SEEDS, Etc.
Will be mailed FREE to all applicants and to customers of last year without ordering it. It contains illustrations, prices, descriptions and directions for planting all Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Plants, etc. Invaluable to all.
D. M. FERRY & CO. DETROIT, Mich.
J. B. ROOT & CO.'S
Illustr'd Garden Manual of VEGETABLE and FLOWER SEEDS, ready for all applicants. Market Gardeners
SEEDS
a Specialty. Write for Wholesale Price-List, ☞ SENT FREE
ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.
CONSUMPTION.
I have a positive remedy for the above disease; by its use thousands of cases of the worst kind and of long standing have been cured. Indeed, so strong is my faith in its efficacy, that I will send TWO BOTTLES FREE, together with a VALUABLE TREATISE on this disease, to any sufferer. Give Express & P.O. address. DR. T. A. SLOCUM, 181 Pearl St., N.Y.
"THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST."
ENGINES, SAW MILLS, THRESHERS, HORSE POWERS,
(For all sections and purposes.) Write for Free Pamphlet and Prices to The Aultman & Taylor Co., Mansfield, Ohio.
PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.
THE PRAIRIE FARMER is printed and published by The Prairie Farmer Publishing Company, every Saturday, at No. 150 Monroe Street.
Subscription, $2.00 per year, in advance, postage prepaid. Subscribers wishing their addresses changed should give their old as well as new addresses.
Advertising, 25 cents per line on inside pages; 30 cents per line on last page—agate measure; 14 lines to the inch. No less charge than $2.00.
All Communications, Remittances, etc., should be addressed to The Prairie Farmer Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill.
Entered at the Chicago Office as Second-Class Matter.
CHICAGO, JANUARY 26, 1884.
WHEN SUBSCRIPTIONS EXPIRE.
We have several calls for an explanation of the figures following the name of subscribers as printed upon this paper each week. The first two figures indicate the volume, and the last figure or figures the number of the last paper of that volume for which the subscriber has paid: EXAMPLE: John Smith, 56-26. John has paid for THE PRAIRIE FARMER to the first of July of the present year, volume 56. Any subscriber can at once tell when his subscription expires by referring to volume and number as given on first page of the paper.
[Transcriber's Note: Original location of Table of Contents.]
| 1841. | 1884. |
The Prairie Farmer
PROSPECTUS FOR 1884.
SEE INDUCEMENTS OFFERED
SUBSCRIBE NOW.
For forty-three years The Prairie Farmer has stood at the front in agricultural journalism. It has kept pace with the progress and development of the country, holding its steady course through all these forty-three years, encouraging, counseling, and educating its thousands of readers. It has labored earnestly in the interest of all who are engaged in the rural industries of the country, and that it has labored successfully is abundantly shown by the prominence and prestige it has achieved, and the hold it has upon the agricultural classes.
Its managers are conscious from comparison with other journals of its class, and from the uniform testimony of its readers, that it is foremost among the farm and home papers of the country. It will not be permitted to lose this proud position; we shall spare no efforts to maintain its usefulness and make it indispensable to farmers, stock-raisers, feeders, dairymen, horticulturalists, gardeners, and all others engaged in rural pursuits. It will enter upon its forty-fourth year under auspices, in every point of view, more encouraging than ever before in its history. Its mission has always been, and will continue to be—
To discuss the most approved practices in all agricultural and horticultural pursuits.
To set forth the merits of the best breeds of domestic animals, and to elucidate the principles of correct breeding and management.
To further the work of agricultural and horticultural organization.
To advocate industrial education in the correct sense of the term.
To lead the van in the great contest of the people against monopolies and the unjust encroachments of capital.
To discuss the events and questions of the day without fear or favor.
To provide information concerning the public domain, Western soil, climate, water, railroads, schools, churches, and society.
To answer inquiries on all manner of subjects coming within its sphere.
To furnish the latest and most important industrial news at home and abroad.
To give full and reliable crop, weather, and market reports.
To present the family with pure, choice, and interesting literature.
To amuse and instruct the young folks.
To gather and condense the general news of the day.
To be, in brief, an indispensable and unexceptionable farm and home companion for the people of the whole country.
