686 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER-. 
October 14 
What About the Old Team ? 
E. B. W., Newton, Ia.—W hen we wake 
up to the fact that the old team can do 
only one-half or three fourths of a day’s 
work, we come to a place where various 
interests seem to conflict with each other. 
If we were to consult our financial inter¬ 
ests only, the team would be sold, be¬ 
cause a team that can do only three- 
fourths of a day’s work is not profitable 
on a farm. Some farmers, if we are to 
ju^ge by the teams they use, do not be¬ 
lieve this, but the majority do. Such a 
team is to be classed along with the 
scrub horse, unprofitable to keep, and 
for the same reasons. Of course, there 
are exceptions. Some farmers have light 
work which these horses might do as well 
as better horses. Or the women folks are 
in need of a trusty horse, so they can 
come and go when they please. Such 
cases sometimes happen ; still, as a rule, 
such horses are unprofitable. 
On the other hand, how can we bear 
to have the old team abused ? We know 
that if the animals are sold, they will al¬ 
most ct rtainly fall into the hands of a 
class of men who will have no mercy on 
them. Because they can be bought cheap, 
they will work them for all they are 
worth, and when they are done for, 
they will get others. The old team has 
been very faithful to us, has pulled us 
out of many tough places, and has been 
willing to work for us through heat and 
cold, sunshine and rain. They like to 
have us around, and enjoy being petted 
and eat apples out of our hands. They 
have always been well fed, well stabled 
and cared for, and we have always taken 
a pride in them, and now how can we 
think of letting them go into the hands 
of others when there is even the possi¬ 
bility of their being mistreated ? 
First, we should try to prevent such 
cates arising. We know our horses are 
worth most on the market when from 
five to nine years of age. Before they 
pass this limit, we should sell them and 
use the team of colts. I believe most 
emphatically in a farmer raising his own 
horses, and the farmers are very few 
who will not find it best to keep at least 
one or two brood mares for this purpose 
and to have a horse to sell occasionally. 
This being the case, the farmer should 
arrange to get his farm work mostly out 
of the young horses. It is just what they 
need and makes them more valuable all 
the time. I know there are many men— 
and I am one of them—who do not enjoy 
handling colts all the time, much pre¬ 
ferring a steady team ; but I have never 
found it profitable to do the work that 
was easiest or that happened to be most 
agreeable. Then, too, as spring is the 
marketing time, and also our busy period, 
when a buyer comes we are strongly 
tempted to sell him the young horse and 
keep on using the steady team. We know 
if the old horses go, the colts being soft 
—for a while at least—will not be able to 
do a full day’s work ; but remember that 
after a horse has passed nine years of age, 
his market value steadily decreases. Of 
course, for many years he will apparently 
be just as good, but we know that for 
every year he lives, he has one less year 
ahead of him ; so, before he passes nine 
years of age, sell him. This is good busi¬ 
ness sense, and also it is easier to part 
with him, as the affections are not so 
bound up in him as they will be after 10 
more years of companionship and mutual 
toil. We can also think that he will 
probably fall into good hands and be well 
treated on account of his value. It 
can easijy be arranged that the work 
horses shall be young and be put on the 
market before they begin to fall in 
value, and their places can be taken by 
younger horses. The brood mares may 
be treated in the same way, or they may 
be kept, as they usually are valuable as 
long as they live. 
But this will dispose only of some cases 
which might otherwise have arisen in 
the future and is no help to the man who 
wants to know what to do with his old 
team. As before stated, some farmers 
can find work for them, and such of 
course should keep them. A few others 
can find the right buyers, men who will 
care for them and work them lightly. 
The problem is solved for these men. 
Others have solved the difficulty by turn¬ 
ing them out to pasture in the summer, 
carefully stabling them during winter. 
As they need little grain, their keep is 
not costly, and really horses do not live 
a great while after they begin to break, 
so they will not long be a burden. I 
realize that there might be cases which 
could not be solved in any of these ways, 
and if that is so, I have no remedy for 
them. It is too bad that our affections 
become so strongly attached to our faith¬ 
ful friends that we cannot dispose of 
them to our best advantage. It is dif¬ 
ferent with our cows. When they are 
past their usefulness they go to the 
butcher as soon as they can be fattened. 
We do not let our fee.ings hinder our dis¬ 
posal of any other kind of farm stock, 
and we should try to think of all our 
stock as simply chattels. One thing sure, 
the more stock we have the easier this 
will be. Affection for dumb creatures is 
often carried to such an extreme as to be 
ridiculous. We have all seen examples 
of this, but the most common is the care 
bestowed on a worthless cur by an ap- 
pare. tly daft master, or, likely, mistress. 
