APRIL U 
of the Court, and the fine should be twice the 
amount as for the service of the horse. I 
think the law should compel the owner of the 
stallion to post his license on his stable door, 
so that anybody could see it; if he does not do 
this, it should be evidence that he has no li¬ 
cense, and if any person should serve a mare 
with a stallion that has not been licensed, 
whether his own or not, the fine should be 
made so high that he will not try it again. If 
he does,then make the offense a misdemeanor, 
and impose a fine, or imprisonment, or both. 
I would suggest that this license money should 
be used in repairing roads and bridges in the 
election district of the town where the horse 
is owned; as then we would have better roads 
and safer bridges. 
QUACK GRASS, TWITCH, COUCH OR SCUTCH. 
J. M. R., Speedwell, Va.—In a late Ru¬ 
ral it is said that the above grass is despised 
by most Northern farmers, and then it is said 
that there is a place for Quack, and it is com¬ 
mended for light droughty soils, similar to 
that of the Rural Farm. Well, if the most 
learned men in medicine and surgery disagree 
on many points, it is only natural that there 
should be a difference of opinion about grasses 
and weeds. Perhaps the Rural may have 
had more experience with Quack Grass than 
the writer. One thing is certain, that not 
only myself, but the most enlightened men in 
Europe, including Sir J. B. Lawes, the late 
John Coleman,of York, Commissioner for the 
North of England, and Messrs. Edw’d Webb 
& Sons, Stourbridge, whose ability as practi¬ 
cal farmers and seedsmen is of good repute, 
would consider a farmer mad who tried to 
cultivate Quack Weed. As to its making good 
feed, no cattle in the Old Country will eat it 
if they can get anything else. Once get it 
Into land in this country and it will become a 
greater pest than the Scotch Thistle, and re¬ 
quire immense labor to reduce it in quantity. 
An attempt to get rid of it is like trying to 
dry up the water of the Atlantic by taking it 
out with a teacup. I well remember taking 
a farm which had one field choked up with 
this pest. It contained only four acres, but 
it cost me 30 days’ labor with two men and 
three horses to make it fit for a turnip crop, 
and then it was not clear. You are quite 
right in saying it will resist drought; it will 
not only doithat, but will_take care that noth¬ 
ing else grows where it is. I am a constant 
reader of the Rural and admire its very val¬ 
uable lessons very much, and think every 
farmer in the States would make a good in¬ 
vestment in taking it. I would say to every 
farmer in the States, grow more roots and 
leave Quack Grass alone for the next genera¬ 
tion. I am on a visit to the States with an 
idea of soon becoming a farmer in this coun¬ 
try and wish only to say, Fiat justitia , ruat 
ccelum. 
R. N.-Y.—The Rural has little to say be¬ 
yond what it has said as to Quack Grass. It 
is an absolute pest in some soils; we have al¬ 
ways granted that. So is Bermuda Grass and 
Johnson Grass and others. Nevertheless, our 
farm is infested with Quack, and yet we 
would not have it exterminated if we could. 
If we sow Timothy and clover on a field, in 
four years that field will be mostly Quack. 
Then we are ready to raise a big crop of com. 
The inverted Quack sod seems to give the corn 
a help that no other sod—except clover—will. 
With our method of cultivation, the Quack is 
readily destroyed in hot, dry weather. 
POTATOES IN' COLD STORAGE. 
C. C. T., Hornellsville, N. Y.—The 
Rural says, page 52, “President McCann, of 
the Elmira Farmers’ Club, has lately been 
shown potatoes of the crop raised in 1886,which 
were still fresh. They had been kept in cold 
storage and are supposed to be superior for 
seed.” The samples of potatoes which Mr. 
McCann saw were from the cold storage house 
in this city and were exhibited at the insti¬ 
tute held here in March. I tried them for 
cooking and found them superior, having the 
peculiar fresh taste of freshly dug potatoes in 
the fall. There is not a sign of any sprouting 
and nobody knows whether they would grow 
or not. Tests will be made this year with the 
1886 seed as well as with some put in storage 
last fall, the result of which we will see that 
the Rural is made aware of. 
R. N.-Y.—We shall be very glad to know 
the result. 
feeding stock only twice a day. 
