478 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. JUNE 27 
the residue left by potatoes, which crop has already paid 
three times the cost of the original outlay for the ferti¬ 
lizers 1 When the fertilizers are used such a thing as a 
failure to obtain a “catch” of clover seed or grass is un¬ 
known. Mr. Lewis regards the wheat crop as clear profit 
in his rotation. The straw used on the corn will pay for 
all the work of producing and marketing the crops, and the 
potatoes have already more than paid for the fertilizer. 
When asked why he did not raise rye instead of wheat and 
sell the straw at a good price, Mr. Lewis gave several reas¬ 
ons. If he raised any rye he would have to put all of his 
grain land in rye, as his fields are such that otherwise the 
grains would be mixed. Rye is not so good a seeding crop 
as wheat and he would run the risk of getting a poorer stand 
of grass. Sod being his substitute for stable manure and 
the chief source of his humus, he cannot afford to weaken 
it. Again, rye is naturally a poor-soil crop. If sown 
after the potatoes with all this available fertilizer in the 
soil, it would lodge because of too rank a growth. 
The Scavenger Crop of the Farm. 
What the pig or the goose is on many farms, the corn 
crop is in this fchemlcal farming—a waste saver, a manu¬ 
facturer of the crudest materials. Every other crop on the 
farm is nourished by manufactured products with a view 
of eliminating all wastes or useless bulk. All the wastes 
that do accumulate are dumped upon the corn crop to be 
utilized, made over and fitted for the potatoes. These 
farmers would not put stable manure directly upon pota¬ 
toes. It must first be “strained through a crop of corn ” 
before they want it for making tubers. After cutting the 
grass for the second year, all the stable manure made on 
the farm is hauled out and spread on the sod. This work 
is done before potato digging, when there is nothing else 
to be done. In the spring, the accumulations from hog 
pens, stables, etc., are scattered over the sod with straw, 
Stalks, etc., and the whole thing is plowed and well har¬ 
rowed. Corn is planted in hills: this year for the first 
time a little fertilizer was used in the hill. The crop is 
seldom or never hoed, the weeder, harrow and cultivator 
used in time strangling all the weeds in infancy. The 
corn crop brings in less cash than any other and yet it is 
one of the most valuable in the rotation, because it draws 
its fertility from substances that, in this farm system, 
may be counted as wastes, and because it puts the ground, 
the stable manure and grass sod in the best possible condi¬ 
tion for the money crop of the rotation—potatoes. Here 
the practice of this chemical farming differs from Mr. 
Terry’s plan. The latter wants his potatoes as close to the 
green clover sod as they can be planted; the Craubury 
farmers want a corn crop to work between the two, and 
subdue the clover sod before the potatoes touch it. 
The Stock; the Wastes; the Work. 
Mr. Lewis keeps on his 100-acre farm two horses, two 
mules, four cows and two sows with their pigs. He says 
he has too much stock now and does not want any more ! 
The genuine fertilizer farmer seems to look upon stock 
keeping and dairying as the worst sort of drudgery which 
he is willing to leave to the farmers of the West. He 
prides himself on the fact that he is in a location where 
stock growing is not necessary to farming; where strong 
sod with the addition of clean chemicals makes a stronger 
and more enduring manure than can ever be made by 
“ waiting on cattle ” and passing high-priced grain and 
bulky hay through farm animals. The four cows are kept 
for butter and milk, a little of which is sold. They are 
winter-fed on stalks and corn meal. The pigs (half Chesh¬ 
ire and half Duroc-Jersey) are sold in the fall. They eat 
up a portion of the corn and work great quantities of 
straw and stalks into manure. The mules have nothing 
to eat but ear-corn and stalks. The horses are fed hay 
and ear-corn or meal. No oats or other grain are ever fed; 
when they go off on a journey, ear corn is always taken 
for feeding—oats might give them the colic.” Immense 
quantities of straw are used for bedding, and every effort 
is made to rot it down quickly for use on the corn. Mr. 
Lewis says: 
“ I think it likely our system of handling these products 
is wasteful, and we may in time adopt some different plan 
if we can do so without interfering with our rotation.” 
It might pay him to chop all his corn into ensilage, but 
he does not like stock keeping, though he believes that 
steer-feeding will pay better than in former years. He be¬ 
lieves it would pay him to run all his surplus straw and 
stalks through a cutter merely to put them in the barn¬ 
yard as they would decay more easily, absorb the liquid 
manure, and be more easily applied to the land. Only one 
hired man is kept except in haying and harvest, when 
extra help is needed. Potato digging formerly demanded 
increased help, but it is hoped this year to make use of 
diggers, and thus save the greater part of hand labor. The 
potato ground has been cultivated so frequently and so 
well that It is in just the right shape for a digger to do its 
best work—a point that all farmers do not appreciate. In 
this system there are barely four months of hard work. 
After potato digging and wheat seeding there is little or 
nothing to be done until spring work opens. We have 
never seen a system where less hand work was needed. 
