444 
July  0 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
the  country  at  large  and  there  are  not  many  more 
farmers  than  that  who  are  willing  to  stick  to  the  hen 
long  enough  to  win.” 
Now  that’s  right ;  isn’t  it  ?  Up  to  1890  we  imported 
every  year  nearly  15,000,000  dozens  of  eggs.  Since  the 
tariff  went  in  force  we  have  imported  nearly  10,000,000 
dozen.  To  supply  this  stock  alone  would  require  over 
000,000  hens  such  as  Mr.  Wyckoff  keeps  and  twice  that 
number  of  ordinary  birds.  It  would,  in  other  words, 
enable  about  2,500  farmers  to  pay  off  their  mortgages. 
Mr.  Wyckoff  had  one  house  full  of  young  pullets 
and  another  of  young  roosters.  They  are  separated  as 
soon  as  sex  can  be  determined.  The  pullets  are  fed 
on  wheat  and  the  roosters  on  corn.  As  soon  as  the 
latter  weigh  VA  pound  or  so  they  are  sent  alive  to  the 
city.  When  a  man  eats  one  of  these  birds  in  a  fashion¬ 
able  restaurant  he  will  have  to  pay  at  least  8L2o  for 
it.  Mr.  Wyckoff  will  get,  perhaps,  23  cents.  Who  gets 
the  81.02  ? 
Mr.  Wyckoff  sells  all  his  eggs  at  one  place.  He 
came  to  New  York  some  years  ago  and  stayed  here  a 
week  or  more  trying  to  make  a  bargain  with  grocery- 
men,  hotel-keepers,  etc.  At  last  he  found  a  man  who 
said,  “  Send  along  a  case  or  two  and  1  will  try  them. 
The  same  party  has  bought  the  eggs  ever  since.  Such 
dealers  generally  say:  “Oh!  you'll  send  me  eggs 
while  prices  are  low.  but  when  they  go  up— off  you  go 
somewhere  else.”  The  farmer  must  stay  right  by  his 
customers  when  he  gets  them.” 
(To  be  Continued.) 
STRAWBERRIES  ON  THE  HUDSON  RIVER. 
NOTES  ON  NEWER  VARIETIES. 
On  June  17  I  visited  the  grounds  of  Mr.  T.  J.  Dwyer, 
at  Cornwall,  N.  Y.  The  soil  on  his  place  is  rather 
heavy,  containing  much  clay,  totally  different  from 
that  of  the  Bural  Experiment  Grounds,  and  this  fact 
makes  the  observations  made  here  additionally  valu¬ 
able.  What  growers  want  to  know  is  what  berries 
are  of  general  utility,  fitted  for  any  ordinary  soil,  and 
that  information  we  try  to  give  them  by  noting  the 
conditions  of  the  same  plants  in  as  many  different 
localities  as  is  possible.  The  following  notes  were 
made  from  observations  on  Mr.  Dwyer’s  trial  bed, 
where  the  various  kinds  are  planted  side  by  side,  and 
treated  in  the  same  manner : 
Cumberland  Triumph  :  An  old  favorite.  Foliage 
thrifty;  berry  large ;  medium  early;  quality  good  and 
very  productive. 
Bubach  No.  5  :  Handsome  foliage;  a  vigorous  grower: 
rather  early ;  quality  fair ;  fruit  very  large  ;  produc¬ 
tive. 
Gandy  :  Late  ;  only  moderately  productive  ;  good 
foliage;  high  quality. 
Haverland :  This  variety  does  not  come  up  to  its 
promise  of  last  year  on  Mr.  Dwyer’s  place.  The 
plants  seem  to  be  lacking  in  vigor.  It  sets  heavily, 
but  the  fruit  does  not  reach  good  size.  Only  fairly 
productive. 
Downing  :  As  usual;  moderately  productive;  of  fair 
size  and  good  quality. 
Gold  :  Not  promising  ;  foliage  poor  and  weak  ;  un¬ 
productive  ;  quality  good.  Of  no  value  here. 
Miner’s  Prolific:  Rather  late;  productive;  fruit  of 
good  size  and  quality,  with  good  foliage. 
*  Golden  Defiance  :  A  good  family  berry  ;  not  produc¬ 
tive  enough  ;  of  high  quality,  handsome  foliage  and 
fruit. 
Kirkwood  :  A  reliable  old  berry  :  late,  of  good  qual¬ 
ity  ;  fruit  above  medium  in  size ;  productive  and  val¬ 
uable. 
Monmouth,  this  year,  has  set  fruit  heavily,  but  it  is 
of  such  poor  quality,  with  weak  foliage,  that  it  is  not 
valuable. 
Wilson :  This  old  sort  is  feeble,  and  practically 
worthless  on  these  grounds. 
