466 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
Chat with Readers. 
Mr. if. A. Kock — College Hill, Ohio. Please accept our 
thanks for the sketch and directions of the labor-saving 
device. We hope others will likewise favor us. 
Mr. J. R. Jfiirpfcy.—Pittsburgh, Pa. The plant sent is a 
specie of Sabbatia (S. stellaris ) sometimes called Ameri¬ 
can Centaury. It possesses no other valuable medicinal 
properties than that of a tonic. 
Mr. Jas. Connor— Auburndale, Wis. A mastiff pup will 
cost you from fifty to one hundred dollars, or more, accord¬ 
ing to pedigree, markings, size, etc., besides express charges. 
Mr. F. A. Deekens — Federalsburgh, Md. A card addressed 
to Messrs. Chandler & Taylor, Indianapolis, lnd„ will 
bring you a circular giving full particulars of the Phoenix 
Tile Drain machine. 
Mr. B. J. Hobson.— Hutchinson, Kan. There are not, so 
far as we are aware, any makers of successful steam plows 
in this country. Several are in use in the cane fields of 
Louisiana, but are imported from England. 
Mr. Chas. Ehlers. —Zoar Station, Ohio. Our book—“Barn 
Plans and Out Buildings,” (Price $ 1 . 50 ), contains a chapter 
on ice-houses and cool chambers, fully illustrated. A care¬ 
ful study of the plans there presented may, we hope, fully 
answer all your questions. 
Mr. Ira Coe.— Quincy 111. You may send us the plan of 
your farm house, and we will publish It if it is materially 
different from any already given in this Journal. Weave 
pleased that you watch the appearance of the house plans 
from month to month. 
Mrs. J. M. St. Elme— Atchison, Kas. The European Carp 
was fully described and illustrated in the American Agri¬ 
culturist for January, 1880. The young carp may be ob¬ 
tained at the proper season of the U. S. Fish Commissioner, 
Professor S. F. Baird, Washington, D. C. 
“ m. B.’— Eldorado, Cal. “Willows,” with which your 
land is covered, may be trees or shrubs. In either case, 
grub out as many of the main roots as possible, and the 
sheep will keep down the shoots, which spring from the 
roots left in the ground. 
Mr. Jos. Lesley —Princeton, Mass. For the insecticide 
mix the kerosene, two parts with sour milk, one part, and 
add the emulsion, three parts, to water, ninety-seven parts. 
Apply to the plants with a sprinkler, having a fine rose, 
with a garden force pump, with a spray nozzle. 
Mr. W. S. Plumb— Mattawan, Mich. We do not advise 
the planting of the barberry for hedges. It is a host plant 
for one state of the wheat rust, and should not be intro¬ 
duced into wheat growing regions_Prepare the land for 
fruit trees, by making the soil deep, rich, and mellow. 
R. M. Tillery.— Knoxville, Tenn., writes us about destroy¬ 
ing "Creek willows.” He advises, in the spring, to begin 
five or six feet from the ground and peel down the bark. 
He considers it essential to success to leave the bark at the 
lower end, still attached to the tree, and spread out upon 
the ground. 
J. R. Heckman.— Cambria Co., Pa. If a nurseryman, or 
any other man, offers you “Japanese Plums as large as a 
Baldwin apple " don’t buy them—he is a fraud. “ Date 
Plum,” is another name for Persimmon. The Japanese 
Persimmon is an excellent fruit where it will grow, but 
probably not for you. 
D. B. Hinges— Frederick Co., Va. The best works on 
Agricultural Chemistry, are “ How Crops Grow ” and “How 
Cr#ps Feed,” by Prof. Sam’l. W. Johnson (published by 
Orange Judd Company). Whoever carefully studies these, 
in the order named, will have as much knowledge of the 
subject as one who is not a professional chemist will need. 
C. G. Smith— Suffolk Co., N. Y. No-by no means, if you 
have any regard for beauty, do not trim off the lower limbs 
of your fir trees. In nature, when these trees stand alone, 
and can assume their proper form, they are cone-llke, with 
a broad base resting on the ground. When the lower 
branches are trimmed off, they are as ungraceful, as some 
one has said, “ as a hay-cock upon a post.” 
Mr. H. W. Layman.— Suffield, Ohio. Burnt lime aids m 
the decomposition of organic matter of the soil, and will 
therefore quicken the action of the manure. Lime is usu¬ 
ally of but little value when spread on a soil very poor in 
organic matter. Its action is mostly indirect. If you have 
manured heavily, use only a small quantity of freshly 
burnt lime. It is well to try a practical experiment by leav¬ 
ing a strip of land without lime and covering others with 
ten, twenty, and forty bushels per acre respectively. 
