THE RURAL HEW-YORKER. 
JULY 31 
part of the Winter, and will be valuable in fin¬ 
ishing off beeves for the Christmas market, 
but if pitted they will keep in good condition 
for spring feeding. A little freezing, if not 
disturbed till thawed, does not hurt. them. 
Pit them on land with a gentle slope, plow 
four furrows ten inches deep, and throw the 
loose earth out at the sides, then pile the tur¬ 
nips in the trench so the top will be about 
three feet high and the sides slope at an angle 
of +5 degrees, and then throw on the earth. 
It will take from 20 to 25 feet of pit to each 
10Q bushels, and a man should cover 500 bush¬ 
els or more for a day’s work. 
Brine for Better. —A writer in the Hus¬ 
bandman who sells his butter for nearly twice 
quoted prices, prepares brine for butter in this 
way: He takes the 1 >est dairy salt and stirs in 
hot water as much as can be taken up or dis¬ 
solved and a little more. When thoroughly 
stirred, so that the brine has become as strong 
as it can be made, he strains it through a 
tightly woven cloth, and then sets it away to 
cool. When cooled he pours it on the pack¬ 
age, if a firkiu. to the top of the chime that 
the supply may be sufficient for entering every 
vacant place. The same process is required 
when butter is packed in a ,iar or tub, the pur¬ 
pose being to exclude air, the brine serving 
this use effectually, and at the same time keep¬ 
ing its strength and operating in some degree 
as a preservative. 
The Home-raised Dairy is Mr. John 
Gould’s ideal. The dairy of the future, he 
says, in the Press, must be bred for a specific 
end, butter or milk, and who can do this as 
well as the farmer, who knows just what he 
wants, and eau direct his breeding in the line 
of closest adaptation to his needs ? He need 
not pay the top price for fancy stock, but he 
can discard the nondescripts that are only pro¬ 
fitable on $20 land and $3 hay. By careful 
selection he can breed up steadily so that more 
milk or butter will Ik? produced by fewer cows. 
And, more than this, his dairy will supply 
something besides milk or butter. For the 
increase cf this home-bred stock can be turned 
to profitable account. The slaughter of baby 
calves three, days old will cease when the dairy 
is what it should bo and the demand for good 
veal, and even of beef, can be supplied by dairy 
farmers at a profit. 
The home-raised cow possesses many advan¬ 
tages over one that is purchased. The owner 
then knows her peculiarities, aud can fashion 
her habits. Each one of Mr. Gould’s little 
dairy of 12 animals is descended from one cow, 
the most perfect animal he ever owned, and . 
his hull on one sidfc inherits all these good 
qualities, and the result is that uniform messes 
of milk are received, varying one from the 
other scarcely more than a pound or two at 
most. 
Then “breaking heifers” is unknown. When 
y come into the dairy all Mr. Gould has to 
do is to sit down aud milk them. There is no 
tying legs, kicking over pails, or Indian club 
practice with a milking stool The Winter 
before they calve the heifers are stabled with 
the cows, aud are treated exactly as the cows 
with respect to care. Every fe w days ho plays 
at milking them, handles their udders, teaches 
them to “histe,” and when they are milkers 
they are cows in habit at once. Such a dairy 
Is quiet, home-loving, and never breachy. 
They have their place, know it. and then one 
knows their qualities aud worth, which he can 
never do when he steps into a “drift, herd to 
select a few “choice” cows for his dairy—cows 
about which he lias not the remotest know¬ 
ledge, and which when purchased three times 
out of five fail in meeting expectations. After 
30 years’ experience Mr. G. votes for the home- 
raised dairy every time, fully believing that 
the successful dairyman of the future will 
breed his own cows. 
Little Profit in Cotton.— Our friend 
Henry Stewart, who is at present farming in 
Nort h Carolina, says that the figures relating 
to the present cotton crop afford a most note¬ 
worthy example of wasted labor and resources. 
The area, reported under cultivation is nearly 
10,000,000 acres, and the expected crop 0,600,- 
000 bales, which is one bale to three acres, or 
150 pounds per acre. A Northern farmer or a 
thoughtful Southern planter should consider 
these figures with amazemeut. 150 pounds at 
the present price represent about $8, for which 
the planter spends $2.76 for fertilizer, $2.60 
for rent, and pays out of the rest for all the 
work of planting, picking, ginning aud baling 
the product. All this work must come out of 
the paltry sum of $2.05 per acre. As this is 
the average, and much of the crop must yield 
leas than this, what a sorry recompense the 
poor cotton-planter gets for his exhaustive 
and long-continued work, lasting nine months 
in the year, before his crop makes a return! 