Sharpless:  An  old  favorite,  bearing  a  little  better 
than  it  did  last  year. 
Jessie  :  Utterly  worthless  here. 
Lovett’s  Early  ripens  with  Cumberland  and  Bubach; 
very  productive  ;  fruit  of  good  size,  showy  and  hand¬ 
some,  but  below  the  average  in  quality. 
Jersey  Queen  :  Of  no  value  here. 
Jewell :  Fairly  productive  ;  a  good  grower  and  of 
good  quality. 
King  of  the  North  :  The  fruit  is  of  high  quality,  but 
the  plant  is  a  poor  grower,  and  very  unproductive. 
Parker  Earle  :  Keeping  fully  up  to  its  early  promise. 
A  fine  grower :  immensely  productive;  of  fair  quality: 
just  a  little  soft  for  long  distance  shipping. 
McPartland  :  A  good  grower:  large  fruit,  of  high 
quality  ;  not  productive. 
Swindle  :  Properly  named  so  far  as  quality  is  con¬ 
cerned.  Not  fit  to  be  grown. 
Southard  :  Worse  than  Swindle  in  quality— no  good. 
<«  Now  that  I  have  made  my  notes,  will  you  give  me 
your  ideas  of  the  newer  sorts?”  said  The  Rural  to 
Mr.  Dwyer. 
“With  pleasure.  The  Parker  Earle  I  consider  one  of 
the  most  valuable  of  the  newer  varieties.  It  is  exceed¬ 
ingly  productive,  and  for  markets  within  ordinary 
distances  it  ships  perfectly.  It  is  of  fairly  good  quality 
and  the  fruit  is  very  handsome.  If  growing  for  mar¬ 
ket  I  should  plant  it  largely.  Warfield  No.  2  is  another 
valuable  sort.  It  is  nearly  pistillate,  requiring  aid  in 
fertilization.  It  is  early,  and  a  great  yielder.  The 
fruit  is  of  a  distinct  type,  each  berry  having  a  short 
neck.  It  is  a  deep  crimson  in  color.  I  think  with  a 
suitable  season  it  would  equal  any  in  productiveness. 
Lovett's  Early  is  also  a  profitable  sort,  handsome 
fruit  and  productive.  Bubach  holds  up  to  its  promise 
— a  vigorous  grower,  large  and  handsome  fruit,  and 
very  productive.  Clark’s  Early,  a  new  variety,  is  the 
earliest  I  have  seen,  being  five  days  earlier  than  any¬ 
thing  on  my  place.  I  think  very  highly  of  it,  so  far. 
“  Where  do  you  market  your  berries?  ” 
“  My  markets  are  all  local— I  never  send  any  to  New 
York.  Summer  hotels  like  Cranston's,  below  West 
Point,  and  the  numerous  places  about  Cornwall  con¬ 
sume  all  my  fruit.” 
“  How  much  do  you  pick  to-day  ?  ” 
“  About  400  quarts.  But  you  must  remember  that 
my  beds  are  primarily  for  plants,  not  fruit.  The  fruit 
is  a  side  issue.  Still  they  do  very  well  and  I  have  sold 
none  for  less  than  12  cents  per  quart  net.” 
The  old  notion  that  cultivation  of  strawberries  be¬ 
fore  fruiting  was  injudicious  is  not  believed  in  by  Mr. 
Dwyer,  who  cultivates  whenever  he  can  find  time. 
Some  of  the  bearing  beds  had  received  a  thorough 
cultivation  only  the  day  before  my  visit  and  more  had 
been  arranged  for. 
The  Ohio  and  Sou  began  Raspberries  were  noticed 
growing  in  a  very  handsome  patch  side  by  side. 
“The  Ohio  is  a  little  the  better  grower,”  said  Mr. 
Dwyer;  “but  the  Souhegan  is  the  more  productive 
and  the  fruit  is  of  better  quality,  though  not  quite  so 
large  as  the  Ohio.  I  think  very  highly  of  it.” 
One  of  the  sights  on  Mr.  Dwyer’s  place  is  his  im¬ 
mense  show  of  celery  plants,  running  up  mto  the 
millions.  He  has  never  had  enough  for  his  trade, 
but  thinks  he  will  be  able  to  meet  the  demands  this 
season.  E-  G*  F- 
Leavings. 
An  exchange  heads  an  article  “Tan  Your  Own 
Bide,”  and  the  plan  is  suggested  as  a  remedy  for  the 
extortions  of  the  leather  dealers.  Most  people  would 
prefer  to  tan  some  one  else’s  hide  than  their  own,  and, 
knowing  this  preference,  we  predict  that  our  contem¬ 
porary’s  advice  will  not  be  generally  adopted. 
