552 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
AUG. 10 
possibility of a much more thorough culture 
to those who may enjoy their advantages. 
Manhattan, Kan. Prof. Elbkjdgk Gale. 
JOTTINGS AT KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
COL. F. D. CUBTIS. 
Our Own Bread—More About Clawson Wheat. 
We have found a miller who thinks he 
knows why Clawson wheat makes a poorer 
quality of flour than most others. ‘‘You 
know,” he says, “there is a difference in po¬ 
tatoes; some are fiuu-graiued and some are 
coarse-grained, and still they are all potatoes 
aud may all look well; but the flue-grained 
potatoes are much more palatable than any 
others. It is the same with Clawson wheat; 
It is plump and nice-looking, but it has a 
coarse grain, and on this accouut cannot be 
ground into as good flour. I have tried it every 
way, and have done my best, aud I cannot 
make flour of the first quality out of it." We 
thiuk these coueiusious, especially the latter 
part, must be accepted. The truth is, the 
patent-process flour has made the staudard of 
flour with most housewives so high that uo 
hotne-growu wheat and home-ground flour 
will suit them. It is a misfortune that this is 
the case, as it interferes materially with the 
good old-fashioued notion of raising oue's own 
breads lulls. If the staudard could he lowered 
somewhat, aud a taste withal for plainer bread 
developed, there might bo better health in 
many farmers' families and more encourage¬ 
ment to be perfectly independent. We are not 
prepared to advocate reducing the standard to 
so low a grade as rye flour, but we do thiuk 
we ought to cultivate a taste which would be 
satisfied with what we can profitably produce 
on our owu farms. 
From all the information we can get, Claw- 
sou wheat, for general cultivation, which in¬ 
cludes all kiuds of soil aud climate as well as 
tillage, ia ihe most profitable. We have no 
doubt but that it will improve iu quality with 
good aud continuous cultivatiou. We recol¬ 
lect, about thirty years ago, when the Hessiau 
fly aud weevil destroyed all the wheat, that a 
foreign variety of inferior quality, not mneh 
better than rye, was introduced into the 
country, and became in the older States the 
almost sole dependence of farmers. This va¬ 
riety, the Mediterranean, from a necessity at 
first, improved rapidly to excellence. The de¬ 
sire for change, which is a national weakness, 
has resulted in* the adoption of newer sorts, 
which, iu turu, have beeu abandoned, aud uow 
we all long for the old Mediterranean. 
Clawson wheat may be sown early or late, 
ou good laud or poor, and a remunerative crop 
is almost certain. We are not yet prepared to 
give it up. 
Cheap Pig Feed. 
On the 10th of August we turned over au 
acre of barley stubble and sowed it, broadcast, 
with flat turnips. Wo expect this will make 
feeding for two mouths for the store hogs. 
We intend to let them help themselves, having 
constructed a temporary sty in the field for 
their shelter. This is the easiest and cheapest 
way we have fonnd to feed our pigs during the 
latter part of fall. It doesn’t make any differ¬ 
ence if the turnips do not grow large; in fact, 
smaller-sized ones are preferable, as they can 
be more readily eaten. The pigs eat tops aud 
all. A crop of turnips, to be fed iu this way 
to pigs, may be put iu as late as the first of 
September. Six weeks of growth on rich land 
will afford, tops aud all, a large amount of 
food. The ground is in excellent order, and 
made richer, too, for a spring crop. From 
an experience of several years, we commend 
this crop to all farmers who keep pigs or 
sheep, for which it is especially adapted, aud 
also for young stock. The autumu frosts do not 
injure the leaves, aud this green food helps to 
carry the summer well into winter. 
Care or the Hennery. 
