introduced by the Russian Mennonites in Man¬ 
itoba, Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kan¬ 
sas aud other places in the West where these 
thrifty colonists settled in considerable num¬ 
bers over a dozen years ago, having imported 
this, among other practices, from their old 
homos in Southern Russia. The plan was 
so evidently convenient and economical 
that it was widely adopted by their neighbors, 
who, with greater enterprise and inventive in¬ 
genuity, have unproved upon the old devices, 
especially in the way of cheapness of construc¬ 
tion and economy in the use of fuel. When 
the advantages of the method become better 
known, there is uo doubt that it will be exten¬ 
sively employed jn other parts of the country 
also. 
In the Rural for May, 18, 1878, we gave a 
couple of illustrations aud a full explanatory 
description of a Menuonite furnace, aud at 
Pig. 155, we present the ground-plan at 1, and 
a sectional view at 2, of an improved furnace, 
devised by our friend. Thomas H. Yoimgman, 
Hanson County, Dakota. Of it be says: “It 
is the greatest thing for comfort that I or my 
fS86 
THE AURAL NEW-YORKER. 
GRANDFATHER SMITH’S FAVORITE 
APPLE. 
Specimens of the apple shown at Fig. 1(54, 
with cross-section at Fig. 165, were sent to 
us last Fall by the Rev. Amos S. Baldwin, of 
Newton Hamilton, Mifllin C'o., Pa. The ori¬ 
ginal tree stands on a farm owned by him near 
Fort Littleton, Fulton County, Pa., which was 
formerly the property of lus grandfather, the 
Rev. Amos Smith, after whom the apple is 
named. The tree is now about 75 years old, 
having been of good size and bearing fruit 
when a lady now that age was a little girl. 
According to lier recollection, it was a seed¬ 
ling raised by her father, Mr. Ramsey, ft. is 
n large, llat-topped, wide-spreading tree, with 
an upright trunk, and is an annual and often 
a very productive bearer. The fruit is of 
good size, conical, Hat and pointed at eye; stem 
very short, not over half an inch: very slen¬ 
der; planted in a deep, regular, but narrow, 
cavity; calyx large, open, and in a broad, 
shallow basin. Color a beautiful shade of 
red over a greeuish-yflllow ground, and run¬ 
ning to a deep red in all places exposed to the 
sun, and the surface thickly splashed with 
deep maroon-red streaks, the whole surface 
studded with yellow dots. Core small and 
filled with very small, Hat seeds. Flesh white, 
with a tinge of pink where grown fully ex¬ 
posed to the sun, tender, juicy, fine-grained, 
high-flavored, pleasant aud aromatic. Qual¬ 
ity best—as good as or better than the Van- 
dervere. Eaten November i), 1885. This 
apple is undoubtedly a seedliug of the Van- 
dervere aud seems to have all its good quali¬ 
ties, without its tendeucy to scab. A superior 
dessert or table apple. Season from first of 
December to early January. 
THE SHIAWASSEE BEAUTY. 
PROF. A. J. COOK. 
The other night at tea, as we were aU com¬ 
menting on the delicious apple sauce, Mrs. 
Cook remarked that every family in the land 
ought to have one Shiawassee Beauty apple- 
tree. The sauce is of a beautiful pink color, 
aud has a peculiar aud delicate flavor that 
renders it a universal favorite. Wo are often 
asked what it is that gives the sauce the de¬ 
licious flavor, and our reply that it is Nature’s 
own flavoring stored up in the fruit, is often 
met with a very incredulous look. 
This excellent apple is doubtless a seedling 
from the Fameuseor Snow, which it much re¬ 
sembles. The form and color, both of the skin 
and pulp, are quite like the same in the 
Snow. It is larger, however, than the Snow, 
and keeps much longer. We have kept it well 
into January'—is much fairer, as the tendency 
to scab and deformity, so peculiar to the 
Snow, is entirely absent in this. But the 
greatest difference is in its spicy flavor. 
While the Snow is pleasingly tart, it is re¬ 
markably tasteless. The Shiawassee Beauty, 
on the other hand, is one of the most marked 
or radical in this respect, and its flavor is as 
delicious as peculiar. I have yet to find the 
person who does not esteem it highly. The 
tree is vigorous and spreading. Of several 
trees sot. out in my garden here in 187(5, among 
which is a Duchess of Oldenburg and a Red 
Astraehau, none has made so large and fine a 
growth as this. It is not only vigorous, but 
it is very hardy. On my form in Shiawassee 
County, Mich., I have trees of this variety 
that have remained vigorous and hearty all 
through the several hard Winters of the last 
15 years. It is a very persistent bearer, equal 
to the Dutchess of Oldenburg. My tree, set 
out in 1876, has borne every year for five 
years, and this year was a marvel of beauty, 
as it hung Cull of most beautiful apples, just 
such us 1 exhibited from it at Grand Rapids. 
