which have 
not been investigated from the Rural office. 
There are several complaints in the West 
about a nursery firm at Lamars, Iowa. It is 
said that while it sells trees and plants as 
grown at Lamars, and therefore thoroughly 
acclimated, the orders are filled from the head 
nursery in Ohio. A few years ago similar 
complaints of the same concern were noted 
here by the Eye-Opener. At that time it pro¬ 
fessed to have a lot of plants for sale raised at 
Lamars, but our investigations there showed 
that it bad not yet begun business W. H. 
Ingham & Co., a “Speculative Syndicate,” or 
a “blind pool” affair, of this city, doesn’t find 
favor with several papers. Nearly a year ago 
the Eye-Opener, in a lengthy article, cau¬ 
tioned Rural readers against having any 
dealings with this or any other blind-pool con¬ 
cern of the sort. There have been a number 
of them' in this and other cities, especially 
Chicago, and also in Europe; and without a 
single exception all burst up in a year or two 
at the farthest, leaving their patrons lament¬ 
ing— Richard T. Wallace, dealer in cheap 
jewelry, Chicago, Ill., is not recommended by 
Chicago papers....The business methods of 
Law, King& Law, publishers, of Chicago, es¬ 
pecially with those who have been induced to 
become agents of the concern, are again con¬ 
demned by local papers, which have received 
many complaints from parties who claim to 
have been deceived by L. K. & L. 
ANSWERS TOCORR ESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please see if it is not answered in 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.) 
REMOVING THE TASSEL OF EVERY ALTER¬ 
NATE CORN PLANT IN A ROW. 
C. F. E., Easton , Me 7.—If the removal of the 
sexual organs in animals has such a favorable 
effect on their growth, why would it not be a 
good plan to cut the tassels on. two-thirds of 
our corn before the pollen is developed? One 
row of perfect stalks could certainly be de¬ 
pended on to fertilize itself, and the row on 
each side of it. 
Ans.—T he R. N.-Y. has experimented in 
the matter inquired about for at least 10 years. 
We always have an isolated plot of what was 
(11 years ago) the so-called Blount’s WhiteJPro- 
Jific. We go over this plot every-day before 
the “blooming” period and cut off every tassel 
upon all the stalks that do not please us,either 
because they do not show setts enough, be¬ 
cause the plants are too tall, because the setts 
are too high up, or because the plants sucker. 
We finally observed that the plants thus de¬ 
prived of their male flowers, or “tassels,” 
would develop setts more freely. For several 
seasons, as we passed through the rows later 
in the season, and saw the satisfactory number 
of ears developing upon the beheaded plants, 
we were at loss to understand why those 
plants had been deprived of their “tassels.’’ 
We are now fully of the opinion that if every 
alternate corn plant were deprived of its tas¬ 
sel, the crop of grain would be materially in¬ 
creased. We are not prepared to say that 
more than one-half of the plants could safely 
be thus treated. We should not cut off all the 
tassels in every other row, but rather cut off 
the tassel of every alternate plant in every 
row. Whether the increase in grain would 
pay for the trouble of cutting off the tassels, 
we are not prepared to say, further than that 
we are inclined to think it would, as we stated 
several years ago. 
VEGETABLE CROPS POR GREENHOUSES 
J. S., Caledonia , N. Y .—Can asparagus be 
grown under greenhouse benches? If not, can 
pie-plant be grown there? What is the most 
profitable vegetable crop for a greenhouse 
from September to February 1? After Feb¬ 
ruary 1, I use the greenhouse for celery plants, 
Ans. —Yes, both asparagus and rhubarb can 
be grown under greenhouse benches in winter. 
Properly handled, rhubarb should pay; but it 
is doubtful if asparagus would pay, there is so 
much labor in connection with it. Radishes 
and lettuces are considered the most profita¬ 
ble crops to grow in greenhouses in winter, 
but the ordinary greenhouses in which pot 
plants are grown are ill adapted for this 
work. 
CHOICE EVERGREENS. 
J. B. C., Grand Ledge, Mich .—I want 
three evergreen trees in front of my house, 
between it and the road, and three others 
back of the house where the ground is higher; 
which are the best? 
