22 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JAN. ii 
winter. 7. They are also good in privy 
vaults instead of sand, road-dust, etc. 
“How to Grow Pansies from Seed” 
is the title of a pamphlet by Peter Hender¬ 
son, which in a few simple words and by 
means of a couple of illustrations tells the 
story of how best to raise these charming 
plants. 
The seeds may be sown in the sitting- 
room, greenhouse or hot-bed where the 
temperature will run from 65 to 75 degrees, 
any time from the middle of January to 
the middle of April, but the earlier in the 
season they are sown, the stronger the 
plants will be. The best way to start pan¬ 
sies, or in fact, any kind of flower seeds, 
is in shallow boxes rather than in pots. 
To make it as clear as possible, we show 
three different stages of the operation. 
Fig. 1 shows a box two inches deep, nine 
wide and 12 long, wherein a packet of pan¬ 
sy seeds has just been sown in ordinary, 
rich soil, such as is used for almost any 
kind of house plant. The surface is made 
perfectly smooth and level before the seeds 
are sown, then the seed is pressed gently 
down with a smooth board, so as to merely 
sink it into the soil; over the seed is sifted 
through a piece of mosquito netting, just 
enough soil to hide the seed, say about 1-16 
part of an inch in depth: again press gently 
down with a smooth board and the sowing 
is completed. Now, place the box in the 
light, water gently with tepid water, so as 
not to disturb the soil, and in about three 
weeks, if kept in an average temperature 
of 65 degrees, you will have a “braird” of 
young seedling pansies, as sown in Fig. 2, 
which is a box of exactly the same kind as 
the seeds were sown in. In three weeks 
more, or in about five or six weeks from 
the time of sowing, we must transplant the 
seedlings into box No. 3, which in three 
weeks more will give an appearance as 
shown in the cut. The plants from box 
No. 3 will soon begin to crowd one another, 
when they may be placed in flower pots, or 
boxes, to be grown inside or in the open 
ground, as desired. When it is not con¬ 
venient to give pansies the house culture 
just described, the seeds can be sown in the 
open ground as soon as it is dry enough to 
work iu spring. They should be sown 
exactly as described—in the boxes—press¬ 
ing down the seeds, then slightly covering 
up, and pressing down again, but they had 
better always be sown in rows, and when 
they come up and are about an inch or so 
in bight, they can be transplanted at a dis¬ 
tance of one foot apart, and if the soil is 
rich and the season at all favorable, we 
may expect continuous bloom throughout 
the entire season. 
found; while on 'the higher fields of the 
same farm, where the vines had not been 
harmed by frost and the blight matured, 
one-half of the crop was rotten. This sea¬ 
son, just as the earlier-planted potatoes be¬ 
gan to rot, warm weather set in, and the 
rot ceased. Rotten potatoes left on the 
surface when we first began to dig, (the 
weather being cool,) would froth and dis¬ 
appear in a day, while later, in very warm 
weather, they would dry up and remain 
about the same as when dug. Potatoes 
planted later, blighted later in the season 
and the blight had not reached the tubers 
when the hot weather arrived: hence no 
rot. One field of very late Burbanks 
which was also planted very late, did not 
reach that stage of growth of the vine, 
which the blight requires for development, 
until after the hot weather and did not 
blight at all. Several years ago a friend of 
mine found a green hill in a field where 
the rest had all matured. It was dug and 
an extra yield was obtained. The product 
was planted and gave a large yield of 
late-maturing Burbanks. This strain of 
Burbank has obtained a local fame and its 
use has spread into two towns. The field 
of the kind mentioned is the only one I 
know of that did not blight. The disease 
commenced on my potatoes in different 
fields in the order of planting. The He¬ 
bron (early) were all rotten; of American 
Giant (medium) one-third rotted, Star and 
Burbank rotted slightly. The Monroe Seed¬ 
ling and Late Burbank did not rot at all. 
