338 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May & 
tance, requires its being picked green. The flavor of 
melons i6 vastly superior when they are ripened in 
the sun and open air. Put them up in half-bushel 
baskets or in crates. Do not grow so many varieties 
that this is impossible. It is advisable, in fancy trade, 
to have the baskets marked with the grower’s name 
or that of his place. r w. bane. 
New Hampshire College of Agriculture. 
A VOICE FROM THE KLONDIKE. 
A HEN MAN TURNED GOLD DIGGER. 
Some Original Views of Arctic Life. 
[About a year ago, Mr. F. Petersen, a R. N.-Y. subscriber, in 
California, wrote us that he would try his luck in the Klondike 
gold diggings. He left his hen ranch in charge of his wife, and 
went north. He now sends us an account of his new surround¬ 
ings. He rather thinks his wife is making more on the chicken 
ranch than he i9 in the land of gold. His note was written on 
February 28, and was 48 days in reaching us.] 
Cold Weather —We are having 50 degrees below 
zero, and I like it, at least as long as it is calm, but 
when any wind springs up, it is dangerous, as freez¬ 
ing various parts of the body, especially the face, 
quickly takes place. When it is calm, it is an easy 
matter for me to make 40 miles in 12 hours, day after 
day, for a week. In California, I had to put the horse 
in the cart when I had business one-half mile away. 
The extreme low temperature affects one’s hands, if 
work has to be done with the same, especially shovel¬ 
ing or using the ax. In December, while averaging 
45 degrees below zero, we put up two log cabins, and 
suffered considerably with our hands. The mits are 
of mooseskin lined with Hudson Bay blankets; in 
the course of a few hours, these get damp from per¬ 
spiration, and if we touch anything cold, freeze; 
when this is felt, we go to the fire, turn the blanket 
lining out, and dry it. 
On the trail, a person goes very lightly clad when 
on long trips; even at 50 degrees below, I am clad 
only in medium-heavy undershirt and drawers, a light 
blue over shirt (all wool), vest, and a jumper ; a pair 
of medium-heavy socks, and over these a pair of Ger¬ 
man socks; caribou rawhide insoles in buckskin 
moccasins, a very light fur cap, and if no wind, I have 
been inclined to perspire. I have always carried my 
drill parkee, lined with foxtails around the hood, to 
put on when any wind was encountered. The moun¬ 
tain divides, every one says, are the worst here ; the 
wind cuts one at times like a knife, and the weary 
traveler is, probably, overheated by crawling some 
2,000 feet up the mountain trail, (?) probably dragging 
a sled, or packing 30 or 40 pounds of food, fur robe 
and blankets. This is how people freeze to death. 
Food, and Dogs —Wherever one goes he must 
bring enough food to take him out and back, build a 
cache of poles half way or so, then cache half the out¬ 
fit and proceed to his destination. If prospecting, 
this will have to be replenished at intervals, some¬ 
times having to go more than 100 miles to do so. I 
know you are a little antagonistic to the canine breed, 
Friend Rural, but if you were here, you would see 
that without the dog we could absolutely do nothing. 
Many breeds are here brought in over' the lakes, being 
more or less serviceable. The hounds are very fast 
dogs, but do not last long. The Newfoundland and 
St. Bernard are s'ow, good pullers; any of these will 
demand from $50 to $125 for native dogs. The Malla- 
muth, Husky and others are my favorites. The lat¬ 
ter are big, kind-tempered dogs, with great endur¬ 
ance ; 60 miles a day have been made. They appear 
like a brindled wolf (prairie), and often the two can¬ 
not be distinguished. The former appear like big 
Scotch collie dogs, and the best of them are half tim¬ 
ber wolf. 
Several tame (?) wolves I have seen drawing sleds, 
but the half-breeds are better. The outside dogs get 
a full meal at night, with a light meal before start¬ 
ing the following morning ; they have generally to 
sleep under shelter. The native dogs get all they can 
eat, about three pounds solid food, generally corn 
meal and oatmeal made into mush, with one or two 
pounds meat, fish, bacon, etc., added. They will eat 
their fill, then will curl up in the snow to sleep there 
for the night, ready for business the following morn¬ 
ing. The native dogs do not bark, but howl like a 
wolf. There are several horses freighting between 
Dawson and Bonanza Forks (15 miles); they stand it 
pretty well. Hay (?) (Flag grass) costs $500 per ton, 
corn 25 to 30 cents per pound. Of course, everything 
is dear. Sugar has been $1 per pound, Eagle con¬ 
densed milk, $1.20 per can. rolled oats are now 40 cents 
per pound, and other things in proportion. Dried 
fruit is 30 to 50 cents per pound, honey (artificially pre¬ 
pared) $10 per gallon. 
