4889 
THE BUBAL ISEW"Y@RKEB. 
434 
mg, that the nitrate formed while the land is 
unoccupied by vegetation may be lost before 
the crop is put in which is to be benefited by 
the fallow. Certainly some sort of a useful 
crop should come in late in the summer, so 
that the leaching out of plant food may not 
be allowed to go on all winter. 
FULL AS A TICK. 
Mr. W. J. Green, of the Ohio Experiment 
Station, says in the Massachusetts Plough¬ 
man, that the cost of bunching asparagus 
may be reduced uearly half by using small 
rubber bands instead of strings in bunching. 
Unless labor is very cheap the saving is suf¬ 
ficient to pay for the additional cost of the 
rubber bands. 
Leaving out the question of economy of 
labor, rubber is so much superior to strings 
that it could be used with profit even though 
it cost five times as much as at present. This 
is because no matter how tightly tied, strings 
will become loose affer the asparagus has be¬ 
come slightly dried, and the bunches will fall 
to pieces... 
Mr. Green commenced using rubber bands 
in order to save time in bunching, and found 
that they paid him on that account alone, but 
the dealers were quick to observe the advant¬ 
age that it gave them, and the asparagus soon 
sold at an advance of about five cents per 
dozen bunches above the regular market price. 
A good method of bunching is to slip a 
rubber band over an ordinary tea-cup, hold¬ 
ing it near the top of the cup. Theu till the 
cup with the asparagus to be bunched, thrust¬ 
ing the heads of the shoots downward into 
the cup. When the cup is full, pull the rub¬ 
ber band over the top of the cup upon the as¬ 
paragus; remove the bunch from the cup and 
slip another band over the bunch near the 
tops. This makes a bunch of about the right 
size and leaves the top of the bunch nicely 
rounded. All that remains to be done is to 
square the buts with a sharp knife. 
Wm. C. Strong says, in Popular Garden¬ 
ing. that grapes are usually increased in size 
at least 25 per cent, by girdling or ringing and 
the time of ripening is hastened from ten days 
to a fortnight, or more, depending upon the 
season. With some varieties this point of 
time determines very certainly the success or 
failure of the crop. The time for doing this 
work of ringing is soon after the setting of 
the fruit, when the berries are about the size 
of peas. 
There is a good deal of difference of opin¬ 
ion on this subject. It. N.-Y. readers have 
already had the views of its correspondents. 
Professor Maynard of the Mass. A. C., says 
that no injury to the vines girdled has ever 
been detected, even where the girdle was 
made on the main trunk near the ground. 
The time of ripening is generally hastened by 
one or two weeks. Careful sugar tests show 
no injury to the quality of fruit. The fruit 
was larger, more beautiful and sold for from 
three to five cents per basket more than that 
from ungirdled vines. For reasons of econ¬ 
omy of the vine, only a part of tho cane of 
each vine should be girdled and only those 
that are to be cut away. 
He further says, in the same Journal 'Popu¬ 
lar Gardening), and he merely repeats what 
we have quoted from his reports, that good re¬ 
sults were obtained when wires were twisted 
about the canes, but only when twisted very 
bard with pincers. For this purpose about 
No.20 annealed was used aud the work done 
late in June. From his experience he be¬ 
lieves that girdling will result in profit to the 
viueyardist, ana in much pleasure to those 
who are growing choice late grape varieties.. 
Our Respected Friend, Secretary E. 
Williams, says ringing or girdling is done for 
the gratifying of one’s curiosity aud vanity 
or perpetrating a fraud. 
Prop. W. A. Henry, of the Wisconsin Ex¬ 
periment Station, alludes, iu the Breeder’s 
Gazette, to a plain cow iu the herd, that had 
no friends. She minded her own business 
strictly, giving a fair amount of milk, aud 
might have been sold at almost any time 
for about what she cost ($35). In the 
same barn were several auimals that had cost 
much more money and were supposed to be 
superior. A churn tost showed that this cow 
was giviug fat enough to make one pound aud 
fourteen ounces of butter daily, while some of 
the superior cows, standing beside her eating 
the same amount of feed, gave but little over 
one pound per day. Such a difference as this 
will not strike some farmers as very impor¬ 
tant, perhaps; let us look into the matter a 
little further. With butter at 20 ceuts per 
pound this cow was giving about 87 cents’ 
worth per day, and the other cows from 20 to 
25 cents’ worth. Here is a difference of fully 
12 eentsper day in favor of the unpieientious 
cow, But these figures do Dot sfiow the entire 
difference by any means. It cost something 
like 15 cents per day to feed and care for each 
of these cows. Subtracting this from the 
value of the product, we have 10 cents a day 
for the supposed good cows and 22 cents a 
day,.or more than twice as much, for the 
pla n cow. 
