24o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April? 4 
CATALOGUE REVIEWS. 
(CONTINUED.) 
J. Chas. McCullough, Cincinnati, O. 
—A catalogue of flower and farm seeds 
and implements. Among the latter we 
are glad to see the Reddick mole-trap 
which, as we have often said, we regard 
as the cheapest and most effective mole- 
killer yet devised. Extra Early Huron 
dent corn, the Mammoth Cluster oats, 
Rural Branching sorghum (Millo maize), 
Kaffir corn are offered. 
E. M. Bueciily, Greenville, O.—This 
is a catalogue of small fruits, fruit trees 
and plants. The Greenville strawberry 
is highly praised by many authorities. 
The Eldorado blackberry is gaining 
friends. We hope that our plants will 
fruit the coming season, and that both 
plants and berries will prove to be all 
that has been claimed. We have before 
alluded to Downing’s Winter Maiden 
Blush apple. It seems that it closely re¬ 
sembles its parent, Maiden Blush, except 
that it keeps from December to April. 
What is said regarding the Champion 
peach and Eureka raspberry, should be 
noted. 
D. M. Ferry & Co., Detroit, Mich.—A 
beautiful catalogue of 90 pages with col¬ 
ored portraits of Nott’s Excelsior pea, 
Siebert’s Early Lima and the two new 
sweet peas, Katherine Tracy and Blanche 
Ferry. We take pleasure in again allud¬ 
ing to Nott’s Excelsior for the two rea¬ 
sons that it is the best and earliest dwarf 
wrinkled pea, and that The R. N.-Y. was 
the first to try it and publish its merits. 
Siebert’s Early Lima was planted at the 
Rural G roun ds last season, but the tornado 
utterly destroyed every vine ; there was 
nothing left but a few poles. Ferry & 
Co. regard it as the earliest true Lima, 
furnishing the largest green beans, and 
the beans are more easily shelled than 
those of any other kind. We would fur¬ 
ther call attention to the following as 
well deserving of trial: Davis wax 
bean which bears perfect-shaped pods 
and white seeds ; Detroit Dark-red Tur¬ 
nip beet; Ferry’s Improved Short White 
carrot, the best for field culture ; Albino 
cucumber; Cosmopolitan and Osage, 
muskmelons ; Michigan Yellow Globe 
onion, the largest cropper of any yellow 
onion, and Columbian Mammoth White 
asparagus, introduced three years ago. 
Ferry & Co. claim to be, by far, the larg¬ 
est seed growers in America. 
Luther Rice, Manchester, N. Y.—A 
small fruit circular and price-list. The 
Champion of England strawberry leads 
the list. The old and excellent Aga¬ 
wam blackberry is illustrated, a variety 
that is simply perfect in some places, 
but not very prolific in others. 
B. M. Watson, Plymouth, Mass.—A 
wholesale price-list of plants, ornament¬ 
al, deciduous and evergreen trees, roses, 
bulbs, herbaceous plants, fruits, etc. 
Among currants, we notice the old 
Gloire des Sablons, the oddest and pret¬ 
tiest currant known. It is really valu¬ 
able as a unique curiosity, the berries 
being variegated, white and crimson. 
Grosse Blanche de Dessert is described 
as a new currant of the largest size. The 
list of Chinese and Japanese pseonies, 
plants not half appreciated, is excellent. 
Shady Hill Nursery Co., Boston, 
Mass.—A very valuable catalogue (240 
pages), of shrubs, trees and hardy herba¬ 
ceous plants. The catalogue is “up to 
date ” in every way. A long list of the 
best of the later introductions among 
evergreen and deciduous trees, is pre¬ 
sented. The illustrations are especially 
good, that is, true to nature. Among 
the best we would mention Sophora 
Japonica pendula, Teas’s Weeping mul¬ 
berry, Nordmann’s Silver fir, and the 
Concolor fir which the catalogue mis¬ 
takenly calls Picea concolor. It offers 
a golden-tipped Umbrella pine (Sciado- 
pitys verticillata aurea), a very rare 
tree. 
