THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
645 
1397 
It is of the European species Ribes grossularia. I 
cannot give its birthplace. s A. beach. 
Geneva Experiment Station. 
We have not fruited the Keepsake gooseberry, 
and really know very little about it from personal 
observation. Neither the Chatauqua, Industry nor 
Pearl has ripened its fruit here this season, although 
where the fruit was gathered in a green state, there 
was an unusually prolific crop. July 1, the Chatauqua 
berries were fully double the size of the Pearl, about 
200 being required to fill a quart basket. They began 
to drop about a week later. The Pearl did not drop 
as badly, although the berries were considerably 
spotted by the middle of July, and they did not reach 
their full size, due apparently to the excessive wet 
weather that prevailed at that time. l. f. kinney. 
Rhode Island Station. 
I introduced this variety to fruit growers of the 
United States in the spring of 1893, and since that 
time, I have not had anything but praise from our 
patrons about it. Making the comparison of Indus¬ 
try with Keepsake, which has had such a run with 
American growers, owing to size, we do not know of 
one point where it would score above Keepsake, unless 
one would favor a red fruit when ripe. One of the 
first, most essential points, is hardiness of growth in 
the bush. I do not say that Industry is not hardy, 
but it lacks the vigor of our American sorts, and 
Keepsake is the nearest approach we have in the Eng¬ 
lish sorts, being a very robust grower with a beautiful 
dark-green foliage. Nurserymen soon find that Eng¬ 
lish sorts must become accustomed to our climate be¬ 
fore they realize their value, and it is seldom that a 
planter of Industry will get more than two-thirds to 
three-fourths of the bushes planted to grow, unless in 
northern States ; this is not so with Keepsake, but is 
true of all other English sorts. I have now trans¬ 
planted bushes of Keepsake three years that are full 
of fruit in the nursery row, while other sorts along¬ 
side make but a mere showing. Its foliage is most 
perfect; it has not shown any sign of mildew on our 
grounds, and this is what we cannot say of other 
English varieties. As to quality, it is the best of the 
English sorts, size the largest, hardiness the best, and 
is better adapted to our soils than any other foreign 
variety we have tried. These foreign sorts have been 
a lesson to us, and I think that much good will come 
out of them, as they are causing us to experiment 
with our own American type, so that we are now 
able almost to equal them in size, with new American 
sorts. If this be done, a good work will have been 
accomplished, for it has been but a short time since 
we had nothing better than Houghton, k. w. beid. 
Ohio. 
The Farmers’ Club. 
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VALUES OF SWEET AND IRISH POTATOES. 
Which has the greater food value—the sweet or the Irish potato? 
More Human Fuel m the Sweet. 
The chemical composition of the flesh of the Irish 
potato and sweet potato is as follows : 
Fuel value 
Carbo- per lb. 
Water. Protein. Fat. hyd. Ash. calories. 
/-Per cent-, 
Irish potatoes.... 78.0 2.2 .1 18.8 . 9 395 
Sweet potatoes... 69.0 1.8 . 7 27.4 1.1 570 
You will see that, weight for weight, the sweet 
potato contains less water and correspondingly more 
nutritive matter; a trifle less protein but 50 per 
cent more carbohydrates than the Irish potato. I 
believe that the official bushel allows 60 pounds of 
white potatoes and 50 pounds of sweet. This would 
make their relative value by measure as follows : 
AMOUNT or WATER AND NUTRIENTS IN ONE BUSHEL. 
Carbo- Fuel value 
Water. Protein. Fat. hyd. Ash. calories. 
.-Pounds-, 
Irish potatoes.... 46.80 1.32 . 06 11.28 . 54 237.00 
Sweet potatoes... 34.50 .90 .35 13.70 .55 285.00 
The potato is essentially a farinaceous food contain¬ 
ing but very little protein, i. e., muscle-forming 
material. Its value, therefore, is to furnish energy 
for the work done in and by the body, and some nitro¬ 
genous food material such as meat and eggs must be 
used therewith in order to obtain anything like a 
balanced ration. While neither the white nor the 
sweet potato contains very much protein, the former 
contains considerably more than the latter, thus ren¬ 
dering it slightly more valuable in this regard. This 
slight excess of nitrogenous matter is far offset, how¬ 
ever, by the large excess of carbohydrates (starch and 
sugar chiefly) in the sweet potato as compared with 
the Irish. From the above, therefore, it would seem 
that, at equal price per unit, the sweet potato has 
the greater nutritive value, in round numbers about 
18 per cent in case the unit is by measure, and 40 per 
cent in case the unit is by weight. As regards the 
relative digestibility of the two, I should suppose that 
there would be no particular difference. 
Middletown, Conn. a. p. bbyant. 
Less Water in the Sweet. 
In considering the comparative value of human 
foods, several factors must be taken into account. 
Some of the important ones are : 1. Palatableness. 2. 
