1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
83 
thermometer that a long experience had enabled him 
to construct. It is true that it had no scale graduated 
to degrees, like those of Fahrenheit, Reaumur or Centi¬ 
grade, for it represented but two temperatures, the 
“ Onions Freeze ” and “ Onions Keep ; ” still to him it 
was a most valuable instrument, for, guided by its 
teachings, he was enabled to clear hundreds of dollars 
annually. 
Now there is not one of us farmers who, by a little 
study and observation of our surroundings, might not 
acquire knowledge of the conditions necessary to be 
followed to develop the greatest possible keeping 
capacity in our cellars or barns, which might bring us 
as much profit as a careful study of his surroundings 
did the old gentleman. j. j. h. Gregory. 
Marblehead, Mass. 
Story of a Potato. —In the spring of 1889, I received 
one small potato called the Rural New-Yorker No. 2. 
I planted it and raised that season about a peck of 
fine-looking, large potatoes. These I planted next 
season, and saved about two bushels of sound seed ; 
the rest of the crop—about as many more—rotted. I 
planted the two bushels the next spring, and harvested 
52 bushels of as fine tubers as I have ever seen. They 
were all large and of good quality. Last spring I 
planted 25 bushels of that seed on a little over three 
acres ; the rest of the seed was sold to my neighbors 
for SI per bushel. The past was a poor season. I be¬ 
lieve we left nearly 100 bushels of rotten potatoes on 
the ground, but we dug and saved by actual measure¬ 
ment 453 bushels of good merchantable potatoes from 
that field. That one potato paid me very well. 
Outagamie County, Wis. edwin nye. 
Manurial Matters. —One useful effect of ferment¬ 
ing manure before using it, which Mr. Harris did not 
allude to, is the sprouting and destroying of most of 
the weed seeds in the moisture and warmth of the heap 
Soft coal screenings as a mulch proved so beneficial 
in the experience of a leading farmer here, many years 
ago, that he rather hastily published the results, 
attributing them to a manurial property in the coal 
dust. But the benefits resulted only from the open 
condition and dark color of the new surface, and a 
better retention of moisture; also from some repulsion 
of insects and mildew germs, perhaps from the sulphur 
contained in the coal. I have often, ever since, strewed 
dust from either burnt wood or mineral coal over seed 
beds in the fall or spring, always with good effects, 
one of these being a distinct showing of just where 
the seed was put in when planted before or during 
winter. I never put on much more than will make 
the surface black. I have always supposed that it did 
some manurial good by retaining ammonia and car¬ 
bonic acid. w. G. 
Dishorning Cattle in New York State. —So much 
has been said on this subject that I shall not touch upon 
the merits or demerits of the system except incident¬ 
ally, as I wish to discuss another phase of the subject. 
There is in this State an association known as the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
That sounds well, but how about its workings so far 
as dishorning is concerned ? Its members call the 
operation cruel and denounce the verdicts of the courts 
in all other States where similar societies exist, and 
have prosecuted dishorners and in every instance, so 
far as I know, they have failed to substantiate their 
claims and the verdicts have been against them. 
What is cruelty ? It is causing unnecessary pain; 
so this thing hinges upon the question is dishorning 
necessary ? Many different answers would be given 
to this question, depending on the opinions and experi¬ 
ences of the person to whom it is put. The man who 
favors it will do so usually from experience and obser¬ 
vation ; while he who opposes it will do so either 
from ignorance or from being so circumstanced that 
he has never suffered loss or inconvenience from the 
vicious use of horns. One thing is certain—it would 
be a most difficult thing to find a man with a dishorned 
herd who would under any conditions have the horns 
restored. It can be abundantly proved that when 
the operation is properly performed, the inconvenience 
to the animal is so slight as not to be worth mention ; 
further, no other operation commonly performed on 
animals causes so slight a disturbance. But although 
its beneficial results are acknowledged by all 
acquainted with it in so many different States of the 
Union and while all litigation in the past sustains it, 
yet this humane society says it must not be done in 
this State. It appoints throughout the State as agents 
usually men who through hope of making money 
easily will prosecute those who do what this society 
says must not be done, and thus the latter hopes to 
control the action of the farmers of the State in this 
matter by threatened prosecutions. 
