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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
625 
has the most harmonious action, fore and aft, of all breeds, 
still it cannot approach the Hackney in high and stylish 
knee action. It is said that this peculiarity of the Hackney 
originated in the practice of training the young colts in a 
yard heavily littered with straw. 
The Hackney is the highest embodiment of symmetry. 
He has the chiseled lineaments of the Thoroughbred. The 
neck is full and high crested, the shoulders snug and with 
blades well laid back, the body thick and smooth, while 
symmetrical proportions of every part and the enduring 
ambition that infuses the whole, always attract the eyes 
of the multitude. The high fore action of this breed adds 
about one-half of their marketable value. Crossed upon 
the splendid class of light mares in this country, they pro¬ 
duce excellent results. Just one obstacle lies in their way, 
and it was the hope of many that the associations would 
provide for Its removal. Though bred for years for defi¬ 
nite qualities, nevertheless through the constant inflow of 
Thoroughbred and other bloods, there are many type* 
among the horses entitled to be called Hackneys because 
of their registration. There are typical Hackneys in 
America, and it is incumbent on the breeders to discrimi¬ 
nate closely in the matter of type. A horse called a Hack¬ 
ney, but without symmetry, and more especially without 
the knee action of this breed, is not worthy of patronage. 
It is to be remembered that because of this knee action 
from $800 to $500 can be obtained for a cob that otherwise 
would bring only $150 to $200. Some say: “ We have no 
use for such horses; they are worthless on the road.” To 
such it can be said: “Customers do not pay us for the 
gratification of our own likes, but rather for the satisfac¬ 
tion of their own.” j. 1 . CRAIG. 
The Farmers Club. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
| Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of the 
writer to Insure attention. Before asking a question please see If It Is 
not answered In our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
COTTON HULLS AS A FERTILIZER. 
W. J., Knoxville, Tenn. —I can obtain cotton hulls for 
$5 per ton. Are they cheap at that price to use as a fertil¬ 
izer around young pear trees and grape vines ? 
Ans —From the following notes we should say not. 
Many fruit men in the South are using the ashes of these 
hulls with good success, but we have not been able to find 
one that is using the entire hulls. We believe the hulls 
would make excellent bedding and absorbents. It might pay 
some enterprising firm to bale and ship them to the North. 
If used for this purpose they would have to be kept satur¬ 
ated with water in the manure pits, otherwise they would 
heat readily. The chief value of these hulls, however, 
seems to be as a food for Southern cattle. We have never 
been able to see how any living animal could digest them. 
In appearance they are like a mass of short cotton thread 
filled with small husks about as hard as peanut shells. 
The latest facts regarding their digestibility are found In 
the last bulletin of the Texas station: 
Within the last few years large quantities of cattle have 
been fattened for market in the South on a ration of cot¬ 
ton-seed meal and hulls mixed. It has proved itself a great 
economical feed and at the same time, a most desirable one 
for fattening purposes. It has been commonly supposed 
that the hulls were digested in great part; and that they 
added materially to the nutritive value of the meal. With 
a view of better observing the appearance of the hulls as 
they came from the animal, the dung both from sheep and 
steers was well washed, and the nulls “somewhat the 
worse for wear” broken into pieces of all sizes, were recov¬ 
ered. The tables of hull digestion show that scarcely any 
of the albuminoid or nitrogenous matter is digested; 
while about one-half of fiber and three-fourths of fat appear 
to undergo digestion. This makes a poor showing for the 
digestibility of cotton-seed hulls, except for the fat, and 
shows that their effect must be largely mechanical, what¬ 
ever that may be. With the meal, they most certainly 
give most satisfactory results in a practical way. 
Of Possible Value as a Mulch. 
Cotton seed hulls do not amount to very much as afertil- 
izer for pear trees or grape vines, and certainly at $5 per 
ton, delivered, they would be a very expensive fertilizer. 
The inquirer possibly means to refer to cotton seed hull 
ashes, which are very rich in potash, containing about 25 
per cent or more, but a ton of hulls would not make a great 
amount of ashes. Potash in this form mixed with some 
other fertilizer, as, for instance, bone meal, has long been 
known to be very excellent for fruit trees, and some won¬ 
derful results have been obtained by their use. Mr. H. M. 
