406 
FES 46 
lights and shades, and it is then easily dis¬ 
tinguished from the Norway by a greater 
solidity of character, or, to speak more specifi¬ 
cally, by the less distinctly marked separa¬ 
tion of its horizontal branches.” 
Our engraving does not show the undulat¬ 
ing character of the branches and leaves of 
the Rural’s specimen. The thickly-clothed 
branches near the base are here and there 
quite pendulous, while again they extend out 
beyond a symmetrical line, making the light 
and shadow well defined. The writer has seen 
but one specimen of this tree old enough to dis¬ 
play its mature habit and that is recognized 
as one of the finest of the species anywhere to 
be seen. It is about 30 feet high. It is dense, 
heavy, dark in color with none of the horizon¬ 
tal, leggy layers of branches which charac¬ 
terize the Norway. 
The Oriental Spruce, (Abies orientalis of 
the catalogues) is a native of the region about 
the Black Sea, and is said to grow to a hight 
of 75 feet. It will be seenjthat the R. N.-Y.’s 
specimen is of slow growth. Norway spruces 
set out at the same time are nearly twice the 
hight. It is thought by some botanists to be 
the same as Abies (Picea) obovata. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
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SEEDING TO GRASS: SHEEP. 
Subscriber (No Address). —Last spring and 
summer I heavily manured, with yard ma¬ 
nure, two lots for potatoes and cauliflower. 
Circumstances prevented sowing rye as in¬ 
tended. Previously the potato lot had raised 
oats and the cauliflower lot was sod, soil a 
light loam. We need hay. Now, what course 
shall I pursue to get the most profit? 1. 
Shall I sow grass seed alone or with barley, 
oats or spring-wheat? 2. I have also another 
lot—level—terribly rocky—on which sheep 
have run a long time. I dislike to use a cul¬ 
tivator on it on account of rocks. 
Shall I sow oats, buckwheat, barley, or 
what course shall I pursue in order to get it 
in grass again without the use of a cultivator. 
3. Can the Rural tell where to get some 
thoroughbred sheep at prices somewhat rea¬ 
sonable? 
ANSWERED BY JOSEPH HARRIS. 
1 know of no grass or clover that, sown in 
the spring, will give a good crop of hay the 
first year. 1 happened to have just such a 
case last year. I had a ten-acre lot of rather 
low, alluvial, sandy, black soil that had been 
used for garden and seed-growing for some 
years. 1 wishedjto seed it down. Six acres were 
sown with Timothy seed in September; the 
other four acres were in corn and the corn was 
not off in time to sow the grass seed in the fall. 
I intended to sow rye and seed down with it in 
the fall, but press of other work delayed the 
husking till we thought it too late for rye and 
grass. I harrowed the corn stubble thorough¬ 
ly in the fall and the next spring—1888— sowed 
two bushels of oats per acre on the snow, and a 
little later sowed a mixture of six quarts of 
Timothy seed and two quarts of Alsike clover 
seed per acre. Owing possibly to the unus¬ 
ually dry spring, the oats failed to come up as 
Col. Curtis and others had given us to under, 
stand they would, but the grass and clover 
came up well. The six acres seeded with 
Timothy in the fall produced a heavy crop of 
hay, so heavy that some if it was lodged and 
rotted a little at the bottom. But we got 
a crop estimated at three tons of hay per acre 
So far as the oats were concerned, our exper¬ 
iment in sowing them on the snow was not a 
success. In some parts of the lot, wild mus¬ 
tard and other seeds were almost as thick as 
the oats,and about the first of July we cut them 
with a mowing machine and made them into 
hay. But after the oats were cut the grass 
and clover grew rapidly, and the ground is 
now covered with a good sod and bids fair to 
give us a good crop of hay this year. 
Notwithstanding this failure, I intend to 
give the plan another trial this spring. It is 
important to get grass seed in early, and if, as 
Col. Curtis claims, oats, in ordinary seasons 
can be sown with advantage on the snow just 
before warm weather, the plan, whon grass is 
he main object, is well worthy of a trial. Ag 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
a rule, if seeding is delayed till we can plow 
the land, barley and spring wheat are better 
crops to seed with than oats. 2. If the land 
is so rocky that it cannot be plowed with ad¬ 
vantage, he should let it remain in grass and 
try to bring in much better grasses by sowing 
250 or 300 pounds of some high-grade complete 
fertilizer, selecting the one that will give the 
most nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, at 
the least cost, giving the preference to the one 
containing the most nitrogen. Another far 
cheaper method, but not so rapid, will be to 
keep sheep on the pasture and give them a 
pound of cotton-seed cake each, per day. 
