davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
AGRICULTURAL.
T. H. HOSklNS, M. D., Editor,
Newport, Vermont.
The American Pathological Meeting.

We are honored with the following let
ter from the venerable Marshall p. Will
der, president of this great continental
association of fruit-growers, which we
lay before our readers, hoping that it
will stimulate some of them, at least, to
attend the meeting in Michigan to
which it refers:
" DORCHESTER, Mass, July 10, 1885.
Ny Dear Sir:-I am always inter-
ested and profited with the experience
you have in fruits, and 1 hope you will
surely be at the meeting of the Ameri-
can Pathological Society at Grand
Rapids, September 8. We want you to
speak of fruits in the North, with which
you keep yourself posted. Our society
has accomplished an immense work in
the thirty-seven years of its history,
but il has still greater one to execute
in the great future of american pomol-
ogy. So please come out with strong
delegation from your state. Please also
give us a lift in the newspapers.
Great preparations are making for us.
Michigan has appropriated 81 900 for the
purpose. MARSHALL p. WILDER.
"Dr. Hoskins."
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
The Siberian Apricot.

Along with the Russian Mulberry,
the tree-peddlers have been distributing
the Siberian Apricot. Both of them can
be bought at wholesale very cheaply,
being raised easily and abundantly from
seed; yet as they are novelties, high
prices can be asked for them and big
profit realized. Very exaggerated state
ments are made about them. We do
not consider the Russian Mulberry of
any value at all, except as a curiosity
for the lawn. Most of the seedlings
produce fruit that is hardly eatable, and
even when it is fairly good it is hardly
worth while to grow it for thatpurpose,
as only few ripen at time, and the
birds are pretty sure to get them.
The Siberian Apricot is of more value.
1t is distinct botanical species, differ
ing from the common apricot in being
native far north in Asia, and having
much greater resistance to winters cold
Our trees were killed back last winter,
but so slightly as to encourage us to be-
lieve that they will prove hardy in Or
binary seasons. 1t can be grown as a
shrub, by branching it near the ground,
as it naturally does, and may thus be
protected to some extent by snow and
other shelter. We think it to be quite
as hardy as the hardest cultivated plums.
1t fruits young, and the fruit, which re-
sembles a small peach, while it varies
in quality, averages quite as good as
Seeding peaches. 1t is certainly the
nearest thing to peach which can be
grown with ordinary culture in Yer
mont. In has remarkable keeping and
transporting qualities for fruit of its
class, as is proved by the fact that we
recently received specimens by mail
from Central Kansas which arrived in
perfect order These specimens were
taken from different seeding trees, and
were all very good, while one Of them
was of excellent quality, sweet, juicy
and rich. They were about an inch
and a quarter in length and nearly an
inch in diameter, the color yellow, the
skin slightly woolly, and the stone much
like that of peach. They were intro
duced into the West by Mennonite
emigrants from Russia, and have passed
from them to the American settlers. The
choicer varieties can be propagated by
budding, and such are already being
offered by western nurserymen, but
those sold by peddlers are almost invari
ably seedlings. Their season is earlier
or later, about with our cultivated
plums, and we think them well worth
trying in Vermont.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
Questions About PhOsphates, Etc.

G.. A. Clough, Post Mills, VT, writes:
l. edo you know of recipe the state
chemist has sent out for making phos-
phate? have heard something about
one, but cannot learn what it is. Do
the bones have to be ground, or will
the acid cut them without? l want
something that will raise corn, but 1
cannot get money enough to buy at $40
per ton.
2. "What kind of grass is best to
seed down wet piece with-one that
does not want to be plowed very often?
3. is it good way to SOW India
wheat and pillow it under for manure,
sowing two crops in one year?"
REPLY BY AGRICULTURAL EDITOR.
We suppose Mr.. Clough refers to the
recipe given in his lectures by Secre-
tary Cutting of the State Board of Ag-
riculture, which we copy from his Re-
port for 1882, p. 24S. We slightly
abbreviate it,
FORMULA.
Take two hundred pounds of bone
dust, the finer the better. Sift it so as
save one hundred pounds of the finest.
Put the coarse part into tub or box
and wet with water so it is moist-it will
will take three or four pailfuls. Then
slowly add two gallons of sulphuric acid
Coil of vitroD which weighs at least
fourteen pounds to the gallon. [The
heavier this acid is, the stronger it is. ]
Stir continuously; it will foam and boil.
Let it stand twelve hours; then add
another gallon of acid as before, and
while it is hot, so the Jumps will break
easily, add the other one hundred
pounds of bone-dust. Then imme-
diately add sixteen hundred pounds
of dry loan, woods dirt, or muck,
which has been previously dried and
sifted, and mix well. A mortar
bed or box is a good thing to do it in. I
This makes ton, and has cost you
about So, and, as far as my experiments
go, is equal to any ton of heterogeneous
fertilizer used. | use about two hun
dred pounds to the acre. / find il bet
ter than bone cut with sulphuric acid
until it contains fifteen per cent of SOL
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
Orchard Grass.