The style and form of the paper are now exactly what they should be. The paper used is of superior quality. The type is bold and clear. The illustrations are superb. The departments are varied and carefully arranged. The editorial force is large and capable. The list of contributors is greatly increased, and embraces a stronger array of talent than is employed on any similar paper in this country. We challenge comparison with any agricultural journal in the land.
The Prairie Farmer is designed for all sections of the country. In entering upon the campaign of 1884, we urge all patrons and friends to continue their good works in extending the circulation of our paper. On our part we promise to leave nothing undone that it is possible for faithful, earnest work—aided by money and every needed mechanical facility—to do to make the paper in every respect still better than it has ever been before.
SPECIAL NOTICE
To each Subscriber who will remit us $2.00 between now and February 1st, 1884, we will mail a copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER for One Year, and one of our New Standard Time Commercial Maps of the United States and Canada—showing all the Counties, Railroads, and Principal Towns up to date. This comprehensive map embraces all the country from the Pacific Coast to Eastern New Brunswick, and as far north as the parallel of 52 deg., crossing Hudson's Bay. British Columbia; Manitoba, with its many new settlements; and the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, completed and under construction, are accurately and distinctly delineated. It extends so far south as to include Key West and more than half of the Republic of Mexico. It is eminently adapted for home, school, and office purposes. The retail price of the Map alone is $2.00. Size, 58 × 41 inches. Scale, about sixty miles to one inch.
READ THIS.
Another Special Offer.
"The Little Detective."
Weighs 1-4 oz. to 25 lbs.
Every housekeeper ought to have this very useful scale. The weight of article bought or sold may readily be known. Required proportions in culinary operations are accurately ascertained. We have furnished hundreds of them to subscribers, and they give entire satisfaction. During January, 1884, to any person sending us THREE SUBSCRIBERS, at $2.00 each, we will give one of these scales, and to each of the three subscribers Ropp's Calculator, No. 1.
OUR PREMIUM LIST.
Revised, extended, and properly illustrated will this week be sent to every subscriber. There must be something offered in it that every one needs or would like to have. The terms are the most liberal ever offered. All readers are hereby constituted agents to solicit subscriptions to The Prairie Farmer. If those who can not enlist in the work will hand the Premium List to some person who will do so, they will confer a great favor upon the publishers and editors. What we all want is to double our present list before the first day of April.
RENEW! RENEW!!
Remember that every yearly subscriber, either new or renewing, sending us $2, receives a splendid new map of the United States and Canada—58×41 inches—FREE. Or, if preferred, one of the books offered in another column. It is not necessary to wait until a subscription expires before renewing.
WE WANT AGENTS
in every locality. We offer very liberal terms and good pay. Send for sample copies and terms to agents.
The Adams County (Ill.) Fair at Camp Point will be held the first week in September. The premium list is out.
The seventh annual fair at Jerseyville, Ill., will be held commencing Tuesday, October 14, 1884, and continue four days, with $5,000 premiums.
At the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society's trials, November 11, 1883, the Johnston Harvester Company were 1st in the trial field, and also for the machine best adapted for the colony.
The growth of the Western live stock business has stimulated parties to organize a Union Stock Yards Company at Sioux City, Iowa. The company has a capital of $100,000. The shipping of dressed beef may become a branch of its business.
One of the most popular and instructive essays at the late Wisconsin Dairymen's Convention was entitled "The Farmer's Garden," contributed by J. M. Smith, Esq., of Green Bay. This essay will appear, in full, in the next issue of the Prairie Farmer.
French papers declare that the Government crop reports for 1883 are exaggerations. If land has risen in value and stock doubled in price, the extra cost of running a farm more than makes up for it. The impost duty on all agricultural products has also alarmingly increased.
Mr. Merritt, United States Consul General at London, directs attention to the falling off in the value of exports from Great Britain to the United States during the fiscal year ended September 30, 1883. The total value of declared exports from the various United States consular districts in Great Britain and Ireland during the year was $165,207,987, a reduction from the figures for the preceding year of $14,231,858.
