536 
August 25 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
afforded of the benefit of surface cultivation, even 
when there was no crust. 
One of the best ways to fight drought is to add or¬ 
ganic matter to the soil. This increases its capacity 
to hold water. If I were to try to grow a crop of 
potatoes without rain, I would want a big quantity of 
thoroughly rotted manure psrfectly inco*porated with 
the soil. The plant food would force growth before 
the store of moisture was badly depleted, and the 
organic matter would make the original supply in the 
soil as large as possible. Coarse manure would have 
an opposite effect. My best potatoes this year are on 
heavily manured land, which might be attributed to 
the plant food, but in digging into the soil I find there 
the most moisture. Underdrainage is a help to a field 
in times of drought, partly because it helps to keep 
the mechanical condition of the soil good. Puddled 
soils cannot stand dry weather. My best potatoes in 
one field are on the tiled land, where formerly the 
crop failed in either wet or dry seasons. The tiles 
carried off the excess of spring rains, and left the soil 
sufficiently porous to induce capillary water to rise. 
On the other hand, I am persuaded by observation of 
storms along water courses and swamp regions, that 
general underdrainage does tend to droughty condi¬ 
tions. If the soil once becomes dry, there is no sur¬ 
face moisture to infiuence rainfall. When pastures 
dry up, stock that depend upon springs may suffer 
more from a scamt supply of good water than from 
scanty herbage. A good supply of clear water should 
be abundant in quantity. This I get by sinking half- 
barrels in the springs on the hillsides, and then cut¬ 
ting down the earth below so that the animals can 
stand comfortably while drinking, but cannot get 
into the water. A bushel of wheat, according to care¬ 
ful experiments, is worth a little more than a bushel 
of corn as feed for stock. Our wheat crop may be fed 
and no grain need be bought. alva agke. 
CALIFORNIA THROUGH EASTERN SPECTACLES. 
FOOTPADS AND TRAMPS. 
Footpads are far less numerous than could be ex¬ 
pected in a country so sparsely settled, having so many 
mountain fastnesses, and swarming with unemployed 
laborers and tramps. There are a few places, as in 
the outskirts of large cities and near mining towns, 
where it is unsafe to be out alone after dark, especially 
if well dressed. The even climate, abundant food and 
reputation for quickly gained fortunes, which still 
clings to the Golden State, are magnets to draw the 
unemployed, the lazy, and the professional tramp to 
this country of easy living. It would seem that the 
offscourings of the East and Middle West, have boarded 
the freight trains by the hundred, and crossed the 
mountains for a vacation. If footpads are few, the 
tramps are numerous enough lo form a difficult prob¬ 
lem in political economy. One lady in the country 
informed me that she had given away already this 
year, 165 meals. These “summer tourists” are not of 
the Eastern species; most of them are fair looking, 
hale and hearty men under 40 ; none of the ragged, 
measley, superannuated, just-landed-from-a-foreign- 
shore species, are among them. They are all comfort¬ 
ably clad, sport good watches, and, like the ancients, 
carry their beds with them. These consist of heavy 
double blankets or thick comforters, which are rolled 
into a compact bundle and strapped to their backs ; 
they carry no other baggage, and there is no mistak¬ 
ing them for the workmen from the farms. 
Fruit, fish and vegetables are abundant, and may 
be had for the taking. The ranch owners have been 
used to feeding large numbers of men cheaply, and 
are liberal and broad like their acres ; the tramp is, 
therefore, seldom denied a meal or a loaf to supple¬ 
ment his lighter diet. These gentlemen of the road 
sometimes deign to work for a few days in order to 
secure money for tobacco and beer, two things they 
can neither steal nor beg. They sleep in the open air 
comfortably, except in rainy weather, when they take 
to the barns or the abandoned Chinamen’s “shacks.” 
There is an abundance of work to be had for six 
monti:s of the year, some throughout the year, but 
they want $2 a day, and as the Chinese and Japanese 
will work for $1 and board, they fail to get a job. 
The foreign-born help is preferred to them, as they 
are reliable, efficient, and usually honest, while the 
tramp is not loaded down with these virtues. Not¬ 
withstanding the large shipments of those who will 
not work, or not at prices which the rancher can af¬ 
ford to pay, the number of happy idlers steadily in¬ 
creases, the conditions become more and more strained, 
and the problem to be solved, more difficult. Who is 
able to solve it ? It should be solved, for this is pre¬ 
eminently the land where happy homes, fruitful trees 
and beautiful fiowers should fiourish. Less than a 
million and a half of inhabitants, a considerable per 
cent of whom are homeless, scattered over 158,000 
square miles of golden hills and fertile valleys. One 
is sometimes led to exclaim. Why was this beautiful 
land of sunshine placed so far from everywhere ? 
