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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NOV 23 
York differ somewhat. The Canadian 
maker tries to keep the curd well stirred 
up to give ir. as much air as possible and at 
the same time to keep it warm. The New 
York maker allows it to become more com¬ 
pact. The curd is now cut into large 
chunks and piled up, when it has the ap¬ 
pearance of India-rubber. The time dur¬ 
ing which it remains in this condition 
varies with the condition of the milk and 
the weather. The proper time when the 
curd is ready to cut in the mill is deter¬ 
mined by another test. The hot iron is 
used, and when the curd will “hair out” 
one inch it is ready. 
Stage 4.—The curd is cut in small strips, 
and then stirred for 10 to 15 minutes. The 
appearance is now changed, the curd tak¬ 
ing on a soft, silky feeling. The color also 
begins to develop. Fat can be squeezed out, 
and as soon as the curd is salted it will be 
ready to go to the press. Salt is used at 
the rate of about 2% pounds per 1,000 
pounds of milk. 
Stage 5.—The curd is then put in the 
hoops and pressure is applied, at first gently 
and finally with full power. The processes 
followed in Canada and New York differ 
in some points. New York makers dip the 
curd and after stirring it awhile put it in 
the press. Time is not given for so full a 
development of acid and color as in Canada. 
E. T. 
Twins. —A well-fed cow, and a well-filled 
pocket-book; a general-purpose cow, and a 
no-purpose owner; a fat-as-a-seal heifer 
calf, and, later on, “dairyin’ don’t pay;” 
a cow to tne acre, and a farm of rich 
acres; a trained—not “broken”—cow, and 
an undented milk bucket; a warm cow 
stable, and saved feed ; a dairy thermome¬ 
ter, and no inquiry as to why the butter 
doesn’t come; a gentle owner, and an in¬ 
telligent cow. —A. L. Crosby. 
Cbfn|w!)frf. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Illinois. 
Franklin Grove, Lee County, October 
. 28.—The clover crop in this State is far bet¬ 
ter than any we have had for five years, and 
we ha ve had good weather to husk it. Corn 
is a fair crop though not of very good qual¬ 
ity. Oats are of good quality. The yield 
was about 40 bushels per acre. H. H. 
Indiana. 
Rockville, Parke County, October 29.— 
Spring, summer and autumn have been de¬ 
lightful and productive. Cereals, fruits 
and flowers have been in great abundance, 
and the promise of our coming crops is very 
good. The great pest has been the grub¬ 
worm, and the only birds I have ever seen 
devour it—the crows, blackbirds and Eng¬ 
lish sparrows—all the boys have written 
and printed permission to slay—and even 
premiums are offered for their scalps. 
bates. 
Kansas. 
Meade, Meade County, November 4.— 
We are having the second snow storm of 
the season. This is the earliest winter the 
oldest settlers have seen. Corn was mostly 
good. It sells at 15 to 20 cents per bushel. 
Wheat was poor on account of dry weather 
in the spring. A large acreage of both 
wheat and rye has been put in this fall. 
Plentiful rains have put both in good shape 
for the winter. All kinds of feed are very 
cheap. Stock of all kinds are low. 
N. R. B. 
Missouri. 
Belton, Cass County, November 9. —This 
has been a year of general prosperity in 
this county. We have had a bountiful sup¬ 
ply of everything except money which is 
very scarce. Corn will go from 30 to 60 
bushels per acre, and it is selling at 18 and 
20 cents per bushel. Most of the farmers 
are feeding their corn to cattle and hogs. 
Oats were nearly a failure. We had a 
heavy fog at blooming time and rust struck 
them. Price 12 to 15 cents per bushel. 
Wheat was very good—yield 20 to 40 bush¬ 
els ; but the acreage was small. I never 
saw a better prospect for winter wheat 
than we have now, and the acreage is large. 