Sell the sheep when fat and buy and fatten lean 
ones, and continue feeding cotton-seed- 
cake. If properly managed, the sheep will 
pay for the feed, and the manure from the 
cotton-seed-cake will greatly improve the 
pasture. If the field has been in grass for 
many years it will probably not be necessary 
to sow grass seed, though it could do no harm 
to sow a little White Clover, Alsike clover, 
Rye Grass, Orchard Grass, etc. on the land 
very early in the spring. 3. This question is 
too indefinite. You must first make up your 
mind what breed of sheep you want—say 
Merinos for fine wool, or some of the muttou 
breeds, such as Cotswolds, Leicesters, Lincolns 
(for combing wool) or Oxford, Shropshire, 
Hampshire or Sussex Downs. The latter are 
usually called “South Downs” and are one 
of the oldest and best of the mutton breeds, 
especially when the quality of the mutton is 
the leading object. Unless you wish to be a 
“breeder” you do not need to pay a high 
price for thoroughbred ewes. If your object 
is to keep sheep for mutton and wool and not 
for selling for breeding purposes, the better 
plan will probably be to select some of the best 
common ewes you can find at common prices, 
and then try a thoroughbred ram. In this way, 
with the use of plenty of cotton-seed cake,you 
can soon have a fine flock of what the English 
farmers term “rent-paying” sheep. 
FEED FOR GROWING CATTLE AND MILCH COWS. 
J. D. L., Moore's Salt Works, Ohio.--I am 
wintering 25 head of cattle consisting of year¬ 
lings and two-year-old heifers. My coarse feed 
is cut corn-fodder in the morning, and wheat 
and oat-straw at night. I aim to cut my 
grain before it is quite ripe, thinking that 
then the straw will be better. I also want to 
cut the corn before frost. All my cattle are 
in a good, warm stable. I have 1,000 bushels 
of corn ears and 200 bushels of oats. 1 crush 
my corn, and all my feed is ground. At our 
mills, six miles distant, I can purchase roller- 
process bran with all the shorts with it, for $1 
per cwt., or I can get Chicago bran at the 
railroad station, the same distance away, at 
$17 per ton. The latter appears to be nothing 
but bran. Which is the cheaper, and in what 
proportion should they be mixed to make a 
large growth in the youDg stock, and to make 
the cows yield a fair quantity of butter? At 
the station oil-meal is worth $27 per ton; oats, 
about 40 cents per bushel. 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
Bran is the best food for the young cattle, 
beyond question, but it is too dry and fine to 
be eaten without some waste. Under the 
circumstances, it would, we think, be advis¬ 
able to mix some of the crushed corn with it 
in sufficient quantity to cause the whole to be 
better masticated; one quart twice a day of a 
mixture of one part of the crushed corn with 
three parts of the bran might be given to a year¬ 
ling. In practice this has been found excel¬ 
lent feeding for all sorts of young animals, 
including colts. At the price mention¬ 
ed, bran can be more profitably used in this 
way than the mixture containing shorts. 
Roller-process bran is, worth about 10 per ceDt. 
more for feeding than ordinary bran, because 
its fat and nitrogen are more valuable in feed¬ 
ing than the starch of the middlings. Starch 
has a feeding value of one only as compared 
with 2X of fat and nitrogen compounds. 
But for cows fed lor butter product, it has 
been found that corn-meal is the best standard 
food, and if it were not that a cow cannot so 
healthfully consume a large quantity of it as 
she can of a mixture of corn-meal and bran, 
it would be better to feed all corn-meal. It 
contains about twice as much fat as bran, and 
yields a softer butter which is more easily 
gathered in the churn. The present winter I 
am feeding cows, alternate months, with all 
corn-meal—eight pounds daily,—and then 
with eight pounds of mixed corn-meal 
and bran. The butter from the whole 
meal is churned in 20 minutes, and 
is about one pound more weekly from 
each cow than from the mixed bran and meal; 
but the butter from the latter is not so good 
In quality, is of a lighter color and requires 
30 to 40 minutes to churn, which is too long 
for the best quality. Oil-meal—linseed—yields 
a soft and inferior-flavored butter; but cotton¬ 
seed-meal is not surpassed for the quality and 
texture of the butter made from it. It is so 
rich a food, however, containing 13 to 18 per 
cent, of fat and- more than 40 per cent, of 
nitrogen compounds, that two pounds daily are 
as much as can be used without danger to the 
cow. One of the cows I am now feeding can¬ 
not take cotton seed-meal at all without being 
sick and refusing food for two or three days, 
and cannot take eight pounds of clear corn- 
meal daily without the same result. This ex¬ 
perience with cows is so common with dairy¬ 
men that it is wise to test each cow in regard 
to the feeding, and as a rule it is safe to use a 
portion of bran in the feed rather than clear 
meal. All rules for feeding are modifiod 
more or less by the character of the cows in 
this respect. 