Mr. Calkins, member of Congress from Indiana, succeeded on Monday in getting a suspension of the rules and the passage of a bill providing that in any suit against an innocent purchaser of an article manufactured in violation of the patent law, if the plaintiff shall not recover twenty dollars or over, he shall recover no costs. This bill is a blow aimed at the drive-well patent agents, and others of that ilk who are perambulating the country to the annoyance of farmers. If the bill passes the Senate, and there appears no valid reason why it shall not, it will put an end to this species of robbery now so prevalent.
The only general advices we have regarding winter wheat come through the extensive grain commission house of W. T. Baker & Co., Chicago. They have private reports which indicate that the crop maintains a very high average, and, with the exception of a few points in Southern Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, is doing as well as could be expected at this season of the year. In Kentucky and Tennessee the ground is quite bare of snow, but north of the Ohio river, from Kansas to Ohio, the wheat, as a general thing, is well covered. The crop, however, was generally sown late, and in many quarters fears are entertained of the final outcome.
The Nebraska State Farmers' Alliance held a meeting at Kearney on Wednesday of last week. A platform was adopted declaring in favor of national legislation to regulate railway traffic, demanding the abolition of national banks and the substitution of Government currency, demanding a tariff for revenue only, expressing sympathy with labor, asking protection to labor organizations, recommending the abolition of convict labor, asking Congress to reclaim all unclaimed land grants and reserve the public domain for actual settlers, and opposing the acquisition of public land by foreigners.
Do not forget that the Annual Farmers' Institute, or Agricultural Lecture Course, at the Illinois Industrial University will be held from Tuesday, January 29th, to Friday, February 1, 1884. Four lectures will be given each day, at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., by Dr. Peabody, Regent of the University, Professors Burrill, Jillson, McMurtrie, Morrow and others. The topics discussed will be: Soils—Their Origin, Physical Characteristics, Chemical Composition, Drainage, Cultivation, Fertilization; Plants—Their Structure, Growth, Nutrition, Seeds, Movement of Sap, Development and Distribution, Economic Products. Addresses will be given in the evenings by Dr. Peabody, Governor Hamilton and others. These lectures and addresses are given as a part of the work of the College of Agriculture of the University. No fees or examinations are required. All interested are cordially invited to attend.
THE COST OF COLD WINDS.
Prof. Shelton, of the Kansas Agricultural College, puts the question of sheltering stock in an exceedingly pointed manner. He has lately been feeding ten steers in an experimental way. He found that for the period of ten days ending December 29, the average gain per head was thirty-one and one-tenth pounds. The weather was warm and sunny. The steers were fed in an unbattened board shed. During the succeeding ten days, when the cold was intense almost the entire time, the same steers, fed on the same rations, and in the same shed, gained but six and six-tenths pounds per head. About a year ago the Professor fed a lot of pigs for three weeks of the coldest weather, in open yards, and found them to consume more than three times the amount of food to pound of increase than the same number of pigs in the warm basement of the barn. He has a cow kept in a bleak "Kansas barn" which shrinks in her milk from one-fourth to one-half after twenty-four hours of very severe weather. From all this the conclusion is what we have so often taught in these columns, though not as forcibly as the Professor teaches by his careful experiments, that you can not burn feed as fuel to support the body of an animal and at the same time have the animal stow it away in the form of muscle and fat. The fact is that our farmers throw away one-half their feed in furnishing animal heat that they might just as well save by paying a small lumber bill and expending a moderate amount of labor.
GOOD WORK AT WASHINGTON.
Surely the House of Representatives is getting down to solid work since the holiday vacation. Mr. Holman, for instance, found no great difficulty in getting a resolution passed declaring that in the judgment of the House all public lands heretofore granted to States and corporations in aid of the construction of railroads, so far as the same is subject to forfeiture by reason of the nonfulfillment of the conditions on which the grants were made, ought to be declared forfeited by the United States, and restored to the public domain.
This was good work, but Mr. Holman's second resolution, also passed, was fully as much in accordance with public feeling and desire. It is to the effect that our laws relating to public lands should be so framed and administered as to ultimately secure freeholds to the greatest number of citizens, and to this end all laws facilitating speculation in public lands authorizing or permitting entry or purchase in large bodies ought to be repealed, and all public lands adapted to agriculture, subject to bounty grants, and those in aid of education ought to be reserved for the benefit of actual and bona fide settlers, and disposed of only under the provisions of the homestead law.
