492 
TIIE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
July  30 
to  be  a  failure  as  a  double  crop  at  least.  Early  last 
spring  a  small  piece  of  land  on  which  Rural  New- 
Yorker  No.  2  Potatoes  were  raised  last  year  was  cul¬ 
tivated  and  sown  to  Red  and  Mammoth  Clover  at  the 
rate  of  12  quarts  per  acre,  to  which  at  the  rate  of  one 
pound  per  acre  of  the  earliest  kind  of  turnip  seed  was 
added  for  the  purpose  of  raising  early  turnips  for 
market.  From  the  time  growth  started  until  about 
four  weeks  ago  the  turnips  seemed  to  lead;  from  then 
until  now,  it  has  been  a  race  with  the  chances  in  favor 
of  the  clover.  The  turnips  are  about  the  size  of  a 
Waterbury  watch,  with  tops  like  the  chain,  seemingly 
a  great  deal  longer  than  necessary,  and  unless  I  pas¬ 
ture  the  patch  it  will  naturally  make  quite  a  muss  if 
this  is  made  into  hay  and  I  wonder  what  effect,  if  any’ 
these  turnips  might  have  on  the  clover  another  year 
if  they  were  left  in  the  ground  to  rot.  This  is  really 
about  all  the  experiments  1  have  made  in  growing 
turnips  for  green  manure,  but  in  Holland,  and  notably 
in  the  Province  of  Friesland,  I  h  ive  seen  large  fields 
that  had  been  planted  to  potatoes  the  previous  spring! 
sown  broadcast  to  turnips  to  be  used  as  manure,  with 
the  following  difference  in  their  handling:  just  before 
winter  sets  in  the  sturdy  Dutchman  with  a  spade 
proceeds  to  clear  the  ground  where  they  grow,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  dirt  that  adheres  to  them,  and  throws 
them  in  narrow  ridges  generally  the  length  of  the 
fields  they  occupy.  They  are  then  covered  up  with 
earth  sufficient  to  cover  them  entirely,  and  are  thus 
left  until  the  following  spring  when  they  are  all  rot¬ 
ten  and  spread  over  the  same  surface  as  evenly  as  pos¬ 
sible.  Then  the  ground  is  plowed  and  oftentimes 
spaded,  and  again  p’ anted  to  potatoes  or  some  other 
field  crop,  and  the  persistence  with  which  this  practice 
is  followed  naturally  leads  me  to  believe  that  there  is 
something  in  it  that  makes  it  pay. 
At  all  events,  in  my  case  here  in  LaCrosse  County, 
Wis.,  it  needs  no  practised  eye  to  tell  the  difference  in 
the  growth  of  both  oats  and  wheat  on  turnip-enriched 
land,  more  particularly  that  of  the  latter,  and  the 
superiority  of  it  almost  convinces  any  one  from  the 
start  that  it  pays  to  sow  turnips  for  manure  wherever 
practicable  until  we  find  something  better.  Radishes 
were  sown  with  the  turnips,  because  then  we  almost 
always  have  all  we  want  for  use,  and,  moreover,  they 
are  considered  even  better  than  turnips  for  fertilizing 
purposes,  notably  the  Black  Spanish.  .JOHN  van  loon. 
Leavings. 
Hatching  Ego  Plants.  How  many  eggs  should  a 
good  egg  plant  lay?  How  much  per  dozen  do  they 
average?  You  can  put  4,840  plants  on  an  acre.  A 
soft-shelled  plant  egg  is  as  bad  for  shipping  as  a  soft- 
shelled  hen’s  egg.  To  thicken  the  first’s  shell,  feed 
potash  to  the  plant  just  as  you  would  feed  lime  to  the 
hen  to  toughen  her  shell.  You  can’t  manure  or  hoe 
egg  plants  too  much.  •-  They  also  like  water,  but  hate 
frost  or  cold.  The  man  who  eats  egg  plants  has  no  use 
for  meat. 
Value  of  Horse  Manure. — The  statement  is  made 
in  an  English  paper  that  “  horse  manure  is  freely 
offered  at  one  shilling  (24  cents)  per  horse  per  week.” 
