SEPT { 
the attraction and interest. This feature is to 
be repeated this year, and perhaps it will be a 
permanent one. We try to get every resident 
of the county interested in the success of the 
fair and to do all he can to secure it, and then 
we do all we can to get everybody outside the 
county to come to the fair. 
CARBONATE OF LIME IN SORGHUM SUGAR¬ 
MAKING. 
H. C. Hampden Sidney Va. —I see by a 
late Rural that carbonate of lime was used 
last fall to clarify sorghum juice at the 
Kansas sugar factory instead of the crude 
lime formerly employed. At what stage of 
the manufacture was it used ? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. WILEY. 
CHEMIST OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Frequent attempts have been made 
to replace hydrate of lime by the carbonate in 
clarifying sorghum juices. Extensive exper¬ 
iments were made by the Department of Agri¬ 
culture at Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1886, in using 
the carbonate for this purpose; the success 
which attended these experiments, however, 
was very indifferent. Carbonate of lime 
neutralizes only a small portion of the acid 
present in natural cane juice, while the hydrate 
of lime neutralizes all the acids present. The 
experiments to which H. C. alludes had an 
entirely different object. They related to the 
use of carbonate of lime in the diffusion 
battery to prevent inversion of cane sugar 
dui’ing the process of diffusion; they therefore 
have no practical application in such work as 
your correspondent indicates. 
^FEEDING VALUE OF DRY BEAN PODS. 
A. W. S., Americus , Ga. —What is the feed¬ 
ing value for cattle of the dry pods of Lima 
beans after the beaus have been thrashed out ? 
Ans.—D ry bean pods have about the fol¬ 
lowing composition : 
Water. 15 0 per cent. 
Ash. 5.5 “ 
Albuminoids. 10.5 “ 
Fiber. 83 0 
Nitrogen-free extract (starch, gum, etc.) 34.0 “ 
Fat. -.2 0 
100.0 
Ordinary clover hay has a little more albu¬ 
minoids, five per cent, less fiber and five per 
cent, more nitrogen-free extract. But the 
albuminoids of pods are much less digestible. 
Probably the pods would furnish as much nu¬ 
triment as ordinary meadow hay provided 
they are readily eaten and relished by cattle. 
A CELLAR FOR A SILO. 
J. P. P.,Valatie, N.Y. —Can a cellar under 
a barn, with three sides brick and one side 
boards, be used as a silo for green fodder 
corn, and what could it be covered with 
besides earth to prevent heating enough to 
become dangerous ? 
Ans.—T he cellar could be used as a silo as 
it is, though the best authorities now agree 
that it is better to have the sides all of wood. 
It might pay you to put plank around the 
three brick walls. You can make a cover for 
the silo by placing matched plank on top of 
the silage, just fitting into the silo, putting 
tarred paper on this and adding a suitable 
weight. 
Miscellaneous. 
J. J. V., Nanuet , N. Y .—We like the Davis 
swing churn as well as any. 
E. H. C., Boumandale, Pa. —Yes, the flow¬ 
er inclosed is Maurandia scandens, var., 
grandiflora. 
B. B., Farmingdale , III. —1. What is the 
legal weight of a bushel of pears in N. Y. ? 
2. What is the name of the inclosed grass ? 
Ans. —Pears are not sold by weight in New 
York. In Oregon and Washington Territory 
a bushel of pears weighs 45 pounds. Possibly 
our correspondent meant peas; if so, a 
bushel w'eighs 60 pounds in this as well as in 
other States. 2. The grass is Eragrostis pec- 
tinacea—Meadow Comb grass. It is of no 
particular agricultural value. 
J. B. B.. New York City.— What is the 
Thomas harrow, and where can I find one ? 
Ans. —The Thomas barrow is made by the 
Herendeen Manufacturing Company, Geneva, 
N. Y. It is one of the handiest agricultural 
implements made and yet one of the simplest. 
It has a strong wooden frame in which are 
set a number of steel teeth with sharp ends. 
These teeth are slanted back from the direc¬ 
tion in which the harrow is to be pulled. This 
harrow was used originally for fining the soil 
after plowing, pulverizing sods, etc., but of 
late years it has been very satisfactorily used 
as a cultivator on young corn, cotton or pota¬ 
toes. When dragged over the newly sprouted 
field, the teeth scratch and work the soil, but 
glide harmlessly, over most of the plants. 
DISCUSSION. 
