THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
745 
yields. There is—there can be—no such thing as a 
heavy yield of tubers from feeble plants. As to varie¬ 
ties, we may scarcely advise. Varieties that yield 
well in a certain soil and climate, often yield poorly 
in a different soil and climate. The R. N.-Y. No. 2 
has given immense yields in your section. We would 
advise you to try the following in limited quantity, 
and ascertain the yield of each : Early Sunrise, Early 
Maine, Reauty of Hebron, Pearl of Savoy, Rural 
Rlush, Puritan, Empire State, White Star and White 
Elephant. These kinds may be procured of leading 
seedsmen. 
^ Good Start With Crimson Clover. 
O. C. D. B., Penn Yan. —I am trying one acre of 
Crimson clover this season, which I sowed in early 
sweet corn after it was large enough for eating. It is 
about 10 inches high now. Is there danger of its get¬ 
ting too large this fall ? It is on a piece of sandy 
loam that has had no sod of any kind for 25 years, but 
has been manured with stable manure quite heavily 
almost every year ; but the stable manure does not 
seem to do much good. The soil is very full of insects. 
Will this Crimson clover, if plowed under about May 
1, be of much benefit in ridding the soil of these mag¬ 
gots and insects which have been very injurious to 
many vegetable crops which I have tried to raise on 
it ? 1 shall try covering the clover with coarse 
manure late this fall as a protection against winter- 
killing. Would early tomatoes be the best vegetable 
crop to grow on the clover plowed under about May 1 
there being a good market for them here ? 
Ans.—W e think that it would have been well to 
pasture the clover in October. This would have in¬ 
duced a larger root growth, and that is what you 
want. We doubt if the clover will help much in de¬ 
stroying the insects. Early tomatoes or sweet corn 
will be good crops to follow the clover. With the 
growth it has already made for you, this clover has 
now more than paid its cost. 
Co/d Weather Care of Creamery MUk. 
H.J.L., Rhitiebeck, N. Y. —Should a creamery be 
managed the same in cold as in warm weather ? In 
cold weather, the milk becomes somewhat cooled ; 
should it be warmed before putting into the cans ? 
Ans.—I t is assumed that you refer to dairies where 
no separator is used. The open setting necessitates 
keeping the room in which the pans are set at a uni¬ 
form temperature of (50 to 65 degrees. If the room is 
kept at this temperature evenly, and there are no ob¬ 
jectionable odors in the room to be absorbed by the 
milk and cream, a good quality of butter can be made, 
and as large a proportion of cream raised from the milk 
as would be possible with that system. 
With the deep setting or Cooley system, it is neces¬ 
sary to have the temperature of the room in which the 
cans are set, not so cool as to chill the cream, or freeze 
it, in which case the butter would be bitter and not 
of a desirable flavor. The same care would need to be 
exercised about having any foreign or objectionable 
odors in the room, that could be absorbed by the cool 
milk or cream. 
In the Cooley creamers, the milk can, cover and all, 
is submerged below the surface of the water, and the 
milk should be set as soon as it is drawn from the 
cows and before it has any opportunity to get cool. 
The temperature of the water may be at any point 
near 40 degrees; varying' a little above or below would 
be no disadvantage, but it should not be higher than 
42 or 43 degrees, and it is better to have it 40 degrees 
or below. If the cows fx’om which the milk is drawn 
are fed on ensilage largely, and the milk be set be¬ 
fore it has an opportunity to cool, this process will 
obtain all the cream. If the cows are fed on dry feed 
and grain, and have been in milk some time, then it is 
an advantage to dilute the milk before it is set, with 
hot water at a temperature of from 120 to 130 degrees, 
which should raise the temperature of the milk to 
about 105 degrees. Then stir the milk and water 
thoroughly together, and submerge the cans in water 
as quickly as possible. This process, if carefully fol¬ 
lowed, will sepax'ate the cream thoroughly fx’om the 
milk. I am aware that some of the experiment sta¬ 
tions have stated that there is no advantage in di¬ 
luting the milk for the thoroughness of the separa¬ 
tion, but a careful examination of these reports will 
show that they have used methods of their own in 
the dilution, and not such as are recommended by the 
manufacturers of the Cooley creamex-s, and have been 
successfully used by dairymen who have followed the 
instructions of the inventor. 
In the open setting, the cream is ripened while 
being raised, and, therefore, is ready for chuxming 
when taken from the pans ; bxxt in the Cooley or sub¬ 
merged process, the cream has been kept in a perfect 
state and has not changed at all ; therefore, it must 
be ripened after it is taken from the cans in the 
creamer. One of the best ways for doing this is to 
have a cream pail with a close cover and with an 
agitator, a thimble through the cover for the handle 
of the agitator, and a cover on the thixnble. Whexx 
each mess of cream is poux-ed into this pail, the agi¬ 
tator should be moved xip and down once or twice, so 
as thoroughly to mix the mess of cream last pxxt in 
with the cream already thex*e. This should be done 
at each skixnxnixxg, axxd when new creaxn is poxxred in, 
so that the cream will xdpen evenly. It shoxild be 
kept in a rooxn that is somewhere froxn 60 to 70, or 75 
degrees. 
