ng'experiments in new directions; but to say 
that a point is “ proved ” by a single little ex¬ 
perimental strip is almost too hasty. I hope 
our friend will keep on w r ith his experiments 
and, after a few years, I hope he will not find, 
as many of us nave, that he knows 
less than he thought he did years ago. 
As to his conclusions, the averages 
of many experiences would show his time of 
sowing about right; but perhaps a little late. 
Five pecks to the acre in drills seven inches 
apart, would suit most of our best wheat grow¬ 
ers. Some would top-dress where there was 
difficulty in getting a good stand of grass; 
but more would prefer to apply the manure 
to some previous crop. Mulching with straw 
is all right, particularly in exposed places; 
but that raking off of the mulch to cultivate— 
why, it might- pay on strawberries where one 
gets $400 to $500 an acre; but then I would 
put it back after working the ground. Mel¬ 
low earth on the surface makes a good mulch; 
so does straw. There is little difference. If 
the straw was on there I should certainly 
leave it on a crop bringing as little per acre 
as wheat. In a large way, it is possible that 
the earth stirring w ? ould be cheaper than the 
straw; but it would seem to me very unwise 
to remove the straw mulch to mulch the 
ground with mellow earth which is practical¬ 
ly about all the cultivation would do. Now 
I may be wrong; but I want our friend to 
put straw on 10 acres of wheat next fall, rake 
it up and draw it off in April and cultivate 
the field as he states, and then give us his ex¬ 
act labor bill and receipts from wheat. No, 
better, let him put in half the field this way 
and half in seven-in.'h drills and leave the 
straw on. I think he will never rake cff five 
acres again. 
I put straw on part of a field, last fall, that 
has a northwestern exposure, and left it on. 
In 1888 this hill-side was winter-killed so that 
I plowed up the field. In 1886, the last time 
it was in wheat befcre this year, there was 
hardly a shock of grain on perhaps an acre 
and a half. So poor was this spot that it re¬ 
duced my average to 25 bushels per acre. 
Only once in all my past experience have I 
had a good crop on that exposed place. This 
year, with the straw on it, it is heavy and 
even all over. I had the same sort of experi¬ 
ence last year in another field. I cannot say 
whether I will get “30 to 40bushels per acre;” 
but there are 660 large shocks standing on 10% 
acres, besides a large load that had to be 
mowed because it was down so badly. 
I believe V. A. S. is doing good by advising 
us to mulch our wheat when we can. I know 
a number of farmers who have tried it and 
are well pleased. Hundreds of straw stacks 
in Ohio might have been used in this way to 
good advantage last fall; but it will take lots 
of “ proof,” to make me try raking it off after 
I get it on. And then I would not want my 
wheat plants so crowded as they would be 
with a bushel of seed in 16-inch drills. And 
still again, bow can one sow clover if he cul¬ 
tivates until his wheat is 10 inches high? It 
would be so late here as to make the chances 
about even that hot, dry weather would kill 
it, and a grain crop without clover wouldn’t 
be any better for me than a bank without 
money. I have a little experiment plot this 
year of this kind (wide drills), and the clover, 
sown early, has grown so tall that, as the boys 
say, it will be a picnic to cut the wheat. In 
my seven-inch drills the heavy wheat has just 
kept the clover down so that the binder gees 
over the top. 
WHEN TO SELL POULTRY. 
H. F., Wayne County, N. Y.—On page 480 
the Rural asks, “ Why not sell live poultry 
now?” Because hens which are doing their 
duty should lay for several weeks yet. If 
they are well-fed and still refuse to contribute 
their quota of eggs, by all means sell them. 
The roosters which are to be disposed of, 
should go at once; in fact they should have 
gone before. Heus will usually lay until 
about August, and then all which it is not 
desirable to keep over winter should be dis¬ 
posed of. It does not pay to keep hens after 
they are two years old. They are more 
liable to disease; they get broody oftener and 
lay fewer eggs between times, and are not 
likely to begin laying so soon in spring. 
August is the best month in which to sell. 
