i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
833 
preponderating majority of the Alliance men, however, 
are opposed not only to the formation of such a party, but 
to partisanship of any kind. They insist that the business 
of the organization is educational and economical, and 
that therein lies the secret of its growth and power. 
Every political movement, they say, which has resulted 
from its methods of carrying out its objects, has been 
spontaneous and natural, not forced and artificial, and 
they believe that if it requires a new party to accomplish 
the reforms it desires a new party will promptly and 
spontaneously arise. Any failure, they declare, by either 
of the old parties to recognize the just demands of the 
farmers of the country, will result in such a development 
of a People’s party as will imperil alike Republican and 
Democratic chances in 1892, and “ sweep the country like a 
whirlwind ” in 1896. 
The entire policy and platform of the organization are 
likely to be thoroughly revised, and the riub-Treasury 
scheme will probably be modified or amended, but it is al¬ 
most certain that no radical changes will be made in it. 
A vigorous demand will certainly be formulated for a 
large increase in the volume of the currency, either by the 
free coinage of silver, or the issue of Treasury notes on the 
security either of farm produce, according to the Sub- 
Treasury scheme, or of farm land, according to Senator 
Stanford’s project. The leaders of the Alliance declare 
that they want an increase of $ 100 , 000,000 in the circulating 
medium, or an average of $7 per capita. According to 
Secretary Windom, the amount of money per capita now 
in circulation in this country is $22; while in France, the 
most prosperous nation in the world to day, it is $57, in 
England $22, and in Germany $20. To relieve the financial 
stringency throughout the country, and bring back the 
“ good old times,” it is insisted that a large increase in the 
“ medium of exchange” is absolutely essential. 
Various other subjects of great economic agricultural 
interest will be fully and freely discussed during the con¬ 
vention. and will be amply reviewed here later on. 
THE CHANGES IN CROP CONDITIONS OF THE 
BLACK SOIL PRAIRIE OF THE DPPER 
VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
No. H. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
In a former short paper I undertook to give a brief ac¬ 
count of some of the crop conditions of the black soil 
prairie of Illinois as far back as a half century or more ago. 
This paper will outline the present crop conditions of the 
same region, with some repetition, and a third paper will 
be devoted to an outline of a course that will restore, as 
far as may be, the conditions lost, that is,sufficient fertility 
of the soil and sufficient moisture in it. 
If an attempt is now made to grow cotton under lati¬ 
tude 39 to 40 north, a failure is almost certain, on account 
of the shortness and coldness of the summer and a lack of 
some element in the soil, that promotes rapid and vigorous 
growth of vegetation at the start. The same results follow 
in nine cases out of ten if the crop is spring wheat. If the 
grain is sown in March or early in April, the crop comes on 
so slowly that maturity is not achieved before summer 
heats come on in July, and in case of warm, wet weather 
the crop is stricken by rust, lodges and rots before harvest, 
and when the weather is hot and dry, the grain blasts in 
the ear. On the same land fall sown wheat succeeds, pro¬ 
vided it escapes winter-killing and spring freezing, the 
explanation being that there is still enough of the elements 
of fertility in the soil to make a crop that has eight months 
in which to draw its nourishment from the land; but 
spring wheat fails to do this in three or four months. 
Formerly the practice was to stir the soil to the least 
possible extent for the oat crop, in order to prevent over¬ 
growth, lodging and rust in warm, moist seasons, and a 
tendency to too heavy straw and light grain in the average 
season. Where the practice was adopted the crop was 
nearly a failure iu 1889 aud 1890, the only fields where the 
crop was good being where the land was fall-plowed and 
the crop put into the ground in first rate shape. 
So far as the size and length of stalks and leaves are 
concerned, the corn crop to the outsider looks about as 
strong and vigorous as it did 40 years ago on the same 
fields, but on close examination the per cent of stalks 
without ears, aud of ears tL at are little more than nubbins, 
is found to be from 15 to 25. A half century ago an aver¬ 
age yield of 50 bushels of corn to the acre was as common 
as one of 35, or even 30 bushels is now. 
