2U 
simple. When deciduous trees and shrubs 
are dug up, (or, as our English cousins say, 
“lifted,”) with proper skill and care, and as 
carefully labeled, each variety should be com¬ 
pactly tied together in a bundle, (if the order 
is a small one), and these bundles aggregated 
into one. Then damp sphagnum moss is to 
be liberally placed around and as much as 
possible between the roots, which are then to 
be drawn firmly together, fastened, and 
neatly bagged. These small orders, going 
only a short distance by rail, are sufficiently 
protected by covering the bodies and limbs 
(first drawn together and secured by tying) 
with straight rye straw, carefully fastened 
with cord of a suitable size. This bundle, 
when tagged, is then ready for shipment. For 
larger quantities and longer distances, the 
bundles of each variety should be well boxed, 
without strawing, but with a liberal envelop 
of moss, thick in proportion to the distance 
the package is to go. Some judgment is 
necessary as to the dampness of the moss, 
which can be learned only by experience. If 
sphagnum only is used, a safe rule would be 
to wet it thoroughly, and then expel all the 
water that can be drawn out by pretty firm 
pressure. Boxes of trees, etc., that are to go 
a long distance should be strong and light: 
and in extreme cases the box ought to be 
lined with stout oiled paper, and not only the 
roots, but the whole box well packed with 
damp moss. In this way 1 have had no 
trouble in getting trees and shrubs to the 
Pacific coast in as perfect condition as a ship¬ 
ment to the nearest town. In car-load ship¬ 
ments, the car itself is the box, in which the 
bundles of trees or shrubs (unless too tall) are 
packed upright, with plenty of moist packing 
about the roots, and sufficient compression 
and bracing to insure immobility during 
transit. 
Evergreens have to be managed differently, 
for if packed closely in bulk, in tight boxes, 
they are sure to heat and be destroyed. If 
small, they may be put up in small bundles, 
with mossed roots, and stood upright in the 
box, which should not be too large and must 
have holes bored near the top on each side for 
ventilation. Such boxes should have strong 
rope handles and be marked “Top up.” Large 
evergreens are pretty risky things to ship 
anyway, and no one ought to order such 
from a distance. 
In regard to growing plants in full leaf, 
most of my experience is as a receiver, rather 
than as a shipper, and the Rural, would do 
better to seek the desired information from 
the expert plautsmen of its own vicinity. I 
often send strawberry plants by mail with 
mossed roots well wrapped in oiled paper and 
outside with strong paper, one end being left 
open. For moderate distances they generally 
arrive in good order. Sweet potato plants 
reach me in the same way. But the latest 
kinks of the florists in this part of the business 
I am modestly inclined to leave to one of that 
fraternity for explanation. 
Orleans Co., Vt. 
fbiiailim'dl. 
PROPAGATING CASE AND TRAYS. 
“PICKET.” 
one shown in the sketch is 18x24 inches. This 
box is made of inch thick stuff, and in it is 
placed a galvanized iron or tin tank 10 inches 
deep, and three inches less in diameter than 
the inside of the box. The one and a half 
inch of space between the tank and the sides 
of the box should be packed with sawdust. 
At one side is a filling tube, as shown in the 
sketch, and a faucet for drawing off the 
water. A few plant trays, four inches deep 
and large enough to closely fit inside the 
upper part of the case over the tank, are 
needed. They should be made of half-inch 
stuff. If desired they may be made one or 
two inches deeper and have a glass cover to 
fit over the top. 
Put about three inches of sand, or fine, 
friable soil in one of these trays, set the cut¬ 
tings in it, fill the tank with hot water, aud 
keep it hot, or quite warm, by drawing off a 
portion daily and replacing with more that is 
boiling. In a few days the plants in the tray 
will be rooted and it can be taken out and 
another filled with cuttings put in its place. 
After the plants in the first tray have harden¬ 
ed off a few days they may be potted, or 
transplanted to the open border. If it is 
desired to root the plants in thumb pots, set 
the pots close together in the tray and pack 
with sand or moss, and they will root quite as 
readily as on the greenhouse bench. 
