2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
“ Let it go ! I can’t do anything else.” 
“Improvements and all ? ” 
“ That’s all I can do ! It’s pretty tough at my time 
of life ; I’ve got a daughter and three grandchildren 
on my hands, and I don’t know where I can get any 
work for this winter.” 
The following interview will show how that coun- 
ry is looked upon by one who owns no property there. 
1 he gentleman had lately been through there in the 
nterest of an irrigating pump company. Said he : 
“ That rainbelt country is a blot upon the face of the 
earth; you don’t know anything about hard times 
here. Why, down there in Nebraska, there are people 
dragging along a half-starved existence—they haven’t 
money enough to get away from there.” 
“ We have the same thing in Colorado.” 
“Oh, yes; that strip of land reaches into both 
States; it can never be irrigated; rivers don’t run 
through there, so that reservoirs can’t help them ; 
water is 90 and 100 feet below the surface, and it will 
never be practicable to pump water there for irriga¬ 
tion, with coal so far away and so high-priced as 
it is.” 
Now that potato digging is over, the prairie 
schooners are traveling back to the rainbelt. Many 
of the men intend to put in crops there next spring, 
especially if there is much snowfall this winter. 
They have not means to start anew in a more favored 
country. What else can they do ? How pitiful is the 
situation ! The wife and children have staid by the 
old place, caring for the little stock as well as pos¬ 
sible, while the husband and father has been seeking 
work and wages. In many cases, those who stay at 
home have done all the farming there—the mother 
and children plowing and seeding, and trying by cul¬ 
tivation to coax the crops to grow, while they looked 
in vain for the rain they had been told came there in 
‘quantities sufficient to keep their crops in a growing 
condition. Hundreds and thousands of families occupy 
that land. Those who can leave it, are going to the 
North, the South, the East and the West. But what 
will make the winter endurable for the many who can 
not leave it ? The settling of the rainbelt country 
has been going on for several years ; it seems as if the 
fraud had been so thoroughly exposed that no new 
victims need to be drawn into it; but it is not so. 
The picture, shown at Fig. 1, is made from a photo¬ 
graph of a Rainbelter’s outfit. s. E. h. 
Greeley, Col. _ 
TRAINING YOUR COLTS. 
WHEN SHALL THEIR EDUCATION BEGIN? 
Don’t Make a Fool of the Colt. 
The picture, Fig. 208, 1894, of the six-months colt, 
worries me. I know they are making a mistake in 
handling her so much and so young. The rough look¬ 
ing man in the background thinks as I do. I can see it 
in his weather eye. What harm ? Ask any old horse¬ 
man or “breaker.” Colts handled much, and espec¬ 
ially pets, are very likely to develop disagreeable 
tricks. They don’t fear or much respect their masters. 
The theory is perhaps good. The practice will not 
bear it out. I have had sad experience in this line. 
One very intelligent colt was so loved and petted that 
she became a marvel. She would follow me into the 
house or up stairs. How much we expected of her ! 
She was never “broke,” but just hitched up and used 
when the time came. No trouble for some time. 
Then one day she became disgusted with doing as I 
liked instead of as she liked. She kicked herself loose 
in short order. She was not excited or angry. I was. 
She remained the same roguish, demure creature ; was 
good as pie for some days. Then sulked again, kicked 
a &30 cart to pieces and went to eating grass by the 
roadside. We conquered her habit, but it was harder 
than to have broken a wild colt. Gentle your colts 
by all means. Halter break when a few days old. 
But don’t let the boys fool with them, and never make 
much of a pet of a colt before she is broken. 
J. E. WING. 
Great Stress on Feeding Colts. 
In The R. N.-Y. of December 15, 1894, the young 
colt at work was a fine illustration of what maybe 
done if good judgment be used in handling stock. I 
have for a good many years made a study of feeding 
and making them generally useful to the owner. I 
have made a point of feeding the least amount of food 
to keep my horse in good working condition. My 
common feed has been corn two parts, oats two parts, 
and one part of rye or wheat, all ground together, 
and one part of this with one or two parts of bran. 1 
am very partial to clover hay when well cured, feed¬ 
ing as small an amount as will keep them in good con¬ 
dition with the work they are doing. I believe in 
horses’ earning their living. I never turn my horses 
to pasture as they get soft and it takes a long time to 
get back to working condition. In lieu of pasture, I 
rely on carrots, feeding them very sparingly through 
the winter, but about the first of March I feed about 
all they will eat until into May, or as long as the 
carrots will keep well. I have a span of colts 18 and 30 
months old; both were broken to the halter before 
they were a week old, and have been handled ever 
since until at present they drive very nicely. We 
handle them only enough to keep them way wise. 
