THE RURAL 
NEW-YORKER. 
quence, a larger amount of green fodder for 
cutting or for pasture.’’ 
‘“That is precisely what I want, and what 
the majority of the farmers want in a grass,” 
said I; “ it is the qualities of earliness and 
lateuess, of rapid growth and of leaiiness, 
rather thau ‘ stalkiuess ’ that arc the most de¬ 
sirable, and my experience of orchard-grass is 
that it possesses these qualities to a greater de¬ 
gree than any other grass. It has the habit, 
however, of growing in bunches unless it is 
thickly sown or it is mixed with other varie¬ 
ties ; so that it would be better to mix some 
red-top and tall fescue with it to overcome this 
tendency. My idea is to proceed as follows : 
Break up the surface with the disc harrow and 
mellow it as much as possible, and sow one 
bushel of orchard-grass, half a bushel of red- 
top. half a bushel of tall fescue and four quarts 
of timothy per acre. This, I think, would give 
a close growth, which would produce early aud 
good hay, aud, if necessary, frequent cuttings 
for feeding green, which would be worth more 
thau the crop of oats and the possible crop of 
aftermath.” 
•‘Howwould you seed it down?” inquired 
my old neighbor. 
“ That is a question which requires consid¬ 
eration. I am inclined to think it would be 
better to sow the grass seed alone and without 
any grain crop, such as oats, as you and Fred 
seem to advise.” 
“Wou’t the oats shade the grass and pro¬ 
tect it?” asked the old gentleman. 
“I don’t think the young grass needs any 
protection, especially early in the season. When 
grass is sown with a grain crop, it is usually 
sheltered too much, and we get a weak, thin 
growth which is greatly injured or destroyed al¬ 
together when it is suddenly exposed to the hot 
sun and dry weather of July. This has the 
effect of killing out many a seeding which 
would otherwise succeed. On the other hand, 
when grass—or clover either—is sown by itself, 
the spring rains start the seed and the growth 
is substantial, strong, and hardy: and the 
crop becomes well rooted and firmly established 
before the hot weather arrives. I have tried 
this plan more thau once or twice without 
any failure, while in seeding with grain there 
have been many failures. 
“I am inclined to think that we make a mis¬ 
take in our usual method of seeding to grass. 
The complaints of failures to catch are quite 
frequent, and a really good catch is the ex¬ 
ception.” 
“ I have not had a really good catch of 
grass aud clover in 20 years. I think the 
weather in spring is drier than it used to be,” 
remarked the old gentleman. 
There is always a good excuse for avoid¬ 
ing a true reason, aud most people are very 
ready to deceive themselves,” said Mr. Mar¬ 
tin. “All the supposed reasons why grass 
seed misses are, to my thinking, nothing but 
evasions of the well known fact that the soil 
is poorer thau it used to be. There is some¬ 
thing in that idea that grass should be sown 
by itself. It is the only crop grown that is 
permitted to be sheltered to death and smoth¬ 
ered in the process. When the soil was fresh 
aud rich, it was well able to sustain both the 
grass and the guain crops, aud perhaps the 
grain crop was all the belter for what the 
grass took from the soil; hut now the soil is 
able only to grow one crop at one time, and 
the weaker one‘goes to the wall’ when an 
attempt is made to grow two at once. ” 
“ Farming is poor enough business now, and 
how can we make it pay expenses, if we lose 
a crop every time we seed down ?” said the old 
gentleman. 
“ What do we lose ?” I replied. “ You 
usually seed down with rye or wheat. You 
get perhaps 12 or 15 bushels of either, and 
that scaroely pays for the seed, harvesting 
and thrashing. Besides, every time a catch of 
grass is missed, you lose the value of the seed 
and the labor of sowing it. Now, if the rye or 
wheat crop is abandoned and the care given 
to that, ie devoted to getting in the grass and 
clover in good eoudition, you would have a 
crop of hay to cut the first season, if a good 
catch is secured, aud for three or four years 
afterwards you would have double returns 
from the bay or pasture. This will be worth 
more than the loss ou the graiu crop, I think. 
“The truth is, we do not make half the use. 
we should of our natural grass lands. A moist 
soil with abundance of decaying vegetable 
matter iu it, is the best land for grass, and 
there are millions of acres of just such laud 
abandoued to reeds aud rushes and frogs. 
These swamps remain useless and positively 
injurious, because we cither will not drain or 
reclaim them, or know not how to go about it. 
Again, it is a general opinion that our climate 
is unfavorable to grass, and that permanent 
pasture is something we can never hope for. 
