3 
AUG. A 
Miscellaneous, 
E. L. B., Groton City, N. Y .—What has 
been the experience of the Rural and its 
readers in regard to the Blush potatoes hav- 
1 ng hollows in them ? Ours were very bad 
the first year in that respect, but have grown 
better each year since. 
A ns. —This is not the first report of this 
kind we have received. Our own Blush pota¬ 
toes are sometimes hollow-hearted. We have 
very good evidence that this defect may be 
bred out by using care never to plant hollow- 
hearted seed. 
J. //. Mult, Canada. —1. From whom did the 
Rural get Red Cap eggs ? 2. What color 
were the chicks when hatched ? 3 What color 
were their legs ? 4. Has every one a rose- 
comb ? 
Ans —1. W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Phila¬ 
delphia, Pa. 2. Yellow, marked with brown 
—the brown marks all the same. 3. Borne, 
thing between a dark yellow and a lead color 
—bluish. 4. No, all but one, which has a 
single comb. 
TP. F., Fulda, Wash. —The grass sent is 
Calamagrostis Canadensis—Blue-joint grass- 
It thrives in low, moist meadow s and in such 
situations is one of the best and most valuable 
of native grasses. Stock relish it both as 
grass and when made into ha}’. 
M. V. B. S., Manhasset .—What will exter¬ 
minate the Buffalo moths ? 
Ans. They can be kept in check only by 
constant vigilance. Py rethrum powder seems 
■ to have no effect upon them. They cannot 
stand grease or oil. Camphor drives them 
off. 
E. T., Red Hook, N. F.—Who breeds and 
has Dorset sheep for sale? 
Ans. —J. S. Woodward, Lockport, N. Y., 
has just returned from England with a large 
flock of these sheep. Valency E. Fuller, Ham¬ 
ilton, Ontario, has bred them for some years. 
Stump Pulling.— I would like to ask if 
any Rural reader has ever used a stump 
puller, and if so, how he works it. How do the 
machines work on green stumps where the 
timber is cut through the winter, to pul] 
stumps the year following? How large a 
stump will they lift and how many horses does 
it take to work them? Which are the best, 
their weight and price? As a rule, do they 
pay? Our land here is level bottom soil with 
no rocks. JOHN w. t. 
Topeka, Kan. 
DISCUSSION. 
MORE ABOUT FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 
S. B H., Crawfordsville, Ind.—O n page 
448 of the Rural of July 7, Mr. Pittman takes 
exceptions to what I said about protection and 
free trade in the Rural of June 10. 
The point to which I called attention was 
that the consumer was made to pay all that 
the traffic would bear; that it made no differ¬ 
ence whether what he bought was dutiable, 
free, or of home or foreign production; arti¬ 
cles that came in free were sold at an advance 
of two or three hundred per cent., as well as 
those that paid a duty. 1 called attention 
to the fact that vast quantities of oil-meal 
were shipped out of the country at less than 
$23 per ton, while the farmer paid from $40 to 
$50 per ton. 
Mr. Pittman says his firm sold hundreds of 
car-loads for feed in this country at $21 per 
ton, but he does not say that it was sold to 
those who fed it, and 1 have an indistinct rec¬ 
ollection that 1 saw oil-meal advertised for 
sale by a combination of oil-mills at $2 per 
hundred. Mr. P. can set me right on this 
point if 1 am mistaken. 
I bought a good deal of bran at $20 per ton, 
and would have been glad to have mixed it 
with oil-meal if it could have been bought 
for but a trifle more per hundred or ton. I 
am glad that Mr. Pittman has made the 
statement he has. I hope it will be a re¬ 
straint on middlemen in charging nearly 100 
per cent, advance on so staple an article as 
oil-meal. Let us not be deluded by the cry 
of free trade oref protection, to take our 
stand with one or the other of the political 
parties, but let us consider what will best pro¬ 
mote the public welfare, just as we would if a 
location of a church or a school-house or the 
location or improvement of a road was the 
question. Free trade has not lessened the 
price of those articles ihat are on the free 
list that I called attention to. Now, let us 
see what free trade has done for us in tea. We 
imported 70 million pounds of it in 1885, at 
something less than 20 cents a pound on the 
average. 