I repeat the “(jtule wife's ” words: “Every 
family ought to have one.” 
Ag’l Coll., Lansing, Mich. 
farm (L'ceitomi), 
A STRAW-BURNING FURNACE. 
A grievous source of expense, inconven¬ 
ience and suffering to many in the blizzard- 
swept prairies of the West, where timber is 
scarce, coal mines remote, country roads bad, 
and railroad transportation scanty and expen¬ 
sive, is due to the scarcity of fuel. 1 n hundreds 
of other places throughout the country, also, a 
convenient supply of fuel would add not. only 
to the comfort of many a farmer and farmer’s 
family, but also to the good man’s bank ac¬ 
count. Yet in these sections ample stores of 
excellent materials for Arcs are wasted in ig¬ 
norance of the method by which they can be 
used in this way. The use of hay and straw 
for this purpose iu suitable furnaces, was first 
GRANDFATHER SMITH’S FAVORITE APPLE. From Nature. Fig. 164. 
neighbors have ever seen. Wife says she 
would not take $500 for it, if she could not ob¬ 
tain another. Ten of my neighbors built 
similar furnaces as soon a.- they saw mine, and 
Fig. 155. 
they all say, ‘Well, this solves the problem of 
fuel in Dakota.’ Daughter puts the breakfast 
on the ‘cooker’ at night after the heat has 
been turned off; iu the morning the hired man 
sides being two inches from the outer, the 
inner bottom six inches from the outer, and 
the inner top four inches from the outer. A 
pipe runs from the chimney at each end of 
the furnace to the west, end aud discharges 
into a drum in the sitting-room. A “register” 
opens into the sitting-room and a bed-room 
opens from the air-chamber. Upstairs in the 
“study” is placed a dram, through which 
passes the fire that has passed through the 
“cooker” in the dining-room. In the bed¬ 
room up-stairs is placed another drum, 
through which the smoke and fire from the 
drum in the sitting-room pass. The cost of 
the devices will he different in different local¬ 
ities. Here heaters cost $10 to $20, and drums 
$2 to $5, according to size. The furuace door 
costs $5 to $7. For building from four to five 
cords of stone and from 500 to 700 bricks will 
be wanted. Dakota clay mixed with from 
seven to ten parts of sand is very nearly as 
good as fiii' clay. Walls of less thickness than 
nine inches will do, but the thicker the walls 
the bettor the heat is Corraled. The oveu and 
return flues will aid materially in this work. 
In the ground-plan the letters indicate the 
GRANDFATHER SMITH’S FAVORITE APPLE. Half Section. Fig. 165. 
fires up the furnace, turns the heat into the 
‘cooker’ and by the time daughter comes from 
her room, the kettle is boiling, the potatoes 
are baked, and the breakfast is ready to be 
served. Six rooms in my house have been 
kept beautifully warm night and day even 
when the thermometer registered 80 degrees 
below zero. A hard-coal stove running at 
full blast in each room, would not have made 
us as comfortable, at a cost of $25 to $40 per 
stove; while if 1 had to buy all the straw I 
used for this furnace the outlay would not 
have been over $8 to $10. 1 burn wheat or 
flax straw or prairie hay, all of which are 
cheap in this section Oftou wo do not have 
to tend to the furnace ofteuor than three times 
a day. In spite of the arctic blizzards of 
Winter,my wife says she has been moreeomfor- 
able iu the house the past season than she ever 
same parts as the corresponding letters in the 
sectional view.” 
PLOW SHOE, 
Friend O. C. Upton sends us all the way 
from Weld County, Colorado, the sketch of a 
plow shoe, shown at Fig. 154, which he finds 
very convenient when, in moving a plow from 
one field to another, he wishes to hitch direct¬ 
ly to the plow. To make it, take a piece of 
hard wood 16x8x2 inches: bevel one end so as 
n /7(\ to make a good run- 
—■jr" uer; then bore three- 
quarter-inch holes so 
that the distance be¬ 
tween them shall be 
Fig. 154. wide enough for the 
plowjpoint.t their Jtops 
being closer, so that the point cannot rise be¬ 
Belcher & Taylor Agricultural Tool 
Company, Chicopee Falls. Massachusetts.— 
Catalogue of the numerous agricultural im¬ 
plements made by this old, extensive and 
thoroughly trustworthy company, including 
bag-holders, barrows, iron castings, three kinds 
of corn shellers; eight sorts or modifications of 
cultivators, fan mills, nine kinds of barrows, 
nine sorts of hay, straw, stalk, root and vege¬ 
table cutters, haying tools in variety, four 
kinds of ho iso shoes, ox shovels or road- 
scrapers, 11 patterns of plows, potato planters, 
powers, presses, thrashers, tobacco tooLs in 
variety, etc., etc. All the goods made by this 
company are second to none of the kind in the 
market. Full particulars can be obtained by 
sending for this catalogue, which will be fur¬ 
nished gratis to applicants. 
