482 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 24 
in the West at every period of the year, and 
the summer-cut has been found most lasting. 
The practice of the best EurO]*ean foresters is 
to cut late in June, while the bark will yet 
slip, and to peel the bark as high up as the log 
is needed for timber. The leaves are left on 
to further aid in drawing the moisture from 
the cell structure of the wood. The log is 
sawed 10 days after falling and dried out us 
rapidly as possible. In August and Winter 
and early Spring the wood is full of starch 
stored to aid next year’s growth,and this helps 
to hasten fermentation and decay.. 
T int King Cluster of E. W. Durand took 
the first prize at the New York Strawberry 
Exhibition as the berry of “greatest compar¬ 
ative merit.” This has been purchased by 
Peter Henderson & Co., and is now offered 
for sale under the name of Crimson Cluster. 
It is said that every yard of row the past sea¬ 
son yielded a qunrt of fruit., and that the 
pickers at two cents a quart averaged 25 
quarts per hour or $5.00 per day.. 
The U. S. Dairyman says that the disad¬ 
vantages of the ordinary system of setting 
milk iu shallow pans for raising cream are 
that a longer period elapses before the skim¬ 
ming is completed, too much space is required 
and iu Summer the milk becomes sour before 
the whole of the cream is raised. 
A Minnesota dairyman thinks he can win¬ 
ter a cow on six tons of corn silage, and that he 
can secure the silage for 40 cents a ton. This 
gives $2.40 cents for wintering a cow. 
Tms is well to know in calculating the size 
to build a silo, says the Dairyman. A cow 
should be fed from 50 to 00 pounds of silage 
a day, if she receives no other fodder with her 
ground food. A cubic foot of silage weighs 
50 pounds. From this data you can readily 
figure out the size of the silo Headed. 
Prof. Hhkt.don, the eminent English au¬ 
thority on dairy matters, ('alls attention to the 
fact that if dairymen and fanners are to be 
subjected to the unfair competition of imita¬ 
tion butter, they will bo compelled by force of 
circumstances to follow the bud example and 
mix in the margarine themselves. That will 
be the inevitable result everywhere, comments 
the Breeder’s Gazettes If this manufacture is 
not prohibited, and iu a few years there will 
not be a pound of genuine butter for sale in the 
markets, and everyone who desires it will be 
compelled to keep his own cow or go without 
it. Now the general public has a right to buy 
genuine butter if it w ants to, and the propo¬ 
sition to tax these imitation butters out of 
existence is clearly justifiable on the broad 
ground of public protection... 
Mr. WiI. 1 .IAMS, iu the Orange County 
Farmer, speaks of a Long Island (N. Y.) farm 
of HO acres under the highest cultivation. 
The receipts from products were last year 
$8,000, which will bo exceeded this. The 
stock is wintered largely on silage. The 
farm supports 24 cows, eight, horses and a 
yoke of oxen. The milk is shipped to New 
York—it® butter is made. Mr. Alburton, the 
owner, keeps 100 swarms of Ijoes. The farm 
is now in part given to 14 acres of j iota toes, 
three acres of tomatoes, apple and poor or¬ 
chards. Sweet corn, cabbages and garden 
seeds are extensively grown. There is an acre 
of oats and peas raised for soiling, which, the 
writer says, contained more food than he ever 
saw on one acre. The amount of manure 
made is large, and yet large quantities are 
bought ., ... 
According to the Rural World 60 cows 
patronizing a small creamery, made in Janu¬ 
ary 002 pounds of butter at a cost of $165.85 
for food, consisting of hay, bran, corn-meal 
and corn in the shock. Thus the butter cost 
16 (•cuts six mills per pound. At the same 
creamery six cows fed on silage, chiefly, with 
hav, bran and corn fodder, made 158 pounds 
of butter at a cost of $13.02, so that the butter 
cost only 8>i cents a pound. A single case is 
decisive of nothing; but even one such in¬ 
stance should start inquiry, and a number 
should contribute pretty strongly towards 
conviction..,..... 
Some dispute has arisen as to the keeping 
qualities of butter made from cream separ¬ 
ated by the centrifugal machines. Various 
tests during the past season prove that if the 
separator is properly used, and the cream 
properly handled between the separator and 
the churn, the butter will be firm and keep at 
least as well as the very best creamery butter. 
The machines, however, are liable to fly to 
pieces and the butter is liable to turn out bad, 
unless the operator has carefully studied how 
to handle the machine and the cream. 