Under existing circumstances it is entirely out of its 
sphere and, so far as dishorning is concerned, it is 
simply and solely a nuisance. If the operation itself 
and the benefits accruing from it were not known, a 
reasonable excuse might exist; but as the matter 
stands, nothing short of an utter disregard of the 
rights and privileges of the whole farming population 
of the State is antagonized by it. Let farmers 
demand the passage of an act legalizing dishorning, by 
informing their Representatives by letter or petitions 
of their wishes, and thus do away with the menace 
w r hich exists in connection with this humane society 
so-called. horn hater. 
Those Cheap Potato Crates. —Let me tell how to 
make the lightest, the cheapest and I believe the best 
crate for all purposes. Save the good barrel staves of 
any light kind, such as flour, sugar, apple, cement or 
lime barrels, that are constantly going to waste. Any¬ 
one can soon accumulate a large amount and there is 
no better material for slat timber. One can make 
them into crates to his own liking. Any kind of lum¬ 
ber will answer for ends—the lighter the better. I 
make the ends of my boxes one foot square with a 
hole in each to serve as a handle. With a gauge I 
make some of the staves 21 inches long, cutting off at 
both ends. Then I nail on a cut stave for the top and 
another for the bottom of each side with the bulging 
sides out, and fill in the space between them with any 
of the uncut staves that will fit, and make it of the 
same length as the others; then I nail on uncut staves 
or the bottom and trim the ends with a saw; then the 
Hand Corn Cob. Fig. 30. 
job will be better than if all the staves were cut to 
start with. Such crates are durable, light and handy 
and hold about 1>4 bushel each. One lengthwise and 
one crosswise will suit the wagon box. The round¬ 
ing side on the bottoms is nearly as good as a tobog¬ 
gan sled for pulling on the ground Any one who has 
never used crates for potatoes and apples and who 
will go to the very small expense of making such as 
these will be provoked that he had not used them 
years ago. o. h smith. 
SOME PLANT FREAKS. 
The Hand Corn Cob. 
Dr. Byron D. Halsted, in the Popular Science 
Monthly, shows the curiously shaped cob illustrated 
at Fig. 30, to give an idea of some abnormal growths to 
be found among our plants. This specimen came from 
Missouri. It might well pass for the human hand, but 
is nothing but a cob of common corn from which the 
grain has been removed. Instead of terminating as 
the cob usually does, it branched thus, giving rise to 
a quite well defined wrist and fingers. 
Some Cabbage Curiosities. 
I have been growing this season some two-year-old 
cabbages. In 1891 a few of my late cabbages failed to 
make hard heads, and two or three plants were left 
standing through the winter. To my surprise, last 
spring 1 found them alive and inclined to continue 
growing. Of course, I expected them to form seed 
stalks, but they went on like freshly-set plants and 
matured good heads at the usual time in the autumn. 
One weighed 12 pounds, and all were of excellent 
quality. 
The same thing occurred in the case of a few plants 
that were left standing in the seed-bed in a somewhat 
sheltered location. The variety was Burpee’s Sure- 
head ; the name struck me as especially appropriate 
in the case of these individuals, though generally we 
prefer to have our cabbage prompt rather than per¬ 
sistent. 
Another of our interesting products this year has 
been the Christmas water-melon, grown this year by 
me for the first time. I am prepared to call it a valu¬ 
able novelty. My soil is imperfectly adapted to 
melon culture, but I secured a few well-grown speci¬ 
mens which have kept sound and given us much grati¬ 
fication. The last was cut Christmas eve. j. t. Roberts. 
FACTORY DIVIDENDS BY THE BABCOCK TEST. 