Fowler & Farrington, successors to Geo. 
H. Fowler, Taughannock Falls, N. Y.—Cir¬ 
cular of the hay and grain elevator and earrier 
and improved plow sulky, manufactured and 
sold by this trustworthy firm. The pitching 
apparatus of carriers’ fork, slings, pulleys, etc., 
is designed not only for pitching hay, hut. also 
for pitching and conveying bound grain, corn¬ 
stalks, etc. The fork or grapple, made of 
steel and malleable iron, will pitch anything 
a farmer has to mow or stack. The pulley 
has a wrought-iron frame, with a hard-maple 
frame two inches thick and five in diameter. 
All the important parte of the plow sulky are 
of wrought-iron or steel, rendering breakage 
difficult, and the implement is simple, neat 
aud handy. Send for the circular for fulller 
particulars. 
Improved Road Machinery.— Pamphlet 
from the American Road Machine Co., Kennet 
Square. Pa.—The intelligence and public spirit 
of a community are measured by the condition 
of its roads, (food ron<ls will increase the 
value of all adjoining farm property, and add 
greatly to the sociability and public spirit of 
any neighborhood. The improved road 
machinery described in this pamphlet will 
more than pay for itself in any township. The 
instructions given are complete and practical. 
The Spring is the best time for working 
roads, and these implements can hardly be 
improved upon. We advise all those who are 
seeking to improve the roads in their districts 
or townships to semi for the pamphlet. It will 
pay them to study it. 
A. H. Reid, 96 S. 16th St., and 1631, ’83 and 
’35 Barker St., Philadelphia, Pa.—Circulars of 
the excellent butter mold, tin tray butter 
shipping box, patent power butter worker and 
two-can creamery made and for sale by this 
thoroughly reliable house. The mold is very 
convenient and easily worked, and of the 
shipping box we can speak highly from per¬ 
sonal experience. The many advantages of a 
butter worker and creamer have been fre¬ 
quently pointed out iu those columns, and 
those offered by Mr. Reid are of superior de¬ 
sign, materials and wormanship. The cir¬ 
culars will be promptly sent free on application 
as above. 
Massachusetts State Experiment Sta¬ 
tion. —The third annual report is more com¬ 
plete than either of the former ones. A great 
deal of work has been accomplished at the 
station. Many valuable analyses of fruits, 
feeding stuffs, fertilizers, etc., etc., are re¬ 
corded, and the feeding 6X|>eriuieuts and ex¬ 
periments with potatoes and root crops are 
carefully reported. Farmers will find much 
to interest them in this report. It is time that 
they understood that these statious can be 
made to help them if they will only take in¬ 
terest enough in the work to see what is being 
done. 
The Great American Tea Company.— Cir¬ 
cular describing the business methods pursued 
was in winter time in Central New York 
with kitchen and parlor stoves. With this, 
too, there is no annoyance from dust or ashes 
in the room. 
In explanation of the diagram, Fig. 155, 
sectional view, A A are stone walls a foot 
thick inclosing the furnace. Brick may also 
be used, or a mixture of one part of sand with 
two of clay—a style common among the Men¬ 
nonites. B is an air-chamber extending to 
the ground on each side of the furnace. Cold 
air is admitted into this through a hole in the 
bottom of the outside wall. Some introduce 
the cold air through a pipe, but this is not 
necessary; if obtained from the cellar, the 
latter wi,ll be kept well ventilated. D is a 
cast-iron door 20x14 inches. E is the fire-box, 
six feet ten inches by six feet by three feet to 
the center of the arch. F, line of ceiling. G, 
oven on top of arch, with return flues H H. 
This is necessary in moderate weather, as the 
rooms become too warm when the fire is 
strong enough to bake in the beater in the 
dining-room. This heater or “cooker,” is a 
double-walled, sheet-iron baker, the inner 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
tween them. Another pin, near the land-side, 
will prevent the turning of the shoe. 
A VINE CUTTER. 
Friend, G. E, Tyler, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, 
is a grower of small fruits, and having only 
one arm, he couldn't use trimming shears in 
cutting out old canes of blackberries and rasp- 
df berries, so he de- 
vised the tool illus- 
trated at Fig. 156. 
The cut fully ex- 
plains the nature 
of the implement, 
nv which any black- 
smith can form out 
vx of an old file or 
Fig. 156. other hand y P iece> 
of old iron. Strips 
of leather may be tacked on the handle to keep 
the band from slipping. In using it a person 
can stand upright and do the work with the 
greatest ease. 
