JUNE 42 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A few weeks ago I stated that the prospect 
that we shall ever be able to grow the cabbage 
from leaf cuttings appeared very discourag¬ 
ing. It now looks brighter. Several cuttings 
made in March rooted and formed strong buds 
in less than 30 days. The buds developed very 
rapidly into thrifty plants, far surpassing 
those grown from seed. Although not of an 
early variety, these plants are now more ad¬ 
vanced than any others that we have. In this 
case the slips were taken from the stem leaves 
of a plant that was forming the flower-stalk. 
We fin d that leaves from a plant that is in a 
condition of growth at the time the slips are 
taken, form the bud much sooner than from a 
dormant one. What are the advantages of 
growing the cabbage from cuttings? it may be 
asked. We should be able to keep a valuable 
strain with greater certainty than we can now 
do. The grower would be able to select bis 
own beads and secure a crop from them the 
next season, without the necessity of waiting 
a whole year to raise Ills seed. The danger of 
cross-fertilization would 1m? removed, etc. It 
is evident that we must be able to utilize the 
whole head for slips, before this method of 
propagation can be made practical to the 
market gardener. I think there is some hope 
that we may yet be able to do this. 
* * v 
All are familiar with the common garden 
sage, and most of us with that beautiful flow¬ 
ering plant, the Scarlet Salvia, which is a 
member of the same family. Besides the lat¬ 
ter, we have grown two other plants of this 
family, that have been much admired by the 
curious. One is the Silver-leafed Sage, (Salvia 
argontea) which is conspicuous in the garden, 
from its very large, whitish, downy leaves, 
which lie almost flat upon the ground. These 
are often eight or ten inches in length when 
full-grown, and are among the first to appear 
it Spring, coming up almost as early as those 
of the rhubarb. They are covered on the 
upper surface with a long, white down, which 
gives them a striking appearance. I think 
this plant might be used with good effect for a 
perennial border in the background. It is 
readily grown from seeds 
* * * 
The other plant is the Purple Sage, (Salvia 
horminum) and is interesting from the fact 
that the leaves of the floral stem are of a 
bright purple. The lower leaves are not 
strikingly different, from those of the common 
sage, but at the time of blooming the highly 
colored stem leaves give the plant a very at¬ 
tractive appearance. There is a variety in 
which the stem reaves are pink. 
* * * 
The past Winter the plants of Early Har¬ 
vest. Brunton's Early and Crystal White 
Blackberries were frozen down to the snow 
line. Ten other varieties remained uninjured. 
The raspberries came through all right., but 
young [teach trees suffered a terrible mortali¬ 
ty, nearly all being destroyed. Apricots and 
nectarines fared a little better, but were 
badly injured. e. s. gokk. 
Geneva, N. Y. 
- £axm topics. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
No amount of talk could induce me to have 
a farm horse shod excopt for work on icy 
roads. In my experience, unshod horses on 
the farm are much better off. It seems to me 
that most of those who advocate horse shoe¬ 
ing see nothing but. heavy cart horses walking 
over stone pavements. We do not want the 
largest horses for our work; animals from 
1,100 to 1,800 will do. All the larger horses 
can l»e sold to much better advantage for 
work in the pine woods, or for draught horses 
in the cities. We never think of keeping these 
great elephants for our own use. If the 
broncho could only get rid of bis temper and 
ugliness he would make a good foundation for 
the farm hoise, as he is as tough as a whip. 
His temper bars him out. It will be hard to 
beat the Cleveland Bay. Of the large horses 
I do not want more than one-fourth pure 
blood. d. w. D. 
Des Moines Co., Iowa. 
My man and I have put up eight miles of 
wire fence this Spring. We can make the 
holes and drive 250 posts per day over these 
flint hills. I took a tumbling rod of an old 
thrasher, and had the blacksmith cut feet 
off and weld a piece of steel six inches long at 
each end. One end was drawn out to a j>oint 
aud the other left flat. To make the holes, 
drive the pointed end into the ground aud 
then work the top around. To unreel the wire 
we take two poles 10 feet long, strong enough 
to bear up 200 pounds each. Four inches from 
the end two good-sized boles are bored. Pins 
are put in these placed over hind bolster of 
wagon, under bed. Two feet from these holes 
two others are bored to piu on a cross-bar that, 
shall hold the poles the right distance apart 
to enable two spools to roll easily between 
them. Two feet further back 10 more holes 
arc to hold pins six inches long. Two spools 
of wire are placed on the post, bar so that the 
wire will unwind from the underside of the 
spools, and put in frout of the last set of pins. 
