4888 
TOE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
847 
suits secured by this insignificant expenditure 
may well be reckoned high up among the 
millions. Thus do “tall oaks from little 
acorns grow.” 
Valuable papers were read by the leading 
foresters of the country. B. E. Fernow, 
N. H. Egleston, E. T. Ensign, Charles Mohr, 
Gen. A. W. Greely, Charles H. Smith (“Bill 
Arp”—a humorous paper), Geo. N. Atkiuson, 
Adolph Levi, M. G. Kern, Mrs. Ellen C. 
Long, Mrs. Jefferson Davis, Robert Bell, 
Martin Conrad, E. E. Russel Trotman, and 
Cassius M. Clay were among the contrib¬ 
utors, though not all present in person. Gen. 
Greely, Chief of the Signal Service Bureau* 
was here and was the lion qf the Congress. 
He took frequent part in the debate, besides 
making several addresses and reading a paper 
on the rainfall of the Rocky Mountains and 
Pacific Slope, from advance sheets of his re¬ 
port to Congress. 
Although the foresters agree pretty well in 
regard to the importance of forests and 
methods of fostering and conserving them, 
they are not altogether unanimous regarding 
all collateral questions. One of the disputed 
points is whether or not to admit lumber 
from Canada free, and this would have been 
very warmly discussed had time permitted. 
On the one hand, it is urged that the tariff of 
$2 a thousand restricts imports, and thus in¬ 
creases the drain on our own forests; on the 
other, that it makes no material difference, 
because the white pine which is mostly af¬ 
fected by it, is controlled on both sides of the 
line by the same parties, and the tariff is even 
favored by a few on the ground that it keeps 
prices high enough to stimulate tree culture, 
which, with lower prices, would be neglected. 
Secretary Fernow, after careful study, con¬ 
cludes that the tariff does not appreciably af¬ 
fect prices, and that its removal now would 
avail nothing toward the salvation of our re¬ 
maining forests, whatever its timely abroga¬ 
tion years ago would have done. 
The great object-lesson of the Congress was 
the tree planting. The reading of papers was 
heard but by a small audience, the public 
open-air exercises impressed all. After the 
morning session yesterday, we adjourned to 
the Girls’ High School, where the girls went 
through a fire drill, clearing the building in a 
minute and a half. This, was followed by 
calisthenic exercises and music in the build¬ 
ing, and then all turned out again, and seven 
elms were planted around the school house, 
dedicated respectively to Gov. Sterling Mor¬ 
ton, the Father of Ai^ior Day, Gov. J. B. 
Beaver, Mrs. Cleveland, Mrs. Harrison, Gen. 
Greely, Gov. Gordon and Mrs. DeJarnette, 
Principal of the High School. It gave the 
girls unbounded delight to assist in throwing 
iu the dirt about the trees. In dedicating the 
first tree. Prof. Fernow remarked that al¬ 
though Gov. Morton was very properly called 
“The Father of Arbor Day,” yet recent his¬ 
toric investigations showed that it was only 
an old Indian custom revived. The honors 
of this occasion, too, were captured by Gen. 
Greely, who made an eloquent address in 
dedicating the tree to Mrs. Harrison, and so 
deeply impressed his fair auditors'of the High 
School, that they would fain have carved the 
gallant general into souvenirs wherewith to 
keep in memory this never-to-be-forgotten 
Arbor Day. After planting the trees, we all 
adjourned to the new Capitol, whereon the 
statue of Liberty had just been'placed, on the 
very lay of the assembling of the Forestry 
Congress, and while there, the writer was sur¬ 
rounded and surrendered at discretion to a 
party of these same “unreconstructed rebels.” 
who unblushingly declared that they had 
kissed the General good-bye, and with the 
perversity characteristic of the sex, added the 
tantalizing information that the rest of us 
were not to be paroled on any such terms, 
kisses being reserved for the commanding 
officer. 
The practical work of the Congress consist¬ 
ed of a series of resolutions calling on the 
National Congress to protect the forests on 
the public domain, on the National Academy 
of Sciences to exert its influence in the same 
direction, on colleges and schools and all per¬ 
sons interested to co-operate, urging the for¬ 
mation of local societies and several other 
resolutions, supplemented by a request to 
Congress to increase the appropriations to the 
Signal Service Bureau and Bureau of Fores¬ 
try. 
A few invited guests drove out with Col. 