Proportion of edible dry matter, and 3. Composition 
of the edible dry matter. The facts at our command 
warrant the statement that, on the average, the 
sweet potato has the higher food value. This opinion 
is based chiefly upon the fact that the sweet potato 
contains less water than the Irish, or more dry matter. 
The following figures taken from Bulletin 28 of the 
Ohio Experiment Station show the proportion of 
edible matter and its composition, and the fuel value 
of the two kinds of potatoes. They are based upon 
57 analyses of the Irish and 88 of the sweet potato. 
The per cent of edible matter in each is 85. 
Composition Edible Matter—Per cent. 
Fuel 
value 
per lb. 
calories. 
Water. 
Dry 
Matter. 
Protein 
Fat. 
Carbo- 
hyd. 
Irish potatoes . 
Sweet potatoes. 
78.9 
69.3 
21.1 
30.7 
2.1 
1.8 
.1 
.7 
18. 
27.1 
380 
565 
It appears that the waste from the two potatoes is 
the same, and that the sweet potato has nearly one- 
half more edible dry matter than the other, the com¬ 
position in the two cases not being essentially unlike. 
We have no reason for supposing that the compounds 
in the one species are more valuable than those of 
the other, and this being the case, 100 pounds of sweet 
potatoes would do much more in sustaining human 
energy than the same weight of the Irish. 
Geneva, N. Y. w. h. Jordan. 
A Problem of the Churn. 
0. }V. S., East Branch, Pa .—I raise nay cream by diluting the 
milk with 50 to 60 per cent of water; it stands 18 to 24 hours. In 
churning at about 60 degrees, there is some loss of butter in the 
buttermilk which I have churned at three different times; the 
first time, I had the churn two-thirds full, and the loss in this 
buttermilk was two pounds. It was of the same color as the 
whole churning. We use a standard butter color. The second 
time, the churn was one-half full, loss one pound of butter and of 
a lighter color than the whole churning. The third was the same 
as the second. 1. Is this loss necessary ? 2. If so, how can it be 
avoided ? 3. Were the solids that came together in the second 
and third churnings butter or other solids? If the latter, what ? 
I am milking 15 cows, use a barrel churn with a breaker on each 
side and both ends, wash and salt, and work the butter in the 
churn. The cream is ripened at 60 degrees and thoroughly mixed 
in a tin can with a funnel mixer, so that the ripening, to us, 
seems even and complete. 
Ans. —1. There is always some butter fat left in the 
buttermilk, varying in amount from a mere trace to 
one-tenth to two-tenths of one per cent, or even more. 
When only one-tenth per cent is left, it is considered 
close churning. 2. The loss of butter in churning 
may be lessened by having the cream well and evenly 
ripened, and by churning at the proper temperature. 
The ripening of the cream renders it less viscous; thus 
sour cream will churn more readily than sweet cream. 
If parcels of cream of different degrees of ripeness be 
mixed and then churned, the different creams will 
churn differently; one would produce butter in a 
shorter time than the other, and if the churn be 
stopped as soon as butter appears, much butter is 
lost in the buttermilk. Therefore, creams of differ¬ 
ent ages should be mixed together at least 12 hours 
before churning, so that the condition of acidity may 
be the same throughout the whole mass. It is diffi¬ 
cult to say what is the proper temperature for churn¬ 
ing, for it varies much under different conditions, 
such as the individuality of the cow, the period of 
lactation, the nature of the food of the cows, and the 
season of the year. Prof. Wing, in his book on Milk 
and Its Products, says : “ These conditions are all 
conditions which affect the melting point of the butter 
fat. The higher the melting point of the fat, the 
higher the temperature at which the milk should be 
churned, and the lower the melting point of the fat, 
the lower the churning temperature. Any condition 
which tends to make the butter fat hard will, neces¬ 
sarily, be followed by a rise in the churning tem¬ 
perature, and any condition which tends to make 
the butter fat soft will, for the same reason, be 
followed by a fall in the churning temperature. 
It is impossible, then, to name any single tempera¬ 
ture which is the best or even the proper one at 
which to churn ; but while there is considerable 
range of temperature, which under different condi¬ 
tions may give the best results, still this range is not 
so wide as the range of temperature at which it is 
possible to churn, and the limits may be placed at 
from 50 to 66 degrees. In general, the lowest tem¬ 
perature compatible with securing butter in a reason¬ 
able length of time will give butter of the best quality. 
The lower the temperature at which the butter is 
churned, other things being equal, the more com¬ 
pletely will the butter be removed from the butter¬ 
milk, the longer will be the time required for churn¬ 
ing, and the less casein will be found in the butter. 
The higher the temperature at which the cream is 
churned, the greater the percentage of fat left in the 
buttermilk and the more casein will be incorporated 
with the butter.” 
