£axm Ctotwmij. 
BUCEPHALUS BROWN’S NOTIONS AND 
IDEAS. 
Fire-Fang —Is fanged dung “as worthless 
as straw ?” The chemists don’t say so, nor do 
the crops. Analysis shows that this over¬ 
heated manure is worth more, pound for 
pound, than it was before it fanged. The 
loss to the owner is in the fact that there is a 
great deal less of it. As the loss in value is 
less than the loss in weight, a ton of fanged 
manure has more money and manorial value 
than a ton of the same before tanging. 
Worth Knowing.—A knowledge of this 
fact has enabled me to make a little profit, 
though at the expense of reputation as a 
farmer. I buy a good deal of dung, and al¬ 
ways pay the same price per load for the 
fanged as for the unburned. I have been too 
long accustomed to have the know-it-alls 
laugh at me, to be much disturbed. We all 
know wnat Solomon thought of this kind of 
laughter. 
“A Little Learning, etc.”— When a pile 
of dung heats strongly, it loses weight; and 
very fermentible manure will heat sufficiently 
to lose more than half its weight. What is it 
that has left the pile ? Nearly all of it is 
water; but if there is any ammonia, gas or 
carbonate in the manure, some of this will go 
off with the water vapor. A very little am¬ 
monia makes a very big smell; and the loss 
of this is much smaller than we are apt to 
think. I cannot just now put my hand on the 
record of any analyses of fanged dung, but I 
have seen them, and while they show a pro¬ 
portional excess of potash and phosphoric 
acid, there was still a fair amount of nitrogen 
compounds left in it. 
What Goes On?— What changes take place 
in the mauure under this treatment? First, 
concentration by evaporation. A large per¬ 
centage of the moisture, practically all water, 
goes up by ventilation. "Where the manure 
is or becomes dry enough to need irrigation 
from the urine tank, much of the water from 
this is also evaporated. Altogether, this 
evaporative process greatly reduces bulk and 
weight, while preserving all the manurial 
value. Second, a de-and re-composition goes 
on, which gives us the plant food in a more 
available, and therefore more valuable form, 
at the same time improving its physical prop¬ 
erties—making it fine a nd even in looks and 
quality, and so capable of producing evenness 
in tne crops, and in the future condition of 
the soil to which it is applied. 
Where Much Soft Feed is Used, a con¬ 
siderable amount of dry bedding may be nec¬ 
essary in order to have the manure firm 
enough to keep swine on it. Covered drains 
in the cement floor might help the situation 
in some cases, but few farms are unable to 
provide or obtain enough dry material of 
some sort for this use. Dry muck (air-dried 
fora year under sheds) or dry sawdust, spent 
tan, and mauy other cheap absorbents can be 
used. I believe the wisest course is to use 
most of our composted manure for growing 
grass, either as top-dressing or in seeding; and 
to grow our hoed crops on turned sod, or on 
fallow with bone fertilizers, wood-ashes, potash 
salts, and the like. With good management, no 
manurial nitrogen need be bought on stocx 
and dairy farms. 
Moderate the Heat. —How shall we do 
it? In several ways. Perhaps the easiest and 
cheapest way is to keep hogs on it. Many 
object to keeping swine in a manure shed, 
pit, or cellar, as being injurious to the health 
of the animals, and to the wholesomeness of the 
meat. If it injures the health, then there is no 
boubt about the injury to the meat. But there 
is no better, more salubrious or more com¬ 
fortable spot to winter swine than in a well- 
lighted, w’ell ventilated and properly man¬ 
aged place where manure is being rightly 
managed. The only vapor that comes up 
from such manure is the vapor of water, 
slightly impregnated with some harmless 
volatile matter. Doubtless such places can be 
badly mismanaged; but as long as the ma¬ 
nure is kept safe from injury, the hogs will be 
all right. 
No Excess of Water. —This is a main 
point. If all the urine goes down or out with 
the manure, you will have a slush-hole sure 
enough, in which the pigs must wade, or swim. 
A urine tank is iudispeusable, with a pump 
and leaders provided to irrigate the mass as 
needed. And there should also be a place 
where the swine cau be penned. In this placo 
they should have their cleanly strawed beds. 
Composting Manure. —Wheu manure is 
mixed with bedding material and other rough 
vegetable waste, the question arises, how shall 
we fit it for use ? In the first place, I would 
uever allow any long corn stalks or like fod¬ 
THE RURAL WEW=YOBKER. 