That  means  $12.48  for  the  year.  Prof.  Roberts,  at  Cor¬ 
nell,  made  careful  estimates  of  the  value  of  the  manure 
from  different  animals.  He  found  that  a  horse  weigh¬ 
ing  1,000  pounds  gave,  while  in  the  stable  during  the 
year,  manure  worth  $11.47,  if  figured  on  the  basis  of 
the  money  paid  for  chemical  fertilizers.  In  the  same 
way,  he  found  the  manure  value  from  1,000  -pounds  of 
sheep,  live  weight,  to  be  $38  55  for  one  year  ;  for  1,000 
pounds  of  swine,  $17.11,  and  a  1,000-pound  cow,  $29  82. 
The  value  for  one  animal  one  day  was:  horse,  4  2-5 
cents;  cow,  9  3-10  cents;  sheep,  cent,  and  hog, 
three-fifths  of  a  cent. 
Previous  to  the  advent  of  this  organization  (Milk 
Exchange),  milk  was  shipped  without  any  price  being 
determined  on,  and  the  shipper  did  not  know  what  he 
would  receive  until  long  after  it  was  used.  If  any  dis¬ 
pute  arose  in  settlement,  a  tedious  legal  process  was 
required  to  determine  the  “  market  price.”  All  this  is 
changed  and  to  the  benefit  of  both  producer  and 
dealer.  The  latter  knows  what  he  must  pay,  and  can 
thus  determine  his  selling  price. — Milk  Reporter. 
Under  the  old  management,  which  was  bad  enough, 
milk  shippers  received  an  aggregate  of  more  than  40 
cents  for  the  year.  Since  the  Exchange  has  as¬ 
sumed  the  right  to  fix  prices,  they  have  steadily 
gone  down  until  the  aggregate  for  the  year  1891  was 
less  than  32.  This  may  be  a  boon  to  milk  producers, 
but  the  Reporter  will  have  difficulty  in  convincing 
them  of  it. 
Stove  Cleaning. — In  a  late  Rural  I  noticed  a  recipe 
for  Silver  Polish,  copied  from  the  Ladies’  Home  Jour¬ 
nal.  I  was  once  in  a  hardware  store  and  we  “  took 
in  ”  coal  stoves  for  storage  over  summer,  returning 
them  later,  with  nickel  and  mica  cleaned  up,  etc.  We 
used  for  the  nickel  work  strong  ammonia  with  suffi¬ 
cient  whiting  to  make  a  cream.  Rub  it  on  the  nickel 
with  a  sponge,  let  it  dry,  then  rub  off  clean.  This  will 
answer  as  well  for  most  other  metals,  such  as  silver, 
copper,  brass,  etc.  For  the  mica,  no  matter  how 
smoked  up  or  dirty,  the  plain,  undiluted  ammonia  fills 
the  bill,  and  there  is  none  better.  Even  should  one 
neglect  cleaning  the  mica  till  the  stove  is  set  up  and 
going,  the  ammonia  can  still  be  used  by  taking  off  the 
doors  and,  when  cool,  applying  it.  The  ammonia  is 
worth  25  cents  a  quart  and  the  whiting  2K  to  5 
cents  per  pound.  “  gideon.” 
Southern  White  Immigration. — A  big  white  immi¬ 
gration  would  settle  the  race  problem  forever.  It 
would  develop  the  country,  build  up  new  markets, 
diversify  our  industries,  increase  the  value  of  our 
land,  put  more  money  in  circulation,  and  make  this 
the  richest  section  of  the  Union.  But  we  are  not 
anxious  to  invite  all  classes  of  immigrants.  We  want 
native  Americans  and  foreigners  who  are  already 
Americanized.  We  want  neither  the  slums  of  Europe 
nor  the  slums  of  the  North.  We  want  immigrants 
who  will  come  here  prepared  to  sustain  themselves 
and  assimilate  with  our  people.  An  organized  effort 
will  get  them,  but  it  will  have  to  be  under  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  very  able  and  prudent  men.  No  greater 
calamity  could  befall  us  than  to  draw  in  this  direction 
the  class  of  immigrants  who  are  making  so  much  trou¬ 
ble  in  the  North  and  West. — Atlanta  Constitution. 
