1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
733 
tion of eggs and for growing young stock. 2. I feed 
it mixed with other food and also alone. About one 
pound to 20 hens, or five pounds to 100 is about the 
right quantity. 3. I have never tried steaming or 
cooking it. 4. I have never fed it to other animals, 
yet I am well aware that it would be excellent for 
dogs. 5. The highest price I ever paid, for them was 
75 cents per 100 pounds. About one-half of them I 
get for the asking. 6. The cheapest food I have 
found for hens for the production of eggs is cut bone, 
scalded clover and middlings. c. J. schuyler. 
New York. 
I think cut raw bone the best of feed for laying 
hens. It costs but little, one-half cent per pound in 
the rough and two cents per pound after being cut. 
I have never sold it, because it is hard to get bones 
enough for my own use. I have cut bones for other 
people for 1% cent per pound. I feed it in a mash in 
the morning, about four quarts to 100 hens every 
other day. I have never tried steaming or cooking 
it after cutting, except as it was scalded in scalding 
the mash. I have never fed it to anything but poul¬ 
try. I have found wheat bran and corn meal half and 
half an excellent mash for the morning feed. I feed 
whole wheat at noon and cracked corn and oats at 
night. Barley two or three times a week for a 
change, is good. J. R. colton. 
Massachusetts. 
1. Green bone is an economical feed. Having fed 
about 20 tons this season places us in a position to 
know its merits. 2. We mix it with other feed; 15 
per cent ground bone is about right for ducks, young 
and old, also for hens and broilers. 3. No, and we 
don’t advise any one else to do so. 4. No. 5. Green 
bones cost 50 cents per 100 pounds at the slaughter 
house. There might be a trade worked up for them if 
they could be kept. The trouble is they soon spoil 
after cutting. We have kept the cut bone on ice, and 
even then it smells by morning, in July. 6. We don’t 
keep hens. We buy all our hen eggs, liaising ducks 
is our main business. The feed t hould consist of 15 per 
cent green bone, 20 per cent bran, 20 per cent No. 2 
Hour, 15 per cent crackers, 30 per cent corn meal. To 
this should be added green food of some kind, such as 
corn, rye, etc., or clover hay cut fine and steamed for 
some time in quantities equal to the ration first given. 
Pennsylvania. trusbon & mcfetridqe. 
Chunks of Cut Wisdom. 
1. Yes. 2. Both ways; 10 pounds. 3. We cook it in 
a jacket kettle as it will not keep in warm weather. 
4. No. 5. We sell it as we keep a meat market. G. 
We never have given any ration a trial as to cost. We 
feed cooked cut bone, bran, meal and potatoes in the 
morning, wet, a little green bone at noon and mixed 
grain at night. A. s. batten & bro. 
New York. 
The Cheapest Hen Ration. 
1. I consider the cut bone an economical food for 
poultry if fed in limited quantity 2. I feed once a 
week at noon and nothing after., I feed it clear, 150 
pounds bone to about 2,000 head of poultry. 3. I 
never have tried steaming or cooking it after cutting. 
4. I never have fed it to other animals. 5. Bones cost 
us about 60 cents per 100 pounds unground. G. I con¬ 
sider bran, middlings and corn meal the cheapest 
ration for fowls or hens. One part meal to two 
parts bran and middlings. Walter cutting. 
Meadow Farm, Massachusetts. 
Profit in Butchers’ Offal. 
1. Yes. 2. Alone; 10 pounds to 100 hens twice a 
week. 3 and 4. No. 5. Haw bones, block trimmings, 
are sold by the West Chester butchers at GO cents per 
100 pounds to the tallow Tenderer. The proprietor of 
a meat store in West Chester, who had a small engine, 
bought a small cower Mann bone cutter and cut up 
all his scraps, which he sold to poultry keepers at 2 % 
to three cents per pound; this he considered profitable. 
G. I am now feeding wheat boiled with beef heads in 
the morning, and dry wheat in the evening. I have 
no poultry confined. 
I am not able to give the attention to fowls I would 
wish, as I have a farm of 130 acres, plant two to three 
acres of strawberries each year, and all my four chil¬ 
dren go to school, so there is no one to care for them. 
I have been getting the offal from a butcher, consist¬ 
ing of the head, feet, lungs, spleen aud first joint of 
the spine, averaging about two sets per week, for 12 
or more years, at $10 per year. This has been boiled 
and fed to the poultry, and the dry bones have been 
sold for about what I paid for the whole. We also 
make what harness oil we need from the feet. A year 
ago I got a Mann bone cutter and cut the bones all 
winter, besides a whole cow and some horse meat. 
At times we had an over supply, and fed as much as 
half a bushel of cut bone and meat per day to 100 
hens, without any apparent harm. I very much pre¬ 
fer the cut meat and bone raw to the cooked meat. 
