426 
THE RURAL HEW-YOBKER. 
FEB 23 
adelphia, and it was one of the varieties upon 
which Michigan won the meed of superiority 
for its exhibit of long-fee p ping apples. 
ANOTHER TEST FOR MILK AND BUTTER. 
C. F. O., Darien, Conn. —I have 
tested the weight of milk, cream and 
butter, obtained from one of our 
average churnings. ^ive milkings fur¬ 
nished 242 pounds of milk, from which we got 
63J-2 pounds of cream and 12 pounds of butter, 
so that there were 201-6 pounds of milk to one 
pound of butter. The above is the result 
from 12 cows, four of which are due to calve 
within the next eight weeks; four are farrow, 
and two are to calve before June 1st. They 
are grade Jerseys, from four to ten years old, 
and are fed a mixture of two parts of corn-and- 
cob meal, one part of oats, two parts of wheat 
bran, one part of cotton-seed meal and one 
part of linseed meal; they get two quarts 
mornings and two quarts nights, dry. Then 
we cut corn stalks and hay three-quarters of 
au inch long, mix them and teed each cow one 
bushel four times a day, as follows: One 
bushel before milking in the morning; then 
each gets the ground feed, and then another 
bushel of stalks and hay. About 10:30 a. m. 
they are let out in the yard, where they stay 
till about 3 p. m. , when they are putin the 
stable and fed a bushel of stalks and hay. 
Then, before milking, they get their 
ground feed, and after milking an¬ 
other bushel of stalks and hay. They 
do not get warm water, but what they 
do get is drawn from a cistern under the barn 
just before the cows are let out. We try not 
to let any water stay in the troughs to freeze, 
as we do not think ice-water quite fit for cows 
to drink They are carded every day before 
they are let out. As soon as possible after 
milking, the milk is set in a Cooley creamer. 
The cream rises in 12 hours, and is kept sweet 
till the night before we churn, when it is all 
ripened together. It is churned in from 30 
to 40 minutes in the Davis swing churn at a 
temperature as near to 68 degrees as possi¬ 
ble. It is washed in three or four waters 
when in granules, and salted with Higgins’s 
salt—one ounce to the pound. The salt is 
lightly worked in, and then the butter is set 
away for 24 hours. Then it is worked dry with 
the Eureka butter-worker, then printed in 
half-pound cakes and sent to New York, where 
it sells for 60 cents per pound. I believe if I 
- bad silage or roots to feed, I could feed 
more cheaply, but as this is my first year 
here, we have not things in proper working 
order yet. This, together with the misfortune 
of having two barns with all our crops burned, 
puts us in. bad shape for a record of any kind 
this winter. 
ORIGIN OF THE POTATO, ETC. 
L. H. R., Rutland, Vt.—A recent article 
entitled “Whence came the potato?” in the 
Vermont Watchman,makes several statements 
with which I cannot agree. Among others, 
it assigns the origin of the tuber to China. If 
I am not mistaken, the potato is found in a 
wild state in many sections of Mexico and in 
Arizona and Colorado to-day. Geo. Pinney 
of Evergreen, Door Co., Wis., introduced last 
spring, a new variety of potato which he 
claims came from the cultivation of a wild 
variety procured either in Arizona or New 
Mexico, I have forgotten which. As to the 
potato having been grown in China from 
time immemorial, has anything ever been 
found which was notandd thing in China, 
according to the claims of some? I wish the 
Rural would have another Potato Special 
this winter, as I think it has done au im¬ 
mense amount of good by its many experi¬ 
ments with potatoes. I consider the potato 
one of our most valuable crops, and if 
every one would wake up to the 
idea that the older varieties, like the Early 
Rose and Early Ohio, had seen their best 
days, growers might double their crops by 
keeping up with the times and growing the 
newer and better-yielding varieties of recent 
introduction. Among other varieties, those 
that have proved especially valuable with me, 
are Early Albino, New Queen, Hampden 
Beauty, Sunlit Star, Polaris and Rising Suu, 
for early; Summit, Evoritt and Rcse’s No. 74, 
for medium; and Green Mountain, Delaware, 
Alexander’s Prolific, State of Maine, Bonanza, 
Morning Star, White Lily, Empire State, 
Thunderbolt, Tioga Point, Newton Seedling, 
Chautauqua Seedling, and Fearnaught, fol¬ 
iate or main crop varieties. Of the novelties 
of this season Rogers’s Seedling and Tenhocks 
for early, and Ben Harrison and Burnee’s 
Superior for late, are very promising and are 
worthy of an extended trial. 
