320 
MAY 17 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FARMERS’ CLUB—DISCUSSION. 
The Seed Testing Question. 
- E. S. Goff, Madison, Wisconsin.— I 
have read with some interest the discussion 
that has been going on in the R. N.-Y. with 
reference to this subject, and am prompted 
to add a few words. It has struck me that 
the Rural has handled Mr. McCarthy, to 
use a common phrase, “a little rough.” 
Granting that he has made a mistake, no 
one can doubt that it grew out of a desire 
to do good work in the field in which he has 
been employed, and for which he is receiv¬ 
ing a salary. Experiment station workers 
are more to be criticised for what they have 
not done, than for what they have done. 
The energy that Mr. McCarthy has shown, 
and which I fear has received a severe 
damper by the Rural’s vigorous calling to 
judgment, is just what we need to accom¬ 
plish valuable work in our experiment sta¬ 
tions, and when this energy takes a wrong 
direction, as it sometimes does, it would be 
better to direct it gently back into the 
proper channel than to discourage honest 
endeavor by reproof. 
From what I have learned through em¬ 
ployees of some of our largest seedsmen, 
they are certainly not as upright as busi¬ 
ness men should be. A friend who went as 
stenographer to a large New England seed 
firm, told me, without being asked, that a 
bin was kept for miscellaneous varieties of 
pea seeds, and whenever an order came in 
for a variety not kept in stock, it was in¬ 
variably filled from this bin. Another 
friend employed in one of the largest seed 
houses of the country, told me that it was 
the regular custom to run all onion seed 
left over from the previous year, through 
the fanning-mill with the fresh stock, and 
to send it out as “ cleaned ” seed. Still an¬ 
other friend employed in a very extensive 
seed house, stated, with regret, that his 
employers had no other interest in the 
handling of seeds than to get the most 
money possible from them without regard 
to moral or scientific questions. 
But grant, if need be, that all seedsmen 
are honest. The old saws, “ If a man is 
honest, watch him and keep him so; ” “ An 
honest man will bear watching, and a 
rogue needs it,” will certainly justify an 
oversight of the quality of the seeds sold. 
But, on the other hand, granting that the 
interests of the purchasers of seeds do re¬ 
quire some official test of the quality of 
seed stocks, who is wise enough to say 
what this test shall be ? As a rule, seeds 
of the finest-bred varieties do not germinate 
so well as those of poorer sorts. To insist 
on a very high percentage of germination, 
would in many cases inevitably lower the 
standard of quality. It is perfectly well 
known that the seeds of wrinkled peas, 
which are acknowledged to be the best for 
the table, do not usuallv germinate as well 
as those of the less sweet, smooth varieties. 
As a rule, I suspect the more nearly a vari¬ 
ety approaches the wild state, the higher 
will be the vitality of its seeds. Again, 
who is to decide by what means the test 
shall be made ? The Geneva seed tester 
has been generally accepted as a reliable 
and satisfactory apparatus; but experi¬ 
ments made with it the past winter at the 
Wisconsin Experiment Station lead me 
gravely to doubt its reliability as generally 
used. This doubt is strengthened by the 
statement of a friend only the other day, 
that Timothy seed pronounced worthless 
by its germination in this tester gave a 
fair germination in the open ground. Prof. 
Bailey’s experiments show that the amount 
of moisture supplied to seeds exercises a 
marked influence upon their percentage of 
germination. 
It seems to me that before we are com¬ 
petent to form a proper estimate of the 
quality of seeds we must have more 
knowledge on the subject, and the proper 
work for our experiment stations at present 
is to develop this knowledge. 
Breeding Good Layers. 
D. R. M., Shiremanstown. PA —Having 
noticed an article in the R. N.-Y. of April 
26th on the transmission of egg production 
in poultry, I give the results of some 
experiments on a flock on my farm. The 
stock consists exclusively of Plymouth 
Rocks. In connection with general farm¬ 
ing, considerable attention is given to poul¬ 
try, the production of eggs for market be¬ 
ing a specialty. Four years ago I noticed 
that under my system of feeding for eggs, 
some of the hene would become very fat; 
while others of the same breed and age 
would show no tendency to lay on flesh. 
