drawn 60 bushels in 45 minutes, from a field 
where that rate could be maintained easily 
from morning to night. 
Mr. J. Bridgman said that knowing “how” 
is a very important matter in gathering roots. 
Most farmers make the mistake of throwing 
turnips in heaps when they pull them. He 
pulls two rows and lays the tops all one way, 
then walks along the row and slashes off the 
tops with a long knife. He can cut them off 
nearly as fast as a team will walk and two or 
three stout boys will pitch them in the wagon 
as fast as topped. There is system in the work. 
Take the old hap hazard way and the cost of 
gathering will be more than doubled. Go at 
it right and the work will be very rapid. He 
is particular to leave an inch or so of the leaf 
stems because if topped closely turnips will 
rot . 
The Husbandman believes Alfalfa or Lu¬ 
cerne will not thrive well above the 40th par¬ 
allel, (about the latitude of Trenton, N. J., 
Pittsburg, Pa.; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, 
Ind.; Springfield, Ill.; Hannibal, Mo.: Leav¬ 
enworth, Kans.; and Denver, Colo.) except in 
favored situations. It thrives, as the K. N.-Y. 
has stated, quite well on the plots devoted to 
it at the Geneva Station. It thrives best 
where its roots can reach unfailing supplies of 
water. But it would be a serious mistake for 
Northern farmers to place much reliance on 
Lucerne except the few who may have lands 
well adapted to it. 
A Colorado correspondent of the Hus¬ 
bandman, who was the first to sow it in his 
county, says that he considers three to four 
tons a heavy crop. He drills in the seed with¬ 
out any other seed. He irrigates, of course, 
aud if the crop is properly treated he cuts it 
twice the first year, the first time when the 
weeds are in blossom. Then he irrigates and 
in September cuts another crop of three-quar¬ 
ters of a ton per acre. 
This same writer, in the Husbandman, finds 
Alfalfa hard to get rid of. He can only do so 
by letting the water on in the late fall and 
freezing it out, for, of course, he uses irriga¬ 
tion. If he attempts to plow it up he not only 
wants a 40-horse team, but it actually laughs 
and grows fat. One might as well attempt 
to blow up Pike’s Peak. Twelve pounds of 
seed put in with a drill are better than 25 
sown broadcast. Farmers about him are put¬ 
ting in red clover, aud oue who has been pro¬ 
ducing both for six years told him that for 
everything but work horses he considered the 
red clover superior to the Alfalfa. There is 
very little if auy difference between Alfalfa 
and clover as a grazing plant. Either will 
cause harm if injudiciously fed. He speaks 
from a 15 years’ experience in this matter and 
he cautions his readers to go a little slow un¬ 
til they have satisfied themselves with regard 
to the merits or demerits of Lucerne. 
As Alfalfa is now attracting a great deal of 
attention, let us again quote from Prof. 
Beal’s late work, as well as from several 
trusty communications which have appeared 
in the Jtt. N.-Y.: 
Remember it is a poor fighter. It should be 
sown in the spring after settled weather with¬ 
out any other crop, on well prepared land. 
This last we know from our own experience 
at the Rural Farm. Sow in drills eight inches 
apart, says Dr. Beal, and hoe or cultivate 
once or more to keep the weeds in check. It 
is a favorite for irrigated fields. It is not, so 
far as known, a favorite north of Kentucky. 
If sown broadcast, use not less than 15 pounds 
to the acre. When carefully treated, Lucerne 
has endured the winters on the College 
Grounds of Lansing, while it beats all to en¬ 
dure prolonged droughts. 
Prof. Shelton, of Kansas (Manhattan), 
has told our readers that it has there proved 
the most useful of all clovers for pasturage. 
It endures, uninjured, close cropping, and all 
kinds of stock consume it greedily. It re¬ 
quires lots of room in curing, and soon spoils 
with light rains. For hog pastures he knows 
of no other plant so valuable. 
Nearly all reports from Colorado, Cali¬ 
fornia, etc., are favorable to Alfalfa, aud it 
thrives well in many of the Southern States, 
though many consider that it is too difficult 
to get it well started. 