Isaac Hal.— Perth Amboy, N. J. The insects found on 
your Crab-apple and Arbor-vitae trees, are the “ Bag,” “Bas¬ 
ket" or "Drop-worm.” The caterpillar carries its house 
with it. The male leaves it when in the perfect or moth 
state. the female deposits her eggs within the bag, and 
then dies. Hand picking Is the remedy. If this is done 
when the insect is first noticed, It is an easy matter. When 
numerous on trees that drop their leaves, winter is the best 
time. They appear to attack nearly all trees Impartially 
R. H. Gardiner.— Oaklands, Me. Complains of Money¬ 
wort ( Lysimachia nummularia > as a weed. Earth from a 
vase containing the roots, was thrown out, and the plant 
has spread in a most aggressive manner. It is in his meadow 
and is spreading on his lawn. We have used the plant to 
carpet the ground under shrubs, for several years, and 
have had no trouble from its spreading, but the soil is very 
dry and sandy. It can no doubt be subdued by means of 
hoed crops , if not convenient to do that, we should try 
smothering with a heavy covering of marsh hay. 
fff SB 
OUR 
[yjfira 
BASKET. 
A Valuable Feature of the Paper for 1884. 
The American Agriculturist has always aimed to 
furnish the fullest and most reliable information re¬ 
garding the Great West, to the end that its readers 
should know in what regions to locate, if they de¬ 
sired to go West. One of our Editors has gone west 
every year in quest of this information. Two 
years ago he made an extended tour of ten thous¬ 
and miles through the Western States and Territo¬ 
ries, and gave in the paper many pages of just such 
information as all should have who would know 
about the Great West. He has now gone to Western 
Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota, and with this October 
issue of the American Agriculturist, we begin a 
series of articles, contributed by him, and other 
articles showing what points are now most desirable 
for people going West to settle. This series of 
papers will be worth far more than the subscrip¬ 
tion price of the paper. Note, for example, what 
valuable information is presented in the first ar¬ 
ticle regarding Dakota, etc. 
Seacoa.st Fertilizers. —In autumn the 
easterly winds throw up thousands of tons of sea-weed, 
mingled more or less with dead fish. Farmers are in 
the habit of gathering this in heaps, and letting it decay for 
manuring their crops in the spring. Some apply this to 
potatoes, and get very large returns ; but such fertilizing 
is apt to give an unpleasant taste to the tubers. An ex¬ 
cellent method of removing all odor from the sea-weed 
and fish, is to pile it up in alternate layers with peat or 
muck. These sweeten the compost heap, and render it 
suitable for applying to roots as well as grain crops. If 
without peat or muck, sods from an old field or the road¬ 
side may be mixed in layers with the sea-weed and fish. 
The Eg-gT Plant.— “A subscriber,” Beaver, 
Minn., wishes to know when the fruit of Egg Plant is ripe 
and how to cook it. The fruit is used before it is quite 
ripe, when it is of full size, before the color grows 
lighter, and the seeds become hard and brown. Cut the 
fruit cross-wise in slices about an inch thick, sprinkle 
salt between them and stack up, with a weight upon the 
top. At the end of two or three hours dip the slices in 
beaten egg, and then in powdered cracker or flour. Fry 
to a light brown. When done there should be no tough, 
whitish portions when cut open. Eaten at dinner, with 
other vegetables,and it makes an excellent breakfast dish. 
Experiments with Wheat. —A test 
field of eight varieties of Wheat shows the following 
yield in bushels per acre: Landretli 31, Clawson 26, Red 
26, Fultz 25, Mediterranean 23, Porter 21, Velvet Chaff 
19, Champion Amber 17. In weight of grain per stroke 
bushel the order was, in pounds: Porter 64, Fultz, Med¬ 
iterranean and Velvet Chaff 63, Red and Landreth 62, 
Champion Amber 61, Clawson 60. The weights of straw 
range, in pounds, as follows : Landreth 803, Mediterra¬ 
nean 730, Red 690, Clawson 680, Champion Amber 590, 
Fultz 580, Porter and Velvet Chaff 560. 
“ Better than Ohio or Indiana.”— 
Mr. John Jelich, one of the subscribers of the American 
Agriculturist , writing us from Howard, Miner County, 
Dakota Territory, regarding some educational matters, 
he being a school officer, says: “I have lived both in 
Ohio and Indiana, and I think this is a better place for 
a poor man than either of those States; the land is as 
good, and the markets nearly as good. One hundred 
and sixty acres of land can be bought here for from six 
hundred dollars to one thousand five hundred dol¬ 
lars. This county had about three hundred souls 
three years ago, but now it is populated so that every 
acre of Government land is taken. The crops are the 
finest I ever saw; corn on sod looks fine, so does flax, 
beans, and everything planted on sod. The wheat, on 
backsetting, I think will go from fifteen to thirty bush¬ 
els per acre, and oats from forty to sixty bushels. 