I came to Champaign County iu the spring of 1857. Then 
the Irish potato crop never failed, except in the very driest 
years, aud even then there were Irish farmers who suc¬ 
ceeded with the Late Peachblow, if the heavens favored 
them with rain after the first of October. At this time, 
those only succeed in getting a crop who, selecting the 
earliest varieties, sprout the seed in February or March, 
commit it to land fertilized to the highest degree the same 
month, cultivate with assiduity, fight the bugs from the 
hour the first leaf appears, and harvest the crop early in 
July. 
Within 10 years three-fourths of the mature apple trees 
on the entire prairie region of the State have died of star¬ 
vation, and half of those remaining are in a decaying or 
dying condition. They have been robbed of a sufficient 
amount of nutrition by the invasion of the roots of weeds 
and grasses, and insufficient soil moisture, the result of 
elevated location aud the measure of tile and open drain¬ 
age, which hurries every inch of rain off the land as soon 
as it falls. Of the trees that remain, those only are fruit¬ 
ful in average seasous that are on low, moist land. In 
dry seasons, such as 1881, 1887 and 1S90, the crops were fail¬ 
ures, but in cool summers, after wet winters and springs, 
they are often good, as in 1882 aud 1S88. And, by the way, 
here is a good place to make known the mistake of the 
average horticultural societies, which, attributing the 
failures of the apple crop to the tenderness of the varieties 
planted, repudiated the best of the old sorts, like the 
Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening and Yellow Belleflower, 
and recommended new kinds and were nonplussed by 
the crop of 1888, which gave us old varieties equal to any 
product of New York or Michigan. 
The white masses of summer thunder clouds on warm 
days, the sources of the local thunder storms of 40 and 50 
years ago, have nearly disappeared, and during the past 
summer, and the fall before it, and in 1887 also, numerous 
clouds hung over us without a drop of precipitation, and 
storms of three or four days’ duration rarely afforded more 
than a half inch of rain. Fifty years ago, of the 1,000 
square miles or 640,000 acres of Champaign County, the 
surface of perennial water amounted to not less than a 
tenth ; to-day it is less than a hundredth. Within 40 years 
the well level ot the country has sunk 25 feet, and to day 
three-fourths ol the house and stock wells are completely 
dry, and deep ones have to be sunk to the water and sand 
strata beneath at a depth of 100 to 200 feet, and the supply 
has to be lifted by wind, horse or steam power. Meantime 
for the last 36 months the Central Illinois prairies have 
had insufficient rain and a dry and arid atmosphere for 24 of 
these months, and yet a physician of Pitts urgh, Pa., is 
responsible for the statement that during these 36 months 
in that region, the atmosphere has been so uniformly 
moist that rheumatism has developed to an extraordinary 
degree, while in the Alleghany region and farther east, 
the rains have been many and nearly incessant and the 
storms vi jlent and destructive. In fact, the vast prairie 
plains of Illinois and neighborhoods on the west and north, 
seem to be playing the part of the plains west of the 
Rocky Mountains. The warm airs that blow from Utah 
and western Colorado, when they strike the Rocky Moun¬ 
tain Range just west of Denver, are deprived of their 
moisture which falls in cloud-bursts and heavy rains, caus¬ 
ing washouts in the canons of the Colorado in July and 
August, and sprinkling the dusty streets of otherwise dry 
Denver daily in the hot season at the expense of the 
heavens. 
Last year the Signal Service predicted for this region 
“local rains,” time and again, which rarely if ever visited 
us, for the good and sufficient reason that there was no 
source for a supply of the moist material. This year the 
Signal Service has not so often repeated the mistake. As 
before stated, there has been no lack of clouds or of storms 
of rain, but the precipitation has been so light that the 
earth’s water supply has been growing less and less. But 
if the prairie is getting less rain, some other section must 
be getting more, and that is what the city of Pittsburgh 
and the regions round about have been getting, and are 
likely to get for some time farther on. The plains to the 
west of the Rocky Mountain Range and the other plains 
and prairies to the west of the Alleghany highlands and 
ranges are alike in this respect, that the clouds and winds 
refuse to give up their moisture until it is condensed by the 
low temperature of the mountain heights. 
