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m LAST OF THE WAPITI.
W FORTY-MIL'S CHASE AFTER A
LONE ELK.
Story of the Extinction of the Race
in the Great Forests of Pensyl
vania.
“I will tell you the story of how the
iast elk that ever startled the hunter
with his whistle in the forests of Penn
sylvania was killed, if you would like
to hear it?" said an old resident of that
eregion to a New York Times corre-
Eondentas they sat smoking together in
is cabin after a hard and not very suc
cessful day’s hunt. *
“By all means,” X replied. “Nothing
could be more to my wish.”
i “The killing of that last elk occurred
as late as the winter of 18B7,” continued
the old hunter, “ulthough elk was be
lieved to have been extinct in this btate
twenty years before. Sixty years ago
they were still very numerous in the
Northwestern Pennsylvania forests,
pspeciaily in the wild Sinnemahoning
region, in what is now Elk county.
“Elk County was formed from other
pounties in IBi3, and it was because elk
Was still numerous within its bounda
ries that the name was given it. The
bite of the present county scat, the village
of Ridgeway, was an unbroken wilder
ness when this county was formed, and
bo better place for elk could be found.
X shot an elk on the site of the 61d Elk
County Court House six months before
the land was cleared on which it was to
be built. From whero Hidgeway now is
to the present city of Bradford, the
metropolis of the oil region, a famous
Elk path or runway extended, leading to
a salt lick in what is uow Washington
Park in Bradford.
“In 1845, the country having been
settled very rapidly, and elk hunting
having been pursued persistently by
many expert hunters without regard to
the means used to kill the animals, what
was believed to be the last elk in the
Btate was killed. The hunter who shot :
it was Beth Kelson, a famous woodsman,
who had a record of Dr elk from 1830 to
1813, and who was still living the last I
knew, 1 having visited him at Pound
Island. Elk Co nty, in 1883. Nelson set
his traps and hunted the ridges of that
region year in and year out after killing
that elk, and was satisfied that the wapiti
face had been annihilated along the
Sinnemahoning,and if it had disappeared
from that wild section it was certain
that it had no representative in any other
part of the Btate. Early in September,
1807, however, as he was setting his traps
in Bennett’s Cheek, near Flag Swamp,
he heard the peculiar and unmistakable
whistle that a bull elk makes at that
time of year, and then only for three or
four days. It is its call for a mate, and
tins Indian hunters call it “the lone
gong.” Nelson returned to his cabin, got
his hounds, aud started back for 1 lag
Bwamptoput them on the trail of the
elk. in the meantime, unfortunately
for the old elk hunter, a heavy rain
had commenced to fall and by the time
he had reached the spot, where he had
heard the bull’s whistle all scent of his
trail had been obliterated and Nelson
Was forced to abandon his hunt.
“It was something that Nelson never
forgave himself for that he did not keep
his discovery to himself, for had he done
go he believed that he would have round
his record as an elk hunter by killing
the last ODe of that race in Pennsylva -
nia. But he told other hunters, and the
news that there was a bull elk still in
this Sinnemahoning woods soon spread
throughout the region, and the woods
were scoured for weeks by scores ot
hunters all anxious to lay the lone elk
low. Among the hunters who made the
woods of Northern and Northwestern
Pennsylvania their camping grounds as
late as 1807, were many old-time full
blooded Indians, who lived on the Corn
planter Reservation in Warren County,
and on the Cattaraugus Reservation,
over the New r York State line. Promi
nent among these was an Indian known
as Jim Jacobs, who lived on the Catta
raugus Reservation. He was the greatest
hunter that ever roamed the woods of that
country, and he was then over seventy
flve years old. He, in company with
another Indian hunter, started in after
the eik. Other hunters tired of the
weary and unprofitable search and left
the woods, but these two Indians knew
no such thing as weariness or ‘letup,’
u’< ouv u uo U I U|/,
and they kept relentlessly on the hunt.