There was some opposition to this resolution. Mr. Kasson feared such a law might work injury to the cattle industry. Mr. Bedford, however, neutralized Mr. Kasson's influence by declaring that he did not propose that four or five cattle kings should own the West as four or five railway kings own the East.
It may be that our readers would like to take down the names of members who voted against the resolutions. Here they are: Barksdale, Bingham, Bisbee, George, Horr, Kean, Libbey, Lyman, Morse, Muldrow, Poland, Ranney, Reed, Rice, Russell, Stone, Van Eaton, Whiting.
Now that the representatives have resolved that these things ought to be done let us see if they will stand up to the rack and attend to their part of the doing.
WISCONSIN MEETINGS.
Feb. 5 and 6—The State Horticultural Society in Senate Chamber, Madison.
Feb. 5—The Wisconsin Cane-Growers Association, Madison. Prof. Wiley of the Department of Agriculture will be present.
Feb. 6, 7, and 8—Farmers' State Convention, under the auspices of the State Society, at capitol.
Feb. 13 and 14—16th annual meeting of the Southern Wisconsin Cane-Growers' and Manufacturers' Association at Whitewater.
Feb. 6—The Wisconsin Swine Breeders will hold a meeting at the capitol, for the transaction of such business as may come before them and the discussion of subjects appertaining to successful breeding and feeding of swine. All interested in this subject are invited to attend.
Answers to Correspondents.
J. C. McConaughy, Rochelle, Ill.—1. How can I secure a blue-grass pasture? 2. How much seed to acre? 3. Can blue-grass be grown successfully mixed with other grasses? 4. What season and what soil is best adapted to secure a good catch? 5. Can it be grown on low, wet land?
Answer.—1. There are almost as many ways to obtain a blue-grass pasture as there are men who undertake the job, though essentially the practices are alike. The usual method is to sow the seed in the spring or fall, either alone or with clover or timothy. 2. The seed is very light and chaffy, and weighs only fourteen pounds to the bushel, and the amount sown varies from five to seven pounds to the acre. 3. Yes, though after a few years blue-grass, on a true blue-grass soil, roots every other grass out and reigns with a divided empire with white clover. 4. Any good corn or wheat soil will produce good blue-grass—the usual method of obtaining a blue-grass pasture is as follows: To one bushel of good timothy seed one quart of red clover is added, and this quantity is made to cover from five to six acres. The seeding may be done in the fall with fall grain, in the spring with oats, or on stubble or wheat land on the snow in February. After, in the month of August from a peck to a half bushel of blue-grass is sown upon the young timothy and clover. But little or nothing can be seen of the blue-grass for the first year and it does not show vigorously until the third year. Thereafter if the soil is a true blue-grass one and the land is pastured, blue-grass and white clover dominate to the exclusion of everything else. Perhaps the surest way to obtain a stand of timothy and thereafter a set of blue-grass, is to prepare the land carefully and sow rye in October. On this sow timothy and red clover as above on the snow in February or March; pasture the rye, but not too closely, to 15th of May. Harvest the rye at the usual time, and the yield will be all the better for the pasturing, and sow the blue-grass seed on the stubble in August. 5. No, but red top will in spite of your best efforts to the contrary unless you till and thoroughly break up the land.
John Zimmerman, Cameron, Mo.—1. Has setting trees on a fence line as posts for barb-wire been a success? 2. If so what kind of tree is the best? 3. Will the hardy catalpa do, if so what distance apart?