Stringfellow, a large grower and shipper of pears and a 
special advocate of potash manuring, claims wonderful re¬ 
sults and success in the practice. Cotton-seed hulls are 
very valuable for feeding steers for beef in connection with 
cotton-seed meal, and also of great value as an absorbent 
bedding. We use them every year for these purposes. 
They make also a fine mulch for tender plants in our hot 
summers. geo. w. curtis. 
Texas Station. 
Not a Direct Fertilizer. 
I do not know of any experiment having been made with 
cotton-seed hulls for fertilizers for trees and vines. I am 
inclined to think they would be very effective as a mulch 
rather than as a direct fertilizer. Here is an average 
analysis of them: 
Ammonia.0.79 per cent 
Potash.0.82 “ 
Phos. acid.0.24 “ 
Valuing phosphoric acid and potash at five cents a 
pound, and ammonia at 13, a ton of hulls is worth $3.14. 
Cotton seed hulls are of the greatest use as bedding in 
stalls, as they readily absorb all liquid on account of the 
small portion of lint remaining. The use of them com¬ 
bined with cotton-seed meal as a feed for fattening stock 
is quite common. At this station we have been able to 
effect an average gain of 148 pounds in each of four steers 
at a total cost of $<5 85 each for food. Each animal yielded 
$9.38 in cash over the cost. These were two year old steers, 
and were fed for 84 days upon an average per day of 18 
pounds of hulls and 4>£ of meal. H. B BATTLE. 
North Carolina Experiment Station. 
Hulls Must be Reinforced. 
In regard to the value of cotton-seed hulls as a fertilizer 
for young pear trees and grape vines, such an application 
would serve a good purpose as a mulch, if mulching be 
needed ; but cotton seed hulls don’t amount to much as a 
fertilizer, being little more valuable than oat straw. The 
analysis of hulls is as follows: 
Ammonia (potential). 0 25 per cent. 
Phosphoric acid.0.25 “ 
Potash.0.85 “ 
For fertilizing purposes a ton would be dear at $2 50 de¬ 
livered on the ground. The ashes, however, are especially 
valuable for vines and fruit trees, containing, as they do, 
upwards of 20 per cent of potash. Applied directly as a 
fertilizer the hulls do not rot readily. For bedding they 
are excellent. But the most important use of them in 
Georgia is as food stuff for cattle. For this use they are 
reinforced by the addition of one pound of cotton-seed 
meal to three or four pounds of hulls r. j. redding. 
Georgia Experiment Station. 
Draining a Clay Saucer. 
II. 11., Brookfield, Mass. —I am in the drainage business 
just now, and accordingly was Interested in T. B. Terry’s 
recent article on the subject. I have some places just like 
those he speaks of, without outlets, but I don’t know how 
to manage them. Will he give some more information ? 
Ans. —The springy spots that I drained without having 
any outlets were mostly on hill-sides, with permanent past¬ 
ure land adjoining. The pasture was lower than any part 
of the cultivated field. Beginning a rod or two in the past¬ 
ure, we dug a ditch up to the springy place, and then 
usually a cross ditch at the upper end, the two ditches be¬ 
ing in the form of a letter T. Care was taken to get the 
upper ditch about where the water came out of the sub¬ 
soil. This is' usually at the very upper edge of the wet 
spot. Once there were several wet spots with dry land 
between. Here we dug one ditch below and then branched 
out to each of the spots. When the ditches were graded 
on the bottom so that water ran easily to the lower end, 
(if there was much we dipped it out while grading and get¬ 
ting tiles in) we laid four-inch tiles for two or three rods 
at the lower end, and then two-inch the rest of the way. 
The object of having larger ones at the bottom was to al¬ 
low of the lodgment of considerable sediment there before 
they would stop working. Larger tiles than four-inch 
might be better in some places. But very little water 
goes down these drains. They were only springy in wet 
weather, not running all the time. The soil below is 
porous. These drains were put about 2)^ feet deep. In 
two or three cases the outlet or lower end is in the field. 
