owner, says the American Dairyman. She 
gets all the petting. Her milk is set in a 
separate place for family use. When she has 
a calf, everybody must go out to see it. She 
has a refining influence in the family. Strange 
that a man must be taught manners by a 
cow.*. •*•--* 
Somebody having invented a milking stool 
that, shuts up when the cow kicks, the Norris¬ 
town Herald suggests that it is now in order 
to produce a milker who will shut up when 
the cow kicks.. 
Du. Hoskins says that the eyes of any Ver¬ 
monter can daily confirm the tact that the 
Morgan blood has not “gone.” The perpetu¬ 
ation of the Morgan horse is merely a question 
of public demand. Of late Morgans true to 
type seem to be on the Increase... 
The N. E. Fanner states that in many Now 
England manufacturing villages, some of the 
poorest paid operatives use large quantities of 
lard instead of butter. It is spread on the 
bread the same as butter, and then sprinkled 
with salt..*. 
England is troubled, not only with bogus 
butter, but with bogus meat. Largo quanti¬ 
ties of imported beef are sold as prune English 
beef. The Government will take measures to 
stop the practice. 
Prof. James Long has fully satisfied him¬ 
self that a butter-making dairy farmer is doing 
himself great injustice in using the old prac¬ 
tice of skimming whon he could secure a sepa¬ 
rator. From 609 pounds of Shorthorn milk 
passed through a separator he secured 36 
pounds of butter, or one pound for every 16.5 
pounds of milk. From 274 pounds of Jersey 
milk, set in shallow pans, he obtained 9% 
pounds of butter, or one pound to every 29.6 
pounds of milk. It is generally admitted that 
skim-milk from the separator is decidedly 
thinner in quality than that from the pans.... 
Sheet-washing is coming to he less prac¬ 
ticed in this country than ever before. Many 
good sheep men have abandoned the practice, 
and many of our agricultural papers are out¬ 
spoken against, it. The National Live Stock 
Journal, among other arguments against it, 
says the sheep themselves, could they speak, 
would vote unanimously against the practice. 
To this English sheep men reply that this lat¬ 
ter argument is entitled to as much as, and no 
more, consideration than the objections of a 
dirty l>oy when he is about to be washed in a 
tub. The washing does the boy good, and, if 
done at the proper time, the sheep is helped by 
it. • .. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.—LIV. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Through the Willamette Valley; Eugene; 
Oregon fossils; immigration fever; the 
Umpqua Valley; Roseburg; Rogue River 
Valley; Oregon hotels; Ashland, 
In continuing our journey southward from 
Portland, we traversed by rail the same route 
through the Willamette Valley that we passed 
over about a year ago, but being nearly a 
month later in the season, and the weather 
perfectly clear, the scenery was considerably 
finer, the autumnal color lxdng more intensi¬ 
fied. I doubt if there is a more charming 
valley in the world in point of natural beauty, 
and it is large enough for many, many times 
its present population, which is scattered over 
too largo farms, and ignores to a painful de¬ 
gree the value of attractive home surround¬ 
ings. We had been told at the headquarters 
of the Oregon and California Railroad, over 
which we rode in this valley, that if we de¬ 
sired to see the entire route through to Ash¬ 
land—the present terminus of the road—a 
point 10 to 20 miles from the line dividing 
Oregon and California, by daylight, we could 
do so by riding in a freight train from Rose- 
burg, and that such a train with a passenger 
coach attached, went over the road once every 
four days; so in leaving Portland we arranged 
our trip to meet this train, but on our way we 
learned bv a telegram that the train would 
not move for four days later, which left us 
with that much time to dispose of, and we 
concluded to stop at Eugene and see Professor 
Condon, of the State University, to whom we 
had an introductory letter. 
Eugene, to my mind, iB the prettiest town 
in the valley in point of location and sur¬ 
roundings, and Oregonians themselves take 
pride in Eugene, and call it “nice.” Because 
of the State University being here, many 
farmers and others have mode it their home 
for the purpose of educating their children. 
Prof. Condon has a fine and very interesting 
collection of fossils chiefly found m Oregon, 
and most of it is housed in the University. He 
has HO;n '3 choice spwitu 3IH, however, at his 
residence, among which fire the jftws and the 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 25 
bones of a fore leg of a now extinct horse, 
which in its day was only about 26 inches high. 
