1 889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
643 
bulletin is published and the subscription 
price for a bi-weekly. 
Ans.—C ommercial Enquirer, $2.00; Com¬ 
mercial News, $5.00; Commercial Gazette, 
$2.00; all weeklies. One of these should (ill 
the bill. 
S. A. L., Malcolm, N. Y. —I inclose a 
spray from a vine, the seed of which came 
with the first or second of the Rural’s seed 
distributions. It is nearly hardy, grows 
from 10 to 20 feet in a season, but, some¬ 
times is killed back in the winter. Will 
you tell me what it is? 
Ans. —The vine is Vitis lieterophylla va- 
riegata. It is also called Ampelopsis by 
some botanists. 
R. C. F., SincUiirmnlle, N. F.—A neigh¬ 
bor of mine proposes to cut oats in the 
straw, with his corn in filling his silo; 
what will be the result? He proposes to 
save thrasher’s and miller’s bills? 
Ans. —As we understand it, the oats are 
now ready to thrash. If this is so, we do 
not see what will be gained by putting 
them in the silo. They might be fed as they 
are, forked to stock like hay. Many farm¬ 
ers do this and save thrashing. Thus fed, 
if the straw is bright and well cured, the 
oats would make an excellent dry ration to 
go with the silage. 
Discussion. 
• _ 
FEEDING HOTEL SWILL SLOPS. 
H. A. W., Jamestown, N. Y.—Several 
years ago a neighbor had 18 sows from 
which he intended to breed. They were 
White Suffolk and Chester-White grades. 
One seldom finds a finer, more symmetrical 
and thrifty herd, having been brought to 
five months old on sour milk, sweet apples 
and a clover-and-grass range. When cold 
weather set in, this farmer commenced 
feeding, in addition to milk and apples, 
meat scraps and swill obtained at a fat¬ 
rendering and swill-gathering plant. This 
many times emitted an odor so offensive 
that complaint was made that his swill 
cart was a nuisance, as it was driven along 
the road. These shoats continued to thrive 
and fatten on this feed during the cold 
winter weather. When the days began to 
grow warm in spring and the sows farrow¬ 
ed, the pigs invariably came weakly, and 
^remained so until about a week or two old 
when they died off rapidly without any ap¬ 
parent disease, and soon the ipothers sick¬ 
ened and died, until all but three of the en¬ 
tire herd—mothers and pigs—were dead. 
There was no perceptible disease marked 
by looseness of bowels or loss of appetite, 
etc., but in several cases the sows would 
sicken at the trough while eating and die 
inside of 24 hours. This same man had five 
shoats that he had fattened for the butchers 
on this kind of feed with the addition of a 
small quantity of ground oats, and after 
the death of his herd in this way became 
known, he could not sell them to any 
butcher; so he butchered them himself and 
sent the carcasses to New York where they 
were sold. Another neighbor living near 
this place had a herd of 42 as fine Byfields 
and Chester-Whites as a man could look 
upon. He kept two boys who gathered 
hotel and private swill slops every day. 
His hogs had a range of about four acres, 
and appeared to do well for about three 
months, after which, as soon as hot weather 
set in, they began to sicken and die. He 
lost 10 of his best when I saw them, and 
bought two four-months-old shoats (sows) 
for breeding. I advised cooking the food 
and feeding plenty of sulphur and salt. 
The death rate decreased from that time 
until the trouble was completely arrested 
after he had lost 20 of his best and heaviest 
hogs. He had also a large flock of fowls— 
ducks and turkeys—which were fed upon 
this swill with a mixture of a few screen¬ 
ings. These had, at first, looseness of the 
bowels; their wings drooped and after a 
day or two they died, being often found 
under the roost dead, having died during the 
night. One thing was remarkable—he told 
me that from the eggs set for hatching not 
one healthy chick or duck was ever raised 
after the hens and ducks began to feed upon 
this refuse. When he commenced cooking 
this food, he was aware of a change in the 
condition of his hogs and fowls. There are 
two men who gather swill in our town, and 
they never use it until it has been 
thoroughly cooked and never see any bad 
results when it is thus fed. It’s a fact be¬ 
yond contradiction that the more whole¬ 
some the food, the less disease can be 
carried with it, and the better will be the 
result and the more wholesome the meat 
lor food. The hog, alt hough a hog, is decid¬ 
edly particular in regard to cleanliness as 
to food and keep. He wallows in the mud 
to protect himself from flies and vermin; 
but naturally he is adverse to filth and 
revels in wholesome food and cleanly quar¬ 
ters as well as in a change of diet. 