We found a saucer of hardpan which held water and often 
made a place too wet. This was where the land did not 
generally need draining. We laid the drain through the 
saucer’s rim, down into the more porous soil below. It 
works all right. 
The most notable drain of this kind wa 3 put in a year 
ago last spring. It was to drain a basin of a quarter of an 
acre. To carry the water through to a regular outlet a 
hundred rods or so away, would be a very expensive mat¬ 
ter, as much of the digging would be deep. What we did 
as an experiment, starting in the direction in which the 
regular drain would have to go, so as to have two strings 
to our bow, was to dig a ditch into the hill (some of the 
way 10 feet deep), where we struck gravel, as we expected. 
After coming to it we continued 100 feet in the gravel and 
laid 4-inch tiles and filled up with no outlet. Then we put 
in 400 feet of 2-inch side drains In the basin, to collect the 
water rapidly. These were only put perhaps 18 inches 
deep. Our idea was that the water would soak away in 
the gravel as fast as it came. It does, and gets out of the 
hollow in a hurry. This drain will have very little to do, 
and I cannot see why it should not last for a lifetime. 
The land does not need draining; all that is needed is to 
dispose quickly of the water that once in a while accumu¬ 
lates there from an unusually heavy shower. Every wet 
spot that I have fixed in this way is a success, so far, and 
they have often paid for the tiles in a single season. 
T. B. TERRY. 
Round Hen Eggs. 
.7. C. W., Newark, N. J. —Are round hen eggs common? 
Though I have been eating eggs for 50 years, I never saw 
one till last Friday. 
Ans. —Such eggs we believe are very rare. We have a 
Black Hamburg hen that lays small eggs that are per¬ 
fectly round at one end—not at all “ egg shaped.” We 
suppose that the general shape of the egg is determined 
in its passage through the oviduct. Smaller eggs are gen - 
erally nearest round. Most “ big ” eggs seem to gain most 
of their extra size in length rather than in circumference. 
Let us hear from our hen men. 
A Country Start for City Workers. 
H. S. L , Brooklyn, N. Y.— In The Rural’s advice to 
city workers who propose to farm for a living, in purchas¬ 
ing a farm what would it suggest as to its size, the propor¬ 
tion of pasture to tillable land, and what would be the best 
branch of farming to take up; that is, which would re¬ 
quire the least practical knowledge, and be most easily 
comprehended ? What would be necessary in the way of 
tools, etc. ? 
-A- Ns -—It is hard to say which branch of farming is the 
easiest to comprehend—about as hard as it would be to 
tell which trade would be the easiest to learn. Nobody 
succeeds in farming nowadays who is not master of some 
special branch—the production of some special crop or pro¬ 
duct in which he takes a vital interest. This is one reason 
why it is wiser for such a workman to spend a year or so as 
a man before branching out as a master. Most of the 
farms in this country are too large. As a rule, the 40 acre 
farmers are a good deal happier and better off than those 
who have 80, 160 or 240 acres. This is largely due to the 
fact that small farmers are obliged to do their work thor¬ 
oughly and to think out all their plans in order to succeed. 
About the best model for a city worker to take is that 
afforded by Mr. Johnson whose farm was described on 
page 262 of The R. N. Y. Mr. J. keeps poultry and a few 
cows, with strawberries, potatoes and cabbage as his main 
crops. Poultry and fruits are the best stock and products 
for the city worker to begin with, not because they require 
less attention and skill than others, but because they give 
sure and quick returns and afford an excellent chance for 
a business man to develop a good trade in them. 
A Fence Question Submitted. 
W. K. S., Parkersburg. Pa— How shall I do away with 
my “ useless fence ?” I keep milch ows and a few steers. 
The usual rot ition is corn, oats, wheat, Timothy and 
clover mowed two or three years and pastured one ; then 
corn again. The mowing fields are almost invariably past¬ 
ured after harvest. To avoid pasturing these fields what 
proportion of ground should be kept for permanent past¬ 
ure ? Into how many fields should the land be fenced 
and how should its fertility be kept up ? With a rotation 
of corn, or potatoes, wheat and clover, if I can manage to 
do without pasturing the second crop clover, I will have a 
good sod to plow down, provided the clover will grow. 
