1895 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
7i7 
HORSE SHOE FARM NOTES. 
MACHINERY ON THE FARM ; POTATO DIGGING. 
Times Have Changed. —The tendency of the times 
is to rush the planting and harvesting of all crops 
into the shortest possible time by the use of machinery. 
Instead of the ceaseless, everyday, hard “ grind ” of 
my boyhood days, we now spurt for a couple of days, 
and then “ tinker ” a few days, getting ready for the 
next big job. Formerly we dropped our corn and 
potatoes by hand, and covered them with a hoe. Grain 
was sowed by hand in streaks, usually. I shall never 
forget the stirring of hay while my father mowed it 
with a scythe. The slow, hard hoeing, three times in 
the season of the corn. What hard work I did cra¬ 
dling wheat and oats. Cutting corn always poisoned 
my face, and is there anything slower than husking 
corn while the shivers run up your back ? Digging 
potatoes with a fork is slower, but it warms one 
enough. 
This year, we drilled in our corn and grain, covered 
our potatoes and cultivated them with a harrow; cut 
the grain with a binder, and had nothing to do but 
set up the shocks. We cut the corn with a reaper, 
and harvested, husked, and stored the whole crop in a 
silo, with only two days’ work. We dug the potatoes 
with a machine, and all I had to do was to drive the 
team. The field corn can be cut with a corn binder, 
and husked with a machine. Everything may be done 
with a machine. Beautiful! is it not? But! 
The Other Side. —One cannot use machines with¬ 
out plenty of help, horses and hard work to keep up 
with them. To buy all the machinery needed on a 
farm of 100 acres, would cost half its value. To pay 
some one for the use of all these machines, and the 
extra day help needed to care for the crops as fast as 
matured, takes half the crop, and at present leaves no 
profit. I paid a gang of men to come with an engine 
and fill the silo instead of harvesting the corn in the 
old way. Or I could pay the gang to come and husk 
it and shred the fodder. I paid for the use of a binder, 
and paid for thrashing. It’s pay all the time. It’s 
hard on the women folks to feed a raft of hungry 
men every few days, and their board costs more than 
one or two month hands for the whole season. 
What can we do ? If we hire every job done, or 
buy the expensive machinery — there is not much 
difference in cost—we must have money to pay, 
and we must have something that is profitable 
to do in the intervals gained by the extra hirings. 
If these things can not be provided, it will be 
more profitable to go back to hand labor. On the 
smaller farms this is being done. I do not remember 
a year in the last 10 in which so much hand work has 
been done as in this. Farm produce has ruled so low 
in price that farmers could not get enough money to 
hire machinery or get work for themselves to do dur¬ 
ing surplus time ; so they hired out to themselves, 
and cut their grain with a mowing machine, and har¬ 
vested it like hay. Of course this is wasteful, but the 
waste is less than the cost of labor. It does not pay 
to pick up a nail, for the hired man’s time costs more 
than its value. With potatoes at 15 cents, and oats at 
20 cents per bushel, it costs more than they are worth 
to gather in the scatterings. 
Try Co-operation. —I see but one solution of the 
difficulty, and that is not practicable in all cases. 
The success depends on one’s disposition and that of 
the neighbors. If one can find one, two or three good- 
natured, progressive farmers who will join in buying 
farm implements, and change works while using 
them, no extra help need be hired. Three farmers, 
each having a hired man, give plenty of help for any 
job. Their wives should change works, too—helping 
get dinner. These farms should be situated close 
together, and each man can get breakfast and supper at 
home. Long days are out of fashion and unnecessary at 
present. Unless each man has the good of the partner¬ 
ship at heart, and is willing to give way sometimes, 
there will be clashing and failure. “Large bodies 
move slowly,” and there must be good judgment used 
by the leader, or enough time will be wasted to 
counteract the gain. I am fortunate enough to have 
such neighbors, and we shall soon own all the 
machinery we need. I have long wanted a potato 
digger, but could not afford to pay $125 for a machine 
that would be used but a few days each year ; neither 
was I sure that it would work on our side hills and 
stony land. My neighbors and I purchased one and 
combined our forces. Instead of being a month, we 
will be a week harvesting our crops without hiring 
additional labor. But we must do something in that 
three weeks to earn money to help pay for that 
machine. We could ditch, dig out stones, etc., but 
that does not bring money. We could have worked 
at digging potatoes that other three weeks, and saved 
that $125. Truly, farming is getting to be a puzzle. 
Work of a Potato Digger. —The machine came, 
looks durable, and is designed for hard work. I spent 
one day on a very rough, stony sidehill getting it 
shaken together, and learning how to adjust it. The 
day’s work was 300 bushels for myself and four horses. 