I cannot believe it. We have never given it a 
fair trial. We are [continually breaking up 
our grass lauds Instead of manuring them and 
encouraging an abuudant growth of grass. As 
soon as we get a fair sod, the plow is put into 
it, and it is turned under to get a good crop of 
corn ; and the work of years is thrown away 
and made useless just ai the time when it is 
bringing forth its slowly-maturing fruits. I 
feel sure that if all our swamps were reclaimed, 
seeded to the proper varieties of grass, and 
reasonably managed, they would produce as 
much grass as is now grown on the uplands, 
leaving these to be plowed and made fertile 
with manure made in great part from the pro¬ 
ducts of these natural-grass lands. 
—--»♦■»- 
EXPERIMENTS WITH SEEDS FROM BUTTS 
AND TIPS OF CORN EARS. 
I have experimented somewhat in planting 
but ts aud tips of ears of corn. Never plant them 
unless for an experiment. My experience is 
that the butts produce shorter and thicker 
stalks and ears, a shallow and broad grain, a 
big shank, the ear apt to stand up when ripe. 
The tips’ stalks are slender, the ears gener¬ 
ally have fewer rows than the seed, and possess 
more of the Flint-corn nature. An old farmer 
told me he could run Deut corn into Flint iu 
three years by saving only an inch of the tip 
of the ear. I think that perhaps he could ef¬ 
fect the change, but not in that length of 
time. 
Another reason for shelling off butts and 
tips of ears here is that we use horse planters, 
generally planting two rows at a time four 
feet apart, one man riding to drive, another 
to work the drop lever. We want from two 
to four grains in a hill, and those shelled from 
the butts and tips, owing to the unequal size 
of the grain, would make the hills unequal, 
some with too much and some with too 
little. A good-sized, perfect grain from the 
middle of the ear, has a larger germ and more 
substance to nourish a sprout. 
The plant from it comes up quicker and is 
healthier, more vigorous from the start thau 
that from the grains from either end of the 
ear, and, I think, holds its own through the 
season. I. o. a. 
Freedom, la. 
-*-M- 
EXPERIENCE WITH WHITE PROLIFIC 
CORN. 
I have already ten bushels of White Prolific 
Corn raised from seed received of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture last year, but I presume 
that it is one of the conditions required of all 
who euter for premiums, that the corn shall 
be received directly of you and of a certain 
quantity, so that all contestants shall share 
alike.—(Yes. Eds.) 
As it may be of some use to Rubal readers, 
I here make a note of the result of my experi¬ 
ment with this corn last season. I planted 
half au acre of it on the 20th of April, 1878. 
Supposing from the small size of the grain, 
that it was one of the low-growing kinds, I 
drilled it in rows three feet apart with two feet 
between the drills. To my surprise, the corn 
grew unusually tall, and as a consequence, the 
planting was much too close. The situaiiou 
was an unfavorable one, and the season proved 
to be cold aud wet throughout. Notwithstand¬ 
ing these drawbacks, the plants averaged two 
ears to the stalk, and I noticed some standing 
by themselves which bore four ears. It would 
take from 175 to 200 of these ears to shell out 
a bushel. The corn was ripe about the 15th of 
September. Two days later, at least two-thirds 
of it were carried off by a great flood of New 
River, aud I have therefore no means of know¬ 
ing precisely what the yield would have been. 
I am not prepared to say that it will yield more 
than some other varieties which I could men¬ 
tion, bat I am sufficiently pleased with it to 
give it a fairer and more extended trial this 
coming season, Hugh L. Wysor. 
Pulaski Co., Va. 
tpsrtllantous. 
CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EXPERI¬ 
MENT STATION. 
BULLETIN 22. 
Fertilizer Analysis. 
248. Dissolved Bone. 
Manufactured and sold by Booth & Edgar, 
N. Y. Sampled March 20, 1879, by W. E. 
Wheeler, Stratford. 
249. Stagg’s Superphosphate of Lime. 
Made (1874) and sold by John J. Park, Strat¬ 
ford. Sampled by W. E. Wheeler. 
Analysis fixed to the packages as follows: 
Moisture, organic and volatile matter.36.74 
Sol. Hhosiihoric Acid.. .. 8.16 
Insol. “ . ..19.35 
Total Phosphoric Acid. 27.61 
Bone phospspnate, ociui valent to Elios. Acid.41.90 
Nitrogen. 2.31 
Ammonia equivalent to Nitrogen. 3.80 
248 240 
Nitrogen. 0.32 1.67 
Sol. Pho*. Acid. . 1,10 3.83 
Kevertod films. Acid. 2,12 6.99 
Insol. films. Acid .. 2.29 6.01 
Ammonia equivalent to Nitrogen. 0.38 2.03 
Bone phosphate equivalent to total Phos. 
Acid. 12.00 34.66 
Estimated value per ton.$11.06 $35.45 
Cost per ton. 20.00 45.00 
COBllECTION. 
