454 
July 21 
the rural NEW-YORKER. 
than there would be in any form of unloading with 
horse power.” 
“ How do you move your stacker ? ” 
“ Hitch the horses to it and draw it where we like ; 
it is on runners for that purpose.” 
“ I suppose those are the best machines yet for hay¬ 
making,” said Uncle .foe. 
‘‘ They are the best I have used or seen,” Mr. Howard 
replied. “ There are newer ones in the market mak¬ 
ing greater claims that time and service must test.” 
On the way home. Uncle .Tee remarked, ‘*I guess 
you wouldn’t care about doing a haying in the old Bay 
btate as you used to do. The stowing away of hay in 
the barn was one hard part of the work that you sel¬ 
dom have now ; then cutting grass on soft meadows 
was another. How would it seem to you now to start 
for Hockomock meadows at sunrise, cut the grass with 
a scythe, and pole it ashore to make it ? ” s k. h. 
“A POUND OF BERRIES” 
But Tons of Them to the Acre. 
Part III. 
Probably no crop is more exacting in its demands 
throughout the entire year, than the strawberry ; but 
when the harvest comes, it is well-nigh tyrannical. It 
behooves one to have everything in readiness, for it is a 
poor time to complete preparations after the crop has 
actually commenced, and there are plenty of unavoid¬ 
able worries without fostering those which by fore¬ 
thought and timely action may be avoided. 
An Original Package for Berries. 
Shipments usually commence here about June 10 , 
and as a gift crate is used, long before that time a 
stack of flats as large as a small house, has accumu¬ 
lated by additions made each rainy day. These flats 
are the height of a heaping box of berries, and of the 
proper length and breadth to just hold eight. Three 
to six are usually crated together by simply cov¬ 
ering the top one, and fastening all together by tack¬ 
ing a cleat on their ends ; but as may be seen, any 
sized order may be closely filled, and no train or ship¬ 
ment need be missed because a big crate is not quite 
full. Made of one-fourth-inch undressed lumber (ends 
one-half inch hard wood) they cost about 15 cents for 
a 32-pound crate. The basket used is made specially for 
us and has a neat trimmed edge after the style of the 
California apricot basket; well rounded, it holds just 
a pound net. 
The berries are picked in stands holding about eight 
pounds, each picker’s being^ marked with a label. 
The latter is some trouble, but it insures nice picking. 
Pickers are paid twice a week in tickets, which pass 
current at the stores, and are redeemable at the end 
of the season. The price varies, being greater for 
those picked before 9 A. m., and considerably more 
during the latter part of the season when the pickers 
get tired. It amounts to an average of about 
cent per quart. It has been found that coming early 
in the morning, staying to the end of the season, and 
all such matters can be controlled best by varying the 
price ; but each year more pickers are hired by the 
day. As to help in general, men are little needed on 
a berry farm, where intelligent and industrious wo¬ 
men, who are in the habit of making and tending 
their own gardens, can be had. 
Th3 Sorting and Crating. 
One of the greatest helps yet found was introduced 
this season, consisting of a sorter. It is simply a table 
about 10 inches wide and 10 feet long, with sides an 
inch high and a roller at each end. Over these rollers 
a canvas belt carries the berries under the eyes of the 
assistants, who remove the small ones to baskets on a 
shelf at one side. A crank supplies means for motion, 
and a short chute of netting removes an astonishing 
amount of foreign matter. A revolving stand with 
guides so that a flat filled with baskets may be turned 
and slid lengthwise at pleasure close under the chute, 
completes the outfit. Formerly the sorters often 
worked till after dark, and still many crates would 
sometimes stand unsorted overnight. With the help 
of the above device, the sorting has been finished 
nearly as soon as the picking this season, and the ber¬ 
ries all shipped on the evening trains. Each flat of 
berries is weighed and then crated with as many 
others as required to fill each order. 
Regarding the yield of plot No. 2 , trial pickings 
showed that where nothing was applied, it was pre¬ 
cisely the same as where 3,000 pounds of special straw¬ 
berry fertilizer had been used. Where to 1,000 pounds 
of fertilizer had been added in midwinter 50 loads of 
old horse manure, there was a gain of 2,268 pounds of 
berries, worth in the field about $90. Their increased 
size should probably be valued at $25 more, thus mak¬ 
ing something of a gain over the cost and application 
of the manure. One-half the fertilizer was applied in 
April, when the plants were set, the other half in 
July. No account has been taken of the fact that 
while in bloom, both the rows having nothing and 
those with the 3,000 pounds of fertilizers, had a mulch¬ 
ing of the manure also, as being applied so late it was 
not supposed to have any plant food value. Both 
from our own observations and those of the Maryland 
Experiment Station where, with something like 80 va¬ 
rieties tested, all except three bore larger berries in 
matted rows than in hills, it seems conclusive that with 
firm varieties, one of the best ways to mulch is to 
shade the ground with the vines themselves by forc¬ 
ing a good top growth wherever lateness is not a con¬ 
sideration and the soil is not inclined to heave. 
