102 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FEB i5 
instead of drudging for a monopoly; 
strikes would not occur, as every 
man could with a little money be his own 
master. An extended market would then 
be furnished to the grower, while it is cer¬ 
tain that the consumer would lose nothing. 
Indeed it is quite probable he would get a 
cheaper and better article. *Why should a 
grower of tobacco be restricted in the dis¬ 
posal of his crop any more than the grower 
of any other crop in what goes for a free 
country? In Europe tobacco is grown under 
the supervision of the revenue officers, and 
in some instances the government pays the 
grower for his crop and takes it off his 
hands after it is cut. Here we are worse 
off than the European growers. Thousands 
of farmers have put up buildings and fitted 
them up at great expense to handle the 
weed, their land being suitable for the 
crop and they well able to produce it. 
They cannot do so well at anything else. 
They are now nearly frozen out and their 
property is becoming of little value. Are 
the “plants” of a few factories of more value 
than the aggregate value of the tobacco 
farmers’ buildings, stock and tools ? The 
removal of the restrictions on the growers of 
tobacco would not lessen the value of the 
factories. It would simply dissolve the com¬ 
pact between the licensed buyer and the 
government as against the grower. 
The revenue from the license is 
insignificant as compared with the 
hardships inflicted by its exaction. 
Flinging mud, belittling the growers, 
abusing the consumers, will never lead to 
the disuse of tobacco, or even to a reduction 
in the amount of it consumed. 
WHITE WINTER BUTTER. 
C. M. L., Center Lisle, N. Y.— On page 
52 of No. 2087, Farmer’s Girl takes excep¬ 
tion to my language in a former issue of the 
R. N.-Y., where in speaking of feeding cows 
on ground buckwheat, I said that it made 
white butter of an inferior quality similar 
to winter butter. Had Farmer’s Girl ever 
kept a country store and exchanged goods 
for butter in the winter, two to one she 
would have used the same expression. 
She says that once in several years her 
people made some butter similar to the 
kind I described, but it was only when the 
cows had straw and wheat bran for feed. 
Thirty-five to 40 years ago cows were kept 
the whole winter through on hay and 
straw, no grain was fed and people 
never thought of having their cows come 
through to grass in any other condition 
than “spring-poor,” and butter made dur¬ 
ing these winters of artificial starvation, 
could certainly be nothing but the kind 
mentioned, viz : “ winter butter.” Farm¬ 
er’s Girl and I do not disagree. She does 
not deny that ground buckwheat will 
make white butter; but tells what her folks 
feed—“good clover hay, fodder, bran, 
ground corn, beets and a little cotton-seed 
meal.” This feeding should make good 
butter. We are feeding more grain in one 
week now than we used to feed in a whole 
year. Can’t you remember when people 
did not feed horses any grain ? I can, and 
the bodies of the stock used to be so dis¬ 
tended that there was no activity, no come¬ 
liness of form, and nine horses out of 10 had 
the heaves, and now heaves are an exception. 
There is no excuse for not feeding grain, as 
it is so low. It does not pay to make a 
poor quality of butter. Some people say 
that butter is so low that they cannot af¬ 
ford to feed grain. If butter is low, one 
should try to make the best quality and 
get the best price and the consequent satis¬ 
faction, together with the price, will well 
repay him for good feeding and good care 
of the cows, and let spring-poor cows and 
white butter be things of the past. 
GOING TO AN “ ABANDONED FARM.” 
I. 'E. W., Dorchester, Mass.— After 
reading so much about the abandoned 
farms of New England in the R. N.- 
Y. and in some of the Boston papers, 
I am determined to speak a good 
word in favor of some of them. I have 
had some experience on farms in Maine 
and New Hampshire, and although they are 
rocky, the land is mostly good and with 
proper cultivation, good paying crops may 
be raised. One of the writers in the R. N.- 
Y. lays the whole blame on laziness; but I 
think if he had added the word misman¬ 
agement, he would have struck the trouble 
squarely on the head. I know of lots of 
farms that are mortgaged every year for 
money enough to run them through the 
summer, and I believe this is one thing 
which has killed most of the farms in this 
part of the country. I have taken one of 
the farms spoken of, which was all run out 
until four years ago ; but it has been greatly 
improved since and is now in quite a good 
state. The owner is to have one-half the 
income and furnisnes stock, tools, seed and 
one man by the year and he pays me for re¬ 
pairs and improvements on the place. 