Lightning rods are now said to be simply 
dangerous. That is, a house furnished with 
rods is more liable to be struck by lightning 
than one without rods. It is said that insur¬ 
ance statistics prove this. “There’s a pretty 
state of things!” The real trouble is that the 
lower ends of the rods are not properly ’“fixed. 
They should beembedded in molstearth, or be 
in connection with metalie pipes, or with a sheet 
of metal sunk in damp grouud. In the ground 
they should branch out some distance, and 
charcoal, which is a good conductor, should 
be filled in round the branching rods. The 
rods should be made of pieces as long as 
possible; aud unavoidable joints should be 
securely fitted so that the two ends are brought 
into close contact, and touch each other for 
several inches. Iron rods loosely joined to¬ 
gether and resting in the joints furnish a bad 
conveyance for the electric current, and the 
lightning may dart off to some better conduc¬ 
tor in the building, causing much damage in 
its course.... • * 
A writer in the N. E. Homestead says 
that he has a small cold storage house that is 
inexpensive and adapted to the needs of the 
average farmer. It is 16 feet square, with a 
dead air space between the walls filled with 
sawdust. In the middle is a room 10x10 fret 
and six and one-half feet high, the ice being 
packed all around and above it. There is a 
passage way from the outside door to the door 
of the refrigerator room. He says that every 
ice house can just as well as not serve also for 
a cold storage house by the use of this system. 
It will keep strawberries for six weeks, rasp¬ 
berries aud blackberries full}' as long, Astrach- 
an apples until Spring aud Bartlett pears un¬ 
til Christmas.. 
THE RURAL’S LUNCH. 
F. D. Cobern, a good authority, says that 
the flavor of the pork depends on the last 
month’s feeding of the pig. 
There seems an unaccountable discrepancy 
between the treatment of fever in swine and 
in the case of a human being suffering from 
the same disease, says a writer in the London 
Ag. Gazette. In one case we do everything 
jiossible to cure the patient, anil condemn 
everything doubtful in the way of closets, 
drainage aud ventilation: in the other, we 
condemn the animal to immediate slaughter 
and allow’ the suitability of the sties for re¬ 
ceiving other occupants to remain almost un¬ 
questioned. 
The value of crude petroleum to the fanner, 
stockman aud shepherd can scarcely tie over¬ 
estimated, says a writer in the Times. It Is 
most excellent for painting tools anil imple¬ 
ments, as well as board fences, farm buildings 
and the inside fittings of stables. It is the 
most effective and safest remedy to apply for 
external parasites, as lice, fleas aud the scab 
and mange insects, curing the destructive 
sheep scab better than any other known 
remedy, and preventing it most effectively if 
applied twice a year. If used after shearing, 
it cures the unavoidable cuts made by the 
sheare aud keeps off the flies from the wounds, 
as well as protects the shorn sheep from the 
w'eather and the contagion of the scab. It is 
cheap, and every fanner should keep a barrel 
of it on hand for these und other valuable 
Scene —An editorial sanctum, editor writ¬ 
ing at his dost, enter manager of the adver¬ 
tising department, rubbing his hands express¬ 
ive of intense satisfaction: 
Editor: “Well, Mr. Space, what is it?” 
Mr. Spare: “I have just closed one of the 
largest and best advertising contracts I have 
made since the paper started.” 
Editor: “Indeed!” 
Mr. Space: “Yes, and it will run for a 
year.” 
Editor: “Who is the party ?” 
Mr. Space: It is a big Kentucky firm, yob 
see, aud they are booming their Pure, Cop¬ 
per Distilled, Instant Death Whiskey. They 
are the biggest advertisers in the country to¬ 
day.” 
Editor jumps to his feet, hurries to the pipe 
connecting writh the composing room, and 
shouts, “Foreman!” 
“Hello!” 
Editor: “Have you got my editorial “Death 
to the Whisky Traffic” in type?” 
Foreman. “Yes, and I am just putting it 
into the forms.” 
Editor (vehemently): “Kill it!” 
The above was sent to us by a friend without 
credit .*.* 
We shall all rejoice when we see signs that 
the conflict, between Lalior aud Capital has 
narrowed itself down to the true issue. 
“Puck” says there is no real conflict, and that 
there can be none. Bo long as one man has 
money, and another man wants to get money, 
so long will the man with money buy the 
labor of the man without mouey.. 
The “worst bird-enemies are women” is the 
caption of an interesting article in proof of it 
in the N. V, Tribune. 
