THE RURAL M£W-Y©MEB. 
In light cases, the goods are allowed to pass 
on payment of the duties due on them, and in 
very light cases, a compromise is sometimes 
made with regard to the amount of the duties 
to be paid. 
by a neighbor, is affected with hard spots or 
knots in the flesh. 
NAVICULAR DISEASE IN A HORSE. 
H. C., Schenevus, N. Y— My seven-year- 
old mare, weighing about 950 pounds, has 
been lame in her left fore leg or foot for near, 
ly two years. She has good feet with the 
heels well spread, yet she is getting stiff and 
sore, standing with the affected foot put for¬ 
ward, especially after she has been driven a 
few miles. I let her stand with her feet in a 
tub of water every morning, while she is be¬ 
ing groomed, and I have also blistered her 
across the heel once or twice and used Mer¬ 
chant’s Gargling Oil, but all to no purpose. 
What can I do for her? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
GRAPE CUTTINGS. 
A. M. Alexandria , Ohio. —When is the 
right time to make grape cuttings? When 
should they be planted, and how should they 
be kept through the winter? How late can 
they be planted in spring ? 
Ans.—C ut the vines at once. If the soil is 
still open, plant them in the soil at a slight 
angle, so that the upper bud just reaches the 
top soil. Then cover with any protecting 
material. They may also be planted in tubs 
or boxes—the boxes placed in the cellar until 
spring. Then the cuttings may be left to 
sprout in the box or tub, or planted in the 
ODPn ground. This tub method is an excellent 
way of sprouting grape-vine cuttings. In the 
spring the cuttings should be planted before 
the buds push. 
I suspect the mare is suffering from navicu¬ 
lar disease. Try the following course of 
treatment. Your treatment has been rather 
mild, and I suspect you did not give the mare 
a long period of rest, without which, treat¬ 
ment would be of little or no benefit. 
Remove the shoes, after which shorten the 
toe and pare the sole to relieve the pres¬ 
sure. Then keep the foot in a warm flaxseed 
poultice five to eight days, renewing the 
poultice once daily when the hoof has been 
well softened, remove the poultice, and to 
prevent drying again, keep the whole hoof 
well coated with an ointment of equal parts 
of pine tar and vaseline melted together. Now 
apply a cantharides blister to the front and 
sides of the pastern, and repeat as soon as the 
effects of the first blister have nearly passed 
off. Blister: powdered cantharides tw r o 
drams, vaseline one ounce, spirits of camphor 
10 drops. A rest of two or three months will 
be necessary, giving only walking exercise at 
the halter or in a small yard. Continue the 
use of the hoof-ointment once daily for three 
or four months, to keep the hoof from drying 
and contracting. When again put to use on 
the road, drive carefully for some time to ac¬ 
custom the foot to its work, if the lameness 
returns repeat the treatment, but try firing in 
points, instead of blistering. 
MiBcellaneous 
GRAPES, ETC. 
F. W. W., Leominster , Mass. —1. What 
are the best three kinds of early grapes for 
Massachusetts? I want those that have been 
well tested and also some which are new and 
promising. 2. What are the best three old 
kinds for late keeping and three of the best 
new sorts? 3. Where can 1 get grapevines 
to the best advantage? 4. What is the best 
kind of grass on a high, steep bank? 5. What 
is the best time for cutting cions and grafting 
cherries, plums and quinces? 6. What is the 
best grape for wine, or unfermented juice for 
canning? 
Ans.— 1. We would suggest Moore’s Early, 
Worden and Concord or Cottage, as likely to 
fill the bill for the tested sorts, and Eaton, 
Hayes and Niagara for the new and promising 
kinds. 2. Wilder, Herbert and Salem for 
late-keeping old sorts. New sorts, Vergen- 
nes, Ulster Prolific, Victoria. 3. Of any 
honest, reliable grower who knows what good 
plants are, no matter where he may be locat¬ 
ed. 4. If a grass is wanted try Quack grass, 
Blue grass or White Clover. If the object is 
merely to cover the land with verdure, giving 
it no care, plant Canary grass or Periwinkle or 
Running Mry tie. 5. Cut cions in late winter 
or early spring when not frozen. Graft cher¬ 
ries in February and March if the weather 
is suitable; plums and quinces later. 6. 
For Massachusetts Clinton or Ives is probably 
as good as any. 
J. L. C. Botetourt , Va— What commission 
houses in New York city handle veal calves? 
Ans.— Hallenbeck & Hollis, and Everett & 
Pidcock, of this city, handle lots of calves. 