H. A. W., Fluvanna, N. Y.—I am quite 
sure that 1 Mr. Cheever is correct, in a late 
Rural, in his theory of feeding stock only 
twice a day. Since I have had the manage¬ 
ment of a farm and the care of cattle, horses, 
etc., I have never under any circumstances 
fed oftener than twice a day—and then as 
nearly as possible at the same hours each 
day—six A. m. and six p. m. in winter, and 
five a. m. and seven p. M. in summer. My 
hogs, when fattening, never see me or the swill 
pail except twice a day. My work horses 
THE RURAL IfEW-YORKER. 
which are in the harness almost every pleas¬ 
ant day are never fed, more than twice a day 
except in the heaviest of spring work, when I 
usually give about four quarts of carrots to 
each at noon. If any hay is left in the 
manger they pick at that, and then get but 
one hour nooning. If two hogs of equal size 
and apparent temperament are placed in sep¬ 
arate pens, one being fed twice and the other 
three or more times a day, the former will in 
every case show the best results. Cows fed 
twice a day will produce as much milk and 
put on more flesh when fed twice instead of 
three times in 24 hours. 
Keeping Qualities of Various Prints of 
Butter. —A pound print of butter made of 
cream raised in shallow pans with 36 hours 
setting and kept 36 hours at 60°, and then 
churned and the butter salted at a rate which 
insured one-half ounce of salt to the pound of 
worked butter, and a pound print of exactly 
the same shape made of sweet cream and salt¬ 
ed with brine, which left only one-quarter 
ounce of salt to the pound of butter, but an 
excess of water in it, were placed by Henry 
Stewart 10 feet apart on a shelf in a cellar 
under ordinary circumstances. In a week the 
sweet-cream butter became slightly moldy and 
had a distinct odor of rancidity. The other 
butter was in perfect condition and unchanged 
to all appearance. At the end of a month the 
sweet-cream butter was wholly covered with 
luxuriant mold and was unfit for use, while 
the other butter was entirely free from mold 
and had acquired only a slight degree of ran¬ 
cid odor, scarcely to be detected by the taste. 
A pound print of the most popular butter sold 
in the Philadelphia market was tested some 
years ago by the writer in a similar manner, 
and became moldy and unfit for use in a week’s 
exposure in an ordinary cellar of a dwelling 
house. _ 
Dairymen Must Study the Markets.— It 
can be easily shown, says the Times, that the 
dairymen who is desirous of making fine but¬ 
ter must closely and carefully study his mar¬ 
ket and the destiny of the butter after ic leaves 
his dairy. If it is for immediate consumption 
he may churn the cream sweet and use little 
salt if his customers like a va pid flavor and a 
creamy texture. But if they desire a full, 
rich, nutty flavor—a really perfect butter—he 
must expose the cream to pure air for at least 
36 hours that it may undergo a process of rip¬ 
ening to develop the desired butter flavor and 
use enough salt to secure at least three per 
cent, or half an ounce to the pound of it in 
the butter after it hps been worked. The late 
L, B. Arnold, one of the most expert judges 
of dairy products, once remarked as follows 
as regards the best flavored butter: 
“A peculiarity noticed in the manufacture 
of the finest samples of butter I have ever met 
with, is that the milk when set for the cream 
to rise has been spread out pretty thin in tem¬ 
perate air which is free from foreign odors, 
currents, and ur usual dampness. I have met 
with plenty of fine, and even fancy butter, 
made by various modes of deep and cold set¬ 
ting : but the most exquisite flavor has come 
from an exposure of the cream to pure air at 
about 60° for 30 or 40 hours while rising on 
milk spread out two and a half to three inches 
deep. By such an exposure the butter fats 
acquire a new and delicious flavor, which does 
not exist in the milk when it comes from the 
cow and which I have not found developed in 
any other way.” 
Story of Sweet Potatoes— Col. Pearson 
mentions in the Press (Philadelphia) that 
sweet potatoes have been bought in Vineland 
N. J. in October for 81,50 per barrel, and sold 
next April for $8 per barrel. This pays, pro¬ 
vided there be no loss in the storing of them. 
There need be none if the one who stores them 
knows how. But here is the difficulty. To 
store sweet potatoes successfully the conditions 
are: First, healthy tubers; second, they must 
be dry on the outside when stored, or subjected 
to sufficient dry heat and ventilation in the 
storage room to dry them off thoroughly, and 
this heat and ventilation must be continued 
throughout the winter. A high degree of 
heat is not necessary, but there must be 
enough of warmth to favor evaporation and 
ventilation to carry off this disengaged moist- 
ture. In a word, the tubers must be kept dry. 
The fungus which causes rot in the sweet 
potato can not develop if surrounded by 
drought. This is demonstrated by subjecting 
a half-rotted potato to continuous dry heat. 
The rotting will stop and spread no further. 
