i89o 
THE RURAL NFW-YORKER 
183 
leading millets is shown in the following 
table: 
AVERAGE HIGHT AVERAGE LENGTH OF 
IN FEET. HEAD IN INCHES. 
Common, 5 
Hungarian, :% 41 ^ 
German, 4% 8 
Hungarian Millet (Hungarian Grass.) 
—More upon this variety is given in the 
comparison under German Millet. It 
ripened a little earlier than that variety, 
and a week later than the Common Millet. 
The samples were very uniform in appear¬ 
ance and time of ripening, much more so 
than those of the German Millet. The seed 
of Hungarian may be easily recognized by 
its containing 50 per cent, or less, of dark 
grains. The variety is said to be much 
earlier and much more leafy than German 
Millet, but the differences in these respects 
were less than was expected. It is said to 
afford several cuttings in a season,while the 
German Millet affords but one. It is also 
recommended as being better adapted than 
other millets to light soils, which is doubt¬ 
less owing to the larger amount of leaves 
and the smaller amount of seed produced. 
Common Millet. —This is the smallest 
and earliest of the millets usually grown. 
The oval, glossy seeds are larger than those 
of Hungarian, and contain no dark grains. 
The samples sown April 20, were dead-ripe 
August 26. The average hight was 33 4. feet 
(shorter than Hungarian), and the average 
length of the heads, five inches, being a 
little longer than those of Hungarian, and 
about half the length of those of Golden 
Wonder. The 10 samples from seeds from 
different seedsmen were as uniform in ap¬ 
pearance as though the seeds had all been 
obtained from one source. 
Missouri Millet. —Seed was obtained 
from G. W. Stockell & Co., of Nashville, 
Tennessee, the only seedsmen offering it, 
so far as seen. In a letter the firm says 
that this millet is used a great deal in that 
State, mixed with Hungarian. Stockell & 
Co., consider it a cross between Hungarian 
and German MiHet. The seed furnished 
resembled that of Hungarian, except that 
it contained no dark grains. The heads as 
grown resemble German Millet, but the 
plant otherwise appears to be the same as 
Hungarian. 
(To be Continued.) 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
France. 
Le Vivier-sur-mer. —The crops of apples 
and pears here were very short last year 
and there was a very good opportunity to 
try the importation of American fruit in¬ 
to France, an opportunity chat may not be 
met soon again. To give an idea of the 
prices realized for fruit this season: I have 
myself sold about 1,200 tons of cider apples 
at prices ranging from 150 to 170 francs per 
ton or §29 to §33 per ton, and I would have 
sold much more but they were not procur¬ 
able. For doing business in the fruit line, 
I suppose one must go over to the country 
where the fruit is grown and buy, pack and 
ship it direct to the place where it is wanted. 
However, I do not give up the idea of doing 
some business with America either in fruits 
or in seeds that I am growing extensively. 
In the R. N.-Y. for February 8, under the 
title: “Cash Crops for 1890.” on page S6, Mr. 
L. P. H , Hillier, Canada, writes as follows: 
“ The only specialty we have in this town¬ 
ship is raising fancy peas and we can raise 
them to perfection. Peas are the best cash 
crop we have.” As I am rather interested 
in raising fancy peas, what is the address 
of this correspondent, so that I can write 
him regarding the terms on which he is 
growing peas? • r. b. 
R. N.-Y.—The desired address has been 
sent this correspondent. Those who wish 
to correspond with him may do so through 
the R. N.-Y. The paper is read and studied 
in 26 countries besides our own. We quite 
frequently receive letters like the above 
and they all teach us that our farmers 
have as yet but .a faint idea of the foreign 
trade that can be built up with other 
countries. We are speaking of farm pro¬ 
ducts now—we assume that manufacturers 
are fully capable of pushing their own busi¬ 
ness. 
Illinois. 
Pleasant Valley, Jo Daviess County, 
March 3.—Old winter is here at last. The 
first sleighing of the season came last week. 