Ans.— For the front we suggest one Alcock’s 
Spruce, one Blue Spruce and one Hemlock 
Spruce. For the others, if you have space, 
plant one White Pine (Pinus strobus) to be 
cut back after it has grown five years; one 
Tiger Tail Spruce (Abies polita) and one Nor¬ 
way, as this last seems to thrive wonderfully 
well in your State. 
Miscellaneous. 
C.A ,Davenport, W.T .—1 What is a remedy 
for ringbone of two yearsstanding? 2 What 
ails my cattle, and how should they be treat¬ 
ed? The patient becomes violently itchy, 
rubbing the hair off in places. The bare spots 
soon become blue and sometimes swollen. 
The sufferer jerks and twitches, and generally 
falls down within 24 hours from the begin¬ 
ning of the attack, having red eyes and an im¬ 
paired circulation of the blood. 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
1. Unless the animal is lame from the ring¬ 
bone, we would advise you not to disturb it. 
But if lame,the lameness may perhaps be par¬ 
tially or entirely relieved by firing with the 
hot iron. The next best treatment is repeated 
powerful blisters. 2. The very brief symptoms 
given would rather indicate anthrax. In an 
outbreak so rapidly fatal medicinal treatment 
would be of little or no use. Relief is to be 
sought mainly in prevention. The surround¬ 
ing conditions are not given, so that we can¬ 
not recommend special preventive measures. 
N. E. B., Hillsboro, Ohio. —1. I want to 
make a circular geranium bed. I want scarlet 
in the center; then a row of white; then scar¬ 
let; then pink and white alternately. What 
kinds are best for the purpose? Of course, I 
want the center plants to be the highest. 2. 
Do double petunias give good satisfaction? 
Are they to be relied on coming true from 
seed or plant? 
Ans.— Center, scarlet—Queen of the West; 
next row, white—Queen of the Belgians; next, 
scarlet—Walter Scott, next row, white— 
Snowball, and pink—Mary Hill. 2. Double- 
flowered petunias are capital pot plants, and 
till midsummer, excellent out-door plants; but 
towards late summer they often fail. From 
15 to 50 per cent of the seedlings may come 
double; but no one should reasonably look for 
more than one third to come double. 
.7. H., West Granby, Conn .—How high can 
water be raised in a three-inch pipe under a 
natural head of 300 feet or over. If I take in¬ 
to an inch pipe a stream from a spring 40 feet 
higher, will the water in the pipe rise to the 
level of that in the spring? 
Ans. —It depeuds upon the size of the pipe, 
as in a small pipe the adhesion of the water to 
the pipe, which should be added to the fric¬ 
tion, will overcome some of the pressure of the 
water. If the pipe is three or four inches in 
diameter, the water will rise to the level of 
the spring. In an inch pipe it would not 
quite reach the same level, the difference de¬ 
pending upon the kind of pipe used. A pipe 
quite smooth inside would cause less friction 
than a rough one. 
J. S. C., Harmersville, N. J .—I have a box 
filled with sand and wood-pile dirt in which 
last fall were placed rose cuttings, and glass 
was placed over all. The box was sunk in the 
ground nearly to the top and ample provision 
was made for drainage. The cuttings are 
alive but are too close to thrive. Would it 
be advisable to remove and set them in good 
garden soil ? If so, when ? Ought they still 
to have glass over them if removed ? 
Ans.—We presume you refer to hardy re¬ 
montant roses. You don’t tell us enough about 
them to enable us to give you a satisfactory 
answer. You may lift out the cuttings and 
replant them at once into other boxes filled 
with sandy earth ; or wait till April, then 
transplant them thickly in rows out-of-doors 
in a sheltered and slightly shaded spot. They 
are better off in a cold-frame, under glass, 
than exposed. 
u Uber ,” Falls Church, Va .—I have been 
using successfully a fertilizer composed of 
equal parts of pure ground bone, ammoniated 
dissolved bone, and sulphate of potash. What 
shall I add to this to improve it. I would 
like to use three sacks (600 pounds) of each of 
above named, and add one bag (200 pounds) of 
whatever will render it more nearly a com- 
ple e fertilizer. For potatoes, grapes and or¬ 
chards I have generally used a larger propor¬ 
tion of sulphate of potash (kainit). 
