TOE BUBAL flEW"Y©B8CEB. 
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4338 
quarter af an acre of sandy soil. Mr. J. J. 
Thomas mentions that on land formerly 
owned by him, the new owner obtained from 
five-eighths of an acre at the rate of 400 bushels 
an acre. It was the Wilson. 
The old-fashioned method of turning and 
working over manure for six months or a 
year before using it is very rightly falling 
into disuse. The careful experience of Dr. 
Voelcker, Chemist of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, proves that mauure grad¬ 
ually depreciates by keeping under the very 
best management, gaining in water and losing 
in valuable organic matter, which is spent in 
the fermentation. How, then, must it waste 
and lose under the ordinary exposure in a 
yard subject to excessive heating and washing 
by rains?. 
Professor A. J. Cook reminds readers of 
the New York Tribune that the apple tree 
borers work not alone near the soil but up to 
the branches, and even on them. His remedy 
is to rub the trunks with soft-soap three 
weeks after the trees blossom. It is a cheap 
and effective remedy. 
A gross and most injurious adulteration 
by which farmers suffer and the public health * 
and life are endangered is the mixture of cot¬ 
ton-seed oil with lard, says Henry Stewart. 
The market value of lard is not only unduly 
reduced by the excessive product, but the 
character of the adulterant is dangerous in 
the extreme. The effects of cotton-seed meal 
upon cows in calf are well known, for numer¬ 
ous cases of abortion are produced by this 
food used only in moderate quantities. The 
medicinal character of the cotton plant, the 
root especially, is well known, and the use of 
the meal has been found to result in a similar 
way. If the manufacture of oleomargarine 
was put under a ban on account of its sup¬ 
posed unwholesome qualities, that of cotton¬ 
seed oil lard should be entirely forbidden, be¬ 
cause of its known dangerous character. 
Single roses, the London Garden says, are 
liecoming fashionable, and the wonder is they 
have not been thought of before. 
A well-known firm of London consider 
the Bride (our Mr. Tapliu’s sport of Catharine 
Mermet) the white rose of the future, and 
likely to take the place of Niphetos. A corre¬ 
spondent considers the Puritan a grand va¬ 
riety, having great substance in its pearly 
white petals.. 
The editor of the Garden considers Barr’s 
Asparagus an excellent novelty. He has test¬ 
ed it for several years, and finds it the largest 
and earliest. 
Where is the justice in a farmer with three 
per cent, only, of fat in his milk, getting the 
same money for a hundred pounds of it, that 
the farmer does who has five per cent, in his? 
asks Hoard’s Dairyman. The one should have 
“value received,” and the other should be 
made to see that he needs better cows. Noth¬ 
ing that could possibly happen would so shake 
up the dry bones of these shiftless, unthink¬ 
ing, non-reading, poor feeding dairy farmers 
as to be obliged to sell their milk or pool it 
for just what it is worth, and no more. We 
hope the day will soon come when milk will 
be taken at creameries and cheese factories, 
and the returns divided on the basis of the 
real butter or cheese value of it, not its weight 
in pounds. 
Such a system would do more to make pat¬ 
rons honest and fair with the cow and the 
factory, than all the preaching since Adam. 
Our present system pays a premium for a man 
to be a stingy feeder and a dishonest patron. 
He sees that it is cheaper to put water into 
the milk than feed into the cow, for a pound 
of water weighs as much as a pound of butter, 
and the danger of detection is altogether too 
remote. 
Prof. W. A. Henry says in the Breeder’s 
Gazette that Alfalfa kills out badly at the 
Wisconsin Experiment Station. The subsoil 
is a heavy clay not liked by Alfalfa. The sub¬ 
soil should be porous. “Do not neglect red 
clover for Alfalfa.”. 
Dairymen, Prof. Henry says, who push 
their business for the money there is in it 
fasten their cows in the old-fashioned stanch¬ 
ion, for the reasons that in such a place the 
cow occupies less space than in any other 
method and is easier kept clean. There is no 
doubt that the stanchion fills these two great 
requisites of the average dairyman, but it is 
by no means so certain that he does not lose 
considerable in milk from the lack of comfort 
which the cows must experience. 
It is estimated, remarks the above journal, 
that the average yield of butter per annum 
of cows kept for dairy purposes is 130 pounds, 
and Prof. Robertson of the Ontario Agricul¬ 
tural College at Guelph estimates the average 
production in Canada at less than 125 pounds. 
