if you cau grow it as well without. Besides, 
it is the nature of some plauts to grow on the 
ground, and you can scarcely improve it. 
Sticks, I should say, are never ornamental. 
HORTICOI.A. 
Dnivi) ijusbjftri'Drxj. 
DAIRYING IN THE NORTH STAR 
STATE. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORT.) 
Adaptation of Minnesota, for dairying; bogus 
butter denounced; how to make the best 
butter; brains in dairying. 
At the recant annual convention of the 
Minnesota State Dairymen's Association, held 
in Albert Lea, on the 2d to 4th of February, 
some points were made which may be of gen¬ 
eral interest. 
Col. John H. Stevens called attention to the 
peculiar adaptation of Minnesota climate, 
soil, grasses and water for successful daily iug. 
All the tame grasses grow there in luxuriance, 
not excepting corn, which ripened in the short 
season of last year as far north as the line of 
the Northern Pacific Railroad. But the dairy¬ 
men were not recommended to grew corn for 
fodder, as the tame grasses do better, are 
surer, and come on to make good pasturage 
when the prairie grasses begin to fail. The 
numerous lakes, so widely scattered through 
the State, give assurance of a never-failing 
supply of good water, while streams and wells 
are sources of satisfactory supply where lakes 
are not accessible. The numerous flouring 
mills make shorts, middlings, bran, etc., abun¬ 
dant. The State now has about 500,<XX) cows, 
turning out annually about $15,000,000 of 
dairy products. He urges the breeding of 
better stock and more attention to the prac¬ 
tice of the economies of the dairy, as well as 
more conscientious and better work 
The bogus butter fraud was clearly laid bare 
and severely commented upon by W, D. 
Hoard. One man made the practical proposi¬ 
tion to visit the boarding-houses, restaurants, 
hotels and dining cars, call for bread and but¬ 
ter, or other article with butter, and then 
pocket the pat and deliver it to the dairy com¬ 
missioner for analysis, and the taking of legal 
steps where the butter is found to be lx>gus. 
A blow struck here would do much to suppress 
this daily fraud, which is supported mainly 
by the class of establishments named. Reso¬ 
lutions were adopted calling for effective State 
and natioual legislation for the suppression of 
fraud and the protection of honest dealers in 
all kinds of food products. 
Col. T. D. Curtis read a paper on how to 
make the best butter. He dwelt emphatically 
upon the importance of good dairy stock, 
good feed and shelter, scrupulous cleanliness 
in all particulars, and no exclusive depen¬ 
dence on the strainer to take filth out of milk. 
He said different conditions of milk and 
cream, some depending on the season, the 
care of t.be herd, etc., demand a wide range 
of temperature for churning. It may be from 
55 to 70 degrees, and he recommended a higher 
temperature for winter churning, when the 
hard fats predominate in the butter globules 
and the cream is albuminous and viscid. In 
many cases it would be well to dilute the 
cream with tepid water. All intelligent, 
dairymen now follow the granular process of 
washing butter, but only a few have yet got 
hold of the granular process of salting by 
stirring the salt into the butter, letting it dis¬ 
solve, and then packing it into the tub directly 
from the churn or table, or first pressing it 
into a solid mass and then packing it for mar¬ 
ket, but avoiding all working. He condemned 
all coarse-grained, hard, impure and cheap 
salt as dangerous, and said the cost of using 
the best salt is so little—not to exceed one 
mill a pound—that no one can afford to take 
the risk of using any hut the best. He recom¬ 
mended the small dairyman to purchase some 
one of the numerous patent creamers, which 
can be used anywhere, and occupy but little 
room. Most of them do good work. Ice, he 
said, could be saved by piling it on a crown¬ 
ing piece of ground and covering it with a 
straw-stack four to six feet thick all around 
and somewhat thicker on the top, which shall 
be built to shed water. 
C. F. Defter commented on the importance 
of putting butter up in uniform, clean and 
attractive packages. He favored the tub 
holding 56 pounds net. 