Answer.—1. Barb-wire has not been introduced and used long enough for trees set for the purpose of posts to grow to a sufficient size. But in many cases aged Osage orange hedges, which have been suffered to grow up, have been thinned out so as to leave a tree every ten, twelve, or fifteen feet, and on these barbed-wires have been strung and made a fence, which so far has proved satisfactory. The same success was obtained where fruit and shade trees standing in a line have had barbed-wire attached to them. But the precaution must be taken to nail a strip—a common fence picket will answer—to the tree and then the barb-wire to that. If this is not done, and the wire is fastened by a staple to the tree, the wood soon overgrows, cracks and increases the strain on the wire, damages the tree and spoils the fence. 2. Almost any fast growing tree will do, but hard wood varieties are preferable. 3. The hardy catalpa may do, but for low land we would just as soon have the common willow. Eight feet apart is a good distance. The wires may be fastened to these when they have acquired a diameter of four or five inches, and later every other post may be removed. For high and dry land in your latitude one Osage orange is worth a half-dozen catalpas, because it is just as easily grown—and when grown it furnishes the strongest and most lasting timber known. We may add here, that where a fence is wanted across sloughs, or through permanently wet or moist land, posts large enough for barbed-wire may be grown in a couple of years or so—this by cutting stakes six or seven feet long and from three to five inches in diameter from the common willow, and setting them in March. The stakes require attention the first summer, in case of dry weather or drouth, but nothing more than that the moist earth shall be pressed up against them to prevent the young roots from drying out.
M. D. Vincent, Springfield, Mo.—1. Can you tell me how badly oranges were frosted during the late cold spell in Florida? 2. Is there a record of colder weather at Charleston, S. C., Savannah, Ga., if so when was it?
Answer.—1. It is hard getting at the facts. One report is that neither oranges nor the trees were injured at Palatka, fifty miles south of Jacksonville, while another just as credible says the fruit was badly frozen on the trees as far south as Enterprise, 100 miles south of Jacksonville. The probabilities are, that there was a good deal of damage done to fruit on the trees, but no permanent or serious injury to the orchards. 2. The mercury may not have been lower for 100 years at Charleston or Savannah than the late cold spell, but during the winter of 1834-35 the weather was so severe the orange trees were killed to the ground 100 miles south of Jacksonville. Snow to a foot in depth fell at Millidgeville, Ga., Lat. 33, and several inches over all northern Florida. Some apprehensions are felt that these southern sections are not safe from severe frosts for this winter and the next, since it is pretty well known that these extreme cold periods return about every half-century—the winters of near fifty and one hundred years ago having been made remarkable by terribly severe and protracted cold.
J. H. J. Watertown, Wis.—Give us the best remedy for chillblains?
Answer.—Tincture of iodine painted over the parts; or 10 grains of salicylic acid extended in an ounce of half water and half alcohol. Both to be applied with great caution, and largely diluted where the skin is broken and ulcers have formed.
Charles C. Peters, Olney, Ill.—If you were about to plant an orchard on levelish, but at the same time naturally well drained land, would you advise throwing up ridges as the common custom is in some sections?
Answer.—It might be advantageous to throw up ridges so as to secure permanent moisture; but the trees should be set in the depression between them instead of on the ridges.
Thoroughbred, Lexington, Ky.—There is a belief or an opinion current among a class of breeders, always ready to accept and experiment with new fangled notions, that the draft breeds imported from abroad, especially the high priced French horses, are fed from birth on a more or less regular ration of bone or flesh meal. This they claim is for the purpose of developing bone and muscle. What do you know of the facts?
Answer.—Not much. Some of the foreign journals contain accounts of experiments in feeding soluble phosphates of lime, but no two agree on results, except that when the salt is judicially fed, no harm is done. The subject is worthy of investigation and especially by Kentucky breeders, since it would establish the claim that their soil, being especially rich in the phosphates and nitrogen, produces grain, hay, and forage of superior strength for feeding purposes, which appear again, in their high bred stock of horses, sheep, and cattle.
The fourth National Agricultural Convention, under the auspices of the American Agricultural Association, will be held at the Grand Central Hotel, New York City, Wednesday and Thursday, February 6th and 7th, 1884. Addresses will be delivered and papers read by leading thinkers and writers on topics of general interest, and all identified with agriculture and kindred pursuits are cordially invited to be present and participate in the proceedings. Delegates will be present from all sections of the country, and arrangements for reduced rates of fare are being made with the railroads leading into New York. The annual meeting for the election of officers and the transaction of other business, including the matter of a national agricultural fair, will be held at 12 M. of the first day of the Convention.
Wayside Notes.
BY A MAN OF THE PRAIRIE.
