THE RURAL 
JAM I) 
food. It is far better to feed a certain quan¬ 
tity to three cows and produce tiOtl pounds of 
butter, than to feed the same amount to four 
cows and only get 500 pounds, as is ofteu.done. 
Keep the young cattle growing without check 
from the time they are started as calves until 
they are ready for the shambles or the dairy. 
To do so is less expensive than if they start 
again after they have once been stunted. The 
same rule applies, also, with all young stock. 
Use plenty of bedding for all farm stock, 
saving for this purpose everything that can be 
obtained. Stock are more comfortable and 
the manure heap is augmented. If muck can 
be obtained, compost it with the barnyard 
manure. 
Feed hens well with a variety of mixed feeds 
and keep them supplied with plenty of mater¬ 
ial for shells, as powdered clam and oyster 
shells, burnt bones, ete. Provide also plenty 
of fresh water daily. If they are kept in con¬ 
finement, spade or plow up a small portion of 
the yard every few days, and give them a 
chance to work in the soil. It is more health¬ 
ful for them, and they pick up a great, many 
insects, ete. If the fowls are kept coufined, 
throw all weeds pulled from the garden in 
their yard. It is surprising how much green 
feed they will eat. Clear the hen-roosts from 
lice by scorching them with a flame from a 
cloth saturated with kerosene oil and sprinkled 
with sulphur. 
(live all farm stock shelter from the cold 
storms of Autumn. Feed milch cows sparing¬ 
ly. and they will yield sparingly. 
Remove all unnecessary fences and so gain 
in area of land cultivated and also in the con¬ 
venience in working the same. 
Provide yourself with some kind of shelter 
for wood, and keep at all times supplied 
with sufficient fuel, and thus save fully one- 
thu'd in quantity of fuel required, besides 
saving many times that amount in good na¬ 
ture of your wife and family. 
Clear up all decaying vegetation, and add 
to the compost heap and thus turn it to some 
account, and at the same time prevent one 
leading cause of malaria. 
Concentrate your forces. It is better and 
at the same time more profitable to grow 150 
bushels of ears on one acre of coni than to 
work over two acres for the same amount, 
and the same in proportion with other farm 
crops. 
Keep fruit trees properly trimmed from the 
beginning of their growth, and so secure the 
desired form, and save cutting large limbs. 
In manuring the orchard, manuring a small 
strip just about the body of the tree will not 
meet the requirements, especially if trees are 
large. The whole surface should be equally 
enriched. 
If maple sugar is made on the farm, have 
everything in readiness to begin operations 
when sugar weather arrives. One day’s time 
lost on every 100 trees is no inconsiderable 
loss, Keep every thing pertaining to the 
“sugar camp” scrupulously dean. A small 
amount of impurities in the sap becomes so 
concentrated when boiled .down to sugar, as 
seriously to affect both color and quality. 
In preparing any kind of farm produce for 
market, remember it is the fi rst-class article 
which brings the greatest profit. Better sell 
one barrel of prime fruit for $3, and keep the 
half barrel of inferior at home, and use or feed 
it out, than to pay the cost of sending all to 
market, receiving only the same amount for 
the whole. 
Keep all your promises, especially if you are 
a poor man. A poor man cannot afford to 
have his credit impaired by failure to meet 
his promises. Finally, follow the advice of 
the Rural, and avoid running in debt, and so 
become successful, prosperous and happy. 
IjuiliiMiliurfll. 
A NOTE FROM PETER HENDERSON. 
I think you are all wrong about the flavor 
of the White Plume Celery. I’ll engage to let 
you taste six different kinds, including White 
Plume, and if you will, thrice in succession, be 
able to tell “which is which,” I’ll agree to 
make a present of a fi ve years’ subscription to 
the Rural to any friend you may designate; 
for the fact is, with the exception of the Red 
and the Sandringham, there is no perceptible 
difference in the flavor of any celery; it is its 
condition that affects the flavor, not the vari¬ 
ety. ___ 
THE LINCOLN BLACKBERRY. 
In the Rural of Dec. lUth it is said 
that the above blackberry originated on the 
grounds of President Lincoln. This is an error 
for it originated on my fruit farm two miles 
northw&st of Springfield, Ill.; 11 years ago 
it fruited for the first time. I have fruited it 
for 11 years without a failure. The very hard 
Winter of ’33—’34 killed all blackberries in 
this part of the State, except Lincoln and Sny¬ 
der. The former came through and bore a 
full crop of fine fruit, while Snyder only 
bore a partial crop. ^ w. h. lightfoot. 