In the latter part of November, on one
snowy day, the long search for the elk .
yv&s rewarded. The Indians struck its i
trail, and the chase began. Elk, uniike
deer, did not fly from danger by tremeu- !
dous leaps, but kept up a peculiar trot,
which they could maintain without
fatigue for days. It never directed its
course for water when pressed by hounds,
as the deer does, but kept
on its course as long a 3 it was pursued,
or until it was brought to bay. When
tlie dogs succeeded in drawing near to!
the flying elk it invariably sought the
summit of a rook or elevated point,
Where it would stand and defend itself
against the dogs with its forefeet. This
was the stage of the chase in which the
doom of the elk was sealed. The dogs
would harass it, but, if they were trained
to the business, kept at safe distance
from the quick aud powerful blow of its
Iharp hoofs, for one blow would kill the
earnest dog that ever followed the trail.
The dogs would then keep the poor elk
at bay until the hunters came up, when
the well directed bullets ended the
combat.
“.iiui .'acobs wns learned in all the
tactics of the elk, and having discov
ered the trail of this ‘lone elk of the
Sinnemahouiug.’ as this one had been
named, they knew that only tune and
persistence were necessary to eventually
secure their game. The animal babied
pursuit for days, but the Indian hunters
were as tireless as their g ime, and on the
fourth day atter starting ihe elk, two of
them through a heavy snowstorm, the
game was brought to bay in the forests
of larion County, near the head waters
of the Clarion Kiver, forty miles from
the point where thetraii was first struck,
although twice that distance, if not
more, had been covered in the. chase.
“When the two Indians arrived on the
spot wheie the elk had t>een forced to
turn upon its pursuers, they found it sur
rounded by the dogs and fiercely fight
ing them .’im dacobs was anxious to
secure the noble animal alive, and hours
were spent by the two Indians in edorts
to that end, but they were u eless. .Inn
Jacobs shot it through the heart, and the
last of the wapiti race in Pennsylvania—
the 'lone elk of the tinnemihoning’—
died, defying its enemies to the end.
Jim .Jacobs, the proud slayer of the ani
mal, hunted throughout that part of
Pennsylvania until 1882, and, although
then ninety years old, showed no signs
of loss of vigor. He was run over by
the cars at Salamanca last year and cut
to pieces almost within sight of his own
house on the reservation.”
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
Cattle are now slaughtered by elec
tricity in Russia.
A doctor says that the older a man
grows the smaller his brain becomes.
The number of lightning rods manu
factuiod is diminishing year by year.
Gilsonite is found, on analysis, to con
tain about eighty per cent, of carbon or
asphalt in pure form.
Icebergs are a great source of danger
to transatlantic navigation from March
to August every year.
English chemists have made the inter
esting discovery that fluorine will dis
solve metal, of any sort, e ven geld.
Firing is only done properly when the
fuel is consumed in the best possible
way. that is, when no more is burned
than is necessary to produce the steam
required.
At the meeting of the British Associa
tion, ! 'rofessor G. F. Fitzgerald dwelt
on recent experiments-of Hertz, in Ger
many, asproving conclusively that light
is an electio-magnetic phenomenon.
At Hallo the skeleton-like, fibrous
covering of a species of tropical cucum
ber is now being converted into a sub
stitute for sponge, and is already being
exported in immense quantities to Eng
land and other countries.
Complete combustion must be obtained
in the perfect furnace, and this is going
on when ihe fuel is burning with a bright
flame evenly all over the grate. Bine
flames, dark spots aud smoke arc evi
dences of incomplete combustion, due
to lack of air.
August Belmont, tire proprietor of a
fine breeding farm in Kentucky, claims
that he has kept his horses free from
disease and in remarkable good health
by giving them a dose of quinine regu
larly. It is said to be particularly effec
tive in case of pink-eye.
The Smithsonian Institution at Wash
ington has sent an expedition to Nova
Beotia and secured fac similes of the
“fairy rogks,” on which are curious
hieroglyphic characters, evidently very
old, which may throw some light on the
history of the early discoveries of
America. The markings are cut in upon
a rock of highly-polished slate, and the
intaglio is about a sixteenth of an inch
deep.
In the gold case factory of the Wal
tham watch works in New York can be
seen the largest belt ever made for the
direct transmission of power. It is 105
feet long, with a 21-inch face, and was
made by the Schieren Electric Belt Com
pany of New York. The belt contains
no rivets, the laps are cemented, and
the joints of the outer edges are made
more secure by brass pegs forced into the
leather by means of machinery.
