THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAY 41 
Said I “it is not a desirable job; I’d as soon 
paint an acre of sod ground.” For paper on 
which to figure the cost I stripped the wrapper 
from a copy of an agricultural paper. At the 
same time I remarked: 
“That is a good paper.” 
Said he “if you think so, just tell the village 
postmaster to put it in your box. I don’t 
want it to come here any more.” 
“Why did you subscribe for a paper you 
don’t like ?■’ asked I. 
“I was up to the fat-stock show and I just 
gave a fellow a dollar to get rid of him and his 
paper. It has too much to say about the 
tariff.” While he was telling me this I looked 
in the paper and the first lines that met the 
eye told of two years’ satisfaction from paint¬ 
ing the shingled roofs of the Michigan Exper¬ 
iment Station, with crude petroleum at a cost 
of nine cents per gallon. I got that paper 
into my pocket for fear he would see it, and 
said: 
“I’ll paint the roof for $1.50 a square (10 by 
10 feet). 
Said he, “heave ahead,I’ll board you and your 
horses.” To make a long story short,that one 
copy of a farm journal made me $112 on that 
job, and I’ve worked it many times since. 
But the tariff talk physiced him. If he had 
read it “forrevenue only' 1 and a knowledge of 
his business, it would have been money in his 
pocket. Has it ever occurred to you that me¬ 
chanics regard their trade journals as sacred? 
How about the farmer and his trade journal ? 
Has it ever occurred to any one that mechan¬ 
ics keep secret any trick or money-making 
device of the trade ? How about the average 
farmer ? We have fields here that have been 
in corn culture since the war steadily every 
year—only 24 years. Just hint rotation of 
crops and you’ll be told to “shut up.” I’m 
watching a few farms as a naturalist watches 
a cocoon,, to see just how long corn will 
grow profitably year after year on a sucked- 
out soil. 
EFFECTS OF LIMING ON CABBAGE, POTATOES 
AND GRASS. 
A. J., Lincoln Park, N. J.—In July last, 
I plowed up a rich strawberry patch, first ap¬ 
plying a good dressing of manure; aftfer plow¬ 
ing, I applied a good coat of lime; put fertil¬ 
izers in the hills; then set out with cabbage 
plants, having taken the plants out of a Ded 
where four to six seeds had been sown in 
hills. The whole patch produced the worst 
club-rooted cabbage I ever had. There wasn’t 
a good head in the whole plot; while on other 
patches close by that I did not lime, and the 
soil of which was not so rich, I had splendid, 
large cabbages: not a club-root to be seen. I 
had not grown cabbage on the patch for nine 
years. Can it be the lime that caused the 
trouble? Henderson and others recommend 
lime for cabbage. Four years ago I planted 
four lands of potatoes. On two I applied lime; 
on the other two, none. Where I applied the 
lime I had scabby potatoes; on the other lands 
they were smooth. One of my neighbors had 
the same experience. My land is low, flat—a 
dark, sandy loam, well surface-drained. I 
can grow good crops; but the land naturally 
runs to horse sorrell. Early in the fall of 1887 
I seeded down two acres with Timothy. At 
the time of seeding I applied 24 tons of New 
York horse manure. The ground had pre¬ 
viously been well manured for cabbage and 
potatoes. The grass came up thick and grew 
finely that fall; in the spring of 1888 it started 
out well, but after growing to a hight of six 
to eight inches, the ends of the blades turned 
yellow, and the crop did not grow much more, 
although last season was a good one for hay. 
There was a considerable amount of horse 
soirelinit. I had the same experience two 
or three times before. The cause is a mystery 
to me, for I can generally grow heavy crops 
of grass. Can it be that the land needs lime 
for grass; and could the lime cause the club- 
root in cabbage. 
“flour of sulphur” vs. “flowers of 
SULPHUR.” 
L. B. F., Marlboro, N. Y.— In a recent 
number of the Rural New-Yorker mention 
is made of “ flour of sulphur, more commonly 
known as “flowers of sulphur.” This may not 
be intended to mean that the term “flowers” is 
incorrect, though some readers may so inter¬ 
pret it. There seems to be a wide-spread and 
not unnatural misapprehension concerning 
these expressions. The word “flour ” describes 
the finely divided sulphur so perfectly that 
many people regard the term “flowers of sul¬ 
phur” as a vulgar error. It is quite certain, 
however, that “flowers of sulphur” is at least 
historically correct; and the same expression 
is found in other languages than English. 
