THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
troublesome on low land that is rich and 
damp. Summer-pruning is beneficial in 6uch 
places, as it will allow the air to circulate 
through tbe vines. 
California from west to east and north to 
south is the home of the Grape-vine. Grapes 
are cheaper than auy other product of the 
farm. The distilleries and wineries only pay 
$10 to $12 per ton. while barley averages $25 
and wheat $35 per ton. Yet it will pay to 
raise grapes even at those figures. 
.Sacramento Co., Cal. P. H. Murphy, 
-- 
Grape (Voles. 
Mr. J. Steigleder, of Shelburne Falls, Mass., 
has favored us with a box of grapes containing 
several fine bunches of Shellmrue, Poeumtuek 
and Count Bismarck. Of the Shelburne he 
says that it did better than the Concord with 
him. The Concord mildewed and the fruit 
rotted on the vines from continued cool rains. 
We gave a cut and description of this grape in 
the Rural of Oct. 26th, 1878. It is a white (or 
green, no color); a seedling of Allen’s Hybrid. 
Bunch large, sometimes shouldered, compact, 
long. Skin thick ; fruit sweet; originated in 
1869. Ripens Sept. 1. The Poeumtuek is a 
seedling of the Delaware crossed with Allen’s 
Hybrid. It originated in 1869, and fruited for 
the first time in 1873. In most respects it re¬ 
sembles the Delaware, but Mr. S. asserts that 
it has decidedly healthier foliage. It has 
medium-sized hunches, not shouldered. Skin 
thin, like the Delaware; fruit viuous, rather 
sour; white, rosy-tinted. Count Bismarck, 
Mr. S. states, does not ripen so far north. The 
bunch is loose, with medium-sized berry ; very 
green in color; sweet but sprightly, with a 
thick skin. 
Jfanit ftajms. 
THE TKUTH ABOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this heading is 
not so much to deal with “ humbugs’’ as with 
the many unconscious errors that creep into 
the methods of daily country routine life.— 
Eds.] 
HARD TIMES-WHAT MAKES THEM. 
We recently paid a visit to the home of our 
boyhood in a beautiful valley of interior 
New England. Thirty years have passed since 
we went therefrom to battle with the world. 
We found there the same cry as here, “ Ilard 
times; want of money.” We presume it was 
the same in the olden time and always will be, 
simply because of the want of the public for 
things just a little beyond their ready reach. 
Peopleexert themselves to get what they could 
get on without, and thus straiu their purses. 
A little comparison of things as they were in 
that vicinity 40 years ago and now, may do no 
harm. 
We sec a child’s carriage of ingenious con¬ 
struction and superior workmanship; an 
elaborate aud expensive top shields the occu¬ 
pant from the rays of the sun, and the nicely- 
adjusted springs overcome the inequalities of 
the road. All very nice, very comfortable and 
also very expensive—that carriage cost at least 
25 dollars. Very likely tbe carriage provided 
for the father of the child w who rides in this one, 
was of far different construction. The wheels, 
of which there were probably only two, were 
solid, cut from plank, and the body, a rough 
box—cost, all told, perhaps a dollar-and-a-half. 
Aud now we are on the subject of carriages, 
let us look at larger ones. In the olden time 
the. lumber box wagou, without springs, serv ed 
to carry its owner and family to mill, to mar¬ 
ket and to meeting. A pleasure wagon was a 
novelty and a carriage with a top seldom seen. 
New the lumber wagon is kept only for heavy 
work on the farm; the market wagon is as 
easy as a coach, and phaetons and carriages 
abound. To draw these, different horses are 
required. Old Dobbin is still kept for theheavy 
work, but is not fit to use on the road, and it 
would not answer at all to ‘ tackle ’ the phae¬ 
ton to an animal that could not make ten miles 
in an hour without urging. I will not even 
guess at the difference in value of the horses 
and w agons in the township between now and 
40 years ago. Aud this is not all. Fine horses 
are expensive to keep, require fine harnesses 
and, beside that, time to use them. 
Leaving this subject, let us take a look in 
the country store where we used to think every 
necessary thing was kept for sale, and see 
there many articles we never saw before leav¬ 
ing home; articles of luxury merely; they 
cannot be necessaries, because in former times 
they were not to be had aud people lived very 
comfortably without them. Articles of dress, 
of household adornment, oifood; articles that 
would come under neither of these depart¬ 
ments are there displayed aud sold. 
