THE RURAL 
MOV 
kept together, their well known habit of 
crowding about the watering tank at once 
suggests a serious objection. In many cases 
two animals would get on the platform at the 
same time, or one would remain until driven 
off by another, the platform not having an op¬ 
portunity to run. Any one who has seen a 
lot of cattle or horses standing about an empty 
water tank will see what might often 
happen. 
At the Illinois State Fair one of the ex¬ 
hibits which attracted much attention was a 
pump run by a falling weight communicating 
motion through several cog-wheels, the mo¬ 
tion being regulated by a pendulum. The 
plan contemplates winding up the clock-work 
at intervals, the weight being drawn up into 
a tower of such bight as is necessary. The 
statement was made that a man would “wind 
up” in two minutes what would “run down” 
in an hour. As shown in operation the ap¬ 
paratus worked nicely—that is, a very small 
quantiy of water was lifted about two feet 
without trouble. I was somewhat surprised 
at the favor this device seemed to meet with 
among experienced farmers. When applied 
to wells of any considerable depth and when 
large quantities of water are required the 
power required to move the weight will lie 
great. Pumping water with the best pumps 
in such cases is not easy work. When power 
is to be rapidly stored up for this work, with 
the addition necessary to run the machinery, 
I think it would be found very hard work. 
If an arrangement could be made by which 
the work could be done by horse power this 
objection would disappear, and the contri¬ 
vance would have the advantage of not being 
dependent on the wind. 
SCISSORS IN THE GARDEN. 
W. G. W.,Tyronne, Pa.—A correspondent 
of the R. N.-Y. lately mentioned various uses 
for a pair of scissors in garden work. There 
is no implement that I use oftener. A stout 
pair, sharp pointed, about eight inches long, 
and easily carried in the hip pocket, serves to 
clip strawberry runners or raspberry canes, 
and to do very much other summer pruning, 
and helps in training and tying. But quite 
a considerable use for it is in taking out sti ay 
weeds that have escaped the hoe or are lurk¬ 
ing under the shelter of growing plants. My 
ground is a heavy loam, and I often have to 
plunge the point into the soil either to loosen 
the surface about some plant, or to secure the 
complete extirpation of some young thistle, 
dock, dandelion, plantain or othei stiong- 
rooted weed. For.this use the scissors should 
be extra strong in joint and rivet, and if with 
projecting riveting to serve as a fulcrum 
when using the tool as a lever in taking out 
spare plants or weeds, all the better. The con¬ 
venience of using it for this purpose in a 
strawberry bed is that it is ready in the hand 
to clip runners also. 
ABOUT JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT. 
P. S. B., Fremont, N. Y.—1 would inquire 
of those who have raised Japanese Buckwheat 
what has been their success. I received one 
quart of the sged a year ago last spring of 
Peter Henderson, too late to sow. I kept it and 
sowed it last spring on just ten rods of ground. 
The soil was very rough and stony and had 
never before been plowed. Ho manure of 
anv kind was put on it. In fact, it wasn t 
given an ordinary chance for common buck¬ 
wheat as generally sown in this country. It 
was sowed Ju.ie 25th and the September frost 
cut it when the tops were white with blossoms, 
and I harvested just fivabusliels. I am think, 
ing of sowing it next spring believing it very 
much better than the common kind, the 
meats of grains being larger than any kernels 
of the ordinary buckwheat. 
IR. N.-Y. On page 644 a subscriber speaks 
highly of this buckwheat. We are always 
ready to receive information regarding the 
merits of any grain, fruit or vegetables. 
Here is a man whose millions are so many 
that, by the most profligate extravagance—if 
he were inclined to the excesses of more gen¬ 
erous natures—be would be unable to endangei 
his financial security; to whom additional 
wealth can be of no more practical use than 
tne same bulk of waste paper, who deliberate¬ 
ly concocts a scheme to use that wealth so as 
to bring ruin and suffering upon as many 
people in as many walks of life as he can by 
any ingenuity compass in his meshes, and all 
to add a few more useless millions Ito an 
enormous fortune that he only utilizes for mis- 
phief. So speaks our able contemporary Life, 
'jo accomplish this heneyoLenf purpose, he, 
early in the summer, begins secretly to pur¬ 
chase all of that most important food staple, 
wheat, that he can lay his covetous hands up¬ 
on. So deep laid is this scheme, so vast is his 
wealth, and so large his commercial experi¬ 
ence, that he is enabled to secure entire con¬ 
trol of the cereal upon which the nation so 
largely depends for its food for the next few 
weeks. 