With riding plows, cultivators, mowers, loaders, binders 
and diggers, a man is in danger of forgetting how to 
“chase a horse over a field,” or “bend his back over a 
hoe.” “A good farmer can always find something to do,” 
and these fertilizer farmers are free to hunt for the labor 
that will bring them most profit and comfort. They are 
not crippled by cheap hand labor—they give the horse a 
full chance in the work partnership. This is the system— 
what lessons may be safely drawn from it ? Let us first 
review the history of this farm—its age, its strength, what 
has been taken from it, and what has been paid in 1 
(To be continued.) 
Which soil endures drought better: one fertilized with 
barnyard manure or one fertilized with chemicals only ? 
CHERRIES AND CHERRIES. 
This has been a good year for cherries. The crop has 
been large, and has sold at good prices. Heavy shipments 
of California cherries were made to this market, and were 
well liked by buyers and dealers. Besides being large, fine- 
looking fruit, they were packed in an artistic manner— 
every box being like the others. A dealer could safely buy 
by sample and feel sure that every box in a car-load was 
just like the one he looked at. Fig. 178 shows how these 
cherries were packed and shipped. Of course, this took 
lots of time and work: but it paid because it established a 
reputation for neatness and uniformity that will be worth 
thousands of dollars to California fruit growers whenever 
the market is glutted. People will buy the neatest and 
best at such times, and let the poorest go to waste. Fig. 
179 shows the shape in which many cherries come to the 
market. Of course they could not be sold at satisfactory 
prices, and the shippers are now doubtless abusing the 
commission men because the fruit did not bring the 
highest prices. Of course, it did not bring a high 
“California Cherries Quoted High.” Fig. 178. 
price. How could it with such a showing as is made in 
this untidy box f The Californians are capturing the best 
fruit markets—not so much because they have better fruit 
but because they make a business of packing and shipping 
their fruit so that neatness and uniformity are secured. 
They will keep the cream of the trade so long as boxes 
like that shown at Fig. 178 are to be found in the market. 
AMONG THE NEWER STRAWBERRIES, 
On Monday, June 8th, a number of horticulturists, 
among them a representative of The Rural New Yorker, 
visited Mr. T. J. Dwyer, of Cornwall, N. Y., proprietor of 
the Orange County Nurseries, for the purpose of seeing 
his strawberries, which were at that time being picked 
and shipped. Despite the tact that the rainfall bad been 
unusually short, the good condition of the soil and the 
thorough cultivation the plants had received seemed to 
prevent any ill effects from that cause and the fruit was 
large and fine. Mr. Dwyer had been picking for about a 
week and his fruit sold for fancy prices, ranging from 18 
to 24 cents per quart, none having been sold for less than 
18 at the date mentioned. 
Among the newer sorts, our attention was particularly 
attracted to the Haverland (under trial at the Rural 
Grounds), which was in full fruiting. The plant is of vig¬ 
orous growth, with handsome foliage, but it is not as fine 
in this direction as the Bubach. The berries are of good 
size and are of a very distinct type, running very uniform 
in shape and size. They are long and round, with a neck 
somewhat resembling that of the old Scotch Runner. 
The color is good and the quality about up to the average. 
We should judge them to be sufficiently solid to bear or¬ 
dinary shipments unharmed. The variety seems quite 
prolific and, on the whole, a decidedly promising sort. 
The Bubach was the most showy berry on the grounds. 
No other plant equals it In magnificent foliage. The rows 
could thus be singled out at a considerable distance. The 
fruit is of the type of the Sharpless, very large and irreg¬ 
ular in shape, as has been often remarked in our own re¬ 
ports. The color is a shade deeper than that of the Sharp¬ 
less and the fruit is not so sweet. But it is safe to say that 
in productiveness it will very largely surpass the Sharp¬ 
less. A glance at the vines with their very heavy loads of 
fruit would lead one to think that it would produce more 
than double the yield of any other sort, but that would 
probably be an over-estimate. The cause of the impres¬ 
sion lies in the fact that the large crop of the Bubach 
seems to mature very nearly at the same time, while other 
sorts have a longer season. On Mr. Dwyer’s place, he 
will pick most of his Bubachs within a week. It is a very 
valuable and productive sort and is rapidly growing into 
favor. 
His Sharpless looked well and the fruit was of good 
size, but the variety cannot be said to be productive when 
compared with others. 
Cumberland Triumph is very highly prized by Mr. 
Dwyer and is a most valuable berry. The fruit is large, 
bright red, of good quality, very showy and of a pro¬ 
nounced type, each berry being exactly like the others— 
short and round in shape, and very handsome. It Is also 
quite early—he had been picking it for more than a week. 
For an all-around, every-day farmer’s berry, it strikes us 
as filling the bill. Of course, to do this, it must be a per¬ 
fect-flowered variety. It has steadily grown in favor in 
this section for some time, mainly through Mr. Dwyer’s 
confidence in it, based on its profitable cultivation on his 
place. Some 10 years ago it was tried at the Rural Grounds 
and favorably reported upon. Except that It is rather soft 
for distant shipment, it is not easy to understand why it 
is not more generally cultivated. 