T.he Farmers Club. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address 
of the writer to insure attention. 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.] 
Cream Cheese: Butter Ration, etc. 
IF. H., Vineland, N. J. —1. How can I make some kind 
of a Swiss cheese or any other good kind of cream cheese? 
2. What is the best and most economical winter ration 
for a cow, with bran at $1.10, middlings at $1.30 and corn 
meal at $1.50 per cwt.? 3. How many pounds of corn fodder 
or its equivalent in clover hay should a Jersey cow eat in 
24 hours? 4. What is the best kind of grass for a perma¬ 
nent pasture in a small grove of oaks that have been 
trimmed free of all branches for a height of 12 feet: soil 
a sandy loam with a gravel and clay subsoil? 5. Is it too 
late to sow five acres of Red Clover on a sandy loam soil ; 
if so, what is the best time to sow it? I have an old black¬ 
berry patch that I could turn under; would the vines grow 
up and spoil the clover for hay, or would the sod kill 
them ? 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
1. Swiss cheese is not cream cheese. It is made from the 
whole milk freshly drawn from the cow, and its peculiar¬ 
ity is due to the mode of manufacture in which the curd is 
kept in a condition of fermentation for several weeks 
before it is finally made into cheese. A cream cheese of 
excellent quality may be ma e as follows: The milk is set 
in shallow pans aud at the end of 12 hours is moved care¬ 
fully, without disturbing the cream, on to a stove where it 
is warmed until the surface “ crinkles ” or moves in a 
shrinking manner. The pans are then set back again for 
the cream to rise fully. The latter is then quite thick and 
tough, and in the condition of “clouted cream.” The 
cream may be rolled up and lifted off in a mass with a flat 
skimmer. It is then put in molds, usually oblong square, 
about four inches long, three wide and two deep. They 
are bottomless and are placed on a clean napkin or cloth 
laid over a straw mat. A cloth is laid upon the cream and 
a light cover of wood is placed upon it, with a very light 
weight to make it compact. In 24 hours the cheese is firm 
enough to move, and is fit to eat, having a very rich flavor 
with enough cheesy taste to make it a cheese. The heat ing 
coagulates the albumen in the milk, and this rises with the 
rest of the cream and gives it its larger bulk and tough¬ 
ness. Probably the albumen adds something to the flavor 
as well, and this is exceedingly delicate and pleasant. 
2. Of the three feeds mentioned the corn meal will be the 
best and the cheapest. It will give a better quality of 
butter than either the bran or the middlings. The 
amount of the ration depends upon the ability of the cow 
to digest and assimilate the food. Some cows cannot dis¬ 
pose of more than five or six pounds of meal profitably; 
while others will pay for 10 or 15 pounds. The proper 
amount is to be ascertained by beginning with two quarts 
at a meal for a week, then adding a quart, and noting the 
difference in yield in a week; if the increase in the quan¬ 
tity of butter does not pay for the additional meal, the 
latter may be withdrawn. The results will be better if 
the meal is mixed with five pounds of cut clover hay 
wetted with warm water. This should be given morning 
and night with five pounds of long hay at noon. 4 
3. A good cow with a good appetite, will eat 15 pounds 
of clover hay daily with 10 pounds of meal, and some will 
consume 20 pounds of hay. But if the yield of butter is 
the main object, corn fodder should not be the main food. 
The midday meal may be made of this, or some may b 8 
given after each feed of hay and meal. Nice, bright green 
corn fodder is almost as good as the best clover hay, but 
more will be eaten of both, if both are given, than if either 
be fed alone. 
4. Kentucky Blue Grass is the best kind for a shaded pas¬ 
ture, but it is slow in growth. I have a chestnut orchard 
in which the young trees are about touching the tips of 
the branches, sown with Timothy and Alsike, and it 
makes an excellent pasture right up to the trees. But 
I have sown Blue Grass in it to occupy the ground when 
the Timothy fails. Orchard Grass will make a fine pasture 
under shade if the soil be rich, but on poor land it grows 
thinly and in bunches. Probably in your locality and 
with manure, Orchard Grass (two bushels per acre) would 
be the most satisfactory. 