A College Education. —A young man, 18 
years old, earning $(> a week, with poor par¬ 
ents, writes to the N. Y. Sun for advice. He 
has worked ever since he was 14 years old, sees 
small chance of getting a better place, and 
thinks if he could get a good education at some 
college, he might do better. The Siui wisely 
states that the college means an entire change 
of life in every way. Instead of earning 
money, the boy must become a charge on his 
parents for the next six or eight years. Even 
at his present salary he would earn during that 
time over *1,800. He must give that up and 
run in debt for the cost of his education. It 
would take him two years to prepare himself 
for entering college. If he graduated at 24 
years, he would have hard work to earn $300 
the first year after graduating. The ordinary 
college education fits no one for special employ¬ 
ment. It is simply a foundation. Long years 
of special study are required, to build upon it. 
Even after the profession has been gained, 
there are long years of straggle with poverty, 
The Sun doubtless had in mind a city boy. 
These statements may rub the vanity" of the av¬ 
erage boy .but. they are absolutely true. Iu those 
days of “influence” and “name" the poor col¬ 
lege graduate, with no weapon but his educa¬ 
tion, is like a man fighting against an army 
with a lump of iron. He must forge, sharpen 
and polish his weapon alone. There is no 
harder work in the world, but there is none 
which, if faithfully endured, brings out a 
truer manhood. It is easier for the country 
boy to obtain an education. The agricultural 
colleges of the West are filled, for the most 
part, with boys who pay a large proportion of 
their own expenses. By teaching during the 
long winter vacations, by working on the col¬ 
lege farms, and doing other work that may be 
presented, a boy can work his way through 
college. The majority of boys do not have 
the heart to work through. Not over 25 per 
cent, of the boys who enter the freshman class 
with no resources beyond their own labor, 
ever graduate. They become discouraged, or 
else discover that the “education” involves too 
much work, too much responsibility and too 
much privation. The boy that starts in with 
the idea that the moment he obtains his de¬ 
gree, the world will open its doors to him, will 
be sadly disappointed. The world always 
looks with a little distrust upon the “fresh” 
college graduate. It is only after a year or so 
of hard rubbing against the world that he can 
“pass.” The successful agricultural colleges of 
the West offer by far the best chance for the 
poor boy. He can find plenty of time for 
study, and the hours, which at literary colleges 
are devoted to exercise iu games or walking, 
he cau make profitable on the farm. At the 
end of his college course he can easily make 
$300 and his board per year, and gradually 
work his way up into a sure and profitable 
business. 
SHORT AND FRESH. 
Robert Douglas believes the White Pine 
to be the most valuable timber tree for Iowa, 
Minnesota, Dakota, Wisconsin, Canada, and 
the New England States. The Scotch Pine is 
one of the most rapid growers of all hardy 
evergreens while young. It makes a fine wind¬ 
break for orchards and buildings. 
Mr, Douglas says that the American White 
Spruce is far preferable to the Norway for the 
West, as it endures the hot, dry winds in Sum¬ 
mer, and never browns iu Winter. As an 
ornamental tree for the East, we much prefer 
the White to the Norway Spruce 
Mr. Doug las characterizes (no doubt justly) 
the Wild Black Cherry as one of the most 
rapid growers of all our valuable Northern 
hard-wood forest trees, making lumber almost 
equal in value to the Blaek Wulnut, It grows 
freely on any dry laud, even if too poor for 
agricultural purposes. It is of upright growth, 
and very easily transplanted .. 
Peter Henderson mentions, in the Garden, 
that, during his recent visit to England, noth¬ 
ing surprised him so much as the growing of 
tomatoes. In one establishment, there were 
in running feet, two-and-a-half miles of green¬ 
houses all filled with tomatoes; These must 
have cost not less than $100,000. The tomatoes 
were then selliug at six pence sterling per 
pound, or about $(> per bushel, Here is a 
chance for our growers to seud tomatoes to 
England in cold storage, But we want 
better-keeping tomatoes . 
O. S. Bliss expresses the opinion in the N. 
Y. Tribune, that if the public knew enough to 
select the best poultry and keep them, the oc¬ 
cupation of some folks would be soon gone: DO 
per cent, of the people who buy fowls and eggs 
at fancy prices are disappointed . 