l have piece of land that / wish to
seed down this fall. 1t is an eastern
slope and is excellent corn land. Clover
does well two years and then gives
place to other grasses. Timothy does
well except we have a severe drouth
after haying, as was the case in 1882
and 1888, and then it burns the roots
out. Would orchard grass do better
and stand such drouth better? If so,
how much seed should / want per acre
to ensure a good thick stand?
j. LYMAN, North Tunbridge, Vt.
REPLY BY AGRICULTURAL EDIToR.-
Orchard grass is the most persistent
and enduring of all the grasses we are
acquainted with, not excepting June
grass and witch-grass. We do not think
it ever lets go where it once gets a
hold, but it does not spread by the
roots, like the above-named sorts, and
so is easily destroyed by blowing. 1t
grows in clumps or stools, like wheat.
These get larger and larger, and as the
leaves are abundant, long and thick,
they overlay the ground around, and
tend to kill out anything that crowds
too near. If abundance of seed-say
two or three bushels per acre-is used,
these clumps join, but do not make a
tough sod, like June grass. The seed
costs high, and this is the principal
reason it is not more sown; but it is
very easily raised, and by starting with
quarter of an acre seed could be got
from that to do all the seeding neces-
sary. 1t is an early grass, being ready
to cut with red clover in the bloom,
and it must be cut early, or it becomes
hard and reedy. Cut in the bloom it
makes excellent hay, quite equal to
timothy; and quite unlike that grass it
sends up second growth of leaves at
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
The LOring Scandal.

Peter Collier was formerly chemist to
the department of agriculture. He was
removed by Commissioner Loring, and
has since pursued that ornamental per-
sonage with vindictiveness. His latest
attack is an exposure of Loring's crook
edness in handling the sorghum appro-
priation. Loring offered large prizes
for the successful manufacture of sugar
from sorghum, and then awarded one
of the prizes, so Collier alleges, to
of sorghum in his life. One of the con-
testants got wind of this abuse, found
that his own and other samples of sugar
submitted for the prize had never been
examined, and by threats of exposure
compelled Loring to revise the award.
This is Golfers version of it., and he
says he can let daylight into other of
Loring's transactions. People who live
in glass houses, however, should not
throw stones. If these charges were
made without personal animus they
would have more weight. 1t is evil
dent, however, that DR.. Loring per-
mitted notorious abuses during his adj
ministration. If he had not done so,
he would have ere this acted on the
HOmestedds suggestion and called for
a congressional investigation to clear
himself from the imputations with
which he has been so freely assailed
since his retirement from office. DR..
Loring is not acting the part of man
who has honestly done his official duty.
We cut the above from the Home
stead. We have known Professor Col
lier for many years. Though of phleg-
matte appearance, he is sensitive and
nervous man, who feels a wrong deeply
and expresses the feeling strongly. But
we do not regard him as vindictive."
If he were angry at us for real or
supposed wrong, we believe that if we
should show desire and purpose to do
him justice he would meet the propo-
sal in good spirit. Such men we do
not call vindictive. The remark about
"people who live in glass houses " is
rather vague. Does the Homestead
apply it to Collier? If so, fairness re-
quires that it should be more explicit.
What has Collier done to incur such a
charge? How does he live in a glass
house? Does the Homestead mean that
he has misappropriated or otherwise
improperly used public funds? Char
acter should not be assaulted by in
uendO,
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12