We have six inches of snow now. Sunday 
morning—March 2—was the coldest day so 
far, 15 degrees below zero. On only three 
mornings this winter has the mercury been 
below zero. Winter wheat, though some¬ 
what injured, is reasonably certain to sur 
vive the winter now. The acreage is less 
than usual as the weather was extremely 
dry in sowing time. Steers for pasturing 
next summer are in great demand and 
scarce. Prices of both cattle and hogs are 
improving and farmers are hopefully look¬ 
ing forward to better times. There isn’t 
the least doubt that help is needed much 
by destitute farmers in North and South 
Dakota. I know personally of some cases. 
But there are other evils worse than 
droughts or frosts, and if one billion dol¬ 
lars, as in 1889, continue to be squandered 
yearly in the saloons instead of being used 
to buy fruit, vegetables and other farm 
produce together with clothing, etc., legiti¬ 
mate branches of business, being robbed of 
this immense capital, will languish and 
prices will decline until the cry of overpro¬ 
duction is raised again. As long as people 
go hungry and cold it is underconsumption 
which causes the trouble, and this is gener¬ 
ally due to the liquor traffic. High license 
in this State is of no value in lessening the 
evil. It only tends to make a monopoly of 
the business and more drugs are used to 
make a cheaper drink and more profit. In 
Kansas if a man is found drunk he can be 
imprisoned till he will tell who sold him 
the liquor and the fine is doubled each time. 
That soon breaks up the liquor trade and 
is a better way to get revenue than by 
license. Farmers should awake, for the 
drink evil is the greatest obstacle to their 
prosperity. Our county has had four or 
five costly whisky murder trials, w. s. s. 
Indiana. 
New Albany, Floyd County, March 8.— 
The winter was very mild and warm here 
till the first of this month; then it set in 
with the heaviest snow storm of the season 
on the fifth of the month. Peaches and 
early plums were nearly all out in full 
bloom when the blizzard struck us and 
consequently were all killed. I fear the 
wheat, too, is damaged, but can’t tell yet. 
H. B. 
Kansas. 
Garnett, Anderson County, February 
22.—In reading the R. N.-Y. I see nothing 
in regard to the cultivation of the Castor 
Bean, and as the first of April is about the 
best time to plant, I will describe the prac¬ 
tice followed here. The ground best 
adapted to the production of the Castor 
Bean is a light, loose loam, our red land 
being the best. The ground is plowed as 
for corn, and the seeds are planted in hills 
about three feet apart, two to three beans 
in a hill. This should be done shortly after 
oats are sowed, as it takes two or three 
weeks for the seeds to sprout. There need 
be no fear of the seeds rotting in the 
ground as the oil in them protects them. 
When the bean is three or four inches high 
the land should be cultivated the same as 
for corn. About the middle of August the 
lower beans on the first or center branches 
will commence to turn brown and snap out 
and must then be cared for or a large part 
of the crop will soon be lost. Skip 20 rows 
and go over the 21st with the wagon ; pick 
from both sides of the wagon, taking all 
the pods that show brown beans on the 
lower ends of the stems; follow this up in 
about a week or 10 days. This will have to 
be done three or four times before all are 
gathered. Scrape off the top of the ground 
till it is solid for a bean bed, throw the 
beans on the ground, and the sun will soon 
thrash them out. Clean them in the wind, 
or, better, with a fanning-mill, and they 
will be ready for market. The yield is 
from about 10 to 15 bushels to the acre, the 
writer having one year got 67 bushels from 
three acres. Beans brought last fall from 
§1.75 to §2 per bushel. s. e. 
Nebraska. 
Wabash, Cass County, March 3. —We are 
having fine weather. We have had no snow 
or rain. We raised good crops last year, 
but prices are low : corn, 15 cents ; wheat, 
45 cents; oats, 14 cents; potatoes, 25 cents; 
apples, 50 cents. Most of our apple crop 
was sold in the fall at 35 cents, and shipped 
east. w. h. h. 
New Jersey. 
