Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

If it pays to expend so much labor and money in preparing these reports and sending them half way to the people, would it not be wise to expend a little more and complete the journey, by making it the duty of the assessor to leave a copy on every farmer's table? Compulsory education.

As an explanation of much of the above, it must be remembered that we are nearly all recently from the East, that we have brought with us our Eastern experience, education, literature, and household gods; and that not until we have tried things in our old Eastern ways and failed, do we realize that we exist under a new and different state of things and slowly begin to open our eyes to the existence of Western agricultural reports and papers giving us the conditions on which the best results have been obtained.

There will be more grass seed planted this spring than ever before, and the farmers will be guided by the conditions on which the best successes seem to have been obtained. But this seeding will not give us much grass for this coming summer. What must we do? I write for our Western farmers who have no clover, orchard grass, blue grass, but have in their cultivated fields.

CRAB GRASS.

This grass, the most troublesome weed of the West, smothering our gardens and converting our growing corn-fields into dense meadows, makes the best hog pasture in the world, while it lasts. Put hogs into a pasture containing all the tame grasses, with one corner in crab grass, and the last named grass will all be consumed before the other grasses are touched.

Not only do they prefer it to any other grass, but on no grass will they thrive and fatten so well. Last spring I fenced twelve acres of old stalk ground well seeded to crab grass. With the first of June the field was green, and from then until frost pastured sixty large hogs, which, with one ear of corn each, morning and evening, became thoroughly fat. These were the finest and cheapest hogs I ever grew.

This grass is in its glory from June till frosts. By sowing the ground early in oats, this will pasture the hogs until June, when the crab grass will occupy all the ground, and carry them through in splendid condition, and fat them, with an ear or corn morning and evening. A. D. LEE. CENTERVILLE, KAN.

NOTE.--Many of our readers may be unfamiliar with the variety of grass spoken of by our correspondent. It is known as crop grass, crab grass, wire grass, and crow's foot (_Eleusine Indica_). Flint describes it as follows: Stems ascending, flattened, branching at the base; spikes, two to five, greenish. It is an annual and flowers through the season, growing from eight to fifteen inches high, and forming a fine green carpeting in lawns and yards. It is indigenous in Mississippi, Alabama, and adjoining States, and serves for hay, grazing, and turning under as a fertilizer. It grows there with such luxuriance, in many sections, as never to require sowing, and yields a good crop where many of the more Northern grasses would fail.--[ED. P. F.]

A Stock Farm and Ranch.

Some years ago Prof. J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville, Ill., whom almost every reader of THE PRAIRIE FARMER in days gone by knows, personally, or by his writings, in company with one of his sons conceived the idea of running an Illinois stock farm in connection with a ranch in Texas. The young animals were to be reared on the cheap lands in the latter State where care and attention amount to a trifle, and to ship them North to finish them off for market on the blue grass and corn of the Illinois farm. To carry out this purpose they purchased nearly 10,000 acres in Coleman county, Texas, and they converted 1,000 acres in a body in Montgomery county, Illinois, into a home stock farm. Unfortunately, just as all things were in readiness for extensive operations, the son died, leaving the business to Prof. Turner, now nearly an octogenarian and entirely unable to bear the burden thus forced upon him. As a consequence, he desires to sell these large and desirable possessions, separate or together, as purchasers may offer.

The Illinois farm is well fenced and in a high state of cultivation. There are growing upon it more than 2,000 large evergreens, giving at once protection to stock and beauty to the landscape. There are also 1,500 bearing fruit trees, a vineyard, and a large quantity of raspberries, blackberries, currants, etc.