The cheese suitable for the English market, 
writes T. D. Miller, from England, to the On¬ 
tario Dairyman, Canada, must by no means 
be such ft stiff, dead and lumpy art ideas Eng¬ 
lish merchants complain of as coming from 
Canada. A loose, free-cutting cheese is what’s 
wanted, and if Canadian factories continue to 
jpake stiff cheese, lie no doubt “States” 
cheese will run the Canadian out of the mar¬ 
ket. As in other matters, the great thing is 
to find out what the market wants, and then 
supply precisely that... 
Epizootic abortion among cattle has been 
spreading so steadily iu England of late years, 
especially in the northern counties, that it is 
sought to have the malady included among 
the others under the Contagious Diseases Act. 
The greut t rouble is that the bulk of the farm¬ 
ers would not. report cases, because the news 
might atop sales Of aborting cattle and young 
stock from the farms where the complaint, 
may exist...... 
The great reduction of the amount, of oil in 
linseed and other cakes, due to the use of im¬ 
proved machinery and chemical processes in 
expressing the oil (known as new process,) has 
caused considerable differences of opinion in 
regard to the influence of such reduction in 
the value of eake as food. Several practical 
feeders In this country maintain that, as t)ie 
amount, of albuminous compounds is propor¬ 
tionately Increased, the value of the new-pro¬ 
cess cake is greater than that of the old, which 
contained more oil. Some even say that lin¬ 
seed oil is not a food at all: but a purgative. 
Sir. J. B. Lawes, however, who has studied 
the subject, of cattle feeding closely in experi¬ 
ments and practice, says; “I should certainly 
myself be disposed to place a considerably 
higher value upon oil than upon albumen, and 
when 1 purchase cake for my own use, I select 
that w hich contains the most oil.”. 
Live stock insurance has been largely prac¬ 
ticed in several States. It, has entirely collap¬ 
sed in Maryland, however, by the recent bank 
ruptey of two organizations, and the failure of 
a third to report to the State Insurance Com¬ 
missioner within the time allowed by law. 
The Commissioner att ributes the failure to the 
fact that people were induced to insure on mis¬ 
representations, and good faith was not l 'ept 
with them. After “a fair trial of two years,” 
a Pennsylvania company also says that “despite 
an honest, and earnest effort.,” the directors ‘ ‘are 
unanimously of opinion that, live stock insur- 
ranee on the assessment, plan cannot be made 
asueoess,” There is a warning in a failuroof 
this kind of insurance iu these two States.. . 
When hogs are eating clover or green stuff, 
give them access to charcoal or ashes. Char¬ 
red corn-cob* make excellent charcoal. Dry 
corn is good feed with clover, as it balances 
the ration. 
Accord iNO to the Live Stock Record, of 
Kansas City, farmers who lately marketed 
grass-fed hogs there didn’t find the venture 
satisfactory. They looked well, but killed 
abominably: and as a result were shunned by 
all buyers, and were taken only at ruinous 
prices. The Record says that while clover is 
a growing food, like all grass it makes watery 
flesh, and slaughterers say that the shrinkage 
iu this class of hogs Is something enormous. 
Hence, before sending to market, all hogs 
should lie topped off with a little corn to firm 
up their lard and harden their flesh. If farm¬ 
ers will bear this in mind they will save them¬ 
selves many disappointment* and no little 
amount of money in shipping hogs the next 
two months...- 
The Texas Stockman, while expressing its 
belief that neither cattle nor sheep will ever 
be so high in Texas as they have been, declares 
its conviction that in less than three years the 
live-stock interests of that State will be upon 
a more satisfactory basis than ever. The 
Breeder's Gazette thinks this a reasonable pre¬ 
diction since Texas has much more to gain by 
the adoption of better methods and the breed 
ing of better stock than she can possibly lose 
through any falling off or obstruction in the 
Northwestern markets. All that. Texas need 
do is to produce cattle suited for the world’s 
market instead of for the wild ranges. 
A correspondent of the Tribune claims 
that although cows will eat sorghum greedily, 
it causes a loss of milk and butter, so that it is 
better feed for fatteuiug animals than for 
milch cow's. Is this so’.. 
“What would lie thought if we were to 
walk over our bread and butter f” asked the 
witty Sidney Smith, speaking of cow's grazing 
on pastures. Doesn’t the cow’s tread often 
destroy a good deal of feed by poaching on wet 
pastures?...• . 
(^ucnjinljcvc. 
rRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.—LVII. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
The Sacramento Valley; large and small 
ranches; Senator Stanford's Vina ranch; 
its management; Marysville. 
The Sacramento is one of the largest and 
Jjost important interior valleys in California, 
and w r e rode through the entire length of it by 
rail in daylight, seeing it in its least attrac¬ 
tive phase—after the long drought of the 
Summer, and before a drop of rain had fallen. 