F. G. G., New Britain, Conn.— 1. What is 
the name of Rogers’s No. 30 grape? 2. Does it 
benefit a grape-vine to bury the primings of 
ripened wood in the bed? 
Ans. _1. No. 30 has never been named. 2. 
We don’t understand the question. 
H. S., Edgerton, Kans. —1. What is con¬ 
sidered the best special dairy paper? 2. Who 
are reliable breeders of pure-bred Jerseys? 
Ans.— 1. Hoard’s Dairyman, Fort Atkinson, 
Wis. 2. Miller & Sibley, Franklin, Pa.; 
Smith Bros., Eagle, Mich.: R. A. Mayhall, 
New Maysville, Ind.; D. H. & S. S Tripp, 
Peoria, Ill., and T. L. Hacker, Madison, 
Wis 
F. O. C., Washington, Kans. —I send the 
Rural some specimens of grape-vines in¬ 
fested with insect eggs. To what insect do 
they belong, and what is the remedy? 
Ans.—T he canes are infested with the eggs 
of the tree cricket (so-called), CEcanthus 
niveus. They are usually deposited in the 
canes of the raspberry. The remedy is to 
cut out late in the fall or early spring all those 
portions of the cane which contain eggs, and 
burn them. 
weigh more than 300 pounds each. The price 
of pork rose tQ $6 per hundred. Our hogs 
would bring almost §40. Did the bank of 
England contain more money? Our enthu¬ 
siasm rose to the highest pitch and we proudly 
planned how we would invest our money in a 
span of young colts. The buyer came. Our 
hogs were sold by our father along with the 
rest of the drove. As he pocketed the money 
we meekly suggested to him that two of the 
hogs were our property and that we should 
receive the proceeds. He answered, “You 
have no use for money while I have many 
uses. I shall keep the money, but you may 
go to the herd and each choose a steer calf 
which you may have for your own.” 
Knowing it was “Hobson’s choice” 
we reluctantly consented. We chose 
our steers which were about six months old. 
We made a small yoke and taught them to 
lead and drive. We did not expect to work 
them, for our ambition rose above oxen. The 
purchase of the colts was delayed, but the 
idea of it was not abandoned. We gave the 
herd every attention that our own might re¬ 
ceive a corresponding benefit, and they re¬ 
sponded nobly to our efforts. They grew as 
had the hogs before them. Again the buyers 
came. Our steers were sold among others. 
As our father complacently pocketed a good¬ 
ly sum wedemanded our own. It was ref used. 
A mild rebellion followed, but it was prompt¬ 
ly quelled by the head of the firm who in¬ 
formed us that he owned both ourselves and 
our earnings until we reached the age of 21. 
The law gave him that right, and until that 
time he proposed to exercise all the authority 
which the law gave him. And so the matter 
ended. Our “castles” vanished along with 
the original investment. The colts were be¬ 
yond the horizon. From that time until I 
left home, which I did at the age of 18, I 
never presumed to call anything my own. 
Since then by my own exertion I have acquir¬ 
ed a fair share of this world’s goods. I have 
also met many losses and disappointments, 
broken promises and betrayals of confidence; 
but none was as keenly felt or as bitterly 
mourned as my first attempt at acquii ing 
property, and my father’s desire to interest 
me in his business. 
fection as she has pigs, but being in great 
pain, she does not ordinarily show it. Luck 
is certainly not a good factor in raising pigs, 
but an ounce of careful attention before far¬ 
rowing will save many a pound after. 
“witching” for water. 
T. H. T., Alexandria, Dakota —What 
do all the good and wise men who read 
the R. N.-Y. know about witching for water? 
There seems to be just enough of mystery 
about it to make it interesting, and enough 
of reality to make it worthy of study. Can’t 
we have some reports for and against 3 Here’s 
mine. My friend bought a farm which had 
been bored, drilled and dug in all likely and 
unlikely places for water, without finding the 
“liquid staff of life.” As a last hope, he sent 
for a water “witch,” or wizard who held an 
ordinary bullet about four inches from the 
ground, suspended by a string about eight 
inches long. He did this at various places, 
until he found a place where the bullet 
swung like the pendulum of a clock. Said 
he, “Here you will find that water,” and 
! there my friend dug a well, and at 56 feet 
struck the so called “Jasper” rock which runs 
across these parts and comes out at various 
places, and is worked at Sioux Falls, but, as he 
said, “It was as dry as bone dust; but I 
■was desperate, so I went to drilling and blast¬ 
ing” He blasted out 20 inches of rocks and 
water rushed into his well from the northeast. 