The s|xx)I nearest the fence is fastened for the 
top wire aud the other for the lower wire. 
With a wide-tired wagon three spools can tie 
used at one time. In this way the team is 
made to do work that would otherwise call for 
much hard hand labor. w. L. B. N. 
Chase Co., Kans. 
My experience on a poor farm teaches me 
that sheep and clover are the best agents to 
put at work. Iu the East I would add poultry 
and fertilizers. I can’t say too much In favor 
of Red Clover jus a natural fertilizer. It makes 
the best hay for cattle and sheep and the best 
of pasture, it improves the laud and you can 
plow under the second crop and thus get the 
cheapest and best of manure., I don't see any 
sense in this talk about poor soil at the East. 
Fertilizers are cheap enough to enable any 
farmer to get a good catch of clover on the 
poorest soil. Lot me get a good stand of 
clover and I can make over any soil. 
Andrews Co., Mo. e. j. b. 
I sowed two bushels of Welcome Oats. 
They thrashed out, with the machine, 125 
bushels. Oue bushel weighed 44 pounds, mak¬ 
ing, by weight, 171 bushels and 28 pounds. 
The straw was from five to six feet high. I 
measured some heads that were 24 inches long 
and counted 809 grains on one head and 72 
straws from one stool. The Welcome beats 
all the oats I have ever tried. M. V. 0. 
Manton, Mich. 
You have given the “tree peddler’’ fits. I 
found that out when I was iu the business. 
It never hurt me in the and, as it taught me 
to study my work and make uo promises that 
I could not fulfill. Man can often tell what 
he can do himself, but it is hard to go bonds 
for a tree that somebody else is going to 
handle. s. P. o. 
West Luna. Wis. 
In putting down fertilizers at the South we 
use a “horn,” which is very convenient. By 
its means fertilizers can be put down on windy 
days as well as when the wind is quiet. This 
tool can l>e made by any tinner. It is like a 
funnel with pipe about three feet long. The 
top of funnel should be about eight inches 
wide, and the pipe about two inches. A darkie 
will put down guano, with this tool, as fast 
as he can walk, by putting a strap to an old 
guano sack, half turned, and puttiug the strap 
across his right shoulder, letting the sack haug 
by his left side. The horn is held in the left 
hand, and the right hand is used for the guano, 
which is slowly dropped into the horn as it is 
carried along the furrow. When the hand is 
nearly empty, the horn,* must be thrown for¬ 
ward, so as to get another handful and not be 
compelled to stop. I. G. s. 
Burnsville, Ga._ 
There is still money in sheep-raising, and 
there will be more before there is less. Sheep 
are the best farm stock for farms like ours; 
they never tear down fences or stahles, or 
root up gates, but they mind their own busi¬ 
ness. We use the Cotswold. We want a 
sheep that will give us both wool and mutton. 
It is cheaper for us to eat mutton aud sell 
j>ork. The wool from a small flock will nearly 
keep as in groceries. Every farmer on bushy 
or grub land ought to have a flock of sheep by 
all means. We have our lambs come the lat¬ 
ter part of March. The sheep are fed through 
the Winter on clover and Timothy hay, roots 
aud a little grain. After the lambs come we 
give ground feed. If a lamb is chilled we 
never take it away from the sheep if we can 
help it, for it is hard to make her own it again. 
As we make sheep raising only a part of our 
farm work, we don’t have the time to fool 
with lambs much. We generally put the sheep 
and lamb in the warmest corner of the barn 
and beat a block of w<x>d and put it beside the 
lamb. We can generally get them through 
all right. E. K. s. 
Delhi Co., Iowa. 
I find the raising of Angora goats very profit¬ 
able in this part Of the country. They are tough¬ 
er and hurdior than auy breed of sheep I have 
ever handled. I winter my goats in a cellar 
under the barn where the manure is deposited. 
The steam from the inumire piles would kill 
sheep, but the goats do well, and don’t appea r 
to mind it. Salt hay and oat straw formed 
their feed for the Winter, aud they did well. I 
think they prefer coarse fodder, flags and 
brakes, to good hay. In the Bummer they are 
to be found among the sweet furns and bush¬ 
es, instead of the good feed in the pastures. 
They clip about the same amount in mohair 
that sheep do in wool, but the mohair is worth 
from two to three times as much per pound. 
