MARCH 45 
46@ 
THE FURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Crystal Palace, Loudon, for which such excel¬ 
lence can he claimed. This structure is es¬ 
pecially suitable for those of our readers whose 
premises are of limited extent, and who will 
not allow the chickens to ruu over aud scratch 
up the few petted flowers and choice vegetables 
they raise, yet eanuot forego the luxury of 
fresh-laid eggs and roast chicken. 
All kinds of poultry cau be kept in such a 
house, aud by provldiug it with movable par¬ 
titions for the roomy yard, each variety, or 
particular individual, can be kept separately, 
if desired. There is also a dove-cote in the 
top. a dog-keuncl in ouc end, aud at the other 
an aviary, in which may be confined sweet 
songsters and birds valued for their beautiful 
plumage. 
Ordinary poultry-houses, though they may 
be very serviceable, are generally built of 
rough materials aud present anything hut au 
agreeable appearauce; but this, besides beiug 
useful, can be placed on the lawn as au orna¬ 
ment that will add much to the attractions of 
the place. 
teriug it ou the floors or in the yaids. This is 
effective in absorbing the ammonia, and prob¬ 
ably also in decomposing the sulphuretted 
hydrogen—which really causes the most dis¬ 
agreeable sulci) from manure—as a reaction 
consequent on the freeing of the lime of the 
gypsum from its acid. But this effect ou)_\ oc¬ 
curs, so far as moisture is present: and, of 
course, cau be helped greatly by the occasional 
dashing of a few pails of water upon the stable 
floors. 
The truth is, probably, that gypsum acts as a 
fertilizer directly, just as lime or potash does, 
and when dissolved in water may enter the 
plant in its perfect state: or otherwise in its 
clemeuts, as lime or sulphuric acid when de¬ 
composed. and also in combination of these 
with ammonia or nitric acid or other sub¬ 
stances. This is probable; for as to its real 
action, 110 one seems to know the precise truth 
of it. 
MORE ABOUT PEAT MUCK. 
OEN. W. H. NOBLE, BRIDGEPORT, CONN. 
Jatra Qrtoitomii. 
THE EFFECTS OF PLASTER. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Under certain circumstances plaster is a 
very effective fertilizer: sometimes, however, 
no effect whatever is noticed from its applica¬ 
tion. It is not strange, therefore, that many 
mistaken Ideas as to its properties should be 
current., not only among farmers, but also with 
some well-informed scientific men. One of 
these errors is that plaster acts favorably by 
absorbing water aud conveying it to plants. 
This is a remarkably palpable error, as cau be 
shown by a simple statement of t he properties 
of plaster. 
This substance is sometimes said to consist 
of sulphate of lime in combination with water, 
in the proportions of sulphuric acid, 401 per 
cent.; lime, 32J per cent., aud water, 21 per 
cent. But this is gypsum, and not plaster at 
all. Gypsum becomes plaster when it is burn¬ 
ed and the combined water is driven off. In 
the process of burning or “ boiling” ground 
gypsum, the water escapes in steam as bubbles, 
as when water is boiled. This is known to 
many who have prepared the gypsum for uses 
as plaster. When water is added to the plas¬ 
ter, it again enters into combination with it, 
and the soft paste speedily sets aud becomes 
hard aud solid. Herein lies the basis of the 
popular error. Gypsum already contains all 
the water it can hold aud can take up no more, 
so that it can in no way turuish any to plants 
excepting when it is decomposed chemically 
and the water contained in it is set free. But 
this is so insignificant a quantity, being only 
21 pounds in 100 pounds of piaster—which is a 
large amount to apply to one acre—that it is of 
no practical account and may as weU be passed 
over without further consideration. 
Again, the gypsum—plaster, so-called—is 
supposed to absorb ammonia from the atmos¬ 
phere, and so bring it within the reach of plants. 
