1892 
745 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
The  weather  is  very  dry  and  wells  and  streams  very 
low,  but  this  has  been  a  beautiful  fall  for  farm  work. 
The  hay  crop  was  very  good  and  gathered  in  good 
shape:  thrashers  say — and  they  are  good  authority  to 
go  by— that  the  wheat  and  oat  crop  yields  are  very 
light.  The  corn  crop  which  is  nearly  husked,  is  very 
good.  Fields  on  low,  heavy  ground  suffered  from  too 
much  wet  in  the  early  season,  and  the  crops  are  light. 
This  place  ships  quite  a  good  many  onions,  raised  on 
the  “  wild  meadows.”  They  are  quite  a  profitable 
crop. 
The  “  Borden,”  now  the  “  New  York  Condensed  Milk 
Co  ,”  has  established  a  plant  here.  The  farmers  hear¬ 
ing  that  this  company  wished  to  locate  in  a  new  terri¬ 
tory,  invited  it  to  come  and  examine  this  place.  But 
we  had  no  water  except  a  running  stream.  The  com¬ 
pany  was  so  well  pleased  with  the  location  and  the 
milk-producing  territory  around  that  it  agreed  to 
locate  if  th6  farmers  would  furnish  living  water  that 
would  flow  40  or  50  gallons  a  minute.  This  they 
pledged,  and  the  interested  farmers,  who  were  dis¬ 
gusted  with  the  New  York  market,  where  they  sold 
their  milk,  passed  a  paper  around,  and  soon  over  $2,000 
were  subscribed,  and  the  Pierce  Well  Co.  put  down  an 
eight-inch  well  303  feet  deep,  and  struck  so  grand  a 
supply  of  water  that  a  (50-gallon  pump  working  six 
hours  lowered  the  water  only  38  feet  from  the  surface. 
The  milk  company  has  put  up  a  building  50x100,  and 
about  80  farmers  have  contracted  their  milk,  which  is 
bottled  and  sent  to  New  York.  The  company  has 
promised,  if  matters  are  favorable,  to  erect  an  im¬ 
mense  plant  and  condense  milk.  E.  H.  Shore,  of  the 
Wasaic  Condensery,  is  superintendent,  and  about  25 
men  are  employed.  The  company  means  business,  for 
it  is  erecting  large  ice-houses  and  a  number  of  cottages 
for  the  employees.  m.  h.  c.  Gardner. 
A  HUSTLING  WOMAM  FARMER. 
Miss  Mary  Conaut,  who  lives  on  top  of  Turk  Hill,  in 
the  town  of  Perington,  N.  Y.,  is  a  bustling,  enterpris¬ 
ing  woman.  From  almost  any  part  of  the  Conaut 
farm  can  be  seen  a  beautiful  tract  of  fertile  country 
12  to  18  miles  in  extent,  lying  off  to  the  north,  west 
and  east.  The  soil  is  a  sandy  loam,  and  is  a  succes¬ 
sion  of  orchards,  graperies,  Derry  patches,  gardens 
and  small  timber  tracts,  potato  fields,  large  grain 
fields  and  meadows.  When  I  visited  the  place  the  re¬ 
maining  forests  on  this  tract,  and  upon  the  rolling 
hills  adjacent  to  High  Peak,  were  turning  to  gold, 
red  and  brown.  Potatoes,  fruits  and  corn  were  being 
hurried  in,  and  countless  loads  of  produce  were  upon 
the  various  roads  leading  to  the  adjacent  markets. 
From  High  Peak  the  blue  waters  of  Lake  Ontario  may 
be  seen,  and  from  the  Conaut  farm  is  seen  every  night 
a  row  of  twinkling  stars  along  the  western  horizon, 
which  mark  the  boundaries  of  Rochester.  The  most 
penetrating  of  winds  blow  over  the  Turk  Hill  country 
in  winter,  but  in  the  summer  a  farm  in  this  country  is 
a  retreat  worth  possessing. 
