1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
3i7 
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Potatoes  for  Plant  Packages. 
I  see  it  recommended  to  use  potatoes  scooped  out  to 
a  shell  for  packing  choice  roots  and  small  plants  for 
mailing.  It  is  proposed  to  scoop  out  most  of  the  flesh 
of  the  potato  and  pack  the  tuber  inside  with  moss,  in 
the  belief  that  this  will  keep  the  roots  moist  and  per¬ 
fect.  Has  The  Rural,  ever  tried  it?  Is  it  practicable? 
The  method  of  shipping  slips  and  other  small  material 
in  hollowed  out  potatoes  has  been  tried  quite  success¬ 
fully,  and  I  have  shipped  many  small  things  myself  to 
Europe  and  all  parts  of  this  country  in  this  way.  The 
potato  should,  however,  be  prevented  from  coming  in 
contact  with  the  air  to  such  an  extent  as  to  cause  too 
much  evaporation,  and  I  find  it  best  to  cover  the  whole 
with  oiled  paper  to  prevent  this.  JOHN  THORPE. 
We  have  never  tried  the  plan  recommended,  and 
don’t  think  it  would  be  worth  trying. 
THE  DINGEE  &  CONARD  CO. 
We  have  never  tried  the  use  of  potatoes  for  packing 
bulbs  and  plants.  It  might  carry  the  plants  in  good 
condition,  but  we  hardly  think  it  would  be  practicable 
for  florists,  because  there  would  be  too  much  expense 
and  work  connected  with  it.  We  very  rarely  have 
trouble  with  plants  packed  with  moss  and  tied  in  wax 
paper.  storrs  &  harrison  co. 
We  have  never  used  the  scooped  out  potatoes  for 
packing  roots,  but  can  readily  see  they  would  retain 
the  moisture,  and  our  impression  is  that  they  would 
be  a  very  nice  means  of  sending  small  plants  or 
bulbs.  If  properly  packed  in  moss,  however,  and 
wrapped  in  oiled  paper,  plants  can  be  sent  almost  any 
distance  in  perfect  condition.  smiths  &  powell. 
This  is  a  novel  idea  and  I  should  say  it  was  chimer¬ 
ical  and  nonsensical.  Even  if  practical,  potatoes  of 
prodigious  size  would  be  needed  for  the  purpose. 
What  would  we  do  with  the  raw  hash  resulting  from 
the  scooping  out  process?  Thus  far  no  material  has 
been  found  equal  to  moss  for  mailing  plants.  I  have 
sent  them  to  California  by  mail  packed  in  this  material 
and  wrapped  in  oiled  paper,  with  perfect  success.  Let 
the  potato  remain  to  occupy  its  legitimate  place  as  an 
article  of  food.  There  is  little  prospect  of  enhancing 
its  price  by  such  methods.  e.  williams. 
It  Pays  to  Aerate  Milk. 
“  1.  Can  odors  arising  from  feeding  turnips,  cabbage, 
etc.,  be  thoroughly  driven  out  of  milk  by  aerating  it  ? 
2.  How  long  after  milking  should  the  milk  be  aerated  ? 
3.  Will  aerated  milk  keep  longer  than  that  not  so 
treated  ?” 
Milk  will  keep  longer  for  being  properly  aerated  im¬ 
mediately  after  it  is  drawn  from  the  cow.  There  is 
an  abundance  of  evidence  that  the  odors  arising  from 
feeding  turnips,  cabbage,  etc.,  may  be  eradicated  by 
aeration.  e.  l.  bass. 
Shipping  milk  to  Atlanta,  75  miles  away,  and  then 
keeping  it  sweet  for  at  least  24  hours,  would  be  an  im¬ 
possibility  without  aeration.  I  do  not  feed  either  tur¬ 
nips,  cabbage  or  any  similar  foods.  In  this  climate 
we  always  have  rye,  or  barley  or  Lucern  patches  to  cut 
during  the  whole  winter  for  the  cattle,  or  rather  can 
have,  by  liberal  manuring.  Milk  should  be  aerated  as 
soon  after  leaving  the  udder  as  possible.  Aerated  milk 
will  keep  at  least  three  times  as  long  us  non-aerated. 