There is also a difference iu the furniture 
and furnishing of the houses aud in the dresses 
of the inmates, that is notable. Bnt says one : 
“ Do you object to any or all of these things ? 
Is it not well for all people to surround them¬ 
selves with as many comforts as possible ?’’ 
Most certainly I do not object, and should be 
very glad to see every one in possession of all 
tbe comforts he can wish for; but I would re¬ 
mind him of the old saying: “You cannot 
eat your cake and keep it." 
The truth about it is that this talk of “ Hard 
times” comes, not because there is not more 
money earned and received by the people at 
large to-day than formerly, hut because it is 
more readily spent now than then, and for wants, 
not needs, and our wauts increase correspon¬ 
dingly to what we see othctrB about us have. 
Franklin said truly, “The eyes of other people 
are the eyes that ruin us. If all hut myself 
were blind, I should want neither fine clothes, 
fine houses nor fine furniture.” 
L. A. Roberts. 
--- 
HISTORY OF A POOR FARM.-No. 18. 
FISH BONDS FOR FARMERS. 
A farmer may enjoy every delicacy which 
the earth, the water or the air affords. He is 
the only man who lives neighbor, as it were, to 
Dame Nature and upon whom she lavishes her 
neighborly favors. Every product of the soil 
may be his; the game which inhabits his fields 
and woods are his, and where a stream or 
springs afford a water supply, he may provide 
his table with a bountiful supply of fish at the 
cost of a few days’ labor. 
Needing a large supply of muck to replenish 
the empty yards, cellar and pens, which have 
all been cleared to furnish manure for the fall 
grain and gras3-secded fields, I have under¬ 
taken to dig a pond 600 feet long, 15 feet wide 
and from three to four feet deep, that being 
the depth of the muck at the edge of a meadow 
at the foot of the hill. Numerous springs 
break out and furnish a copious supply which 
will keep the pond always full of clear, cool 
water, the best conditions for the successful 
growth of trout. My plan is as follows : (see 
fig. 1). The pond is dug out down to the 
sand underlying the muck, aud the bottom is, 
of course, st^uewhat uneven, lu places where 
it is possible Ri do so deep holes are dug to fur¬ 
nish bidlag places for the fish in winter time, 
when the pjond may be frozen over, and iu 
which they can lie in comparatively warm 
spring water. To make the digging easier and 
to keep the holes true from water as the pond 
is made, it is dug in sections, as follows (see 
fig. 2). A square of 15 feet is first dug out, 
marked 1. Then No. 2 is dug out leaving a 
piece a foot thick, marked by the shaded lines 
between 1 and 2, to keep out the water which 
by this time has filled No I. When No. 2 has 
been dug out to the bottom, the piece left is 
cut down with a sharp long-handled spade and 
is drawn out of the water with a grab hook, a 
Ilexamer prong hoe is the best tool T have used 
for the purpose. It does not matter if this 
piece cannot all he taken out,on account of the 
oftness of the bottom aud the water ; it is of 
®; ((- l VCI ^ COUtlc ~ 
| I If o. i a III I 1101106 an J way. 
j _J 1 |1~ II I Then No.3 is dug, 
■ V/®'- leaving the strip 
JlLLQb'. Vm ae ljcfore - It this 
0 way the whole 
work can be done with dry feet, as the water 
rises only from the sand at the bottom; the 
surface water being dammed out. A quantity 
of large boulders and stumps has been drawn 
from the woods aud these will be rolled into 
the pond here and there, und rough branchy 
stakes are being driven in places, both to pre¬ 
vent the hoys from netting the pond at night, 
and to supply rubbing aud hiding places for 
the fish. 
The pond, P, discharges into a creek, C, by 
means of a channel, Q, which is crossed by a 
dam, I) D, about 18 inches high, in which is a 
gate, G, that closes itself at high water from a 
freshet in the creek. The pond, P, is thus pro¬ 
tected from high water and there is no danger 
of the fish escaping into the creek. At the 
head of the pond, P, is a four-foot ditch, O.cut 
down to the sand and connecting with a large 
spring, S, having a gravelly bottom. This ditch, 
O, is shut off from the pond by a wire gate, W, 
and is intended for a spawning bed for the trout 
which can he let in at the proper season and 
shut out when it is over. The young trout can 
be kept in this pond, and hereafter it is intend¬ 
ed to add other ponds at right angles to the 
main one for yearlings aud small fish, as may 
he required. All the expense will be repaid by 
tbe muck dug out of tbe ponds, wbich I con¬ 
sider is worth one dollar a load. 