Root to the beautiful park he has planned and 
laid out, visiting Fort Walker, from which a 
grand view of the new Capitol is had, passing 
the house of “Sam Small” and of Mr. Brown. 
The latter has the finest collection of bric-a- 
bi ac iu the South, including the original manu¬ 
script of Lalla Rookb. 
Gen. Beaver, of Philadelphia, was elected 
president of the Congress. The next meeting 
will probably be at Philadelphia. 
W. H. HALE, Ph. D. 
(£vmjw!)etf. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Katinas. 
Spivey, Kingman Co., Sept. 30.—I have 
been very much interested in the Rural 
Specials. Give us more of them on all farm 
products, such as corn, wheat and oats, and 
all live stock. We farmers out iu Kansas 
have to treat some crops in a different way 
from that practiced in the rest of the country. 
We can’t raise potatoes here unless they are 
mulched. Now the question here is, what is 
the best and cheapest method of mulching » 
The farmers have a hard time of it at present 
—what with poor crops for two seasons, pay¬ 
ing interest on farm mortgages, and high taxes. 
Our live stock, too, has not been worth much 
for two yeai's; good milch cows sell for $10 
per head; our hogs are all gone or nearly so. 
We have had no corn to feed them. Our 
wheat crop was tolerably fair; but most of 
the farmers had quit sowing wheat on ac¬ 
count of chinch bugs for three seasons. What 
little wheat we had went to market as soon as 
thrashed, at low prices, to meet pressing 
necessities. The mortgage companies will 
soon own most of this part of the county, and 
it is pretty much the same all over the State. 
We ought to have a redemption law, as some 
other States have, to give usjtime to save our 
farms. i. b. 
Michigan. 
South Lyon, Oakland Co., November, 
26 —Farming here is mixed; clover sod is 
manured for corn and plowed about the first 
of May and planted about the twelfth. It 
was an average crop this year and sells for 
20 cents for one bushel of ears. The ground 
is plowed the’next spring as early as possible 
for oats. The drought called a halt on the 
crop this ’y ear at about 30 bushels per acre. 
Oats sell at 25 cents. Wheat comes after oats. 
The crop was light this year, being winter- 
killed: yield 15 bushels per acre; price about 
one dollar now, but it has been $1.15. Not 
much is left in first hands. The drought has 
killed most of our clover seeding for three 
years, and hay is scarce: it will bring about 
$12 the ton. Beans are raised here quite 
extensively. The ground is plowed as early 
as other work will permit and kept harrowed 
until the first of June, when the seed is drilled 
—about one half bushel per acre—in rows 28 
inches apart, and gone over with a smoothing 
harrow just before the vines come up and two 
or three times with a spring-tooth cultivator 
afterwards. When fully ripe, the vines are 
pulled or cut two rows at a time, with two 
large shares attached to a wheel cultivator; 
they are forked together in rows or bunches and 
drawn the next day, if the weather is fine, and 
wheat is drilled in. As soon as wheat thrash¬ 
ing is over, or'even before, the bean thrashers 
strike in with separators nearly the same as 
for wheat, and thrash for about six cents per 
bushel as fast as the pitchers can get the 
bundles on the table. Beans have sold at 
$1.10 to $1,(50 per bushel this fall. Most of 
the potatoes are now raised on muck land, 
tamarack, huckleberry and willow swamps, 
drained and cleared. The drought was too 
much for the muck, and the yield was about 
75 bushels per acre, and'the potatoes mostly 
sold for 30 cents a bushel. The muck ground 
is well adapted to celery, potatoes, onions, 
carrots, cabbages and corn, and most garden 
truck. Wheat and oats went to straw and 
lodged. There were many acres of onions 
here, aud the price went down. They were 
peddled out at about 40 cents per bushel. It 
was too dry to start celery, and it is scarce. 
Cabbage growers are offered $1 per 100, and 
many cabbages are being fed out. Just think 
of it—a cabbage from six to 12 pounds for one 
cent! I grew on one-third of an acre 200 
bushels of Yellow Danvers carrots and there 
was room for more. The cows seem to know 
what they were grown for. This is not a 
dairy country. There are no cheese factories 
or creameries in this vicinity. Cattle are 
mostly Short-horn grades. A few years ago 
every farmer here was over-stocked with 
Merinos; now half of them are taking a rest, 
aud the other half are going slow. Owing to 
the drought wheat was drilled two weeks 
later than usual and will go into winter quite 
weak. a. b. 