R. N.-Y.—In so far as the Rural’s informa¬ 
tion goes, the potato is a native of the Andes of 
South America, and also of Arizona, New 
Mexico, and other parts of Western North 
America. Whether it was found in the East 
prior to its discovery here, will be a pretty 
difficult problem to solve. 
“ LIMA BEANS WITHOUT POLES.” 
Stoddart, New York City.— I have used 
a device for raising Lima beans and other 
creeping plants, even tomatoes, similar to 
that described by E. T. Ivy in a late Rural; 
but, instead of common wrapping twine, I 
used a sort of hempen cord tarred and pre¬ 
pared for fishing use, which I purchased from 
a dealer in fishing tackle. It was Dot expen¬ 
sive and has proven indestructible by wet and 
inaccessible to rust. It a’so possesses a certain 
stiffness which facilitates the undoing of the 
vines without destroying or cutting the twine, 
after the plant has wilted, and so allows the 
use of the same twine year after year without 
removing and replacing it in tall and spring. 
It is easy enough to draw it taut whenever 
and wherever required, and the labor of put¬ 
ting it up as well as the expense of new twine 
is saved. In tying plants on walls or 
fences I drive in galvanized staples or gal¬ 
vanized rails. On brick walls the nails are 
better, but on fences I prefer the staples. 
In training tomatoes against a fence I tie 
southern reeds about a foot apart horizon¬ 
tally into the twine netting along the wall. 
They are sold about eight feet loDg for $1 
per 100, and, if carefully handled, they may 
be used over and over again. Short sticks or 
rests fastened to them and against the wall will 
keep the vines and fruit at a sufficient dis¬ 
tance from the wall or fence to allow toma¬ 
toes to spread without hindrance. In this 
way I saved space in a small garden spot and 
made vegetables serve as ornamental plants 
in the place of morning-glories and other 
little weeds. 
WILL BONE ANSWER? 
D. C. L., Cranbury, New Jersey.— I notice 
what A. T. T. of Franklin Park, N. J., says on 
page 90 of his experience and that of his 
neighbors for 30 or 40 years of the effects of 
lime applied to their land. His article would 
lead me to the conclusion that the exhausting 
process has been going on all these years. I 
believe it is conceded that lime represents no 
plant food—it merely prepares for use what 
is already in the soil. In speaking of his own 
use of fertilizers, he refers to bone, or it may 
be a plain superphosphate with a small per¬ 
centage of ammonia and potash. Is not the 
proper inference to be drawn from his experi¬ 
ence that the nitrogen and potash in the land 
have, in that vicinity, been exhausted in a de¬ 
gree, and while the farmers may apply “bone” 
in large quantities, thereby largely increasing 
the phosphoric acid, yet if the ammonia and 
potash are not applied through yard manures 
in sufficient quantities, can they look for any 
other result than partial failure of crops? 
This question of keeping up the balance in 
our soils, to insure average crops, is one of 
vast importance to the farmer. I believe it 
cannot be done with lime and bone, or the 
ordinary superphosphates. 
WATER FOR FATTENING ANIMALS. 
J. B. P., New London Co., Conn.— On 
page 89, in Mr. Henry Stewart’s answer to 
questions relative to the fattening of steers, 
he states that they should be “ well supplied ” 
with drinking water of a moderate tempera¬ 
ture. This “ moderate temperature ” would 
increase the palatability of the water, caus¬ 
ing them to drink more than they other¬ 
wise would. But to come to my point: 
In Prof. H. P. Armsby’s book on “ Cattle 
Feeding,” which is considered a standard 
book, we are told that “ excessive drinking 
of water increases the consumption of both 
fat and protein in the body.” He cites sev¬ 
eral experiments which go to prove his state¬ 
ment. This increase of consumed fat and 
protein goes from the body as waste matter, 
while, but for the excessive amount of water 
drank, it would have remained in the body as 
so much toward the desired end, i. e. the pro¬ 
duction of a fat animal. To avoid this extra 
demand for water, conditions must be adopted 
to annul the wants of the system. Thus, to 
quote Prof. A. again, we must avoid “too 
watery fodder, too high temperature of stall, 
two much salt, etc., and, withal, remember to 
keep the animal as quiet as possible.” 
J. P., Fitchburg, Mass.— I have never 
known an egg to be eaten by any of my hens 
since I adopted for a nest a nail-keg or its 
equivalent, nine to eleven inches deep. A 
hen may break an egg in such a nest, but 
she cannot get into a position that permits 
her to eat an egg. 