Besides a good farm-house, there is a large barn, in which there are often fed at one time 150 head of horses, with plenty of room for each animal; and an abundance of storage room in proportion for grain and hay. Also a large sheep shed, the feeding capacity of which is 3,000 head. Also a large hog house, conveniently divided into pens with bins for grain. Other numerous out-buildings, granary, hay sheds, stock and hay scales, etc., etc. There are on the farm twelve miles of Osage orange hedge, the best kind of fence in the world, in perfect trim and full growth; and four miles of good rail fence, dividing the farm off into conveniently sized fields of forty, eighty and one hundred and sixty acres each, access to which is easily obtained by means of gates which open from each field into a private central road belonging to the farm, and directly connected with the stock yards near the house, so that it is not necessary to pass over other fields in the handling of stock. Stockmen will appreciate this arrangement. Owing to its special advantages for handling stock, it has become widely known as a "Model Stock Farm." The lands are all naturally well drained; no flat or wet land, and by means of natural branches, which run through every eighty acres, the whole farm is conveniently and easily watered, by an unfailing supply. There are besides three large wind mills, with connecting troughs for watering the stock yards and remotest field. This supply of stock water has never failed. It is therefore specially adapted for all kinds of stock raising, and is well stocked. It has on it a fine drove of Hereford cattle and Norman horses, and is otherwise fully equipped with all the recent improvements in farming implements. This farm is only about fifty miles from St. Louis, Mo., two miles from a railroad station, and six miles from Litchfield, Illinois. Besides its location commercially, and its advantages for handling stock, this farm is in one of the best wheat and fruit producing sections of Illinois, and has now on it 200 acres of fine wheat.

The ranch in Texas consists of one body of 9,136 acres of choice land. By means of an unfailing supply of living water the whole ranch is well watered, and has besides a very large cistern. The soil is covered with the Curly Mesquite grass, the richest and most nutritious native stock grass known in Texas. There is also on the ranch a splendid growth of live oak trees, the leaves of which remain green the year round, furnishing shade in summer, and an ample protection for stock in winter.

There is on the ranch a large well built stone house, and also a fine sheep shed, with bins for 5,000 bushels of grain. This shed is covered with Florida Cypress shingles and affords protection for 2,000 head of sheep, and can be used just as well for other kinds of stock. Here can be bred and raised to maturity at a mere nominal cost, all kinds of cattle, horses, mules, and other stock, no feed in winter being required beyond the natural supply of grass. After the stock reaches maturity they can be shipped to the Illinois Farm; and while all the cattle easily fatten in Texas enough for the market, still as they are generally shipped to St. Louis or Chicago, it costs but little more, and greatly increases the profits, to first ship them to the Illinois Farm, and put them in prime condition, besides being near the markets, and placing the owner in position to take advantage of desirable prices at any time. With horses and mules this is a special advantage readily apparent to every one.

It will be seen at once that any individual with capital, or a stock company, or partnership of two or more men, could run this farm and ranch together at a great profit. All the improvements on both being made solely for convenience and profit and not anything expended for useless show.

I do not write this communication from any selfish motive, for I have not a penny's worth of interest in either farm or ranch, but I want to let people who are looking for stock farms know that here is one at hand such as is seldom found, and at the same time to do my life-long friend and yours a slight favor in return for the great and lasting benefits he has, in the past, so freely conferred upon the farmers of the State and country.

I know these lands can be bought far below their real value, and the purchaser will secure a rare bargain. I presume the Professor will be glad to correspond with parties, giving full particulars as to terms.

SUBSCRIBER. MONTGOMERY CO., ILL.

Western Wool-Growers.

The Western wool-growers, in convention at Denver, Colorado, March 13th, unanimously adopted the following memorial to Congress:

Whereas, The wool-growers of Colorado, Kansas, Utah,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho, New Mexico, and Minnesota,
assembled in convention in the city of Denver, the 13th of
March, 1884, representing 7,500,000 head of sheep,
$50,000,000 invested capital, and an annual yield of
35,000,000 pounds of wool, and

Whereas, Said Industry having been greatly injured by the
reduction of the tariff bill of May, 1883, and being
threatened with total destruction by the reduction of 20
per cent, as proposed by the Morrison tariff bill just
reported to the House of Representatives by the Committee
on Ways and Means; therefore

Resolved, That we, the wool-growers in convention
assembled, are opposed to the provisions of the Morrison
bill now before Congress which aim to make a further
reduction of 20 per cent on foreign wools and woolens, and
that we ask a restoration of the tariff of 1867 in its
entirety as relates to wools and woolens, by which, for the
first time in the industrial history of the country,
equitable relations were established between the duties on
wool and those on woolen goods.

Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to work for and to aid
in the restoration of the tariff of 1867 on wools and
woolens, and request all persons engaged or interested in
the wool-growing industry to co-operate with us.

Resolved, That we as wool-growers and citizens pledge
ourselves to stand by all committees and associations in
giving full and complete protection to all American
industries in need of the same, and cordially invite their
co-operation in this matter.