But this is quite a gratuitous assumption, be¬ 
cause water, which is abuudautly present in the 
air at the driest seasons, has a much greater 
affinity for ammonia than the gypsum has. 
(Jold'water will absorb 700 times its volume of 
ammonia, while the gypsum can only act by 
parting with its sulphuric acid, which then 
combines with whatever ammonia may he 
present, in equal parts; thus one part of am¬ 
monia with one part of water combines with 
one part of sulphuric acid and one part of 
water, forming sulphate joi ammonia. The 
chemical formula may be given, so as to be 
readily understood, as follows: 
A mmonla Is H3 N 
Water is H2 O 
Sulpb. acid is H2 Si Oi 
Water is H2 O 
t Sulphate of Ammonia 
$ is_ 
S 2N 113 plus H2 S 04 
H stands for hydrogen , N, for nitrogen; O, 
for oxygen ; and S, for sulphur; the small fig¬ 
ures denote the number ot the equivalents of 
each element. Thus the power of absorbing 
ammonia from the atmosphere, exerted by 
gypsum, is of little account as compared with 
the enormous capacity of water for the same 
gas. 
Here maybe mentioned a mistake sometimes 
made by persous who really know more than 
many about chemistry. This is, that gypsum 
will absorb ammonia, when it is dry. To test 
this question, let one take a bottle of common 
ammonia water of the drug stores, remove the 
cork and tie over the mouth of the bottle a 
piece of fine muslin. The vapor of the am¬ 
monia will be found to escape in a pungent 
stream. If the muslin is covered with a quan¬ 
tity of finely-ground, dry gypsum, there will be 
perceived no diminution of the pungent smell. 
Then after exposure in this way, if the gyp¬ 
sum be heated in a capsule, there will be no 
scent of ammonia perceived. It is true this is 
a rough experiment, but it shows enough to 
prove the fact. 
One valuable use for gypsum is to take up 
the odor of stables or manure heaps by scat- 
In the Rural of February 8th, it is said: 
“• Raw muck is totally inert until decomposed 
by time or a fermenting compost, or by lime, 
w'ood-ashes or potash salts.” 
The best results with peat muck are doubt¬ 
less reached by the above method. But excellent 
manurial value cau he had out of it, pure 
aud simple, by shorter ways. If farmers, for 
some crops aud for some lauds, are hard driven 
for a full supply of enrichment, I would cast 
on and spread right out of the muck bed. The 
average of these deposits will not harm, if used 
raw, ou grass or grain, ou plowed laud or in 
orchard. I confess it is best to have the lumps 
spread and mashed down by roller aud harrow. 
But at this season Natnre’s agencies will save 
us the delay of such work on the compost heap. 
Ahead of all these, stands 
“ .lack Frost." 
Muck comes from its bed in unctuous aud 
clay-like chunks that dry hard aud lumpy. 
Beal is lilted from its layers in great clods of 
interlaced libers,taking in moisture quickly and 
giving it out slowly. These keep in the sum¬ 
mer’s sun their shape and substance; but dump 
or spread either to face the open freeze and 
thaw of winter, aud somehow all the acidity 
and the fibrous toughness of the lumps de¬ 
camp-. The whole mass breaks down into a 
fine muck-powder as light as ashes. Raw 
muck or peat that has stood the frost aud thaw 
and leach of one winter in the open field, either 
broadcast or dumped iu loads, looses its acid 
and inertness. 
Varieties of .Mucks aud Peuw. 
It should be noted that there are different 
trails in both. Some of their deposits are so 
full of Iron-rust and copperas, washed iu from 
iron rocks and ore beds, that their harm is a 
great deal more than ^inertness. A little acid, 
or a little copperas, will not hurt our soils or 
crops. But, unlike learning, a good deal is sadly 
unwholesome. From the excess, peat has gotten, 
with some, a hard name. 
don't Wait tor the Compost. 
