and in all conditions, and particularly hard on that portion having
short rations. But I have seen many worse storms and much harder weather
for stock; none however in which the fruits, small or large, suffered
worse. At least that is the general judgment at the present. Peach buds
are killed of course, and it will be lucky if the trees have escaped.
All blackberries, but the Snyder, are dead down to the snow line--and
some think the Snyder has not escaped, for reasons given further on.
Examinations made of the buds of Bartlett, Duchess, Howell, Tyson,
Bigarreau, Seckel, Buffum, Easter Buerre, and others yesterday, showed
them all to be about equally frosted and blackened, and probably
destroyed. Last year our pears suffered a good deal from the sleet of
the second of February, which clung to the trees ten days, and the crop
was a light one. This year, if appearances can be trusted, there will be
less. In the many intense freezes of the last twenty-five years, I have
never known pear buds to be seriously injured; last year being a marked
exception and this still more so. Hardy grapes have probably suffered as
much, and the tender varieties are completely done for. How well the May
cherry has resisted the low temperature remains to be seen. As for the
sweet cherries, it is probably the end of them.
There were buds set for an unusually abundant crop of apples in
1884--the Presidential year. The hardy varieties have escaped material
damage, no doubt, but some of the tender Eastern varieties, like the
Baldwin, Roxbury Russet, in all reasonable probability, have not only
lost their buds but their lives also.
* * * * *
The disasters following the very low temperature of last week have no
doubt been increased by the immaturity of the wood, due to the cool,
moist summer. If summers like those of 1882-83 are not warm enough to
ripen the corn crop, buds and wood of fruit trees will not acquire a
maturity that resists intense cold as we see by our experience with
pears, grapes, and peaches in the fruit season of 1883, and which is
almost sure to be repeated with aggravations in 1884. Possibly the
ground being but lightly frozen and protected by a good coat of snow,
may save the apple trees and others from great disaster following thirty
to thirty-five degrees below zero, when falling on half ripened wood,
but the reasonable fear is that orchards on high land in Northern and
Central Illinois, have been damaged more than last year. If so perhaps
it were better after all, since it will open the eyes of a great many to
the mistakes in location heretofore made, and lead them to put out
future orchards where they ought to be.
* * * * *
If my word of warning could reach those engaged in taking measures at
Washington to prevent the spread of epidemic and infectious diseases in
our stock, it would be "go slow." If the wishes of a few veterinarians
are met and the demands of a raft of pauper lawyers and politicians are
complied with, it will result in the creation of a half dozen
commissions. Each one of them, as previous ones have done, will find
sufficient reason for their continuance and reports will be made that
half the live stock in the country, South and West, is either in danger
from or suffering under some of the many forms of epidemic or infectious
diseases--and by the way, what justice is there in putting Detmers out
of the way, and clinging to Salmon and Laws, both of whom indorsed
nearly every thing the former did? Beware of commissions, and above all
of putting men upon them whose bread and butter is of more consequence
to them than the stock interest, vast as it is.
B. F. J.
WAYSIDE NOTES.
BY A MAN OF THE PRAIRIE.
Of the 2,500,000 packages of seeds distributed by the United States
Agricultural Department during last year more than 2,000,000 packages
were furnished to Congressmen, and I notice that some of the papers are
making unfavorable comments on the fact. Now I do not discover anything
that seems to me radically wrong in this practice of the Department of
Agriculture, or rather in the instructions under which the practice
prevails. There are some men, mostly seedsmen, and some publishers,
mostly those interested in securing patronage through seed premiums, or
which are run in the interest of seed dealers, who grumble a great deal
about this matter, and who sneer at the department and derisively call
it the "Government seed store." But I imagine if the public was
thoroughly informed of the good the department has done by its seed
distributions, it would have a great deal better opinion of this branch
than it now has, and I wish Mr. Dodge, or some other efficient man, who
knows all about it from the beginning would give to the country a
complete history of what has been done in the way of introducing and
disseminating new seeds, plants, and cuttings. I believe if the whole
truth were told it would put an end to ridicule and denunciation. I am
aware that there have been some things connected with this work that
were not exactly correct. There may have been some helping of friends in
the purchase of seeds; there may have been some noxious weed seeds sent
out to the detriment of the country; Congressmen may have used their
quota of seeds for the purpose of keeping themselves solid with their
constituents. But, after all, it is my candid opinion the seed
distributing branch of the department has been an untold blessing to the
farmers of this country. As to this matter of giving a large proportion
of the seeds to Congressmen, I have not much fault to find about that
either, though perhaps a better system of distribution might be devised.