The memorial concludes with an appeal to Western Senators and Representatives in Congress to do all in their power to restore the tariff of 1867.

The Cattle Disease Near Effingham.

Saturday, March 15, I visited the herds of Messrs. Du Brouck, Schooley and Fannce northeast of Effingham, Illinois, and carefully examined them with Mr. F. F. Hunt, of the university, as they were reported affected with foot-and-mouth disease. In each herd diseased cattle were found; about 20 distinctly marked cases, a few others having symptoms. The disease is unlike anything I have known, but does not resemble foot-and-mouth disease as described by any authority. Only the hind feet are affected, and these without ulceration. In most cases "scouring" was first noticed, followed by swelling above the hoofs. In the most severe cases, the skin cracked about the pastern joint or at the coronet. In four cases one foot had come off. Swelling of pastern and "scouring" were the only symptoms in several cases. The mouth and udders were healthful; appetites good. In one case there was slight vesicle on nostril and slight inflammation of gum. Some animals in contact with diseased ones for weeks remained healthful. Others were attacked after five weeks' isolation. The most marked cases were of eight to ten weeks standing. But one animal had died.

What we saw is not foot and mouth disease as known abroad, nor is the contagious character of the disease proven from the cases in these herds.

G. E. MORROW, UNIVERSITY, CHAMPAIGN, ILL.

Dairymen, Write for Your Paper.

Camembert Cheese.

The Camembert is one of the variety of French cheeses that find ready sale in England at high prices. Mr. Jenkins describes the process of making this cheese in a late number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England which information we find condensed in the Dublin Farmer's Gazette:

The cows are milked three times a day, at 4.30 and 11.30 a. m., and at 6 p. m. In most dairies the evening's milk is highly skimmed in the morning, butter being made from the cream, and the milk divided into two portions one of which is added to the morning's and the other to the midday's milking. The mixture is immediately put into earthen vessels holding twelve to fifteen gallons each, and after it has been raised to the temperature of about 86 deg. Fahr., a sufficient quantity of rennet is added to make the curd fit to be transferred to the cheese moulds in three or four hours, or, perhaps, a longer interval in winter. The mixture of the rennet with the milk is insured by gentle stirring, and the pots are then covered with a square board. The curd is ready for removal when it does not adhere to the back of the finger placed gently upon it, and when the liquid that runs from the fingers is as nearly as possible colorless. The curd is transferred, without breaking it more than can be avoided, to perforated moulds four inches in diameter. The moulds are placed on reed mats resting on slightly inclined slabs, made of slate, cement, or other hard material, and having a gutter near the outer edge. The curd remains in the moulds twenty-four or even forty-eight hours, according to the season, being turned upside down after twelve or twenty-four hours; that is, when sufficiently drained at the bottom. After turning the face of the cheese, the inside of the mould is sprinkled with salt, and twelve hours afterward the opposite face and the rim of the cheeses are treated in the same way. The cheeses are then placed on movable shelves round the walls of the dairy for a day or two, after which the curing process commences by the cheeses being transferred to the "drying-room," and there placed on shelves made of narrow strips of wood with narrow intervals between them, or of ordinary planks with reed mats or clean rye straw. Here the greatest ingenuity is exerted to secure as dry an atmosphere and as equable a temperature as possible--the windows being numerous and small, and fitted with glass, to exclude air, but not light, when the glass is shut, with a wooden shutter to exclude both light and air; and with wire gauze to admit light and air, and exclude flies and winged insects, which are troublesome to the makers of soft cheese.

The cheeses are turned at first once a day, and afterward every second day, unless in damp weather, when daily turning is absolutely necessary. In three or four days after the cheeses are placed in the drying-room they become speckled; in another week they are covered with a thick crop of white mold, which by degrees deepens to a dark yellow, the outside of the cheese becoming less and less sticky. At the end of about a month, when the cheese no longer sticks to the fingers, it is taken to the finishing room, where light is nearly excluded, and the atmosphere is kept very still and slightly damp. Here they remain three or four weeks, being turned every day or every second day, according to the season, and carefully examined periodically. When ready for market--that is to say, in winter, when ripe, and in summer, when half ripe--they are made up in packets of six, by means of straw and paper, with great skill and neatness.

Few Words and More Butter.