For this neighborhood that is the weak point in this 
solution. 
Ans —This question is submitted to our readers. Are 
such fences useless ? Can they ne safely removed ? Down I 
down with every useless fence, but let your helpers stay I 
What about these ? 
Chemical Fertilizers In Oregon. 
II. G., Wilsonville, Oregon. —Can I obtain chemical 
fertilizers on this coast ? I have 40 acres in fruit 
trees and raise fruits exclusively. What fertilizer should 
I use to enable me to get a crop of hay In the orchard 
without permitting its fertility to decrease ? The hay 
would be off before the fruit would be ripe, and I could 
add to my profits, if the fertilizers did nob cost more than 
the hay would bring. 
Ans.— Many tons of fertilizers are used in California. 
There are several fertilizer firms in San Francisco ; we 
should think they must also be on sale at Portland. Mr. 
H. A. March, Fldalgo Island, Washington, has, we believe, 
used fertilizers for some years. We cannot say whether 
the plan you propose will pay or not—the cost of the fer¬ 
tilizer and the price paid for the hay will determine that. 
Mr. Chamberlain’s article In this issue shows that the plan 
does pay in some sections. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Analysis of Urine. —“Subscriber.”—Persons residing in 
out-of-the-way country places can send samples of their 
urine for examination to Dr. Gideon E. Moore, 221 Pearl 
Street, New York. An analysis will cost from $8 to $10, 
depending upon its completeness. 
Potato Digger and Sorter.—J. C. B., Murfreesboro, 
Tenn.—The only digger that we know of that attempts to 
dig, sort and bag potatoes at one time is the Newberry. 
This has just been patented and is not yet on the market. 
Minnewaski, Topsy and Bonanza Blackberries.— M. L. 
R., Clinton, N. Y.—As to the hardiness of these varieties 
in your climate, a longer experience will be required to 
answer. Minnewaski seems to be about as hardy as Klt- 
tatinny. We cannot say as to Bonanza. The Topsy is 
also about as hardy as Minnewaski, apparently. We would 
not care to grow it if the plant were the hardiest black¬ 
berry known. It is too thorny. This is the variety ad¬ 
vertised as Childs’s Everbearing Tree Blackberry. 
Killing “ Milkweed.”—C. B. S , Ridgefield, Conn.—Milk¬ 
weed or Asclepias is readily killed out by timely and fre¬ 
quent cultivation. 
Bucket Pump.— B. F. A., Charleston, S. C.-We believe 
the ordinary chain-bucket pump will suit you for raising 
water from a deep well. 
Feed of Tested Cows.—A. S. B., Worcester County, 
Mass.—Of course the cows that make the great tests for 
butter eat enormous grain rations. They are fed all they 
can stuff. Take, for example, this report, just at hand, of 
the test of the Jersey Exile’s Belle 40524: “It is 28 days 
since we commenced the test, and she has now made over 
100 pounds of butter. For the last seven days she made 
32 pounds 7 ounces of butter, salted one ounce to the 
pound, well worked ready for market. She is eating about 
16 quarts of mixed feed per day. She seems to be in per¬ 
fect health and does not mind her feed in the least. We 
intend to continue the test. She is not milking quite as 
heavily as when we commenced the test, but she has in¬ 
creased her yield of butter every week.” By the way, we 
wonder what our scientist friends think of that last state¬ 
ment. 
Topping Corn—A. E. T., Brockport, N. Y.—Send for 
the 1890 Report of the Cornell Experiment Station, Ithaca, 
N. Y. This pamphlet contains a report of some experi¬ 
ments in cutting the tassels from corn stalks, which will 
answer your questions. 
Setting Pear Trees in the Fall.— S. S. B., Big Fiats, N. 
Y.—Yes, it is practicable to set out pear trees In the fall; 
but we prefer spring for your locality. Among the best 
early varieties for market are Bartlett, B-un 6 Giffard, 
Clapp’s Favorite, Dearborn’s Seedling, Doyenne d’Ettf, 
Petite Marguerite, Tyson. 