I notice that Mr. Sanders, of the Treasury Cattle Commission, thinks it beneath the dignity of Congress to adopt retaliatory measures against France and Germany for prohibiting American pork products from entering those countries. He thinks it a far better scheme to appoint a small army of inspectors to examine all the pork before it is shipped from this country. This might be more dignified, and after a time effectual, but how shall we make France and Germany stop shipping their poisoned goods to this country? Will they be equally "dignified" and appoint inspectors on their side that will be satisfactory to our people. Probably they would after a few months of prohibition; never before. Dignity is a good thing, but protection to the health and wealth of the people is better. Besides, Government inspectors are expensive luxuries, and by no means always efficient. A fat Government appointment is a nice thing—for the appointee, as Mr. Sanders is aware, but it is not profitable to the tax-payers of the country to multiply them too extensively. In my opinion the easiest way out of the muddle is to strike back and to hit where it will hurt worst.
Clinton Babbitt, Secretary of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, is reported to have said at the late meeting of the State Dairymen's Association that he had a very poor opinion of editors. In fact, that he held them in about the same esteem as Ben Butler does. Now I don't suppose it makes an iota of difference to any editor under the sun what Butler or Babbitt think of him; what Ben and Clint need to look out for is what the editors think of them. Big Ben got an inkling of this a few weeks ago; Little Clint's turn may come next.
For some time I have been noticing the advanced style of writing in the two or three "Down East" agricultural papers that come under my notice. They bear evidences of "culcha" that are truly encouraging, but here is a case that is actually exhilarating, or would be were it not somewhat bewildering. It is from an article about the Jersey Lily, Mrs. Langtry: "Who ever vocalized such a word with a more complex intonation, or with a more marvellously intimate union with a more inextricably intertwined relationship to the most exquisite sensibilities that accompany and mark the infinite flights and reachings of the soul, as within its human casement it burns with fire divine?" Now, I call that decidedly fine, and were I the owner of a whole herd of Jerseys I should endeavor to engage this genius to write them up for me. At any rate I think he should be brought West to help on the Jersey boom.
I sent the editors of The Prairie Farmer, the other day, from Springfield, where I was paying a flying visit to the agricultural rooms, a copy of the Reynolds argument for a change in the awarding of sweepstakes prizes on cattle. Mr. R. applied it to the Fat Stock Show alone, and I believe the State Board adopted the suggestions. But for the life of me I can not see why the principle is not equally applicable to the State Fair premiums, and indeed to similar exhibits at all our fairs. Next year I hope the State Board will extend the innovation to the State Fair, and from this it may be it will extend to similar organizations of lesser magnitude.
I notice that the National Academy of Sciences have decided that glucose is not injurious to health. Well, this is good news, at any rate, but it does not follow that manufacturers and merchants have the right to mix it with cane sugar or sell it to us for genuine cane sirups, or real honey, or pure sugar candy, or in any of the other ways in which we are made to pay two or three times what it is really worth. It does not do away with the great need of a rigorous food adulteration act, though there is great satisfaction in knowing that when we eat it we are not taking in a mild death-dealing potion. But, come to think of it, there are other great scientists in the country besides those composing the National Academy. Some of them have decided in a contrary manner. Is it not best to have the question decided by a majority vote of reputable chemists, and then stick to the good old things, whichever way the decision may be? On principle I don't object to suine, oleo, or any of the objectionable articles. All I want is to know when I am buying, and paying for them in real genuine dollars. Bogus dollars are every whit as respectable as bogus butter or bogus honey, though the law makes it a little unhealthy to use them with any degree of liberality.
Letter from Champaign.
A light rain yesterday (the 18th) was the first for five weeks, and the first sign of a January thaw we have had. But it began to snow at dark, continued lightly all night, and has been snowing, blowing, and drifting to-day up to this hour, 2 P. M. Coming soft at first, that part of it will lay where it fell, and the uncovered portion of the wheat has got a new blanket, which we hope will out-last January. We have had but one so long uninterrupted spell of sleighing for these many years, and that was in the winter of '78-'79. With the exception of the few very cold days before and after the 5th, the month has been quite favorable for stock and all the labors of the farm.