W. D. Hoard argued in favor of the reduc¬ 
tion of cost of production, on which the net 
profit depends more than on high market 
prices for dairy products. Poor cows, ex¬ 
hausted soil, half crops, and half care and 
management are too expensive for a dairyman 
to indulge in. A little “‘cow sense” would do 
more to reduce the cost and increase the 
profits than any other one thing. Brains are 
a paying investment in the daily. Secretary 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FES 27 
R. C. Jordan favored the keeping of a farm 
register as an efficient, aid in enabling the 
dairyman to know the value of every cow, 
and improve his herd; also to lead him into 
the channel of correct business habits. 
Resolutions denouncing the management, of 
the last Chicago Fat Stock Show, in affiliating 
with the bogus butter men, aud favoring a 
Northwestern organization lor the exhibition 
of dairy stock and dairy goods, were unani¬ 
mously adopted. c. 
. farm (Topics. 
THE SUGAR BUSH. 
Advantages; maple sirup; essentials in mak¬ 
ing it; straining; trouble in making; im¬ 
proved evaporators; profits. 
Our most thoughtful students of economics 
regret the rapid and wide-spread destruction 
of our forests, and are urging that the prac¬ 
tice cease, and that we make up for the loss 
by liberal planting. It is very doubtful if we 
can magnify too highly the importance of Ar¬ 
bor Day. As the argument from .'esthetics, 
and even from danger, when such danger is 
obscure, usually falls on deaf cars, 1 wish to 
offer an argument based on the pocket hook. 
Nothing ou my farm pays so well as a twenty 
acre sugar bush. Before this year I have tap- 
ped 4<X> trees; this year I shall increase to 600. 
Hence I urge that all who have sugar bushes 
should preserve them; others who have not, 
may add to the beauty of their place, the wel¬ 
fare of the country, and by securing good 
maple orchards, the prospective value of their 
farms. 
The great point is to make a superior article 
of sirup, and that this may he perfection, we 
should spare no pains. Such an article is an 
incomparable delicacy and people who are 
able will have it if they once learn its excel¬ 
lence. Thus if we take a little pains to get au 
A No. 1 article of sirup on the tables of those 
who are able and willing to gratify the palate, 
we shall have no trouble to secure a sure mar¬ 
ket. at from $1.25 to $1.50 a gallon for all the 
sirup manufactured. 
The two things which the maple sirup pro¬ 
ducer must ever keep in mind are. first, neat¬ 
ness, second, dispatch. Like butter, maple 
sirup has such a delicate flavor, that it is 
easily tainted. Again, if not reduced from 
sap to sirup in the shortest possible time, it 
lacks in that indescribable flavor which we 
must secure. Only tin buckets should be used. 
They should be hung to the tree by a Post 
spout, and be all covered by au inch pine 
board cut square so as to cover the buckets 
aud protect them from all snow, rain water 
and filth, like dust and leaves. We strain our 
sap through cloth as it enters the gathering 
tank, as it enters the store trough and as it 
passes into the evaporators, aud the sirup as it 
passes from evaporator to can. This last 
filtering is through a woolen doth. The store 
trough is kept, covered, and it, the cask, and 
the buckets are all thoroughly rinsed with hot 
water after each run. We used to think only 
the first run would secure the best sirup. We 
now know that, this is not true. If we keep 
all as neat to the last as it is at the beginning, 
the sirup will lose none of its excellence. Sap 
sou ring in tn >ugh, bucket ■ >r cask is what taints 
the sirup. Our house is kept clean; even the 
wood-shed is separate from the eva|Pirating 
room, that all jtossible dust may be avoided. 
One trouble in manufacturing the sirup arises 
from a mineral which is held in solution in the 
sap, and usually in the hot. sirup, but which is 
thrown down as the sirup cools. In Ohio they 
call this silica. Prof. Wiley of the Agricul¬ 
tural Department, says it is malate of lime, 
while another chemist tells me it is sucrate of 
lime. This substance forms au incrustation 
on the bottom of the evaporators, which is 
very difficult to remove. 