The farmers of southeastern Wisconsin are largely 
engaged in dairying. Within 12 miles of my home, in 
Walworth County, there are 27 factories ; most of them 
run the year through, making cheese in summer, and 
butter and cheese in winter. 
Up to last spring, the milk delivered at these factories 
was pooled, and the money divided among the patrons 
in proportion to the pounds of milk delivered. Bub 
the promulgation and demonstration of the doctrine 
that the proportion of fat in milk is the true measure 
of its value for cheese as well as for butter, together 
with the invention and practical application of the 
Babcock milk tester, seems likely to make milk pool¬ 
ing a thing of the past. Early last spring one or two 
factories in our neighborhood commenced using the 
tester, and so satisfactory were the results that others 
adopted it and the numbers using it have gradually 
increased, especially during the fall months, and I am 
informed that at the present time three-quarters of 
the factories are making their dividends by it, much 
to the satisfaction of the patrons, many of whom 
at the start were opposed to the change, and I antici¬ 
pate that next spring will find every factory in 
southern Wisconsin receiving milk by the test. 
This change has been brought about much more 
quickly, and with less opposition than the most 
sanguine could have believed possible, and is due 
largely to the sending out, last winter from our dairy 
school at the State University, of 100 trained butter and 
cheese makers who thoroughly believed in the test 
plan, and also to exhibitions of the working of the 
Babcock tester at all our farm institutes, showing to 
the farmers the wide variations in the amount of 
butter fat in the milk of different dairy cows. But 
the change has come none too soon. The pooling 
system has been the great barrier to dairy improve¬ 
ment. It offers no encouragement for the production 
of good milk by judicious breeding and feeding. It 
virtually pays a premium for poor milk and the poorer 
it is, the higher the premium, and, to make the matter 
still worse, the premium is paid by the men who at 
extra cost and by extra care, are producing a good 
article. 
In a factory near me the October milk was paid for 
by the tester, one patron receiving 99 cents per 100 
pounds, while another received $1.33. Had these two 
been the only patrons and had each delivered equal 
quantities of milk, under the pooling system the 
producer of the better milk would have taken 17 cents 
per 100 pounds less than legitimately and rightfully 
belonged to him, and his neighbor would have re¬ 
ceived this amount in excess of what was justly due 
to him. For what ? For producing poor milk ! 
Whatever system may in the future be adopted by 
factories to determine the relative values of patrons’ 
milk, I am quite certain it will not be pooling by weight. 
The Babcock milk tester is a striking illustration of 
the pecuniary benefit to the farmer that comet, 
through the practical application of scientific knowl¬ 
edge to the everyday work on the farm. It is through 
such applications of science that farming in the future 
will be made more remunerative and the farmer him¬ 
self more intellectual and influential, rather than by 
pecuniary governmental aid or special legislation. 
Walworth County, Wis. chas. r. beach. 
Sand Pears. —A large tree of the Chinese Sand 
pear planted nearly 45 years has borne often large 
crops for nearly that time. It is more ornamental 
than useful, but we make use of the fruits for sweet 
pickles. Being of very firm texture, they are appre¬ 
ciated—we can generally give them away. Another 
variety said to come from Japan is of russet color and 
turbinate shape and is more valuable and better than 
the other. This year our Garber’s Hybrid trees bore 
full crops of large, fine-looking pears ; but we could 
not make dessert fruit of them. For canning pur¬ 
poses they were valuable, being fine-grained and of a 
pretty form. My Le Conte pear trees bore large, 
smooth and handsome fruits. They were tested for 
canning and were excellent, having more flavor than 
the others. These kinds are valuable even if they aie 
not fit for dessert, and so is the Kieffer. The fault 
is mostly in not thinning this enough, as when in 
full bearing, three-fourths or more of the fruit should 
be removed during or before August. Only those 
whose tastes have been ,l spoiled ” for inferior varie¬ 
ties by eating the Anjou, Lawrence, Seckel, Winter 
Nelis and other truly luscious pears will condemn 
the Kieffer. Isaac hicks. 
