than most of the Northern States, where the 
bulk of the sheep in the country are found. 
Florida is better still for the business. True, 
few sheep are as yet kept in the State, and 
these just grow up without being “raised:” 
but numerous small flocks attest the fact that, 
the climate and feed are well adapted to sheep 
and that with proper care they will do well. 
In this part of the State there is considerable 
rolling, hilly ground, which is well covered 
with the different varieties of native grasses. 
Bermuda and St. Augustine Grasses are easily 
set ont and have rare “staying qualities ” 
The Bermuda is the best pasture grass in the 
South. The vast numbers of worthless dogs 
that roam about here hurt the sheep business 
more than anything else. There are also a 
few wild cate left. Bears and wolves have 
mostly been driven away. The Southern 
people don’t pet their stock enough to have 
them do well—except the saddle or carriage 
horses. One reason for this comes out in the 
story told of the Texas man who entered a 
hog at the St. Louis fair. They asked him 
what ring he wanted to enter and he replied 
the speed ring. As it was not usual to expect 
speed in a hog, the secretary asked for an ex¬ 
planation. Texas thought they did not un¬ 
derstand how matters stood at his home. 
Down where lie lived a hog that could not 
outrun a darkie was not worth a cent. This 
may be why so many of our cows, sheep and 
hogs are traiued for speed. J. M. M. 
Clay Co., Fla. 
I have never been satisfied that there is 
such a gain for small farmers in using corn 
planters. I always plant my corn in the 
good old way—with a hoe. I know then just 
how it is put in, and I find I have less re* 
planting to do. It pays to “make haste 
slowly” in these times. J. H. B. 
Cass Co., Mich. 
I had good luck at gettiug subscribers for 
the Rural this year, and here is the secret of 
my success. Three years ago I bought a fine 
Holstein bull calf. This year I oftered his 
services free for one cow to all who would sub¬ 
scribe for the Rural. This has worked well 
in every way. Farmers were glad to take the 
chance and I got a good club at little expense 
to me. We shall improve the cattle about 
here and drive the scrubs out. H. B. 
Saginaw Co., Mich. 
I have in my store window what I call a 
great curiosity. Last Summer I took up a 
tomato plant with some green tomatoes on it, 
put in a box and placed in the window. In 
October I picked 11 ripe tomatoes from it, in 
November three, in December three, in Janu¬ 
ary one, in February two, in March 10, in 
April two, aud now there are two ripe ones 
and over 30 green ones and lots of blossoms. 
I use a coal stove, and the fire never goes out 
in the Winter. 1 am now satisfied that it. will 
keep on bearing just as long as I water and 
tend it. The seed was first put into the ground 
in April, 1885. My windows are also ga 3 r with 
petunias, snapdragons aud verbenas. They 
have been in continual blossom ever since 
June, 1885. 
Gallatin Co., Mont. B. p. van h. 
We have some fine Holland calves that were 
raised “under glass.” Our “forcing pit” is a 
shed, the back half having a shingle roof un¬ 
der which is a row of pens for the calves. The 
front is of glass, under which is a hot-air flue, 
utilized to forward some of the more common 
spring flowers and, later, for young chickens. 
The calves are taken from their dams at one 
or two days old aud put into this “forcing pit,” 
where the sun bath seems to do them lots of 
good. We do not notice that calves treated In 
this way are less hardy in after years. Roses 
propagated in this pit years ago show no signs 
of constitutional weakness. Running a 300- 
egg incubator we fouud this pit a very con¬ 
venient “brooder.” The broilers sold well in 
New York, and the pullets commenced laying 
in August and kept, on through the Winter 
with no tarred paper protection to their quar¬ 
ters. Our experience with plants and animals 
is that early “hardening off ” is not the way to 
get best results. We never tried raising a 
good calf on the south side of the straw stack, 
and have observed that a check of one week in 
the first four of a calf’s fife is not made up at 
three months. 
SteltiOh, N. J. G. W. THOMPSON & SON. 
Western visitors always wonder why we 
keep the Chester White hogs in this country. 
They say they never can make a white bog 
pay in the West, but want the Berksliires, 
Poland Chinas,and other blacks. They say the 
black soil rdakes white hogs sick and that any¬ 
way a white hog is not so hardy as a black. 
