72 
FEB 2 
Champion Gooseberry is very large and 
that it never suckers. He gives the names 
of a number of grapes the fruit of which, 
be says, will keep fresh ana plump in 
an ordinary cellar, if put into a shallow box 
until it is quite full, even if no cover is put 
over them. Will they do so ? 
Ans. —We have no faith in the claims made. 
Any currant can be easily trained to a tree 
form. Or any variety may be grafted on 
such tall-growing stocks as the Missouri Cur¬ 
rant. “ Cutting out the buds,” etc., will not 
prevent sprouting. Currant worms do not 
attack black currants. The Champion, as we 
have it (J. M. Ogle), is of medium size only. 
No; the grapes will not keep as represented. 
The varieties will be found in most nursery¬ 
men’s catalogues. 
DISCUSSION. 
DOES “FARMING PAY.” 
E. T., Edwardsville, Kans,— It seems to 
me that the Parson misses the point of the 
parrot’s remark, on January 15, R. N -Y. 
The bird is talking about the “pay” of farm¬ 
ing, not the ministerial approval of it. The 
farmer finds “honorable mention” to be a 
poor salve for a shrunken purse, as it is but a 
poor and unsatisfactory return to Mr. Leary 
for the loss of his raft, that he is in high favor 
at the Hydrographic Office. One may be a 
“conservator” of the public good and a useful 
citizen generally, and yet find his business in 
a poor way. The parrot is speaking about 
the business part of farming. “The farmer 
feeds the world,” it is true; but he is not do¬ 
ing it primarily for applause; that’s a sort of 
“pay” that doesn’t pay very well—pay debts 
and taxes, for instance. The sleek citizen’s 
“well done!” furnishes no legal-tender for the 
hired man. 
John Cheeston appears to be a little off, also. 
He offers himself in testimony, but ho is not a 
competent witness, not being a representative 
farmer. The parrot makes no charge against 
butter-making as a remunerative industry, or 
against- sheep-growing, or cattle-raising, or 
market-gardening, or flower-culture, or the 
production of fruits, potatoes, seeds, nursery 
stock, grain, hay or celery; and no doubt 
would readily admit the profitableness of any 
one of them when pursued persistently and 
intelligently under favorable conditions, as a 
main issue, like Cheeston’s butter-making. 
But such “special” culture is not farming in 
the common acceptance of the word. It is the 
New Gospel of Agriculture. As it comes in, I 
have hope that farming will go out, and the 
parrot change his tune. 
A NEW FARM FENCE. 
E. D., Woodland, Mich. —I will describe 
for the benefit of others a fence we are trying 
and which promises better than anything I 
have ever seen before. It is made of ten 
smooth steel wires running horizontally like 
the warp of cloth, and connected Dy cross 
wires a foot apart. The space between the two 
lower wires is three and one half inches, and 
the distance gradually increases till the upper 
space is twelve inches. The whole is 58 inches 
high, and when just two inches above the 
ground makes a five-feet fence. All the hori¬ 
zontal wires are number nine except the top 
and bottom ones, which are much heavier, 
and the cross wires are of number eleven. 
The horizontal wires are twisted spirally be¬ 
fore the fence is woven, so that they resemble 
in the fence, coiled springs drawn out, and 
there is a constant tendency to shorten. This, 
it is claimed, keeps the fence tight in warm 
weather and adds to its strength at all times. 
The posts need not be closer than two rods, 
and we had a stretch of 60 feet with a sag of 
less than two inches. One horse has tried a 
charge upon it, and picked himself up unin¬ 
jured, but wiser. It has all the advantages 
of barbed wire without its dangers. It is put 
in place for seventy-five cents a rod, and while 
I am not interested in any way in its sale, I 
believe it to be’the cheapest gbod fence I 
know of. 
ABOUT THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S POTATO CON¬ 
TEST. 
H. B. M., Vermillion, Kans. —I would like 
to have it definitely stated in the Rural 
whether in the Potato Contest women con¬ 
testants will have to contend against mascu¬ 
line labor beyond plowing the ground and 
digging the crop ; and also as to how the 
prizes are to be distributed. I quite appre¬ 
ciate the Rural’s good intentions; but want 
to learn on what business basis the contest is 
to be conducted. What is a merchantable 
potato ? 
R. N.-Y. We are in favor of having the 
women (bless them !) do all the work except 
the preparatory plowing or digging, harvest 
ing and application of fertilizers or manure. 
