5i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 3 
was to the right of the road which crosses the valley, 
running down to the meadow. The third consists of 
10 rows 100 yards long on top of the hill at the left 
end of the wheat field ; this plat was planted to test 
the Brandywine with Parker Earle on light soil. The 
rock of this ridge is of grey sienite, the strata vertical. 
The soil of No. 3 is of sandy loam, with no subsoil but 
the rock. Berries began to ripen on this plot in 1894, 
about May 15, followed by a week’s rain amounting to 
12 inches of water ; yet within 10 days, the Parker 
Earles were rusted so badly as not to perfect a single 
berry. The Brandywines were much better, but far 
from satisfactory ; Lovett’s was no better than Parker 
Earle ; Haverland seemed least affected, and Shuster's 
Gem next. None was so early as the same variety on 
plat No. 1 ; here the clay subsoil is near the surface. 
The plat being nearly level, the berries were the finest 
I ever saw, and gave the best yield. Plat No. 2 had 
more slope and much deeper soil, but neither yield 
nor berries were nearly so large as on No. 1. 
In 1895 with its extremes of heat and cold in May, 
not a blossom of the Brandywine was killed ; yet the 
fruit was seamy and ill-shaped, with very many 
double berries like the Bubach, which we never had 
before. The seeds were more sunken, preventing the 
berries carrying so well as before. The quality and 
quantity of fruit improved on ascending the hill. On 
June 1, the 105 rows*yielded 1,650 quarts, and on June 
12, a little better, but they were not all picked that 
day. Each day, the upper rows gave 30 quarts each, 
being almost double the average of the whole. The 
upper rows yielded in two weeks, 110 quarts to the 
row. There is clay under all this bed. 
Across the bed at the foot of the steep slope show¬ 
ing even with the top of the house, four rows were 
trenched and loosened with the subsoil plow, 18 inches 
deep, to catch the overflow of water for use in a dry 
SOME FOWL MATTERS. 
During the past three years, I have received and 
answered through the mails, 523 questions concerning 
the management of poultry. Some of these questions 
were puzzlers, and no mistake. Here is a fair sample : 
There is something the matter with my chickens; if you will 
kindly tell me what it is, I shall feel very much obliged. Some of 
them seem to take cold first, and then their heads swell and they 
look awful sick, and then die, while others get stiff in the toes and 
crampy in the legs, and finally lose all use of their limbs, and die. 
My poultryhouse is made of boards with chinks battened, and is 
lined inside with heavy tar building paper. In cold weather, the 
walls get covered with frost, and as it becomes warmer this thaws 
and the walls are quite wet. I found lice on 18 of the hens, so I 
tried Mr. Jacobs’s kerosene emulsion on them, and two died soon 
after ; two more ran off and died away from home, and the rest 
peeled off like unripe potatoes. It was horrible. 
There is a whole essay on how to fail with poultry. 
I give it to warn others away from the pitfalls into 
which the querist fell. In a subsequent letter, he 
said that he built his poultry house from a plan he 
had seen in a poultry paper, and it was there said to 
be a most excellent one. 
I have always warned poultrymen against lining 
their houses with building or any other paper. Paper 
linings make damp walls, and damp walls cause roup, 
rheumatism and other diseases. 
The ideal poultry house is one that is dry and 
draught-proof, and lumber is the best material in the 
world of which to make it. Build it of boards, one or 
two inches thick, and carefully batten every chink 
and crack, but don’t paper it. Keep lice out by 
thoroughly spraying the interior with plain kerosene 
about four times a year, and dusting the fowls well 
with good Buhach. Never apply kerosene in any 
form to any part of a fowl that is covered with 
feathers. It is good medicine, when mixed with lard, 
for scaly leg, and it is a prime article for destroying 
I am told that one range of glass in the vicinity of 
West Chester, Pa., is given entirely to the continuous 
growing of Chili peppers throughout the year ; the 
demand coming exclusively from a single Capsicum 
plaster factory. The tomato is, by all odds, the chief 
of these accessory products and is second only to the 
carnation in importance, usually coming in as an 
after-crop in the same houses. Although many green¬ 
houses are seen on farms, inquiry soon develops the 
fact that they are seldom run in connection with the 
actual care of land and cattle, as the work of winter 
gardening is so absorbing as to leave little opportunity 
for farm duties. The owner generally rents his land, 
and devotes his personal energies to the greenhouse. 
