288 
APRIL 7 
Columbia Chilled Plow. — Circulars 
from the Columbia Plow Works, Co- 
pake Iron Works, Columbia County, N. 
Y. These plows are described as the 
strongest, lightest draft, easiest handled and 
longest wearing. To prove these statements 
records of various plowing matches are giv¬ 
en, with the most favorable results for the 
Columbia. An excellent testimonial is print¬ 
ed from T. S. Gold, of Connecticut. Those 
who send for these circulars will learn some¬ 
thing about plows. 
The Mapes Formula and Peruvian 
Guano Co., 158 Front St., N. Y.— A treatise, 
circular and catalogue of the fertilizers made 
by this pioneer firm in the fertilizer business. 
Every one of our readers who is interested in 
fertilizers will read this compilation of what 
has been and what may be done with fertilizers 
with interest and profit. It will be seen by 
reference to the pamphlet that their fertiliz¬ 
ers are put up to meet the wants of any con¬ 
ceivable case, whether more or less ammonia, 
phosphoric acid or potash is desired. 
For example, one brand contain^ nearly 
eight per cent, of ammonia, five of 
phosphoric acid and 10 of potash, while 
another contains three per cent, of ammonia, 
14 per cent, of phosphoric acid and three per 
cent, of potash, and so on through a wide range. 
This range enables any one to select a “com¬ 
plete” fertilizer which shall have more or less 
of any one constituent of plant food that may 
be thought best adapted to the needs of a giv¬ 
en soil or plant. 
L. B. Darling Fertilizer Co.,Pawtucket, 
R. I,—A treatise and pamphlet setting forth 
the merits of the fertilizers made by this firm. 
Analyses show that the goods of this firm are 
as represented. The different constituents of 
fertilizers are offered separately. The circu¬ 
lar should be examined. 
Cattr. 
Carpet and Ornamental Flower Bed 
Designs.— A specimen of this book is sent by 
the publishers, Geo. A. Solly & Son, Spring- 
field, Mass. This is a unique publication that 
will be found invaluable to those who seek to 
ornament their grounds by means of walks 
and flower beds. The plans are printed in 
colors and the plants needed to carry out the 
design are named on the same page. This 
simplifies the matter so that the dullest gar¬ 
dener can “follow copy” and complete the 
bed. There are 92 of these designs all made 
in excellent taste. The book retails at $3. 
The Young Idea is the name of a very 
bright little youth’s paper published in Boston 
by three young women who,as we understand, 
do the entire mechanical work of the paper. 
It is certainly one of the best papers of its 
class, bright, clean and wholesome. Too many 
of the modern child’s papers are good for 
nothing. They seem designed for little old 
men and women, not for children. This pa¬ 
per is better. It ought to be able to do good, 
Proceedings of the Michigan Forestry 
Convention. —This pamphlet is sent out as 
Bulletin No. 32 of the Michigan Agricultural 
College. It contains the papers read at the 
meeting at Grand Rapids last January. This 
is an excellent pamphlet with a surprising 
amount of practical information contained in 
it. “How to Preserve the Farm Wood Lob,” 
“Windbreaks for the Fruit Grower,” “Forest 
Fires,” “The Sugar Maple in its Relation to 
the Forestry Question” are a few of the sub- 
j ects discussed. 
The Prairie Farmer, of Chicago, Ill.,will 
issue a special Arbor Day Number early in 
April. It will be filled with articles from the 
pens of the most successful tree growers in a 
large number of States, who will answer the 
question “Arbor Day in your State. What to 
Plant, and How to Plant?” We are glad to see 
that our contemporaries are waking up to the 
fact that such special numbers are appreciat¬ 
ed by country people. 
Report of the Michigan Horticultural So¬ 
ciety for 1887—585 pages, Charles W. Garfield, 
Grand Rapids, Secretary.—This valuable 
work should be in the hands of every resident 
of Michigan and of every one interested in that 
enterprising State. T. T. Lyon contributes a 
very carefully prepared essay embodying the 
prominent features connected with the rapid 
development of the horticultural interests of 
Michigan in the half century ending in 1886. 
