Chapter 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.

B. F. J.

* * * * *

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 NOTES.

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.

* * * * *

MISCELLANEOUS.

Cheapest Farms for Sale in Illinois.

BEST FRUIT REGION IN THE STATE.

Send for my List of Farms and timbered Lands for sale.
DEWITT C. SMITH, Land Agent.
Stone Fort, Saline Co., Illinois.

When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER.

* * * * *

MARKET GARDENERS,

AND ALL OTHERS who want the BEST Cabbage, Onion, Beet, Carrot, Parsnip, Cucumber, Tomato, and other Seeds, DIRECT FROM THE FARM, at the LOWEST PRICES, can now get them at wholesale rates. Catalogue, with directions for cultivation, FREE. Address JOSEPH HARRIS, Moreton Farm, Rochester, N. Y. Seeds for the Children, 25 per cent discount. If you do not want the Catalogue, let the Children send for it, and send at once, as this advertisement will not be repeated.

When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER.

* * * * *

BLUE STEM SPRING WHEAT!!!

The best variety of Prairie Wheat known. Yields largely and is less liable to blight than any other variety.

Also celebrated Judson Oats for sale in small lots.

Samples, statement of yield, and prices sent free upon application to

SAMPSON & FRENCH.
Woodstock, Pipestone Co., Minn., or Storm Lake, Ia.

When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER.

* * * * *

EUROPE

EDUCATIONAL EXCURSIONS

1884

COMBINING UNEQUALLED ADVANTAGES. Send for Descriptive Circular, Free. _Register early._ E. TOURJEE, FRANKLIN SQ., BOSTON.

When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER.

* * * * *

FOR SALE--One-half interest in a thoroughly equipped CREAMERY located in one of the best dairy districts of Wis.

J. G. SNYDER & SON., Mt. Hope, Wis.

When you write mention THE PRAIRIE FARMER.

* * * * *

CUT THIS OUT & Return to us with TEN CTS. & you'll get by mail A GOLDEN BOX OF GOODS that will bring you in MORE MONEY, in One Month, than anything else in America. Absolute Certainty. Need no capital. M. Young, 173 Greenwich St. N. York.

* * * * *

FARM IMPLEMENTS. Etc.

THE "NEW" BIRDSELL CLOVER HULLER.

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Besides manufacturing the "NEW" BIRDSELL Clover Huller, for which we have the sole right, we make a specialty of HALF PLATFORM and THREE-SPRING WAGONS.

Send for illustrated Catalogue and prices. Address

BIRDSELL MANF'G CO. SOUTH BEND INDIANA.

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* * * * *

SEED CORN

FOR SALE.

A large quantity of first-class, selected Iowa seed corn, in large or small quantities. Address

_MITCHELL, VINCENT._
Onawa, Iowa.

Please state you saw ad in this paper.

* * * * *

THE STANDARD REMINGTON TYPE-WRITER is acknowledged to be the only rapid and reliable writing machine. It has no rival. These machines are used for transcribing and general correspondence in every part of the globe, doing their work in almost every language. Any young man or woman of ordinary ability, having a practical knowledge of the use of this machine may find constant and remunerative employment. All machines and supplies, furnished by us, warranted. Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded. Send for circulars. WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, 38 East Madison St., Chicago, Ill.

* * * * *

SEEDS

ALBERT DICKINSON,

Dealer in Timothy, Clover, Flax, Hungarian, Millet, Red Top, Blue Grass, Lawn Grass, Orchard Grass, Bird Seeds, &c.

POP CORN.

Warehouses {115, 117 & 119 Kinzie St. {104, 106, 108 & 110 Michigan St. OFFICE. 115 Kinzie St. CHICAGO, ILL.

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