THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
this season it will average 30 bushels. The 
Blunt corn you sent was so small-grained that 
I wa6 tempted not to plant it; but concluded 
to try it. I acknowledge I was badly fooled. 
It beats anything I ever saw in the way of 
stalking, suckering, shooting and silking. If 
the ears are large enough, it will “do." I did 
not have any Early Rose potato to test with 
the. Beauty of Uebron. The one you sent was 
very small—it only had 10 eyes on it. I cut it 
into 10 pieces and planted 10 hills. I have dug 
the potatoes; they weighed 19} pounds- That 
beats anything in the potato line that I know 
G. W. B. 
Mich., Unionville, Tuscola Co., July 14. 
—Farmers have nearly linished haying; the 
crop has been an average one, and nearly all 
of it lias been secured in flue condition. 
■\ybeat is more thau an average crop; and 
oats, corn and potatoes promise a large yield. 
The apple crop is light; small fruits are in 
abundance. Oil the morning Of the 10th just, 
wc were visited by a heavy rain storm, accom¬ 
panied with hail, but no damage was done. 
Texas, Caldwell, Burleson Co., July 14.— 
We have had but one good rain this year. It 
commenced April 22d and rained a flood for 
eight days. It was then 10 to 14 days before 
plows could run. Since then we have had only 
three or four very light showers. There have 
been good rains, however, in a few isolated 
spots around us up to nine days ago. Now, a 
general drought has set in and scarcely any¬ 
body will save fodder. Nobody within twenty 
miles of me will make two-thirds of a crop- 
some will not make a quarter; I shall make 
half u crop. Deep plowing saved me. Buyers 
are anxious to engage corn at £1: but there is 
none to sell. Oats made 20 to 80 bushels, 
which is about two-thirds of a crop. Wheat 
averaged eight bushels per acre—teu would be 
a good crop. The smooth red May wheat did 
a little better, although every one says none 
but bearded sorts will succeed here. The flow¬ 
ers I plowed so deep are all that make much 
show now. Blunt’s corn has received a cru¬ 
cial test and will make something. Every¬ 
body wauts an ear. Half-a-dozen or more 
have promised to take the paper if I will give 
them seed. I am taking notes “ an’ faith you 
may print 'em " when the end comes. Some 
of the corn is beginning to glaze, so the end is 
not far off. All of the seeds were Bent from 
one to three mouths too late. The Calliearpa 
ought to have been sent in October. Onr hill¬ 
sides are covered with it. The beets are nearly 
all killed by the heat, while the red turnip 
beets by their side will weigh two pounds. 
The lettuce has douc better. Though some of 
it is killed, some. I think, will get through—it 
is seeding now. The Beauty of Hebron, I am 
satisfied, is a good potato; but it should be 
planted here in the winter and covered with 
straw. It was planted too late in a bed of 
rotten cotton seed—consequently it now lies in 
the agonies of death without making a siugle 
tuber. Of all the fiowere I have but one single 
plant left—a Chatei’s Hollyhock. I think it 
will go through. The outside leaves die down, 
but new ones are waiting to 1111 their places. 
1 can discover no worm at work ; so I suppose 
its woebegone condition is due to the heat of 
the sun. We have the promise of the building 
of the Gulf. Colorado and Sante Fe Railroad at 
Caldwell by Christmas; but I don’t believe 
very strongly in the fulfillinent of the promise. 
I am going to plant all sorts of good things for 
sale to the “hands”—if it rains. Irish pota¬ 
toes, com, turnips, ouions, okra, and many 
other things do well here, if plauted from the 
15th of September to October 15th. I am dig¬ 
ging a well as fast as the hot weather will 
allow me. It will be inside my garden, so that 
I can water my vegetables and flowers. I 
want to fence in half an acre, so as to include 
a melon patch, as melons have too many ene¬ 
mies here, more dangerous than any iusect 
pest; and I want so to arrange it as to lie able to 
do as much of the work as possible with the 
plow. D. H. H. 
soil it is sufficient to run a plow on each side 
of the row, when the plants can he pulled 
up. After two or three days, the plants are 
stacked. To raise them from the ground, plat¬ 
forms are made of rails, on which the stacks 
are built and capped with straw to shed the 
rain. The object of stacking is to dry the nuts, 
for the weather being so uncertain, it is not 
prudent to leave them spread on the ground 
where they would be injured by frosts and dis¬ 
colored by moisture. The stacks are therefore 
but small, about four feet in diameter and four 
or five feet, high, which dimensions will allow 
the air to circulate through them freely. 
