i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
33 
Business. 
HOW SOME “SPECIAL” AND “MIXED” FARM¬ 
ERS ARE GETTING ALONG. 
T. B. TERRY. 
I have made my money by special farming, not by grow¬ 
ing a single crop as wheat is grown at the Northwest; but 
by having enough of some kinds for a good short rotation, 
and then stopping right there and concentrating my ener¬ 
gies. Clover, potatoes and wheat have been my crops. My 
soil was well fitted for each of these—after I had drained 
portions of It and used plenty of tillage. I put clover 
first, as the all-important crop. It has not brought in 
money directly, for I never sell any clover hay, nor do I 
feed any out except to my work horses and family cow. 
[You sell clover seed ?— Eds.] But clover has fed the 
other two crops which I have sold for money. All the 
wheat, straw and much of the clover goes directly to feed 
the crops without being fed to stock. This is simply be¬ 
cause at present prices I can make the most money in this 
way. I hardly know which I think the most of, this 
special farming that does away with all fussing, and is 
work that pays offhand, or my valued assistant, clover. 
Many farmers in reading or hearing of my little suc¬ 
cesses with this kind of farming, think it is adapted only 
to potato growing. They are all wrong. The principle is 
sound and business-like. In going around to our institutes 
(some 40 in the course of the winter,) I find men who are 
making a success in other lines of farming by following 
the same general plan of not undertaking to do too much, 
finding what one’s soil is fitted for and then pushing what 
is done so that it will amount to something. In no one 
direction have I seen this plan result better than in the 
production of butter. Probably many readers of The R. 
N.-Y. will be surprised to learn at what low figures butter 
often sells in Ohio—at how low a price the great majority 
sell the year around. I have been in several towns, on the 
railroad, too, where good dairy butter only brought 10 
cents a pound to the makers. My friend Mr. Crawford was 
telling me this week that when he was in Holmes County 
last summer, he met a farmer going home with a churn, 
and asked him what he got for butter there. He replied : 
“ In our town they only pay five cents, but over at - 
they pay six cents, and I have heard that they do pay eight 
cents for really choice butter at Millersburg ” (the county 
seat). This is no idle talk, because mention has been made 
of these prices frequently at our institutes. The first time 
I heard the story I thought there must be some mistake; 
any good butter in our town brings 25 cents, because farm¬ 
ers make a specialty of dairying; but I have been in stores 
and seen farmers take 10 cents in trade for good yellow 
butter, during the past month. 
Now, what makes these low prices ? They are often 
paid, perhaps, because the butter is not worth any more. 
The farmer keeps but few cows and has no good conveni¬ 
ences for making nice butter. At other times, if the but¬ 
ter is nice, the maker hasn’t enough to amount to much, 
and it goes to the store for just what the dealer chooses to 
pay, and the price, of course, is regulated by the poor but¬ 
ter that comes in. All dealers usually pay alike. They 
cannot afford to offend any customers, as they want to sell 
their goods. By the way, the great reason why the masses 
of our farmers cannot buy at wholesale, as they tell me, is 
because they must tradeoff their butter and eggs for store 
goods and groceries. If they sent off for goods the dealer 
would not take their products. So it goes. Old ruts are 
like the spokes to a wheel—all fastened together. It is 
hard to change all around to more business like habits,and 
so the masses go on making 6 to 10-cent butter, for ex¬ 
ample, and when it is good, selling it for half what it is 
worth, and taking their pay in groceries that usually pay 
the seller a profit of 25 to 50 per cent. The more of such 
butter one makes the poorer he will get. But perhaps I 
ought to say she will get. The women mostly make the 
butter, and I suppose some men think it is clear gain, as 
they get all the work out of their wives. 
Now I have given you a fair picture of one side of the 
butter-making business—the old way, the mixed farming 
way, the way father did. But all over Ohio you will find 
scattered here and there men who are specialists in this 
line and are making money. I will give you the particu¬ 
lars from one farm out of many I visited, Mr. Joseph 
Love’s. To start with, his cows were good grade Jerseys. 
He has a neat little milk-house and a Cooley creamer, aud 
also an ice-house. His butter is made into pound prints 
the year around. He has a butter box in which to carry 
the prints to market or to ship them in warm weather, 
with an ice chest in the middle. He makes a business of 
producing fine butter, enough to amount to something, 
and it sells for cash the year around at 25 cents. He tells 
the same story that all the rest do—that he never has 
enough. I know men who have a special trade in many of 
the large towns of our State, getting from 25 to 35 cents a 
pound the year around. They are making money. There 
is plenty of demand for the best in our small towns also. 