Poor Farming Chances.—I don’t think that agri¬ 
cultural pursuits will ever succeed here No doubt, 
large crops of nutritious hay can be secured in large 
quantities, and excellent grazing can be obtained. 
Meat brought 75 cents to $1 per pound by the quarter ; 
now it is 60 cents, and where money can be made, 
the cattle can be brought over the lakes, feeding 
their way till within a short distance, when they can 
be slaughtered when frost appears. When frozen, 
meat will keep eight months. At the various mis¬ 
sions, I saw some excellent vegetable gardens, with 
white turnips as large as one’s head, and as sweet as 
sugar; fine cabbage (Wakefield, I believe), radishes, 
lettuces, etc., in perfection. It is a wonderful thing 
to see that, where the moss is cleared off and the 
muck spaded up a little in May, although there may 
only be one foot of it and that even situated on the 
top of a glacier. The power of the sun is immense 
when it shines for 18 hours at a stretch. Several 
large places of suitable land were cleared off last 
year, and will net their owners a nice little stake be¬ 
fore the year is over. 
Food and Prices. —Apricots dried seem to meet 
the demand here of all dried fruit ; prunes, apples, 
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST OLEO. Fig. 136. 
[The shaded States hare laws prohibiting the manufacture and 
sale of oleomargarine colored in imitation of butter.] 
etc., play second fiddle. Peaches do not stand the 
cold so well; they disintegrate and become tasteless 
American products lead in everything else, but some 
of them are inferior, and others quite unsalable com¬ 
pared with other brands, mostly Canadian and Ger¬ 
man. Of evaporated potatoes, nothing beats a brand 
coming from a place in Germany called Llibeck ; they 
are the only substitute for fresh potatoes, and the 
difference can scarcely be noticed. They cost now 
at the North American Transportation Company in 
Dawson, 80 cents per pound (outside, 15 cents). I want 
you to let your readers know that 90 per cent of the 
evaporated vegetables are unfit to be used ; they are 
not prepared right. I have cooked evaporated pota¬ 
toes and onions prepared by a San Francisco firm for 
48 hours, and still they were raw. Those of Canadian 
preparation must have been cooked before evaporat¬ 
ing, as they require only to be mixed with boiling 
water and stand, say 10 minutes. As Americans excel 
in everything else, I hope they will see a way out of 
this difficulty, and at the least, produce as good an 
article. A good many of the evaporated creams sent 
in here are useless ; they will not stand the frost. 
The Country —This is the greatest boomed coun¬ 
try in the whole world ; boomed by the Seattle, San 
Francisco and British Columbian Transportation Com¬ 
pany. I admit there is plenty of gold, but it costs a 
large sum of money to get here, a large outlay 
to find it, and a still larger outlay to get it out. When 
to this are added the discomfort, wants, sufferings, ill 
health, etc., it will be found that, in 90 cases out of 
100, it costs more to get the gold out than it wiil 
bring, and the game is not worth the candle. The 
news reaching the outside world from here is all ex¬ 
aggerated, magnified to suit self interests. I state 
emphatically, let no agriculturist come here. If 
there are any of your readers who are miners or back¬ 
woodsmen, young, robust constitution, level-headed, 
able to pay their passage, with $2,000 in their pockets 
when landing in Dawson, these may have a chance 
either of losing all or increasing their capital in vari¬ 
ous ratios, depending on the men, during the next 
year. But the conditions under which they have to 
work are hard, their abodes—well, I have seen better 
hog pens. When all these things are taken into con¬ 
sideration, I say you can do the same elsewhere with 
very much greater comforts. 
The snowfall is only about three to four feet, and it 
takes all Winter to produce that. The biggest at one 
time, I should say, was about five to six inches. The old- 
timers say, however, that this has been an extraordinar¬ 
ily mild Winter. But the oldtimers say a good many 
things ! I have now been in quite a time, but have 
not yet made any great strike. It takes so long for a 
man to get accustomed to the novel as well as severe 
conditions found here before he can get work or place 
himself where h? might stand a chance of success ! 