Collating all known observations, Dr.
E. von Martens, of Berlin, finds, that
of twenty-seven species of molluscs
found in the Suez Canal nine came from
the Mediterranean and eighteen fromfhe
Red Sea; aud that of sixteen species of
fishes reported from the canal six were
from the Mediterranean and ten from
the Red Sea side. Tables of the distri
bution of these species in the canal w
that the admixture of animal life of the
two seas is far from complete.
According to the British Medical
Journal , half of those who live die be
fore seventeen. Only one person in
10,000 lives to be 100 years old, and but
one in 100 reaches sixty. The married
live longer than the single, but out of
every 1000 born only 100 are ever mar
ried. Of 1000 persons who have reached
seventy there are of clergymen, orators
and public speakers, forty-three; far
mers, forty; workmen, thirty-three;
soldiers, thirty-two; lawyers, twenty
nine; professors, twenty-seven; doctors,
twenty-four.
The Age or Socretiveness Past.
As to professional secrets, says the
New York Commercial Ad ertis r, tho
doctors and lawyers themselves have
taken to “giving them away” oi late
years, in conversation and through the
columns of the 2iress, so that any fairly
intelligent person 13 competent now to
discuss and decide many questions of a
purely technical character, which were
formerly unfathomable mysteries to the
mass. So family secrets nowadays get
into print, and everybody knows the
“secrets'* of trade—the ways in which
articles are adulterated, prices forced up
or down, etc. The Masons aud Odd
Fellows have been infected with the pre
vailing spirit, and no longer seek to
maintain that air of absolute reserve
which u~ed to be so potent with many.
The world is becoming constantly bet
ter informed on all subjects, Secretive
ness is not one of the successful vices of
the present day. People are getting to
be altogether too “knowing” for the old
! time diplomat, or professor, or burglar.
And now, to cap the climax, we have
among us the phonograph, which bids
fair to destroy what little secrecy still
lingers in certain circles of society.
A Chinaman's Tooth Powder.
Song Wnh is a Brooklyn (X. Y.)
“celestial,” who, in addition to laundry -
j ing, makes a respectable living by sell
ing to curiosity seekers the latest impor
tations from his native land. Rice with
two red sticks sells at ten cents a box.
1 The latest thing Song has offered is
what he cabs Chinese tooth powder. It
comes in little pink boxes covered with
Chinese letters. The powder is pink,
aud tastes like dried sage. Wah says
that there's a “spirit in the powder that
runs around and washee teethee.”
Two Mild-Eyed Dynamiters.
Two m n passed each other on Spruce
street one morning this week, wrote a
New York Sun reporter some time ago.
One of them was a large, bluff, breezy
individual, with a frank countenance, a
kindly eye and a hearty manner. The
other was a short, bearded, mild looking
individual, with a lace of serenity aud
amiability. Tne lirst was the Fenian
dynamiter. O’Donovan Rossa, and the
next was the Anarchist dynamiter, John
Most, who do not en v oy the reputation
of being cherubs.
THE MERRY SIDE OF LIFE.
STORIES THAT ARE TOLD BY THE
FUNNY MEN OF THE PRESS.
Mnch Relieved —The Attractions of
Gravity—A Cheerful Assurance-
Clevercr Than He Thought, Etc.
Young T ady(badly frightened)—“Oh,
George, there comes papa.”
George (ditto) —“Where? Where?”
Young Lady—“ Hear him stepping
along the hail in his stocking feet.”
George (greatly relieved) —“Be calm,
darling, be calm. George is not afraid
of stocking feet.” — Mercury.
The Attractions of Gravity.
“What a sombre-looking visage oid
Duhlechin has, hasn’t lie?”
“I should say so. Why, it’s the gen
eral verdict hereabouts that he was never
known to smile.”
“Indeed! I wonder what could have
attracted his wife to him?”
“The attractions of gravity, I pre
sume.”
A Cheerful Assurance.
“80, Mr. Hankinson, you are going on
a tour of the world,"
“Yes, Miss Whitesmith.”
“And will you promise to write tome
from every country you may visit?”