A few exceptions are found. 
I made a call last winter at the establishment of 
Benjamin Connell, of West Grove, Pa. Mr Connell 
is well equipped for the work, having been for many 
years chief of the shipping department of a large rose 
growing house, and has thus been favored with ex¬ 
cellent opportunities for ascertaining the wants of the 
florist's trade and the best methods of culture under 
glass. On his retirement from the rose nursery three 
years ago, he bought 21 acres of excellent farming 
land, lying on a southern slope and, for convenience 
in shipping, at the confines of a village. Two green¬ 
houses, 20x100 feet, with the necessary potting sheds, 
all of the most simple and economical construction, 
were soon built, chiefly by his own labor. A stock of 
the most desirable varieties of carnations was secured, 
and the succeeding winter the houses were run to 
that staple flower, followed after Easter by a crop of 
tomatoes. Ilis success was such as to warrant the 
construction of two more houses in time for the fol¬ 
lowing winter, in which he grew violets and florists’ 
plants, making in all about 9,000 square feet of glass, 
which, with his farming land, is about all he can 
lice in the poultryhouse ; but keep it off of the 
feathered portions of the birds. 
attend to with the help of his family. He makes a 
comfortable living and enough more to be in a position 
to avail himself of any new im- 
' _ provements, and late introduc¬ 
tions in his line. During the last 
. year he has been very successful 
in building up a wholesale trade 
in small mailing plants for prom- 
L A'fj j. st «*, inent seedsmen and plant dealers. 
A Talk About Flowers. 
“ What feature of your trade is 
\\. the most profitable ?” was asked. 
^ ie ma ^ Pl an t portion is be- 
m'a fA' lPC coining the most important, and 
• i , 1 appears most profitable, as many 
of the plants are grown as catch 
crops between the staples (carna- 
tions and tomatoes), by taking 
advantage of any temporarily 
unoccupied space, or as a by¬ 
product in the shape of cuttings 
or seeds from plants grown for 
REMAINS OF THE BUILDINGS OPPOSITE TlIEnRURAL GROUNDS. Fig. 163 
stream through the meadow, is an almost level strip, So many have asked me how best to get a fair start other purposes. For instance, I sold several thousand 
75 by 33 yards, extending to the Brandywine. I can take 
the water from the stream at the line 300 yards above 
the lane, with four-foot fall to reach the corner of 
the lawn. My purpose is thoroughly to tile drain this 
of the lice when the chicks first hatch, that I have 
come to the conclusion that these parasites cause a 
great deal of tribulation in the land. The best way 
of which I know is to dust thoroughly both hen and 
plants of the Japan Ivy, Ampelopsis Veitchii, at 
a good price. These plants were grown from seed 
planted in March, and occupied the benches only dur¬ 
ing the summer months, when it is difficult to make 
strip as far as the road which crosses the meadow, 
plant it to Brandywine strawberries, and irrigate 
them for large fruit. I believe this variety well 
adapted for the purpose, because of its hardiness of 
plant—never winterkilling on low, wet ground—the 
blossoms not being easily killed, the flavor sufficient 
to bear watering, in fact being much better in wet 
seasons than dry. By heavy mulching, I hope to make 
the bloom late, to escape frost, and to prevent baking 
after watering. Shall I be liable to have seamy, 
irregular berries ? 
nest with Buhach about two days before the chicks 
hatch. Hold the hen up by the legs and blow the pow¬ 
der well down among the feathers on all parts of her 
body. This will give the chicks a fair start, if they 
are placed in a clean coop. It is best to dust the hen 
with Buhach about once in 10 days while the chicks 
run with her, and the best time to do it is in the even¬ 
ing, just before the chicks go in for the night. 