One of my neighbors here is feeding and 
caring for and loving one of the most 
useless and troublesome dogs that ever 
was a subject for tax. 
Soils that Suit Varieties. 
B. B., Farmingdale, III.—It is quite 
likely I made the mistake suggested on 
page 637 ; but my idea was that pastur¬ 
ing clover gave back to the soil all that 
was necessary to the growth of corn. I 
have always thought that mo3t varieties 
of apples, peaches, quinces and some 
other fruits needed something else— 
what I do not know. Climatic conditions 
will not entirely account for it. Some 
soils are notably adapted to this variety, 
and some to that, so it would seem that 
two courses are open to us : I, to find 
the variety to suit the soil, and, 2, to 
change the soil to suit the variety. 
That Black Strawberry Bug. 
S. II. W., Weston, Mass, —The experi¬ 
ences of J. W. B., of S*lem, Mass., with 
the little black beetle that eats the 
leaves of the strawberry plants, is quite 
different from mine. I have had 40 years’ 
experience in growing strawberries, and 
in that time have had more or less trou¬ 
ble with this little pest. After trying 
wood ashes, sulphur and hellebore, I 
tried Paris-green in light doses at first, 
and increased them until I killed some 
of the plants, but didn’t see any fewer 
beetles. The only thing I found to keep 
them in check was a brood of small 
chickens the size of robins. Twenty-five 
of these will keep them down on one- 
third of an acre. The old hen should be 
kept in a coop, and the chicks be allowed 
to run at will. 
What Else But Stick? 
J. F. B., Tunbridge, Vt. —On page 
624 the question is asked, “Why does 
the New England farmer stick to his 
rocky farm?” I want to know what 
else on earth he can do ? I have one of 
those farms which I bought over 25 
years ago. I have cleared it from stones 
and laid these in a wall. I have im¬ 
proved the buildings and greatly in¬ 
creased the productiveness of the farm, 
and to-day, with all my labor and im¬ 
provements, I could not sell it for as 
much as I paid for it by half, and mine 
is not an isolated case. There are thou¬ 
sands in the same fix, who bought in 
war times or at war prices. Our homes 
yield us a living, but the prices we could 
get for them put into the rich prairie 
land of the West would not do it. Our 
farmB are rough and rocky; but our 
land is fertile, and we have a fairly good 
market for all our products, ard the ad¬ 
vantage of the society of Yankee people 
instead of foreigners, and really I don’t 
see why the New England farmer is not 
as well off as his brother farmer in the 
West or South. 
Don’t Have an Old Horse. 
W. H. D., Middlebury, Vt. — I never 
keep any old horses on the farm, and 
hence never have to decide how to treat 
such animals. When a horse gets eight 
or nine years old I pell or dispose of it. 
At that age a horse will bring nearly as 
much as a young one, and sometimes 
more. It costs more to keep old horses, 
and they do not work so fast as young 
ones. I don’t think it pays to keep 
stock of any kind after they commence 
to go down hill. 
A Bullet For the Old Horse. 
R. B., Sardinia, N. Y.—In a late 
Rural we are asked what to do with old 
horses. I had a mare that remained on 
the farm until the age of 28, when I got 
a man to shoot her in the fall when she 
could no longer live on fresh green 
grass. With scarcely a kick she died 
from the eff:cts of the first shot. I ran 
a dairy farm of 160 acreB where I kept 
28 cows and three horses, and she was 
one of the work team during the sum¬ 
mers, and in the winters she hauled 
wood and logs. As I fail to see any real 
loss in this plan, I think it a good one, 
much better than to sell such an animal 
to some jockey for a few dollars to lead 
a miserable existence until death comes 
to its relief. 
Thompson's Kirly Prolific Bed Raspberry. 
M. F. T., Rio Vista, Va. — A short 
time ago I noticed in The Rural that 
some one inquired if some other variety 
had to be planted beside the above variety 
as a fertilizer. It originated with me, 
and I have never seen it fail to produce 
a crop, whether the weather was wet or 
dry, frosty, or what not, where all others 
have failed. It has always borne a fine 
crop from 10 days to two weeks earlier 
than Cuthbert or Brandywine. This year 
the berries sold in our market for 15 to 
18 cents per pint. I am satisfied that it 
is the best early red berry yet introduced. 
Of course it may not suit every local¬ 
ity ; but late varieties have become un¬ 
profitable in most sections. The King 
red raspberry, which is a seedling from 
it, is a stronger grower, and the berries 
are much larger and a little brighter in 
•color, and ripen at about the same sea¬ 
son. The Timbrell strawberry is a lux¬ 
uriant grower and of a beautiful color. 