F PETERSEN. 
Van Deman’s Fruit Notes. 
All Sorts of Questions Answered. 
When to Cut Scions. 
1. Should scions, used for root grafting, be cut a few weeks be¬ 
fore grafting ? Do they I've better ? 2 Is it best to put out root 
grafts immediately after grafting, or do they usually do better 
if kept over a few days or weeks ? j. m. j. 
Alabama. 
1, It makes no difference whether a scion is cut in 
tbe Fall, any time in the Winter, or the day it is to be 
grafted, provided it is well developed and uninjured 
by severe cold or other causes, and properly kept. I 
have used scions with equal success under all these 
conditions. Bat the severity of Winter sometimes in¬ 
jures even the healthiest of scions ; hence it is a safe 
plan to cut the scions in the late Fall or early Winter, 
and store them in a moist but cool place until needed. 
1 have usually packed them in damp sawdust in boxes 
in a very cool cellar, or buried in the ground with a 
covering of old straw over all to prevent freezing. In 
this condition, they may be easily reached at any 
time in the Winter. If they are left on the trees until 
Spring, and the buds are started in the least, it is too 
late to cut them and expect good results. A perfectly 
dormant condition of the scion at the time of grafting 
is a matter of prime importance, no matter what 
method of grafting is followed. 2 Root grafts may 
be made and set the same day, but my experience is 
that a larger per cent will grow if the work is done 
earlier and they are packed in damp material until 
they have callused and knitted together before setting 
in the ground If they are kept moist and cool, this 
will take place in two weeks or so. If kept warm, 
they will often mold and be seriously injured. 
Propagating Trees from Cuttings. 
1 Are fruit trees which are propagated from cuttings as 
hardy, productive and long-lived as those propagated in the 
usual way—that employed by nurserymen ? 2. Which of the 
flowing fruits—apple, pear, peach, cherry, ap-icot and nec¬ 
tarine—can be propagated from cuttings? 3. When should cut¬ 
tings in general be taken from the trees ? h. r. w. 
Southington, Conn. 
1 Very few fruit trees are propagated from cut¬ 
tings, and some of those that are grown do not make 
very good trees The roots are likely to be too 
numerous and too small, and clustered at one place. 
2 The Le Conte pear is about the only valuable tree 
among our orchard fruits that can be propagated from 
cuttings with anything like reasonable success. This 
is practicable only in the light, sandy loam soils of the 
South, and where the climate is mild, yet cool, when 
the roots are forming. The Marianna plum is, also, 
grown from cuttings in the South; but it is used 
almost entirely as a stock upon which to bud other 
and better plums. As a fruit, it is about worthless, on 
account of its bitter flavor. The apple, peach, cherry, 
etc., do not strike root easily from cuttings, and are 
entirely out of the list of trees that may be propa¬ 
gated in this way. 3 The time to make cuttings of any 
kind is before there are any signs of the buds start¬ 
ing to grow. The late Fall is about the best time of 
year, for then the wood is not in j ured by cold, and the 
butt ends will callus and frequently form little roots 
long before Spring, if they are stored in a cool, moist 
place in the cellar, or buried in the ground outdoors. 
Why Seedling Apples Vary. 
I find this note in an agricultural paper. Is there any sense 
in it ? 
“Seedling Apples.—To get gooi apples without grafting, plant 
the round seed, which is always found in a perfectly ripe apple. 
Sometimes two will be found, but rarely. The flat seeds will pro¬ 
duce a natural fruit or crab apple tree; the round one, fruit like 
the apple from which it was taken.” subscriber. 
The above is a mistaken notion, founded on suppo¬ 
sition, with no facts to back up the theory, so far as I 
have ever known. A plump seed is more likely to 
make a better plant, that is, a more vigorous one than 
one that is not so plump, but this has nothing to do 
with the individuality of the plant in other respects, 
or the quality of the fruit that it may bear. Such 
peculiarities are determined by the germ, which is the 
result of the pollination of the ovule when the em¬ 
bryonic fruit was only a part of a flower. That is 
why different seeds from the same fruit will produce, 