Ans. —It depends entirely upon what the 
“ammoniated dissolved bone” is and how 
much nitrogen it contains. The dissolved 
bone is a good addition to the raw bone, but 
we should prefer to buy the ammonia in blood, 
nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia. 
J. C. S., Camden,N. J.—l. Is there any dif¬ 
ference between Black and Yellow Locusts? 
Which is the best to plant for timber? Which 
will grow fastest—the Black or Yellow Lo¬ 
cust, or the Catalpa speciosa? 2. I have two 
little cherry trees which bear long-shaped 
cherries. They seem to be more productive 
than the Richmond and Dyehouse. I have 
lost the name—what is it? 
Ans. —1. The Yellow Locust and Black Lo¬ 
cust are really one and the same. There are 
variations in the color of the heart-wood, 
which has led to the names White, Red, Yel¬ 
low and Black Locust. The locust grows very 
rapidly when young—more so than Catalpa, 
and we prefer it for wood post timber. 2. 
The oblong cherry is probably Reine Hortense. 
C. It. S., Bergen Co., N. J .—The fact that 
the Acme Harrow will be sent on trial to any 
responsible farmer in the country is good 
proof of the excellence of the implement. 
DISCUSSION. 
VALUE OF PURE-BREDS AND HIGH GRADES FOR 
THE SHAMBLES AND THE DAIRY. 
L. T. H., Herkimer Co., N. Y.—In the 
Rural of February 18, a quotation from the 
Breeder’s Gazette says, “It is a mistake to 
suppose that the grades as a rule, will ever 
surpass for any purpose the breeds to which 
they owe their improvement,” and again,they 
“generally fall somewhat below the standard 
of the pure-breds.” Is this true of cattle? 
Of course, for the purpose of improving na¬ 
tive stock or low grades by breeding no grade 
stock can, as a rule, equal pure-breds; though, 
for myself, I would sooner use for that pur¬ 
pose a high-grade bull of fine proportions and 
pedigree than a pure-bred beast of the 
wretched form and undistinguished ancestry 
which some of the pure-breds possess. But for 
the shambles and the dairy for the ordinary 
farmer does a pure-bred really surpass a high- 
grade? The test of the butcher’s block iof 
beef at the fat stock shows is of recent intro¬ 
duction, but have not grade beasts borne off 
a fair proportion of the honors in every con¬ 
test in comparison with pure-breds, cross-breds 
being for the moment not taken into account? 
Then again, does pure-bred beef fetch a higher 
figure in any of our markets than high-grade 
beef? The butchers to whom I have put this 
question say that if the beasts are equally well 
fed and cared for one kind of beef will sell as 
well as the other, and few, if any, would be 
able to distinguish any difference between 
them. For the dairy will an average pure¬ 
bred Ayrshire, Jersey or Holstein give more 
milk than an average high-grade of those 
breeds? And, if so, are there not counterbal¬ 
ancing disadvantages? L. S. Hardin is, I 
should judge from his writings,a hard-headed 
practical man, without much enthusiasm, but 
with a good fund of common sense; yet I see 
that in a late Rural he deliberately gives 
it as his opinion that the best cow for the 
creamery, and therefore for the ordinary 
dairy, is a strong, robust Jersey or Guernsey 
grade with not more than one-half pure blood. 
Again, at the meeting of the N. J. State 
Board of Agriculture, the other day at Tren¬ 
ton, the Hon. Edward Burnett, of Mass., 
one of the best dairy authorities in the coun¬ 
try, said that with a pure-bred male parent, 
the very best dairy herds can be produced 
from high grades or the best selected natives. 