Having remained in the stack till dry—which 
they will be in two to four weeks, if the weather 
is favorable—the nuts are ready to pick. If, 
however, either a cold or wet spell should set 
in, they should be removed to sheds, where the 
drying is completed. There are two ways of 
separating the nuts from the vines—thrashing 
with a machiue and picking by hand. The 
former method is perhaps to be preferred where 
large quantities are handled, but the nuts can¬ 
not be well-assorted and will not command a 
high price, whereas hand-picked and well- 
assorted nuts will command the highest, and 
sometimes fauey prices. Hand-picking is, 
however, a slow operation, an expert beiDg 
unable to pick much over three bushels a day. 
They are next spread out thinly on a loft and 
frequently turned till they are perfectly dry, 
when they are cleaned, generally with a fan¬ 
ning mill, and marketed. As the price depends 
a good deal on their bright appearance, the 
pods are sometimes plneed in a revolving 
cylinder, where they are polished by mutual 
attrition ; and the very white pods are made so 
by being bleached with the fumes of sulphur. 
The vines are considered, when properly har¬ 
vested, before they have had too much frost, 
equal iD value to clover hay for cattle, but for 
horses they arc too dusty. The yield ranges 
all the way from 20 to 100 bushels per acre and 
the price from $1 to $2.50 pet bushel. The 
erop is considered more valuable thau cotton 
or tobacco. Two varieties are recognized—the 
Virginia, which is the larger, and the Carolina 
or African. Large quantities of peanuts are 
eaten, hut their chief use is for making oil, the 
seeds containing from 42 to 50 percent, of a 
uearly colorless, bland, fixed oil, resembliug 
olive oil and used for similar purposes. The 
principal consumption of tills oil is in soap 
making. Vast quantities of peanuts are, also, 
grown on the wesL coast of Africa. 
Dots in Horses. 
A Subsct'iber—address mislaid, asks whether 
there are sucii things as hots in horses; and if 
so what are they aud how to get rid of them. 
Ans. —Of course there are such tilings as hots 
in horses, and, for that, matter, in sheep too. 
The former are the lame of the uestrus equi, a 
species of gad-fly, anti the latter the larvte of 
the oestrus ovis, another species of the same 
genus. The accompanying ent* represent the 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS 
Conn., Campville, Litchfield Co., July 23.— 
I saw a statement in the Rural of premium 
corn moasnred July 9th. On July 5th we 
measured that sent us, and found the stalks six 
incbeB in circumference and six feet high. 
We measured again tills morning, and found 
the stalks 10 inches in circumference aud 10 
feet high. If the corn ripens, we hope to show 
good results next fall, aud “haul in” some of 
those first-class premiums. G. a. 
N. Y., Whitney’s Point, Broome Co., July 
23.—The weather has been very “catching” 
for the last two weeks. Haying is well ad¬ 
vanced. The hay crop is about one-third 
lighter than last year. Farmers have nearly 
all harvested their wheat, in thi6 section; it is 
only about half a crop this year, owing to the 
dry weather in the spring. The wheat sent 
me by the Rural looks good, but the seed did 
not all cotue up. Blunt’s corn, planted on the 
river fiats in black loam, looks nice and stands 
about five feet high. Pearl Millet is a failure. 
Beauty of Hebron potatoes, after having been 
cut down to the grouud by the frost, came on 
and are now looking fine. Oats promise a good 
crop and will be ready to cut in about, ten 
days. Potatoes are thriving, and if they do 
not rot in the hill they will be a large crop. 
Sheep and lambs, $3.50@4 per head; veals, 
$3@5 per head; eggs, II cents per dozeu; 
butter, 12 cents per pound. m. b. d. 
N. Y-, Rome, Oneida Co., July 20.—The 
weather has been extremely hot most of the 
time for the last six weeks, with occasional 
showers. Thi6 Is very favorable for corn. 
