268 
April  23 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
longer  than  that  of  any  other  “  water  crop.”  When 
stored  in  a  cool  cellar  they  will  keep  several  days  or 
until  a  full  load  has  been  picked.  Not  so  with  sweet 
corn,  melons,  tomatoes  or  berries — these  must  be  picked 
and  marketed  at  once  when  ripe.  Again,  for  a  one-horse 
farmer,  Limas  are  better  because  there  is  less  useless 
bulk  in  a  load.  A  bag  of  Limas  weighing  perhaps  80 
pounds  sells  for  $2.50  when  that  value  in  corn,  melons 
or  tomatoes  would  weigh  from  250  to  350  pounds. 
The  average  gross  product  for  one  pole  of  Limas  is 
10  cents.  He  picks  over  the  patch  about  eight  times 
during  the  season,  going  oftener  than  others  in  order 
to  make  a  full  load.  Early  in  the  season  he  has  sold  a 
single  one-horse  load  for  more  than  $100.  He  uses 
stable  manure  entirely  for  Limas.  His  manure  and 
fertilizer  bill  is  over  $300  per  year.  The  fertilizer  is 
all  used  on  potatoes.  The  only  rotation  used  is  to 
grow  the  potatoes  on  ground  on  which  the  sweet  corn 
was  previously  grown,  and  then  follow  the  potatoes 
with  sweet  corn.  No  oats,  rye  or  hay  are  ever  grown. 
The  sales  run  close  to  $1,500  per  year,  and  the  manure 
bill  is  about  the  only  expense,  as  the  man,  his  wife 
and  children  do  all  the  work. 
When  asked  what  he  thought  about  bush  Limas,  he 
said  they  would  not  do  for  him,  because  they  would 
not  produce  so  large  a  crop  to  the  acre  as  the  pole 
varieties.  One  of  his  poles  would  produce  as  large  a 
crop  as  a  dozen  hills  of  the  bush  variety,  while  only 
three  hills  would  grow  on  the  space  occupied  by  a 
pole.  He  also  thought  it  would  be  harder  work  pick¬ 
ing  from  the  low  vines,  and  that  the  beans  would  be 
more  liable  to  rot  and  mildew.  He  does  not  think  the 
bush  varieties  will  be  grown  in  large  quantities,  except 
in  places  where  poles  cannot  be  easily  obtained. 
Most  farmers  plant  the  Dreer’s  Improved  Lima,  or 
“potato  bean”  as  they  call  it.  They  generally  save 
their  own  seed  from  large  selected  pods.  This  variety 
is  thick  and  “  fat”  and  makes  a  better  showing  in  the 
pod  than  the  larger  and  thinner  varieties.  Limas  have 
fewer  insect  enemies  and  are  less  liable  to  disease  than 
any  vegetable  crops  grown  in  Bergen  County.  A  ‘  ‘  bag  ” 
holds  one  bushel.  It  is  a  big  day’s  work  for  an  active 
man  to  pick  four  bags.  Some  farmers  are  beginning 
to  market  their  beans  in  crates  and  barrels,  which  is 
far  more  satisfactory  to  dealers.  There  is  always  a 
fair  sale  for  Limas,  because  they  cannot  be  grown  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  and  their  production  is  some¬ 
what  limited.  Few  farmers  use  chemical  fertilizers 
on  the  Limas.  They  seem  to  regard  this  crop  as  like 
corn,  the  best  to  use  up  the  stable  manure. 
Growing  Strawberries  for  Market. 
Planting,  Manuring,  Varieties. 
,T.  M.  SMITJr 
The  following  Is  written  In  reply- >  ’  of  The  Rural'S  New  York 
State  subscribers  who  proposes  -et  out  a  number  of  acres  this 
spring. 
