1892 
343 
.  THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Country  Roads  and  Road  Making. 
(Continued.) 
enough  to  pass  through  a  two-inch  ring, 
laid  directly  on  the  road  bed,  and  packed 
solid  and  smooth  with  paving  hammers 
and  heavy  rollers,  makes  a  good  road. 
This  is  essentially  what  is  commonly 
known  as  macadamizing  a  road.  Such  a 
road  is  easily  kept  in  repair  and  very 
durable. 
It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  do 
more  than  merely  allude  to  the  paving 
question,  as  there  is  already  a  large 
amount  of  literature  on  the  subject.  I 
will,  however,  briefly  mention  one  article 
which  you  will  not  find  mentioned  in  the 
books,  but  which  I  think  is  destined  in 
the  future  to  play  an  important  part  in 
the  making  of  good  roads  in  some  parts 
of  the  country.  While  in  Utah  a  few 
years  since,  I  met  with  a  rock  formation 
from  10  to  50  feet  in  thickness  and  ex¬ 
tending  for  a  great  many  miles.  It  is 
largely  composed  of  what  is  locally 
known  as  Utah  mineral  wax.  The  rock 
when  heated  in  a  vessel  disintegrates. 
The  so-called  wax  melts  and  rises  to  the 
top,  while  the  solids  settle  to  the  bottom. 
This  wax  strongly  resembles  asphalt  in 
appearance  and  properties.  There  is  an 
immense  amount  of  it  in  the  West  and  it 
is  being  worked  in  various  places.  One 
Way  of  using  it  is  to  grind  or  crush  the 
crude  rock  to  a  sufficient  fineness  and 
then  apply  it  to  the  surface  of  a  road  or 
walk  in  the  same  way  as  gravel.  It  is 
said  to  make  as  good  a  road  as  asphalt 
pavements,  or  even  better,  as  it  has  all 
the  good  qualities  of  asphalt  without  any 
tendency  to  become  slippery.  From  my 
personal  knowledge  of  this  rock  and  its 
characteristics  I  am  disposed  to  believe 
most  of  what  is  claimed  for  it.  It  is 
being  ground  and  shipped  in  bulk  on  the 
Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Western  Rail¬ 
road.  The  principal  cost  is  the  transpor¬ 
tation. 
The  adage  that  “  a  stitch  in  time  saves 
nine  ”  is  true  of  many  things,  but  of  none 
more  than  of  road  repairing.  It  seems 
to  be  well  settled  that  wc  will  not  take 
the  one  stiteli  in  time,  but  will  put  in 
the  nine  stitches  between  corn  planting 
and  harvest,  or  not  at  all.  The  road  ma¬ 
chine  is  the  best  tool  I  know  of  for  re¬ 
repairing  roads  If  used  as  it  should  be, 
it  smooths  and  evens  the  surface,  fills  the 
rut  holes,  and  leaves  the  road  in  good 
condition  for  travel  so  that  it  is  a  pleas¬ 
ure  to  ride  over  it.  The  right  way  to 
fill  a  ‘"chuck  hole”  is  not  to  bring  a  lot 
of  new  earth  and  fill  it.  That  raises  a 
hummock  which  has  a  tendency  to  cause 
a  new  hole  on  each  side  of  the  old,  or  two 
rut  holes  in  place  of  one.  The  earth 
which  has  been  crowded  out  of  the  hole 
should  be  scraped  down  and  put  back. 
A  road  machine  will  do  this  to  perfec¬ 
tion.  It  should  be  done  when  the  earth 
is  nearly  dry,  if  not  quite  so  ;  otherwise 
the  first  passing  wagon  will  start  the 
hole  anew.  It  should  be  gone  over  sev¬ 
eral  times,  at  intervals,  until  that  part 
of  the  road  is  as  hard  as  the  rest.  The 
practical  way  to  do  the  work  is  to  go 
over  the  road  in  the  spring  with  the  road 
machine  as  soon  as  the  ground  is  suffi¬ 
ciently  settled,  and  as  often  afterwards 
as  it  is  in  condition  to  work  and  the  road 
seems  to  need  it. 
Garden  Gossip. 
The  thoughtful  farmer  will,  at  this  sea¬ 
son  of  the  year,  have  on  hand  a  supply  of 
powdered  hellebore,  to  protect  his  cur¬ 
rant  and  gooseberry  bushes  from  the  at¬ 
tacks  of  the  currant  worm.  If  there  is 
none  on  hand,  and  an  interval  of  a  day 
or  two  goes  by  after  the  worms  are  dis¬ 
covered,  the  bushes  are  sometimes  ruined 
for  the  season,  so  rapidly  do  these  pests 
do  their  work.  If  there  is  none  on  hand, 
get  some  as  soon  as  possible  and  keep  a 
close  watch  for  these  nuisances. 
Any  tomato  may  be  made  a  tree  toma¬ 
to,  one  kind  as  well  as  another,  if  you 
will  set  a  pole  by  the  plant,  trim  off  all 
laterals  after  the  second  leaf  is  made, 
and  keep  the  main  stalk  tied  to  the  pole. 
