320 
breadth of the leaves, and—what is of special 
importance—the color of the leaf. There is some¬ 
thing remarkably beautiful in the color of the 
leaf of a corn plant when abundantly supplied 
with ammonia or nitrates; but while we find 
that the application of nitrogen—as ammonia 
or nitrates—influences the color of the maize, 
as well as that of all our other grain crops, we 
do not find that these manures influence in any 
marked degree the color of the leaves of legu¬ 
minous plants. 
We have 12 to 14 leguminous crops growing 
in one field. Part of these are manured with 
salts of ammonia and uitrates, but as no one 
going over the experiments would bo able to 
distinguish where these manures had been ap¬ 
plied, I cannot admit that corn and legumin¬ 
ous plants have properties in common in regard 
to the sources of their nitrogen. It appears to 
me that all the evidence points to nitric acid 
as being the source of the nitrogen of coni, 
and the only way to disprove this would be by 
growing continuously very large crops of corn 
by means of mineral manures alone. 
Rothamsted, England, April 20, 1886, 
the others of this class. But there are some 
exceptions which we cannot control, and must 
let Beurr6 Gris, DoyenntS Gris, with some few 
others of a similar character, stand as they 
are. But if any one desires to retain the in¬ 
decent and ridiculous names which some of 
our fruits now bear, out of respect to orthog¬ 
raphy or antiquity, let him do so; but let us 
no longer cumber or disgrace our catalogues 
by a continuance of them, “old digger.” 
We hear a great deal of the merits of the 
production from those interested in the man¬ 
ufacture and sale of bogus butter. They 
claim that it is as healthy as the best butter 
and much more palatable than a large part of 
the “rancid stuff” sold by grocers. Why, 
then, hasn’t one of them come boldly mto the 
market with this “healthy, superior product” 
in its natural state., and sold it for what it is 
on its own merits? Had this been done from 
the outset, dairymen might have been injured 
by the Competition, but they would certainly 
have had no just cause to clamor for repressive 
legislation. Had it been offered for sale for 
what it really is, and in such a guise that no 
purchaser or consumer could be defrauded in 
obtaining or using it, who can for a moment 
think that the present outcry would be raised, 
not only from one end of this country to an¬ 
other, but in every other nation where the 
fraudulent concoction has been palmed off on 
the public for genuine dairy butter, and this 
has been done from first to last wherever it has 
been offered for sale. 
The processes for making the concoction are 
patented, and there is no secret about its 
preparation. The principal manufactories in 
this country are cleanly, and pains are taken 
to deodorize the product, and get rid of all 
disagreeable tastes and smells; but, at the 
best, a discussion of the manufacture is not a 
pleasant theme for those troubled with squam- 
ish stomachs. We are constantly referred to 
the unexceptionable products of the large,clean 
manufactories; but which of the friends of the 
concoction ever refers to the multitude of little 
dark, filthy holes wherein all sorts of foul, 
rancid, deleterious fats from all kinds of ani¬ 
mals are manipulated by frowzy, dirty work¬ 
men to produce an article that can lie sold for 
a price as much under that asked for prime 
oleomargarine as the latter is under that for 
which good genuine butter can be'offered? 
The fact is that little, if any of the stuff 
could be sold for table use were it duly label¬ 
ed, aud were the entire operation legibly print¬ 
ed on the inclosing package, A little cream or 
butter is stirred into it to give it a batter flavor 
and aunatto is used to give it a butter color, 
simply to enable the dealers to sell it for genu¬ 
ine butter. The manufacturers, big and little, 
are aiding in this fraud. They are turuing 
out an article made of common fat from the 
carcasses of dead animals, compounded with 
gastric juice “made from macerating the 
stomach if a sheep or pig," and coloring and 
flavoring it to imitate butter, with the sole 
object of enabling dealers to i in pose on the 
public. Hotel and boarding-house keepers, 
and other large purchasers may know what 
they buy; but these, for gain, dishonestly 
pahu it off as genuiue butter on the consumers. 
Even if the manufacturer sells the dealer 
every pound of it for exactly what it is, he has 
made it for a fraudulent purpose, and knows 
that the consumer will be cheated, and is 
therefore morally as guilty as if he had stamp¬ 
ed on every package of it “Bure Orange 
County Butter” and peddled it as such at his 
own door. The truth is that if the elements of 
fraud were eliminated, the entire business 
would collapse. Away, therefore with all the 
talk about persecuting the manufacturers of 
a healthy product from the fat of dead ani¬ 
mals “with a view of destroying an important 
American industry.” If the manufacturers 
were to leave out from their dead animal fat, 
only what is added purposely to cheat the con¬ 
sumer, they might fry out every dead carcass 
from Canada to the Gulf, apply to it all the 
gastric juice found in the stomachs of all the 
dead pigs in the country, and however large 
the sale they might obtain for their pale pro¬ 
duct, the clamor for anti-oleo legislation would 
be reduced to a growl from a few still dis¬ 
gruntled dairymen, aud a murium- from the 
many sanitarians who might fear ill-effects 
from a product into the composition of which 
so many unwholesome substances might enter 
without much risk of detection. 
