4888 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
383 
with complete success. She was not quite 
sure as to the strength of the solution—one or 
two table-spoonfuls to a quart of water she 
thought. My first impulse was to wait and 
test this remedy before writing to the Rural, 
but my second and best thought was to sub¬ 
mit the matter at once. My potatoes are not 
yet above ground, b" t a neighbor reports 
that his vines are being destroyed. 
A. A. C., Ames, Iowa. —As to the compara¬ 
tive hardiness of Red clover and Alfalfa, dis¬ 
cussed on page 336, I think there can be no 
question. A six-acre field ot Alfalfa sown 
here last spring was so badly killed during 
the past winter that only scattering plants re¬ 
mained and the field was plowei up. Fifteon 
acres of clover sown at the same time were 
uninjured except a little on an exposed 
gravelly ridge. 
J. L., Oceanic, N. J. —Has the Rural 
tried ‘‘Hammond’s Slug Shot” for the Flea- 
beetle and, in fact, all kinds of pests ? If not, 
it should try it. I am only an amateur. I 
have nothing to do blit to experiment for the 
best success with flowers, vegetables and 
poultry and I find nothing equals “Slug Shot.” 
R. N.-Y.—Slug Shot is virtually plaster 
and some form of arsenic intimately mixed. 
Horticulture For Women. Mr»S. B. Par¬ 
sons, in Harper's Bazar, says that looking 
over the whole ground with the experience of 
nearly half a century, he sees no reason why 
horticulture for profit should not be largely 
in the hands of women. Each woman esteems 
herself competent to manage a house, although 
she may employ a man to care for the furnace, 
to cut the wood, or to cart the coal. So she 
could manage any horticultural business, men 
being employed to do the work requiring 
muscle. It is eminently proper that women 
should adopt the business of florists, whether 
as employers or employed. In the problem 
of happiness which all humanity is endeavor¬ 
ing to solve, labor is an important factor. 
Therefore the woman who adopts horticulture 
for its money-producing capabilities may ob¬ 
tain more lasting enjoyment than the pet of 
the drawing-room, who looks upon a flower 
os she would upon a brilliant gem or a beau¬ 
tiful picture. 
There is more than a money appreciation in 
the woman who works herself among her trees 
and flowers, watching their growth and bloom 
as a mother watches those of her child. 
When she plants, her labor and her love can 
illustrate the liras: 
“Wide let Its hollow bed be made. 
There gently lay the roots, and there 
Sift the dark mold with kindly care. 
And press It tenderly. 
As ’round the sleeping Infant’s feet 
We softly fold the cradle sheet. 
So plant each shrub and tree.” 
It is this sort of motber-love which makes 
some women succeed with every plant they 
touch. 
Looking upon horticulture as an avenue for 
many women to a living, there can be seen an 
opportunity for benevolent men who wish to 
make the wisest use of their money. A gift 
or bequest to a college or a library has become 
a very ordinary thing. Many wealthy men 
indulge in it A gift or bequest to found a 
horticultural school for womeu would be 
unique, would be the means of relieving a large 
class, and would endear the giver to poster¬ 
ity. 
Prof. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural 
College, in his treatise on silos and silage, to 
which we have already several times alluded, 
says that he can grow the most corn with the 
least labor by planting it in drills. He advi«es 
that we plant, cultivate and care for ensilage 
corn just as we would to secure the best field 
corn. His silo is 20 feet high, and he would 
now add five feet more, if building another. 
With a good silo, he says, farmers can sell 
most of their hay at a large profit, and yet 
keep their farms in fine condition. 
Silage is succulent food, and so, like green 
pasture, is appetizing, digestible, assimilable: 
just the food that suits the needs of the animal. 
It costs Prof. Cook less than 50 cents per ton 
for putting corn into his silo. Good silage 
increases the milk of cows and increases the 
butter yield. There is no injury to milk, 
cream or butter. Farmers must keep stock, 
cattle, sheep, hogs and horses on the laud—the 
more the better. With silage properly se¬ 
cured wo can increase our stock one-half. 