Some of my friends say I am a fool to leave 
my trade for a farm. Perhaps I am, but 
time will tell. I am a wood-worker at 
present running a moulding machine at 
$3.00 per day; but when business is good 
by working over time I can make about 
$25 per week. I like farming and I do not 
like to work under cover, and, taking into 
consideration the health of my wife and 
baby, I think I shall be better off in the 
country. What do Rural readers say ? 
THE NEW YOEK STATE EXPERIMENT 
STATION. 
S. W. N., Stowe, Vermont.— I am sur¬ 
prised to read in the Rural that an effort 
is being made to abolish the New York Ex¬ 
periment Station. It would be a lasting 
shame to the State to have this effort suc¬ 
ceed, and I hope every intelligent farmer 
in the Empire State will do something to 
defeat this purpose. They ought to see 
that the station has funds sufficient to get 
and keep the best talent, and to carrv out 
the plans of the director. I should feel 
very sorry to have the usefulness of that 
station destroyed. We need all the knowl¬ 
edge we can get, and this is one of the sta¬ 
tions that is doing much to help the farm¬ 
ers in their struggles. Of course there 
are many farmers who are willing to go 
blindly on in the old way. Such are a far 
worse hinderance to helpful legislation 
than professional men or merchants. In 
this State three years ago a bill passed the 
House, largely composed of farmers, to 
abolish the State Board of Agriculture. 
In the Senate it was a tie and the Lieut.- 
Governor—not a farmer—saved the Board. 
Now it would be hard to find a farmer 
who would vote to abolish it. The farm¬ 
ers would have defeated the appropriation 
of $1,000 to the State Dairymen’s Associa¬ 
tion had it not been for professional men. 
But the money has done a world of good. 
If the farmers of New York are foolish 
enough to go against the station I hope 
the men who are not farmers will see that 
it is not only kept up but liberally pro¬ 
vided for. 
HIGH HEN ROOSTS. 
A. F. B., Cats kill, N. Y.—In the issue 
of January 25, S. E. Howard asks: “If 
the hen roost is placed high, and has steps 
to it, how can its hight harm the hens ?” 
In the spring of ’88 I built anew hen-house, 
placed the roosts all on a level 6% feet from 
the floor, so as to be clear of a tall man’s 
head and hat when cleaning the floors. I 
placed in each roosting room a very slant¬ 
ing step-ladder made for the purpose with 
very short steps; the hens took to the 
ladder, “like a duck to water,” when going 
to roost, but in the morning they com¬ 
pletely ignored it. I took particular pains 
to watch them and out of 90 hens and 
roosters only two hens used the ladder in 
reaching the floor—a Black Spanish and a 
Brown Leghorn. I had a mixed lot, com¬ 
posed of Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, Brown 
and White Leghorns, Black Spanish and 
Dominiques, with crosses of all. If they 
were roosting in a tree they could arrange 
their downward flight in such a way as not 
to hurt or jar themselves when they struck 
the ground, but in a room 8x18 their flight 
was very limited. Some of my best hens 
were hurt by alighting from these high 
roosts, so, after giving them a fair trial for 
a year, I took down the roosts and ladders 
and put in roosts three feet from the floor. 
This arrangement seems to give general 
satisfaction. I would not have roosts one 
above another on any account, as all the 
hens would quarrel for the highest perch. 
A SICK HORSE ; GOOD COWS. 
R. J. R., Springwater, N. Y.—In a late 
issue of the R. N.-Y., R. H. T. tells us of 
the death of his horses, which he attributes 
to the fact that he fed them on silage. I 
know nothing of the effect of feeding silage 
to horses, but from his description of the 
way his horses were handled, I think the 
trouble was azoturia, caused by their 
standing idle for a few days. I lost a valu¬ 
able horse this fall by the same disease. 
He had stood three days and got good feed. 
When hitched up he was apparently well. 
In going 100 rods he got stiff and soon got 
down, never to get up. I called in a local 
veterinarian who knew no more about the 
trouble than I did. The horse died. Then 
I got Dr. Law’s Veterinary Adviser and 
found out what ailed the animal. I have 
made 1,800 pounds of butter from six cows 
since last February, besides what milk, 
cream and butter we used in a family of 
from two to four, and I am making some 
yet. The cows are all to come in,‘in the 
spring. I made 1,647 pounds last year un¬ 
der the same circumstances. They are all 
half Jersey, and get no grain when on 
grass. 
