20 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Jan. 14 
warm enough, when they are removed to outside 
brooders. They make very rapid growth.” 
“ What breed do you consider best ?” 
“For quality of flesh, the Andalusian beats them 
all; but the chicks are tender, and difficult to raise, so 
they are not profitable. We have crossed them on 
other breeds and like the cross very much. The 
Minorcas are excellent layers, as are the Leghorns. 
We have a good many prize birds of different breeds 
as well as some capons. The eggs are all sent to the 
store in locked wooden boxes.” 
“ How many fowls have you ?” 
“Our stock is rather low at preseat; only about 800 
or 900.” 
The ducks have a separate building, and were even 
more thriving than the fowls, although without water 
otner than for drinking. 
About 100 sheep are kept, but these were on another 
part of the farm at such a distance that it was impos¬ 
sible for me to visit them. It would seem that these 
hills are ideal places for sheep. 
“ Do you feed the deer in the park?” I asked Mr. 
Mayer. 
“ We have put feed in their shelters, but they have 
never touched it.” 
“ Do you make any use of the woods on the moun¬ 
tains ?” 
“ None, except to keep the dead timber cut out, and 
to preserve the rest as a forest.” 
As to the Business of the Farm. 
“ Do you care to give any figures as to your sales? ’* 
“No. We are willing to give the public the benefit 
of the practical part, but we don’t care to publish the 
business part. The sales from our dairy alone, how¬ 
ever, amount to a large sum. The public is always 
we'eome to visit us, and sometimes, on Sundays, there 
are 100 or 200 people here from the surrounding 
country, to look over the dairy and other parts of the 
farm.” 
As I said before, everything seems to run as if by 
clock-work. At 1 o’clock, a steam whistle blew, and 
instantly the machinery was again in motion, and all 
hands were at work. There are advantages in such 
large-scale farming, but there are also disadvantages, 
and without the most intelligent supervision, and the 
application of the most exact scientific and business 
principles, the latter are likely to outweigh the former. 
The salesroom at 622 Sixth Avenue, this city, is a 
model of neatness. Here the cream from the morn¬ 
ing’s and the night’s milk is received about nine 
o’clock in the evening. There are facilities for cold 
storage when needed. The goods are botlled, and next 
morning two wagons deliver them to customers. The 
walls of the salesroom are 1 ung with pictures of the 
cows, views of the farm, etc. The following, neatly 
framed, is conspicuous on the counter : 
Office of / 
J. C. Corlies, D. V. 8.. > 
Newark, N. J , Nov. 1. 1892. \ 
This Is to certify that I have this day examined lor Mr. 
Theodore A. Havermeyer his entire herd of Jersey cattle on 
the Mountain-Side Farm, Mahwah, N. J., and find the same 
free from all contagious and Infectious diseases, and In an 
excellent state of healih james c. CORLIES, d. v. s. 
This inspection is made every month 
“ Do you have any trouble in securing customers 
at your prices?” I ashed the salesman. 
“ No; on the contrary, we have to refuse a great 
many orders. We do not accept orders from new cus¬ 
tomers for any less quantity than four quarts daily. 
The people to whom we sell do not think about the 
price if they get what suits them. The greatest diffi¬ 
culty with our trade is that it is so unsteady. Some¬ 
times in the summer numbers of the families goto 
Europe, or Newport, or somewhere else, and close up 
their houses, and then, of course, they don’t want any 
milk. Usually, though, when this happens, we can 
find a market at Tuxedo Park, which is a short dis¬ 
tance from the farm, or at some other of the summer 
resorts nearby. We run two wagons from the store, 
and could easily sell milk enough to run two more, if 
we could furnish it.” f. h. v. 
LEAVINGS. 
Black-Knot Law All Right. —I have studied the 
results of the New York black-knot la a carefully, 
both theoretically and practically, having been ap¬ 
pointed a commissioner. I think our law-makers have 
given us a law adequate to the needs provided for, 
and if Ward D. Gunn had made one-fourth of the 
effort to make it effectual in Ulster County that he 
has in criticising it, he would say that it is all right. 
