536 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 10 
ing. The water is not always convenient, and when 
it is not given as frequently as the horse is taught to 
expect it, the suffering will be great. I prefer to make 
it convenient. When a field is too far from water, 
I shall have the blacksmith swing a keg between two 
wheels, and attach a pair of shafts to the axle. This 
can be drawn by the horse, or behind a cultivator or 
wagon. If anything pays in cash, and then pays 100 
per cent extra in satisfaction, why not have the satis¬ 
faction ? I have only a small supply of corn this 
year, and as it is worth (50 cents a bushel, I have little 
inclination to buy. In fact, clover hay and water 
have been my chief dependence, and ray six horses 
are in better condition to day than they have been in 
any summer for years, though usually fed grain 
abundantly. When idle, they are watered five times 
a day in the stable, as pasture and water from springs 
are out of style in this locality just now. 
About Stover. —It is habit that leads one to put 
away Timothy hay for winter feeding of horses, when 
it is worth 5510 a ton, and there is a quarter of an acre 
of corn per head for each month of winter feeding. 
The stover from an acre of corn will furnish food suf¬ 
ficient for one horse five months, if the corn is a 
medium variety, and has three stalks in a hill. It 
should be cared for as scrupulously as other good 
feed, put under shelter as soon as cured, and not 
wasted in any way. Timothy meadows are very light 
this season, but it is, indeed, a poor field of grass here 
that one cannot sell standing at $8 to $10 an acre. No 
use of discussing “ manurial values”, and “robbing 
land,” when one can convert half or three-fourths of 
a ton of stunted Timothy into a $10 bill without any 
expense. 
About Seeding to Grass. —It is habit that leads a 
man invariably to turn under his wheat stubble for 
wheat again, because the grass failed to catch. There 
is no money in the wheat, and the grass may fail 
again. If he be after clover, and is where Crimson 
clover thrives, why not cut the stubble land with a 
disc harrow, as my neighbor is doing to-day, and seed 
to clover ? If he wants pasture, why not sow rye and 
Timothy with a grain drill? How would Crimson 
clover and rye do for hog pasture next season—the 
clover for early pasture, and the rye for fattening ? 
This is another neighbor’s plan, and next year we 
shall know what his success is. As hay will be high 
next year, and wheat probably will be low, why not 
seed to Timothy alone, making a fine seed bed and 
sowing the seed earlier than is safe for wheat? I 
shall try this way, and believe that it will pay, at least 
under present circumstances. ai.va agee. 
Ohio. 
STRAWBERRIES ON A DAMP SOIL. 
On page 102, I promised to report the result of this 
season’s fruiting on my land (banked meadow) of sev¬ 
eral varieties of strawberries. Dew proves worthless; 
berries fine, but entirely too few of them. 
Timbrell I shall keep enough of for home use, as no 
other berry that I have seen equals it in quality, but 
the color spoils it as a market berry. 
Of Marshall, Mary and Princeton Chief, I had but 
few plants, and dug them so closely for new plants, 
that they did not have a fair chance ; but I am very 
favorably impressed with the Marshall and Mary, but 
not so much so with the Princeton Chief. 
Victor Hugo is a very fine, early berry ; but as early 
berries furnish their heaviest picking just in the glut, 
I do not find them profitable. 
Enhance is a failure; color bad, makes a poor appear¬ 
ance in the crates. 
Eureka just escapes being a wonderfully fine berry, 
but in my soil it does escape ; it is entirely too soft, 
and scalds too easily. 
In pursuance of Tiie It. N.-Y.’s advice, I planted 
this spring 100 Great Americans, and as far as growth 
of vines goes, they are doing finely. I also planted 
100 Brandy wines, and am very much pleased with them. 
I got six plants of a new variety, Equinox, said to 
be the latest berry grown. I succeeded in saving only 
two of them ; but if I can judge from them, they will 
justify the claim made for them, as they were just 
ripening in early July. 
This year’s experience with Parker Earle has made 
me an enthusiast as to its merits. From an eighth of 
an acre, 1 picked a little over 1,000 quarts of berries, 
commencing on June 1, and making the last picking 
for market June 28, though 1 picked a quart for our 
own table July 4, and there were here and there green 
berries on the vines yet. The berries are large, and 
make a beautiful appearance in the crates ; and are 
sufficiently firm to carry any distance. The quality is 
of the best, and the berries hold their size wonder¬ 
fully up to the very last. When the berries first 
began to form, it seemed simply impossible that the 
vines could ever bring their enormous loads to perfec¬ 
tion ; but they did. The plant seems to settle for 
itself the question as to hill culture or matted row, as 
it will not run until it has first made an enormous 
stool, and the first year of setting is pretty well taken 
up in doing this ; but little approach to the matted 
row is made until the second year. I would, how¬ 
ever, hesitate to plant the Parker Earle in land that 
was not thoroughly fertilized, or that was liable to 
suffer from drought ; as it would seem impossible for 
any plant to bring to perfection the enormous masses 
of fruit it sets unless all conditions were of the best. 
