Vol. XLV. No. 1916. NEW YORK, OCTOBER 16, 1886. price f^e cents. 
' «2.UU PER YEAR. 
»c€ono »rony 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1886, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
mineral matter 1.2. They are weaker in pro¬ 
tein and carbohydrates than the common pota¬ 
to, and thus inferior as an article of diet. 
Such potatoes with corn bread and pork, 
never will make brains like oat-meal, baked 
beans and fish. It would be a good.thing for 
the South if the use of the common potato 
could become more general. H. l. j. 
Corinth, Miss. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Second Blossoming, etc.— The peculiar 
character of the past Spring and Summer, 
first wet, then dry and then wet again, has 
changed the usual course of vegetation, and I 
have cherries in full blossom, and nearly all 
my dwarf pears ami quinces and some apples 
are opening and will be in full hlossom in a 
few days. I fear this will cause the loss of uext 
year’s crop. The same thing occurred with 
me some years since in the south of England. 
After au unusual Spring and Summer my 
plum trees were iu full blossom at Christmas, 
aud they did not fully recover their usual hab¬ 
its for three or four years. 1 shall pick off all 
the blossom buds ou some of the tires to test 
the mat ter ; but fear the season is too far ad¬ 
vanced to mature another set of buds. The 
Japan Clover is far from being ‘‘worthless” 
here. It covers the ground in a dense mat, aud 
stock are foud of it. It will grow 15 inches 
high, and, as you say, is then somewhat hard 
and tough. thomas brigdex. 
Walker Co., Ala. 
A Good Start. —A year’ago we succeeded 
in starting whatsis known as the Cayuga Co. 
Farmer's Club. We started with eight mem¬ 
bers, holding our meetings in the Grand Jury 
Room at the Court House, The club has now 
attained such size that the room is too small 
for our use, anil we have been obliged to se¬ 
cure a larger hall. d. p. hardy. 
Auburn, N. Y.. 
“Nothing In It."— In the Rural for Sept. 
4, J. S. B. told us how he kept Bartlett pears, 
by packing them in bran. We have tried it 
and find that there is nothing in the treat¬ 
ment. We lost, quite a few “Bartletts—all in- 
Privy Vaults on Farms.— The vaults on 
most farms are disgraceful affairs. They are 
direct sources of disease in Summer, and hard¬ 
ly more friendly to health in Winter. The 
snow drifts into them and the wind blows 
through them. To compel women and child¬ 
ren to resort to such places is downright cru¬ 
elty. It seems strange that farmers who de¬ 
sire to improve their homes reach the closet 
last of all. They will build wood-sheds and 
other conveniences and stall retain that cold, 
windy closet with its death-dealing vault. In 
my new house the closet is just at the 
end of the wood house. There is no vault at 
all. Two large iron buckets are placed under 
the seats, on a shelf. These are partly filled 
with sand or road dust. A barrel of dust 
stands in a corner of the closet, a tin dipper 
is kept in the barrel, and a dipperful of the 
dust is throwu into the buckets whenever the 
closet is used. This rule is rigidly enforced. 
There is not the slightest odor from this closet. 
Once every two weeks the buckets are 
emptied and this operation is as clean as that 
of emptying ashes. There is no tramping out 
into the cold aud storm. Come, farmers, 
wake up this Fall and put an end to these 
disease-breeding vaults. Clean them out for 
good and then fill them up. You will never 
regret it. H. c. K. 
Steuben Co., N. Y. 
Fig. 387. 
necessity of passing through one room before 
entering another, and yet the rooms ou each 
side of th j hall are Connected, The kitchen is 
large; the wash trays and sink arc placed in 
one corner so as to give a space in the middle 
of the floor for a table; the store-room con¬ 
nected with the kitchen is fitted up with 
shelving anil a pastry table. 
The parlor and dining-room each have au 
open fire-place, so that a “fire on the hearth” 
can be had in these rooms iu early Fall, before 
it is time to start the furnace. The rooms on 
the second floor are all large, light aud airy 
2EJ-1 r— , / 
-fep-- 
n r-^ir 
A NEAT COTTAGE. Fig. 386. 
A NEAT COTTAGE. 
HE design shown at Fig. 386 
< 4gj5lfc’$k, ! S7 ’88 is for a cottage now 
being built at Lewaren, N. J., 
and is one of a number that 
* la '' re been ere ctod during the 
past year. The plan is so ar- 
ranged that a view of Staten 
yijfi) Island Sound, which is just at 
the rear of the grounds, can be 
had from all the piincipnl rooms. 
Convenience of arrangement is what has been 
aimed at, and a glauce at the accompanying 
plans will show that this point has been 
gained. The hall is quite large, giving a good 
impression to a visitor when first entering the 
house. It is amply lighted from the rear, 
both by windows above and below the plat¬ 
form of stairs, and from its size—13 by 16 feet 
—a delightful sitting-room eau be bad. All 
the other rooms ou the first floor are reached 
by doors from the hall, thus obviating the 
m 
Fig. 388. 
and each has a largo closet. The bath-roo 
is placed conveniently to all bed-rooms, ui 
yet is at the extreme outside of the house, th 
doing away with any fear of sewer gas in tl 
bed-rooms. All rooms are to be boated fro 
the furnace. 