Ours is as large as it has ever been at this date, 
while our “Rural Blunt corn'’ is fur beyond 
any that we ever saw so early in the season. 
It stands from eight to nine feet high, and 
there are no signs of tassels yet. I wonder 
how high it will grow. Potatoes are looking 
very fine, bat the second crop of “bugs” is 
hatching out. The rain improved newiy-seeded 
meadows, but old meadows yield poorly. Oats 
look good. Winter wheat is being harvested, 
but we cannot say how it will yield, as we have 
none. A large share of the apples seem to be 
dropping off. Plum trees arc hanging full. 
Minn., Howard Lake, Wright Co., July 12.— 
While some farmers were saying that crops were 
so abundant that the price of many would be so 
diminished as to be almost valueless in the fall, 
we were drenched with a rain which threatened 
to inundate us, and had wind sufficient to lay 
wheal fiat, as well as much of the corn. The 
latter, it Is supposed, will rise again if we 
should have no more such hard storms as those 
which have followed each other f or more than 
a week in quick succession. By no means eau 
we predict good times in this region yet, as the 
weather is very sultry and there are rnauy signs 
of more pouring showers of rain. One of our 
late showers was said to have given us frogs, 
which are hopping about briskly. We have 
had no hail to speak of, in this vicinity, but 
some bouses were uuroofed by the terrific wind 
a few miles from here. We had hard winds 
here but no tornado, such as fearfully visited 
some other parts of our State. Wells are 
brimming with water and many cellars are 
filling. Some have to bo worked with pumps 
to be kept empty. We wait patiently for cool 
breezes with other indications of better weather. 
We have less small fruit thau usual, but a fair 
erop of apples and probably of grapes. There 
are very few wild plums, which are nice aud 
sometimes abuudant in this State. 13th just, 
we have heard more particulars of the storm 
six miles away. One man had a sugar or¬ 
chard of about 00 acres entirely destroyed, 
aud the road was so filled with trees, that help 
to clear it out was solicited from our towi^', and 
two wagon loads of men went out, ancl brought 
back the report iliat trees were so thick In the 
road that they were only able (o clear half a 
mile before night came. Some large apple or¬ 
chards were nearly all destroyed on the 9th 
lust. In Meeker and Renville comities great 
damage was done on the 0th ny hail, wind and 
rain. s. A. M. 
Iow’A. McGregor, Clayton Co., July 20.— 
Harvest has commenced iu this section. 
Chinch bugs are injuring the wheat in some 
fields a good deal, but the wheat in the timber 
here will be far superior to what it was last 
year. Coru aud potatoes are splendid. I saw 
a field of corn yesterday that is ahead of any¬ 
thing in this section, anil if the ground is not 
too rich for it to ear well, I think it will be 140 
bushels to the acre, or, at any rate, it will pro¬ 
duce three times as much as mine to the acre, 
and I calculate that mine will go 40 bushels. 
N. Y., Oriskauy, Oneida Co., July 23.— Corn 
hereabouts Is good- It w-as planted about May 
20, with hen manure in the hill in my own 
case. I planted 58 hills of Blunt's corn, and it 
is four feet high aud doing well. s. c. 
New Jersey, Burlington, Burlington Co., 
July 24.--lhe Blunt corn is looking line, 
considering the fact that wo have had no rain 
for over two weeks till last night. It is setting 
from three to nine cars per stalk. If the dry 
weather had not come, I would have had a 
fine little piece of corn. As it stands—13 feet 
high—it is the largest corn in this neighbor¬ 
hood. The drought cut everything short. If 
it had contiuued one week louger, fanners iu 
this vicinity, a number of them at least, would 
have gone into bankruptcy. n. t. w. 
New Jersey. New Brunswick, Redfield, July 
16.—Crops are looking good and are growing 
very fast. Farmers have got nicely to work 
securing the bay crop, which is an average 
one. Oats promise to be more than an aver¬ 
age crop. No wheat, to speak of, is grown 
here. Com and potatoes promise large yields. 
Prices are very low; cheese. 5} cents; butter, 
10 @ 13c.; potatoes, old, 7oc,; new- ones are 
not yet large enough for use, p. m . 