Miss  Conaut  is  a  most  estimable  lady,  in  fact  she  is 
a  “  hustler.”  Since  the  death  of  her  father  a  score  or 
more  years  ago,  she  has  lived  upon  the  farm  with  her 
mother,  and  has  been  during  this  time,  and  is  espe¬ 
cially  so  at  the  present,  the  principal  manager  of  the 
farm  interests.  The  family  of  the  man  who  works 
the  place  occupies  a  portion  of  the  homestead,  but 
there  is  much  other  work  to  look  after.  A  large  crop 
of  Baldwin  apples  is  being  marketed,  also  the  product 
of  a  quince  orchard,  with  some  grapes  and  pears.  A 
dry-house  for  evaporating  apples  and  berries  has  been 
built,  but  is  not  in  use  this  fall.  The  most  profitable 
crop  is  asparagus,  and  the  owner  takes  great  pride  in 
a  two-acre  bed.  The  land  occupied  slopes  somewhat 
to  the  north  and  west,  and  is  a  heavy  loam.  This 
bed  cost  about  $300  when  completed,  as  everything 
had  to  be  hired  or  hauled  five  to  seven  miles.  Parallel 
underdrains  were  put  in  two  rods  apart,  then  trenches 
12  to  14  inches  deep  and  three  feet  apart  were  dug,  and 
the  plants  set  18  inches  apart.  The  soil  over  the  bed 
is  turned  over  with  a  horse  plow  every  spring.  Four 
hundred  dollars’  worth  of  asparagus  in  one  year  is  the 
largest  yield.  I  asked  Miss  Conaut  about  the  deep  and 
shallow  setting  of  plants. 
“  Asparagus  must  be  set  deep,”  said  she,  “  always 
as  deep  as  this,  unless  the  subsoil  is  struck.  A  com¬ 
parison  with  other  beds  around  here  shows  that  I  get 
better  and  larger  asparagus  than  do  these  who  culti¬ 
vate  shallow-planted  beds.” 
“  At  what  length  is  the  asparagus  cut  ?’ 
“  The  bunches  are  exactly  5 %  inches  in  length,  and 
contain  two  pounds  each.” 
1  ■  Do  you  sort  the  crop  ?  ” 
“  We  bunch  the  largest  and  best  as  No.  1,  and  the 
rest  as  No.  2.” 
“  Where  do  you  sell  ?  ” 
“  It  all  goes  to  the  Oneida  Cannery,  Madison  County. 
It  is  for  canning  and  that  is  wh3r  we  are  so  particular 
as  to  its  length.” 
“  What  do  you  receive  ?  ” 
“  Five  and  a  half  cents  per  pound,  fof  No.  1,  3K  for 
No.  2.” 
“  How  do  you  ship  ?  ” 
“  In  baskets  which  the  canning  company  furnishes. 
They  hold  14  pounds  each.  There  is  no  charge  for 
transportation.” 
“Could  you  not  get  better  prices  in  some  other 
markets  ?  ” 
“  For  two  weeks  after  the  first  cutting  we  might 
receive  a  trifle  more  in  the  city  markets,  but  in  four 
weeks  it  becomes  a  drug  in  the  market,  and  can  hardly 
be  sold  at  any  price,  while  we  cut  for  eight  weeks 
and  the  price  is  the  same  all  through  the  season.” 
Having  arrived  at  9  P.  M.  with  a  friend  at  Miss 
Conaut’s,  we  found  her  at  the  wash-tub,  and  the  reason 
for  this  extraordinary  situation  lies  in  the  fact  that, 
in  addition  to  her  multifarious  interests  of  home,  she 
harnesses  at  8:30  A.  m. ,  five  days  in  the  week,  and 
drives  1%  mile  to  the  Bushnell’s  Basin  school-house, 
and  returns  at  4:30,  after  a  busy  day  in  “  teaching  the 
young  idea.”  The  roads  which  lead  across  this  hilly 
region  are  winding,  steep,  and  narrow.  A.  D.  WARNER 
FOR  MAKING  SLAT-WIRE  FENCE. 
The  number  of  slat-wire  fences  in  use  and  in  the 
course  of  construction  indicates  that  they  have  come 
into  considerable  favor  among  the  farmers  of  this 
section,  and  where  there  is  plenty  of  good  red  oak 
timber  suitable  for  riving  pickets,  they  firnd  that  it  is 
cheaper  to  construct  it  themselves  than  to  buy  that 
already  made. 
The  special  implements  necessary  for  the  construc¬ 
tion  of  such  a  fence  are  a  wire-stretcher  and  a  device 
for  reversing  the  wire.  Fig.  28(5  represents  a  good 
stretcher,  its  only  fault  being  in  its  weight,  making  it 
necessary  to  haul  it  from  one  place  to  another  as 
needed. 
The  base  beams  are  six  inches  square  and  eight  feet 
long.  The  uprights,  braces,  etc.,  are  four  inches 
square,  all  of  sound  oak  timber.  The  shafts  can  be 
made  by  any  blacksmith  and  the  iron  boxes  and  the 
cog  wheels  for  the  ratchets  may  be  procured  from  old 
machinery.  Fasten  four  or  five  feet  of  chain  to  each 
shaft  and  a  pulley  at  the  end  of  each  chain  to  equalize' 
the  stress  of  the  wires. 