We  use  Hill’s  aerator.  s.  &  k. 
Chemicals,  Clover  and  Horses. 
T.  S.,  Perth,  N.  Y. — I  am  engaged  in  horse  breeding. 
While  getting  my  foundation  stock  I  cannot  expect  to 
get  much  of  an  income  for  three  or  four  years.  I  in¬ 
tend  to  initiate  the  chemical  and  clover  rotation  this 
year,  substituting  oats  for  wheat,  as  the  former  will 
be  better  utilized  in  feeding  the  horses ;  none  of  the 
latter  is  raised  here.  Last  season  I  purchased  an  As- 
pinwall  planter  and  Hoover  digger,  a  Breed's  weeder 
and  a  Morgan  spading  harrow.  This  season  I  have 
received  a  bicycle  cultivator  and  an  Aspinwall  cutter 
is  coming.  I  would  like  to  get  a  practical  machine  to 
fight  the  bugs.  Would  The  Rural  advise  a  hand 
machine  or  a  horse  power  sprinkler?  What  is  the 
paper’s  opinion  of  the  rotation  of  chemicals  and  clover 
as  here  outlined:  corn  on  sod  with  coarse  manure 
plowed  under,  the  crop  being  planted  at  once,  followed 
by  potatoes  with  half  a  ton  of  potato  fertilizer  per 
acre;  next  oats  with  200  pounds  of  ammoniated  bone 
per  acre,  seeded  with  clover?  Which  is  preferable — 
putting  the  fertilizer  in  the  drill  with  the  planter,  or 
using  part  in  the  drill  and  broadcasting  the  rest  with 
the  grain  drill.  I  tried  this  way  last  year  on  both 
potatoes  and  corn  and  got  better  results  on  both  crops 
by  putting  the  whole  quantity  of  the  fertilizer  in  with 
the  planter. 
Ans. — You  are  on  the  right  track.  Never  keep  a 
horse  simply  because  it  is  a  “manure  maker.”  A  few 
of  the  best  horses  to  begin  with,  carefully  bred  and 
handled  will  bring  you  to  the  front.  Chemicals  and 
clover  will  keep  you  going  until  the  herd  is  large 
enough  to  give  a  profit  out  of  its  increase.  As  to  the 
potato  sprinkler,  if  you  have  six  acres  or  more  we 
would  advise  a  horse  sprinkler.  The  hand  machines 
do  fair  work  on  small  areas,  but  are  not  fitted  for 
large  fields.  It  will  take  10  barrels  or  more  of  water 
to  run  over  six  acres.  Think  of  carrying  that  on  your 
back  and  walking  with  it  over  la  miles,  as  you  will  have 
to  do  with  the  small  sprinklers.  The  horse-power 
sprinkler  will  do  the  work  quicker  and  better  for  it 
keeps  the  Paris-green  mixed  with  the  water  better 
than  the  hand  power  machine.  Within  five  years  the 
use  of  the  Bordeaux  mixture  or  some  other  copper 
preparation  will  be  as  universal  as  the  present  use  of 
Paris-green.  All  the  more  reason  for  a  horse-power 
machine.  As  noted  elsewhere  in  this  issue,  farmers 
have  successfully  used  an  ordinary  two-wheeled  dump 
cart  with  a  barrel  of  water  and  a  force  pump.  The 
trouble  with  this  is  to  get  the  poison  well  mixed.  The 
rotation  is  “all  right.”  We  should  try  200  pounds  of 
a  complete  fertilizer  on  the  oats,  against  the  200 
pounds  of  ammoniated  bone  to  see  if  it  paid  better.  In 
our  experiments  with  potatoes  it  has  paid  best  to 
broadcast  at  least  half  the  fertilizer  and  with  corn  to 
broadcast  it  all. 
Forms  of  Arsenic;  Fertilizers. 