INCREASING FERTILITY BY MEANS OF CHEMI¬ 
CAL FERTILIZERS. 
F. C., Ironville , Ohio. —On page 53 of this 
year’s Rural, D. C. L. tells us that he owns a 
farm of 100 acres, of which he cultivates 90, 
increasing its fertility by the use of high-grade 
commercial fertilizers. I, for one, would 
like to hear more from him about the subject. 
ANSWERED BY D. C. LEWIS, MIDDLESEX CO., 
NEW JERSEY. 
It is 12 years since I first commenced the 
use of chemical fertilizers. Previous to 
that time I practiced rotation as follows: 
Sward for corn; oats and potatoes on corn 
stubble. My yard manure was broadcasted on 
the oat stubble for wheat with about 150 to 
200 pounds of Peruvian guano per acre. 1 
seeded down to grass with wheat. Then I 
pastured or mowed the land for two years, 
making a five-year rotation. At that time I 
depended on an application of 100 bushels of 
sand marl per acre to make the grass crop. 
I also purchased all the stable manure I could 
get about the village at $2 per load. I com¬ 
menced the use of chemical fertilizers in 
moderate quantities, with yard manure, on 
wheat and potatoes only. In recent years I 
have changed my system of treatment, but I 
continue the five-year rotation of crops. I 
am now[applying all my yard manure to the 
corn crop. In July, for next year’s 
crop depending upon chemical fer¬ 
tilizers alone for potatoes, wheat and 
grass, using a special corn fertilizer on sward 
for corn since I sometimes run short of yard 
manure. When I commenced the use of 
chemical fertilizers on wheat, I applied about 
300 pounds per acre; but I have increased 
the application to 700 pounds, whicn has 
doubled the yield of wheat per acre, as com¬ 
pared with the outcome from the old system. 
It has also largely increased the yield of grass 
per acre, so that my gross receipts from the 
farm have increased, over the yield under the 
old system, to an average of $1,000 per annum. 
And it appears to me that I have just learned 
how to use the chemical fertilizers with profit. 
I am now applying 1,200 pounds of Mapes 
potato fertilizer per acre, for potatoes, and as 
wheat follows potatoes, I apply about 300 
pounds per acre for the wheat, making 1,500 
pounds of purchased fertilizers per acre, for 
the potatoes. It appears to me that I may 
apply even 1,800 pounds, to 2,000 pounds per 
acre for the five-year rotation as the quantity 
that caD be most profitably used. My present 
system of rotation is corn, potatoes, wheat, and 
grass two years. I have never used any of 
the ordinary superphosphates on wheat or 
when seeding to grass. I have always used 
fertilizers of the highest grade I could buy 
and my faith is"very strong that mine is the 
only safe system for permanent improvement. 
PROPORTION OF BUTTER IN MILK AS AFFECT¬ 
ED BY FEED. 
E. L. B., Groton City , N. Y.— Will Col. 
Curtis tell us whether it takes more milk to 
make a pound of butter when the cows are 
fed on grass than when they are fed on hay 
or silage? It is a common opinion that more 
butter can be made from a given quantity of 
milk in the fall than in the summer, with 
shallow setting. How about deep setting? 
[ANSWERED BY COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
It does not take as much milk to make a 
pound of butter when the cows are fed on 
bay, as it does when they are fed on grass, 
provided the hay was green when cut and 
was well cured and is of good quality. A 
cow would make more butter from less milk 
when’, fed on green, well cured clover hay, 
than from clover pasture from which she 
would make more milk. The butter is the 
product of the butter fats in the milk. The 
value of milk is in its solids and not in the 
amount of water. Rich, dry foods will make 
more solids in proportion to the water in the 
milk, and grass will increase the volume of 
milk and the amount of water in proportion 
to the solids. The kinds of hay and grass 
must all be taken into the account. When 
fed on good silage, cows will give more milk 
and make more butter than when fed all hay. 
The rule for feeding is, two pounds of dry 
fodder for every 100 pounds of live weight. 