A. Blanc & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.—A pret 
tily illustrated treatise on cacti with a cata¬ 
logue of varieties and lists of “cheap collec¬ 
tions.” We have here a list of the finest 
collection of the cactus family in America, 
and the illustrations will help all in making 
their selections. Over 500 named varieties 
are offered by Mr. Blanc. “Hints on Cacti,” 
“General Culture,” “Cacti for Rockeries and 
Carpet Bedding,” “The Best Bloomers,” 
“Propagation” and “Description of Varieties” 
are among the topics fully treated. It is a 
very interesting little book and our readers 
will do well to send for it. 
“Every Man is presumed to know the Law; 
Nine-tenths of all Litigation arises from Ig¬ 
norance of Law." 
AN ADOPTED CHILD AS HEIR, ETC. 
L. L. L., Bradford, N. Y.— 1. A widow 
dies intestate, leaving real and personal pro¬ 
perty, one son and an adopted daughter; to 
whom does the property belong? 2. Should 
the son die unmarried, to whom will the pro¬ 
perty descend—his adopted sister or relations 
on his father’s side? 3. Should the son marry 
and his wife die without issue, before he does, 
to whom will the property descend? 4. In the 
case of the death of either husband or wife 
without a will or issue, to whom will the pro¬ 
perty descend? 
Ans.— 1. An adopted daughter has no inter¬ 
est whatever in the estate of an intestate per¬ 
son who has acted the part of a mother unless 
the latter has bound herself legally to recog¬ 
nize the girl as an heir. The son, therefore, 
inherits the whole property. 2. The adopted 
sister has no claim on the “brother’s” property. 
If he dies intestate the property will go to his 
legal heirs, without reference to her. 3. If 
the son marries, and is left a childless widower, 
he stands in the same light as if he had never 
married. 4. If the marriage has been with¬ 
out issue, if the wife dies intestate before her 
husband, her real estate goes to her lawful 
heirs, he having no interest in it, although if 
she had borne him a child he would have a life 
use of it. Her personal property will become 
his altogether, and if she had no descendants, 
he may administer on it, without accounting 
to any one. If he dies intestate his widow has 
her dower interest in his real estate. As to 
the personal property, there being no descend¬ 
ants, she will certainly inherit half of it, and 
if he has left no parent, or brother or sister, 
nephew or niece, she will get the other half. 
All that is said here relates to the laws of New 
York State. 
L. T. M., Auburn, N. Y.— 1. If I buy real 
estate and take a contract for a deed, said 
contract stipulating that a deed is to be issued 
upon the fulfillment of certain stipulations on 
my part in the future, is such a contract a 
lien upon the title or property in this and 
other States whether said contract be recorded 
or not? 2. Would such a contract be a mat¬ 
ter of record in any State office of record* 
Ans.—F rom the date of entrance into a 
valid contract for the conveyance of land, the 
estate rests, in equity, in the vendee or per¬ 
son to whom the sale is made, and the vendor 
retains the legal title as a lien for the unpaid 
purchase money. The vendor holds the land 
upon trust to convey it to the vendee upon 
the terms and conditions of the contract of 
sale. Meanwhile the purchaser is a trustee of 
the purchase money for the vendor. 2. Such 
a contract, when properly acknowledged, 
may be recorded in most of the States, prob¬ 
ably in all, certainly in New York. It is not 
a lien against an innocent purchaser or a 
creditor unless it is recorded. 
L. T. New York City. —On what basis of 
value is real estate taxed in New York City? 
Ans.—T he legal basis of assessment is as 
follows: “All real and personal estate liable 
to taxation shall be estimated and assessed by 
the assessors at its full and true value, as they 
would appraise the same in payment of a just 
debt due from a solvent debtor.” As a matter of 
fact, however, real estate is not assessed at its 
full-value. The old theory was that it should 
be valued at what it would be certain to bring 
if sold by auction under execution for debt; 
but there is very little real estate put on the list 
as high as even that rule would require. The 
assessment is unequal, some property being 
assessed much nearer its real value than other. 
Both favoritism and want of judgment are 
responsible for this inequality. 
L. T., Medina, N. Y.— Are riparian rights 
defined by State or National law? 
Ans.— Riparian rights are defined by the 
statutes of the various States, and in the ab¬ 
sence of such by the common law. The 
United States Government has nothing to do 
with the matter. The power to prescribe such 
rules being part of the law concerning real 
property, belongs exclusively to the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the several States. 
A. T. L., Springfield, Mass— A residing 
in Massachusetts, contracts a debt with B re¬ 
siding in the same State. A removes to New 
York without paying the debt. What length 
of time outlaws the debt? 