Why will so many starve and rot and suffer and die 
in the great cities, when a few years of faithful work 
and painstaking economy would secure a home and a 
competency ? 
The fertile foothills may be purchased for a song, 
the level valleys may be rented for a small per cent 
on the value of the improvements. It is actually 
cheaper for a new-comer to rent a well established 
bearing orchard, than to raise one, even if the land is 
given to him ; there are always those which can be 
rented. Yet this is the land of tramps, the paradise 
of the lazy, I have seen more of them in the last two 
months than in all my life before. Who can explain 
all this ? Are we yet too near our progenitors, the pig 
and the monkey ? Must the fool killer stalk up and 
down the land with his death-dealing club for a few 
more centuries, until we get a little more gray matter 
pounded into our thick skulls ? 
Three dollars a day and eight hours’ work, in the 
mines, yet the families of the men who get these 
wages live in hovels, on poor food, and have not SlOO 
in reserve in any form. Is there no other road to 
civilization but through an empty stomach, blistered 
hands and broken heads ? I see so much of the grand 
and beautiful works of the Creator fashioned and 
designed for the welfare and happiness of his children, 
in this Golden West, that the fruits of the seeds sown 
by the Devil, slothfulness, filth, lewdness, vice and 
crime, have come to seem more terrible than ever 
before. [prof,] i. p. Roberts. 
What Say? 
Killing Stomps —What will kill stumps so that 
they will not sprout ? Will sulphuric acid poured into 
holes in the stumps, do it? c. f, c. 
Elgin, Mich. 
Fence for Mexico. —If you lived in Mexico, as we 
do, and had several miles of pasture fence to build, 
and barbed wire fencing cost from 37 to $8 a hundred, 
what kind of a fence would you build if you had 
plenty of timber in the shape of trees from two to 
three inches in diameter, but none that could be split 
into rails ? H. 
Mexico. 
R. N.-Y.—It will cost no more to plan such a fence 
than it would to build a “ castle in Spain.” 
A Massachusetts Farm Problem. —Having leased 
a farm, I would like to ask some of the progressive 
farmers' that contribute to The R. N.-Y., what methods 
they would pursue under the following conditions : I 
take possession of the place April 1 next, for three 
years. There are 55 acres of pasturage, 10 in wood, 
and 35 in tillage. It cuts all English hay Last year 
the hay was sold, and will be this ; from 25 to 30 tons 
are cut yearly, but I am told that until within two or 
three years, nearly 50 tons were cut. There is no 
silo. The soil is all good. The fields are level, free 
from stones, and easy to work. I shall keep a pair of 
horses and all the cows the place will support, and 
sell milk. The manure from 20 head of oattle and 
horses lies in the barnyard, under a shed, on the 
ground. I don’t care about going into commercial 
fertilizers very heavily, at least not the first year, pre¬ 
ferring to use them only as a starter. I think some 
of making Globe-top beets, corn, and perhaps, to some 
extent, potatoes, my chief crops. Any advice will be 
appreciated. J. v. c. 
Middlesex County, Mass. 
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not answered In our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
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WHEN TO USE BONE AND POTASH FOR 
STRAWBERRIES. 
practical growers differ in practice. 
At what season would you prefer to apply ground bone 
and potash or wood ashes to strawberries, and why ? 
Mr. A. Johnson’s Method. 
Late in the fall, previous to setting out the bed, I 
apply a heavy coating of manure, plowing it in. The 
next spring, I set the plants. About July 1, when the 
plants commence to run, I apply along the row (spread¬ 
ing about a foot wide) a mixture of ground bone and 
muriate of potash. This I cultivate and hoe in. The 
next season, after picking the berries, with a sharp 
plow and one horse, I throw a furrow away from the 
plants on each side, plowing fcur to five inches deep. 
In those open furrows, I apply ground bone and muri¬ 
ate of potash, using about 500 pounds potash to 800 
pounds of bone to the acre. In both cases, after apply¬ 
ing the fertilizers, I harrow down and cultivate. I 
never use wood ashes, as they are hard to get, but 
would apply them the same as the fertilizers, only a 
heavier application. A. .tohnson. 
Apply All in the Spring. 