But M with good muck and peat you need to 
kuryf up"your crop food, and cannot wait for 
the coinpt^ffefenncut, aud have not the cash for 
the laanurc or salts to sweeten and unloosen 
its acid, or rouse its inertness, fear not, hut 
right off iu this freezing weather, cast it bounti¬ 
fully over auy laud you have. It's better to 
spread, hut if just now you lack time and 
means, dump the loads—the frost will rend 
them into powder. The rain will drench out 
their acids. 1 ?Rds.J In spriug, with a heavy- 
loaded cedar brush, spread it, wholesale, in 
every direction. 
Winter Is the Time. 
It is the lime to drain, as well as to cart out 
muck. LaTjor is cheaper. Your work does 
not crowd, as iu the seed-time, tilling or har¬ 
vest. But, above all, the help of the elements 
should he sought for such winter work. I 
know some low lands are so drenched with 
floods aud so water-logged, that you cau hard¬ 
ly struggle against the flowage. Yet there are 
ways to do all needful work in spite of 6ueh 
hindrance. But I ouly started out to introduce 
some practical talk of some practical men ou 
this topic of swamp drainage and muck. 
NOW LISTEN TO THEIR WORDS. 
CORN IS KING. 
E. WILLIAMS. 
The crop of 1877, according to the Report of 
he Department of Agriculture, was : 
.. 1,342,568,000 bush , 
.. 3C4.1M.146 " 
21,170,100 *' 
.. 406.3M.000 “ 
34,411.400 " 
31,629,300 tons, 
jituii.,.... 4,0o0,000 bales, 
rt’bicb. at 200 lbs. eiKli. would be 900,000.000 
lbs., which, at lu eta. per lb.—about the 
ivoratre price now—would be . 
lorn . 
Vheat,. 
lye. 
lata. 
li^c-y. 
Valued at 
$480.643,400 
391,670,779 
12,542,896 
118,661,650 
22,028.644 
271.934,950 
[An average bale of coLtou is nearer 
liau to 200 pounds.—E ds.] 
90,000,000 
to 400 
Taking the preceding as the leading staples of 
the country, and assnmiug that the figures of 
the Statistician are approximately correct, corn 
can with propriety be crowned the King of all 
our agricultural products. For the production 
of maximum crops of this cereal, just as for 
others, the best seed is one ot the most import¬ 
ant requisites. Iu fact, it is held by some that 
it is only by careful selection of the seed, for a 
long series of years, that auy great increase of 
productiveness can be obtained. It is claimed 
for several kinds of recent introduction that 
they have been brought to a degree of perfec¬ 
tion superior to older sorts, through a careful 
aud judicious selection of seed alone. 
When the Judson brauehiug corn was intro¬ 
duced, a few years ago, aud illustrated and 
highly indorsed by the then editor of the Ru¬ 
ral. I thought a decided progress had been 
made, and I ventured to Invest in seed enough 
to plant nearly au acre, only to find at harvest 
time that the whole crop was hardly w orth the 
cost of the seed. Instead of the three, four 
aud five ears to the stalk, I found at the most 
but two, and they were few and far between. 
A neighbor who has grown the White Prolific, 
of Teun., for two seasons past, has, I learn, 
been disappointed, aud will abandon it- [Of a 
great number of reports which wc have re¬ 
ceived from widely separated parts of the 
country, with regard to this variety, this is the 
only instance in which its great merits are not 
acknowledged.— Eds.] Another has tried the 
Cheater Co, Mammoth, of Pa., with like re¬ 
sults. Iu view of these failures to realize the 
results claimed for these varieties, by the 
venders, and considering the small proportion 
of the crop that is really worthy to rank as 
the very best for seed, the query presents itself: 
“ Do the purchasers of these new seeds get the 
cream of the seed or only the skimmed milk ?" 
