1891 
639 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
etc.? Does Mr. Putnam suppose when he introduces Mr. 
Travelot’s evidence that robins eat insects that he is going 
to make a fruit-grower believe that they do not also eat 
fruit ? I do not know that it has been proved that insects 
as a whole are more injurious to man than birds ; in fact 
I imagine that the great book that will correctly and ex¬ 
haustively treat of economic ornithology, entomology, 
fungi and bacteria, as they are interwoven in nature, will 
give full employment to many heads for at least several 
generations to come. Mr. Putnam further connects 
“insects, fungi and bacteria” with my slaughter of birds. 
I will thank him if he will give the relationship between 
birds and the increase of fungi or bacteria. As to insects, 
I do not have as many as my neighbors, only as I import 
them by getting different varieties of fruit from many 
different localities. 
Mr. Powell says : " Plant more fruit and treat the birds 
(sparrows excepted) as members of the family.” Yes 1 I 
have six children now—just about as many as I can scratch 
for, and I don’t care about adopting any foreigners unless 
they will benefit more than they damage me. I have also 
65 acres in fruit, much of it doubled up—that is, black¬ 
berries among peaches, currants among apples, etc. I 
have an experimental orchard of over 500 varieties of 
apples, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, etc. Of the latter I 
have about 5,000 vines. I find that if the birds are allowed 
full sway, much more work is needed to sort out the 
punctured grapes from the disfigured bunches than the 
whole gathering amounts to, and that comparatively few 
first-class baskets can be secured for market, and that first- 
class grapes are the only ones it pays to ship. Shall I 
adopt the “ family ” and go into bankruDtcy, or shall I 
dig up my grapes and cherries and experimental orchard 
and go to raising corn and buckwheat cakes ? Or shall I 
buy 65 acres of mosquito netting and starve the birds—a 
pretty way to treat “ members of the family! ” 
Now, there are such things as sentiment and sense, and 
one is often as far apart from the other as a politician 
from honesty. Bird worshipers have existed a long time 
—I am one. Maybe the ibis antedates the robin as a sacred 
bird. The wood-thrush has been my favorite on account 
of its springtime morning songs, and I overlooked its 
shortcomings as long as I could, but fiually I tried to be 
governed by sense. One thrush or robin may mutilate 
a hundred bunches of grapes in a day, with one or two 
pecks at a bunch, and Nature “ does the rest.” Count the 
robins by flocks and the thrushes by hedgefuls, and what 
one knows all soon know, and they go to the place where 
food is plentiful—the result can be easily computed. 
Don’t pity me as a forlorn creature without the music 
and companionship of birds. We have thousands of black¬ 
birds, swallows, wrens, doves, redbirds, etc., that are not 
parasites on the fruit grower. These I encourage. Nor 
have I yet joined the war against the English sparrow. 
Recollect that the friends of the robins have done all the 
talking in the papers; many prominent horticulturists 
shoot and say nothing. 
I inclose an article from Pro '. Budd of the Iowa College. 
BEN.J. BUCKMAN. 
R N. Y.—The article referred to by Mr. Buckman is as 
follows: “ On the college grounds the birds have not been 
shot or In any way molested for many years, and their 
number and variety will surprise even Mr. Buckman. 
Perhaps the quantity of berries of which they are fond 
may also help to entice them to the grounds. The mul 
berry, Juneberry, bush honeysuckles, native and Euro¬ 
pean wild cherries, etc., are found here in great number, 
loaded with fruit; but they are all stripped as fast as the 
berries are nearly ripe; yet the birds lay in wait for every 
cherry that turns red, and even eat the peas from every 
pod in sight in our gardens. The only way we can save a 
cherry, Juneberry, etc , is to cover with mosqu to bar, and 
then they get in if a hole underneath is left large enough 
to crowd through. Of course the case is exceptional, but 
the sequence should be that Insects would do less 
damage here than at other points, which as yet we have 
failed to discover. With the increase of trees and fruits 
around our homesteads, the question arises whether the 
time has not come to make war on certain birds. Senti¬ 
ment can go too far. Just now some of our leading ento¬ 
mologists are defending the striped squirrels from the 
same standpoint from which they defend the birds. They 
are insect eaters. To some extent this may be true, yet it 
did not prevent the rascals from thinning our corn fields 
last spring as never before, where they were not poisoned, 
and on one side of our seedling cherry plantation, where 
squirrels abounded, we can scarcely find a plant. While 
they were feasting on cherry pits, I believe the Insects 
were perfectly safe.” 