Ans. —A is protected by the statute of lim¬ 
itations against any suit brought against him 
here after the lapse of six years; but if he vis¬ 
its Massachusetts he can be sued there at any 
time. 
M. W. T., West Leyden, N. Y.— Have In¬ 
dians any right to go into my woods and cut 
timber without my permission? 
Ans.—N o. 
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. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.! 
TESTING COWS FOR BUTTER. 
L. W. W., Morris, Conn. —Considerable 
was said in a-late Rural about testing cows 
for butter. What is the best way in which a 
farmer can do that? What is the oil test for 
milk or cream mentioned in one of the late 
papers? 
Ans.—I t is quite important that a farmer 
should know whether or not his cows are pay¬ 
ing him and which his best cows are. Surely 
if he wishes to improve his herd such know- 
edge will be useful to him. We know by ex¬ 
perience that an accurately conducted testing 
of any herd will give some surprising results. 
Exact figures will often show that a cow 
ranking as one of the best is a humbug in 
actual performance. A light pair of scales 
is placed in the barn near the cows. The 
weight of each milking-pail is plainly marked 
upon it. When the cow is milked the pail and 
contents are weighed and the weight of the 
pail is subtracted from the weight indicated on 
the scales. This difference indicates the 
weight of milk from that cow and is entered 
to her credit in a book. It may be put on a 
convenient slate and copied into the book. In 
this way the milk record of each cow for a 
week, month or year, can be easily computed. 
To test the quality of the milk, the little cream 
testers offered as a premium by the Rural 
are good. The milk is placed in long glass 
tubes so that the amount of cream produced 
from each specimen can be easily seen. The 
mark on the tube indicate the amount of 
cream in a given specimen of milk so that an 
exact comparison can be made. 2. The oil 
test consists of the actual churniug of a small 
quantity of milk. The milk is placed in a 
glass tube and shaken about until the butter 
is formed. It is supposed that the proportion 
of milk to butter in this sample will hold 
good with any amount of milk from the same 
cow as that from which the sample was taken. 
With figures as to the amount of milk given 
by a cow and the proportion of butter in it 
the farmer can soon tell which cows to breed 
from. A simple tester and oil-test churn is 
sold at $2—or our friend can get it as a pre¬ 
mium for one new subscriber to the Rural, 
blueberries; dwarf amelanchier, etc. 
L. H., Louisville, Ky.—l. Where can I get 
blueberry plants? 2. What does the Rural 
know about the California Mellon Pear? 3. 
What is the character of the Dwarf Amelan¬ 
chier? 3. Any Rural seeds this year? 
Ans.— 1. There are are several blueberries. 
The Low Blueberry (Vaccinium vacillaDs) 
may be fouud in dry woodlands of parts of 
your State. The Common Blueberry (V 
corymbosum) is common almost everywhere 
in low thickets or swamps. V. Pennsylvani- 
cum, the Dwarf Blueberry, is found on dry 
hills and woods, and is quite common in Penn¬ 
sylvania and northward. We are not aware 
that plants of any of the blueberries are of- 
|.fered by nurserymen. They do not thrive 
well under cultivation, and are hard to trans¬ 
plant. 2. Please state who offers it, and give 
its full name. 3. The Dwarf Amelanchier is 
a shrub that bears lots of berries the size of 
big whortleberries. They are sweetish and in¬ 
sipid. The birds are extremely fond of them 
and will save one the trouble of picking them. 
The objection to the shrub is that it suckers 
terribly. The flowers are rather small, and 
of short duration. We do not regard the 
Shad-bush, or Wild Service, as very desira¬ 
ble. Its varietal name is Alnifolia. These 
plants may be found in about all the woods of 
the country. 3. The R. N.-Y. No. 2 potato will 
be the next thing we shall send out. 
insects on a plum tree. 
H. S. C., Gaines, Pa.— 1. About last July 
25, I found three large worms on a young 
plum tree that I had set out in the spring. 
They were 2% inches long, pale green in color, 
darker color on the belly, with six rows of 
horns, 12 in each row. The horns were split 
into four or five points; the two rows on the 
back were yellow except the four horns on the 
head, which were a bright pink. The rest of 
the horns were a light blue. 2. The same tree 
had three or four clusters of a small, brown 
worm about three-eighths of an inch long, and 
there were 10 or 15 in a cluster. Can the 
Rural tell me what they were and whether 
they were enemies of the plum or other fru it 
trees. 