PASTURING MEADOWS. 
F. E. E., Geneva, N. Y.—During a recent 
short trip in Canada the practice of pastur¬ 
ing fields, and especially the wheat fields 
newly seeded to clover, was very noticeable. 
Here were herds of cattle, sheep and swine, 
turned into the fields apparently as soon as 
well cleared of grain. In some cases the 
new growth was short and apparently 
grazed off perilously near the roots. The 
exceptions to this practice along the rail¬ 
roads on which I traveled were compara¬ 
tively rare. The practice was particularly 
noticeable to a resident of New York where 
so much has been said in the agricultural 
press against it. After noting the custom, 
the discussion in the last Rural on this 
subject becomes more interesting if possi¬ 
ble. It is probable that for any particular 
reason, the best method of practice has 
been put into use by the solid common 
sense of the community, and that while our 
Canadian neighbors may have found this 
plan profitable, it may be the least desirable 
way to treat a freshly-seeded field in some 
portions of New York, as well stated in sev¬ 
eral papers in the Rural’s discussion. The 
condition of the fields and the amount of 
herbage, as well as the length of time they 
are pastured, the moisture of the soil, etc., 
are the most important factors in the case. 
The good judgment of the farmer, rein¬ 
forced by his knowledge of the liest treat¬ 
ment of his fields, should determine when 
the conditions are likely to make it profit¬ 
able for him to pasture his meadows or 
newly-seeded ground. Nearly two years 
ago at a farmers’ institute, in Ithaca, after 
a full and free discussion, the sense of the 
institute was taken by votes, with a special 
reference to pasturing off by sheep. It 
was agreed by a large majority that where 
the pasturing is not too close, if the sheep 
or other animals are removed early enough 
to let a late growth start up for winter 
protection, no harm would result from the 
pasturing. This Canadian practice is like¬ 
wise the practice of very many of our own 
best farmers, as recent issues of leading 
agricultural papers abundantly prove. 
That the interdependence of vital condi¬ 
tions and the practitioner’s knowledge and 
judgment sometimes gets out of balance, 
and harm is done cannot be doubted. The 
numerous reported instances of injury of 
this kind, appear to me to have been respon¬ 
sible for the outcry against the practice. 
There are fields in New York which have 
been mown and on which the aftermat h has 
been grazed off for more than a score of 
years in succession, which are (or were two 
years ago—the writer has no word from 
them since) yielding good crops of hay an¬ 
nually. Good judgment is used in feeding 
off the aftermath and occasionally each 
field gets a top-dressing of good manure. 
These notes are hardly needed in the Ru- 
ral’s symposium, to show that grazing the 
aftermath from our fields need not necessa¬ 
rily be a cause of decay or an indication of 
future short crops. 
THE BORDEAUX MIXTURE AGAIN. 
E. E. A., SMYRNA, Del.—I have been ex¬ 
perimenting with the Bordeaux Mixture 
on my grapes this season to prevent the rot. 
1 made five applications—on May 21, June3, 
June 24, July 3 and July 15. This has been 
a very wet season and I had to make the 
applications between showers. Sometimes 
rain fell before I could finish spraying. 
From what I have noticed this season, all 
applications ought to be made as near the 
first and middle of the month as possible. 
We hail two periods of rot; the first was 
about June3, the second July 10. The mix¬ 
ture should be put on in large quantities. 
The fruit and foliage should be covered 
after the grapes commence to rot. 1 have 
1,400 vines and in the five applications I 
used 200 pounds of sulphate of copper. The 
formula was six pounds of sulphate and 
six pounds of lime to 22 gallons of water. 
A row of six Moore’s Early vines not spray¬ 
ed bore 2.7 pounds of fruit. The rows on 
either side of this unsprayed row bore, re¬ 
spectively, 00 pounds and 112 pounds of 
grapes and the fruit was poor on the row 
not sprayed. One-half of a row of Aga- 
wams was sprayed, the other half was not: 
the foliage on the half that was sprayed is 
as green as can be: that on the half not 
sprayed, is off, (September 0) and has 
been for two weeks. The fruit on 
the unsprayed half will not be ripe 
for some time; the fruit on the half 
that was sprayed was shipped August 
Rl. To remove the mixture from the fruit 
after the latter is ripe, take one quart of 
vinegar to live gallons of water; let the 
fruit remain in this mixture about three 
minutes; take it out and rinse it in clear 
water. Then spread it in the sun to dry. 
