of the account in carrying stock, is making very heavy drafts on hay,
grain, and fodder of all kinds and it looks now as if the big hay crop
of this section will be fed out before spring. As for corn, the most of
which is soft and has no grade and no sale as a merchantable commodity,
except for feeding where it grew—is being very lavishly fed to stock of
all kinds, as the most profitable way to get rid of it. Accounts from
Nebraska and Northwest Kansas report corn in very little better
condition than in Central Illinois, and dealers who bought and cribbed
it early in the season are reputed badly caught.
* * * * *
There is nothing new to report in respect to the condition of winter
wheat. So long as snow covers the ground it is safe; and after, it will
come through if the weather is warm, or cold and wet, and there is
little freezing and thawing to thaw it out of the ground. It is thought
by those who have given the subject some attention, that though the buds
of fruit trees may be killed or badly damaged by the intense cold, and
though the wood was not thoroughly ripened last year, the ground not
being frozen and the earth being covered by snow at the time, the
vitality of the trees will remain unimpaired. It is the experience of
Vermont and Maine orchardists, that if snow falls before the ground
freezes to any considerable depth, apple trees effectually resist any
degree of cold.
* * * * *
The latest contribution of facts going to establish the new departure in
respect to the location of orchards, comes from a farmer of Geauga
county, Ohio. He writes to the Country Gentleman of a late date as
follows: “There was little fruit the past season, and as in many former
years, orchards on high lands bore only a few defective apples. Such
orchards have not borne much for several years, while orchards on low
lands, somewhat protected, have borne large crops of fair fruit. My
orchards on low land, protected by evergreens, have brought me several
hundred dollars a year for several years, while the orchards on high
lands, a little west, have not borne enough for family use for some
years.” Who will tell THE PRAIRIE FARMER about the many orchards of
Livingston county, Ill., which produced, last year, very remarkable
crops of fine apples—a fact which raised the value of land in that
county several dollars per acre?
B. F. J.
AN ELOQUENT TRIBUTE.
The following eloquent tribute to the late Dr. John A. Warder was
written by ex-Gov. J. Sterling Morton, of Nebraska, chairman of the
memorial committee at the late meeting of the Mississippi Valley
Horticultural Society at Kansas City. In its estimation of the man and
his work it is appreciative and just: Ingersoll himself could not
surpass it in the sublimity of its pathos. To be thus commemorated in
the minds and words of men is the lot of few, and those only who have
lived exalted, useful lives, and whose glowing hearts have kindled the
fires of friendship and love in the breasts of friends and associates in
life’s cares and labors. Mr. Morton said:
As guests register their names at a hotel, depart, and are forgotten, so
humanity, stopping for a short time on the earth, makes its autograph
upon the age and sets out upon its returnless journey to that realm
whence come neither tidings nor greetings.
Each individual of the race leaves some trace of his existence on the
generation in which he lives, and considerable numbers transmit their
names to posterity italicised in good deeds or embalmed in noble and
elevating thought.
The desire to be remembered and esteemed by those who come after us,
seems to be, with the better and more exalted minds, a greater
inspiration to high intellectual effort than the mere plaudits of
cotemporaries. As on the stage, those actors who play best their parts
are recalled and applauded after the curtain has fallen, so those in the
brief drama of life, who have best performed their duties are, after
their mortal costumes have been forever laid away in restful graves,
again called out by their admiring cotemporaries, and thus their
intellectual and moral personalities reappear before the lights, amidst
tumultuous and emulative applause.
It is the duty and pleasure of your committee, gentlemen of the
Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society, in harmony with this line of
reflection, to bring before you the character and services of the
recently deceased Dr. John A. Warder, of Ohio. His naturally strong
mental faculties were led out and trained, in school and college, to a
full and vigorous stature. His chosen profession of medicine, in the
earlier years of his manhood, occupied his entire thought and stimulated
him to untiring labor of mind and body, and, at the same time, gave him
also that culture of the heart which, through his refined, emotional
nature, was ever incarnating itself in delicate acts of kindness and
generosity toward those who needed sympathy or friends.