It is a disgrace to civilization, the article 
says that American women are more deadly 
than European sparrows against our native 
birds. Millions are shot every year for femi¬ 
nine beat I-dressing. The slau ghter has reached 
the South, where some of the birds are gor¬ 
geously plumed.. 
The damage to crops by insects is enormous 
aud it the destruction of birds is continued, 
by and by there will be no fruit, aud the gar¬ 
den, grain and grass crops will suffer more 
anil more. He has posted his land against 
hunters and proposes to enforce the law' rigor¬ 
ously and so preserve the valuable birds, and 
he earnestly advises all Other farmers to do 
the same. 
It appears that carp do bite at bait . 
A teaspoonful of turpentine in a pint of 
meal made into a dough and fed to chicks Is 
said by the Poultry Keeper to be a cure for 
gapes. 
Mr. J. II. Hale while traveling West no¬ 
ticed in Ohio and Indiana several large fields 
of sunflowers, and states in the Homestead 
that they were grown as food for poultry. A 
farmer who has tried it. for years told Mr. 
Hale that, he can grow more bushels of sun¬ 
flower seed per acre than he can of corn, and 
it is worth about double for laying hens. 
The National Live Stock Journal thinks 
much of the opposition to the Bureau of Ani¬ 
mal Industry is due to the manner in which its 
work has been done in the past, and to the 
character of some of the men connected with 
it, and that a radical change in this respect 
is needed to secure the hearty support which 
public measures like the recent legislation in 
support of the Bureau, should have. 
In his testimony in favor of oleomargarine 
before the Senate Committee, Prof. Chandler 
acknowledged that he expected to get pay for 
his evidence, and that while oleomargarine 
could be got for 18 cents a pound, he paid 80 
cents tor the butter used in his family,alt hough 
“oleo.,”according to him, is “chemically pure 
and wholesome,’'better, indeed, than butter.. 
Prof. Morton, before the same Committee, 
while giving similar testimony for similar 
pay, acknowledged that lie couldn’t tell by 
chemical examination whether a hog died of 
disease or a natural death, yet he declared 
that oleomargarine made of hog’s fat is 
“healthy and pure, chemically.” Bo there 
might be in the fat germs of disease in the 
worst form, yet the Professor’s tests could not 
discover them. Doesn’t all this show how ut¬ 
terly worthless is the testimony of chemical 
experts before the courts? They can testify 
for whichever side pays them best! . 
Mr. C. G. Pringle, the naturalist, has a 
good word for the much abused daisy. At 
work the other day in a field of them, lie said : 
“ These daisies are not half appreciated. They 
never fail us in a dry season, and they will 
grow and thrive on soil where other forage 
plants could scarcely maintain even a sickly 
existence. Cut early and cured quickly, they 
are sweet aud nutritious for cattle aud horses, 
and stock will eat them with relish. They 
deserve to be more kiudly viewed and 
treated.” . 
CHICAGO Live Stock News says the dressed 
beef combination, has done greater injury to 
the live stock trade of Chicago and the West 
than all the other rings that over had an exist¬ 
ence, and it is becoming more powerful, more 
exacting, more dangerous every day. 
Cnxnjtpljcvc. 
TRANSCONTINENTAL LETTERS.— 
lviii. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
Marysville ; Sacramento City; the Crocker 
Art Call cry; the Chinese quarter; Stock- 
ton; on f lic way to Oakland “ the most 
beautiful city in the United States." 
When we arose in the Marysville hotel next 
morning, we were “specked beauties” in a high 
degree, our sunburnt faces having been pro¬ 
fusely bitten by mosquitoes. It was quite the 
finishing touch, but we found that comfort in 
the fact which is always to be had. when the 
“worse has come to the worst.” It was a cool 
morning, and as the train we wore to journey 
in left soon after breakfast, our only view o£ 
the city was from the hotel ’bus—used hero 
without the apostrophe—in the rather long 
ride to the station. There was nothing par¬ 
ticularly distinctive—orange trees loaded with 
fruit and oleanders with blossoms. Our suc¬ 
ceeding destination was Bacrameuto, the capi¬ 
tal of the State, which we reached at eleven in 
the morning. The country between these two 
cities is less level and less attractive than that 
we had seen on the previous day. Much of the 
soil seemed to be iu a sort of semi-disintegrated 
state, the surface being a succession of small 
hillocks, and much of it billow-like, with a 
sparse covering of fine brown grass. 
Bacrameuto is the second city of importance 
in California, and its handsome granite State 
House is a matter of pride for the whole State. 