The Latin name of the substance is “ Jlos sul- 
phuris the French is “ fleurs de soufre ;” 
the German, “ Schwefelplumen ;” all of 
which means literally “ flowers of sul¬ 
phur.” “Flour of sulphur” would be 
“ farina sulpharis ” in Latin “ farina de 
soufre" in French and “ Schwefehnehl" in 
German, expressions which the writer, at least, 
has never met. Similarly the term “ efflores¬ 
cent®” is applied to crystals such as those 
of blue vitriol which crumble to a fine pow¬ 
der on exposure to the air. The adoption of 
the term flour in place of flowers of sulphur is 
an error similar to that involved in the pres¬ 
ent spelling of the words “causeway” and 
“ sovereign” which are so spelled because of 
the existence of the English words “ ways” 
and “ reign” with which they have really noth¬ 
ing to do, being derived from the French words 
“ chaus£e" and “ souverain .” Of course, the 
word “flour” is itself derived from flower, so 
that it is of little consequence which is ap¬ 
plied to this form of sulphur, but it seems de¬ 
sirable to assure those who continue to call it 
“ flowers of sulphur” that they are not there¬ 
by committing a vulgar error, but are using 
the correct name of the substance. 
FRUITS AND FRUIT CATALOGUE. 
P. H. R., Downieville, Cal.— Very many 
suggestions were made to my mind by the 
Rural’s late Fruit Special. What made it 
more particularly interesting to me is the fact 
that I have lately become possessed of a beau¬ 
tifully situated, but totally unimproved place 
in the lower Sierra mountains, and I am 
desirous of filling it with fruits of the best 
quality, and everything good or beautiful. 
Let me suggest that had the writers who con¬ 
tributed so much to the value of that special 
number, mentioned the peculiarities of cli¬ 
mate as well as soil, necessary to the perfect 
production of fruits ot which they wrote 
what they said would have been of much 
more practical value—to me at any rate. 
Another point which remained unnoted was 
in regard to irrigation, whether all required 
the same amount of moisture in the soil. 
When I saw the caption of the article and the 
array of contributors, I felt as if that number 
would be worth $500 to me. Now I feel as 
though I should be compelled to lay out that 
amount extra, to make sure of getting the 
things best suited to my location. To make 
matters worse, I have lately examined one of 
the catalogues mentioned in the Rural as 
coming from a firm “ everywhere respected,” 
and I find by comparing the last one with 
those one or two years old, that one “ cut ” 
serves to illustrate both the Crescent and At¬ 
lantic strawberries; another serves for Bubach 
and Jewell; while another “cut” cut in two , 
serves for the Ancient Briton blackberry and 
Lucretia dewberry. 
PLANTING TREES FROM THE NORTH OR SOUTH. 
“ W,” Tyrone, Pa.— An old question in 
tree culture which still stands unsettled is 
whether one should prefer for planting, trees 
grown further North or further South. I re¬ 
ceived some young trees, (mostly peach) from 
a nursery in Huntsville, Alabama, where they 
had apparently just been dug from open 
ground, while here, at their arrival, the soil 
is frozen firmly 30 inches deep, and covered 
by 20 inches of snow, while the air is nearly 
at a frozen temperature. But they came in 
good condition from the close box in which 
they had been carried, and are now in sand in 
a cool cellar ready for the prime advantage 
of being set out just as soon as the soil opens 
and dries to admit of it. Looking at their 
bright, fully ripened wood, and their pecu- 
liarly numerous buds or short-jointedness, the 
old question came into my mind. It seems 
that in the South, where the season of growth 
is long and that of rest short, more buds are 
formed and better formed than in the tar 
North, where growth, when it does commence, 
goes on with a rush, and the internodes or 
spaces between joints are longer, more slender, 
and less firm, owing to the hurry of the work, 
also fewer in number, owing to the shorter 
season. 
road wisdom. 
P. K. S., Prattsburg, N. Y.— “ Brevities ” 
deems it, in the Rural of April 23, “unfortu¬ 
nate that the time fordoing spring’s work,and 
working road3,” conflict. Do they? Should 
not the road work commence as soon as the 
frost is out of the ground while the land is 
too soft and wet to be plowed for crops? The 
tops of the knolls can then be easily plowed 
and the stones picked out and drawn, with 
those in the track and by the road-sides, to 
low places to build sluices and grade up the 
low places and be covered with the dirt from 
the knolls. More thought ought to be mixed 
with the work on the roads. I saw a “path- 
master ” spend half a day with a team digging 
out a round stone from the beaten track at 
the foot of a knoll, and then he drew it to the 
side of the road to scare teams, when a little 
thought and half the work would have partly 
graded down the knoll and covered the stone 
beyond resurrection. Some farmers begin 
dragging a hill side, at the foot, and drag 
across and up as if they were plowing it with 
a side-hill plow. Is that .the^best way? If 
not, why not? 