P. Emerson, Wyoming, Del.—There is 
a good deal to interest the farmer and 
fruit grower in this little catalogue of 
small and large fruits, nuts and hardy 
ornamental plants. The ltidgeley chest¬ 
nut is making friends everywhere as The 
R. N.-Y. predicted it would in 1894. Our 
own tree has not borne yet. It is 
claimed that, though the tree grows to 
a large size, it bears when two or three 
years old from the graft. As we have 
stated, the nuts are nearly as large as 
those of the Paragon, and of about the 
same quality as our wild natives. Mr. 
Emerson offers Mr. Kerr’s new straw¬ 
berries, the Oriole and Ideal, and the 
Miller Red raspberry. He guarantees 
his plants to be “ pure and true to 
name.” 
AN IDEAL HARROW. 
BY HENRY STEWART. 
It would be strange indeed if all per¬ 
sons could agree upon the same thing. 
And in regard to that most important 
work of the farm, harrowing, it may be 
thought not unreasonable that some 
writers should miss some point that ap¬ 
pears conspicuously to others. I con¬ 
sider harrowing to be the most important 
part of the preparation of the land for 
crops, inasmuch as it completes the 
work of the plow. And I consider that 
the best harrow is that one that will 
pulverize and break up the soil after the 
plow, and that—in some instances and 
for some uses—will act as a substitute 
for the plow, leaving a sufficient depth 
of mellow soil for the seed to germinate 
in. And I have always been an advocate 
of deep sowing, even of such small seeds 
as grass and clover, believing that this 
depth of soil is a surety against failure 
of the seeding, by any dry time succeed¬ 
ing it, soon after the seed has been sown 
and before the roots have got a firm hold 
on the soil. 
Harrowing is not a mere smoothing of 
the surface, leaving the undersoil lumpy 
and full of holes and spaces between the 
furrow slices, and any harrow that 
merely does this smoothing, or a mere 
cutting of the surface, or simply 
scratches it, is not the kind of imple¬ 
ment that the farmer wants, or that 
should be recommended to him by writ¬ 
ers whose opinions are accepted in the 
way of advice. But true harrowing 
must consist of the breaking of all the 
surface clods ; the cutting of the furrow 
slices to a sufficient depth to make a per¬ 
fect seed bed ; the settling of the soil to¬ 
gether to make it compact; turning and 
mixing the soil so that seed sown is 
covered equally and completely, and cut¬ 
ting every inch of the surface in this 
way. An implement that does this an¬ 
swers more than one purpose, it finishes 
the work of the plow, and in addition to 
this, by its very thorough working of 
the soil it sifts as it were the weeds from 
the soil, especially the small young ones, 
and leaves them helpless, so that an 
hour's exposure kills them. And even 
those that may be still covered by the 
soil, are so effectively separated from it 
that they perish. And thus the farmer 
has his work done in the most perfect 
manner, and as well has such an excel¬ 
lent finish on his land as to give it a 
pleasing appearance. It is quite true 
that there are several harrows made 
that will put this finish on the land, but 
like the whited sepulchre, when you 
look under the surface, the imperfec¬ 
tions are very apparent. 
Now let us take what I call a perfect 
harrow, and study its work. We have a 
plowed field, plowed as it should be, 
turned evenly in depth with straight 
furrows if possible—but as such work as 
this is not often seen we will suppose 
there are uneven places, cloddy furrow 
slices, balks, and such common imper¬ 
fections in the work. And we put an 
“ACME” Pulverizing Harrow on the 
land in either case. The first thing we 
notice is that the flat crushing spurs in 
the front shave off and crush the rough, 
uneven places, break down the slices, 
fill the hollows, level the surface, and 
the sharp curved coulters, like small, 
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long plowshares following, cut into the 
soil, and turn it, leaving small furrows, 
as if a number of small plows in a gang 
had passed over the land. And on what¬ 
ever soil this is done these coulters bury 
themselves in the soil and leave a seed 
bed, finely pulverized and mellow, quite 
deep enough to take in the seed, and 
afford room for the young roots to 
spread in and find ample food. And 
when the farmer has spent a lot of 
money for fertilizers he will he pleased 
to see how every square inch of the soil, 
down to as deep as he may wish—and as 
deeply as this machine is prepared and 
especially intended for, gets its equal 
share of the plant food provided for the 
crops. And if the plowing has been 
done in the most perfect manner, or if 
it has not, the work is done all the same, 
and the perfect adaptation of the harrow 
to its work really overcomes the imper¬ 
fection of the plowing and remedies the 
errors of it to a great extent. 
