THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 31 
198 
balance scale hanging' in a convenient place with a 
slate and pencil handy. The milk was strained from 
the milking pails into deep cream pails and through 
the Dodge strainer. The beauty of this strainer is 
that it can be taken off for cleaning. It consists 
really of several circular wire meshes, which can be 
taken out and washed with but little trouble. This 
is much better than a cloth or a single fixed strainer. 
There were three milkers, and after about five cows 
had been milked one of the hired men led the goat out 
from his little stall. This goat weighs about 130 
pounds. Before he came to be a cream raiser he drew 
a child’s wagon. There were no lazy bones about him, 
but at a word he jumped nimbly into an Enterprise 
tread power. The halter was tied to the front of the 
power, and the goat began walking gravely, one foot 
after another, without gaining an inch ahead. The 
power was connected with the handle of a Baby sep¬ 
arator, as shown in Pig. 61, and, as the power started, 
milk was poured into the tank, and quickly began to 
run through as skim-milk and cream. H. w. c. 
(To be continued.) 
GROWING SEED PEAS IN CANADA. 
No matter what the specialty on a farm may be, 
there is a preparatory period, if I may so call it, 
which, to the casual observer, may seem of no im¬ 
portance and only time thrown away. In grow¬ 
ing fancy seed peas, this is not thrown away. The 
plan I have found most successful and that adopted 
by the principal growers in the pea district, is some¬ 
thing like the following : First is grown a cleansing 
crop of turnips, mangolds, carrots or potatoes. This 
crop is heavily manured at the rate of 20 to 25 big 
loads of manure per acre, and occasionally artificial 
fertilizers are used to give the young plants a start. 
This is followed by barley" and seeded down with Red 
clover, a little Timothy, and per¬ 
haps Alsike clover. The first crop 
is cut for hay, the second allowed 
to grow until, say, the beginning 
of October. By that time it is at 
least 12 to 14 inches high and all 
in bloom. It almost makes one’s 
heart ache to plow it down, but 
for two years we have been striv- 
ing to get just this growth so as 
to get the big paying crop of the 
rotation, the fancy seed pea. After 
plowing this growth under about , 
six inches deep, we roll to keep 
in the moisture and help the fer- 
mentation and decay of the big 
nitrogen producers lately buried. ^ 
It will be noticed that the crop is 
plowed under sufficiently early. Protect: 
and while there is some sun and 
heat, so that the nitrates are not only rapidly made, 
but fixed just as surely by the absorbent power of the 
soil. While Nature is working in her laboratory, and 
storing up food for the next crop, the farmer must 
also be at work on the surface using the Acme or 
spring-tooth harrow, making a fine surface and caus¬ 
ing all weed seeds to sprout and grow during the 
usual seductive autumnal weather. This may seem 
like labor thrown away, but it is one of the secrets of 
successful farming. 
After the winter frosts have assisted in disintegrat¬ 
ing and pulverizing, this surface simply requires 
running over with a cultivator or duck-billed harrow, 
to have, say, three to four inches of such soil as a gar¬ 
dener would want, to insure his best success with 
What They Say. 
How Southern Grapes Grow. —Here is a statement 
from an old Georgia grape grower concerning the 
growth made in his grounds on one-year-old vines set 
in the spring of 1893. Who can beat it ? I thought 
you would like to see how Southern varieties of grapes 
grow in the South. t. v. munson. 
Deak Mh. Munson: I send you th« length of wood of the follow¬ 
ing varletleB. I have cut them Into lenKths for propagating conse¬ 
quently there has been much of the real length taken off, especially 
from the Carman; that made a very late growth, and was not ripened, 
BO thl" had to be taken out of the real length—perhaps in all some 
25 feet Making Into cuttlngB reduced It still more, as I measured 
after the cuttings were made: 
No. of feet. 
Muench . 35 
Beacon. 71 
Fern Munson (this was from a 
graft). 21 
Gov. Ross. 7 
Neva Munson. 65 
No. of feet. 
Mrs Munson. 62 
Carman. 114 
Great Cluster . 65 
Brilliant. 20 
Hermann Jaeger. 72 
America. 59 
They would have made more wood, but I pinched them when at the 
top of the stake. The Brilliant would have made more wood, but It 
was broken off twice In the growing season. B. H. anthony. 