The Wisconsin Dairymen's Association last year offered prizes for the best essays on butter-making, the essays not to exceed 250 words. Competition was active, and many valuable little treatises was the result. The first prize was won by D. W. Curtis, of Fort Atkinson, and reads as follows. We commend it to all butter-makers and to all writers of essays as a model of the boiled-down essence of brevity:

COWS.

Select cows rich in butter-making qualities.

FEED.

Pastures should be dry, free from slough-holes, well seeded with different kinds of tame grasses, so that good feed is assured. If timothy or clover, cut early and cure properly. Feed corn, stalks, pumpkins, ensilage and plenty of vegetables in winter.

GRAIN.

Corn and oats, corn and bran, oil meal in small quantities.

WATER.

Let cows drink only such water as you would yourself.

CARE OF COWS.

Gentleness and cleanliness.

MILKING.

Brush the udder to free it from impurities. Milk in a clean barn, well ventilated, quickly, cheerfully, with clean hands and pail. Seldom change milkers.

CARE OF MILK.

Strain while warm; submerge in water 48 degrees. Open setting 60 degrees.

SKIMMING.

Skim at twelve hours; at twenty-four hours.

CARE OF CREAM.

Care must be exercised to ripen cream by frequent stirrings, keeping at 60 degrees until slightly sour.

UTENSILS.

Better have one cow less than be without a thermometer. Churns without inside fixtures. Lever butter worker. Keep sweet and clean.

CHURNING.

Stir the cream thoroughly; temper to 60 degrees; warm or cool with water. Churn immediately when properly soured, slowly at first, with regular motion, in 40 to 60 minutes. When butter is formed in granules the size of wheat kernels, draw off the buttermilk; wash with cold water and brine until no trace of buttermilk is left.

WORKING AND SALTING.

Let the water drain out; weigh the butter; salt, one ounce to the pound; sift salt on the butter, and work with lever worker. Set away two to four hours; lightly re-work and pack.

A MACHINE that can take hay, corn fodder, grass, and grain and manufacture them into good, rich milk at the rate of a quart per hour for every hour in the twenty-four, is a valuable one and should be well cared for. There are machines--cows--which have done this. There are many thousands of them that will come well up to this figure for several months in the year, and which will, besides, through another system of organisms, turn out a calf every year to perpetuate the race of machines. Man has it in his power to increase the capacity of the cow for milk and the milk for cream. He must furnish the motive power, the belts, and the oil in the form of proper food, shelter, and kindly treatment. By withholding these he throws the entire machinery out of gear and robs himself.

Compiled Correspondence.

KANE COUNTY, MARCH 17.--Snow is nearly all gone. There is but little frost in the ground. The spring birds have come. Hay is plenty, winter wheat and winter rye look green, and have not been winter-killed to any great extent. Cattle and horses are looking well and are free from disease. We fear the spread of the foot-and-mouth disease. Every effort should be made to confine it within its present limits. Its spread in this county of so great dairy interests would be a great calamity. Our factory men will make full cream cheese during the summer months. The hard, skim cheese made last season, and sold at 2 cts per pound, paid the patrons nothing. We hear of factory dividends for January of $1.60 to $1.66. J. P. B.

GRAND PRAIRIE, TEX., MARCH 8.--The spring is cold and late here; but little corn planted yet. Winter oats killed; many have sown again. Farmers are well up with their work. G. E. R.

* * * * *

Brown's Bronchial Troches will relieve Bronchitis, Asthma, Catarrh, Consumption and Throat Diseases. _They are used always with good success._

Symptoms of Foot-and-Mouth Disease.