Shiloh, Cumberland County, March 9.— 
The peach buds were all well swollen before 
the cold weather of the 7th. The ther¬ 
mometer fell to 22 degrees below freezing 
point and they were left in a bad condition. 
The outcome of such a low temperature 
cannot be safely predicted ; but it is not at 
all safe to predict a crop. The Le Conte and 
Keiffer Pears were nearly in blossom, as 
also was the Kelsey Plum, but, beyond all 
doubt, the blossoms of all of them were 
killed by the frost. I have the Kelsey 
Plum (true) and find it as hardy as the 
peach ; but the first year in the nursery it 
is not entirely hardy. * E. M. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
rEvery query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the writer to insure atten¬ 
tion. Before asking a question, please see if it 
is not answered in our advertising columns. 
Ask only a few questions at one time. Put 
questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
BLIND STAGGERS; STOMACH STAGGERS. 
J. L., South Point, Idaho.— What is the 
matter with my horses ? When first taken, 
they seem to give out in their hips and backs 
and the first symptoms are staggering and 
stiffening of the joints. As the disease pro¬ 
gresses they become unable to walk, and 
from the time they are taken they do not 
lie down until they are stricken with death 
They eat all the time, and drink all the 
water we will give them. They are sore all 
over and continually throw their heads 
from side to side. On the worst afflicted 
little sores which form scabs have appeared. 
I feed marsh hay from overflowed land and 
it is about half rushes. It was cut and 
stacked in a good season, but the tops of 
the stacks became somewhat moldy. This 
was fed and the horses seemed to prefer 
that which was somewhat moldy to the 
sound hay. This is the only thing to which 
I can attribute their illness. 
Ans.—T he horses are evidently suffering 
from blind or stomach staggers, due to 
feeding on the moldy, coarse marsh hay. 
The disease is of frequent occurrence in the 
South and West, owing to feeding on cer¬ 
tain foods containing a poisonous principle 
which tends to derange and paralyze the 
stomach, or, more commonly, to feeding on 
coarse, indigestible, or poorly preserved 
food which acts by overloading the stomach. 
Place all the horses on a restricted, sloppy 
or mash diet. Then give each affected 
animal an active purgative to open the 
bowels and unload the overloaded stomach. 
To each adult horse may be given one ounce 
each of the best aloes and ginger in a ball, 
or as a drench in one pint of water. Large 
horses,if quite badly affected,may receive 1% 
ounce of the aloes. A horse in this condi¬ 
tion will usually require one-half or twice 
more physic to purge him than on ordinary 
occasions. Continue the mash diet until 
the bowels are freely moved. Repeat the 
dose of physic in 36 hours if no effect is pro¬ 
duced by the first dose. In serious or ob¬ 
stinate cases rectal injections of two or 
three quarts of warm soap-suds may be 
given every two or four hours until re¬ 
lieved. Improvement should usually fol¬ 
low a free purging. As a tonic, to assist in 
regulating the deranged system, the fol¬ 
lowing powders may be given: Sulphate of 
soda one pound, nitrate of potash and pow¬ 
dered gentian each eight ounces, powdered 
nux vomica four ounces; mix. Dose, two 
table-spoonfuls on the feed night and morn¬ 
ing. If the partial paralysis or loss of con¬ 
trol over the hind limbs continues, give a 
course of the nux vomica alone. Begin 
with doses of one tea-spoonful three times 
daily for two days. Then increase the dose 
by one-half tea-spooDful each succeeding 
two days, until you are giving doses of 
three tea-spoonfuls three times daily, which 
should be continued but a few days. If to¬ 
wards the last of this course of treatment 
the animal becomes nervous or twitching 
of the muscles is noticed, the nux vomica 
must be discontinued, or only one-half of 
the quantity be given. Keep constantly 
before each of the horses a small box of 
salt and a bucket of good cold water. The 
more water they drink the better, not to 
exceed a bucketful at one time. When 
such coarse, indigestible or moldy ’ hay 
must be fed to horses it should be given in 
limited quantity, with an occasional ration 
of roots, bran mashes, or other laxative 
food, to keep the bowels open and the 
stomach from becoming overloaded and 
deranged. As soon as the first symptoms 
of the disease are noticed, the aloes should 
be given and followed by a laxative diet 
until the animals have fully recovered. 