But as the stock of extra selected seed of 
these new varieties will have to be largely in¬ 
creased betoru the masses are supplied, we will 
return to our common stock and ask : “ What 
is the best seed and the best method of select¬ 
ing such as we have ?” I frequently find farm¬ 
ers who invariably reject the ends of the ears, 
reserving ouly the middle for seed, and 1 have 
seen this practice commended in the press, so 
that I suppose it is the general custom. 
When we consider the fact that the kernels 
at the base, or butt, of the ear, are the first to 
set and mature. “ We would ask, why reject 
them The chief reason or excuse generally 
given Is: “ It's the custom of the country,” 
and I suppose it is, and has been handed down 
for generations past- My own custom is to 
select the best ear. from stalks bearing two 
ears if I can, and to reject only the top end, 
say one-third of its length, believing that by 
this course the productiveness and earliness 
are fully maintained, with a tendency to au in¬ 
crease iu Loth directions, which could hardly 
be expected by pursuing the “ custom of the 
country ” in this matter. 
A few years ago, after the close of the war, 
a newly-enfranchised citizen from Virginia en¬ 
tered our employ aud, at corn-planting time, 
he insisted ou discarding the butt kernels of 
the ear as well as the top, asserting that the 
middle ot the ear o«ly was fit tor seed. Ou 
being asked his reason for this belief, he re¬ 
plied that he had always been taught to do so, 
and he knew the butt kernels were no good, 
’cause they would grow so crooked on the ear 
you could not shell them; had done triedit, 
and knew. “ Well, Sam,” 1 replied, “ we’ll 
try it again,” aud I directed him to pick out 
enough of the crookedest and most irregular 
buit kernels he could find, so that with them I 
might plant live rows across the field, while it 
was agreed that he should plant the adjoining 
five rows with his choice of kernels from the 
middle of the ear9. This was done, very much 
to his satisfaction, for he was certain that 
would give me a lesson at harvest time. 
The rows were marked and treated alike iu 
every respect. At maturity, the corn from 
each of the plots of five rows was cut aud 
stacked by itself. At husking, each row of 
stacks was hauled at the same time, aud each 
of us husked his own lot, the corn being 
thrown in heaps contiguous to each other. 
Ou completing the buskiug, I asked Sam which 
heap was the beBt: he unhesitatingly pro¬ 
nounced mine the best; and when told that 
was the result of his crooked kernels, he could 
hardly believe it. It is so long siuee that I 
have forgotten the measured results, but the 
most remarkable feature about it was the 
round and very uniform size of the ears and 
the entire absence of auy nubbins. But Sam 
was most surprised to see the rows of corn ou 
the ears as straight as any. 
--- 
WHEAT GROWING IN SENECA CO., N. Y. 
I have lately purchased for shipment to New 
Y ork a portion of a wheat crop so remarkable 
that it seems to me worth meutiou iu the Rural. 
This crop was grown the past season by that pro¬ 
gressive and successful farmer, Martin L. Allen, 
who harvested 5,028 bushels from 140 acres—a 
fraction over 40 bushels per acre. When we 
consider that this crop was grown on land that 
gave a large yield of hay, wheat, barley and 
potatoes iu 1877—not au acre having been 
fallow, a condition that so many think essen¬ 
tial to success in growing wheat—it certainly 
is a very remarkable yield. The soil Is a fria¬ 
ble loam underlaid by limestone, well under- 
drained by nature, and has been uuder culti¬ 
vation 60 years or more. The culture and 
preparation of the soil for this crop were 
thorough and complete, as will be evident to 
all from the results obtained. 
The varieties grown were the Michigan White 
aud Clawson, about equal areas of each, with 
very little if any difference in yield per acre; 
hut the Clawson was the whiter and of more 
value for the New York market. The amount 
of seed sown was one and a half bushel, with 
180 to 200 pounds of phosphate per acre drilled 
in with the seed. Time of sowing, after the 
middle of September to October 1st. 
