i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
739 
where considerable building is carried on, are generally 
profitable to such as invest their money for good interest. 
Middlesex County, N. J. D. c. lewis. 
Saving Money Somehow. 
I know of no better or safer place to invest small amounts 
of money than in a good savings bank. There it will be 
safe, will draw interest, and will be available at any time 
if needed for investment in any other enterprise. If a 
young man once begins to save his money, he will be pretty 
apt to continue to do so and he will soon And that he can 
save about twice as much as he thought he could before he 
tried. One good point about savings banks is that they 
will take very small sums and do so as often as the deposi¬ 
tor chooses to take or send them. If there is no savings 
bank convenient to the depositor, he can send his money 
safely by mail. I was in the savings bank of Baltimore a 
few days ago and asked if they received deposits from resi¬ 
dents of other States and was told that they did and had 
blanks prepared especially for that purpose. I do not know 
whether that is the general custom with savings banks, but 
suppose it is. Building and loan associations when wisely 
conducted, afford a good security for investment and pay a 
higher interest than do the savings banks, but are not so 
safe. I have known of some very disastrous failures. 
Safety is the first consideration, then interest; unless the 
one saving is sure his money is safe, he will not save nearly 
so much as he would if he had no doubt in the matter; 
therefore I should advise the savings bank as the best place 
in which to put money, in small sums, to save it. 
Baltimore County, Md. A. L. CROSBT. 
Half a Dozen Ways of Saving. 
Not knowing anything as to the boy’s inclinations, 
whether he is on his parents’ farm or hired by the 
year on another man’s place, I presume he is a 
farm hand from choice. He should have one thought— 
“ How shall I rise higher, own my own farm and rank 
with the best ? ” The easiest, best and surest way of get¬ 
ting on is to obtain 200 subscriptions to The Rural, and 
thus secure a free education, with a thorough knowledge 
of botany and agricultural chemistry. 
There will be good opportunities for a 
good practical teacher with a practical 
knowledge of the use of tools, always at 
a fair salary. The young man can put his 
savings in a life insurance policy, which 
will assist him in his business. Moreover, 
he will learn promptness in payments and 
avoid catchpenny concerns, which promise 
something for nothing. He can send his 
spare cash to the Farmington Savings 
Bank, Hartford, Conn., or to any other 
safe bank, by money-order, check, tele¬ 
graph or express order. A concern run 
and managed by farmers would afford a 
place for investments as sure as the tax 
collector or death, while the interest 
should be compounded. Steady deposit¬ 
ing would be the same as paying up a 
life policy, until the $1,000 mark or higher 
has been reached ; then one should take a 
tri p to Canada and purchase a life annuity 
of the Dominion Government, or make 
arrangements with his employer for room 
for a small hot-bed next spring. He 
would need a few cheap boards, IX load of 
horse manure, half its bulk of leaves, 
some sashes, a few bushels of loam or 
clean sand, 25 cents’ worth of seeds, and he 
should bestow some care on the patch at 
proper times. He should sell the products 
from a cold-frame. Or he can buy a small plot of ground 
nearby, cultivate it at odd times, sow tree seeds; iu the 
winter evenings, graft and bud the stock—no piece root 
grafts—replant, and sell from the nursery row. Or he can 
pay the cash for studies In the evening. He should learn 
horticulture any way, quit buying useless things, or lend¬ 
ing out small sums, unless he has the backbone of a mas¬ 
todon and the striking abilities of J. L. Sullivan. My 
course would certainly be to learn botany and chemistry; 
for the ideal fruit has not been found ; neither has the 
finest flower, and there is more honor in being a Downing 
or a Barry than one of McAllister’s 400. My experience 
with building and loan societies began in England. There 
they are good, when one is intimately acquainted with all 
concerned. Here the case is different. One must keep 
most of the officers covered. The Roachdale Co Operative 
Society iu England has proved a vast and safe concern ; so 
have several others. At present I am interested in co oper¬ 
ative buying iu the order of the Patrons of Husbandry, and 
the results are satisfactory so far as we go. I began with 
such societies when a boy. and have kept up my connec¬ 
tion nearly all the time, more or less, and I have never yet 
struck a wild cat affair, though I have seen plenty of them. 
When 15 years of age, I joined a mechanics’ institute in 
England, where we had a library, reading-room and lec¬ 
ture-room ; also one for games and lunch. The fee was 
from six pence to a shilling per week. It provided boots 
and shoes for from one to two shillings; a suit of clothes or a 
kit of tools for an apprentice for 10 shillings to a pound 
sterling ; furniture and stock for a small tradesman for £1 
to £5 for a five or six-roomed brick dwelling-house. There 
the laws are strictly enforced. In the United States some 
of my friends have paid money into several such societies, 
and lost it all. We are using the funds in our Grange 
treasury to buy feed and groceries through one of our 
members. No doubt we shall increase our purchasing 
fund in the near future, and branch out further. The 
people must be educated to it. 
