THRASHING MADE EASIER. 
LESS WORK FOR THE WOMEN FOLKS. 
How They Do It in Colorado. 
set up the leaf of an old-fashioned table. The lift¬ 
ing- of a frame above the table converts the canvas 
side-covering into an awning. Benches from the 
shanty make seats, and the whole number of men 
CRIMSON CLOVER IN DELAWARE. 
STILL THRIVING ON ITS OLI) STAMPING GROUND. 
Fart Ilf. 
The R. N.-Y. does not believe in woman’s wrongs. 
It holds that the men-folks do not deserve to have a 
monopoly of the conveniences that go to make farm 
life easier. Thrashing time is hard on the men folks, 
but it is hard on the women folks, too. Colorado is a 
great State. It has made rapid progress in many 
directions. We now purpose to let a Colorado farmer’s 
wife tell how the march of improvement has cooled 
the fierce heat in the kitchen stove at thrashing time. 
This describes last year’s work : 
The thrashing is done. The great stacks of wheat 
have passed through the machine, and the rows of 
sacked grain and the immense straw pile tell of the 
work that has been accomplished. Thrashing time 
has not been a season of hurry and worry and over¬ 
work to the women of the farm. They have noticed 
no increase in their reg¬ 
ular work. . _ 
Do you see that little 
cabin on wheels, in the 
background, at the left 
in Fig 132. That is 
what has made it pos¬ 
sible for the women of 
the farm to have an 
easy time while the 
thrashing was being 
done. Since that has 
become a part of the 
thrashers’ outfit, and %. 
makes its appearance -Si. ' 
Potash on the Clover. 
As was stated last week, Mr. S. H. Derby is one of 
the most successful Crimson clover farmers in Dela¬ 
ware. He also calls himself a “ potash crank,” be¬ 
cause he has insisted all through his farming, that 
clover, to do its best, must be given plenty of potash, 
and that the best crop in the rotation on which to use 
potash, is clover. Many people have argued that the 
chemicals should be put on the crop that is to be sold 
—like tomatoes, asparagus, potatoes, etc. Mr. Derby 
has always held that the potash should go on the clover. 
It is not lost in that case. The following crops get it 
just the same, and the clover crop is made larger and 
stronger to pay for it. This means more humus and 
more nitrogen, which is just what that light soil needs. 
Mr. Bancroft, you will remember, feeds tons and 
tons of his Crimson 
clover to stock with cot- 
_ ton-seed meal. The rich 
manure from this feed 
goes on to the money 
crops. Mr. Derby’s plan 
is different. lie keeps 
no stock except that 
needed to supply work 
and dairy products. In- 
i pk stead of going into the 
silo, the whole crop 
goes into the soil. Some 
-jU '■‘ - v of it is cut for seed, but 
m 'mwi V 
K most 
of it is plowed 
right under and packed 
down for tomatoes, corn 
or potatoes. That is 
whn t it is gro w n for, a nd 
the farm shows that the 
object has been attained- 
“ Why,” said Mr. Der¬ 
by, “ when I can plow 
in a big crop of Crimson 
clover, it means at least 
20 bushels extra of corn 
per acre, and proportion- 
a t e 1 y more of other 
crops. Look at that 10- 
acre field! When I 
started on the farm, 100 
bushels of corn would 
have been a big yield 
from that field. In 1890 
it produced 144 tons of 
THRASHING MADE EASY! 
HOW THEY DO IT IN COLORADO. Fig. 132. 
with the pipe coming through the roof, in fact it is a 
perfect house on wheels. s. e. h. 
tomatoes, and can easily do it again 
“ What did it?” 
cooked when expecting the thrashers at some given 
time; and a breakage of machinery, a storm, or 
some other unforeseen event, delayed their coming-, 
or one of these occurrences held them at the 
farm double the time they should have stayed. 
Quite as likely, they came earlier than expected, and 
found the housewife nearly distracted at her inability 
to provide comfortably for so many hungry men. The 
men who had no wives to cook for them—and we have 
many farmers who “ bach”—found it very difficult to 
board the thrashers. 
Out of this list of difficulties, a new and better way 
was evolyed. For something like 10 years, this 
kitchen on wheels—“ cook shanty ” or “ grub wagon” 
they call it—has been in use. The man cook 
moves the building from place to place with a pair 
of horses. He is prepared to get a meal at every 
stopping place. Against the sides of the cabin hang 
boards on hinges, ready to be made into tables by 
lifting them up and pulling-out a prop JasJwe used to 
II- N.-Y.—Maybe the time is coming when one of 
these “ cook wagons” will be found traveling through 
each county as a traveling cooking school. Some 
scientific cook might, in this way, obtain audiences 
among farmers’ wives and daughters, and illustrate 
the true science of cooking. Judging from the report 
of the cooking lectures now being printed in The 
ft- N.-Y., this science would be very acceptable to 
country women. The regular farmers’ institutes are 
attended by only a small proportion of farmers. In 
the West, the wives turn out better than they do at 
the East, but in all sections, the trouble has been to 
reach and interest the people who most need the in¬ 
struction. This k ‘grub wagon” grubs in a double 
sense, for it pulls out by the roots the old idea that it 
is woman’s duty to roast herself over a kitchen fire 
because that is the way her mother and grandmother 
prepared food for thrashers. Let something of the 
sort be used to bring the elements of science home to 
farmers who will not go in search of it. 
“ Crimson clover, potash and phosphoric acid. See 
this field ! After a seed crop of Crimson clover, it 
was planted to corn July 2, and produced 50 bushels 
per acre. Crimson clover was sowed in this corn, 
plowed under in the spring, ami the land then pro¬ 
duced nearly 12 tons of tomatoes to the acre. Now it 
is in Crimson clover again. Every field on the farm 
records a similar story.” 
“ And the credit is due to-? ” 
“ Crimson clover and potash. I am convinced that 
the plan of using the potash on the clover crop, is the 
right one, because it gives the largest growth of 
clover, and that supplies the manure for the rotation.” 
“ Have you had a chance to compare a green crop of 
Crimson clover in its manurial effects with manure or 
fertilizers used alone ? ” 
“ Yes—and there is a good illustration in those pear 
trees. One lot is in an asparagus patch that receives 
large quantities of a high-grade fertilizer, and the 
other is in Crimson clover alone. See the difference !” 