We  have  had  them  seven  feet  high  and 
filled  with  choice  fruit,  but  it  requires 
considerable  care  and  painstaking  work 
to  keep  them  in  this  shape.  There  is  no 
tomato  which  grows  tree  shaped  natu- 
rally,  and  this  is  especially  true  in  the 
North.  In  hotter  climates  and  in  light 
soil,  they  not  infrequently  stand  erect, 
in  a  small  bush,  at  times  holding  all  their 
fruit  from  the  ground. 
In  growing  cabbage  for  the  home  table, 
we  recommend  the  Savoys.  They  do  not 
grow"  as  large  as  many  of  the  other  kinds, 
but  they  are  so  very  much  better  in 
quality  that,  once  used,  you  will  never 
care  to  go  back  to  the  easier  grown  but 
inferior  varieties.  They  are  as  delicate 
as  cauliflower  and  as  handsome  as  a  pict¬ 
ure.  If  you  have  not  grown  them  for 
your  own  table,  try  them  once. 
There  are  radishes  and  radishes.  Some 
are  tender,  melting,  juicy  and  agi’eeable 
in  flavor,  others  are  tough,  stringy,  pun¬ 
gent  and  otherwise  disagreeable  in  qual¬ 
ity.  Why  ?  It  is  very  largely,  if  not 
altogether  a  question  of  soil.  To  have 
radishes  at  their  best,  we  must  grow 
them  in  a  sandy  soil,  the  more  sand  the 
better.  There  are  thousands  of  persons 
who  have  eaten  radishes  every  year  of 
their  adult  lives,  grown  on  their  own 
places,  who  have  never  yet  tasted  a  really 
fine  one,  because  of  the  heavy  clay  soil 
in  which  they  are  grown.  If  such  is 
your  soil,  manufacture  a  special  corner 
for  a  radish  plot,  by  adding  liberally  of 
sand.  With  very  liberal  applications  of 
it,  you  will  vastly  improve  the  quality 
and  earliness  of  the  radish.  We  have 
planted  them  in  April  in  the  open  air  in 
southern  New  York  and  had  them  fit  for 
the  table  in  30  days. 
The  little  early  scarlet  turnip  variety 
is  probably  the  earliest  of  all  and  is, 
withal,  very  good  in  quality.  We  value 
most  highly  the  French  Breakfast  var¬ 
iety,  a  radish  of  oval  shape,  a  beautiful 
pinkish  scarlet  in  color  with  a  white  tip. 
It  is  delightful  in  quality,  grows  quickly 
and  ornaments  the  table.  For  the  hot 
summer  weather,  we  prefer  a  rather 
large,  white  radish,  of  the  turnip  shape, 
found  in  all  the  seed  catalogues.  On 
heavy  soils,  this  is  especially  poor,  while 
in  a  soil  largely  of  sand,  it  is  crisp,  juicy 
and  delicate.  With  a  little  forethought, 
one  can  have  a  continuous  and  varied 
supply  of  these  relishes  all  through  the 
season  and  they  should  not  be  neglected. 
I  do  not  know  whether  the  practice  is 
general,  or  otherwise,  but  my  wife  cooks 
the  summer  Crookneck  squash  for  me  in 
a  style  which  has  made  it  very  popular. 
Cutting  it  in  slices,  it  is  fried  a  delicate 
brown,  much  as  an  egg  plant,  save  that 
she  uses  no  batter  or  bread  crumbs.  It  is 
really  delicious  in  this  way,  far  better 
than  when  stewed.  It  is  fried  on  a  grid¬ 
dle  that  is  simply  greased  enough  to  pre¬ 
vent  the  squash  from  sticking,  and  comes 
to  the  table  brown  and  luscious.  Before 
the  advent  of  this  style  of  cooking,  we 
did  not  care  very  much  for  the  summer 
squashes.  For  this  style  of  cookery,  the 
summer  Crookneck  is  best.  o. 
A  Gleaner’s  Notes. 
A  dog-lover,  in  an  exchange,  patheti¬ 
cally  says,  in  reply  to  a  severe  denuncia¬ 
tion  of  dogs,  as  follows  : 
I  do  not  propose  to  have  my  rights  in¬ 
fringed.  Who  will  deny  that  I  have  a 
right  to  keep  a  dog  ? 
Nobody  will  deny  such  a  palpable  fact. 
I  he  trouble  is  that  you  don’t  “keep  a 
dog,”  though  you  think  you  do.  You 
own  him,  but  you  do  not  “  keep  ”  him. 
If  you  would  always  “keep”  him  at 
home,  he  could  do  no  harm  to  anybody, 
except  on  your  own  place.  But  dogs  are 
rarely  thus  kept.  They  roam  over  the 
neighborhood,  and  have  been  known  to 
kill  sheep. 
