572 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 26 
“LOST ON THE ROAD!” 
Lost and never regained—horseflesh, labor, patience 
and time. Those who are skilled in such matters can 
figure up the cash value of these things. You have 
lost all of them before now—they are sunk in the ruts, 
crushed on the bumps and lost in the dust and sand. 
From that excellent publication. Good Roads, we take 
two pictures (see Figs. 198 and 194) showing tv-o 
actual road scenes in New Jersey. One, Fig. 193, shows 
a road at Merchantville. It is a pretty fair joad as 
mo6t roads go, and yet we are told of it: “ This load 
was easily hauled from PhiladelDbia over a smooth tel- 
ford road, and though the team has been doubled to 
overcome the resistance of the dirt road on which it 
now stands, it has been found necessary to cast off 
part of the load before proceeding farther. This is a 
frequent occurrence in this vicinity, and in other paits 
of the State.” Doesn’t that sound natural to you ? If 
you could only measure your load by the best piece 
of road between your farm and the market you could 
do something, but the measure must be made by the 
poorest piece every time. The picture shown at Fig. 
194 is more like it. This is the story told about it: 
“ Scene on the Camden and Burlington turnp’ke, 
showing farm teams on their way to Camden market 
with heavy loads of fruits and garden truck. A scene 
of every day occurrence. Traffic, about 500 loads per 
day. When the first team was stopped no other team 
was in sight, and before the camera was adjusted (with¬ 
in a few minutes) there were nine in line. This enor¬ 
mous traffic has been attracted by the hard, smooth 
and permanent surface of the improved road.” 
A smooth read, you see, attracts traffic, saves horse¬ 
flesh and time. A good illustration of this is thus 
given by Hon. Edward Burrough, President of the 
New Jersey Board of Agriculture. He says : “Before 
the building of the New Jersey turnpikes, 25 baskets 
of potatoes were considered a fair load from the farm 
I now occupy, to market. After the turnpike was 
built. 50 to 60 baskets were considered no more of a 
load than were the 25 a few years previous. And now, 
since the stone road has been built, our load is 85 or 
100 baskets ; and during the past winter our team has 
carted over 90 loads of manure from Philadelphia, 
several of which I weighed and found 6 869 and 7.300 
pounds clear of the wagon, which weighed alone 2 200 
pounds, a combined weight of about 4% tons. Many 
of these loads were drawn from the city to the point 
of leaving the stone road with only two horses, and 
the result has been the saving of over $100 in my 
manure bill.” 
Worth saving—Eh ! It would help out the bank 
account pretty well just now. Everybody knows a 
good road is better than a bad one. Grant it and then 
tell us why, if such knowledge is so general, you 
folks keep on paying your $100 tribute to bad roads ? 
“ We pause for a reply ? ” 
A FEW GARDEN NOTES. 
I find the Tennis-ball lettuce as good as any, as it 
has yielded* fine pickings since May 25, but now it is 
beginning to send up seed stalks. For early peas the 
Philadelphia is good; for medium, the Black-eyed 
Marrowfat has given me the most pods, averaging 
seven peas of large size and good quality to the pod. 
Vick’s Charmer is the sweetest of all, and will shell as 
many peas from three quarts of pods as the Marrowfat 
or Heroine will from four quarts ; but it mildews, and 
the peas, which are of large size and average eight to 
the pod, have a tough skin. The Heroine yields the 
largest pod and pea and the tenderest of all I have, 
though it is not so sweet as the Charmer and not more 
than half as productive as the Marrowfat; there are 
eight peas to the pod. 
For early potatoes I prefer Mrs. Cleveland, as it 
yields well, looks well, and the crop is fit to dig two 
weeks ahe^d of the Early Rose or Beauty of Hebron, 
and never rots. For late or winter potatoes, the Rural 
New-Yorker No. 2 just fills the bill, as it yields more 
than any other I have tried. The quality is first-class 
and the quantity the largest, while it is the best of 
keepers, not sprouting until well into the summer. 
Among tomato seeds planted March 25, set in 
the open ground May 30, I picked the first ripe one 
from the Dwarf Champion on August 2. Two days 
later I picked ripe ones from the World’s Fair, speci¬ 
mens of which are large, thick-meated and good. On 
August 10 I picked the first ripe ones on the Atlantic 
Prize and Michigan. I have 24 plants of the Rural 
tomato, which look fine, but none are ripe yet; no 
two look alike, either in vine or fruit. 
I advise all readers of The Rural to set a few 
bushes of Victoria currants, as my six-year-old bushes 
have given me from two to three quarts to the bush of 
nice large fruit of the best qaulity among the six 
varieties I have. The Shaffer’s Colossal raspberries, 
set October 10, 1891, yieldei two quarts to the bush of 
very large, juicy berries, rather s'oUr, and they will 
not keep or ship well. Cuthbert and Golden Queen 
are of better quality, but not more than half as pro¬ 
ductive as Shaffer’s. The Carman grape vine is grow¬ 
ing nicely. b. f. c. 