The teeth are perfect, and show the little horse 
to have, been five years old. Another petrifi¬ 
cation of recent date is the toe of a stocking— 
the foot of the stocking tilled with mud which 
stuffed it out as if a foot were in it—and the 
petrification is so perfect that, every detail of 
the toe is as apparent as in the real thing—it 
was a woven stocking, and the top and bottom 
were joined together by sewing. He has bones 
of camels found at the foot of the Blue Moun¬ 
tains, twenty feet below the surface of the 
ground, and of the rhinoceros. Fossilized sea 
shells are exhumed in great quantities about 
Eugene, but it is evident that the sea receded 
from Oregon at a later period than it did from 
Iowa, for example. One curious thing m his 
collection is the face of a baboon carved in 
stone, and unmistakably the work of Indians. 
It was found in the sauils of the Columbia 
River, but where had the ludiaus seen a ba¬ 
boon? Anont fossils, thoro is in the Scientific 
Museum at Seattle a petrified egg, the shell, 
albumen, and yelk being perfectly defined. 
The hotel where we stopped while at. Eugene, 
was kept by Pennsylvanians, who had lived 10 
or 12 years in Southeastern Kansas where the 
husband’s health was affected by the alkali 
water,and wife and children were charged with 
malaria. There is some malaria in the Willa¬ 
mette Valley, hut the Pennsylvanians like 
Oregon better than Kansas. As we meet 
with many Pennsylvanians on this coast, the 
question often arises, why bo many people 
leave that magnificent State of such varied 
resources, and with thousands of acres of still 
unutilized laud, amigo “West. Nothing ex¬ 
plains the matter, probably, better than the 
restlessness inherent in the American the in¬ 
born as well as educated tendency for "past- 
tures new;” for the majority of people will do 
vastly better in the good old State of William 
Penn that they will any where west of it, all 
railroad and real estate agents advertising to 
the contrary, notwithstanding:” what, is gained 
in one direction is offset in another, as a rule. 
But I would not, under any ordinary circum¬ 
stances, live in a malarious region, or where 
the drinking water is unwholesome, for there 
is no financial profit to be named under the 
sun worthy of the sacrifice of health. 
After a day at Eugene, we went further 
south, as far as Rosenborg, where we again 
halted for a couple of days. The railroad, 
after leaving Eugene, soon enters the Umpqua 
Valley,which, is narrower than the Willamette, 
and the scenery becomes gradually moru and 
more like that of Northern California—mouse- 
covered hills, smooth and sleek, save for their 
setting of russet clumps of scrub oaks, the yel¬ 
low of the wheat stubble fields; but not a 
green field to be seen. No rain has fallen for 
w'eeks, maybe for months, and the grass is us 
brown as the Buffalo Grass in Coloindo in 
Summer. This is quite a valley for sheep. 
Some fields of unpicked hops were noticed, an 
occasional farm house was snugly nestled in an 
orchard of fruit trees—a picturesque country 
with the land lying in billowy mounds, and 
the streams bordered with deciduous trees in 
their full dress. At one jKiint. we saw a deer 
swimming the Umpqua River, and a passen¬ 
ger quickly drew out a revolver and from the 
car wiudow discharged two shots at the pretty 
creature, which luckily did no haem. The 
doer are said to be quite a nuisance to farmers 
by their trespassing, but the deer undoubtedly 
regard the farmer as a greater uuisanco. 
Roseburg is a pretty little town in the moun¬ 
tains, with some good buildings, and while it 
was the termiuus of the railroad it was of 
some considerable importance, which it has 
now in large part lost. An easy-going,elderly 
woman at the hotel told me that she crossed 
the plains in an ox team in 1853— being six 
months making the transit. She said that 
then the native grass iu the Umpqua Valley 
was breast-high, and that it was predicted 
that it would never give out, and California 
herders drove their cattle there for pasture, 
but the prediction had sadly failed. 
The road from Roseliurg to Ashland was 
through territory new to us, and there was 
more to note. The country lKjcame drier and 
when we reached the Rogue River Valley, the 
products of the laud were of a more valuable 
character. This valley has been greatly ex¬ 
tolled for its excellence, and it has some fine 
farms well tilled and set with attractive 
homes. Here flourish peaches, grapes, melons, 
apples, pears, plums, corn good In quality, but 
small of stalk, more wheat urnl oats than other 
grains, an occasional bevy of cattle and horses 
_improved farms worth from $20 to $25 per 
acre. Here the Black Oak succeeds to the 
White Oak of the Willamette VaLley—the 
former I am told indicates an older country. 