I suppose that if 20 million pounds of the 
highest-priced teas were classified separately, 
the remaining 50 million pound* would aver¬ 
age less than 15 cents per pound as the import 
price, and it is from these lower-priced teas 
that farmers and laborers are mainly supplied 
at an advance of two hundred per cent or 
double their original cost. 
If all the duty that was imposed on tea dur¬ 
ing the war was reimposed, it could be sold at 
a profit at less than it is now sold at generally, 
I could add still more in this line of thought 
but my communicaticn would become too long- 
But I do not wish to be understood that I am 
for protection under any and all circum 
stances. I have no faith in the plea that pro¬ 
tection is intended to keep up the price of 
wages of the American laborer; it is only 
changing the pha. First it was to protectour 
infant industries, but that plea has become 
obsolete, as it doesn’t sound wi II to apply it to 
a person eighty or a hundred years old. The 
question wnh me is, would we, or would we 
not, do more injury to the country by adopt¬ 
ing the Mills schedule than by rejecting it? 
DEEP OR SHALLOW CREAM SETTING. 
C. S. H., Holabird, Dakota. —Thereseems 
to be a clashing of ideas among the authorities 
who write on the subject of “ Deep or Shal¬ 
low Setting for Cream,” in the issue of July 
7th. L. S. Hardm says ‘ ‘ cream cannot be se 
cured frem open pons below 60 degrees;” also, 
that “cream globules will not pass through 
the milk at any depth between 50 and 60 de. 
grees while H< nry E. Alvord declares that 
“ the temperature of the room, air and milk 
should be very ever, not outside the range of 
50 to 60 degrees.” Here is a radical difference. 
According to Mr. Hardin the temperature in 
the dairy house of Mr. Lewis, as described by 
T. D. Curtis, must have been above 60 degrees 
in order to get [any cream, yet I should judge, 
from the description of it, that the tempera¬ 
ture was below that point. Will Mr. Curtis 
please tell us at what temperature the interior 
of this dairy house was kept ? 
As regards dehorning cattle, I know that 
many fanners feel as I do about it. I believe 
in dehorning beef cattle, but am not so sure 
about dehorning the dairy herd and bull. I 
would like to have some reliable person who 
has had an experience of several years answer 
these questions of Mr. Crosby,—“Do the 
heifers from a dehorned bull show the same 
nervous organization, and when in milk have 
they as good a butter record ?” and “Do the 
cows show a disposition to convert more food 
into fat and less into butter ?” Mr. Crosby 
says, “ I have read the testimony of a good 
many who have tried dehorning with the re¬ 
sult of a falling off in the miik and butter 
yield.” Now I have read of persons who de, 
dared that with them dehorning bad resulted 
in an actual increase of the milk and butter 
yield, and in view of these facts I think there 
should be a thorough investigation of the sub¬ 
ject of dehorning as it affects the dairy. 
Will Henry Stewart please tell us what tem¬ 
perature he maintains when setting milk in 
shallow pans, also what is the best tempera¬ 
ture for the water when milk is submerged in 
deep cans ? 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Brighton, Ont., July 16.—We are having 
the driest time this section has ever seen- 
We have not had one good rain since last fall* 
The barley harvest is at hand—a quarter of a 
crop. Fall wheat will be about half a crop. 
Early sown oats will be long enough to har¬ 
vest; but farmers are turning their stock on 
late sown to keep them alive, as pastures have 
dried up so that what grass is left will crack 
under one’s feet as if fire had run over it. Hay 
will not average half a ton per acre, and 
hundreds of meadows are not worth cutting. 
Hay at present is worth $20 per ton, and lots of 
sale for it. The weather still continues hot and 
very smoky, and the sun settles to rest as red as 
blood. Potatoes will be hardly worth digging 
unless it rains very soon. I am trying the 
Rural’s trench system on half my lot, and 
1 find that the ground is more moist and that 
the tubers are larger than in the other half 
that is hilled up. From this time forward my 
potatoes will be planted in trenches with no 
hilling up. Many thanks to the R. N.-Y. 
H. T. L. 
Kansas. 
Parsons, Labette Co., July 19.—Now I 
report that the corn crop in Southeastern 
Kansas is assuredly the best crop ever raised. 
It is so far made that the moisture in the 
ground and in the stalk places the crop be¬ 
yond any probable injurious contingency. 