“Promise? Ah, you know howl will
value the privilege. And you will really
care to hear from me?”
“Yes. I am collecting postage
stamps.”— Nebraska Journal.
Cleverer Than He Thought.
lie was young and inexperienced, and
as he struggled to tell his love, his
tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth,
it was hopeless. Drawing a beautiful
Bolitaire diamond engagement ring from
his pocket, he tremblingly placed it upon
her tapering finger.
“Is it too large, Miss Lulu?” was all
that he could utter.
“A trifle too laruo, Mr. Sampson,”
Miss Lulu shyly replied, “but I can have
it fitted the first thing in the morning.”
—Epoch.
She Had Realized.
‘‘Amelia Sassafras,” said Marcellus
Roddy with an accent of pain in his rich
Voice, “do you realize the anguish you
have caused me by your refusal of my
heart and hand? No, you are cold and
passionless. Ysu realize nothing.”
“You are mistaken, Mr. Roddy,” said
Amelia, haughtily. “Do you remember
the ring you gave me? And the opera
glasses? And the bracelets? And the
gold thimble?”
“I do remember them,” moaned the
wretched young man.
“Well,” said Amelia, “I have realized
as them all. I giveyou the pawn tickets
and this bundle of letters. Farewell
forever, Mr. Roddy.”— Chicago News.
E jual to the Emergency.
Don’t judge a man by appearances
wholly, unless yoH are prepared for sur
prises. Two men who started out from
Fort Fairfield, a while ago, in search of
oats were set hack. After going about
a dozen miles they found a log house,
whose owner, in reply to questions,
stated that he had the required 150
bushels to sell. When the purchasers
got ready to pay they could show only
$lO in change and a .SSOO bill. “Now
see here, Pat,” they said, “we’re in a
fix. What will you do, take the S4O and
trust us for the balance, or take back the
oats?”
“Begobs I’ll do Cither,” said Pat.
“but I’ll change the bill!” which he
did.
The One Impediment Removed.
“If there is any person present,” said
the minister, with due solemnity, “who
knows of just cause or impediment why
this woman should not be married to
this man, lqt him speak now or forever
after hold his peace.”
“I don’t think anybody will put in
any objections, parson,” said the stal
wart young Arizona bridegroom. Mr.
Roundup, as he laid his hand casually
on the butt of his revolver and looked
carelessly around the room. “The only
impediment I know of was a young
feller by the name of Lariat, and I
cleaned him out yesterday. And now,
if you will go ahead, parson, and finish
up this job, Miss Kacktus and me are
waiting.”— Chicago Tribune.
Her Poem.
She glided into the office and quietly
approached the editor’s desk.
“I have written a poem” she be
gan.
“Well!” exclaimed the editor, with a
look and tone intended to annihilate,
but she wouldn’t annihilate worth a
cent, and resnmed:
“I have written a poem on ‘My
Father’s Barn,’ and"
“Oh!” interrupted the editor,with ex
traordinary suavity, “you don’t know
how relieved 1 feel. A poem written on
I your father’s barn, eh? I was afraid it
was written on paper and that you
! wanted me to publish it. If I should
j ever happen to drive past your father's
i barn I’ll stop and read the poem. Good
; ifternoon, miss. —Detroit Free Press.
Not That Member.
“I ain aware, Mr. Popplecorn,” said
young Smilax, “that 1 am at present
only an humble clerk in the lace de
partment of your [establishment; but I
hope that my industry aud capacity,
w ith your help, will enable me to rise
rapidly, until I may aspire to the proud
position of partner. Therefore I have
the. honor to ask you to confer upon me
the \and of your daughter.”
“That is a very pretty speech,” re
plied old man Popplecorn: “but your
demand is quite too modest. Instead of
giving you a little thing 1 ke my daugh
ter’s hand, I will confer upon you a
larger member of of the family, nothing
less than my foot, aud here you get i*,.’
He got it and got.— Aew York Dispatch,’
Equal to the Occasion.
The old man’s step was heard at the
gate and the welcome bark greeted him
as he came up the steps.
“1 eap from the window, George,’’the
girl hastily exclaimed, “the distance is
short.”
“But the dog, the dog 1”
“I’ll fix the dog.”