For  soil  I  like  a  rich  sandy  loam,  although  some 
varieties  (as  Sharpless)  seem  to  do  better  upon  a  clay, 
or  clay  loam.  But  all  varieties  require  a  very  rich  soil 
to  do  their  best ;  hence  fertilizers  in  abundance  are  a 
necessity.  In  my  30  years’  experience  here,  in  Brown 
County,  Wis.,  I  have  never  found  any  fertilizers  that 
on  my  soil  have  been  equal  to  good,  composted  stable 
manure,  and  unleached  wood  ashes.  None  of  the 
commercial  fertilizers  I  have  ever  tried  have  proved  to 
be  as  satisfactory  as  these.  For  a  good  many  years  we 
were  in  the  habit  of  putting  on  about  20  common  two- 
horse  loads  per  acre,  and  plowing  it  under,  and  then 
putting  on  about  as  much  more  after  we  had  plowed, 
and  harrowing  it  in.  Of  late  years  we  have  adopted 
the  plan  of  putting  the  entire  amount  upon  the  top  of 
the  ground  after  plowing,  and  then  harrowing  it  in, 
using  the  Cutaway  harrow.  I  am  very  particular  in 
the  preparation  of  my  plant  beds  and  neglect  nothing 
that  will  aid  them  in  doing  their  best.  Rich  land, 
heavily  manured  and  prepared  in  the  best  possible 
manner,  is  a  necessity,  if  one  expects  to  be  truly  suc¬ 
cessful  in  this  business. 
To  select  the  best  varieties  for  market  is  the  most 
perplexing  and  annoying  matter  in  my  entire  season’s 
work.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  for  a  new  straw¬ 
berry  plant  to  bear  well  at  its  native  home  and  yet  fail 
to  do  nearly  as  well  when  taken  any  distance  from 
where  it  originated.  The  old  Seth  Boyden’s  No.  30 
was  a  notable  example  of  this  the  Jessie,  a  native 
of  southern  Wisconsin,  another.  Then,  again,  many 
new  varieties  are  brought  out  under  a  system  of  such 
hot-house  culture  that,  when  subjected  to  ordinary 
care  and  cultivation,  they  fail  at  once,  and  are  scarcely 
ever  heard  of  after  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  their 
existence.  The  Wilson  has  been  my  standard  for  30 
years,  and  is  so  yet,  although  I  recognize  the  fact  that 
the  present  market  demands  a  larger  berry  than  it  is 
after  the  first  few  pickings.  What  shall  it  be? 
The  Manchester  has,  as  a  rule,  done  well  with 
me.  It  is  a  large,  fine-shaped,  bright-colored,  beauti¬ 
ful  berry  and  of  good  quality.  It  is  a  late  variety, 
and  will  not  bear  shipping  in  hot  weather.  Crescent 
bears  well,  but,  like  the  Wilson,  grows  less  and  less 
attractive  as  the  season  advances,  and  if  very  hot  and 
at  the  same  time  wet  weather  comes,  it  becomes  almost 
entirely  worthless.  I  have  coaxed  and  petted  the  Jes¬ 
sie  more  than  any  other  variety  I  have  ever  had  in  my 
garden,  but  have  never  succeeded  in  getting  even  a 
moderately  fair  crop.  The  Bubach  is  a  large,  fine 
berry,  and,  with  me,  the  vine  is  a  fair  bearer,  but  the 
fruit  does  not  bear  shipping  well.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  Haverland,  though  I  have  not  fully 
tested  it  yet.  I  have  had  the  Warfield  No.  2  in  bear¬ 
ing  for  three  years,  and,  if  it  continues  to  be  what  it 
has  been  thus  far,  I  really  believe  that  upon  my  ground 
it  is  to  be  the  “  coming  ”  market  berry.  It  is  a  pistil¬ 
late,  which  is  an  objection  to  it  with  which  I  shall  have 
to  put  up.  I  shall  use  the  Wilson  at  present  for  a  fer¬ 
tilizer.  The  Warfield  is  a  strong  grower,  and  I  set  my 
plants  three  feet  apart  each  way,  setting  two  rows  of 
Warfield  and  one  of  Wilson. 
