i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
2 1 
Mr. Terry’s Strawberry Methods. 
Fred Grundy, Christian County, III. 
—I believe Bro. Terry’s favorite method 
of growing strawberries is to set out a new 
patch every year and plow up the old one 
as soon as the berries are off, and if I am 
not mistaken he advises everybody else to 
do likewise. If I lived in his locality and 
had his soil it is very likely that I would 
adopt his favorite method ; but as I don’t I 
shall continue to practice my own old way 
rejoicing and eating berries. About 20 or 
25 years ago I saw Bro. Terry’s plan elo¬ 
quently set forth in a leading agricultural 
periodical, and it caught me at once. I tried 
it, and for the space of two years it worked 
beautifully, but the third year I went 
without berries. I learned a thing or two, 
however, and since that time I have moved 
cautiously in these matters. Last spring, 
for instance, I set out a new bed very early, 
on good, rich soil, and the plants started 
and grew splendidly. When the last ber¬ 
ries were picked off the old bed the new one 
seemed to be as promising as any I ever 
saw, but as the weather was rather hot and 
dry I decided to wait a little before turning 
the old bed under. It was well for me that 
I did so. By the middle of September not 
a dozen plants in the new bed were alive. 
The soil had been repeatedly and thor¬ 
oughly stirred with the cultivator and rake, 
and not a weed of any kind could be found ; 
the plants threw out a few runners and 
some of them rooted nicely, but the com¬ 
bined heat and drought were too severe and 
long-continued and the whole succumbed. 
The varieties were Warfield, Jessie, Cres¬ 
cent, Bubach and Capt. Jack. 
The plants in the old bed are alive and 
look healthy and strong. Owing to the 
drought they threw out very few runners, 
none of which took root. I have mulched 
them quite heavily with coarse manure and 
I confidently expect to get a good crop, and 
some berries as large as any Bro. Terry 
grows. In the days of yore, when I was 
somewhat more precipitate than I now am, 
I was always ready to adopt, almost without 
question, any method advocated by a good 
writer if it seemed to promise excellent 
results ; but my enthusiasm has been 
nipped in the bud too many times to raise 
me far above the earth now. I have 
learned that it is advisable to take into con¬ 
sideration the peculiar environments, as 
Bro. Forbes says, before making radical 
changes in methods that have proved fairly 
successful in my locality. A plan that 
succeeds admirably in one section of the 
country may prove a complete fizzle in 
another. 
“Bringing Forth A Hundredfold.” 
A. R. Parkhurst, Montana.— In a late 
number of Tiie R. N-Y. I notice a query as 
to the number of heads of wheat sub¬ 
scribers have raised from one grain. From 
one I have raised all the way to 190. Of 
course I take no credit for it. Nature did 
the work. I hope we shall this winter 
learn, through The Rural', something fur¬ 
ther in regard to Dr. Hoskins’s new potato 
digger. 
R. N.-Y.—Dr. Hoskins mentioned the 
Hoover digger, which has been frequently 
described in these columns. 
Two Plums With But a Single Name. 
C. H. Hedges, Albemarle County, Va. 
—In a late Rural B. A. B., of Trenton, 
Mo., speaks of the Ogan and Botan 
Plums. Three or four years ago I bought 
two Japan plums of these names from a 
New Jersey nursery firm. They bore early a 
fruit of excellent quality, and are now 
handsome, vigorous trees. To my surprise 
the same firm now offers the Botan under 
the name of Abundance. Having pur¬ 
chased the two under different names I 
have now more than “ an abundance ”—a 
fraud. 
Quick to Grow, Quick to Rot. 
C. H. Everett, Steuben Co., N. Y.—In 
The R. N.-Y. of December 20, page878,1 saw 
a communication from W. C. Steele, which 
agrees with my theories in so many re¬ 
spects that I cannot refrain from adding a 
few thoughts. 
I too was much interested in Dr. Hal- 
sted’s article on the potato rot; but did 
not agree with him in many respects. My 
potatoes rotted badly in the garden in 1889; 
but this year they scarcely rotted there at 
all. My crop in the field last year and also 
this rotted much the worst on the driest 
ground where J. expected the best potatoes. 
Let me ask Mr. Steele, did not the potatoes 
that grew the fastest and looked the best 
when growing rot the most. I expect 
they did, and that the excessive moisture 
on the lowest ground retarded their growth. 
I would like to have some one analyze po¬ 
tatoes taken from both high and low land 
in such a season as the last. I should ex¬ 
pect to find something lacking in those 
grown on high ground owing to the very 
favorable condition of the soil for their 
rapid growth, and if we knew just what 
was lacking, perhaps commercial fertilizers 
could be made that would supply the ma¬ 
terial necessary to resist rot. I realize also 
that the cooler the tubers are in a very 
warm and wet spell the less apt are they 
to rot, so it Is best to plant deep. 
