1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4o7 
and mellow as before, and after the next crop, they 
are plowed under. This system is based on these two 
ideas : Every superfluous plant is worse than a weed, 
because it costs berries to create as well as berries to 
sustain it; and as the first runners to root bear the 
most berries, the first to start should be rooted where 
they belong’. Careful estimates indicate that it will 
pay to set out every plant in the spring; the next 
best thing is to root every runner where it belongs as 
early as possible. The first season, there are 48,000 
bearing plants, the second 80,000, and yet a hoe can 
be passed between any two, and there is no excuse for 
weeds except sheer laziness. The yield is usually 8,000 
to 10,000 pounds. 
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Little 
Satisfaction With Fertilizers, 
Of all the points in strawberry culture, none has re¬ 
ceived more attention and downright hard thinking 
than the matter of fertilizing the crop, and none has 
been less satisfactorily answered. Hundreds and hun¬ 
dreds of dollars have been spent for commercial ferti¬ 
lizers, nitrate of soda, dissolved rock, hard-wood ashes 
and complete special strawberry of the best makers, 
but never in a single instance has there 
been enough difference so that one unac¬ 
quainted withathe facts could distinguish 
the fertilized from the unfertilized places. 
To determine these matters once for all, 
was the reason for making so great a dif¬ 
ference between the applications on the 
east and west sides of plat No. 2 mentioned 
in the previous article. At the present 
writing, there seems to be a little difference. 
If so, it will be reported later. Two sub¬ 
stances in this line have always given very 
decided answers : Stable manure uniformly 
gives increased tops, earlier runners, larger 
and softer berries, which hold their size to 
the end better, and one can distinguish 
across a field where it has been applied. 
The other is sawdust. One winter, the 
entire crop was covered except a few rods 
with 50 loads per acre of fresh sawdust, oak 
and hemlock. The first of the season, its 
ill effects were not so apparent, and the 
crop was about as good as where it had not 
been mulched, whereas it should have been 
better; but later, it was thought best to 
plow up the patch and put in drilled corn 
for fodder. The corn showed to the foot 
where the sawdust had been applied, not 
averaging over 18 inches, while where 
not applied it was the most profitable crop 
of the season proportionately. 
Some two years since, considerable pains 
were taken to hunt up the analyses of the plants and 
berries, and supply an abundant ration in April for 
the plants set at that time, for runners in July and 
for the first crop, but nothing definite has been ascer¬ 
tained. The only theory that the proprietors have 
is that the soil is about as full of strawberries as it 
can be. They have regarded the place as a bank, 
in the past reasoning that it was a good thing to 
have air the fertility possible on deposit, c. t. sweet. 
CHEAP PAINTS OF MILK AND LIME. 
' FOB EXTEBIOK AND INTEBIOB WOBK. 
How the Church Fence Was Painted. 
Where rough woodwork, such as old barns or other 
frame buildings, fences and the like, is to be painted, 
economy, and often necessity, would indicate the use 
of cheaper materials than ordinary oil paint, and 
more lasting than whitewash. I have now a case in 
point. A small rural church, after making extensive 
improvements upon its property, found several thou¬ 
sand square feet of rough fence yet to be coated, both 
for preservation and comeliness; but the funds were 
exhausted, and it was not likely that money could be 
collected to buy the quantity of paint required and 
then employ painters to do the work. I suggested 
this wash : To two quarts of water-lime, or hydraulic 
cement, add sweet skim-milk until of the consistency 
of good cream. Pour in the milk slowly, stir briskly 
and thoroughly, and do not mix more than this quan¬ 
tity at a time, as it is liable to settle to the bottom 
and become hard. The proportions stated are not 
exact, and one will have to use his own judgment a 
little, seeing that the mixture is not thin enough to 
run,” or thick enough not to spread easily. Use a 
flat brush, say four inches in width, and apply like 
oil paint. The paint, when dry, is a sort of creamy 
stone color, and any other color may be obtained by 
the addition of suitable pigments, which must first be 
“ broken ” or mixed in a little milk to a paste before 
being put with the first mixture. Better still, buy 
color ground in water. This paint has been exten¬ 
sively used for years with perfect satisfaction, look¬ 
ing well for several years, and is comparatively inex¬ 
pensive. A common laborer can apply it at a saving 
of one-half the cost of painters’ wages, and farm 
hands, when work is slack, could do it at a still 
greater saving. 
Recipe books years ago contained this formula, and 
its advantages were again revived by General LeDuc, 
while he was United States Commissioner of Agricul¬ 
ture. He mentioned an instance of a country house, 
within his knowledge, the body of which was cov¬ 
ered with this mixture, and the trimmings with lead 
and oil paint, 45 years before he described it. During 
this period the trimming paint had been renewed sev¬ 
eral times, but the cheap body color remained well 
preserved. I was once shown a frame residence 
which had been coated with a mixture of buttermilk 
and lime several years previously, and, though a 
painter, I could hardly distinguish the surface from 
the ordinary paint work, and it looked remarkably 
well. 
What the Q-overnmentaUses. 
Another recipe is as follows : Boil three gallons of 
water and one pint of flaxseed half an hour ; take it 
from the fire and add water enough to make four gal¬ 
lons. Let it stand to settle ; pour off the water in a 
pail, and put in enough whiting to make it as thick as 
whitewash ; add one-half pint of linseed oil, and stir 
thoroughly. If the whiting do not mix readily, add 
more water. Flaxseed is of an oily nature, and will 
not wash off as readily as glue. Sour milk is some¬ 
times used, but sweet, skim-milk is preferable. The 
addition of a solution of common salt is desirable, as 
it tends to make the paint adhere more firmly and 
helps make the mixture more non-combustible. All 
milk-and-lime mixtures are excellent for shingles, and 
for all farm purposes, and, if laid on with care, will 
certainly last for a few years and look well, besides 
preserving the wood. Be careful, however, to have 
the surface to be coated perfectly scraped and pre¬ 
pared beforehand. 