The farmer has nothing to fear but low 
prices. Hay, millet, potatoes, fruits and 
vegetables are on a big scale. Fin 3 oats are 
selling as low as 13 cents at the depot, an 1 
splen lid apples fire going back to the country t 
not being salable at 25 cts. per bushel. We 
hear flattering accounts from the north¬ 
ern and western portions of the State, but for 
our own portion we see no reason to fear 
realizing the most astounding reports of the 
corn crop, for the acreage is 1 his season much 
increased. We owe this condition of things 
to timely and sufficient rains, as our failures 
occur from their scarcity. J. B. 
Maine. 
Warren, Knox Co., July 18. —Haying here 
is proceeding slowly on account of dull and 
showery weather. The crop w ill be very light 
except on the best new fields. We have had 
no very warm days this month, and but one 
or two this season. F. w. H. 
Cutting Corn Fodder by Machinery.— 
Two years ago a correspondent of Farm and 
Home cut his corn with grass scythes and corn 
hooks and found a large bill to pay. Things 
went slowly, and he decided that another year 
he would curtail expenses and the time in 
gathering. Accordingly, last year, after he 
sowed the corn broadcast, he picked the stones 
and rolled the ground, thinking he would try 
to use a Champion Mower in cutting. He 
had some doubt as to the strength of the ma¬ 
chine. but it had served him well for six years, 
and he determined to put it to the test. He 
began where the corn was small and gradually 
drove into deep w r ater. The result was he cut 
two acres of heavy corn without any break 
or mishap. Some of the corn was 12 feet high 
and inch through. He ran the cutter 
bar in full length and found no trouble what¬ 
ever. It cuts more easily than heavy Timothy 
or clover. With him the question is solved, 
and he will do no more hand cutting. 
British Frozen Meat Imports.— How 
firmly the trade in frozen meat is now estab¬ 
lished in the United Kingdom, says Brad- 
street’s, may be gathered from the following 
figures, which represent the number of car¬ 
casses of mutton and lamb imported for the 
first quarter of the present and three previous 
years : 
FROM 
1885. 
1886. 
1897. 
18S9. 
Australia. 
2,364 
32.366 
16,192 
New Zealand. 
.... 97,538 
155,974 
128,397 
209,096 
River Plate, etc. 
91,405 
83,548 
25,097 
176,106 
249,743 
244,811 
250,385 
The figures here given from the British Trade 
Journal refer only to the numbers imported 
via London. The bulk of the River Plate 
frozen meat is now directed to Liverpool, and 
how extensive it is “may be inferred from 
the fact that the frozen mutton alone, import¬ 
ed here from the River Plate, during the first 
three months of the present year amounted to 
163,000 carcasses.” 
Russian Grain Elevators.— It looks as if 
Russia were to have a modern system of grain 
elevators at last. An English journal, quoted 
by Bradstreet’s, says : “Thequestion of the 
measures to be taken for raising the price of 
Russian wheat and facilitating its export was 
recently again discussed by the committee 
specially appointed for that purpose by the 
Minister of the Interior. Various experts 
were examined concerning the utility of 
grain elevators, and after many opposing 
views had been expressed, it was finally de¬ 
cided that it would be of great importance to 
erect elevators at all the export ports and on 
various railway lines. Elevators would have 
to be provided for about 600,000,000 kilograms 
of com, and would cost 20,000,000 roubles, 
which amount the State would have to pro¬ 
vide. The committee also recommended that 
a tax of half a copeck per pood should be 
levied on exported coin for the amortization 
of the required capital. The annual corn ex¬ 
port is estimated at a minimum of 300,000,000 
poods, which would therefore yield an annual 
income of 1,500,000 roubles. The proposal of 
the committee is to be submitted to the coun¬ 
cil of the empire in September, and will in all 
probability be adopted, as the most influential 
members of the council have already ex¬ 
pressed themselves in favor of the erection of 
elevators.” 
FULL AS A TICK 
The Farmers’ Review says that the market 
for American lard in Great Britain seems 
likely to follow the course of that of American 
cheese and become lost to u* from the same 
cause, viz. : the adulteration of the article sent. 
When it is found that we have lost our best 
market for some of our leading surplus 
products through dishonest adulterations, it 
may begin to dawn upon the minds of busi¬ 
ness men engaged in their production that 
‘honesty is the best policy. ’. 
