THE RUtRAT NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH 22 
186 
erliead, on February 27, speaking of ensil¬ 
age, Mr. Powell said that thickly planted 
corn which bore no ears was of little or no 
value as compared with corn which bore 
ears, and he further stated that the juice 
of stalks on which there were no ears was 
of no value. There wasn’t an authority 
there who denied the assertion, though 
Secretary Woodward, Col. Curtis, Profs. 
Ladd and Bailey and other agricultural 
“ authorities ” were present. All the ag¬ 
ricultural papers I have seen for some time 
say the same thing. As one of the audi¬ 
ence I denied the statement and think I 
proved that it was incorrect, for the follow¬ 
ing reasons: If one goes into a field of 
corn when it is cut in the glazed state he 
will find that the juice in the stalks with 
no ears is sweet and sugary, while that in 
the stalks with ears is not at all sweet or 
only very little compared with that in the 
stalks with no ears. Small stalks sowed 
thickly contain as much sugar in propor¬ 
tion to their size, as large ones. The ears 
of corn take the sugar from the stalks to 
form the starch in the kernels and when 
the kernels are planted, the starch in them 
is to provide food for the plants until the 
roots are strong and large enough to take 
food from the soil. The sugar would re¬ 
main in the stalk if one would break the 
sets for the ears off the growing stalk. I 
am satisfied that sorghum sugar growers 
would make more and better sugar if they 
would cut the tops off the sorghum when 
or before it begins to blossom. They 
would obtain more and better sugar owing 
to the loss of the seed. If they could pro¬ 
pagate the sorghum by the roots and keep 
cutting off the seed before maturity, they 
would in a few years get much more sugar. 
In putting corn into the silo there is a loss 
by heating ; for the sugar in the stalks 
turns to an acid as soon as the heating be¬ 
gins and the greater the heat the greater 
the change in the stalk. If the corn can be 
put into the silo so as to preserve the sugar 
in the stalk, there would be an improve¬ 
ment in the ensilage, and that can be done 
if one works in the right way. 
A TOOL TALK. 
J. H. W., Jackson County, Michigan.— 
The photograph of tools used on a 93-acre 
Ohio farm, shown at Fig. 42 in the R. N.-Y . 
of February 22, must interest every pro¬ 
gressive farmer. Nothing could show more 
forcibly the great changes that have taken 
place in agriculture than such pictures as 
r.his and the one of Mr. Terry’s tools shown 
some weeks ago, and they will bear careful 
study by every farmer in the light of his 
own surroundings and circumstances; and 
I have no doubt that many, like the writer, 
will resolve to own, as soon as possible, 
some of the labor-saving appliances there 
shown. But as one looks them over, that 
ever-recurring question, which will not 
down,” but must be met and answered, 
will keep coming up before him—Will it 
pay ? These tools represent a large outlay 
of capital (will Mr. Warn tell us how much .■') 
and many of them can be used but a few 
days in each year on such a farm. Are the 
returns sufficiently increased by the use of 
all this machinery and these conveniences 
to warrant the investment by the general 
run of farmers in an outfit on such an ex¬ 
tensive scale ? Mr. Warn and Mr. Terry, 
no doubt, make it pay. The farmer, who 
has his farm paid for and money ahead, 
can buy them if he wants them. But to 
what extent can the man who is in debt for 
his farm, or who is working a rented farm 
—and such men are in the majority afford 
to invest in labor-saving machinery 
Which shall such a man take for his rule 
in making purchases—1, to buy every tool 
that he feels sure he can use to advantage, 
or, 2, to get along with only a moderate 
supply of the more necessary implements 
until his increased capital will seem to 
warrant the more complete outfit { Ihis is 
an important and quite difficult problem to 
a great number of farmers, and I have no 
doubt that the RURAL and its numerous 
readers who have already made farming 
pay, will be able to give some much-needed 
advice to those who are endeavoring to 
answer this question. 
“ DRYING OFF COWS.” 
S. R., Marion, N. Y.—I was interested 
in the reports from dairymen on the meth¬ 
ods practiced to dry off cows and was much 
surprised to find they were still practicing 
the slow and tedious methods of old. ‘‘Can 
it be,” I asked, “ that they don’t read the 
agricultural papers or even the agricultural 
columns in their religious papers? ” They 
seem not to be posted in the modern im¬ 
provements in that line of dairy lore. On 
the above mentioned authority I would 
have said: Commence in the morning by 
giving the cow a pail of ice water; that 
shrinks the milk one-quarter—say one teat; 
at night give her a whack with the milking 
stool; if the blow is a smart one it whacks 
away one-third, and two teats are done for. 
