462 
MAR 6 
THOSE “SYMPOSIUMS.” 
F. S., Hydetown, Pa.—I n the Rural of 
February 16th I flDd the following: 
“New readers may notice that there are four 
‘Symposiums ’ in this week’s R. N.-Y. This 
is a feature inaugurated by us, etc.” I am an 
old reader of the Rural, perhaps too old to 
understand all the new inventions of the day. 
But in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 
published in 1878, the only definition I can 
find of the w r ord “ symposium ” is, “ A drink¬ 
ing party feast, to drink, a drinking together, 
a merry feast.” Does not the Rural’s use of 
the word need a little explanation for old men 
who are not initiated into these new inven¬ 
tions? Surely we can not bring ourselves to 
think that the paper would induce all farmers, 
potato growers, ladies, in short all the multi¬ 
tude of readers of the Rural to go into a 
“ drunk ” two or three times a week, on any 
cause, or for any purpose. Won’t the Rural 
please explain, lest we should all go iuto 
the gutter together? 
R. N.-Y.—We have a Webster’s Una¬ 
bridged of the edition of 1886. On page 1580 
of this volume we find the following: “Sym¬ 
posium, n. [Add.] 2. A collection of short es¬ 
says by different authors on a common topic; 
—from the appellation of the philosophical 
dialogues of the Greeks.” Thus it is seen that 
the Rural proposes during 1889, to invite its 
readers to a weekly feast of wisdom, and to 
frown, as usual, upon all “ drunks.” 
FERTILIZERS FOR FLOWERS, ETC. 
A. B., Hartford, Conn. I am sorry that 
while the subject was up somebody did not 
say something about the kind of fertilizers 
best suited for flowers, or rather for the 
flower garden. I am well aware that this is 
not very important, still how many are in¬ 
terested in the subject. It is very difficult to 
get good barn-yard manure. Coarse stuff 
that will do for spreading over the ground 
and plowing in for crops in general, will not 
answer at ail. Last summer 1 used some 
that 1 thought was good because it was fine; 
but I am inclined to think the goodness had 
been washed out. There are now thousands 
of chrysanthemums grown every year. 
These generally are taken up and put into 
their blooming pots about September 1. The 
soil should be rich and they also require 
liquid manure; finally when the pots are filled 
they contain literally a mass of roots. What 
kind of fertilizer is the best for them? Of 
late years great attention is given to dahlias. 
The United States Nurseries at Short Hills, N. 
J., issue a special catalogue of these plants. 
It would seem that an entirely different 
manure would be suitable for them. The 
foliage beet advertised quite extensively last 
season by Hallock & Son, is very ordinary. 
My opinion is that it is a humbug. Many 
novelties advertised with flamipg 'illustra¬ 
tions are good for nothing Persons are sim¬ 
ply fooled when they buy them. 
R. N.-Y. We should use for hardy flowers 
of all kinds a high-grade complete fertilizer— 
the same as those advertised for cereals or 
even potatoes. They do not differ in plant 
food materially. The ornamental beets when 
true to name are beautiful plants. We began 
raising them for borders and even for solid 
beds 14 years ago. Their variegation and 
distinct colors are not much surpassed by any 
plants used for the same purpose. 
DISEASE ON SWEET POTATOES. 
E. G. B., Penn’s Grove, N. J.—Since read¬ 
ing the Rural’s remarks on the use of sul¬ 
phur to prevent scabby and worm eaten po¬ 
tatoes, I have wondered if it would do any 
good in preventing “ground rot” in sweet 
potatoes. This disease has never struck my 
land, and has shown itself only in those fields 
that have produced Southern potatoes, either 
for several successive years, or which have 
been so cropped year after year, or with only 
little intermissions, and as I practice rotation, 
I have never seen it in my fields. 
The first symptom of “ground rot” is 
noticed in digging the crop, when some pota¬ 
toes appear to have been eaten by worms 
just as white potatoes are eaten by the pests. 
At first only a few show the marks; but more 
are affected in the next crop, and in succeed¬ 
ing years the matter grows worse and worse. 
At first the vines die only when nearly full- 
grown ; but year after year the disease takes 
them earlier and earlier until the crop is an 
entire failure. If the ground is allowed to 
rest for several years, the rot will not show 
itself again until the field has been heavily 
cropped for some years again. 
I have heard many theories advanced to ac¬ 
count for this condition of things. It is 
thought by some to be due to the exhaustion 
of some of the available plant-food ingredients 
of the soil; while others attribute it to the 
ravages of iDsects, and others again think it 
is the result of fungus growth. I have known 
crops to be grown on “diseased” land by the 
use of commercial fertilizers, without any 
THE RURAL MEW-YORfCIR. 