Any town in which there are not three men sufficiently 
interested in preserving the plum and cherry to sign a 
request to their supervisor should stop complaining 
about black-knot through The Rural. It took me 
just 15 minutes to draw up a request, get it properly 
signed and delivered to our supervisor, and,two minutes 
later, the commissioners were duly appointed. We 
have a live supervisor and he had selected his men 
and thus far is satisfied with their work, although 
he has been very politely handed one of their little 
notices. I have served over 200 notices, and do not 
think I have antagonized a single grower, as the law 
is in entire harmony with the best interests of the 
fruit growers. In my opinion if we wait for a law 
that will destroy black knot without any effort on our 
part, we had better quit the business. All our present 
law needs is a little energy and Oswego County has 
the energy and the disease here is doomed. j. h. 
Boycott Bad Beer. —I saw in Brevities of December 
24, that the writer thinks the time is not distant when 
every dairyman will be compelled by law to have a 
health certificate for his dairy from a veterinarian in 
order to be permitted to sell his productions. Did the 
author of that idea ever try to compare the quantity of 
milk consumed by the “dear public” with the quantity 
of beer consumed by them? In spite of the vast quantity 
of the latter used, not the least legal restriction is 
placed on the manufacturer or seller to compel him to 
give the “ dear public ” an article made up to a legal 
standard. As the law now stands, the dairymen must 
produce a legal quality of milk, must have their 
dippers sealed and soon have a health certificate for 
their dairies, and who knows what will come next! The 
greatest crime they have ever been found guilty of was 
a reduction of the quality of milk with water, or the 
removal of a part of the cream. Either crime never 
has been proved to be deleterious to the human health. 
In the interest of that “ dear public,” cannot The 
Rural call the attention of our lawmakers to the fact 
that beer manufacturers are making and selling an 
article without legal restrictions as best suits them, 
and the same “dear public” are consuming five times 
as much of it as they are of milk ? In the interest of 
fair play, let the lawmakers compel the beer makers 
to make a legal beer before enacting any more restric¬ 
tions against the poor dairyman’s business. G. E. it. 
R- N.-Y.—The Paddock Pure Food Bill now before 
Congress, would compel brewers to make beer of a 
standard quality. A good deal of the opposition to the 
bill comes from brewers and others who do not want 
their goods overhauled. A good deal of the cheaper 
grades of beer is very injurious to health. We know 
that life insurance companies now require for beer 
drinkers tests that were formerly never called for. 
However, it should be no hardship for a dairyman to 
keep his cows in such health that a veterinarian can 
find no disease in the herd. A health certificate in 
these times ought to be a valuable business document. 
The veterinarian should, of course, be paid by the 
State, and not by fees from the dairymen, as his ser¬ 
vices would be for the public safety, and animals often 
become diseased through no fault of their owners and 
remain so for some time, in some cases, without the 
latter’s knowledge. Is more beer than milk used in 
this State or any other? Men use nearly all of the 
former, while the whole population use the latter 
either fresh from the cow, or sour, as butter-milk or 
cream, to say nothing of other forms. Isn’t upwards 
of five times more milk than beer used therefore in 
the nation at large instead of five times more beer 
than milk ? 
[Every query must be accompanied bv the name and address of the 
writer to Insure attention. Refore askln*: a question please see If it is 
Dot answered In our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions 
at one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
RECORD BREAKING MAPLE TREES. 
WHERE TO EXPECT BIG YIELDS OF SAP. 
Have you noticed a difference in the yield of sap from different 
maple trees of the same or similar size? In which trees do you expect 
the heaviest run of sap ? Do some trees yield sweeter sap than 
others ? What Is the greatest record for a single tree that you 
know of ? 
I have always known that some trees in my bush 
give invariably more sap, and some sweeter sap than 
others. Sometimes both quantity and quality are su¬ 
perior. We have never carefully separated the sap 
from such trees to learn what the product would be. 
There are in my bush certain trees that in any good 
run are always found with buckets full. Others give 
so little that we omit tapping them after trying them 
for a series of years. In some cases the sap is percep¬ 
tibly sweeter to the taste than the usual run, remind¬ 
ing one of frozen sap. A large tap seems favorable to 
much and sweet sap. I have no doubt that soil and 
inclination of the land exert some influence on the 
yield, but I have no data to prove it. 
Michigan. [prof.] a. j. cook. 
I am satisfied that the quantity as well as the qual¬ 
ity of the sap depends largely on the location and soil. 
I have one large, fine-looking tree standing on a slaty 
knoll, that will not yield one gallon of sap in a season. 
Another about half as large standing by the side of a 
running stream, yields about one barrel. I know of 
a maple tree in this county which has four large 
branches, making four good-sized trees, from which 
were made 56 pounds of tub sugar in one season; only 
four buckets were set. This was the largest yield I 
have ever known from a single tree. j. c. ai.len. 