Fig.  287  is  another  stretcher  which  is  very  good  and 
at  the  same  time  light  enough  to  be  easily  carried 
wherever  it  may  be  wanted.  A  chain  8  or  10  feet  long 
is  hooked  around  a  post  or  tree  at  one  end  of  the  line 
To  a  heavy  iron  rod  like  a  crowbar  are  fastened  two 
chains,  each  1%  foot  long  ;  one  at  the  end  and  the 
other  about  a  foot  from  the  end.  Each  of  these  chains 
terminates  in  a  hook  which  is  hooked  into  the  links 
of  the  long  chain  as  the  wire  is  drawn  toward  the 
post.  Midway  between  these  two  short  chains  and 
on  the  other  side  of  the  bar,  another  chain  is  fastened* 
which  immediately  divides  into  two  chains,  each  six 
or  seven  feet  long,  and  terminating  in  a  pulley  for 
the  wire,  as  in  the  first.  Between  these  chains  a  good 
stout  bar  is  placed  to  keep  them  the  right  distance 
apart. 
A  splendid  device  for  reversing  the  wires  is  shown  in 
Fig.  288.  It  is  made  of  some  light  wood,  as  pine,  and 
consists  of  two  boards,  each  as  long  as  the  distance  de¬ 
sired  between  the  wires  and  three  inches  wide,  except 
at  each  end  where  they  are  cut,  as  shown  in  the  illus¬ 
tration,  to  about  twice  that  width.  In  the  center  be¬ 
tween  these  boards  a  handle  is  bolted,  and  at  each  end 
a  small  square  block  is  placed  between  them  to  keep 
them  far  enough  apart  to  allow  the  triangles  to  move 
between  them  easily. 
These  triangles  have  each  two  slits  in  them  to  allow 
the  wire  to  enter,  one  on  each  side,  and  at  the  inner 
end  of  these  slits  are  holes  large  enough  so  that  the  in¬ 
strument  may  be  readily  slipped  along  the  wires 
ahead  of  the  pickets. 
The  wires  are  reversed  by  moving  the  device  up  and 
down,  and  it  will  remain  up  or  down  while  the  picket 
is  being  inserted  because  of  the  tension  of  the  wires. 
It  may  be  remarked  that  the  wires  should  not  be 
fastened  to  the  posts  before  the  pickets  are  inserted, 
except  at  one  or  two  places  to  help  support  the  weight 
of  the  wire. 
Wherever  the  wire  is  fastened  the  reverser  must  be 
removed  and  put  on  again  beyond  the  fastening, 
whereas,  when  there  is  no  place  fast  to  the  posts  it 
can  be  slipped  from  one  end  to  the  other. 
Montgomery  County,  Ohio.  GEO.  H.  SHULL. 
BUSINESS  BITS. 
I  am  very  much  Interested  in  the  articles  on  sterilizing  milk.  Will 
not  some  manufacturer  of  the  necessary  articles  put  them  on  the  mar¬ 
ket?  I  am  sure  a  great  many  might  be  sold.  a.  it. 
R.  N.-Y.— There  is  a  big  opening  hero  for  some  manufacturer. 
The  annual  fair  of  the  American  Insiitute  Is  now  in  operation  at 
the  headquarters  of  this  old  society  on  Third  Avenue,  near  (54th  street, 
this  city.  It  is  a  good  place  to  go  to,  especially  for  young  folks  with 
Inquiring  minds.  We  shall  have  more  to  sav  of  this  exhibition  later  on 
Some  time  ago  we  secured  one  of  the  Peerless  Fruit  Pickers  and 
found  It  a  great  convenience  in  gathering  fruit,  it  is  simply  a  funnel- 
shaped  receptacle  made  of  wire,  and  provided  with  a  socket  so  that 
It  can  be  mounted  on  a  pole  long  enough  to  reach  the  tree.  It  simply 
provides  a  means  of  picking  fruit  from  the  ground  without  bruising  It. 
Where  the  Water  Comes  From.— My  theory  is  that  the  rise  and 
fall  of  streams  are  due  entirely  to  natural  causes.  During  fair  weather 
the  streams  get  lower  on  account  of  evaporation,  not  of  the  water  In 
tae  streams  alone,  but  also  of  that  in  the  soli  along  them,  the  soil  at 
the  same  time  absorbing  the  water  of  the  streams.  Before  a  storm, 
the  humidity  in  the  atmosphere  retards  evaporation  and  allows  the 
stream  to  rise  from  Its  natural  source— the  spring.  J.  o.  w. 