I stable manure. Some crops grown with Mapes 
fertilizers showed little signs of rot where 
previous crops had been total failures or 
nearly so. What do Rural readers think of 
the matter? Is the use of sulphur likely to 
prove beneficial in this case? 
THE MONTANA HIRED MAN. 
A. C. C., Livingston, Montana.— The 
articles regarding “ help ” have been very in¬ 
teresting. In the East the hiring seems to be 
conducted principally on the time-contract 
system. Men are in this manner bound to their 
employers for at any rate the period contract¬ 
ed for. Here the system is different. The em¬ 
ployer simply employs a man. He may de¬ 
mand his wages at any moment, under the in¬ 
fluence of the go-west fever; and however 
scarce labor may be, however well the em¬ 
ployer is suited, the check is written and one 
has to begin the search for another man into 
whose ways one must get, and whom he has 
to instruct in his. Wages are high—§35 a 
month all the yfar round, are what I pay in 
the vain hope of retaining the services of a 
good, steady man, and during plowing, seed¬ 
ing and haying I have had an additional 
hand. The work is not hard, consisting of 
milking 10 or 12 cows, locking after a couple 
of teams, and being generally handy upon a 
ranch of small size. I am a bachelor, do all 
my own cooking and house work, look after 
the garden and dairying, as well as lend a 
hand with pigs, poultry and other work. The 
day’s work commences at six in summer, and 
is always over by the same hour at night, as 
far as the help is concerned. In winter the stock 
are fed at 7 a. m. and all are housed, fed, and 
chores done by sunset. The house is comfort¬ 
able, there are plenty of books to pass 
the evenings with, and every comfort I 
have I share with my man. Suddenly 
the help is seized with a craving for 
change, and announces his intentions of 
“ going away visiting.” Whether he will re¬ 
turn or not, he i9 unable to say, and so, just 
when labor is scarce, work plentiful, and 1 am 
looking forward to spring duties, there I am 
plants la. My help is just leaving, after 
nearly 12 months. He knows my ways; I 
his, and we are good friends in every ivspect. 
He has been steady, trustworthy, kind to the 
stock, and a good worker. He has saved 
money. In my inmost heart I guess he wants 
“ a woman” and is starting off on the hunt,! 
Then he will go to Washington Territory and 
spend his savings as soon as he arrives or be¬ 
fore. Where can I get a successor—an honest 
hard-working conscientious farm hand who 
can appreciate a good home, and who if he so 
choose may educate himself considerably in 
more ways than one? Hardly can such a one 
be found in town by inquiry of saloon-keepers 
or stable-men. What becomes of the farmer’s 
young sons? Do they always share in the 
parental acreage, or do they always aspire to 
the dignity of city professional or commer¬ 
cial life? Are there no farmers and dairy¬ 
men in embryo to whom a good home, wages, 
and experience would be a benefit before a 
personal undertaking? When countrymen 
all flock citywards they may help the city, 
but they kill the country. What sort of a 
physical corporation is that in which the best 
blood rushes to the heart and stays there? 
SOME IDEAS OF HARROWS. 
W. V., Franklin, N. J.—I feel quite inter¬ 
ested in the talk about harrows, and am an 
advocate of spreading manure as fast as it ac¬ 
cumulates, and now I believe most farmers 
think that manure should not be put too deep 
under the surface. When I was a boy my 
father used to plow in his manure; but at this 
day most farmers plow first and spread the 
manure on top, in which case the manure 
must be very short or any spike-tooth or 
spring-tooth that I am acquainted with will 
drag it up in heaps. If a spike-tooth harrow 
has the teeth set at such an angle that they 
will not heap the manure, then they will be 
of very little use except to smooth the sur¬ 
face. , If oats are put on corn ground or 
corn is grown on sod, one should plow in the 
fall; spread the manure in the winter and in 
the spring use a disk or Cutaway harrow. I 
think I prefer a Cutaway. For preparing 
corn ground in the fall for rye or wheat, use a 
Cutaway harrow, and lap half, then use a 
light, smoothing harrow and the ground will 
be in good order and the manure where it will 
do the most good, and at the least outlay of 
time and expense; at least that is my experi¬ 
ence. 
WANTED—A SMALL, CHEAP ICE-MAKING 
MACHINE. 