D. A. S., Uncasyille, Conn.— Starr’s 
Beauty potato is a sport from the Early Rose, 
and is of nearly the same shape, but the color 
is more of a blush, and the vine leaves are 
more crimpy. I think It is a little earlier, 
and a much better yielder, as there are not 
half the number of small ones in the hill. I 
have planted it two years. Last season I 
planted on the same piece of ground, Early 
Maine, Early Sunrise, Early Rose, Empire 
State and the Starr, and the last were by far 
the best. They are not as mealy in the fall as 
the Rose, but more like Burbank’s seedlings. 
This is my experience with nothing but 
Stockbridge potato fertilizer, last year, on 
land which had been in grass over 12 years, 
and the grass had run out. 
Basic Slag as Manure.— The London 
Agricultural Gazette alluded to a paper read 
by some distinguished specialist on basic slag 
as a manure. In it he entered into carefully- 
considered details relating to its manufacture 
and composition. He pointed out that this 
manure not only varies very greatly in its 
composition, the percentage of phosphoric 
acid ranging from 10 to 20, that of lime from 
40 to 60, that of ferrous oxide from eight to 
10, and that of manganous oxide from four to 
five, but the presence of considerable propor¬ 
tions of oxides of iron and manganese he rep¬ 
resented as a great draw-back to the benefit 
which otherwise might be expected from the 
use of basic slag. He referred to a number 
of patented processes for freeing the manure 
from these objectionable oxides and produc¬ 
ing a more soluble fertilizer, and until one of 
these methods has been proved successful, he 
said he could not advise farmers to give up 
superphosphate in favor of basic slag. He 
specially warned them against mixtures of 
slag and superphosphate. The best sample of 
this slag he believes to be precipitated phos¬ 
phate, containing close on 70 per cent, of 
lime, without anything injurious in it, and in 
all respects a good article. The process by 
which this manure is prepared is the inven¬ 
tion of Scheibler, a German chemist, and a 
considerable trade in the preparation is done 
on the Continent, German buyers taking all 
the basic slag they find available in this coun¬ 
try. After all, then, the desired conversion 
of basic slag, as far as safety in its use is con¬ 
cerned, appears to have been accomplished. 
Skim-Milk as a Food for Hogs.— Prof. 
Henry says, in the Breeder’s Gazette, that 
1,000 pounds of average milk contain: 
POUNDS. 
Caseine. 32 
Fat.36 
Milk sugar. 45 
Mineral matter... 7 
Removing the cream in skimming takes 
away all of the fat except three or four 
pounds, but the caseine, milk sugar and min¬ 
eral matter are practically all left in the 
skim-milk, together with the residue of fat. 
Nature designed milk for the young calf, and 
it contains elements for the growing of the 
hide, hair, bones, and muscles as well as fat, 
so that the animal can be developed symmetri¬ 
cally. In removing the fat, we have taken 
out the principal constituent of the milk, 
which goes to make the fat of the body, but 
have removed little or none of the muscle and 
bone-forming elements. It is evident, then, 
that although we may have thought skim- 
milk a very poor article of food, since to our 
own taste cream seems the best part ot it, it is 
in reality very nutritious, and may be made 
very valuable on the farm for feeding pur¬ 
poses if properly managed. To get the best 
results from it we must remember what is 
left in the skim-milk after the removal of the 
cream, and endeavor to supply the lacking 
part so as to bring it back to something like 
its original composition. In skim-milk are 
the elements for the bones and muscles of our 
farm animals, but there is a lack of fat and 
energy food. Indian corn supplies this for 
the least money, and so combinations of 
Indian corn and skim-milk will be found to 
afford a most economical ration for young 
pigs, shotes, and breeding stock where good 
bone and muscle are essential to the highest 
results. 
calf for at least half an hour when it is first 
dropped; this will set the heart to working 
properly, start digestion and put the whole 
system in proper operation. A calf, either bull 
or heifer,should show a good escutcheon. In a 
cow, other points may be seen from which to 
judge; the teats should be set wide apart and 
stand out like four legs on a properly made 
stool. The shape of a calf may be largely 
changed by feeding. If kept fat it will de¬ 
velop a rounded body, while if fed so as to 
heep healthy and growing, it may be molded 
into the desired form for a dairy animal. It 
should have its mother’s milk the first three 
or four days, as it is designed by nature to 
set the calf’s system in proper condition. 
