1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
239 
The  Tools  for  Corn  Culture. 
As  most  of  the  stable  manure  will  be  used  on  the 
corn  crop,  devices  for  getting-  the  manure  on  the  land 
are  first  in  order.  A  majority  of  farmers  haul  in  the 
winter,  many  of  them  drawing  a  sled  through  the 
stables  and  loading  the  manure  on  it,  and  thus  draw¬ 
ing  directly  to  the  field  where  it  is  either  piled  to  fer¬ 
ment  or  spread  directly  on  the  snow.  A  few  farmers 
have  a  car  running  on  a  long  track  like  door  hangers, 
which  runs  from  the  stables  to  the  piles  by  its  own 
weight.  For  spreading  well-rotted  manure  a  Kemp 
manure  spreader  is  excellent.  If  the  land  was  plowed 
last  fall  it  may  be  worked  up  with  a  Triumph  spader 
Cutaway,  or  one  of  the  disc  harrows.  These  are  diggers 
rather  than  harrows  and  fine  the  soil  well  to  a  depth 
of  three  or  four  inches.  They  do  not  leave  the  surface 
in  good  condition  for  seeding  or  marking,  and  an 
Acme  or  a  Thomas  smoothing  harrow  will  be  useful. 
If  land  is  spring-plowed,  a  plank  drag  is  good  for 
crushing  and  fining  the  soil.  It  is  impossible  to  till 
the  land  too  much  when  planting  corn. 
A  good  home-made  marker  and  furrower  is  shown 
at  Fig.  121.  This  is  easily  made  of  plank  with  two  old 
cultivator  teeth  for  furrowing.  The  Darnell’s  furrower 
is  an  excellent  tool.  Straight  rows  are  very  important 
in  corn  culture,  as  it  is  impossible  to  do  good  horse 
work  when  the  rows  are  crooked  and  uneven. 
There  are  dozens  of  good  corn  planters.  The  num¬ 
ber  of  farmers  who  practice  drilling  corn  increases 
with  each  year,  especially  as  the  ensilage  system  devel¬ 
ops.  It  is  now  agreed  that  ensilage  corn  should  be 
planted  just  like  any  other — that  is,  it  should  be  so 
treated  that  it  can  go  into  the  silo  or  be  husked  for 
grain.  It  should  not  be  planted  thicker  when  intended 
for  the  silo.  Many  farmers  use  the  wheat  drill  for 
drilling  corn  as  well  as  for  distributing  fertilizer.  The 
tubes  are  easily  arranged  at  the  proper  distances  apart. 
It  is  cheaper  in  the  end  to  drill  in  more  seed  than  is 
needed  and  chop  out  the  surplus  plants  at  hoeing. 
Those  who  use  an  Aspinwall  planter  for  potatoes 
should  get  the  corn  planting  attachment.  It  works 
well  and  also  serves  as  a  marker.  For  hill  planting  the 
Macomber  hand  planter  enables  one  to  do  rapid  work 
and  is  very  accurate  in  dropping  seed.  A  great  many 
farmers  still  prefer  to  drop  seed  by  hand  and  cover 
with  the  hoe.  They  claim  that  they  thus  “  know  the 
seed  is  there,”  but  so  they  do  with  a  good  Macomber 
planter. 
Breed’s  weeder  is  about  the  best  tool  thus  far  made 
for  cultivating  young  corn  before  it  is  up,  or  just  after 
it  breaks  through.  This  tool  does  just  scratching 
enough  and  there  is  just  enough  “play”  in  the  teeth 
to  prevent  tearing  out  too  many  plants.  It  will  not 
work  so  well  on  very  stony  ground  or  on  sod  that  has 
not  been  well  torn  up  and  pulverized.  It  can  be  safely 
used,  with  ordinary  care,  until  the  plants  are  knee- 
high.  Many  farmers  start  the  Thomas  harrow  in  the 
corn  just  after  planting  and  keep  it  going  till  the 
plants  are  large  enough  for  the  cultivator.  In  case  of 
a  thick,  hard  crust  on  the  surface  of  the  soil,  it  is  a 
better  tool  than  the  weeder,  but  for  other  reasons  it  is 
not  so  good.  There  is  no  “  give  ”  to  the  teeth — they 
tear  and  rip  through  the  soil  often  doing  much  damage. 
