Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1886 — RURAL TOPICS. [ARTICLE]

RURAL TOPICS.

Somo Practical Snggeationfl for the Husbandman and th• Housewife. bhrsidn for the Farmer, Stock* Breeder, Poulterer, Nurseryman, and Housekeeper. AGRICULTURE. —7:; A Good Mixture. Orchard grass and medium red clover flower and. seed nearly together, and are a good mixture. Sow of the first one and one-half bushels mixed with two or three quarts of the latter per acre. Orchard grass withstands the severest drouths, is a strong feeder, and is essentially a pasture grass. It gives the best results on strong, rich land, ana will winter-kill on soils that are liable to heave Canada ThUtle*. Canada thistles are one of the most easily extermined woed pests we have.' Cut at any time in hot weather and keroseno poured on the roots will kill them even: time. Canada thistles can be killed in one year by salting Btock on them for one rammer. Cut them off even with the ground, put sslt on every one, and as of ten as they appear salt again. I killed a good-sized patch m that way in one summer, and they have never showed Up since.— for. New England Homestead. Dairy farming adds #1 per acre to the value of land, while it saves 81 per acre to the value oc land as againstgrain farming; thus $2 per acre—good rent Twenty of the poorest milch cows in the country, that two men can milk in one hour and a half in the morning and the same in the evening, will pay the wages of two hired hands and furnish groceries for a good-sized family by selling cream at ton cents n gauge. The slum milk wifi raise twenty hogs that will be worth #9 each,Ml2o, and to this may be added #3OO worth of calves, as a clear profit over and above the crop raised by the two hired mem Don’t calculate on simply the price of the cream, bat take the result at the end of the year .—Junction City (Kan.) Republican. > Mortgage* on Growing Crop*. The extent to which agriculture is palsied by this practice is not generally realized It prevails mostly where all efTort is centered on a single crop, which is a collateral for the lender of the money, or the vender of farm supplies. In the Northwest wheat region many farms are weighted with this fatal incumbranoe, and in the cotton States the curse is still more prevalent. Mr. Dodge, the statistician of the Agricultural Department, has addressed inquiries on this point to the various State agents in the South, and their replies make a pitiful story of discouragement and confiscation. In general it is not money that is borrowed from the banks, but credit from merchants who furnish provisions, farm implements, fertilizers, and the like, and take mortgages on the coming crop, payable when that matures. This might be endurable if only legal interest were paid, even when that is as high as one per cent, per month. But the merchant charges from fifteen to twenty-five per cent above cash prices, and when the notes mature the farmer must sell, regardless of price, and thus may lose again by being forced to dispose of his crop when prices are low. In Nbrth Carolina not less than one fourth of the crop is sacrificed to meet this exorbitant interest In South Carolina more than a million of dollars will be paid this year for advances. In Georgfi the average addition to cash price of all goods sold to fanners is said to be 50 per cent, per annum.- In Florida the entire cotton and fruit crops will no more than pay the debts of the year. In Alabama the cost of this indebtedness to the agriculture of the State in the form of diminished production and improvement and increased wear of farms and improvements is $5,000,000 a year. In Mississippi one third of the farmers are hopelessly ruined. In Louisiana 75 per cent of the farmers and planters are in debt In Texas it'will require from 75 to 85 per cent of the value of the cotton crop to pay the year’s debts. In Arkansas it takes every bale of cotton to settle up for advances. Now, behind this there is some encouragement whenever the farmer begins to try diversified agriculture, and several States report that prospects are brighter than they have been; but after all the burden is unendurable while the soil is wearing out with the lives of its tillers to pay tribute to the commercial class. — Philadelphia Press. FRUIT CULTURE. Bumbler Pruning of Grape Tine*. E. Williams, of Montclair, N. J., read a paper on the subject of “Summer Pruning” before the last convention of tho American Horticultural Society, an abstract of which we give herewith. As the vines awaken from their winter sleep in the spring, and the buds begin to swell, it will be observed that two buds often appear from what seemed but one in a dormant state. The first and simplest operation in summer pruning is to rub off one of these and all superfluous ones wherever they appear. A simple touch of the finger will do it The weakest and generally the lowest one has to go. If the buds from any canae start feebly, the sooner this is done the bettor for those that remain. In cases where they start strong and vigorously, however, it is well to defer their removal until the embryo clusters have appeared. If these shoots have grown a foot or a foot and a half, no matter. The check to the vine will be the greater and their removal none the less demanded. The remaining shoots are pinched off at one or two leaves beyond the last cluster fruit, and the laterals are stopped in the same wav as recommended for tne young vine, to one leaf. Those bearing cones and laterals, after recovering from the check thus given, will soon make a fresh start in wood-making, and the pinching process is to be repeated as before, leaving an additional leaf each time. The effect of this treatment is to retard the sap and retain it where it is needed for the full development of buds, leaves and fruit The leaves remaining increase in size mnch beyond their normal proportions, anfl a strong, vigorous leaf of this kind is most capable of resisting the attack of mildew. The large? the leaf area next to the fruit, the larger and finer the fruit will bo.

