1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
6o3 
It  is  an  unusually  food  pear  for  an  early  one,  rank¬ 
ing-  in  quality  with  some  of  the  best  autumn  kinds. 
It  is  very  juicy,  sweet  and  vinous,  with  sufficient  acid 
to  make  it  sprightly  and  just  a  trace  of  astrngency. 
The  flesh  is  fine-grained  and  melting — in  marked  con¬ 
trast  with  most  early  pears  which  are  dry  or  mealy. 
It  is  ripe  about  July  10,  two  weeks  earlier  than 
Doyenn6  d’Et<S,  and  about  a  month  earlier  than  Gif- 
fard,  Clapp’s  Favorite,  Tyson  and  Rostiezer.  It  is 
fully  as  good  as  the  Giffard  or  Tyson,  resembling  the 
latter,  save  that  it  is  more  sprightlj",  and  it  is  a  better 
keeper  and  shipper. 
A  Visit  to  T.  B.  Terry. 
CLOVER,  POTATOES  AND  WHEAT. 
A  rough  road  at  first ;  not  a  “  horn  farmer  didn’t  know 
enough  to  buy  a  new  plow  point ;  a  good  rotation ; 
preparation  for  potatoes ;  tools  and  methods ;  clover 
does  it  all ;  an  experiment  ivith  scab  ;  not  so  much 
steam  on  now. 
Early  History  of  the  Farm. 
What  farmer  is  more  talked  about  the  country  over 
than  T.  B.  Terry,  of  Hudson,  Ohio  ?  Mr.  Terry  was 
not  always  as  well  known  as  he  is  to-day.  His  repu¬ 
tation  as  a  farmer  is  something  he  has  acquired  by 
hard  work,  both  of  muscle  and  brain.  He  was  neither 
born  nor  raised  a  farmer.  In  fact,  23  years  ago  he 
was  about  as  ignorant  of  farm  matters  as  any  one 
could  be.  He  tells  me  that  when  doing  his  first  plow¬ 
ing,  and  the  point  had  become  worn  so  that  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  keep  the  plow  in  the  ground,  a 
neighbor  happening  to  pass  by  asked  him  why  he  did 
not  get  a  new  point.  “  That  was  the  first  intimation 
I  ever  had,”  said  Terry,  “  that  a  plow  needed  an  oc¬ 
casional  new  point.” 
Going  on  his  farm,  as  he  did,  without  any  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  business,  hampered  by  a  debt  of  $3,700,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  best  portions  of  the  farm  being  cov¬ 
ered  with  stumps  and  brush,  necessitating  year  after 
year  of  not  very  remunerative  labor,  is  it  any  wonder 
tliat  Mr.  Terry  is  quite  sanguine  now  in  regard  to  the 
possibilities  of  agriculture  ?  During  these  early  years 
it  was  hard  work  for  12  months  in  the  year.  Winters 
were  spent  in  digging  out  and  burning  stumps. 
The  first  year  Mr.  Terry  says  he  hired  only  one  dol¬ 
lar's  worth  of  help.  It  was  all  he  could  do  to  make 
a  living  for  himself.  Later,  as  he  began  to  hire  help, 
it  was  mostly  during  the  winter  months,  the  aim 
being  to  get  his  land  in  shape  for  intensive  farming. 
There  was  no  income  from  writing  in  those  days.  In¬ 
deed,  not  until  lie  had  paid  the  last  dollar  of  his  debt 
did  he  earn  a  dollar  from  the  use  of  his  pen. 
A  Potato-Wheat  Rotation. 
Mr.  Terry’s  farm  consists  of  50  acres,  15  of  which 
are  low  pasture  lands  that  cannot  be  drained.  All  of 
his  farming  is  done  on  35  acres.  As  many  of  the  read¬ 
ers  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  know,  he  follows  the  potato- 
wheat  rotation,  one-third  of  his  cultivated  land  being 
in  potatoes,  one-third  in  wheat  and  one- third  in  clover. 