A good deal of care was taken to procure 
sound seed, and affected seed was also used 
as an experiment. When the tubers began 
to rot many methods to prevent decay 
were used; but the result in all cases was 
the same, viz., the hot weather put a stop 
to the disease and no particular meth¬ 
od had any advantage. From observation 
and experiments I believe that the seed used 
has but little influence on the result for one 
year, as far as blight is concerned. The tem¬ 
perature is the controlling factor. There 
are other reasons why affected seed should 
not be used. It helps to perpetuate and 
keep in existence this scourge until a favor¬ 
able season occurs when immense damage 
is done. Every person should avoid help¬ 
ing to spread the blight by disinfecting 
his seed and store rooms, and burning 
all diseased tubers, planting only fully ma¬ 
tured seed free from the germs of disease. 
These germs are destroyed by exposure to 
heat equal to 110 degrees. In experiments 
where affected tubers were used, the vines 
were smaller, the yield was less, and the 
tubers were ill-shapen, and a large percent¬ 
age were unmerchantable. In an eight- 
acre field of potatoes one acre was planted 
with such seed and Prof. I. P. Roberts 
readily found them by the appearance of 
the vines in August. The best is not too 
good for me to plant. 
IOWA APPLES. 
A. C. S.,Glenwood, Iowa.— A few weeks 
ago I noticed in the ;R. N.-Y. a quotation 
from the Iowa Homestead which stated 
that horticulture in Iowa _ 
was “ a sentiment.” I in¬ 
fer that the paper quoted 
considers that the live 
questions of the day are 
corn and hogs, and in ord¬ 
er to disabuse the minds 
of readers of the R. N.-Y. 
of this idea I will give a 
few figures of what the 
past year has given to our 
county (Mills). One firm 
sold to H. Hoag & Son, of 
Lockport, N. Y., 4,900 bar¬ 
rels of apples to be kept in 
cold storage for the spring 
market. There have been 
shipped from this station 
123 car-loads of apples this season, or about 
25,000 barrels. For 100 days there were 
taken into Council Bluffs from this county 
over 40 car-loads of apples a day. The loads 
would average 35 bushels or 140,000 bush¬ 
els in all. This county has received for her 
apples over $150,000 this year, besides what 
have been used for home consumption, and 
our orchards have only just commenced to 
bear. Mr. Hoag said to me: “Your 
apples will weigh from three to five pounds 
more to the barrel than apples of the same 
variety from Missouri, and for high-colored 
pei’fect fruit I have never seen any that 
would surpass them. When I located at 
Lockport, N. Y., I thought I was in the 
center of the fruit interest, but I find I am 
1,000 miles east of it.” Our apple markets 
are San Francisco and New York City, 
Seattle and New Orleans, Fruit-growing 
has ceased to be an experiment with us, 
and has become an assured industry. 
There are in this township scores of or¬ 
chards that will number from 1,000 to 
20,000 trees. One planted last spring 
amounted to over 10,000 trees and only 46 
failed to grow. In the smaller fruits we 
have just commenced; but now a good 
many tons of grapes are shipped every year 
to Colorado, Wyoming and Dakota. 
Over 50,000 quarts of berries were shipped 
from the station this year, consisting main¬ 
ly of black raspberries and blackberries; 
but very few strawberries were grown last 
year. Berries averaged 10 cents per wine 
quart and our fruit industry is in its in¬ 
fancy. Some people have believed, as the 
Homestead evidently does, that fruit in 
Iowa was a sentiment; but those who saw 
the exhibition of fruit at the Hay Palace 
at Creston this year believe that if it is a 
sentiment it is a very matter-of-fact one. 
