344 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 18 
“ A few days before this, I had purchased a breed¬ 
ing’ sow. and now I concluded to see just what actual 
profit she was to mo; so I measured all the grain feed. I 
had a small orchard that had been recently seeded 
with Medium clover and we had a good supply of milk. 
I sold the sow during the summer, and the pigs (eight 
in all) the following November. Their cost was (not 
including pasture and milk), $57.33, and 1 received, 
$117.75. This was an eye-opener to me. I had never 
dreamed that such a profit would he possible. 
“This experiment led to a train of thought. Why 
not raise hogs, buy the grain fed, and make a good 
living without so much hard work and worry ? Wife 
and I talked it over, and concluded to sell out what 
stock we had, tools, etc., take the $450 we had in the 
hank, and buy a 20-acre tract that was offered for sale 
at $50 per acre. 
A Start On a Small Scale. 
“ After paying for the land, we had $130 left; $50 
were used in building a house, doing all the work 
myself. There were originally a house and a few 
outbuildings upon the place, but the house had been 
moved away. Out of the sheds remaining I made a 
stable for two horses and one cow, also a hoghouse 
with a roof of straw. I purchased five breeding sows 
at $10 apiece, and used $10 for lumber for a poultry- 
house. This left us a very small allowance for run¬ 
ning expenses, but the poultry helped us out. We 
owed no one a cent, which was a consolation. 
“ One half of the place I used for pasture ; the rest, 
except about the buildings, I broke up and planted to 
corn. The first season, we had to live ‘ close’ in order 
to keep out of debt. As I reserved 10 breeding sows, 
my selling stock was not large. The following spring 
I set out a quarter of an acre to strawberries, and 
planted one acre to potatoes ; this was new business 
for me, but I concluded to try it. The berries did 
remarkably well, completely covering the ground. 
My potatoes did fairly well, and from the 10 breed¬ 
ing sows, I raised 53 pigs. One of my neighbors sold 
considerable milk to the creamery, but raised no hogs, 
so I was able to bargain for his skim-milk, paying him 
10 cents per can of about 70 pounds. I made enough 
this season to build a better barn and hoghouse. Last 
spring, I set out 50 Early Richmond cherry trees, and 
a half acre of strawberries, besides shade trees, rasp¬ 
berries, currants, etc., for home use. 
Some Plans for the Future. 
“ I intend to grow seed corn and potatoes upon my 
cultivated land liereaftet, and buy all corn for feed¬ 
ing purposes. Last year, I sold 30 bushels of seed 
corn through my groceryman and at a feed store. All 
my strawberries went to the same groceryman the 
past season, and I received the very highest price. 
With an honest groceryman as an ally in my business, 
I do not think of sending to other cities for goods at 
wholesale prices. Out of last year’s profits, we have 
saved $500 with which to build a house. You may 
laugh at the idea of building a house with such an 
amount of money. It wfill be a cottage, and consider¬ 
able of the work I shall do myself, hiring one carpenter 
by the day. I shall do the painting myself. We have 
not done any wonderful things—nothing but what any 
one else can do. We do not expect to make a fortune 
in our old age, upon our 20-acre farm, but we do ex¬ 
pect to make a comfortable living and have time to 
enjoy it. I used to think that no farmer could make 
a living on less than 80 acres of land ; now I know 
better. I fully believe that the greatest curse to the 
Western farmer to-day is too much land.” 
Here are Mr. Hall’s receipts for 1894 : 
72 hogs. $864 00 
23 pigs, at $2.50 . 57 50 
Strawberries. 107 25 
Potatoes. 64 70 
Total.$1,093 45 
COST OF FEED, ETC. 
500 bushels of corn. $230 00 
Shorts. 28 00 
Milk. 41 00 
Day help. 11 75 
Strawberry pickers, boxes, etc. 21 17 
Total. $331 92 
Net profit. $761 53 
As will be seen, household expenses, taxes, etc., are 
not in the expense account; neither is any account 
made of seed potatoes or corn, as I have no knowledge 
of the amount sold or prices obtained. 