Westward Ho! 
Every farmer, in fact every person who contem¬ 
plates moving West, should subscribe to the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist for 1884, to get the full and re¬ 
liable information which is to be presented in a 
series of articles regarding the best localities to 
settle in. 
Brizes for Remodelled Ruildings. 
— In the March number of the American Agriculturist 
(page 110), we offered prizes : “For the most convenient 
remodelled dwelling, with clearly drawn plans and full 
statement of details—first prize $50.00; second prize 
$25.00. For the best reconstructed barn — first prize 
$50.00; second prize $25.00.” The awards are as follows: 
For plans of the best remodelled barn; first prize to 
“Adipus”—Arthur A. Wood, Slocumville, • Washington 
Co.,R. I.; second prize to “ Ivanhoe ’’—John Morrison, 
Jr., Oban, Ontario. None of the plans for reconstructed 
houses were adjudged worthy of the first prize. The 
second prize is awarded to “ A Farmers Wife ”—Mrs. 
Gilbert Bush, Jr., South Glens Falls, N. Y. 
Notes on tl»e Crops and markets. 
— A significant remark by a leading commercial journal, 
on September 3d, when speaking of the transactions in 
the great Stock Exchange of the country, indicates the 
important influence of agriculture upon every depart¬ 
ment of business, even upon bonds, railway stocks, etc. 
It says: “ Everybody is now- hanging on the news from 
the Northwest. The next ten days will decide the future. 
One night’s frost will not raise corn, but mischief.” 
Precisely so. With Wheat and Oats secured , and Corn 
also, except in the northern tier of States, we need this 
latter to round out. New England, New York, Michigan, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota, yielded seven per cent of the 
census crop, or nearly one hundred and twenty million 
bushels, and the present year’s area is now far larger in 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and especially in Dakota. In this 
northern belt, frost before September 15th would greatly 
lessen the yield of sound corn, and with the shorter crop 
in Illinois and Indiana bring the entire crop below the 
average. Prices will be considerably affected by a differ¬ 
ence of a hundred million bushels. There is, however, 
a sufficient amount already secured with the heavy old 
stock to prevent any serious scarcity, and high prices 
can hardly be expected for either corn or hog products, 
as the scarcity of hogs is in part made up by the large 
numbers of this year's pigs approaching a fattening age. 
The Wheat crop has now been mainly gathered and 
threshed, without serious detriment from storms. There 
are no positive figures as to the total yield. All sorts of 
“ estimates ” are put forth very positively, but nine out 
of ten of them are made in the interest of speculators. 
The nearest indications of the actual crop are found in 
the prices in the leading markets, especially now, when 
no great “deals” or “corners” are in progress. The 
large dealers make it their business to know the real 
facts. These men would not contract to deliver in Chica¬ 
go wheat at ninety-six and ninety-eight cents per bushel, 
corn at forty-seven and forty-eight cents, oats at twenty- 
five and twenty-six cents, pork at eleven dollars and 
‘twenty-five cents per barrel, and lard at eight cents per 
pound, if they were looking for a short crop and higher 
rates. On the other hand, intelligent dealers would not 
take these contracts if they looked for a further decline. 
The Wheat crop now secured is known to be in fair 
quantity and quality, and future prices, aside from occa¬ 
sional speculative influences, will depend mainly upon 
the foreign demand for our surplus. The real state of 
the European crop cannot yet be known. Directly op¬ 
posite reports are constantly received, dictated by spec¬ 
ulators. There is not a large Wheat yield in other coun¬ 
tries generally, but a deficiency in some localities. The 
apparent prospects are, that at present prices most, if 
not all our surplus, will be taken; but should specula¬ 
tors here, as in past years, put up rates, much less will 
be called for. 
P. S. On account of the time required to print our 
large edition, the October uumber goes to press early in 
September. The day after the above was put in type 
a cold wave was reported in various parts of the West, 
and the frosts which were feared had occurred. The 
accounts of the amount of damage are very conflicting, 
but at the lowest estimate, the losses by frost in some 
northern localities is serious; it remains to be seen if 
they are sufficiently important to sensibly affect prices. 
See the List of Premiums offered in the Supple¬ 
ment. Now is the time to begin the work of 
raising a Club of subscribers for the American 
Agriculturist. We will forward you such specimen 
I copies as you may need. 