The day befox’e chxixming, unless the dairy is large 
exiough to chxxrn evex'y day, no creaxn shoxxld be put 
into this pail, but another pail shoxild be used so as to 
give all the cream an opportunity to ripen thox’oughly. 
If the cream of the last day, or the last mess be put 
in before chuxming, and not given an opportunity to 
ripen, it will not chuxm so easily as the older cx-eam, 
the old cream coming to butter before the new, and 
the new lax-gely running off with the buttermilk, so 
that a very large proportion of the cream of the last 
skimming might be lost. The advantage of not 
putting any cream into th^ mess that is to be chuxmed, 
later than 24 hours preceding the chuxming will be 
readily seen. 
Another advantage of not putting in this cold 
cream, is that the cream will be churned more readily 
than if the cold creaxn is put in. I have known cream 
to be delayed in churning sevex’al houx's by putting 
cold, unripened cx-eam into the other mess, while, with¬ 
out it, the mess would have been churned in what is 
considered the best time, somewhex*e from 30 to 40 
minxites. It is pretty generally conceded that it is 
better to be aboxxt that time, x’ather than to have a 
“ lightning” churn, and chxxrn in a few xninxxtes. To 
make the richest flavored bxxtter, the cream should be 
just on the point of txxrning, or what is more often 
called ripened, and before it takes on the acid flavor. 
Windham County, Conn. K. v. K. 
Steam Heaters from the Stove. 
M. L. R., Canton, N. Y .—Has any one of The Rukai, 
readers warmed the house with water heated in the 
kitchen range, and carried to radiators in the differ¬ 
ent rooms by pipes ? 
Ans. —We shall be glad to have any of our readers 
tell us their experience in this line. We have seen an 
advertisement of such a device, but do not know how 
it would work in practice. In this connectioxx we may 
reprint the cut shown at Fig. 198—formerly pxdnted 
on page 57 of this year. This represents an open fire¬ 
place with upright boilers at either side, containing 
water and suitable pipes running from them to varioxis 
rooms. Something of this sort might be arranged so 
as to have a grand open fire for the living-room, and 
convey a portion of its heat by means of hot water all 
over the house. This suggestion was xnade by Mr. J. 
L. Babb, of Greenland, W. Va., and it seems as though 
some one might put it in practice. 
Cost of Nitrogen ; Good Potatoes. 
M., Dover, N. H. —1. In a paragraph on page 635, 
The R. N.-Y. xnakes a New Jersey Station bulletin 
state the cost of nitrate of soda at from 11 to 16 cents 
per pound (14 analyses.) What was it that was 
analyzed to make it cost so much ? I have bought ni¬ 
trate of potash at cents per pound, and it wox-ks 
finely in bringing the late plantings of sweet corn 
along. I had plenty for family use October 12, of 
Black Mexican, good and tender ; but I think that it 
does not taste quite so good as that grown in warmer 
weather. 2. Who sells the Downing potato that Mr. 
Hendricks praises so highly ? I would like very much 
to get a good tasting potato for family use, one that 
tastes good with salt alone, such as we roasted years 
ago, and not merely neutral starch. 3. The Scientific 
American Cyclopedia of Receipts, page 699, makes 
Freservaline to consist of salt and boracic acid, princi¬ 
pally. Is box’acic acid hax-mful when used to preserve 
food ? 
Ans. —1. We think that you have things mixed a 
little. These figures did not x-epresent the cost of ni¬ 
trate of soda, but the riitrogen aUme that was found in 
the nitx’ate. Suppose that the nitrate of soda costs ^50 a 
ton. That means 2}i cents a pound for the nitx-ate. 
There is bxxt 16 pet cerxt of actxxal nitrogen, or 320 
pounds to the toxx of nitx'ate. Thus the nitrogen costs 
15% cents per poxxnd. That is what the statioix figures 
meant. Yoxxr nitrate of potash at 6% cexxts costs aboxxt 
!i?126.50 per toxx. It coixtains about 900 poxxnds of pot¬ 
ash axxd 260 poxxnds of nitrogen. At five cents a pound, 
the potash is worth $45, leaving .$81.50, x*epresenting 
what yoxx pay for 2(50 pounds of nitrogen. This means 
over 31 cents a pound. Nitrate of potash is an excel¬ 
lent fex’tilizer, bxxt it is altogether too expensive. 2. (). 