The “witch” had said “The stream runs to the 
southeast,” which proved to be true. My friend 
has good water and plenty of it, except when 
the wind blows from the northwest; 12 hours’ 
wind from this quarter will make a very sad 
and strange shrinkage m the supply. 
Now, observe these facts:—My friend finds 
by actual experiment that he himself is a 
water “witch,” the bullet swinging as vio¬ 
lently for him, at right angles with the sup¬ 
posed movement of the water, as it did for 
the professional; while for the son of my 
friend, and for me, the bullet will only show 
a very slight disturbance when held over the 
supposed stream, and that disturbance is 
parallel with the water, or at right angles 
with the bullet’s movement when the string 
is held by either of the [men. What is it? 
Who can tell? 
START THE PIGS RIGHT. 
JAPANESE BUCKWHEAT ONCE MORE. 
DISCUSSION. 
TRAIN UP A CHILD. 
GRAPES AND WINTER SWEET APPLES. 
C. G. S., Astoria , N. J.—l. Which are the 
best three kinds of grapes—early .medium and 
late, taking quality, hardiness, etc., into 
consideration, about Chatham, N. J. ? 2. 
What is the best winter apple for baking pur¬ 
poses ? 
ANSWERED BY SEC. E. WILLIAMS, OF MONT¬ 
CLAIR, N. J. 
1. The locality, mentioned is in this 
latitude, being a continuation of the same 
range of mountains, and the soil is of very 
similar composition, so that the grapes suc¬ 
ceeding best here ought, with similar care 
and treatment, to do well there. I should 
therefore say, for early, plant Cottage or 
Worden for black, and Brighton for red ; for 
medium and late, Wilder, Barry, Concord for 
black; Niagara, white; Lindley, Vergennes, 
Salem, or Rogers's 32 for red. For very late 
plant Catawba and Jefferson for red, but 
they are too uncertain to be at all reliable. 
Talman or Lady’s Sweet might do for a win¬ 
ter sweet apple. The latter was Mr. Down¬ 
ing’s favorite ; but I have had little experi¬ 
ence with winter sweet apples aside from the 
Canfield, the universal winter sweet apple 
for all this 1 'egiQO, TfilfllSU ft s grown 
“ Reader.”— In reading Oliver Howard’s 
“ How John Became a Market Gardener,” 
my attention was specially drawn to his sug¬ 
gestions as to the manner in which children 
may be encouraged to take an interest in 
their parents’ business, and I thought my ex¬ 
perience upon the other side when a boy, 
might not prove uninteresting, and that it 
might even contain a moral for some of those 
parents who are endeavoring to interest their 
children in the details of their business, hoping 
that their sons may follow in their footsteps. 
I am one of a family of several children and 
have one brother two years older than my¬ 
self. My father was a farmer in fair cir¬ 
cumstances and my first recollection is of a 
farm in Illinois. As soon as a child reached 
the age when his strength became valuable, 
he was at once placed where it would contrib¬ 
ute towards acquiring the “almighty dollar”. 
My father was quite close in money matters 
and seldom or never gave his sons a cent, but 
by the time I had reached the age of 10 and 
my brother 12 years, we had accumulated a 
small sum. Not one cent of this had been 
contributed by our father, but it had been 
honestly earned of others by our own labor. 
For instance, if a neighbor wished to go on a 
visit he gave us a dime or a quarter 
for feeding his stock during bis absence. We 
had also built the fires and swept the floor 
of the district school during the winter term, 
which was all the schooling we received. But 
we had accumulated the (to us) magnificent 
sum of three dollars. Our father suggested 
that, as we had become capitalists, we should 
invest our money in something which would 
bring us a fair profit, and proposed that he 
should take the money, giving us in exchange 
two young suckling pigs. They were not 
worth a dollar apiece, but we knew thrifty 
pigs had a habit of growing and we gladly 
consented. The pigs were chosen and marked 
by a slight nick in the ears. The money was 
handed over and proudly we assumed undis¬ 
puted ownership of two infant porkers. We 
gave the drove the best of care and rejoiced 
to see the confirmation of our youthful judg¬ 
ment in that the chosen ones were better than 
the average. The pigs became shoats aud the 
shoats became hogs. We had seen bogs 
find know that ours would novy 
A. M. Crosby, Catonsville, Md-U nder 
this heading in the Dec. 22 issue of the Rural, 
Mr. George Q. Dow gives some very excel¬ 
lent advice, and some that is rather too ex¬ 
cellent.” One would be apt to think that if it 
were necessary to take so much trouble, pigs, 
most certainly would not pay. 
it is stated, in the first place, that pigs 
should not be bred before they are a year 
old. I have now two sows, one of which was 
bred when 10 months old, and the other 
when nine, and again when 15. Both 
raised fair pigs and are in good condition. 