Open Air and Sunlight for Cattle.— 
Our highly-valued contemporary, the Weekly 
Press, gives some forcible reasons why 
cows should have regular exercise in the open 
air and sunlight. Sunlight and pure air are 
essential to health. They are among the most 
important blessings we enjoy, and nothing in 
the animal or vegetable kingdom can thrive 
without their influt nee. A sun bath is a positive 
luxury to every animal from man down. 
Watchmen and others who have to spend the 
night hours on duty and sleep in the day-time 
soon suffer in health, and, unless relieved by a 
change, break down. Exercise is just as im¬ 
portant to animal vigor as pure air and sun¬ 
shine. We should bear these things in mind 
when we talk of keeping our cows confined to 
the stables for months together. Cows so 
confined may give just as much, possibly a 
little more, milk than if allowed exercise, buL 
they certainly must deteriorate in vigor and 
become fit subjects for tuberculosis and other 
diseases. The ill-effects of this enervating 
treatment, if not very marked in the present 
generation, must show themselves in the 
offspring. There is no earthly reason why 
exercise is not just as essential to the health 
and well-being of a cow as to that of a man 
or a horse. Giving milk is a drain on a cow’s 
system, out it will not take the place of exer¬ 
cise; in fact, the cow needs the exercise all the 
more to strengthen her for the demand upon 
her constitution. Some cows endure close 
confinement better than others, just as some 
men enjoy an indoor life that would be intol¬ 
erable to their more active fellows of a differ¬ 
ent temperament, but that does not make the 
indoor life healthful; it is only a matter of 
degree. In the writer’s own dairy the 
majority of the cows become very restless as 
the hour for release from the stalls ap¬ 
proaches, and the capers they indulge in when 
turned into the shed yard for a frosty 
morning show that they appreciate the ad¬ 
vantage of having a chance to stretch their 
limbs. 
Eight v -cent Butter.—E. F. Bowditch is 
a wealthy farmer of Framingham Center, 
Mass. He makes 80-cent butter and can 
readily sell at that price more than he makes. 
The Mirror and Farmer, a Journal pub¬ 
lished in Manchester, N. H., tells how his 
butter is made. There is no secret about Mr. 
Bowditch’s butter. He tells the public every¬ 
thing there is to know about the cows, and the 
cream manipulations. R. N.-Y. readers will 
remember what has been said in these 
columns as to his herd of Guernseys,numbering 
19 and averaging 8% quarts of milk a day. 
They are fed four quarts of corn-meal each 
in two feeds, morning and night, and all the 
Timothy hay that they can eat. The milk Is 
strained seven times before it is placed in the 
cans of a Cooley Creamer, once being run 
through four thicknesses of cloth. It sits 
from 12 to 24 hours, the latter period being in 
the summer and the former in the winter. 
Twenty-four hours are allowed for ripening. 
At present, churning is done every other 
day. The cream from two days’ milk is 
placed in a pail and warmed up to 80 de¬ 
grees, being then placed'in a warm room for 
12 hours, the temperature of the room 
being about 60 degrees. After remaining 
there for that length of time, all night, 
it is churned In the morning in a Davis 
Swing Churn from 30 to 40 minutes. After 
the butter comes, several pailfuls of water at 
45 degrees, are poured into the churn and the 
churn is given a few swings and then 
allowed to remain at rest for a few moments 
when the butter-milk is drawn off and the 
churn filled with water and the previous 
process of swinging and resting repeated. 
The butter is washed three times, the last time 
in brine,the strength of which is that obtained 
by putting a pint of salt into two pailfuls 
of water. Then the butter goes to the butter- 
worker, a Eureka, when it is salted in the 
granular form,one ounce to the pound, Ashton’s 
salt being used. The salt is raked in with a 
wooden rake. The butter is then placed in a 
tin box, a clean cloth being used to prevent 
the butter from coming in contact with the 
tin, which causes sticking. In this box, tightly 
covered, the butter remains 24 hours, when it 
is worked into half-pound pats, pressed with 
a Rapp press into bricks, wrapped with clean 
cloth, placed in a refrigerator and soon there¬ 
after sent to market. At present 105 pounds 
of butter are turned out each week. The 
creamery in which the butter is made, is 
cemented on the bottom, double-walled and 
kept scrupulously clean. Mr Bowditch has a 
very large farm, in a superior state of fertility, 
handsomely and conveniently appointed, with 
buildings, fences, etc., and stocked with 
fine blood animals. Mr. Bowditch served his 
apprenticeship as a hired hand on a farm; his 
employer never suspected during the boy’s 
faithful term of service that his young assist¬ 
ant was a child of wealth. This practical 
spirit has followed Mr. Bowditch all through 
life, and has made him familiar with all the 
details of “Millwood Farm.” It is that kind 
of spirit that enables him to turn out 80-cent 
butter. 
sorghum equal to corn for stock feed. 