I have yet to learn that an application to a Congressman for seed has
been disregarded, if the seeds were to be had, whether that application
came from a political friend or a political foe. And I do wish that
farmers generally would make more frequent application to the members
from their respective districts than they do. It will be money in their
pockets if they will keep posted in what the department has to
distribute which is valuable, or new and promising, and solicit samples
either from Congressmen or direct from the Commissioner of Agriculture.
* * * * *
"Put your thumb down there," said an experienced orchardist to me the
other day. We were talking about the recently started theory that the
best bearing orchards are to be found on the low lands of the prairies.
"You just wait and see if these brag orchards ever bear another crop! It
will be as it was after the severe winter of 1874 and '75, when the
following autumn many of our orchards bore so profusely. The succeeding
year the majority of the trees were as dead as smelts, and the balance
never had vigor enough afterward to produce a decent crop. Once before,"
said he, "we had a similar experience in Illinois. Put your thumb down
at this place and watch for results. Do not say anything about this in
your Wayside Blusterings, at least as coming from me," and of course I
don't. But I wanted the readers of THE PRAIRIE FARMER to help me watch
with fear and trembling for the fulfillment of this horticultural
prophesy, so I straightway make a note of it and ask you all to "put
your thumbs down here" and wait. My friend's theory is that the severe
cold of last winter destroyed a large portion of the roots of these
trees; that the root pruning caused the extra fruitfulness, but proved
too severe for the vitality of the trees to withstand, and that next
year the bulk of the trees will not leaf out at all; and further that
the old theory as taught by Kennecott, Whitney, Edwards, and the rest of
the "fathers," that apple trees cannot thrive with wet feet, was the
correct theory then and is the correct theory now. He would still plant
on high, well drained land.
* * * * *
My neighbor up at the "Corners" has a large flock of grade Cotswold
sheep--Cotswolds crossed on large native Merinos. He keeps them to
produce early lambs for the Chicago market. For the last three or four
years he has received, on an average, four dollars per head for his
lambs, taken at his farm. It is a profitable and pleasant sort of
farming. Some day I may tell how he manages, in detail.
* * * * *
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.
CHICKEN CHAT.
Let me see--it was sometime during the month of December that the "Man
of the Prairie" went wandering all over the village, and even scoured
the country round about the village in search of an extra dozen eggs,
and went home mad, and, man fashion, threatened to kill off every hen on
the place if they didn't proceed to do their duty like hens and fellow
citizens. It was also during that same December that the fifty Plymouth
Rock hens that we are wintering in the barn cellar, laid, regardless of
the weather, 736 eggs--an average of nearly fifteen eggs apiece.
"Is it a fact that the corn is too poor for manufacture into eggs?"
I don't know anything about the corn in your locality, but I do know
that our Plymouth Rocks had whole corn for supper exactly thirty-one
nights during the month of December--not Western corn, but sound,
well-ripened, Northern corn, that sells in our market for twenty cents
more per bushel than Western corn. I also know that hens fed through the
winter on corn alone will not lay enough to pay for the corn, but in our
climate the poultry-raiser may feed corn profitably fully one-half the
time. When the morning feed consists of cooked vegetable and bran or
shorts, and the noon meal of oats or buckwheat, the supper may be of
corn. I believe the analytical fellows tell us that corn won't make
eggs, and I am sure I don't know whether it will or not, and I don't
much care; but I know that hens will eat corn, when they can get it, in
preference to any other grain, and I know that it "stands by" better
than anything else, and that it is a heat-producing grain, and
consequently just the thing to feed when the days are short and the
nights long, and the mercury fooling around 30 degrees below zero. Hens
need something besides egg material; they must have food to keep up the
body heat, and the poultry-raiser who feeds no corn in winter blunders
just as badly as the one who feeds all corn.
* * * * *
Talking about corn for fowls reminds me that the agricultural papers are
full of wails from farmers who were taken in last season on seed corn.
