102 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 16 
rye, it gets a much earlier start in the spring, and 
the rye is harvested, giving the young clover full 
possession much sooner than with an oat crop. By 
keeping all stock from the young clover, it gets a fine 
growth the first season. The following season, I cut 
two crops, and then plow under. In my experience, 
it does not pay to cut a clover meadow two seasons in 
succession.” 
“You have previously spoken of fields of potatoes ; 
where do they come in ? ” 
“ They are in a separate rotation altogether. I 
seed 10 or 15 acres to clover every year, as near as 
possible to the farm buildings. This is used one year 
for a hog pasture ; I also turn my work horses into 
the same pasture summer nights. Late in the fall it 
is plowed, and the following year planted to potatoes. 
After the potatoes are off, it is seeded to rye, and 
again seeded to clover.” 
“ Do you use any fertilizer of any kind besides what 
naturally accumulates upon your own farm ? ” 
“ Yes ; I keep one team hauling stable manure from 
the city the greater part of the winter.” 
“ Do you put this manure into a compost heap, or 
spread as hauled ? ” 
“All manure is spread as fast as hauled, including 
the manure made at home during the winter. During 
the summer months it is kept under a shed in a shal¬ 
low heap, so as not to heat.” 
“ What crop do you follow with after manuring 
during the winter ? ” 
“The manure is spread upon the seedling clover. 
I know about how much manure I will be able to get, 
and act accordingly, covering the entire field. Some¬ 
times it amounts to only 10 loads per acre ; at others, 
15 to 20.” 
“ Is not this coarse refuse in the way when you cut 
for hay the following season ? ” 
“ Not to amount to anything. I cut my clover high, 
and by being careful not to set the rake too low, there 
is no trouble.” 
“ Have you ever tried any of the commercial ferti¬ 
lizers ? ” 
“Not to any extent; they are too costly. When 
we can get stable manure for hauling, and wood ashes 
for 10 cents per barrel, it does not pay to buy chemi¬ 
cals at from $25 to $60 per ton.” 
“ Where can you get wood ashes for the price you 
name ? ” 
“ Almost anywhere in the city, and even of the 
farmers. I furnish the barrels, and gather them up 
at intervals, replacing them with other empty ones. 
I get the ashes from some 20 odd farmers. They have 
no use for them, as the day of soft soap has gone by.” 
“ What crop gets the ashes ? ” 
“The seedling clover in the potato rotation. The 
ashes are spread during the fall, usually, at the rate 
of 1,000 to 1,200 pounds per acre.” 
“ What tool do you use in spreading the ashes ? ” 
“ I use an old broadcast seeder, with a force feed. 
Previous to this the ashes are sifted, and the charcoal 
is given to the hogs and chickens.” 
“ Do you always expect to get your fertilizing 
material as cheaply as now ? ” 
“No; since I commenced hauling manure and gather¬ 
ing ashes, two others have entered the field, so that 
competition will soon raise the price, and we will 
soon have to look to some other source for our potash 
and phosphoric acid.” dwight iierrick. 
Illinois. 
WHAT SAY? 
Ensilage for Hogs. —I would like to know whether 
any one has ever tried filling a silo especially for hogs. 
It seems to me that if I could get the right crop, ensi¬ 
lage would make as cheap hog feed for winter as any¬ 
thing I could get. I have tried them with corn ensi¬ 
lage, but that seems to be too woody. They will eat 
some of it, but waste the greater part. Any informa¬ 
tion on the subject by those having had experience, 
will be fully appreciated. L. s. sr. j. 
Canajoharie, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We doubt whether any crop will make 
better hog ensilage than well-matured corn. Clover 
or oats and peas might answer, if well preserved, but 
we think that finely-cut clover hay will be better— 
especially if steamed ? What do others say ? 
Wants More Eggs. —I have a small hennery which I 
wish to run chiefly for eggs. It consists of 1,000 square 
yards of land inclosed with wire netting six feet high, 
divided into two yards. One yard has a 12x24-foot 
house, built of matched siding, with floor and plat¬ 
form lined with one-ply tarred paper and covered with 
tarred paper. The other yard has a large coop, 6x24 
feet, and one small house 6x4 feet. The first yard 
contains 60 hens, one and two years old ; the second, 
40 hens, one and two years old, all mixed breeds, but 
mostly B. P. Rocks, and six or eight Brown Leghorns 
badly mixed with other breeds. The first yard gives 
16 eggs daily ; the second, four. I wish to do better 
than this, They are fed well, the daily ration being 
three pounds of fresh ground bone, oats and wheat 
mixed, equally 1)4 pounds, equal parts corn meal 
and bran for a morning feed, five pounds of chopped 
mangels, or what cabbage they want, fresh water, 
grit, etc. Is this the best and cheapest ration for them? 
