1895 
455 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
same land, raise a crop of early potatoes, and before 
they mature, plant between the rows Pringle corn (an 
early flint corn suited for growing in the South that 
will mature in 90 days), and in digging the potatoes 
work the corn. Then at the last cultivation, or when 
the corn is laid by, sow Crimson clover seed. I have 
a field thus cropped last year, and to-day the clover is 
more than 20 inches high, and looks as though it 
might produce 10 bushels of seed per acre. 
Saxon, N. C. b. p. mca. 
“Stop Killing the Grass." 
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old he will not depart from it,” has more 
to do with the Southern agricultural problem than 
anything else. It has now been nearly 30 years since 
cotton went on a boom, and almost universally com¬ 
manded the undivided attention of most of our farm¬ 
ers and planters. Men now grown and with families 
have literally been reared to know nothing but cotton 
culture. To change these people from their methods 
of farming, is nothing short of a revolution. The 
force of circumstances brought about by the continued 
low price of cotton, has forced these farmers to think 
more, which I trust will ripen into a complete con¬ 
version to the necessity for a change. 
The whole idea of the cotton farmer, has been one 
of speculation or trade, producing one crop at a profit 
sufficient to buy other crops ; but the merchant got 
the profit, and the farmers are minus the other crops 
The original idea of farming first for a living, changed 
to the idea of farming for the money there is in it. A 
business man or one of any other oc< upation, must 
necessarily make money first out of his business in 
order to buy his living from the products of the 
farmer. The Southern farmer, above all other farmers 
of the land, should first make a living on the farm, 
and the money comes easier. While an early and late 
crop of potatoes may be one-half better than a ootton 
crop, this one kind of crop has the disadvantage of 
over-production or fluctuation in price ; I like the 
rotation that takes in the cow or the pig. 
There is no necessity for a man to starve one year, 
or half starve two years, unless it be to starve him 
into conversion to a change of his method ; a man 
that would starve on a good farm in a climate so fav¬ 
orable to diversified farming, deserves to be starved 
out of the country and make room for some better 
and wiser farmer, that will not spend half the year in 
killing grass and the other half buying grass, Better 
commence now to pull the cotton from among the 
grass, and let the grass grow, than to talk about 
starving when it takes all the help in the country to 
keep down the grass. Why not dispense with all this 
labor, and let the grass take the country ? Any farmer 
who doesn't know how to convert cheap grass into 
cheap meat, must learn how quickly, or quit the busi¬ 
ness. These changes can't be brought about all at 
once ; go slow by planting something that will bring 
in an income through the whole year. 
From where I now write (May 25), may be seen a 
fine stand of corn that has a black, rich color ; this 
corn is on a Crimson clover sod. The clover was fed 
green until it began to get well in bloom, when the 
rest was made into hay. The seed was sown after 
cantaloupes last September. M. C. S. can sow Crimson 
clover among the standing cotton in September and 
October. He can also drill in a little acid phosphate, 
ashes or manure in the water furrow between the 
rows in September, and plant rutabagas. This will 
give a good crop of medium-sized turnips, that will 
not get pithy, and will keep sweet and nice in the 
ground all winter. We fed these to cows, hogs and 
horses all last winter. They were grown after small 
grain, as I have not planted cotton since the price 
went below eight cents per pound. 
There are many other crops, as well as poultry, 
calves, etc., that may be raised that will bring in an 
income regularly every month in the year, that will 
take up the slack in the cotton farmer’s business, and 
fill in that ugly gap that fattens the mortgage taker, 
and tempts the farmer into the bad methods alluded 
to by M. C. S. j. c. s. 
Pendleton, S. C. 
THREE FARM FIXINGS. 