Seedsmen West and East are charging for 
Alfalfa seed from 18 to 25 cents per pound ... 
Besides the direct manurial effect of pot¬ 
ash, which is so especially great in some soils 
and crops, including the fruits, it is useful in 
times of drought by its attraction for moisture 
Whenever any sort of potash salt is exposed 
to free air, it soon begins to liquify, wetting 
and decomposing every organic article around. 
In an address before the American Horticul¬ 
tural Society, Mr. J. M. Smith, of Green Bay, 
Wisconsin, told of his haviug dressed part of 
a potato field with ashes at the rate of 60 bush¬ 
els per acre. The rest of the field was dressed 
with compost. A severe drought came on. The 
compost part of the field scarcely paid for dig- I 
gjpg, but the ashed portion yielded a fair crop, I 
Onion ground should be thoroughly plowed 
in th^ fall and then is the best time to plow 
under farm manure. In the spring high- 
grade, complete fertilizers may be used, sow¬ 
ing all the way from 500 to 1,000 pounds to 
the acre. Then harrow thoroughly. Drill in 
about five pounds of seed in drills about 14 
inches apart. We have now merely to keep 
the soil free of weeds and to give timely cul¬ 
tivation. 
A lady writes Green’s Fruit Grower that 
she lays away five cents each day for the pur¬ 
pose of buying fruit plants, vines and trees 
for her home. Ought this not to shame those 
men who smoke §50 worth of cigars each 
year, and have no money to spare for this 
purpose?. 
A correspondent of Orchard and Garden 
has bagged many clusters while in blossom to 
protect them from rose bugs, and the uniform 
result has been that they have produced no 
grapes unless the blossoms were ready to drop 
or already off when bagged. 
Prof. J. W. Robertson, in a talk at one of 
the Wisconsin Institutes, describes one of the 
largest dairies in Denmark that he visited, in 
which 250 cows constitute the herd. The herd 
was started 20 years ago, when the average 
product was only 150 pounds of butter per 
cow, and by dairy breeding, feeding and care, 
the present herd has been brought to average 
250 pounds per cow. The herd is kept in the barn 
eleven months in the year, and there has been 
constant increase in the strength and constitu¬ 
tion of the cows. This shows, says Hoards’ 
Dairyman, quite conclusively that cows do 
not need nearly as much exercise as many are 
inclined to think they do. The cows are only 
of medium size, not exceeding 1,000 pounds 
weight. This herd has done more to improve 
the butter blood of cows of Denmark than all 
others beside. The best of care is bestowed on 
them; they are curried daily aud are milked by 
women, each woman milking 20 daily. No 
loud talking is allowed in the stables, and each 
cow is tested once a week..... . 
“We can not recommend dwarf apples for 
any purposes, although the Rural New- 
Yorker has often spoken highly of them for 
amateur purposes. The Paradise stock is as 
subject to the attacks of the borer as the 
quince, and the trees, so far as we can learn, 
are generally unproductive.” 
The R. N.-Y. merely writes from its own 
experience. We have never seen an apple on 
Paradise stock except upon our own grounds 
where we have about one dozen trees. They 
are wonderfully prolific. An Alexander has 
borne full crops each season for about 10 years. 
It is necessary to thin out the fruit severely 
and even then it is often necessary to prop up 
the branches as a support to the large, fine 
fruit. 
A legitimate result of talking one way 
and acting another: 
“The ‘Eye-Opener’ of the Rural New- 
Yorker must have had a cataract over his eye 
when some of the ads. in the last number were 
inserted .”—Stockman and Farmer. 
According to a late bulletin issued by the 
Ag. Ex. Station of Wisconsin (Madison), the 
following winter wheats have given the best 
yields during the past four years: Hungarian, 
White Chaff, Theiss, Heige’s Prolific, Arnold’s 
Gold Medal, Champion Amber, Finley, Wash¬ 
ington Glass, Martin’s Amber, Valley, Zim¬ 
merman and Bearded Treadwell. The aver¬ 
age yield of the above as estimated on plots of 
one-fortieth of an acre each, is about 40 bush¬ 
els per acre. 