in California, for all purposes. It is fine for 
marketing—red, with yellow flesh, tender, 
juicy, large, a long keeper (till March), and 
very late to put forth blossoms. At this date, 
April 9, a month after other sorts begau to 
blossom, the Wagner shows no signs of life in 
its branches. They are apparently as dead as 
last year’s brush. For all regions subject to 
late spring frosts this habit renders the tree a 
sure bearer, and invaluable. Grafting may 
be done without hesitation, by transferring 
the same day from the Wagner iuto another 
tree. This is my experience. Try it. 
Cloverdale, Cal. J- b. a. 
A NEAT PEA TRELLIS. 
Friend L. H. Turney, Fairfield |County, 
Conn., says with regard to the pea trellis il¬ 
lustrated at Fig. 211, that it is made of two- 
inch-mesh wire netting. Two 12-inch strips 
are used four inches apart aud eight inches 
from the ground, so that the top is 36 inches 
high. The 12-iuch width is preferred sim¬ 
ply because it is cheaper than meshes of 
originator to name his origination; but, 
nevertheless, the Society declares that if an 
objectionable name be bestowed, it will refuse 
to recognize or consider the same until the 
objectionable feature shall he abated.” 
Possibly any cultivator who might happen 
to raise the finest fruit of any kind—apple, 
pear, grape or strawberry—ever produced, 
would not care a fig what a pomologieal or auy 
other society might declare about the matter. 
It is the great public he wishes to reach, and 
though he certainly would hope to have the 
good wishes of such an association, designed to 
promote pomologieal information, it would 
in no way be essential to, or detract in any 
way from the importance and excellence of 
the variety. Neither coercion, prohibition 
nor boycotting will avail much in such a case. 
If Mr. Lyon rightly interprets the declaration 
of the American Pomologieal Society to be 
what he says, we can only regret any such 
action. 
In the article alluded to by Mr. Lyou, I 
stated distinctly that the remarks of the Presi¬ 
dent of the Society represented precisely my 
owti views, so far as the recommendation to 
adopt only plain, characteristic or appropriate 
names. That was all we could do. There is 
not aud could not be auy law to prevent any 
originator of a new fruit from giving it a 
name, no more than for denying him the right 
to name his own children. 
But it was not in regard to the future but 
to the past, that I object to these “new’’ 
names, and not because of any particular 
reverence for them as such; but because of 
the endless confusion the change is likely to 
create. Because Mr. Downing thought the 
Revising Committee “might properly have 
gone even further" in the list of revision, does 
A CONVENIENT SACK-HOLDER. 
For the home-made sack-holder shown at 
Fig. 213. we are indebted to Mr. W. D. Saw¬ 
yer, Weld Co., Colo., who finds it very useful 
where there is only oue to do the work usually 
performed by two. The design is original, 
aud infringes on no known patent. It is made 
jm m of a piece of board, 
t A, 2x8 inches" and 30 
p’.|bn, indies long, and two 
[HIP 1 ! mi pieces of scantling 
• 1x2 inches and 42 
; inches long planed 
I ; smooth. For half 
■ the length of these, 
holes an inch apart 
c are bored large 
euough to admit a 
nail, as seen over C. 
C. Four pieces, B. 
b n B 1 b B B. B., of two-inch 
S/ \ \__ stuff fasten the up- 
f ■ A —f rights C. C. to the 
FN:Y. board A., 17 inches 
Fig. 213. apart, as shown. Two 
pieces 1x2 inches, aud 
10 inches long, and two others 1x2 inches and 
4 inches long, are then nailed together so as to 
leave a hole 1x2 inches in the middle. Into 
each of these drive two headless wrought uails. 
Sharpen these and bend them upwards; put 
these “heads” ou the uprights as shown at D., 
aud in each bore a hole to correspond with 
the holes iu the uprights; insert a nail; hang 
the sack on the nails; and lower or raise the 
“heads” to suit your convenience or the length 
of the sack. 
Fig. 211, 
greater width. A strong stake is set at each 
end of the row of peas, and the wire is then 
drawn taut. He thinks this a decided im¬ 
provement on the old bush method of support¬ 
ing peas, as the crop can be cultivated with a 
minimum of trouble, and picked much more 
easily with this support than with the other. 
THE SOURCE OF NITROGEN IN CORN 
elusion from it in regard to the source of 
nitrogen in com. Inasmuch as it is a plant of 
the same natural order as the other grain 
crops, we might reasonably expect that com 
would derive its food from the same sources, 
subject, however, to the great difference in 
its habit of growth. 
At the present time there is hardly any one 
who doubts that nitric acid—either liberated 
from organic nitrogen existing iu the soil, or 
in manure—is the 
of the nitrogen of wheat, oats 
If these crops were sown at the 
to raise a wagon box. 