But he turned at last from his professional studies—from the books in
his library—to those broader investigations of the mysteries of life
and growth of flowers, fruits and forests, to which the fields,
orchards, and wild woods of Ohio ever allured him. His childhood and
youth had passed amidst the rustic scenes of a home in the country, on a
farm; and as the seashell, though ever so long and far away from its
home in the surf, will, when placed to the ear always moan of its ocean
home, so his great and tender soul ever yearned for a life among the
flora and sylvia of youth. His brave and benignant spirit explored all
avenues of knowledge which led into flowering fields and orchards. To
his eye every blossom was a poem; to his quick perception every tree a
book full of useful and agreeable teachings. And to the study of these
volumes—these continued annuals—fresh in new binding, embellishment,
and gilding every summer and autumn, Dr. Warder devoted the choicest
years of his mature manhood.
It is the enthusiast of a cause who gives vitality and propulsive power.
Dr. Warder was an enthusiast in horticulture and in forestry. To advance
the race in those two vocations no labor was too great for him to
undertake, no sacrifice too severe for him joyfully to make. At his own
expense he went into fresh territories and States, preaching, as a
missionary of a new gospel, the importance and necessity of orcharding
and tree planting. His thoughts were strewn, like precious seeds, among
the dwellers on the prairies of Nebraska, Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota and
the Northwest. And they took root, so that the concepts of thousands of
groves and orchards, which now stand as living monuments to his useful
life, came from his own philanthropic brain. In his mind miniature
forests grew on every prairie, and golden fruit flashed in the autumn
sunlight of every hill-side. He knew no limit to his love of
horticulture and arboriculture. He was earnest; he was active, sincere,
and his vitægraph is written wherever flowers bloom, fruits ripen, and
forests wave all over the country he loved so well and served so
modestly, efficiently, and faithfully.
His example is worthy of the emulation of our sons and of their sons.
And standing at his grave it is meet and proper for this society to
recall his noble services to its cause, to wish that, with each
recurring year his memory may, like the flowers and foliage he studied
so well, be clothed in new verdure and its fragrance perpetuated as a
grateful perfume.
Resolved—That the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society deplores the
death of its friend and active member, Dr. John A. Warder of Ohio; that
our sincere condolence is extended to his family, and that we recommend
to kindred societies throughout the Northwest the planting of memorial
trees and groves to commemorate his labors, his achievements, and his
philanthropy as a skilled orchardist and forester.
SELECTION OF A SITE FOR A PARK.
(_Continued from Page 65._)
were squatters of the lowest class living in hovels. The construction of
the Central Park, and the opening of the streets in its neighborhood,
changed the whole character of the surrounding region. In the ten years
succeeding the commencement of work upon the park, the increased
valuation of taxable property in the wards immediately adjacent was no
less than fifty-four millions of dollars, affording a surplus of three
millions after paying the interest on all the city bonds issued for the
purchase and construction of the park, a sum sufficient if used as a
sinking fund to pay the entire principal and interest of the cost of the
park in less time than was required for its construction.
A similar instance of the profitable conversion of a deserted and
forbidding region into a rich and elegant quarter of a city, is afforded
by the Park des Butte Chaumont in Paris.
It occupies the site of old abandoned slate quarries, the precipitous
walls and rough excavations of which have been converted into
picturesque scenery by judicious treatment and tasteful planting, so as
to give it the appearance of a wild mountain gorge. The result has been
that its vicinity has become a rich and elegant quarter, simply because
it has been made attractive to the large and constantly growing class
who are seeking pleasant residence sites within easy access of their
places of business.
These illustrations will suffice to prove the truth of my assertion,
that the objects of most essential importance to a city in the creation
of a park will be attained by selecting for its location a site which is
naturally undesirable or even repulsive and converting it into an
attractive quarter, rather than one which combines all the elements of
beauty and health, and as a consequence is so desirable for residences,
that it can only be had at great cost.
* * * * *
The Illinois State Dairymen’s Association will hold its next annual
meeting at Champaign, December 17-19, 1884. Champaign County
Agricultural Society has adopted a resolution, pledging aid in getting
up a first-class meeting.
* * * * *
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._
* * * * *
[Illustration]
POULTRY NOTES.
Poultry-Raisers, Write for Your Paper.
WHAT AILS THE PULLETS?
DEAR FANNY FIELD—Please be kind enough to tell me what ails the
pullets? We have fifty or sixty spring pullets hatched in April and May,
from which by this time we expected to get eggs plentifully, and it
stretches our patience to get only from one to five eggs per day. They
have an underground room with only the front exposed, well lighted, and
we have fed them till they are fat.
We feed them a warm breakfast of potatoes and bran, or oats ground, with
a little pepper occasionally, then an hour or two later oats, and again
at night oats or corn, about three times a week. Plaster, coal, and
gravel are liberally supplied. They have milk and now and then powdered
bones, or refuse meat, cooked.