The Marshall, which is claimed to be a 
grand one, is rusting very badly in the 
same row. Rio, Tennessee, Prolific, Cy¬ 
clone, Clyde and Princeton Chief have 
beautiful foliage, the last has made a 
row 10 feet wide with a little extra care. 
(Continued on next page.) 
In writing to advertisers, please always mention 
The Rural Nkw-Yokkeb. 
A Veteran 
Mr. Joseph ISein- 
nicrich, 529 E. 14Gth 
St., N. Y. City, in 18G2, 
at the battle of Fair 
Oaks, was stricken with 
Typhoid Fever, and 
after a long struggle in 
hospitals, was discharg¬ 
ed as incurable with 
(lonsuiuptiou. He has 
lately taken Hood’s Sar¬ 
saparilla, is in good health, and cordially rec- 
omnends HOOD’S SAKSAPAK1M.A 
as a general blood purifier and tonic medi¬ 
cine, especially to his comrades in the G. A. K. 
HOOD’S PlLLS are hand made, and are per¬ 
fect in composition, proportion and appearance. 
Jos. Heinmerieh. 
Farmers YOUR Produce 
To F. I. SAGE & SON, 188 Keade St., N. Y., 
Receiver of all kinds of Country Pboduck, 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. 
Perfect Baby Health 
ought to 
mean glow¬ 
ing health 
throughout 
childhood, 
and robust 
health in the 
years to 
come. When we see in children 
tendencies to weakness, we know 
they are missing the life of food 
taken. This loss is overcome by 
Scott’s Emulsion 
of Cod Liver Oil, with Hypophos- 
phites, a fat-food that builds up 
appetite and produces flesh at a 
rate that appears magical. 
Almost as palatable as milk. 
Brder Your Winter’s Supply of 
—Fine Gilt-Edge Celery by tie 
Cl C ■ y • case (five or ten dozen), 100 or 
1,000 . 25 cents per dozen. Special price on large lots 
/*k in ] n it —1,000 bushels Yellow Globe 
IllUnbi Danvers, extra quality. Sam¬ 
ple barrel (three bushels) f. o. b , $2 50. 
Cabbage. 
—Winter Cabbage by the 
ton or hundred. Address 
VV. P. THORNTON, 
Driftwood Celery Gardens. CANASTOTA, N. Y. 
COLUMBIA 
^STEELWIND 
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New in Principle 
Beautiful it. 
Appearance, 
Powerful in Operation 
Contains covered Interna) Gear 
Uneqnaled In the line of Pnmpfns Wi. S 
Mills. We solicit the closest tavseti^e 
Uon.jjso Columbia Ste«i IkAR- ?fteS * 
sy«oa Torhist Will l&mtgi :»*t 
MM Bens**?»JP©iro« A A.HyFujii'! «■ 
Tank, and Spray Pnrnyfy Snur v 
aai tr oHLiwt. aievn W Ki-t. 
log Cztrsir«<. Ate Write forc'r-■t, 0 
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in fitvel Si.. SiTAVU. ILL 
™ STA . 
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AND ANTI-RATTLER. c 
weight on hor*eT Worth twice the oost for ooaveo-C/) 
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Order sample. Price, |1.50. State right* for *ale. ^ 
THE DECATUR SHAFT SUPPORT C0.~ 
Decatur. 111. 
PAINTroofs 
Op AON S SILICA GRAPHITE PAINT 
Water will run from it pure and clean. It covers double 
the surface of any other paint, and will lattfour orflv* 
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circulars. Jos. Dixon Cbucible CO., Jersey City, N. J. 
INGLESIDE 
Highly improved farm 
of 381) acres— 2.0 culti¬ 
vated, balance wood¬ 
lands, mostly original growth. Large proportion of 
rich river bottoms aosoluiely inexhaustible; land 
all level and smooth; nohllls; In fire neart; adapted 
to grain, grass, fruit and vegetab.es; alllenced and 
running water in every field. Residence In large 
grove cl trees. Ample outbuildings; large orchard; 
near two railroads; climate eminently healthy the 
entire year. Cneap labor; good home markets; 
hunting and fishing unexcelled. Box 282, Ljnch- 
burg, Va. 
WIFE 
SAYS SHE CANNOT SEE HOW 
,,■■1. YOU DO IT FOR THE MONEY. 
d'lOBtiys a $05. Improved Oxford Singer 
vJIZSewing Machine; perfect working,rel¬ 
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Full treatise on Improved method**, yield*, pro- 
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ltox 18. WAYNESBORO, FA. 