The market is then more nearly cleaned up 
of old itcck, and the young chickens have not 
begun to arrive from interior points. 1 have 
practiced shipping during that month tor 
several years, and have received moie for 
my poultry than my neighbors who insisted 
on keeping their chickens until Thanksgiving, 
when they bad “ gottheir growth.” I not only 
had more money for a half-grown chicken 
sold in August than the same chicken would 
bring two or three months later, but I saved 
that much feed, besides the labor of caring 
for him, and the possible loss from disease, 
vermin and inquisitive peds. (Still 1 know 
people who will not sell their chickens early, 
because they are not so heavy as they will be 
in the fall. I have obtained 15 cents per 
pound for half-grown chickens in August, 
which I might have sold for six, or possibly 
seven in November. If you are keeping 
chickens for fun, it may pay to keep them un¬ 
til fall or winter, but if you are raising them 
for profit, it should not take very much arith¬ 
metic to show the most profitable time to sell. 
But when you send your chickens to market, 
send attached to their tones as much corn 
and other fattening foods as possible. 
Confine them in airy, comfortable, clean 
coops, feed them all they will eat up clean, 
mostly corn,both whole and ground,and mixed 
with ground oats or bran; give plenty of gravel 
and green feed, and, above all, plenty of pure 
water. In from 10 to 14 days they will be in 
fine condition for market. 1 have had the 
best results by shipping to New York. I 
make light but strong coops, about 18 inches 
high, with tight bottoms, the remainder of 
lath, close enough together so that the fowls 
cannot get their heads through, and of such a 
size that they will not weigh over 150 pounds 
when filled. I put them on the afternoon ex¬ 
press, with their crops full and a supply of 
water, and they are in New York next morn¬ 
ing. I drop a postal to the consignee at the 
time of shipment notifying him of what I 
have sent, and when. I have for some time 
shipped to a commission merchant who for 
several years has advertised in tne Rural, 
and his sales have always been satisfactory. 
The coops are marked with my return card, 
and if the expressmen feel like it they will 
generally return them free, although they do 
not agree to do this. 
MORE ABOUT “CRANBUBY” FARMING. 
N. D., New York City.— The articles which 
have appeared in the Rural on the system of 
rotation pursued by the farmers at Cranbury, 
N. J., are interesting and suggestive, but not 
conclusive. There is a lack of details and 
some of the statements made are apparently 
contradictory. Thus, for instance, on a farm 
of 100 acres with the five-course rotation 
adopted there can only be 40 acres in grass 
each year, and as the farmers, according to 
the second article in the Rural, have not yet 
brought up the fertility of the soil to the 
point of producing two tons of hay per acre, 
it is clear that the total amount of hay grown 
on this 100-acre farm cannot exceed 80 tons; 
yet the farmer owning it states that he sold 
last year 90 tons over and above what was 
used for working teams—presumably two 
teams, though this is not stated—and cattle. 
Evidently there is something loose here. To 
enable outsiders to form a correct judgment 
on the premises, we need more detailed and 
exact information. What, for instance, is 
the yield of corn per acre ? How many bush¬ 
els of potatoes per acre are produced ? What 
amount of farm-yard manure is used yearly ? 
How many teams and men are employed ? In 
short, let us have a look at the receipts and 
expenses of one of these farms for the whole 
year. It is obvious that the system is not 
perfected, otherwise there would be no com¬ 
plaints of the difficulty of getting rid of corn 
stalks. With the large amount of corn and 
corn fodder raised, one would think it ought 
not to be an unprofitable job to feed a few 
steers yearly atpricts that would defy com¬ 
petition. But, as I have said, the articles are 
interesting and suggestive, and most Rural 
readers, I am sure, are obliged to the paper 
for their publication. 
R. N.-Y.—One object in printing these arti¬ 
cles was to call out discussion and compara¬ 
tive statements. These will follow and then 
doubtless every desired detail will be present¬ 
ed. As to the heavy yield of grass on the 
100-acre farm mentioned, it may be stated 
that the five-course rotation has not yet been 
fully developed. For example, the R. N.-Y. 
saw one large hay field of over 20 acres that 
had been cut three years and was ready for 
another cutting. Over one-half the farm is 
in grass this year because the rotation had 
not yet been completed. Thus it will be seen 
that the yield of hay could have reached 90 
tons. Some of the land will yield over two 
tons per acre. The desire is to have the en¬ 
tire farm average that. The R. N.-Y. will 
endeavor to secure an itemized account of the 
yearly expenses and receipts from this farm. 
In the meantime we shall be very glad to 
hear from other farmers. 
“is cream, cream ?” 
DirectorG. H. Whitcher, Hanover, N. 
H.— I see that the old question of the butter- 
making value of cream is again under consid¬ 
eration. It is a very important matter. 