Maine Maple Molasses. 
C. L. Bray, Oxford County, Maine. 
—A great deal of maple syrup is made in 
this section, almost every farmer making 
from 50 to 1,000 or 1,200 pounds. While a 
very large, thrifty tree with a large, heavy 
top, may take two or three spouts per year, 
another standing by the side of it nearly as 
large but with a small top, could not bear 
more than one spout per year without in¬ 
jury. I have in mind an orchard near here, 
owned by my grandfather (who is 85 years 
old). It contains about 350 trees and is 
situated on a steep hill-side with a southern 
slope. It has been tapped ever since he can 
remember, and never has more than one 
spout been allowed to a tree. It has pro¬ 
duced 1,000 to 1,600 pounds of syrup per 
year—11 pounds of syrup are allowed for 
one gallon. Another orchard adjoining 
this with a more easterly slope has been 
tapped in years past with from three to six 
or more spouts per tree. The trees are 
hardly worth tapping and their tops are 
dying. Whilethe trees in the latter orchard 
were perhaps not so large or heavy-topped 
as those in the former, it is my opinion 
that if a person wishes to keep his maple 
orchard in a healthy condition for years, 
he should not use more than one or two 
spouts per tree, and I would advise the use 
of half-inch galvanized iron spouts. They 
will produce a cleaner sap and more of it, 
and being small, the holes will fill up in 
two or three years without damaging the 
trees as much as larger ones. I don’t think 
the new bounty on sugar will increase the 
amount of sugar any in this section, be¬ 
cause the farmers can find a ready sale for 
all the syrup they can make at from 18 
cents per pound for the first run down to 
eight for the last. 
Farmers’ Wives. 
C. S. Rice, Lewis County, N. Y.— Any 
one unacquainted with farmers and their 
families would suppose, judging by some 
recent publications, that the farmer’s wife 
lived in a sort of slavery. She is repre¬ 
sented as being the drudge of the family, 
doing the milking, carrying the milk, and 
feeding the calves and hogs, besides doing 
regular indoor work, cooking and washing 
for hired men, etc. A charge of this kind 
against the farmers of northern New York, 
as a class, would be a gross slander. That 
there are brutes among farmers is true, but 
during an acquaintance with them and 
their families for more than 50 years I have 
not known a single case where the wife 
and mother regularly carried milk, or fed 
calves or hogs. In some cases the wife may 
have fed the hogs or calves when the men 
were not at home. In others, the wife has 
helped with the milking, preferring to do 
so rather than stay in the house to cook 
and wash dishes. 
I know one such case where the farm 
and other property were worth $25,000, 
above all debts, and the wife was more than 
60 years old. She did it because she would 
rather do it than not. She was in excel¬ 
lent health and told me, with much satis¬ 
faction, that she had more patience and 
could train the heifers more carefully than 
the men. The wide-awake, happy, old lady 
had never suspected that she was a drudge 
or slave. Time and money were fully at 
her own control. The family lived in a 
large, fine, well-furnished house, the result 
of the joint labors and economies of herself 
and her husband. There were no separate 
interests or purse, and the money used by 
her was never regarded as a gift from her 
husband. A farmer may carry the purse 
in which the joint savings are stored, but 
when the wife asks and receives money 
from her husband, it is in no sense a gift, 
and I do not think it is regarded as such 
by farmer husbands, generally. It is hers 
by right. 
Most farmers’ wives count it a privilege 
to contribute what they can to the earnings 
of the family, and many of them are quite 
as economical, not to say penurious, as 
their husbands. One woman taught school 
for several years in the district where their 
farm was situated, and helped her husband 
with the milking and butter making morn¬ 
ings and nights. She was glad of so good 
an opportunity to labor and save money, 
and when her husband died in the prime 
of life, what the two had accumulated was 
not a whit too large for a widow’s support. 
Another woman, 60 years of age, said to me 
that girl help was too much trouble for her 
and she preferred to do the work of the 
family herself. Most of her friends thought 
she was too “close” to pay a girl’s wages. 
She and her husband were worth $75,000, 
the fruit of their joint labors and economies, 
and she was restricted in the use of money 
only by her own will. I have known farm¬ 
ers’ wives to do without such helps as the 
washing machine and butter worker simply 
because they would not have them around 
in the way. 
If there are farmers’ wives who do not 
dress as well as their husbands, they do not 
live in northern New York. Cases do oc¬ 
cur now and then where the finely dressed 
wife presents a marked contrast to her 
husband attired in cheap and almost 
shabby clothing. One such case I knew, 
where the farmer worked faithfully, 
dressed cheaply and appeared to take pride 
in his overdressed wife. He became par¬ 
tially paralyzed, was nearly helpless and 
obliged to walk with a crutch and cane. 
