Summit and Warfield. The following are 
classed as doubtful, or not sufficiently tested 
to justify an opinion, viz.: Belmont, Bomba, 
Carmichael, Covell, Crimson Cluster, Gandy, 
Henderson and Lida. 3. Of the newer rasp¬ 
berries, the following are classed as promis¬ 
ing, viz.: Carman, Earhart, Golden Queen, 
Hilborn and Johnson’s Sweet. The following 
are classed as doubtful, or not yet fully test¬ 
ed, viz.: Rancocas, Nemaha and Springfield. 
Crimson Beauty and Hansell are found un¬ 
suited to the soil and climate of the Station. 
Of the newer potatoes the largest yield obtain¬ 
ed at the Station over a period of three sea¬ 
sons (266,8 bushels per acre) has been from 
Lee’s Favorite. Empire State and Early Ohio 
come next, ranking above Early Rose, which 
has yielded 225.4 bushels per acre for the same 
period. 5. Larger yields of potatoes have 
invariably been obtained from planting whole 
than cut potatoes; but a portion, at least, of 
this increase has been offset by the greater 
cost of the seed and the larger per cent, of 
small potatoes in the produce. 6. Complete 
fertilizers have given the largest increase in 
yield of potatoes. The application of phos¬ 
phoric acid (in superphosphate and bone meal) 
appears to have been attended with profit, 
while that of nitrogen alone (in nitrate of 
soda and ammonia) has resulted in loss, as has 
also that of potash alone. 7. The importance 
of careful selection of seed is forcibly shown in 
the experiments with tomatoes, in which the 
Acme, selected with a view to earliness, for 
several seasons has outstripped other strains 
of that variety by about ten days. 
Manual Labor at Agricultural Col¬ 
leges —1'he advocates of compulsory man¬ 
ual labor in an agricultural school, says Prof. 
Massey- in the American Farmer, as quoted 
by the Press, lose sight of the fact that the 
object of these schools is not the training of 
farm laborers, but the training and develop¬ 
ing of executive talent, which shall be em¬ 
ployed in future years in the skillful manage¬ 
ment and direction of farm laborers. There 
will always be hewers of wood and drawers 
of water without college education, and the 
student will find when ho takes charge of 
a farm that any of his negro laborers can beat 
him at the manual exercises he has spent so 
much time to learn. An agricultural college 
differs widely from a mechanical training 
school, since the one should mainly train the 
administrative capacity, while the other has 
for its object and end the acquisition of man¬ 
ual dexterity. The agricultural college is for 
the training of skilled officers for the great 
army of muscle with which we are to subdue 
and improve the land. Prof. Massey is, there¬ 
fore, of the opinion that when the manual la¬ 
bor idea is carried beyond the point of acquir¬ 
ing a familiarity with the tools of the 
craft and their proper working it involves a 
serious Joss of time lo the student. The field 
of study is so wide and the time usually de¬ 
voted to the course so short that the student 
can not afford to be a laborer in the field fur¬ 
ther than to drill himself in the use of certain 
tools and in the handling of animals, all of 
which cau be accomplished in an early period 
of the course. 
The Ohio Station, having tested nine differ¬ 
ent kinds of tomatoes, viz., Acme, Advance, 
Buist’s Beauty, Livingston’s Beauty, Cardi¬ 
nal, Climax, Favorite, Mikado and Perfec¬ 
tion, finds that the Cardinal, from Hendeison, 
gave the greatest weight of tomatoes to a 
given number of plants,and Livingston’s Beau¬ 
ty, from Livingston, next. The R. N.-Y. finds 
that the Optimus is as good, productive and 
smooth as any tomato it has hitherto tried.... 
The following were the earliest kinds of 
peas tried, and gave the largest per cent, of 
peas at the first picking, viz., Alaska, Vick’s 
Extra Early, Laudreth’s Extra Early, Hender¬ 
son’s First of All and the Rural IN ew-Yorker. 
All of the foregoing were picked the 54th day 
after sowing.. 
At a late meeting of the farmers in the 
Mass. Ploughman’s Hall, Boston, George Y. 
Jonnsou said that it took him a good wLile be- 
iore he could get up the nerve to dehorn his 
cattle. At length he bought a saw suited to 
the purpose, and fastening six heads of cattle 
in stanchions proceeded to saw them off. In 
the first instance the blood flew five feet. He 
waited to see the animal die, but it walked to 
the other end and stuck its head through the 
structure and began to eat hay. Then he de¬ 
horned the others. One moment after the 
horns were off they were the same as ever. 
