m 
IfelS 
P i 
surrounded by a belt, 50 feet wide, of Cotton¬ 
woods five feet apart, will in a few years be 
very convenient and valuable. The Catalpa 
and Coffee Bean are of quick growth and af¬ 
ford valuable timber, but sprout wherever a 
root is cut bo badly that they are objectiona¬ 
ble. All nut-bearing trees, as the Pecan, Wal¬ 
nut, Oak, Hickory or Chestnut, shoved be 
planted where they are to grow, as the cutting 
of the tap-root ruins the tree. Timber culture 
means just what corn culture means—judi¬ 
cious work and plenty of it. Peach trees are 
1st, send to me at Grand Rapids; later, in 
care of Sec’y R. F. Johnstone, Detroit. 
Go through your orchards, gardens and 
green-houses, and select your best for the fair. 
Our Society has never failed to make a grand 
show. Let us maintain our reputation. 
Chas. W. Garfield, Sec’y. 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 
difference of several degrees of temperature 
in favor of the protected localities. 
The labor of planting out a sufficient num¬ 
ber of trees to break the wind from a garden 
and buildings connected, is comparatively 
trifling. A trench may ba dug in which the 
plow may be made to perform much labor, 
and tbe trees (evergreens) can be removed in 
a short time, for they may be found in old 
pastures or swamps, or at the nursery, where 
they can be obtained at a trifling expense. 
When once transplanted, they need no further 
pared with the methods now employed. Such 
a thing as a thousand-acre wheat field or one 
of a hundred either, was then unknown and 
impossible. And perhaps in few other de¬ 
partments of farm labor have the improve¬ 
ments in machinery and the saving of labor 
been so great as in the operation of harvest¬ 
ing the crops. And this brings vividly to my 
mind 
The Debut of the Mower and Reaper. 
It was on my mother’s farm on this bank 
of the Hudson River, and uot far front this 
city, that the ton of mechanical impossibili¬ 
ties then known as the “ Wood & Manny Mow¬ 
ing and Reaping Machine Combined” first 
made its appearance in this section of coun¬ 
try. A little over twenty years ago. as near 
as I can now fix the date, the general agent 
of th« patentees—I wish I could remember 
his name as well as I do his stub-toe boots theu 
first in fashion—pounced down on my over- 
credulous grandfather, who was In charge of 
the farm during my minority and sold him 
one of these machines, ami to this day I have 
been eutircly unable to understand why it 
was that we were thus selected to conduct 
those heartrending aud patieuce- corroding 
experiments with that primitive bundle of 
complex meadow mechanism. Our reputa¬ 
tion for family piety was good, and we were 
quite unconscious of the amount of personal 
guilt which this penalty seemed to disclose. 
But the two wagon loads of boxes containing 
this wonderful machiue duly arrived a few 
days previous to the commencement of har¬ 
vest. We unloaded it in the barn, and it took 
four days to get all the parts together, and 
then several pieces were left out in the hope 
that their places would be indicated on actual 
trial, which expectation was fully realized 
afterward. 
We had a handsome, fiery team of sorrels I re¬ 
member, which were constitutionally opposed 
to a racket of any kind, and especially to any 
noise at their heels, to which they might be 
contributory. This was a new dilemma for 
which the explicit directions sent with the 
machine contained no remedy, and this single 
oversight gave ns no end of trouble. But we 
persevered, and finally, one morning early 
before the neighbors wore astir, we drove out 
into a partially concealed meadow with the 
ponderous apparatus, hoping to get it uieeiy 
under way ere anyone might arrive to wit¬ 
ness operations. Proudly through the pas 
ture lot we went with the gayly-paiuted mon¬ 
ster, and off streaked the frighteued cows with 
heads and tails erect. The rattling of the 
gearing, the couplings and the connections, 
resounded through the adjacent woodland. A 
| plot of grass had previously been prepared 
for the advent of the machine by hand-mow¬ 
ing a strip around the outer edge; the thing 
was copiously oiled and all the nuts turned 
up; the belts were adjusted and off she went— 
for about a foot. It was not fully iu gear. 
We tinkered a little, sent her off again, and 
proceeded about a rod, when the belt got off 
the reel-pulley. We tightened her up, started 
once more, wont along slowly a few rods 
combing out a majority of the terrified grasses, 
when the huge driving wheel began to sink lu 
the soil, aud tbe motion of the knives was im¬ 
peded and finally stopped altogether. Iu this un¬ 
favorable condition it remained for sometime, 
in spite of our best efforts to iufuse activity. 
The neighbors, having been attracted by the 
noise, now began to arrive from all sides; and 
never at a more unwelcome moment, for from 
the first arrival of the machine, we had been 
thronged with visitors ail ot whom predicted 
utter failure. Hence, whatever our own pri¬ 
vate opinions might be, we were resolved, if 
possible, to disappoint these discouraging old 
fogies who woubln't have the machine for a 
gift, they said ; so in response to their encour¬ 
aging, “ I told yon so'a” we fought around 
the field with the monster once or twice dur¬ 
ing the morning, iu a most unenviable state 
of mind, and finally returned to the barn with 
such parts of the mower as we had uot lost 
aud a few things broken, bent, and disarranged 
generally, our horses in a foam, and ourselves 
somewhat disheartened. But the trial, con¬ 
spicuously unsuccessful as it was, while it 
greatly weakened our faith in labor-saving 
implements on the farm, bad also given us 
much valuable information. We now took a 
day for study and research ; during which time 
an uncle, who was fortunately the possessor 
of a blacksmith’s shop, aud a good thoughtful 
mechanic, repaired the broken parts. The 
agent came with his kit of tools and dupli¬ 
cate parts, and told us how we had got the 
thing wrongly together. Everything newly 
adjusted once more and lubricated to satura¬ 
tion, off we went for the meadow with a re¬ 
tinue of hired men and attendants under the 
lead of the agent who would show us “ how it 
was done,’’ lie said. 