Of oats the following kinds yielded most: 
Welcome or White Australian, Black Tarta¬ 
rian, White Schcenen, Holland, Bonanza, 
White Swede, Rural Hybrid, aud Swedish. 
All of the above yielded over 50 bushels to 
the acre. White Australian 60, White Schoe- 
nen 59, and White Swede 57. Of all the va¬ 
rieties tried we believe the Schcenen as good 
as any, all things considered,and the Welcome 
or White Australian next. 
Pride of the North and North Star are re¬ 
commended for yellow dent corn. 
Mr. J. S. W oodward says he has been suc¬ 
cessful in curing the black-knot of plum trees, 
in its early stage, by the use of turpentine. 
He cuts off the knot and applies the turpen¬ 
tine.. 
The Western N. Y. Hort. Society com¬ 
mend Montmorency Ordinaire as the best sour 
cherry for canning; Napoleon as the best 
white (sweel) variety, and Windsor and Na¬ 
poleon as the best for home use. 
DIRECT. 
T. B. Terry, in Ohio Farmer: “Auy fool 
can be a farmer. Yes, so they used to say; 
but our smartest and wisest men, nowadays, 
find their wits taxed when they try to do 
really good, first-class farming.”-“Let 
us wake up to the idea that farming is a com¬ 
plete business, and to attain to auything like 
the best success we will need to use every 
talent we have, our heads and pencils as welj 
as our feet and hands, Let us sit right down 
now, and honestly ask ourselves whether we 
did the best we really knew how last season.” 
-Hoard’s Dairyman : “This constant 
breeding for beef and talking about milk is 
one of the glaring inconsistencies of the day.” 
-Breeder’s Gazette: “There are not a few 
of us who have seen land that was so mean 
that the more a man had of it the poorer he 
is, for it is a very rare scrub that pays for its 
keep.”-“We need not go far in these days 
to find real, live, breathing men who seemed 
doomed all their natural lives to rolling stones 
up a hill to no profit or purpose. A good 
many of them, it is sad to say, are farmers of 
seemingly fair intelligence and information. 
They rise early, work faithfully and late, and 
toil and save every day of their lives. They 
would rapidly improve in worldly conditions 
but that they keep a lot of scrub stock around 
them to consume, without due compensation, 
the surplus product of their labor and self- 
denial.”-B. G. Northrup: “The school 
grounds all over Connecticut have, through 
Arbor Day, been changed from plain, cheer¬ 
less, uninviting yards to attractive, shady 
parks and groves.”-“To interest youth is 
now made a prominent aim of Arbor Day 
wherever such day is observed. The econo¬ 
mic and aesthetic here go hand in hand. 
This enlisting of schools has proved a most 
effective way of calling public attention to 
the importance of forestry. Parents and the 
public like to share the work, when they see 
how children are learning to plant and to pro¬ 
tect trees.”-Harper’s Monthly: “The re¬ 
velations of the last few years have demon¬ 
strated that it is very profitable for lawyers 
to show knaves how much crime they can 
commit without going to State-prison.”- 
Mass. Ploughman: “A man may be known 
after a time by the help he keeps.”-Mr. I. 
K. Felch tells the farmers of Boston, as re¬ 
ported in the above journal,that he has known 
hens to lay when 12 years old; others that 
never laid an egg in their lives; one ben that 
never was out of feather—as fair to look upon 
in July as in January. He has known a Brah¬ 
ma hen to lay 23 consecutive months. He 
believes the best policy for farmers is to kill 
the males for broilers the minute they reach 
four pounds to the pair; then, by the use of 
forcing feed, secure all the eggs possible from 
the pullets from six months to 18 months old, 
killing them before they reach their second 
winter.- 
Beal’s Grasses of the North : 
“Go to grass.” 
“All flesh is grass.”—Isaiah. 
“Let the earth bring forth grass.”—Levi¬ 
ticus. 
“Sweet fields arrayed in living green.” 
“Grass is rather a good savings’ bank.”— 
Harris. 
“Grass is the pivotal crop of American ag¬ 
riculture .”—Geddes. 