I might have had the muck dug out here and 
there iu holes, and left unsightly puddles, 
useless and disagreeable. It costs no more to 
dig the muck iu this shape than in irregular 
holes and the ground can then bo made cxceed- 
iugly valuable. Forty dollars will purchase 
1,000 trout to stock the pond, aud 50 cents will 
supply water-cress seed to plant the bordors of 
the pond, and tbo cress will furnish haunts for 
suilicicm aquatic insects to feed the trout, be¬ 
sides giving a valuable, harvest iu itself. A 
small drain in the largo swamp sown with 
water cress has this year supplied 330 baskets 
wbich brought 25 cents a basket, net. It will 
not be long before the pond will return its 
cost in fish to he had for easting the line at 
any time a mess is required iu the kitchen. 
Fonnerexporience in a similar way. has proved 
to me that any farmer with a largo spring, a 
constantly flowing drain, or a stream which 
can be made to run through u pond without 
danger of overflow, can secure a constant sup¬ 
ply of fish for his table and a few to sell occa¬ 
sionally, without auy trouble iu feeding them 
or keeping so many as to he forced to strive 
against unnatural crowding aud other costly or 
disastrous conditions. 
jljjcq! fjushnkj), 
IMPORTING SHEEP DUTY FREE. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
The Proper Cure and Feed to make Combing 
Wool. 
When sheep are imported for “ breeding pur¬ 
poses," the duty—twenty percent, on the cost— 
will be abated. This is a material reduction in 
the cost, which cau he saved by those who im¬ 
port ewes to breed from. 
Next to breeding, feeding is the most im¬ 
portant consideration. Combing wool with a 
length of staple aud degree of luster which 
will command the highest price, cau only be 
produced by following a careful system of pro¬ 
tection and feeding. The flock should never 
be exposed to the storms of autumn, w inter, or 
the early spring. Such exposure will surely 
enfeeble the constitutions of the sheep, and so 
wash the wool and the skin, that instead of the 
fleece being soft aud lustrous, it will be harsh 
aud dingy. The sheep will not yield as much 
wool per head besides being constantly subject 
to disease. The increase in the productiveness 
of the flock, when carefully housed, will al¬ 
ways pay for the trouble and increased expense 
in doing so. When sheep are thus handled, 
they will almost instinctively return to the 
fold when a storm is brewing, or by a little 
training they will come at the call. A cold 
wind is injurious to coarse-woolcd sheep, and 
they should never be allowed to be thus ex¬ 
posed. When it is possible for them to do so, 
they will seek a cover of some kind to get out 
of a cold wind. The opou iloeco makes a 
coarse-wooled sheep particularly sensitive aud 
many times a farmer wonders iu the winter 
why his sheep have not done well, when, if the 
truth were known, the cause would he found 
to have hoeu exposure to winds and storms 
while iu the pasture. No one need expect to 
succeed with a flock of coarso-wooled sheep, 
who disregards their protection. 
Ordinary keeping will not produce combing 
wool. The sheep must be fed both rich and 
succulent foods. These, if properly combined, 
will produce a physical condition of healtbful- 
ness without which there will not be a growth 
of fleece of tbe required standard. Tbe sheep 
must he kept in a fleshy condition so as to iu- 
sure a sufficient secretion of oil to give gloss 
and strength to the wool, and at the same time 
the system must be kept free from fever and 
constipation which will produce lever. A sheep 
may fatten when in this condition ; but the 
wool would show the effects. It would be use¬ 
less to attempt to grow combing wool without 
first providing a liberal supply of roots. Regu¬ 
lar rations of this food should be given daily, 
from four quarts to a peck, according to the 
size of the sheep. This will keep the bowels 
open aud prevent the sheep from having 
“ stretches” and other diseases incident to con¬ 
stipation. Roots aid in the digestion of other 
food and promote assimilation in tbe stomach, 
so that they have a feeding value boynud their 
actual worth as food. Oil-cake meal is another 
essential pre-requisite for producing wool of a 
high luster, and, without it, the finest samples 
of combing wools cooJd scarcely be produced. 