Leaving Red Bluff—which is at the head of 
navigation on the Sacramento River—on the 
morning of ()et. 28, we rode for some time 
through what are called the Red Lands, from 
the color of the soil, and which produce fine 
wheat, without irrigation. We were told that 
ten years ago this land was regarded as worth¬ 
less—another illustration of the futility in 
calling any land worthless, simply because its 
value has not yet been ascertained. The level 
fields were dotted with oaks, and to the north 
rose the isolated peaks of Lassen Butte. The 
farm-houses were white, with green blinds, 
and a water-tower with a wind mill formed a 
part of the out-buildings of every ranch.* 
Horses were frequently seen pasturing in the 
wheat stubble—always tall, as the wheat is 
“ headed.” 
As we desired to journey on the east side of 
the river, we left the “ through train” for San 
Francisco at a station called Tehama, where 
the railway branches for each side of the river. 
At this point wo boarded a freight train which 
had a caboose attached; but we preferred 
seats in the baggage-car, from which we bad 
an excellent, outlook, and after a part}' of In¬ 
dians had left the rear platform, we took pos¬ 
session Of that, and were as finely stationed 
for sight-seeing as we could have desired. (In 
most, if not all, the cis-Rocky Mountain 
States, the Indians are allowed to ride free iu 
the cars, but, are not permitted in the passen¬ 
ger coaches. This free riding is in considera¬ 
tion of Certain privileges accorded to the rail¬ 
roads by the Indian Reservations through 
which the route lies.) We rode that day as 
far as Marysville, which tow'n we reached at 
nightfall. 
The Sacramento Valley is probably from 
46 to 60 miles wide, and so fur a* we could 
see, it was one stretch of level jand. Some 
of the largest and finest farms in California 
are here, and large ranches are generally 
regarded as hurtful to the tost development 
of the State. They indicate large financial 
resources, and “respectable yeomanry avoid 
regions of immense wealth " A small farmer 
occupies a social position in comparison with 
the large farmer, very similar to that, which 
the “poor white trash” in the South enjoyed 
in comparison with the planter. A small 
ranch consist* of from 1500 to 300 acres; a 
large one numbers it* thousands of acres. 
One of the most, notable of the large ranches 
we rode t hrough is called Vina, and is the pro¬ 
perty of ex-Governor, now Senator Stanford, 
and consists of about 37,000 acres. 1 believe 
it. is a part of the property which lias since 
been included in his magnificent endowment 
for the Stanford University, which he has 
founded in memory of his dead young sou. 
Nearly4,000 acres ot it arc planted with grapes, 
which are made into wine on the premises. 
The products of the ranch are diversified: 
there are wheat, oats, barley, alfalfa, potatoes 
and fruit. The entire property is supplied 
with irrigating ditches, and the (arming is of 
the finest character. Apple and fig trees are 
planted along the ditches. This ranch was in 
the line of devastation mude by the grass¬ 
hoppers last Spring, arid we saw acres of wheat 
and of vineyards that had been stripjjed; but 
many of the vines wore re-leafing. One of the 
railroad men said that the “hoppers” impeded 
the trains, their crushed bodies on the rails 
making them too oily for the car wheels to 
move on them. The damage done by them 
was very great and was fully reported in the 
newspapers at the time. Wheat is produced 
at an average yield of 30 bushels to the acre, 
and was selling at that time at what was re¬ 
garded as a good price—$1.30 per 100 pounds. 
The wheat is thrashed iu the field, put iu sacks 
aud lies on the ground until sent to market— 
as there is no danger of rain. On Mr. Stan¬ 
ford’s ranch. I was told, are employed two 
superintendents, 75 w hites, and from 200 to 
300 Chinamen. The plowing is done by horses 
—steam plows being generally discarded—aud 
the plowing we saw' being done was by means 
of a sulky plow dra wn by six horses. Four 
to six horses were used iu harrowing. The 
land is valued at $100 per acre and taxed at a 
valuation of about $30. We were assured that 
the tax was invariably higher on small than 
on large ranches, which is probably' true. 
Board fences are used aud locust largely 
planted for shade trees, w'hile the native 
oaks, beautifully scattered over the valley, 
have in large part been allowed to stand. 
Wbat is true of Mr. Stanford’s ranch is 
equal!}' true, with mollifications, of all the 
other large farms we have seen in the State. 
So long as these large possessions remain in¬ 
tact the country will not increase in popula¬ 
tion where they are, and any movement that 
tends to their division is regarded by the peo¬ 
ple with satisfaction. Of course, in time they 
will be broken up, as the law of primogeni¬ 
ture does not hold in the United States, and 
the sons of rich men are not proverbial for 
their retention of riches. I am told, to©, that 
farming on so large a scale has not toon found 
profitable, and the recent, numerous failures 
among farmers in the rich and fertile San 
Joaquin Valley are in large part attributed to 
too inucb land, the payment of interest, on 
mortgages, which have eaten up the land 
itself. 