The Western Horticultural Society met 
here this year, and after one afternoon 
spent in half-a-dozen orchards within a 
mile of town, Mr. John Wragg, of Wauker, 
Iowa, said to the writer: “lam like the 
Queen of Sheba: the half was not told me 
and there is no spirit left in me.” I am not 
trying to boom this country. I am not a 
real estate agent and have no land to sell, 
but I have lived here 17 years and have seen 
a change from imports of New York apples 
to exports of apples to New York by the 
train load. My interest centers in the 
good name of my adopted State. I would 
not have readers of the R. N.-Y. think that 
this is the only spot in Iowa where fruit 
can be grown, for the whole of southwest¬ 
ern Iowa is well adapted to fruit, although 
none of it, perhaps, is so well adapted as 
th e loess soils, and while there may be a 
little sentiment in the affection I have for 
my home, it is only the hard cash that I 
advance as an argument to prove my as¬ 
sertion that Iowa is now and will continue 
to be a great horticultural State. 
ADVANTAGE OF “ DRYING OFF ” COWS. 
S. F. M., Keene, N. H.—In regard to 
the question: “How long should a cow 
rest or go dry?” I will give one instance 
in my own experience. I have a thorough¬ 
bred Jersey cow, now nine years old, that 
was milked almost every day from the 
time she was four years old up to her 
eighth year. She never gave more than 13 
quarts of milk in the best of the season. 
That milk would make, on an average, 13 
pounds of butter per week. In the winter 
of 1887 and ’88 I allowed her to rest 86 days. 
She dropped a fine heifer calf on March 19, 
1888. I commenced to test her on April 1. 
She gave 980 pounds 14 ounces of milk in 
April and made 72 pounds 12 ounces of 
butter. In May she gave 1,000 quarts of 
milk and 74 pounds 13 ounces of butter. 
In June she gave more than in any other 
month. In July she fell off somewhat. In 
August she fell off more ; but for the year 
she gave 530 pounds two ounces of butter. 
Now the above record is more than 120 
pounds more butter than she ever made be¬ 
fore in one year. Was it because she had 
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HOW TO GROW PANSIES. Fig. 11. 
that 86 days’ rest ? I am confident it was, 
as she was fed the same as she had been 
for two years before when in milk. I be¬ 
lieve we will get more milk and butter by 
giving our cows not less than 60 days’ rest. 
At any rate I shall follow that plan until I 
am convinced by my own experience that I 
am wrong. 
USES FOR COAL ASHES. 
F. K. P., Delavan, Wis.— 1. Coal ashes 
are useful for making with sand good and 
cheap paths, side-walks, etc. 2. They also, 
when sifted, make a good dust-bath for 
fowls. 3. When sifted they are excellent 
for scouring pans, knives, forks, etc. 4. 
They are useful to mix with and lighten 
heavy clay soil, and, 5, for spreading around 
currant and other fruit bushes, and I must 
believe them to be to some extent nianu- 
rial. 6. They are also useful to cover veg' 
©tables, flower roots, etc., in a cellar over¬ 
BREWERS’ GRAINS AS FEED FOR COWS. 
Many dairymen practice feeding brew¬ 
ers’ grains to milch cows, but with vary¬ 
ing results. A correspondent of the Lon¬ 
don Live Stock Journal says that for the 
food of milking cows in winter there is no 
better food, provided it is used in modera¬ 
tion, and mixed with other foods so that 
due regard is given to the chemical compo¬ 
sition of the daily ration, and at the same 
time the mechanical condition of the food 
is not overlooked. Too little attention is 
at times paid to these two all-important 
points, and consequently the needless 
trouble, expense and loss brought about 
by neglect or ignorance in these matters. 