The next he operated upon, he timed his 
work. The horns of 50 head were sawn off in 
32 minutes 11. 
The place where the horn touches the soft 
skin is the place to saw, Mr. Johnson says, 
and it is the only place. 
Mr. B. P. Ware looks upon the whole mat¬ 
ter of dehorning grown cattle as a piece of 
barbarism wholly unnecessary. If one ani¬ 
mal in a herd is a fighter and the boss, fatten 
her and sell her for beef. The fact that ani¬ 
mals feed after dehorning is no argument in 
favor of it. In battles animals, after a leg 
has been shot off, will go about immediately 
on three legs after food. Animals so injured 
as to be unable to rise will eat the grass as far 
as they can reach. Mr. Ware looks upon a 
handsome pair of horns as highly ornament¬ 
al. 
There is no doubt, said Dr. Geo. B. Loring 
at the same meeting (as reported in the 
Ploughman), that in a herd of cows every new¬ 
comer has got to establish for herself a place, 
and there is no doubt that if neither she nor 
the other cattle have horns it can be more 
easily done. He had no doubt in the manage¬ 
ment of a herd of 50 cows, that dispensing 
with the horns would be a great advantage. 
Why not cut off a cow’s horns as well as a 
horse’s tail? said Dr. Loring. When he was a 
boy they used to drive bob-tailed horses. We 
are returning to the old-fashioned custom 
now. But instead of setting the tails up now 
they are setting them down. A stylish bob¬ 
tailed horse is a good-looking animal. It 
seems to have its two ends finished—head up 
and tail up. But when the process is going 
on if you put a peck of oats near, the horse 
will proceed to eat the oats. What a prudent 
provision this all is, when we know that the 
life of these animals is a life of sacrifice and 
suffering so far as man is concerned. If it 
were not so in the animal kingdom, a man 
would be ashamed of himself and discard that 
part of his life which would depend upon the 
subjection of a well-organized sensitive crea¬ 
tion. So Dr. Loring settles the whole ques¬ 
tion of cruelty on this ground. If thq suffer¬ 
ing of the animal is necessary, it must be per¬ 
formed, and man should not hesitate. 
The Michigan Experiment Station is desir¬ 
ous of testing spayed side by side against un¬ 
spayed animals, to determine if they fatten 
sooner or better upon the same quantity and 
quality of food, and if they do increase, the 
exact amount of the increase will be deter¬ 
mined and recorded. The effect of the opera¬ 
tion will also be tried upon milch cows of 
various ages, to test, first of all, its influence 
upon their meat, and also to discover if possible 
how long it will take for the beneficial change 
(assuming • that there be one) to occur. The 
Rural begs to regard all such experiments as 
downright cruelty, not at all justified by any 
advantages which may follow. 
Again it is desirous to know how long the 
period of profitable lactation will last; and to 
test the quality as well as the quantity of the 
milk, for an extended period, say a year or 
two, or even more..;. 
Dr. Chamberlain says, in the Prairie 
Farmer, that on the college farm (Ames, Iowa), 
Hungarian Grass gives the very best possible 
breeding ground for the chinch bug. From 
45 acres only five tons of hay were harvested. 
For Iowa he prefers clover to Alfalfa. 
Prof. Henry states, in the above journal, 
that he has seen nothing in his experiments 
made at the Madison (Wis.) Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, to indicate that Red Clover and Timothy 
will be supplanted by any of the newer candi¬ 
dates for favor. Clover and Timothy stand 
at the head. For partially shady places he 
strongly recommends farmers to sow a quan¬ 
tity of Orchard Grass seed with other kinds. 
It is well also to sow it with clover for hay. 
Orchard Grass ripens before Timothy, so that 
when the clover should be cut, the Orchard 
Grass is also ready. W hen Timothy is sown 
with clover, we must wait until the Timothy 
is mature enough for hay, by which time the 
clover is generally past its best estate . 
Mr. Hewett, the distinguished poultry fan¬ 
cier, speaks well of the Red-caps, both as re¬ 
gards the production of eggs and also their 
value for the table. They are a weighty and 
thick bodied fowls, and if the eggs are weighed 
as well as counted, he believes them to be the 
most abundant egg-producers of all poultry. 
He says they are very hardy in England; but 
are they so very hardy in this climate? We 
should suppose their big rose combs would suf¬ 
fer in very severe weather. Mr. Hewett says 
the eggs are strong-shelled. They are non¬ 
sitters. 
The Rural’s Red caps are thriving admir¬ 
ably. As l emarked a week or so ago, we have 
never seen a more uniformly marked lot of 
chicks. Thus far we notice but one irregular¬ 
ity—a single comb. 