And fteorge leaped from the window
and the girl hastened to the door.
Flinging her arms about the old man’s
neck, she exclaimed:
“Oh, Papa, I'm so glad to see you.
The evening lias been so lonesome. And
Nero, poor fellow. Come in, Nero, and
I’ll give you some lumps of sugar.”
Aud Nero came in. —Ej och.
The Unsympatiietie Tooth Puller.
He was in the dentist’s chair. There
aren’t many sentences in the English
language that convey so much, that have
such painful significance. It means pain,
annoyance, irritation, agony. Somehow
you resent the dentist, even if you have
a raging toothache and he pulls it out
and relieves you. You feel mad about
it, and when he is merely pottering
around with his glittering instruments
of torture you feel that he is a necessary
evil, and you have no kind of respect for
him. I suppose it is the knowledge of
this that induces him to make his bills
as heavy as he can. I don’t think a
dentist really knows what pain is. He
goes entirely by the expression on your
face, and he generally tells you that what
he is going to do will not pain you, when
it is going to hurt like fury and vice
versa.
This enables him to deceive you and
have lots of fun with you. He goes
quickly over the painless operations and
takes his time over the painful ones.
This fellow was in the chair. The dentist
cheerfully told him the operation he was
about to perform was a painful one, and
he began. The fellow smiled a beaming
smile. The dentist was surprised. He
looked at him and began to take it easy.
He then began to sing as he picked out a
still more wicked looking instrument,
and he w,as dallying playfully with the
tooth whii'e the patient was smiling.
“It doesn’t seem to hurt you much,”
he said with a kind of air of regret. “I
am glad, because I cau take my time —•
when you smile.”
“Smile! Smile! I’m suffering intense
torture. Don’t you know pain from
pleasure? That’s how I always look"
when I’m in agony,” and the dentist felt
a thrill of joy.— Han Francisco Chronicle.
Helping Him Out of His Dilemma.
An unkind story, even if true, was
told me while I was in England of
young lady who married a stuttering
man.
The young man was undoubtedly a
stutterer of the most positive order, for
I have heard him go through paroxysms
to get out a simple “riood morning!”
The lady whom he subsequently married
was of an eminently* practical turn of
mind, No maiden modesty or bashful
ness cloyed her methods. She spoke to
the point, and never left a thought un
expressed if she deemed it pertinent.
After he had called upon her some three
or four times she decided that it was
about time for her to know his intentions.
So the next time lie called, after they
had seated themselves as usual on the
sofa, she said quietly, but firmly: “Mr.
Smith, I am very much flattered by tho
interest you have taken in me, aud the
flowers you have just given me are very
pretty, but I feel that I should be not
doing my duty if I delayed any longer
asking you what your intentions are;
whither do these intentions and presents
lead?”
Young Mr. Smith rose to his feet and a
blush rose to his cheek. He essayed to
speak. For a moment his lips and
tongue seemed paralyzed. Tfien he man
aged to get out M-M-M-M-M-y d-d-d-d
--d ” —but he could get uo further. The
d might have stood for any number of
words, but Miss Smith, justifiably, per
haps, interpreted it to stand for darling,
and the youth’s acute embarrassment tc
n modest confusion in making a formal
proposal.
Any way, she took Mr. Smith by the
hand and looking into his eyes ex
claimed: “Mr. Smith, I appreciate
your embarrassment, but I understand
what you wish to say. You may speak
to papa, and if he approves so do I.”
They xvere married a few months
later, but Mr. Smith has never explained
satisfaciorily to his friends whether he
stuttered into matrimony of his own free
will or against it.— Pittsburg Dispatch.
Hippophagy in New York.
Up to a few years ago horse flesh was
an almost unknown commodity in Ameri
can markets, but now it seems to have
become very popular. Several shops in
the French quarter of this city display
steaks and roasts cut from the flanks of
horses, and in some restaurants this treat
is served as a regular course in a table
d’hote dinner. A reporter went iato a
Bleecker street butcher shop and asked
the proprietor if he kept horse flesh.
“Sartanginong, misieur,” he replied.
“All ze bong tong butcliaire sell zeharse.