The  weeder  is  so  light  that  it  can  be  turned  to  either 
side  with  the  hand.  Besides,  the  horses  trample  down 
a  good  many  plants.  The  weeder  leaves  the  plants 
when  they  are  about  knee-high.  Then  the  cultivator’s 
work  begins. 
For  walking  cultivators  the  Planet,  Jr.  goods  are 
about  the  models.  The  keen,  narrow  teeth  do  not 
dig  and  plow  the  ground  as  some  of  the  old  style  culti¬ 
vators  do — it  is  possible  to  do  light  and  easy  work  with 
them.  It  is  a  foolish  fellow  who  rides  on  the  culti¬ 
vator  handles.  That  is  just  what  he  ought  not  to  do. 
Of  the  two  extremes  he  had  better  lift  on  the  handles 
rather  than  bear  down.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  have  a 
horse  trained  for  cultivating.  Some  horses  take  to  it 
naturally,  and  will  take  a  real  pride  in  keeping  in  the 
row  and  avoiding  the  hills  in  turning.  With  straight, 
even  rows  the  riding  cultivators  are  preferable  to  the 
one-horse  walking  tools.  The  horses  work  faster, 
both  sides  of  the  row  are  cultivated  at  once,  and  it  is 
possible  to  work  up  closer  to  the  plants,  as  every  tooth 
is  under  immediate  control.  It  is  impossible  for  the 
driver  to  “ride  on  the  handles,”  as  the  weight  falls  on 
the  wheels  entirely,  and  does  not  affect  the  teeth 
which  run  at  the  depth  for  which  they  are  set,  and  no 
deeper.  The  Kraus  sulky  cultivator  is  one  of  the  best. 
The  next  machine  needed  is  a  Breed’s  weeder  on 
wheels,  with  the  teeth  somewhat  like  those  on  a  hay 
rake,  and  so  arranged  that  they  can  be  run  on  both 
sides  of  two  rows  at  once.  This  will  cultivate  deep 
enough  and  work  faster  than  the  present  cultivators. 
For  cutting  the  corn  crop  many  devices  have  been 
proposed  during  the  past  few  years.  The  most  common 
is  the  sled  with  a  knife  or  saw  attached  to  the  side. 
This  is  to  be  hauled  along  the  corn  row,  slicing  oft' 
the  stalks  as  it  goes.  It  is  hard  to  haul  and  will  not 
work  well  when  the  corn  is  badly  “down,”  Last  year 
we  printed  a  picture  of  a  corn  harvester  which  cuts 
the  corn  and  loads  it  into  a  wagon.  It  is  successful  but 
expensive,  and  useful  onty  for  those  who  have  large 
areas  to  cut.  We  think  the  coming  corn  harvester  will 
be  made  somewhat  like  the  model  pictured  at  Fig.  120. 
There  is  already  a  machine  on  the  market  something 
like  this.  It  is  said  to  weigh  only  300  pounds,  and  will 
cut  and  hold  corn  that  stands  up  well.  Instead  of  the 
knife  for  cutting,  a  sharp,  revolving  disc  cutting 
against  a  knife  edge  will  be  better. 
At  Figs.  122  and  123  are  shown  two  contrivances  used 
by  many  Long  Island  farmers.  Fig.  122  is  a  corn  stalk 
or  ensilage  cart.  It  is  10  to  18  feet  long  with  an  axle 
six  feet  long\  Two  strong  bed  pieces  are  bolted  on  the 
under  side  of  the  axle,  close  to  the  wheels,  approaching 
to  within  a  foot  of  each  other  in  front.  Boards  are 
nailed  on  these,  each  alternate  one  coming  out  Hush 
with  the  bed  pieces,  the  others  projecting  some  inches. 