Vermont. 
Give Us Trees With Big: Tops. 
I have noticed a great difference in the amount of 
sap and in its sweetness from different trees. Gener¬ 
ally the sap from trees that run large quantities is 
sweet. I have tested some, 14 quarts of which would 
make a pound of sugar. A sugar bush with large, 
thrifty tops will make nearly double the amount pro¬ 
duced by one where the trees grow tall and slim. The 
roots of trees correspond with their branches. From 
one very large tree with a bushy top in the town of 
Richford, the owner says he has gathered 18 pails of 
sap in 24 hours. I have seen six buckets at a time set 
to this tree and the sap was running fast into all. The 
owner knows he has gathered 100 pails in a season, but 
he has never tested it apart for the yield of sugar 
Allowing 10 pails of sap a day and 10 days for a season, 
it would certainly make 75 pounds of sugar. It takes 
as much soil to support this tree as it would five or six 
others in most of the camps. One season, a very dry, 
poor sugar one, a large tree stood where a creek had 
changed its course and ran around the roots. That 
tree yielded three times as much as any other in the 
camp and the sap was very sweet. Location, soil and 
exposure have much to do with the quantity and qual¬ 
ity of the sap. A clay or gravelly soil is not as good 
as a sandy loam. Maple sugar is a product of the soil. 
I have a few trees that stand in the field; some of 
them are in a pasture and some in a meadow exposure. 
Those in the pasture run the most. They are good 
shade trees for stock and keep the ground rich, and 
they are more thrifty than those in the meadow, but 
the sap of both is sweeter than that of the trees in the 
woods close at hand. Some trees in the woods having 
black, mossy bark are generally healthy and run 
sweet sap. It is a good plan to cut out all other kinds 
of trees where the maples are thick. Let the latter 
have all the benefit of the soil. Limbs and leaves that 
fall to the ground are the natural fertilizers. Hard or 
Rock maples are the best, and large better than small. 
New York. E. m. fellows. 
No Bucket Can Hold This Tree. 
In every sugar camp in which I have ever worked 
extra good trees have been found, but I have never 
measured the sap or kept it separate to learn how 
much of syrup or sugar they could be made to yield. 
When a boy, in my father's camp there was a tree so 
productive that the largest bucket we could get was 
always running over when we gathered the sap. We 
put one bucket above another in such a way that when 
the upper one was full the sap would run into the 
lower. Finding both buckets running over, we put 
a 100-pound butter firkin under the single spout 
and when the other buckets were full the firkin was 
always nearly full, and the sap was very sweet. This 
tree was afterward blown down by the wind and the 
solid r^ck was left less than three feet from the sur¬ 
face of the ground. When worked into wood, the tree 
was very hard to saw or chop, but split very freely 
and easily, being very straight in the grain and, when 
seasoned, it was as hard as bone. In the camp of 1,500 
trees which I work now there are four of this char¬ 
acter, and although we use two 20-quart buckets to 
each tree, they are always running over when there is 
a good run. These trees were all large, but had no 
peculiar shape or bark that rendered them noticeable 
among those that surrounded them, but usually they 
stood on lower or damper ground where the soil was 
full of water at that time of year, and I think there is 
more as to productiveness in location than anything. 
Ohio. R. B. CUTTS. 
A Kitchen Range Record. 
When I was quite a small lad I tested one maple tree 
one season and made 13 pounds of caked sugar; I 
wouldn’t, however, consider that a fair test of what 
the tree was capable of doing, as I had only one bucket, 
with two spouts, and carried the sap over 25 or 30 
rods in pails, and boiled it on the kitchen range, and 
no doubt spilled and wasted a considerable amount. 
In this section three pounds per tree is considered 
a fair yield, though the amount varies greatly in dif¬ 
ferent orchards and in different seasons in the same 
orchards. The amount of sap a tree will yield gener¬ 
ally corresponds with the size of its top, or the amount 
of its limbs and foliage ; consequently trees that grow 
in open land by themselves usually yield the most and 
sweetest sap ; still there are exceptions to this rule, 
as now and then one of the most thrifty-looking trees 
yields little or no sap. I think maples on high, 
gravelly soil with an eastern or southern exposure, 
will yield sweeter sap and make lighter-colored and 
better-flavored sugar than those in low mucky soil. I 
think this one reason why sugar made on the rocky 