He  seeds  wheat  to  clover  about  the  first  of  March,  no 
Timothy  is  sown  either  in  the  fall  or  spring.  He  clips 
the  wheat  stubble  and  young  clover  early  in  August 
in  order  to  thicken  the  clover  and  destroy  all  weeds 
before  they  seed  and  while  they  will  dry  up  so  as  not 
to  trouble  next  year’s  hay  crop,  and,  what  he  would 
probably  regard  as  of  the  most  importance,  form  a 
mulch  for  the  young  clover  during  the  winter.  He 
mows  the  first  crop  of  clover  the  next  season  for  hay, 
then  harrows  down  the  second  crop  and  lets  it  remain 
on  the  ground  until  the  following  spring  when  the 
land  is  plowed  for  potatoes.  He  aims  to  plant  his  po¬ 
tatoes  the  last  of  April  or  first  of  May.  This  year  he 
did  not  succeed  in  getting  all  planted  before  the  floods 
came  and  he  thinks  he  will  lose  a  great  many  bushels 
on  account  of  it. 
Tools  That  Save  Hired  Men. 
He  uses  the  Aspinwall  planter  but  can  materially 
increase  his  yield  by  hand  planting,  and  does  plant  by 
hand  when  he  wants  for  any  reason  to  do  his  best  on 
a  small  area.  In  cultivating  he  uses  Breed’s  weeder 
and  this  year  has  got  hold  of  an  implement  manufac¬ 
tured  by  the  Iron  Age  Company — a  cultivator  with 
harrow  teeth — that  he  thinks  a  wonderful  tool  to  work 
up  close  to  a  young  plant  without  covering  it  up.  He 
used  to  dig  and  sell  his  potatoes  in  July  and  August, 
but  finds  he  cannot  compete  with  those  farther  South 
in  supplying  the  early  market.  Lately  he  has  found 
that  he  can  do  better  by  storing  his  crop  in  the  barn 
until  October,  when  the  early  potatoes  are  well  used 
up  and  the  late  ones  not  yet  dug,  and  then  selling. 
He  now  sells  in  carload  lots  on  the  track  in  Hudson. 
He  could  get  more  by  hauling  them  to  Akron  and  sell¬ 
ing  them  directly  to  the  consumers  as  he  used  to  do, 
but  has  got  through  working  so  hard.  “That’s  the 
way  I  made  my  money,”  said  he,  “and  if  I  were  young 
and  in  debt  I  would  do  the  same  thing  again.  I  have 
hauled  many  a  load  of  potatoes  to  Akron  and  brought 
back  $50  for  each.” 
AH  About  the  Wheat  Culture. 
After  potatoes  are  dug  and  before  he  takes  time  to 
market  them  the  ground  is  fitted  for  wheat.  The 
Cutaway  or  disc  harrow  is  used.  There  is  no  plowing. 
His  plowing  is  all  done  in  the  spring  when  the  soil 
turns  up  easily.  He  likes  to  drill  his  wheat  about  Sep¬ 
tember  8 — five  pecks  of  carefully  cleaned  seed  per 
acre,  covered  about  an  inch  in  depth.  No  chemical 
fertilizers  are  used  either  on  wheat  or  potatoes.  Mr. 
Terry  has  sold  all  his  wheat  for  seed  purposes  for  the 
last  10  years  to  persons  in  Kentucky.  He  aims  to  get  a 
little  more  than  market  price,  but  sometimes  gets  beat 
when  the  prices  rise  unexpectedly,  as  he  has  to  set 
his  price  early.  He  sells  all  his  products  in  the  fall  or 
at  least  before  winter,  but  of  course  does  not  sell  care¬ 
lessly.  He  has  seldom  sold  any  potatoes  for  less  than 
40  cents  per  bushel,  and  he  gets  close  to  $1  about  one 
year  in  three.  He  makes  most  money  from  potatoes 
in  years  when  the  yields  are  light,  his  own  included, 
though  he  succeeds  in  keeping  his  yield  much  higher 
than  the  average  potato  grower  who  is  not  a  specialist. 
In  such  years  his  yield  sometimes  drops  a  little  below 
150  bushels  per  acre.  He  hardly  thinks  his  yields — 
good  and  bad — will  average  quite  200  bushels  per 
acre,  though  some  years  he  gets  many  morp. 
Trusts  to  Clover  for  Fertility. 
Twenty-three  years  ago  on  the  best  field  of  the  farm 
a  former  tenant  got  eight  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre 
“and  was  well  satisfied,”  says  Mr.  Terry.  To  the 
same  person  Mr.  Terry  offered  all  the  oats  or  Hun¬ 
garian  he  could  grow  on  a  number  of  acres,  rather 
than  have  them  grow  up  to  weeds,  but  it  was  declined 
on  account  of  the  poor  reputation  of  the  field.  I  say 
“  reputation,  ”  for  it  is  probable  that  its  actual  eondi- 
The  Lemon  Blush  Tomato.  Fig.  244. 
tion  was  not  as  poor  as  it  seemed  owing  to  constant 
cropping  without  rotation.  From  this  same  field  Mr. 