449 
der among my manure. Such stuff should al¬ 
ways be cut before it is fed. Then how much 
composting will pay ? That must depend up¬ 
on how good your arrangements are. But if 
it pays to allow about double price for in¬ 
creased solubility in commercial fertilizers, it 
certainly ought to pay for some labor spent to 
have the availability and mechanical condi¬ 
tion of stable manure so greatly bettered as it 
can be by judicious composting. 
Composting Without Fang.— This is en¬ 
tirely controllable, several methods being ap¬ 
plicable. Sufficient compression prevents it 
entirely, as we see in sheep pens and box 
stalls. But if air is entirely excluded, the 
manure is not much improved. The presence 
of a certain amount of air, which is excluded 
by a preservative compression, is necessary 
for the progress of that decomposition which 
increases solubility. We want the manure to 
heat, but we must be able to control the heat¬ 
ing process. 
Mold is not Fang.— Sometimes people 
standing by when we are drawing out manure, 
seeing the matured article sometimes appear¬ 
ing a little moldy, insist that it is fanged. 
No such thing. Mold is a plant. Injuriously 
heated Tanged) manure is never moldy. Its 
light, whitish appearance, to which mold has 
some resemblance, misleads the observer. 
The heat produced in fanged dung destroys 
all mold germs. They may re-appear in old 
fanged manure, but when fresh there is no 
mold on it. 
Nitrogen in Dung. —In dung as voided 
there are practically no volatile nitrogen 
compounds. These are produced in the pro¬ 
gress of de- and re-composition, which goes on 
in the heap according to its conditions and 
circumstances. 
Handling and Saving Manure. —Mr. 
Saunders, of Ohio, (p. 396.) advocates keep¬ 
ing manure in ridges not over four feet high, 
exposed to the weather, and says he has very 
littlo fire-fang. He is opposed to keeping it 
undor cover. I keep all my manure in sheds, 
mixing all sorts together, and find no difficul¬ 
ty in preventing loss from heating. I desire 
to have it heat, but I do not allow it to fang. 
Handling Manure. —Manure is costly to 
handle, and I do not wonder that thinking 
farmers strive to avoid handling it more than 
they are obliged to. Manure never gains in 
potential value by keeping. In this sense, it 
is never worth more at any time than when it 
is dropped. Clear horse, sheep, hog and hen 
manure is fit for application to crops when 
dropped; and the plan of Mr. Macpherson, of 
Lancaster, Ontario, by which the dung of his 
cow stables (the fluid being piped to a reser¬ 
voir.) is dropped through scuttles to dumping 
platforms in the basement, is an excellent one 
for a dairy farm. 
Potttologkfll. 
THREE RUSSIAN PLUMS. 
PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
Mistakes made in the early distribution of 
three varieties-, their advantages over other 
kinds ; habits of growth as well as size and 
quality of fruit of the Black Prune , White 
Nicholas and Early Red ; their hardiness 
and freedom from injuries from insects. 
At the Chicago Convention of ^Nurserymen 
I stated, in answer to'quenes, that the Early 
Red plum from Russia was proving one of 
our best plums for sections where the West 
European varieties and their seedlings meas¬ 
urably failed on account of winter injury to 
the trees, the rotting of the fruit, or loss from 
the attacks of the curculio or plum gouger. 
This public remark has brought several let¬ 
ters of inquiry, mainly from parties east of 
the lakes. I answer in the Rural, as we 
have made blundering work in the distribu¬ 
tion of three of our Russian varieties. 
We received them from Dr. Regel, inlSSO, 
under their Russian names, which we could 
not then read. At first they were propagated 
and sent out for trial a* * “ Russ. No 1 ”—now 
called Black Prune; “Russ. No. 2”—now 
called White Nicholas ; and “ Russ. No. 3”— 
now called Early Red. Later, by accident, 
cions used in top-working were mixed. This 
gave us a lot of mixed cions we could not then 
separate. Some of these we sent out under 
the name of " Mixed Arab,” as the Black 
Prune is grown in Russia in the interior as 
Black Arab. We said at the time that we 
could not afford to lose the mixed cious and 
that when they reached the bearing stage the 
red, white and black fruits would tell their 
own storv a9 to proper names. All of these 
varieties are proving hardy in tree, perfect in 
leaf, and excellent in the quality of fruit. 