All this they may do if they choose, and the 
doing of if .should count a poiut or so with 
THE BUBAL fffW-YORKEB. 
the judges. The R. N.-Y. is open to any sug¬ 
gestion or advice that may be given. We 
shall hope to fix upon a rational basis of action 
that will please all of our lady friends not 
disposed to be cranky. How would five 
ounces answer as the minimum of a merchant¬ 
able potato ? 
WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH THE CORN¬ 
FIELD? 
D. C. L , Cranberry, N. J.—On page 87, S. 
W. H. asks this question and goes on to show 
that the trouble lay in not cutting some of the 
corn roots. Now the laud about Metuchen, 
is a heavy clay soil. The fact that the corn 
did not ripen I should attribute to one or two 
causes, and notjto the fact that the roots were 
not cut off with the plow, as S. W. H. sup¬ 
poses, when the corn was in the silk. I would 
prosecute a man for damage, if I could, if he 
plowed my corn after it was coming in silk. 
The time of planting may have been late, and 
the season was very wet, so that it kept corn 
growing and so full of sap that it could not 
ripen. Large quantities of corn with us, 
gathered as late as November, were not fit to 
crib, and I expect to bear of a large amount 
that will have molded when the owners come 
to shell it. 
“ WITCHING” FOR WATER AGAIN. 
U. S. 8 ., New Hartford, New "York.— 
In reply to T. H. T., of Alexandria, 
Dakota, here is what I have heard my father 
say about “ witching” for water:—About 80 
years ago he was going to dig a well, and sent 
for a “ water witch ” to locate the spring, 
which he did by holding ^a crotched stick in 
both hands, so that the end formed by the two 
twigs would point directly ahead of him, at 
right angles with the course of the spring, 
which he said was to the north in that locali¬ 
ty. Ashe passed over the supposed stream, 
the crotched slick would turn in his hands and 
point toward It. My father dug where the 
“ witch ” said the spring had its course, and 
found water just as he had said—10 feet be¬ 
low the surface. The professional said the 
twigs must be cut from a tree that bore fruit 
with stones, as peach, plum, etc. The twig 
would not point to the water for my father. 
What it is. is more than I can tell. 
CURE FOR AN EGG EATER. 
J. L. H., Watkins, N. Y.—In R. N.-Y., 
No.2,032 there is a cut of a very pretty pullet, 
and from her looks I take it that it would not 
take much to get her to break eggs. Now all 
poultry writers whom I have read, when 
treating on the subject of “ hens eating eggs,” 
give no satisfactory method of breaking them 
of the habit, excepting to cut their heads off, 
and even P. H. Jacobson the same page on 
which the cut of the pullet appears, speaking 
on this subject, gives no way to prevent it. 
A hen with an ordinary beak cannot break an 
egg by pecking it, but a hen with a beak that 
has become pointed, like the one in the Rur- 
al’s cut. can break an egg by pecking it a few 
times. That being the case, what could be a 
reasonable remedy? Blunther beak. Simply 
take a jackknife and clip off a small piece of 
her upper bill. 
E*. A. F., Hancock, Vt.—I n reading A Tale 
of Toads in December 29th Rural, I was re¬ 
minded of a nearly similar experience with 
the same batrachians and also with a striped 
snake. On looking my bees over one morn¬ 
ing, I noticed one swarm that seemed to be 
readier for war than work. The hive was a 
Langstroth and set on the ground, with a 
board in front to prevent the grass from 
growing up in the way. On removing the 
board, to my surprise, there, coiled up, was a 
striped snake, which left before I could kill it. 
I left, but soon returned to find the snake on 
the alighting board with his head to the en¬ 
trance. I struck at it but missed. About an 
hour later I found it in the same place again 
and I killed it. 
J. N. J., Holland Patent, N. Y.,—The 
Rural’s answer to A. F. H., Dansville, N.Y., 
in a late issue in regard to feeding beans to 
sheep, I think is misleading. It is said that 
sheep will not eat beans whole. My experi¬ 
ence in feeding sheep has been right to the 
contrary; they eat them with avidity and 
most sheep are very fond of them. In a flock 
of 80 not more than two or three refuse them 
with me. Beans make an excellent food for 
them; but care must be taken not to feed too 
heavily at first; ground beans would, I pre¬ 
sume, be the best. 
E. M., Echo Place, Ontario, Canada.— 
What does the editor of the R. N.-Y. think of 
Agnes as a good name for his best seed po¬ 
tato ? 
R. N.-Y.—We certainly think it a good one, 
especially as a woman by that name has had 
as much to do with the Rural’s originations 
as the >editor himself. It was thought best, 
however, to identify the potatoes with the 
Rural New-Yorker. 