I  prefer  spring  to  fall  setting,  and  the  earlier  in  the 
spring  the  better,  provided  the  ground  is  in  first-rate 
condition,  and  the  weather  favorable.  After  my 
plants  are  set  we  always  put  in  some  quick-growing 
crop  between  the  rows,  such  as  lettuce,  early  onions, 
early  peas  or  beans,  and  in  that  way  get  a  crop  from 
the  ground  the  first  season.  These  crops  can  be  taken 
away  in  time  to  give  the  runners  from  the  young 
strawberry  plants  plenty  of  time  to  make  thrifty 
plants  before  the  winter  closes  in  upon  them,  and  such 
plants  will  give  us  the  best  crop  of  fruit  the  following 
season.  The  weeds  and  grass  should  all  be  kept  out, 
and  after  the  ground  has  become  frozen,  as  when 
winter  is  setting  in,  the  entire  bed  should  be  covered 
with  marsh  hay  or  straw.  I  prefer  the  first,  because 
there  are  no  foul  seeds  in  it  to  come  up  and  annoy  us 
the  following  spring.  My  only  rule  is  to  spread  the 
cover  as  evenly  as  possible  over  the  plants  and  suffic¬ 
iently  thick  to  hide  them  while  I  am  walking  over 
them.  In  the  spring,  after  the  frost  is  out,  and  the 
ground  settled,  we  rake  off  the  cover  and  haul  it 
away  and  stack  it  for  next  winter’s  use.  We  then 
spread  ashes  on  the  beds,  at  the  rate  of  from  75  to  100 
bushels  per  acre.  I  prefer  to  set  new  beds  each  spring, 
and  take  but  a  single  crop  from  the  vines,  and  turn 
them  under  as  soon  as  the  fruit  is  gathered,  putting  in 
a  cabbage,  celery  or  other  fall  crop  on  the  ground. 
Soja  Beans. 
The  Rural  is  right  in  saying  that  most  of  the 
agricultural  experiment  stations  have  decided  that  the 
Soja  Bean  is  a  good  thing.  I  will  go  further  and  say 
that  it  is  an  extraordinarily  good  thing.  The  paper 
may  also  be  right  in  saying  that  in  its  case,  10  years 
ago,  it  proved  to  be  a  very  poor  legume.  This  reminds 
me  of  Mr.  Henry  Stewart’s  condemnation  of  Crimson 
Clover,  because  he  tried  it  in  Pennsylvania  25  years 
ago  and  found  it  “  no  good.”  Climate  has  a  greal  deal 
to  do  with  these  matters.  While  Soja  Beans  may  be  a 
poor  legume  in  New  Jersey,  and  Crimson  Clover  a  poor 
one  in  Pennsylvania,  both  are  undoubtedly  of  immense 
value  here,  at  the  North  Carolina  Experiment  Station. 
We  experiment  station  > folks  do  not  condemn  or 
praise  a  crop  from  a  single  experiment,  (  !  Eds.)  and 
both  of  these  crops  have  been  continually  tested  long 
enough  to  determine  their  value.  The  Soja  Bean 
fruits  too  late  in  the  season  for  a  Northern  climate, 
and  the  Northern  winter  is  too  severe  for  the  Crimson 
Clover.  This  is  about  the  true  state  of  the  case.  Here 
in  the  South,  no  crop  of  recent  introduction  to  our 
farmers  has  been  of  anything  like  the  value  of  Crim¬ 
son  Clover,  and  in  the  Soja  Bean  we  have  the  most 
formidable  competitor  with  our  old  favorite,  cow 
peas.  ‘I  am  sometimes  inclined  to  think  that  Soja 
may  win.  Aside  from  the  enormous  growth  of  fodder 
it  makes,  the  crop  of  beans,  or  peas — for  they  look 
more  like  peas — is  very  large.  As  to  its  exact  food 
value  per  ton,  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  determine. 