A neighbor of mine breeds sows when they 
are even younger. If spring pigs are not 
bred until they are a year old, one will either 
have as a result fall pigs, or else he will have 
to keep his sows two years before they begin 
to declare dividends. Mr. Dow says that a 
pig is a very intelligent animal, and then goes 
on to say that a sow hasn’t sense enough to 
take care of her own offspring when they 
arrive. His pigs must be constructed rather 
differently from those around here. I have 
never had more than one case where inter¬ 
ference was necessary; and then the fault 
was due entirely to myself. I left the sows 
out all winter and fed them exclusively on 
corn, and even in that case only one sow out 
of nine showed any inclination to eat her 
pigs. If a sow has been treated properly, fed 
the right kind of foods, given a warm, dry 
bed by herself, there is not one case in 20 
where she will need watching, or would be 
benefited by interference. Tnis I know from 
the experience of my neighbors and from the 
records of the pigs I have raised. Mr. Dow 
further states that the period of gestation 
“may be timed to a day, and reckoned almost 
to the hour,” and that farrowing usually 
takes place after eating. Well, if Mr. Dow 
knows that his litter of pigs will arrive at 10 
minutes after supper-time, why does he sit up 
through the long winter night? Referring to 
my record of pigs bred, I find the periods of 
gestation as follows: 
2 sows m days 
, 112 “ 
1 sow 11 
114 “ 
4 sows 1 
1 sow 115 “ 
1 sow 118 “ 
| Here is a variation of seven days, or U>8 
hours. I don’t know what sort of a climate Mr. 
Dow has, but in this latitude where the mer¬ 
cury occasionally drops to 10° Fahr. warming 
spring pigs is unnecessary, if the sow and her 
surroundings are in good condition. And 
if food and affection arrive at the same time, I 
think we also may safely include pigs in the 
)i$t, The.qld sow probably has as much tvf- 
H. T. L., Brighton, Can.— On page 748 
P. S. B. wants to know the experience of ^ 
others with “Japanese buckwheat.” Two 
years ago I purchased one pound of this 
variety, costing 53 cents. It was sown 10 
days later than our common kind and was 
hurt by the sun and drought immediately 
after sowing, so that it could not yield its full 
capacity, although I harvested about half a 
bushel. 
This was sown again this season, but the 
sheep stole into the patch when the crop was 
about four inches high and destroyed most of 
it, so I cannot tell what it would have yielded 
had it not met with such misfortune, but it is 
certainly the buckwheat for this country. It 
is about 10 days earlier than our common 
kind and will stand more drought and is less 
liable to be injured by the sun. The straw is 
more juicy, and, therefore, takes longer to 
cure ; but if buckwheat straw is good for 
stock at all, this is certainly relished more by 
animals. 
I have the same opinion of buckwheat 
straw as H. T. (page 816)—that it is Detter for 
beds than feed. From the pound I purchased 
two years ago I have now five bushels. 
FLOURING QUALITY OF JAPANESE BUCK¬ 
WHEAT. 
E. G. S., Cuba, N. Y.—Having seen much 
said about Japanese buckwheat, and hav¬ 
ing noted several inquiries as to its flour¬ 
ing qualities, I venture to send the following 
statement made by the miller at Nile, N. Y. 
“This is to certify that I have ground two 
bushels of the Japanese buckwheat raised by 
E. G, Stone, and it was fully up to the yield 
of other bucKwheats, and I think it will excel 
all others as to quality.” u. burdick. 
J. H. L., Coxsackie, N. Y.—Fred. 
Grundy’s article on page 831 of R. N.-Y., 
wherein he says that “practical, common- 
sense management will get into the poultry 
yard after awhile” is good; but when he 
calls it all “fol-de-rol” about hens having 
pebbles, meat, etc., and then says that his 
hens get none of these things; but just “pick 
over the ashes from the stove” and get 
the “parings and scraps from the kitchen 
table,” it reminds me of one of my neighbors 
who says that he does not care for any meat 
for breakfast if he has plenty of ham and 
eggs. 
I. J. B., Titusville, N. J.—S. E. H., in a 
late Rural, is about right on the La Bastie 
lamp chimney. Such articles seldom break, 
although they will break sometimes even with 
apparently fair usage, I have 801110 tbfit bayo 
been used three^ye&rs. 