Frogs’ legs, as the excellent journal above 
quoted, remarks, have become a staple delic- 
cacy on the bill-of-fare of all our first-class 
hotels and restaurants. The supply has 
hitherto come mainly from parties who made 
a business of frog fishing among the inland 
ponds and marshes. There are no doubt many 
farms on which profitable frog farming might 
be carried on, and that without detriment 
to the other interests of the farm. 
The question of proper exercise for cows, 
says the Mark Lane Express, is one not always 
considered in reference to the chief point to 
be gained—the hygienic results. Every animal 
requires exercise, and much of it, to hold the 
digestion intact. But they want exercise in 
proportion to what is required of them. Rac¬ 
ing men know this perfectly. They have had 
to make this a special study. The horse under 
training must have fast and sometimes ex¬ 
haustive exercise. He becomes a network 
of bone and muscle and sinews that may be 
likened to the strongest combination of wood, 
steel and brass known. 
A WRITER in the N.Y. Tribune thinks that 
perhaps one farmer in a hundred is able to 
keep pure-blood of whatever breed his fancy 
may dictate; and such a farmer is a boon to 
his neighborhood; but the 99 must be content 
with what they have. Their success lies in 
making the best of everything in their hands. 
Let these farmers breed to the best they can 
afford, of course, but let them take as good 
care of their inferior stock as they would of 
thoroughbreds, and mark the result. To the 
good food aDd warm shelter let them add the 
currycomb and brush; exact kindness of their 
hired help, in their care; aDd in a few years 
they will be as proud of their stock as the neigh¬ 
bor of his thoroughbreds,and in most ways, 
they will bring just as good return, without 
that heavy expenditure which the 99 can not 
afford. 
John Gould, in the Weekly Press, speaks of 
the way Theodore Louis, the noted swine 
breeder of Wisconsin, cares for his pigs. In a 
cholera-infested district his hogs are always 
free from the infection, although he raises 
them by the hundreds. The mother sows 
have a variety of food and little corn, with 
warm, clean quarters. In each of the yards, 
in a box sheltered from the storm, can be 
found a mixture of salt, charcoal and copperas, 
to which the hogs have free access at all 
times. Then they have loads of soft sandstone 
where they can get at it and they eat tons 
of it each year. He considers it pays to give 
the hogs an occasional bushel of soft coal. 
Such happy, fat, healthy hogs he has never 
seen elsewhere. This is only another illustra¬ 
tion of this problem of supplying our animals 
with some of the things they crave. He can 
not believe that craving for such things in 
animals is without cause. As long as the 
bodily material of the animal is made up of a 
diversity c f mineral matter, things earthy, it 
is natural that the animal must have 
those things to keep the body complete, and 
we do no violence to nature or harm to the 
general result if we study along these lines, 
and, so far as we are able, supply these wants, 
for they are all cheaply procured and easily 
administered. 
A Virginia correspondent of our interesting 
contemporary, the Weekly Press, says that a 
field of Orchard Grass, which looks much 
heavier than a field of Timothy, will cut 
much less weight of hay,and the pictures we see 
in seed advertisements comparing adjoining 
fields of Orchard Grass and Timothy early in 
June are deceptive only to the inexperienced 
who do not understand that a field in grass in 
its full growth can not be compared with an 
adjoining field which at that time is only half 
grown. Timothy is yet, he says, the great 
American hay grass, and is likely to remain 
such for some time to come. 
A. W. Cheever, who is visiting parts of 
the great West, says, in the N. E. Farmer 
that many who go West are without the means 
of living in every luxurious style anywhere, 
but if the new settler has abundant funds he 
can very soon surround himself with about 
all the luxuries in Dakota or Montana that he 
would enjoy if remaining at the old home. 
The railroad, the expressman and the postal 
service bring the old and the new States very 
near one another. On some farms in Dakota 
which never felt the plow till within a half 
dozen years, he found as good houses and 
barns as any New England farmer would 
ever aspire to.. 
A writer in the Mirror and Farmer says 
that he had a lot of turkeys that seemed to 
give their attention to the potato field. One 
by one the turkeys gradually passed away 
until only one was left. One day it drooped 
and died. As it showed no signs of disease 
tie held an examination over the carcass, when 