It may be_well for our new readers to bear 
in mind that the Potato Special of tlieR, N.-Y. 
will be dated the 10th instant. Everybody 
who lives in the country ought to raise pota¬ 
toes—therefore everybody ought to read the 
Potato Special . 
One of the delights of country life in the 
Winter, is derived from having plenty of ever¬ 
green trees about the country home. 
Mr. Stewart says that lambs will make 
twice the growth in Winter they would other¬ 
wise do, if they are given a very little ground 
feed, or a small quantity of rye or oats, once 
a day. Good clover hay is the best staple food 
for them. A few chopped turnips or beets or 
a chopped cabbage will be very grateful and 
useful to them.. . 
Dr. Hoskins says that a man’s farm is a 
volume, every acre of which is a page bearing 
the marks of his character, indicating the de¬ 
gree of mental and moral culture to which 
he has attained ... 
Those interested in poultry should read the 
R. N.-Y. during this year. 
A writer in the American Florist thinks 
that the Bride is destined to become the most 
popular white rose ever known .. 
The New York Experiment Station has 
succeeded in raising cabbages from leaf cut¬ 
tings, the same as begonias and a few others 
may be propagated . . . 
Another interesting experiment made was 
that of growing cabbages from green (unripe) 
seed. The seed sprouted before ripe seed, and 
the heads were earlier and larger. . 
The New York Experiment Station finds 
Buhach (Pyrethrmn) powder, applied through 
bellows almost “instantaneous” death to 
the cabbage worm. The Rural was the first 
journal to use Buhach iu this way. But we 
have never known it to kill them immediately. 
From four to ten hours are required. Our 
later subscribers may be interested to know 
that we ascertained last year that this insecti¬ 
cide will kill rose bugs.. 
Several of our ageuts while visiting New 
York have at our suggestion examined the 
Rural’s Avery Sewing-Machine. They all 
report that it is by far the simplest, lightest- 
runni ug, nearest to noiseless, and, altogether, 
the best machine they have ever seen. It is 
constructed upon an entirely new principle 
ami must not be confounded with the old 
machines offered by other journals. The re¬ 
tail price is $00. We give it for 40subscribers, 
pay the freight, and guarantee it to please.... 
A WHITER iu the Maine Farmer says that a 
blush of shame yet, burns on his brow as he 
thinks bow many more comforts he could have 
provided for his dear lost ones had he done 
without tobacco ; how many hours of needless 
labor be could have saved his gentle wife if he 
had not eared so much for tobacco. It is the 
same with many of us to-day... 
Mu. Hiram Smith, of Sheboygan Falls, 
Wis., on a farm of 2<Ki acres, feeds 05 cows, 
six horses and 3fi head of calves au<l yearlings. 
Every ounce of feed that is bought is paid for 
in money that comes from pork made from 
skimmed milk. Every one of the cows earns 
$75 per annum. The U. 8. Dairyman in not¬ 
ing these facts, says that the man who keeps 
cows cantering over about five acres or more 
of laud to get a skimped livelihood may won¬ 
der how it is done; but it is easy enough, if 
one knows how, and there is no necromancy 
about it, either. The vital items are, t he half- 
soiling process; some grain food, fed iua warm 
barn every day; eleven months’ milking of 
each cow in the year; a utilization of all the 
manure: the raising of halt' an acre of corn to 
each cow; and a command of the best market 
that, a steady production of a good article of 
butter, every day in the year, gives one who 
can meet the wants of steady customers. . .. 
The English sparrow surely seems to be 
doomed. The Farm and Home contains an 
article showing how to cook the ^little wretch 
so that it will be quite palatable. The birds 
are stewed, roasted or jugged. In the latter 
process, they are boiled aud then placed iu a 
sort of pickle. They are said to be really excel¬ 
lent. They ought to be, for they live on the 
“fat of the land.”. . . 
The U. 8. Dairyman thinks that a man will 
not develop himself into much of a dairyman 
so long os he milks his cows in a yard, feeds 
them little or no grain, and lets hull' of the 
value of the manure be washed into the creek, 
instead of being saved and carted to where it 
would do the most good .. 
At the recent Illinois Horticultural Meeting, 
the drift of opinion was that the former’s gar¬ 
den, planted in rows clear across the patch, 
cultivated so far as possible by horse-power, 
and given as good cultivation as the best fann¬ 
ers give their corn fields—a half acre iu vege¬ 
tables would supply half the living of the 
average’family, and add largely to the health 
of the members . 