The  R.  N.-Y.  is  right  about  Orchard  Grass.  If  cut 
at  the  right  time,  it  makes  very  fine  hay,  but  in  a  short 
time  it  is  no  better  than  so  much  wheat  straw.  The 
“  right  time”  in  this  latitude— North  Carolina — comes 
in  May,  when  we  are  not  only  busy  with  other  mat¬ 
ters,  but  when  the  weather  is  almost  invariably 
showery,  and  the  sun  not  so  intense  as  desirable.  A 
man  with  a  large  crop  of  Orchard  Grass  is  to  be 
pitied.  W.  F.  MASSEY. 
What  Ails  the  Erie  ?— Milk  dealers  in  this  city  do 
a  good  deal  of  growling  over  the  inadequate  platform 
accommodations  given  them  by  the  Erie  Railway.  We 
understand  that  the  Erie  has  had  the  matter  of  im¬ 
proving  these  facilities  under  advisement,  but,  so  far, 
nothing  has  come  of  it.  It  is  certainly  a  very  serious 
annoyance  at  the  present  time,  and  one  which  should 
receive  immediate  attention.  But  a  greater  need  is 
better  cars  for  the  shipment  of  milk  and  a  supply  of 
ice.  Other  roads  furnish  refrigerator  cars  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent  and  bring  their  milk  into  the  city  in 
splendid  condition,  but  the  Erie  does  nothing  of  the 
kind.  It  has  furnished  a  few  cars  with  a  cheap  ar¬ 
rangement  for  ice,  but  the  shippers  must  furnish  their 
own  ice,  if  ice  they  will  have.  This  is  a  very  penurious 
and  miserly  policy  on  the  part  of  this  great  railway, 
and  it  will  eventuate  in  a  serious  damage  to  its  milk 
trade  if  persisted  in.  Its  milk  trains  are  by  far  the 
most  profitable  of  any  it  runs,  and  it  can  very  well 
afford  to  give  the  shippers  every  reasonable  facility  as 
well  as  ice  and  refrigerator  cars.  Why  it  does  not  do 
it  is  a  mystery  to  level-headed  business  men. 
Big  Asparagus.— I  found  to-day  while  working  in 
my  asparagus  one  stalk  which  I  cut  10  inches  long- 
and  it  weighed  10  ounces.  It  is  on  exhibition  now  at 
a  store  in  Ilorseheads,  N.  Y.  a.  donald. 
r.  N.-Y.— Mr.  Donald  has  been  very  successful  with 
his  asparagus.  Last  year  we  gave  an  account  of  his 
method  of  growing  and  selling.  A  week  ago  wTe  re¬ 
ceived  from  him  a  package  of  his  last  cutting  which 
was  voted  “  delicious  ”  by  all  who  tasted  it. 
Early  Maturing  Potatoes.— Here,  in  East  Rock- 
away,  L  I.,  I  planted  Beauty  of  Elberon  Potatoes  on 
April  18  and  on  June  10  I  dug  and  ate  them.  It  took 
them  just  54  days  to  grow  large  enough  for  table  use. 
The  land  had  never  been  cultivated  before.  The  soil 
was  a  sandy  loam  fertilized  with  Baker  s  potato  man¬ 
ure.  Judging  from  my  experience,  potatoes  can  be 
grown  ready  for  the  market  in  60  days  and  I  think  it 
is  only  a  question  of  time  when  Long  Island,  growers 
will  have  potatoes  ready  for  the  New  York  market  by 
the  middle  of  May.  J-  H-  G> 
The  Board  of  Health  report  for  the  week  ending 
June  18,  in  this  city,  shows  that  they  examined  3.002 
specimens  of  milk  and  destroyed  30  quarts.  YY  e  record 
the  fact  with  pleasure,  but  we  are  afraid  that  the  30 
quarts  alluded  to  must  have  been  very,  very  bad. 
How  bad  was  it,  gentlemen  ?  Whom  did  it  belong  to  ? 
Your  reports  would  be  more  interesting  if  they  went 
a  little  more  into  detail. 
Prof.  Cooke  of  the  Vermont  Experiment  Station, 
issues  a  bulletin  containing  interesting  facts  about 
Vermont’s  maple  sugar  industry.  In  1889,  Vermont 
made  14,123,921  pounds  of  sugar  and  218,253  gallons  of 
syrup.  One  gallon  of  syrup  represents  eight  pounds 
of  sugar.  This  year  2,328,846  pounds  of  sugar  were 
weighed  and  sampled  for  the  bounty.  Seven-eighths 
of  it  was  good  enough  and  the  total  bounty  paid  to 
Vermont  makers  was  835,094.88.  There  were  in  1889, 
10,099  persons  who  made  500  pounds  or  more.  Only 
1,918  of  them  actually  had  sugar  weighed  and  tested 
and  of  these  only  1,617  actually  obtained  the  bounty. 