5. It is too late for clover even in your mild climate, 
although if it is convenient to sow it now, the seed would 
take no harm in the soil if it is harrowed in lightly, unless 
a heavy late frost might damage it in the spring. The 
roots of the blackberries should certainly be grubbed out 
or they will be a nuisance in the hay. The sod will not 
kill them. The blackberry vines should be plowed out 
deeply, then gathered and burned and as far as possible 
every sprout seen in the clover should be chopped out 
while small. It would be quite safe to sow the clover in 
February in your locality alone; 15 pounds per acre should 
be sown. 
Seeding With Timothy and Herd’s Grass Alone. 
S. McF., Fo8tervllle, Tenn .—I wish to seed a piece of 
ground to Timothy and Herd’s Grass in the spring. It 
has been under corn this year. Can I get a good stand by 
sowing the seed broadcast without plowing the ground ? 
Ans.—A better stand may be gained in this way than by 
sowing a crop to seed with, if the ground is well prepared. 
The land should be thoroughly plowed and harrowed to 
get the surface smooth and level as early as possible in 
the spring. The seed is then sown evenly—10 pounds of 
Timothy and 20 pounds of Herd’s Grass (Red Top), and 
the surface either harrowed with a light sloping tooth 
harrow or smoothed with two planks fastened together 
with short chains to cover in the seed. This covering of 
the seed is important. It should be at least one inch deep. 
This secures the firm rooting of the seed before the spires 
appear. If dry weather should occur, no harm is done, 
and the young plants will not suffer if several days of dry 
weather follow; but if such weather follows surface seed¬ 
ing a large proportion of the shallow-roote i plants will be 
destroyed and the catch will fail more or less. This cov¬ 
ering of grass seed is a very important part of the making 
of meadows. We use a small harrow with teeth of half 
inch steel, drawn by one horse, to cover in the seed. By 
this treatment the meadow will be pleasant to look upon 
a month after sowing and will be a far better one than if 
the,grass were sown with any grain crop. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
JET. E., Napanee, Canada. —How do the following varie¬ 
ties of grapes compare with the Concord in regard to time 
of ripening: Brilliant, Woodruff Red, Colerain, and 
Moore’s Diamond? Is the Brilliant offered for sale yet ? 
Ans.—W e do not know as to the Brilliant yet. Woodruff 
Red ripens a few days before the Concord ; Colerain a week 
earlier; Moore’s Diamond, the same. Write to Geo. W. 
Campbell, of Delaware, O., or to T. Y. Munson, Denison, 
Texas, as to the Brilliant. 
P. G., Oswego Falls, N. Y. —Is it a characteristic of the 
Parry Strawberry to fruit through the entire summer even 
in a small way ? 
Ans.—N o ; so far as we have observed. 
G. J. B., White House, Pa. —The trouble with your pigs 
was blind staggers or indigestion, and it was probably due 
to over-feeding, and could have been prevented by reduc¬ 
ing the feed, especially in the case of the young pigs. 
R. H., North Kingsville, Ohio.—l. What is the fertili¬ 
zing value of refuse salt per ton ? 2. How much is usually 
applied per acre? 3. When should it be used on a field fitted 
for potatoss next season ? 4. Would refuse salt from a 
packing-house be as valuable as that from any other 
source ? 
Ans.— 1. It is doubtful if it has any fertilizing value. 2. 
All the way from 6 to 20 bushels. 3. In the spring, we 
should guess, while doubting whether it will have any 
favorable effect. Better use kainit, which will give potash 
as well as salt. 4. Of the same value. 
J. T. E., Sharptown, Md. —What are leguminous plants ? 
What is a list of those we cultivate ? 
Ans.—A ll fruits called legumes (or peas), lupines, 
clover, peanuts, locusts, wistaria, beans, peas, vetch, 
Yellowwood tree, sophora, Judas tree, cassia, Kentucky 
coffee tree, mimosa, acacia are familiar illustrations. 
For a complete list it would be necessary to consult a 
work on botany. 