Eet ees ze cream of ze meat, and ze dis
timiay Frenchman always get eet.”
Going to a large ice chest he brought
forth a quarter of what looked very much
like venison.
“Zat ee3 zeharse meat,”said he, “and
ze price eestwanty cantz a pound.”
The meat is a good deal darker than
ordinary beef, aud there seems to be a
good sale. It is imported, so the dealers
say; but it is alt:gether probable that
the portions of the carcasses of some of
the overworked car horses serve as en
trees or roasts on some tables.— New York
Hun.
Locomotives 09 Storm Generators.
A correspondent of the Northwestern
Railroader advances a curious theory foi
the increasing prevalence of floods aud
rain storms. He says that there are over
iSO,OOO locomotives in use in North
America, and estimates that from them
alone over 54,000,000,001) cubic yards of
vapor are sent into the atmosphere every
week, to be returned in the form of
rain, or over 7,000.000,000 cubic yards a
day—“quite enough,” he says, to pro
duce a good rainfall every twenty-four
hours.”
Estimating the number of other non
'condensing engines in use as eight times
the number of locomotives, the total
vapor thus projected into the air every
week in this country amounts to more
than 470,000,000,000 cubic yards. “Is
this not,” he asks, “sufficient for the
floods of terror? "Is there any reason to
wonder why our storms are so damag
ing?”
l>elel-Headed Muskrats.
Hunters who have been in camp or
the reservoirs aud marshes north of Day
ton, Ohio, prophecy that if there is auy
i thing in signs this is to be a tough win
ter. I ast year the muskrats did not
build winter quarters until about the
latter part of November, but long before
that time this season their little adobe
bouses dotted the marshes,and were built
high, thick walled and well lined.
FAIi tt AND (lARDEN,
Plucking Poultry.
The American Poultry Yard gives the
following directions in regard to pluck
ing fowls: “Plucking fowls is a tedious
process. If there are any who want to
operate without the aid of the scalding
process, let them do so, and when they
are tired of it, let them try the follow
ing improved methods: Dip the fowls in
cold water and let them drip. Then jjp
ply finely pulveri/ed rosin to the feath
ers, using a dredging box for conven
ience. 'then scald in the usual way.
I he rosin sticks the feathers together, so
that the pin feathers come out with the
others, saving much trouble. Apply
about half a teacupful of rosin to a fowl.
Use the common crude article. It is
cheap stuff, and its cost is made up ten
times over by the labor sayed.”
Storing Cabbages.
“We know of no better way to pre
serve cabbages through the winter than
that which we have recommended for a
number of years,” says the Germantown
Telegraph. “It is to plant or set them
up in row’s as they grow—that is, with
roots dowu— fill in with soil pretty
freely; then make a cohering by planting
two posts where there is a fence to rest
on, or four where there is not, allowing
for a pitch to carry off the water; lay
beanpoles opposite the way of the pitch
and cover with corn fodder or straw or
boards. In using through the winter
avoid as much as possible the sun side
and close up again. We have not found
setting the cabbage upside d«wn in
rows, as many do, of any advantage, as
we have kept ours for more than twenty
years in the way we mentioned in a
sound, perfect condition, through the
winter into tlie spring,- and could even
up to the Ist of May if desirable.”
Winter Dairying.
Why one can’t see that winter dairying
is better in every respect than summer is
a mystery tome. Butter brings abetter
pr.ee; there is no bother of cream get
ting too sour, or its being too warm ; no
trouble keeping the butter in good con
dition till a tub is filled; and there is a
better yield of butter wneu cows are fed
grain. If the cows are dry they have to
be fed enough to keep them "in good
condition, and they are bringing no
return for it, while if giving miilTthey
will pay fora good, generous ration *of
food and a good profit besides, and the
increased richness of the manure adds
extra profitableness to the land. It is
much pleasanter to milk in winter than
in summer; you nave plenty of time, are
in no rush to get at other work that is
driving you, and can give fhe calves
plenty of time to drink, and then a
September calf the following spring will
be as large as a calf of the previous May
on the same feed. I have heard summer
dairymen make the remark, when going
by our calf pasture late in the fall:
“There's some calves that need
Btockings aud blankets to carry them
through till spring.” But when they
Bee them in spring they won’t believe
they are the same calves they saw in the
fall. If you try winter dairying once,
you will never return to the summer sort.