Many say that the stock can be doubled. 
Double the stock, double the manure, double 
the fertility, double tbe production. 
The ears of the com, as well as the stalks, 
are cut and run into the silos. There is no 
other way in which the corn can be harvested 
so easily and cheaply. In the silo the corn is 
softened so that no grinding is required; for 
even cattle will digest thoroughly this softened 
corn in tbe silage. 
Beyond question, corn is the most profit¬ 
able crop for silage. It is a very sure crop, 
and with a good yield of from 12 to 20 tons 
per aero As three tons of silage are worth 
one ton of the best hay, this is equal to from 
four to ten tons per acre. Again, this is the 
cheapest way of harvesting corn, and it can be 
put in a small barn space. 
The silo can be opened and its contents fed 
out at once if desired; or it may remain 
closed, as will usually be the case, until cold 
weather sets in. It answers well as the main 
food ration for all kinds of stock at any season 
of the year. It is doubtless improved by add¬ 
ing bran,oat,linseed or cotton seed meal, when 
feeding the silage. 
Silage is a pretty good food ration alone. If 
desired to add more albuminoids, bran and 
oil-meul are easily obtainable. It is quite like¬ 
ly that it may pay to make silage of clover 
and mix this with corn silage when feeding. 
Prof. Cook’s success with corn silage has been 
so marked and satisfactory that he believes it 
to be of the first importance and highest 
value. 
If the silo is full to the top, it should be 
allowed to settle a day or two and then fill to 
the top again, which should be twice repeated. 
At the last a foot or two of cut straw should 
be put on top, and this weighted by a few 
boards to hold it down. The old way of 
weighting with tons of stone, earth, etc., is 
shown, by ample experience other than his, 
to be utterly useless. It is labor thrown away. 
Prof. Cook has proved now for two years that 
the old rule to cut and fill one day aud rest 
the next, that the silage may heat and destroy 
the germs of fermentation and thu« fill on al¬ 
ternate days, is not necessary. He advises 
filling rapidly, as he knows it is safe and ex¬ 
cellent in its results. There is no doubt that 
filling leisurely, as suggested will give just as 
good results, as many have proven this to be 
true; hence, if more convenient, the filling 
may go forward on alternate days only. 
THE RURAL’S LUNCH. 
The Secretary of Agriculture, in re¬ 
ply to an inquiry made by the Farmers’ Re¬ 
view, states, what all farmers ought to have 
known, that all information furnished by the 
several divisions of the Department is fur¬ 
nished gratuitously. 
T. D. Curtis says in the Dairy World that 
it may be set down as a rule that the very best 
butter-makers leave the poorer cream in the 
milk. There may be some exceptions, where 
other conditions come in to modify results; 
but these exceptions will probably be found 
no more than are necessary to prove the rule. 
Thorough experimentation will ultimately 
demonstrate that the butter-maker has the 
choice between better quality at a small loss 
of quantity and a small increase of quantity 
at the cost of a somewhat reduced quality. 
Extreme quantity and superior quality are 
not compatible by any kuown process. 
Dr. Babcock holds that the sooner milk is set 
after it is drawn from the cow, the more com¬ 
plete the separation of the cream. The delay 
of a few minutes in his trials, had a marked 
effect on the per cent, of cream left in the 
milk, the amount steadily increasing with the 
increase of time. He thinks that the fall of 
temperature has little to do with the matter, 
as milk which had been delayed in setting, 
when afterward warmed up, did not part with 
its cream any better than milk delayed in the 
same way wh’ch was not warmed. This is 
contrary to what has been taught by good au¬ 
thority, and needs confirmation by additional 
experiments. 
Dr. BabcocK recommends not only immedi¬ 
ate but cold setting, as sudden cooling pre¬ 
vents the florin from coagulating. If he is 
correct, a vast amount of cream has been lost 
in tbe past by shallow setting iu the air. But 
as salt prevents the coagulation of fibrin, why 
may not the addition of a very small amount 
of salt immediately after milking have the 
desired effect of keeping the fibrin iu a liquid 
form?. 