Flax was not very good, there being too 
much wet weather in the spring which is 
very injurious to that grain : yield from 
three to 12 bushels per acre, the price 
ranging from $1. and over. Potatoes were 
about half a crop—50 to 100 bushels per 
acre. The shortage was due to too much 
wet weather in the spring, which kept peo¬ 
ple from working them, letting the weeds 
get the start, checking them and thereby 
reducing the yield. Price 30 to 40 cents ; 
no rot here. There is about as much money 
in potatoes as in anything we plant. Hay 
was an extra good crop, but owing to so 
much wet weather it was put up in very 
bad shape. Price low : we can hardly dis¬ 
pose of it. Clover seed is a very light crop ; 
on account of so much wet, it did not fill 
out—yield one-half to three bushels per 
acre; price 83.75 per bushel: a good many 
did not hull their crops. Navy beans were 
good, but the weather was almost too wet 
for them to set. I raised from one pint two 
bushels of very fine ones. Our cash prod¬ 
ucts here are corn, wheat, clover seed, hay, 
cattle and hogs Vegetables of all kinds 
were good, so were berries. Blackberries 
were an immense crop and sold for 40 to 50 
cents per gallon. c. A. D. 
Wisconsin. 
Brillion, Calumet County, November 
7.—Farmers are practically through thrash¬ 
ing, and the yields of grain have been above 
the average. Thrashing in this section, 
though farms are small, (40 to 160 acres, 80 
is the general size) is done entirely by 
steam. Traction engines are used, which 
are not only self-propelling,' but they draw 
the separator and water tank as well, 
thrashing 800 to 1,500 bushels is an ordinary 
day’s work. The best report I have seen 
from this county was 900 bushels of barley 
thrashed in five hours, and 1,650 bushels of 
mixed grains in a day—the product -of 32 
acres. Prices are low : wheat 70 cents ; bar¬ 
ley, 30 to 50 cents ; oats, 15 cents ; bran, 88 
per ton. There was no rain here from 
September 10 to November 1. October was 
a remarkably pleasant month—only five 
cloudy days. The fields have been so dry 
that plowing on clay lands has been im¬ 
possible. On November 1st we had a light 
rain not sufficient to moisten the ground 
more than two or three inches. To-day is 
quite cold and a slight crust has frozen on 
the ground. Quite a large area of winter 
grain has been sown. Early-sown (1st to 
10th of September) looks well; that sown 
later is small. e. g. f. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
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RINGBONE : DISLOCATION OF KNEE-CAP IN 
A COLT. 
W. Q. S., Benedict, N. Y. —1.‘ My four- 
year-old colt I began to work this fall. He is 
a very fast walker. There is a small enlarge¬ 
ment on the pastern of one hind leg. The 
animal shows no lameness yet, but when 
he steps out while drawing hard, one step 
is shorter than the other, the longest being 
made by the affected foot. I fear it may 
become a ringbone. What can be done to 
prevent this ? 2. A two-year-old colt when 
led out of the stable this morning, stretched 
out and one hind leg became stiff as if af¬ 
fected by the cramp and it could not move 
ahead until I took hold of the foot and 
lifted it up and forward, and it catches 
again in a few steps and then it is all right. 
Is this a stifle-joint difficulty, and will it 
be likely to be permanent ? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
1. The longer step is not due to the en¬ 
largement. In fact, it rather indicates 
some trouble on the opposite limb with the 
shorter step. If there is no farther growth 
or lameness, try the application of the 
compound tincture of iodine to the enlarge¬ 
ment daily until the skin is blistered. 
Then omit for a few days, and repeat if 
necessary. If, however, the enlargement 
continues to grow or causes lameness— i. e. 
if it becomes a ringbone—the best treat 
ment is to have it thoroughly fired by a 
competent veterinary surgeon. If either 
the dam or sire of the mare has ringbone it 
would be well to fire at once, because the 
earlier a ringbone is fired the better the 
chances of a recovery. It is not usually ad¬ 
visable to breed from a mare with ring¬ 
bone, and especially if the ringbone has ap¬ 
peared in two or more successive genera¬ 
tions. If a ringbone develops as the result 
of a severe injur 3 r it is not so liable to be 
transmitted, and a desirable mare with such 
a ringbone will often raise sound colts. A 
stallion with ringbone, except for special 
reasons, should always be rejected for 
breeding purposes. 2. The trouble was 
dislocation of the knee-cap at the stifle 
joint. When dislocated as above, you can 
feel the r unded bone at the other side of 
the joint, where it has been allowed to slip 
owing to a relaxed condition of themuscles. 