uble phosphoric acid, such as Professor
Sabin in his addresses has put down as
the most valuable superphosphate.
arrived at the formula by experiments,
against reason, as a chemist would say,
but, as l have explained, it is just the
mixture that is acceptable to the little
rootlets of various plants"
In the same article Dr. Cutting gives
other formulas for making fertilizers,
some of which we should very much
prefer to the above, but this is the
cheap one which our correspondent
probably refers to. From what we can
learn 0hough some who have tried it
say it works welD, it has not generally
done as well as ordinary commercial
fertilizers. 1t is really no other than
three hundred fifty pounds of COM
mon, plain bone superphosphate, ex-
tended to ton with earth, soil or
muck. We do not see why it would
not do just as well to buy the plain SUI
perphosphate Git can be had for about
S25 or $50 per tony and save the trouble
and risk of handling the corrosive acid,
which inexperienced persons had better
let alone. 1t can then be eX-
tended with the dirt as advised, and
this is certainly good way to ensure
that it shall not injure the seed. Two
hundred pounds of it will contain
thirty-five pounds of the superphos-
phate, which seems to us a very light
dressing for one acre.
2. Redtop and herd's-grass are usually
recommended for such land. If not too
wet, clover will also grow on it, and do
well, though apt to winter-kill. If too
wet for these, fowl-meadow grass will
often come in of itself, or it may be
sown if the seed can be got. But usu-
ally any land that can be plowed will
grow redtop
3. Yes, India wheat or buckwheat
may be grown and plowed in for ma
nure, but unless the land is very poor,
rye or clover is better, because they en-
rich the ground much more. 1t is only
where the land is too poor for these
that the former are proftably used.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12

clover alone one hundred pounds of
plaster to the acre is very cheap
dressing, and will often more than
double the crop, except in very dry
season. Ashes sown in the fall on
pasture, say ten to twenty bushels to
the acre, will usually bring in white
clover, and improve the other feed.
The greatest temptation of too small
pasture is to over-feed it, thus making
it poorer and poorer.
Butter is so low now that dairying is
very hard and discouraging business.
But it is not probable that this extreme
depression in price will last much longer.
The young dairyman ought above all
things to strive to make the very best
butter, and as much of it as good cows,
well fed, will make. Then he is pre-
pared to demand and get the best price.
Let him learn all he can from those
who are known to be successful in the
business. There is nothing that pays
better than to inquire and learn of the
masters in our trade. And here pleas
ant and agreeable manners pay well.
People that like you will tell you much
that is profitable to know, and liking
depends greatly on being likeable. To
be good farmer requires study. To
be successful farmer requires pluck
and perseverance.
In regard to the cost of ashes, the
only thing to be said is, get it as good
and as cheap as you can. 1t can be
picked up in the villages, and farmers
will often sell it. We have bought hun
dreds of bushels from men whose own
land was suffering for it. If you can
not get hardwood ashes, take mixed OF
soft-wood ashes. Leached ashes is very
effective on grass.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
Philosophy of San Flow.

The sap Of most plants is taken from
the soil by the power of causing os-
mosis which the roots possess. This
force is known to be sufficient to raise
the fluid to height of over one hundred
feet unaided, and gives rise to what is
generally known as root-pressure.
In the stem the fluid passes through the
vessels or ducts of the pitted cells of
plants which, like the pine, have few
vessels. These are all minute tubes in
which the sap is supported by capillary
attraction, so that root-pressure is gen
orally considered to be amply sufficient
to force the current to the top of the
highest tree. But its motion upward is
induced by the pumping action of the
leaves, from which large quantities of
water evaporate.
The ducts and pitted cells through
which the stream flows are not entirely
filled with sap, but include bubbles of
gas with it. AS water is withdrawn
from the uppermost cells by evapora-
ton, the air in them expands to occupy
the additional space, and so eXerts less
pressure than at first. This allows
some of the water lower down to be
forced upward and into them by the
elasticity of the air-bubbles in the other
cells, the adjustment going on from
above downward-the tendency being
to equalize the gas pressure throughout
the entire plant. While evaporation
continues, this equilibrium is never
reached; when it stops the balance may
be affected and the sap remain quiet,
supported by root-pressure and capil-
larity, unless some disturbing element
is introduced.
This exact balance is probably
never reached, even when the leaves
are off the tree. The sun warns one
part of the stem more than another,
and the temperature of the whole
changes from hour to hour, and from
day to day. Every change of this sort
causes the air within the cells to ex-
pand or contract, and so leads to a
movement of sap from the root upward
or from one part of the trunk to
another. The flow of maple sap in
spring illustrates this nicely. During a
cold night the air in the trunk contracts,
and the space it occupied is filled with
sap from below ground. When the
sun strikes the tree the next morning
and warns it up, the bubbles of gas
again expand and drive the sap out
wherever twig has been broken or a
hole bored into the trunk.-PrgesSo,
William Trelease, IN Ne,c York Tribune
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
The Red Astrachan Apple.