Except for the remoteness of habitations, 
nothing could appear more prosperous and 
toautiful than this valley, under such admir¬ 
able cultivation—-‘orchard fruits and fields of 
golden grain.” But it is a general verdict that 
irrigation breeds malaria where the heat is so 
intense as in these inland valleys. At night¬ 
fall the dusky lnndsca|>e was illuminated by 
bumiug stubble, which looked like so many 
prairie fires. Everywhere the dust lay thick, 
and however others may like rainless Sum¬ 
mers, I am very free to confess that “ I and 
my house” like a land of summer showers. It 
was half-post six when we reached Marysville, 
which town, as everybody knows, was a great 
point in the early mining day, when 50 stages 
daily left it for various “digging.” It lies be¬ 
tween the Yuba and Feather Rivers, and is 
dyked to preserve it from the inundations of 
these streams. We had a fairly good dinner, 
and the waiter told as facetiously that the 
cook was a Frenchman from Hong Kong! He 
also ventured some comment on the weather, 
saying that the mercury row in the Summer in 
the house to 120°, and that the water they 
drank came from the Feather aud was very 
good, except when the “slickens” got into it, 
and “slickcns” were washings from the mines. 
Before retiring, we each took a quinine pill, 
as we generally do when in malarious dis¬ 
tricts, and mine, as usual, stuck iu my throat, 
while the laddie washed his down with laugh¬ 
ter! 
--- 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Quebec, Province of Quebec.—Owing to an 
early Spring, crops were put iu fully two 
weeks earlier thau last year, and although 
May wns rather cold, all crops are looking re¬ 
markably well. Turnips and potatoes large 
crops. Hay and oats promise large yields. 
The pasturage is better than for many years, 
consequently milk and butter are plentiful 
and cheap. All garden truck doing well and 
much earlier thau last year. Wild strawber¬ 
ries were iu market June 25. Sharpless are 
of fine size. The blue plum and apple crops 
promise large returns. w. m. m. 
Colorado. 
Longmont, Boulder Co., July 5.—The pros¬ 
pects for crops in my immediate neighbor¬ 
hood are: com, not so good by 10 to 20 per 
cent.; wheat, short by 20 to 30perc@nt.; oats, 
ditto by 20 to 30 per cent.: barley, about on 
an average; potatoes, short by 10 to 50 per 
cent; garden truck, an average; apples, abun¬ 
dant; pears, not any. No peaches grown iu 
j-his part of Colorado. Grapes aud all small 
fruits full crops: hay ditto. R. s. 
Indian Territory. 
Caddo, Choctaw Nation, July 5.—Corn is 
very promising; acreage much larger than 
last year. I think the general average will be 
about 30 bushels per acre. Wheat aud oat* 
not good, owing to too dry weather last Spring 
—about one-fourth of a crop. Irish potatoes, 
half crop; sweet potatoes, very promising, 
aud they are grown extensively here. Gar¬ 
den truck, such as cabbage, beans, peas, 
onions, etc., good: plenty for home consump¬ 
tion. Apples, peaches, pears, half crops. 
Grapes, more especially wild grapes, grow in 
abundance, and a better prospect I nevpr saw. 
There is but little tame hay grown here, as we 
have such an abundance of wild grass. Stock 
of all kinds look fine and fat. Cotton very 
promising at present, though the stand is not 
good, owing to dry weather in Spring. Sorg¬ 
hum ‘ is grown to some extent—enough for 
home consumption, and it is very promising. 
F. B. 
Michigan. 
Bear Lake, Manistee Co., July 3.—We are 
having the worst drought for the tune of the 
year, that has ever been known in this part of 
the country. Grass is entirely ruined, so there 
will be no hay, and wheat will be less thau half 
a crop. Oats cannot hold out much longer 
against the scorching sun that sends the mer¬ 
cury up above 90 1 -' in the shade. Potatoes 
and corn planted three and four weeks ago, are 
still in the ground as dry as when first planted. 
Six weeks without rain meau hard times, not 
caused by •‘over-production” this season. But¬ 
ter is worth 12 cents per pound, aud eggs 12 
cents a dozen; potatoes, 30 cents a bushel; oats, 
45 cents and wheat 74 cents, m. e. a. 
Minnesota. 
Vivian, Waseca Co., July 5.— Soil deep, 
moist and rich. The latter part of April was 
warmer than usual, Crops put in well and 