The arrangement shown at Fig. 219 is in 
use in a two-story wagon ami light tool shed 
recently built by Mr. G. E. Capel. The shed 
is 16x20 feet with 10-foot posts. Two wagons 
stand side by side, and above them can be put 
away plows, cradles, hoes aud other light 
tools. It frequently happens that it is neces¬ 
sary to change the wagon-bo.v in a great hurry. 
The hands are all busy and there is no help to 
be had. In such a case the design shown in 
_OUT illustration will 
*■ J t " ~ jl be valuable. A 
-Upr "— • : rrr tarred rope is securely 
II Q I fastened to the joists 
III I over both ends of the 
II l I wagon-box. This 
II 1 I rope can be easily 
\l i k 1 "—li I passed down iu a 
\i TOj8w —~— l ]| loop under the end of 
I bPi \K the box and up 
Viim a i wig 1 through a pulley 
Fig. 219. where it will haug 
down within reach. 
A hook is fastened to the end of the rope, 
which, when the box is pulled up, will just 
reach to a ring fastened iu the rope, into 
which the hook is placed. When one end has 
been drawn up, the driver steps to the other 
end and pulls that up by means of a similar 
contrivance. \V"hcu not in use the rope is 
drawu down, so the loop will lie out of the 
as applied directly to it 
main source 
and barley. 
same time, and, further, ripened at tbe Wu 
time as corn, we might expect that they 
would get a larger supply of nitrogen from 
the soil, and so bo less dependent on a supply 
from artificial sources, as it is during the hot 
summer months that the nitrification of the 
soil is most active. The cultivation of corn 
in the States bears a strong resemblance to 
the cultivation of the root crop in this country; 
aud the great increase in the growth of roots 
by the application of phosphates, has given 
rise to the idea that thes%brood-lfeaved plants 
derive much of their nitrogen from the air. 
This idea is not confirmed by our experiments. 
At Rothamsted, in one field under continu¬ 
ous mangels, the land which receives abund¬ 
ance of mineral; manures, but no nitrogen, 
grows five to six tons per acre of roots; but by 
the addition of rape cake, salts of ammonia, 
or nitrate of soda we can grow a crop of 20 to 
30 tons per acre. In the next field, where 
Swede turnips are grown under experiment iu 
an ordinary rotation of crops, once evory four 
years, the crop raauured with superphosphate 
only, rarely exceeds seven tons, while when 
the crop is grown with rape cake and ammonia 
it|will, in a good season, reach 22 tons per acre. 
It is quite useless for me to attempt the 
growth of corn as a crop; but I have grown 
some plants in one of my experimental fields, 
and have satisfied myself that—as regards tbe 
Influence of manures—corn possesses all the 
characteristics of a cereal crop, and none of 
those of a leguminous crop. The effect of 
salts of ammonia, and nitrate of soda, was to 
increase largely the vigor of the plant, the 
AN ANTI—SELF—S UCKING DEVICE. 
A number of our subscribers have written 
us of late that their cows had become addict¬ 
ed to sucking themselves. It has been pro¬ 
posed to apply various bitter preparations to 
the cows’ teats, so that the taste would break 
, off the habit. These 
y\lt - VI N remedies rarely have 
J ^/]) <x |c 1 the desired effect. They 
d“\ \jj /v Jl must be applied every 
fi l — = VirA id day, and there is danger 
Jjf —_ J/jjl of contaminating the 
^ milk. A leather strap 
Fig. 218. fitted with sharp nails, 
fastened around the nose, is effective, but 
the safest treatment after all is to place 
the eow in such a position that she cannot 
reach the teats. A device which will 
work well is shown at Fig. 218. The drawing 
was sent us by Mr. T. II. Staplin, Jefferson 
Co,, N. Y: a is a wooden yoke; e, a leather 
band ; b, is a strap fastened to a at cl, and to 
c again on the other side. 
REFORM IN FRUIT NOMENCLATURE. 
I notice with pleasure the discussions that 
are now going on iu regard to the proper nam¬ 
ing of fruits. The Rural exerts a powerful 
influence, aud I hope it will aid this most im¬ 
portant work so that hereafter we shall have 
no more improper, vulgar or superfluous 
names attached to some of our most beautiful 
fruits. Think of the more than two hundred 
varieties of pears that have Beurr-6 
prefixed to them. How useless the term 
Butter to Diel, Buperfin, Hardy aud most of 
A CHEAP CISTERN. 
The “cheap cistern,” recommended by our 
friend George Pettan, Bauk Co., Wis., is shown 
at Fig. 212. Auy handy number of water- 
ight barrels are arranged alongside of a gut- 
ered and spouted building. The spout dis¬ 
charges the rain-water from the roof iuto the 
first of these, and when this is nearly full a 
tin spout conveys the surplus water to the 
118111111 