Where the soil is dry and level, and the potatoes shal¬ 
low-planted, one team would draw it alone a part of 
the day ; but with plenty of pickers, four horses 
should be used, and, if run deep, must be. On a side 
hill where it required a man to hold it from tipping 
over, by careful driving and twisting the team up the 
hill, I succeeded in doing fairly good work without 
the sidehill spurs which should have been on. In 
going down a steep hill, the tubers fall ahead and out 
the side, thus getting covered some, but an after-har¬ 
rowing would uncover them. In very stony ground, 
the small ones will get into the parts and stop the 
machine, but do no harm. Big ones make no differ¬ 
ence. While under full headway, I struck a fast 
bowlder. It threw me off and the machine on its 
side, but broke nothing. Its capacity for elevating is 
enormous, and to stand back of it and see the stuff 
pour out, is astonishing, especially when the potatoes 
are deep-planted, and in drills. In digging a field of 
Orphans, I found the rank growth ol vines so dry and 
fluffy, that they would clog some on the elevator, but 
remedied that by kicking an occasional bunch out in 
front without stopping the team. I dug 575 bushels 
in 10 hours without hurrying or sweating the teams, 
and also helped pick up some. I lost and fitted an¬ 
other bolt in the time, and must have averaged 80 
bushels an hour actual digging time. After a shower, 
the damp vines did not bother a bit. Green Quack 
and Pigeon grass, which hold the soil from sifting 
through, will sometimes clog the machine. In soil 
and fields adapted to the use of ordinary machinery, 
potatoes that are planted in the usual manner, and 
kept fairly clean of weeds, can be dug much better 
than by hand. There is no bruising or picking of the 
tubers, and the straight, narrow rows of potatoes are 
very convenient for picking up. The boys from 10 to 
12 years old pick up 60 to 100 bushels each. Some 
varieties, on account of color and shape, take a longer 
time. The Rural New-Yorker No. 2s, being round 
and dark-colored, when on stony soil, bother some 
and are overlooked, while long, white ones are picked 
as fast again. Owing to the steady drought and con¬ 
stant cultivation given in this locality, the tubers 
kept slowly growing the whole summer without stop. 
This prevents the putting out of knots which come 
from sudden growth, and we have the finest-shaped 
tubers seen for years. A neighbor had 280 bushels of 
Orphans on a few rods over an acre which were the 
prettiest tubers I ever saw. The teaching has been 
that potatoes required considerable moisture. Why 
this enormous yield in this exceedingly dry season ? 
c. e. chapman. 
POTATO EXPERIMENTS IN THE CATSKILLS. 
My potatoes were grown by the Rural Trench 
System, on sandy soil, with a gravelly subsoil, one 
of the most trying for favorable results, in the severe 
drought of the past season. At no time from planting 
(May 8) until harvesting, was the ground wet to the 
depth of one inch. The ground had been used for 
corn the previous season, and had been very liber¬ 
ally enriched with a heavy coating of fine, well-rotted 
horse manure plowed in. The land was plowed in the 
fall, all stones and rubbish removed, and another 
coating of fine horse and hen manure applied in the 
spring, after which it was again plowed and thor¬ 
oughly harrowed. Trenches were made by running a 
No. 3 Hillsdale land plow twice in the same furrow. 
The trench averaged from eight to ten inches in 
depth, and when planted, the potatoes were covered 
about four inches deep. Thorough cultivation was 
kept up with a Planet Jr. horse cultivator, from the 
time they appeared above ground, until July 8. The 
varieties tested were Rural New-Yorker No. 2, Ameri¬ 
can Wonder, Empire State, Dakota Red, Beauty of 
Hebron, Great Divide, Maggie Murphy, White Ele¬ 
phant, and White Rose. The seed was cut to two 
eyes and planted 12 inches apart in the trenches, each 
row containing 75 pieces. All were treated exactly 
alike as to soil and cultivation. 
The Rural New-Yorker No. 2 produced 198 pounds 
of fine, large potatoes with none too small for mar¬ 
ket, and almost entirely free from scab. American 
Wonder gave me 185 pounds of uniformly good-sized 
ones, entirely free from scab, and but very few small 
ones. Empire State gave 179 pounds, quite scabby 
and prongy, and some small ones. Dakota Red pro¬ 
duced 178 pounds, free from scab and quite uniform 
as to size. Beauty of Hebron produced 148 pounds, 
of good size and shape, but somewhat scabby, and a 
few small ones. Maggie Murphy yielded 146 pounds, 
even as to size, and free from scab. Great Divide gave 
me 77 pounds, medium and small in size ; no scab. 
White Elephant gave 75% pounds, of large size ; no 
scab. White Rose produced 43 pounds of small and 
very scabby stock. An interesting result was that 
the average yield of my entire plot was at the rate of 
265 bushels per acre, and that the average of the first 
four kinds was over 600. 