By observation I soon found that the fat 
hens were not the layers. 1 at once com¬ 
menced a system of weeding out all that 
showed a tendency to become fat, breeding 
only from those thatlunder'strong feeding 
converted the food into eggs, instead of fat 
The first year my breeding stock was re¬ 
duced very materially by this system of se¬ 
lection. In the pullets reared the next 
season, I found a decided improvement in 
egg production and a much smaller propor¬ 
tion had to be discarded on account of a 
tendency to fatten. The same method of 
selecting breeders has been continued with 
constantly improving results. For satis¬ 
factory results in egg production, liberal 
feeding of suitable foods is necessary. 
Now, if a part of the flock converts the food 
into fat, instead of eggs, the profits that 
the layers might give is eaten up by the 
drones. My observations and experiments 
have satisfied me that this loss may, in 
great measure, be prevented by careful se¬ 
lection in breeding for egg production. I 
use incubators and brooders for rearing 
my stock; and the entire flock has been so 
reared for five years. Instead of deteriora¬ 
tion on account of the artificial methods 
used, (as claimed by many) I find my stock 
vigorous and healthy, improving in useful 
Qualities as well as in appearance from 
year to year. 
Orcharding, Mixed Farming. 
Edwin Taylor, Wyandotte County, 
Kan.— Why not say to that correspondent 
who wants to know about trading his 
house and lot in the city ‘‘tor a farm on 
which to carry on general farming, includ¬ 
ing fruit raising” —“ Don’t! ?” Gardening 
and fruit-growing are often successfully 
combined; but not, according to my obser¬ 
vation, fruit growing and farming. They 
make an impracticable mixture in which 
failure is at least the rule. I can think of 
a number of farmers who have gone into 
fruit-growing in a partial way, and finding 
it a clog and perplexity in their farming 
have dropped it at a loss. 
Dr. Hoskins’s doubts—page 226—as to 
“ whether orcharding as an exclusive busi¬ 
ness is better than mixed farming in which 
the orchard takes a prominent place,” seem 
to rest upon the assumption that “ the 
would-be large orchardist” will have 
“ small capital and insufficient knowledge.” 
Handicapped by these conditions, any en¬ 
terprise would fail. But there is no law 
against an orchardist understanding his 
business and having money enough to es¬ 
tablish it. Both of these essential elements 
are combined in many fruit plantations in 
the United States; and, compared with the 
results in a like number of “ mixed ” farms, 
it seems to me those in which these ele¬ 
ments are worked out are much more like¬ 
ly to secure the approbation and co-opera¬ 
tion of that much-talked about “ boy.” 
Why is it that when agricultural special¬ 
ties are referred to in a condemnatory way 
it is so commonly taken for granted that 
the specialist is bound to play the fool in 
some way—by undertaking more than he 
can manage, or something he doesn’t under¬ 
stand, or something unsuited to his con¬ 
ditions or (which is oftenest thrown at him) 
undertaking first one thing, then another? 
These vices may be found among special¬ 
ists ; but they are not inherent in special¬ 
ism.' Instead of asking whether it would 
be judicious for the neighbors to pattern 
after the Hale Bros., let us consider how it 
would be if the Hale Bros, had plodded 
along in the uneventful round of their 
neighbors. 
The Rum Curse Again. 
“A Farmer,” Pleasant Valley, III. 
—I am rejoiced to see that the R. N -Y. is 
willing to give a small space to an earnest 
discussion of the greatest evil that farmers, 
or any other class, for that matter, have to 
contend with. But where high license is 
adopted, the tax-payers in town receive a 
slight benefit in the shape of a bribe for 
legalizing the evil; while the foolish farm¬ 
ers who drink pass over their hard earn¬ 
ings to help the saloon-man to pay his big 
license fee, and the sober farmer pays 
heavier taxes to prosecute the annual crop 
of criminals turned out by the saloons and 
provide for them and the paupers which 
they also generate. It would be utterly 
impossible to exaggerate the evils arising 
from the liquor trade or the good that 
would follow the total suppression of it, 
except as other poisons are dealt with. 