In raising and bi'inging the limb forward 
(which you very properly did) it is also well 
to press on the knee-cap from the outside to 
assist in throwing it into position. To pre¬ 
vent a recurrence of the accident, clip the 
hair and apply an active blister over the 
whole region of the joint. (Powdered c-an- 
tharides one half ounce, vaseline two ounc¬ 
es, spirits of camphor 20 drops). Rub the 
blister well in for 10 or 15 minutes. Tie the 
head short to a high rack to prevent the 
colt reaching the blister with her mouth. 
After 24 hours carefully wash off the re¬ 
maining blister with Castile soap-suds, and 
apply vaseline daily until healed. 
MULCHING AN ORCHARD. 
J. H. T., Chapman, Kan.— As mulching 
young fruit trees is recommended, is it good 
policy to continue it 10 years or more on 
upland ground having a black soil two feet 
deep, and a yellow clay sub-soil? The ob¬ 
ject would be not so much to manure the 
ground as to keep up a thrifty growth, by 
keeping the ground moist, in our many 
dry summers, and keeping the weeds down 
without expensive hand labor. 
ANSWERED BY PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
West of Lake Michigan to the Rockies, I 
have reason to believe the best mulching 
for young orchard trees is good cultivation. 
In all cases coming under my observation 
the mulching for four or five years in suc¬ 
cession tends to bring the surface-feeding 
roots to the top, when a sudden cessation of 
the practice always results in severe injury 
—if not total loss—of the trees by root 
freezing. A friend now living in Nebraska 
lost a fine young orchard by neglecting the 
mulching after it had been continued for 
seven years. In this case even the Duchess 
and the crabs were root-killed, showing 
conclusively that the mulching favored 
a shallow habit of rooting. And yet I be¬ 
lieve in any system of shading the soil dur¬ 
ing the heated term. We cannot do this 
by covering the whole surface after the 
spring cultivation, with marsh hay, as is 
done by some pear growers in New Jersey ; 
but we can do it by the annual sowing of 
Japan Buckwheat about the first of 
July. As many are prejudiced against this 
crop, I would request a careful trial of 
it in the orchard by sowing half of the land 
three years in succession with buckwheat, 
and managing the other half in the usual 
way. I think all will find—as I have done 
—that the half shaded with buckwheat 
will in three years show larger, cleaner, 
and healthier trees than the other half, and 
its first crop of fruit will be more abun¬ 
dant, more uniform in size, and excellent 
in shape aud color. I said Japan Buck¬ 
wheat as since its extended trial, I find it a 
more certain crop than our old sorts, and it 
answers the purpose of keeping the soil 
moist aud cool quite as well. 
THE WHITE GRUB. 
V. V. S., Lewistown, Pa .—What is the 
history of the white grub that has been de¬ 
stroying a large amount of potatoes in this 
neighborhood ? In nearly all cases the 
damage was done where a sod had been 
turned down. How can we protect the 
next crop from the [jest ? Would dressing 
the sod with lime be a preventive ? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 
This insect is the larva of the common 
large May Beetle—Lachnosterna fusca. 
Each beetle lays scores of eggs in meadows, 
strawberry beds or other permanent her¬ 
bage. These eggs hatch into the white 
grubs that live three years, eatlug the roots 
of grasses, strawberry plants, and if forced 
to it, roots of corn, wheat and even the 
tubers of potatoes. I presume those that 
have troubled V. D. S. by eating his pota¬ 
toes were in the third year, as he says they 
were large. He says they troubled potatoes 
on sod ground; this is their habit. It is 
probable that they will not trouble the po¬ 
tatoes next year on the same ground, unless 
perchance there be others in the land in the 
second year of their development, which is 
not likely. A little examination will tell. 
It would do no good to scatter lime on the 
sod before plowing, as the lime is not 
harmful to the insects. There is always 
danger of plowing sod for such crops. The 
only safe way is to examine the land care¬ 
fully in the fall. If the grubs are found in 
force, plow early in the fall, then drag 
often in the fall aud spring. We thus give 
the birds a chance to free the soil from the 
pests. I have known blackbirds to rid 
acres of meadow of myriads of these grubs 
in a few days in late summer. It is also 
well sometimes to turn hogs into badly in¬ 
fested meadows. We thus turn the grass 
into pork indirectly through the sleek, full- 
fed grubs. In case lawns are injured it is 
best to spade them up aud re-sod or seed. 
