7io 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
What They Say! 
WiiKRK TO Put Peutiuizkk. —On pag’e 048, and ag’ain 
on page 083, some remarks are made about the best 
mode of applying fertilizer to potatoes. Thk R. N.-Y. 
is quite right in its suggestion on page 083, that the 
roots furthest from the main stem are the ehief feed¬ 
ers after the top has developed. In order to concen¬ 
trate and economize fertilizer, the custom among the 
truckers in eastern North Carolina is to apply, say, 
800 to 1,000 pounds in the planting furrow. When the 
plants are, say,‘five or six inches high, they turn a 
light furrow away from each side of the row, with a 
light one-hor.se plow and sow more fertilizer, say, 400 
or .500 pounds per acre in these furrows ; then plow 
the earth hack to the row again and towards the roots 
of the potato vines. This is called side dressing, and 
produces immediate and marked benefit. The furrow 
is made six inches or a little more, from the row, care 
being taken to cut it as clo.se as possible without in¬ 
juring the, roots. The proper distance may be deter¬ 
mined by examination. The plow used is a very light 
one with a very small moldboard. This system of 
side dressing will cover the ideas of all parties I think. 
Columbus County, N. C. truckbr. 
“ Who Knows How to GATitER Turnips ? ” The R. 
N.-Y. a.sk.s, page 658. The instructions given by W. 
Rentzien seem too laborious, besides being wasteful. 
I raise many acres of turnips as a catch-crop with 
Crimson clover. Many are six to eight inches in 
diameter, and weigh several pounds. I prefer to pull 
them with the tops, and throw them in rows. A load 
may easily be put on in a few moments, and hauled 
where they are to be stored. At one’s leisure they 
may be very rapidly topped with a sharp knife, in a 
manner that ill better insure their keeping quali¬ 
ties. When through, the tops may be disposed of in 
a few minutes unless the crop is immense. I manage 
in such a way that not a leaf need go to waste. I be¬ 
gin gathering a little sooner than necessary ; about 10 
days after the first killing frost, say, about October 20 
to 25. I begin to fatten my hogs early, it being more 
economical not to wait until it gets very cold. It is 
easy to gorge them with nothing but corn. After 
devouring a lot of turnip tops, they are forthwith 
ready to tackle corn again. Cattle by this time are 
practically on dry rations. A bushel of turnip tops 
at a feed per cow, wdll quickly cause her to show her 
gratitude by a greatly increased flow of milk. As I 
have never seen any special need of gathering the 
turnips all at once, and as the tops are slow to wilt, 
they supplement dry feed, provide succulence and 
yield a profit quite out of proportion to their cost. 
Let them go to waste in the field and smother patches 
of my kind nitrogen-gathering friend, Crimson clover? 
Never. j. c. senger. 
Virginia. 
Down With the Creamery Shark !—The article, 
“How the Creamery Sharks Work,” page 679, R. N.- 
Y. of October 27, is timely and represents a condition 
of affairs which has prevailed over many States of 
the Northwest for years past. The common plan of 
the creamery shark in the West, is to visit a section 
and offer to take a few of the leading farmers to some 
successful creamery. This he does, paying all their 
expenses and seeing that they are treated royally. 
On his return, he has the statements of these wit¬ 
nesses to back him up. Next he offers these, or some 
of them, and other “leading citizens” a block of stock 
“ for their assistance,” they at the same time to be 
very careful not to explain to their neighbors this 
fact. When sufficient stock has been secured and the 
money raised, the creamery is put up and furnished 
with machinery by the promoting company, which 
charges from one and a half to two times what every¬ 
thing is really worth. 
I have fought these frauds for years, and while I 
have in many cases prevented them from getting con¬ 
tracts, they have too often succeeded, sometimes even 
in spite of timely protests. In pne instance my letter 
to an inquirer w'ho had grown suspicious, was received 
in time and produced the desired effect. In his rage 
at losing the contract, the “ promoter” lost his pres¬ 
ence of mind and asserted what was probably true, 
that he was drawing S400 a month for that business, 
and could stand such rebuffs occasionally. In another 
instance, my letter of warning reached the party 
when the meeting for closing the contract was about 
opening. The letter was read and the signing of the 
contract deferred. The promoter dropped $1,000 in 
his offer, quite a saving, which, however, was not 
what it should have been. I know of one creamery 
with a small cold-storage room attached, and small 
ice-house, which was put up at a town in this State at 
a cost of $7,000, when a better outfit, buildings and 
all, could have been given for $4,000 or less. 