FRUIT FACTS. 
Eli Minch, Shiloh, N. J. —In reply to 
“ T.,” Elk Garden, W. Va., page 53,1 would 
say that the name Princess Royal is a 
fancy name of some tree agent. The same 
is true of Hussar and Peter the Great. 
Hames is described in Downing’s Third 
Appendix, page 88. I have it on trial. I 
find it a poor, small, red apple, a poor bear¬ 
er, and worthless. It ripens after Red 
Astrachan. It originated at West Point, 
Ga. Walker’s Beauty is a new apple put 
out in Western Pennsylvania. It is 
claimed to be the same as Hyde’s King of 
the West. If so, I have it on trial, and do 
not value it, as it is a poor grower. I have 
over 200 new apples on trial and find but 
few of value. I would say to J. T. H. of 
Crompton, Md., (whose inquiry is on the 
same page), to use salt on his peach or¬ 
chard. I know the soil from a personal 
visit to that section and would advise an 
application of 500 pounds of refuse salt 
broadcast per acre in addition to the Mapes 
fertilizer. 
BLACK MANURE FROM SMUT. 
H. H., Eau Claire, Wis. —Having read 
a great deal of the danger of feeding 
smutty corn to cattle, I will give you my 
experience. Two years ago I had a piece of 
sweet corn planted for fall feed for the 
cows. I found it very smutty. I was very 
careful to pick off all smutty ears, throw¬ 
ing them into piles, expecting to wheel 
them off. I fed the stalks green until 
danger of frost, then cut and shocked the 
rest. While feeding the stalks all out I 
neglected to take care of the smutty ears, 
thinking the cattle would not touch them. 
I turned them into the field; instead of eat¬ 
ing the grass around the fence, they went 
for those smutty ears and ate them all up 
before night. I think they must have eaten 
from one to two bushels of smut apiece. I 
saw no bad effects. There was no shrink¬ 
ing of milk, but there was a lot of black 
manure. 
H. W. S., Oakland, Ohio. —I have been 
reading Mr. Terry’s figures. What if we 
all raised such crops as he does ? The 
wheat crop of the country on the present 
acreage and his yield per acre would give 
nearly a billion and a half bushels—more 
than three times as much as the present 
crop. Three-fifths of the land in Ohio 
would make 315,320 farms and if each one 
raised 11% acres of wheat which would 
yield 38 bushels per acre, Ohio would pro¬ 
duce 137,794,840 bushels of wheat. If each 
farm produced 1,500 bushels of potatoes (as 
Mr. Terry’s does) we would have, in Ohio, 
472,980,000 bushels. I think it likely that 
three-fifths of the land in Ohio is as good 
and available as Mr. Terry’s. 
Turning Profit to Loss.—Work in¬ 
effectively performed; work neglected at 
the time it should be done; ill-managed 
feeding; poor, unprofitable stock; dead¬ 
heads which cost as much to feed as profit¬ 
able animals ; ill-chosen food ; ill-arranged 
buildings which cost too much in labor; 
waste of machinery; ill usage of tools; ex¬ 
posure of live stock to bad weather; want 
of proper attention to the animals ; dep¬ 
redations of vermin ; want of drainage; 
loss of manure in various ways; neglect to 
provide sufficient fertilizers for the crops ; 
unbusiness-like marketing of crops; want 
of persistence and instability of purpose in 
the farm management; weeds; imperfect 
fences; loss of time; poor seed ; bad roads; 
neglect which leads to accidents; credit 
purchases which increase cost and en¬ 
courage extravagance; inattention to per¬ 
sonal comfort and health, which causes loss 
of time and cost of doctor’s bills and un¬ 
necessary funerals,'all these, says the Times, 
and much more that might be mentioned, 
tend to turn profit to loss and make farm¬ 
ing unprofitable 
SAMPLES AND COMMENTS. 
Buy an assortment of Crozy’s Canna 
seed and plant them now. Crozy’s strains 
are distinct and beautiful. Planted now 
they will bloom from August until frost 
and form fine, stocky plants. 