And now his sport begins. The first to feel 
the effects of his machinations are his business 
associates, men with whom he has held friend¬ 
ly relations, whom he meets daily in the streets 
and in the places of trade. They have sold 
wheat short for delivery within a certain time, 
and knowing when that time expires, the arch 
conspirator withdraws the grain from the 
market, and so forces a tremendous increase 
in price. The speculators have got to fill their 
orders, or else go to ruin, and the conspirator 
calmly looks on as they bid his goods up far 
beyond their value, and counts his daily gains 
by the millions. 
If the mischief wrought by the arch con¬ 
spirator only stopped at that point, it would 
be brutal enough. But it does not stop here. 
The millers begin to run short of wheat 
wherewith to make their flour, and the bakers 
run short of the flour wherewith their bread 
must be made. There is plenty of wheat to 
feed the people, but the conspirator still con¬ 
trols it at the ruinous advance in price he has 
brought about. The baker is obliged to pay 
the exhorbitant price for his flour, and the 
small baker, who bakes for the poor, must 
pay the most, since he purchases in smaller 
quantities and is unable to keep a stock on 
hand. 
And this is the second cruel result: In both 
city and country, where the very poor live in 
wretchedness and squalor, where bread is 
largely the food supply and money is hardest 
to get, the price of bread goes up two and 
three cents per loaf, or else the loaf is reduced 
in weight from three to four ounces. Many 
who come for bread go home without it, or 
purchase stale crusts to satisfy their hunger, 
and the hunger of innocent children and help¬ 
less invalids in the tenement houses. Hun¬ 
dreds and thousands of men and women and 
children suffer a daily deprivation in order 
that one man may add to his millions. 
But it should be borne in mind that the con¬ 
spirator has brought about these results by 
strictly legal means, and that he has violated 
no commercial statutes. He has only taken 
advantage of the opportunities he possessed to 
rob his fellow-men without giving the law 
any hold upon him. He has caused more 
actual misery and suffering in one week than 
all the criminals in the country in a year, and 
yet his honor is untainted and his reputation 
unsmirched. There are plenty of men who 
admire him for his very callousness and in¬ 
difference to others in carrying out a great 
scheme. If he had climbed into the window 
of one of the grain speculators at night, and 
stolen his watch, the conspirator would be 
disgraced forever; and yet it is difficult to 
discover any greater degree of moral deprav¬ 
ity in obtaining the same speculator’s money 
by legalized hook and crook, and yielding 
him no return for it. 
After all, however, the grain thief is little, 
if any, worse than the other capitalistic ras¬ 
cals of his time. The man who wrecks a 
railroad and beggars its stockholders for his 
own gain is considered an able financier, and 
he generally belongs to a church. 
It is now time for the coupling of the ewes for 
the next year’s crop of lambs. As the most 
profitable sheep of the future will be the best 
mutton sheep, it is necessary to choose a ram 
that will most successfully cross on the com¬ 
mon sheep. Mr. Henry Stewart remarks, in 
the New York Times, that the Shropshire has 
many points in its favor in this respect. It is 
a large sheep, weighing when two years old 
and well fed, 180 to 240 pounds. It has a very 
useful general-purpose fleece, well suited for 
all kinds of domestic goods, as flannel, coarse 
woolen cloths, Homespun, hosiery, and mixed 
goods for common clothing. It is as hardy as 
the native, has the black face which is popu¬ 
lar in the market as indicative of the best 
lambs and mutton. Its mutton is equal to 
that of the South Down, the lambs are large, 
the ewes are good mothers and do not require 
the rich feeding that the long-wool breeds, as 
the Cotswold, do. The Shropshire has been 
long enough with us to have proved its value 
in all the points named, and all these com¬ 
bined make up an excellent farm sheep. 
It is scarcely worth while to attempt an ai- 
gument to prove the value of sheep as faun 
stock. This goes without saying, as does the 
cause of daylight. But it may be necessary 
once more to mention that for the best results 
of sheep culture the growth of roots to some 
extent is indispensable. Sheep are peculiar. 