Next morning speak that “loud word,” 
and, presto ! another teat is shriveled ; at 
night let the fellow who is not the “ same 
milker” and the “ irregular milker” and 
the “slow milker ” try to milk her, and if 
that doesn’t finish up the job snugly I too 
will be a doubter of some things even if the 
authority should be the agricultural col 
umns of a religious new spaper. I was special¬ 
ly interested in the subject just then because 
I had then been eight weeks engaged in an 
experiment to dry a cow in a gradual way 
by leaving a quantity of milk io two teats, 
and milking the others clean. The thing 
did not work as expected and no success 
was attained until I commenced to experi¬ 
ment at the other end of the cow—stinting 
at the manger soon dried the pail. She was 
young and very intractable, calves could 
not milk her, and no milker was safe ex¬ 
cept when she was tied. 
IN favor of free silver coinage. 
I. W. P., Charlottesville, Ya-P rof. 
Sanborn’s paper in a late issue of the R. N.- 
Y. ought to lead to an inquiry into the 
causes of the wide-spread decline in agri¬ 
cultural prosperity. Well may every lover 
of his country feel concern at the appalling 
decline in farm values; for agriculture is 
the basis of all our national prosperity. 
The standard of values has been changed 
from the broad base of gold and silver, to 
gold alone. Money is said to be cheap by a 
certain class. It is the products of indus¬ 
try which are cheap, for any certain sum 
of money could not in a life-time buy so 
much of staple farm products as it can 
now. Money is never so dear as when it 
will buy most. The remedy must be sought 
by united action, North, South, East and 
West. Let farmers reflect, and write to 
their representatives in Congress and re¬ 
quest them to restore silver to its constitu¬ 
tional place, opening the mints to its recep¬ 
tion as gold is received and thus undo the 
wrong which changed the standard of 
values. The farmers of the South and 
West are now petitioning Congress and al¬ 
ready many bills are introduced aiming at 
relief. The free coinage of silver is the only 
remedy. 
NESTING HABITS OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW'. 
C. P. F., Holland, Mich.— An article on 
page 136 of the Rural says that the Eng¬ 
lish sparrow will not use nesting boxes, 
“ where the perch right under the entrance 
hole is absent.” And the question is asked 
whether any of its readers have observed 
this fact about the sparrows? I have 
observed English sparrows going in, and 
coming out through a knot-hole in a clap¬ 
board on the side of a building. The com¬ 
ing and going were so regular, that I had no 
doubt there was a nest of young birds 
inside between the studding of the wall. 
There certainly was no perch near the 
entrance hole, and the sparrows seemed to 
go out and in as readily as a bluebird 
could. 
S. A. L., Meredith Village, N. H.—In 
a late number of the R. N.-Y. a correspon¬ 
dent says the “English sparrows cannot 
enter their nest boxes without something 
to rest upon before entering.” This is an 
error. Within four rods of my office win¬ 
dow stands a two-story house having, in 
the coving finish under the eaves, a hollow 
channel, about four inches in diameter by 
30 feet in length. This channel fur¬ 
nishes shelter and nest-room for many 
sparrows, and the only entrance is through 
a two-inch auger-hole in the under side, 
through which the sparrows go up and 
down without the least inconvenience, and 
then from- another auger-hole through 
clapboards on the plain side of the building 
the nimble birds dart in and out without a 
hitch. Bluebirds formerly occupied both 
of these places, but after long battles were 
driven away by the naughty English spar¬ 
rows. 
M. A. P., Iuka, Miss.—I want to tell C. 
K., Freeville, N. Y. what to do for his two 
fields of cold, moist soil, spoken of at page 
118. I have recently cured by lateral sur¬ 
face drainage about 15 or 20 acres of black 
sandy loam which spreads out from the 
base of a spouty hill. I cut ditches one 
foot deep and three feet wide, exactly two 
rods apart, all over such land. I selected the 
direction in which the ditches should run 
by the fall of the land and also plowed the 
rest of the field in the same direction as the 
ditches ran. My ditches go up the hill as 
far as the wet ground extends, and 1 plowed 
to the top of the hill, the lands being of 
the same width as the spaces between the 
ditches below. 