“Grass is king among the crops of the earth. ” 
—Hyde. 
“The grasses are the foundation of all agri¬ 
culture.” 
“No grass, no cattle; no cattle, no manure; 
no manure, no crops.” 
Piwtlanmtsi 
NFANTILE 
Skir| & Scalp 
DISEASES 
••••cured by■.•'• 
Cirri cli r/\ 
F cr cleansing, purifying and beautifying 
the skin of children and infants, and curing tor¬ 
turing, disfiguring, itching, scaly and pimply diseases 
of the skin, scalp and blood, with loss of hair from in¬ 
fancy to old age, the Cuticura Remediks are infallible. 
cuticura, the great Skin Cure, and Cuticura Soap, 
an exquisite Skin Beautitier, externally, and Cuticura 
Resolvent, the New Blood Purifier, internally, cure 
every form of skin and blood diseases, from pimples 
to scrofula. 
Sold every where. Price, Cuticura, 50c.; Soap, 25c.; 
Resolvent, $1. Prepared by the Potter Drug and 
Chemical Co., Boston, Mass. 
Send for “ How to Cure Skin Diseases, 
BAKING POWDER TESTS. 
The present interest in the matter of food 
adulterations, and the agitation of the ques¬ 
tion of national and local legislation for the 
purpose of preventing them, have caused more 
than ordinary attention to be given to the re¬ 
port of the Ohio State food Commission, 
which reveals the extent and character of the 
adulteration found in many of the baking 
powders of the market. The presence of so 
large a number of powders made from alum, 
as was found by the commission, has not been 
suspected, nor was it supposed that some of 
the cream of tartar and phosphate brands, 
whose manufacturers have held them up to 
the public as pure and wholesome, had be¬ 
come so deteriorated by tho use of impure 
ingredients in compounding them. 
The Ohio commission examined thirty dif¬ 
ferent kinds for their strength and impurities, 
and declared that powder the best—as it was 
of course the purest—which, being of effective 
strength, contained residuum in smallest 
quantity. In these baking powders sold in 
this State the following percentages of resid¬ 
uum or inert matter were found: 
Name. 
PER CENT. OF 
RESIDUUM, ETC. 
Royal. 
. 7.25 
Cleveland’s. 
.10.18 
Zipp’s (alum). 
. 11.99 
Sterling.. 
. 12.63 
Dr. Price’s. 
Jersey (alum). 
. 16.05 
Forest City (alum) . 
. 24.04 
Silver Star (alum) . 
.31.88 
De Land’s . . 
. 32.52 
Horsford’s (phosphate) ... 
. 36.49 
Kenton (alum).... . 
. 38.17 
Patapsco (alum). .. 
. 40.08 
The nature of the residuum 
bears directly 
upon the question of health. 
That in Royal is 
declared by the commission to be perfectly 
harmless. In the case of the alum powders 
it is considered hurtful, yet the amount found 
in three of the cream of tartar powders—the 
Cleveland, Dr. Price’s and Sterling—averaged 
about the same as that in the Crystal, an 
alum powder. In the phosphate powders the 
inert matter is exceedingly large, being more 
than a third of their entire weight. 
The importance of the information con¬ 
veyed by these figures can be best understood 
by a simple comparison. Take for instance 
the two first named powders—the Royal and 
Cleveland’s. The inert matter or residuum 
found in Cleveland’s is seen to be about 3 in 7 
more than in the other, which is a difference 
of 40 per cent, the Royal being purer than 
Cleveland’s by a corresponding figure. The 
inert matter in Horsford’s is over five times, or 
more than 400 per cent, greater than in the 
Royal. The relative purity of all the brands 
can be computed in like manner. 
Wtm, and flaute. 
100 STRAWBERRIES only $1.00 
Ten Plants each of ten best standard varieties sent, 
postage paid, for $1.00. “How to Grow Fruits , Flowers, 
etc.,” tells how to propagate, how to destroy Insects, 
etc.,etc. Price, 35 cents, or sent free to all who oraer 
above plants before March !5th. 
WELD Sc CO., Lyndonville, N. Y. 