It  is  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  mysteries  of  mod¬ 
ern  civilization  why  white  immigration  prefers  the 
North  and  West  to  the  richer  natural  resources  of  the 
South.  This  country  as  a  whole  has  not  been  able  to 
pick  and  choose  its  immigrants,  nor  do  we  think  the 
South  will  be  able  to  do  so. 
Terrors  of  the  Flood. — People  who  live  on  hill 
farms  often  think  they  are  badly  off  in  dry  seasons. 
No  one  yet  ever  had  an  ideal  location.  Plenty  of 
moisture  is  good — too  much  of  it  is  awful.  The  follow¬ 
ing  is  taken  from  a  private  note  from  our  esteemed 
correspondent,  P.  H.  Monroe  of  Will  County,  Ill. 
This  is  a  sad  outcome  for  one  who  has  worked  so 
wisely  and  patiently  to  secure  a  model  home.  Even 
he  fared  better  that  some  of  his  neighbors. 
A  cloud-burst  on  June  23  caused  our  Dupage  River 
to  rise  away  beyond  all  former  records,  destroying 
most  of  our  crops  and  leaving  “  Lilycache”  in  a  sad 
plight.  I  have  not  an  acre  of  corn  left  and  have 
secured  only  five  loads  of  clover  where  last  year  I  had 
40.  Two  acres  of  Timothy  and  10  acres  of  oats  com¬ 
prise  the  total  of  my  crops  for  1892.  The  garden  was 
also  inundated  and  of  course  destroyed.  When  the 
water  receded  the  pastures  were  left  covered  with  a 
deposit  of  mud  and  the  cows  have  to  be  fed  in  the 
barn  with  grass  mown  b37  the  roadside  and  fences,  for 
the  water  reached  the  silo  and  spoiled  the  ensilage 
three  feet  in  depth,  which  I  had  saved  against  a  pos¬ 
sible  drought. 
American  Grown  Tea.— We  have  referred  to  the 
fact  that  a  fair  quality  of  tea  can  be  grown  in  South 
Carolina  and  other  Southern  States.  Commissioner 
LeDuc  started  an  experiment  tea  plantation,  but  it 
was  abandoned  though  it  still  yields  small  crops. 
Southern  farmers  did  not  then  pay  much  attention  to 
the  experiment.  They  were  then  getting  big  prices 
for  cotton.  Now  cotton  growing  is  overdone  and 
Southern  farmers  realize  that  we  are  sending  about 
$15,000,000  abroad  every  year  for  tea.  The  Florida 
Times-Union  says,  in  respect  to  this  matter: 
If  it  costs,  as  is  stated,  25  cents  a  pound  to  pick  tea 
leaves  with  negro  labor,  it  is  evident  that  it  will  not 
pay  to  grow  tea  for  sale,  except  at  retail  prices  near 
home.  But  it  is  highly  probable  that  it  will  pay  to 
grow  tea  for  home  use,  just  as  it  pays  a  farmer  to 
produce  milk,  butter  and  eggs,  although  he  may  not 
have  a  market  for  these  articles.  It  is  by  practicing 
such  small  economies  that  the  farmers  oi  the  North 
have  come  to  be  so  much  better  off  than  those  of  the 
South.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the  con¬ 
sumption  of  tea  in  the  rural  districts  of  the  South  is 
so  small  that  the  home  production  of  it  cannot  be  re¬ 
garded  as  a  very  important  economy. 
Command  of  the  Farm. — The  following  little  sermon 
from  the  Montana  Live  Stock  Journal  is  commended 
for  every-day  reading  : 
You  have  seen  men  who  have  had  absolute  command 
of  their  farms.  The  horses  were  afraid  of  them,  the 
hired  men  hated  them,  and  their  wives  were  so  nearly 
scared  to  death  all  the  time  that  they  grew  poor  and 
thin.  These  men  were  masters  of  their  farms,  and 
they  permitted  everybody  to  find  it  out.  But  there  is 
no  advantage  in  that.  Then  you  have  seen  the  men 
who  were  not  masters  of  anything.  Their  hired  men 
did  as  they  chose  and  they  were  afraid  to  demur. 