Dairying is hard work, Prof. Henrv con¬ 
cludes. Cows must be milked and fed s<*ven 
days in the week and twice a day. Why 
should a man do this year after year, treat¬ 
ing all his cows alike, when a portion of the 
herd is steadily working to bring him in debt 
at the end of the year, and another portion 
yielding good profits? Prof. Henry guaran¬ 
tees that 99 farmers out of 100 who will start 
a thorough investigation to determine the 
merits of each animal in the herd will wel¬ 
come the traveling cattle buyer to the farm 
within one month from the time the investi¬ 
gation begins. 
Mr. O. S. Bliss’s acquaintance, as he in¬ 
forms the Philadelphia Press, an aged Scotcn- 
man, has stabled a herd of Ayrshires,the most 
vigorous and active of cattle, without loosing 
them from their stalls from fall till spring, 
through more winters than Mr. Bliss can re¬ 
member, and no man’s stock ever comes out 
in the sprlug in better general condition than 
his. He has prospered until he has absorbed 
farm after farm, while his neighbors who 
croak about his cruelty to his cows have kept 
on in the old way of wasting food, milk and 
flesh into the wintry air till several of them 
have been compelled to sell out and seek a 
more genial climate in which to practice their 
method of wintering cows . 
The editor of the Press says that a cow in 
order to maintain her vigor must have iu ad¬ 
dition to abundance of wholesome food, pure 
air, sunshine and a chance to tone up her 
muscles with moderate exercise. These are 
essential to the health and well-being of every 
other animal Jin the Universe, and the Al¬ 
mighty made no exception in the case of the. 
cow. 
The Kentucky Experiment Station found 
last year, that copperas (sulphate of 
iron) decreased the yield of ear corn per acre 
five bushels. 
The London Garden, in a plain article in¬ 
structing its readers how to prune rose-bushes, 
says that the commonest mistake is the leav¬ 
ing of the older branching spray wood that 
has already flowered. Rose bushes at the 
beginning of the year generally consist of 
several much-branched stems which carried 
bloom in the previous summer, and several 
strong straight shoots springing from the 
base of the plant. Iu the case of Hybrid 
Perpetuals, these older branching stems 
should be cut completely out, leaving only 
the new shoots from the base which them¬ 
selves should be theu considerably shortened. 
If the old spray would be left in it produces 
no flowers worth having, while the weaK and 
crowded growths with which it becomes cov¬ 
ered afford a perfect harborage to every 
known Rose pest. Nevertheless, it is a com¬ 
mon thing for the unlucky rose bushes in 
many gardens to be uniformly clipped over 
with the shears, much as a hedger might top 
a hedge and then the people wonder why 
they never have good roses. 
The only way in which a fine healthy 
growth can be obtained strong enough to be 
exempt from the attacks of aphides and able 
to carry beautiful flowers is by cutting out 
all the old wood that has done its work in 
having flowered the year before, and relyiDg 
solely upon the straight new shoots. The ex¬ 
tent to which these should be shortened de¬ 
pends rather upon their thickness than upon 
their length. If they are no thicker than a 
cedar pencil they may' be cut right down to 
the base; if they are as thick as a linger they 
may be left three inches, six inches, or nine 
inches long where the wood is sound—that is 
to say, is well ripened and uninjured by frost. 
At first it may seem to many a great waste 
of material to cut these stout shoots, which 
are often live feet or six feet long, dowu to 
within six inches of their base, but it is rarely 
advantageous to leave a greater length than 
nine inches at the outside. It must be borne 
in miud that the new growth starts from the 
tops of the pruned shoots, and therefore if 
these are loft long the effects of a high wind 
in early June are liable to be disastrous, the 
weight of foliage aud flower buds at the end 
of a long stem causing them to sway to and 
fro and chafe against each other, or even to 
break short off. 