This apple has been generally, and
1 think properly, classed among the
Russian varieties, but recently the state
ment has been made that it was origi-
nally native of Sweden and introduced
from there. This apple has been in
America so many years that the per-
sonal recollection of the oldest pomolo-
gist cannot fix its origin, and therefore
it is matter of history, and we cannot
be " wiser than what is written" In
a book entitled "The Northern Fruit
Culturist, or Farmers Guide for the
Orchard and Fruit Garden" published
by Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington,
Vermont, in 1850, we find this refer
ence to this fruit quoted from Houey's
Magazine: /" The Red Astrachan is
tolerably well-known, much esteemed
and an exceedingly beautiful apple. 1t
is a native of Sweden and was first i'm
ported into England about the year 1916,
when it fruited in the garden of Mr..
Atkinson of Grove End, near London.
AT what period it was introduced into
this country we are not aware" In a
foot-note Mr.. Goodrich says: We
think Mr.. Hovey errs in saying this
apple is native of Sweden. Mr.. McIn-
tosh, an English writer, says oft: Orig
mated in Russia and introduced here
from Sweden by William Atkinson, Esq,
some time prior to 1920 Mr.. Kenrick
also says: A new Russian fruit The
quotations here given are from the Sec
ond edition of Mr.. Goodrich's book, en-
larged and corrected. The author was
evidently an enthusiast in fruit culture
and had for years previous to his writ
ing given attention to the varieties.
His memory and observation must go
back nearly to the time of its introduce
ton, and his opinion, given in his second
edition, is entitled to much considera-
ton and is doubtless correct. The first
sentence in his book is true at the pres
ent day: The great cause of the
failure of many who attempt to cult
vate fruit north of latitude forty-three
degrees in New England, the northern
part of New York and Canada, is in pro-
curing varieties not adapted to our eli
mate" Y. f. JAMESON.
NOTE BY EDIToR.-It is probable that
the Red Astrachan apple is native of
the South Russian province of Astra-
chan, on the Caspian Sea, where the
winters are not harder that in Penn
sylvania. 1t unquestionably reached
this country by the way of Sweden and
England, early in the present century.
1t succeeds over large extent of coun-
try, doing we'll even as far south as
Louisiana, but fails in the sections
which require the true " iron-clads,"
like the native fruits of the Russian
steppes, or prairies, which have been
more recently imported. One of these,
the Switzer, is of the same season as
Red Astrachan, as large, as well colored,
less perishable, not so acid, and of a
better flavor for dessert. 1t is also very
productive, a very free and handsome
grower and comes early into bearing.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12

once, with some stems, which will
cover the ground thickly in two weeks
after moving. This makes it fine
pasture grass on good land. 1t is not
worth much of anything on poor land.
1t is very little subject to winter-killing,
as the thick LEAKAGE catches the early
SHOWS and holds them, thus being self
protecting. On land suited to timothy
orchard grass will make as much hay
and stand much harder usage, but the
seeding should always be liberal, so as
to get the ground well covered.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12

