622 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 1G 
R. D. S., Bbocki'ORT, N. Y.—In The 
II N.-Y., page 573, I find inquiry for a 
recipe for a wash to prevent injury from 
the peach borer. Five years ago I had a 
lot of peach trees, some of which were 
half eaten through by the borers, and 
the trees looked very had. Many of them 
showed symptoms of yellows. In July, 
when their condition was first noticed, I 
examined every one, removed the earth 
from the roots within six to eight inches 
from each trunk, cut and dug out 
every grub I could find, and then with 
a paint brush applied crude gas tar as 
freely as possible with a paint brush on 
the roots and up the trunk eight or ten 
inches. The treatment was repeated the 
following May. In two years my trees 
were as healthy and vigorous as the best, 
and have so continued to this date with¬ 
out any further application. Were I now 
to set a young orchard of peach trees, I 
would treat them in this way as soon as 
they had made a good growth. 
What About Gandy ? 
M. D. W., Stow-on-Chautauqua, N. Y. 
—In notes on “ Strawberries and Other 
Fruits,” in The Rural of July 29, we are 
told that the “Gandy would be a splendid 
sort to grow if the government would 
allow a bounty of about 20 cents a 
quart in addition to the market price.” 
I had learned that high cultivation was 
required to insure a good crop of this 
variety, but did not suppose it fell so far 
below an average as this remark indi¬ 
cates. I raised a few very fine Gandys 
this season, and took some to the city to 
see how they would sell, and while com¬ 
mon berries were retailing for 10 and 12 
cents, the Gandys went for 18 cents as 
soon as they were put on sale, the dealer 
paying 14 cents and he was eager to get 
all I had at that price. I have set out 
about 1,000 plants and intended to put 
out many more, but The Rural’s remark 
is a slight damper to my enthusiasm. I 
want to raise the best late kind for a 
nearby market, and as The Rural dis¬ 
parages the Gandy, which does it con¬ 
sider the best of all late sorts for a 
rather heavy soil ? The Gandy is such a 
beautiful berry, with fine flavor and a 
good keeper, that I hoped much from it, 
but we must have berries to sell to get 
the money. 
R. N.-Y.—The remark quoted did not 
come from The R. N.-Y., but from Mr. J. 
T. Roberts, of Onondaga County, N. Y. 
The Gandy does not pay him, yet Mr. 
Taber, of Poughkeepsie, found it a pro¬ 
fitable variety. If Gandys do well with 
you, stick to them. 
Hew Hampshire’s Small Corn Fields. 
P. C., Milford, N. H.—Most of those 
who have silos break off the ears when 
they are ready to fill their silos, and 
throw four rows into one, cutting the 
stalks into ensilage. Farmers who have 
no silos shock their corn 32 hills to the 
shock. Fifteen years ago nearly every 
one cut the stalks above the ear, tied 
them in bundles and either put them in 
large shocks or hung them on poles in 
the top of the barn while yet quite green, 
and they made extra good fodder. For 
cutting we now use what seedsmen sell 
as grass hooks, which we call corn cut¬ 
ters. Formerly we used old scythe points 
about a foot long fitted into wooden han¬ 
dles—poor tools and very clumsy. 
We generally draw the shocks to the 
barn to be husked and usually begin as 
soon as the corn is dry enough so as not 
to mold in the crib. Some leave it out 
and draw it in on a sled on the snow. 
We never sow grain here in the fall, ex¬ 
cept sometimes a small piece of rye. 
When we seed to grass, we move the 
shocks, but we very seldom sow grass 
seed in the fall after corn. No machines 
for cutting corn have proved helpful, be¬ 
cause farmers about here do not plant 
very large fields of that crop. I think 
the average falls below three acres. One 
of my neighbors has had 13 acres, but 
such fields are not common. I have paid 
as high as 910 per ton for corn fodder, 
when the best hay was worth 918 to 920, 
but I think that a fair price would be 
about 97 per ton for good bright fodder. 
I have no 6ilo, but I think the best way 
to use corn fodder is to put it in a silo. I 
husk my corn and pack the shocks as 
closely as I can ; sometimes they mold a 
little, but the cattle seem to relish them 
the better on that account. This year I 
have only two acres of corn ; last year I 
had six. I have tried cutting and steam¬ 
ing the fodder in a tight box with meal, 
bran and salt mixed with it, but it never 
paid to do so. I now feed it dry the 
whole length, aDd the stock never leave 
a stalk, as I feed only once a day. 