They must have some succulent food. They 
are essentially pastoral, and in our long win¬ 
ters cpptjpjious dry feeding is injurious to 
them. The quality of the fleece, too, depends 
upon succulent feeding. Lustre is impossible 
when the feeding is wholly dry, and lustre iD 
the wool indicates softness, strength, and 
evenness of fibre. A sheep should have at 
least five pounds of cut roots every day 
through the winter. Sweet silage might pos¬ 
sibly make a good substitute, but, as above 
observed, the sheep is very peculiar, and it 
might not take to silage as a cow does. It 
might be tried, but the sheep generally makes 
a bad subject for experiment. Roots are 
good for them—are indispensable, in fact; and 
if one would keep them successfully, roots 
must be provided. 
Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, 
reports in “Bulletin No. 2” the results of 
potato experiments made the past season, de¬ 
signed to show the relative value of “seed” of 
different sizes. The following table presents 
the results in a plain, forcible way: 
Potatoes —Here is a tabulated list of the 
potato crop covering 20 years: 
Bushels. 
1879 .181.626,(00 
1880 .167,660,000 
1981.109.146.000 
1892 .170 972.000 
1888. 209,164,000 
1984 . ... 190,M2 OHO 
1885 .1T>,029,000 
1886 .168,051, < CO 
1887 .134,(1)0,000 
1888 .210,000,000 
Bushels. 
1869. 
.193,886.(XU 
1870 . 
.114.775.000 
197'. 
.120,462.000 
1972. 
..113.5'6,000 
1873.. 
.106,099 (1)0 
18T4. 
.105.981,O'1) 
1875. 
.166 877,000 
. 
. 124,827,000 
1877. 
.18".09.,000 
1878. 
.124,127,000 
In 1886, the last year reported in full by the 
Department of Agriculture, the average yield 
per acre w T as 73.5 bushels, varying from an 
average of 115 bushels in Washington Ter¬ 
ritory, 106 in Montana, 105 in Idaho and 
Maine, 104 in Vermont, 102 in New Hamp¬ 
shire, 101 in Massachusetts, and 100 in Rhode 
Island to 54 in Iowa and 50 in Missouri and 
Kansas. The average prices ranged from 
$1.10 in New Mexico, and SI.00 in Florida aDd 
Arizona, to 37 cents in Minnesota and Ken¬ 
tucky, 38 cents in Indiana and Vermont, and 
39 cents in Michigan, averaging for the entire 
country 46)£ cents. The cash value per acre 
was $34.50 ranging from $105 81 in New Mex¬ 
ico, $95.44 in Idaho, $71.93 in Wyoming Ter¬ 
ritory, $67.13 in Florida, $62.97 in Rhode 
Island, $62. 62 in Massachusetts, $21 in Mis¬ 
souri, $24 in Nebraska, $24.79 in Kentucky, 
$25.38 in Minnesota and $26 88 in Wisconsin. 
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A Year’s Entries On The Public Do¬ 
main. —The annual report of the Commis¬ 
sioner of the General Land Office for the last 
fiscal year shows that there were made 59,095 
each land entries of all classes, aggregating 
5 907,254 acres, for which the government re¬ 
ceived $11,203,071. Of these cash entries 
8,318 were sales of lands, subject to private 
entry, 1,314 were sales of mineral lands. 
14,209 were commuted homestead entries, 
2,385 were original and final entries under the 
Desert Laud Act and 152 were sales of coal 
lands. The whole number of entries of all 
classes, including Indian lands, made during 
the year was 255,119, embracing 24,485,833 
acres. The total receipts from the foregoing 
were $13,522,185. During the year the land 
grant railroads made 40,786 selections, em¬ 
bracing 6,525,300 acres. Under the school, 
swamp land and other grants by the govern¬ 
ment to the several States and Territories 8,029 
selections were made, covering an areq of 
1,265,452 acres. In addition to the 24,485,833 
acres entered under*, the various public land 
laws during the year, the area of commuted 
homesteads, final desert entries, final home¬ 
steads and final timber culture entries aggre¬ 
gated 5,647,543 acres. Truly the public 
domain is disappearing at an enormously 
rapid rate! 