FRUIT GROWING WITH COMMERCIAL 
FERTILIZERS ALONE. 
J. H. Hale, So. Glastonbury, Conn.—T he 
Rural of July 28, contains the following: 
“ Here is a question sent by one who has 
made a success of fruit growing. Let us hear 
what you think of it: ‘ Is it possible to grow 
fruit profitably, using only artificial fertilizers 
when very little stock can be kept ? I should 
like to see this question discussed, as it is very 
important in advising people who wish to go 
into fruit-growing without extra stock.’ ” 
Is there not some mistake about the date of 
the Rural in which I find the foregoing ? If 
it was dated in 1868, or even In 1878, it might 
do to ask such a question; but in this year of 
1888, when so many have been for years suc¬ 
cessfully growing fruits wholiy by the use of 
chemical manures it seems to me an idle ques¬ 
tion. I am not quite sure yet that we have 
“ made a success of fruit growing ” here at 
the Elm Fruit Farm; but starting 35 years or 
more ago with less than a quarter of an acre 
of strawberries, we gradually increased the 
area till we had some five or six acres of small 
fruits, and not having manure enough from 
three cows and one horse, we began to 
buy stable manure, till we had increased 
our plantation to over 20 acres, and run 
in debt $5,000, which was so discouraging 
that we began to call a halt, and look 
about to see what was the best thing we 
could do. Experimenting with commercial 
fertilizers, we soon found that $1 worth of 
pure goods would give us as good returns as 
$2 invested in stable manure, and for the past 
14 years we have not purchased any of the 
latter, but we. have bought from 15 to 40 tons 
of bone, potash and nitrate of soda annually, 
keeping only two cows to furnish milk and 
cream for the family, and horses enough to do 
the fruit-farm work. We now have over 80 
acres in fruit, are entirely out of debt, and 
the value of our farm has more than doubled 
during the past ten years. 
Poor, worn-out pasture land has been taken 
up and brought to a high state of fertility by 
the use of chemical manures, and at the same 
time, it has given paying crops of fruit annu¬ 
ally, and I am satisfied that the fruit is of 
better color, flavor and texture than that 
grown with stable manure, which furnishes 
plant food always in the same form and in 
about the same proportion, while with 
the chemicals, if a certain field is lack¬ 
ing in nitrogen, or another in potash, 
or still another in phosphoric acid, we can at 
once supply just what is most wanted. If 
plants lack in foliage or plant growth, we at 
ODce increase the application of nitrate of 
soda. If pears, peaches, berries, etc., are defi¬ 
cient in richness of color or quality in any 
season, we are careful to give the fields where 
they grow a heavy application of potash be¬ 
fore the next fruiting season. In this way, 
understanding our soils, our fruits, and the 
right use of chemical manures, wo find no 
difficulty in remedying defects. If any money 
is to be made in the fruit business by the use 
of stable manure, more money can be made 
on the same land by the use of chemicals in¬ 
stead of the manure. 
R. N.-Y.—What may be an idle question 
to one may be of vital importance to another. 
It may be hard for our correspondent to real¬ 
ize that there are plenty of farmers and gar¬ 
deners who do not use a pound of fertilizer 
and hardly know what it looks like, yet it is a 
fact. A thing may be so simple to one man 
that it appears childish to allude to it, and yet 
the same thing may be deeper^than an alge¬ 
braic problem to another. 
IMPROVEMENT OF MUTTON NEEDED. 
T. L. J., Baltimore, Md.—I t seems the 
hight of absurdity for sheep growers to talk 
about the ruination of their industry by the 
proposed abolition of the tax on wool when the 
mutton market is being ruined by their in. 
difference and carelessness? I used to buy ana 
eat 'mutton and lamb, but of late the 
quality has become so poor that I do not care 
to touch it. I find that many of my friends feel 
in the same way about it. As we find mutton in 
the average v butcher’sshop, it is coarse, stringy, 
tough and tasteless. If this thing continues 
much longer, the demand for mutton will be 
very largely reduced. Why persist in the 
artificial development of an industry at the 
expense of the masses, when a natural de¬ 
velopment of the same industry is being re¬ 
tarded and perhaps stopped altogether. 
There is no healthier or more palatable flesh 
than that of good lamb or sheep, and it is a 
matter of the first importance both to the 
producer and the American people, that there 
should be plenty of it. If wool can be raised 
in South America or Europe cheaper than we 
can raise it, by all means let it be raised there 
There is no danger of competition in food 
products. There.is or would be, if the quality 
was improved, a home market at remun- 
ative prices Jfor every sheep and lamb this 
country can produce. Breed for good mutton 
first and for wool second, and you can smile 
serenely at the antics of the tariff reformers. 