With a small propagating case like this and 
a few plant trays to match, an immense num¬ 
ber of cuttings can be rooted for the house or 
borders. It is also well adapted to starting 
plants of all kinds from seed, especially those 
of a delicate nature. In starting seeds it is 
best to have a glass cover on the tray, 
arranged so it can be drawn aside a little at a 
time as the plants come up. All seedling 
plants must have abundance of light and air 
to prevent them from becoming drawn, or 
damping off. 
One of the chief difficulties that the amateur 
propagator meets with in rooting cuttings of 
many kinds of plants is a lack of bottom heat. 
Top heat he can get easily enough; but bottom 
heat is the key to success in propagating 
plants by cuttings, as every gardener and 
florist well knows. 
I present at Fig. 79 a. sketch of a “propaga¬ 
ting case” that, judging from my own experi- 
RUMINATION. 
HENRY STEWART. 
where one grew before? Every farmer should 
try the Rural’s trench system as explained 
so clearly on page 150. I shall try it and re¬ 
port success._ 
What manner of men should farmers be af¬ 
ter all the many labor-saving implements now 
in use and with all the time spared for leisure 
and mental culture? The illustration of the 
thrashed corn is a text upon which one might 
think a good deal and write whole columns. 
Is not fhe recital of the case of the tenant’s 
wife forced to board rough, uncouth farm 
hands thrown upon her at a moment’s notice, 
as given by Fred Grundy on page 151, an in¬ 
stance of the dark side of farming which bears 
out all that Mrs. Fisher has said about it. A 
tenant’s wife has as much to do with this mat¬ 
ter as the owner’s wife and her misfortunes 
are clearly a proper subject for thought and 
amelioration. 
Of course, there is a connection between the 
facts of farmer’s institutes retrograding in in¬ 
terest under the attendance of politicians. 
These meetings are for business which inter¬ 
ests all alike, and to make a political circus 
of them where all the hobby bareback riders 
are performing, is to wholly destroy them. 
No politics admitted should be the rule. 
iWistcllnncous. 
Fig. 79. 
ence with it, will meet all the requirements of 
the amateur florist, and enable him to compete 
successfully with the best appointed green¬ 
house in the world in rooting a limited num¬ 
ber of roses and other favorite or high-priced 
plants. It is simply a box 10 inches deep, 
and as long and wide as may be desired. The 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
The “special” features of the Rural are of 
great interest, and undoubtedly exceedingly 
useful. To call to mind specially an impor¬ 
tant subject, and give it undivided attention 
is the very best way of throwing light upon it. 
The use of salt in agriculture is a topic of 
much interest. Salt has been used from time 
immemorial for fertilizing crops, but it is now 
doubtless too much neglected. My own ex¬ 
perience of the value of it has been very fa¬ 
vorable, and I know of one of the most suc¬ 
cessful farmers of New Jersey—not three 
miles from the Rural Farm—who uses a ton 
of it every year, and says it has been one 
cause of his success. “Salt is good.” I have 
found 000 pounds per acre of it on mangels es¬ 
pecially useful. 
I know the main object of pursuit by the 
Rural is “the truth about it;” hence the crit¬ 
icism of the “prominent agricultural teacher” 
in regard to that cartoon is not justified. It 
is well to look at the worst side of a matter to 
view its deformity so that,like vice, it may be 
“a monster of such dreadful mien, that to be 
hated needs only to be seen.” Facts show 
that farmers are the special slaves and prey 
of swindlers, politicians and confidence men. 
If a proof is wanted, there are the Bohemian 
Oats, the “green goods,” the bogus patent 
aud a host of other swindlers, which rake in 
the money of the farmers by tne thousands. 
The Wall Street and other bucket shops even 
gather in as “lambs” a great many intelli¬ 
gent (?) farmers, and take their fleeces. 