E. E. B., Norfolk, Va.—W e Southern 
dairymen sadly need an ice-making machine 
suitable for private dairies of 25 cows and up¬ 
wards. Ice has to be bought, and §4 to $5 
per ton and waste make a heavy tax. Ice is 
made aitificially already by wholesale iu 
many of our large cities, but we want a 
machine for private use. I have an eight- 
horse-power engine that I use for grinding 
gram, cutting fodder, etc., and it seems as 
though some of the inventors or manufact¬ 
urers of the wholesale ice machines, could 
easily devise one of smaller proportions that 
could make ice cheaply for farmers’ use; it 
would find ready sale. I know of several 
dairymen who want to buy such machines, 
and I think there are other branches of bus¬ 
iness that would do so. For instance, during 
the past two or three years, the leading 
truckers pack ice with their late shipments of 
radishes, spinach etc., and find that it pays 
them. Can’t the Rural agitate the matter? 
R. N.-Y.—Such a machine is certainly a 
desideratum and if invented and sold at a 
moderate figure, would certainly have a large 
sale. 
KILLING HOGS IN OREGON. 
R. A. S., Joseph, Oregon.— I must tell 
Charity Sweetheart how we kill hogs out 
here. Perhaps by next hog-killing time she 
can persuade the men folks to have alike ar¬ 
rangement. In the first place, the person 
who intends to kill wants a sheet of galvanized 
iron; then he must make a box out of 2x14- 
inch plank. It must be wider at the top than 
at the bottom. Let him nail the sheet of iron 
on the bottom and let it turn up somewhat at 
the ends, as this makes it stouter there. It is 
better to have the sides of the box project 
over three inches. Then some tin or sheet-iron 
should be nailed under and over the ends to 
prevent burning. So much for the vat. Now 
dig a hole a little^longer than the box, set the 
latter over it, put in some stove-pipe at one 
end of the hole, bank the dirt around it, and 
you are ready for fire and water. Build a 
platform on one side on which to dress the 
hogs, and make a small one on tne other side 
on which a man can stand. When you are 
ready you want a loDgrope; double it and 
spread it out over the vat with a man at each 
end. Roll your butchered hog on the rope, 
and roll him in and keep turning him around 
until he is ready to be taken out. Stand on 
the rope on the platform and you can roll the 
hog out with perfect ease. Two men can han¬ 
dle a large hog in this way without any diffi¬ 
culty. 
CLOVER SEED AND THE MIDGE. 
J. W., Ohio.— In this vicinity the clover 
midge appears in numbers on the first crop, 
that usually cut for hay, and again on the 
crop grown for seed after the hay has been 
cut. I noticed that for two years, clover in 
my yard, cut in May, had no midge in the 
heads and the seed was fine and abundant. 
In 1887 1 cut nine acres of Medium clover 
about the middle of May, and let it lie as a 
mulch. From this I harvested, about August 
10, 46 12-60 bushels ot seed, or 5 8-60 bushels 
per acre. Last year I cut seven acres of 
Mammoth clover in the same manner, and 
harvested it about the same time, and the 
yield was 41 22-60 bushels, or 5 54-60 per acre. 
I could find no midge in either of these crops, 
while the pests nearly destroyed the seed crop 
grown after the hay cut in June. 
(Continued on Page 165.) 
Cost of Wheat Production in Michigan. 
—From data furnished by the State authori¬ 
ties and the National Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, it appears that the cost of wheat ’ pro¬ 
duction in Michigan in 1888, including plow¬ 
ing, fitting, fertilizers, seed-drilling, harvest¬ 
ing, stacking, thrashing, marketing, interest 
at seven per cent, on the land, insurance,taxes 
and repairs, was $12.98 per acre, and for the 
five years ended with 1888, the average cost 
in the State was $14.22 per acre. The aver¬ 
age yield of wheat In the State for the same 
five years was 18.53 bushels. Deducting from 
the total cost per acre the value of the straw 
and the rental of the dwellings, and dividing 
the remainder by the average yield per acre for 
five years, the net average cost for five years 
of producing and marketing a bushel of w-heat 
was 66 cents for the southern tier of coun¬ 
ties, 63 cents for the central counties, 60 cents 
for the northern tier, and 04>£ cents for the 
State. The average net cost for all the farms in 
the State for five years was about 70 cents per 
bushel. The Agricultural Department places 
the average home price at 84 cents in 1885; 
73 cent3 in 1886; and 74 cents in 1887. In the 
above calculation the labor of the farmer and of 
his work animals has been allowed full prices; 
still there doesn’t seem to be much mouey In 
wheat-growing in Michigan. Michigan is 
a winter-wheat Slate, as very little spring- 
wheat is raised there even in the No them 
counties. Now the January crop imports of the 
Department of Agriculture put the average 
yield of winter-wheat iu the couutry at only 
10.3 bushels per acre in 1888. The average 
allowed Michigan in the above calculation is 
nearly eight bushels more than the average 
for the entire country last year. It is con¬ 
ceded by all that profit comes only from the 
surplus over the cost of production. A large 
number of farms must have produced con¬ 
siderably less than 10 bushels per acre last 
year. If Michigan which produced eight 
bushels per acre over that figure, made only a 
small profit on the crop, how stand those 
States and farmers who were a long way 
from being so fortunate? 