Neither has been out to pasture, but both have been fed 
on the above plan. They weigh respectively 730 and 
950 pounds. They have a yard run. horseman. 
Michigan. 
The Best Way to Break a Colt. 
When the colt is two or three months old, or perhaps 
younger, if able to travel without injuring itself, it 
should, when the mare is at work in the field, be 
hitched to the hames, by a halter or bridle. Later on, 
when it has learned the meaning of “ get up !” and 
“ whoa !” it should have a small collar and hames or 
breast collar harness, the tugs of which may be tied 
up out of the way, or a very light weight attached. 
When I was a boy, I made a harness that answered 
my purpose very well, by sewing some old harness 
tugs together, making the breast collar and tugs all 
one piece, and then sewing a back strap to the tugs at 
either side. I broke my colt in this rude harness, and 
many a pleasant ride did I take on my hand sled in 
winter, drawn by my favorite gray. In either of the 
ways mentioned, great care should be taken not to 
overtax the strength of the colt. In addition to the 
above methods, a bitting harness may be used if de¬ 
sired. If I were breaking a colt especially for driving, 
I would break him with a bitting harness only. 
Minnesota. o. k. 
AN EYESORE MADE INTO A SUB-TREASURY. 
WHAT WATER DID FOR THE BERRIES. 
Part II. 
Irrigating Black Raspberries. 
Perhaps no small fruit will produce a crop like 
black raspberries if properly managed. The nearer 
we get to Nature in this respect, the better. On the 
east side of my irrigated strawberry plot, I have the 
black raspberry plot of half an acre. As they follow 
right in line with the last pickings of strawberries, I 
ran my water supply across the head of this plot, and 
SPUD HOOK. Fig. 2. 
applied just the same as in the strawberries, viz.: Let 
a half-inch stream out of the 1%-inch main, run down 
three rows or rather between them, turning it on 
about 4 p. M., and off about 8 or 9 A. m., next morning, 
and so on till the whole plot had been covered or 
watered. This took about eight nights. I then re¬ 
peated the same process till they were done. 
But the great secret in black raspberry culture is in 
mulching, even when irrigated. My plan has been to 
work them up thoroughly till close to picking time, 
then mulch the whole plot with wheat straw to the 
depth of about eight or ten inches. This keeps down 
all weed growth, keeps the fruit clean, holds the 
moisture, and makes the berries ripen more evenly. 
And what berries ! My whole plot are Ilillborn’s. I 
would grow no other for yield ; they cap the nation 
when treated to a drink of water and lots of bedding. 
My rows are five feet apart each way, with four 
canes to the hill, cut back to three feet in spring. I 
take out the old canes in the early part of the winter, 
as soon as the ground freezes, by means of a spud 
hook shaped as at Fig. 2. The great beauty of this 
hook is that it takes out only the desired cane without 
cutting or injuring the others, by simply pulling up 
on it. An old manure fork handle with the spud 
fastened to it, is perfection itself. The frozen ground 
enables the cane to be extracted without tearing out 
the bush by the roots, and also enables the person 
using it to get around easier. The blade should have 
a little slant to cut nicely. But now for the returns 
from that one-half acre for 1894, the first bearing 
year. They began ripening on July 20, as the follow¬ 
ing table shows : 
July. Boxes. Price. Total. Aug. Boxes. Price. Total. 
20 65 0.11 $7.15 1 426 0.6 $25.56 
22 240 0.10 24.00 3 396 0.6*4 25.75 
24 384 0.8*4 32.64 6 540 0.5*4 24.70 
26 312 0.8 24.96 : 8 408 0.6 24.48 
28 395 0.8 31.60 10 302 0.614 19.63 
30 408 0.6 24.48 13 296 0.7 " 20.72 
-- 15 180 0.8 14.40 
Total. $114.83 17 80 0.8*4 6.80 
I Total. $162.14 
July.$114.83 
August. 162.14 
Total receipts.$276.97 
Expenses picking and boxes. 42.00 
Net off one-half acre.$234.97 
In making out these tables, I have not considered 
commission and freight or express as I sell to buyers 
at the station and my prices are net. 
The effects of-irrigation were clearly shown in the 
size of the fruit, as compared with other fruit not irri¬ 
gated. To produce the best possible crops by irriga¬ 
tion, the plots should be thoroughly underdrained. 
Better raise one-half acre right, than 19 acres half 
right. In no line of fruit growing, does quality before 
quantity pay better than in small fruits. All about 
blackberry culture next week. a. j. snyder. 