Their  wives  scolded  them  and  worried  them  and  pushed 
them  around  till  you  wondered  what  such  men  were 
made  fo  •  anyway.  Even  their  live  stock  disrespected 
them.  It  would  be  hard  to  say  which  is  the  most  to 
be  pitied,  the  pitiable  weakling,  or  the  detestable 
tyrant.  But  there  is  a  courtesy  of  conduct  which  is 
not  weakness,  and  a  command  which  is  not  the 
unpleasing  manifestation  of  brute  force.  As  the  first 
essential  requirement  the  man  of  the  farm  ought  to 
have  command  of  himself.  He  must  be  the  first  to  live 
up  to  the  rules  laid  down  ;  the  first  to  show  that  his 
government  governs.  It  he  goes  to  town  to  the  circus 
or  to  a  political  convention  when  everybody  can  see 
that  he  ought  to  be  in  the  harvest  field,  he  has  given 
public  exhibition  of  his  inability  to  run  the  rest  of  the 
farm.  If  he  gets  sweating  mad  and  kicks  the  cow  in 
the  ribs  for  fighting  off  the  flies  which  ought  not  to  have 
been  allowed  in  the  stable,  or  if  he  surfeits  the  hired 
men  with  profanity  for  not  watering  the  horses  when 
they  ought  not  to  have  been  watered,  then  he  has  lost 
command  of  the  only  one  on  the  farm  of  whom  he 
needs  to  be  particularly  afraid. 
Fertilizers  in  the  Far  North. — In  the  Farmer’s 
Advocate,  a  farmer  in  Prince  Edward  Island  gives 
his  first  experience  with  a  potato  fertilizer  : 
The  “  Mapes  ”  we  applied  to  potato  ground,  400 
pounds  (cost  $12.00)  on  half  an  acre,  in  connection 
with  barnyard  manure,  and  here  we  obtained  the  best 
results,  but  even  then  it  is  a  question  if  the  increase 
in  crop  paid  for  the  increased  cost.  We  consider  these 
tests  fair,  as  the  land,  though  good,  is  not  very  rich. 
We  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  unless  there  is 
barnyard  manure  or  humus  in  the  soil  in  considerable 
quantities,  the  application  of  commercial  fertilizers 
will  result  in  a  loss,  and  even  when  applied  with  barn¬ 
yard  manure  the  cost  is  so  great  that  it  swallows  up 
all  the  profit. 
Last  spring  we  gave  some  facts  about  the  use  of  fer¬ 
tilizers  on  this  island.  Considering  the  Canadian  tariff 
on  manufactured  articles,  we  think  it  a  mistake  to  use 
a  complete  fertilizer.  The  separate  elements  are  free 
and  could  be  imported  and  mixed  much  cheaper.  The 
conclusion  arrived  at  regarding  “  humus”  is  correct. 
This  was  repeatedly  insisted  upon  in  “Chemicals  and 
Clover.”  What  this  farmer  should  learn  is  that  a 
strong  clover  sod  with  the  chemicals  will  take  the 
place  of  the  manure.  He  would  not  have  used  ferti¬ 
lizers  and  manure  together,  but  manure  by  itself  and 
fertilizers  on  sod.  This  would  have  shown  what  he 
needs  to  know. 
Milk  in  Mobile. — A  correspondent  of  the  Country 
Gentleman  w’rites : 
Let  a  dairyman  come  here  from  New  York,  Vermont 
or  Massachusetts,  and  bring  with  him  100  milch  cows. 
I  guarantee  him  10  cents  a  quart  for  all  the  milk  he 
can  make  in  the  city  of  Mobile,  and.  all  things  con¬ 
sidered,  he  will,  at  the  lowest  calculation,  save  $2  to 
the  $t  he  will  in  any  of  those  States.  I  know  the 
principal  cities  and  towns  and  the  supply  and  de¬ 
mand  of  them  from  farmers,  both  milk  and  butter, 
to  supply  them  butter  at  from  30  to  50  cents  ii 
pound.  Milk  used  is  condensed,  bought  at  the  grocery 
stores;  no  such  thing  as  liquid  milk  in  stores,  nor 
such  a  thing  known  as  a  milk  wagon  going  through 
the  streets.  I  do  not  err  when  I  say  that  there 
are  hundreds  who  never  tasted  pure  milk.  All  who 
have  a  piece  of  ground,  either  leased  or  owned,  grow 
beans,  peas,  tomatoes,  potatoes,  etc.,  for  the  Western 
market;  of  "producing  milk  they  know  nothing,  and, 
so  far  as  I  can  judge,  would  consider  it  humiliating 
to  peddle  milk  in  any  shape. 