C.  H.,  Hudson,  hid. — 1.  Is  there  anything  I  can  sub¬ 
stitute  for  Paris-green  or  London-purple  for  spraying 
apple  trees.  If  so,  what?  2.  If  I  spray  with  Paris- 
green  how  long  until  the  grass  underneath  will  not 
injure  stock.  3.  Would  it  be  advisable  to  use  fertili¬ 
zers  on  wheat  that  will  average  25  bushels  per  acre, 
without  ? 
Ans. — 1.  White  arsenic  is  a  cheap  form  of  this  poison. 
It  is  more  soluble  in  water  than  the  other  forms  and 
more  damaging  to  foliage.  It  is  also  dangerous  stuff 
to  have  around  as  it  looks  too  much  like  sugar  or  salt, 
and  children  or  thoughtless  people  have  been  killed  by 
it.  For  these  reasons  it  is  seldom  recommended.  2. 
After  rain  there  would  be  little  or  no  danger.  3. 
We  should  say  not,  except  in  a  small  way  to  ex¬ 
periment. 
An  Old  Cow  Association  Wanted. 
Several  Subscribers. — What  do  milk  dairymen  do  with 
their  old  cows  when  no  longer  profitable  in  the  dairy  ? 
Ans. — What  to  do  with  old  and  worn-out  cows  in 
many  of  the  dairy  regions  is  becoming  quite  an  import¬ 
ant  problem  of  late  years.  Before  the  days  of  Chicago 
beef,  when  each  town  had  its  quota  of  butchers,  who 
slaughtered  for  the  local  trade,  there  was  no  difficulty 
in  disposing  of  them  at  fair  rates,  but  all  that  is 
changed.  In  very  many  communities,  the  slaughter¬ 
house  has  become  a  thing  of  the  past.  There  are  no 
longer  any  butchers — we  have  in  their  place  venders  of 
meat,  who  simply  buy  and  cut  up  carcasses  slaughtered 
in  the  West  and  sent  East  in  refrigerator  cars. 
In  Orange  County,  N.  Y.,  there  is  a  considerable 
trade  in  old,  worn-out  or  undesirable  dairy  cattle. 
Cattle  dealers  who  sell  dairy  cattle  to  farmers,  have 
found  it  an  advantage  to  their  trade  to  help  the  farmers 
in  the  disposition  of  the  old  cows.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  in  an  average  dairy  of  30  cows,  about  one-sixth  of 
them  must  go  to  the  shambles  every  year,  either  from 
old  age,  or  from  being  found  to  be  unprofitable 
specimens.  As  a  rule,  the  farmer  will  slaughter  one 
or  two  of  these  for  his  own  use  and  for  his  neighbors, 
but  that  leaves  a  large  number  yet  to  be  disposed  of. 
The  dealers  in  Orange  County  buy  of  the  farmers, 
rarely  paying  more  than  $10  per  head,  and  ship  them 
to  Paterson,  N.  J.,  or  New  York,  where  they  are  sold 
for  cheap  beef.  One  Paterson  concern  slaughters  25 
per  week.  There  is  room  for  a  good  business  in  this 
line,  it  would  seem  to  The  R.  N.- Y.  Parties  with  ample 
capital  could  buy  up  all  these  cattle  and  ship  them  to 
a  central  point  where  they  could  be  slaughtered  and,  as 
can  be  done  in  large  plants,  the  offal  could  be  more 
profitably  utilized.  It  would  be  a  convenience  to 
dairymen,  that  of  having  a  ready  market  for  this  stock, 
even  if  prices  were  low. 
Most  of  the  dairy  cattle  of  Orange  County,  probably 
nine-tenths  of  them,  are  not  raised  there,  but  are 
brought  in  by  cattle  dealers.  Formerly  these  dealers 
used  to  go  about  the  country,  notably  in  the  counties 
of  Sullivan,  Delaware,  Chenango,  Broome  and  Otsego, 
and  pick  them  up  wherever  found  for  sale.  But 
of  late  years,  owing  to  the  extension  of  the  milk 
business,  this  has  not  been  practicable.  To-day  the 
dealers  go  to  Buffalo  and  Chicago,  where  they  select 
carload  lots  from  the  cattle  yards,  where  they  are 
shipped  in  by  dealers  from  all  over  the  country. 