My  colleague,  Prof.  Emery,  filled  a  silo  with  the  Soja 
Beans  last  summer.  The  ensilage  is  a  good  article, 
but,  as  compared  with  corn  ensilage,  I  believe  he  does 
not  find  it  so  palatable  to  the  cows.  I  know  nothing 
definite  of  the  results  from  feeding  it.  It  certainly 
produced  a  much  heavier  crop  than  could  have  been 
got  from  cow  peas  on  the  same  land,  and  I  believe 
fully  as  much  as  the  land  would  have  made  in  corn. 
Our  country  is  too  big  a  place  for  us  to  condemn  a 
crop  as  poor  and  worthless  simply  because  it  failed 
once  in  New  Jersey.  The  orange  crop  would  fail  in  New 
Jersey,  but  is  of  great  value  in  Florida,  w.  F.  massey. 
[When  The  R.  N.-Y.  tries  a  plant  and  finds  it  meri¬ 
torious  or  inferior,  it  says  so,  whether  the  trial  is  for 
one  year  or  ten.  And  it  makes  such  reports  every 
year — the  reports  of  one  year  sometimes,  though 
rarely,  contradicting  those  of  another.  Our  reports 
are  for  our  climate  and  that  alone.  We  do  not  venture 
to  praise  a  new  plant  for  Florida,  California  or  Maine, 
because  it  proved  good  or  bad  on  the  Long  Island  farm 
or  Rural  Grounds.  Mr.  Massey  has  shown  somewhat 
less  conservatism  in  his  praise  of  Crimson  Clover  as 
well  as  in  his  declaration  that  lime  is  not  a  plant  food. 
As  to  the  Soja  Bean  We  should  condemn  it  for  the 
reason  that  our  cows  and  horses  did  not  relish  it,  as 
well  as  because  its  leaves  are  papery — its  stalks 
woody. — Eds]. 
Does  it  Pay  to  Keep  Cows  Clean  ? 
Butter  that  sells  at  from  one  to  six  cents  below  the 
highest  price  is  off  flavor.  The  main  cause  of  this  is, 
in  my  opinion,  milk  from  a  filthy  cow.  In  a  dairy  barn 
near  me  I  have  seen  a  simple  and  very  effectual  device 
for  keeping  the  cows  clean  while  in  the  barn.  Such  a 
device  is  certainly  of  benefit  to  the  cow,  and  by  its  use 
the  owner  is  saved  annoyance  from  dirty  floors,  soiled 
bedding,  foul  air  and  impure  milk.  r.  e.  maynard. 
R.  N.-Y. — This  device,  we  believe,  is  a  bag  or  tin  box 
arranged  on  pulleys  behind  the  cow  so  that  all  the 
manure  goes  into  it.  It  is  strapped  to  the  cow  by 
means  of  a  harness  and  sustained  by  ropes  from  the 
wall  so  that  no  weight  falls  on  the  cow.  The  box  is 
raised  or  lowered  as  she  stands  up  or  lies  down.  As 
all  the  manure  and  urine  are  voided  ifcto  it,  it  is  impos¬ 
sible  for  the  cow  to  become  dirty.  In  cleaning,  the  box 
is  simply  tipped  up  and  emptied  into  a  wheelbarrow. 