—Dr. Peter Collier, in an address deliv¬ 
ered before the Farmers’ Club of Elmira, as 
reported in the Husbandman, pointed out 
that the nutritive value of corn and sor¬ 
ghum is practically the same. 
Itisobvirus, then, that for every purpose 
for which corn is used, sorghum seed may be 
substituted; and, in fact, Dr. Collier has abund¬ 
ant testimony that sorghum seed has been so 
used. For example, at Rio Grande, 500 head 
of hogs were fed and fattened upon sorghum 
seed. The late Col. Aiken, of South Carolina, 
assured him that for 25 years be had always 
grown sorghum enough to furnish feed suf¬ 
ficient to fatten his swine, aul that for the 
seed alone he regarded sorghum as far super 
ior to corn in his section of the country. 
Now, our corn crop fs the cereal of this coun¬ 
try. The yield for 1888 was almost exactly two 
thousand millions of bushels. About 38 per 
cent, of all the cultivated land of the United 
States, even including the grass land, is de¬ 
voted to corn. While we of the East make 
much account of the stalks for increasing our 
stock of rough fodder, it is probable that at 
least 90 per cent of these stalks are regarded 
throughout the Prairie States of the West, 
where the bulk of corn is grown, as a nuisance 
to De got rid of in the easiest way possible. 
Corn, therefore, with us, is grown, we may 
say, almost solely for the grain which it 
yields. The average acreage yield of the 
United States for 25 years has been about 27 
bushels. It is interesting in this connection 
also to observe that 95 per cent, of our corn is 
consumed within the country, aud for several 
reasons for which it is used, sorghum seed, 
were it produced, might be in every case 
substituted. Now, again, while much yet 
remains to be determined in regard to the 
character of the soil best adapted for the sor¬ 
ghum plant, it is generally accepted that any 
land which is suitable for corn is also adapted 
to the cultivation of sorghum: in fact, that 
the demands upon climate and soil of the two 
crops are practically the same, with this im¬ 
portant difference, however, which is in favor 
of sorghum, namely, that no crop will stand 
as severe drought as sorghum Indeed, a 
few years since, on the northern Atlantic 
sea-board, the corn crop was practically a 
failure: over thousands of acres not a bushel 
of corn per acre was harvested; and yet that 
very season sorghum was found to be un¬ 
usually rich in sugar, and the only effect pro¬ 
duced by this prolonged drought was to 
diminish the crop of cane to the extent of 
about 25 per cent. 
The cost of cultivation of the sorghum is 
practically identical with that of corn, but 
Dr. Collier thinks that if a quarter more 
labor were given to it, the improved charac¬ 
ter of the crop would justify the additional 
expense. The grain of sorghum may be pre¬ 
pared for market or for feeding at an expense 
no greater than attends the cost of harvesting 
corn. The average of seven extended estimates 
as to the yield of sorghum, and one of these 
estimates included returns from 21 States,gives 
an average yield of 29% bushels of seed per 
acre. We may, then, safely conclude that in¬ 
asmuch as it pays to grow corn in this country 
for the seed alone, so too will the seed of 
sorghum pay all the expense in the cultivation 
and harvesting of the crop. Indeed, says Dr. 
Collier, there is abundant testimony to prove 
that such is the case. 
Road Improvements in New Jersey.— 
Efforts are being made to reform the present 
system of road making in New Jersey. The 
road laws, according to Bradstreet’s, are 
now being revised and codified by a com¬ 
mittee of the State Board of Agriculture, 
which will recommend, among other things, 
the abolition of the office of road-overseers. 
The feeling seems to be general that the road- 
overseers have been obstacles in the way of 
road improvement. Another change suggest¬ 
ed is the taking of the authority over the roads 
from the towns, and vesting it in the county 
authorities. One plan brought forward at 
several local meetings, contemplates empow¬ 
ering the Board of Freeholders to select aud 
improve the important roads, nnd thereafter 
control and repair the same, sharing the ex¬ 
penses of the work between the counties aud 
the municipalities through which the roads 
run. Road improvement should be taken up 
in a like vigorous and intelligent way in 
other sections of the country. 
THE LATEST AND BRIEFEST. 
Mr. E. H. Libby says that the would-be 
philanthropist can benefit his fellow men of 
all sorts aud conditions in no belter way than 
by buildipg them $ good road, His memory 
I 