When I used to feed it oftener they would 
not clean it up. A man in our neighbor¬ 
hood who came from Michigan puts from 
50 to 120 hills to a 6hock, but I think in a 
wet fall it would spoil, though perhaps 
not. 
This wind has left corn in very bad 
shape and it will cost much more to fill 
the siloes this fall than ever before. 
Fruit is all off; trees that had two bar¬ 
rels each of winter apples now have not 
a dozen apples left on them, but we are 
thankful that it is no worse with us. 
The hills and woods helped us this time 
sure. 
Fair Play for Dogs. 
T. C. F., Sheridan, Ind. —I have read 
several articles in The It. N.-Y. of late in 
regard to dogs. It seems to me the 
paper is a little too hard on them and 
hence I wish to take the part of honest 
dogs. I have no use for the half-starved 
mongrels whose owners are as lazy and 
“ no account” as themselves. When a 
dog is found running around after night¬ 
fall, hunting sheep or something else to 
satisfy his hunger, is his owner not very 
likely to be in the same business ? I 
consider a good dog a good thing on a 
farm. A good rat dog more than pays 
his way every year, and who does not 
feel safer when a good big watch dog is 
around to keep tramps and evil-doers 
away ? If one is bothered with tramps, 
let him get a good dog and the rascals 
will keep clear of his place. But how 
are we to protect the good and get rid of 
the bad ? It can be done under the right 
kind of laws. Our law here in Indiana 
is such that if a dog comes around a 
man’s place without his owner, he can be 
killed and no trouble can come of it, 
and all dogs on which the tax has not 
been paid are to be killed. The tax is 91 
and 92 for males and 95 and 96 for 
females. Wouldn’t such laws in all the 
States settle the dog question ? 
Effects of Holding' Wheat. 
W. L. H., Stockton, Cal.—F or years 
it has been a practice among many farm¬ 
ers to hold their wheat and some other 
non-perishable products for better prices, 
even when not forehanded, making vari¬ 
ous shifts to raise money for immediate 
needs, from running up store bills to 
borrowing from banks on warehouse 
receipts. This practice has perhaps 
been more widely in vogue in California 
than in any other State, and the farmers 
here are now suffering severely from 
it. This year, owing to the financial 
conditions, they are unable to raise 
money in the usual way, and are conse¬ 
quently compelled to realize immediately 
on their products, so that much of the 
held-over wheat crop of last year, to¬ 
gether with the whole of this year’s 
output from the immense wheat area of 
the State, has been thrown on an unpre¬ 
pared market, with the effect of ma¬ 
terially lowering prices. In the last 
week of July, 1892,' spot wheat sold at 
San Francisco, for 91.37% per cental; 
during the coriesponding week this 
year it sold for 91-15, and there has been 
a considerable fall since then. More¬ 
over, a large amount of surplus tonnage 
has sought the California ports for years 
back, and this was notably the case last 
year. Owing to the withholding of grain 
freights, as ship-owners have been 
disappointed in getting expected freights 
year after year, many of those that 
usually sought California ports, have 
this year visited other places in search 
of business, and comequently at present 
there are relatively few grain ships 
awaiting cargoes. Indeed, the grain 
fleet has only one-third of the carrying 
capacity of that on the coast a year ago, 
while more than one-third more vessels 
are needed to transport the wheat on 
the market, so that the outlook for Cali¬ 
fornia wheat farmers is by no means en¬ 
couraging. Cannot the farmers of the 
country at large draw a salutary lesson 
from this condition of affairs ? Doesn’t 
experience for a series of years indicate 
that the farmers who promptly sell their 
crops instead of holding them for a 
possible rise, are in the long run better 
off than those who follow the other 
practice ? Even when gains have resulted 
from doing so, have they not to a large ex¬ 
tent been absorbed by interest, insurance, 
shrinkage, wastage, warehouse tolls and 
various other causes ? Have not hun¬ 
dreds of mortgages had their origin in 
this practice, and how many of these 
have finally eaten up the farms ? Do not 
stinting of the family in comforts and 
often in necessaries, reduced happiness 
and increased store bills come from it ? 