We have tried everything in this section and 
have fully decided that for our use the Ches¬ 
ter White is by far the best. We have to 
make every ounee count in our farming, and 
if any other hog would pay us better, we would 
soon find it out. Feed is of the utmost im¬ 
portance with us. Milk for young hogs up 
to four months with a little corn now and 
then. Wheat middlings make a good feed 
where milk is not plentiful. Feed apples, 
potatoes or anything that would taste good to 
yourself. Hogs need a good grass pasture in 
Summer and plenty of Imy in Winter. Food 
them your best hay in racks. The Chester 
White needs good food while it is young, in 
order to put on a good frame. When this 
frame is large enough, corn and a little cotton¬ 
seed meal will quickly put on the fat. 
Charlotte, Vt. C. w. F. 
The Rural states, in the Poultry Special, 
that 13 Leghorns eggs weighed 30 ounces, 13 
W 3 r andottes eggs 34 ounces, while 7 Laugshans 
eggs weighed one pound. I took 13 of my 
hens’ eggs just as they earn©—the largest I had 
broken the da 3 r before to convince a friend 
that they were not double yelked—and the 13 
weighed just 35 ounces, and one dozen weighed 
two pounds. Isn’t this a little extra? M 3 r 
hens are of my own raising—common mixed 
stock, with most Light Brahma blood. 
Moodus, Conn. A. E. w. 
Treat the hogs gently. Talk to them. 
Get a cuny-comb and smooth their backs with 
it. This will make them quiet and they will 
thrive better for it. Never allow dogs near 
them on any account. Coal cinders or char¬ 
coal should always be kept near them. Chol¬ 
era will never come where hogs are well cared 
for. If they get lousy rub them with coal oik 
Meat of any kmd is always good for hogs. It 
is best to boil it aud mix it with their slop. 
Woodson Co., Kans. MRS. E. N. 
Experience with Ensilage.— A writer in 
the N. E. Farmer gives his three years’ expe¬ 
rience with the silo. The editor indorses him 
as one of the most careful observers and accu¬ 
rate experimenters in New England—one who 
is not led astray by excitement or influenced 
ly prejudice. He has fed silage made from 
sweet corn fodder during the last three Win¬ 
ters. Most of the time when feeding silage 
he has used it as the entire fodder ration of 
the cows, giving to each one bushel night and 
morning, immediate^ after milking. Two 
bushels would weigh from 50 to HO pounds. 
With this ration he gives from 0 to 12 pounds, 
pier day, of a mixture of equal parts by weight 
of cotton-seed meal, bran and corn meal. He 
has never seen aiy injurious effects from feed¬ 
ing silage either to the cattle fed or to the 
daily products. Most of the milk produced 
has been sold, and he has been told that it has 
given as good satisfaction as any milk. He 
has usuall 3 r made enough butter to supply his 
family. His chief reason for so doing hits been 
the difficulty of purchasing as good butter as 
he could make. No one lias complained that 
his dairy products partake of the disagreeable 
odor or flavor of silage so often alluded to by 
some writers. I-Ie thinks when such taint is 
found it is caused by careless exposure of the 
cooled milk to the fumes of silage, which will 
always pervade the stable at feeding time, aud 
to some extent at all times. He does not be¬ 
lieve the taint is inipiarted along with the se¬ 
cretion of milk. 
About the economy of feeding silage, though 
he believes it is a considerable saving in many 
cases, he is not as enthusiastic as many of the 
advocates of the silo of the Dr. Bailey order. 
He does not think he would construct a silo 
for preserving any other crop except corn fod¬ 
der. Corn fodder is so coarse that it dries very 
slowly, aud it is difficult to so cure it as to keep 
it in good condition. If it is dried sufficiently 
to keep) when packed away in the barn, it will 
be found to contain so little of the saccharine 
matter abundant in its green state, that the 
taste cannot detect it. Just what becomes of 
the sweetness he does not know. Whatever 
the cause, it is a fact that cattle do not readily 
eat over-dry corn fodder. When packed away 
in a silo in the green state, such fodder will 
keep without drying, though it will take on a 
considerable degree of acidity. A part of the 
sugar will be changed into vinegar. Perhaps 
its food value is to some extent decreased by 
this change, but he thinks to a less degree than 
in the process of drying. 
Though he has generally fed silage without 
Other fodder except grain, he does not think 
that is the best way to get the largest returns 
from the cows. He thinks one feed per day of 
silage and one of dry fodder is quite as well. 
If good clover ba>’ or rowen is used for one 
feed, tho returns will be better than when 
silage alone is fed. When he changed from 
feeding silage to feeding good upland hay 
only, there was no increase in the flow of 
milk, the grain ration remaining unchanged. 
The cost of feed was largely increased. 