Another trouble with these frauds is that they put 
up creameries where the people are not ready for 
them, and scores of factories are to-day idle. I think 
the State of Wisconsin has lost more than $25,000 
through the efforts of these promoters, in spite of all 
our efforts at heading them off. Some of the Western 
States have lost more than $100,000 I am quite sure, 
in the same way, if we count the creameries which 
have been constructed and never operated. I hope 
The R. N.-Y. will keep on in the good work, but even 
if you do, and if every paper published in the State of 
New York would fight the.se frauds, I. fear there 
would still be farmers so gullible as to swallow the 
bait, judging from results here at the West. 
Wis. Agrl. Exp. Sta. [prof.] w. a. henry. 
Pi.ow IN THE Manure. —On page 682, A. H. G. says 
that readers may get more benefit from the use of 
barn-yard manure if applied to the surface after it is 
plowed. My advice for corn or potatoes is. Don’t, and 
don’t forget it; for if you do, you will have more 
weeds to contend with (for all manure has more or 
less weed seeds in it), and a much larger per cent will 
sprout and grow on the surface than when plowed 
under .six inches. Again, if the .season be at all dry, 
the manure will be as dry and hard (even if fine) as so 
many blocks of wood. We well know that plants will 
run their feeders for water, which is in the other di¬ 
rection from the manure. In an average season (moist 
in May and June, hot in July and August), the feeders 
will be close to the surface where their food is, and 
will suffer in the last of the season just when they 
want it most. Even though it does go below the reach 
of corn or potatoes (which I do not believe), we need 
not worry about its being lost, as the clover will find 
it. One of the best pieces of corn I ever .saw, was 
raised in this manner: After the corn ground was 
plowed and ready to plant, a few loads of cow manure 
made since we planted potatoes was hauled off along¬ 
side of the corn ground. We plowed and fitted this 
strip for corn in one day, and planted both pieces the 
next day. All were treated alike, except that the other 
was spread on top. The manure Avas the same ; all 
had been kept under cover. That corn was noticeably 
better. Plowing in manure is as much of an improve¬ 
ment over spreading on top as the latter is over a 
shovelful in the hill. I would like to hear from others. 
North Franklin, Conn. l. p. a. 
“INTENSIVE FARMING.” 
PUT THE MANURE ON THE POOR SPOTS. 
In commenting upon the methods of Mr. Egleston 
who used, it appears, 120 tons of manure on four- 
tenths of an acre of his farm while other acres of the 
farm were quite poor. Prof. Roberts (page 662) raises 
the question; Would the re.sults have been better if 
the manure had been distributed over a larger area ? 
He further says : “ The question arises, if we practice 
such intensive farming, what is to become of the rest 
of the farm ? ” I am glad that Prof. Roberts calls at¬ 
tention to these points, as they have much practical 
interest for me, and I wish that he had gone further 
in stating his own convictions, and offering advice. I 
have a few acres that are more productive than the 
remainder of the farm, due to the fact that before the 
farm came under my control, these few acres were 
given all the manure from the stables. The cream of 
the other fields was skimmed and spread over these 
few acres. Relieving that this was the wrong policy, 
I changed it, with the result that these few acres are 
not quite so productive as formerly, but the average 
productiveness of the farm is considerably greater. 
It seems to me that in the great majority of cases 
the true function of manure is to make a manurial 
crop grow. There are exceptions, notably in the 
vicinity of cities where land is high-priced, markets 
good and manure in reasonable abundance. Rut most 
farmers are differently situated. They have cheaper 
land, pay big transportation rates on their products, 
and cannot buy manure at any price. The farm sup¬ 
ply of stable manure is the only one. What shall we 
do with it ? When it is concentrated upon a small 
area, infertile areas in tilled fields are likely to make 
their appearance because the manurial crop is lighter 
there than in other portions. Thus matters incline to 
go from bad to worse unless extra exertion is used to 
increase the vegetable growth that is returned to the 
soil on these areas. It seems to me that the sensible 
Avay is to increase the growth in part by giving these 
poor spots all the stable manure. 
There is another side to this question besides the one 
of immediate profit. Nothing is more demoralizing to 
a right-minded farmer than a realization of his ina¬ 
bility to maintain and increase the productive capacity 
of his farm. When the usual manurial crops cease to 
grow well, and a small favored spot receives all the 
manure, the idea of mastery is all gone. I say the 
usual manurial crops, because I have learned that there 
are many unusual crops for the locality that Avill start 
infertile land on the up-grade. W^here stable manure 
is in small quantity, and some land is not growing the 
usual manurial crops well, something must be done, 
or else one must admit himself vanquished. Ey chang¬ 
ing this crop to spine other, one may be able to begin 
filling the soil with vegetable matter ; but if this is not 
done^and it is rarely done—stable manure for these 
spots is an absolute necessity unless one is willing to 
see his farm on the road to sterility. 