A simple fetter on their legs restrains them as 
it does sheep. There is a great call for breed¬ 
ing stock from all over the counfry, and at 
prices several times greater than those given 
for sheep. We can sell our mohair to a mill 
close at hand. There is not enough of it rais¬ 
ed in the whole country to supply this one 
mill. Tlie ewes are twin-bearers as a rule. 
The goats are very docile and like to be pet¬ 
ted. If allowed to ramble in late Fall or Win¬ 
ter, upon a change of weather they will be 
sure to return to their head-quarters. They 
will stand exposure as well as sheep. They 
can lx? bred in New England just as easily as 
sheep can, aud with much greater profit. 
New London Co., Conn. J. a. b. 
Tree peddlers are swarming all through this 
region and telling all sorts of stories in order 
to sell their goods. An honest tree man has a 
hard time in trying to keep up with these 
nimble-tougued fellows. J. s. H. 
Houston Co., Minn. 
Cut-worms have been very troublesome this 
Spring. They will cut off tomato plauts 
about as fast as I can set them out. About 
the only way 1 have found to keep them in 
check is to put paj>er around the plauts. Any 
common newspajjer will do it. They say salt 
will drive them out, but it doesn’t work with 
me, though perhaps sulphur would do it. 
Potato bugs are unusually plenty. It would 
be a great boon if the hens would eat. these 
bugs, but they don't, do it, at least my hens 
won’t. I am inclined to think turkeys or 
ducks would. Toads are the liest friends of 
the potato grower. The time may come when 
we will have to make a badness of raising 
toads to protect our potatoes. w. H. b. 
Salem Co., N. J. 
FARM NOTES. 
W hatever the theorists or politicians may 
say about bogas butter, the fact remains that 
in our market, it is much easier to sell good but¬ 
ter than it was before the discussion became so 
warm. We can sell all the butter we cau 
make at a fair price, and the more bogus butter 
there is on the market, the closer our custom¬ 
ers appear to stick. I do not see that the 
bogus article cau ever lie male popular, and 
but little of it would be bought, except by the 
poorer classes, if it was uot disguised as butter. 
Our customers tell us that they prefer to pay 
a few cents extra for the sake of knowing 
where their butter comes from. They will 
economize in almost, anything else before they 
will eat oleomargarine. It will not pay us to 
sell to any other class of customers. Unless 
something is done to regulate the sale of oleo¬ 
margarine, there is sure to be a great increase 
in the number of family cows kept near the 
towns and cities. Good thoroughbred or 
grade Jerseys will bo in good demand. The 
fact is that what we call profitable customers 
will not eat oleomargarine, and they will go 
to any reasonable expense or trouble to avoitl 
it._ 
Near slaughter-houses and soap factories, 
farmers can make small fortunes at duck 
raising. A duck is as great a scavenger as a 
hog. Ducks will thrive well on offal and 
daughter-house rofase. It is an all too com¬ 
mon practice to drug the carcass of a horse 
into the yard, cut it up and let the ducks feed 
at it. A few weeks feeding on grain is sup¬ 
posed to “sweeten” the flesh and take away 
the peculiar “meaty” taste. Bmull wonder 
that farmers who depend mainly upon grain 
for duck feed cannot compete in price with 
the large yards. These slaughter-fed ducks 
should come into the same regal’d as slaughter- 
fed hogs and “bull butter.” 
Farmers, as a rule, do not like to feed grain 
in Summer to the cows, and yet, where there 
is anj’ market for butter and milk, it will [my. 
Scientists till us that good green clover is a 
“complete ration.” Not one farmer iu 100, as 
nearly as 1 can see, ever pastures his cows on 
green clover or any other grass that has any¬ 
thing like a‘complete ration.” Most, of our 
pastures are full of grasses that the cattle 
would hardly touch if made iuto hay. With 
such feed we ueed grain to help out the ration. 
Boiling is not half as popular as it should l>e. 
Many farmers have tried feeding very green 
corn and made a bad failure of it, as the stalks 
were soft and without auy substance, and only 
gave the cows the scours. A good field of rye 
or oats will give much hotter satisfaction than 
an equal area of immature corn stalks. Truck 
furmers make the most of soiling when they 
food the stalks of sweet com after the ears 
have boon removed. The stalks then are in 
good condition for feeding. 