The railroad runs all the way through moun¬ 
tains iu which are set pretty little valleys—a 
road costly to build, of many tunnels, but ex¬ 
cellently built. All along this region there is 
more or less mining for gold, us there is gold 
in the mountains on this coast from Patago¬ 
nia to Alaska. Wo had for fellow passenger 
an Ex-Governor of Oregon, who detailed a 
number of thrilling incidents connected with 
Indian hostilities—now happily at. an end—of 
the marvelous heroism of women, whose deeds 
had they been enacted On the soil of New 
England would have become historic themes. 
He was a man of marked kindness, as we had 
abundant evidence in his attentions to a sick 
and aged woman to whom lie was under no 
special ol'ligations, and the kindness of Ore¬ 
gonians to such us are sick or in trouble, is 
proverbial. One would suppose that people 
who hail the energy to cross the plains in an 
ox team, as so many of the early settlers did, 
would have had enough energy left over to be 
manifest unto the present day. But for the 
most part, it was expended in that, one stu- 
pendous undertaking. The Ex-Governor gave 
us, from his wife’s lunch bosket, some dried elk 
meat, which he pronounced the most nutri¬ 
tious and digestible of all dried meats, and wo 
found it delicious. 
We passed no towns of especial note in the 
later part of our journey,—Gravel Bit, Jump 
Off Joe, Grant’s Pass, half mining towns, and 
the people about the stations dressed in a 
back-woodsy fashiou—both young men and 
women in high—heeled shoes, the latter with 
dangling ear-rings, bangs to their eyes, and 
skirts distended with hoops. Wc reached 
Ashland early iu the evening, and getting into 
the only ’bus at the station, were taken to the 
White Sulphur Springs Hotel, where we found 
a very good table, but a shabby room. Wo 
have been iu nianjr and various hotels in diff¬ 
erent cities and towns in Oregon, usually at 
the best hotels, hut taking them all in all, they 
are of inferior character, and far from being 
“first-class” in the Eastern sense, and even in 
Portland the residents say that the great need 
of the city is a tirat-class inn. We found a 
uumber of hotels without a bar for the sale of 
liquors, and there seemed to be a healthy and 
effective temperance influence prevailing; but 
considerable gambling was reported. At Ash¬ 
land we slept for throe nights, indulging in 
this delay for the purpose of securing the 
choice outside scute on the stage—a matter of 
importance as we had before us a stage ride of 
125 miles before reaching Delta in California, 
where we could again board a railway car. 
In Asldaud wc found almond burrs full of ripe 
nuts, great quantities of dahlias, roses, petu¬ 
nias, and chrysanthemums in strikingly luxu¬ 
riant bloom. It was October 25. The town 
bus a large woolen factory and a fur-trading 
room under the auspices of the W. C. T. 11. 
and only two poorly patronized saloons, It is 
surrounded with mountains, wooded on one 
side, and nude on the other. On Sunday we 
attended church where a most uninteresting 
man who had never been called to preach, 
talked distressingly through his nose, and 
where the atmosphere was so hot and close 
that had I been a “fainting female,” I should 
have fainted, as my piety is very partial to a 
fresh supply of oxygen, aud plenty of it. 
localities quite a drought is prevailing. W 
are longing for “showers of blessing.” L. s. e. 
KnitHfiM. 
Beattie, Marshall Co., June 11.—Corn all 
planted and cultivating has begun. Stand 
good all round. Oats look bad on account of 
the bal’d drought; heading out, though not 
over 12 to 14 inches long. Clover good—just 
ready to cut for liny. Hog cholera has been 
a plague here for about a year. No remedy 
has been of any use. Thousands have died. 
I have lost over 100 head since Christmas. 
“SUBSCRIBER.” 
Kentucky. 
Pembroke, Christian C’o,, June 10.—Peaches 
a complete failure. I failed to find a single 
bloom iu this section. Worse, the trees are, 
most of them, dead—a few green branches 
amid a mass of decaying limbs. A tempera¬ 
ture of 20 degrees below zero is evidently fatal 
to the peach. One of the largest nurseries has 
dug up all its peach trees planted for -ale, aud 
burned them on the plant bed, as the proprietor 
could not afford to put such diseased specimens 
on the market. Pears almost a failure. Ap¬ 
ples a fair crop. Grapes uot much injured. 
Wheat unusually promising. It was protected 
by deep snows during the severe weather; 
prospect good for an unusually good yield and 
quality. Tobacco ruling very low; prices not 
satisfactory, but it will be extensively planted 
again, simply because we cun find no substi¬ 
tute for if. Our farmers would like to aban¬ 
don tobacco, but money must be had, and with 
necessity as u stimulus and custom as a force, 
we arc bound to continue raising a crop that 
is ravenous in its demands for the very best 
food, and whose gluttony leaves little for the 
next crop. Worst of all, nothing is ever re¬ 
turned to the soil from the tobacco crop. 
j. d. o’b. 
