11 o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OCT. 31 
Strawberries ; $528.28 Per Acre. 
W. F. Tabor Dutciikss County, N. Y. 
—I notice on page 722, of Thk Rural for 
October 10, a communication from L H. 
G., Bristol, Ind., calling in question the 
statement made by H. A. M., Hyde Park, 
N. Y , tbat $500 worth of strawberries can 
be raised on one acre, but adding “it the 
berries are sold at five cents per quart." 
Now if I lived where I had tosell berries at 
five cents per quart, I would move or go 
out of the business ; but I do not. My 
books show that I have grown the pres¬ 
ent season (P91) on 4 % acres of ground 800 
bushels of strawberries. I have sold 789 
bushels for $2 377. 29, averaging $528 28 per 
acre. They received no irrigation save the 
natural rainfall and this was so light at 
one time as to seriously affect most of the 
crops around here. It costs money to grow 
such a crop as this ; but that there is a 
profit in it I know. If L. H. G., becomes 
tired at the thought of the work involved, 
or is constitutionally tired, he had better 
try some other business than growing 
strawberries. An experience of several 
years and a determination to succeed have 
brought about the above results, which are 
quite satisfactory to me. 
Aberdeen-Angus Hides. 
Anderson & Findlay, Lake County, 
ILL.—The hides of the Aberdeen-Angus cat¬ 
tle are considered superior to those of the 
other breeds on account of their being 
usually heavier. Plainsmen rarely select 
a white or light-colored hide from which 
to make quirts, lariats, etc., believing a 
dark-colored one to be stronger. There are 
not sufficient numbers of these hides com¬ 
ing to market to establish a market value 
independent of other hides, but as they are 
sold by weight, more is realized for them 
than for others on account of their heavier 
weight. We are not prepared to say tbat 
the hides are thicker and heavier when the 
animals are raised in colder climates, but 
it is undoubtedly true that the hair grows 
to a greater length when so raised upon the 
same principle tbat animals kept under 
roof have shorter hair than if they were 
running at large and exposed to the weather 
all winter. 
Some Fruit Points. 
E. P. P., Clinton, N. Y.—A good list 
of plums for home use: Duane’s Purple, 
very large purple, last of August; Green 
Gage, first of September; Bleeker’s Gage 
(Lombard), middle of September; Bavay’s 
Green Gage, last of September; Shropshire 
Damson in October. For market I would 
add Bradshaw, McLaughlin, Pond, Yellow 
Gage, Abundance (Botan), Spaulding and 
Grand Duke. None of the native plums 
is of special advantage when the others can 
be grown. So far as I can judge R jbinson 
and Weaver are as good as any. Wild Goose 
does not bear a plum unless fertilized by 
other sorts. 
The finest of all trees for color is the 
Norway Maple. It gives a solid canary 
yellow, without a tint of red. The color 
is so deep as to create a reflection and the 
atmosphere under the tree seems golden. It 
is a miniature sunset. This is the ideal 
lawn tree in all respects. 
Beauties of the Board of Health. 
F. P., Orange County, N. Y.—An 
Orange County, N. Y , grape grower, al¬ 
luding to the recent fiasco of the New York 
City Board of Health, in the matter of 
sprayed grapes said as follows : “ They are 
a rotten lot. In order to hide their general 
worthlessness, they feel the necessity of 
some such periodical sensation. I do not 
suppose that the President of the Board of 
Health is personally corrupt, but he has 
among his subordinates a gang of men who 
would adorn a ptnitentiary. I have been 
in the markets a good deal and I know 
whereof I speak. When a dealer in New 
York, who has a questionable lot of stuff 
on hand, hears that an inspector is coming, 
he sends out an emissary with a five dollar 
note, who meets the inspector and suggests 
that he walk in another direction ; the 
obliging inspector does so, the objection¬ 
able articles are disposed of, or secreted, 
and the dtaler meets the delayed inspector 
with a smile. Why, it is an open secret 
that the ‘ bob veal ’ venders habitually 
bribe these inspectors to pass their goods. 
Certain it is, and it is well-known by every 
dairyman in the country, that during the 
‘ bob veal ’ season, almost every milk train 
on the Erie and other roads carries in its 
quota of this abominable stuff unmolested. 
The underlings of the Board are not in 
it for the good of the city, only for what 
they can get out of it." 
Small Chestnut Trees. 
PI B H., Knowlton, Iowa.—I have 
tried for a number of years to grow chest¬ 
nut trees. Year after year I planted and 
failed every time. Now 1 think I have 
learned the secret of success. A thrifty 
tree not over two feet high is the kind to 
plant. Such live with ordinary care. All 
my previous experiments were with trees 
five and six feet tall and everyone died. 
My last plantings are not only all alive, but 
growing wonderfully. 
Nutriment In Bark. 