-_ C. T. SWEET. 
NOTES ON SOME BACK NUMBERS. 
A FEW STATEMENTS REVIEWEB. 
The Deacon and his Hens. —The “Deacon” and 
“ Hens by the Acre” are interesting. Why have the 
c?gs fertile ? The hens will lay as many, and as large 
eggs without the presence of males. These eggs go 
to market. Dispose of the male and keep another 
hen in his place. When an egg is condemned for a 
defect which cannot be seen by the naked eye, but re¬ 
quires “ a powerful reflecting lamp in the tester,” it 
seems as though particular people were about; but 
that is the tendency of the times. Among those who 
can afford it, absolute purity is wanted,-and it’s going 
to pay to be able to meet the demand. “ Fifty per 
cent above quotations ” is good. . I am glad he gets it, 
for if he did not, but took ordinary prices, his $531 96 
would be $265.98, which would leave $35 to apply on 
his “ $1 per hour.” [As we figure it, “ 50 per cent in¬ 
crease would mean one-third of the whole. For ex¬ 
ample, if the regular price were 20 cents, Mr. Mapes 
would receive 30, an increase of 10 or one-third of 30, 
instead of one-half.— Eds.] The receipts will steadily 
decrease, and the expense for food increase the rest 
of the year. The young chicks are not yet raised, 
and would better be counted later. 
“This is a hard year for a test on account of the 
unusually low prices that have prevailed.” I have 
heard tbat statement until it’s worn threadbare. The 
price has not been over 20 per cent less than last year, 
and the cost of feed is correspondingly lower. I am 
feeding 57-cent wheat, and getting within two cents 
as much for eggs as I did last year in the general 
market. 
After “ working” two incubators from February to 
June, a neighbor says, “ Unless many hundred chicks 
are to be raised, hens are better.” The Deacon’s suc¬ 
cess, and Mr. Mapes’s experience, seem to confirm this. 
I can hardly advise using the nest for a brooder unless 
one is sure there were no lice on the hen when she was 
put in. A few chicks which were hatched by a hen 
were covered with Persian insect powder and put into 
the brooder. The result was the whole lot had to be 
treated in a few days. 
Crimson Clover and “ Goldruos” make a fine pic¬ 
ture. All other papers now, after The R, N.-Y., are 
full of Crimson clover. What an influence the editor 
can exert. It’s a grave responsibility. Men’s minds 
are turned toward success or failure, according to 
their ability to comprehend his language. Gold Bug 
says, “The life is more than meat.” True, but 
we must have the “meat” first and the “ persistent 
policy of The Rural” of which he speaks is why we 
can’t do without it. I never heard before that “bugs, 
drought, mildew, tuberculosis, etc.,” were the result 
of stupidity and a desire to get rich. “ Why is it that 
the farmer is so often ridiculed ?” The reporter of a 
city paper said while speaking of the State Grange 
meeting which he came to Ithaca to report: “ I have 
attended all kinds of conventions, but this is the most 
intelligent body of men and women, I ever saw in 
council.” Every man in the convention of 700 dele¬ 
gates was a farmer and, if the above theory be cor¬ 
rect, was awfully stupid, for “bugs” are in excess. 
How TO Poison Bugs. —Alva Agee says, page 390, “The 
old way of applying arsenites to potatoes in a solution 
of water.” This illustrates the difference in localities 
and the wide extent of The Rural’s circulation. The 
above is our new way. I have for years, in common 
with my neighbors, mixed Paris-green with plaster, 
and sifted it on the foliage. A big tin tube that holds 
two or three quarts, is used. The bottom is fine wire 
screen stuff, soldered on. The handle is stiff and a 
slight twist will send a fine dust over the hill. A tin¬ 
ner will make one for 30 cents. They are easier to 
manage than one to be jarred with a stick, and the 
fine wire distributes more evenly than the “ score of 
holes.” He is lucky to get off with one application; 
we have three distinct hatches. Flour costs too 
much here. The objection to the method is that it 
takes too long. We have other work that must be 
done ; “ Two acres per day,” nine days for one man on 
18 acres. Sum total, potatoes eaten up. Try another 
plan. “ All hands to the potato field.” Plaster and 
poison all mixed, one pound to the hundred, during 
that rainy spell. Then comes a race, which boy can 
get around first. Suppose you put a 50 gallon oil bar¬ 
rel on a two-wheeled cart. P’ill with water, wet up 
some poison and pour it in. Drive along at the rate 
of an acre an hour. Let a boy drive, and one man 
pump ; you sit on a etool at the back end of the cart 
and gently sway the nozzle back and forth over about 
eight or ten rows. The fine mist will hit every inch 
of foliage, and will “dry ” the poison to the leaves so 
that an ordinary shower will not wash it off. A bug 
is not fool enough to eat plaster or flour if any part of 
the hill is clean, but he cannot see the green if applied 
with water. I have tried all the ways mentioned, 
and a good spray pump equals for “ ease and effective¬ 
ness ” any other two methods. The cost of the flour 
alone will pay for the spraying and the hired man 
can pump. 