Canada. 
FORTY HOGS; THEIR PASTURE AND GRAIN. 
I wish next spring to buy 40 March or April pigs, as soon as old 
enough to wean; or to buy, before spring, as many sows to farrow 
in March or April as will reasonably insure 40 pigs. Which is bet¬ 
ter to sow for early spring pasture, rye, or a mixture of oats and 
peas ? How soon should the pasture do to turn on ? If peas are 
sown, what variety is best for early sowing in southern Michigan? 
How many acres should furnish pasture until July 15? Would you 
recommend planting sweet corn to fit the pigs for the September 
or October market ? What variety ? How many acres ? Not hav¬ 
ing milk, what would be best to slop the pigs with ? How much 
per day ? Does this scheme look practicable ? r. T. b. 
Adamsville, Mich. 
Will Probably Be Disappointed. 
For early spring pasture, rye should be sown about 
the last of August, and will then be ready to pasture 
as early in the spring as the weather permits. This 
makes excellent early pasture, and will continue good 
until it begins to spindle. He should then have a 
small clover field to turn in. I do not think it pays 
to sow oats and peas for pasture ; neither would I 
recommend planting sweet corn to fit pigs for early 
market, as it is too late. It might do as a green feed 
to grow pigs, but not to put them in shape for market. 
I would prefer to sow peas, let them get ripe, harvest 
them, and either grind or boil them, as they make an 
excellent feed. Not having milk, I think fine mid¬ 
dlings the best; or, if the pigs are very small, bran and 
linseed meal, scalded, makes very good slop ; give them 
all they will eat up clean, and keep increasing as the 
pigs grow older. They should have corn, as I think 
there is nothing that will grow pigs better than mid¬ 
dlings for slop, and corn as a solid food. I think if 
F. T. B. buys pigs, and intends to grow and fit them 
for market according to the scheme he has laid out, 
he will be very badly disappointed when he comes to 
market them. My experience has been that there is 
nothing like middlings and corn to grow and fatten 
pigs at the same time. s. J. kress. 
Ann Arbor, Mich. 
Take a Smaller Herd First. 
In reply to the query, “Which is best for early 
spring pasture, rye, or peas and oats ?” I would say, 
both. Sow from three to five acres of rye, giving the 
pigs the run of a part of it at a time—giving it a 
chance to start after being fed off—which it will do 
very rapidly. They will do very nicely in this until 
the oats and peas can be grown large enough to feed, 
which would be about the time they begin to form 
pods. Then it is better to turn under what rye is left 
and plant potatoes, which ought to give a good crop. 
Have some panels of good portable fence, and set them 
off a small patch at a time, as they will waste less. 
The number of acres needed will depend on the 
amount of other feed at hand for them. He might 
sow more than they would eat while green, and har¬ 
vest them, thrash and grind, when they would make 
excellent slop. 1 had a few that ripened last summer, 
and not having time to thrash, I kept on feeding, and 
could not see but they did just as well as they did 
when in the green ; but they had the run of an 
orchard at the time. Sweet corn is a very excellent 
feed for pigs of that age—feed the ears whole. Once 
we were feeding some pretty heavy, and thought that 
they ought to eat it up a little cleaner, so we cut the 
ears in pieces and they ate it cob and all till two or 
three died of inflammation of the stomach and bowels. 
For slop I would use wheat middlings if I could get 
them at reasonable rates ; if not I would use finely 
ground wheat—feed only what they will eat up clean. 
The scheme looks and is practicable for one who has 
had experience. Perhaps our friend has this ; if not, 
he might get the experience at less expense if he 
would try a smaller number to begin with. H. w. G. 
Palmyra, Ohio. 
A Ton of Pork in Four Acres of Peas. 
Fall sown rye makes valuable pasture for pigs in 
the spring, and if sown early in September, makes ex¬ 
cellent feed in November and December, if snow stays 
away. Unless F. T. B. have rye already sown, prob¬ 
ably the oats and peas would make the earlier past¬ 
urage for his pigs. They should be sown early in the 
proportion of two bushels of peas to one bushel of 
oats; 1 would prefer the Canada field peas. If he 
has rye already sown, the oats and peas will come in 
when the rye begins to get tough. They should be 
covered quite deep, and the pigs may be turned on 
when the peas are just passing out of the milk. Oats 
and peas are both rich in muscle and bone building 
elements, and the oats also help hold up the pea vines, 
causing them to retain their succulence longer. It is 
estimated that a good crop of oats and peas will make 