After it is a week old it should have sweet, 
skimmed milk, and be fed dry, ground oats. 
Eating the ground oats dry produces saliva 
to aid digestion, insures a healthy system and 
stimulates growth and good habits. After it 
is from one to three months old, it may be fed 
to develop its digestive organs. It should then 
have plenty of very digestible food of a kind 
that will aid in forming bone and muscle and 
add to its general growth—not of a kind that 
will develop fat. Thus a large deep belly will 
be developed, a desirable feature for a dairy 
cow. 
WIDE-AWAKE ITEMS. 
A Newly-Dropped Calf.— Prof. Robert¬ 
son, according to the Farmers’ Review, says 
that the calf born between September 1, and 
December 1, is the best to raise. It gets a 
good start before winter, winters well, and in 
the spring grows finely. A cow should lick a 
Mr. Bowker says that any one who will 
guarantee the concern with which he is con¬ 
nected, a net profit of two dollars per ton of 
fertilizers on the output of his factory for 10 
years, may have any surplus which accrues 
above the amount. 
Two dollars a ton on a $40 fertilizer would 
be a five-per-cent, profit. On a $20 fertilizer 
it would be a 10-per-cent, profit. 
Dr. Hoskins says, in Garden and Forest, 
that he has for several years been interested 
in a little native plant found, according to 
Mr. Pringle, in few localities in Vermont— 
the Strawberry Blite—Blitum capitatum. 
Spinach will not winter in his grounds, but 
the Blitejdoes not mind the cold, however 
severe; and as it starts into growth the mo¬ 
ment the snow departs, it makes as early 
greens as the dandelion, and to his taste quite 
as good as spinach. The Blite is a pretty per¬ 
sistent weed, so far as reproduction from seed 
goes; and the seeds are almost as small and 
quite as numerous as those of purslane, yet it 
is easily killed with the hoe. The brilliant 
crimson color of its pulpy but insipid fruit, 
with its abundance, makes the Blite a pretty 
plant in the flower-garden, when well grown, 
and, we may add, these brilliantly colored 
fruits last for a long time. 
Mrs. Kedzik, in the Industrialist, Kansas, 
reports that she buried some butter in a jar 
last May, eight feet deep in the ground, and 
has but lately dug it up, and found tnat while 
it had “aged” it was still as far from rancidity 
as when first burled. The color was still the 
same as when first made. Still it was not 
quite as palatable, for table butter, but for 
other uses it is believed, by her, to be quite 
as good as the fresh-made. Hoard’s Dairy¬ 
man guesses,that it would prefer to submerge 
it in pure briue, and keep it in a cool cellar.. 
The R. N.-Y. is not certain as to the yield¬ 
ing powers of Boley’s Northern Spy potato. 
Its shape will condemn it. 
And the same may be said of Monroe Coun¬ 
ty Prize. 
Prof. W. J. Green, of the Ohio Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station, says (in the Ohio 
Farmer) that the Early Oxford potato is not 
widely known, but it gives indications of 
being the most productive variety of the 
Early Rose class. 
Toe Ohio Junior gave lower yields in 
nearly all cases at the above Station than any 
other early variety, except the Early Ohio, 
the two being about equal in productiveness. 
As compared with Early Oxford.it stands 106 
to 200 in three trials, or little more than half 
in point of productiveness. Empire State and 
Summit stand at the head of the list and are 
about equal in prolificacy. Taking the evi¬ 
dence of these trials,Mr. Green ranks some of 
the standard varieties in the following order 
as to productiveness: Empire State, Summit, 
Early Oxford, Pearl of Savoy, Potentate, 
Puritan, Lee’s Favorite, Early Rose, Charles 
Downing, Early Standard. Early Albino, 
Early Ohio, Ohio Junior. 
The following appeared in the R. N-Y. of 
recent date: 
“Mr. C. S. Cooper thinks well of the Pata¬ 
gonians. He is an experienced poultry raiser. 
His eggs were received from the same source 
as were the Rural’s eggs. These, as our 
readers know, gave us a grand mixture.” To 
this Mr. Cooper replies: 
“ Your notice of my Patagonians may mis¬ 
lead the reader. From the eggs procured 
from Samuel V ilson I did not get one pure- 