West Northfield, Mass. 
What They Say. 
Some Hustling Potatoes. —Is it not doing well to 
have potatoes as large as an ordinary teacup by July 
16 when the seed was planted on May 18 in an old 
pisture lot. plowed about May 15 (three days before 
planting) with no manure, except a small quantity of 
Mape« Nitrogeniz’d Superphosphate scattered in the 
drills, the drills being made three or four inches deep ? 
The seed used is called the Q leen and was purchased 
of Peter Henderson & Co., New York. w. D. 
Woodbridge, N J. 
Ans.— Yes, decidedly. 
Plow Coulter. —W. A. asks, will the Lambert 
coulter turn under a heavy growth of Mammoth 
clover ? This is an old invention revived in 1860. It 
was invented by one Aikman, here in my neighbor¬ 
hood, from suggestions from myself, and successfully 
used in heavy clover to turn it into the furrow and 
also for straw or stubble out of the furrow. I don’t 
think Lambert has a right to a patent, as Aikman 
intended to have it patented in the U nited States, but 
I am not sure that he did. It is a success. w. G. b. 
Colchester, Ont. 
Crimson Clover in Tennessee —From my experi¬ 
ence on the light soils of the Cumberland plateau, 
Crimson clover will not succeed on soils too poor for 
Red clover. It should be sown not later than August 
here, and with some other crop to shade it. Last year 
I had a good stand in corn, but the latter was cut the 
last of August and the sun and drought killed the 
clover ; some sown in vines did well I now have a 
fine stand with buckwheat put in on July 1, also among 
squash and pumpkin vines sowed about August 1. On 
very poor land it will not make enough growth to cut. 
Who has had experience with a fence made with the 
Lansing fence machine ? It uses single No. 8 wire 
and pickets instead of two twisted wires. A. F. A. 
Grand View, Tenn. 
Fall-Sown Clover. —A few years ago I had an 
eight-acre plot of land on which wheat and clover had 
failed. It was broken in July and rye was drilled in 
at the rate of one bushel per acre on August 15. From 
the grass seed box on the drill at the same time I 
sowed clover at the rate of five quarts per acre. The 
season was not very favorable for some time after 
sowing, but I got a fair stand of clover which with 
the protection of the rye stood the winter very well. 
When the rye was ripe the clover was knee-high. 
Under like circumstances I would not hesitate to sow 
clover in August again. Recently I have risked rye 
drilled in standing corn ; as yet 1 cannot tell what the 
dry weather will do for it. I have a few pounds of 
clover seed left from last spring’s sowing, and intend 
to sow this soon in the corn along with the rye, and 
note the results as a guide to future work. 
Ross County, Ohio. john m jamison. 
Crimson Clover in Corn. —In The Rural of August 
12, “ J. R. B.” asks about Crimson clover in Tennessee— 
whether it will do to sow it in corn before the latter 
is gathered. My experiments lead me to recommend 
that method. I always aim to keep something grow¬ 
ing on my land all the time. In order to do this, I sow 
in the corn at the last cultivation, either winter turf 
oats or Crimson clover. This year I sowed Crimson 
clover in a part of my corn the last week of July; this 
is now (August 14) up nicely and growing as prettily 
as could be asked. The corn shades the clover plant 
just when it needs shade to protect it, and by the time 
it needs more room and sunshine the corn is out of the 
way and the clover has the whole field. It will not 
only furnish pasture four to six weeks earlier in spring 
than common clover, but will in mild winters furnish 
grazing more or less all winter. Crimson clover is a 
boon to Southern farmers, and together with field 
peas is destined to play an important part in reclaim¬ 
ing the many old, worn-out plantations of this region. 
Here in brief is the rotation that seems to me the 
best calculated to improve our farms, fatten our 
purses and enlarge our manure piles : On Red clover 
sod (plowed in winter) I plant corn which is always 
kept clean, and the last time I cultivate I sow winter 
oats or Crimson clover in the crop. It has made a 
rank growth by fall and gives an abundance of winter 
grazing. About the middle of March the stock are 
kept off the oats and if hay or seed is wanted, from 
the clover also, and a crop is cut from one or both as 
desired. This land is then immediately broken up and 
sowed to cow peas, either Clay or Wnippoorwill, and 
about October 1, these, having in a favorable season 
attained a growth of two to three feet, are turned 
under (rout and branch)' and the gtfdund is prepared 
for wheat, which is sowed from the twentieth to the 
last of October if possible ; with it and in front of the 
drill hoes I sow about six quarts of Red clover seed 
and thus far have never failed to get a stand. 