Actinidia Arguta.— In the'R. N.-Y. of 
last year, page 489, a full-page sketch of 
what we assumed to be Actinidia poly- 
gama was presented, a hardy vine remark- 
ab'e in many ways. Prof. Brooks, who 
has visited Japan and seen it growing and 
fruiting there, corrected us as to its spe¬ 
cific uame—stating that it was Arguta in¬ 
stead of Polygama, by which name it 
appears in the catalogue of Ellwanger & 
Barry, the firm from which our plant was 
obtained four or five years since. 
Before a late meeting of the Massachu¬ 
setts Horticultural Society, Prof. Brooks 
said that the “ Kokuwa ” (Actinidia arguta) 
is peculiar to Japan, and finds its most 
perfect and abundant development in the 
primeval forests of Yesso. It is a vigor¬ 
ous, not to say a rampant grower, and its 
luxuriant dark-green leaves and waving 
stems have a beauty of their own. For 
the purpose of covering arbors or “ form¬ 
ing wild entanglements ” from tree to tree, 
it is certainly suited, but its effects upon 
the trees Prof. Brooks would not answer 
for ; its coils will be found to hug “ closer 
than a brother.” Still, it is a beautiful 
climber, though Yesso can furnish several 
more beautiful and far more manageable; 
but the lecturer cautioned not to plant it 
against verandas or buildings. Unless 
looked after far more closely than most 
will find time to do, it will oyergrow all 
desired bounds, displace eave spouts, and 
make itself a nuisance generally by its 
omnipresence. It is for its fruit that the 
plant is mostly prized in Yesso, where, in 
many localities, it is abundant and very 
largely collected. The fruit is a berry a 
little larger than the Green Gage Plum; 
the skin is green, the pulp, when ripe, soft, 
and the seeds numerous and very fine. 
The flavor cannot be likened to that of any 
other fruit; it is very agreeable to most, 
but it is sui generis. There is ap astrin¬ 
gent principle in the skin, which must not 
be sucked too much or it will make the 
mouth sore. It is not difficult, however, 
to suck out the pulp without encountering 
this trouble. The effect of the fruit is 
decidedly but pleasantly laxative to most 
—much more so than any other of our 
fruits, not excepting the fig. It must 
prove a valuable acquisition even for this 
single quality, were it not moreover suffi¬ 
ciently delicious to repay eating. Only 
one attempt (to the knowledge of Prof. 
Brooks) had been made in Yesso to culti¬ 
vate it, but the plants for this experiment, 
collected before sufficient acquaintance 
with the botanical peculiarities of the 
species had been acquired, all proved bar¬ 
ren. It is polygamo-dicecious, and for fruit 
it must be propagated by cuttings from 
fertile plants. A second obstacle to its 
culture is the fact that a number of years 
must elapse before the plant begins to be 
productive, but just how many would be 
required from cuttings Mr. Brooks could 
not say. Should the fruit under cultiva¬ 
tion prove as good as when wild, it would 
be well worth a place in our gardens; and 
of course there is a possibility that it may 
be improved. It flourishes best in rich, 
moist soils. Professor Brooks brought a 
can of jam made from this fruit, a sample 
of which was sent to the Rural Grounds, 
and the flavor was found to be quite 
unique, but agreeable. 
Rural readers were informed in the 
number above specified that our vine had 
made a prodigious growth, climbing to the 
tops of several magnolias 20 feet high and 
twisting about them. Last fall it was 
found that these shoots had so pulled upon 
the skeleton summer-house at the base of 
which the vine grew, that it was found to 
lean over towards the north about five 
degrees 
Chemical Fertilizers and Barnyard 
Manure.— Prof. Whitcher, Director of the 
New Hampshire Experiment Station, late¬ 
ly delivered a lecture on the “ Growth and 
Nutrition ot Plants,” before the Massachu¬ 
setts Horticultural Society. The question 
has often been asked: "Can chemical fer¬ 
tilizers compete with barnyard manures? ” 
The question, Professor Whitcher said, is a 
very important one to those who are selling 
hay, as well as to farmers in the vicinity of 
cities,where farm-yard manure is available. 