Of Gandy, I can repeat only what I have said before; 
it is the reliable standard berry here, with only the 
failing of not being quite as productive as we could 
wish. But as far as I have yet reached, 1 shall retain 
only Gandy and Parker Earle—with Great American, 
Brandywine, Marshall and May to be decided upon by 
next spring’s fruiting. R. L. H. 
Millville, N. J. _ 
A PAINT SHOP FOR THE FARM. 
WHAT TO KEEP IN IT ; HOW TO USE IT. 
One of the soundest investments that the owner of 
farm buildings and implements can make, is to put a 
few dollars in paint and brushes. The woodwork of 
a barn or house may be preserved indefinitely, barring 
fires, by occasional applications of good paint, besides 
which the appearance is greatly enhanced. 
In connection with the wood-working shop that 
should be found on the farm, there should be a paint 
shop, where paint and brushes may always be found 
in good condition for instant use. Here is the outfit: 
A 6-0 paint brush, costing about $1.50 ; a sash tool, 35 
cents; a fitch tool, 15 cents ; a duster, or dust brush, 
75 cents; a two-inch flat bristle varnish brush, 25 
cents ; an oval bristle brush, $1 ; a t vo-inch flat 
bristle paint brush (for blacking the buggy top, 
curtains, etc.,) 25 cents ; 25 pounds of pure white lead 
in oil ; one gallon of pure raw linseed oil ; one quart 
of turpentine drying Japan ; one gallon of turpentine; 
one five-pound can of ochre, in oil; one five-pound can 
of burnt umber, in oil ; one 12>£-pound can of pure 
whiting-and-linseed-oil putty ; 25 pounds of zinc- 
white, in oil ; a putty knife, 25 cents ; a paper of 
glaziers’ points ; a few sheets of No. 1, and 2 sand¬ 
paper ; five pounds of dry gilders’ whiting. Other 
things will suggest themselves later, perhaps. This 
outfit will cost under $10, and will do many a job of 
painting around the house and farm. 
For large jobs, buy ready-mixed paint of a good 
quality, the lead, oil, etc., being for small and special 
jobs. Don’t buy cheap brushes or paint materials. 
Keep water on top of the lead, in the keg, to keep it 
from oxidizing or hardening from exposure to the air; 
keep oil on top of the zinc (oxide) white, as water 
hardens it. Keep oil or water—the latter is best— 
upon the cans of color. Rub the brushes out on a 
board when done using, and put into a small trough 
of water not above the bristles, however. Bridle the 
6-0 bush by tying twine around the bristles. 
When taking a brush out of water to use, rub out 
on a dry board. Varnish brushes keep in raw linseed 
oil containing one-third turpentine. When mixing 
paint, take out some lead, put it into a pot or kettle, 
add a little oil to it, beat up to a paste, add a little 
coloring matter, and beat up again, and add color by 
degrees until the desired hue is had, then add Japan ; 
if of best quality, a teaspoonful to 10 pounds of lead 
will be ample, unless the weather be wet or cold, 
when the amount may be doubled. Lead, umber, 
ochre, linseed oil, are all natural driers, and under 
fair conditions will dry without Japan. Beat up well, 
and then add linseed oil, beating again. For drab 
tints, use umber; for creamy or yellowish tints, use 
ochre ; for olive brown tints, add both together. 
For a first coat, or priming, on bare wood, use 
nearly all-oil paint, whether inside or outdoors. Out¬ 
doors, for a second coat, use medium heavy paint, and 
for a third coat, heavy paint, using oil only as a thin¬ 
ning vehicle. Indoors, for a second coat, use lead 
with oil and turpentine in equal quantities. For a 
finishing coat, use one-third lead, two-thirds zinc ; 
thin with turpentine only. Use a little Japan in each 
coat. Paint dries, as a rule, less readily on bare wood 
or any absorptive surface than on a hard surface. It 
also dries less readily over some hard substances than 
over others. Thus it will dry faster over copper, 
brass and lead than over zinc, iron, porcelain, glass, 
plaster and bare poplar, fir or oak wood. A good oil 
and a good base constitute a durable paint. Nothing 
can take the place of linseed oil in outside paint, and 
nothing alone is so good a base as pure carbonate of 
lead (white lead). 