Tbere are huudreds of creameries where pat¬ 
rons are ccmpensated for their cream by 
volume—either by the inch, the space or the 
gauge—and in all of these cases it is not only 
assumed, but insisted upon that a given 
volume of one lot of cream will give as much 
butter as the same volume of any and all 
other creams. Up here in New Hampshire it 
has been regarded as heresy even to suggest 
the possibility of there being a variation in 
the butter-producing value of cream raised 
under like conditions of temperature, etc.; 
nevertheless, like the belief in witches, etc., 
the “cream is cream” fraud has to go, and 
creamery patrons must be paid in proportion 
to the fat that is contained in their cream, 
not in accordance with the bulk of it, which 
may be varied by peculiarities of the milk. 
In our work here at the New Hampshire 
Experiment Station, samples of cream raised 
under identical conditions vary from 19 
per cent, to 23% per cent, of fat. If we call a 
pound of butter fat worth 20 cents, this 
means that two farmers bringing such cream 
should receive $3.80 and $4.70 per hundred 
pounds respectively, instead of $4.25 each 
which they would receive under the polite 
system of robbery so prevalent in cream-gath¬ 
ering factories. By this system one man is 
overpaid by 45 cents per cwt; the other un¬ 
derpaid by 45 cents— a total discrepancy of 
23 7-10 per cent, of the actual value. 
I have results much wider than these, but I 
only select those where the conditions are 
strictly alike. But the worst feature is that 
in practice the conditions are not all alike. 
The milk of one herd may be set at a much 
lower temperature than that of another, and 
a cream may be thrown up which contains 
much skira-milk with the fat, while the milk 
of another, set in a higher temperature, is 
dense and rich. Under these circumstances, 
it is not uncommon to find one cream 80 per 
cent, richer in fat than another, yet all is 
paid for alike. Farmers must put a stop to 
this, for there are methods of testing cream 
within the reach of every creamery, and not 
to use them is to encourage injustice and in¬ 
jure both the farmer and, in the long run, the 
whole creamery business. 
granulation of butter. 
J. M. C., Hopkinton, N. H.— Considerable 
discussion has arisen of late, growing in part 
out of statements made by the Director of the 
New Hampshire Experiment Station, regard¬ 
ing certain churns as being better adapted 
from their construction for perfection of 
granulation than others. “P. C.” of Milford, 
N. H., in the Rural of July 6, says he “can¬ 
not see how granulated butter can be made 
with a Blanchard churn.” He ought to know 
that granulation is perfected by stopping the 
churning process at just the right time, due 
regard being had to the temperature of the 
cream, etc. Now, churning beyond that 
point will cause those particles of butter to 
adhere together in any churn. I have used 
the famous Porter Blanchard’s Sons churn for 
years beside other churns, and find no diffi¬ 
culty in perfecting granulation by means of 
it. I infer from “P. C.’s” statement, that he 
never used a Blanchard churn—he only saw 
his neighbor using one. Now, if he under¬ 
stands the process of granulating butter aud 
will himself try a Blanchard churn, his testi¬ 
mony will have more weight. As to the 
process of cleaning, plenty of hot water, and 
a few revolutions of the crank will settle that 
matter in a very few moments. 
If “P. C.” rests his objection to the Blan¬ 
chard on the ground that floats interfere with 
the granulation, I should say that the vio¬ 
lent motion of the Stoddard churn, end over 
end, would have a tendency to cause the par¬ 
ticles to adhere, and require more watchful¬ 
ness than the gentle motion of the floats in 
the Blanchard. 
SOME CHOICE STRAWBERRIES. 
“ W”., Tyrone, Pa. —The Charles Downing 
Strawberry, which the Rural finds still the 
very best on sandy New Jersey soils, is, all 
things considered, our very best here, on 
heavy clay, in central Pennsylvania. It does 
not bear more than Cumberland or Indiana, or 
Captain Jack, or Crescent, but it does quite as 
well, and is equally reliable, as uniformly 
large as the Cumberland or Indiana, most at¬ 
tractive in color, and the best in flavor when 
eaten from the plant. The Cumberland is a 
noble fruit, so large, so vigorous and so easily 
grown that we think it first choice for home 
planting. Indiana rivals it in extreme vigor 
and in fruitfulness and length of season; and 
is a finer berry of peculiar color approaching 
salmon, the same allover and all through. I 
received it a number of years ago from its 
originator, E. Y. Teas of Dunreith, Indiana. 
It has stout cable like runners, aud sends them 
out in more vigorous profusion than any other 
sort. Its foliage continues healthy, and is as 
large as that of Cumberland, but of a distinct¬ 
ly different tint of green w'hen soen in mass. 