The  percentage  of  those  who  raise  their  own  stock, 
is,  as  we  have  stated,  very  small,  but  it  is  a  notable 
fact  that  the  most  successful  dairymen  are  not  those 
who  buy  their  stock  at  large.  We  have  in  mind  one 
dairyman  in  Orange  County,  who  some  years  ago 
bought  the  farm  and  stock  of  a  very  successful  dairy¬ 
man,  as  dairying  went  in  those  days.  The  cows  had 
been  carefully  selected  by  a  good  judge  and  their  aver¬ 
age  production  was  about  2,500  quarts  per  year.  The 
new  owner  bought  a  thoroughbred  bull,  began  raising 
heifers  from  his  best  cows  and  to-day  the  average  pro- 
duction  of  the  herd  is  nearly  4,000  quarts.  Dairymen 
must  learn  this  lesson  ere  they  can  hope  to  materially 
increase  their  profits. 
Rape  ;  Matured  Corn  in  the  Silo. 
H.  V.  T.,  Hadwinton,  Ct. — 1.  Is  rape  a  “nitrogen 
trap  ”  like  clover  ?  2.  Last  fall  I  filled  a  silo  with  corn 
that  was  planted  so  thin  that  every  stalk  had  fully- 
matured  ears.  I  put  it  in  the  silo  whole  ;  the  kernels 
were  glazed  and  ripe  enough  for  husking.  It  came  out 
bright  and  sweet,  but  the  kernels  passed  through  the 
cows  whole.  Do  I  get  the  full  benefit  of  my  corn  ?  If 
not,  how  can  I  do  so  ?  3.  For  the  first  two  months 
the  ensilage  was  quite  warm.  Did  not  the  heat  take 
from  the  feed  some  element  that  the  cows  need  in 
winter  ? 
Ans. — 1.  No  ;  it  is  more  of  a  “  nitrogen  eater.”  It  is 
useful  as  a  green  manure  because  it  adds  a  large 
amount  of  humus  or  vegetable  matter  to  the  soil  in  a 
short  time.  It  will  be  of  advantage  to  market  gar¬ 
deners  who  use  large  quantities  of  fertilizers,  because 
it  can  be  sowed  late  in  the  season,  making  a  fair 
growth  through  the  fall  and  winter  and  be  plowed  under 
the  next  spring  for  late  corn  or  similar  crops.  2.  No, 
when  corn  passes  through  your  cattle  whole,  you  do 
not  get  the  full  benefit  unless  hogs  or  poultry  work 
over  the  manure,  and  thus  eat  the  grain.  It  would 
have  paid  you  better  to  have  husked  off  the  ears  and 
put  the  stalks  in  the  silo,  drying  the  grain  and  grind¬ 
ing  it  for  the  cows.  Prof.  Henry,  of  the  Wisconsin 
Station,  recently  wrote  in  the  Breeder’s  Gazette  : 
I  know  quite  a  large  number  of  farmers  who  have  followed  the  prac¬ 
tice  of  removing  the  ears,  husks  and  all,  from  the  stalks  of  corn  just 
when  the  grains  were  denting.  The  ears  were  thrown  on  the  ground 
and  left  to  mature,  while  the  stalks  of  corn  yet  green  were  cut  and  put 
Into  the  silo.  The  ears  of  corn  maturing  wero  gathered  up,  husked 
and  cribbed,  so  that  for  the  crop  of  corn  there  were  the  grain  In  the 
crib  and  the  succulent  stalks  cut  up  In  the  silo.  Some  who  have  tried 
this  system  are  much  pleased  with  It.  An  experiment  In  this  very  line 
was  conducted  at  this  station  the  past  winter.  The  ears  of  corn  In  the 
husk  were  taken  from  two  rows  of  corn  In  the  field,  and  the  stalks  put 
Into  one  part  of  the  silo  after  passing  through  the  feed  cutter;  the 
next  two  rows  of  stalks  with  the  ears  on  were  put  Into  the  silo  ears 
and  all,  and  so  on  alternately  until  the  silos  were  filled.  The  weather 
being  dry,  the  ears  of  corn  lying  on  the  ground  In  the  husk  matured 
In  good  shape,  the  grains  shrinking  very  little  on  the  cob,  and  a  nice 
lot  of  corn  was  the  result.  The  corn  was  fed  with  the  ensilage  which 
produced  It  against  the  mixture  of  corn  and  stalks  from  the  other  por¬ 
tions  of  the  silo. 