Terry  has  sold  hundreds  of  dollars’  worth  of  products 
— sometimes  as  high  as  $120  worth  per  acre  in  a  single 
year!  What  has  brought  the  change  ?  No  magic 
wand,  no  trick  of  the  conjurer,  but  clover  (I  think  Mr. 
Terry  would  spell  it  with  a  capital  letter)  grown  in  a 
short  rotation,  thorough  tillage,  tile-draining  and  the 
careful  saving  of  manure  to  be  used  on  the  poorer  por¬ 
tions  of  his  land.  In  this  connection  it  should  be 
noticed  that  he  is  not  a  stock  farmer.  He  keeps  five 
horses,  only  one  cow,  no  hogs,  no  hens.  It  will  thus 
be  seen  that  clover  is  the  principal  source  of  fertility. 
He  buys  no  chemical  manure,  has  bought  but  very 
little  stable  manure,  and  none  for  over  20  years  until 
last  year  when  he  got  a  few  loads  for  an  experiment. 
He  makes  all  the  manure  he  can  from  the  stock  kept 
and  his  wheat  straw  and  saves  all  he  makes  with 
cement  floor  and  covered  barnyard.  About  150  loads 
were  made  the  past  year.  It  is  spread  on  the  recently 
clipped  wheat  stubble  ground  where  most  needed, 
being  used  to  feed  the  young  clover,  while  the  clover 
feeds  the  succeeding  crops  in  the  rotation. 
How  well  clover  does  this  is  shown  by  the  following: 
Three  years  ago  this  fall  a  measured  half  acre,  the  end 
of  a  field  recently  seeded  to  clover,  was  seeded  with  20 
loads  of  good  manure,  and,  in  the  spring,  plowed  and 
set  to  strawberry  plants.  It  was  carefully  tilled  that 
season,  but  a  late  frost  the  following  season  destroyed 
pretty  much  all  the  berries,  consequently  very  little 
plant  food  was  taken  from  the  half  acre.  In  July  (1891) 
this  half  acre  was  plowed  and  harrowed  often  until 
time  to  seed  to  wheat.  During  these  two  years  the  rest 
of  the  field,  not  having  been  manured  at  all,  had  grown 
(1890)  a  crop  of  clover  for  hay,  the  second  crop  being 
cut  for  seed,  and  in  1891  an  unusually  large  crop  of 
potatoes.  Both  portions  were  prepared  for  wheat  last 
fall  and  seeded  the  same  day — the  half  acre  that  had 
been  manured  at  the  rate  of  40  loads  to  the  acre  and 
had  practically  grown  no  crop,  and  the  portion  that 
had  grown  two  heavy  emps  with  only  a  clover  sod  and 
roots  for  plant  food.  The  result :  the  wheat  on  the 
half  acre  was  no  bett  r,  hardly  as  good,  so  says  Mr. 
Terry,  so  say  a  number  of  visitors.  The  wheat  had  been 
removed  before  my  visit,  but  no  difference  in  the  new 
seeding  of  clover  could  be  noticed.  Clover  has  surely 
done  g»  eat  things  for  Mr.  Terry.  He  does  not  pretend 
to  know  how  long  it  will  continue  to  pump  up  fertility 
for  him,  but,  so  long  as  the  present  large  crops  are  to 
be  had,  he  will  not  worry  about  keeping  up  his  farm. 
Readers  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  maybe  interested  in  Mr. 
Terry’s  experiment  to  prevent  pot  Ho  scab.  Last 
spring,  according  to  quite  minute  directions  from  Prof. 
Bolley,  of  the  North  Dakota  Experiment  Station,  he 
soaked  the  seed  in  a  solution  of  corrosive  sublimate. 
On  August  15  he  reported  the  tubers  smooth  and  fair 
that  were  grown  from  very  scabby  seed.  He  has  not 
yet  thought  it  necessary  to  spray  for  blight.  His  pota¬ 
toes  are  planted  early,  and  he  thinks  are  ripe  before 
there  is  any  injury  to  speak  of. 
Something  About  The  Man. 
As  is  of  course  known,  Mr.  Terry  has  spent  a  great 
deal  of  time  for  the  last  few  years  writing  for  the  ag¬ 
ricultural  press.  At  present  he  spends  more  than  half 
his  time  in  this  work.  He  is  now  working  on  a  book 
to  be  called  “  Our  Farming  ”  which  will  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  publisher  for  general  distribution  in  a  few 
weeks.  It  will  consist  of  400  to  500  pages  and  tell 
the  story  of  his  farming  from  start  to  date. 