—New York Tribune.
Why We Plow.
One of the objects secured by plowing
is a loose soil in which to plant the seed,
j A certain degree of moisture and heat as
well as contact with the soil is hecessary
to secure good germination of the seed,
»o<i give theplauts a good opportunity
to grow. Flowing is the most economi
cal method of preparing the soil for
: planting the seed. It also aids to lessen
the work of cultivation.
Another object in plowing is to de
stroy weeds. Clean cultivation is an
essential to all cultivated crops; good
growth and yield is secured. If weeds
are plowed'under before they mature
seeds, a largo number can be destroyed.
By keepm g the surface clean, plowing,
harrowing and cultivating, the weeds can
be killed out, insuring a better growth
of the plants and a better yield.
Plowing also aids materially in mak
ing available plant food already in the
soil. The more the soil is stirred, and
tho finer tilth it is worked into, the larger
the amount of fertility. Plowing deep
brings to the surface material that under
| the influence of the rain, snow, frost and
sunshine is rendered available for plant
food. By plowing in the fall the ele
ments have better opportunity for acting
upon the soil and making it in better
condition to supply the right amount of
; plant food to secure a good growth.
It is quite an item iu securing a good
growth of the plants to have a soil
through whi h the plants can penetrate
readily. It is fully as important to se
cure a good growth of roots as of stems
or foliage, and a loose mellow soil is a
material aid to this, and a soil that has
been thoroughly plowed can be readily
worked into good condition.
Stirring the soil aids to retain and se
cure moisture. A thoroughly plowed
field will retain more moisture than if
left undisturbed. It also aids to draw
moisture from the subsoil by capillary
attraction. By plowing and stirring the
soil moisture sumcient to keep up a good
growth of plants can be secured when
if left undisturbed, the plants will suller
for want of proper moisture.
As plowing serves several good pur
poses, care should be taken to do the
work thoroughly and in good season.—
Farm, Field and Stockman.
Agricultural Value of Fertilizers.
While it is important to the fanner to
know the commercial value of the fertil
izers that he is obliged to purchase, it is
vastly more important that he should
know something of the agricultural
value. The commercial value consists
of the price that is required to he paid,
while the agricultural value consists of
the increased money value of the crop
secured by means of the use. There is
really no direct connection between tho
two values, although in some cases they
may be approximately the same. There
may be a wider diilerence in the two
values m the case of a manufactured
article than where pure chemicals are em
ployed. The principal elements of plant
nutrition are nitrogen, phosphoric acid
and potash, each of which exists in a
great variety of forms. The real value of
a fertilizer to the farmer may depend
quite largely upon the desgn he has in its (
use. If his purpose is to improve h s soil,
having little regard for large immediate
returns in the shape of crops, he
may with safety make use of those that
are loss available for immediate action
upon plants, or that require chemical
change before being fully available. But
if, on the contrary, no regard is had for
any improvement of the soil, but rather
the effort is made to se ure the greatest
crop possible with uo regard to subse
quent effects, then there could bean em
ployment of those fertilizers that would
be most available td plants or most active
in their effects. Experience bus shown
that different manureal substances are
very unlike in their activity, or rather
may exist under such unlike conditions
of solubility as to produce very unlike
results. All elements of plant food must
be rendered soluble in order to become
available for use,and so while a sufficient
amount of any one principal element may
be supplied to produce an average crop,
it may be so insoluble as to produce an
entire failure, and in this determination
even the experiment stations are at fault.
A manufactured phosphate may con
tain a guaranteed amount of nitrogen,
and the station upon its analysis may
find it present, but fails either from neg
lect or inability (quite probably the lat
ter) to determine its source, or ths
origmai condition of its existence.
Where nitrogen exists as sulphate of
ammonia or nitrate of soda, it is in an
immediately available form and will be
very largely, if not wholly, employed by
the growing crop; but if’it exists in the
shape of horn scrapings, hoofs,old scraps
of leather, or woolen rags, it is in such
condition that it cannot be secured by
the growing crop in any desirable
quantity, and so is of uncertain value.