Mr. G. W. Baker, of Brooklyn, N. Y., writes 
under date of March 28, as follows: 
“In relation to the Animal Scrap Manure 
(No. 244 reported in last Bulletin) there was a 
mistake in sending sample, as my foreman in 
putting it up, put up the wrong lot. The sam¬ 
ple he sent was the lowest priced manure I put 
up, aud which sells for $7.50 per ton. 
The report as corrected stands: 
‘244 
Water. 44.0 
Nitrogen. 1.9 
Phosphoric acid. 1.0 
Estimated value per ton.$6.25 
Cost. 7.50 
Instead of $15.60. 
S. W. Johnson, Director. 
PLAN OF ORGANIZATION OF AN EXPERI¬ 
MENTAL STATION AT CORNELL UNI¬ 
VERSITY. 
We have received the following from Pro¬ 
fessor G. C. Caldwell of Corucll University : 
L The Station shall ho called the Cornell 
University Experiment Station, and its object 
shall be the promotion of agriculture by scien¬ 
tific experimentation and investigation. 
II. The Faculty of Agriculture of the Uni¬ 
versity. together with the President of the 
State Agricultural Society, the Master of the 
State Grange and the Presidents of the State 
Dairyman's Associations, the Western New 
York Horticultural Society, of the Western 
New York Farmers’ Club, the Central New 
York Farmers’ Club, the Elmira Farmers’ 
Club, the American Institute Farmers’ Club 
and the Ithaca Farmers’ Club shall constitute 
the Board of Control of the Station, till the 
next regular auuual meetings of these Societies, 
wheu they may appoint delegates to represent 
them on the Board, one for each Society. 
III. An annual meeting of the Board of Con¬ 
trol shall he held at the University on the 
Friday following Commencement. Six mem¬ 
bers of the Board shall constitute a quorum 
for the transaction of auy of its business. 
IV. The officers of the Station shall consist 
of a President, Secretary, Treasurer and Di¬ 
rector. Till the first meetiug of the Board of 
Control these officers shall be as follows : 
President, —Prof. I. P. Roberts. 
IHreetor. —Prof. G. C. Caldwell. 
Treasurer. —Prof. A. N. Prentiss. 
Secretary. —Mr. W. R. Lazenby. 
At the first meetiug of the Board of Control 
appointments shall be made by the Board to 
fill these offices, and the officers so appointed 
shall hold office till the next annual meeting 
of the Board, or till their successors shall be 
appointed at 6uch regular annual meeting. 
V. The duties of the President, Treasurer 
and Secretary shall be such as usually apper¬ 
tain to those offices. The Director shall be 
charged more particularly with the collection 
of the materials for the uunual report of the 
Station, and the preparation of that report. 
VI. The immediate management of the af¬ 
fairs of the Station shall be vested in an execu¬ 
tive committee of the Board of Control, which 
shall consist of the four officers already named, 
and one other persou to be appointed by the 
Board at its annual meeting. 
VII. The Executive Committee shall be 
charged with the proper disbursement of the 
funds of the Station, and the general direction 
of its work, and shall carry into effect as far 
as practicable, the suggestions and wishes of 
the. Board of Control as expressed at the annu¬ 
al meetiug of the. Board. 
-♦ » ♦- 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
(Continued from page.251.) 
North Carolina. Henderson, Granville Co. 
March 31.—We have had no snow all winter 
andthiB month ou the whole has been mild 
and spring-like and, vegetation, is advancing 
rapidly. Peach trees are mostly in full bloom. 
The prospect is good for a very large crop 
for pears, apples, plums, aud cherries, with 
the usual great promise of grape crop. Wheat 
at one time was thought to be much injured 
by the few very severe spells of frost we had 
iu January and February, but it is uninjured 
and now looks splendid, wherever proper cul¬ 
ture has been given. Fall oats have mostly 
been killed out, but spring-sown are promis¬ 
ing finely. The continued low price of cot¬ 
ton—the staple crop here at present—is act¬ 
ing very unfortunately in regard to the pro¬ 
fits of the planters and almost stopping entirely 
the immigration to this State, that a few years 
since promised to be very considerable. The 
land jobbers, however, have done more to¬ 
wards this stoppage than all other causes com¬ 
bined. Anyone intending to settle in this cer¬ 
tainly beautiful and salubrious climate should 
consult the Northern people already settled 
here, and buy only of the owners themselves. 
There are good chances with cheap aud good 
lands. Taxes here are only about one-third of 
what they are North aud although our staple 
products are at present very low, yet they are 
proportionately not lower thun Northern pro¬ 
ducts. Then again, while cotton is about as good 
as gold when fit for market, we can also raise 
about every Northern production as well and, 
with proper culture, as much to the acre. 