There is here a farm of seven acres with buildings which 
cost $225, which has been bought by savings like those 
the boy proposes to make. On it are 44 top-grafted seed¬ 
ling fruit trees. Most of the apples have been grubbed 
out, and all the others will be when better kinds come into 
bearing. There are some dwarf pears and quinces; lots of 
strawberries and raspberries ; over 100 vines of 40 different 
varieties of the best grapes; some espalier apples and 
more pears are to be set out. The currants and goose¬ 
berries are doing finely. A cold grapery is to be built this 
winter. Sash, cold-frames and flats are used. There are 
six people to be fed and clothed; one horse, two pigs, 55 
head of poultry. Bees are to be added on the three acres 
of arable land. Two of the boys are saving their coppers, 
nickels and dimes to learn botany and chemistry when 
they are old enough. If exhibits were judged on their 
merits at our agricultural fairs instead of on the exhibit¬ 
ors’ names, between the man and boys there would soon 
be a greenhouse also. The possibilities for a saving—not a 
stingy—boy, wishing to “ get up head,” are many. With 
a firm purpose, patience and perseverance, any smart boy 
can get there. A. w. SAUNDERS. 
Litchfield County, Conn. 
HOSFORD’S MAMMOTH (?) 
We received, on October 2, from Geo. Hosford, Ionia, 
Mich., several bunches of a grape named as above. Mr. 
Hosford writes us as follows : 
“About 14 years since, while preparing our Concords for 
market, I found among them several clusters of a new 
sort very unlike the Concords. The next fall an effort was 
made to discover the plant that had borne the big fruit. 
More of the latter wa3 found, but the vine was not located 
till the next fall. When found, it was a great puzzle to 
me. Apparently there was but one root, and one side of 
the vine was loaded with fine Concords, while the other 
bore this new grape. I could not believe it a new variety 
until I had fruited the vines grown from cuttings of it. 
For years I tested it thoroughly, to discover, if possible, 
whether it was, like many others, a humbug, and not until 
recently have I made an effort to bring it Into public 
JACK AND TYKE AT “HAW HILL.” Fig. 334. 
notice; for I am now satisfied that it is a grape of great 
merit. 
The apparent mystery with regard to its origin was easily 
understood when the vine was taken up and planted near 
the house. The seed had germinated between two Concord 
canes and all had grown firmly together. It must be a 
seedling of the Concord, for there was no other vine within 
30 rods of where it grew. I have named it Hosford’s 
Mammoth Seedling. The vine is about as hardy as the 
Concord, vigorous and very productive. It does not make 
as good a growth as the Concord the first year after it has 
been planted, but afterwards its vigor is equal to that of 
any other variety. Its berry often reaches one inch in 
diameter. Mr. John J. Thomas, Union Springs, N. Y., 
says of the berries that some of them measure an inch in 
diameter, while they all average fully seven eighths of an 
inch. Many of them have no seeds and little or no pulp. 
The color is a little darker than that of the Concord ; the 
bunches are usually compact and well shouldered. I can¬ 
not describe its quality. I can say—what Is said by nearly 
every other person who has sampled the fruit and expressed 
an opinion of its quality—that it is the best grape I have 
ever eaten. It will ship well in eight or ten-pound packages; 
but it will not keep fresh quite so long as the Concord.” 
A siugle vine of this grape was sent to the Rural Grounds 
in the spring of last year, so that we cannot, thus early, 
j'udge of its vigor. The bunches sent to the office, as 
stated, reminded us of the Eaton. There were no Eatons 
with which to compare them closely, but we are fairly con¬ 
fident that the two grapes are iu all essential respects 
nearly alike. If the same, it is difficult to explain, in the 
light of Mr. Hosford’s letter, how an Eaton should have 
grown between the canes of his Concord. The berries are 
black with a heavy blue bloom, about the size of Eatons. 
The pulp is tender, the seeds (two to four) readily separat¬ 
ing from it. The berries are very juicy, of the Concord 
flavor, with less foxiness, and more acidity. The skin is 
thin. The berries were, however, in a sound condition 
when received, showing that they have some good ship¬ 
ping qualities. It is a beautiful, showy grape, as our 
illustration shows, as presented on the first page. 
JACK AND TYKE. 
PHIL. M. SPRINGER. 
The story of farm life at “ Haw Hill ” would be incom¬ 
plete without some mention of the dogs Jack and Tyke. 