Inasmuch as 300-pound cows are no rarity a 
product of 125 to 130 pounds is ridiculously 
small.... 
Imitation creamery butter, according to the 
New England Farmer, is principally a Western 
product. It is churned by the different farm¬ 
ers and left in the churns for the gatherer, 
who carries it to the creamery, where the 
collected products from the different dairies 
are worked over, mado into one mass and 
colored and salted uniformly. Imitation 
creamery butter is, therefore, made from 
gathered butter — not gathered cream—to 
which nothing has been done but the churn¬ 
ing. When the farmers work it over, salt or 
color it, and it is then taken to a. central fac¬ 
tory and again worked over into a homoge¬ 
neous mass, the product is called ladle-packed 
butter. 
Mr. W. G. Pettit, of Burlington, Ont, 
having been refused registration for a Short¬ 
horn bull in the Dominion Herd Book, by vote 
of the Revising Committee of the Association, 
has employed counsel and proposes an appeal 
to the courts to compel the admission of the 
bull to registration. This is the first case of 
the kind of which we have heard, at least on 
this side of the water. 
According to the secretary of the Colorado 
Cattle Growers’ Association the inspectors it 
maintained last year at Omaha, Pacific Junc¬ 
tion and Kansas City turned back to the 
ranges or sold for account of the owners 2,522 
estrays. The association received for the 
estrays $15,099 and from the railroads $27,633 
for cattle killed, or a total of $42,732. The 
association has 395 members, and the first 
intimation any of them had that their estrays 
had been recovered or that their animals had 
been killed on the rails, was the receipt of a 
draft for the amount recovered. The entire 
expenses were only $5,000. 
The Breeders’ Gazette and the National 
Stockman agree that a good deal of pluck is 
needed to buy good cattle now-a-days, and 
both agree that such pluck would very proba¬ 
bly prove quite profitable. Cattle arcyillowed 
to go at public sales at one-half the money 
that men breeding the same stock avowedly 
believe they are worth. Whatever degree of 
faith may be entertained, it is plain that a 
very slight measure of it is thus practically 
manifested. If the recognized leaders in the 
live stock industry are thus timid, is it strange 
that the masses who are watching them should 
seem to be lacking in courage?. 
WORD FOR WORD. 
Mr. Powell, in Mass. Ploughman: “All I 
ask of farmers is that they try the old Domi¬ 
nique fowls. They are good layers, good sit¬ 
ters and good fowls for the table.”— ; Prof. 
Johnson, Mich. Ag. College: “After repeated 
trials with many of the so-called new and im¬ 
proved varieties of oats, I am compelled to 
say that, in my judgment, not one of them is 
superior, if equal, to the common white oat 
for general cultivation. In yield and quality 
of grain and straw, it has year after year 
made a most favorable showing in compari¬ 
son with any of the new and much advertised 
sorts.” Has Prof, Johnson ever tried the 
Schoenen?-New England Farmer: “Dr. 
Geo. A. Bowen, of Woodstock, Connecticut, 
some years ago began experiments in a small 
way in planting the nuts and seeds of our na¬ 
tive forest trees. He learned that if a board 
be placed in the bottom of the trench in which 
the seeds are planted, the would-be tap-root 
will be turned from its downward course and 
will become more branched and fibrous, mak¬ 
ing a better tree to transplant.”-“Owner¬ 
ship of a garden promotes temperance, as idle¬ 
ness supports the saloon.”-Farm Jour¬ 
nal: “Now, good woman, be sure and take 
an afternoon nap every day. This will keep 
the second wife at bay.”- 
Cbfn)w!jei*c. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Iowa. 
DesMoines, Polk Co., May 4.—We had a 
fine April for work and our farmers improved 
it. They got their small grains all sowed, al¬ 
so grass and clover seeds, and corn land is all 
or nearly all ready for planting. An unusu¬ 
ally large amount of grass, clover and onioL 
seeds has been sown this spring. Extra large 
crops of early potatoes have also been planted. 
The trade in all seeds, field and garden, has 
been unusually large. Our farmers have 
worked this spring with an energy never 
known in this country before. A great 
amount of all kinds of fruit has been planted. 
Stock is doing finely on grass; plenty of water, 
and we are having splendid rains. Gardens 
doing well—in fact everything is promising 
at this date. f. s. w. 