I have these and Charles Downing growing 
luxuriantly on heavy clay not stirred for 
years excepting on surface, and by the taking 
out of exhausted plants aud the thinning of 
others. The surface is kept quite clean, and 
is always open, being annually mulched with 
sawdust or tan in December to which some ash¬ 
es are added in the spring. This;is,an]easy sys¬ 
tem of culture, practicable for women or old- 
men gardeners aud annually successful in the 
most satisfying degree. 
The Cause of the Potato Rot.—A 
bulletin of the E. S. of the Tennessee Uni¬ 
versity, as stated on p. 455, treats of potato rot. 
There are several kinds of potato rot, 
both wet and dry, wnich are due to vari¬ 
ous causes, but the potato rot—the disease 
which the planter always has in his mind 
when he says his potatoes are being destroyed 
by the rot—results from the growth of a par¬ 
asitic fungus upon the potato plant similar in 
habit and botanically related to the downy 
mildew of the grape-vine. Owing to the fact 
that the growth of this parasite is favored by, 
and even dependent upon certain climatic 
conditions, many have come to regard the 
disease as climatic, and some who have failed 
to understand the true source of the malady, 
have believed it to be caused by the climate or 
by special conditions of the atmosphere. Po¬ 
tato rot has often been attributed to the char¬ 
acter of the soil. Every one knows that the dis¬ 
ease is most severe on lands that are heavy 
and poorly drained, but this severity is due to 
the abundance of moisture present favoring 
the development of fungus; the fungus is the 
direct cause of the rot, the soil acts indirect¬ 
ly, by inducing the growth of the parasite 
through the excess of moisture it contains. 
Some have supposed that the rot was due to 
an enfeebled condition of the potato plant, 
resulting from many years of cultivation, but 
there is nothing to prove that this is the case. 
The disease has never been more destructive 
thau during the years 1843 to 1845, and the 
wild potato is no more free from the malady 
than the cultivated varieties. 
It is not the climate, or the soil, or any vital 
exhaustion of the potato itself that causes the 
rot; it comes from the attacks of a- minute 
parasitic plant which infests the potato, pene¬ 
trating in its growth both the tops and the 
tubers. This parasite has been artificially 
cultivated upon the potato aud rot produced 
thereby; potatoes have been guarded from its 
attacks and thus preserved free from the dis¬ 
ease, w’hile potatoes, similarly situated in all 
other respects save this protection, have be¬ 
come diseased. 
Season of Attack .—In the North wffiere we 
raise only one crop of potatoes during the sea¬ 
son, the rot fungus rarely becomes injuriously 
active before the first of August, and some¬ 
times, according to the weather, not until a 
month or so later. Thus it often happens 
that the very early varieties escape the dis¬ 
ease entirely, when the later sorts may be 
seriously injured. The former, in such cases, 
are harvested and out of the way before the 
fungus becomes wide-spread and virulent in 
its attacks. It appears also, though this may 
be questioned, that the potato plants are not 
particularly susceptible to infection until 
they have reached a certain age or stage of 
growth. We may see in the same field a plat 
of early potatoes suffering severely from the 
disease, while alongside there is a plat of a 
late sort which is entirely unaffected. Wheth¬ 
er this exemption comes from the circum¬ 
stance that the plants have not yet matured 
sufficiently to be susceptible to the attacks of 
the lungus, or from some other cause or 
causes, is not known. 
In observing the herbaceous plants about 
us in the fields and woods, we cannot help 
noting that each has its special season of 
growth. Some appear early T in the spring, 
blossom and then pass out of sight, others are 
conspicuous only in midsummer, while others 
still do not put in an apperance uutil late in 
the season. Remembering that the fungus of 
the rot is a plant, it cannot bo considered at 
all remarkable that it should have a special 
period for development. Observation shows 
that it only attains its maximum develop¬ 
ment during the later summer and fall 
months. 
Potatoes covered with from one to three 
inches of earth are pretty certain to become 
diseased if the fungus is on the tops, while 
those planted to a depth of four inches or 
more are rarely infected. It is for this rea¬ 
son that some practice the system of high 
moldiug or drawing up around the tops suffi¬ 
cient earth to cover the tubers to the depth of 
four or five inches. While this practice may 
be of value in protecting the potatoes from 
the rot, it is on other accounts, not looked 
upon with much favor by potato growers. 
If the tubers become mfected with the fun¬ 
gus they will very soon begin to rot, aud un- 