It is a common thing to find men overfeed¬ 
ing or underfeeding their cows, as the case 
may be, according as the food given con¬ 
tains a superabundance or a deficiency of 
the necessary constituents for the healthful 
sustenance of their stock ; or perhaps the 
chemical composition is right, but the 
mode of preparation is altogether wrong; 
and then digestive troubles follow, the 
cows, or some of them, get the grunts, or 
are blown, their milk dries off, and their 
general condition is unprofitable and un¬ 
satisfactory. To avoid all this trouble 
first look out that your cows get enough, 
and not too much, of the right sort of food ; 
second, see that what is presented to them 
is properly prepared. To keep a milking 
cow of about 1,000 pounds’ weight in health 
it is necessary to give her daily a food ra¬ 
tion that contains three-fourths pound 
of fat, 12 pounds of soluble carbohydrates, 
and 2% pounds of albuminoids, and the total 
weight of dry matter in this ration must 
be about 30 pounds to 35 pounds. With 
brewers’ grains, hay. straw, and a little 
decorticated cotton-cake meal it is easy 
enough to prepare a food containing the 
necessary ingredients. Here is a ration 
that will keep milking cows in health and 
give them a bloom, and at the same time it 
is cheap, digestible, and relished by the 
stock: Hay and straw chaffed and steamed, 
25 pounds; brewers’ grains, 22 pounds; 
decorticated cotton-cake meal, three 
pounds. This ration contains one pound of 
fat, 12 % pounds of carbohydrates, and 
three pounds of albuminoids. 
SAUNTERINGS. 
Sylvanit, says Dr. S. W. Johnson, in a 
recent bulletin, is a product of the Stass- 
furt potash industry, which is used by 
manufacturers of mixed fertilizers and 
may be offered in the retail trade. Like 
kainit, it is offered as a “sulphate” of 
potash, but, like kainit, also, it cannot 
properly be regarded as such, for it does 
not contain enough sulphuric acid to com¬ 
bine with all the potash present, and, more¬ 
over, it contains between three and four 
times as much chlorine as sulphuric acid. 
A sample analyzed by Dr. Johnson con¬ 
tained 16.65 per cent, of potash, 27.10 of 
soda, 2.08 of lime, 3.37 magnesia, 11.06 sul¬ 
phuric acid and 41.35 chlorine. Sylvanit 
contains more potash than kainit does and 
consists of sulphates and muriates of pot¬ 
ash and soda, the muriates, asshown, large¬ 
ly preponderating. 
Large quantities of unleached wood 
ashes, Dr. Johnson continues, are now 
brought in from Canada and the north west¬ 
ern States and are sold for from $11 to $15 a 
ton in car-lots. The following is his analy¬ 
sis of ashes sold by Munroe, Judson & 
Stroup, regarding which the R. N.-Y. has 
had a number of inquires: 
Potash.5.33 
Phosphoric acid.1.19 
Lime .44.54 
Sand and insoluble matter.8.45 
Below we give the average of Dr. Goess- 
man’s analyses of 91 samples of unleached 
wood ashes for comparison : 
Potash.5.5 
Phosphoric acid.1.9 
Lime.34.3 
Insoluble matter.12.9 
And again we give the average of 16 an¬ 
alyses made by Dr. Johnson between 1877 
and 1889: 
Potash.5.3 
Phosphoric acid.1.4 
The ashes saved from household fires in 
New England appear to be richer in phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash as shown by the 
average of 13 analyses made by Prof. Storer 
of the Bussey Institute : 
Potash.9.63 
Phosphoric acid.2.32 
The reason why samples of commercial 
unleached ashes range so low in phosphoric 
acid and potash is that they contain con¬ 
siderable quantities of impurities—carbon¬ 
ic acid, sand, earth, etc. 
Below is given the different average 
composition of leached and unleached 
Canada ashes: 
VNLEACHED. LEACHED. 
Sand, earth and charcoal. ..13.0 13 0 
Moisture. 
...12.0 
30.0 
Carbonate lime. 
..61.0 
51.0 
Potash. 
1.1 
Phosphoric acid. 
.. 1.9 
1.4 
It appears, therefore, 
that more 
than 
half the weight of both leached and un¬ 
leached ashes consists of lime carbonate, 
the same material, chemically, as chalk or 
limestone, but finer and so likely to be 
quicker in its action. 
It needs to be borne in mind that potash 
or soda lye binds a clay soil making it 
heavier, more tenacious and cloddy than 
before, and it may be that on this account 
a heavy application of unleached ashes to 
a clay soil would either not help it at all or 
even damage it, while on light soils un¬ 
leached ashes would be more beneficial 
than leached ashes. They “ keep the soil 
jjjoist” as the saying is, that is, by filling 