Relieving as I do that the chief need of many poor 
soils is vegetable matter, it seems the best practice to 
give the thinnest land what vegetable matter the stable 
manure contains, in order that more may be produced. 
I am experimenting with a few acres of thin land that 
has never been profitable, using only rye in winter 
and cow peas in .summer as agents for furnishing vege¬ 
table matter for this soil. Roth of these will grow 
without manure, and I now think that if time enough 
is given, I am independent of the use of manure ; but 
if I had it to use, I would expect the manure to be 
worth more on this rye and peas than on potatoes in 
richer soils. Manure should be regarded as the third 
horse hooked beside a team when needed. Clover, peas, 
rye, etc., are the team for main work, but when they 
cannot start the load, the manure has a value hard to 
estimate. The load is started, and one is out of the 
ditch and making progress. It would be a fine thing if 
the third horse could be hooked on every time, but that 
is out of the question. The average farmer can make 
only a very limited quantity of manure compared with 
the acreage of the farm. The natural place for this 
manure is on the thinnest land, .starting it up toward 
a state of profitable fertility by helping a manurial 
crop to grow. 
The concentration of all the stable manure on a few 
square rods of land makes enormous yields pos.sible. Rut 
the farmer who makes 120 tons of manure in a year— 
the amount used by Mr. Egleston—and puts it on land 
that produces only $300 worth of vegetables, must have 
other and greater sources of income if he would keep 
a family as well as farmers usually do, because he must 
retain ownership of the rest of the farm in order to 
make manure, and Avith the OAvnership comes heavy 
expense. If he does not try to maintain its fertility, 
he will soon find the supply of manure small, and the 
average farmer cannot buy it. He cannot Avholly con¬ 
centrate his effort on the little plot if he Avould have a 
supply of manure for it. In the end, he would find 
himself Avorking hard on the abandoned acres to get 
manure for the plot, and would need to get the greater 
part of his net income also from the neglected ones. 
When one makes a small plot very rich and gets a 
big yield, the country storekeeper, the village shoe¬ 
maker and other authorities (?) in agricultural matters 
ask : “ Why in the Avorld don’t you have every acre 
that rich? That is Avhat you should do.” There is 
more ground for pride in bringing thin land up to a 
stage of profitable fertility, than in getting big yields 
from a small plot by dumping it full of manure. There 
is a kind of concentration of effort that appears ad¬ 
visable. If there is a big per cent of land in a farm 
that is not fertile, one does well to push a few fields 
up to the point of profitable tillage, and then, as the 
supply of manure grows, the other land may be made 
to grow manurial crops. Rut deliberate abandonment 
of the most of the farm for the sake of concentration 
of manure on a minute portion of it, defeats its own 
object. While prices are low, Ave cannot afford to 
crop poor soils ; but it is a good time to give them 
clover, rye and peas, started Avith manure. Then the 
richer fields, kept full of vegetable matter, may be 
made to remain fertile while producing paying crops 
in regular rotation A\dth manurial crops. Ai.vA aoee. 
NOTES FROM OREGON. 
I send you a few Everbearing strawberries as a sam¬ 
ple of Avhat they have done for us, this very dry and 
hot season. We have had no rain from June 17 until 
the last of August, when it rained a little. We have 
had strawberries ever since May 10 until noAV (Septem¬ 
ber 10), and there are lots of green ones on the vines 
as well as blossoms, so that we expect to have berries 
until nearly or quite December. These are the genu¬ 
ine Everbearing strawberries, and we are now selling 
them for 10 cents per box, three boxes for 25 cents. 
This is better than Avheat or oats, as wheat is only 
about 35 cents per bu.shel and oats 20 cents, and a very 
poor crop at that in this part of the country—five 
bushels and seven bushels ; 10 bushels and 13 bushels 
^to the acre are common. The 40-bushels-to-the-acre 
crops are awfully scarce. 
The outlook for farmers is very blue, indeed. Per¬ 
haps you will say, like others, raise something else. 
What will it be ? Poultry is not worth the freight 
charges for taking them to market, and wool is six to 
nine cents per pound, eggs 10 cents, and the hens on a 
strike, too. I don’t blame them. We have lots of 
nice plums, but we could not sell a bushel of them 
for any price, and apples are about a failure this 
year. Why is it that the people ridicule Mr. Cbxey 
so ? It seems to me that he is one of the wisest men 
in America. If all the money expended in building 
monuments to dead men, which do no good, in clean¬ 
ing snags out of creeks and sloughs, and the money 