New York. 
Holtsvillk, Suffolk, Co., Dec., 0.—Our 
place is about the center of Long Island, be¬ 
tween Port Jefferson aud Patchogue. We all 
do mixed farming. Our land is mostly light, 
but very suitable for gardening. I have been 
here a little over a year and have done pretty 
fairly, as my land was very much run down; 
but.I am sowing rye on all of it, and plowing 
it under in the spring. The lack of manure is 
the trouble here; we have to pay so much for 
it that it takes all the profit. I am going this 
spring to try fertilizers with the rye for green 
manure, and will do regular trucking, sending 
my goods to the Boston market. I had some 
N. Y. people out here this summer; they said 
they had no idea that there was any “Wild 
West” out in Long Island. In driving 
through the woods for miles they could not 
see any house. Our present neighbor is a half 
mile south of us. a. g. k. 
V’enn«vlt»nla. 
Brookfield, Tioga Co., December 3.— 
Winter sets in after a rainy autumn. The 
farmers have not been able, by reason of this 
fact, to do fall work as completely as in several 
preceding years. We bad but eight peasant 
days during October. The season has been 
very favorable to oats, corn and buck¬ 
wheat. The areas under these crops have 
been largely increased and the crops sold 
readily at good prices. Potatoes are extra. 
A late variety known here as the Evergreen, 
is very 'prolific under any good method of 
cultivation, and is being'grown more than 
any other sort. So far it has proven itself 
worthy in every instance. The bugs do not 
molest this kind so much, and the tubers are 
free from rot and scab. We have yet to ob¬ 
tain a variety that exceeds the Evergreen in 
vigor of growth. On the whole, the past sea¬ 
son has been^ very favorable and our farmers 
are thankful to Divine Provid r nce that has 
made it so. w. a. p. 
Broad Ford, Fayette Co., Dec. 3.— Wheat 
here was about two-thirds of a crop; oats an 
average crop, and hay less than one-half a 
crop owing to dry weather in the autumn of 
’87. ’Consequently it is scarce and very high. 
Corn was a good crop, but a great deal of it 
is soft. Potatoes were not half a crop, but 
they are good and sound. The cause of their 
failure was excessively hot weather that wilted 
the vines, and the potatoes never recovered 
after having been once checked in their growth, 
and the thriftier their growth the worse the 
check affected them. The same thing ruined 
the crop entirely last year, and I have noticed 
the same thing several years, though I have 
never seen that any agricultural writers have 
said anything about it, and as there can be 
no remedy I suppose it is no use talking. It 
is worse than the potato bug, flea-beetle and 
dry weather combined. 
One can drive off the flea-beetles by dusting 
them with lime every few days; one can’t 
poison them—at least I never could. All kinds 
of fruit, except cherries, were quite plentiful; 
in fact, about one-third went to waste. Toma¬ 
toes and other vegetables the same, and I 
wonder how one can make raising vegetables 
and fruit pay when he can’t sell, or give them 
away. Let us have some more experience from 
Jerseyman, as there is more sense in one of 
his articles than in what is said by all the rest 
of the Rural contributors. He is an actual 
farmer; but a great many of the rest are not, 
as shown by their writings. One particularly 
advocates warming water for cattle, because 
a cow drinks 100 pounds of water a day; that 
is, about 12 gallons, whereas a cow will not 
drink four gallous in winter. A farmer would 
have a lively time heating water on Sunday 
morning for 50 or 100 heads of cattle when his 
help was away, 'and then it would not be as 
good as fresh water from spring or well. 
B. R. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
ud address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
ask.ng a question, please see if It Is not answered In 
our idvertislug columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one ti me . Put questions on a separate piece of paper. 
PUMPKIN CULTURE. 
“Mammoth," N. Y. City .--How can I grow 
mammoth pumpkins to obtain mammoth 
weight and size! What is the best soil and 
the proper quantity of manure to be used on 
the ground aud in each hill? Can fertilizers 
be used with as good results as manure; and 
what are the best brands? What treatment 
will the plants require to produce the very 
best results? What are the best varie¬ 
ties? How many square feet will be required 
in a garden to plant 50 hills? f’lfj different 
varieties are planted side* by side,iwill they 
cross? Will£squash and k pumpkins, planted 
together thrive as well as if they are planted 
some distance apart? 
ANSWERED BY N. HALLOCK. 