3 . It is possible that the temperature was higher in 
the second and third churnings than in the first. If not 
so at the beginning, at least at the end of the churn¬ 
ing. In such case, more casein could easily be incor¬ 
porated with the butter than in the first churning, 
thus giving the butter a lighter color. A small amount 
of cream in a large churn will heat up more than the 
same amount in a small churn. In a trial at the 
Cornell dairy, a quantity of well-ripened cream was 
divided, part being put in a small churn and part in 
a large one. Both began at 50 degrees. In the small 
churn, butter came in 31 minutes, was of superior 
quality and texture ; the temperature at the close 
was 58, and .15 of one per cent of butter fat was left 
in the buttermilk. In the large churn, the time was 
20 minutes, and the butter was soft; temperature at 
the close 63, and .4 of one per cent of butter fat was 
left in the buttermilk. Difficulty is often experienced 
in churning at this season of the year when the cows 
are in the later period of lactation, and on short, 
dry feed. Both these conditions tend to make hard 
butter fat, and are, usually, accompanied by a high 
viscosity of the cream. The first thing to be done, 
then, is to give the cows some food of a more succu¬ 
lent nature, which will cause the secretion of milk 
to be greater in amount and not so viscous; then, 
further to lessen the viscosity by a thorough ripening 
of the cream and, perhaps, in extreme cases, by add¬ 
ing a little weak brine at the time of churning. 
LEROY ANDERSON. 
The Champion Peach. 
C. C., Southington, Conn. —Is the Champion peach a good 
variety? What is its color, shape, and time of ripening north of 
New York ? 
Ans. —It ripens in Michigan during early August. 
Medium to large size, fairly productive, quality best. 
Color creamy white with reddish cheek. The pit 
adheres to the flesh. The tree is hardy and productive. 
Lawrence and Keiffer Pears. 
G. W. II., Antlers, Col.— What two early varieties of dwarf pears 
are the best growers and most profitable (except Bartlett)? Also, 
which are the best two winter varieties of dwarfs. The Bartlett 
does well here as a dwarf, but the Angouleme is no good; grown 
alongside the former, it doesn’t bear one pear to 10 Bartletts, and 
it doesn’t grow any to speak of. Is the Keiffer a small pear? I 
have one three-year-old tree in bearing, but the fruit, at this 
writing (August 20) is only the size of hens’ eggs, but highly 
colored. 
Ans. —Lawrence is the best of all the winter pears, 
and Anjou is fully as prolific and reliable, but earlier 
in season. Both do well as dwarfs. Keiffer grows to 
weigh a pound and more in the South, but where the 
summers are short, it often fails to grow to good size. 
It is a late fall pear of poor quality to most tastes. 
Grown in the South, and ripened just right, it some¬ 
times is quite good. h. e. v. d. 
Improving Southern Land; Bone Meal. 
I. G., Saginaw, Mich .—My farmer friends in Tennessee are writ¬ 
ing me that they are beginning the use of bone meal for wheat, 
using it on wornout lands which I hardly dare describe for fear 
of misleading. They are light in color, fine sandy loam, easily 
worn out, but responding to fair culture and a small bit of 
manure the quickest and most satisfactorily of any soil I ever 
saw. It is impossible for me to tell what this soil lacks without 
experiment, but it would seem that 50 or 60 years of cropping to 
corn and cotton without any return to speak of, would make it 
lack almost everything. This is about the first year they have 
ever used any fertilizer, and the bone meal has brought them 20 
bushels, more or less, per acre on land worth less than $5 per 
acre, as farms go. The original timber growth consists of differ¬ 
ent kinds of Red oak, with some White oak and poplar, no pine. 
The question is, What does bone meal furnish for a crop ? 
Ans. — Of course, such soils respond quickly to 
manure ; they are starved. The bone meal contains 
nitrogen and phosphoric acid. After one or two years 
of its use, its effect would begin to fail—that is, the 
crop would diminish, even though more of the bone 
meal were used. The reason for that is that the 
bone meal contains no potash, and that substance 
must be supplied in some way, if one expect to ob¬ 
tain a good crop. With proper treatment, such land, 
at $5 per acre, can be made to pay a fair interest on 
many times that price. Such lands usually need a 
complete fertilizer and deep working. Potash can be 
obtained in unleached ashes, in wood or cotton hulls, 
or the German potash salts. Our way of improving 
such land would be to sow cow peas in the spring, 
and use potash in the cheapest form, with dissolved 
rock. Let the cow peas make what growth they will. 
If wheat is to follow, plow the cow peas under in 
August, and thoroughly fine the ground before seed¬ 
ing. If for corn, let the cow peas die down on the 
ground and lie there until spring. Then plow them 
under and plant corn. You should read Bulletin No. 
46 of the Arkansas Experiment Station (Fayetteville). 
Experiments on Arkansas soils worn out by repeated 
crops of corn and cotton show that, with cow peas 
and crushed cotton seed or meal, such land can be 
greatly improved at little cost. 