Free access at all times to salt and good 
drinking water will assist materially in 
warding off the disease. 
DIFFICULTY IN CHURNING. 
L. V. M., Farmville, No. Carolina.—I 
have a valuable full-blooded Ayrshire cow 
that gave milk last summer and fall from 
which we made very fine butter, but for 
the last three months or more, we have 
been unable to make any butter from her 
cream by any amount of churning. The 
cream appears to be perfectly good, but 
after considerable churning it becomes 
stiff and frothy, more like the beaten 
whites of eggs than anything else, and no 
amount of churning will bring any butter. 
We have tried the cream at different stages, 
—very sour, partially sour and perfectly 
sweet—but the result is the same in each 
case. The cow is fed on good hay, fodder, 
shucks and cotton seed, and gets salt 
nearly every day. What is the trouble 
with the cow and what is a remedy ? 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
As there has been nothing in the tem¬ 
perature during the past three months to 
warrant any supposition that this is the 
cause of the trouble with the milk, 
although nothing is said upon this point, 
the cause is doubtless in the feeding. It 
may, however, be that the cream has been 
kept too warm, as this would be sufficient 
to produce this condition of the cream. If 
the temperature of the cream has been 
above 62 degrees, that would account for 
the difficulty. But the foods given may 
easily be at the bottom of it; for good hay 
in Pitt County, N. C., may not be exactly 
right for making good butter in the win¬ 
ter. If it is good clover hay, it would be 
all right, but if it is Red-top hay it would 
not, being deficient in butter-making ele¬ 
ments and general nutritive properties. If 
the fodder (blades 1 suppose) has been 
injured by the early frosts which prevailed 
last fall, that would be another explana¬ 
tion of the difficulty, and so would the use 
of cotton seed, and corn shucks which 
have a large quantity of indigestible matter 
in them. Another point is the manner in 
which the cow is watered. Impure water 
would tend to this condition of the cream. 
Not knowing precisely how the case is, it 
can only be suggested that if the cow is fed 
on good hay, cut in a fodder-cutter and 
wetted and mixed with two quarts or more 
of corn meal finely ground and one quart 
of cotton-seed meal, twice a day, one of the 
feeds having a small handful of salt in it, 
and the blades and shucks are given for the 
rest of the feeds, and the milk and cream are 
kept at a temperature of not less or more 
than 60 to 62 degrees, there should be no 
difficulty in getting butter at this season 
by 25 to 30 minutes’ churning. One point 
is specially worth noting. This is that cot¬ 
ton seed has a large quantity of oil in it 
and more than the meal has after the oil is 
pressed out. As oils or fats in the food 
pass directly into the milk without change, 
they have an important influence on the 
butter, and as the frothing in the churn is 
caused by the inability of the butter to 
separate, by reason of its softness and the 
formation of an emulsion in the churn, 
and the more it is beaten in the churn¬ 
ing, the more the butter will not separate, 
it may be that the cotton seed is the prin¬ 
cipal cause of the difficulty. If this is the 
case, to add some cold water to the cream 
to reduce it to 55 degrees might remove the 
trouble. Before changing the feed this 
might be tried. A pure Ayrshire cow’s 
milk has much smaller fat globules than 
the average, and hence the difficulty com¬ 
plained of is more likely to occur than with 
a Jersey cow’s cream. 
PROBABLY GLANDERS. 
B., Clinton County, Mich. —In the sum¬ 
mer of 1888 some small horses were shipped 
to this place from Idaho and sold through 
the neighborhood. When they first came 
they looked well, but as the pasture failed in 
the fall some of the yearlings ran down and 
died. One lot of four mares and six year- 