A  Potato  Contest.— This  spring  I  gave  to  each  of  the  boys  In  our 
Sunday  School  who  wished  one,  a  Rural  New-Yorker  No.  2  potato, 
offering  a  prize  to  the  one  who  should  raise  the  largest  yield.  There 
were  several  who  made  returns.  One,  Ray  Henderson,  raised  from  Ills 
single  tuber,  45  pounds;  another  2!)  pounds  and  a  third  22  pounds.  Ray 
cut  his  potato  In  13  pieces  and  carefully  hoed  and  watered  the  plants; 
there  wer  •  only  a  few  small  potatoes.  Does  not  this  boy  stand  at  the 
head  of  all  competitors,  big  and  little.  I  am  the  only  person  in  this 
section  who,  last  spring,  had  any  Rural  New-Yorker  No.  2  potatoes.  I 
planted  several  other  kinds  and  all  rotted  badly;  while  the  Rural 
and  Early  Ohio  did  not.  The  yield  of  the  Rural  was  more  than  double 
that  of  any  other  kind.  HALL  ROBERTS. 
A  Pair  of  Ruinous  Rascals.— Apropos  of  the  cartoon  on  the 
first  page  of  The  R.  N.-Y.,  for  September  21,  and  the  accompanying 
remarks,  1  have  In  mind  a  brace  of  “useless  middlemen”  operating  In 
Chicago  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  country.  “King  Brothers" 
have  for  years  been  robbing  the  farmers  and  others  who  have  deult 
with  them.  Their  methods  are  despicable,  and  familiarity  with  this 
Arm  breeds  something  worse  than  contempt.  On  first  acquaintance  with 
their  dupes,  they  appear  very  fair  and  innocent,  but  ultimately  de¬ 
velop  Into  the  most  rapacious  robbers,  and  many  a  man  has  lost  his 
farm  In  trying  to  satisfy  their  exorbitant  and  ruinous  commissions. 
THE  Rural  will  be  quite  right  in  advising  its  readers  to  cooperate 
with  Keely  against  Smo-Klng  and  Drln-Klng.  P.  H.  M  UN  roe. 
The  New  England  Conservatory  of  Music  at  Boston  is  an  excellent 
institution.  Men  like  Edward  Everett  Hale,  R.  H.  Dana,  and  women 
like  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore  say  this  of  it:  “  From  a  personal  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  work  of  the  New  England  Conservatory,  and  of  the  officers 
in  charge,  we  take  pleasure  In  stating  to  all  Interested  In  the  welfare 
of  pupils  placed  in  the  New  England  Conservatory  home,  that  the 
influences  surrounding  them  are  of  the  most  helpful  and  beneficial 
character.  The  great  success  that  Is  attending  the  work  of  the  insti¬ 
tution  is  due  not  only  to  Its  fortunate  surroundings,  but  also  to  the 
earnest  and  loya!  efforts  of  Its  large  corps  of  trustworthy  and  experi¬ 
enced  teachers  and  officers.  Rarely  have  superior  advantages  been 
afforded  for  musical  study,  or  more  judicious  safeguards  been  pro¬ 
vided  for  the  moral  protection  of  young  women  outside  the  parental 
roof,  than  are  constantly  present  In  this  Conservatory.” 
'  We  were  asked  recently  what  composition  should  be  put  on  tro  i  to 
make  It  rustless  and  how  long  It  would  last.  There  does  not  seem  to 
be  a  very  clear  Idea  as  to  just  what  rustless  Iron  is.  Strictly  speaking, 
f  there  is  no  such  thing.  Rust  Is  simply  an  oxide  that  forms  on  iron 
when  exposed  to  the  atmosphere.  Rustless  Iron  is  simply  rusted  or 
oxidized  so  much  that  It  can  rust  no  more.  The  treatment,  however, 
:lis  decidedly  different  from  the  ordinary  process  of  rusting.  The  writer 
iffwas  recently  at  the  factory  of  the  Wells  Rustless  Iron  Works  at  Little 
S-Ferry,  N.  J.,  and  learned  a  good  deal  about  the  process.  The  iron  is 
•JSloaded  on  a  truck,  then  by  steam  power  the  truck  Is  drawn  into  a  re- 
42 tort,  which  is  closed  up  tightly,  and  the  Iron  is  heated  red  hot.  Oxygen 
<3^its  is  then  turned  on,  and  when  the  Iron  is  drawn  out  it  presents  a 
jf|smooth,  finished  appearance,  and  the  surface  being  thoroughly 
jjaoxldlzed,  will  notrust  when  exposed  to  the  weather.  Many  of  the  large 
^■builders  of  New  York  city  are  having  the  iron  used  In  exposed  places 
^Btreated  at  the  Little  Ferry  works.  Water  pipe  s  the  principal  article 
|Hso  treated  for  farmers'  use 