If they had followed the plan of an old farmer of my acquaintance they
would not now be obliged to mourn a corn crop cut off by frost. When
this old chap went to farming forty years ago he bought a peck of seed
corn of the Northern yellow flint variety, and as he "don't believe in
running after all the new seeds that are advertised in the papers," he
is still raising the same variety--only it ripens some three weeks
earlier than it did then. Every fall he does through his field and
selects his seed corn from the best of the earliest ripened ears; when
these ears are husked one or two husks are left on each ear, and then
the husks, with the ears attached, are braided together until there are
fifteen or twenty ears in a string. These strings of seed corn are hung
up in the sun for a fortnight or so, and then hung from the rafters in a
cool, dry loft over the wood-shed; there it remains till seed time comes
again, and it never fails to grow.
FANNY FIELD.
BUSINESS STILL RUNNING.
"My own hens closed out business six weeks ago," not long since said
"Man of the Prairie." He mentioned also, that he had not much faith in
pure bred poultry. Now he severely complains that no eggs can be found
among the farmers nor in village stores. I will not say that pure
strains of poultry are better layers than common, but, when one pays a
good price for poultry, it is an incentive to provide good shelter and
bestow upon them some manifestations of interest which would not be done
with the common fowls. Herein may lay in part the secret of better
returns from pure strains.
Years ago our chickens 'closed out business' for several months. Of late
this procedure is unknown. We crossed our best common hens with Plymouth
Rock stock, paying a good price. We furnished comfortable quarters, gave
variety of feed, and at present writing the lady-like biddies furnish
enough eggs for our own use and some to sell to stores and neighbors.
We still have a few common hens (not caring to have all pure) yet we
find that with same care and attention, the purer strains give best
returns.
Skeptical, like a good many others, we were loth to experiment. Thanks
to Fanny Field for her wise and instructive poultry writings. In a
recent number she seemed to be in doubt whether her writings were heeded
or doing any one good. Let me say in behalf of myself and a few others,
that a few married ladies now have pin money by following her
instructions, who, before, had to go to their lords (husbands) when they
wanted a little money, which was sometimes begrudgingly given, and often
times not at all.
BACHELOR & MAID.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA.
[Illustration]
THE APIARY.
THE BEST HIVE.
In answer to many inquiries as to the best hive, we will here state that
is a mere matter of choice. Many good movable frame hives are now in
use, free from patents, and while we prefer the Langstroth, there may be
others just as good.
Apiarists differ as to what constitutes the best hive. Novices in bee
culture generally think that they can invent a better hive than any in
use, but after trying their invention for awhile, conclude that they are
not as wise as they thought they were. Many hives are patented yearly by
persons ignorant of the nature of the honey-bee, and few, if any, are
received with favor by intelligent apiarists.
The requisites for a good hive are durability, simplicity, ease of
construction and of working, and pleasing to the eye. We think the
Langstroth embodies these. It was invented by the father of modern
bee-culture. He gave to the world the movable frame; without its use, we
might as well keep our bees in hollow logs, as our fathers did.
Different sizes of movable frames are now in use, but two-thirds of the
apiarists prefer the Langstroth.
Upon many farms, bees may be found in salt barrels, nail-kegs, etc.,
doing little good for their owner, while if they were put into hives,
where the surplus could be obtained in good shape, they would become a
source of income. Specialists either manufacture their own hives, or buy
them in the flat, in the lumber region. As the farmer may need but a few
hives, he may find leisure in winter to make them.
Every farmer needs a workshop, and if he has none, should provide
himself with one. It need not be large, and can be made quite
inexpensively. In his barn, if it is large, partition off a room for a
workshop 12 × 14 feet, and if he not be blessed with a good large barn,
why a thousand feet of common boards, and a load of good stout saplings,
with a little mechanical skill and some muscle, will provide a very good
farm workshop.
Get a few tools, such as a saw, square, plane, hatchet, a brace, and a
few bits, and before twelve months pass away you will wonder how you
ever managed to do without one before; many a singletree or doubletree
can be made, or broken implements repaired during leisure, or the rainy
days of late winter or spring, and the boys will go there to try their
hands, and develop their mechanical skill; exercising both brain and
muscle. Remember that the school of industry is second to no university
in the land.