11. Alexander, of Chaxdotte, Vt., is the origixxator. The 
Rxxx’al Blush—sold by many seedsmen—is of the high¬ 
est qxiality of any variety we have tried. 3. Yes, it is. 
Pruning Trees; Plowing for Corn. 
R. E. B., Tklioute, Pa. —1. When is the best time to 
prxine apple trees ? 2. Should sod be plowed in fall 
or spring, if to be planted in coxm next sxxmixxer ? 
Ans. —1. See what is said in tlxis issxxe aboxxt caring 
for an old orchard. 2. As a genex’al x’xxle, we would 
prefer to plow sod ground in the fall, and leave the 
furx-ows standing well up to the action of frost. Then 
in spx’ing, wox’k xxp well with some tool that will exit 
at least thx’ee inches deep—say a Cxxtaway or spading 
harx’ow. 
Proportion of Substances in Fertilizers. 
M. B., St. Catharines, Ont. —Tjie R. N.-Y. gives the 
following as a good mixture for a potato fertilizer : 
sulphate of potash, 300 pounds; grouixd bone, 800 
pouxxds ; nitrate of soda, 300 pounds. I have always 
xxndex’stood that the potato’s biggest deixiand on the 
soil is for potash, next for nitx-ogen, and histly for 
phosphoric acid. Should there xxot be xx x’eadjustment 
of your chexnicals ? 
Ans. —An average of many xinxilyses, shows that a 
toxx of potatoes contains seven pounds of nitrogen, 
3% of phosphoric acid and 11% of potxish. Experi¬ 
ence has shown thxxt a vex-y much lax-ger proportion 
of phosphoric acid is ncedetl than the anxilyses woxxld 
indicxite. There is no denying resxilts, and the mix- 
txxre given xibove indicates the proportions most gen- 
ex'ally used on average soils. As to why xnore phos¬ 
phoric acid is ixeeded, is a subject we purpose to 
discuss under Primer Science later on. 
When Shall We Haul Out Manurb ? 
J. F. B., Strabane, Ont. —Is it more profitable to draw 
out manux’e in the winter thaix in the spx’ing ? 
Ans. —No exact answer can be given to sxxch a ques¬ 
tion, because xi great many conditions must be con¬ 
sidered. The great advxintages of haxiliixg manxxre 
in winter are chiefly mechxinical. The teams have 
less to do then, and the hauling is easier. With the 
mxinxxre hxiuled before spring, early farm work can be 
done to better xidvantage, and less hurriedly. The 
mxinxxre is not improved, however, by winter hauling 
—in fact, unless on vex-y level land, there is likely to 
be xnore or less loss by leaching. A good forking 
over and coxnposting in winter, is always good for 
mxinure—fining xind x-otting it. Of course this cannot 
be done if the manure be spread as fast as made. If, 
however, it be hxiuled from the yard and piled on the 
field whex-e it is to be used, xi great deal of the labor 
is done ahead of spring wox-k, xind the mxinure is left 
in better condition. This plan is, perhaps, the best 
one, all things considered. 
The Treatment of Alkali Lands. 
,J. M. K., Ashland, Neb .—Whxit is good to put on 
xilkali soils ? I have two such places on my farm. 
Ans. —These “alkali soils” result from an excess of 
sodxi, either in the fox-m of the carbonate or sal soda, 
or coxnmon salt. To cux-e them, one must either re¬ 
move this excess of soda, or change it into a form that 
is less harmful to plants. If the places can be drained, 
a part, at least, of the soda, will be washed out by the 
rains, and where good drainage can be had, this will 
effect a “ cure ” in time. Another way is to use kind 
plaster at the rate of, say, 500 pounds per xicx-e. The 
action of this is to convert the soda into the form of 
sulphate or Glauber’s salt, which is less hxirmful to 
plants. 
Chaff in Cow’s Eye; Warts on Teats. 
M. K., Qrover, Pa. —How shall I rexnove chaff from 
a cow’s eye ? What will remove wax-ts fx-om xi cow’s 
teats ? 
Ans. —Chaff in the eye should be carefully picked 
out with fine forceps or carefully brushed out with a 
pencil covered with a soft cloth. In either case, the 
head should be firmly held by an assistant, and the 
lids turned back with the fingers of one hand, while 
the chaff or other foreign body is removed with the 
other. Bxithing the eye with cool water, or covering 
with a wet bandage, would be the proper after treat¬ 
ment if any inflammation follows. If the warts have a 
well marked neck, they may be twisted, or cut off’ with 
a pair of scissors xind the cut surface touched with 
caustic. If without a neck, touch with nitric acid. 
This treatment can best be left until the cow is dry, 
as it will cause more or less soreness. 