North Corollna. 
Highland, Macon Co.—I find it in every 
way delightful here, excepting that living is 
somewhat rough and the bill of-fare is rather 
scant at this season. Just like the South 
everywhere, it is a hand-to-mouth system, no 
prevision, no provision for the future, and a 
waiting on Providence or )HOt and season for 
everything that is wanted; and so in the 
Spring we have to wait for the skeletons to 
get fat before wo have any beef, and the grass 
to come up before there is any butter. 1 am 
the only man, 1 guess, iu the South who has a 
barn full of hay on hand aud lias kept seed 
corn fit for seed. Corn planting has lwen 
done two or three times over, because the seed 
has been left to soak on the stalk and got 
frozen iu the cold spoil; and yet every one 
takes it easy and is happy. c. s. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Alabama 
Athens, Limestone Co., June 7. —We had a 
backward and cold Spring, therefore farm 
•rops and fruit are late. Wheat is being har¬ 
vested this week; but little is raised through 
Northern Alabama. This year’s crop is rather 
above an average in yield, but the acreage is 
less iu this locality. Corn and cotton look well. 
Apples, peaches and plums are good half 
crops. Small fruits are tine: mulberries and 
blackberries never fail. We do not need cul¬ 
tivated blackberries of extra varieties here— 
the wild ones far surpass any I have seen in 
the Northern States, and wild mulberries are 
1%-inch long aud as large around as one’s 
finger. My Angel of Midnight Corn is in 
tassel and my Bird Cantaloupe is in bloom. 
w. M. 
Illinois. 
Monmouth, Warren Co., June 12.—The 
weather has been very dry and sultry for the 
past tliree weeks. Com looks well, hut oats 
and meadows are neediug rain badly. The 
strawberry crop is short, and unless we get 
rain soon it is said that the entire berry crop 
will be u failure, 1 have never seen pasture 
as good as it bus been this Spring, hut this dry 
weather is very bard on it. J. k. w. 
town. 
Osage, Mitchell Co., June 9. —Vegetation 
is forward, but crops are not unusually in ad¬ 
vance of the average season. Produce is low¬ 
er now thau over before since the war, or per¬ 
haps it never reached so low a point hero. 
Eggs are quoted at fi.' .j cents a dozen; wheat, 
40 and 45 cents; barley, 28 cents; outs, 21 
cents; corn, 22 cents; rye, 35 cents; flax, 75 
cents; potatoes, 20 aud 30 cents; butter, un- 
sal ted, 6 and H cents; choice dairy, 10 cents; 
stock —fat cows— $2.50 per cwt. The contin¬ 
ued rains during early planting season will 
cause both light aud late crops, lu some 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
nml uddress of the writer to insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please see If It Is uot answered In 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one lime. Put questions on a separate piece of paper. | 
EVERGREENS FOR KANSAS AND THEIR TREAT¬ 
MENT. 
“Subscriber,” Washington, Kan. —1. What 
varieties of evergreens do best iu Kansas? 2. 
How should evergreen seedlings from a nurse¬ 
ry be planted, shaded and cared for? 3. What 
kinds are best adapted for topiary work—cut¬ 
ting into different shapes? 
ANSWERED UY PROF. EDWIN A. POPENOE. 
1. For a short list of evergreens that may 
be planted In the eastern third of Kansas, in 
expectation of fine growth with reasonable 
care. I should name the Red Cedar, the Aus¬ 
trian aud Scotch Pinos, the Norway Spruce. 
Add, by way of experiment, the American Ar¬ 
bor- vitee, the White Spruce, the White Pine, 
the Douglas and Engel maun Spruces of the 
Rocky Mountains, the Dwarf Mountain Pine, 
the Table Mountain Pin©, the Yellow and 
Pitch Pines of th© AUegbanios, and you have a 
suflicient variety for ordinary lawn planting. 
All of those are successfully grown at the col¬ 
lege here. Our experience with the retinis- 
pora and the various junipers is not sufficient 
to wurrant conclusions, though several species 
among them promise well. The same may be 
said of various fancy Arbor vita* that we are 
now testing. 2. In handling evergreens of 
uny size the chief care is to keep the roots 
moist until planted. This is a matter of 
special importance here whore we may have 
to handle them during a drying south wind. 
They should have the roots “puddled,” or 
dipped into a thick mixture of stiff soil in 
water, as soon as they are unpacked, II ft 