Kansas has as perfect laws for stopping 
the sale of strong drink as any State, and a 
vastly better arrangement than H. S. H. 
proposes. When a man is detected under 
the influence of liquor they lock him up 
till he tells who sold or gave it to him, and 
then the seller is fined, and each succeeding 
fine is double the previous one. In that 
way a large revenue is often secured with¬ 
out sanctioning crime. In Iowa where the 
contract system for employing criminals is 
in vogue, prohibition has so reduced the 
number of convicts that the State can’t get 
enough to fill its contracts, and many of 
the poor-houses are empty. I don’t wonder 
that M. A. P. could keep silent no longer, 
and if her spirit continues to spread as 
rapidly as it has of late, it will not be long 
before Uncle Sam will find a short and 
easy way to rid his farm of the poison¬ 
ous ‘‘night-shade” which brings shame, 
sorrow, poverty and death wherever it 
touches. 
Distribution of Tree Seeds. 
J. W. J., Campbellford, Canada.— I 
would answer L. H., of Dansville, N. Y., 
who inquires about “ The Succession of 
Forests, ” on page 269 of the R. N.-Y., as 
follows: Tree seeds, such as pine, hemlock, 
spruce and arbor-vitfo, are winged and are 
carried in wind-storms for hundreds of 
miles. Whirlwinds carry heavier articles 
than the largest tree seeds sometimes for 
miles. In the winter season when the snow 
is on the ground most of the distribution of 
the seeds of weeds and also of evergreen 
trees to a great distance is done. The seed 
is caught in the drifting snow and hurled 
for miles on top of it. Evergreen seeds are 
falling from the cones all winter and fly 
with the wind. In the case mentioned by 
L. H., the annual fires destroyed the an¬ 
nual crop of seedling trees. These fires an¬ 
nually left the ground in just the right con¬ 
dition for another crop. They ceased. The 
last crop of seedlings grew on and became 
trees. Perhaps 20 or more years ago an¬ 
other fire in autumn, accidentally started, 
may have burned off the leaves and left the 
ground in the right state for evergreen 
seeds again. At that time perhaps-no pine 
trees were left to seed from, or in that par¬ 
ticular season there might have been no 
pine seeds; but there was a crop of hemlock 
seeds. The winds distributed them widely 
over the country, and they found a genial 
soil on the burned surface and grew. Many 
other reasons could be given did space and 
time permit. As Dr. Beal correctly says: 
“There is no difficulty in explaining the 
succession of forests if closely studied.” 
WHICH MAY REMIND YOU. 
Mr. John Lewis Childs to whom we 
have several times alluded in connection 
with “ Childs’s Japan Wine-berry,” gives 
a prominent place in his catalogue to a 
“ new trailing plant ” which he calls Nepeta 
Glechoma. Now Nepeta Glechoma is a 
catnip and called “ Gill ” or “ Gill-over-the 
Ground ” or “ Ground Ivy,” a plant already 
inconveniently abundant in our gardens 
and fields. Mr. Childs’s Gill is illustrated 
as growing out of a basket and drooping 
prettily all about it. The description says; 
“It will no doubt become one of our most 
useful plants for festooning work, such as 
drooping from hanging baskets, vases, 
fancy pots, etc., its graceful, rapid growth 
rendering it unequaled for this purpose; 
while we have no doubt it will also be 
largely used in cemeteries to cover the 
graves.” Theleavesof his Gill are green and 
white. Is it a variegated variety of Glech¬ 
oma and is the variegation its redeeming 
characteristic ? Nepeta Glechoma is a suc¬ 
cess as a weed and while abundant almost 
everywhere, there seems no reason why we 
should purchase plants and pay 20 cents 
each for them. 
MR. J. H. Hale, whose remarkable suc¬ 
cess in peach growing in Connecticut has 
elicited much inquiry, says, in the Farm 
Journal, that after the second year ferti 
lizers were spread broadcast all over the 
ground early each spring, the land plowed 
shallow, and then kept free from weeds 
with harrows and a siffgle-horse cultivator 
to work close to the trees. Every year, 
whether he had any fruit or not. the or¬ 
chards have had from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds 
of fine ground raw bone and 300 to 500 
pounds of 80 per cent muriate of potash 
per acre, each applied separately early in 
the spring. The distribution has not been 
equal, sandy sections have received more 
potash than where the soil was heavy loam. 
Bone has been applied heavily where trees 
appeared to lack vigor, while where a very 
rapid growth was taking place less was 
put on. 
