136 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
What is Land Worth? 
• 
What it will sell for, would be a short answer, 
but not exactly a correct one, except when the 
owner is compelled to dispose of it at once.—What¬ 
ever sum it will pay a fair interest upon, if rented, 
would seem a good answer, but that is not of uni¬ 
versal application. In the hands of one lessee 
land may depreciate in value, and increase under 
the care of another. Again, it may be so located 
as to promise a large advance in the early future, 
sufficient to counterbalance a part or the whole of 
the annual interest. 
For farm land the first consideration is the char¬ 
acter and condition of the soil, and the permanence 
of its good qualities.—If improved land, the cost of 
buildings, orchards, fences, etc., adds to its value. 
One hundred acres, with 83,500 in needed buildings, 
are worth 825 more per acre than a like farm with¬ 
out the buildings. If a farm, the whole product 
of which is to be 6old, is so far from markets 
that the hauling or freightage, or both, on the 
average just consume all the receipts above the 
actual cost of production, the land has no present 
actual value. If another like farm, by reason of 
being ten, fifty, or a hundred miles or more nearer 
to market, saves an average of $5 per acre in 
freightage, it would pay five per cent interest on 
8100 per acre, or ten per cent on 850 per acre. But 
a man may occupy such a farm, raise what his 
family consumes, concentrate what he has to sell 
in the form of wool, meat, or butter, which cost 
but a small per cent of their value for freightage, 
and wait the future approach of markets, and in 
time his farm may become of great value. Mil¬ 
lions have in this way secured comfortable and 
valuable homesteads, and the process is being now 
repeated all over the great West. 
Special circumstances give exceptional value to 
Small plots of ground, as corner lots, or interior 
ones on business or fashionable streets in villages 
and cities. In country towns and cities with room 
to expand in all directions, the price of such plots 
can never be very high. We have seen the growth 
of a village entirely changed in its direction by the 
high rates asked by the owners of favorite plots, 
and these have been left in the lurch, and can not 
be sold for half of what would have been paid for 
them until recently. In localities shut in by 
mountains or streams from outside expansion, the 
land may become of high and permanent value. 
New York, for example, is surrounded by rivers, 
and has but a limited area. In the best business 
locations, there is hardly a limit to the increase 
in value. A vacant plot 20 by 100 feet, at 69th 
street, sold for 836,000, or at the rate of 8784,000 
per acre. Other recent actual sales have been at 
the rate of $617,(00 and $706,000 per acre. But in 
these cases fashion had most to do with the prices; 
they were on or near “ Fifth Avenue.” 
Some Winter “Foot Notes.” 
Keep the head cool and the feet warm, is a 
standard prescription, but not to be followed liter¬ 
ally. A slight draft upon the head may produce 
more colds and catarrhs than having the feet wet all 
day. Better say, keep both head and feet com¬ 
fortably warm. In many churches, men sitting 
near the windows, or walls, or wherever there is a 
draft of air, may well follow the custom of the 
Friends, and keep their hats on, doing it rever¬ 
ently ; or, if this be considered too outre, then 
carry to church, and wear a close-fitting cap of 
silk, or of other dark fabric. Ladies do not need 
this, if they wear real bonnets. Close to, and often 
a few feet from the walls, there is frequently a 
reflected draft coming from some other point. 
But the feet are a fruitful source of colds and 
consequent disease for four reasons : 
First .—They are farthest from the heart, and 
the chilled blood must be carried up three or four 
feet against gravity, without the propelling arterial 
power that drives it above the heart. 
Second .—They are, both in-door and out-door, 
in a colder stratum of air. 
Third .—They are more exposed to contact with 
water, snow, or ice, than other parts of the body. 
Fourth .—They are generally encased in imper¬ 
vious leather, or rubber, which retains the natural 
exhalations of moisture, and refuse matter always 
escaping from the whole surface of healthy bodies. 
It is wise, therefore, to give them special care. 
The bottoms of shoes or boots should be thick, 
to prevent the escape of natural warmth, and the 
ingress of water or dampness. The soles and the 
lower edge only of the uppers should be saturated 
with oil, or grease. When dried in, and wiped 
hard, they will not soil floors or carpets, especially 
after a little friction of walking. The top of the 
upper leather should not be oiled, except when 
one is to stand constantly in the snow or water. 
It should be as open, or porous as may be, to 
allow the free escape of moisture. For the same 
reason also, winter boots and shoes should be 
quite loose and open around the ankles. Those so 
tight as to press upon the foot muscles at any 
point, prevent the full action of these muscles, 
which action aids the return of the blood through 
the veins to the heart. Porous woolen or cotton 
stockings, if dry, are good non-conductors of 
heat, or cold ; but if damp by the retention of 
moisture, or by its entrance from without, they be¬ 
come free conductors of heat, carrying it away 
from the feet. 
Rubbers are excellent in their place, but they 
retain the moisture, and ere long promote cold¬ 
ness of the feet. As a rule, they should only be 
of sandal form, leaving open room for the escape of 
moisture from much of the upper leather. When 
full rubber shoes or boots are needed for deep 
snow and water, a frequent change of stockings is 
important—as often as they become damp. A 
friend, of not very vigorous health, universally 
puts on dry socks when leaving city business for 
his country home, and thus escapes chilliness. • 
To Raise Large Cauliflowers. 
BY “ HORTICULTUS,” ORANGE, N. J. 