For the past four years an experiment has 
been carried on at the New Hampshire Sta¬ 
tion to determine this^point, which has 
given very satisfactory results. .Two acres 
of land which had produced hay for three 
years previous to 1885, and prior to that 
oats and sugar beets, were selected for ex¬ 
periment. One acre had 13 loads, or five 
and six-tenths cords of manure plowed in 
and nine loads, or three and eight-tenths 
cords, spread on the surface, or 22 loads, 
(nine and four-tenths cords in all). This 
manure was from fattening steers, well fed 
with hay, straw, cotton-seed and corn-meal, 
which would sell as it lay under the stables 
for $33. The other acre had yearly applica¬ 
tions of chemical fertilizers, mixed as fol¬ 
lows : dissolved bone-black, 346 pounds; 
muriate of potash, 150 pounds ; sulphate of 
ammonia, 56 pounds. The average cost of 
this manure was $11, and as there have been 
three applications since 1885, it follows that 
each acre has received $33 worth of fertili¬ 
zer, one having $33 worth of manure and 
the other $33 worth of chemicals. The first 
two years the crop was corn; the third oats, 
and the fourth grass. The value of the two 
corn crops was estimated at $90.87 on the 
acre enriched with manure, and that on the 
acre where chemicals were used at $88.65, 
the former having the advantage. The 
value of the crop of oats raised with barn¬ 
yard manure was $35.10, with chemicals 
$39.55. The value of the hay crop with 
barnyard manure was $29.40, with chemi¬ 
cals $31.01, showing a net gain of $3.84 by 
tte use of chemicals. The cost of applying 
the manure was $2.80, and for the three ap¬ 
plications of chemicals, $1.44. This experi¬ 
ment has been carried out with the expec¬ 
tation of continuing it for two or three 
years more with grass, after which the 
same fertilizer should be repeated. 
WORTH NOTING. 
Judge Samuel Miller’s faith in the 
Idaho Pear is such that if he were 10 years 
younger he would plant it extensively in 
orchards. So he expresses himself in Col- 
man’s Rural World. 
AT the last meeting of the Western New 
York Horticultural Society Mr. W. C. 
Barry said one point in connection with 
the cultivation of dwarf pears that ought 
to have consideration was the small space 
they occupied. They ought to have 
branches down to the ground. The re¬ 
turns from them come soon. It was sur¬ 
prising that growers did not raise more 
dwarfs. He considered the opinion that 
the dwarf pear was short-lived an erroneous 
one. If properly planted it was long-lived. 
The Keiffer, in many places, was of no 
value, while in some others it did well and 
sold well on the market. He strongly rec¬ 
ommended the Anjou, which he considered 
a most valuable variety, and, when proper¬ 
ly ripened it was one of the finest pears. 
An orchard of the variety was a pretty 
sight in October, when the fruit was color¬ 
ing and the specimens uniform in size and 
perfect in every way. 
Mr. Hooker said the reason growers gen 
erally condemned the Anjou was because 
of its being subject to blight. Mr. Moody 
had an orchard largely planted with it that 
had entirely died out from that disease.... 
Mr. Ansley would plant the Lombard 
Plum and nothing else. 
Mr. Willard did not like to put all his 
eggs in one basket. He would plant not 
only Lombard, but Hudson River Purple 
Egg, French Damson, Prince of Wales, and 
for a yellow plum, Peter’s Yellow Gage, 
which was, all things considered, one of the 
most superior of yellow plums for market 
or family use ever sent out. If a favored 
location was possessed, he would also add 
Reine Claude.'.. 
A VERY full report of the proceedings of 
this splenid society (W. N. Y. H.) may be 
found in the March number of Vick’s Mag¬ 
azine and it is from that report that we 
gather these notes. 
Mr. Bronson applied barnyard manure to 
one-half block to the amount of 25 loads 
per acre, and on another half block nitrate 
of soda, say 200 pounds, sulphate or muri¬ 
ate of potash 400 pounds, to 1,000 pounds 
muck, in quantities of 200 to 300 pounds 
per acre. In the end the results were about 
even, but the cost was in favor of the fertil¬ 
izer. 
Mr. Green referred to the Moyer as a 
Canadian grape, a promising variety, 
earlier than the Delaware, and one that 
could be sold for that variety. It was of 
good quality, very productive, and had a 
healthy vine, its greatest defect being an 
imperfect cluster. 
MR. Hubbard said it was early, and of 
good quality with small clusters, and it 