Mr. Hale has at all times kept on hand 
a small stock of nitrate of soda to be ap¬ 
plied around any trees that show a lack of 
vigor or are troubled with leaf-curl early 
in the season. This soda acts so promptly 
and energetically that most trees have re¬ 
sponded to it at once, and gone on all right 
when the treatment has beeu followed up 
by an extra allowance of bone and potash. 
Nitrate of soda is used in preference to any 
other form of nitrogen because of its quick 
action and non-lasting qualities. 
Other forms of nitrogen would keep the 
trees growing too rapidly late in the sea¬ 
son, which is not advisable either for the 
sake of the wood or fruit buds, and even 
the soda should not be applied later than 
June: for while the real cause of the yel¬ 
lows is not yet known, he is satisfied that a 
tender wood growth caused by the use of 
nitrogenous manures puts the tree in a 
condition to be so affected by hard winter 
freezes that it is far more likely to be struck 
by yellows than a tree grown with but 
little nitrogen. 
When we have ruined the trade and lost 
our markets, which will be quickly occu¬ 
pied by others—notably our Canadian 
friends who have never permitted filled or 
skimmed cheese to be made—perhaps we 
will awaken to the situation, is the remark 
of Prof. W. A. Henry, of the Wisconsin 
Experiment Station, in the Breeder’s 
Gazette. “It is a sad fact in history that 
affairs have to get about as bad as they can 
before there is anv clearing up and 
straightening out, and I think our cheese 
business has just about reached bottom. I 
do not wish it to be inferred that I believe 
dishonest goods are the rule, but as a few 
counterfeit bills in any community make 
every man suspicious of all the money he 
handles, so I believe there is enough filled 
and skimmed cheese put on the market to 
make every man rightfully suspicious of 
what he may wish to buy. It is high time 
the most rigid laws were passed to regulate 
the manufacture of cheese. Many States at 
present have imperfect laws upon their 
statute books ; in the light of recent expe¬ 
rience let these be modified to meet the new 
dangers that have arisen. We must come 
back to honest full-milk cheese of uni¬ 
formly high quality if we expect to hold 
our foreign market, or even the home 
trade”. .. 
The nitrogen of cotton-seed meal costs 
• less than 15 cents a pound while that of 
ammonia salts costs 19, and that of nitrates 
17. But who can tell from experiment 
which is the most valuable to the farmer ?.. 
Castor pomace was in 1888 one of our 
cheapest sources of nitrogen. It has since 
so much advanced that it is now one of the 
most costly. 
The Western Rural solemnly warns 
fathers and mothers to remember that 
there is one place where that boy will 
never hear: “Don’t do that ” and : “Now you 
stop that,” and: “ If you don’t stop I’ll put 
you to bed,” once. It is the saloon, the 
gaily lighted, beautifully mirrored, ele¬ 
gantly furnished saloon. He can go there 
and have all the fun he wants. He can 
strike the billiard balls hard or softly as he 
likes; he can laugh as loudly as he wants 
to; he can kick up his heels and dance if 
he chooses; and he can drink all the liquor 
he can pay for, and break mother’s heart 
without the slightest remonstrance. 
We have seen homes that thesalooon was 
getting the best of just as surely and 
steadily as the moments went by, and father 
and mother were helping to do it. The 
boy could scarcely stir without being for¬ 
bidden tostir. .••• 
It is often a fixed habit with the mother 
to antagonize the child. We have some¬ 
times shuddered to see it. By aud by when 
the boy gets bigger, mother will not be 
troubled with his noise. It will not be his 
presence that will annoy her, but his 
absence, and perhaps the time will come 
when she would gladly permit him to tear 
the house down, if he would only spend his 
hours with mother. 
John B. Gough requested that on his 
monument the following sentiment should 
be cut, as part of the inscription: 
“ I can desire nothing better for this great 
country than that a barrier high as Heaven 
should be raised between the unpolluted 
lips of the children and the intoxicating 
cup; that everywhere men and women 
should raise strong and determined hands - 
against whatever will defile the body, pol¬ 
lute the mind or harden the heart against 
God and his truth.”. 
O THOU invisible spirit of wine, if there is 
no other name thou art known by, let us 
call thee Devil (Shakespeare). 
ABSTRACTS. 
_PhiladelphiaWeekly Press: “Farm¬ 
ers are advised to combine and sell 
their own products uirectly to con¬ 
sumers. This means only that they should 
pay some one else and pay him to do just 
what the middleman does and is paid for. 