The Black Prune (No.l) is spreading in 
habit of tree with quite large, broad, light- 
green leaves without luster. The fruit is 
prune shaped, about as large and as good iu 
quality as the medium German prune, and is 
nearly free from the attacks of ..the curculio 
and plum gouger, so far as noted. In tree 
and fruit bud it appears to be quite as hardy 
as any of our native Western plums. 
The White Nicholas (No. 2) is upright in 
habit and only develops the terminal buds on 
the preceding year’s wood, giving it a peculiar 
expression, as the leaves are mainly at the 
points of growth, and on the numerous fruit 
spurs. The leaves are small and much like 
those of the Early Red except in their greater 
width. The fruits are also, in size and shape, 
much like those of the Early Red, but yellow¬ 
ish-white in color. So far they seem curculio- 
proof. 
The Early Red (No. 3) has been most 
widely distributed, as by top-working we 
soonest learned its value. In tree it is much 
like the White Nicholas, but the habit of hav¬ 
ing its leaves at the points of growth, with 
rosettes on the fruit spurs is still more ob¬ 
servable. The fruit—in pairs—is found on 
the spurs of the two-year-old and older wood, 
and makes peculiarly rapid growth during 
the early period of development. At this 
time (June 15) the fruit is fully four times as 
large as that of our largest and earliest native 
sorts. Perhaps this early rapidity of devel¬ 
opment, and the accompanying supply of 
water in the cell structure, may give warning 
to the curculio and gouger that it is not a 
proper place for egg deposits. Be this as it 
may, I have not as yet seen a single mark 
left on a specimen of tnis plum by insects. 
When lully mature the fruit is oval in shape, 
deeply sutured, purplish red in color, and 
about like the Richland in size and quality. 
While it is likely to prove valuable in parts 
where the Lombard is perfect in tree but lia¬ 
ble to injury from rot or curculio, it will have 
its greatest value in parts where such sorts as 
Moore’s Arctic are killed to the ground, as 
they are with us. 
Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 
tt) omnn’s Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
I T is a fact that every woman is inclined to 
have what we call a “good cry” every 
now and then. It settles the nerves and re¬ 
lieves the feelings, but it is a bad practice to 
indulge in too often. Odo is apt to become 
chronically lachrymose, to the great detri¬ 
ment of both health and spirits. Life is too 
short to be spent in mourning All the same, 
if you must cry, do it without bitterness, and 
get over it as quickly as possible. 
* v * 
Last year we spoke of domestic picnics— 
not big, formal affairs, where every one puts 
on her best gown and her company manner, 
but just a quiet, restful day in the woods, 
with a lunch thrown in. It is |a capital rest 
fora busy woman, if she will only make up her 
mind to enjoy it. Just take the children and 
determine that no outside cares shall inter¬ 
rupt the pleasure. Out-door life is one of the 
best things in the world to give health and 
good temper; pity that housekeepers are apt 
to get too little of it. 
* * * 
How much time do you give to essentials— 
how much to unnecessary trifles? We recol¬ 
lect some old rhyme—maybe we do not quote 
it correctly, but it was something like this: 
“ There’s too much labor goes to a bonnet. 
There's too mnch stitching goes to a shirt; 
Nothing is worth all the work we put on It— 
There’s nothing that’s constant but labor 
and dirt.” 
We don’t take quite such a discouraging 
view of things, but certainly people do a 
good deal more than they need. In our 
house keeping, we should put cleanliness first, 
and insist upon it, too ; but ouce satisfied that 
the place was clean aud tidy, we should not 
care whether we gave our guest as *many 
different kinds of cake as our neighbor or 
not, nor do we believe that many men would 
wish to see their wives overworked and mis¬ 
erable just for the sake of always providing 
an elaborate meal. Be moderate in all things, 
extra work among the rest. 
A * * 
During the summer there are many calls 
for simple medical aid, and it is well for the 
mother to be prepared in this direction. 
Ammonia for insect bites, alcohol for erup¬ 
tions caused by poison, aud simple medicines 
for disorders of the stomach, are most often 
needed. Such a reliable medicine as what is 
called by druggists the “ Sun Cholera Mix¬ 
ture” will often prevent serious illuess when 
rightly administered. The dangers of drinK- 
ing too freely of cold water, or eating unripe 
fruit, should be impressed upoD the children; 
teach them something about the care of their 
own little bodies, and the mother’s responsi¬ 
bility is somewhat lightened. 