That the character of the soil has a great influence 
not only on the yield, but also in the quality, has also 
been clearly proved by my experience with the Rural 
New-Yorker No. 2. My seed opened up so fine and 
large, that I was anxious to test their table qualities ; 
consequently I selected a few nice specimens, and re¬ 
quested my wife to try them for dinner. I was quite 
surprised and disappointed to see the large cavities 
inside them, and much more so when they were served 
up for dinner, as they were watery and coarse, and 
my wife remarked : “ I hope that you do not intend 
to plant any of these potatoes ; they are fit only for 
hogs to eat.” I thought so, too ; but swallowed my 
disappointment, and concluded to plant them and 
await results. When harvesting, I again selected 
some large-sized specimens, and carried them to the 
kitchen for trial. My wife asked me whether I “ had 
some more of those hog potatoes.” I told her to try 
them and see. This time no hollow centers appeared; 
they cooked white and mealy, and I have eaten no 
finer flavored potatoes this season. I also planted 
some of them on a heavy sod, where they grew very 
large, but there were no cavities in any specimens so 
far as I have examined, and the flesh does not appear so 
coarse and watery as in the seed stock. From the little 
Carman No. 1 sent me, I obtained 27 small-sized 
tubers. I am intending to experiment next season on 
a still larger scale, and hope to outdo Mr. Carman on 
his 700 bushels per acre trials. w. f. m. smith. 
Ulster County, N. Y. 
EXPERIMENTS THAT ANSWER AND ASK 
QUESTIONS. 
Last year, seed potatoes saved from an unusually 
thrifty hill, gave a yield nearly 50 per cent greater 
than was obtained from.ordinary seed. Last fall, seed 
for this year was taken from the hills most produc¬ 
tive of shapely tubers. This year, the experiment 
was continued as follows, all seed being of the same 
size and general appearance : First row, from seed 
saved last fall; second row, from product of best row 
in last year’s trial; third row, from general stock. 
The product of rows one and two was practically 
identical in all respects. That of row three, while 
only a trifle less, was decidedly inferior in appearance. 
What has been demonstrated ? Last year’s trial 
pointed to an increased yield through selection of 
seed. This year, the difference was mainly one of 
quality. Will another year corroborate either result ? 
If the soil is free from scab, the corrosive sublimate 
treatment of seed is a perfect success. It is to be re¬ 
gretted that the Bordeaux Mixture is not as certain 
in its effects. 
Home experiments with fertilizer were made, using 
the Stockbridgc potato manure as the standard of 
comparison. All kinds were applied at the rate of 
1,500 pounds per acre without regard to analysis. 
The Stock bridge gave a 45 per cent increase over the 
unfertilized plot in the only comparison made. The 
Stockbridge was applied to each alternate three rows, 
the other kinds between. It gave nearly as great an 
increase over the plots receiving superphosphate 
alone, fresh ground bone alone, and bone with potash, 
as over the unfertilized plot. One plot given a mix¬ 
ture of 20 pounds dried blood, 25 pounds nitrate of 
soda, 20 pounds sulphate of potash and 100 pounds 
superphosphate, analyzing four per cent ammonia, 
six per cent phosphoric acid and eight per cent potash, 
equaled the Stockbridge, and another exceeded it by 
11 per cent. As the mixture cost $4 less per ton than 
the Stockbridge, it gave a greater profit or, to be 
accurate, a smaller loss. Will it be as effective on 
succeeding crops ? I believe that it is claimed that 
bone is better than rock as a basis for fertilizer ; yet, 
it is unwarranted by this season’s experiments. Is it 
likely or possible that the acid used in the manufac¬ 
ture of the superphosphate will injure the land? 
To harvest the crop I use a Ilallock digger, and, 
contrary to Mr. Dibble, find that less injury is done 
than by the most careful man with a hook. 
_ G. A. PARCEL!,. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
There is good Jersey blood in the stock of J. Aldus Herr, Lam¬ 
peter, Pa. He has three bull calves for sale, and gives prices in 
his advertisement. 
Mr. E. W. Davis of Torringford, Conn., tells us that he has 
shipped 44(5 times to old purchasers of his Cheshire pigs. We 
know no better evidence of good pigs and square dealing. 
The Peerless mill grinds corn wet or dry on cob with husks on, 
and grinds any grain to any degree of fineness. The grist may be 
regulated to any degree of fineness without stopping the mill. 
Joliet Strowbridge Co., Joliet, 111., will send further particulars on 
application. 
Every housewife will appreciate the value of a raisin seeder 
that will take out every seed. The Enterprise Mfg. Co., Third <fc 
Dauphin Streets, Philadelphia, Pa., make one that does it. They 
will send catalogue of this and other household articles free, if 
you ask for it. 
Clark’s root cutter goes right down to the root of the matter, 
and works up turnips, carrots or cabbages so that the stock can 
get a fair-sized mouthful. Many faimers have roots to feed this 
year. More or less potatoes will be fed also. Don’t feed too many 
raw potatoes, but those you do feed—chop up, or rather get 
Clark’s root cutter to do it for you. The Cutaway Harrow Co„ 
Higganum, Conn., are the makers. 