The pinching procesr also results in full, plump and well-developed buds on the canes to be left for the next year’s fruiting. Vines which are allowed to grow at random and take care of themselves, seldom fruit, purely from lack of development The sap, being allowed to pursue its natural course unmolested, has no time to stop and pay proper attention to these buds. The short-spur system depends absolutely for success on this summer prunWilliams cited the case of a very successful amateur who has vines ten years old treated on this system, some of the spurs on which are not over 114 inches long, so short in some cases that the base bud seems to start almost out of the old wood, and yet this bud will give as good fruit and as large clusters as any, and does bo year after year. It is simply due to this full development resulting from summerpmniqg. __ g FLORICULTURE. The Qm< cm a House Plant. How can the rose be managed as a house plant, and what varieties are most suitable for that purpose? The only roses that are likely to succeed when grown in the window garden are ,a few varieties, and those belong to the Tea, Bourbon and Bengal classes. Ana to have them do well in the winter it will be necessary to commence preparations early in the spring, in order to nave strong and healthy plants, furnished with an abundance of healthy working roots, for the rose is rather impatient when grown as a window plant; but a great deal will depend upon the treatment the plants receive. Having procured the young plants early in thesprixig, theyjshould be potted into three-inch pots, and placed in a warm and sunny situation. Water should be given when required and air on all favorable occasions. About ths middle of May the plants should be repotted into four-inch pots and plunged to the rim of the pot in any sunny place in the open ground. After the plants are plunged they should b« well mulched with coarse stable manure, and watered whenevor necessary, and the ven r instant anv flowers are noticed they should b« removed. The pole should be turned at least once a week, in order to prevent the plant* from rooting outside the pots to their manifest