I have no cockerels ; what breed should I buy to im¬ 
prove my mixed stock, so as to get better layers, and 
when too old, to fatten for market ? This last is only 
a secondary point with me. They must be hardy 
enough for our climate, where it is mild one day, the 
next freezing, often at zero, but lately at 12 degrees 
below, and sometimes down to 22 degrees below. 
Seven Mile Ford, Va. j. B. l. 
R. N -Y.—Your houses are too crowded. The ration 
is very good, but would be better if you would mix 
the oats and corn, equal parts, have them ground, 
mix with bran, equal parts, and make a mash with 
cooked potatoes or other roots. You probably can't 
do better for eggs, than to get Leghorn cockerels, if 
you must cross, but you would do better to get pure 
bloods. We submit the question to our poultry 
experts. 
Strawberries for Pasture. —1. I have a piece of 
about four acres, which was set to strawberries last 
May, in rows five feet apart. Owing to the drought, 
the plants sent out about 60 per cent of the desired 
number of runners, making the matted rows narrow 
and the alleys wide. I wish to pasture this land in 
July, August and September. How shall I manage 
it ? I had thought to sow clover in the alleys in May, 
say, about a week before the strawberries blossom, 
and cultivate the seed in. Shall I sow Red or Crimson 
clover ; or shall I plow after picking the berries and 
sow some grain—oats, rye or wheat ? I wish to get 
feed as early in the season as possible. The soil is a 
moist, dark, sandy loam. j. s. f. 
Burnside, Conn. 
R. N.-Y.—This is a very different thing from the 
other “ clover and berries ” scheme recently pro¬ 
posed. Crimson clover would proba bly give the earliest 
feed, but the tramping of the pickers would injure it. 
WET SOIL BERRY NOTES. 
“didn’t get timbrell crazy.” 
My land is banked meadow—that is, land which, 
in its natural state, is at each high tide covered by 
water from one to two feet in depth. This flooding is 
prevented by a bank or dike, and the drainage water 
passes off through a sluice having a door opening out¬ 
wardly, giving free egress to the water during the ebb 
tide, but closing when the tide rises, thus preventing 
any water from the outside running in. The soil is 
an alluvial mud, from one to five feet in depth, and so 
rich naturally, that for ordinary crops, manure is not 
needed ; practically it never suffers from drought. 
The chief difficulty on such soil is to secure suffi¬ 
cient drainage to make and keep it dry. I thought 
prior to last spring, that I had it sufficiently under¬ 
drained, but the continuous floods of the early spring 
months taught me that I had not. As a result, till the 
early berries were ripening, a large portion of my 
patch was simply a quagmire. This afforded a pretty 
severe test as to the ability of different varieties to 
withstand excessive moisture. My main crop was 
Gandy, but I had under trial in lots of 100 to 1,000 
plants, the following varieties: Bubach, Haverland, 
Cumberland, Chairs, Parker Earle, Van Deman, Prin¬ 
cess, Early Idaho, Mineola, Burt, Warfield, Beder 
Wood and Stayman. The result may be summed 
up as follows : Gandy, even under these unfavorable 
conditions, netted me $200 per acre; the others, with 
the exception of Bubach, I think, did not yield at the 
rate of $10 per acre. Bubach yielded well, but the 
berries were so much softer, even than they usually 
are, that they would have been unfit to ship had I 
had any quantity of them. I have put in additional 
underdrains, and the following varieties gave suffi¬ 
cient indications of merit to induce me to try them 
another year : Parker Earle and Princess ; the others 
have been plowed under. 
Many of The R. N.-Y. correspondents praise Gandy 
highly, but complain that it does not produce enough. 
With us, it produces more cash than any other variety; 
as I take it, that is what the grower of small fruit is 
after. I have under trial for this spring’s fruiting: 
Dew, Timbrell, Princeton Chief, Marshall, Mary, Vic¬ 
tor Hugo, Enhance, Edgar Queen, Shuckless and 
Eureka [You should try Great American.— Eds.] and 
will report. I had a few Timbrells (potted plants set 
the fall previous), and while they were green I came 
very near getting “Timbrell crazy,” in fact, secured 
quotations for 1,000 potted plants. The plants bore 
so enormously and such splendid berries, and seemed 
to be so late (a most desirable quality here), that I 
thought they would prove a bonanza sure. But, as I 
watched them ripen, my enthusiasm slowly died out— 
such speckled, spotted and ring-streaked berries 
w r ould never sell, and I sadly abandoned my purpose 
of rushing into Timbrells. r. l. h. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Dwarf Rocky Mountain Cherry. —A. B., North 
Syracuse, N. Y., page 36, asks for facts about the 
Dwarf Rocky Mountain cherry. I consider it valu¬ 
able. It varies some in quality, the smallest being 
about as described by The R. N.-Y. ; the largest are 
of good size, sweet and of good quality. We think 
very highly of it for canning, drying or sauce, and it 
makes an excellent pie or fruit pudding. I would 
advise A. B. to try it by all means, but be sure to get 
plants that are genuine, as the Nebraska sand cherry 
is sometimes sold for it. It has withstood a tempera¬ 
ture of 47 or more below zero here unharmed, and 
bore a large crop of fruit. G. w. B. 