This disease, which is one of the most easily transmitted of contagious and infectious diseases of domestic animals, is characterized by the appearance of vesicles or small bladders on the mucous surfaces and those parts of the skin uncovered by hair, such as in the mouth, on the gums and palate, on the tongue, and the internal surface of the lips and cheeks; on the surface of the udder and teats, and between the claws. The disease passes through four different stages or periods; but for present purposes it will be sufficient to merely mention the most prominent of the successive changes and appearances, as they occur to the ordinary observer. The incubatory stage, or the time between contamination and the development of the disease, is very short (from twenty-four hours to one or two weeks), and the disease is ushered in by the general symptoms of fever, such as shivering, increased temperature, staring coat, dry muzzle, dullness and loss of appetite. The animals seek seclusion, preferably in sheltered places, where they assume a crouched position, or lie down, and there is more or less stiffness and unwillingness to move. The mouth becomes hot and inflamed looking, and covered with slime, the breath fetid; the animal grinds the teeth, smacks with mouth, and has difficulty in swallowing. There is more or less tenderness of feet and lameness, and in cows the udder becomes red and tender, the teats swollen, and they refuse to be milked. Depending upon the intensity of the fever and the extent to which the udder is affected, the milk secretion will be more or less diminished, or entirely suspended; but throughout the disease the quality or constituents of the milk become materially altered; its color changes to a yellow; it has a tendency to rapid decomposition, and possesses virulent properties. Soon yellowish-white blisters, of various sizes, from that of a small pea to a small hickory nut, appear on the mucous surface within the mouth, and which blisters often in the course of development become confluent or coalesce. They generally break within two to three days, and leave bright red, uneven, and ragged sores or ulcers, to the edges of which adheres shreds of detached epithelial tissue. The animal now constantly moves the tongue and smacks the mouth, while more or less copious and viscid saliva continually dribbles from the mouth. The lameness increases in proportion as the feet are affected, and if the fore feet are most affected, the animal walks much like a floundered horse, with the hinder limbs advanced far under the body, and with arched back. The coronet of the claws, especially toward the heels, becomes swollen, hot, and tender, causing the animal to lie down most of the time. The blisters, which appear at the interdigital space of the claws, and especially at the heels, break in the course of a day and discharge a thick, straw-colored fluid; the ulcers, which are of intensely red or scarlet color, soon become covered with exudating lymph, which dries and forms scabs. On the udder, the blisters appear more or less scattered and variable, and they are most numerous at the base and on the teats. Ordinarily, the disease terminates in two or three weeks, while the animal, which during its progress refuses to partake of any other than sloppy food, gradually regains strength and flesh, and the udder resumes its normal functions. The mortality at times has proved very great in this disease when it has appeared with unusual virulency.

Shyness and Timidity.

In common "horse language," these propensities are confounded one with the other or else no proper and right distinction is made between them. A horse may be timid without being shy, though he can hardly be said to be shy without being timid. Young horses in their breaking are timid, frightened at every fresh or strange object they see. They stand gazing and staring at objects they have not seen before, fearful to approach them; but they do not run away from, or shy at them; on the contrary, the moment they are convinced there is nothing hurtful in them, they refuse not to approach or even trample upon them. This the shy horse will not do. He can not be persuaded to turn toward or even to look at the object he shies at; much less to approach it.

Timid horses, through usage and experience, get the better of their timidity, and in time become very opposite to fearful; but shy horses, unless worked down to fatigue and broken-spiritedness, rarely forget their old sins. The best way to treat them is to work them, day by day, moderately for hours together, taking no notice whatever of their shying tricks, neither caressing nor chastising them, and on no account whatever endeavoring to turn their heads either towards or away from the objects shied at.

Glanders.

With a view of shedding light on the important question of the contagiousness of glanders, we will mention the following deductions from facts brought forth by our own experience.

1. That farcy and glanders, which constitute the same disease, are propagable through the medium of stabling, and this we believe to be the more usual way in which the disease is communicated from horse to horse.

2. That infected stabling may harbor and retain the infection for months, or even years; and though, by thoroughly cleansing and making use of certain disinfecting means, the contagion may probably be destroyed, it would not perhaps be wise to occupy such stables _immediately_ after such supposed or alleged disinfection.

3. That virus (or poison of glanders) may lie for months in a state of incubation in the horse's constitution, before the disease breaks out. We have had the most indubitable evidence of its lurking in one horse's system for the space of fifteen weeks.

4. That when a stud or stable of horses becomes contaminated, the disease often makes fearful ravages among them before it quits them; and it is only after a period of several months' exemption from all disease of the kind that a clean bill of health can be safely rendered.

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REMEMBER _that $2.00 pays for_ THE PRAIRIE FARMER _one year, and the subscriber gets 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._

Horticulturists, Write for Your Paper.

Sand Mulching of Orchard Trees.

In THE PRAIRIE FARMER I notice the interesting note of "O." of Sheboygan Falls, Wis., on the apparent benefit resulting from sand and manure mulching of pear trees.

In the very near future I expect to see much of this kind of work done by commercial orchardists. Already we have many trees in Iowa mulched with sand.

