634 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 23 
“ Are you willing' to tell us just how much the farm 
brings you in ? ” I 
“Certainly. Here is an exact account of my cash 
sales for the past year : 
Strawberries.$80.68 
Cherries. 8.25 
Currents. 1.64 
Qoceeber'les. 10.62 
Raspberries. 3.83 
Beans. 1.90 
Quinces. 1.00, 
T< matt es. 21.66 
Cabbage (late). 16.09 
Peas.$77.10 
Huckleberries. 17.26 
Cabbage. 10.60 
Peacbes. 4.48 
Melons. 31.29 
Onions. 2.90 
Potatoes. 4 .90 
Cblckens, etc. 15.35 
Turnips. 5.95 
Total.$360.30 
That represents the total cash sales. Other things, of 
course, we give in exchange for groceries, etc.” 
“ Can you tell me what it costs you to live ?’ 
“About $100 per year in cash. Out of those total 
sales we live, pry taxes, etc., and lay aside from $80 to 
$100 every year.” 
“ How do your sales compare with those of your 
neighbors ? ” 
“ About the same. On the average I do as well as 
any of them. This is our home and we do not care 
to leave it.” 
Arguments for the Oxen. 
“ I don’t pret nd,” said Mr. Gottwald, “ that there 
is anything remarkable about my farming. It is just 
like hundreds of others do. Hut my steers are the 
unique things about it. You will not find a little 
place run entirely by steer power anywhere else, I 
t> ink. I can use them singly or double—wherever 
horses can be used.” 
Suiting the action to the word, he took one steer 
and put on a single harness like the one shown at Fig. 
209, and hitched to a cultivator. The steer walked 
off like a horse at a smart walk, pulling the cultivator 
as well as need be. He also hitched one to a light 
plow and showed me how it worked with that. Ap¬ 
parently anywhere that a horse could work the steer 
would follow. 
“ What arguments do you give for oxen over horses 
for your farming ? ” 
“ A psir of well-trained oxen are, in their way, as 
well worthy of an admiring crowd as nice horses. 
Every muscle indicates strength, and the beasts move 
with a deliberation and dignity that con¬ 
vey the idea of immense power. In 
stumping, logging and clearing they 
very often are better than horses, and i 
on marshy ground they are incompar- ' 
ably superior. For certain heavy labor | /w/ 
the ox has been and will be the favorite. i 
V c: 
ne has the great advantage that when 
the time of his utility is past he can 
be converted into beef Again, to keep 
an ox costs far less than to keep a 
horse. The old-fashioned yoke is a dis¬ 
grace to our country, ‘ the land of prog¬ 
ress.’ In Germany people claim for 
their harnesses that steers in them 
pull more, go faster and are more easily handled, 
using reins. My harness is an improvement on the 
German, and a pair of my harnesses do not cost so 
much as a yoke. With a well broken steer it is an 
easy matter to train a pair of oxen so that they will 
plow in a short time.” 
On our way back to the train we were a little late 
and Mr. Gottwald gave us a little exhibition of an ox 
trot. I liked the way those steers did their work and 
I would like to see the head band take the place of 
the yoke on many farms. The cattle move quicker 
and will, as I believe, pull more. They are also under 
perfect control. A single harness of this type would 
be first-rate for the bull on farms where his work 
services are needed. He could pull the hay rake or 
even a cultivator just as well as an extra horse and on 
the hayfork or in pulling loads off soft ground he 
would make himself very valuable. The head band is 
cheap and simple and ordinary chains will make up 
the balance of the harness. This is really worth try¬ 
ing, you people who are keeping an idle bull and yet 
have to keep a horse to do “chores.” Some enter¬ 
prising man could make a hit by securing Mr. Gott- 
wald’s steers for exhibition. They would attract as 
much attention as a circus when hitched to some 
machine that the owner wished to advertise, h. w. c. 
The Brandywine Strawberry was first brought to 
my notice through The R, N.-Y. In its report this 
year it says: “The Brandywine is the best straw¬ 
berry that we have.” I have a great deal of confidence 
in what Tiie R. N.-Y. says. It gives a great deal of 
valuable information. Now I would like to learn 
more of this promising new berry through its columns, 
and would also like to hear from several who have 
fruited it. How does it behave on heavy and light 
soils, and under what conditions wdl it thrive best ? I 
understand it is not yet for sale. I can get all of The 
R. N.-Y.'s list of strawberries for family use, except 
the Brandywine. I intend to set them all as soon as 
possible. c h. p. 