Moreover, many around here, often realize 
handsome sums from tobacco for which Gran¬ 
ville is so celebrated, and anyone visiting Hen¬ 
derson might be rather astonished at the nu¬ 
merous fine Tobacco Warehouses, Manufac¬ 
tories and handsome residences that have 
sprung up within the last five years. This is 
also a splendid fruit region especially for 
Grapes and Peaches, and it posseses every 
facility for exporting them to all the promin¬ 
ent Northern markets and in advance of many 
other fruit-growing localities, thus securing 
iu general, high prices. h. s. 
Kansas, Seueca, Nemaha Co.. April 7.—Dur¬ 
ing March we have had repeated changes— 
from “ very warm aud pleasaut ” to “ cold and 
blustering.” and the mercury has by turns 
been down to zero, or up to 85° or 90° iu the 
shade. We have scarcely had any rain this 
winter, and the high winds are making the 
soil very dry. Whiter wheat iu this country, 
at this preseut writing, looks very well. Spring 
wheat is all sown, and that which was put in 
early, is up, but needs the benefit of a good 
rain. Where the dead grass has been burned 
off, the prairies are having a greenish tinge. 
During the prevalence of the high winds, 
prairie fires have beeu very frequent and de¬ 
structive, and much loss of property and even 
of life has been the sad result. Many of these 
fires are started by careless persons, or by 
the fire which flies from the passing locomo¬ 
tives. The immigration to this State is very 
great. Nearly every train which comes into 
Kansas, aud every public highway to the va¬ 
cant lands of the frontiers, are filled with 
swarthy and dirt-begrimed travelers for the 
“ homestead region." Some of these have 
good “Joutfits ” and some hard cash, while 
others have “ very sorry rigs ’’ and a limited 
supply of mouey, and are badly prepared for 
gpy reverse of fortune. For the sake of all 
such, it is to he hoped that the good Lord will 
not “go back” ou Kansas, and that the year 
1879 may be added to her years of prosperity. 
Iu this country, while there is the general 
complaint of “ hard times,” yet there is more 
than the usual amount of house-building goiug 
ou. Quite a number of small dwelling-houses 
are being built, both iu town and country. One 
evidence which I will note of a healthy pros¬ 
perity among our farmers, is the general desire 
to procure better stock. Quite a large num¬ 
ber of thoroughbred bulls, and a few fine 
horses have recently been imported here, aud 
the determination seems to be pretty general 
to “grade up ” all kinds <»f farm stock. The 
Rural New-Yorker aud other leading jour¬ 
nals, are doing much to stimulate the people 
in this—the right directiou. g. h. 
New York, Rome, April 3.—In the spring 
of 1878 we were plowing the first of April. In 
fact, some farmers had been plowing iu March ; 
now we have only partially cleared fields of 
snow ; the roads do not afford good sleighing, 
but no ono has yet used a wagon ou them in 
this vicinity outside of the town. There both 
wagons aud sleighs are used. “ When shall 
we be able to start the plows?" is a question 
asked by the farmers, hut not easily answered. 
We have plenty of feed for stock. The pros¬ 
pect is that we have readied the bottom iu 
prices of farm produce. There has not been a 
time iu the last forty years when farm produce 
was so low in proportion to cost of production 
as the preseut, neither were taxes ever so high, 
not even iu war time, considering the value of 
property then and now. Farms that were 
worth $100 per acre and over, during the war 
and later, have beeu sold this spring for less 
than one-half, and, In some instances, for 
about one-fourth the prices of inflation times. 
Many forced sales did not bring the assess¬ 
or’s valuation of the farms the past year. The 
outlook is gloomy to all farmers who are iu 
debt for their lauds, aud in many instances the 
accumulations aud savings of years will he 
swept away by the relentless mortgagee, who 
has, iu many cases, had in payment more 
money than the farm will now bring when 
sold. It is a pity that farmers got into debt 
iu times of high prices, only now to be sold 
out aud left without house or home. If we 
learn wisdom by the preseut depression conse¬ 
quent on inflation and sure to follow, our hard¬ 
ships may he a blessing in disguise; hut it 
will be a hard lesson for very many of us 
farmers to learn. If our legislators would 
enact a few useful laws, and reduce their sal¬ 
aries, thereby reducing our taxes to the lowest 
possible standard, and then adjourn for about 
four years, the country would then have a 
chance to recuperate and we should then be on 
the high road to prosperity once more. j. t. 
Kentucky, Hedges Station, Clark Co., April 
7 .—Our wheat has withstood the long and 
hard winter better than we expected. The 
area sown last fall was greater thun usual uud 
the seed was selected with more care—a pre¬ 
caution mainly due to the teachings of the ug- 
ricultutal paper*. If the suggestions and ex¬ 
periences these are constantly laying before 
their readers were judiciously adopted accor¬ 
ding to the circumstances of each farmer, our 
crops would be largely increased, our lands 
rendered more fertile or at any rate kept from 
becoming impoverished, and our owu work 
made lighter. Clark County rauks first iu this 
State, especially in live stock. The raisiug of 