1  wo  small  wide-tired  wheels  are  used.  In  loading  one 
can  easily  walk  up  between  the  boards  with  an  armful 
of  stalks  and  put  them  anywhere  on  the  load.  In 
using  this  cart  the  front  end  is  lifted  and  fastened  to 
the  axle  of  a  tow  cart,  shown  at  Fig.  123.  This  tow 
cart  is  simply  a  pair  of  wheels  with  an  axle  and  tongue 
and  a  seat  for  the  driver.  It  can  be  readily  hitched 
to  any  load  and  the  horses  will  pull  more  comfortably 
than  with  ordinary  whiftietrees.  Long  Island  farmers 
will  hitch  their  tow  carts  to  heavy  loads  on  bad  spots  in 
the  roads,  to  road-machines  or  anything  else  needing 
a  temporary  lift.  In  carting  stalks  to  the  barn  some 
farmers  set  a  stout  pole  at  the  front  of  the  wagon 
with  another  pole  playing  on  the  top  of  it  like  an  old- 
fashioned  well-sweep.  There  is  a  rope-hoop  at  the 
end  of  this  pole  with  which  they  can  lift  a  bundle  or 
shock  and  swing  it  into  the  wagon.  Others  use  the 
hay  slings  for  unloading  stalks. 
Doings  of  The  Milk  Men. 
Tuk  New  York  Milk  Exchange,  Limited,  at  its 
monthly  meeting  on  Wednesday,  March  30th,  reduced 
the  price  of  milk  from  3  to  23 4  cents,  the  change  tak¬ 
ing  effect  on  the  first  of  April.  This  has  not  been  un¬ 
expected  ;  indeed,  the  milk  producers  themselves  have 
given  the  hint  to  the  Exchange.  In  their  zeal  to  con¬ 
tract  for  the  sale  of  their  milk,  very  many  farmers 
have  been  to  the  city  and  offered  their  milk  at  a  cut 
of  10  cents  per  can  for  the  season  below  the  market 
price.  If  the  supply  is  so  abundant  as  to  cause  pro¬ 
ducers  to  commit  such  financial  suicide  as  this  amounts 
to,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Exchange 
should  profit  by  the  situation,  and  give  milk  a  cut  of 
20  cents  per  can. 
Another  demoralizing  feature  of  the  milk  trade  in 
this  city  is  noted  in  the  practice  the  Exchange  cream¬ 
ery  men  have  of  offering  supplies  to  large  consumers 
and  small  dealers  at  five  cents  per  can  less  than  the 
Exchange  price.  Of  course,  they  can  well  afford  to 
do  this,  as  all  who  are  conversant  with  their  methods 
know.  The  mixing  of  five  quarts  of  skimmed  milk 
with  35  of  pure  will  enable  them  to  do  this  underhand 
business  and  still  find  a  profit  in  it.  That  these  men 
do  this  thing  habitually  no  one  who  has  had  occasion 
to  examine  their  milk  will  for  a  moment  doubt.  The 
result  of  this  continuous  cutting  is  seen  when  a  pro¬ 
ducer  offers  his  milk  for  sale.  “  How  much  off  the 
market  will  you  sell  for  ?”  is  the  first  question  asked 
him,  and  too  many  are  caught  in  the  trap  and  give  an 
‘  ‘  off  ”  for  the  sake  of  a  sale. 
A  representative  of  The  Rural  met,  a  few  days  ’ 
since,  Mr.  J.  K.  Greenwood,  one  of  the  directors  of  a 
farmers’  creamery  at  Blodgett  Mills,  in  Cortlandt 
County,  N.  Y.  We  learned  from  him  that  the  creame¬ 
ry  is  a  stock  concern,  costing  between  $4,000  and 
$5,000,  and  the  stock  is  held  by  about  30  milk-produc¬ 
ing  farmers  of  the  neighborhood.  They  have  appar¬ 
atus  for  making  cheese,  and  most  of  last  season  made 
a  good,  whole-milk  cheese,  and  got  as  much  for  it  as 
they  would  have  received  had  they  sold  their  milk  at 
the  Exchange  creamery  at  the  same  place. 
The  company  will  probably  make  cheese  again 
this  season.  They  hope  to  put  in  a  sep¬ 
arator  another  year,  and  thus  be  in  condition  to 
make  butter  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 
The  Rural  profoundly  wishes  there  were  more  such 
creameries.  When  the  farmers  get  together  and  build 
them,  thus  controlling  their  milk  and  taking  it  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  Exchange,  they  will  have  done  much 
towards  solving  the  milk  problem. 