Now for the hives; in the first place you need a pattern. Purchase of
some dealer or manufacturer of apiarian supplies, a good Langstroth hive
complete with section boxes. Then get a couple of hundred feet (more or
less) of ten inch stock boards, mill dressed on both sides, then with
your pattern hive, workshop, and tools, you are master of the situation.
After your hives are made, don't forget to paint them; it is economy to
paint hives as well as dwelling houses.
LANGSTROTH HIVE.
For the benefit of those who may not be able to obtain a pattern hive,
or frame, we will give the dimensions. The sides of the Langstroth hive
are 10 inches wide, by 23 inches long, the ends are 12 inches long, the
back end the same width as the sides; front end, 3/8 inches narrower,
and recesses or sets back 3-3/8 inches from portico, all 7/8 inches
thick. The Langstroth frame is 17-1/4 × 9-1/4 inches outside measure.
The length of top bar of frame is 19-1/4 inches, the frame stuff is all
7/8 wide, the top bar is 5/8 × 7/8, and is V shaped on the under side
for a comb guide--the upright pieces 1/2 × 7/8, the bottom pieces
1/4 × 7/8.
The above are the dimensions of an eight frame hive. Strips 1/4 × 7/8
inches are nailed on the outside of the hive 1/4 inch from the upper
edge, and the cap or upper hive rests upon them. We make the cap 22-1/8
inches long by 13-7/8 inches wide in the clear, and ten inches high.
Some apiarists omit the porticos, but we like them, and the bees appear
to enjoy them. Right angled triangle blocks, made right and left, are
used to regulate the entrance. By changing the position of these blocks
on the alighting board the size of the entrance may be varied, and the
bees always directed to it by the shape of the block, without any loss
of time in searching for it--in case of robbing the hive, the hive can
be entirely closed with them. A board was formerly used to cover the
frames, but is now generally abandoned, apiarists preferring duck,
enameled cloth, or heavy muslin.
MRS. L. HARRISON.
* * * * *
NO SAFER REMEDY can be had for Coughs and Colds, or any trouble of the
Throat, than "_Brown's Bronchial Troches_." Price 25 cents. _Sold only
in boxes._
* * * * *
MISCELLANEOUS.
ARM & HAMMER BRAND
TO FARMERS.--It is important that the SODA OR SALERATUS they use should
be _white_ and _pure_, in common with all similar substances used for
food.
[Illustration: CHURCH & CO'S SODA & SALERATUS]
In making bread with yeast, it is well to use about half a teaspoonful
of the "ARM AND HAMMER" BRAND SODA or SALERATUS at the same time, and
thus make the bread rise better and prevent it becoming sour by
correcting the natural acidity of the yeast.
DAIRYMEN
AND
FARMERS
should use only the "ARM AND HAMMER" brand for cleaning and keeping
milk-pans sweet and clean.
_To insure obtaining only the_ "ARM AND HAMMER" _brand Soda or
Saleratus, buy it in_ "POUND _or_ HALF-POUND PACKAGES," _which bear our
name and trade-mark, as inferior goods are sometimes substituted for
the_ "ARM AND HAMMER" _brand when bought in bulk._
* * * * *
"THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST."
ENGINES
SAW MILLS, THRESHERS,
HORSE POWERS,
(For all sections and purposes.) Write for FREE Pamphlet and Prices to
The Aultman & Taylor Co., Mansfield, Ohio.
* * * * *
THE FAMOUS EASY-RUNNING
Monarch Lightning Sawing Machine
IT BEATS THE WORLD FOR SAWING LOGS
OR FAMILY STOVE WOOD.
SENT ON 30 DAYS' TEST TRIAL.
[Illustration]
The boy in the picture on the left is sawing up logs into 20-inch
lengths, to be split into stovewood for family use. This is much the
BEST and CHEAPEST way to get out your firewood, because the 20-inch
blocks are VERY EASILY split up, a good deal easier and quicker than the
old-fashioned way of cutting the logs into 4-feet lengths, splitting it
into cordwood, and from that sawing it up with a buck saw into
stovewood. We sell a large number of machines to farmers and others for
just this purpose. A great many persons who had formerly burned coal
have stopped that useless expense since getting our Machine. Most
families have one or two boys, 16 years of age and up, who can employ
their spare time in sawing up wood just as well as not. The
MONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE
will save your paying money and board to ONE hired man and perhaps TWO
men.