During  the  late  fall  and  winter  he  devotes  his  en¬ 
tire  time  to  institute  work.  Last  season  every  day  for 
five  months  was  thus  taken  up.  He  is  not  crowding 
the  farm  now  as  he  did  while  in  debt.  It  has  paid 
for  itself,  as  well  as  for  new  buildings,  and  every  thing 
to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  tools,  and  all  improve¬ 
ments.  Now  Mr.  Terry  does  not  think  it  necessary  to 
make  it  pay  its  last  cent  but  rather  intends  to  take 
some  comfort  with  his  family. 
This  brief  account  would  be  lacking  did  it  fail  to 
mention  the  ideal  home — its  pleasant  and  serviceable 
interior,  its  finely-kept  lawn,  beautifully  diversified 
with  shrubs  and  flowers.  The  surroundings  are  equal 
to  those  enjoyed  by  city  men  of  wealth  and  culture, 
including  pure  air  and  water  which  money  will  not 
buy  in  the  city  and  which  in  the  country  are  to  be  had 
only  at  the  price  of  eternal  vigilance. 
On  leaving  Mr.  Terry's  premises  I  asked  myself 
(thinking  it  would  not  do  to  ask  him)  the  secret  of  his 
success.  Perhaps  it  consists  in  doing  just  the  best  he 
knows  or  can  learn  how,  and  in  attempting  no  more 
than  he  can  reasonably  expect  to  carry  through  and 
then  carrying  it  through  at  all  hazards.  Nothing  very 
startling  in  either  of  these  propositions  but  of  how 
many  of  us  are  they  true!  c.  o.  williams. 
The  Lemon  Blush  Tomato. 
This  tomato  is  one  of  the  results  of  The  R.  N.-Y’s 
tomato  investigations  during  the  past  few  years.  The 
skin  and  flesh  are  a  clear  lemon  yellow  with  a  feeble 
rose  coloring  or  light  crimson  tint  diffused  over  a  part 
of  the  surface  opposite  the  stem — the  stigma  portion 
as  it  may  well  be  called.  Its  average  size  is  larger 
than  the  Acme  and  in  shape  somewhat  broader  than 
deep— absolutely  free  of  “seams,”  lobes  or  irregulari¬ 
ties. 
The  seeds  are  notably  small  and  few,  the  cell  walls 
thick,  tender,  crystalline  and  melting — the  quality 
being  less  acid  and  without  the  insipidity  which  char¬ 
acterizes  the  red  varieties  in  general. 
The  plant  is  a  vigorous  grower  ripening  its  fruit 
abundantly  in  mid-season. 
Tobacco  in  Georgia. 
ITS  CULTURE  SUCCESSFUL  ANI)  PROFITABLE. 
For  years  Georgia  led  all  the  States  in  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  cotton,  and  when  that  great  staple  began  to 
wane  in  price  she  took  up  the  watermelon  and  made 
of  it  a  great  commercial  commodity,  famous  through¬ 
out  the  world.  One  June  morning  Delaware,  New 
Jersey  and  California,  v\hich  for  years  had  monopolized 
the  market  with  their  early  peaches,  woke  up  to  find 
that  Georgia  had  not  only  entered  their  field,  but  was 
in  the  lead.  And  now  the  world  can  prepare  to  add 
Georgia  to  the  list  of  the  great  tobacco-producing 
States,  and  in  a  few  years  she  will  head  the  list. 
Tobacco  has  been  raised  in  the  State  ever  since  its 
settlement,  but  never  until  the  past  few  years  for  the 
market.  Before  and  during  the  war  every  plantation 
had  its  little  patch  of  the  weed,  which  was  crudely 
cured  under  the  wagon  shed  and  in  the  corn-crib, 
afterward  twisted  up  and  under  the  name  of  “  stingy 
green”  was  used  for  chewing  and  smoking.  A  few 
years  ago  there  was  a  revival  of  the  culture  of  cigar 
leaf  tobacco  in  Gadsden  County,  Florida,  which  ex¬ 
tended  up  into  the  southwestern  counties  of  Georgia. 
For  a  time  it  was  claimed  that  this  class  of  tobacco 
could  be  successfully  grown  only  in  this  comparatively 
small  territory.  Last  spring,  however,  a  number  of 