Stockbridge, Mass. 
HARVESTING THE POTATO CROP. 
A great many of my customers who bought seed 
potatoes of me last fall, and who cultivate large fields 
of them annually, have written from t'me to time dur¬ 
ing the summer asking all sorts of questions as to the 
planting and cultivation of potatoes, and in the past 
few days a number of inquiries have come to me ask¬ 
ing, “How shall we harvest our crop ?” 
It is needless to say that, growing potatoes as 
largely as I do, I plant with the Aspinwall planter, 
first plowing the land 10 inches deep ; I don’t mean 10 
inches by guess, but by actual measurement, and after 
the ground is fitted, I plant, as nearly as possible, five 
inches in depth. I do not believe in hilling or ridging 
very much, but in some soils it may be necessary to 
do so to keep down the weeds and grasses. Last year 
I was ready to buy a potato digger ; heretofore I had 
fought shy of such machines, as I he d never seen any 
that did satisfactory work in every cond tion of soil, 
and I believed that a good six-tined fork with a strong, 
active man on the handle was the best potato digger 
on earth ; but after seeing a number of circulars, cuts 
and glowing testimonials from several firms, I decided 
to try all the machines I could get together. I wrote 
to half a dozen digger firms, but could get only two of 
them to meet: one was the “ Hoover.” The field in 
which the trial was made was one of five acres of early 
potatoes that had been ripe over a month, and quite a 
rank growth of grass and wild buckwheat had taken 
possession, so that it was an ideal place to test a 
digger. 
I had invited about 20 friends, all potato growers, to 
witness the trial, and the concensus of opinion was in 
favor of the Hooker. I was not satisfied, however, 
and did not buy a machine that day. as I wanted to try 
them by myself without being bothered by the im¬ 
portunities of the agents. Under my operation the 
other machine would not work at all, and so I dis¬ 
carded it and tried the Hoover, which worked as well 
with me as when the agent was here to operate it. 
But 1 soon found that it worked too hard for two 
horses, so at noon I made a strong four horse evener 
six feet six inches long, and put on four horses abreast, 
“HENS 
ACRE. 
|*>*T 
■w■*.* S* 
V - 
A Single Steer in Harness. Fig. 209. 
and then I found I had power enough. One can handle 
a four-horse team in this way just as well as three 
horses. With this outfit, in digging all of my pota¬ 
toes last fall, I averaged an acre every two hours of 
actual operation, digging the tubers cleaner than 
could be done by hand, and leaving them all on top 
of the ground, with the weeds and vines thrown off to 
one side. There are diggers that will do good work 
in some soils and under favorable conditions, such as 
the Success, Planet Jr., Deere and other machines of the 
plow class, and there is one wheel digger made in 
Rochester, N. Y., called the Hoy, that is the best low- 
priced geared digger I have ever seen, but in all kinds 
and conditions of soil, whether free from weeds or so 
weedy that one can hardly see the rows, the Hoover 
beats them all. 
To grow potatoes at a profit besides digging them 
cheaply, we must handle them economically after they 
have been dug. To do this I made a flat rack that sets 
on a common wagon so that the floor of the rack is not 
over waist-high ; this will hold just 45 crates set on 
one deep, and frequently I have drawn 60, putting the 
extra ones on top. The crates are made of waste bass- 
wcod and pine, very strong, light and durable, and 
they cost 14 cents and hold just 60 pounds each. When 
I go into the field in the morning, I spread them along 
near the rows where I am to dig, so that the men can 
get them handily in picking. When filled, they are 
left where they are till the wagon comes along ; with 
one man on it to load and one on each side to put on 
the crates, we can load 50 or 60 crates very soon. The 
load having been drawn to the storage cellar, the 
wagon is backed up to the door and the crates are slid 
down a chute into the cellar ; one man stands on the 
wagon to put them into the chute and another below 
to empty them into the bin. Un'oading in this man¬ 
ner, we often bin 60 bushels in 20 minutes without 
handling or shoveling a potato. 
In growing potatoes for seed, it is very essential not 
to handle them more than is really necessary, so that 
they may not be bruised. edwabd f. dibble. 
Monroe County, N. Y. 
EGGS on telegraph poles. 
Picking Up Experience on the Road. 