By an accident a fine one of over four pounds’ weight was killed, and I
had supposed she ought to lay as she was one of my earliest, but on
investigation I found eggs from a hickory nut down to shot eggs, that
were black or dark and hard, and I readily conjectured if the rest were
like her it was not strange we had no eggs. Please tell us the cause and
cure.
Our fowls are mixed, light and dark Brahmas, Leghorns and everything you
would get by changing eggs with the neighbors. We have added Plymouth
Rocks of late, having more of them than any other. We save the best Rock
roosters each year. It is the more surprising as our fowls usually lay
well.
Please help us if you can, and oblige a subscriber.
MRS. C. H. R.
MARENGO, IOWA.
THAT DUCK FARM.
DEAR FANNY FIELD—I have often thought I would write you through our
dear old PRAIRIE FARMER, but the old thief, procrastination, stole my
time. But reading your description of “A Duck Farm” aroused all the
ambition I have, and the editor willing (I not being one of the number
knowing your private address) would like to ask a few questions I
consider “necessary,” and will promise to abide by the terms given in
“Chats with Correspondents” of January 5th, as near as possible.
I don’t wonder the woman owning the “duck farm” wished to withhold her
name and whereabouts from the public generally, besides guarding her pen
with “well-trained dogs” if she has ducks she can induce to lay 125 or
even 100 eggs per season, nine and one third of which will hatch out
ducklings that will all live to be grown ducks.
Take an average of 113 and the ducks will lay 1,808 eggs per season, and
she sells $100 worth at $3 per doz. making 400; then she sends 24 doz.
to New York, then raises “1,100 ducks on the place,” making in all,
1,788, which, taken from the 1,808 leaves 20 eggs for non-hatchers and
dead ducklings. This I call pretty close work.
I have had some little experience with ducks, and I can only get them to
lay from sixty to seventy eggs per season, and about one eighth of the
eggs don’t hatch (from various causes) and about the same amount of
ducklings die. Now if you will be kind enough to reveal the woman’s
whereabouts to me I would like to invest if she will warrant them to
come up to your figures; also, is the said woman a widow?
Now Miss Fanny (if such you are) please excuse my familiarity. As I have
perused your writings with such pleasure, I feel well acquainted, so
strike me as hard as you please, but remember there is a hereafter. I
have several facts in regard to my fowls for another time providing I
gain admission.
A. SUCKER.
DE WITT CO., ILL.
FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Eggs are worth thirty-three cents per dozen here. The hens are not
laying nearly as many as they were at this time last year. Can any one
tell the reason? Farmers ought to pay more attention to the hens. They
do pay, and pay big if properly cared for. Give them hot feed in the
morning, consisting of bran, corn meal, beef scraps, a little salt and a
little cayenne pepper. Don’t make them drink ice water these cold days.
Give them wheat and oats at noon, and whole corn at night. The warmer
your house is the more profit you will reap. I don’t care whether your
fowls are pure bloods or not, if you take good care of them they will
give you eggs. A good neighbor of mine says that his pure Plymouth Rocks
do not lay as many eggs as his common “old fashioned” fowls.
Shall I raise a tempest among the breeders?
G. G. A.
HUDSON, N. H.
[Illustration]
THE APIARY.
CORN-SILK PROTECTION.
A correspondent of “Gleanings” writes: I winter on the summer stands,
and pack them a little differently from most persons. I spread the combs
so that eight or nine will fill same space occupied in summer by ten.
Then placing sticks crosswise of the frames, to allow a passway for the
bees, I spread a cloth above them, and pack on the top of this two or
three inches of corn-silks. For packing, these are superior to anything
I have yet seen or heard of. They are clean, and excellent
non-conductors, and will more readily absorb the moisture than either
chaff or saw-dust, and yet remain perfectly dry. They are easily
collected by a boy when men are husking in the fields; and when taken
off in the spring can be stored away for another winter. Knowing the
value of them by experience, I hope that many of our brother bee-keepers
will give them a fair trial.
FEEDING BACK.
The question of “feeding back” honey to bees was discussed at the
Michigan State Convention at Flint. W. Z. Hutchinson had had a poor
season; but as he had mentioned incidentally that he had practiced
“feeding back,” it brought down upon him a shower of questions. In
feeding back 1,000 pounds of extracted honey, he had received 800 pounds
of comb honey. Had tiered up the cases of sections until they were three
or four cases high. Had fed the honey as fast as they would take it.