Birds That Rob a Cripple. 
About those birds: An article by F. A. Patmm shows 
by the reports of the examination of the crops of various 
birds that they live almost wholly,,^f not entirely on in¬ 
sects. There is no report of the finding of fruits of any 
kind in their crops. So far as these instances are used to 
prove that birds do not destroy our fruit crops, the allega¬ 
tion is nonsense. Every one who has seen his crop de¬ 
stroyed by birds knows better. My nearest neighbor has a 
little lot on which he tries to raise all fruits and vegetables 
he can to help support his family. He is a poor ex-soldier 
and a cripple and never has had a pension. At one corner 
of his house there is a cherry tree, which bears a full crop 
year after year. It is his only tree of the kind and he has 
never yet got a mess of fruit from it. The birds take them 
all. I destroyed the last cherry trees on my place some 
years ago, because I could not afford the room to raise 
cherries to feed the birds. Some people indulge more in 
sentiment than in good common sense about this matter. 
My own practice—which I think is markedly common 
sti si—is to let the birds alone so long as they are satisfied 
with a small share of the fruit. But when they come with 
such rapacity and in such numbers as to iake a very large 
or the greater part of my fruit I use a gun till I can get 
the greate- part of it myself if possible. 
I am not disposed to concede the great benefit from birds 
claimed by many. I have no doubt some of them are 
beneficial to a certain extent. I know they are, but they 
do not meddle with potato bugs, striped beetles, squash 
bugs, codling moths, tent caterpillars or any of the rest of 
our Insect pests to any appreciable exteut. How much 
they do in the way of preventing other insects from be¬ 
coming pests is a matter of conjecture, pure and simple. 
They should have credit for whatever it is. They should 
also be charged with the beneficial insects which they de¬ 
stroy. I think I eDjoy the songs of the birds as well as 
any one and I am willing that they should have all the 
insects they can stuff down, and I don’t mind their taking 
a little fruit by way of dessert, but when they propose to 
take the whole or the biggest part of it on my place, 
down comes their shanty.” f. HODGMAN. 
Kalamazoo Co., Mich. 
A COLD BOX IN A WELL. 
Our grandmothers thought it Impossible to make good 
butter during the hot weather of late summer, and found 
the cause of the failure in the baneful influence of the 
Dog Days. But it was proved long ago that good butter 
cin be produced during this season. Keeping it good and 
solid seems to be the difficulty. Where a constant stream 
B A 
of cold spring water can be made to flow through a trough 
arranged for the purpose, perfection is attained. Few can 
have this, and must substitute a trough through which 
water is pumped daily. In hot weather the water soon be¬ 
comes warm and of little use. 
A Mr. B. of this place, has adopted a plan which secures 
an even temperature of about 60 degrees. His well is an 
ordinary dug one, several feet in diameter and walled up 
Well Box and Windlass. Fig. 233. 
with stone. Butter, cream, etc., are placed in a box and 
lowered in It nearly to the water. 
The accompanying drawings give a pretty clear idea of 
the necessary apparatus. A post is set firmly into the 
ground just outside the well and a horizontal beam at the 
top extends over it. Where there is a pump house or pro¬ 
jecting roof a beam may be fastened to its timbers in such 
a manner as to serve the same purpose. Mortises cut 
through this hold pulleys over which the rope passes. At A, 
Fig. 233, two pulleys are placed on the same shaft directly 
above the center of the well. At B there is but one pulley. 
Between the upright and brace a small windlass is con¬ 
structed, as shown at C In Fig 233. The frame is formed 
of four pieces nailed to the post and brace. A 3-inch 
cylinder, 10 Inches long, with a 6-iDch head at each end 
forms a “ spool ” of about the right size for a well 30 to 40 
feet deep, the rope being half inch. 
The pump is set as far as possible to one side of the well, 
and a trap doer is placed in the floor, as in Fig. 232. A 
notch cut out of the floor at the side of this door holds the 
rope when the door is closed, and a hook on the pump 
above (not shown in the drawing) holds It back out of the 
way when not In u«e. The frame beneath the floor Is 
shown at Fig. 231. At each corner two boards nailed to¬ 
gether at a right angle extend down into the well. A 
frame below keeps them in proper position, and prevents 
serious loss should the rope break. A box, D of Fig. 233, 
fits loosely into this descending shaft. Cleats Inside with 
movable shelves fit it for holding any size of cans, jars, 
etc A door closes the front, and a three rope pulley Is 
securely bolted to the top. The rope Is first tied to the 
ring above this pulley, taken up over one of the pulleys at 
A, Fig. 232, down beneath the pulley on the box, up over 
the second pulley at A, back over pulley at B, and down 
to the wlndlsss. 