We  have  little  doubt  of  the  truth  of  this  statement. 
Yet  Alabama  is  the  home  of  Signal’s  Lilly  Flagg,  the 
record-breaking  Jersey  ;  while  some  of  the  largest  and 
best  Jersey  herds  in  the  world  are  to  be  found  in  that 
State  and  Mississippi.  The  milk  makers  are  all  right, 
but  the  milk  men  are  not  as  well  bred  as  their  cows. 
They  simply  have  not  taken  advantage  of  a  big  oppor¬ 
tunity.  If  they  don'tjflo  it  within  a  few  years,  North¬ 
ern  milk  will  be  sterilized  and  sent  1,000  miles  to  sup¬ 
ply  the  market  which  they  ought  to  monopolize. 
Another  Non-Drinker. — In  Brevities  in  The  Rural 
of  July  9,  you  say  :  ‘  Not  one  man  in  100  is  master  of 
himself  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to  give  up  eating 
meat.”  I  think  it  more  necessary  for  man  to  get 
knowledge  of  himself  than  to  obtain  mastery  over 
himself  to  enable  him  to  give  up  the  use  of  meat. 
Most  people  do  not  believe  that  life  can  be  supported 
and  health  maintained  on  a  strictly  vegetarian  diet. 
In  winter,  particularly,  do  they  think  it  indispensable; 
nevertheless  one  who  eats  no  meat  at  all  feels  the  cold 
of  winter  less  than  the  habitual  meat  eater.  I  am  a 
much  younger  vegetarian  than  T.  W.,  who  told  of  his 
habits  of  diet  on  page  449  of  The  Rur  al  New- Yorker, 
and  until  I  saw  that  I  did  not  know  of  any  one  ex¬ 
cept  myself  who  had  not  drank  for  so  long  a  time. 
For  about  240  days  before  May  20,  1892,  I  experienced 
no  thirst,  and  drank  not  a  swallow  of  anything.  At 
the  1st  of  May  my  supply  of  winter  apples  gave  out 
and  I  again  became  thirsty.  Does  not  this  answer  the 
question  asked  in  a  recent  Rural  :  “  Can  you  get  along 
with  fruit  alone  and  no  drink?”  We  use  no  lard  in 
cooking  and  I  use  no  milk,  butter,  cheese  or  eggs.  I 
think  I  have  as  good  health  as  any  living  man,  though 
v\lun  I  quit  using  meat  I  was  a  dyspeptic  and,  my 
friends  thought,  a  consumptive  also.  I  have  not  taken 
any  medicine  binee  I  became  a  vegetarian,  g.  g.  gihbs. 
Experience  With  Ducks. 
Slowly  and  silently  the  sun  withdrew  his  scorching 
rays  from  the  earth  and  sank  behind  the  western  hills 
on  one  of  the  best  improved  farms  in  Ohio,  but  his 
brightness  still  lingered  on  a  large,  level  field  of  corn 
where  the  owner  was  patiently  following  the  culti¬ 
vator  up  and  down,  up  and  down.  Though  the 
rows  were  fully  half  a  mile  long,  yet  he  whistled 
cherrily  as  he  noted  the  growth  of  his  corn  and  knew 
that  his  work  was  not  in  vain. 
The  evening  shadows  gather  and  the  farmer  quits 
his  task;  the  tired  horses  have  been  turned  out  to  rest 
and  are  picking  the  tender  Blue  Grass  in  the  pasture 
lot;  the  large  flock  of  chickens  are  safely  housed  and 
the  farmer  s  day’s  work  is  done.  No  care  rests  on  his 
brow  as  he  seeks  the  piazza  for  a  half  hour's  rest  be  - 
lore  bed  time. 
“You  wonder  why  I  don’t  raise  ducks  as  well  as 
chickens  ?  ”  queried  he  as  he  wiped  the  perspiration 