H. Stkwakt, Macon County, N. Y.— 
The question raised by your Connecticut 
subscriber as to the amount of nutriment 
contained in barks of various kinds, is one 
of general interest. No doubt bark is nu¬ 
tritious, and, contrary to the common sup¬ 
position, may become a useful and eco¬ 
nomical article of fcod. I first became 
aware of this fact in my youth when in the 
wilds of the then newly-settled State of 
Michigan, I saw the basswood tree cutdown 
for the winter subsistence of the cattle for 
which the sparse feed supplied by the scat¬ 
tered fields was wholly insufficient. The 
cows and oxen filled themselves with the 
small branches and twigs of the trees and 
gnawed the bark from the larger wood, 
and kept in fair condition in spite of the 
severity of the cold. Laler, in the nothern 
part of the same State, I have seen the 
beavers as fat as butter on their usual food, 
which was the twigs and small branches of 
the maple, birch and alder. Since then I 
have been taught the medicinal and dietary 
uses of many of the barks, and now turn 
the nutritious qualities of this part of the 
forest growth to the winter feeding of my 
live stock. 
Here in the Southern mountains, where 
only from five to ten per cent of the land is 
in farms, the woods furnish the larger part 
of the feeding of mules, horses, cattle, sheep 
and hogs. In t he summer the undergrowth 
of the dense woods, the “ range," as it is 
termed, affords more nutritious feeding 
than good grass and clover pasture, as I 
have the best reason to know by several 
years’ experience. For some winters I have 
fed less or more than 30 head of cattle in 
the woods with the help of a few pounds of 
hay, daily, and have had them fit for com¬ 
mon beef until the spring, when they 
rapidly made fat, and in the fall were fit 
for even an exacting market. I have proved 
the fact that by means of such feeding and 
the cheap hay which I have put into the 
feeding shed for $1 per ton, a three-year old 
mule may be reared for $40, and a steer of 
the same age for $10, including the breed¬ 
ing. This is shown by the accounts which 
I have kept, and is due to the feeding of 
the summer, which costs nothing, and the 
small quantity of other feed needed in the 
winter. 
Now, why is this thus T It is due to the 
nature of the buds and the young twigs as 
also to the nature of the bark itself. The 
buds are similar to seeds in respect to their 
function as feeders of the youDg leaves 
that will appear the next year. They con¬ 
tain a large quantity of starch, as seeds do, 
that has been stored up for the sustenance 
of the early growth of the ensuing year. 
The bark also contains starch and sugar as 
well. Some trees excel others in this re¬ 
spect. The inner bark of the White Pine 
is quite sweet at certain seasons, and it is 
this bark when dried and ground that forms 
a part of the bread of the people of northern 
Europe. The birch is also exceedingly 
nutritious, and especially the inner bark, 
and the youDg wood attached to it thus 
becomes the favorite food of the beavers, 
who store up the small branches and the 
stems of the young trees for their subsist¬ 
ence during the long winters of the north¬ 
ern localities wh^ie they abound. This 
wood is even ranked up by them in regu¬ 
lar heaps under water near the sub aqueous 
entrances to the houses. And I have even 
seen stones laid on the heaps by these in¬ 
telligent animals to keep the wood from 
floating away. 
Thus this provision of nature for the sub¬ 
sistence of the plant and the growth of the 
new foliage is one of those interesting in¬ 
stances of the indirect use of plants for the 
subsistence of mankind, by the support of 
those animals upon which they depend for 
fcod. There are many kinds of bark tbat 
possess valuable medicinal properties. The 
cinchona, a specific for a ceitain type of 
fevers, the slippery elm for its mucilagin¬ 
ous character, the witch hazel, the cherry, 
sassafras, and a host of other kinds are 
useful to mankind for the stored up nutri¬ 
ment they contain, and some of these nu¬ 
tritious barks are used in making up the 
condimental foods that are so much valued 
by some stock breeders. My mules seem 
to prefer the hickory and chestnut barks to 
any other, and will eat this rather than 
sheaf oats at times, until they have had 
their fill of it. The pestiferous rabbits 
choose the apple bark in preference to any 
other, and many a tree falls a victim to their 
rapacity in this way. And no doubt the 
cellular fiber of wood too is digestible by 
many animals. The alchemy of the stom¬ 
ach is something we do not thoroughly 
understand, and how much woody fiber 
may be digested no one knows. But it is 
certain that it is digestible by a large num¬ 
ber of animals, and even to some extent by 
persons. It is certainly amenable to chem¬ 
istry, and the grape sugar that is made 
from sawdust, or the starch which is a pre¬ 
liminary product from the same woody 
fiber, is easily made by a simple process. It 
is true that pine sawdust when roasted be¬ 
comes not only digestible, but nutritious, 
just as it Is that the coffee berry and the 
leaves of the tea plant possess valuable 
qualities that they do not possess in their 
natural condition. In time it may perhaps 
come about that the boast of the chemist 
to the effect that the food of the world 
may be produced without the intervention 
of the farmer, will be justified. 
Velvet Grass. 
W. F. Massey, Wake County, N. C.— 
Some time since a gentleman living in the 
fine farming region near Thomasville, N. 