Last year I did not use the Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture and I shipped 240 pounds of grapes; 
this season I had 3,100 pounds. I do not con¬ 
sider mine a fair test, as the season has 
been so wet. In washing the fruit, I had 
a light iron frame made about the size of a 
cheese box; I covered it with fine wire net¬ 
ting and washed half a bushel of grapes at 
a time. I also sprayed my pear trees to kill 
the slug. The formula was: half a pound 
of white hellebore to 40 gallons of water. 
It was quite effective. I also used the same 
with good success on gooseberries to kill 
the worms. 
WHAT IS THE INFLUENCE OF MUCH BARN¬ 
YARD MANURE UPON POTATOES? 
Byron I). Halsted. Rutgers College. 
—At the recent meeting of the Middlesex 
County (N. J.) Agricultural Board there 
was a good deal said upon the subject of 
the conditions favorable or otherwise to the 
potato rot—a trouble that has seriously in¬ 
jured the potato crop in the county, and 
therefore shortened the income of many 
farmers who rely upon this crop as their 
principal source of revenue. In the discus¬ 
sion the prevailing opinion seemed to be 
that a large amount of barnyard manure 
added to the soil just before planting was 
conducive to the rot. It is easy to see that 
this might be the case. The rot is due to 
the growth of a minute fungus that sends 
its small threads through the substances of 
the potato plant. It is a form of vegetation 
belonging to the same group as the mush¬ 
room, toadstool, puff-ball, etc., only very 
much smaller. However, the portion of the 
mushroom that is below ground consists of 
fine filaments, and in this it is not so very 
unlike the potato rot. It is well known 
that the conditions enjoyed by the mush¬ 
room are an abundance of decaying horse 
manure kept from becoming too wet by be¬ 
ing mixed with sand or earth. While it is 
true that the potato rot plant does not feed 
upon the organic matter in the soil in the 
manner observed by the mushroom, it is 
easy to see that the conditions of heat and 
porosity of the soil, etc., may be such as to 
favor the inoculation of the tubers and 
the development of the fungus when it is 
once within the potato. It seems to me that 
now while we are in the midst of the har¬ 
vest of the crop at the close of a season 
where rot has been prevalent, it would be 
well to have a short report from a large num¬ 
ber of potato growers upon the soil con¬ 
ditions favoring the rot, with especial ref¬ 
erence to the influence of manure upon the 
disease. It may In*, from the fact that the 
potato tuber is subject to scab, wire-worms, 
etc., that it, above all other crops, is best 
adapted to a diet of commercial fertilizer. 
What is the experience of the potato grow¬ 
ers among the Rural readers during the 
present wet season? 
LEAF-BLIGHT AND CRACKING OF THE PEAR. 
E. A. S., Washington, D. C.—In addi¬ 
tion to what is stated in Prof. Halsted's in¬ 
teresting article in a late Rural, I would 
like to say that experiments made by 
special agents of the Department of Agri¬ 
culture during the present season have 
fully established that this disease may be 
prevented even more readily than the black 
rot of the grape. A circular lues recently 
been issued by Mr. B. T. Galloway, Chief 
of the Section of Vegetable Pathology, 
giving a full account of some experiments 
carried on under his direction at the nur¬ 
sery of Franklin Davis & Co., between Bal¬ 
timore and this city:—50,(XX) young trees 
were treated with the Bordeaux Mixture, 
the first spraying being made June 5, this 
being followed by four others at intervals 
of 10 days. The labor was done by one man 
and the cost of the chemicals used was 
about two cents per tree. The results were 
that while large trees which were untreat¬ 
ed lost nearly all their leaves from the dis¬ 
ease, the seedlings, which are even more 
subject to it than full-grown trees, were in 
excellent condition at last report—August 
11th. The results of the experiment are 
confirmed by another made by Col. Pear¬ 
son at Vineland, N. J. Two 10-year-old 
Clairgeau trees, which had been attacked 
by the leaf-blight year after year, were 
sprayed six times during the season with 
the Bordeaux Mixture, and a third stand¬ 
ing near the others was left unsprayed. On 
August 22nd, the two treated trees were in 
full foliage, while the untreated one had 
lost nearly every leaf, a photograph taken 
at that time showing scarcely more than a 
dozen. Prof. Halsted’s encouraging words 
have thus been more than realized, and 
pear-growers may confidently expect to 
conquer this very troublesome and hither¬ 
to dangerous enemy. 