The latter came to the farm first. He was given us by 
Messrs. Stericker Bros , who brought his dam from Eng¬ 
land with one of their early importations of Cleveland Bay 
horses. I took him from their stables to the farm in a 
buggy when he was quite a small pup. Like most other 
puppies, he was very timid yet very appreciative of the 
small attentions paid him; such as patting his plump, fat 
sides and speaking kindly to him as he lay at my feet. On 
reaching home I was the first to give him a dish of sweet 
milk, and then he was introduced to the children. Their 
demonstrations so frightened him that he took refuge with 
me. Later, however, he learned that they also were his 
friends; yet to this day when I go to the farm he greets 
me as his first and best friend, and insists on having a 
romp and run to show his joy. He is of the English Fox 
Terrier breed. Whatever might have been his occupation 
had he been born and reared in England, his business here 
is to kill rats, weasels, stray cats and other prowlers about 
the poultry yards. Never was there a dog that under¬ 
stood, or did his work better than Tyke. To our own cats 
he is quite forbearing, even allowing them to drink with 
him from the same vessel, but for the strange cat he has 
neither respect nor fear. 
Jack came to the farm a year or more after Tyke. He 
was from the stables of Mr. J. W. Ramsey, an importer of 
French draft horses, and was but a puppy when we 
brought him home. Tyke looked down on him with 
haughty contempt, not remembering what a timid, help¬ 
less thing he himself once was. But Jack was a purebred 
Shepherd, and soon by his quick growth and cunning 
ways, he had so completely won Tyke over to him that 
the two would romp and play together in the yard by the 
hour. We had not intended that Jack should spend his 
days in play. But a play dog was all he ever amounted to. 
The children thought so much of him, and he of them, 
that it seemed hard to keep them apart. To have made a 
useful dog he should have been taken in 
hand when a few months old and regu¬ 
larly trained by one person. 
I have no patience with the indiscrim¬ 
inate war on dogs some writers seem to 
feel it their duty to encourage. The keep¬ 
ing of good and useful dogs should be 
allowed, and ownership in tnem protected, 
but they should be as carefully kept at 
home as any other class of farm stock. 
The life of Jack though a happy one was 
comparatively short. He was scarcely 
full grown when, in the field one day, a 
heavy farm wagon, loaded with sheaf 
oats, ran over him. Badly hurt as he 
was, he lived for some weeks after, was 
on his feet again and seemed to be re¬ 
covering, but to the surprise of all he died 
suddenly. The boys at the farm are older 
now, and the next Shepherd dog they get 
will receive an education that will make 
him as useful in his way as the dog Tyke 
now is in his profession of rat and other 
like vermin slayer. It was a warm sum¬ 
mer day when the photograph was taken 
from which the engraving was made, and 
the boys had to hold the dogs as shown. 
Is The Milkman a Criminal ?—In bul¬ 
letin 20, just issued by the Cornell Ex¬ 
periment btation, we find the record of 
an experiment that will interest all milkmen. As all 
these men know, there are State laws regulating the 
quality of milk. "Legal milk” must contain a certain 
per cent, of solids and of fats. It has been claimed 
that some milkmen are selling illegal milk because they 
dip or pour from the bottom of the can, while, as every¬ 
body knows, the cream rises to the top. In order to know 
just what variation ther^ is in the fat of milk served to 
patrons by dipping out of a can, a member of the station 
staff went over the route with a milkman and took 
samples of the milk for analysis. The milk was taken 
from the can by means of a long-handled dipper, which 
rested on the bottom when not in use. Tne milk was not 
stirred except by the motion of the wagon and the raising 
of the dipper. Samples were taken from the top of the 
can, when the milk was about half gone, and from the 
bottom. In almost every case the smallest amount of fat 
was found when the milk was half gone, while the bottom 
milk was just about as rich as the top. It appears, there¬ 
fore, that where the long-handled dipper is used, substan 
tial justice is done to all patrons so far as the amount of 
fat given each is concerned. It would appear that the 
people who have done most of the talking on this subject 
did not know what they were talking about. We do not 
believe, however, that anything like these results could be 
obtained with milk taken from the bottom of the can 
through a long spout or a faucet. 
Montana Matters.— We use no commercial fertilizers 
and very little manure. The land does not requite auy 
help of this kind. Farms, or ranches, as th-y are called 
here, are only from $12 to $20 per acre, but I think in a few 
years they will be worth more than farms in the East, be¬ 
cause there is little good farming land here, while mines 
in every direction afford home markets. This is a very 
healthy country, with the purest water in the world. Our 
winters are rather cold, but the atmosphere is so dry that 
we do not suffer as people do at a lower altitude. It is 
about 75 miles to the National Park. Ttie Northern 
Pacific Railroad runs through the valley. I would not 
change my mountain home for any farm east of the Mis¬ 
souri River and live there. c. h. waterman. 
