1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
6o5 
15 rows each way, and after husking sow the strips, 
which, as a rule, we are able to do in due season. I 
have had no experience in the use of power machinery 
for cutting corn, and hence can express no opinion. 
My experience in the use of corn fodder is that it is a 
better feed for cattle than clover hay, taking the 
whole period during which we are compelled to fod¬ 
der. Silos are not in use among us, and of course we 
use no corn stalks for ensilage ; usually our stalks 
as husked are bound into convenient bundles and 
either housed or put up in ricks, and used as needed. 
Under this arrangement the cattle eat only the blades 
and husks—the rest of the stalks, after decomposi¬ 
tion, are hauled to the fields and spread there with 
all the other yard manures. d c. lewis. 
Middlesex County, N. J. 
Handling Sweet Corn in Maine. 
The number of hills to a shock is as indeterminate 
as the ingredients in “ Mrs. Mudlaw’s pudding.” Most 
of our corn is sweet corn raised for the canners. 
Much of it is about three feet high, and it takes a lot 
of hills for a shock. I raise the medium growing five 
to six feet, and the number depends on the rankness 
of the fodder, being probably from 40 to 50. As soon 
as the corn is picked, I go over the piece again, pick 
all small ears and nubbins, and cart them to the barn 
where the 7 are spread on the floor and do not mold for 
weeks if spread very thin. They are fed to the cows. 
I cut my fodder at once. I cut with a sharp hoe, with 
a handle about 15 inches long, and commence with two 
right-hand rows, throwing an arm around the hill, 
and drawing the stalks together ; then one blow cuts 
the butts close to the ground, and the stalks are laid 
down so as to make small bundles easily lifted with 
one hand when tied. Returning to the next two rows, 
the tops are laid to the left alternately with those of 
the first two rows, so that the tyer passes quickly from 
one bundle to another, in a straight line. I tie with 
willow withes, about 15 to 18 inches long, the sprouts 
of this season’s growth. They are better than strings. 
When ready to shock, two men work together and 
build up the shock with 10 or 12 bundles. The shocks 
are now tied at the top with one or two coarse withes 
four or five feet long. Shocking around a stake (a 
small one will do to prevent sagging), is best if the 
fodder is to stand long. Fodder thus put up will dry 
well in rainy weather, and be greedily eaten by the 
stock. No grain is sown on our corn ground in the 
fall. No machinery is used here for cutting corn, but 
a short blade set at right angles in the handle is more 
often used than the hoe, though it is slower and harder 
work to use it. An acre of gocd corn fodder is valued 
as equal to an acre of Timothy hay, and it is usually 
fed to milch cows till late in the fall. o. s. paink. 
Cutting in Shock and Stable. 
Here, in Fayette County, Pa., corn is cut and put in 
shocks of from (50 to 120 hills each. It is cut as soon 
as it is thought safe from molding in the shock. The 
old-fashioned cutters made from old, worn-out scythes, 
and those of similar shape sold at hardware stores, 
are the tools in use here, no machines having as yet 
been tried. Corn is generally husked as soon as dry 
enough to keep without molding in the crib. The 
fodder is tied in bundles and put in shocks of about 
20 bundles each, to be hauled through winter and fed 
in the barnyard, or very often on a sod field. When 
wheat follows corn, the con - mon practice is to carry 
in 10 to 15 rows on each side of the shock row, making 
large and close shocks, seeding only between the 
shock rows. Formerly the strips thus left were sown 
to oats in the spring, but now they are left bare so as 
not to hinder in machine cutting. The foregoing is 
the common practice ; a few farmers, however, do 
better. 
My practice is to seed the strips before cutting the 
corn, and I do not carry in more than six or eight 
rows on each side. I check-row in planting, and in 
cutting make the shock rows in an opposite direc¬ 
tion from the last cultivation, so that the harrow and 
drill level down the ridges, making the ground more 
level and smooth so that I sometimes sow it to grass. 
I consider my fodder wortb more than half as much 
as hay. It is put in the barn as soon as husked and is 
cut five inches long and fed in the stable to the milch 
cows. I first tried cutting it short, and gradually in¬ 
creased the length up to five inches. When cut fine 
the cows nosed around through it to get the blades, 
which were so chopped up and mixed with the stalks 
that they left much of the best uneaten. Of course, 
scant feeding might compel them to eat all clean, but 
trying that isn’t business when one wants milk. When 
fed as I feed, the cows eat all the blades and husks and 
some of the tops; the coarse stuff is thrown under 
them for bedding and is preferable to straw, while 
the latter is preferable as feed. The cutting adds 
nothing to the food value ; it only prevents waste and 
makes it more convenient to handle the staff in the 
Stable. J. H. RITTENHOUSE. 