The new Bush Lima furnishes a starting 
point for a dwarf variety to take the place 
of the old Lima. The Bush Lima, though a 
good thing, is, nevertheless, the smallest of all 
Limas, aud caunot yet entirely supersede the 
old large Lima, But having secured the hab¬ 
it it will not be long before we have the big 
bean on the small bush. As grown with Mr. 
Massey of Crozet, Va., as he states in Garden 
aud Forest, last summer the Bush Lima, or 
Bush Sieva, was fully two weeks or more 
earlier than the pole Sieva, and wore than 
that in advance of the large Lima. It will 
thus be of great advantage in localities too 
far north for the large Lima. 
Experiments in heating greenhouses, made 
by the Massachusetts Experiment Station, de¬ 
signed to show whether steam orbot-water 
heating is more economical, gave the results 
that the hot water boiler consumed 720 pounds 
less coal than the steam boiler in February, 
and 688 pounds less in January,a saving of 
nearly 20 per cent. 
At the same time the temperature of tbe 
room heated by hot water averaged 1.7degree 
higher than that heated by steam. 
The temperature was more even where 
heated by hot water, and consequently there 
was less danger from sudden cold weather. 
This was strikingly shown on the night of 
February 22nd. 
Evaporated sulphur is given as a rem¬ 
edy for rose-mildew, lettuce mildew and red 
spider. 
Arsenical poisons at the Vermont S*a 
tion bad no effect upon the coddling moth 
The Vermont Report also says that if a 
person has a small piece of ground on which 
he desires to get the largest possible amount 
of fodder for green feeding throughout the 
whole summer, Prickly Comfrev seems well 
adapted to his wants. The Report speaks 
well of Japanese buckwheat. . 
This Station sent Alfalfa seed enough to 
sow one-fifth of an acre to 44 farmers of Ver¬ 
mont. This was two years ago. The first 
fall reports were received from 30 of these men- 
mostly favorable. Later reports received dur¬ 
ing the summer of 1888 showed that not one 
in the original 44 could be found to speak a 
good word for it. The spring of 1888 had 
found it missing. The chief reason assigned 
was that it had not wintered and was a fail 
ure. 
Mb. Claus Spreckels says that as re¬ 
gards making sugar from beets in this coun¬ 
try it is a new undertaking, and if his enthus¬ 
iasm does not lead him too far, it is bound 
to be a success. The sugar that is made 
from the beet is more powerful, tnat is, 
it possesses a greater sweetening 
faculty than that which is made or 
purported to be made from the sugar cane. 
Besides as to its purity, it can be best manu¬ 
factured by being kept from adulteration ... 
The California Pioneer Press says that the 
cultivation of sugar beets on the Pacific coast 
is said to be a success. What is wanted now 
is the cultivation of some scheme to beat 
sugar trusts and other beats as well. 
John Gould says, in the Wes’ern Rural 
chat he sold $114 worth of milk from one acre 
of ensilage and $22 worth of bran aud clover 
hay. The milk brought $1 40 per cwt. 
Our readers are again reminded that the 
new Japan buckwheat is liked by all who 
have raised it in so far as the R. N. Y. has 
heard. It is preferred to any other variety. 
The grubs of the asparagus beetle are now 
doing their destructive work. Dust them with 
lime. 
It would have sounded[strange, a few years 
ago,if a man like Prof. A. J. Cook,of the Mich¬ 
igan Agricultural College,says Hoard’s Dairy¬ 
man had said it was a wasteful practice on the 
part of a farmer to pasture his cattle on good 
arable land. But he says it now; and though 
the stupid million are skeptical still, there are 
growing thousands who know it is true. These 
will practice on the knowledge, and get rich 
ere the balance will “catch on.”. 
ABSTRACTS. 
-Hemingway London-Purple Co.: “The 
Rural New-Yorker was the first of the 
farm press to use ‘London-purple.’” 