Illinois. DWIGHT HERRICK. 
A BARN WITHOUT BEAMS. 
Mather & Son, of Jefferson County, N. Y., ask how 
to build a barn 45x100 feet, with a basement, so as to 
have no cross timbers in the way of fork or slings. 
For such a barn, I would not think of using posts less 
than 24 feet long. With posts so long, the barn will 
cost no more than if the posts were but 16 feet long, 
except the extra lumber used in posts and siding, and 
one additional girt, while it will hold fully double as 
much in the mows. 
The old way of building a barn, if only 30x40 feet, 
was to have a “straddle girt,” a “big beam,” and a 
“purlin beam,” so that with 14 or 16-foot posts, there 
was but very slack space between timbers, and it was 
almost out of the question to use a horse fork. 
Fig. 108 shows a single cross bent of a barn 45 feet 
wide, with 24-foot posts, and also shows how it may 
be framed so as to leave clear space from the floor to 
the ridge, the whole length of the barn for using a 
fork or slings. As will be seen, the purlin posts run 
from floor to rafters, with a beam from near the top 
of the main posts to these, and the whole well 
braced. The slanting brace from beam to rafter, 
midway between the main and purlin posts, marked 
A, may be omitted if the rafters are made strong 
enough to support the roof without sagging. 
For posts and beams, I would advise 8x8, 8x10, or 
lOxlO-incli, according to the kind of timber used. 
The braces will be better if doubled, with 4x4 scant¬ 
ling. By doubled is meant placing one on each side 
of the timber. By all means, they should be framed 
in, so as to be pinned at each end ; they then brace 
both ways. 
A barn of this size with 10-foot basement—it should 
not be less—will afford plenty of room for 60 cows 
placed in two rows in Bidwell stalls, heads out, and a 
driveway for hauling manure in cleaning the stables. 
It will give stalls that may be varied in size from 3 to 
3 feet; or they may all be put in of the same size. 
To ventilate the stable, two trunks or chutes may be 
run down each side of the barn, not less than three 
feet square, into the feeding alleys in front of the 
cows. These should extend up the side of the barn 
to the rafters, follow them up, and unite from each 
side in the bottom of ventilating cupolas, wdiich 
should be provided with the swinging doors shown in 
The R. N.-Y. of August 11, 1894. In this case, doors 
may be placed along the sides of the chutes to be open 
so as to use them for throwing fodder and bedding 
from the loft to the stable. Or, if preferred, and it is 
certainly best, two trunks four feet square, may be 
run from the basement to the cupola, being placed in 
the center of the barn sideways, equi-distant from 
the ends and having separate chutes for forage. I am 
aware that, theoretically, it is better to have these 
ventilators go down to near the floor. But practic¬ 
ally, I have never seen any difference, so I would not 
try to have them go down if I adopted the plan of 
having separate ones near the center. If I made them 
do double duty, and placed them at the side of the 
barn, I would put them down to within three feet of 
the floor if I wished. If the stables are properly 
cleaned, and plenty of absorbents is used, I have never 
seen any trouble in getting pure air in if I provided 
for taking the impure air out ; so it is not necessary 
to be to any expense on this score, j. s. woodward. 
Fast Growing. —Crimson clover is in full bloom ; 
some of it has growm five inches a week for two 
weeks, and is now 6 to 25 inches tall. How is that 
for poor worn-out Kentucky knob soil ? I counted 61 
stalks from one seed. t, r. c. 
Liberty Ky. 
WHAT SAY? 