Another  disturbing  factor  in  the  trade  is  the  situa¬ 
tion  of  affairs  on  the  Delaware,  Lackawana  and  West¬ 
ern  Railway.  The  “  wheel  within  a  wheel,”  which 
Mr.  Westcott  and  his  confreres  have  in  the  control  of 
the  transportation  of  milk  over  that  line,  enables  them 
to  undersell  legitimate  dealers,  and  largely  to  force 
the  traffic  along  that  line  into  their  hands.  Owing  to 
the  secrecy  preserved  by  the  sub-company  which  they 
control  and  are,  it  is  hard  to  find  out  its  exact  status, 
but  it  is  generally  believed  that  they  g’et  a  rebate  in 
some  shape  or  another,  of  about  15  cents  per  can.  Of 
course,  if  they  set  about  capturing  a  customer  of  some 
producer  outside  their  line,  this  margin  enables  them 
to  offer  a  cut  of  15  cents  per  can,  and  still  lose  nothing, 
ft  is  a  vicious  state  of  affairs. 
Big  Matters  Briefly  Stated. 
A  Chicago  paper  has  attempted  to  foot  up,  from  ac¬ 
counts  published  in  the  papers  the  known  embezzle¬ 
ments  throughout  the  country  during  the  past  year, 
and  the  results,  though  not  complete,  are  startling. 
The  total  recorded  defalcations  of  considerable  size 
amount  to  $19,720,294— or  nearly  2>6  times  the  total 
for  1890.  The  figures  are  well  within  the  fact,  as 
they  do  not  include  small  amounts,  and  a  large  pro¬ 
portion  of  such  crimes  are  compromised  or  hushed  up. 
No  doubt  if  the  total  could  be  ascertained  it  would  not 
be  less  than  $30,000,000,  or  an  average  loss  of  50  cents 
lor  every  inhabitant  of  the  country,  due  to  the  abuse 
of  trusts  reposed  by  some  men  in  others.  Civil  law 
and  moral  training  are  the  great  safeguards  relied  on 
as  checks  on  this  great  and  growing  national  evil ;  but 
all  legal  restraints  lose  a  large  part  of  their  force  ow¬ 
ing  to  the  sympathy  expi*essed  for  the  criminals  by  a 
large  proportion  of  the  public  even  in  the  worst  cases, 
coupled  with  the  lax  enforcement  of  the  law,  and  the 
wholly  inadequate  sentences  imposed  on  those  who 
are  convicted. 
There  is  a  fast-growing  movement  among  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Farmers’  Alliance  and  other  agricultural 
associations  throughout  the  country,  but  especially  in 
the  Northwest,  looking  to  the  formation  of  milling 
associations.  It  is  estimated  that  the  farmers  of  the 
Dakotas  and  Minnesota  alone  lost  $25,000,000  on  the 
wheat  of  last  year’s  crop,  sold  to  millers  up  to  the  end 
of  last  December.  1  iy  building  their  own  mills,  it  is 
said  farmers  could  secure  $1.00  per  bushel  for  their 
wheat  in  those  States,  besides  a  ton  of  feed  for  every 
100  bushels,  and  many  minor  advantages.  It  is  stated 
that  any  community  which  can  deliver  75,000  bushels 
of  wheat  can  keep  a  50-barrel  mill  running  the  year 
round,  and  that  such  a  mill  can  be  built  for  $7,000.  Of 
course,  the  promoters  of  all  new  enterprises  are  very 
apt  to  be  over-sanguine  of  the  success  of  their  pro¬ 
jects  ;  still  this  is  a  matter  which  it  might  be  well  for 
the  farmers  of  the  country  to  take  into  consideration. 
Business  Bits. 
the  wise  farmer  sends  for  the  catalogues  published  by  half  a  dozen 
reliable  seed  houses,  and  makes  up  a  list  of  the  seeds  he  wants  for  the 
coming  year,  always  naming  standard  varieties  for  the  bulk  of  his 
order,  and  a  little  of  the  newer  sorts  for  experimental  purposes.  Let 
the  wife  and  daughter  look  over  the  catalogues  also,  and  Include  their 
order  for  flower  seeds  with  your  own.  Win.  Elliott  &  Sous,  5<i  Dey 
Street,  New  York,  have  a  pretty  catalogue  this  year,  and  their  adver¬ 
tisement  this  week  says  they  will  send  It  free.  Show  us  the  man  who 
studies  the  catalogues,  and  we  will  point  to  a  good  garden  on  his  place 
Exports  op  Corn.— The  following  table  gives  the  value  in  dol¬ 
lars  of  the  corn  exported  from  the  United  States  for 
ginning  with  1880, 
and  up  to  1890: 
1880 . 