He cuts the fodder about one inch in length, 
but thinks 1V$ or two inches long would be as 
well. He thinks there is no necessity for hur- 
lying when filling the silo, but it ought not to 
rest more than a day or two without adding a 
foot or two of freshly cut fodder to the sur¬ 
face until the silo is full. Then it should be 
covered and weighted 50 to 100 pounds to tho 
square foot of surface. He uses loam or sand, 
believing it better than stones, as it. excludes 
the air better. In constructing a silo he would 
recommend as great a depth as cun be easily 
obtained without ouusing too much labor in 
filling and emptying. For feeding a herd of 
not more than 30 cows he would choose to 
have the silo 12 to 15 feet wide, and any length 
to get the room wanted. Then when using he 
would uncover at one end to expose about five 
square feet of surface for each cow being fed, 
aud when that was used to the bottom he 
would uncover another strip. 
His silo walls arc in part cement and partly 
matched boards one inch thick. The silage is 
quite as well pi reserved next Die wood as next 
the cement. Wooden walls are much cheaper 
for all that piortion constructed above ground. 
It is ver 3 ' important that the walls should be 
of a true surface and perfectly plumb, and the 
perpendicular corners should be tilled in about 
as much as would be done by using a 13-inch 
plank, beveling the edges to fit each side 
when the plank is set up endwise in the corner. 
The cost of silage compared with other fod¬ 
ders will depend upon circumstances. To a 
farmer growing sweet corn for canning, he 
thinks the silo is a greater help than to most 
others. The ears are removed while yet the 
stalk is in its best condition to make fodder, 
either silage or drj\ An acre of such corn 
will make from six to ten tons of silage, and 
three tons of such silage will equal in feeding 
value one ton of good hay. In such circum¬ 
stances it will be readil 3 r seen that corn fodder 
silage will be found a cheaper feed than hay. 
When preserved in this way it retains its food 
value and palatability through the whole sea¬ 
son. If the corn is grown for fodder only, 
the yield ought to average nearly 15 tons to 
the acre, aud be more valuable ton for ton, 
when the ears have been removed, if both are 
weighed when containing an equal proportion 
of moisture. 
The average cost pier ton of curing silage 
will be not far from $1.00. If the fields are 
convenient, to the barn and large quantities 
are handled, it may not cost so mueh; aud if 
only small quantities are put in, it will prob¬ 
ably exceed that sum. There has been con¬ 
siderable written about the comparative ad¬ 
vantage of putting the fodder into the silo 
whole and cutting it before packing. The first 
season he thinks he hired it cut; the second 
season not finding it convenient to cut it, he 
packed the whole, la 3 'ing it as straight as 
practicable. Last season he cut it again. He 
thinks it keeps about equals well either way, 
but the silo will hold about one-quarter more 
when cut. When packed uncut it was con¬ 
siderable work of a hard aud disagreeable 
kind to take it out for feeding; and though 
the cows rejected very little they did not eat 
it wholly, as they do when cut. 
Remedy for Apple Bark Lice.— Prof A. 
J. Cook says soft soap, or a strong solution of 
the same, will surely vanquish the apple tree 
bark or scale louse if it is applied in early J uue 
and again three weeks later. To appily this 
specific he knows of no better way than to use 
a cloth aud scrub by hand. To be sure we 
can, if dainty, use a brush like a shoe-brush, 
but he likes to go at it with a good cloth, when, 
with sleeves rolled up, he makes pretty sure 
that no louse escajies. 
For the past few weeks he has changed the 
substance by adding crude carbolic acid, 
which he thinks improves it, especially if but 
one application is to be made; and we know 
that at this busy season the second application 
is apt to be neglected. 
He heats to the boiling point one quart of 
soft-soap to two gallons of water, and while 
still hot thoroughly stirs in one pint of crude 
carbolic acid. This may be applied as before. 
This carbolic acid mixture retains its virtue, 
he thinks, longer than does tho soap alone, and 
so it is especially desirable when but one appli¬ 
cation is to be made as descrilied above. 
Like the arson itee, so the carbolic acid and 
soap mixture is of triple value. Not only does 
it kill the dreuded lice, but it also keeps off the 
dreaded borers, which arc also serious pests in 
the orchards. 
PITHS AND SUGGESTIONS. 
The ash of corn cobs, according to the late 
report of the Mass. Ag. Ex. Station, contains, 
in round numbers, two per cent, of lime, five 
per cent of magnesia, (50 of potassium, and nine 
of phosphoric acid. But various kinds dif¬ 
fered notably in composition. The phosphoric 
♦ 
acid varied from 10 to five per cent; the potash 
from (55 to 60, etc. 