For its lighthouses, beacons and keepers’ dwellings, 
the Government uses a mixture of 10 parts freshly 
slaked lime to one part of the best hydraulic cement, 
mixed well with salt water and applied quite thin. 
Another Government recipe is as follows : Slake one- 
half bushel of lime with boiling water, keeping it 
covered during the process ; then strain and add one 
peck of salt dissolved in warm water, three pounds of 
rice flour boiled in water to a thin paste, one-half 
pound of whiting, and one pound of white glue dis¬ 
solved in warm water. Allow it to stand several days, 
but apply hot. Two coats will usually be found 
necessary, as in all the foregoing formulas. 
What to Use Inside the House. 
For interior wall work, milk and whiting, suitably 
tinted, make a much more durable job than water 
color painting, and nearly equal to paint mixed with 
oil. Milk is probably better than glue as a binder for 
the whiting, as it wiU likely not decay an^ become 
rancid or perish as soon as the latter. But glue is often 
used, and a nice white finish for a ceiling may be made 
as follows : Pat two ounces of best white glue in a 
small quantity of cold water overnight; put four 
pounds of gilders’ best bolted whiting in enough cold 
water to cover it; let stand overnight to slake. Next 
morning, add boiling water to the glue and stir until 
dissolved; add to the whiting, which has first been well 
stirred and made perfectly smooth. Thin with cold 
water, and stand away until jellied, in which condi¬ 
tion it is best for applying : then apply with a kalso- 
mine or good solid whitewash brush. Do not lay the 
wash off as a painter would put on paint, but rub it 
on haphazard, crisscross, being careful only to cover 
every part and not permit the lapping edges to get 
dry. 
Gypsum paints come in several shades, ready to be 
thinned with water, and are quite durable, even for 
outdoor work. They become hard as stone, and do 
not rub off, nor are they mixed with glue. These cost 10 
cents a pound for the white, and 11 for the tints, a 
five pound package being sufficient for two coats for 
any ordinary ceiling. But I prefer the whiting mix¬ 
tures, as they make a smoother, nicer job, and are 
cheaper. 
Some More Complicated Paints. 
Another mixture which is especially recommended 
for protecting woodwork, is composed of 300 parts 
washed and sifted white sand, 40 parts precipitated 
chalk, 50 parts resin, and four parts raw linseed oil, 
mixed and boiled in an iron kettle with one part of 
oxide of copper and one part of sulphuric acid added. 
Apply with an ordinary paint brush while warm. If 
too thick, dilute with boiled linseed oil. 
This paint dries rapidly and becomes very 
hard. 
For tin roofs or similar metal work, 
a cheap and quite durable mixture may 
be made with coal oil, quick .Japan drier 
and the cheap earth paints, such as the 
Venetian red, metallic brown, etc. As- 
phaltum varnish paint, made of common 
asphaltum dissolved in turpentine or ben¬ 
zine, is good for iron fences and other iron 
work. Many of the ready-mixed paints on 
the market are emulsions. Lime water 
will mix with linseed oil and form a soap. 
To this may be added whiting and colors, 
and the whole will form a comparatively 
durable paint. An emulsion paint proper 
has other ingredients, such as soda, lead 
(a trace, often) zinc, varium sulphate, naph¬ 
tha and driers. For fence posts, the ends 
which are to go in the ground, may be 
dipped in boiling gas or coal tar. Nothing 
is better, though there are several methods 
of treatment. For the shingle roof of the 
barn, presuming that the shingles are of 
some soft, perishable wood, it will pay to 
use a pure raw linseed oil and Venetian 
red or oxide of iron composition, adding 
some drying Japan. Dry iron paint may be 
used, but nothing is saved thereby. Better 
get that which has been ground in oil, and 
which will cost but a few cents a pound, and 
it will mix with the oil better. Make quite thin, and 
apply one coat, quite freely, though not so that it will 
run. The next year give another coat. That ought 
to last several years. A cypress or cedar shingle 
needs no paint and will last until the barn burns or 
blows down. A. asiimun kelly. 
NURSERYMEN AND THE TARIFF. 
What the* proposition recently mentioned in The 
R N.-Y of “taking the tariff question out of poli¬ 
tics, and considering it merely from a business stand¬ 
point ” really amounts to, was illustrated at the last 
Nurserymen’s Convention at Niagara Falls, .Tune 7. 
The question brought before the meeting seemed to 
be a simple one, namely : “ Are nurserymen benefited 
by a tariff on nursery stock, or not? And, if they 
are, how should this article be rated ? ” It was laid 
before the Convention simply as a business question, 
by Mr. Sweet, of Dansville, N. Y. Mr. Sweet, as a 
user of foreign pear and plum stocks, and unable to 
raise such stocks himself, objects to a tariff on them, 
which, to him, the importer and user, amounts to 
nothing less than a tax. His inteaest is beat served 
by having stocks put on the free list. President 
Pearsall, while admitting that he can not grow pear 
stocks, and has not succeeded in growing Mahaleb 
stocks, thinks that a high tariff might stimulate the 
infant industry of raising plum and cherry stocks. 
Mr. W. C. Barry, as a producer of nursery stock, 
wants to keep up prices by excluding foreign compe¬ 
tition, and consequently thinks a high tariff (30 to 40 
per cent) just the thing demanded by his business in¬ 
terests. All this, no doubt, is within the limits of 
business considerations. It seems plain that free 