Subject it to the same degree of heat in a 
moist atmosphere and its disorganization"will 
be hastened. Keeping these principles in view 
any one of common sense should be able, Col. 
Pearson says, to construct a storage house for 
sweets in which they will keep indefinitely. In 
sandy New Jersey the most profitable use 
that may be made of land is in the culture of 
sweet potatoes. 
Home-grown Huckleberries.— Mr. A. S. 
Fuller’s experience with cultivating the huck¬ 
leberry is quite different from that of many 
others. He says, in the N. Y. Tribune, that 
there is no good reason why the best varieties 
and species of huckleberry should not be found 
growing in every garden where blackberries 
and raspberries are cultivated. The so-called 
“swamp huckleberry” is not by any means 
confined to swamps,or even to low, moist lands, 
for the bushes are frequently found on high, 
dry sandy soils far distant from swamps, and 
such bushes are often loaded with fruit when 
those in the swamps and low grounds are bar¬ 
ren because late frosts killed the flowers. To 
a man who knows the different species of 
huckleberry by the stems and twigs, at this 
season, there will be no difficulty in selecting 
the swamp or high-bush from among the others 
which may grow wild in the same fields. Plants 
found growing on high, dry ground can be 
taken up with less labor than those growing 
in low ground, and usually with a ball of earth 
about their roots. There is no risk in moving 
such plants, Mr. Fuller says; at least he never 
had a plant fail when moved in early spring, 
and he has handled many a hundred during 
the last twenty years. Why any one should 
think the huckleberries difficult to transplant 
and make live, thrive and bear fruit in any 
well-drained garden soil, is to him a mystery. 
A huckleberry plantation is very much like 
an asparagus bed as to permanency, for with 
ordinary care, either will last a lifetime. 
MULTUM IN PARVO. 
In Mr. Rose’s fields all potatoes are up in 10 
days and not a hill is missing. He has visited 
fields of potatoes, planted three feet by one, and 
counted 4,500 missing hills on one acre. This 
at three pounds the hill is 225 bushels lost on 
one acre. This, he says, is because the seed is 
planted as soon as cut, using sets with dor¬ 
mant eyes, not grading the trenches. Other 
causes are: covering the seed with a plow, 
throwing dry soil on the seed, covering some 
too deep, some too shallow, seed not coming 
up evenly, and some too late and of no use... 
Several years ago, when the Rural made 
its failure with the R. N.-Y. trench-mulch 
system upon a half acre, not over half the 
seed-pieces sprouted? This was one telling 
cause of the failure. But why didn’t the seed- 
pieces sprout. It was owing, as we believe, to 
the fact that the potatoes planted had been 
chilled if not slightly frozen. If we had ex¬ 
posed the seed to the sun and air, this mishap 
might have been avoided, since, as with Mr. 
Rose, the imperfect eyes might have been de¬ 
tected and thrown out. 
The agricultural editor of the N. Y. Times 
says that everything just now is encouraging 
debt in the new West. It is a most unsub¬ 
stantial foundation and holds up a deceptive 
shadow of prosperity. Everything encour¬ 
ages easy borrowing, and this, coupled with 
the weakness of human nature, results in very 
difficult repayment. As long as loans of 
81,000 can be renewed by new loans of 81,500, 
and these by new ones of 82,000, all will be 
lovely. Interest is paid promptly, and the fer¬ 
tile soil makes the payment easy. But when 
this extension is no longer possible and the 
principal is demanded the worn-out farm will 
alone be left for the debt. Eastern fanners 
who are taking many of these debentures know 
very well that this system cannot last, that 
the farm cannot pay such interest and ex- 
pences, and should therefore be wary of in¬ 
vesting in such securities, while the honest 
Western farmer should remember that “he 
who goes a-borrowing comes a-sorrowing” in 
due process of time. 
Here are some reminders as presented by 
the experienced J. J. Thomas, in the Albany 
Cultivator: 
Good, healthy, bracing roots are of more im¬ 
portance than asymmetrical top. 
The roots should be long and strong enough, 
and the top made light enough, to obviate any 
staking. 
If the roots of a tree are frozen, and then 
thawed out of the ground or in contact with 
the air, the tree will bo killed. 
Manure should never be placed in contact 
with the roots when setting out a tree, but 
used for a mulch or top-dressing. 
Avoid particularly any small cavity next 
the roots, but fill compactly against them on 
all sides with fine, mellow earth. 
A small, thrifty tree with copious roots 
when set out, will be a good bearing tree 
sooner than a large one with mutilated roots. 