On the whole, would it not save worry, 
trouble, risk and hardships to be con- 
contented with “ small profits and quick 
returns,” and sell the crops when ready 
for the market ? 
Corn Fodder In Indiana. 
S. M., Harlan, Ind.— Nearly all the 
corn here is cut and put in shocks, each 
10 hills square, making 100 hills to the 
shock. A few farmers make shocks 
eight hills square, or only 64 hills per 
shock, but I do not like that way be¬ 
cause e early twice as much of the fodder 
is exposed to sun and rain as there is if 
we put it in large shocks. 
The best time to cut is just as soon as 
the corn is glazed or dented, and that is 
just as soon as the milk is all gone and 
the kernel begins to get hard. When 
cut at that stage the corn is fully as good 
and the fodder much better than if it 
stood longer. We all use a straight 
knife with a wooden handle. The point 
of an old scythe makes a good cutter. 
As to the time we leave it in the shocks, 
there is quite a diversity of practice. 
The best time to husk it is in October if 
the weather is damp; sometimes it is 
windy and the fodder is so dry that it 
will break up so badly and go to waste 
so much that we have to wait for damper 
weather. Sometimes when we have a 
large crop, we get caught by cold 
weather; then we have to watch for 
warm days through the winter, and 
sometimes it is spring before it is all 
husked, but it is always best to husk it 
in October. 
We never move the shocks before sow¬ 
ing grain. Our corn is too large so that 
doing so would entail too much work. 
Some farmers cut their corn five hills 
one way by 20 the other ; that makes 
the shocks so thick in the row that they 
almost touch ; then they leave that row 
and do not sow any wheat on it, but sow 
oats on it the next spring ; but I prefer 
to cut my shocks 10 hills square and 
drill as closely around them as possible. 
One of my neighbors has a horse corn 
cutter like a sled, with knives on each 
side, and he thinks he can save one-third 
of the expense of cutting by using it. 
Corn fodder is a very good feed. An 
acre of it large enough to yield 50 
bushels of grain is probably worth as 
much as 1,200 pounds of hay. When we 
husk our corn we nut the fodder from 
four corn shocks in one fodder shock, 
and if it is well tied around the top it 
will keep very well almost all winter. 
(Continued on next page.) 
ptirnttHttfottiS 
In writing to advertisers, please always mention 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
Hood’s 
Sarsaparilla 
Cured me of CSoitre or 
swellings in the neck 
which I had from 10 
years old till I was 52. 
When I began taking 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla I 
was feeling so discour¬ 
aged with goitre and 
rheumatism. When I 
Mrs. Sutherland, caught cold I could not 
walk two blocks without fainting. Now I am 
free from it all and I can truly recommend 
IIOOIVN SAKSAPARHXA.” MRS. 
Anna Sutherland, Kalamazoo, Mich. 
HOOD’S PlLLS assist digestion, cure headache. 
Farmers YOUR Produce 
To F. I. SAGE & SON, 183 Reade St., N. Y., 
Receivers of all kinds of Country Produce, in¬ 
cluding Game, Live and Dressed Poultry and Dressed 
Calves. Specialties —Berries, Grapes, Apples, Pears, 
Honey, Onions aud Potatoes. Correspondence and 
Consignments solicited. Stencils furnished. Ref¬ 
erence: Dun’s or Bradstreet's Commercial Reports, 
to be found at any bank. 
A CHANCE FOR A 
HOME 
RESERVATION LANDS 
IN THE 
INDIAN 
TERRITORY 
You want to know all about this district, 
and how you can secure a quarter or half sec¬ 
tion of land on the 
GREAT 
ROCK ISLAND 
ROUTE 
Write at once to me and state your wants, 
and I will send you full particulars, Including 
map of that district. Will send the “Western 
Settler” for one year FREE ON APPLICATION 
JNO. SEBASTIAN, 
Qeneral Ticket and Passenger Agent, 
CHICAGO, U. S. A. 
thi; R 
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AND ANTI-RATTLER. 0,5 
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weight on horse. Worth twice the cost for conven-C/) 
ience in hitching up. Agents wanted. Circulars free. 
Order sample. Price, $1.50. State rights for sale, 
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Decatur. III. 
1854.—Established 39 Years—1893. 
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