.  $53,298,247 
1885, 
1881 . 
.  50.702.669 
1886 
1882 . 
1887, 
1883 . 
.  27.756.082 
1888. 
1884 . 
.  27.648.044 
1889 
the  10  years  be- 
S28.000.803 
31.730.022 
19.347.301 
18.355.950 
32.982.277 
In  1890,  the  value  of  the  corn  exported  averaged  $0,551  per  bushel  the 
next  year  It  was  .007,  In  1884  It  was  .54  and  the  next  year  It  dropped  to 
.49  and  then  to  47,  rallying  again  In  1888  to  .55.  only  to  tumble  In  1889  to 
.474  per  bushel.  The  completed  figures  for  1890  are  not  yet  at  hand,  but 
will  doubtless  show  a  very  large  exportation— possibly  rivalling  that  of 
1880,  which  has  since  that  date  not  been  reached. 
Eci.ipse  Corn  Planter— This  machine  Is  well  named.  It  eclipses 
other  machines— not  the  corn.  It  weighs  150  pounds.  It  will  plant 
corn,  peas,  beans  or  beets  In  hills  or  drills,  and  also  drop  pumpkin  seeds 
with  the  corn.  It  will  distribute  from  50  to  450  pounds  of  fertilizer  to 
the  acre.  The  seed  Is  dropped  accurately,  covered  with  moist  soil  and 
well  rolled.  The  fertilizer  Is  not  put  directly  on  the  seed  but  on  either 
side.  In  using  the  machine  you  simply  take  hold  of  the  handles  and 
say,  “Get  up!”  The  horse  and  the  machine  do  the  rest.  It  is  made  by 
the  Eclipse  Corn  Planter  Company,  Enfield,  N.  H. 
Holdfast  Corn  Planter.— That  Is  the  sort  of  a  binder  we  all  want! 
Kye  straw,  green  stalks,  weeds  and  sticks  all  have  a  bad  habit  of  “  let¬ 
ting  go”  just  when  you  want  them  to  “  hold.”  The  Tie  Company  of 
Uuadllla,  N.  Y.,  has  perfected  a  device  thatwi/f  hold.  With  these  ties 
a  man  can  do  faster  and  better  work  than  with  rye  straw  or  stalks.  The 
shucks  will  stay,  they  can  be  tied  up  more  tightly  and  thus  shed  rain 
more  easily  and  are  more  easily  handled.  Send  for  a  descriptive  cir¬ 
cular. 
Sherwood  Steel  Harness.— “Can  I  take  your  steel  harness?" 
said  a  neighbor  last  summer.  “  Certainly,  but  what  are  you  going  to 
use  It  for  ?  ”  “I  want  to  haul  in  hay.  My  hay  fork  takes  too  large  a 
bite  for  one  horse  to  handle,  and  there  Is  no  sense  In  trying  to  use  two 
horses  with  whittle  trees  on  the  rope.  With  the  Sherwood  harness  I 
can  haul  the  hay  to  the  barn,  and  In  an  instant  take  the  horses  from 
the  pole  and  hitch  to  the  rope!  ”  The  experiment  proved  a  big  suc¬ 
cess,  and  he  now  wants  no  other  rig  for  plowing,  harrowing,  dragging, 
etc.  Some  parties  have  objected  to  the  Sherwood  harness  because 
they  could  not  “  back”  with  It.  We  know  that  this  objection  is  non¬ 
sense.  With  suitable  straps  attached,  our  horses  have  been  able  to 
back  all  they  could  haul.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  progressive  farmer 
has  mighty  little  need  to  back— he  wants  to  go  ahead,  and  this  Is  just 
what  the  Sherwood  harness  Is  built  for  doing.  In  our  judgment  a  set 
of  this  harness  will  pay  for  Itself  In  one  season,  If  it  Is  used  only  in 
places  where  no  “  backing  ”  Is  needed.  Send  to  the  Sherwood  Harness 
Co.,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  for  circulars. 