R. N.-Y.—It is to be presumed that sheep- 
raisers are men of ordinary education and 
ability, and that they are as anxious as the 
rest of their countrymen to make money. It 
is also a fair presumption that they know as 
much as others, if not more, about the most 
likely way to make money'out of sheep. 
While there is no doubt that there is plenty of 
room for improving the flesh of our flocks by 
crossing ordinary stock with some of the 
“mutton” breeds, it is very doubtful, indeed, 
whether in the present condition of American 
agriculture, sheep raising on a large scale 
could be made profitable by the production of 
prime mutton with little regard to wool, or if 
wool is put on the free list. At any rate, that 
is the opinion of a vast majority of the sheep 
raisers of the country. There is no doubt, 
however, that if wool is put on the free list 
those who may still keep sheep in this country, 
or, at any rate, in the older States where land 
is high-priced, must pay more attention than 
has heretofore been done to the improvement 
of the quality of their mutton. 
THAT WHITE HUCKLEBERRY. 
L. L., Northborough, Mass.— After read¬ 
ing the statements in the R. N - Y., August 5, 
about white huckleberries, I made a trip to 
Mr. C. Mentzer’s farm, located in the out¬ 
skirts of Northborough, Mass., where white 
huckleberries are hereabouts said to be found. 
A species was obtained, not answering to the 
Rural’s “ creamy white,” nor to the Vaccin- 
ium stamineum album in Wood’s Botany,and, 
therefore, a sample was directed to R. N.-Y. 
for examination, if it should happen to be 
any uncommon species. 
R. N.-Y.—The true huckleberry is Gaylus- 
sacia. Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum is the 
dwarf blueberry, furnishing the first huckle¬ 
berries (so-called) in the market, while V. 
corymbo8um furnishes the late huckleberry. 
This grows five to ten feet high in swamps and 
low thickets. Vaccinium stamineum (Dew¬ 
berry or Squaw huckleberry) is the only one 
we know of that bears greenish-white fruit; 
but it is hardly edible. The berries received 
were of a reddish color and somewhat shriv¬ 
eled. We could not identify them. 
G. D., Brookfield, Penn.—The Cucum¬ 
ber Flea-beetle,spoken of in the Rural, is doing 
a vast amount of harm to some varieties of 
potatoes in this section. It is not a new pest 
here. Four or five years ago it destroyed a 
good many fields. Early potatoes are half a 
crop and have been worth $1 per bushel in 
town and they are worth 80 cenl6 now. 
Farmers are selling their crop early because 
the tubers show signs of rotting badly, owing, 
I think, to the fact that vines were killed by 
the Flea-beetle before they were ripe. 
taxes 
More About Silos.—“Do I need any 
partition in a silo 30 feet long ?” asks a cor¬ 
respondent of the Farmers’ Review. Mr. 
John Gould replies that the views of silo men 
have undergone rapid change since the plan 
of heating up each day’s filling was adopted, 
and now there seems little need of any parti¬ 
tion, provided all the contents of a silo are 
fed out before warm weather. A silo the 
size mentioned fed from daily, taking the 
silage uniformly from the top, would need no 
partition, as the daily removal of silage 
would be a check upon any influence the air 
could have in a few hours. In filling, the 
silage is deposited in one end one day and 
the next at the opposite side, taking care to 
build up the silage as perpendicularly as possi¬ 
ble at the division line. In feeding, take the 
cover all off from the silo and feed uniformly 
from the top. 
How much resin would you put into each 
gallon of coal tar for painting the inside of 
silos and the sills, etc?” is a second question 
asked. Three or four pounds of resin to the 
gallon would be ample. Some who are a 
little fearful about the tar imparting taste to 
the silage, say that they are going to use 
asphalt, applied boiling-hot. This hardens on 
the wall, as well as penetrates the wood to 
quite a depth and makes it impervious to 
water and moisture. The cost is inconsidera¬ 
ble, but we imagine it to be no better than 
coal tar, for the two are essentially the same 
substance and the resin will make the latter 
very hard and one is as easily “ brushed ” on as 
the other. “Won’t the flavor of coal tar spoil 
the layer of silage next to it”? No ! Only as 
much of the boiling tar should be put on as 
the lumber will fairly absorb. Then, wim 
it is cold, the silo face is only uicely glazed 
with it, the balance having gone into ihe 
soft pine wood. Those who painted thi lr 
silos with tar last year, say that there is no re¬ 
fusal to eat the silage, and no one animal gets 
any considerable amount of silage that has 
laid alongside of the tar. “How would 
crude petroleum do for a preservative of 
wood ?” Anything that will fill the pores of 
tfoe wood and is water-resisting will do. 