The damage done by the cold wave of January 4th to 7th is believed to be greater than first reported. Growers tell me that Snyder blackberries are killed down to the frost line, which proves it is not iron-clad, as some believe. Accounts from the Cobden fruit region are of the gloomiest character, everything being given up for lost but the strawberries. The Fruit-Grower says they will have to rely on them and their truck patches this year, and advises an extension of early potatoes, tomatoes, and Japan melons. According to local records at Anna, there has been nothing like it since the first week in January, 1864; and the estimate of the damage done in '84 is computed from what followed in '64, rather than from what is absolutely known. Let us hope that they are mistaken, and that the Cobden fruit region will sustain its well-earned character as the source of a perennial fruit supply.
It appears the cold wave did not reach its minimum in Central Florida, lat. 27, till the night of the 9th, ice having been found on the morning of the 10th, near Enterprise, three-fourths of an inch thick. Oranges on the trees were frozen through, and the leaves killed so they will drop. But though here and there a branch may be frosted and will die and have to be removed, little permanent damage to the groves has probably resulted. Central Florida is distant, as the crow flies, from Central Illinois, about one thousand miles. Suppose the cold wave moved steadily southwest, it follows, then, its rate of speed was not far from 200 miles every twenty-four hours. It is easy to comprehend how a complete signal service might warn of the approach of cold waves in time to take every necessary precaution to meet and disarm them.
But as much of a stinger as the late cold turn was, it was a mere cool breeze compared with that which fell on Florida and the entire Southwest in the winter of 1834-35. Then snow covered all Northern Florida, and in Central Georgia it lay on the ground some days, a foot deep. The young orange trees were all killed to the ground, and few of the aged trees escaped without the loss of most of their branches. But they soon recovered—sprouting from the roots and stumps with great vigor, as they will again do after the late freeze. And this is one of the strong points of the orange. It will sprout from the stump or root when the trunk is removed, as surely as the young hickory or chestnut, and when transplanted young and trees of considerable size, will bear mutilation with about as much indifference as the Osage orange or soft maple.
Those who expect Congress to do anything that will hurt German and French importers, by way of retaliation for prohibiting pork and pork products, will be pretty sure to be disappointed. Senator Williams is responsible for the statement that the reason why agriculture is treated with so much contempt, is it sustains no lobby. But you may be sure the importers will not fail in that respect, as millions will be spent to prevent legislation which will seriously interfere with the enormous profits of the foreign importing houses in New York. Perhaps Senator Williams will inform us what it will cost to keep up a well appointed lobby in Washington, and how much the average one-horse lawyers in Congress expect, in money down, in the way of a retainer. Huntington could tell, and so could Jay Gould; but both are silenced for the present, and Villard too.
"Put your thumb down there." That the trees on low lands which bore big crops in 1874-75, are just the trees which bore crops equally in '83, and the very trees also which have made the most vigorous growth both previously and last year. The whole matter is a question of nutrition.
REMEMBER that $2.00 pays for The Prairie Farmer from this date to January 1, 1885; For $2.00 you get it for one year and a copy of The Prairie Farmer County Map of the United States, free! This is the most liberal offer ever made by any first-class weekly agricultural paper in this country.
Poultry-Raisers. Write for Your Paper.
Chicken Chat.
Somebody says that "Plymouth Rock pullets are not always early layers, for they often grow for ten or twelve months before laying, though some lay as early as six months after hatching."
Well that's news to us, and we have kept Plymouth Rocks quite a while, too. We have had Rock pullets commence laying at six months, and once we had a few that didn't do a thing toward earning their own living till they were almost eight months old; but seven months is nearer the average, and that is what we count on when selecting the pullets that are to be kept for winter layers. The pullets that are hatched from the first of March up to the first of May, commence laying all along from the middle of September to the first of December. Pullets that we want to commence laying in February, are selected from those hatched in July. It would really be very gratifying to me if the people who know no more about the Plymouth Rocks than they do about the fate of Charlie Ross, would keep their twaddle out of print.