Macon. 6s. 
Peas as Nitrogen Traps —I note with interest what 
Mr. Hale, on page 89 of The R. N.-Y. says of the use 
of cow peas in Connecticut as traps for nitrogen. There 
is a general impression that the Southern cow pea can¬ 
not be grown with profit anywhere in the North ; but 
after considerable trial, I find that it does well in 
southern Ohio, and Mr. Hale’s success in Connecticut 
proves that this pea can be used with profit in much 
of the North. I do not find that it is a rival of Red 
clover in any sense, as clover is naturally a ranker 
grower with us than the pea, but the latter should 
have a place with us as an adjunct of clover. Its ad¬ 
vantages over clover are notable. 
It does its work in four or five months, whereas 
clover requires four times as long a period. It is a 
catch crop, and makes a great growth of root in a 
short time. It will grow where clover fails. This is 
._tf: 
Protection to Seedling Potatoes. See Ruralisms, Page 203. Fig. 62 
the best point of all. Last summer I had a clover field 
that was full of weeds. Clover had been grown on 
this field in close rotation for many years, and the re¬ 
sult was that the growth was stunted. About the first 
of June I turned under this heavy coat of weeds and 
clover, and seeded to peas. The result was most grati¬ 
fying. I had a fine growth of peas, and upon exami¬ 
nation found that the roots had made a correspond¬ 
ingly big growth. The nodules or excrescences that 
one sees on clover roots were present on the pea roots, 
and from the appearance of the crop and a knowledge 
of the results of some analyses, it was evident that I 
had trapped a big lot of nitrogen in four or five 
months, thus fitting the ground the better for the suc¬ 
ceeding potato crop. 
good growth of rye and another of peas. The peas 
will trap the nitrogen, and as both crops will pump 
up some mineral manure from the subsoil, I will have 
the field ready for a paying cash crop within a year. 
The soil will be in good mechanical condition, thanks 
to the pea roots. 
Cow peas deserve a place in the North. Often one 
sees an acre or two of bare or weedy land in an other¬ 
wise good clover field. Seed that acre to peas. If 
the truck patch is getting too compact, seed part of it 
to peas after early vegetables are gathered. Any¬ 
where that land must lie bare in the latter half of 
summer, let peas be used to catch nitrogen—all this 
in latitudes that will ripen peas, and Mr. Hale tells 
us that they ripen as far north as Connecticut. 
Gallia County, 0. alva agee. 
HOW FERTILIZERS AFFECT VEGETABLE 
QUALITY. 
In the article of Mr. R R. Walcott, in The R. N.-Y. 
of February 3, he speaks of his cows preferring the 
grass on the fertilized parts of his pasture to that of 
the unfertilized. This leads me to speak of some ex¬ 
perience I have had in the same direction. I have been 
experimenting with fertilizers more or less during the 
past two years. One day as I was passing by my field 
of oats, carrying a pail of nitrate of soda to be applied 
to my tomato patch, I threw a handful in the oats, 
which were about four or five inches high at that time. 
When they were headed out, they were fully twice 
as high in this spot. Then my neighbor’s cattle came 
along one night and wandered down through this field. 
They did not seem to disturb any of the oats until they 
discovered the spot where the nitrate had been ap¬ 
plied ; this they devoured, even pulling the stubbles 
up by the roots. Then, again, we notice that in pas¬ 
tures where manure has been dropped by horses, the 
grass will be much larger, but a 
cow cannot be starved into eating 
it. Does not this go to prove 
that vegetables or the like are of 
better quality grown with ferti¬ 
lizers than those grown with 
manure ? 
Last spring I sowed some rad¬ 
ishes alongside the fence where 
woodchucks burrowed. For an 
^ vk experiment, I sowed some nitrate 
of soda on one row two-thirds of 
^ its length, which was about 20 
rods long. The radishes came up 
nicely, and this two thirds of a 
row seemed to grow much faster 
^r- than the rest of the patch. It de¬ 
lighted me to look over this one 
row each morning as I went to 
my work, thinking what a lesson 
this had taught me, to mature my radishes much 
earlier hereafter. Finally one morning I noticed that 
my fine row of radishes had disappeared. Upon mak- 
a close examination, I found that the woodchucks had 
gnawed off every plant slick and clean as far as a grain 
of nitrate had been dropped, and had not molested one 
plant of the remainder of the patch. Does not this 
prove the quality of vegetables grown with fertilizers? 