Sheridan, Wyo. 
Improved Vertical Drainage. —On page 19 is an 
article on vertical drainage. This method is similar 
to that employed in this vicinity, except that when 
possible, the water is carried off by underground 
drainage, instead of being allowed to soak away. A 
well is sunk to a depth of five to eight feet (the diam¬ 
eter to be governed by the size of the reservoir 
needed) in the lowest place, and stoned up in the 
usual manner. A ditch is then dug leading from the 
well to where the water is to be taken, and tile, or 
some cheap substitute, placed in it connecting with 
the well at least two feet below the surface. If the 
water does not filter into the well readily, under¬ 
ground feeders or ditches constructed the same as the 
one above, are dug, leading to the well from different 
directions. This method will drain wet, springy land 
much better than surface ditches, and the surface is 
always dry. A cheap and durable substitute for tile 
may be made by nailing two planks at right angles at 
the edges and inverting the V thus formed, making a 
good-sized channel which will last for years, w. G. c. 
The Dyeiiouse Cherry. —A. B. wishes to know 
about the Dyehouse cherry. Six years ago I bought 
four trees from a Rochester, N. Y., nursery. I copy 
the catalogue description : 
Dyehouse. —Unquestionably the earliest cherry, 10 days earlier 
than Richmond, fine quality, tree hardier, its early bearing re¬ 
markable as its great hardiness. Often bears at two years old, 
and has the appearance of being covered with a scarlet cloth, 
such is the abundance of its fruit. Has the smallest pit of any 
cherry known, a splendid keeper, and free from knots. For tarts, 
pies and especially for canning, it has no superior among cherries. 
Three years of fruiting have demonstrated every 
word of that description true. My trees all grew, and 
the second year gave us over five quarts of cherries 
from the four little trees. The two following seasons 
they did just as well in proportion to the length of 
time set. Last year, we had no cherries in this neigh¬ 
borhood, on account of frost in April, and when speak¬ 
ing of our loss on fruits, every one of the family would 
regret the loss of our Dyehouse cherries. In quality, 
the Dyehouse is much better than Richmond, less 
acid, better flavor, and for shipping, it certainly 
would be better, for it does not turn brown when the 
stem is pulled away, nearly as soon as does the Rich¬ 
mond. It is as large as ordinary Morello cherries, and 
is altogether good enough for anybody. s. i. c. 
Salem, Ohio. 
JAPAN PLUM CULTURE. 
WHAT PROMISE DOES IT HOLD OUT? 
A question of interest to our fruitgrowers, at the 
present time is, what effect will the Japan varieties 
of plums have upon the future of plum and fruit 
raising? Will they be confined to narrow limits for 
their best development and successful cultivation ? 
At present, we have the European varieties in the 
East and on the Pacific slope, Natives in the South 
and West, both with their local exceptions. Can the 
Japan supersede both, or will it be confined to still nar¬ 
rower limits ? I think it safe to say that it will grow 
and succeed wherever the peach can be grown, with 
a more northern limit. Locations, subject to late 
spi’ing frosts, extreme cold, etc., will not be the best 
locations for the varieties now introduced. U ntil we 
have Japans of better quality, there will still be a 
place in our markets for our standard kinds. 
The Japan also brings new conditions of growth 
and culture. The peach will be much used as stock 
to bud upon ; with free growers, like Burbank and 
some others, the trees should be sold and set at one 
year old, exactly as is now the custom with the peach. 
And there is no reason why they should not be sold 
just as cheaply. Burbank will grow upon the peach 
as well as the peach itself, and with its fewer branches 
and spreading top, will make a much larger growth 
than the peach side by side. Its new as well as older 
growth, being set with fruit buds the new growth 
should be severely cut back not less than one-half. 
Varieties like Abundance and Satsuma, which set 
more branches, and upright growers, should have 
their branches thinned as well as cut back. For our 
climate, Burbank, especially, should be set upon our 
higher lands. Good corn land, if properly enriched 