Mr. J. J. H. Gregory says, iu tho New 
England Farmer, that the White Barletta 
onion is the earliest of all. It is of a fine 
white color and bulbs raised from the seed 
sown will ipature about as early as those 
raised from sets ... 
I)r. Talmaqe says, in the Observer,(N. Y.) 
that early rising is not necessarily commend- 
able. All depends upon wb^t one does after 
he gets up. It would be better for the world 
if some people never got up. 
A new seedling coleus has been raised by 
Mr. W. H. Cornish. The greater part of the 
leaves are clear carmine marked with deeper, 
redder spots, while the scalloped edge is a 
light green. It is a very promising plant, 
and will be used largely by florists for deco¬ 
rative purposes. Mr. Cornish has several 
Dew greenhouses in which he will propagate 
this and other novelties. The coleus is as yet 
unnamed. 
ABSTRACTS. 
-Dr Caldwell, in N. Y. Tribune: “Al¬ 
lowing 1,G00 pounds as tne weight of a two- 
horse load of stable-manure, and calling its 
quality just ordinary, 14 loads would contaiu 
as much nitrogen, posphoric acid and potash 
as would cost nearly $25 if purchased in com¬ 
mercial fertilizer.” 
- “ I always say to my students, when I 
come to this subject iu my lectures, that any 
bed of muck is worth trying, for it may be a 
small mine of wealth, aud tnat it should not 
be condemned as worthless till a fair and 
thorough trial has been given to it, and that 
the only way to find out whether it is worth 
anything is to give it such a trial in the field.” 
- “ There come hard experiences in most 
lives, when self-deuial must be practiced and 
many things which are desirable done with¬ 
out; but it is to a great extent left to our 
choice whether this shall be during the 
strength and enthusiasm of youth, or when 
the infirmities of age are upon us.” [Note 
this well, young readers of the R. N.-Y.] 
- Dr. Peter Collier: “It is entirely with¬ 
in bounds of facts to assert that there are at 
least 10 per cent, of ur farmers, in whatever 
branch of agricultural industry they may be 
engaged, who are getting double the return 
of the average of those engaged in that 
branch—twice the bushels per acre, twice the 
pounds of butter per cow, aad this, too, sim¬ 
ply by improved methods and intelligent ap¬ 
plication of the fundamental principles of 
success which should govern their practice.” 
-Pacific Rural Press: “There is a fool¬ 
ish desire on the part of American youth to 
avoid work, or at least what is termed hard 
work, but no one need expect to succeed with¬ 
out work and plenty of it. That which ap¬ 
pears easy looks differently when we can get 
at the actual facts. Many, tired of farming 
amid the stones aud stumps of New England, 
come to California, buy an orange grove or a 
fruit farm, and imagine that all they have to 
do is to sit down and watch their fruit grow.” 
- Professor A. J. Cook, in the Proceed¬ 
ings of the Western New York Horticultural 
Society: “The best remedy for the curculios 
is Paris-green or London-purple. It will kill 
them sure. They eat both leaves and plums.” 
-Hoard's Dairyman: “A ‘lightstraw’ 
is the color wanted for butter.” 
-“ The practical questions are whether 
cud-chewing, by bovines, does not obviate 
much of the supposed necessity of having 
them roam especially for exercise; aud if so, 
whether the pasture that will raise three or 
four times as much of soiling and silage foods, 
cannot be profitably dispensed with. We 
think the main question has been amply dem¬ 
onstrated, and the farmers who choose, can 
avail themselves of the new method, with 
confidence that they will succeed.” 
- Col. F. D. Curtis, in Hoard’s Dairyman: 
“ I have said comfort was esseotial in the 
dairy. This must not and entirely in the ef¬ 
fort to keep the cows out of tne cold. In 
summer they should be kept out of the heat 
and flies. More milk aud butter can be made 
from cows kept up the year round thau iu 
any other way. I would make an exception 
of the nights iu hot weather, and turn them 
out into a night pasture. If not kept up all of 
the time, and fed in a stable on succulent 
foods and bran and meal, then they should 
have a regular feeding night and morning. 
He is not a wise dairyman who does not fol¬ 
low this plaD.” 