Turnips for Pigs. —Having wintered from five to 
fifteen Cbeshires every winter on raw flat turnips, I 
can endorse J. S. Woodward’s suggestions in regard to 
their value. I feed them to everything except cows 
in milk. We cannot make good butter when they are 
fed, or at least butter that will stay good. An old 
strawberry bed plowed as soon as the fruit is off will 
give a flne crop. Many bushels are grown by sowing 
the seed in the potato fields just after the last culti¬ 
vation. One friend harvested 1,000 bushels last fall 
from among his corn. I have sown them between the 
currant and young berry rows. As a catch crop, sow 
them anywhere the soil is mellow. They are nearly 
always too thick, as the seed is so fine one can hardly 
sow little enough. Mixing the seed with fine road 
dust adds bulk and aids in sowing thinner. In har¬ 
vesting, we set potato crates in rows across the field. 
Pull the turnip with the left hand by the top, and 
holding it over the crate, clip off the top with the 
butcher knife. It is quickly done, and the tops are 
spread as they grew. They will keep well in cellar or 
pit if harvested before being frostbitten or frozen. 
_ c. E. c. 
STILL ANOTHER WIRE FENCE. 
IT IS CHEAP AND HOLDS THE STOCK. 
For a few years past, the fence question has been a 
serious one. Post and rail, or post and plark, wire 
and picket, and woven-wire fences were too costly. 
I have now on the farm of a little over 84 acres, more 
than 200 rods of Buchanan fence; some of it has 
been built over two years, and has given entire satis¬ 
faction. During this time I have raised 20 litters of 
Berkshire pigs, 162 head, and never had one of them 
nor the sows or boar go through the fence. The cows 
have never gone through nor over it. One two-year- 
old colt jumped it once. Had there been a barbed wire 
on top, the colt would probably have been ruined ; as 
it was, the only harm done was stretching the top 
wire about 15 inches, which was cut out at one end of 
the fence in five minutes’ time, and the fence was all 
right again. So far I have built the fence only four 
feet high. A line 105.5 rods long, recently built, cost 
as follows : 
785 pounds No. 10 wire. 
Setting 71 posts. 
7-1 posts at 16 cents each . 
Three men one day piitilng up wire and pickets! 
210 pickets at two cents each. 
Setting two end posts. 
20 tension chains at six cents each.!!...!!'.!! 
7 pounds staples. 
2 old buggy axles. 
Spike nails for keys. 
Team horses one-half day running out wire..!!! 
817.27 
3 55 
l'.H8 
3.00 
4.20 
..50 
1.20 
35 
05 
.50 
A slight fraction over 40 cents a rod. 
I use ten wires; the bottom wire is three inches 
from the ground, and it is 45 inches between the top 
and bottom wires. The pickets are four feet long, one 
inch thick by two wide, and notched on alternate 
sides to correspond with the distance apart that I 
wish the wires. To do this, the pickets are fastened 
in a mitre box, and a crosscut saw for one or two men 
used. The notches should be a little more than half 
an inch deep, so that when the pickets are in the fence 
the tension of the wires will hold them from slipping 
out of place, which would not be the case were the 
notches cut to the center of the pickets ; the notches 
should be cut large enough for the wires to fit easily 
into them. 
The main point in building the fence, to make it a 
success, is to set the end or straining posts properly. 
I put the end posts down 3 feet. At any desired 
distance beneath the surface, I put through the post, 
an old buggy axle with one shoulder hammered down 
BO that it will pass readily through a 13^-inch auger 
hole; this should go through the post in the line of 
the fence. I weight this bar with hard heads, put¬ 
ting the bar down to correspond with the size of the 
stones, so that the latter will be out of sight. The 
second post is set six feet from the first—and braced 
from the top of the first to the bottom of the second 
post with a 4 X 4-inch scantling, then with a double 
strand of wire from the top of the second to the bot¬ 
tom of the first; this, twisted up tight, holds the two 
posts firmly in place. 
For tension, I use 3-16-inch chains, 14 inches or 
links long on each wire on each end for this long line 