*  *  * 
There  are  two  ways  in  which  the  accumulation  of 
mature  on  cows  may  affect  the  profit  of  those  engaged 
in  the  production  of  milk  :  1.  Directly,  aSiaffording  a 
source  of  contamination  while  milking,  thereby  taint¬ 
ing  the  milk  and  detracting  from  its  quality.  2.  In¬ 
directly,  by  irritation  and  annoyance  to  the  cow, 
thereby  disturbing  the  normal  animal  economy.  The 
most  successful  dairymen  who  retail  their  product,  be 
it  either  milk,  cream  or  butter,  are  probably  well 
aware  that  they  cannot  afford  to  have  manure  accumu¬ 
late  on  their  cows,  as  doing  so  would  detract  too  much 
from  the  profit.  With  dairymen  whose  product  is 
wholesaled — like  milk  or  cream — it  is  doubtful  if  it 
pays  under  generally  prevalent  circumstances,  at  least 
as  far  as  the  “  direct  ”  loss  is  concerned.  For  instance, 
carefully  groomed  cows  and  those  suggestive  of  a 
walking  manure  pile,  as  well  as  others  in  various  in¬ 
termediate  conditions,  can  probably  be  found  among 
the  patrons  of  nearly  all  the  creameries  of  Connecticut, 
now  about  65  in  number.  As  far  as  the  quality  of  the 
goods  delivered  is  concerned,  as  measured  by  the 
cleanliness  of  the  product,  all  patrons  are,  I  believe, 
paid  alike.  If  this  is  so,  does  it  not  suggest  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  creameries  to  improve  the  quality  of  their 
output  by  enforcement  of  sanitary  regulations  ?  I 
believe  there  is  no  factor  at  the  present  time  so  capable 
of  raising  the  standard  of  creamery  products  as  the 
enforcement  of  proper  sanitary  conditions  where  the 
milk  is  produced.  There  is  no  other  feature  in  dairy¬ 
ing  so  much  ignored  as  that  of  sanitation,  yet  how 
important  must  it  be  !  Creamery  managers  could  have 
and  ought  to  have  such  matters  under  respectable  con¬ 
trol.  Where  milk  is  wholesaled  to  retail  dealers,  the 
subject  of  control  becomes  more  complex  and  doubtful. 
Hence,  under  prevalent  conditions,  if  it  pays  to 
maintain  animals  in  cleanliness  when  disposing  of 
their  product  at  wholesale,  the  profit  must  all  come 
through  the  ‘  ‘  indirect  method  ”  previously  stated.  I 
have  long  been  on  the  alert  to  obtain  some  positive 
evidence  in  this  direction,  but  have  failed  to  note  the 
publication  of  any  such  testimony. 
To  avoid  such  conditions,  stalls  must  be  so  con¬ 
structed  that  the  cow  is  not  compelled  to  lie  in  her 
manure,  bedding  must  be  employed,  and  the  cows  be 
groomed  as  often  as  necessary  to  obtain  the  desired 
result.  I  find  it  most  economical  to  groom  daily, 
although  with  a  small  herd,  and  where  the  owner  pro¬ 
vides  for  them  personally,  doing  the  work  seldomer 
might  suffice.  f.  h.  s. 
Sweet  Corn. 
In  a  recent  number  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  some  one  re¬ 
ferred  to  Crosby’s  Early  as  the  best  sweet  corn  he  had 
tried:  my  experience  has  been  the  same.  Last  season 
I  tried  the  Shoe-peg  which  to  my  taste  is  unsurpassed 
by  any  yet  tried.  It  is  deep-grained  and  of  excellent 
flavor,  but  the  ears  are  too  small  for  it  to  become 
popular  in  market.  What  I  am  after  now  is  a  hybrid 
with  the  size  of  the  Stowell’s,  and  the  quality  of  the 
Shoe-peg,  whether  very  early  or  not.  How  is  this  to 
be  got  ?  Plant  the  two  varieties  in  close  proximity 
and  run  the  chances  of  getting  a  cross,  or  can  we 
make  a  certainty  of  it?  How  would  it  do  to  plant  them 
closely  alongside  of  each  other,  and  at  such  dates  that 
they  would  bloom  at  the  same  time,  then  before  any 
dust  or  pollen  could  possibly  fall  from  the  tassels, 
clip  off  all  the  pollen  from  one  of  the  varieties  and  im¬ 
pregnate  the  other  with  it.  If  it  makes  ears  and  grain 
there  must  necessarily  be  a  cross.  My  idea  would  be 
to  use  the  stalk  yielding  the  largest  ears  to  produce 
the  new  one.  What  is  The  Rurat/s  opinion  on  the 
subject  ? 
[Stowell’s  Evergreen  and  Shoe-peg  (Ne  Plus  Ultra) 
will  bloom  about  the  same  time.  To  insure  this  make 
two  or  three  different  plantings  a  few  days  apart.  Al- 