When I gave the readersof The Rural New-Yorker 
last October an account of my prospective venture in 
keeping hens “ by the acre ” and bringing electricity 
to my aid, it is probable that most people who read 
the article passed it by as a joke or as one of the 
vagaries of an imaginative mind As a matter of fact, 
however, I was never more in earnest in my life, and 
I did not venture to put myself on record, at the 
request of the editors of The Rural, and run the risk 
of making a laughing-stock of myself without a long 
and careful study of the difficulties to be met. The 
whole plan as then outlined has not yet materialized, 
but I am still hammering away at it, and after 10 
montns of experience and effort, I see no reason to 
be discouraged. If I were to advise any one who 
contemplated beginning in tbe poultry business, I 
should say : 
“Begin on a small scale and get the knowledge 
which can be gained only by experience as you pro¬ 
ceed It is not so likely to be ‘ dearly bought wit,,’ 
and if you get discouraged you can get out without so 
much loss.” I propose to take my own advice and go 
slowly. I have now 15 houses completed. Eight are 
stocked with hens from one to four years old and the 
rest with pullets three to four months old, which will 
give me six acres or 600 hens for the winter cimpiign. 
1 set my first setting of eggs on March 17 ani got my 
first pullet’s egg on August 3 The pullet that laid it 
could not have been more than three months and 
twenty-three days old. Sbe is a Brown Leghorn and 
is the only one that has commenced to lay at this time 
—August 12. Most of my old hens are such as I could 
buy during the winter, being a mixed lot of all sizes 
and colors. I have no hobby as to breeds, but propose 
to give the Single-comb Brown Leghorns a trial. 
The Deacon Looks Things Over. 
I had a call the other morning from Deacon Thomas, 
who is one of the slow-going farmers who is satisfied 
to do just as his ancestors did, and would be afraid to 
get out of the ruts they made for fear he 
would get lost. I was j ust starting out 
to feed my hens, so I-invited him to go 
along. He looked Avith wonder at what 
he called my telegraph wires, and I no- 
‘M’/L" V f ticed that he walked as far away fro n 
the pales as possible, evidently thinking 
jy they night “go off.” By the time we 
bad reac ^ e ^ the second flock, his tongue 
-j;/ v was unloosed and he began to ask ques- 
'' tions. 
“ What is that you are giving your hens 
J this morning, anyhow ? ” 
“ Oh ! this is their regular breakfast.” 
“ What is it composed of ? ” 
“ Well, in the first place I take four bushels of good 
wheat and eight of the best clipped oats to the mill 
and have both ground. To the flour are added 200 
pounds of wheat bran and 100 of animal meal or meat 
scrap, and the whole is well mixed.” 
“ Do you give them the same thing every morning ?” 
“ I have used this mixture now for over a year for 
morning feed.” 
“ Do your hens do well on it ? ” 
“ I have never had them do better in the many years 
I have fed hens.” 
“ But there is no corn in it! Now, my hens like 
corn, and father always fed it to his hens, and they 
were always plump and fat when we wanted to kill 
one. My ! what good rich pot-pie mother used to 
make ! It makes my mouth water yet to think of it.” 
I had to smile at the Deacon’s earnestness, but sim¬ 
ply remarked that I was feeding for eggs and not for 
pot-pie. 
“ You seem to be taking corn out of a barrel there 
and putting it up in that little box with the telegraph 
machine on it. What is that for ? ” 
“ Wnv, that is for their supper.” 
“ But how ever can the hens get it away up in that 
little box as high as my head ? ” 
“ That is an electric feed box such as your father 
never dreamed of. I can press a button down in my 
dining-room this afternoon, and that telegraph ma¬ 
chine, as you call it, will cause tbe corn to scatter on 
the floor, so !’’ and the Deacon jumped back as I sprang 
the magnet, and the corn began to rattle over the tin 
deflector and scatter over the floor. 
“ Well, I never ! ” said he. “If that don’t beat all 
natur’. ” After he had time to recover from his as¬ 
tonishment and we were walking along to the next 
house, he said : 
“ My gal, Susan, has subscribed for a hen paper 
called the Poultry Keeper. Sbe say’, that the editor 
claims that corn is no good for hens. It is too fattening.” 
“ That may be so,” said I, “ where hens are kept 
shut up in small yards, but mine have full liberty to 
ramble, and I find they do well on corn for their even- 