LABOR AND INTELLECT.-Rus
says that it is no less fatal error to de-
spise labor, when regulated by intellect,
than to value it for its own sake. We
are always in these days trying to sepa-
rate the two; we want one man to be
always working, and we call one a gen.
tleman and the other an operative;
whereas the workman ought often to be
thinking, and the thinker often to be
working, and both should be gentlemen
in the best sense. AS il is, we make
both ungentle, the one envying, the
other despising, his brother, and the
mass of society is made up of morbid
thinkers and miserable workers.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12

COLONEL F. d. CURTIS of New York
is of the opinion that the practice of
raising cream at low temperature, as
is now quite common among dairymen,
is deleterious to the bookkeeping quail
ity of the butter. He does not seem to
to explain why this is so, or to show
the characteristic difference between
creams raised by the different methods.
1t would be interesting, if not impor-
tant, to know whether this is an opin-
ion only, handed down from the days of
a different practice, or whether this is
an actual fact.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12

THE observations of a banker of Ce-
dar Rapids, Iowa, were to the effect
that, before dairying was introduced
into Linn county, he could hardly find
money to supply the demand of bor-
rowers. But after the farmers went
into COWS, and of late years, he had
more money on deposit than he could
find use for at profit. As long as the
farmers stuck to embarrassing, they
kept poor and hard up" but since
they have gone into dairying they have
become prosperous, and are to-day in
dependent, with good bank accounts.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
Common Sense About Lawsuits.

We find in the columns of an eX-
change the following quoted as the re-
marks of lawyer in an address to
farmers: " If wasting contest in court
between two business men, two traders
or two spectators is to be deplored,
how much more to be prevented, if it
be within the range of effort to do so,
is a lawsuit between two farmers-two
farmers who array their neighborhood
into hostile factions, who turn their
golden sheen of peaceful sunlight into
angry lightning over dispute whether
line fence should stand five feet this
way or five feet that; who 90 down to
the county court in battle array over
the course of little creek, which is dry
one-third of the year, frozen up another
third, and which has hardly enough
water in it the remaining third to turn
boys toy wheel; who come to the
county temple of justice with their re-
spective cohorts of witnesses and spend
whole days, under the generalship Of
costly lawyers, to get a decision, about
as apt to be wrong as right, whether a
cow committed trespass, when all she
destroyed is not equal to the fee of the
lawyer on one side, and she is herself
perhaps not worth half the fee that will
be paid to the lawyer on the other side.
How much better than this it would be,
simply in the consideration of dollars
and cents-whether you spell this last
word cents or senSe-if one of those
farmers would cut up an acre of corn in
addition to the one destroyed, and haul
it over and present it as a gift to his ia
vorite lawyer, and if the other would
fatten the COW, and skin her, and dress
her nice and clean, and dump her down
as free Offering in the kitchen of his
favorite lawyer-and have no lawsuit.'
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
Notice

The undersigned is des lrous Of selling the wooden
stands at the outlets of ponds The lower pond
covers hundred fifty aeresj the upper. one hun
bred seventy. The ponds forty rods apart, with
stone dams and never failing water. Said min is
dirty by forty feet in size three stories high, with
custom carding machines good rum one factory
and ali other machinery in good running order I'M
mediate possession given. Terms easy
US-1O JONAS Il. OkMSbEE Proprietor,
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12
Desirable Farm for Sale.

Said farm is situated one mile south OF Planheld
Springs, on the main road to Chelsea, containing
about two hundred acres, some fifty of II being re-
claimed meadow, ertra grass land, most of which is
work. Keeps about thirty;hye head Of cattle;
Never.failing water at the buildings; Apple and
and timber easy of access Also the stock. hay
grain, farming and sugar tools, and about twenty
1--WE cords of dry stove wood, with farm If desired
For twenty years 1t has been my aim TO improve
this farm for a pleasant home, but circumstances
and health make 1t absolutely necessary TO sell
Possession given at any time. j, I. LADD:
Plainfeld, VT, January 10, 1885 S-u
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-08-12

WHAT favor is Alsike clover finding
among farmers? 1t has been sown
from time to time by some farmers, but,
so far as we can judge from observation,
is not now grown to any considerable
extent. Is this because it does not
prove after trial as profitable as the red
clover, or is it because farmers are
somewhat inclined to hold to the old
and let alone the new?