I wish now to draw attention to the fact that on the rich black prairie soils west of Saratov--about five hundred miles southeast of Moscow--every tree in the profitable commercial orchards is mulched with pure river sand. The crown of the tree when planted is placed about six inches lower than usual with us in a sort of basin, about sixteen feet across. This basin is then filled in with sand so that in the center, where the tree stands, it is three or four inches higher than the general level of the soil. The spaces between these slight depressions filled with sand are seeded down to grass, which is not cut, but at time of fruit gathering is flattened by brushing to make a soft bed for the dropping fruit and for a winter mulch.

The close observer will not fail to notice good reasons for this treatment. (1.) The sand mulch maintains an even temperature and moisture of the surface roots and soil and prevents a rapid evaporation of the moisture coming up by capillary attraction from the sub soil.

(2.) The soil under the sand will not freeze as deeply as on exposed surfaces, and we were told that it would not freeze as deeply by two feet or more as under the tramped grass in the interspaces.

(3.) With the light colored sand about the trees, and grass between, the lower beds of air among the trees would not be as hot by several degrees as the exposed surface, even when the soil was light colored clay.

(4.) A bed of sand around the trunks of the trees will close in with the movement of the top by the summer and autumn winds, thus avoiding the serious damage often resulting from the swaying of the trunk making an opening in the soil for water to settle and freeze.

Still another use is made of this sand in very dry seasons, which as with us would often fail to carry the fruit to perfection. On the upper side of large commercial orchards, large cisterns are constructed which are filled by a small steam pump. When it is decided that watering is needed the sand is drawn out, making a sort of circus ring around the trees which is run full of water by putting on an extra length of V spouting for each tree. When one row is finished the conductors are passed over to next row as needed. To water an orchard of 1,200 trees--after the handy fixtures are once provided--seems but a small task. After the water settles away, the sand is returned to its place.

In the Province of Saratov we saw orchards with and without the sand, and with and without the watering. We did not need to ask if the systematic management paid. The great crops of smooth apples and pears, and the long lived and perfect trees on the mulched and watered orchards told the whole story of the needs of trees planted on black soil on an open plain subject to extreme variations as to moisture and temperature of air and soil.

J. L. BUDD., IOWA AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Pear Blight.--No. 2.

The mere "experience" of an individual, whether as a doctor of medicine, horticulture, or agriculture--however extensive, is comparatively worthless. Indeed the million "demonstrate it to be mischievous, judging from the success of quacks and empyrics as to money. An unlimited number of facts and certificates prove nothing, either as to cause or remedy."

Sir Isaac Newton's corpuscular theory "explained all the phenomena of light, except one," and he actually assumed, for it "fits." Nevertheless it will ever remain the most thinkable mode of teaching the laws of light, and it is not probable that any more than this will ever be accomplished as to any natural science--if that can be called science about which we must admit that "it is not so; but it is as if it were so."

Of more than 300 "Osband Summer" which I grafted on the Anger quince successfully, one remains, and this one was transplanted after they had fruited in a clay soil, to the same sort of soil between "the old standard" and a stable, both of which have occupied the same locality and within twenty yards, during much more than fifty years of my own observation--this "Osband Summer" flourishes. It has borne fruit in its present site, but grew so rapidly last year that the blossoms aborted thus illustrating the large proportion of vital force necessary to the production of fruit, as the site has a perennial supply of manure from the old stable. A number of standard trees, of the same variety, developed beautifully until they attained twenty or thirty feet, but then succumbed to the blight, after the first effort at fruiting. So also the Beurre Clairgean etc., etc. Their exposure to the same influences, and their growth during several years did not occasion the blight, but the debility which must inevitably attend fruiting seems the most prolific cause.

All the phenomena of pear blight can be accounted for, and we are greatly encouraged in protecting the trees therefrom if, we assume, it is only the result of weakness and deficient vitality; if so, as in epidemics, all the pear trees may be poisoned or ergotized, but only the weakest succumb; and perhaps this debility may be confined to one limb. The practical value of this view is manifest, as it is impracticable to avoid using the same knife, and remove every blighted leaf from the orchard. Moreover, if the limb is a large one, its prompt removal shocks the vitality of the whole tree[1] and thus renders other parts more vulnerable. On the contrary view, the limb may be allowed to drop by natural process, precisely as all trees in a forest shed their lower limbs, leaving hardly a cicatrice or scar, and this may be insured at any season by a cord of hemp twine, firmly bound around the limb. The inevitable strangulation, and the healing of the stump (without the mycelium of fungi which the knife or saw inevitably propagates by exposing a denuded surface, if not more directly) proceed more rapidly than the natural slough of limbs by starvation. Moreover the fruit may mature on such limbs during their strangulation, as this may not be perfected before the subsequent winter.