While convenience of arrangement has be< 
sought after in the interior, the outside of tl 
house has not beeu overlooked, and u view 
the perspective, herewith given, will show 
very pleasing exterior. The cost of the hou 
is as follows: 
Carpenter's, mason’s ami painter’s work.J.f.stK) 
Plumbing.2M) 
ruruaeeaml range. £40 
Total.$1,UU0 
Further information eau be had by addret 
ing the architect, Clarence W. Smith, 30 Broi 
St., N. Y., who fa vox's us with the sketches. 
£Ultr Crops, 
SOMETHING ABOUT THE LEAVES OF 
GRASS. 
To a casual observer, the leaves of grass 
may seem to be all alike, except that some are 
larger or wider than others. Even Linnaeus 
thought this was the case; but recent re¬ 
searches reveal a structure which is marvel¬ 
ously made. In details, the leaves vary much, 
while nothing seems to be bettor constructed 
for the purpose of Aistaiuiug the plant and at 
the same time yielding bountiful supplies of 
food to the beasts of the field. 
As a boy, before I hail ever studied botany, 
I remember more than once to have longed to 
know all there was to be learned about a 
blade of grass. It was a small affair, but 
there must be many mysteries locked up in 
those green cells. Time and study have 
shown that there were more things than I had 
the raw materials and fit them to nourish and 
enlarge the plant The green leaves are chem¬ 
ical laboratories or factories bus}- throughout 
the growing season. 
A leaf of grass elongates by a rapid multi¬ 
plication aud enlargement of the cells just at 
the base of the blade. Cattle may eat off the 
tip many times, and yet it keeps elongating. 
A leaf of June Grass or Orchard Grass may 
make a growth of two to five or more feet in 
a single season, yet all the time remain short, 
as the euds are frequently cropped by the cat¬ 
tle and sheep. The leaf has au upper side and 
a lower side, yet, strange as it may seem, 
about half of the leaves of grasses are regular¬ 
ly- “wrong side up ” Why this is so or of what 
advantage it is to the plant I am unable to tell 
you. Many leaves show tortion in one direc¬ 
tion or the other, often quite uniform in the 
plants of one kind. The cause is obscure, if 
known at all. 
Many leaves of grasses are more or less cov¬ 
ered with small hairs which usually point to¬ 
wards the apex of the blade. In a few cases 
they are stiff aud curve backwards or dowu- 
dreamed of, and yet it seems as though there 
was enough left unlearned to keep auy one 
busy for a life-time. The sheaths of the leaves 
are described as split on the side opposite the 
blade. A few excoptious are given; yet u 
study of the young branches shows that mauy 
leaves have closed sheaths. Eveu five or more 
of the lower leaves of June Grass and Orchard 
Grass have the sheaths closed, while those 
above are split open. Many leaves are very 
slender, with a rib iu the middle, but those of 
Rice Cut-Grass and Wild Rice have the main 
rib on one side of the middle. 
In June Grass, we fiud a narrow blade with 
the two margins parallel, while in Indian corn 
the blade tapers very gradually to a point. Iu 
the leaf of the latter the veins ou the margins 
disappear one after another, only a few of the 
middle ones extending to the apex. 
The careful examination of a leaf shows it 
to coutaiu Jtbro-vasciUar bundles or veius 
which run lengthwise and nearly parallel. 
Over the leaf on lioth sides is an epidermis 
which varies much iu thickness in the same 
grass, depending on t he amount of light and 
moisture. There are rows of small open ing s 
or mouths ou the leaf, sometimes above, some¬ 
times below. These admit air to the interior 
of the leaf where the granules of chlorophyl, 
through the aid of light, assimilate or digest 
The sweet potato is to the South about what 
the common potato is to Ireland or Germany. 
It forms a very large part of the food of the 
negroes aud poorer whites, in fact, it. frequent¬ 
ly takes the place of bread to a great extent. 
The favorite way of cooking it here is to bake 
it in the oven or in the ashes. The children 
are foud of burying the potatoes in the ashes 
at night, so that they may slowly cook all 
night. The southern-grown sweet potatoes 
are larger and sweeter than those grown at 
the North. Those raised in Mexico are very 
sweet indeed. It is not a good thing for the 
South, iu all respects, that sweet potatoes are 
so easy to raise. Au average analysis gives 
them 75.8 parts water, 1.5 part protein, fats 
0.4, carbohydrates 20, woody fiber 1.1, and 
wards, aud help to hold up the stems by 
hanging on to other plants or ou to each other. 
These hairs apparently help to protect the 
leaves in dry or very hot suimv weather. In 
moist, shady places grasses usually have hut 
few hairs. A thick epidermis also protects 
plants iu dry places. Cool, moist countries 
are proverbial for them succulent aud nutri¬ 
tious grass. 
Ag’l Coll., Lansing, Mich. 
DR. W. J. BEAL. 
THE SWEET POTATO IN THE SOUTH. 