3.  The  ensilage  should  have  been  warm.  That  was 
all  right.  If  the  silo  is  air-tight,  nothing  was  lost  by 
the  heat. 
Soaking-  Potato  Seed. 
('.  J.  T. ,  Delaware,  Out.,  Canada. — I  send  a  clipping 
from  an  English  paper,  the  Standard.  What  does  The 
R.  N.-Y.  think  of  it? 
Mr.  Warburton,  writing  from  LaRochelle,  France,  assures  potato 
growers  that  a  French  grower  finds  no  difficulty  In  growing  42  tons  of 
potatoes  per  acre.  This  very  successful  producer  selects  the  best  and 
soundest  of  seed  tubers  of  medium  size,  and  plants  them  whole,  while 
he  cultivates  deeply  and  manures  liberally.  So  far  there  Is  nothing 
at  all  out  of  the  common.  But  the  grower  also  Immerses  his  seed 
tubers  for  24  hours  In  a  solution  of  six  pounds  of  sulphate  of  ammonia 
and  six  pounds  of  nitrate  of  potash  In  25  gallons  of  water,  allowing  the 
tubers  to  remain  for  another  24  hours  afterwards,  so  that  the  germs 
may  have  time  to  swell.  It  Is  to  the  Increased  activity  of  germination 
produced  by  this  stimulating  bath  that  he  attributes  his  enormous 
return.  Perhaps  some  growers  in  this  country  will  try  the  plan  and 
make  known  the  results.  If  they  get  half  the  crop  said  to  have  been 
produced  by  the  French  grower,  they  will  be  well  satisfied.” 
Ans. — We  have  no  confidence  in  greatly  increasing 
the  yield  by  soaking  the  seed  potatoes  as  described. 
Forty-two  English  tons  mean  over  1,500  bushels. 
Miscellaneous. 
M.  Crawford,  Cuyahoga  Falls,  Ohio,  has  the  true 
Warfield  No.  1  Strawberry. 
Henry  Young,  Ada,  Ohio,  is  the  originator  of  the 
Enhance  Strawberry. 
A.  S.  D.,  Ulster  County,  N.  Y.— The  Nichols  Chem¬ 
ical  Company,  of  08  William  Street,  New  York,  and 
Geo.  D.  Wetherell  &  Co.,  of  56  North  Front  Street, 
Philadelphia,  offer  sulphate  of  copper  in  50-pound  lots 
at  five  cents  per  pound. 
J.  H.  C.,  Blue  Springs,  Mo. — The  best  chicken  fence 
is  one  made  of  wire  netting — for  sale  at  all  hardware 
stores.  We  do  not  know  the  Stanton  Plum,  never  hav¬ 
ing  tested  it. 
Schoonmaker  Apple. — A.  D.  C.,  New  Paltz,  N.  Y. _ 
This  apple  Downing  describes  under  the  head  of 
Schoonmaker  or  Schoolmocker.  We  remember  the 
apple  very  well,  45  years  ago.  It  is  of  excellent  quality 
and  was  then  a  good  keeper.  We  do  not  know  if  it  is 
anywhere  in  cultivation.  Downing  says,  “fruit  large, 
roundish  oblate,  yellow,  bronzed  blush  in  the  sun. 
Flesh  yellowish  white,  crisp,  brisk,  sub-acid.  Good  to 
very  good.”  As  we  recall  it,  it  was  a  very  high  flav¬ 
ored,  very  juicy  apple. 