Just now, white lead is lower in price than ever 
before known in America. Linseed oil is compara¬ 
tively low ; but if inclined to cheapen your paint 
mixture, you would much better cheapen in the base 
than in the vehicle. Better use whiting, a little lead, 
zinc and barytes, and pure linseed oil, than pure lead 
and adulterated fictitious or “better than ” linseed 
oil. This is on the idea that the life of a paint is in 
the vehicle, or oil. Whiting, at one cent a pound, 
and pure oi\ at 70 cents a gallon, colored with any dry 
pigment material like ochre or umber, oxide of iron 
or Venetian red, will give you a serviceable paint. 
Whiting is quite permanent as a pigment, though by 
itself, it makes a dirty brown paint (with 18 per cent 
of oil it forms putty), and it will not do to mix Prus¬ 
sian blue, chrome yellow, etc., with it, as lime acts 
injuriously upon such chemical colors. 
A. ASIIMUN KELLY. 
(To be continued.) 
SQUASH GROWING IN CHILL 
Chili is a great squash country ; the squash forms a 
great part of the daily bill of fare of the people, and 
there are more varieties of the squash family than I 
have seen anywhere else. One variety is the Roast¬ 
ing squash. It is a dark green color outside, salmon 
color inside, with yellow seeds; quartei ed and roasted, 
it is one of the delicacies of the Chilian bill of fare. 
Great attention is given to the cultivation of the 
squash, and in irrigated parts of the country, large 
areas are devoted to it. In lands not subject to irri¬ 
gation in the south, there is nothing notable in its 
culture ; but in the irrigated grounds, for the con¬ 
venience of conveying the water, instead of being 
planted in hills, it is sown in trenches. Even though 
we do not irrigate, there is an idea worthy of thought 
in this. In a trench 20 to 30 inches in width, and 
from 16 to 20 inches in depth, sometimes deeper, are 
placed from six to ten inches of manure, covered with 
enough earth to leave a shallow ditch for water to 
run in. More soil is often added after the earth and 
manure have settled after the first flow of w T ater, and 
often water is run on to the manure before it is covered 
with earth. On each edge of this trench seeds are 
sown, and the plants thinned to about 2X to 3 feet 
apart on each side. As they begin to form runners, 
they are trained at right angles to the trench, and 
when they meet those of the adjoining trench, are 
pinched back. The trenches are from 12 to 18 feet 
apart. Some of those who cultivate in trenches 12 
feet apart, train the vines diagonally so as to give 
them the length they would have attained at right 
angles, 18 feet apart. 
Watermelons are cultivated in the same way, as are 
also muskmelons, and in season, are very plentiful, 
coming into Santiago and Valparaiso by the train¬ 
load, and of good quality. Even though we do not 
irrigate, this trench system is superior to the hill sys¬ 
tem, leaving plenty of room to keep weeds down until 
the vines occupy the ground. It leaves the root space 
together where it can be mulched if we do not irri¬ 
gate ; but if we use water, then it is the only sensible 
method to run the water just where we want it and 
with least loss. By this system, the manure or ferti¬ 
lizer is in a mass where all the roots can have a chance 
to luxuriate in it. It would be a good idea if some 
one who raises watermelons, melons or squashes in 
quantity, and especially if he has the facilities to irri¬ 
gate, would try one acre on this plan, and report re¬ 
sults. I believe it is a gre&t improvement on the old 
hill system. _ G. d. coleman. 
*7 [Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of 
the writer to insure attention. Before asking a question please 
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 
Plant Food for Carnations. 
U. J.. Providence, R. I .—What combination of chemicals is a 
proper substitute for cow manure in a greenhouse of carnations? 
This manure is used very generally, but it needs working over a 
good deal to rot it. What quantity of the chemicals should be 
used to, say, five bushels of good soil ? Should the soil necessarily 
be rotted sod to get the humus ? What is a good substitute for 
the sod to save the labor of working it over so much to rot it ? 
Ans. —It is safe to say that no known mixture of 
chemicals can entirely take the place of animal manure 
and rotted sods, in the successful culture of carnations. 
The needs of the carnation plant, which is very posi¬ 
tive in its soil requirements, have been long and care¬ 
fully studied by the expert growers of eastern Penn¬ 
sylvania and Long Island, N. Y., who probably pro¬ 
duce the finest carnations known to commerce. They 
all use, as a basis, well-rotted sods from rather stiff, 
loamy land, composted with old manure from either 
cows, sheep, or horses. This is fortified according to 
individual theory and experience, with bone flour, 
wood ashes, and, in some cases, nitrate of soda in 
solution, after the plants are well established on the 
benches. Very fair carnations are grown in ordinary 
potting soil, which may consist of variable pro¬ 
portions of good loam or garden soil, sand and leaf 
mould, to furnish the necessary humus ; but the high 
quality of blooms now demanded by the cut-flower 
market, is seldom produced without judicious and 