But the improvement still lurked iu obscu¬ 
rity. The grass was yet wet with dew and 
lingered among the intricacies of the finger- 
bar, clogging the kuives unmercifully every 
few feet; the red had a spasmodic way of 
performing Its duty ; in fact the whole device 
was strangely alllicted with a most annoying 
DOYENNE D’ETE AND MADELEINE 
PEARS. 
Twenty years ago I set out an experimental 
pear orchard of about 50 trees. Among them 
were three of Doyenue d’Ete and two of Made¬ 
leine. Of the former, (wo soon came into 
bearing; the other took to growing, and now 
girths 28 inches to the others’ 20. and for a 
number of years past, bore as much fruit as 
the other two, one of which was killed by 
blight last year. They are good annual bear¬ 
ers ; fruit small, sweet aud delicious, and as 
handsome as good. Every year, about the 
20th of July, if the weary system and a waning 
appetite craves something a little out of the 
ordinary bill of fare afforded by the berry sea¬ 
son, I am sure to find it on application to these 
Doyenne d'Et< : trees. As far as my knowledge 
extends, this is the best and earliest pear I 
know of, aud, unlike most pears, it is not 
improved by house-ripening, attaining a higher 
degree of perfection if ripened on the tree. 
The Madeleine comes in a few days later, is 
not so attractive in appearance aud is more 
perishable, rotting at the core while externally 
appearing sound, it is more juicy and slightly' 
acid. Sometimes it rots badly on the tree be¬ 
fore maturing. Yet, perishable as it is, with 
all its faults I don’t regret having a tree of it, 
This orchard has been a good school in whioL 
1 have learned a good deal of the little pomo- 
logieal knowledge I possess, and I hope and 
trust to take many more lessons from the same 
source. E. Williams. 
Essex Co., N. J. 
FUEL FOR THE PRAIRIES OF THE WEST 
JUDGE WALTON 
A territory larger than New York and 
Pennsylvania, including part of Missouri, 
Kansas, Colorado, Indian Territory and North¬ 
western Texas, is practically treeless, as far 
as fuel for the future owners of the many fer¬ 
tile quarter-sections is concerned. With some 
10 years’ close observation over much of the 
territory, I make a few suggestions to those 
contemplating- settling on the plains. , 
First, for fuel, each occupier of a ‘‘dla.ua" 
(quarter-section) should plant, say, hiilf a 
bushel of peach seeds as soon as possible. 
They should have lain out of doors or been 
buried the previous winter, or they will be a 
year coming up. Plow, in last year’s breaking, 
furrows eight feet apart, then drop seeds every 
four feet and turn under, and plant corn in 
alternate rows. Carefully cultivate two or 
three years, and theu they will care for them¬ 
selves. But if the seedlings are put eight feet 
each way, and budded with very choice varie¬ 
ties verv low down, so that the bud may take 
root below the ridge made by plowing, a big 
pay will be secured for a few minutes’ work, 
as a fine Crawford Early or Hill Home Chief (?) 
is much better for the pigs, or children—and a 
Kansan should keep both on hand—than the 
little sour seedlings that cost nothing and are 
dear at that. Any man intelligent enough to 
be a pioneer, can learn to bud in ten minutes, 
and by practice can bud 200 to 500 a day dur¬ 
ing June, July or August. 
In the first five acres one should plant, S2 
feet each way, in place of peach trees, his 
future apple and pear or cherry orchard. The 
peach trees protect against wind and sun till 
the others get a start. Don’t trim a peach 
tree or transplant one. At the end of five years, 
cut them at the ground in February and cover 
the stumps with earth. You have in each tree 
a day’s fire for a stove in the coldest weather, 
and by fall you will have a fine growth that in 
three years will duplicate the first timber crop, 
when they should be grubbed out of the apple I 
orchard, which will then be able to take care 
of itself. The fuel grove can be cut every 
three years, or, by cutting one-third each win¬ 
ter, it wjll last an unknown period. Dry 
peach wood is as good as corn for fuel, and 
the fruit is very good for pigs and children. 
For the first two or three years the borers 
will be troublesome in the apple trees. Trav¬ 
eling tree pedlars will sell you a recipe for -$5 
that will give good satisfaction, and kill both 
the insect and the tree, likely- A wash made 
of wood-ashee and water, put ou in June, July 
and August, each month, will kill the larvas 
and help the tree. The same wash applied to 
your peach trees will save you trouble. 
For permanent timber, the Bois d’Arc, or 
common Osage Orange hedge plaut. is the beat 
timber for all purposes south of 40°. A ten or 
fifteen-acre lot set 10 feet each way with Or¬ 
ange, Pecan, Black Walnut, Ash and Maple, 
SHELTERING LANDS 
The advantage of sheltering lands and build¬ 
ings by trees has long been admitted by the 
more observing, and many are now selecting 
groves as their building spots, in order to 
avail themselves of the protection these give 
from the high winds of winter, as well as from 
the fiercer glare of the summer 6un, While 
many are doing this, there are not a few others 
who are pi taking their homes on the hill-tops, 
far removed fmn shades and screens, regard¬ 
less alike of the furious blast and their own 
comfort as well as that of their animals. 
True, such situations are well adapted for the 
display of white paint, a color very common 
in the country; but what ideas of comfort or 
home can be associated with such citadels 
upon the hills, I never could imagine. During 
OUR FIRST MOWING MACHINE 
The rapid progress of human invention in 
some of the branches of mechanical art as ap¬ 
plied to labor-saviDg Implements, is not fully 
realized in this progressive age. And this is 
especially true of agricultural machinery. 