It was the first thing we visited, the laddie 
and Anaximander climbing to the very top of 
the dome, while I halted at an outside gallery 
surrounding the “cupalo” as nine persons out 
of ten call the cupola. The location of the 
city is iu a great level plain with the moun¬ 
tains far away in the distance. It is well 
shaded, and has many attractive homes. In 
the rotunda of the State House is a marble 
group representing Isabella aud Columbus— 
the Queen showing him her jewels, which she 
would pledge—the work of the sculptor Lar¬ 
kin G. Mead, anrl the gift of D. < >. Mills, one 
of the rich Californians who have gone to live 
in New York: and it goes without saying that 
men who have grown rich here, and then gone 
elsewhere to enjoy their wealth, are not in high 
favor with Californians who stay in the State. 
The grounds about the State House are not 
yet entirely in order, but are sufficiently so 
for one to compare the geometrical style of 
landscape gardening with the curved lines so 
often quoted from Ruskin as being those of 
beauty. Here, at least., the straight lines, the 
parallelograms of grass, the square corners 
aud triangles, were, to my eye, far prettier 
than the grass through which meandered 
winding walks. The great and surprising 
variety of evergreens that here bedeck gardens 
and lawns, anil which are trimmed to suit the 
gardener’s caprices, produce an oriental effect 
that seems altogether foreign. There is a large 
variety of palms and undeeiduous trees so 
novel aud beautiful as to exhaust one’s adjec¬ 
tives in a very short time. 
Much of the afternoon of our day in Sacra¬ 
mento, we spent in the E. B. Crocker Art 
Gallery. E. B. Crocker was a brother of Cbas 
Crocker, another California millionaire gone 
to New York; he died several years ago, and 
his widow less than a year ago, gave to this 
city the large colle,’fcion of paintings owned by 
them, as well as the beautiful gallery in which 
they are housed, aud the grounds pertaining 
thereto, these being connected by a corridor 
with the Crocker family residence. This gift 
was rated, I think, at a valuation of half a 
million of doll are. The collection of pictures 
is a very interesting oue, “containing many old 
masters” and some modern ones; but none of 
them are of special note. There is a series of 
portraits of noted Californians, railroad aud 
money kings, politicians and historical char¬ 
acters, Thomas Starr King among them, and 
of the railroad men, the brainiest and shrewd¬ 
est face is that of C. P. Huntingdon. In one 
of the rooms where there is the nucleus of a 
museum, we were much entertained iu watch¬ 
ing some rattlesnakes in a cage, which had 
been captured some time previously by a 
hunter, but in what manner wo did not learn. 
Crackers and bread bad been freshly put in 
for them to feed upon, and one of them held 
up his tail and rattled most of the time. The 
sound was very like that which precedes the 
strike of an alarm clock—or the escape of 
steatn from a valve. The interior finish of the 
art. building is fine, beautiful inlaid floors and 
carved wood-work, while the grounds are 
equally charming—enormous orange trees, 
superb palms and choice trees aud shrubs. On 
certain days no admission fee Is charged, 
while on others a nomiual charge of 10 cents 
is made, and catalogues are loaned to visitors. 
The weather was like July in Pennsylvania: 
strawberries, raspberries, persimmons and 
pomegranates were iu market, aud men were 
goiug about in their shirt sleeves. We found 
the best hotel iu this city, that wo hail lodged 
in since leaving Seattle, and it is famous all 
over the State for excellence, cleanliness, 
order, perfect method aud moderate charges, 
and it undoubtedly has more patronage than 
all the other hotels combined. People who 
travel much soon learn to appreciate the ca¬ 
pabilities of the man or woman who keeps a 
good inn. 
The next, morning was misty up to almost 
half past eleven, our hour for leaving. Anaxi¬ 
mander and the laddie went out and explored 
the Chinese quarter of the city, pronouncing 
it by far the worst as yet seen. Some kind of 
religious feast, seemed to be going on. and the 
Mongolians were out in full force iu the per¬ 
formance of their own peculiar ceremonials. 
There wore many boats, steamers and barges 
on the river at this point, and the muddy 
water was used for driukiug purposes. The 
city is claimed as being loss affected with inal - 
aria than formally, but still far from being 
free from that dreadful foe. As we rode on 
toward Stockton, it was through vineyards 
and orchards, wind-mills, rows of Lombardy 
Poplars and vegetable gardens. Occasionally 
a wire fence was to be seen, but most are of 
boards. Stockton is a thriving city, and 
among its striking public buildings, is a State 
Asylum for the Insane, a class of patients iu 