Paint will not do, as it flakes off. Nothing 
that has yet been discovered goes into the 
wood, and stays there like coal tar, or asphalt 
applied hot. 
SAUNTERINGS. 
The print, says Major Alvord in the Bos¬ 
ton Cultivator, “ is .the very worst form in 
which butter can be put for preserving its 
delicate flavors. Small rolls stand best in 
this respect. In both cases the danger of 
injury is lessened by wrapping in a napkin, or 
cloth saturated with brine. The waxed, or 
parchment paper which has come into use 
within a few years, also furnishes a good pro¬ 
tection. If butter is to be printed at all, 
every print or Jump should be carefully and 
closely wrapped in the water-proof paper, to 
make a package as nearly air-tight as possible 
before leaving the dairy room where it is 
made. Thus protected, if well cooled and 
firm, the closer the prints are packed and 
kept, till sold or used, the better. To facili¬ 
tate close packing the square and brick 
forms are preferable to the roll and round 
print or “pat.”. 
If butter is packed into tub, jar, or other 
package as directly from the churn as possible, 
these serious objections to print butter are 
avoided. Major Alvord wonders that house¬ 
keepers and small consumers do not learn the 
advantages of small packages, in which butter 
is packed in bulk. In some markets five- 
pound boxes, and little pails holding six, eight 
and ten pounds, have become quite popular. 
But, while cheap and convenient, wood is by 
no means the best material in which to pack 
butter. Glass is the best, or porcelain, and 
stoneware next. For local trade, or near-by 
consumers, he knows of nothing better than 
well -glazed stone jars. 
The English medical authority, Dr. Platt, 
says that if there is one general physical dif¬ 
ference between the country-bred and city- 
bred man, it lies in the size and strength of 
the muscles of the shoulder and arm. It is 
almost impossible for a man to live in the 
country without using the arms far more than 
the city man. 
Remedy for Squash Borers.— Samuel 
Hicks.of Long Island, N. Y., states in Orchard 
and Garden that he has used the following re¬ 
medy for the squash borer with good success 
for many years : Watch the vines after they 
have run considerably, and if one appears 
yellow about a foot from the roots, split it 
open carefully with a knife, and if the track 
of the worm is found, follow it until the grub 
is met with, and destroy it. If the vine is not 
cut across, it grows apparently as well as ever. 
If this work is neglected, the borer cuts across 
the vine and there is little or no crop from the 
vine, even if only one worm is in it. 
Daniel Needham, of Mass., says that it 
need not be demonstrated by logic, or illus¬ 
trated by figures of speech, that there is 
physical energy enough wasted every season 
by the students of Harvard College to carry 
on a garden which would supply very largely 
the vegetable markets of the city of Boston. 
If it is asked what better is a young man for 
being a skilled puller at the oar, or a quick 
catcher of the ball, the answer is not apparent; 
but when it is asked in what is a young man 
better for having spaded and pulverized the 
soil, mixed the fertilizer, planted the seed, 
watched the early shoots, fought with success 
weeds and insects and produced and marketed 
a crop, you need not wait for an answer, for it 
is at your tongue’s end and everybody at once 
acknowledges it. 
A Great many men and women who have 
had a chance, at least, to know better, will 
persist in putting fresh skimmed cream into 
the churn, says Hoard’s Dairyman. Mr. N. G. 
Gilbert, of New York, made a little experi¬ 
ment to see what the result would be. For a 
week he had been getting about five pounds of 
uutter from 100 pounds of milk; but not 
being satisfied that he was getting all the 
butter from the milk, he tried the experiment 
of keeping the two skimmings separate until 
the second mess of cream was well cured and 
then putting them together and churning. 
From one churning thus treated, he obtained 
six pounds of butter to the 100 pounds of 
milk. Here was a gain of 20 per cent., all for 
he use of a little intelligent experimenting... 
t 
Prof. Henry gives tae sansible l’omiader 
ja the Breeder’s Ga^tte that Oecbaical words 