The Top-over Corn consisted of 83 per cent, 
of kernels and only 17 of cob. The average 
length of ear was niue inches aud the weight 
6.8 ounces... 
T. B, Terry finds his horse manure in the 
best shape this Spring that he has ever known 
it to lie in. The stables were never cleaned 
out all Winter long. The horses were wintered 
in warm pens or sheds, allowing about 200 
square feet to each horse. One gentle pair 
were put together while the others were put 
into separate places. There lxo ng little work 
for tho horses, they were wintered on hay 
alone. Straw was thrown freely in whenever 
it was needed to keep the surface dry and 
clean, aud the manure was kept leveled down. 
The horses look better now than they would if 
they bad been kept standing in a stall all Win¬ 
ter. The work in earing for them was re¬ 
duced to the lowest limit. The floor was tight 
and thus all the liquid manure was saved with 
the rest. The manure did not heat at all, it 
was kept solidly packed by the feet of the 
horses and retained its moisture. It was 
spread with the manure spreader in good 
shape.... . .. .. 
Mi*. Terry says the manure spreader is more 
injured than any other tool by getting wet. 
It should be put in the barn every night, and 
before it rains, and kept well oiled. When 
rightly treated it is a most useful tool, because 
it saves labor, aud puts on the manure in much 
better shape than hand work can ever handle 
it..... 
Puck is of the opinion that the friends of the 
working-iuau are making it somewhat hard 
for the working-man to live now-a-days. They 
are holding a high revel, and the working¬ 
man is pa> r iug for it; the} r have taught him 
the use of the brutal, unreasonable, un-Ameri¬ 
can boycott, which will semi hundreds of hon¬ 
est, misguided men to prison before it dies the 
death which is appointed for it. 
The men who pretend to be the working* 
man’s friends are not so; neither are they the 
friends of anything but their own interests. 
Working-men have every right which is pos¬ 
sessed by auy law-abiding citizen of the 
United States. The President himself has not, 
as a citizen, one right that the working-man 
does not share... 
Of course, there are heartless money-grab¬ 
bers, and monoiiolists who will impose on 
workiug-men whenever they get a chance. 
But they are as much the enemies of the rest 
of the public as they are of the so-called work¬ 
ing man. They are enemies of society—just 
as thieves and murderers are enemies of socie- 
ety... 
Ed. Cueever of the N. E. Farmer says that 
the character of tho Jersey cow has been sadly 
injured in public estimation by the course too 
often pursued by breeders in saving every calf 
that has a pedigree, regardless of other qual¬ 
ifications. It has come to be a common sa 3 r - 
ing with some of our best breeders that more 
than one-half the Jerse 3 r s now in the country 
ought to have been sold for veal before they 
were six weeks old....... 
According to the last report of the Mass. 
State Ag. Station, Kentucky tobacco stems 
ground contained 2’J per cent, of nitrogen 
und nearly nine per ceut. of potassium oxide. 
They also contained 1,4 of magnesium, 3.7 of 
lime and nearly one per cent of phosphoric 
acid. Thus they are a valuable fertilizer. 
Their trade value is $15.50 per ton... 
The various kinds of roots usually raised on 
farms for feeding purposes, differ essentially 
in regard to the amount of diy vegetable mat¬ 
ter they contain. Turnips contain from 7 to 
8 percent.; ordinary mangolds from 11 to 12 
per cent.; improved varieties of beet roots, 
like Lane’s, from 15 to 10 per ceut.; good car¬ 
rots from 15 to 16 per ceut.; a good sugar 
beet from 18 to 20 per cent, of solids; or in 
other words, one ton of an improved variety 
of ordinary sugar beets is equal to from two 
to two-and-one-half tons of ordinary turnips, 
as far as the amount of dry vegetable matter 
is concerned..... 
The Post sa 3 *s that the public are beginning 
to realize there is danger of the total destruc¬ 
tion of small birds to satisfy the demands of 
an odious trade founded upon a worse than 
barbarous fashion. 
There are lots of difference In hired men; 
Die good ones are not paid enough, aud the 
poor ones are paid too much, says a writer in 
tho N. Y. Tribune..... 
O. S, Bliss says, in the same paper, that tho 
summer eggs produced by careless and indif¬ 
ferent farmers m the remote country districts 
are gathered up aud preserved to be pushed 
upon the winter markets at prices only a few 
cents below thoso of fresh eggs, often not 
nearly as much as the actual difference in 
value, allowing the old ones to be entirely 
sound, which they often ore not. Well-in- 