injury. This treatment should be continued up to the first of September, when the plants should be taken up and oarofully examined shifted into larger pots if necessary, trimmed intoshape, and placed in any' shelter wk situation until they ara brought inside, which should be done before cold weather sets in, if they are intended for early blooming; while those intended for later bloom can be allowed to remain outside, until the weather becomes cold, when they can be removed to a light, 000 l cellar and afterward be started into rwth whenever it is deemed necessary to so. Roses require s rich, well-mixed soil, the most suitable being composed of two-thirds well-decayed sods from an old pasture, onethird well-decayed stable manure, with a fair sprinkling of bone dust; mix these materials thoroughly, and use the compost rough. In potting, use porous or soft-baked pots, and let them be proportionate to the size of the plank Be certain to drain the pots well, and in potting place the plant in the center of pet, And water thoroughly to settle the plank The following varieties are the most suitable for window garden cultivation: Twelve .Teas —Safrano, Bon Silene, Isabella Sprunt, Rubens. Odorato, Perle des Jardins, Gen. Tartas, Yellow Tea, Madame Bravy, Madame de Vatry, Madame Lambard, and Souvenir d’un Amie Four Bengals—Queen’s Scarlet, Douglas, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Dueher. Four Bourbons—Hermosa, Queen of Bourbons, Queen of Bedders. and Edward Desfosses. Besides these there is a class of recent introduction, known as the Polyantha roses; they are of dwarf habit and are continually in bloom, tho flowers being produced in clusters, and although the individual flowera are not large are very perfect Of these, the most desirable are Mignonette, rose; Mile. Cecil Brunner, salmon pink; Little White Pet, light pink; and Paquerette, pure white. Besides these we have the dwarf form of Rosa Indica, commonlv called the Fairy Bose. It is a very pretty little miniature rose, having double, rose-colored flowers, about the si e ol a dime. As it is constantly in bloom it is a plant that will always attract considerable attention, and is deserving of a place in every window garden.— Charles E. Parnell, in Vicks Magazine. GARDEN HINTS. Tomatoes. Dr. Sturtevant, of the New York experiment station, says that careful experiments have shown that unripe tomato seeds will grow and give a gain of fifteen days in earliness over ripe seed from the same plants. Pe&sand corn fit for table use will grow and produce earlier crops than ripe seed, but plants from immature seed are more feeble than those from ripe seed. Earliness seems to be in proportion to the state of ripeness of the seed from which the plants have been raised. The practical question to be determined is how to combine Doth earliness and vigor in the satne plank Cabbage* and Bean*. Cabbages and beans are now being cultivated as in Switzerland—as associated crops. The beans are planted in February, in drills thirtyoine inches apart, and five inches between each dibbled-m seed. A plow or horse-hoe keeps the intervals freshed up, when the thousand-head cabbage or other variety previously sown in a nursery bed in autumn is planted out toward the close of March, and at a line distance of twenty-six inches. By the end of July the beans are removed ana' the ground they occupied is loosened up to mold the cabbage. The latter can be stripped about Christmas, and will Bend out sprouts until the end of March, when they can De eaten down by breeding Bheep. Bone Steal. A correspondent of the Journal of Agriculture gives Hits experience with bone meal, having tried it in comparison with twoywti-. ficial manures on a lawn. All of the manures were applied at the same time in March, on separate parts of the lawn, and he remarks: “The two artificial manures had decidedly the best of it for the first season. The bone meal did not improve the appearance of the grass in the leastjwhile that treated with artificial mt-. nures displayed a marked improvemenk The bone meal produced more effect the second season than the artificial manures had the first, but the latter were evidently exhausted the first season. The third season, again, told in favor of the bone meal, and what will be the case this year remains to be seen. Similar experiments were tried with peas, onions, lettuce, and cauliflower, and other vegetables, which resulted in favor of the two artificial manures, the bones evidently making no difference. These observations and experiments prove that bones, however they may be ground, do pot act in any marked degree during the first season, but prove an invaluable lasting manure.” The conclusion was also reached, very properly, that for pot-plants, when an immediate effect is desired, bone meal is without value, and artificial manures that will act quickly should be employed in such cases. Aaparagu* Culture. While visiting a farm at Concord, Mass., the editor of the New England Farmer had his attention called to a knife used for cutting asparagus. He says it appeared to be a largesized butcher knife, broken squarely across near the middle of the blade, and then hollowed out like a swallow’s tail, and ground to a fine edge. In using it the knife is thrust in a slanting direction straight down through the stalk, with no side motions to endanger other stalks that may be pushing up near by. It is well known now by asparagus-growers that the slightest cut or bruise on a growing stalk of asparagus, made before it gets above the ground, will entirely spoil it for market, for the bruised side stops growing, becomes woody and hard, and the stalk as a whole turns ana seems bent on getting back into the ground again. Crooked asparagus stalks are worthless for any purpose, and they are only made crooked by carolessness in cultivation or in cutting. The swallow-tailed knife-blade with its blunt edges is a perfectly safe tool to sever the shoots and to toss them ont upon the surface of tho bed. As fast as the cutting was finished, a horse-plow was run along each side of the row, throwing a generous furrow toward and partly upon the crowns of the p ants. A man following upon his knees draws with his hands as much of the Boil of the furrows as is needed for completely covering to the depth of from two to four inches. The earth covering smothers all weeds, and thousands of young seedlings, which are as objectionable as other weeds in an asparagus bed. One field of asparagus, covering about an acre, as given uninterrupted cuttings annually for near twenty-five years, snd is apparently in a good condition now as at any previous period. Liberal annual manuring, careful and clean culture have done the business for this oldest asparagus bed wo ever saw, and possibly the oldest good bed of its size in the country. In sotting a new bed the plants are placed with the crowns about ten inches deep if the land is sandy, if heavy clay they should be set more shallow.

’ A Very Dainty Dish. The following is a very delicious pudding, the recipe for which I begged from Mrs. Marshall, of the School of Cookery, for yoU: Pour half a pint of warm cream on the crumbs of two Frenoh rolls, two ounces of castor sugar, one ounce of vanilla chocolate and five large eggs beaten up. Always use a rather low mold with a pipe in for this pudding, and, after having buttered it, line it with well buttered paper; pour in the mixture and steam it for twenty minutes or half an hour, then turn it out and remove the paper; pour chocolate sauce over it and serve a nice compote of fruit in the center. And this is how tne chocolate sauco is made: To three ounces of vanilla chocolate add two ounces of easter water; when it boils stir in a tablespoonful of creme de riz that has been mixed in a.little cold water; boil all together till quite smooth, then tammy and use. —Miss Madge, in London Truth. - Com Meal Mush. Put into your kettle nearly as much water as you wish of mush; when it boils stir in the meal evenly until a thin mush is formed. Let it 000 k slowly for almost or quite an hour; add salt to your txste. The coarser the meal the longer it should be cooked English currants or raisins may be cooked with it, or sweet apples may be sliced and spread over the top a half-hour before it is done.—Serve with cramp and sugar, or with maple syrup. Fruit Pudding, A delicious pudding is made in this way; Chop a pineapple quite fine; take some cake which is a little dry, rub it fine in your hands or crush it on a kneading board; put it into a pudding dish in alternate layers with thepineapple, sweeten abundantly, moisten with cold water and bake m a moderate oven for an hour and three-quarters.