To secure this end and purpose, the 
“ACME” Pulvering Harrow has a lifting 
lever by means of which the angle of the 
coulters is altered, instantly changing 
the action of the coulters and forcing 
them deeper or shallower into the soil. 
This point is too often overlooked by 
writers who describe their farm work, 
and doubtless by many farmers who 
have not studied the action of this har¬ 
row, especially in clay land. The per¬ 
fection of an implement, indeed, to a 
great extent, depends upon its adapta¬ 
tion to all kinds of soil, so that its use 
may be universal, and this is one of the 
good points of this harrow. 
I have walked miles and miles behind 
the “ ACME ” Pulverizing Harrow, and 
have closely watched and studied its 
manner of working, and I must say that 
much of what I have learned and known 
of the culture of the land and the prep¬ 
aration of it for the seed, and the growth 
of plants, has been the resalt of work 
with this implement. Just as my work 
with the plow has taught me what good 
plowing is and must be. And this study 
has given me a firm belief that a part of 
the study of the young men at the agri¬ 
cultural colleges should be just in the 
same way, behind the best implements 
that can be procured for the work to be 
done. And this should he done while 
other scientific education is not to he 
left undone. In fact, the study of the 
work of a perfect implement, made on 
scientific principles, is nothing less than 
a scientific one. 
Agriculture is passing through a crisis, 
and changes are impending. These can 
only happen in the way of better work 
and more intensive culture, thus grow¬ 
ing better crops at less cost on less sur¬ 
face. And the means for this most cer¬ 
tainly consist, to a very great extent, in 
the selection and use of the most per¬ 
fect implements. It is no use giving 
food to an animal that cannot digest it. 
And equally it will he useless to give 
costly food to the crops in the form of 
fertilizers, unless the very best imple¬ 
ments are used to prepare the soil, so 
that the food may he properly digested 
and fitted for the plants. And it may be 
said most truly, that while the plow is 
not to be slighted in the least, the har¬ 
row is to be studied even more as the im¬ 
plement by which the digestive ability 
of the soil for its food is to be mostly 
perfected and stimulated.— Adv. 
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Are often required to determine 
what shall be “kept out” of a har¬ 
vester than to say what shall “go 
into” it. It is so easy to do the 
wrong thing—and the wrong thing 
has such an inviting appearance— 
that less experienced manufacturers 
than the McCormick Co. frequent¬ 
ly find themselves “putting their 
foot in it” and building a machine 
one season which they are obliged 
to abandon a season or two later. 
Because a good thing is a good 
thing in its place, it doesn’t neces¬ 
sarily follow that it is a good thing 
in a harvester or mower. 
Fight shy of the machine whose 
best recommend is that “it seems 
to have a bright idea” in its make¬ 
up. Remember this every day in 
the year:—McCormick Machines 
will work where others fail. 
The makers of McCormick Ma¬ 
chines have been at it for sixty-five 
years. By long experience they 
have found out how to build the 
best binders and mowers. 
The new McCormick Light-Running 
Open Elevator Harvester and Binder, 
the McCormick No. 4 Steel Mower and 
the McCormick Corn Harvester are 
unequalled for capacity, light draft, 
efficiency of service and long life. 
Built, sold and guaranteed by the 
I McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., 
Chicago. 
Agents Everywhere. 
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