_ FRED GRUNDY. 
GARDENING UNDER GLASS. 
the space profitable. You noticed the small block of 
the new violet, Lady Hume Campbell ; that may be 
called a ‘lucky hit.’ I tested it, with several other 
new varieties, from a sense of duty, and to my sur¬ 
prise, found it not only superior in beauty to the 
older sorts, but vigorous and entirely healthy. The 
large florists have been anxiously buying it up, as the 
dreaded violet disease has, of late, ruined the crop of 
violet blooms every winter. One enterprising grower 
telegraphed me for the whole lot. I could not afford 
to accept his offer, which was quite liberal, as I was 
On still nights, the cold settles in these valleys. a visit to the “ carnation belt.” able to cut $50 worth of flowers from the lot per 
One still morning during the cold snap of January, 
1894, the thermometer on the porch on the west side 
of the house stood 16 degrees below zero. I took it to 
the level of the meadow, where it marked 24 degrees 
below ; then to the top of the present strawberry 
bed, where it rose to eight degrees below ; then back 
to the porch and 16 degrees below again. Many 
plants that winterkill in our lawn, are hardy on the 
tops of the hills. The canna season is sometimes con¬ 
tinued four to six weeks later on top of the hills, 
as shown in the illustration, than on our lawn ; yet a 
fine stalk of the Brownii lily is nodding two splendid 
trumpets in front of the window at which I write, 
and has been in the ground where it stands three 
winters. 
I could make a basin in the meadow above the lane, 
and fill it with water early in the spring. Would it 
warm up enough to be of service in preventing frost 
Where Flowers and Fruits Smile at Winter. 
The Baltimore Central Railroad, is a short link of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad running from Philadelphia 
southwest though portions of Delaware and Chester 
Counties, to the head of Chesapeake Bay, at Port 
Deposit, Md. It passes, for the most part, through a 
long-settled and well cultivated dairy region, which 
supplies a considerable percentage of the milk and 
butter consumed in Philadelphia. Next to the neat 
farmhouses and fertile fields, the traveler’s attention 
is attracted by an unusual number of small green¬ 
houses to be seen, not only about the villages, but as 
a noticeable feature of many prosperous-looking 
farms. On inquiry, one is told that he is now in the 
“ Carnation Belt” of Pennsylvania ; where, perhaps, 
more good carnation blooms are produced than in any 
similar area in America, if not in the world. While 
this is, indeed, the case, a number of other market¬ 
week, near the holidays, and still have the plants, 
which are making runners freely in that cool place 
under the bench. The young plants will be in demand 
for some time yet.” 
“ Do you think the growing of vegetables or car¬ 
nations alone, is profitable at the present time ?” 
“ I do not, at prevailing prices for our products. 
The houses must be kept running all the time with 
some salable article, in order to pay expenses and 
keep up repairs, which are no small items. For that 
reason, growers in this vicinity have generally adopted 
a rotation of carnations and tomatoes, as practically 
double service can be had from the same benches. 
A certain amount of local trade in bedding and vege¬ 
table plants, comes in as a welcome accessory. 
(To be continued.) Fairfax. 
on the berry patch by flooding the patch in the night 
when frost is expected ? Would this be practicable, 
and would there be any objections to this plan ? The 
water from the same basin might also be used to 
irrigate the strawberries if necessary. 
able products are grown in these numerous winter 
gardens, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, 
lettuce, grapes, strawberries, etc., as well as a variety 
of flowering and bedding plants for the use of various 
large seedsmen. 
How Much Green Bone ?—How much cut green 
bone should be given to one dozen hens ? a. w. p. 
R. N.-Y.—Will those who have been feeding this, 
tell us what is the most profitable quantity to feed, 
and also as to what else was fed in connection with it ? 