C., sent me a specimen of Velvet Grass 
(Holcus lanatus) asking its name and where 
he could get the seed. He stated that it 
was coming up quite freely as a volunteer 
grass on his lands and that his stock were 
very fond of it. My first thought was to 
tell him that the grass was a worthless 
weed, and that in my experience nothing 
would eat it. But knowing the great in¬ 
fluence of climate upon these things, I 
adopted the wiser plan of inquiring into the 
matter. In all questions of this kind I con¬ 
sider it a safe rule to accept the opinion of 
my cattle in preference to laboratory analy¬ 
sis made in other sections. This gentleman 
assured me that his stock were not only 
fond of this grass, but throve upon it and 
he wanted more of it. Nearly all Northern 
farmers know this grass, and everywhere 
northward, even as far south as Maryland, 
it Is considered worthless. Had I relied 
solely on my experience of 25 years ago, I 
would have assured him that it was worth¬ 
less. But the opinion of the cattle stagger¬ 
ed me, and upon looking up the opinion of 
Southern growers, I found a different state 
of affairs altogether. 
Prof. Phares, of Mississippi, an authority 
on grasses in the South, says of it that, 
while he does not consider it one of the best 
grasses for all lands, upon some of those 
of the South it is the very best. H. W. L 
(Continued on next page.) 
$UiSrfU»ucou0 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural New-Yorker. 
Worth $1OOO 
The Cood Derived From 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
•' BurllUKton, Vt, June 6, 1891. 
“Six months ago I was badly run down unable 
to attend to business because of 
Dyspepsia 
1 was very nervous, had no appetite and what I did 
eat distressei me. I grew worse, lost flesh and 
almost hope T took two bottles of Hood’s Sarsapa 
rllla and feel better than for five years. I am as 
hearty as when a boy. Have regained my flesh, have 
good appetite, sleep well, and My Nerves are In ex¬ 
cellent condition. I wt uld not value $1000 for what 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
did forme.” T. A. W heepock, Burlington, Vt. 
Highly concentrated. Dose small. In quantity costs 
less than one-tenth cent a day i>er hen. Prevents and 
cures all diseases. If you can’t get it, we send by mail 
post-paid. One pack. 25e. live $1. 2 1-4 lb. can $1.20; 
6 cans $5. Express paid. Testimonials free. Send stamps or 
cash. Farmers’ Poultry Guide (price 2. r >c.) free with $1.0# 
orders or more. I. 8. JOHNSON & CO., Boston, Mass. 
QUAKER CITY 
GRINDING MILL 
CORN and COBS, 
FEED and TABLE 
MEAL. | 
for all mills advertised. I 
cep the best and return ] 
others. j 
.W.STRAUB & CO.,Philada.Pa. 
Territory East of Ohio. j 
f CO. Springfield, O. Ter’/ Wettof P* * 
ANCHOR POST. 
Cheapest, Strongest, Handiest 
and Most Durable fence post, 
both for ornamental and farm 
a purposes. 
ALL MATERIAL SUPPLIED FORM COM¬ 
PLETE FENCE. 
For Circulars and Estimates, 
address . . . 
THE ANCHOR POST CO. 
Anents Wanted. 59 WEST 42d ST., N. Y. 
ghampion Evaporator. 
For MAPLE, SORGHUM, CIDER 
AND FRUIT JELLIES. 
Corrugated pan over firebox, doublit 
boiling capacity. Small interchange 
able syrup pans (connected by si¬ 
phons), easily handled for cleans¬ 
ing and storing, and a Perfect ' 
Automatic Regulator. 
The Champion is as great 
an improvement over the 
Cook Pan as the latter 
was over the old iron ket¬ 
tle, hung on a fence rail. 
The C. H. CRIMM 
MFC. CO. 
Hudson, Ohio and Rutland, Vt, 
-THE-- 
REX 
Trade Mark. 
ATKINS’ SEGMENT GROUND. 
PATENTED OCT. IB, 1889. 
14 gauge on tooth edge. 
16 gauge on ends on back edge. 
19 gauge at center on back edge. 
PRICE, WITHOUT HANDLES, 75 CTS. PER FOOT. 
s\v 
ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR LUMBERMEN’S USE. 
[ADR from line selected tool steel, tempered by Natural 
1 Gan, the bent fuel in the world for tempering. A flnccut- 
tingedgois imparted to the steel. Fine high tempered saws will 
do more work without filing than other saws, and hold their 
set longer. All the wearing teeth beiug of uniform thickness, 
each tooth docs its share of the work, and tho saw being thin¬ 
ner in center of back docs not bind. For salo by the trade. 
Ask your hardware dealer for the Atkins Rex Saw. and take 
no other. If the dealer will not order it for you, remit amount 
with order direct to u*. E . C . A t k i nS & C O . 
Indianapolis, Ind. Memphis, Tonn. 
Minneapolis, Minn. Chattanooga, Tenn. 
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8. 8. MKSB1NUKK A SON, TATAMY, PA. 
Just Published. 
HOW TO RID 
Buildings and Farms 
OF 
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Minks, Weasels and other Pests 
quickly and safely. How to snare 
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Valuable Hints to Housekeep¬ 
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PRICE, 20 CENTS. 
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Times Building, New York. 