THE MONTANA BOOM! 
Chas. A. Green, Rochester, N. Y.—On 
my recent return from the Pacific coast, 
via the Northern Pacific Railroad, I passed 
entirely across Montana. To me, accus¬ 
tomed to the luxurious and leafy East, 
Montana looked like one vast desert. I con¬ 
sidered it the least promising of all the 
States and Territories, yet I saw nothing 
except the land and towns along the rail¬ 
road. 
I noticed one large and one small grave 
near a forsaken home. A man, wife and 
child located bravely in this desolate spot, 
with hopes of prosperity. The wife, re¬ 
moved from friends and neighbors, schools 
and churches, became homesick and weary 
of life and died. The child soon followed 
her, and the father, heartbroken departed, 
no one knows whither. 
How often this story is repeated through¬ 
out the great West. People who go there 
to settle know nothing of the country. 
They are not able to go and see it before 
moving. They stake all on the venture, 
taking a leap into the dark. I have known 
Eastern women so homesick in their new 
homes in the West, they would weep for 
hours daily until their grief preyed upon 
their health, and they became invalids. 
Many a man has been compelled to return 
East on account of his wife, who could 
not live there. It was simply die or 
get home, and they went home if 
they had money enough to get there, 
which is often lacking. If men desire to go 
West let them go before they get married. 
[Let us hear from others who from actual 
experience can speak of Montana—others, 
besides the syndicate of editors of farm 
papers who have land for sale and are sel¬ 
ling it through their columns both editorial 
and advertising. Let us hear from men 
who will tell us the truth. Eds. R. N.-Y.] 
ROT IN POTATO “SEED.” 
D. C. L., Cranbury, N. J.—We are told 
on page 612 of the Rural, that the scientists 
believe that the spores or germs of the po¬ 
tato rot remain in the tubers for a consider¬ 
able time. On Monday bust I attended a 
meeting of the County Board of Agricul¬ 
ture at New Brunswick. We were address¬ 
ed by Prof. Austin, of the New Jersey Ex¬ 
periment Station, on this very subject. He 
coincides with what was said in the Rural. 
Now, it may be desirable to look up locali¬ 
ties where rot has not appeared, in order to 
secure seed from such places for next year. 
Two years since I had eight acres planted 
to potatoes. About one acre of the eight, 
owing to excessive rains, rotted. The 
trouble was confined to the flats from which 
the water could not pass off in time. The 
potatoes rotted entirely on all such places; 
while on rising ground there was no rot 
whatever. I planted the potatoes from the 
latter the following year and had no rot, al¬ 
though I have lost 700 or 800 bushels by rot 
this year. The trouble is again confined to 
the lower parts of the field, as before, and 
there is very little, if any, rot on the high¬ 
er parts. I expect to plant some of this 
year’s seed next year, and I shall expect as 
favorable results as I obtained from the 
seed secured from the drier regions of that 
year’s products, unless the conditions—as 
they have been this year—are favorable to 
rot from excess of moisture and high hu¬ 
midity. 1 would like to hear from others 
on this subject. 
IN FAVOR OF CREAMERS. 
C. H. E., Avoca, N. Y.—Allow me to 
offer a few suggestions to W. E. R., Dover, 
N. H. A few years since a creamery was 
started here on the cream-gathering plan, 
and after making several tests with a view 
of selling cream, I gained some informa¬ 
tion that rather surprised me. I mixed the 
milk from all of the cows together, and 
took 100 pounds and set it in shallow pans— 
the old way—and let it sour before skimming, 
and 100 pounds were put in creamery cans 
which had tubes in the middle for the 
water to pass through, and they were set in 
water kept not above .50 degrees. The milk 
in the creamery gave the most cream, and 
one-fifth more butter than the other. My 
experiments proved to me that, as many 
have claimed of late, “cream is not cream;” 
for whereas most of the patrons claimed 
they could not make any more butter than 
the gauges called for, yet mine always over¬ 
ran from three to four pounds on 10 gauges 
of cream. I am now using the Channel 
cans and set them in a tank of water with 
ice, and make my own butter, as I could not 
afford to sell the cream by the gauge. 
After the milk has been set 12 hours, and a 
scum has formed, no more cream will rise if 
it is left ever so loug, and there is much 
less work in taking care of milk in a cream¬ 
ery than in pans, and the cream is never 
over-ripe. 