Men who live from hand to mouth are oftentimes more 
free with their money than the more wealthy. The town 
people after a manner live off us farmers, why not get 
some of the money back by tempting them with choice 
butter, fresh eggs, the very finest fruits and vegetables 
and the largest and choicest berries at our own price ? 
A man can set his price anywhere within the bound* of 
reason, if he has something unusually choice. There is 
great room in this direction in our State. Thousands upon 
thousands more could make big money in different lines. 
The longer I live the more plain it becomes to me that it 
does not make much difference what one does; if he is only 
thorough and painstaking, it pays. Of course, however, 
one must not attempt to do what his soil and surround¬ 
ings are not fitted for. I have made money out of pota¬ 
toes and wheat; but if I were young again and could buy 
only two acres of good land and pay for it almost any¬ 
where in Ohio, I would not make less than $1,000 from the 
land. 
My friend Crawford told the farmers of his section once 
that he could make more from their fence corners than 
they made from their farms and he told the truth. I know 
an expert who last season made $200 (at wholesale rates 
for the articles produced) from a square rod of ground. 
My concentrated farming has once or twice brought $1 a 
square rod, and I expect that was a pretty large story for 
some spread-out farmers to swallow ; but what would they 
think of $1 a square foot ? But I know that even this has 
been beaten by a man who has spent his energies on two 
acres of land. But I get excited when I get on this subject. I 
have listened too much to friends like Crawford and A. I. 
Root and J. M. Smith on the possibilities of an acre. 
Let me come back a moment to friend Love again. He 
has not had his present farm long, aud sowed clover seed 
on one so called poor field two years ago last spring. It 
had not been so kindly treated for many years at least. 
The clover grew very rank. Part was cut for hay and part 
left to grow up and die down. All was plowed for corn 
last spring. Corn is a poor crop in his section; but he has 
a good crop—as nearly as he can estimate, 50 bushels per 
acre where he cut off the clover for hay, and 75 where all 
was left on the ground. Here is a man who is making 
money out of the short rotation, with corn taking the 
place of my potatoes. I walked all over his corn field, and 
I assure you he has his eyes fully opened as to what clover 
can do for him. Have you, dear reader ? And are you 
sure you are not attempting to do too many things f 
Summit County, O. 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
Cheap Orange Sorter. —We show at Fig. 15 a picture 
of a machine quite largely advertised in the Southern and 
California papers. Little, if any, explanation is needed 
as the picture explains itself. The oranges simply run 
down through troughs or grooves, the smaller ones falling 
through into other troughs while the large ones pass on 
into a basket or box. 
Machine for Cutting Cane.— The Louisiana Planter 
states that the Sugar Planters’Association of that State pro¬ 
poses to offer $1,000 fora successful cane cutting machine. 
No machine answering the requirements has yet been pre¬ 
sented. “ Human discretion seems essential in cane cut¬ 
ting. Valuing cane at $5 per ton, a four-pound cane is 
worth one cent; and as these individual pennies make up 
the total of dollars, each one merits consideration. The 
cane must be cut even with or slightly under the surface 
of the ground. It must be stripped of any leaves and 
topped not higher than the last red joint, and must be 
thrown into piles convenient for the loaders. Whether or 
not all this work or its equivalent can ever be done by any 
machine seems very doubtful to many.” We see from this 
that the machines that prove fairly successful with corn 
or sorghum would be of no use among sugar cane. Cut¬ 
ting cane requires constant supervision, particularly with 
unskilled labor. 
New Bone Cutter.—M r. P. A. Webster, whose 
“ clover cutter ” for poultry food has met with consider¬ 
able favor, sends us the following note about a new 
machine :— 
“ I have perfected a mill for cutting up green bones— 
meat, gristle and all. I send The Rural a sample of the 
green bone meal It was made from ribs and knuckle-joints, 
trimmed of meat as clean as the butcher could trim them. 
There was no meat, all was bone. Is this not just the food 
for poultry ? The first of these mills is now running by 
power. It is a two-man machine or power-mill, and cuts 
30 pounds or more of pure green bones into meal like the 
sample in an hour. It cannot clog and is unbreakable. 