Chrysanthemum multicaule is de¬ 
scribed by Thorburn & Co. as a dwarf an¬ 
nual bedding plant as well adapted to this 
country though a native of South Africa. 
It reminds one of the English Daisy though 
the flowers are of a golden yellow. Plants 
from seed sown as late as the middle of 
May bloom from the end of June until 
frost. Being but about four inches high, it 
will be found suitable for mosaic beds in 
which its bright yellow flowers will be ef¬ 
fective. 
Buy an assortment of Eckford’s sweet 
peas. These are among the best strains of 
the many kinds now offered. Plant them 
as soon in the spring as the soil may be 
rendered fit for planting. Mixtures are 
offered for 10 cents per packet. 
Thorburn’s Early Refugee Bean (a 
perfect Refugee with wax pods) is valuable 
for early planting. If sown in the spring 
it will give seed in time for a second crop 
in the fall. It is good either in a wet or 
dry season. The pods are long, round and 
yellow. 
Heart’s Content is described as an en¬ 
tirely new and excellent half-dwarf celery 
with large, solid and crisp golden stalks. 
The quality is fine. 
The new Giant Pascal Celery is said to be 
the ideal celery for late winter use. It is 
the result of a careful selection from the 
Golden Self-blanching. It grows about two 
feet high, with stalks that are solid and 
crisp, not stringy, very large and broader 
than other kinds. It blanches very 
readily. 
The peculiar merit of Thorburn’s Ever- 
bearing Cucumber is said to be that the 
vines continue to flower and produce cucum¬ 
bers until killed by frost, whether the ripe 
fruit is picked off or not. 
The new Brazilian Sweet Upright Mam¬ 
moth is a very pretty pepper. It is of a 
bright red color and extra large. 
The new water-melon—Vaucluse Red- 
flesh—is of French origin, and said to be 
very early and of large size. The flesh is a 
bright crimson, very sweet, and comes to 
within an eighth of an inch of the skin. 
The seeds are also red. The rind though 
thin is tough and glossy. The color is a 
dark green lined with a still darker green.. 
Among radishes. Rural readers, the fol¬ 
lowing are selections from older kinds and 
valuable for forcing: Extra Early White 
Mouse-tail, French Early Scarlet White- 
tipped, French Early Scarlet Forcing, and 
French Early Deep Scarlet Forcing. 
Probably there are few if any better va¬ 
rieties of celery than the Perfection Heart- 
well. 
The Broad-leaved Escarolle is a distinct 
variety ot endive and it is sweet. Other 
kinds are more or less bitter. When the 
leaves are six inches long, gather them in 
the hand and tie them together with yarn 
or bast. This must be done in dry 
weather, or they will rot. When cold 
weather threatens, the plants must be 
taken up with a ball of soil and placed 
close together in a frame or cellar for use. 
Among the many varieties of lettuce 
Thorburn’s Market Gardener’s Private 
Stock is a large-heading kind valuable for 
early or late planting. Laciniated Beaure¬ 
gard is a distinct variety as curious as dis¬ 
tinct. Shotwell’s Brownhead is very hardy. 
Among peas it does not matter much 
which of the First Earlies one selects pro¬ 
vided he purchase of seed-houses that 
value their reputation and therefore make 
careful selections of this important crop. 
All of them may be said to have sprung 
from the old Daniel O’Rourke, which is 
still as good as any. The Alpha is nearly 
as early and it is of fine quality. We 
should sow it in preference to any of the 
smooth kinds except that it is far less pro¬ 
ductive. Dr. Hogg is nearly as early and 
bears pods twice as large. This, too, is shy 
and uncertain and needs high culture. It 
is a wrinkled pea of fine quality. For main 
crop nothing will excel the Telephone and 
Stratagem. 
The Orange Squash is an improved 
Boston Marrow, quite distinct, very early 
and of a delicate flavor. It is suitable 
either for fall or winter. 
The Extra Early Milan is the earliest 
of all turnips, white with purple tops. 
Johnson & Stokes pronounce California 
All Heart, the best of all lettuces. It heads 
like a pointed cabbage and is said to be al¬ 
most as solid, of a light green color, almost 
white, and in quality rich and buttery. 
Mention is made of a Brandywine To¬ 
mato that weighed 3% pounds. It is a late 
variety...... 