Non-Smoking Chimneys. —I had two low chimneys 
that were inveterate smokers. I cured them of this 
bad habit by fixing them as shown in Fig. 143. I got 
some new bricks for tops, and with a trowel took off 
the old tops and forged out the tops as shown. They 
work to perfection ; the smoke can’t go below any 
more. They have been on trial two months now, and 
haven’t kicked once. B represents brick inside the 
chimney set up standing. A is the space left in the 
center, so that the chimney can be cleaned out. It 
may be covered with loose brick or a piece of iron. 
Perry, N. Y. f. u. h. 
A Homemade Wire Fence. —The trouble with ail 
>voven-wire fences, is that they will wrinkle in going 
over hills or through hollows. I use No. 9 annealed 
galvanized wire, strung the distance apart I wish the 
wires to be. I use on the end of each wire, an iron 
spool. The wires go through the end post and are 
wound on the spool. I use long, broad staples, but 
I do not drive them home, so that the wire is loose 
from one end to the other end. To keep the wares 
from spreading so that animals can crawl through. I 
fasten them together with pieces of the same wire 
cut three inches longer than I wish the wires in the 
fence to be apart. One end of these wires is bent in 
the shape of a letter U, by bending it in a hole bored 
!}-£ inch deep, in a one-half inch round iron. Unless 
CHIMNEY CURED OP SMOKING. Fig. 113. 
one use something to keep the wires in place when 
these tie-pieces are fastened on, the fence wires will 
be drawn together. I use a piece of hardwood board, 
one-half by one inch, four feet long, with a flat 
piece of iron screwed to one side of it. This stick has 
notches filed three-eighths inch deep in the wood and 
iron, to correspond with the wires, so that when I 
place the stick against the fence, one wire goes in 
each notch. My stick is four feet long, and has notches 
cut in it every six inches. Where I wish my fence 
wires to be tied together, I place my notched stick, 
and hang a tie with a hook on the other side of the 
fence from me, and the lower end of the tie hanging 
A HOMEMADE WIRE FENCE. Fig. 144. 
on the other side of the lower wire to be tied. If one 
wish his fence wires to be tied every six feet, begin 
three feet from the post, and tie the two top wires ; 
then skip one space, and fasten the next wires, and so 
on until the ground is reached. The stick may be 
moved over three feet, and the two wires skipped the 
first time be fastened as in Fig. 144. These tie pieces 
are fastened to the wire with a piece of flat steel six 
inches long and one inch wide, bent and filed hook 
shaped. lo fasten the top of the tie, I hang it close 
to the notched stick (have the wires drawn tight), take 
this piece of steel in my right hand, hang it on the 
fence wire to the right of the tie, turn it over the 
A HOMEMADE WHEELBARROW. Fig. 145. 
fence wire until the notch in the steel catches in the 
short end of the tie, and wind it around the fence wire 
without any trouble. The lower end hangs on the 
other side of the lower wire. Catch the end of the 
tie that hangs below the wire in the bend of the 
steel, with the notch in the steel against the fence 
wire ; give the tie a bend around the wire, and finish 
the job the same as for the upper end of the tie. This 
makes the best and cheapest fence of which I know 
without any exception. I use a two-inch staple one- 
half inch wide, and when I fasten the wire, I am care¬ 
ful to place the points of the staple so that they will 
not split the post. It will give a half stronger job 
than staples of the same length bent for round wire. 
Outside of my own work on my tools for my fence, I 
paid 10 cents to a blacksmith. I have put on the ties 
of a five-wire fence 45 rods long in a half day. 
Warwick, N. Y. h. p . d . 
A Cheap Wheelbarrow. —Lay two pieces of white 
pine or hemlock boards side by side. With a pencil 
and piece of string, draw a circle, using the crack be¬ 
tween the boards for the center. Next, saw out the 
circle with a compass saw. Having done this, repeat 
the operation, using the first for a pattern. The 
square hole should be sawed out before nailing the 
wheel together. Nail the four pieces together, taking 
pains to have the cracks cross each other. Make a 
square piece to fit the axle hole, securing it in place 
with wooden pins on either side of the wheel as shown 
at No. (> in Fig. 145. The handles may be made of 
almost any material at hand having sufficient strength, 
and consist merely of two straight pieces, about 4>£ 
feet in length, smoothed off at the ends to fit the hand. 