Cotton-seed meal will answer very well as a 
substitute, but is not equal to the linseed. A 
gill a day is ample for a large sheep. Mixed 
with the oil meal and the roots, there should 
lie a feeding daily of oats or bran. Good, 
bright straw can be utilized iu the feeding of 
sheep in connection with the nutritious foods 
we have mentioned. When yeaning time ap¬ 
proaches there should be a liberal supply of 
clover, hay and strong feeding which should 
continue to shearing time. An abrupt cheek 
iu feeding sheep before shearing, with the con¬ 
sequent depletion of the system, will reduce 
the growth of wool and often causes a break 
iu tile fiber, which spoils the wool. A steady 
and uniform growth makes a strong apd even 
staple which is desirable. Regular feeding, 
without any sudden changes in the diet or 
condition of the auimal, will insure this. It 
must he remembered that this liberal feeding 
will reward the farmer not only in the growth 
of a long and beautiful staple which will bring 
the highest price, hut also in the increased 
volume of his manure heap containing a ferti¬ 
lizer rich in the most desirable requisites of 
plant-food. 
m fcriisimtn. 
FEEDING COWS IN PASTURE. 
One advantage in soiling cattle is that, when 
the work is properly done, the animals always 
have a sufficiency of food, and if they are 
cows iu milk, they will give a larger product 
than if allowed to roam aud depend upon 
what they can get. At this time of year pas¬ 
tures are apt to be short, aud lo grow poorer 
until snow comes and Ihe stock is put into 
winter-quarters. Grass makes little growth 
in this State after the first of October, but cat¬ 
tle are often kept at pasture till December. 
During these two mouths they roam over the 
fields soiling whatever feed there happens to 
he, and often animals are nearly starved, be¬ 
cause it has not dome to Ihe time of year when 
farmers deem it necessary lo feed. This is a 
a mistaken policy. At any time when pas¬ 
tures begin to fail, stock should be fed, and 
with all they cau eat. A piece of drilled corn 
is excellent early in the season ; but if this has 
not been provided, some corn meal, or a mix¬ 
ture of corn meal aud wheat bran will be 
found admirable. It. is real economy not to 
let cows fail iu their milk through lack of feed 
if the flow is checked, it cannot he re-estab¬ 
lished to its previous amount by high feeding 
afterwards. A cow half dried by being stinted 
iu the fall, will not hold to her milk nearly so 
well through the winter 
Low as dairy products have been, it pays to 
feed cows well. Getting the bulk of their 
food in the pasture, what is given iu addition 
goes mainly to increase the milk, butter and 
cheese product. There is also a natural gain 
from increased value of manure made from 
cows which are fed in pasture. It is, iu fact, 
one of the best means of enriching a farm to 
make it carry ull the stock it will bear and buy 
feed as needed when the home-grown supply is 
short. In this way the number of cows a 
place will carry can soon bo so largely in¬ 
creased that the farm will he well able to 
maintain its own fertility. On the other 
hand, very close pasturing in the full should 
be avoided so far us possible. It is better al¬ 
ways with clover aud timothy lo leave some 
growth iu the fall as a winter protection for 
the roots. w. j. f. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
Cjjf l^iariatr. 
HINTS ON WINTERING BEES. 
The main subject that at present should en¬ 
gage the bee-keeper’s attention is the winter¬ 
ing of his stocks. Four points that are of 
paramount necessity for successful wintering, 
may be thus enumerated:—first, the bees 
should go into winter-quarters in a healthy 
condition; second, they should have a suffi¬ 
cient quantity of healthful food ; third, the col¬ 
onics should be strong, and, fourth, they must 
have protection against Cold. 
The diseases from which bees are liable to 
suffer are: dysentery aud “foul brood.” From 
the nature of dyseutery, it is only daugerous 
in winter while the bees are confined. Foul 
brood, on the other hand, is a summer disease. 
It is a minute fuugus that attaeks the brood, 
causing it to decay, and, consequently, also 
causing a failure of rearing young bees. As 
the germs of the fuugus readily spread, it is the 