A good whitewashing, with fresh lime, at 
this season of the year, will destroy the vermin 
fouud iu almost every hennery, which will be 
a great relief to tho poultry. A foul hennery 
is a persecution to poultry and keeps them , 
from laying. A few cents’ worth of lime aud 
a few minutes of time will do the work effectu- ; 
ally. , 
- - - -»+♦ -— 
VARIOUS TOPICS. 
f 
Bowing Wheal. ^ 
1 think that usually much more wheat per ( 
aero Is sown than is necessary and more thau t 
will give the best results. Last year I sowed t 
five pecks upon au acre and a quarter. It t 
looked very poor and tliiu in the fall, but at , 
harvest time it was the best-looking pieee that E 
I had. I got 40 bushels from it, which was a 
much better yield than I had from any piece t 
seeded with the usuul amount—a bushel and a f 
half. It stood up better thau any other also— j 
variety, Clawson. It would give valuable rc- ^ 
suits if all would try different amounts of seed, 
and see which would give the best result, each ^ 
reporting the outcome of his experiment. ^ 
Rolling Ground. j 
Rolling wheat ground, even when not cloddy, 
is not sufficiently practiced. Last year, in 
plowing for wheat, the headlands w T eretramped 
so hard that when sown, the hoes of the drill 
could baldly penetrate the soil. The field was 
rolled, but, of course, it was not rendered as 
compact as the headlauds. Through the sea- 
sou there was a noticeable difference be¬ 
tween the wheat on the headlauds and that on 
the remainder of the field, in favor of the 
former. 
Borrowing Tools. 
In every neighborhood there is some one who 
never lias any tools and is always borrowing 
of others. Whenever a hoe or a shovel, a plow 
or a harrow, a hammer or a saw, is wanted by 
him, tills person must borrow it. Probably he 
docs not want to use it more than five minutes, 
and it takes him three or four times as long to 
get it. I do not speak of his returning it to 
the owner, for that he never does. When the 
latter wants it, M must go for it, thereby los¬ 
ing his time and generally his patience also. 
This class rely on their neighbors to furnish 
them with every tool they use. The practice 
is unprofitable lor the borrower and both un¬ 
just aud unprofitable for the lender. 
Tools are worn out or broken and the dam¬ 
age seldom paid for, and should oue venture 
to hint that it would be nothing, more than 
right to pay for a brokeu tool, these borrowers 
are usually very indignant. By all means, let 
every oue own the smaller tools of every-day 
use himself; aud if he cannot afford to buy 
the more expensive machinery, let him unite 
with others aud own it in partnership—at ar¬ 
rangement which would finable him to have 
the use of several machines for the price of 
one, aud which has the merit of economy if 
not of convenience. V. J. Emery. 
Henry Co., Ohio. 
--- 
EXHAUSTED SOILS. 
It is assumed by some that a soil by long- 
continued cropping is exhausted. This may, 
in one 6ense, be true. If the crops raised do 
not pay the expense of raising them, the soil is 
called exhausted; but it is not, aud fails to 
yield paying crops ouly on account of a bad 
system of tillage. There is but little, if any, 
land that will not grow good clover crops, even 
on exhausted soils, without any fertilizers, 
while all will if properly fertilized at an ex¬ 
pense of less than five dollars per acre. 
A crop of three tons per acre of clover con¬ 
tains the following constituents : ash, 399 lbs., 
potash, 117, soda, 5.4, magnesia, 55.2, lime, 
153.6, phoe. acid, 44.8, sulpli. aeid, 13.0, chlor¬ 
ine, 16.8, sulphur, 16.8, aud nitrogen, 127-8. 
With this it is interesting to compare the con¬ 
stituents of the following crops : 
tfc gfrarutn. 
tV beat, 111 
IjusIi. and 
straw. 
Rye, si 1»u. 
aud straw. 1 
Corn, Ml bu. 
aud straw. 
Rota to’u, 300 
bu. & tops. 
Turu pa, 601) 
bu. & tops. 
Cabbage, 10 
tons.i: 
Tobacco, 1 
.d 
Hi 
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CD 
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Soda. 