I. Y., Pontiac, III.—I am in favor of Mr. 
Woodward for Commissioner of Agriculture. 
I have been reporter or correspondent to the 
Department for the past eight years, and I 
have no fault to find with Mr. Colman; but 
we may expect a change. If we cannot have 
Mr. Woodward, give us Prof. Morrow of this 
State, although we want him to continue in 
the place he now occupies: for he has been a 
great help to the farmers around here. 
, 
Management of Cream. —T. D. Curtis, 
in the Prairie Farmer, says that there is a 
good deal of discussion going on now, in the 
papers, in regard to the best manner of ripen¬ 
ing cream for churning. All agree that 
cream should be ripened, but few seem to un¬ 
derstand precisely what ripening is. But all 
concur in giving age to the cream, and nearly 
all assume that some sort of souring is neces¬ 
sary. John Boyd, of Elmhurst, Illinois, aims 
to exclude the air from both his milk and 
cream, and to develop only one acid, which 
we understand to be lactic. His idpa is that 
this alone gives the flavor so much desired by 
connoisseurs in butter, and that exposure to 
the air develops other acids, which interfere 
with the lactic acid flavor, and in so much 
injure the quality of the butter. Mr Boyd is 
consistent, at least. It may be questioned 
whether lactic acid imparts the true, butter 
flavor; but, if it does, it cannot be denied 
that the development of other acids must in¬ 
jure the flavor imparted by this one. Quick 
souring, to get ahead of other kinds of fer¬ 
mentation, is what he aims at. To secure 
this quick fermentation, he prepares what he 
calls “ a starter” of skimmed milk. He pre¬ 
fers, according to his theory, skimmed milk 
that has parted with its cream by submerg¬ 
ing, as it is deemed important by him to ex¬ 
clude the air as soon and as much as possible. 
This skimmed milk is still excluded from the 
air, and when it has reached the desired 
acidity, a certain portion is added to his 
batch of new cream, and thoroughly incor¬ 
porated with it. This cream is also excluded 
from the air, and he does not even permit it 
to be stirred for the purpose of equalizing the 
temperature and degree of acidity, lest it be 
too much exposed to the air thereby. He 
churns at the ordinary temperature, when the 
cream is properly ripened, or has reached the 
requisite degree of acidity, by pouring it into 
a tight box-churn. Thus, from first to last, 
Mr. Boyd aims to exclude the air as much as 
possible, and to develop only one acid—tne 
lactic. He admits that he has not yet succeed¬ 
ed to his satisfaction, but is still experiment¬ 
ing, in the hope of reaching definite results. 
Whether right or wrong in theory, he is mak¬ 
ing a laudable effort to solve one of the yet 
unsolved problems in butter-making. 4re 
these experiments and opinions of no value? 
asks Mr. Curtis. Perhaps there are more 
ways than one of developing flavor, and we 
may yet be able to take our choice of flavors 
when we buy butter. We have that choice 
now, but most of the flavors are bad. 
The National Wool Growers’ Con¬ 
vention. —The Convention of members of 
the National and State Wool Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciations met at Washington last week. 
Thirteen States and Territories were repre¬ 
sented. Resolutions were adopted demand¬ 
ing that the duties on wool and woolen and 
worsted goods be adjusted so as to secure the 
American market to American wool growers; 
protesting against some of the provisions of 
the Senate bill as inadequate and unjust to 
wool growers; providing for a Committee to 
prepare a schedule of tariff duties on wool to 
be presented to the Senate for adoption, and 
calling for an early session of Congress. On 
Saturday a delegation called on the Senate 
Finance Committee and presented its schedule. 
This proposes to divide wool into three classes 
—clothing, combing and carpet. The duty on 
wools of the first and second class shall be 11 
cents per pound, including hairof the alpaca, 
goat, camel, llama and other like animals 
Wools of the third class, valued at 12 cents 
a pound or less, shall pay three cents duty; 
valued at over 12 cents, six cents a pound; 
prepared wool shall pay extra dufl^, accord¬ 
ing to the character of the preparation. 
Wastes, composed wholly or in part of wool 
or worsteds, 30 cents a pouud; woolen rags, 
shoddy, etc., 20 cents a pound. Wools dyed 
or otherwise prepared beyond scouring or 
washing shall pay the same duty as manufac¬ 
tures of wool. 
The Senate will consider the wool schedule 
in the bill this week, but it is not deemed pro¬ 
bable that any material change will be re¬ 
commended by the committee. The wool man¬ 
ufacturers want lower duties on certain 
classes of wools, especially on carpet wool, 
and Western wool growers say that if this 
is granted, they will insist on free wool and 
free woolens. 