The next practical result of my view is the fundamental importance of all those means which are calculated to husband the vital force of the tree during its first effort to fruit; one of these is the use of a soil that will not produce more than twenty bushels of corn without manure, thus a large proportion of the setts will be aborted, but one half of what remains should be removed, and subsequently the area beneath the limbs should have a wheelbarrow of good compost. D. S.

Footnote 1: NOTE.--The shock as to vital force is
demonstrated by the fact that when young trees are not
trimmed at all their girth increases more rapidly, and they
bear fruit sooner. Moreover, when old trees are severely
pruned (though not half the proportion of wood is removed)
they fail to bear during the next year. I find that a hemp
cord about the size of the stem of a tobacco pipe
(one-fourth inch diameter) will soon become imbedded in the
bark if firmly tied around a limb, and perhaps this size is
more efficient than a thicker cord.

The Black Walnut.

The black walnut is without doubt the most valuable tree we have for the rich lands of the "corn belt," West, and one which is very easily grown everywhere if the farmer will only learn how to get it started. How few we see growing on our prairies. Why? Simply because to have it we must grow it from the nuts. It is nearly impossible to transplant black walnut trees of any size and have them live; although it is a fact that whenever a non-professional attempts to grow them from the nuts he is almost sure to fail, it is also a fact that there is no tree that is more easily grown from the seed than this, if we only know how to do it.

It is my purpose in this note to tell how to do it, and also how not to do it.

In the first instance we will suppose a man lives where he can gather the nuts in the woods. When the nuts begin to fall let him plow deeply the plot of ground he wishes to plant and furrow it off three or four inches deep, the distance apart he wishes his rows to be. He will then go to the woods and gather what nuts he wishes to plant, and plant them at once, just as they come from the tree, covering them just out of sight in the furrows. This is all there is of it; simple, is it not? But it will not do to gather a great wagon box full, and let them stand in it until they heat, or to throw them in a great heap on the ground and let them lay there until they heat. It will not do, either, to hull them and let them lay in the sun a week or two, or hull them, dry them and keep them until spring, and then plant; none of these plans will do if you want trees. Of course if the nuts are hulled and planted at once they will grow; but this hulling is entirely unnecessary. Besides, the hulls seem to act as a special manure for the young seedlings, causing them to grow more vigorously.

Next, we will suppose one wishes to plant walnuts where they can not be had from the woods, but must be shipped in. There seems to be only one plan by which this can be done safely every time, which is as follows: Gather the nuts as they fall from the trees--of course when they begin to fall naturally all may be shaken down at once--and spread them not over a foot deep, on the bare ground under the shade of trees. Cover out of sight with straw or leaves, with some sticks to hold in place called a "rot heap;" then after they are frozen and will stay so, they may be shipped in bags, boxes, barrels, or in bulk by the car-load, and then, again, placed in "rot heaps," as above, until so early in the spring as the soil is in workable condition. Then plant as directed in the fall, except the soil should be firmly packed around the nuts. Keep free from weeds by good cultivation, and in due time you will have a splendid grove.

There was an immense crop of walnuts in this district last fall, and thousands of bushels were put up carefully, in this way, all ready for shipment before the weather became warm; many more thousands were planted to grow seedlings from, for, notwithstanding the walnut transplants poorly when of considerable size, the one year seedlings transplant with as little loss as the average trees.

There is no tree better adapted for planting to secure timber claims with than the black walnut, and none more valuable when the timber is grown. For this purpose the land should be plowed deeply, then harrowed to fineness and firmness, and furrowed out in rows four, six, eight, or ten feet apart. The nuts may then be planted as directed. It is best to plant thickly in the rows, then if too thick they can be thinned out, transplanting the thinnings, or selling them to the neighbors. They should be thoroughly cultivated, until large enough to shade the ground, and thinned out as necessary as they grow larger. A walnut grove thoroughly cultivated the first ten years will grow at least twenty feet high, while one not cultivated at all would only grow two to three feet in that time.