INTENSIVE FARMING. 
MUCH FROM A LITTLE PIECE OF GROUND. 
Last fall I became convinced that I had been trying 
to farm on too extensive a scale; that I had spent a 
great deal of time, labor and money in cultivating a 
large area rather indifferently, and I determined to 
see what I could do this year in the way of intensive 
farming. I selected a piece of land about as poor as 
any on the farm—which, by the way, is saying a good 
deal—but chose it because it was sheltered by a cedar 
hedge from the northwest winds, and had a slight 
slope toward the southeast. On this piece, 250 feet by 
70 feet (about four-tenths of an acre) I spread manure 
from my cow stables—rich from feeding cotton-seed 
meal, bran and corn meal—covering the land at least 
three inches deep. I plowed and harrowed it care¬ 
fully, and September 20 sowed it all to spinach in 
rows 36 inches apart. This did not grow well enough 
to sell any in the fall, but all through January and 
February I 
sold it at 
81.20 per ' ~ ' 
bush., using 
only the 
thinnings. 
March 8, 
after giving 
the bed a 
very careful 
harrowing 
and raking, 
I sowed 18 
rows (250 
feet) each, 
of Eclipse 
beets, put- 
t i n g two 
rows b e- 
tween each 
two rows of 
spinach. 1 
also sowed 
two rows, 
same length, 
of Potato 
onion sets; 
and again 
March 12, 10 
rows more 
of Eclipse 
beets and 
four rows of 
onion sets. 
March 22 I 
sowed two Pi' 
rows of rad¬ 
ishes; March 31, two rows of radishes; April 5, four 
rows of lettuce and four rows of turnips. May 14 
I had cut out all the spinach in the bed, and on the 
rows thus left vacant, I gave a dressing of 200 pounds 
of superphosphate, working it well into the soil with 
my Planet Jr. wheel hoe. In these rows, we set out 
lettuce transplanted from the four rows mentioned 
above, and Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage raised in 
the hothouse—13 rows of lettuce and 10 rows of cab¬ 
bage. All the onions, beets, radishes, carrots and 
turnips, were sold bunched, cabbage and lettuce, of 
course, by the head, and the spinach by the bushel. 
The returns from the “ salad patch,” as we call it, to 
date are as follows : 
Spinach.161.65 Beets, bunched.$21.84 
Onions, In bunches. 28.51 Cabbage.31.76 
Lettuce. 44 00 Garrets, bunched. 13 00 
Radishes, In bunches. 24.69 Turnips, bunched. 5.60 
Beet tops, lor greens. 8.47 _ 
and turnips still in the ground to bring this amount 
up to $300, and I am sure, from this experiment that, 
could I have given this “ patch” all the time needed, 
I could have increased these i eturns by at least one 
half. I am also sure that the returns would have been 
much greater had I given the bed a dressing of nitrate 
of soda early in the spring. The cold, wet spring, 
prevented the nitrification of the manure, and the 
spinach got no good from it until quite late. Had I 
used the nitrate, I could have had the spinach sold off 
sooner, would have got more of it and for it, and 
could have set out my cabbage and lettuce earlier. 
I think I planted too close, or should have left out 
every fourth row, as I found that many plants were 
damaged in hoeing, weeding and transplanting. The 
moral of this, to me, is: Stop spreading yourself and 
your manure over many acres, work only as much 
land as you can fertilize, and cultivate in the most 
thorough manner, and devote your best energies to 
getting the greatest possible crops from it. Try to 
.. 
I think there are enough beets, carrots, cabbages 
Picking Apples by Machinery. Before Shaking. 
raise 500 bushels of potatoes on one acre instead of 
1,10 or 20— it’s much less work. One has to walk about 
2 % miles to cultivate an acre of potatoes, about 27 
miles to cultivate 10 acres. One would think that any 
lazy man would prefer the one-acre job, while the 
busy, energetic man will have just so much time saved 
in which he can read The R. N.-Y. and get new 
ideas- N. h. egleston jr. 
R- N.-Y.—That’s a new idea for our friend, the lazy 
man, to ponder, that intensive farming saves travel. 
If we can grow the same amount of produce on half 
the land, we save in various ways. We have only half 
the land to fence and pay taxes on. We can plow and 
harrow in half the length of time, or, better, do 
better and more profitable work on the land by put¬ 
ting in the same time. Half the seed is saved, and 
the same fertilizer will do more good than if spread 
thinly over the whole. And then the extra traveling 
saved of which our friend speaks. What inducements 
there are to curtail our field of operations I 
A NEW APPLE GATHERER. 
THE SHAKERS V8. THE PICKERS. 
The problem of apple picking is always a serious 
one where apples are grown in large quantities. The 
time during which they should be picked to be at 
their best, is short, and sometimes those left until the 
last become overripe. Severe storms are common, 
too, at this season, and great damage often results 
from a single hard blow before the crop can possibly 
be secured. Besides this, when sufficient pickers can 
be secured, many of them are often careless in hand¬ 
ling the fruit, and much of it is bruised and rendered 
unfit for grading as choice, by their careless work. • 
Many contrivances have been devised for facilitat¬ 
ing and cheapening this work, but for some reason or 
other, have never come into general use. At Pig. 142 
is shown one of the most recent inventions, in posi¬ 
tion around the tree ready for work. It is called Pin- 
garr’s Improved Apple Catcher, and a patent has been 
applied for, 
so that no 
one has the 
right to use 
it without 
the permis¬ 
sion of the 
inventor. 
The appara¬ 
tus is made 
in two parts, 
of canvas or 
any other 
strong, dur¬ 
able fabric 
like burlap 
or sailcloth. 
The lower 
part,or main 
canvas, is 
usually 4 0 
feet across, 
in the form 
of an i m- 
mense sau¬ 
cer, the cen¬ 
ter about 
the tree com¬ 
ing down to 
the ground. 
Above this is 
the hood, 
about 12 feet 
square, high¬ 
est in the 
center. 
When this is 
adjusted about the tree, the branches are shaken and 
the apples find their way down to the ground in a pile 
at the base of the tree, as shown at Pig, 143 (page 551), 
which shows the same tree five minutes later, after 
four barrels of apples had been shaken off. 
It is claimed that fruit can be gathered in one-half 
the time, and at one-half the expense of hand picking, 
and in better condition than by the average picker. 
Less danger is incurred, also, especially when gather¬ 
ing fruit from lofty trees. Incidentally, the gatherer 
may be used for a stack cover or for other similar 
purposes, when not required for fruit gathering. It is 
also made in smaller sizes for gathering pears, plums, 
nuts, etc., for which purposes it should be admirable. 
This apparatus was used by a number of farmers in 
Columbia and other counties last fall, and they have 
given a testimonial to the effect that it is efficient, 
economical and labor-saving. It is said that 2,500 
barrels of apples werd gathered with it around Pine 
Plains last fall. It will be more widely tested this year. 