The American Garden will issue a Rose 
Special in June . 
Hoard’s Dairyman says that fortunately 
for the future of the dairy stock of this coun 
try Mr. Haaff found but few disciples among 
the intelligent breeders of thoroughbred dairy 
cattle. And his chances for such discipleship 
are growing beautifully less . 
A writer in the same Journal says that 
judging from his own experience it pays to 
have the horns removed, for the increased 
amount of milk and butter, to say nothing o^ 
the less risk and the more pleasure and con¬ 
venience in handling. So far as humanity is 
is concerned he considers that when ho caused 
the horns to be removed from his cows he 
performed one of the most humane acts of his 
life 
The Philadelphia Weekly Press says that a 
practical farmer should know how the various 
operations on the farm are performed, whether 
he takes an active part in them or net, and 
knowledge is well enough acequired at home, 
but the young farmer should have a good dril¬ 
ling in the deeper things concerning his pro¬ 
fession before launching out into business life. 
A course in some good agricultural college is 
excellent capital for a young man who chooses 
agriculture as a profession. But he should 
not be sent to college and compelled to pay his 
way with the labor of his hands. There is no 
doubting the fact that manual labor being 
compulsory in some of our agricultural colleges 
has deterred many young men from entering 
them. Ibis is not because the boys are _jazy, 
but they do not see the need of going off the 
farm to learn how to pick strawberries and hoe 
potatoes. 
ABSTRACTS. 
The Farmer (St. Paul, Minn): “It takes 
nerve to go without things rather than have 
them “charged” at the store, but patched 
garments are more comfortable than duns 
and lawsuits.” . . . “It takes nerve to 
shoot a glandered horse, but the disease is in¬ 
curable, and the bullet may save other horses, 
and perhaps the owner’s life or that of some 
other member of the family.” . . . “It 
takes nerve to give up the wheat crop, with 
its easy culture and its occasional alluring re¬ 
turns, but there is more money—and more 
certain money—in diversified farming, in all 
regions where markets are good for general 
products.” . . . “It takes nerve to say no 
to a man who wants to sell one machinery, or 
stock, or anything else, on long time, but un¬ 
less actually needed to carry on the farm 
profitably, to do so will save money and an 
infinity of worry and trouble.” . . . “It 
takes nerve to restrict the acreage of crops 
and put the labor upon one acre that is usual¬ 
ly bestowed upon two, but the result is less 
weeds, better harvests, and more enduring 
fertility.” . . . “It takes nerve to keep a 
man and team from field work to let them do 
a little in the garden, but a cheaply supplied 
good table and a saving of doctor’s bills are 
the reward.” . . . “It takes nerve to spend 
time and money to set trees and shrubs about 
the house, put a neat fence around the yard, 
and paint the farm buildings, but it makes 
home more beautiful, the family happier, and 
enhances the value of the homestead.”- 
Industrialist: “Avery careful examination 
of the corn fields at various times this spring 
has convinced Superintendent Graham, of the 
Kansas Agricultural College, that the burn¬ 
ing of corn-stalks and weeds to kill chinch 
bugs is a waste of time. The bugs do not 
hide in the fodder, the corn stubs or the weeds, 
but do hide very close to the roots of the grass. 
Burning the grass does not destroy many 
of them, because the grass is damp near the 
surface of the ground and the fire does not 
reach them. The question of the proper dis¬ 
posal of our surplus chinch bugs seems yet to 
-Dr. Bascom: “A 
remain an open one.’ 
man must be industrious, thoughtful, and 
frugal as the final condition of assured pros¬ 
perity. Progress among men resolves itself 
into personal qualities, and can be success¬ 
fully reached in no other way. This is God’s 
aphorism.”-Jersey Bulletin: “If a per¬ 
son is not gentle enough to successfully handle 
the gentle dairy queen—the Jersey—he had 
better keep mules, so as to have something 
companionable to associate with.”-Dairy¬ 
man : “Mr. Hoard found one of the best butter- 
makers putting cream just skimmed into the 
churn. When he asked the farmer if he did 
not know that the most of that cream was 
wasted in the butter-milk, he replied. ‘Yes, 
I’ve read that was so, but I never took much 
stock in it.”-Globe-Democrat: Travelers 
tell us that the country roads in America are 
in every way inferior to those found in any 
other civilized country. So says the Rural 
New-Yorker, in a number devoted wholly to 
road-making, and then it apologizes for so 
strong a statement. Not a bit of it, Mr. 
Rural! We have the vilest roads on any 
continent, not excepting Africa. And if our 
agricultural papers can inaugurate a change 
for the better, they will do more for us than 
the political parties have done for 25 years. 