Again, it is sure to form a deposit as the sirup 
cools, sci the sirup must be cooled and then 
carefully poured off. after which we heat it 
aud seal it in close, air-tight cans or jugs, 
where it will keep indefinitely, losing none of 
its delicac}- and flavor. The improved evapor¬ 
ators are made in sections, so that these small 
light sections can lie nmdc to change places 
daily, end thus the old trouble of the lime 
erustation forming on the bottom of the pan 
is avoided. Siphons carry the sap from one 
section to another and are thought to act as 
filters and so add to the neatness. With these 
improved evaporators with iron furnaces, the 
sap is reduced with astonishing quickness and 
passes from sap to sirup with no intermixture 
of fresh sap, which is a matter of great im¬ 
portance. So valuable do I consider these im¬ 
provements, that I have laid aside my old 
Cook’s evaporator, although used only three 
years, and have secured one of these improved 
evaporators, I lia ve also procured the iron arch 
which works so much better than does the 
brick arch, that it soon saves the extra cost. 
There is an automatic feeder that admits the 
sap to the evaporator, so that it will rim in 
fast or slow, just as the evaporation is rapid 
or prolonged. Thus we can fill our furnace 
with good hard maple well seasoned wood, 
aud leave for the night with perfect security 
that all will be safe. 
Let us now compare the profit with our 
Short-horn. The evaporator will cost $125; 
000 tin baskets at 18 cents each, $108 ; 
0410 spouts at $4.50, which equals $27 ; 
house, $100; cask, store trough, etc., $40.1X1. 
The total cost is $850, about the value of a 
good Short-born cow, The work is in the 
Spring, when there is no press of farm work, 
especially if the fences have been fixed in 
Winter, as they should be, and the manure 
kept well drawn. Although this labor is, 
perhaps, more than that required to care for 
the cow, yet not much more. Each tree will 
give us SO cents worth of sirup; this is a low 
estimate, which gives a total of $1SU, which is 
certainly more than we can hope to secure in 
profits from our cow. Thus it seems very 
evident that the maple bush well managed is 
one of the most valuable adjuncts on a good 
farm. m. s. 
Owosso, Mich. 
EARHART EVERBEARING RASP¬ 
BERRY. 
Last year, Nov. 21, page 780, we spoke of 
this new T raspberry, and gave illustrations of 
it drawn from Nature. Briefly restating what 
was then written, we may say that this rasp¬ 
berry was found some 15 years ago in a grove 
in Mason County. Ill., late in the summer sea¬ 
son, loaded with ripe berries. Thinking it a 
valuable sort for cultivation, plants were 
sought after the next Spring. Not being able 
to find them at the time, it was some years 
later that it was again discovered by Mr. Ear- 
hart in the Fall; and at the proper season, 
plants were removed to the family garden, 
and it proved to be it» truth an “everbearer.” 
never failing of a crop even after the most 
severe Winters. 
Mr. J. H. Hale, of South Glastonbury, Conn., 
who sent us the photographs from which our 
illustrations are made, says of this berry: 
“The plant is a strong, vigorous grower, 
hardy as Souhegan or Tyler, ripens its first or 
main crop with the Doolittle; fruit larger, jet- 
black, and of superior quality (some think it 
equal to the Turner, a red variety), and as 
productive as any of the lending sorts now in 
cultivation. 
The new canes of each season’s growth begin 
to bloom when two or three feet high, ripening 
their berries very soon after the main crop is 
gone, and continue to bloom and fruit till 
frozen up in the Fall, the most of the fruit, 
however, ripening from the first of August to 
the middle of Beptember, although ripe fruit 
ean be found at all times from June to 
November. 
While the first or main crop is fully equal 
to that of auy of the old and reliable varieties, 
the second or after crop on the canes, ripen¬ 
ing from July to November, is about twice 
the size of the first or main crop; so that all the 
fruit is equal to three full crops each season. 
And what the Earhart has done for the past 
six or eight years, it is likely to do in the 
future. 
Plants set out early in the Spring, if they 
get a good start, will produce quite a crop in 
September and October in the year in which 
they were planted. And on older plantations, 
should the canes for the first crop got killed 
or out to the grouud in any way, the new 
canes will soon repair the damage by produc¬ 
ing a heavier crop than usual, the only loss 
being a delay of some three weeks in the first 
ripening.” 