Farm Life and Muscular Manhood.— 
Horace wrote nearly 1,900 years ago, extolling 
the life and occupations of a farmer living on 
his own land as the truly happiest life on 
earth. It is a happier and securer life now 
than it was then or down to within a century 
of our present time; for then the quiet, patient 
ruralists were victims of lordly pride and 
power. Now, and here, where there is ac¬ 
knowledgment of men’s general equality, the 
farming class is felt to be the raain-s’ay of 
national strength and is proportionately re¬ 
spected. But, as Horace said, the too fortu¬ 
nate agricolce know not what advantages are 
theirs; aud that is true still. They have but 
to unite to prove and use their present power 
in the State. Their youth, ruddy with health 
and strength, are beginning to cease envying 
the dapper dandies who flit about town streets 
or are shut up, pale and enervate, in stores 
and offices. 
In France, where the terrible defeat of 1870 
changed, to a great extent, a gay and fickle, 
pleasure devoted people into serious, earnest 
carers for their own and their nation’s 
strength and life, and where a final life or 
death struggle over lost territory and humbled 
pride is in constant prospect, every effort is 
made to strengthen the minds and bodies of 
all the people. The schools are made in the 
highest degree effective for both, and after 
school age every young man, of every occupa¬ 
tion aud standing, without any exception, 
must go through years of military discipline. 
All students are exercised in gymnastic exer¬ 
cises in addition to manual training as part 
of their school drill, and we read of the Presi¬ 
dent of the Republic encouraging the young 
men of Paris in those exercises of their mus¬ 
cles and lungs by attending exhibitions of 
them in the public.parks. An afflictive ex¬ 
perience often benefits us individuals, by 
checking the wantonness and indolence that 
prosperity breeds; and it is so, too, with na¬ 
tions. 
Prohibition Strengthened in Iowa.— 
Another legal victory has been gained by the 
State of Iowa, in its contest with the liquor 
dealers, by a decision just rendered by tho 
Supreme Court of the State in the “ original 
package ” case. The point involved, as con¬ 
densed by Bradstreet’s, was whether dealers 
could import liquor from other States into 
Iowa and sell it there in bottles or cases of 
bottles. The trial court held that the liquor 
dealers could sell beer in cases just as it was 
delivered by the carriers, and that such 
selling was beyond the power of the State to 
prohibit, as falling under the head of inter¬ 
state commerce. It held, bowevor, that 
whisky which had been imported iu bottles 
packed in cases aud barrels could not be sold 
in bottles, though it could be sold in the 
bottles in the original packages. The Su¬ 
preme Court, however, decides that in 
neither case can liquor be sold in Iowa; that 
the method of packing is not material, and 
that the only question is whether the dealers 
have a right to sell liquor in the State, a 
question which it answers decidedly in the 
negative. Of course as a Federal question 
was raised—that of the State’s control of m- 
ter-State commerce—an appeal may be taken 
to the United States Supreme Court. The 
decision would have a very important bearing 
on the question of one State’s legislation 
against importations of dressod meat from 
another State—which is very likely to arise 
before long. 
Sugar Bounty and Glucose.— The Senate 
Tariff Bill now pending before the House 
gives a bounty of one cent a pound to the 
manufacturers of sugar from sugar-cane, sor¬ 
ghum or beets. Theglucoie or “grape sugar” 
men are demanding a similar stimulus to then- 
industry. They claim that they make 550,- 
900,000 pounds of “ grape sugar,” every 
year, furnishing a market for nearly as much 
corn as is now sent out of the country. They 
say, therefore, that while comparatively few 
farmers will, iu the near future at any rate, 
be benefited by the bounty on the other kinds 
of sugar, all the corn-producers will be more 
or less benefited by a bounty on glucose the 
manufacture of which now consumes about 
100,000,000 bushels of corn. “ Corn-sugar ” is 
now to a large exteut'usod by confectianers, 