The difficulty in raising even a fair crop of cauli¬ 
flower is well known to all who have had much ex¬ 
perience in gardening. Even the successful horti¬ 
culturist who has written a work to show that 
there is “ money in the garden,” acknowledges his 
many failures with cauliflower, and in conversa¬ 
tion with excellent cultivators, I find that there is 
the same lack of success, while the cause of fail¬ 
ure is beyond their comprehension. They say: 
“ They will sometimes all grow to stems and leaves, 
with numerous small cauliflower ‘buttons’ on the 
long, slender stems, while not one in a hundred, 
and sometimes, not one in five hundred, will de¬ 
velop into a head of respectable size,” and they all 
say: “ We cannot understand it.” Of course, 
there must be a reason for all such failures. 
“Whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap,” 
applies to raising cauliflowers as well as to other 
matters. The many and very general failures are 
due to worthless seed ; the whole secret of success, 
provided the soil is sufficiently fertile, is in the use 
of good seed. As a general thing, the cauliflower 
seed offered for sale is raised from the stumps. 
The heads being valuable are sold, and the stems, 
with the roots attached, are planted out to produce 
a crop of seeds. Good heads of cauliflower can 
only be grown from seeds which were raised from 
large and perfect heads. As those who grow the 
seeds for market can pften get more for the heads 
than they could from the seed that might he pro¬ 
duced from them, the temptation to raise seeds 
from the stumps is very great. Those who under¬ 
stand how to produce large, 6olid heads of cauli¬ 
flower, will never sow stump-grown seeds, but 
raise their own seeds. In autumn, the largest, 
most perfect heads are to be carefully selected and 
preserved through the winter in the same manner 
that cabbages are kept. The next spring these 
are set out entire, in rich, mellow soil, for produc¬ 
ing seed. If the heads are very compact they 
are to be gashed with a knife, nearly to the 
stump, to facilitate the starting of the central 
flower stalks. Probably numerous flower stalks 
will be produced, and all but the four nearest the 
center are to be broken off, as four stems are as 
many as can bring their 6eed to perfection. If all 
that start are allowed to grow, the result will be a 
large number of pods of inferior seeds. After the 
blossoms have fallen, and the pods begin to grow, 
take a pair of scissors, and cut away all the small 
and imperfect ones, thus directing all the energies 
of the plant to the development of a compara¬ 
tively small number of pods and seeds. The seed 
thus produced will be large and plump, one of 
which will outweigh three or more of the stump- 
grown seeds. Indeed, the seeds thus grown will 
be so large, plump, shining, and heavy, that only 
the few who are familiar with the seeds com¬ 
monly sold would recognize them as cauliflower 
seeds. When the pods begin to turn straw-color, 
cut the stems close to the stump, and hang them 
in an airy room, where birds cannot reach them. 
When the pods are thoroughly dry, lay them on a 
cloth and tread out the seeds, which are to be win¬ 
nowed to separate them from the chaff, and placed 
in a paper bag. Keep in a dry and cool room. By 
sowing seeds of this kind, a crop of choice cauli¬ 
flower can be raised with as much certainty as one of 
cabbages,or potatoes,and be far more remunerative. 
Diseases to be most Guarded Against.— 
A useful lesson is taught by the mortality during 
1882 in New York City, where accurate records are 
kept. Local causes may vary somewhat, but the 
results are of pretty general application. Of the 
37,951 deaths, 17,305 were of children under 5 years 
old, and 2,342 of persons over 70—together more 
than half. Of the children under 5, nearly 5,000 
(over 28 per cent) died of diarrhceal diseases, 
mainly due to improper food, a striking lesson to 
parents. Taking all the deaths, the most fatal 
diseases were: Consumption, 5,245 (14 per cent, or 
251 per cent of those over 5 years old); Diarrhceal 
diseases of all ages, 4,058 (lOi per cent); Pneu¬ 
monia, 3,418 (9 per cent); Brain and Nerve diseases, 
2,980 (nearly 8 per cent); Scarlet Fever, 2,070; 
Bright’s Disease, 1,701 (8 per cent of all over 5 
years old); Bronchitis, 1,591; Diphtheria, 1,521; 
Heart Disease, 1,443; Gastritis and Peritonitis, 
943 ; Measles, 912 ; Croup, 730 ; Whooping Cough, 
655. Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Diphtheria, and 
Croup, which caused 7,260 deaths, or nearly one- 
fifth of all, chiefly result from carelessness or need¬ 
less exposure to inequalities of temperature by 
drafts of air in the house, by dressing some parts 
of the body warmer than others out of doors, by 
wet clothing, and especially by damp feet. Bright’s 
disease is largely due to improper foods and drinks, 
alcoholic stimulants, narcotics, spices, and the 
like, which over-tax the kidneys to eliminate them 
from the system. 
Tattooing Cattle.— To tell the age of Polled 
cattle, and keep a reliable record of their pedigrees, 
it is neeessary to make some distinctive mark upon 
them. Tattooing the inside of the ears is found to 
be the best method. This has been practised ex¬ 
tensively on sheep in Great Britain for many years 
past, and now the application is made to Polled 
cattle. An instrument for this is made in Germany, 
which does the tattooing cheaply and rapidly. 
From a few experiments recently made with 
Polled cattle at the West, it is found that a supe¬ 
rior quality of beef can be more cheaply produced 
than from horned stock. They will consequently 
spread rapidly there. We suggest to breeders that 
they import these instruments and hand them over 
to our mechanics, who will be sure to improve them. 
The Bitter Rot in Apples.— “H.K.C.,” Sa¬ 
lem, Ill., writes us that, in an orchard of 600 trees, 
100 were affected by bitter rot, the varieties being 
Ortley, Bellflower, and Stark. He asks for a 
remedy. The bitter rot, like the blight, is one of 
the afflictions of the fruit grower, and all the more 
hard to bear because it is so mysterious. The only 
remedy suggested is such treatment as will pro¬ 
mote the general health and vigor of the tree. 