Corn as Stock Feed. —The Special Com¬ 
missioner sent to this country by the Londou 
Mark Lane Express, says, in that Journal, 
that he cannot help thinking how much bet¬ 
ter it would be for the stock-breeding interests 
of America if more roots were grown to feed 
in conjunction with the more heating and 
pampering ingredients of corn and cake. 
Indian corn, fed judiciously along with grass 
or succulent food of any kind, is productive 
of good effects. But it is not tbefooditouse for 
growing animals, because of its insufficiency 
of mineral constituents, such as phosphate of 
lime, magnesia, etc. It has a ratio of only 8 6 
carbonaceous to 1 of nitrogenous food and is 
thus peculiarly rich in the heating and fatten¬ 
ing properties. As a food for full-grown stock it 
is a powerful auxiliary, but it is so poor (hav¬ 
ing only some 2.1 per cent, of ash) as to be 
almost destitute of muscle-forming and bone- 
building materials. Whether American breed¬ 
ers can produce as good cattle as English 
breeders, therefore, Mr. McDonald believes to 
be more a question of feeaiug than of climate 
or anythiug else. 
■■ ♦ * » 
SPICE. 
Our respected friend Dr. Hoskins, says, in 
our respected contemporary Garden and 
Forest, speaking of winter apples— 
“The one apple which should not be omit¬ 
ted, is Hunt’s Russet, sometimes called ‘The 
Golden Russet of Massachusetts.’ If there is 
a best apple, surely we.'have it here. (Down¬ 
ing has it under noth names, seemingly un¬ 
aware of the fact.) It originated in Concord 
the home of patriotism, poetry, aim philoso- 
phv. Not a large fruit, rather small indeed 
it illustrates the saying that the best things 
are put up in small packages. It is thinly 
russeted on a yellow ground, with a bright 
rich red cheek, with a fine-grained, yellowish 
flesh, with a tender, juicy, very rich, aroma¬ 
tic, and briskly (but not excessively) acid 
taste, and altogether. Hunt’s Russet is an 
apple to offer to our most highly valued 
friends, in our most friendly mood.” 
The American Pomological Society double¬ 
stars this apple for Massachusetts only and 
pronounces it “very good.”. 
The Westfield Seek-no-Further of Connec¬ 
ticut is a market and dessert apple of a high 
grade, successful over a broad extent of coun¬ 
try. It is grown westward to Michigan, and 
the finest specimens of the variety that Dr. 
Hoskins has seen on exhibition have been 
from that State. It is an apple very even 
in size, a thing important in barrel-fruit. 
The peculiar Peaimain flavor noted by Down¬ 
ing, makes the Westfield very popular with 
old-fashioned people . 
Yellow Bellflower is an apple hard to 
surpass when in perfection, and prime fruit 
of this variety always fetches a high price in 
Boston. But it is very particular in its 
choice of locality. Dr. Hoskins has never 
seen first-class Bellflowers grown anywhere 
except upon the banks of, or near to, some 
large river, like the Connecticut or the Ken¬ 
nebec. When suited in location, no apple 
yields better or finer fruit. Maine-grown 
Bellflowers keep as well as Baldwius, though it 
is reckoned an early winter sort. 
The catalogue of the A. P. S. double-stars 
it for Nova Scotia, Ohio, West Virginia and 
California, and single-stars it for 20 other 
States. 
Subscribers to the R. N.-Y. may order 
our Specials sent to any of their friends. We 
will promptly obey such orders. 
The London Garden illustrates and de¬ 
scribes a new Koelreuterla, K. bipinnata. 
It is a i obust-growing tree about 00 feet high. 
The leaves are 24 inches broad at the base, 
regularly bipinnate; leaflets leathery. The 
flowers resemble those of K. paniculata, being 
yellow. It grows wild in Central Yunnum at 
an altitude of 5,850 feet. It blooms in late 
July. 
We shall make an effort to procuro of our 
subscribers half-a-dozen of the largest and 
shapeliest R. N.-Y. No. 2 potatoes grown by 
them. 
The best of the new and old vegetables for 
both field and garden culture by our best 
practical writers. This will be the subject of 
our next Special . 
What new kinds of grapes, strawberries, 
blackberries, currants, etc , are improvements 
over older varieties, will be the subject of the 
next thereafter. 
Prof. Henry of the Wisconsin Agricul¬ 
tural College, says that it is not necessary to 
fill the silo slow ly. A small silo was tilled to 
the depth of 13 feet in one day, and the sil- 