The boy at the right in the picture is sawing up cordwood in a buck
frame. You can very easily use our machine in this way if you have
cordwood on hand that you wish to saw up into suitable lengths for
firewood.
A boy sixteen years old can work the machine all day and not get any
more tired than he would raking hay. The machine runs VERY EASILY, so
easily, in fact, that after giving the crank half a dozen turns, the
operator may let go and the machine will run itself for THREE OR FOUR
REVOLUTIONS. Farmers owning standing timber cannot fail to see the many
advantages of this great LABOR-SAVING AND MONEY-SAVING MACHINE. If you
prefer, you can easily go directly into the woods and easily saw the
logs into 20-inch lengths for your family use, or you can saw them into
4-foot lengths, to be split into cordwood, when it can be readily hauled
off to the village market. Many farmers are making a good deal of money
with this Machine in employing the dull months of the year in selling
cordwood.
It makes a great difference in LABOR AND MONEY both in using our
machine, because you get away with a second man. It takes two men to run
the old-fashioned cross-cut saw, and it makes two backs ache every day
they use it. Not so with our saw.
We offer $1,000 for a sawing machine that is EASIER OPERATED and FASTER
RUNNING than ours. Every farmer should own our machine. It will pay for
itself in one season. Easily operated by a sixteen-year-old boy.
Lumbermen and farmers should GET THE BEST--GET THE CHEAPEST--GET THE
MONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE.
E. DUTTER, Hicksville, O., writes:--It runs so easy that it is JUST FUN
to saw wood.
C. A. COLE, Mexico, N. Y., writes:--With this machine I sawed off an elm
log, twenty-one inches in diameter, in one minute, forty-three seconds.
Z. G. HEGE, Winston, N. C., writes:--I have shown your machine to
several farmers, and all pronounce it a PERFECT SUCCESS.
WM. DILLENBACK, Dayton, Tex., writes:--I am WELL PLEASED with the
MONARCH LIGHTNING SAWING MACHINE. My boys can saw WITH ALL EASE.
L. W. YOST, Seneca, Kan., writes:--I will bet $50 that I can saw as much
with this machine as any two men can with the old-fashioned cross-cut
saw.
T. K. BUCK, Mt. Vernon, Ill., writes:--I have given the Monarch a fair
trial, and can truly say it is ALL YOU CLAIM FOR IT, a complete success,
enabling a boy to do the work of two strong men, and indeed, more. I
would not take $75 for the MONARCH and be deprived of the privilege of
having another like it. I sawed off a twenty-inch solid water oak log
twelve times yesterday in FORTY-FIVE MINUTES.
J. M. CRAWFORD. Columbia, S. C., writes:--I tried the Monarch on an oak
log to-day before twenty farmers. All said it WORKED PERFECTLY.
N. B.--We are selling SIX TIMES as many Machines as any other firm,
simply because our Machine gives perfect satisfaction. Our factory is
running day and night to fill orders. Send in your order at once. The
BEST is the CHEAPEST. Our agent sold four machines in one day. Another
sold twenty-eight in his township. Another agent cleared $100 in one
week. BE SURE AND MENTION THIS PAPER.
WE WISH A LIVE, WIDE-AWAKE AGENT IN EVERY COUNTY IN THE UNITED STATES
AND CANADA. Write for Latest Illustrated Catalogue giving Special Terms
and scores of Testimonials.
MONARCH MANUFACTURING CO.
163 E. RANDOLPH STREET, CHICAGO, ILL.
* * * * *
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._
SCIENTIFIC.
SOME GOSSIP ABOUT DARWIN.
The last number of the American Naturalist presents the following from
David S. Jorden, of Bloomington, Indiana. It is one of those gossipy
bits about the great scientist that every body enjoys reading.
In a recent visit to England, the writer strolled into the village of
Down in Kent, and talked with some of the villagers in regard to Mr.
Darwin, whose beautiful home is just outside the little town.
Some of this talk, although in itself idle and valueless, may have an
interest to readers, as showing how a great man looks to his smaller
neighbors.