Civilization is, or ought to be, a march out 
of swamps and mud and dust, along a high¬ 
way of comfort. The trouble now is with our 
path master system, which is a system of pre¬ 
tenses and fraud and failures.”-N. Y. 
Times: “Carp have been offered in the Phila¬ 
delphia market, and have been favorably re¬ 
ceived by the conservative and exacting 
housekeepers of that very fussy community.” 
1M 
ancoAts, 
PLANT INTERMARRIAGES. 
Nature seems to forbid these in the vegeta¬ 
ble world, as distinctly as reason, experience 
and sacred law join with her to forbid them 
in our own world. Dr. Asa Gray, during his 
life, poured light on the many and singular 
contrivances by which cross-fertilization is 
provided for among plants, and he does not 
hide his light under a bushel, but gives illus¬ 
trations and explanations so clear as to l>e 
plainly understandable with the aid of the 
very slightest acquaintance with botany. 
This useful study is well worthy of attention, 
if only to afford a better appreciation of the 
mysteries and wonders of plant-life, which are 
really as interesting as an Arabian Night’s 
tale. But the study is worth more than this. 
It is obviously an intent of the Creator that 
the plants that meet us everywhere, and as to 
which we are continually asking, “What are 
they for?” should not merely be trampled 
under foot, but should be made subjects of 
examination. They are, like the rainbow, 
tokens of promise, of hope, of resurrection’ 
and of a brighter, happier world. 
Among the expositions which Dr. Gray 
gives of Mr. Darwin’s deductions from his 
wonderful stores of observed facts and test 
experiments, the comparisons ingeniously 
made between the seedling plants of exactly 
equal vigor and age, set in the same pot and 
same soil: one self-or close-fertilized, and 
the other fertilized by pollen from a distant 
plant—are especially notable. The difference 
in growth was always in favor of the latter- 
and, m many cases so great, that it seems to 
promise wonders in the way of improving 
varieties. All of us who are dwellers in the 
country, know that wheat does not sport into 
varieties or mix so tyeoly as Indian corn. The 
blossom of wheat has been said by experienced 
hybridists to be fertilized before it leaves the 
sheath, so that, in the case of this valuable 
grain, man’s aid seems to be wanted, not only 
through all the many perils and risks of its 
growth in the fields, but for the infusion of 
vigor into the-seed through a selection and 
conveyanceof select and non-related pollen. 
We hear of but few cross-breeders who have 
made wheat a successful subject of their use- 
,i . Y ^ fc lfc is Perhaps the plant, above 
all others in temperate climes, which promises 
the greatest results and the most widespread 
advantages from efforts in this line. w. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
New York. 
SouTn Dayton, Cattaraugus Co.—We are 
having a dry, cold spring. At this date the 
cherry trees are just in blossom. Grain is 
nearly all in. Old meadows are much killed 
out. 1 hose of two or three years’ standing 
look good; newly seeded will be rather light 
except those seeded to clover. All grains have 
taken a rise except wheat. Oats are worth 50 
cents aud are scarce; corn 75; barley 85 - po¬ 
tatoes $1; meal §1,35 per cwt. Wheat prom 
ises well. Early pigs are worth §8. The acreage 
of oats aud potatoes around here will be large- 
the acreage of other crops will be about med¬ 
ium. A good many roots will be sown this 
spring and the acreage of grapes in the north¬ 
ern piirt of the county will be nearly double 
what it was last year. A new canning factory 
will be run at Forestville, which will use a 
good lot of produce, in that line. The rasp¬ 
berry business is rather dropping off. 
A. H. L. 
Pennsylvania. 
Peaksville, Bedford Co., May 20.—Our 
prospects are good for fairly good crops. 
Wheat is better than it has been for some 
years. Oats were stunted by a dry spell when 
they were young, but recent rains have de¬ 
cidedly improved the outlook. Hay will be 
good if the season continues favorable. The to¬ 
bacco crop will be diminished considerably,ow¬ 
ing to the present low prices. Plants are 
plenty, and some planting has commenced. 
Corn is up well, and a large crop has been 
planted. Apples will be a fair crop; peaches 
a full crop. Ri K> 
For Tired Brain. 
Use Horsford’s Acid Phosphate. 
Dr. O. C. Stout, Syracuse, N. Y., says: “I 
gjave it to one patient who was unable to trans¬ 
act the most ordinary business, because bis 
brain was ‘tired aud confused’ upon the least 
mental exertion. Immediate benefit, and ul¬ 
timate recovery followed.”— Adv. 
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