Now, so lar as a guaranteed amount of
nitrogen is concerned, it may exist m a
superphosphate; but it may be of the
one form or the other, and nothing but
a field trial will satisfactorily determine
its value. There is very much yet to be
learned regarding fertilizers, and espe
cially those of a commercial importance.
It is a question deeply affecting the
farmer’s interest, regarding the most
economical form in which the fertilizer
may be applied, if it becomes necessary
for him to resort to outside resources.
A considerable number of experiments
are being tried in various parts of Con
necticut by the farmers themselves, under
the direction of the experiment stations,
to determine practically these questions
that are continually arising regarding
the economical s.de of fertilization.
Experience teaches that there is a great
difference in the effects of different
brands of phosphates, and there is a
growing desire to know why this dif
ference exists when the price varies but
little. The moze rational conclusion
would suggest the greater availability of
the ingredients in one case than in the
other. Then if the farmer cau be in
formed through the experiment stations
of the farm in which each exists, he will
be better prepared to secure that which
he most desires.
But with all the talk regarding spe dal
fertilizers the farmer should remember
that there is no more perfect fertilizer
than is provided in the various manures
of the farm, and that his chief effort
should be to provide all that he possibly
can, resorting to special manures only as
he is compelled from absolute necessity.
—New York Observer.
Farm and Garden Notes.
Clover is a renovating crop every time.
It is an easy matter to have a small
steady income to meet the little outgoes.
Eggs should be served abundantly on
the larmer’s table, and in such variety a*
not to make them tiresome.
When the clover dies it is a great ad
dit on to the fertility, and the soil is iq
bfetter condition for other crops.
Do not expect your horse to be equally
good at everything. The horse, like the
man, must be adapted to his work.
A crop of clover will increase the nitro
genous elements in any soil, whether i|
is cut and cured in the form of hay or
whether it is fed off.
Peas and corn fit for table use will
grow and produce earlier crops than ripa
seed, and plants from immature seed ara
more feeble than those from ripe seed.
The most prosperous farmers are thoso
who rarely go to town without a package
of butter, a basket of eggs, some poul
try, fruit or vegetables to help pay the
bills.
Dr. Sturtevant is Credited with saying
that “careful experiments, have shown
that unripe tomato seed will grow and
give a gain of fifteen days in earliness
over ripe seed from the same plants.
To find the pressure of water in a
penstock, multiply the height of the
head in feet by ti'iy the pounds’ weight
of a cubic foot of water. Then every
square foot of tho penstock will have to
bear a pressure equal to this sum in
pounds.
Sheep are better scavengers for small,
unripe, wormy apples than are swine. A
well-fed sheep likes the bitter taste oi
the wormy apple that the pig has to be
starved into eating. Besides the sheep
will go around nights and early in tn«
morning after fruit, while the pig will
lie abed until hunger forces him to get
up.
No branch of farming is more profitabl*
or conducted with less labor than
orcharding when the products can be
sold even at a moderate price. Besides
this, apple trees m ay be planted on land
too rough for root or grain culture, and
brigh altitudes are more exempt from
killing by than orchards in the
valleys aud lowlands.
When the use of one kind of manure
is continued for several weeks upon
house plants, the plants receiving it do
not respond to its stimulating influence
as readily as when it was lirst given.
When such is the case give a few water
ings with clear wrater, and then apply
some other kind of manure, and health
and vigor will be continued.
Few farmers realise the amount which
an acre of grapes will bring if the crop
is a full one and prices are very low.
Three cents a pound seems ridiculously
cheap, yet at this price an acre of any
productive variety will bring more money
than an acre of grain or any kind of farm
crops. Two tons per acre is a email
yield, but three cents a pound gives a
gross return of $l2O per acre.
The cause of cotted wool is the heat
ing of the fleece by the sheep lying
clo ely together when the wool is wet.
Warmth, moisture, pressure, and soap
cause wool to felt, and cotting is simply
the fe ting of the wool on the sheep’s
back. It is avoided by keeping the sheep
in shelter during wet weather. The soap
required to complete the felting is pro
vided by the solution of the yolk of the
wool, which is really a soap, in t)A water
held by the fleece. *