The cutting is done by two milling cutters, 4% inches in 
diameter, with teeth on edge and one side cutting down. 
The hopper is eight inches in diameter and one foot long. 
There are cogs on the bottom end of the hopper, through 
which a worm works, and as the mill turns, the hopper also 
turns, which brings the bones constantly on to the cutters. 
A screw runs up through the hopper, on which a follower 
screws down, and as fast as the bones are cut away the fol¬ 
lower follows them down automatically.” 
R. N.-Y.—The sample sent looks like finely-ground meat 
and, we should think, would make very excellent poultry 
food. 
Transmitting Wave Power.— In the story of “ The Pie 
Hunter’s Profit” a hint was given of a possible means of 
utilizing the force of the waves for mechanical purposes. 
A patent has just been issued for a device of this kind. 
A series of tracks run down into the water, each placed 
close to an endless chain on which is a catch or grip. A 
heavy car of wood runs on the tracks, with clips that will 
catch on the chain grips. The incoming waves drive the 
car along, it catches on the grips and pushes the endless 
chains, and these pull around blocks on the shore. Cog¬ 
wheels and rods connect these blocks with machines for 
transmitting or conserving electricity. When the waves 
recede the car runs back for another journey inland. This 
machine is crude and may not work, but we sincerely be¬ 
lieve that it is but the forerunner of a contrivance that will 
harness and utilize some of the tremendous “free force” 
that dashes idly against the rocks and sands of the sea 
shore. We would ask why the taming and distributing of 
this “ free force” is not as much a function of the govern¬ 
ment as the teaching of new methods of forcing fertility 
from the air or the soil. The utilizing of wave power is 
an old, old dream, or rather hope. Many devices have 
been tried, whose object was to do this economically 
but none has yet proved satisfactory. 
Scientific Snow Shoveling.— Science doesn’t think 
much of low-priced hand labor. The coming man, who is 
a man, will let horse, steam or electricity do work that 
can be done by the hands while the brain is busy at some¬ 
thing else. Shoveling snow certainly comes under this 
Improved Snow-plow. Fig. 1 6. 
heading. Two machines, represented at Figs 16 and 17, show 
how railroad trains are to be dug out. Both these machines 
have been in use long enough to prove their value. They 
are “ the best,” if we may believe what the makers say 
about them. In the one shown at Fig. 16 the great screw in 
front turns rapidly, propelled by the engine behind it, and 
digs itself through the drifts, delivering the snow at the 
side of the track through the door which is shown in the 
picture. In the other, Fig. 17, a number of rapidly-revolv¬ 
ing blades pass the snow inside and force it out over the 
track to the side. The old-time snow-plow could only 
push its way through the drifts, and when it reached one 
of extra depth it was powerless until the gang of shovel- 
men came to its help. These machines do not simply push, 
but they burrow through the snow and lift it away. Of 
course, a tremendous power is required to force them along, 
but it is probably no greater than that expended by 50 
Italians in lifting the snow with their shovels. There are 
Railroad Snow Clearing Machine. Fig. 1 7. 
improvements, too, in methods of clearing country roads. 
The old style of hitching the oxen to a big sled and forcing 
it through the drifts is really “ old style.” It is found that 
a wide harrow with extra long teeth, to be followed by a 
wide roller, not only lightens the work but makes a better 
job._ 
One cent will mail this paper to your friend 
in any part of the United States, Canada or 
Mexico, after you have read it and written 
your name on the corner. 
A NEW BUSINESS IN SOUTH DAKOTA. 
Much has been written about the Irish peasant sticking 
to his native sod, but for genuine adhesiveness to the farm 
give me the Dakotian. Here in the Jim River Valley, 
after years of hard work and immense expenditure in en¬ 
deavoring to raise wheat, we are worse off than when we 
started. But we are not discouraged, and for the last year 
or two we have been using our brains more than our 
muscles to find out some way in which to make a living, 
and, if possible, to bring victory out of defeat. We think 
we have found it in sheep raising, Two years ago small 
flocks were brought in ; but the business was considered 
risky; what with needle grass, wolves and diseases sup¬ 
posed to be in the air, sheep were not very successful, but 
there were notable exceptions. These exceptions did so 
well that they set people thinking how to make the busi 
ness successful, and so well has it been carried out that 