Looked the sections over about once a week, and removed the full ones.
Some colonies did much better work than others. After the first trial,
selected the best. No honey was coming in at the time of the feeding;
did not weigh the hives; weighed only the sections and the amount. He
had a friend who had fed back upon exactly the same plan, but his friend
had not found it profitable. He thought that to know just how to feed
back, at a profit, was not yet positively known.
D. A. Jones: The question of feeding back has but few advocates, for the
reason that the majority have failed to make it profitable. To be
successful in feeding back there must be no place in the hive in which
the bees can store honey, except in the sections. Those hives must be
selected that contain the most honey, or else those having but few
combs. My plan of feeding is to elevate the hives in front and pour the
feed in upon the bottom-board. The bees do not carry the honey out of
the hives; they must store it somewhere. Bee-keepers fail to make it
pay, because the bees had an empty brood-chamber. Section boxes filled
with foundation had been given a colony at 9 A. M.; feeding commenced,
and the next day, at evening, the bees had commenced capping some of the
sections. Fifty-two pounds of honey was fed, and forty-four pounds of
comb honey obtained. To get unfinished sections filled, and at the same
time have the honey removed from some other unfinished sections, I put
the sections that I wish emptied, over the hive, and the ones that I
wish finished, in the main body of the hive, keeping the queen out of
them by using perforated zinc.
W. Z. Hutchinson: Will not pouring in honey at the entrances excite
robbing?
D. A. Jones: I do not pour it in at the entrance. I pour it down inside
the hive at the back.
W. Z. Hutchinson: You speak of using perforated zinc. I should like to
know something about that. Do the bees work through it freely? Is there
any objection to its use, except its cost? And where is the expense? Is
it in the material, or in the preparations?
D. A. Jones: It is in no way detrimental. The bees work through it
freely. I see no objection to its use except its cost, and its cost is
the preparations. Tin would be no cheaper, for the reason that it comes
in smaller sheets, and the waste would be greater.
W. Z. Hutchinson: I have used honey boards the past season made of
wood, the slats of which were 5-32 of an inch apart, and they answered
every purpose; and are cheaper than zinc.
S. T. Pettitt: I can hardly think the wooden boards would be better than
the zinc. It would take some time to make them, while the zinc is all
ready, and so lasting.
W. Z. Hutchinson: The wood boards cost only a third as much as the zinc
and I prefer them.
BEE PASTURAGE.
At the late Nebraska Bee-keepers’ Convention Mr. Ballard spoke very
highly of dandelion and alsike clover, stating that he had seen four or
five bees on one blossom of dandelion, and recommends alsike clover, as
it will take root on the prairie.
G. M. Cooper, Beatrice, gave it as his opinion that white clover did not
secrete any honey last spring, on account of the cool weather.
P. M. Aldrich said that his bees worked on rape long after frost. No one
present had ever seen rape fail.
Mr. Colwell sowed the roadside twice last year, and had a continuous
bloom all summer, and late in the fall; puts one peck to the acre on the
roadside.
Mr. Hawley sows about six pounds of rape seed per acre.
Mr. Colwell’s bees have a great feast on box elder sap, early in spring.
Mr. Hawley has sown rape several times, but the bees only gathered fast
enough to build up; he can tell when his bees are gathering rape honey,
by the odor.
C. C. Turney, Ceresco, had seen bees work very extensively on the
blackberry, both blossom and fruit, and also on parsley.
Wm. Sutton, Elk Creek, saw his bees on raspberry and alsike clover; they
did a great deal to stimulate his bees, although the quantity is limited
in his locality; they bloom about the middle of June.
* * * * *
The ancient Egyptians of the Nile had floating bee-houses, designed to
take advantage of the honey harvest. They were warned when it was time
to return home by the depth to which the boat sank in the water under
the weight of the cargo of honey. That the bees might not be lost, they
were obliged to journey during the night-time.
* * * * *
STANDARD BOOKS.
PRICE, ONLY FIVE DOLLARS.
American Roadsters
—AND—
TROTTING HORSES,
BEING A SKETCH OF THE
Trotting Stallions of the United States.
AND A
Treatise on the Breeding of the Same,
_WITH AN APPENDIX_
Showing the Pedigrees and Breeding, so far as known of all Trotters that
have a Record in 2:25 or better, and containing much Practical Matter
relating to the Breaking Management, and Treatment of Trotting and
Breeding Stock.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS OF
Hambletonian, Bellfounder, Administrator, Almont, Edward Everett,
Florida, Thorndale, Byron, Voltaire, Lakeland Abdallah, Governor
Sprague, Cuyler, Gimcrack, Vermont Blackhawk, Mambrino Patchen, and
other great Stallions.