Loudon, Tenn. e. l, g. 
With a Stone Drain. —Here is my experience with 
stone drainage. The ditch is one foot wide and two 
feet deep; I lay two stones at each side and cover 
with another. By this means I dried my swamps an 1 
cleared the farm of stones. A piece of my land was 
so swampy 15 years ago that no cow could get through 
it. I underdrained it and then hauled a few loads of 
manure on it and never saw such a crop of Trass as 
grew on it. Two years ago the grass was short and I 
plowed up the swamp. Last summer the largest crop 
of buckwheat I have ever seen grew on it. This year 
it will yield nearly 400 bushels of potatoes to the acre. 
Will it pay to ditch ? Yes, five times over. A ditch of 
this kind has been on the farm for 25 yea^s, and has 
never been shut up. Some of the drains are nearly 
one mile long. At present I have no rock to put in a 
drains so I saw hemlock boards and nail them together 
like a V shaped trough. This arrangement makes a 
ditch that will last for years. s. G., jr. 
West Virginia. 
No “ Boiled Taste ” in Juice. —In a late Rural a 
man gave his way of putting up grape juice so that it 
would not ferment. He simply put it in a vessel, 
heated it and bottled or canned it up the same as fruit. 
Juice put up in this way will keep safely, but if it or 
cider is placed in a vessel and the heat is applied 
directly to it, there will be a decided “ boiled cider” 
taste which is absolutely obj actionable in a thing so 
delicate as grape juice. In order to avoid this trouble, 
I put all my juices up by heatiDg them in a hot- 
water bath, that is, simply p.utting them in bottles 
placed in a large pan or pot which is filled with water 
so that it will come up two-thirds of the way on the 
outside ; then I apply heat 60 that the water and juice 
will heat up gradually. In preparing the vessel to 
receive the bottles a mattress of old coffee sack must 
be placed in the bottom, so that the heat does not 
come in direct contact with the glasses, or they will 
break. I leave the vessel over the fire until I am 
satisfied that the juice is thoroughly heated. I have 
been putting up c'der and grape juice in this way since 
1858, and have never lost a bottle. The most delicate 
flavors will be retained and there will not be a particle 
of boiled taste. To prepare for the heating process at 
small cost, a large tin box was made the full size and 
shape of the top of my cook stove and six or seven 
inches deep holding two dozen or more quart packing 
bottles. I have also found this box indispensable for 
making five or six gallons of jam or apple butter, for, 
having so much evaporating surface, the work is done 
in much less time than in a deep kettle. h. c. u. 
Germantown, Pa. 
“Merchantable Potatoes.” —In general culture 
the proportion of mercnantable potatoes depends on 
soil and season. Two years ago 90 per cent of several 
kinds were marketable. On the average on old fairly 
good soil not more than two-thirds, or three-fourths 
at most of the more common kinds were marketable. 
The Rural New-Yorker No. 2 yields practically no 
small tubers. Two years ago in a wagon-load of this 
variety nearly all were of market size. The same 
year one bushel of the smallest possible People’s 
planted, yielded on old clay loam with a dressing of 
barn manure, 100 bushels good measure ; 92 bushels 
being of good merchantable siz"., many weighing over 
two pounds each. The same year 36 tubers of the 
Rural No. 2 made a bushel, heaping measure. Boley’s 
Northern Spy did nearly as well as the Rural and 
People’s. The good old Ohio is another sort thit pro¬ 
duces fine tubers, and but few small. But the Rural, 
in all seasons and under all conditions, never fails to 
produce a fair crop of merchantable and eating size. 
Tnere is a marked and w 4 .de d fference in kinds in 
relation to the yield of marketable tubers. Many 
kinds produced over one-fourth small, when the Rural 
yielded less than one-tenth of that kind. Some of this 
difference may be due to season, soil and location. 
Those doing poorly in one place or locality may yield 
bountifully of good, shapely tubers in another. This 
is notably the ease with the Early Ohio. With a light 
open soil the production is much greater than in a 
stiff, hard one. Generally speaking, in a saDdy mix¬ 
ture or a clay loam the potato is at its best. But in a 
dry season I much prefer a stout, firm soil, as it seems 
to hold moisture best; i. e., one not too porous or 
open. On general principles I much prefer a light, 
open soil, sandy, or clay loam. J. w. baker. 
Illinois. 
Saving Beans. —To save peas or beans from the 
weevil, put them in a box or can—I use an old wash 
boiler that leaks too badly for use—and put a lump of 
gum of camphor among them ; five cents’ worth is 
enough for a bushel. This treatment does not injure 
them for seed. mbs. belle mccauley. 