My own experience, like that of most farmers, 
has not been extensive enough with grades and 
pure-breds of the different breeds, to enable 
me to speak confidently on the matter. What 
do others say? Doesn’t the generally conceded 
fact that grades are hardier than pure-breds; 
that they are better foragers and rustlers, and 
therefore need less care and less generous feed, 
fit them better than pure-breds for ordinary 
farmers? Are they not better than pure-breds 
on the plains,and is not the amount of mortal¬ 
ity amoDg them less? Of course, it is to the 
interest of regular breeders and also of agri¬ 
cultural papers to crack up pure-breds; for it 
is out of them that both make most money, 
the one by selling, the other by advertising 
them. Then again, who has seen the milk or 
butter records of grades any more than those 
of natives blazoned abroad in catalogues, cir¬ 
culars and agricultural papers? Yet I ven¬ 
ture to say that there are thousands of such 
records which justly give as much satisfaction 
to the owners of the animals as is given by an 
equal number of pure-bred records. In spite, 
therefore, of the Breeder’s Gazette I believe 
that for several purposes, good grades and 
especially high grades are not a whit inferior 
to pure-breds and may be a trifle superior. So 
far as simple “authority” is concerned “Stock 
Breeding” by Manly Miles, is at least as good 
as the Gazette, and on page 211, it says that 
when native cattle are crossed with the best 
meat-producing breeds, the progeny “are at 
once improved in those qualities in which they 
were before deficient, while in the quality of 
their flesh they may be equal, if not superior, 
to the more highly-bred animals of pure 
breeds. In pure breeds in which the fattening 
qualities have been developed, an excessive ac¬ 
tivity of the formation of fat may be readily 
induced, in connection with a deficiency in 
lean that diminishes the real value of the ani¬ 
mal when it reaches its final destination at the 
block. The value of such animals consists in 
their ability to transmit to their offspring 
their general form with the tendency to ma¬ 
ture early and fatten rapidly. When such 
animals are crossed upon natives or grades of 
inferior quality, it is not surprising to see in 
their offspring a quality of flesh that in its 
proportions of lean and fat is superior to that 
of either parent.” In this matter “Stock 
Breeding” certainly does not agree with the 
Brteder’s Gazette, and “Stock Breeding” can 
not have been influenced at all by any consid¬ 
eration for advertising patronage. 
FLIMSY OBJECTIONS TO DEHORNING. 
L. T. M., Geneva, N. Y.— In the Rural of 
February 25, page 127, Messrs. Hoard and 
Boyd are quoted as being emphatically against 
the dehorning of dairy cattle, on the ground 
that dehorning, they think, tends to develop 
the lymphatic temperament—“just what is 
needed in a fattening animal, but highly in¬ 
jurious to those that produce butter.” It is 
said that dehorning may be good for beef cat¬ 
tle; but not for butter cattle. They put forth 
as a strong objection to the practice the 
alleged fact that no specific butter breed 
exists among polled breeds of cattle, nor are 
there any fine-wool breeds of sheep, we are 
told, without horns. Again, in the issue of 
March 3, page 148, the Editor of Hoard’s 
Dairyman is quoted as cautioning the public 
against the “dangerous craze” of dehorning; 
and, like the other objectors, he charges far¬ 
mers with ignorance of the physiological 
effects of the practice. As a strong objection 
to the dehorning of dairy cattle, the Editor 
tells us that Professor Baird found that if a 
male deer was castrated while the horns were 
on they were never shed, and if castrated 
while the horns were off they would never 
grow. Now, aren’t these objections the 
loosest kind of twaddle? The only basis they 
have is a theoretical one, while the question 
to which they relate is altogether a practical 
one. They are founded exclusively on the 
supposition that the absence of horns has an 
injurious effect on the presence of butter; 
that a hornless bull is less likely to beget a 
good butter cow than a horned one; and that 
a hornless cow is likely to yield less butter 
than one with horns. 
Why start a theory with regard to the 
matter when we have before us the lessons 
from every-day practice? Since a time to 
which the memory of man runneth not back 
there have beeninuleys or hornless bulls and 
cows. Has it ever been noticed that these 
cows or the female offsprings of the bulls were 
inferior as butter cows to other cows of the 
same race? Isn’t it a fact that muleys have 
generally been considered among the best in 
each herd? Dehorning, too, has been in 