Pennsylvania. edwabd t. ingbam. 
Feed to Pigs ; Cut for Farmers. 
1. I do ; I think it should be made of fresh bones 
and meat and not over a week old. 2. I feed it both 
ways; I give a six quart panful every day to 100 hens. 
3 No. I think it would be a good plan. 4. I have 
given it to hogs, and have sold considerable for hog 
feed. 5. I pay 40 cents per 100 pounds delivered. I 
have sold over 15 tons in six months. 6. A warm mash 
in the morning, wheat and buckwheat at noon, corn 
at night, and all the pure water they will drink. 
Every one has different ideas as to how and upon 
what kind of feed a hen should be fed. I try to keep 
my poultry warm, to give good clean food, freshwater 
and cut bone and I never want for eggs. I purchased 
a power bone cutter last fall and, without advertising 
of any kind, sold something like 15 tons of cut bone up 
to May 1. I also cut a great deal for farmers who 
furnished their own bones. We sold the cut bone for 
$1.40 per 100 pounds, which is a low price, or cut bones 
for others at $1 per 100 pounds. Cut green bone, if 
fresh, is the thing for poultry. I would not give any¬ 
thing for it in warm weather, if old, as it will become 
hot and black and good for nothing for feed. I am 
feeding a little every day to my pigs. They are doing 
finely. We expect to sell 25 tons of bone the coming 
winter. t. a. thorne. 
New York. _ . 
ROOTS IN THE TILES. 
In your experience in tiling orchards, have you ever 
been troubled with roots getting into the tiles ? What 
have you done to prevent this, and if you were tiling 
an orchard now, what steps would you take to avoid 
the trouble ? 
My only experience has been with one orchard tiled 
22 years ago. Round tiles with collars were used, and 
they have been perfectly satisfactory. There has been 
no trouble whatever from roots. If I were tiling an 
orchard now, I should proceed as with the first one. 
New Jersey. J. m. white. 
Tiling is not needed here. My land has natural 
drainage from two to three feet below the surface ; 
consequently I have had no experience with tiles. 
Ohio. N. OHMER. 
I now have about 40 acres of apple orchard. The 
first tiling was done in the fall of I860. The following 
spring eight acres were planted to apple trees. The 
tiles have never filled up yet; one year ago we run a 
tile drain from the field above into one of the old drains 
in the orchard. Before doing it, we opened up the end 
for a few rods, but found no apple tree roots in the 
tiles. I have used all sizes of tiles, three to six inches, 
all of the horse-shoe form laid on a hemlock board ; 
the joints are not very smooth, but they have done 
the business. The apple trees are vigorous and have 
produced abundantly. geo. catchbole. 
Wayne County, N. Y. 
I have had tiles completely filled with fine roots 
from fruit trees. For orchards, though they are more 
expensive, where stones are plenty, I prefer stone 
drains. The large space that is made by the stones 
does not give the roots opportunity to mass themselves 
as in tiles. I use stone drains entirely and have no 
trouble with them, while in the end they also prove 
cheaper. Were I forced to use tiles, I would run one 
ditch directly under the center of the row of trees, 
where the fine feeding roots do not reach. I would 
plant the trees 45 feet apart, and in putting the drain 
between the rows I would cover the joints and cement 
tightly. geo. t. bowell. 
Plum Trees from Texas. 
F. Q. W., Yorktown, N. Y. —1. Would plum trees 
brought from Texas do as well here as those grown 
North? 2. Would they come that distance in good 
order in large quantities, and not be too expensive ? 
Ans. —1. We tnink so. There is no valid reason that 
we know of why they should not. 2. We cannot say 
as to the expense. Mr. Munson’s word, which may 
always be relied upon, may guide you. If properly 
packed, they would not be harmed by the passage. 
Trench or Furrow for Potatoes ? 
C. C. R., Hatboro, Pa. —Will you kindly report more 
fully your furrow system of culture of potatoes, per 
your recent report “ Trench vs. regular cultivation ? ” 
I have the New Potato Culture, but think that if there 
is so little difference between the two methods, I pre¬ 
fer the furrow as being cheaper and less troublesome. 
1. How close may I put my furrows together ? 2. Will 
going up and down the furrow with an ordinary two- 
horse plow make them wide enough ? 3. After putting 
fertilizer in the bottom of the furrow, and dropping 
the potatoes on top, shall I cover level with the sur¬ 
face ? 
Ans. —The furrows spoken of in The R. N.-Y. test 
as between furrows and trenches are turned with an 
ordinary plow in the usual way. The small difference 
in yield between the trench system and furrows was 
thought to be due to a cold, wet early season and to 
the further fact that the trial was made on rather low 
ground. 1. We plow the furrows, measuring from the 
middle of each, three feet apart. 2. To make trenches 
in field culture, we use a shovel plow, going through 
each trench twice, or thrice if need be. 3. Yes, cover 
level with the adjacent soil. 