The above large average on so large an area, 
I think, cau hardly he surpassed iu the State; 
and, taken with the large yields of many others 
of our farms of less extent, it goes to show 
that we have among us some good farmers, 
and that Seneca Co. is coming back to its old- 
time fame of being one of the best, if not the 
best, wheat-producing comity in the Union. 
Seneca Falls, N. Y. l. f. c. 
tilif gjfrfrsiitcm. 
CRITICISING DAIRY COWS, 
JONATHAN TALCOT. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of January 4th, 
page 10, T. II. Hoskins, M.L)., has given what 
I consider a very fair statement of the value of 
the Short-horns for the dairy, aud it 6eems to 
me that if his statements are correct—aud I 
have no doubt hut that they are—it is too late 
for any writer to deny that they have auy \alue 
as dairy cows, or to assert that they should 
not he found iu auy dairy farmer’s herd. Yet 
it seems that there is at least one Buch writer 
who is writing a series of articles for the Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker aud who says in regard to 
Short-horns—" If I had my w ay I would no 
more consider the Short-horn a dairy cow than 
I would the Hereford, Polled Angus or Texas 
cow aud in reference to Short horns, if one 
may judge by his letters already published, he 
means the English, or Short-horn Durhams, 
but does not include the Dutch iu their various 
short-horned branches, though these, too, are 
certainly entitled to that name. As a breeder 
of Short-horns, I am certainly willing that Mr. 
L. S. Hardin should have his own way about 
this matter; yet as he owns no cows and, so 
far as I have ever been able to learn from auy 
of his published letters, never has owned or 
bred the different breeds with regard to whose 
milking qualities he proposes to eulighten the 
dairy farmer, I should like to kuowr how he 
cau judge of the dairy capabilities ot the differ¬ 
ent breeds he discusses so freely, better than 
the practical dairyman who raises his own 
cows from either of the different breeds with 
which he may be familiar. 
The fact is that Mr. Hardin, in his character 
of “ Free Lance,” which he assumes iu his first 
letter, gets unduly excited and cuts and cleaves 
something he hardly knows w'hal, till he ex¬ 
hausts himself; then sits down to see the 
results, aud, frequently, if one may judge by 
his owu letter, these results are uot very satis¬ 
factory even to himself. If Mr. Hardin can 
take the letter of Dr. Hoskins in legard to the 
value of the Short-horn for the dairy, and 
prove that the statements contained therein 
are uot correct, lie will have dune somethings 
towards sustaining his owu “way,” as he is^ 
pleased to write in his sceund letter, as pub¬ 
lished in the Rural New-Yorker for Dee 21, 
page 809. In that letter Mr. Hardin says : ” iu 
this State— “Keutuoky, 1 suppose Mr. H. means 
” where Short-born breeding is at the bight ot 
its glory, the Short-burn cow bus been weeded 
from the dairy. Her tendency, when fed rich 
food, to fatten and dry up rapidly, coupled 
with the waste of food iu carrviug several hun¬ 
dred pounds of useless flesh, has caused her 
most enthusiastic friends to desert her ”—as a 
dairy cow Mr. Hardin means, no doubt. In the 
same letter Mr. Hardin says: “At the same time, 
it will not do to entirely pass over that ever- 
recurring argument for the Short-horn for the 
dairy, to the effect that wheil her milk gives 
out, she can be turned to a profitable beet ani¬ 
mal.” In the same letter also he says, “lam 
satisfied that no man ou earth can make money 
fattening old dairy cow's,” also, “ In fattening 
cattle, deliver me from old. pot-bellied cows, 
no matter what their blood," 
Can Mr. Hardin reconcile these statements, 
although he has made them all iu one short 
letter respecting Short-horns as one of the 
breeds of dairy cattle ? If he can, he certainly 
will enlighten the writer, and no doubt a good 
mauy other readers of the Rural New-York¬ 
er. How a cow can be carrying several hundred 
pounds of useless flesh being dry. aud at the same 
time be an old pot-bellied dairy cow that will 