The common idea that extra feeding of 
grass or good clover hay iucreuses the milk 
flow, but that it needs an extra feed of grain 
to show an increase in butter, is a sound one 
We have proved it to our complete satisfac¬ 
tion in practical work, and I notice thut many 
careful tests conducted at experiment, stations 
show the same thing. It may be safely put 
down by dairy farmers that if they want more 
butter they must feed grain for it. Scientific 
experiments also appear to eorroboxate the 
common farm dictum that “bran makes milk, 
and meal makes butter.” Many farmers who 
would be hopelessly lost among “carbo¬ 
hydrates” or “album!noides” cau give the 
scientists a lesson in the feeding values of 
grains aud grasses. The fact is that no two 
cows are just alike, aud that, while general 
rales for feeding can be laid down at a dis¬ 
tance, one must come whore the cattle are and 
see and study them in order to get. the best out 
of them. WORKMAN. 
RECENT ROSES TJNPROFESSIONALLY 
CONSIDERED. 
We have suffered from a surfeit of new 
roses of late, due no doubt to the extraordin¬ 
ary “boom” in these plants during the last 
three or four years. Of course, roses always 
have been, and always will be, the favorite 
flower, both with florists aud amateurs, but 
they have never been so prominent as they are 
now. The e.vcr-favorite Jacqueminot certain¬ 
ly did not receive such au ovation when it 
made its debut, as did 
The Wii.i.iam Francis Rennet, much 
advertised its first season as the $5,000 rose. 
The large sum paid by Mr. Evans for this 
stock caused much comment at the time, Vic¬ 
ing apparently unparalleled in rose culture. 
Looking at. the. subsequent success of the rose, 
it may be regarded as a prudent investment. 
The Brunet is certainly a charming rose iu 
every respect; its velvety crimson is richness 
in itself, and the long petals make it a pecul¬ 
iarly graceful bud. It is, however, at its best 
when half-opened. If the plant is at all sickly 5 
it is apt to be most aggravatingly semi-double; 
but well-grown, it is all that cau be desired in 
its class. The success of the Rennet recalls 
the high hopes raised a few years since by 
Andre Schwartz, much heralded as the 
“Tea Jack.” The lithographs of it were 
charming—such shapely flowers of such glow¬ 
ing hue—but when 1 persuaded it to bloom, it 
displayed a tiny flower, in color a cross be¬ 
tween dingy ecru and dirty pink. Perhaps I 
lmd failed to gain its confidence, but it declined 
to retrieve its lost character in auy way, so I 
relegated it to the horticultural shades, with a 
feeling of deep but silent disgust. 
American Beauty followed the Rennet as 
a horticultural sensation. Perhaps it was a 
spirit of international emulation, but our 
native belle seemed determined to follow the 
English flower’s successes very closely. -The 
original holders of it. wove a very graceful 
little mystery about its production, but we 
know now that it was raised from seed by a 
famous amateur rosarian, who gave the origi¬ 
nal stock to its Washington holders. The 
Beauty possesses one great advantage—the 
perfume is simply delicious. But the shape of 
the flower is not particularly graceful, beiug 
rather of the pickling cabbage style, and the 
color is a very ordinary, every-day rose-pink. 
We can scarcely say that it has lieeu tested 
yet, and if, as claimed, it flowers outside late 
in the season when other hybrids are over, it 
will doubtless be of value to the florist. It is 
also expected to bloom under gluss much car¬ 
der than others of its class, so here again it 
possesses a great advantage. Without these 
qualities it would lie merely an every-day 
hybrid, though its delicious fragrance must 
ever lie a distinguishing trait. 
Her Majesty, the most recent sensation 
among hybrids, in point of size must certain¬ 
ly bear the palm. It is a cross between Mabel 
Morrison and Tea-scented Canary. The color 
is light rose, almost identical with Baroness 
Rothschild. Unfortunately, it is almost, if 
not quite scentless, and this together with its 
size and color, reminds us of the great pieon- 
ies beloved of our grandmothers. It recalls 
the prize strawberries we see, immense in size 
and glowing iu color, but forcibly reminding 
us of a turnip os far as flavor is Concerned. 
The first of these roses viewed by the writer 
was 19 % inches in circumference, hut it hud a 
distinctly careworn aspect, having been open 
for 11 day’s. Later specimens confirmed the 
first impressions. It is a great rose as far us 
size and vigor are concerned, but its want of 
fragrance will always be a disappointment, 
since that property is a special charm we al¬ 
ways look for in this flower. We have two 
new whites to admire: 
Mkrvu,ijc dk Lvon and the Bride.— 
The first is a magnificent hybrid of tho 
Mabel Morrison tyj>o and may be describ¬ 
ed as like the Morrison, only more so; it is 
much fuller and larger. The Bride shows 
the graceful shape uud vigorous constitution 
of its parent, Catherine Mermet. It has the 
size of Cornelia Cook without its tendency to 