As silage is full of moisture, two pounds more 
must be added, making 40 pounds a ration 
for a cow of 1,000 pounds weight. I am sure 
40 pounds of good silage will make more and 
better butter than 20 pounds of any ordinary 
hay. Neither of these is a full or complete 
ration. They are only suitable as a main¬ 
tenance or support ration. To get the best 
results from either hay or silage, there 
should be fed with them a portion of bran 
and either linseed or cotton-seed meal to 
make a better proportion of the nitrogenous 
and the carbonaceous foods or elements, so as 
to obtain a better digestion and assimilation 
and a better quality of butter and more of 
it. More butter should be made from a given 
quantity of milk in the autumn, when set 
anyway so as to get the cream all up. The 
cream does not rise as freely in the autumn, 
on account of its viscosity, or the thick, sticky 
condition of the milk. By putting in water 
heated up to 100 degrees, the cream will rise 
sooner and with more freedom; that is, there 
will be more of it. 
ENLARGEMENT ON HORSE’S LEG. 
W. K.L ., Ovid Centre, N. Y. —My two-year- 
old colt has a peculiar enlargement in the in¬ 
side of the hock joint. It begins abruptly 
about two inches below the wart or callosity 
on the posterior part of leg, immediately bears 
towards the inside of the leg. It goes up in 
the direction of the “wart,” passes behind it, 
then upwards until it ends in a dome-like en¬ 
largement just in front of the point of the 
hock. It is elastic, and evidently contains 
some fluid. It began last June and is proba¬ 
bly the result of a strain. There have never 
been any signs of inflammation in it and it 
has never made the colt lame in the slightest 
degree. He plays and frolics, walks or trots 
without favoring the affected leg in the least. 
I believe it to be an exudation into the sheath 
of a tendon which has its origin just at the 
point where the enlargement begins. It has 
been repeatedly and thoroughly blistered and 
fired (not with points but with “feather-edge”). 
It is slowly enlarging. The colt is so valuable 
that I am willing to incur almost any risk to 
have the blemish removed. How would it do 
to lay open the sheath of the tendon from 
the bottom to the top? Of course, as the fluid 
is emitted, the enlargement will go down. 
Then by making an application of a slightly 
escharotic nature to the inside of sac or 
sheath produce, as it heals, adhesion and ob¬ 
literation of the sheath. 
Ans. We would advise first trying the 
following treatment before opening into the 
cavity. Draw off the contents, if liquid, with 
an aspirator or a hypodermic syringe. Then 
inject a solution of the compound tincture of 
iodine. After a few minutes withdraw this 
solution and apply a wet bandage so as to 
compress the sac and bring the walls together. 
If this fails, then your proposed method of 
opening the sac is probably the best course to 
pursue. The seton if properly inserted would 
undoubtedly serve the same purpose. 
SPOILED SILAGE. 
J. D. L., Lamington, N. J. —Last summer I 
built a silo in a bent in the corner of my barn 
and lined it with oak boards and the inside 
with matched hemlock. The floor was two feet 
from the ground. I filled it with green corn 
without running it through a cutter. When 
I went to get my silage, it was all spoiled. 
It was covered with planks and on the top of 
them I had about a ton of rye straw. If I 
had run the corn through a cutter or if the 
bottom was on the ground, would the silage 
have kept better ? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 
As silage that has been put into silos whole, 
has come out in fine condition; it is clear 
either that the silo of J. D. L. is faulty or 
else that the corn was not put in well. 
It is not stated whether the silo was lined 
with paper. Wood alone, however well 
matched, would not make an air-tight silo. 
The right way to make a silo is to make a 
doubled-walled one, both walls to be lined 
with tarred paper inside the boards, to make 
it air-and-water-tight. I have had no ex¬ 
perience with filling without cutting; but I 
suppose it very important to tread very thor¬ 
oughly and lay m the corn very straight so 
that it can be compressed so as to shut out the 
air. The air must be excluded. My silo is 
built as above, and then lined with a coat of 
plaster with cement used for the lime just as 
we plaster an underground cistern. I cut all 
my corn, tread it down very thoroughly about 
the sides and cornel’s, and cover it with straw 
held down by boards. My silage comes out 
perfectly preserved, and is relished to perfec¬ 
tion by all stock—horses, cattle, and sheep. 
ABOUT MELON CULTURE. 
F. G. B., Gratiot , Wis. —My soil is a rich 
clay loam, and I want to raise euough melons 
for home use. How should the ground be pre¬ 
pared? Would an application of sand be 
beneficial and how much should be applied 
per square rod ? What varieties should 1 plant? 