Hens for the South. —Which breed of hens will 
pay best under the following circumstances : Hatch 
the chicks in the spring so that the pullets will begin 
to lay by October 1. Keep them till about April, when 
eggs are cheap ; then ship them north to Washington 
or New York ? They will have free range; the ground 
is bare all winter usually. White eggs bring more 
when shipped. My choice is between Leghorn and 
W. Wyandotte. Would any cross be better than a 
pure breed, say, Wyandotte or Houdans with Leg¬ 
horn hens ? I wish to hatch with hens, but raise in 
brooders. Wyandottes will sell for more money; will 
they lay as many eggs through the winter ? A. F. A. 
Claremont, Va. 
R. N.-Y.—We would rather have some of our South¬ 
ern readers answer this. We would select Leghorns 
or Minorcas for eggs. The Wyandottes do not lay a 
pure white egg. The Plymouth Rocks are fine birds. 
Honest Men Honored. —A few years ago, I sent to 
a leading nursery for a Lombard plum tree; this 
variety was not so common or cheap as now. From it 
I grafted some 20 large trees ; last season they bore 
for the first, and the fruit was no more like a Lombard 
than a Baldwin. They are poor enough, and now I 
am grafting them over again ; it's terribly provoking 
as well as a loss. 
Another fact has perplexed me much : I have sev¬ 
eral times sent to leading nurseries for certain kinds 
of trees, and if they happened to be out of that par¬ 
ticular kind, some other was substituted. If that is 
an honest way of dealing, I fail to see it. If I pay for 
a horse, I don’t want a goat. This spring, I sent to 
R. M. Kellogg, of Michigan, for plants ; he was all 
out of the variety ordered, and he returned the money; 
there’s a square-dealing man. 
Last fall, I sent to the Rogers Nursery Co., of New 
Jersey, for a lot of trees ; part of them were sent at 
once, the rest this spring. A finer loti never received; 
but those received n the fall were all winterkilled, 
owing to the extreme cold. I wrote, requesting them 
to be sure to let me know when they shipped this 
spring, as the first lot had been killed, and 1 wished 
to make sure of the rest. They sent back word that 
they would refill the order. I wrote them, no ; if 
they would send me a few (for I had none of that 
variety), I would be entirely satisfied ; but they re¬ 
filled the order, and put in enough extra trees to pay 
all expenses. I write this in order that others buying 
quite largely, may know that here is a company whose 
business is squared by the Golden Rule. E. m. c. 
Sing Sing, N. Y. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of 
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see whether it is not answered in our advertising columns. Ask 
only a few questions at one time. Put questions on a separate 
piece of paper.l 
WHAT CARE FOR BREEDING ANIMALS? 
E. R., Ewing, 111 .—I would like to hear from the horse breeders 
on the care of a stallion. Wild animals follow that trait which 
marks their character during mating season ; then why not use 
horses, male and female, for that purpose for which we breed, 
during their mating season ? Should stallions be worked between 
seasons? What is the rule of treatment of stallions in New Eng¬ 
land ? What is the rule of treatment in Germany, France and 
England ? 
The Care of Breeding Trotters. 
As to the stallion, I think he ought to have regular 
exercise the year ’round. For three months before 
and during mating season, he ought to have all the 
exercise he can stand without exhaustion, and so as not 
to impair his vigor as a coverer. The mare I would 
breed only on alternate years, and would work before, 
during and after mating, at speed, until she got too 
heavy to go fast; then I would speed slower. Alter¬ 
nate years would require her to care for only one foal 
at a time. As for feed, they ought to have all the good 
and clean feed they can eat; oats for the main feed, 
alternating with rye, barley and wheat as a change. 
Trainer for Miller & Sibley. Charles marvin. 
Moderate Driving Every Day. 
Merely as a matter of convenience, most of our breed¬ 
ing has been done with mares not worked, and with 
stallions driven for exercise only. In one or two 
cases, we have bred working mares, and the results 
were not satisfactory ; but we think that it was be¬ 
cause the mares were worked or driven harder than 
they should have been. Our judgment is that the 
best possible results would be obtained if brood mares, 
before breeding and while carrying and suckling colts, 
were worked or driven every day moderately—enough 
at least to stir the blood and give the best conditions 