-Commercial Bulletin: “The melon that 
is probably the least likely to be surrepti¬ 
tiously carried off is the cantaloupe.” 
8. G. Curtice. Western New York Horti¬ 
cultural Society : “To-day a Western mining 
camp can set forth as elaborate a menu, from 
the soup to the plum pudding, making 
use of canned goods only, as any of our me¬ 
tropolitan hotels. At our sea side resorts 
green peas and fresh tomatoes are served, 
in their season, from the little green cans, 
without suspicion on tho part of the guests 
that the vegetables are not freshly picked, 
and greatly to the profit of the landlord wno 
could hardly spare from his working force au 
army of pea-shellers and toruatc-parers,” 
.-- -Joseph Harris ; “At) til? profit pries 
of wheat we cannot afford to buy nitrogen as 
a manure for this crop, and still less for corn. 
The profit of usiDg nitrogen depends on the 
price of the product. Artificial manures will 
make trees grow, but it would not pay to use 
them on a timber lot to grow wood for fuel 
at $3 00 per cord.” 
-“ But it should be understood that when 
we use manure for fruit trees we should see 
that the fruit trees get it. If we grow wheat, 
oats, potatoes, beets, strawberries and seeds 
among our peach, pear and apple trees, we 
should have to furnish an excessive supply of 
nitrates before the fruit trees would get much 
of it. The greater portion would be absorbed 
by the annual crops and weeds, and it may 
well happen that a moderate dressing of ma¬ 
nure would, by increasing the growth of the 
weeds, actually lessen the crop of fruit, for 
the reason that the greater the growth of 
weeds the more water they evaporate and the 
drier would be the soil where the roots of 
fruit trees are searching foi food and water.” 
-“The soil itself will hold the phosphoric 
acid and potash and the plants will hold the 
nitrogen.” 
-T. D Curtis, in the Dairy World: “ The 
proper way to give practical instruction is 
through a permanent institution, where all 
the conditions, from the breeding and feeding 
of the cows to the perfection of the dairy pro¬ 
duct, are under perfect control. This alone 
will secure practical results which will be a 
satisfactory ocular demonstration to the 
looker-on and listener.” 
-N. Y. Herald: “Dear Sun—When you 
get right down to bottom facts—this is sub 
rosa —our real objection to the sunflower as a 
national emblem is that the thing is everlast¬ 
ingly seedy. Now will you give up the fight 
and come over to the sweet-scented and mod¬ 
est violet ?” 
As a Drink in Fevers 
Use Horsford’s Acid Phosphate. 
Dr. Chas. H. S. Davis, Meriden, Conn., 
says: “I have used it as an accessory i u cases 
of melancholia and nervous deb’lity, and as a 
pleasant and cooling drink in fevers, aud have 
been very much pleased with it.”— Adv. 
■ — i ‘ 
Dyspepsia 
Does not get well of itself; it requires careful, 
persistent attention and a remedy that will assist 
nature to throw off the causes and tone up the 
digestive organs till they perform their duties 
willingly. Among the agonies experienced by the 
dyspeptic, are distress before or after eating, loss 
of appetite, irregularities of the bowels, wind or 
gas and pain in the stomach, heart-burn, sour 
stomach.etc., causing mental depression, nervous 
irritability and sleeplessness. If yo\i are dis¬ 
couraged be of good cheer and try Hood’s Sar¬ 
saparilla. It has cured hundreds, it will cure you. 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
Sold by all druggists. $i; six for $5. Made 
only by C. 1. HOOD & CO., Lowell, Mass. 
IOO Doses One Dollar 
Stops Pain. Cramps, Inflammation In body or limb, 
like matric. Cures Croup. Asthma, Colds, Catarrh, Chol¬ 
era Morbus, Diarrho'a, Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Lame- 
baek, Stiff Jointsajul Strains. Full particulars free. Price 
Soots, post-paid. L S. JOHNSON A CO., Boston,Mass. 
Bkacham’s Pills cure sick headache. 
Keystone 
7000 
P Bader 
SOLD 
purs oN 
Ioa 
10 
MlNUTCS 
\ ADOKES5 McNTION’miSJ’APM, 
KeystoneH lf6,(o SterUi&nisjw- 
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