Young trees should not be set in a grass lot, 
or among any crops of sowed grain; but the 
whole surface should be kept clean and mellow. 
If newly set ones suffer from drought, mulch 
the ground about them, and frequently sprin¬ 
kle or shower the stems and branches. 
As a general rule, cultivation should be con¬ 
tinued for six, eight or ten years from plant¬ 
ing, after which closely grazed or lawn-mowed 
grass may be permitted, with frequent top¬ 
dressing. 
The amount of manuring or top-dressing 
must vary with the vigor of the trees; young 
trees should grow two or three feet yearly, 
and bearing ones one foot or more. 
Keep an eye to the future shape of the tree, 
and timely remove small, needless, crossing 
or crooked limbs. This will obviate heavy 
pruning in after years. . 
Skim-milk and cement paint so easily and 
cheaply prepared, was described in recipe- 
books years ago, but a knowledge of it was re¬ 
vived by Gen. Le Due while he was U. S. Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture, says Major Alvord 
in the Cultivator. Gen. Le Due mentioned 
an instance of a country bouse within his per¬ 
sonal knowledge, the body of which was cov¬ 
ered with skim-milk and cement, and the 
trimmings with lead and oil paint, forty-five 
years before he described it; during this period 
the trimming paint had been renewed several 
times, but the cheap body color remained well 
preserved . 
The paint has but two parts, both cheap 
materials, being water-lime or hydraulic 
cement and skimmed milk. The cement is 
placed in a bucket, and the skim-milk, sweet, 
is gradually added, stirring constantly, until 
just about the the consistency of good cream. 
The stirring must be thoroughly done to have 
an even flow, and if too thin, the mixture will 
run on the building and look streaked. The 
proportions cannot be exactly stated,but a gal¬ 
lon of milk requires a full quart of cement and 
sometimes a little more. This is a convenient 
quantity to mix at a time, for one person to use. 
If too much is prepared the cement will settle 
and harden before all is used. A flat paint 
brush, about four inches wide, is the best im¬ 
plement to use with this mixture. Lay it on 
exactly as with oil paint. It can be applied to 
wood-work, old or new, and to brick and stone. 
When dry, the color is a light, creamy brown, 
or what some would call a yellowish stone 
color. 
The Husbandman reminds its readers that 
land which will produce 20 bushels of wheat 
should produce two tons of hay. The wheat 
will be worth about 818,00, the hay at least 
824. Besides this, the difference in cost will be 
810 more in favor of the hay or a total of at 
least 815. 
The London Garden presents in last week’s 
issue a fine colored picture of the new Tea 
rose, Madame de Watteville, which it praises 
in the highest terms. 
The Garden says that Prince Camille de 
Roban is yet the darkest rose and of a color 
not found in any other class. It is a shy, 
autumnal bloomer, as are most other hardy 
roses. 
The R. N.-Y. agrees with the Garden, hav¬ 
ing the plant in its grounds, that there is not 
a neater and brighter little plant than Spiraea 
Bumalda. It is very dwarf—about a foot— 
and its slender stems make a dense mass, 
covering the bush with flat clusters of little 
carmine flowers. The plant is new in this 
country. Our specimen was sent to the Rural 
Grounds by John Saul, of Washington, D. C. 
We regard it as a very desirable acquisition 
among dwarf hardy shrubs. 
Secretary Woodward keeps 150 sheep in 
his 30 acres of orchard. The sheep eat the 
green apples and the orchard is free of the 
coddling moth . 
He also has some 70 cows, that have been 
kept in the stable all winter, and they are in 
perfect health. Each cow makes over 300 
pounds’ gain during the winter and enough 
butter to pay for the feed. The temperature 
of his barn never gets below 50°. He does not 
believe in stanchions, preferring to tie the 
cattle around the neck. 
Dr. Sturtevant remarked before the Mas¬ 
sachusetts Horticultural Society that the 
Perfect Gem Squash, lately introduced as a 
new and fine variety (it is really valuable), 
excited much curiosity in the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury. 
Dr. Beal says, in the New York World,that 
after 10 years of experimenting he considers 
the hardy catalpa one of the most profitable 
trees for timber, but from later observation 
he finds it is too tender to be unreservedly 
recommended .. 
The well-known potato grower, Alfred Rose, 
according to the World, opens trenches eight 
inches deep; then he grades to full six inches 
deep. He then drops two eyes for each hill 
and covers two inches deep. The four inches 
still left open are filled up as the vines grow. 
The R. N.-Y. regards this as a good plan. Mr, 