-A. W. Cheever: “I have never been able 
to see any marked difference in the quantity 
or quality of milk produced on account of 
feeding or withholding salt. I thiuk animals 
may acquire a taste for it that may approach 
a mere habit.” 
-Puck: “Secretary Rusk to President Har¬ 
rison : ‘Another chap waDts'to know if it im¬ 
proves the common breed of sheep to cross 
them with the hydraulic ram.’ ” 
-Life: “The virgin forest has never been 
axed.” 
-Members of the Hornellsville (N. 
Y.) Farmers' Club. 
-“I DO not believe that any real bad per¬ 
son ever cultivates flowers.” 
- “Wherever I have fouud flowers in the 
yard I have found sunshine in the home.” 
——“As a general thing, you won’t see the 
rough element of the human family taking to 
flowers. ” 
-“I think those who cultivate flowers are 
far more apt to clean up the rubbish, cut .the 
briars aotLstraighten the fences," 
-“When I go by a house where 
flowers are well-cultivated, I think there 
must be cultivation inside. When a man can 
sit down in his own yard and enjoy flowers, 
be grows better day by day.” 
-“I Believe in the male members of the 
family giving assistance to the ladies. Let us 
give them more time for thus beautifying our 
homes by making everything about the house 
as convenient as'possible for them.” 
-“I have traveled over a considerable por¬ 
tion of this country and have noticed that 
wherever attention was paid to the culture 
of flowers, there was a higher moral tone to 
the people; they were more cultured, more 
refined.” 
-“I think flowers not only help [to beautify 
our homes, but to make them more valuable. 
They help to elevate the tastes of those who 
cultivate flowers. The husbands and sons who 
help to elevate the flower garden will be re¬ 
fined and elevated by their influence.” 
-‘ The best education I ever had was 
what my mother gave me as I worked with 
her among the flowers. You can’t start a 
real home without something to beautify it. 
We go to the flower garden to get the decora¬ 
tion for the grave and for the bride. Let one 
of the family pass through the flower garden; 
he can hardly resist plucking a flower here, 
pulling a weed there or helping a struggling 
climber to a firm hold. Suddenly his eye 
catches some new beauty; he calls some one 
else to admire it; then another member of the 
family is attracted to the spot, and before you 
know it you have a family gathering about 
one of the most beautiful altars God ever 
gave to man.” 
Horsford’s Acid Phosphate. 
Ill Effects of Tobacco 
relieved by its use.— Adv. 
Scrofula 
Probably no form of disease is so generally dis 
tributed among our whole population as scrofula. 
Almost every individual has this latent poison 
coursing his veins. The terrible sufferings en¬ 
dured by those afflicted with scrofulous sores 
cannot be understood by others, and their grati- 
ude on finding a remedy that cures them, aston¬ 
ishes a well person. The wonderful power of 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
in eradicating every form of Scrofula has been so 
clearly and fully demonstrated that it leaves no 
doubt that it is the greatest medical discovery of 
this generation. It is made by C. I. HOOD <£ CO., 
Lowell, Mass., and is sold by all druggists. 
IOO Doses One Dollar 
For Internal and External Use. 
Stops Pain, Cramps, Inflammation in body or limb, 
like magic. Curve Croup. Asthma, Colds, Catarrh, Chol¬ 
era Morbus, Piarrhieo. Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Lame- 
back, Stiff Joints and Strains. Full particulars free. Price 
S&cts. post-paid. L S. JOHNSON & CO., Boston. Mass. 
Beecham’s Pills act like magic on a weak stomach. 
ANi> PRICES. MARION, OHIO- 
CANADA 
H3.H.r).woor> 
UNLEACHED 
By rail In car-load lots furnished on short notice. 
Ashes guaranteed to be of best quality and are 
especially adapted for all grass and fruits. Pam¬ 
phlets and prices sent on application. 
MUNROE, JXJHDSON & STROUP, 
QBWB»0, wr. T 