* * * 
All sorts of puffed or fancy sleeves are in 
vogue, but the most fashionable seems a modi¬ 
fication of the old leg-of-mutton, with most of 
the fullness pushed up to the top. Often the 
fullness is wrinkled crosswise, like a mousque- 
taire glove. By the way, the mousquetaire 
glove is in great favor again, being worn en¬ 
tirely for dr easy occasions; it harmonizes 
with these Directoire styles. Certainly, the 
fashions never were prettier than now, and 
they have the added charm of convenience 
and good sense. 
OUTINGS IN NEW ENGLAND. 
XI. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
I F we had not previously decided upon 
Marblehead Neck as our terminal point, it 
would have been difficult to decide what place 
to choose on the long stretch of North Shore 
that lies between Boston and Halifax. All 
along that deeply indented, rock-bound coast, 
cottages and villages are strung like beads on 
a rosary—every place has its own peculiar 
charm. Marblehead is about 20 miles from 
Boston and can be reached by steam or horse- 
cars. Boston millionaires have their steam 
yachts and use them as vehicles of transpor¬ 
tation. The railroads pass through Lynn and 
Swampscott, with Nahant lying on the end 
of a stretch of sand out at sea;—then come 
specified beaches and bluffs, Clifton, Dever- 
eaux, Marblehead, Salem, Beverly Farms, 
etc. Longfellow used to spend much summer 
time at Nahant where the sound of the Bells 
of Lynn was borne across the water to his 
ears. At Devereaux is the fine old mansion, 
used as a boardinghouse, where “we” sat 
within the farm-house old, 
Whose windows looking o’er the bay, 
Gave to the sea breeze damp and cold 
An easy entrance night and day. 
the first stanza of “The Fire of Driftwood”— 
and the next descriptive of Marblehead: 
“ Not far away we saw the port. 
The strange, old-fashioned silent town, 
The light house, the dismantled fort. 
The wooden houses, quaint and brown.” 
The masses or rocks on which Marblehead 
is built are Syenite and porphyry interlarded 
with seams of greenstone, while there is no 
marble at all as marble is commonly designa¬ 
ted. But the name suits the town as it is 
founded on rocks which look as though all the 
winds and waves of the mad Atlantic could 
never dislodge them; while the historic peo¬ 
ple of the town seem to have partaken of the 
solidity and sturdiness of its foundation. All 
through the Revolutionary times Marble¬ 
head was Boston’s right-hand. A Marble¬ 
head Captain is said to have been the first 
to hoist the American flag, and Commodore 
Tucker “captured more British vessels, guns 
and seamen than any other Captain in the 
service” and his descendants are still there, 
sea-faring men, who ferry and row many 
thousands of people annually across the match¬ 
less harbor that lies between the quaint old 
town and the Neck, now planted with hotels 
and cottages for occupancy of the summer 
sojourners. The Neck is practically a long 
island, three miles in circumference, connect¬ 
ed by a beach or causeway, to the mainland. 
While it has the harbor on one side, it has the 
open sea on the other so that one can sit and 
watch the ocean dash against the enormous 
masses of porphyry, or look across the quiet 
harbor, white with sails of yachts, to the 
old town which rises on its bluff of rocks like 
a medieval fortress. It was from a very 
early period the resort of fishermen 
who found the rocks a good place 
whereon to dry their fish, and so the town 
grew without plan or foresight Wherever It 
was convenient between tho rocks to put a 
house was one located, and the streets 
ran around to the houses without any formal¬ 
ity of side-walks. The result is, that a quaint¬ 
er or more picturesque town does not exist in 
this country. Old St. Michael’s Church, 
built in 1714, remains substantially un¬ 
changed. Its pastor, David Mossom, was the 
parson who performed the marriage ceremony 
for George Washington. As the town throve 
and men grew rich, it became quite a center 
of fashion. The Lee mansion, now used for 
offices, is a splendid example of anti-revolu¬ 
tionary architecture. It cost $50,000. Its 
hall and stairway are remarkably fine, and 
the paper is still on the walls which was 
manufactured expressly for them in England. 
Washington and Lafayette were both enter¬ 
tained here. A number of eloquent men have 
been born in Marblehead —among them, El- 
bridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declara¬ 
tion, and Judge Story of judicial renown, and 
, the father of a sou equally eminent, the 