Kansas. 
Conway, McPherson Co., May 1.—Good 
rains on April 26 and 28. Turned cool on the 
29th with heavy frost and light freeze. 
Our early corn, sweet corn, potatoes and 
beaus were up from two to four inches. 
Of course, they are badly damaged, if not 
killed outright. The fruit prospect was said 
to be the best we ever had. The bloom had 
just fallen from the apples, and now the re¬ 
sult is uncertain as we never had any experi' 
ence with frost when the young fruit was so 
far advanced. Wheat is looking fine. Oats 
had been needing rain, but now we have plen¬ 
ty of moisture. Corn with me is all planted, 
while a few have not commenced yet. By the 
5th it will likely all be in the ground. We 
turned our stock on pasture April 18; doing 
well. Despite the driest year this country 
ever experienced there was enough raised to 
feed all stock, and there have been no losses 
that we have heard of. Considerable oats 
shipped out. t. m. r. 
Oswego, Labette Co.—The spring is very 
backward. Oats look fine. Wheat not very 
promising except on river bottoms. Corn 
mostly planted; a good area and a fine stand. 
Gardens look fine. Weather cool; plenty of 
rain. Fruit plentiful. Good apples and 
peaches now the size of hazlenuts. G. w. c. 
Parsons, Labettte Co., April 28.—May 
Day will find seed-time two weeks later tban- 
the average. The weather has been unusual¬ 
ly cool, and the amount of wind and rain has 
been greatly above the average, the latter be¬ 
ing over eight inches in this month, more 
than half of the total rain of last year. Live¬ 
stock are thinner than ever known. The sup¬ 
ply of beef for the next two months will be 
very much diminished. Local butchers are 
scouring the country, picking up here aud 
there an animal fit to kill. The result is great¬ 
ly enhanced prices for beef cattle. Those 
which brought $1.75 on the foot six months 
ago are now bringing $2.75. Corn planting 
is about half done, and the early planted is 
looking pretty well, save that it is a little 
yellow from the coolness of the season. Oats 
and wheat are quite promising, and the chinch 
bugs have not yet appeared, the season being 
adverse to them. Fruit promises a good crop; 
apples are just out of bloom. Trade and ag¬ 
riculture are in a very bad state. It is not a 
bit strange, when we consider that for three 
consecutive seasons we have had half crops. 
Farmers have no money, yet the implement 
men have put up the prices of their wares, 
with the prospect of having to put up their 
tools for waut of purchasers. Taxes on whis¬ 
ky and tobacco are very oppressive, aud it 
seems must be taken off, while the necessa¬ 
ries of life must be protected. The real-estate 
booms in cities of the first and second class 
have very much subsided, and much of the 
land is changing hands by going over to pre¬ 
vious owners. Prices of products are now as 
follows: Flour, per 100 pounds (best), $3; 
meal; $1.20; bran, 75 cents; potatoes, per 
bushel, $t; wheat, 80 cents; corn, 45 cents; 
oats, 30 cents; coal, per ton, $3; cattle, prime 
cows, $3.50 per 100 pounds; hogs, $4.75; eggs, 
per dozen, 8 % cents; butter, per pound, 
(scarce), 20 cents; hay (prairie), per ton, $6. 
J. B. 
Maryland. 
Sharptown, Wicomico Co., April 28.— 
This has been a very wet spring, consequently 
farm work is behind, though we are having 
nice weather now and people are in good 
spirits generally. More superphosphate is 
used than usual. There are good prospects of a 
large crop of peaches; strawberries and black¬ 
berries average crops I wish every house 
owner could have a Road Special, j. t. e. 
Texan. 
Hulto, Williamson Co.—We have good 
promises for fruit, oats, corn, cotton, Rural 
Branching Sorghum, potatoes (Irish aud 
sweet) aud pecans, but a poor prospect for 
wheat. Stock is in good condition and we are 
happy. B. & s. 
Wisconsin. 
Fountain City, Buffalo Co., May l.-We 
have had a very backward spring. Snow un¬ 
til the middle of April covered ihe fields, pro¬ 
tecting the winter wheat from damaging 
frosts, and in consequence it is in first-class 
condition. It was actually growing uuder the 
snow; the same with grass; both are a good 
way ahead in growth compared with last 
spring, although it was several weeks earlier. 
N. J. B. 
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