Warfield has but little to recommend it as seen there, 
save that it is about five days earlier than the Crescent. 
The Gold seems to be of good quality, but a poor yielder, 
and we would not recommend it. Miner’s Prolific is a 
very good berry and seems to do well there. In some sec¬ 
tions it is a valuable variety. 
Monmouth is an early variety, of poor quality, but its 
foliage burns and rusts badly in this section. It is not a 
desirable sort. The Jessie does better here than it did last 
year, but it cannot be called a profitable berry. It seems 
to be exceedingly variable in different sections. The 
Gandy is a very late berry. With the other varieties fully 
ripe, scarcely a berry showing a trace of color could be 
found on the Gandy plants. It is a good grower, fairly 
productive, of good size, and in quality superior. Owing 
to its lateness, it prolongs the season at least 10 days and 
this makes It a profitable sort. It is heartily commended 
for trial 
CULTIVATION BEFORE AND AFTER RAIN. 
Reasons for cultivating; why it brings moisture; pre¬ 
pares the soil to use light showers; a dry season 
better than a wet one. 
J. M. smith. 
We all agree that cultivation must be sufficient to de¬ 
stroy the weeds; but, beyond this, what is necessary f I 
think I have never known a season when up to the present 
time it has been so easy to keep weeds destroyed as during 
the present one. Upon the other hand, I have never kept 
so many cultivators running, and so steadily as this sea¬ 
son. I have learned sufficient about the cultivation of the 
soil to know that its preparation for the crop to be grown 
upon it should be thorough and complete. We plow from 
eight to Dine inches deep. We manure very heavily, gen¬ 
erally upon the top of the ground after plowing. We then 
put on the Cutaway harrow and work the soil over until 
the manure is thoroughly incorporated with it. We then 
put on the Meeker roller harrow, and use that until the 
land is like a bed of ashes in its fineness. It is now ready 
for the seed, which is planted or sown. If potatoes, they 
are planted about three inches deep. As soon as the sprouts 
begin to show themselves above the ground, they are thor¬ 
oughly harrowed with a fine steel tooth harrow. As soon 
as the plants are up so that the rows can be followed with¬ 
out difficulty, the cultivator is put in. The cultivation de¬ 
pends upon circumstances. If there is sufficient rain to 
furnish moisture, and keep them growing rapidly, I do not 
consider it necessary upon my land to go through them 
more than two or three times with the cultivator, and 
after the first cultivation which may be three or four 
Inches deep, I prefer not to cultivate more than two inches 
in depth. If the excessively dry weather continues, I shall 
have them cultivated about once a week until the tops are 
so large that we can no longer go through them without 
doing damage. . 
The above is practically my method with such crops as 
potatoes, corn, cabbage, or such others as are cultivated 
with a horse. If the crops to be grown are onions, beets, 
carrots, radishes, lettuce, or other plants upon which only 
the hand cultivator can be used, the preparation is prac¬ 
tically the same as above. As soon as the plants are up so 
that the rows can be followed, the cultivator is started. 
The cultivation is about one inch in depth, and in good 
growing weather is kept up as often as is necessary to keep 
down all the weeds, and keep the plants in first rate order. 
Such a season as this has been thus far (when we have had 
the least rain I have ever known, up to date, June 9), I 
like to have the top of the ground kept just like a bed of 
dried ashes. There is no doubt that this dried dust as we 
may call it, acts as the very best kind of a mulch, and 
breaks the course of upward evaporation that is constantly 
taking place in our soils, by means of capillary attraction. 
This arrest of the moisture is very near the surface of the 
earth, and is where the plants can get the benefit of it, 
and they certainly do appropriate It very largely to their 
own, and eventually to our benefit. Another reason is as 
follows: Plants that are thus cared for, are in the best of 
conditions to be benefited by any and every little shower 
that may come. 
It has often almost made me hold my breath to see the 
growth of plants thus cared for after a very light shower, 
one in fact that would hardly lay the dust in the streets. 
Upon land not thus cared for, there gradually comes a 
little crust that Is about water as well as air-tight, and the 
little dash of rain just mentioned is all needed to dissolve 
it, and the growing plants get little or no benefit from the 
rain, while after it is over the crust Is harder and more im¬ 
pervious to both rain and air than before; while plants 
upon the land first described get the benefit of about every 
drop that falls. As soon as the top of the soil has dried 
off, I like to start the cultivators again, and prepare the 
ground for the next shower that may come, as well as to 
prevent the evaporation of the little rain that has already 
fallen. I have another advantage not possessed by many, 
who might and ought to have it, for the whole of my 
land is both surface and underdrained, and plants in such 
soils run deep into the ground and are much better able to 
withstand the effects of dry weather than those not so 
situated would be. I will not run the cultivators in wet 
weather, or when the land is wet, unless it is an absolute 
necessity for the purpose of destroying weeds—I try very 
hard to avoid it upon any land I cultivate. 
Such, in brief, is my method of cultivation in times of 
drought, and by these means I can carry my crops through 
a season of dry weather that otherwise would be ruinous 
to them. In fact, I often tell my sons and friends as well, 