Where to Put Corn Stalk Manure. 
Corn in this patt of Ohio is nearly always cut 12 hills 
square. We begin to cut about the second week in 
September and keep it up for a month or six weeks. 
The straight corn-cutting knife is used. Many robust 
negroes can cut 45 shocks per day and some as much as 
60 in medium or light corn. We pay 6 % to 8 cents per 
shock; so the corn harvest is quite a good thing for 
strong laboring men. It is, if followed with energy, 
the hardest work on the farm, as our corn often grows 
10 to 12 feet high. Husking begins in about a month 
after cutting and continues until April. Few farmers 
get their corn all out in the fall, as there is not enough 
labor in the country to do this. 
In sowing grain in the field we run as close to the 
shocks as we can, but do not move them. I practice a 
system of half-shocking the corn, different from any¬ 
thing I have seen. When we begin to cut we do not 
dare to put the whole 144 hills together, as it might 
spoil, so we cut a row of half-shocks through the field, 
leaving the other six rows standing, to be added after 
the center has dried sufficiently. Now, as we want to 
start the drill right after the cutters, we get them to 
cut the six rows of the half-shock all on one side of 
the shock. Then the next half-shock row is cut on the 
opposite side, so it leaves us a cleared space 12 hills 
wide to sow, with a solid corn space 12 hills wide for 
filling in and the shocks half in the corn and half in 
the clearing. Last year I experimented with cutting 
12 by 16 hills and like it better, as it makes wider 
spaces for drilling and harrowing, although the hands 
object to the extra carrying. Some men use the sled 
cutting machines, and say they like them. I cannot 
use them on account of the pumpkins in the field. 
I consider corn fodder worth from 25 cents to $2.50 
per ton, its value depending on the care it has had, 
and in part on the “ luck.” I have not found storage 
of such bulky stuff profitable as yet, and often have 
it tied in bundles by the huskers, and set up in shocks 
to be hauled and fed out-of-doors to cattle, horses and 
sheep. This, I am satisfied, is the best plan if all 
works well—the shocks stand up and the field does 
not get too muddy when one must go on it to get 
out the feed. Hut last year much of my feed blew 
away in a gale, and became spoiled before we could 
save it, and the corn that was standing in the fields 
unhusked made so much better fodder when husked 
as it was needed, that I decided it was not always 
well to try to get it all out in the fall. I like to feed 
it on a tough sod in a Blue grass pasture, scattering it 
thinly so as not to smother the grass, and I do not 
think corn-stalk manure can be so well utilized in any 
other way. _ j. k. wing. 
PERFUME MAKING IN AMERICA. 
Several Subscribers .—Are any efforts made in this 
country to make perfume out of roses and other 
flowers ? 
Ans. —The letters following give all we can learn 
about the matter. We import in one form or another 
nearly $1,000,000 worth of perfumes. These perfumes 
are concentrated odors of flowers prepared by distil¬ 
lation or by absorption in fats. A large proportion of 
them comes from southern France and northern Italy, 
where there are farms given up to the business. The 
flowers are grown in great abundance, and when at 
their best are gathered and either distilled or treated 
with fats. One way is to simply lay them between 
layers of lard or mutton tallow. The fats absorb the 
fragrance and retain it. Or they are mashed and put 
in melted fats, which are afterwards strained and 
cooled. This is a cheap and excellent way of holding 
the fragrance. Or they may be distilled in the usual 
way. Several parties in this country make pot pourri 
—that is, a mixture of dried leaves packed in jars. To 
these a little extract is usually added : 
Very Little Done Yet. 
No nurseryman to our knowledge has ever attempted 
to make perfumery out of surplus roses or other flow¬ 
ers. We do not think it would be possible to make it 
pay in the Northern States, though it might perhaps 
be done in the South, but, so far as we know, no efforts 
have ever been made in that direction. 
STORKS & IIARRISON CO. 
I have never heard of surplus roses being put to such 
use in this country. I do not think such an industry 
would pay in the North, but in the South, or on the 
Pacific coast, where roses thrive and grow better in 
the open ground and where cheap labor can be se¬ 
cured, the business might prove a success, as there are 
in some sections of this country all the conditions of 
soil and climate to grow roses and other flowers to as 
good a state of perfection as they can be grown any¬ 
where in Europe. In a few years there will probably 
be hundreds of acres devoted to such an industry in 
this country. atoine wintzer. 