Can the No. 2 Potato Change Its Shape ? 
W. 0. P., Normal , III .—This is the third year I have 
raised the R. N.-Y. No. 2 potatoes. This year they 
changed their shape; three-quarters of them, at least, 
are long instead of round and slight ly flat as they weie 
last year and the year before. Many of the potatoes 
have black centers in them, something I never saw in 
the No. 2 before. I sold some to two of my neigh¬ 
bors last spring, and their potatoes are like mine, 
while other potatoes of theirs are all right. Not one 
planted had a black spot inside when we cut them for 
seed. The field used to be a feed lot, and is rich and 
mellow. Do you have any idea what caused them to 
have black centers? What caused them to change 
their shape ? 
Ans. —Not doubting in the least our friend’s state¬ 
ment, we are of the opinion that his seed must be 
mixed, and that the “changed shape” and black 
“ heart ” are those of some other variety. We have 
never known the No. 2 to change its characteristic 
shape except as any potato may change from drought, 
second growth or contact with stones, etc. 
Catechising a Kentucky Soil. 
J. G. K., Buckners, Ky .—We use raw bone meal with 
good results on nearly all crops we grow. Would not 
an addition of one-third or so of muriate of potash be 
an improvement? We use 200 pounds of the bone to 
the acre ; is that enough to replace all the phosphoric 
acid which a crop of wheat of say 200 bushels per acre 
would take from the soil ? As pure bone is hard to 
get would not dissolved Carolina rock do as well ? At 
what price is it generally sold ? By what crops can 
we best determine when a soil lacks potash ? We find 
that when clover sod is turned under for wheat and 
again seeded to clover, it is hard to get a stand ; does 
not that show that our soil lacks potash ? 
Ans. —Yes, undoubtedly the addition of muriate 
would help the crop. By all means send to the Ken¬ 
tucky Experiment Station at Lexington for bulletins 
on soil testing. It was found at the station that the 
soil sadly needed potash. Yes, 200 pounds of good 
bone will furnish the phosphoric acid needed for 20 
bushels of wheat—unless the soil is very poor, but you 
must remember that the bone also supplies a quantity 
of nitrogen and perhaps the wheat needs that as well 
as the phosphoric acid. Dissolved rock would supply 
the phosphoric acid, but you might have to supply 
nitrogen in some form. The wholesale price of dis¬ 
solved rock in New York is about .$9 per ton. The 
way to learn if a soil needs potash is to test the soil— 
not. the crop. The result with the clover indicates 
that potash is needed, but to make sure you should use 
potash in strips through the field leaving wide spaces 
between where none is used. Then watch the effect 
on the crops. That is the surest way to learn. 
Some Grape Varieties. 
J. El., Dent , Ohio. — What is your experience with the 
following grapes: Brilliant, Campbell, Rommel and 
Herman Jaeger ? I wish to plant a few more of the 
newer kinds ; what varieties do you recommend ? 
Ans. —The varieties of Mr. Munson mentioned have 
been growing at the Rural Grounds too short a time 
to enable us to give any decided opinion regarding 
their value. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
The Champion Peach .—T., Townsend Harbor, Mass. 
— The It. N.-Y. has not planted this peach. We shall 
be glad to hear from others as to its quality and 
hardiness. 
White Grubs and Fruits .—P. & R., Grand Rapids, 
Wis.—On land infested with white grubs we would 
not fear to set out apples, currants, gooseberries and 
similar fruits, though, of course, not strawberries. 
Wild Strawberries .—I. A. B., Ashtabula County, Ohio. 
—You can improve the size of the wild strawberries 
•by giving them a rich soil and a suitable location. 
You may get an improvement in size by raising seed¬ 
lings. It might be well to cross with the best known 
varieties. 
Strawberries and Grapes.— C. C. C., Jeffersonville, 
Ind.—For a strawberry “more productive and larger 
than Gandy,” try Bubach, Sharpless, Brandywine, 
Leviathan and Princess. Lutie is a Labrusca grape, 
large, red, showy and foxy. It is not worthy of in¬ 
troduction. Bush, Son & Meissner, of Bushberg, Mo., 
has it for sale. 
Cornell University .—A. S., Walkill, N. Y.—Cornell 
University is located at Ithaca, N. Y. Prof. I. P. 
Roberts is the head of the Agricultural Department. 
The short winter course in agriculture begins in 
January and continues 10 weeks. No entrance ex¬ 
amination is required for this. Write to Professor 
Roberts for particulars. 