BIS 
BERRIES 
\>' a Early Black (’sip CARMAN I 
the best new and old sorts of plants and trees at 
lair pricos for pedigree stock. Catalogue 
Free, dale Bros. bo. Glastonbury, Conn 
DEATH to Insects In house, garden, orchard and 
fields; also Poultry and Cattle Lice. Illustrated cir¬ 
culars free. THOMAS WOODASON. 
451 East Cambria St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
KT 
BLUE AND 
Orchard Crass 
P. CARROLL, LEXINGTON, 
KYc 
ff 
& 
L 
v 
S 
IBLEY’S TESTED SEED 
CATAl.oatn Free t Containing 
all the lateen novelties and stand¬ 
ard virleties of Garden, Field and 
Flower Seedn Gardeners every- 
* hert should consult It before 
i nrchasinB'. Si ocks p are and fresh,prlces reasonable, 
ddxess It! train Slhlev Sc Co., 
Rochester. N. Y., or Chicago, Ills, 
S 
SEEDS 
Always Fresh and Reliable. Everywhere) 
acknowledged the Best. M'Hearf^uartera 
American Grass Seeds. Orders with Cash 
filled at lowest market price. Send for Cataloguo. 
[Estab. 1838.1 J. M. McCullough's Sons, Cincinnati,®. 
GARDEN 
FIELD 
AND 
FLOWER 
ZW Baby’s Skin and Scalp preserved and beau-. 
tifled by Cuticura Soap. 
Kidney Pains, Backache and Weaknesses cured 
by Cuticura Anti Pain Plaster, an instantane¬ 
ous pain-subduing plaster. 25c. 
MAKE HENS LAY 
S HERIDAN’S CONDITION POWDER Is absolute¬ 
ly pure and highly concentrated. It is strictly 
a medicine to be given with food. Nothing on earth 
will make hens lay like it. It cures chicken chol¬ 
era and all diseases of hens. Illustrated book by 
mail free. Sold everywhere, or sent by mail for 
25 cts. In stamps. 2X-lb. tin cans, $1; by mall, 
$1.20- Six cans by express, prepaid, for $5. 
1. a Johnson & Co.. F. O. Box 2118,Boston. Mass. 
CUSTOM HAND-MADE HARNESS. 
Farmers’ Harness a specialty. Money saved by or¬ 
dering direct from the manufacturers. Harness ship¬ 
ped subject to approval. Send for new 64_page Illus¬ 
trated Catalogue to KING Sc C’O., OWEGO, N. Y. 
SOLD 
JTJiBB 
Live at home and make more money working for us than 
I at anything else in the world. Either sex. Costly outfit 
Terms BBBB. Address, Trujc 4 CQ.. Augusta, Maine. 
mm f\ VARIETIES OE 
XlQ FRUITTREES, 
U I U VINES. PLANTS, etc. 
Apple, Pear, Peach,Cherry, Plum, 
Quince, Strawberry, Raspberry, 
Blackberry, Currants, Grapes, 
liooseberries, 4c. Send for Catalogue 
JL S. COLLINS, Moorestown, N. J. 
Small FRUIT PLANTS in Variety. 
Blackberries, Currants, Gooseberries, 
Grapes, Raspberries, Strawberries. 
The cream of the old and the new. Sound plants; true 
to name. Send for r ,- ice list to 
T. T. LI ON. South Haven, Mich. 
T»/\rp 4 qinpi Many New Seedlings. Powerful 
-I " L A. 1 vlio. Yielders, Superb for the Table. 
Rose’s Evergreen Sweet Corn best of all. Ears large 
as Stowell’s; 25 days earlier. Also Cory Corn; earliest 
of all com. Burpee Welcome Oats, etc. Catalogue 
Free. ALFRED ROSE, Penn Yan.N \. 
NORTHERN GROWN SEED POTATOES. 
Early Albino, the best early variety Thunderbolt 
and White Lily, the best late. Sample Tube) s 15 cents 
each; three for 40 cents—by mail. Catalogue of 65 va¬ 
rieties free,* My prices are very low for good stock. 
L. H, READ, Cabot, Vt» 