1 ^ 
1 
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1 S 
5 
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1 3 
1 £ 
1 
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r 
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221 
33.8, 
i 6.4 
9.8 
12.'3 
29.3 
5.9. 
10.3 
,63.0 
352 
63.3 
16.2; 
13.4 
20.6 
34.2 
6.2 
10.1 
08.4 
166 
76.8 
2.6 
16.8 
20.9 
31.7 
10.3 
19.2 
68.0 
232 
120.0 
3.6 
16.4 
24.1 
36.4 
15.6 
8.8 
6.4 
81.0 
309 
109.2 
30.6 
12.6 
61.0! 
37.8 1 
41.4 
16.2 
15.0 
[66.0 
248 
1*1.0 
10.0 
8.0 
38,01 
40.o' 
21.0 
o.of 
10.0 
[48.0 
108.0 
14.6 
41,4 
140.3! 
14.2 
15.4 
17.6* 
Wo 
These facts show that clover abstracts from 
the soil more than any of the above crops, 
which are larger iu quantity than are usually 
obtained, even when the soil is considered 
highly manured. Soils are not exhausted when 
a suitable crop has the power to change and 
liberate the insoluble substances existiug in 
the ground, and store them in the plant for 
other purposes. By the growiug of clover there 
is also left in the soil, to a depth of ten inches, 
6,580 pounds of clover roots containing 77 lbs. 
of potash, 19 lbs. of soda, 46 lbs. of magnesia, 
246 lbs. of lime, 71 lbs. of phosphoric, acid, 34 
lbs. of sulphuric acid aud 215 lbs. of nitrogen, 
available for a crop which, when plowed, 
leaves the land clean, light, retentive of moist¬ 
ure, aud easily tilled. The constituents in the 
clover roots are in quantity as much us most 
of the above-mentioned crops require, and 
amount in value at the prices at which com¬ 
mercial fertilizers are calculated to, $40.43 for 
the nitrogeu, phosphoric acid and potash alone, 
to say nothiug of the other constituents which 
are equally important to the growth of crops. 
The necessity of purchasing fertilizers, and 
the cost of applyiug them arc saved, and the 
farm made, as it should be, self-supporting, 
but it can only be so by a judicious rotatiou of 
crops. If this is not done, fertilizers which 
are much more costly, must be supplied. It Is 
most profitable to out the clover the first and 
second years, and after the second year’s crop 
is taken, allow it to seed which save for future 
use, and then the land is ready for the plow 
for the ensuing crop. The term exhausted 
laud, therefore, does not mean that the soil is 
destitute of a supply of crude plant-food ample 
enough for the production of many heavy 
harvests, but merely that enough of the abun¬ 
dant stores is not soluble, or, in other words, 
in a condition fit to be absorbed by the plants. 
A. H. W. 
EXTRACTED HONEY. 
REV. O. CLDTE. 
The market reports iu the large city dailies 
give quotations of “ strained honey.” All 
know that strained honey was formerly press¬ 
ed out of old black combs that were taken 
from the box-hives after the bees had beeu 
brimstoned To any one who ever saw honey 
strained in the old way, its association with 
the juices of half-grown bees is by no means 
appetizing. At the best it usually has a dark 
color, and a rank flavor of liee-breud. As to 
its production, all intelligent bee-keepers will 
agree in the advice given by Punch to couples 
about to get married— "Don't." 
A serious evil which strained honey has 
created is the tendency, among nearly all, to 
put all liquid honey in the class with it, and so 
to do great injustice to “extracted honey.” 
Extracted honey is honey in its purest shape, 
aud to class it with the pollen-spidfed, inaggot- 
llavored, strained honey, is like putting the 
nectar of the Olympian gods ou a par with 
forty-rod whisky. All bee-keepers should en¬ 
deavor to have the real character of strained 
and of extracted honey fully known, aud 
should labor to convince the public that ex¬ 
tracted honey is in the purest and most clean¬ 
ly condition. Like all new articles of food, it 
will take time to make Us merits widely 
known. When people become acquainted with 
its real merits, and its cheapness, there is no 
doubt but it will be in large demand. 