Bucephalus Brown very rightly says the 
tariff is a fit subject for discussion in an agri¬ 
cultural paper. But as the wise old Montaigne 
said, one should not write about what he does 
not know. Now we all know that England 
has enjoyed (?) free trade for about 40 years, 
and agriculture there has been going from 
bad to worse until improvement is now de¬ 
spaired of. We all know, too, that in America 
we are enjoying comfortable prosperity; the 
only farmers who are feeling bad are the wool 
growers, and they blame the reduction of the 
tariff on wool for their woes. Knowing these 
facts, and that almost everything purchased 
is now lower than ever before, why should we 
desire the abolition of the tariff? There is a 
well-grounded belief that it is the foreign man¬ 
ufacturers who pay the duty and not the con¬ 
sumer; and if this is true our large surplus 
revenue should be a matter of congratulation, 
for it can be spent in many ways for the good 
of the people. 
If the man who makes two blades of grass 
grow where one grew before is a public bene¬ 
factor, what sort of a benefactor should the 
Rural be, seeing that it grows seven potatoes 
Blessings of the Agricultural Press. 
—What a grand thing such a paper as the 
Rural is to its readers! What a great work 
agricultural papers are doing! How much 
we can learn from one another 1 How foolish 
for men in this age to sneer at book and paper 
farming. This matter has just been forcibly 
brought before me by a letter from a promi¬ 
nent Georgia agriculturist. He says not one 
farmer in 500 in that State reads any agri¬ 
cultural literature. Is it any wonder they 
are so far behind us? The State couldn’t do 
a better thing for its benighted farmers than 
to publish a simple agricultural paper for free 
distribution, gradually working its readers 
up to the ways of the times. They probably 
would take it if it were free, and although it 
would be sneered at at first, good effects 
would be seen in time. I have more faith in 
the agricultural press as a means to rouse up 
our backward farmers than in any other 
power. Granges, institutes and clubs are do¬ 
ing much good; but, after all, the power of 
the press is the great power on account of the 
isolation of farmers. It is the one thing that 
will follow them up right to their homes, and 
keep working at them, “rubbin’ in” good 
agricultural doctrines. And there is some 
good “rubbin’ ” ground in Ohio as well as in 
Georgia. T. B. terry. 
Summit Co., Ohio. 
Fruit-raising, etc., in Southwestern 
Louisiana. —It is but a short time since this 
portion of the country has had any attention 
paid to it. A few years ago there was no cul¬ 
tivation of the soil. The people lived by stock 
raising, feeding their animals on the prairies 
the year round. But within the last three or 
four years thgy have begun to till the soil and 
to plant fruit trees. This year there have been 
set in Calcasieu Parish over 100,000 fruit trees 
with a prospect of five times as many to be set 
another year. We have organized the Calca¬ 
sieu Agricultural, Horticultural aud Stock As¬ 
sociation, and at the last meeting it was decid¬ 
ed to investigate the advisability of establish¬ 
ing a canning factory at this point. The sub¬ 
ject of the dessication and canning of sweet 
potatoes was discussed and referred to a com¬ 
mittee for investigation. This crop bids fair 
to be of immense value to tuis country in the 
near future, for 50 barrels of sweet potatoes 
have been raised per acre on new breaking and 
150 barrels per acre is not an unusual crop in 
land that is well fertilized. m. v. 
Lake Charles, La. 
A Very Productive Farm.— I have the 
pleasure of inclosing an account of the pro¬ 
ducts of the farm referred to by me in the 
Rural of Feb. 11. It can be relied upon as 
being absolutely true. Crops grown during 
1887 upon 54 acres: 19,300 quarts of straw¬ 
berries; 5,812 barrels of early cabbage; 3,880 
bushels of Early Ohio potatoes; 7,000 bushels 
of onions; 2,000 bushels of ears of corn; 450 
bushels of late potatoes; 10,000 bushels of car¬ 
rots; 490 bushels of Brussels sprouts; 100 bush¬ 
els of white beans; 30 pounds of carrot seed; 
75 pounds of onion seed; 4 pounds of Brussels 
sprouts seed; 100 bushels of onion sets; 4 tons 
of Hungarian Grass; 20 barrels of winter ap¬ 
ples; 300,000 cabbage plants for next season’s 
use. From 3% acres of Early Ohio potatoes 
(dug and marketed between July 2 and 
9) there was a yield of 1,245 bushels of 
marketable tubers; aud from five acres grown 
with alternate rows of carrots and onions 
there were gathered 4,000 bushels of onions 
and 4,000 bushels of carrots. e. e. petty. 