The German Hop Crop.— It appears that 
this season’s hop crop in Germany was, on 
purpose, grossly underestimated early in the 
season, hence prices went up. The new 
monthly report of the German Hop-Growing 
Association, as reviewed in Brads' reefs, says 
that several of the chief producing countries, 
as Bavaria* Wiirtemberg, Baden, Austria, 
Hungary, Belgium and America, have suc¬ 
ceeded in producing, or perhaps exceeding, a 
medium harvest. Those which were below the 
medium are Russia, France, England, Prussia, 
Alsace-Lorraine and various smaller districts. 
Had these countries produced the harvests 
that might have been expected from them the 
supply of 1888 would have been equal to the 
world’s consumption. According to the ac¬ 
counts and valuations received the harvest of 
this year shows a deficit of 5,000,000 pounds. 
The brewers, however, are for the most part 
so well provided with old and well preserved 
hops of previous and more favorable seasons 
that the deficit of the year 1888 is more than 
covered. The rapid rise in the prices at the 
beginning of the season was therefore quite 
uncalled for, and has naturally subsided. The 
last report of the Department of Agriculture, 
however, indicates that the aggregate yield in 
this country was very considerably below an 
average crop. 
BOILED DOWN AND REASONED. 
Henry J?. Alvord, Director of the 
From the above experiment it appears that 
the greater the quantity of seed-potatoes used, 
the greater was the product. And this was 
true not only of the total yield, but also of 
the product of merchantable potatoes as dis¬ 
tinguished from those so small as to bo un¬ 
merchantable. 
The question arising is, would it be econom¬ 
ical, in ordinary farm practice, to use the 
quantity of seed potatoes indicated above as 
necessary, provided the results as shown by 
these experiments could be secured? 
It appears from the table which Prof. 
Alvord presents that “it pays” to use even the 
largest form of seed potatoes adopted in his 
tests—potatoes averaging 10 ounces in weight 
and requiring 60 bushels to the acre. But the 
most marked profit is shown to result from 
planting whole p>otatoes the size of a hen's 
egg, at the rate of 18 bushels to the acre . 
Prof. Maynard, of the Massachusetts Agri¬ 
cultural College, says of the Yellow Transpar¬ 
ent apple that it is one of the best Russian 
varieties yet introduced. In time of ripening 
it is in advance of the Early Harvest or Red 
Astrachan. The Oldenburg, on account of its 
vigor and growth, productiveness and good 
qualities for both cooking and the table, is 
gaining in favor with both grower and con¬ 
sumer. The Gravenstein notwithstanding 
the many new varieties introduced and the 
numerous valuable older varieties so abun¬ 
dant, still holds its own, and even is gaining 
in popularity in almost every market. It has 
scarcely a fault, and is perhaps the most prof¬ 
itable variety to grow. Sutton Beauty has 
been a long time in making its good qualities 
known. Its principal fault is its medium size, 
but its many good qualities of flavor, beauty 
and productiveness are being recognjzed. 
With so popular a variety as the Baldwin oc¬ 
cupying the field, it will be only by persistent 
effort on the part of those who appreciate its 
merits that it will be largely planted. 
Prof. Maynard says that the foliage of 
the Brackmans grape is very much like the 
Clinton and entirely free from mildew. The 
grape resembles the Iona in size, color and 
quality. Ii is early and from the two seasons’ 
trial he is led to believe that it will be 
one of the best grapes for New England. It 
ripens with the Delaware and although not of 
as sugary quality, is more vinous and nearer 
the perfect grape than any variety, except the 
Iona. He says the Cottage has good foliage, 
ripens early and is of fair quality, but lacks 
vigor. Prof. Maynard should try this vigor¬ 
ous variety in some other pait of bis grounds. 
The Cottage is nothing if not vigorous. He 
praises the Hayes as being hardy. The fruit 
(white) ripens early and is of good quality. 
Yes, the Hayes is a promising grape. Jeffer¬ 
son (the superb) is too late. Jessica is not of 
much account. Lady Washington is too late. 
Moore’sEarly is the one really good grape that 
is sure to ripen in Massachusetts. Niagaia, 
he says, is the most vigorous and productive 