But this wide popularity can be obtained and 
maintained only by producing au excellent ar¬ 
ticle. To this end bee-keepers must strenu¬ 
ously iusist upou two things: that the honey 
shall be sealed, or just ready to be sealed, be¬ 
fore extracting ; and that it shall have no sus¬ 
picion of adulteration. 
The nectar gathered by bees from flowers 
cannot be called honey until the evaporating 
or ripeuiog process has so far gone on 
that the bees are beginning to seal the cells. 
Some bee-keepers advocate extracting as fast 
as the honey is gathered. It, is quite clear, 
however, that honey so extracted lacks very 
much in the delicious flavor that belongs to a 
good article. If we are to build up the market 
for extracted honey, we can do so only by giv¬ 
ing a genuine honey, aud not the crude, 
watery uectar as is first gathered from the 
flowers. 
The ease with which extracted honey can be 
adulterated, and the large profits derived from 
the cheat, have iu a few cases led to such dis¬ 
honest practices as seriously to injure the bee¬ 
keeping business. There are probably only a 
few individuals and a few firms that have beeu 
guilty of this fraud, but their guilt is a dam¬ 
age to every bee-keeper throughout the coun¬ 
try, for, in the general ignorauce as to extract¬ 
ed houey, whatever tends to cast suspicion on 
it, decreases the demand for it, and so lowers 
the price. Hence there lias been uced ou the 
part of bee-keepers for agitation against the. 
practices of the unscrupulous men who are 
selling glucose or grape sugar for honey. We 
may hope that the convietiou and punishment 
of a few of these scoundrels will effectually 
end the fraud. In self-protection, the various 
local and State organizations of bee-keepers, 
and the National Association, should employ 
experts to examine all suspeeted honey, and 
should prosecute vigorously every person 
against whom good evidence of adulteration 
can be found. 
Comb honey has such intrinsic qualities of 
excellence aud beauty that it will always be in 
demand. A pure article of well-ripened ex¬ 
tracted honey also lias most excellent qualities 
which, when known, will commend it to wide 
favor, aud secure for it a large consumption. 
Johnson Co., Iowa. 
iairg gushttirrji. 
PACKING BUTTER FOR WINTER USE. 
HENRY STEWART. 
The fall growth of grass, which nearly every¬ 
where in the Northern States consists chiefly of 
“ blue grass,” is productive of excelleut butter. 
September-packed butter equals the noted June 
butter, aud it is doubtless to the fresh growth 
of grass that ia started by the early fall rains 
that this excellence of the butter is due. Sep¬ 
tember butter is the best to pack for wiutcr 
use; for being packed and kept duriug cool 
weather, it has an advantage over June butter 
iu freshness and age, when It Is opened for 
consumption. It goes without sayiug, that to 
have good winter butter, the best method of 
packing should be used, and the butter should 
be good. The best of packing will not make 
poor butter good; although it may redeem in¬ 
ferior butter from further degradation; but 
bad packing will ruin the best of “ gilt-edged.’’ 
There are but few requirements for good pack¬ 
ing, but each is indispensable. 
The butter must be packed while perfectly 
fresh. Immediately after the final working it 
should be put away in the packages. If only 
but five or 6ix pounds, it is safe there; while if 
kept iu a lump or roll, it is exposed ou all sides 
to the air, begins to spoil from the first and 
communicates its taints to the whole contents 
of the package with which it is intermingled. 
The salt should be pure. Only the best of 
dairy salt should be used. One ounce to the 
pound of butter is the proper quantity. The 
package should be perfectly clean, fresh and 
sweet. A new white-oak pail should be 
chosen, the larger the size the better, because 
there is less surface exposed to atmospheric 
influence iu large packages, and a 50-pound 
tub may be packed safely in a month, a part at 
a time, if rightly done. The tub should be 
stored in a cleau, cool, airy, moist place, but 
one perfectly free from moldiness. A good 
cellar with a brick or cement floor is suitable, 
but it should be free from all taints or odors. 