Dingee & Conard Oo. 
I believe there is a perfumery company which has a 
large 1 ose plantation in the South—I think in Florida. 
We are too far north for such an industry, as the roses 
should be planted on a large scale. South of Mason 
& Dixon’s line Tea roses do splendidly, growing to a 
height of six to eight feet in three years and blooming 
profusely. In the neighborhood of Washington, D. C., 
I have seen superb bushes the second year from small 
plants received by mail. With us it is continual fight 
to keep such roses alive in the open ground after the 
first summer, though in the new rose Clothilde Soupert 
we have one that lives out, grows vigorously and 
being double and a great bloomer, it would yield an 
enormous amount of petals. I do not think any of the 
Hybrid Remontant class bloom freely enough here to 
make them a profitable crop to grow for extracts, 
though, of course, the rich fragranee would be very 
desirable. If anybody will step into any of the large 
wholesale florist stores in New York city at this season 
or at almost any time except midwinter, he will find 
bushels of petals from the unsold roses, fully enough 
I think in our large cities to supply all the million 
dollars’ worth of perfume which we import. A great 
many more roses are produced than can be sold by the 
present method, and these fall to pieces in the whole¬ 
saler’s or commission-man’s hands and I believe are 
carted to the dumps along with the ashes and other 
refuse ; but of course The Rural is looking for some¬ 
thing of use from the farmer’s standpoint, and I really 
believe that where good laud is reasonably cheap and 
help is also cheap, in a climate suited to the rose, a 
very good business could be established, and I think 
it would be an especially interesting business for 
ladies, but what would the government say about the 
distilling of extracts ? Would not we have to take 
out a license and have the product inspected and 
stamped, or are such extracts entirely non-alcoholic ? 
Cologne, as we ordinarily know it, certainly contains 
alcohol. While we could not raise roses here cheaply 
enough, such flowers as mignonette and tuberoses 
can be grown in quantity very cheaply, and with the 
extracts of other flowers, and even some plants, such 
as Red clover and wild violets, arbutus, etc., which 
furnish fragrance so lavishly, should find a ready mar¬ 
ket if we could only gather and fix their odors in some 
marketable shape. e. d. Darlington. 
Fordhook Farm, Pa. 
Bone Meal and Potash in Vineyards. 
N. O. B., Doniphan, Kan. —1. What is the best time 
to apply bone meal and potash to grape vines ? 2. 
What is the best method of applying them ? 3. If a 
drill is used, what kind ? 4. I have sowed rye in a 
part of my vineyard to be plowed under in spring; 
would it be advisable to broadcast bone meal on this 
as a top-dressing ? 
Ans —1. In early spring, before the buds swell and 
when the soil may be worked. 2. Spread it on the soil 
about the vines by hand and work it in. 3. We would 
not drill it in. 4. Yes, and probably potash as well. 
Entering Cornell. 
A. S., Pen/leld, N. Y. —What are the requirements 
for entering the agricultural department at Cornell 
University ? 
Ans. —A fair acquaintance with English and mathe¬ 
matics, such as one can get in a good district school. 
Write to Prof. H. H. Wing, Ithaca, for a catalogue and 
full information. You can enter if you try. Try it. 
About Crimson Clover Seed. 
J. M. D., Odell, III .— What is an average crop per 
acre of Crimson clover seed, and can it be thrashed on 
the common grain thrashers ? 
Ans. —It varies very much—from 2 to 12 bushels. A 
common thrasher would knock off the seed pods, but 
a clover huller would be needed to hull the seed. I 
have a machine which thrashes, hulls and cleans the 
seed at one operation. .john s. collins. 
Washings for Thin Spots. 
J. M. D., Odell, Ohio. —There is a low place on my 
farm by the edge of a piece of timber where the wash 
of the fields and rank, coarse vegetation with leaves 
from the timber have filled up about six feet of what 
I think fertile plant food. Will it pay for carting on 
thin spots, and if so, should it be drawn on the land 
in time for winter freezing ? 
Ans. —Without seeing the wash or muck referred to 
we should say that it will pay well to put it on thin 
spots of the farm. The best way to treat it is to use 
it as described last week—with lime and manure. 
Land and Prices. —G. D. S., Pittsford, N. Y.—The 
land back of the Rural Grounds recently referred to is 
generally a sandy loam of less than the usual fertility. 
Most of it belongs to old estates and is held at prices 
based on its future desirability for building lots. We 
cannot give reliable information concerning the lands 
around Danville, Va. 