Ans.— 1. The large, ugly-appearing, but 
very harmless worms with most beautiful 
and delicate coloring were the young of our 
largest species of N. A. moths. The moths 
span from five to seven inches with their 
wings spread]and fly only at night. The large, 
brown cocoons found in almost any orchard 
are made by these worms, and the moths 
make their way out of them late in May. 2. 
This insect is a common enemy to the apple, 
plum, pear, and many other trees, but is 
seldom very destructive. The worms are so 
large as to be easily seen, and the remedy is 
hand-picking. The other worms were prob¬ 
ably the young of the Yellow-necked Cater¬ 
pillar, Datana ministra, the remedy for 
which is to cut and burn the infested twigs. 
CELERY CULTURE. 
J. C., Benton Harbor, Mich. —Will the Ru¬ 
ral give me some reliable information on cel¬ 
ery culture? 
Ans.— You are not likely to make the soil 
too rich for celery. Well rotted farm man¬ 
ure is best,supplemented with some high-grade 
complete fertilizer. Such a soil is excellent 
except that during dry weather the plants 
must be watered. A check to the plants is 
fatal to the best growth. The seeds may be 
sown in drills a foot or a little less apart. 
Barely cover them with soil and lay planks 
over the drills raised just a little above them. 
This will preserve moisture until germination 
takes place when the planks should be remov¬ 
ed. The young plants may be thinned out 
and the tops of those remaining may be cut 
off in part so as to render them stocky. Plant 
these in rows three to four feet apart in early 
July and about six inches apart in the row. 
We prefer trenches about six inches deep to 
planting on the surface as many advocate. 
It is well to work in fine manure with the 
soil of the bottom of the trench and to use 
weak manure water when watering is neces¬ 
sary. We assume that our questioner needs 
no instructions as to filling the trench with 
the soil taken out, or in the matter of hilling 
and blanching. 
SWELLING OF HORSE’S HIND LEO. 
A. G. W., Atkins' Tank, Va. —The middle 
joint of the left hind leg of my mare is badly 
swollen. The swelling began two days ago 
and the leg is now twice the normal size. The 
swollen parts are very sore and the swelling is 
moving up. The mare is with foal and is 
comparatively young. She eats very little 
and cannot bear any weight on the affected 
limb. What should be the treatment? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
The joint has apparently sustained a severe 
injury, either a strain, sprain or blow; al¬ 
though the swelling may be largely constitu¬ 
tional. Being with foal, active treatment must 
be avoided. Bathe the swollen limb several 
times daily with water as hot as the hand can 
bear and rub dry after each bathing. Take 
pulverized nitrate of potash two parts and 
chlorate of potash one part, mix, and give one 
tablespoonful night and morning on the feed. 
If there is constipation give frequent warm 
water injections until relieved, using only two 
to three quarts at a time and inject slowly to 
have the injection retained to be most effect¬ 
ual. If serious general symptoms occur indi¬ 
cating something more than local trouble, a 
competent veterinarian should be called at 
once. 
CASTRATING A FULL-GROWN RAM. 
J. E. J., Ont., Can. —How should a full- 
grown ram be castrated? 
Ans. —It is more difficult to castrate a full- 
grown ram than any other animal. But it 
can be done safely by observing these rules: 
Make the cut in the scrotum long and down to 
the bottom, and scrape the cords and arteries 
apart and don’t cut them. The first permits 
the escape of the puss which flows from the 
wound in the course of healing, and if this is 
retained death is certain; a plug of lint or a 
piece of tape may be left in the cut, emerging 
from the bottom, to facilitate this escape, if it 
is necessary, but is rarely needed. The sec¬ 
ond avoids bleeding to excess; some bleeding 
is desirable; if the hemorrhage is excessive, 
get some cobwebs and lay them in the wound; 
but the scraping of the vessels is almost al¬ 
ways effective against excessive bleeding. 
A BOGUS APPLE-TREE BORER REMEDY. 
T. S. J., Cuba, Mo. —Inclosed find circular 
containing directions and remedy for the. pro¬ 
tection of apple trees from borers. The “tree 
agent” says that the worms or borers come up 
out of the ground and lay their eggs or bore 
When Baoy was sick, we gave her Castoria, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
W T hen she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
When she had Children, she gave them Castoria. 