Experience has taught most English farm¬ 
ers to keep the silage out of the stables where 
the cows are kept, and to require men who 
handle the product to wash their hands before 
milking. Most of the tainted milk seems to 
be spoiled by direct contact with the silage... 
Commissioner Colman wants an appro¬ 
priation for the purpose of developing the 
agricultural capabilities of Alaska, and to 
determine what breeds of cattle, etc. will do 
well there. Mrs. Wager-Fisher’s letters pub¬ 
lished in the Rural show the utter impossibil¬ 
ity of stock-raising in Alaska. Better apply 
the work aud money nearer home. Oleomar¬ 
garine is on top yet . 
Cnmjtoljcre, 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS. 
XL VIII. 
MARY WAGER-FISHEIl. 
Weather ami fruits in Western Washington 
Ter.; the White River Valley; good farm, 
houses and farming; a well ordered boat. 
A few days after our return to Seattle 
(Washington T’y.), there was a fall of rain 
accompanied by thunder aud lightning equal 
to an ordinary Eastern thunder storm. I 
mention this, as I think 1 have at some time 
stated that thunder and lightning are almost 
unknown on this coast. They are rare, it is 
true; but they do occur. Old residents said 
that the duration of warm weather this season 
was longer than ever before experienced, and 
for several weeks there was quite a display of 
summer clothing. Certaiu fruits were in great 
abundance, particularly plums and black¬ 
berries. I measured some plums, an arnber- 
eolored variety; oue was eight, inches in cir¬ 
cumference one way, aud 7}.$' the other—de¬ 
licious us large. Very fine peaches are raised 
on the shores of Lake W ashing ton, just back 
of the town, aud also in other localities; but 
while the trees boar profusely, there is some 
difficulty iu raisiug this fruit, as the trees are 
very short-lived. Strawberries and black¬ 
berries often bear a second crop in October. 
I wish to correct a statement, or opinion, 
rather, of the Rural, as expressed in the is¬ 
sue of July is. page 4S4, concerning the “Ever¬ 
green Blackberry.” My attention was first 
attracted to this blackberry a year ago, as I 
saw it growing over a trellis, I thought it 
extremely ornamental, and it was still in fruit, 
the month being October, and its yield, I was 
afterward told, was 100 quarts iu oue season. 
Not far from the first of October of the pre¬ 
sent year 1 saw another "Evergreen Black¬ 
berry” vine which was equally a marvel. The 
one vine of three or four years’ growth had 
yielded during the present season 120 quarts 
of berries. As the plant hail grown, a part of 
the branches had been trained along the side 
of the dwelLing-house and up on the roof, while 
the other part had turned off iu an opposite 
direction ou a trellis and up in trees. From 
end to cud it measured, probably, 40 feet. Its 
habit is very like that of the most robust 
Climbing roses, and it is altogether unlike any 
variety of blackberry that I have seen grow¬ 
ing in the East. The fruit is good, similar to 
the Lawton in flavor, and it fruits at a season 
Avheu other berries are out of market. Its 
botanical name, as I have heard it given here, 
is Rubus frutieosus. The leaves are very 
pretty, and the white petals ol' the flower are 
three-fingered, or trifid at the end. None of 
the canes that I saw were as “large as a man’s 
arm,” but some of them were probably an inch 
or more in diameter, mid the plant had re¬ 
ceived oo special cultivation. I have been 
unable to learn anything definite as to its 
origin, although various stories are told as to 
its antecedents. That it is generally hardy, 
is claimed for it; but it is quite likely that it 
attains to more remarkable proportions in the 
rich, new soil of Ruget Sound than It would in 
many other regions. The vine which I saw 
and which yielded 120 quarts, is on a farm 
about three mi Its north of Seattle, aud the 
owner of it, so far as 1 know, has no interest 
in it beyond finding a mai’ket for the berries. 
The smoke which obscured not ouly the 
Puget Souud region but alt this northwest 
coast excepting Alaska, where the forests are 
too damp to burn, lasted for six weeks or more, 
and the olearers of land called itagood “burn." 
These tires will probably continue for a similar 
period for a quarter of a century to come, or 
until the forests have been suflieioutly cleared 
for agricultural purposes. The smoke is un¬ 
pleasant to many persons—I was not annoyed 
by it.. When united with log, it is a regular 
London atmosphere; but when the rain came 
aud cleared the air, it was like waking up in a 
new world. So it came about that, instead of 
leaving the Territory for Oregon and Califor¬ 
nia the 1st of September, we were detained 