The body of the barrow is made of barrel staves. In 
order that the staves may retain their original curve, 
thus giving the body its proper dish shape, blocks 
should be nailed to the handles having a gradual 
curve starting from the inside. Bore a hole in the 
wheel end of each handle and drive a large w're or 
wire nail through the hole into each end of the axle. 
A few blows of the hammer give it a pair of legs, and 
the barrow is complete. By the application of a little 
grease on the axles occasionally, the barrow will be 
found to work more satisfactorily. j. s. 
Little Silver, N. J. 
SOME MISTAKES IN POTATO GROWING. 
I once took some 30 bushels of potatoes out of a 
pit and washed them for seed, as they were quite 
dirty. I then laid then on planks in the hot sunshine, 
in a pile to drain. Before noon, I covered with planks 
for shade, and after noon hauled them away. In two 
days, about one-third of them seemed cooked, and 
were soft an eighth of an inch deep, and rotted 
shortly. There seemed to be about as many as had 
lain near the surface in the hot sun for two or three 
hours. 
A friend dug his potatoes in August. The ground 
was damp, the sun hot, and they were piled in the 
field before drying. In three days, the whole pile 
melted down. 
I am planting Green Mountain and Rural New- 
Yorker No. 2 potatoes now (.June 15 to 20). A neighbor 
got seed of me two weeks ago and planted. 1 le came to 
my wagon and kindly gave me warning that if l “ cut 
those taters and plant, they will all rot. Mine did, 
while a few I planted whole, came nicely.” By in¬ 
quiry, I learned that he cut them fresh, but planted 
them in hot, dry soil, on a hot day, and the hot sur¬ 
face soil was turned in on them. I went right ahead, 
and planted mine out of the same bin, cut fresh, but 
put deep down in a cool, damp seed bed with a potato 
planter where they were covered with cool, damp soil, 
and they are coming well. 
This spring, I treated all my scabby seed, especially 
the Early Ohios, with corrosive sublimate, one-eighth 
ounce to 15 gallons of water, and they grew as well 
as those not doctored. One bag of cut seed had not 
been treated, and I soaked it after cutting contrary 
to advice. But they grew as well as any. 
I have a cold bank cellar away from any building. 
Last year, it was so cool when opened May 1 to cut 
seed, that we sat with overcoats on for the first two 
days. The seed had hardly a bright eye, but after 
having the door open to cut for two days, it warmed 
up comfortably, and the eyes started. This spring, l 
shipped seed all along out of the same cellar, and had 
to put ice in it in a tub to keep the potatoes from 
sprouting. 
All potato growers know that after taking long 
sprouts off of seed, the yield is seriously lessened. 
One neighbor came to me for uDsprouted seed to plant 
anew his frozen early potatoes, lie said that his 
potatoes had sprouts a foot long, and he wished to 
know how I kept them plump, and so little sprouted. 
I had a cool cellar covered with sawdust and buried 
in a bank, and I shoveled the potatoes once in two or 
three weeks with a wire shovel, giving them a toss 
once or twice, and throwing them so that they would 
roll over a pile. Thus I bruise the ends of started 
eyes, and shake out all dirt that excludes the air from 
among them. One who has never tried it, does not 
know how great a help it is to shovel a bin of pota¬ 
toes, and prevent their matting. 
Last year, a friend made a sad mistake in laying by 
a seven-acre field of potatoes, by splitting out the 
middles with a large single-shovel plow. What he did 
do was to break off most of the roots in the middle 
third of the row, and pile up a sweet potato ridge to 
dry out, letting the hot sun and air down to the bot¬ 
tom of the seed bed, and robbing the plant of one- 
third of its feeding ground. 
Another serious mistake usually made here is to 