Pa., Berlin, Somerset Co., July 21.—I have 
95 stalks of corn from the seed I received from 
the Rural. They look fine, aud so do all other 
crops here. Hay is a little short, however, on 
account of dry weather. Fruit, too, w r as dam¬ 
aged in some places by late frosts, but there 
will be an average crop. Butter is very low 
selling from 8 to 121, cents per pound. Every¬ 
thing else brings a good price. g. b. v. 
Ohto, Cincinnati, July 21.—It has been fear¬ 
fully warm here to-day. No rain hereabouts 
in three weeks. J(> K 
Ind., Newton’s Retreat, Tippecanoe Co., 
July 19,—The wheat harvest is over and hay¬ 
ing is just commencing. Oat* will he short, 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS 
Raising Peanuts. 
(t. W. 8 ,j iNew York City, wishes to raise 
peanuts, and be asks for information concern¬ 
ing when aud how to plant them, the culture 
of the crop, what profit to expect, eie. 
Ans.—T he peanut iB a tropical plant, aud can 
1) a successfully grown iu this country only iu the 
Southern States, though small quantities have 
beon raised in the North. If our correspondent 
intends to raise this crop iu any of the North¬ 
ern States we would, therefore, advise him to 
begin on a very small scale. The peanut suc¬ 
ceeds best iu a sandy loam, manured with 60 
to 75 loads of well-rotted manure, with an ad¬ 
dition of some 40 to 50 bushels of shell lime, to 
the acre- This beiug plowed under, the sur¬ 
face of the land should be thoroughly pulver¬ 
ized aud made us level as possible. From the 
habit ol the plaut of pushing its pods into the 
ground, where the nuts develop, it is necessary 
that the top soil should he mellow. Rows are 
then made with a marker each way, 30 inches 
apart, mid at each intersection of these, two 
nuts are then planted, aud covered an inch and 
a half deep with a hoe, the shell first having 
been cracked or entirely removed. The plauting 
is done in the So.uth before the middle of May; 
in the North it must he postponed till warm 
weather sets iu, near the end of May or the be¬ 
ginning of June. The crop should be thor¬ 
oughly cultivated, using tiie horse cultivator 
both ways, and the hoe immediately around 
the plants. Peanuts need a long season, and 
will continue to grow until killed by the frost. 
The digging is best done with a live or six- 
tilled digging-fork, but it should be delayed 
till the first frost has bitten the vines and stop¬ 
ped the growth, which will usually occur in 
the latter part of September or some time dur¬ 
ing October, according to the locality. Onu 
man then thrusts the fork under the hill and 
carefully loosens the nuts from the ground, 
while au assistant pulls the plaut up and turns 
it oyer to better expose the nuts. In very loose 
Neb.. Unadilla, Otoe Co., July 19.—We are 
having very dry weather, but crops look well, 
especially corn, which is all laid by, being 
nearly all in tassel. Wheat is nearly all har¬ 
vested, but the yield will be small; the chinch 
bugs damaged about half the crop in this sec¬ 
tion of the country. Oats are very ihin and 
of poor quality, but we need rain badly. 
common mstrus equi aud a cluster ot bots ad¬ 
hering to a horse’s stomach. The fly comes out 
from the pupa state about the middle or latter 
part of summer, the time varyiug according to 
the weather. When the eggs are mature the 
female soon selects a fit place for depositing 
them on the hairs of the nearest horse turned 
out to grass. When about to deposit the egg 
she hovers iu au upright position then darts 
upon the horse, instantly iixiug the egg on the 
hair by means of a glutinous secretion. This 
feat she repeats with marvelous rapidity until 
often 400 or 500 eggs are placed on one horse. 
Instinct tells her to deposit them on those 
parts of the animal within easy reach of the 
tongue, such as lhe inside of the forelegs, the 
back of the shoulder aud the sides. In four or 
flvo days’ time they become ripe so that the 
slightest application of warmth or moisture is 
enough to instantly bring forth the larvaj. If 
at this time the tougue of the horse touches an 
egg, a small active worm issues from the egg 
adheres to the tougue and is carried dowu 