As an introduction to the answers to the 
above inquiries it would be well to bear in 
mind the result of the late Rural potato con¬ 
test. However well we may plan, some little 
thing may happen that will cause either a 
failure or a success. The best soil undoubted¬ 
ly for almost all the squash family is a light 
sandy loam, preferably with a gentle slope 
east, south or west. The ground should be 
deeply plowed and thoroughly pulverized a 
few weeks before planting. At planting time 
(which should not be before May 15 to 20, or 
even as late as the middle of June when the 
soil is thoroughly warm) a liberal coating of 
finely rotted manure should be spread broad¬ 
cast and lightly plowed or harrowed in. 
If fertilizers are used, those rich in nitro 
gen and ammonia are desirable and 
may be spread and harrowed on the 
surface where the branch roots can reach 
them. The hills should not be, for large 
fruit, nearer than eight feet each way. Make 
for each seed an excavation 2j/’feet across 
and one foot deep; fill it with a well decom¬ 
posed compost of cow manure if it can be * 
had. Cover with earth and raise the hill six 
inches or so above the surface and level it on 
ton. Plant each seed by pushing it down, 
point first, about two inches deep; when 
planted in that position, the large, flat 
cotyledons more readily push through the 
soil. As soon as they show above the surface 
a family of yellow striped bugs will probably 
be found partaking of the tender, delicate 
tissues. These must be carefully watched for, 
particularly if the days are bright and sunnv. 
and they must either be band-picked or the 
plants must be protected with mosquito net¬ 
ting which mav be left on until the vines 
begin to run. The large varieties of squashes 
seem to be particularly preferred by all kinds 
of insects that infest that kind of plants. 
Special care must be given to the borer, which 
will attack the plants about the time they 
begin to blossom. The pests will be found at 
the x’oots, and may be known by the debris 
they eject as they go in to feed. To rid the 
vines of them a sharp knife with a small 
blade, is used. I slit the vine and 
take the borer out, or if he cannot be 
located readily I push in the blade 
every half inch each way from the 
hole until I think I have struck him. One 
should always keep the blade so the boles 
are made lengthwise of the vine, and then he 
will not destroy the ducts through which the 
sap flows. The borer is one of the worst pests 
of the vine, as it works so much out of sight. 
As the squash roots at the foot of each leaf¬ 
stalk one can i-eadily see the use of having the 
ground all broadcasted with manure. 
If size is the fix*st consideration, the vines, 
after they have set two or three to a plant, 
may be pinched at the ends a yard from the 
farthest fruit, and it is desirable to have the 
fruit set as near the l’oot as may be. For large 
fi’uit a liberal watering with liquid manure 
is a great help, as pumpkins are very gross 
feedei-s and will take almost an unlimited sun- 
ply of manure in almost any shape. On a pile 
of coarse manure I have seen a single seed 
that produced 27 large cheese pumpkins, 
and there wasn’t a bit of soil except the 
manure. The Mammoth Chili squash is the one 
that is always planted for size, and it should 
be as pure as possible. As all the squash family 
readily cross-fertilize, it will be seen that a 
cross would naturally lessen the size, as this is 
the largest of the family. Fifty hills of large 
squashes would require from 3.500 to 4,000 
square feet for the best results. Squaslies and 
pumpkins will not so readily cross as will the 
different kinds of squash; still they will ci-oss 
though no results will pi’obably be seen the first 
year, but the fruit grown from the crossed 
seed the following year will be affected. 
To recapitulate; have the ground dry, well 
plowed, heavily manured and thoroughly cul¬ 
tivated before the vines cover it; then let it 
be left undisturbed. Keep all insect enemies 
from the plants, and in' a good season your 
chances are favoi-able for a good crop; but 
often crops are a partial failui’e from some 
unknown cause, and'often they succeed one 
does not know why. 
feedIfor’milch cows. 
A. T. P.,’ r Steele City, Neb .—What is the 
relative value of buckwheat bran for feeding 
milch cows, in comparison with corn at 25 
cents per bushel, oats at 15 to 20 cents, and 
wheat bran at $8 per ton niue miles from 
home? What would be the best grain x-ation 
for cows with a fair'quality of prairie hay 
and corn-stalk pasture? 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
Buckwheat bran contains considerably 
more nutriment’ suitable for making milk 
than wheat bran, but it is objected toby some 
for the alleged reason that the butter[from it 