Alluding  to  an  address  which  the  edi¬ 
tor  of  Farm,  Stock  and  Home  recently 
delivered  in  Minneapolis,  that  paper 
says : 
The  city  papers  rankly  and  vilely  mis¬ 
quoted  the  address,  put  words  in  the 
speaker’s  mouth  he  never  thought  of 
using,  and  then  criticised  him  on  the 
basis  of  the  forged  utterances.  If  more 
despicable  journalism  (?)  exists  F.  S.  & 
H.  is  not  aware  of  it. 
The  partisan  papers  of  that  city  have 
never  forgiven  Mr.  Owen  because  he 
once  accepted  a  third  party  nomination, 
and  they  cannot  do  him  justice.  If  there 
is  anything  more  contemptible  than  a 
strictly  partisan  sheet — the  kind  which 
says  “we  are  always  all  right  and  the 
other  side  is  always  all  wrong  ” — we  do 
not  know  where  to  look  for  it.  Let 
Brother  Owen  content  himself.  To  be 
praised,  or  even  fairly  treated  by  such 
papers  would  tend  to  damage  his  charac¬ 
ter  among  high-minded  men. 
The  New  York  Tax  Reform  Associa¬ 
tion  requested  space  in  the  cohimns  of 
the  Farmer’s  Weekly  to  present  their  side 
of  the  case.  Whereupon  the  editor  says 
as  follows : 
While  our  columns  are  open  to  the  free 
discussion  of  economic  questions  of  inter¬ 
est  to  farmers  and  wage-earners,  we  have 
no  space  to  give  away,  rent  or  sell  to  an 
organization  of  corporation  lawyers, 
board  of  trade  gamblers,  wholesale  mer¬ 
chants  and  plug-hat  politicians. 
The  language  may  not  be  over-cour¬ 
teous  or  complimentary,  but  it  is  vigor¬ 
ous,  and  the  readers  will  no  doubt  fully 
understand  it.  It  is  evident  that  our  es¬ 
teemed  contemporary  is  not  in  sympathy 
with  the  ideas  of  the  association  al¬ 
luded  to. 
Cooperative  dairy  farmers  who  know 
much,  will  never  be  persuaded  to  breed, 
and  milk  rich  milking  cows,  till  they  find 
they  get  pay  for  the  excess  of  fat  in  their 
milk  over  that  of  common  cows — and 
that  too  whether  their  milk  is  put  into 
cheese  or  butter.  It  is  the  valuable 
thing  they  produce  they  want  pay  for. — 
Hoard’s  Dairyman. 
Right !  The  old  method,  still  gener¬ 
ally  in  vogue,  of  paying  one  price  for  all 
milk,  simply  offers  a  premium  for  a  poor 
article,  and  discourages  the  dairyman 
who  is  aiming  at  higher  excellence  in  his 
products.  We  are  making  progress, 
thanks  to  the  simplicity  and  reliability 
of  the  Babcock  test. 
My  method  of  making  a  fertilizer  for 
pot  plants  is  to  go  to  the  blacksmith  shop 
and  get  the  clippings  of  horses’  hoofs  and 
other  sweepings,  steel  or  iron  cinders  and 
filings.  Fill  a  pail  about  one-fourth  full 
of  these,  then  add  enough  boiling  soft 
water  to  make  the  pail  full.  Water  the 
plants  with  this  and  when  very  dry  set 
the  pot  in  the  pail.  It  seems  to  furnish 
a  complete  food  for  the  plants  at  all 
seasons.  My  plants  now  have  the  fresh¬ 
ness  and  greenness  of  June  and  are  re¬ 
markably  prolific  in  flowers.  It  is  not 
very  costly  and  I  hope  that  every  one 
will  give  it  a  trial.  This  fertilizer  I  have 
found  will  give  the  flowers  a  deeper 
shade  and  a  rich,  healthy  leaf.  The  iron 
is  what  does  it,  and  the  plants  want  a 
change  of  food  as  well  as  anything  else. 
— A.  Wasson. 
This  item  is  “  going  the  rounds.”  If  the 
“  other  sweepings”  contain  a  large  pro¬ 
portion  of  horse  manure,  the  hot  water 
may  soak  out  a  little  plant  food,  but  no 
water  that  ever  boiled  will  dissolve  hoof 
clippings  or  steel  and  iron.  If  it  would 
the  fertilizer  problem  would  be  indeed 
solved. 
Corn  in  Hot  Beds. — A.  J.  Root  tells  in 
Gleanings  how  he  grew  early  corn  and 
potatoes,  snap  beans,  cabbages,  etc.,  in 
hot-beds,  at  a  profit : 
The  corn  was  planted  the  last  of  Feb¬ 
ruary,  the  kernels  being  put  in  just  10 
inches  apart.  Glass  was  used  over  them 
at  first ;  but  when  the  stalks  got  so  they 
crowded  against  the  glass  they  were  pro¬ 
tected  by  shutters  or  cloth.  Every  stalk 
gave  an  ear  —  sometimes  two — even 
though  planted  so  close,  for  the  ground 
was  very  rich. 
The  coming  market  gardener  must  be 
up  to  this  and  every  other  trick  of  the 
trade. 
fHBfeT 
HAYff^sycs 
[steel  presses] 
self  feeder 
/\ddh£$5 
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