One of my correspondents is very anxious to know if the Langshans are the "coming fowls." Hardly. Fanciers who have tried them pronounce them the "best birds that were ever imported from China," which is pretty high praise, but all the same they are not popular with farmers. They will never hold the place that the Plymouth Rocks hold. Since you wish to buy fowls of the breeds for which there will be the greatest demand next season, I should advise you get Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes. These, in addition to the Light Brahmas and Brown Leghorns that you already have, will give you the four breeds that are the most popular, and if you have good stock, and let people know that you have eggs to sell for hatching, you will probably have orders for all the eggs that you will care to sell.
Another correspondent wants to know the meaning of the word "strain," as applied to fowls, and I don't wonder that he asks the question, for the word is used "promiscuous like" by every tyro in poultry breeding.
When any poultry-raiser has bred fowls of any breed long enough to fix his notion of what constitutes a standard fowl of that breed upon them permanently, he may claim a "strain." For instance: Smith believes that the Light Brahmas should have very short legs, and he breeds for short legs until they are permanently fixed, and everybody who knows anything about Light Brahmas knows one of Smith's short-legged Brahmas at sight; then, but not before, Smith may claim a strain of his own, and it is proper for others to speak of "Smith's strain" of Light Brahmas. But Johnson, who buys of Smith, or of some one who has Light Brahmas of Smith's strain, this year, should not next year talk about "my own strain" of Light Brahmas. It takes years of steady, judicious breeding after a certain type to establish what may truthfully be called a strain, and it can only be done by breeders of rare skill and long experience in mating fowls for breeding.
Fanny Field.
Chicken Houses.
I often read inquiries about the best plan for building hen houses. My plan is, for 100 fowls, to build a house for them to roost in, eight or even ten feet wide and sixteen feet long, one story high with tight floor of yellow pine flooring. I prefer a tight floor because it is easily cleaned out, and every time it is cleaned out and swept the floor should be well covered with slaked lime; one cleaning a week is often enough.
A building of the same size should be built with a dirt floor, or close one, as preferred, about ten or fifteen feet from the roosting house for the hens to lay and sit in. A petition may be made of laths dividing the house into two compartments, the front arranged for the laying hens and the back compartments for sitting hens; then the laying hens will not disturb the sitting hens. A closed passway should be made, say one and one half or two feet square leading from the roosting house to the laying house with a sliding door at each end to be used at pleasure. As it often happens in cold, snowy weather in winter it is not desirable to let the fowls out, then the slides at each end of the passway can be opened and feed and water placed in the laying house (because the floor in that house will always be cleanest), and all the fowls will soon learn to go in there to eat and drink, and lay if they want to. It is, I think, bad policy to force fowls to roost, lay, and sit all in the same room.
The boxes that contain the nests should be made so that they can be at any time taken out and the nests turned out in a pile, set on fire and the boxes held over the fire to kill any lice that may be sticking to them.
B. F. C.
Hike's Point, Ky.
A person signing himself a "Nobleman's Gardener," says in an English paper that it is a mistake to use poultry manure as a top-dressing for garden crops; for farm crops also, if the poultry and pigeon dung were in any considerable bulk. This, however, is not usually the case, and a hundred weight or two would not make much of an impression on a farm. The manure in question is a powerful fertilizer, containing ammonia, phosphates, and carbonate of lime in considerable quantity, also uric acid, all of which are valuable ingredients for the support of crops. The simplest method of preparing the manure for use is to partially dry it, then mix it with perfectly dry sifted soil or ashes in sufficient quantity that will enable the entire mixture to be rubbed through a half-inch sieve. A man can do this comfortably with the hand inclosed in a thick leather glove. In this finely powdered state it can be stored in a dry shed till wanted for use. It is an excellent top-dressing for onions, strawberries, and, in fact, for all vegetable crops that need assistance, also for fruit trees and lawns. It is best applied in showery weather in the spring—for lawns at the rate of two ounces, vegetable crops and strawberries three ounces, and fruit trees four ounces per square yard. If in very large bulk and needed for use in fields it would scarcely be necessary to pulverize it, as mixing it with dry soil, etc., and turning the heap over a few times would suffice for its ready application.
The strength of the donkey mind lies in adopting a course inversely as the arguments urged, which, well considered, requires as great a mental force as the direct sequence.