The butter having been churned, is worked 
free from butter-milk, and au ounce of salt, 
finely pulverized, to each pound—weighed, uot 
guessed—Is added, evenly worked in by gash¬ 
ing the lump with the paddle, sprinkling the 
salt, then turning and gashing again. The 
butter should never be plastered or smoothed 
over with the ladle, but cut and gushed and 
turned, and cut again. It is gathered into a 
Jump and put away for 24 hours in a cool 
place. It is then reworked in a similar man¬ 
ner; the milky brine that escapes is all 
worked out, aud a little more salt is added, if 
thought desirable. When quite free from 
milk it is put into the package. 
A glazed stone-ware crock of three or four 
gallons is, perhaps, the best for a small dairy. 
Next is a new white-oak 50-pound pall. The 
package must be clean, aud, if of wood, should 
be scalded with hot. brine a day before using 
it. When prepared for use it should be finally 
rinsed in cold brine, a little dry salt sprinkled 
over the damp inuer surface, and the butter 
packed In with a ladle, pressing firmly to close 
every open space that would admit air. A 
plastering motion of the ladle is to be avoided, 
and pressure only to be used. This preserves 
the grain. If the package is not filled, the 
butter is covered with a clean piece of muslin, 
cut t,o lit all over closely, and then with cold 
brine; and the tub is set away iu a proper 
place, covered with a cloth. 
When more butter is to be packed, the brine 
is poured off, the muslin removed, the lower 
layer of butter is sprinkled with a little flue 
salt, and the fresh butter is packed as before. 
This is continued until the package is filled to 
the top. Then salt is sprinkled over the but¬ 
ler, _ a cleau piece of white muslin, well 
washed previously, is fitted closely over it, and 
the lid, well cleansed, is fastened down tightly. 
The tub, then put away iu a fit place, may be 
kept for a year; and, if the butter was good 
wbeu packed, it will open as fresh and sweet 
as at tho first, and, Indeed, with a peculiar 
nutty flavor which is found in mature and 
well-ripened butter, aud is absent from all the 
fresh butter which I have ever tasted. 
fnimstrial jSoriftirs, 
BRITISH AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. 
PROFESSOR Q. B. MORROW. 
Leeds, Eng., August 7th, 1879. 
The opportunity has been afforded me of be¬ 
ing present at four Agricultural Shows iu Eng¬ 
land aud Scotland iu tho last five weeks, viz.: 
that of the Royal Agricultural Society of Kil- 
buru, near London ; that of the Highland and 
Agricultural Society of Scotland, ut Perth ; the 
Border Union Show at Kelso, aud the York¬ 
shire Society’s, which has closed to-day at 
Leeds. In many respectB there has beeu simi¬ 
larity in these, although the Kilburn show was 
the most exteusive one ever held, aud thut at 
Kelso would only raDk with an ordinary 
Couuty Fair iu “ the States." Iu some respects 
our managers of agricultural societies could 
copy with advantage the plans here used. Iu 
others 1 like our own arrangements better. 
Among noticeable characteristics 1 may uame: 
1, Systematic aud careful arraugement of 
the grounds aud of the exhibits, which are all 
classified. Even at Kelso, where a feuce was 
the place assigued for tho cattle, aud rows of 
posts, with a single board along the top, indi¬ 
cated where the horses were to stand, the 
place for each class was indicated by large 
cards plainly priuted, aud for each animal by 
cards bearing a number correspond log to that 
worn on the forehead or breast of each cow or 
horse. No exhibitor was permitted to collect 
his exhibits in one group. If he showed draft 
horse and a roadster they did uot stand side by 
side. At the large shows diagrums of the 
grounds are published, showing the part in 
which any clasa of machinery or of animals is 
to be found. A good effect is produced by ar¬ 
ranging the implements and machinery In 