The  conclusion  is  that  the  average  Y  ermont  farmer 
does  not  care  to  go  through  the  red  tape  needed  to  get 
the  bounty,  unless  he  makes  2,000  pounds  or  more. 
As  to  the  relative  profits  of  sugar  and  syrup,  eight 
pounds  of  sugar  with  the  bounty  added,  brought  on 
the  average,  75.6  cents,  while  the  gallon  of  syrup 
averaged  76.5  cents.  So,  as  a  rule,  those  who  made 
syrup  have  fared  better  than  those  who  made  sugar 
and  drew  the  bounty. 
“  In  a  city  restaurant,  the  other  day,  I  saw  on  a  bill 
of  fare:  ‘Spring  chicken,  whole,  81;  half.  60  cents.’ 
I  asked  to  be  shown  one  ;  it  was  about  the  size  of  a 
poor  quail.  I  resolved  to  buy  an  incubator,  and  be 
ready  to  supply  some  of  the  demand  for  that  kind  of 
meat  next  spring.” — Country  Jake,  in  Farm,  Stock 
and  Home. 
That’s  all  right,  Jake,  but  if  you  expect  to  get  those 
prices,  you  will  have  to  buy  a  restaurant  as  well  as  an 
incubator.  That  chicken  weighed  about  1A  pound, 
and  the  farmer  only  got  25  cents  per  pound  for  it. 
It’s  the  middlemen  that  get  the  big  money. 
The  best  plan  of  getting  rid  of  sparrows  is  that  sug¬ 
gested  by  the  New  York  Weekly  :  Get  the  little 
fellows  declared  game  birds  and  then  pass  stringent 
laws  for  their  protection.  The  pot  hunters  then  will 
get  in  their  deadly  work,  the  restaurants  will  put  them 
on  their  bills  of  fare  and  altogether,  the  little  rascals 
will  have  a  very  hard  time  of  it. 
[Every  query  must  be  accompanied  by  the  name  and  address  of  the 
writer  to  Insure  attention.  Before  asking  a  question,  please  see  If  It  is 
not  answered  In  our  advertising  columns.  Ask  only  a  few  questions 
at  one  time.  Put  questions  on  a  separate  piece  of  paper.] 
Some  Remarks  on  Keeping  Milk 
Sweet. 
1.  By  thoroughly  aerating  milk,  can  you  drive  out 
of  it  foul  odors  arising  from  the  cows  eating  turnips  or 
other  rank  foods  ?  2.  YVhen  should  milk  be  aerated— 
at  once  after  milking  ?  How  much  longer  will  the 
aerated  milk  keep  than  that  not  so  treated  ?  3.  By  using 
a  cooler  faithfully,  is  it  true  that  one  can  dispense  with 
ice  in  selling  milk  or  butter  ? 
By  using  the  “Star”  cooler,  we  can  take  out  all 
odors  completely  from  milk,  even  freeing  it  from  the 
taste  of  turnips,  cabbage,  rye,  ensilage  or  any  other 
food  calculated  to  leave  a  taste.  We  cool  at  once  as 
as  soon  as  milked,  and  find  that  milk  so  treated  will 
keep  fully  24  hours  longer  than  that  not  cooled.  YVhen 
milk  is  immediately  served  to  customers,  no  ice  is 
necessary  ;  but  as  our  milk  is  shipped  to  us  and  not 
used  before  24  or  36  hours  have  elapsed  from  the  time 
of  milking,  we  use  ice  to  hold  it  until  used  ;  but  our 
efforts  met  with  poor  success,  indeed,  until  we  used  this 
Cooler.  A.  L.  LOCKR1DGE. 
We  use  a  Heulings  patented  machine,  but  turnips  or 
other  rank-smelling  foods  are  not  fed  to  the  cows. 
The  aerating  should  be  done  at  once  after  the  milking. 
How  long  the  milk  will  keep  will  depend  upon  the 
temperature  at  which  it  is  kept  in  the  aerator, 
but  usually  after  treating  with  the  aerator  it  lasts 
twice  as  long  as  when  it  is  not  treated.  By  proper 
use  of  the  cooler  it  is  possible  to  dispense  with  the  ice 
in  keeping  the  milk.  Milk  which  has  been  out  in  our 
milk  wagon  for  five  hours  without  ice  comes  back 
perfectly  sweet.  It  would  not  keep  an  hour  if  not 
aerated.  Charles  mcnamf.e. 
Manager  for  G.  YY7.  \7anderbilt. 
From  a  Virginia  Dairy. 
Almost  10  years  ago  I  commenced  with  two  cows  on 
my  stock  farm,  three  miles  from  Richmond,  Va.  1 
first  made  gilt-edged  butter,  and  sold  it  at  40  cents  per 