Even dumb brutes prefer the fertilizer vegetables on 
their bill of fare. Have they a more discriminating 
palate than some of the human race ? geo. bittner. 
THE PEARS OF RUSSIA. 
THE COLD CANNOT KILL THEM, 
small, fine seeds. As early in the season as the soil 
can be got into this condition is the proper time to 
sow. Sow from 23 ^ to 3 bushels per acre with an 
ordinary farm seed drill, at least three inches deep. 
No other working is necessary except to harrow and 
roll after drilling, until the seed appears well above 
ground ; then put in the Thomas harrow and no matter 
if you apparently destroy the crop not a weed will 
appear, and the loosened soil so acts as a > mulch that 
when the plants push through one may almost fancy 
he can see them grow. 
We cut them with what we call a pea-harvester, 
which is simply an attachment that can be put on any 
mowing machine. Occasionally the peas are thrashed 
by hand or horse, but usually the ordinary thrashing 
machine is used, the concave being removed and a 
board substituted. They yield, under favorable cir¬ 
cumstances, 40 bushels par acre ; the price is S1.25 per 
bushel and upwards, according to the price of seed and 
the variety. I need not say that after the peas are 
removed, the soil is in the condition most favorable 
to the growth of a big crop of wheat; in fact, it is 
the favorite preparation in this part. The pea haulm 
is worth more than any straw for sheep, and will pay 
all expenses of the crop for that purpose. 
Delaware, Ont. richard gibson. 
Concord GRArK.— Ephraim W. Bull.—See Ed. page. 
It is a great enemy of weed growth. This is especi¬ 
ally important in those sections in which either white- 
top or plantain have a foot-hold. If a clover field or 
Timothy meadow be found to be full of filth in the 
latter part of May, it may be plowed and peas planted. 
The grass which is turned under, and the peas, give 
the succeeding crop of potatoes or corn a big store of 
plant food. The turning of the sod in May, and the 
rank growing peas prevent weeds from doing injury. 
In the North it is a mistake, I think, to grow peas 
chiefiy for forage. Clover is superior. The cow pea 
is chiefiy valuable as a nitrogen trap, and on account 
of the wonderful net-work of roots that penetrate the 
soil and disintegrate it. Last fall, when plowing a 
pea sod, it was very noticeable that the soil was more 
compact where there were places skipped in the seed¬ 
ing, and to this loosening effect in clay ground I at¬ 
tribute some of the good results from a pea sod. 
In potato growing in Ohio, we can well afford to 
devote one-half the time to furnishing plant food for 
the potatoes. Instead of sowing wheat in one field 
last fall that does not grow rank clover, I seeded it 
down to rye. This rye will be turned under the last 
of May, and peas will be sown. This 13 acres could 
not bring me much profit from 50-cent wheat, and the 
next year I could hope for little better than a weedy 
clover field. As it is, within one year I can give it a 
Long exvericnce with pears; 40 degrees below zero sent 
them all to the brush heap ; the Russian varieties live ; 
history of these pears : varieties and their character¬ 
istics ; what the Russians have done for fruit growing 
in cold countries. 
At the end of 18 years given to thorough and care¬ 
ful testing of those among our standard varieties of 
pears which have been reputed as hardiest against win¬ 
ter cold, the winter of 1884-85 destroyed my last hope 
of finding among our old importations or newer native 
seedlings a single variety that would endure the test 
winters of northeastern Vermont. All went down 
before a minus temperature of 40 degrees, recurring 
thrice in a single winter; and my whole stock, from 
Flemish Beauty to Idaho, went to the brush heap. In 
that very year I received from the late Mr. Charles 
Gibb, of Montreal, and from Prof. J. L. Budd, of Iowa, 
an assortment of Russian pear trees one year from the 
bud. These I have propagated first by budding near 
the ground and planting out deeply enough to put the 
entire stocks under the surface, and later by the use 
of splice grafts upon native or French seedling stocks. 
This answers very well, as in 10 years I have not lost 
a tree so worked, and the growth is quite satisfactory. 
But since I have got good seed-bearing varieties of 
these Russian pears—especially Lutovka—to bearing 
size, I am enabled to grow good stocks from such seed. 