I would prefer to use muriate of potash and ground 
bone in early spring—March ; I find them more avail¬ 
able to the plant roots. If applied in the fall, they 
are carried below the soil by fall and winter rains, so 
that the plant roots never reach them in spring, just 
when food is needed. These points, I think, are very 
evident. I would use four parts of ground bone and 
two parts of muriate of potash. I have never had any 
experience with wood ashes. I deem them very valu¬ 
able to the small fruit grower. t. c. kevitt. 
The Way They Do in Delaware. 
Apply ground bone and muriate of potash to straw¬ 
berries in the fall, thus giving them time to become 
dissolved and diffused in the soil, within reach of the 
feeding roots of the plants, and avoiding the danger 
of burning the foliage when just starting in spring. 
On poor soil, I would use, per acre, 1,500 pounds of 
bone and 400 pounds of muriate of potash. On good, 
fertile soil, one-third as much. I would apply wood 
ashes at the same time, and in quantity from 30 
bushels to 60 bushels per acre. e. h. Bancroft. 
Bone in Fall ; Potash in Spring. 
When commercial fertilizers solely are depended on 
for growing strawberries, I consider it safest to apply 
at first on the surface of the ground in narrow strips 
on each side of the row, and mix them with the earth 
by using hoe or cultivator. There is danger of destroy¬ 
ing the young plant, if the fertilizer is near the roots 
when they are set. I prefer to apply ground bone in 
the fall, and potash, whether in the form of muriate, 
sulphate or unleaclffed wood ashes, in the spring. The 
bone being slow in its action would hardly impart its 
full benefit to a crop of strawberries if applied to the 
plants in the spring. Therefore, I prefer putting it on 
in the fall and with the hoe and cultivator working it 
in. Potash being more soluble, good effects follow its 
application in the spring. w. d. barns. 
DISHORNING IN THE FAR WEST. 
IS THE PRACTICE GAINING ? ITS ADVANTAGES. 
Does the practice of (llshornlnfc cattle gain In favor In your section 7 
What proportion of steers are sold with the horns on, and how Is It 
with cows 7 What are the chief points gained by dishorning 7 Are 
most of yonr cattle dishorned with the saw or knife, or do you use a 
“ horn killer” on the calf7 Which method do you prefer7 
Gaining in Wyoming. 
The practice of dishorning cattle is gaining favor 
among all of the farmers here. About one-quarter of 
the steers are sold with the horns, and the cows about 
the same. They are easier kept and easier fattened. 
Most are dishorned with the saw. I prefer the horn 
killer on the calves. I have about 15 head to dishorn 
this fall. 
Boston, Wyo. 
A Polled Bull the Best Saw. 
I am not prepared to say that dishorning is gaining 
in favor ; though, once tried, no one likes a horned herd 
afterwards. Fifty per cent of the cattle, steers and 
cows, are sold with horns on. Points I find gained by 
dishorning are : 50 per cent stable or shed room 
gained, requiring less feed in cold weather and conse¬ 
quent quietness of herd: weaker animals not afraid 
of stronger ; vicious cows rendered practically harm¬ 
less, and, in some cases, cured of vice ; increased fiow 
of milk in winter dairy, perhaps 20 per cent. My 
cows were dishorned with Haaf’s saw, and the calves 
with horn killer. I never saw a “knife” used. Have 
dishorned my calves for the past four years by the use 
of a Polled bull, which I consider by far the best plan. 
A cross of either Aberdeen-Angus or Red Polled, makes 
a good strain for beef or milk. j. t. b. 
Nelson, Neb. 
A Letter From Texas. 
Dishorning is practiced but little in this part of 
Texas. I dishorned 250 several years ago and was 
well pleased with the experiment, except that the fiies 
killed some of them. I mean by the fiy, the screw- 
worm fiy. Nearly all the steers are sold with the 
horns on ; those I dishorned were principally cows 
and young stock, from calves up ; after the cattle got 
well, they did finely, and fed and fattened well. 
Taking the horns off, makes them very gentle and 
easily handled. They do not fight, or hook and bruise 
each other. It is certainly an advantage to dishorn. 
When taken young, say, from two years down, they 
do not seem to mind the operation. I use a fine- 
tooth saw. The knife seems to crush the horn and 
makes it longer getting well. I have not used the 
horn killer. I use a sharp pocket knife, and cut the 
button out. It is no trouble to dishorn calves ; they 
will not stop sucking longer than while you are doing 
the j ob. There is another advantage in dishorning : 
They will ship much better and at least one or two 
more to the car. h. p. J. 
V ictoria, Texas. 