BY H. T. HELM, COUNSELOR AT LAW.
The most original, complete, instructive, and entertaining book on
Trotting Horses ever published. Several Single Chapters are each worth
the price of the book. The Illustrations are the finest ever included in
any book on horses. Nearly six hundred pages.
PRICE, FIVE DOLLARS.
For sale by the
PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO.
150 MONROE ST., CHICAGO, ILL.
* * * * *
SWINE HUSBANDRY.
A Practical Manual
—FOR THE—
BREEDING, REARING, AND MANAGEMENT OF SWINE.
—AND THE—
Prevention and Treatment of Their Diseases.
BY F. D. COBURN,
_A Western Practical Farmer and Breeder_
ILLUSTRATED.
CONTENTS:
Breeds of Swine, their Characteristics and Worth.
Raising and Fattening Swine.
Diseases of Swine, Practical Information as to their Causes, Symptoms,
Prevention, and Cure.
Price, by mail, postpaid, $1.75.
PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO., Chicago.
* * * * *
AGENTS WANTED, Male and Female, for Spence’s Blue Book, a most
fascinating and salable novelty. Every family needs from one to a dozen.
Immense profits and exclusive territory. Sample mailed for 25cts in
postage stamps. Address J.H. CLARSON, P.O. Box 2296, Philadelphia, Pa.
* * * * *
RAILROADS.
[Illustration]
A MAN WHO IS UNACQUAINTED WITH THE GEOGRAPHY OF THIS COUNTRY WILL SEE BY
EXAMINING THIS MAP THAT THE
CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC R’Y
By the central position of its line, connects the East and the West by
the shortest route, and carries passengers, without change of cars,
between Chicago and Kansas City, Council Bluffs, Leavenworth, Atchison,
Minneapolis and St. Paul. It connects in Union Depots with all the
principal lines of road between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Its
equipment is unrivaled and magnificent, being composed of Most
Comfortable and Beautiful Day Coaches, Magnificent Horton Reclining
Chair Cars, Pullman’s Prettiest Palace Sleeping Cars, and the Best Line
of Dining Cars in the World. Three Trains between Chicago and Missouri
River Points. Two Trains between Chicago and Minneapolis and St. Paul,
via the Famous
“ALBERT LEA ROUTE.”
A New and Direct Line, via Seneca and Kankakee, has recently been opened
between Richmond, Norfolk, Newport News, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Augusta,
Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Lafayette,
and Omaha, Minneapolis and St. Paul and intermediate points.
All Through Passengers Travel on Fast Express Trains.
Tickets for sale at all principal Ticket Offices in the United States
and Canada.
Baggage checked through and rates of fare always as low as competitors
that offer less advantages.
For detailed information, get the Maps and Folders of the
GREAT ROCK ISLAND ROUTE,
At your nearest Ticket Office, or address
R.R. CABLE,
Vice-Pres. & Gen’l M’g’r,
E. ST. JOHN,
Gen’l Tkt. & Pass. Agt.
CHICAGO.
* * * * *
MAPS.
RAND, McNALLY & CO.’S
NEW RAILROAD
—AND—
COUNTY MAP
—OF THE—
UNITED STATES
—AND—
DOMINION OF CANADA.
Size, 4 × 2½ feet, mounted on rollers to hang on the wall. This is an
ENTIRELY NEW MAP,
Constructed from the most recent and authentic sources.
—IT SHOWS—
_ALL THE RAILROADS,_
—AND—
EVERY COUNTY AND PRINCIPAL TOWN
—IN THE—
UNITED STATES AND CANADA.
A useful Map in every one’s home, and place of business. PRICE, $2.00.
Agents wanted, to whom liberal inducements will be given. Address
RAND, McNALLY & CO.,
Chicago, Ill.
By arrangements with the publishers of this Map we are enabled to make
the following liberal offer: To each person who will remit us $2.25 we
will send copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER One Year and THIS MAP
POSTPAID. Address
PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO.,
CHICAGO, ILL.
* * * * *
DRAINAGE.
PRACTICAL FARM DRAINAGE.
WHY, WHEN, and HOW TO TILE-DRAIN
—AND THE—
MANUFACTURE OF DRAIN-TILE.
By C.G. ELLIOTT and J.J.W. BILLINGSLEY