In case of strawberries frequent changes of 
bed—never planting on sod or old straw¬ 
berry ground—is the safe and easy cure 
This change pays in any case. 
SITE FOR A PEACH ORCHARD. 
A. S. B., Waynesboro, Pa.— I have a 
nice, smooth piece of laud, lying well up 
along the mountain, with north and west 
slopes covered with chestnut, pine and oak 
timber. I want to remove the timber; some 
of it has been taken off already. I want to 
plant the ground with peach trees. The 
soil is a mountain gravel of a flinty sort. 
Are the location and soil suitable for 
peaches? Would it be advisable to plant 
the peach trees soon after the land is 
cleared ? 
Ans. —The elevation and the north and 
west slope are favorable and so is the char¬ 
acter of the soil and the fact that it favors 
the growth of chestnut trees, which are 
nice in their requirements. They can, how¬ 
ever, endure a drier air than peach trees 
like, and quite as much seems to depend on 
calm, mild, humid air, such as we generally 
have in June and September, as on a dry, 
healthful soil. An exposure facing east is 
favorable because it affords shelter from 
the parching effects of wintry northwest¬ 
ers. If some of the timber is allowed to re¬ 
main, especially some pine, to add to this 
shelter and to dampen the air somewhat by 
its exhalations, so much the better. The 
surest judgment as to the fitness of any 
locality for any special kind of fruit is ob¬ 
tained from observation of the growth and 
yield under like circumstances in the same 
region. The trees can be planted as soon 
as the ground is cleared, but should not be 
interfered with by weeds or sprouts any 
more than any other cultivated crop. If 
there are pa any decaying roots in the 
ground they may develop an acid injurious 
to the growing roots and a good dressing 
of ashes or lime or both would be advan¬ 
tageous in any case. A wide mulch of pine 
brush around each newly planted peach 
tree has been found very favorable to their 
growth and repellent to the borer beetle. 
VALUE OF ASHES FROM A CORD OF WOOD. 
A. S. B., Waynesboro, Penn. —What is 
the value of the ashes from a cord of hard 
wood ; also the value of the same from a 
cord of light wood ? What weight of ashes 
ought to be yielded by a cord of wood ? I 
have a lot of wood for which I have no near 
market; it could be cut and piled in one 
place cheaply; I want to know what the 
ashes, per cord of wood, will be worth to 
me as a fertilizer. State the probable 
quantity per cord, and its approximate 
value on the farm where it is to be used as 
a fertilizer. Will it be worth more if 
covered with earth and burnt to charcoal ? 
Ans.—A cord of hard wood will make 
about 70 pounds of ashes, worth probably 60 
or 65 cents. The soft-wood ashes may contain 
about the same amount of potash, but a 
smaller amount of phosphoric acid than 
the hard wood, so their value would be de¬ 
termined by the requirements of the crop 
to which they were to be applied. We 
should think the ashes would hardly pay 
for the labor unless the latter were very 
cheap. On general principles, the R. N.-Y. 
is opposed to the practice of burning up 
wood for the sake of the ashes alone. Dr. 
Hoskins, as our readers know, uses large 
quantities of wood in burning bones. He 
believes this to be the best way, all things 
considered, to “ reduce” the bones to a 
suitable condition to be used as a fertilizer. 
INDIGESTION IN YOUNG PIGS. 
R. H. S., Rhiuebcck, N. Y .—What ails 
my nine-months-old pigs ? First, two were 
attacked—one laid out flat on its side, and 
the other got on its front knees with its 
nose pressed hard on the floor, while it 
stood up behind. The second laid down 
flat also, and inside of 12 hours both were 
dead. Another has since died and two oth¬ 
ers are similarly affected. When the last 
ones were attacked they would go round 
and round in a circle if hurried. The last 
three attacked are now all right, being in 
good, healthy condition. Those that died 
were troubled with twitching and spasmod 