She prevailed on him to deed the property 
to her, and afterwards refused to furnish 
him with suitable food, whipped him and 
finally turned him out of-doors. He was a 
good Christian, a man above reproach, but 
died in the poorhouse and was buried by 
the county, the wife refusing to attend his 
funeral. In another case that occurred 
under my own observation the husband 
became helpless, and then was treated by 
his wife in a manner so inhuman that I 
will not give the details to Rural readers. 
The points that I make are these: The 
true wife is glad by labor and economy to 
do her share in the great battle of life. 
The unkind or brutal husband no more 
represents farmers as a class than the 
above cases of inhuman and brutal women 
represent farmers’ wives as a class. 
Polled Jerseys. 
R. C. Auld, Livingston County, Mich. 
—A recent number of The Rural New- 
Yorker evinces a great interest in the 
large, placid-eyed Jersey, and this induces 
me to send the following particulars: I 
was engaged to judge the cattle classes at 
the Newark and Licking County Fair, and 
while thus engaged made what was to me 
a very interesting discovery, the existence 
of some really polled Jerseys. The first 
discovery was that of a bull which had 
small, loose, dangling horns. This aston¬ 
ished me not a little, but I was immedi¬ 
ately introduced to an animal with as fine 
a polled head as one could desire. It was a 
Jersey cow from the same herd. Since I 
returned home I have received the follow¬ 
ing from the owner: 
“ I have had my polled Jerseys for only 
about two years. To the best of my 
knowledge the first one that was brought 
here came in a herd that Josiah Gregory 
shipped in 1883. There was only one—the 
cow that I exhibited at the Licking County 
Fair. The aged bull that I showed was a 
calf of the above cow. He was sired by a 
horned bull. About three-fourths of my 
bull calves are polled. I have only the 
three polls I showed at the fair; I have none 
for sale. I value my aged bull and cow at 
$100 each, and my eight-months-old bull at 
$50. There are several of my old bull’s 
calves about here which are polls, although 
dropped by horned cows. They are valued 
at from $20 to $40 each. The above men¬ 
tioned cow was sold by Josiah Gregory to 
Truman Haines on October 23, 1883. I 
bought her of Haines in March, 1889. Here 
Is a copy of the certificate or statement 
that Haines got with the cow when a 
heifer: 
‘Newark, O., October 23, 1883. I hereby 
certify that on the 23d day of October, 
1883, I sold to Truman Haines one full- 
blooded Jersey heifer, bred and raised by 
E. A. Pearley, of West Lebanon, N. H., 
said heifer being a solid color, with full 
black points, and polled or mulley, labeled 
—J. Gregory, No. 10; calved February 1882, 
from Black Prince of Hanover stock, 
which is noted for its great butter-produc¬ 
ing qualities. Mr. E. A. Pearley has a 
herd of 40 to 45 Jerseys, and has been in 
the business 20 years, always breeding to 
the best imported bulls. Said heifer is 
bred and in calf by J. Gregory’s bull No. 
20, who is a son of Lord Dartmouth ; and 
Lord Dartmouth is a son of Veritas, the 
most famous cow of the world, having 
made 774 pounds 11 ounces of butter in 11 
mouths and 4 days. (Signed) Josiah Greg¬ 
ory.’ ” 
Now, will some of the Jersey historians 
say what they think of the above ? I 
should like to be able to know if it can be 
recorded as a fact that pedigreed Jerseys 
have been born hornless. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural. 
Insects on Fruit Trees. 
These pests are rapidly multiplying and every 
year their ravages Increase; they destroy the apples, 
plums, cherries and peaches. Yet they can be exter¬ 
minated by judiciously spraying the trees. The Field 
Force Pump Company, of Lockport, N. Y., have Just 
published a very instructive treatise on this subject, 
which they will send free on application. 
BOOKS FOR FARMERS. 
By A. J. COOK. 
Silo and Silage. -Third Edition just 
out. Contains the latest and fullest on the sub¬ 
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years. This work Is praised by such men as 
John Gould, Colonel Curtis, Professors Shelton 
and Gulley, and Dr. C E. Betsey. The author 
has proved the silo to be a very valuable aid on 
his own farm. Mailed by the nutltor for 
2 li cents. 
Bee-Keepers’ Guide.-is.ooo sow. 
4(10 pages ; 222 illustrations. Praised by Bee- 
Keepers in every land. The science and prac¬ 
tice of modern bee keeping fully explained. 
Every Bee-Keeper should have it. Mailed by 
the author for §1.50. 
Maple Sugar and the Sugar 
Bush. —Very full and fully illustrated. 
The only treatise of the kind ever published, 
it contains a full retail of the methods practiced 
In the excellent and very profitable bush of the 
author. .Sent by mail for 40 cents. 
Sold by A. J. COOK, 
Agricultural College, Michigan. 
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