Mrs. B. says it is an excellent device for keeping butter 
solid, and for cooling cream previous to churning. The 
only objection is that the box must be thoroughly cleaned 
and scalded once or twice a week to ke°p it sweet, and 
care must be taken that the water in the well does not be¬ 
come foul. With this precaution it Is a success and worth 
tryiDg. JAMES M. SHULL. 
Montgomery Co , Ohio. 
COTTON HULL ASHES FOR FRUITS. 
I began the use of cotton-hull ashes as a fertilizer many 
years ago, when the first oil mill was started in Galves¬ 
ton, and have used no other potash manure since. In con¬ 
junction with cotton seed meal it makes for this soil a 
complete fertilizer that has given excellent results. I have 
also used it for dissolving bone meal, putting equal quanti¬ 
ties in tight barrels and thoroughly saturating with water. 
In a month or six weeks the mass is well reduced, and a large 
proportion of the phosphoric acid in the bone has been ren¬ 
dered soluble. This mixture is especially adapted for toma- 
toee, melons and cucumbers as well as for fruit trees. Be¬ 
fore using the ashes I had relied entirely on muriate of pot¬ 
ash for my vegetable garden, and found the latter a danger¬ 
ous manure in Jarge quantities unless thoroughly mixed 
with the soli and rained on several times. I once applied 
1,000 pounds of the muriate per acre to a cabbage field, and 
the plants seemed to be paralyzed for a month or more. 
The cotton-seed hull ashes, though containing about 30 
per cent pure potash, never had any such effect, though ap¬ 
plied often in much larger quantities. They contain about 
eight per cent of phosphoric acid also. For a bearing orchard 
I should say that 500 pounds to the acre would furnish all 
the mineral elements needed. Unlike many fruit growers, 
I believe our bearing orchards need a liberal supply of am¬ 
monia also, which I give in the form of the meal. I don’t 
think the latter fertilizer is appreciated at the North as it 
should be. Its analysis shows about nine per cent of am¬ 
monia, three of phosphoric acid and three of potash, all In a 
form eminently adapted to vegetable growth. I know of 
ground that has yielded, year after year, good crops of 
cabbage, potatoes, etc., manured with the meal alone. Its 
cost here is $18 per ton, that of the ashes being $20. I am 
afraid, however, we are going to lose the ashes from the 
market, as the demand for hulls for feed is so great in 
many parts of the country that the mills Intend to sell 
them and buy coal. h. m, stringfellow. 
Hitchcock, Texas. 
NORTH MICHIGAN FRUIT NOTES. 
There are droughts and droughts. Farmers of this sec¬ 
tion thought they knew all about droughts until this year, 
when the true inwardness of the term was revealed. We 
also shared in the general losses from frosts in May. Then 
the northern part of the county was visited by such a 
horde of grasshoppers as to strip fruit trees of their foliage 
and drive horses out of the fields. As a natural conse¬ 
quence, many who were in debt are ruined and any one 
wanting to locate in the famous “ fruit belt ” of western 
Michigan can secure land, in this county at all events, just 
now at his own price with implements and stock on the 
same “reasonable” terms. 
This season has confirmed my previous belief that this 
region is more adapted to intensive than to extensive 
tillage. The only crops in the country worth talking 
about being those commonly known as hoed crops, chiefly 
corn and potatoes. 
By maintaining a mulch of loose soil among my rasp¬ 
berries I obtained half a crop. While previously aware of 
the benefit of frequent stirring of the soil, the frequent 
stirring of my own ideas given by The R. N.-Y. in this 
connection certainly paid for my paper, as my neighbors 
were kind enough to put no raspberries on the home mar¬ 
ket. They don’t take The Rural. 
Fertilization has always been the rock I have clung to, 
and among fertilizers I prefer bones. This season, how¬ 
ever, has emphatically taught me this lesson: Plants 
take their food in water. Dry chemicals can’t benefit dry 
clover or any other crop; no water, no crop. I raise fruit 
and the fruit crop is mostly water. I am now tapping a 
swamp higher up than my fruit, while the dry weather 
facilitates the work, and I am expecting next season an 
extra crop to pay for the necessary outlay. 
Do the little red beetles called “lady birds” by the 
children, prey on potato bugs? [We think not. Eds] 
They swarmed this year on my potato vines, and I fancied 