Suffolk Co., L. I. 
What the Trench System has Done 
for Me.— Like my neighbors, I had to buy 
seed and a part of our eating potatoes two or 
three out of every five years before I adopted 
the trench system. Though I have not fol¬ 
lowed it in every particular, yet by working 
on it I now raise at the rate of 150 to 400 bush¬ 
els per acre. This is my plan. In late fall 
or early spring I break the ground two or 
three inches deep; then again at planting 
time I break it 10 or 12 inches deep, using a 
sulky plow. I turn furrows three feet apart 
with a shovel plow or go twice in a row* with 
a one-horse plow. I plant two pieces with 
two eyes to a piece 15 to 20 inches apart, cover 
lightly, plow as soon as they appear, throw¬ 
ing dirt toward the potatoes, aiming to cover 
all except two or three vines to a hill. I plow 
every four or five days, brushing the bugs off 
and covering them as I go (have never done 
anything else with the pests) until the vines 
get too large to allow passage-way. I like 
the Rural Blush best, and then the Potentate. 
Liberty, Ind. __ j. l. f. 
One Who Reads to Learn. —The Rural 
is the ideal fanners’ paper—clean type; weekly; 
full of meat; clean; no skim-milk. The 
articles by Professor J. L. Budd on the newer, 
hardy trees, shrubs and vines, are of great 
value here where so many of the other kinds 
are tender. Horticola and William Falconer 
send abroad in their writings much of the 
fragrance and freshness of the flowers they 
tell us about. Their articles are always a 
treat. Give us more of them. 
I have received much benefit from the 
Rural’s experiments with potatoes, grapes 
and berries, and especially from its notes on 
evergreens and other ornamental trees and 
shrubs, aud its warnings £ gainst buying 
worthless new things or old ones with new 
names. K> 
Labetta, Kansas. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[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. But questions on a separate piece of paper. | 
APPLES FOR CENTRAL ILLINOIS: MILLET AND 
SORGHUM. 
J. A., Pittsfield, III..— 1. This spring I want 
to plant about five acres or more in an orchard: 
the orchard to be for the market and not a 
family one. Our old varieties, the Ben Davis, 
aud Willow Twig and the Janet, have gone 
back on us the last two years. Here the North¬ 
ern Spy and the Baldwin drop their fruit in 
the fall before they are ripe and the Jonathan 
is not a good bearer. Will any of the new 
iron-clads do for Central Illinois? How is the 
Wolf River, the Maun, the Lawver? What 
are the best to plant for market in this sec¬ 
tion? 2. Can the German and the Pearl millet be 
sown after the wheat is harvested in time to 
get a crop of hay the same year, aud can they 
be cut so that a second crop will spring up. 
ANSWERED BY B. F. JOHNSON. 
1. I do not accept the now common opinion, 
that we must have new varieties in order to 
get apples in Central Illinois. The old varie¬ 
ties are as good and hardy as they were 40 or 
50 years ago and would stand the climate as 
well, bear as well as ever, were the conditions 
the same. What we need is site and situation 
to suit the changed condition of the country, 
aud not new varieties, which are hardy only 
in the way they will stand more abuse than 
others. It chine out in a fruit discussion at a 
farmers’ institute iu this county, only a few 
days ago, that the advanced horticultural 
opinion was that the best land for corn was 
the best for apples—that is, low, flat, level 
black-soil land, tile-drained. This was the 
giving out of Mr. Henry Dunlap, son of the 
popular “Rural” of 25 years ago, anorchardist 
by birth and inheritance aud of as large an 
acquaintance among Illinois fruit men as any 
of his age aud generation. That the Rural 
inquire.- may not be led astray, Mr. D. was 
consulted in respect to the apples named, and 
in his opinion the Wolf River has not been 
sufficiently tested; the Mann is not hardy; 
and the Lawver is hardy and fruitful, but of 
poor quality. For market he recommended 
Ben Davis top-grafted on hardy stock, Wil¬ 
low Twig, Wealthy and Whitney no. 20. If 
30 years of pretty close observation of or¬ 
chards aud varieties in Central Illinois, make 
my opinion worth anything, the Rural in- 