Fig. 89 shows the vine as it appeared July 
3 in the middle of the first crop. Fig. 90 
(p. 135) shows the vine as it appeared Sept. 
15, and Fig. 91 (p, 136) as it appeared Oct. 15. 
As intimated last year, we have now specimens 
of this plant at our own grounds, aud shall re¬ 
port in due time. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
James J. H. Gregory, Marblehead, Mass.— 
Mr. Gregory has an advantage over many 
seedsmen in being himself a hard-working far¬ 
mer and farm student. His books on Fertili¬ 
zers, Onion-raising, Squashes and How to Grow 
Them; Cabbages and How t.o Grow Them; 
Carrots, Mangolds, Sugar Beets, What Kinds 
to Raise. How to Grow Them aud How to Feed 
Them, are before the public. The catalogue 
is one of “warranted seeds, vegetable, flower 
and grain.” Cory Corn is referred to as being 
the earliest sweet corn known—earlier than 
the Marblehead. The All Seasons Cabbage is 
said to lie a Drumhead, as early as Henderson's 
Early Summer, yielding heads a third larger. 
Among other novelties are Beauty Tomato, 
Pride of Georgia Watermelon, King of the 
Garden Lima Bean, Hereford's Market Garden 
Pea (introduced by the R. N.-Y.), Bird Canta¬ 
loupe and many others. Mr. G.’s Race-horse 
Oats were tried at the Rural Grounds last seas¬ 
on, and were among the best kinds tested. 
Send for the catalogue aud 
mention the R. N.-Y. 
Russell* Company, Massillon, 
Ohio.—A fine illustrated catalogue 
of the “New Massillon” thrashers, 
of which they make six sizes; also 
their independent stacker, with 
which the straw may be put upon 
the highest stack ami one situate)l 
iu almost any position from the 
machine; also their mounted and 
down horse-powers. It also shows 
and describes their portable aud 
traction engines, of which they 
make sizes from four to 16-horse 
power, both portable aud traction. 
They are now at work perfecting 
u new traction engine, which they 
confidently expect to be perfectly 
practicable as a motor for steam 
plowing. We certainly wish them 
success, for this is the next great 
step in successful American farm¬ 
ing. This firm also makes any 
number of sizes of stationary en¬ 
gines and saw-mills. Of the lat¬ 
ter they build everything from 
a wood saw with tilting table to 
the ponderous machine capable of 
cut ting all the lumber that can be 
got to it. Send for the catalogue; 
it will interest you. 
Thomas Harrow Co., Geneva, 
Y.—A descriptive catalogue of 
the widely renowned Thomas 
Smoothing Harrow, of which this 
firm now makes several styles. The disting¬ 
uishing feature of these harrows is the slant - 
ing position of the teeth, which was the inven¬ 
tion of the veteran agricultural writer John 
J. Thomas. We have long used these har¬ 
rows and consider them indispensable for 
certain purposes. This catalogue, by illustra 
tions, shows the advantages and also plainly 
tells the uses to which these implements may 
be applied, and the best manner of arranging 
aud using them to accomplish the most-effec¬ 
tive work with the least expenditure of power. 
The easiest way iu which to learn ull al>oiit 
how they are made and what they will do is 
to send for this catalogue, which will be sent, 
free of cost, if you mention the Rural. 
Tabor Organ Co., Worcester, Mass.—An 
illustrated catalogue of the several styles of 
the Tabor organs, with u full description of 
each. These organs have the following im¬ 
provements: A patent srtop-f ction ; patent 
valve tremolo; patent octave coupler; patent 
divided octave coupler; a very deep-toned sub- 
base; a double-action 1 icllows; a grand cres¬ 
cendo knee swell, ami a grand organ knee at¬ 
tachment. There are nearly a dozen styles 
from the Gem with a single manual, six stops 
and a single set of five octave reeds, to a 
double hank and pedal base chapel organ with 
4 
