774 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 23 
removed in layers from the entire top as is usual, but 
is taken in narrow strips across one end, and each 
strip is cut out to the bottom before the next is un¬ 
covered. This plan is giving 1 good results. When I 
visited the silos, I could see only one handful of dam¬ 
aged ensilage. 
The manure gutters are covered with a wooden 
grating fastened by hinges. With this arrangement 
the stock is kept out of the manure, and no bedding 
is used. The manure remains in a pit during the sum¬ 
mer, but is hauled out on the land as fast as made 
during winter, except when the land is too wet. 
The dairy is located a good distance from the other 
buildings. This is a great inconvenience, but is com¬ 
pensated for by the natural advantages gained. A 
small stream has been dammed, and two water 
wheels put in. These run the separator and churn. 
With this power, the work can be started at a mo¬ 
ment’s notice, and can be depended on at any time. 
The water from a cold spring has been led into a 
large vat, and in this all milk, cream and butter are 
kept. The temperature of this water never rises 
above 52 degrees, and with this aid, no ice is used, 
even when the thermometer goes above 100 degrees 
F., as it often does. The cream is placed in the 
water as soon as separated. The Blanchard churn 
is used. 
The prices obtained are as follows : Butter, 30 cents 
per pound ; cream, .$1 to $1.50 per gallon ; sweet milk, 
25 to 30 cents per gallon ; skim-milk, 12% cents per 
gallon ; buttermilk, 10 cents per gallon. The butter 
is mostly delivered at dwelling houses in Raleigh, 
there being a good many regular customers. About 
$3,000 annually are collected, and wages in the dairy 
alone are $30 per month. They also sell about $100 
worth of swine yearly. The largest milk record 
made on the farm, was 6,000 pounds in a year from 
one cow. The average output of butter is 6,500 
pounds per year, from the herd of 38 cows. 
Upon being asked what rotation he followed, Mr. 
Bradshaw replied that he started with corn followed 
by annual clover ; then corn again, followed by Red 
clover, which remained two years. Then a crop of 
oats was followed by Red clover. This brings him 
around to corn again. All manure is applied to corn. 
More butter is made in winter and spring, because it 
is then easier handled and sells better. A. h. p. 
CLEANLINESS BY HORSE POWER. 
We have no doubt that many equine members of 
the farm household have looked out from their com¬ 
fortable stalls, and indulged in a regular horse laugh 
at the labors of the women folks over the wash tub. 
We have seen women unjointing their spinal columns 
at this labor while lazy animals in the barn were wear¬ 
ing their teeth out on costly grain and hay without 
giving any adequate returns. The Rev. J. H. Graham, 
of Watford, Ont., has observed this striking example of 
the unequal distribution of farm labor, but has not 
stopped at observation—he has gone out and made 
the horse haul the dirt out of the family washing. 
It is easy to see why he did it—now we desire to show 
how it was done. 
Fig. 246 shows the minister’s washing device. The 
tub is really a large trough, three feet long and two 
feet 3 inches wide, standing on eight legs as shown in 
the cut. The curved bottom is of zinc, and the ends 
and sides of pine one and one-eighth inch thick. A is 
a shaft of maple one and one-half inch in diameter. 
B B B are segments of inch pine, the middle one one- 
fourtli of an inch thicker; on the rounded sides of 
these segments are nailed strips of inch pine one-half 
inch apart. These strips have rounded faces, and the 
washing principle is to rub the clothes between these 
strips and the bottom of the tub. C C are two up¬ 
rights of hard wood, one on each side of the middle 
segment, so as to give play to the beam, D. C is 
braced by two braces L L. R is an upright working 
on a central pin and attached to a pitman at the bot¬ 
tom. M M is a frame made of hard wood, which 
turns on pins at S S. The tub is much like a 
patented article sold in Canada, but the frame and 
cradle are original with Mr. Graham. 
To operate this device, the cradle is lifted up to ad¬ 
mit the clothes and hot soapsuds. A horse is attached 
to the power connected with the pitman. This wox*ks 
the upright R, to and fro, and communicates a motion 
to the cradle. The operator takes hold of the bar, 
O O, and gives the pressure needed to rub the clothes. 
If need be, a weight with rope and pulley can be 
fastened at O so as to balance the cradle, and cause 
the slightest pressure of the hand to give a hard rub 
to the clothes. 
Mr. Graham has this to say about the machine : 
“It is as nearly a perfect washer as can be desired. 
The operator could even sit down and work it. The 
horse power to drive it, could be made out of the cast- 
off cog wheels of a discarded mower—to multiply 
about 12 times by the horse walking around. My 
horse steps over the pitman rod which works through 
a small hole at the bottom of the wall of the wash¬ 
house. One horse works it nicely. The washer re¬ 
quires to be strongly made of good, sound pine and 
hardwood, and securely bolted to the floor. Any 
farmer who will take hold of the washer at home for 
an hour or two, will realize that it is unfair to secure 
all the machinery to do his work, while his wife is 
allowed to strain her back and muscles while two or 
more horses are standing idle.” 
A GRIST FROM GRUND). 
A Scratching Shed. —There is some good, plain 
common sense in those poultry points on page 710. 
Whitewashing the interior of the poultry house 
to destroy lice, mites and all other conceivable evils, 
has been recommended by hacks from time imme¬ 
morial, and a person might just as well whistle in the 
house for all the good it does. Kerosene is the only 
medicine that will exterminate mites, and it will do a 
complete job when thoroughly applied. 
I never would build a poultry house 100 feet long ; 
10x20 feet is as large as any poultry house should be, 
and 10x16 is even better. If I had a flock too large 
for that sized house, I would build another. The 
man who builds a large or expensive poultry house, 
is sure to wish that he hadn’t. Every poultry house, 
large or small, should have a scratching shed at¬ 
tached. If I were to build 1,000 poultry houses, 
every one of them should have a shed open to the 
south or east attached to it. Hens do no good when 
compelled to live in the house they sleep in. An 
open shed, well bedded with straw or other litter, is 
a paradise for them in stormy weather, or when 
snow lies deep on the ground. Scatter grain among 
the litter, and they will work like beavers and be as 
merry as larks over it. 
Progressive Methods.—I well remember how, in 
the painful days of yore, I trudged up and down the 
field at the side of a yoke of oxen harrowing with a 
A HORSE-POWER WASHING MACHINE. Fig. 246. 
cheap, home-made harrow that weighed something 
less than half a ton, and harrowed a little strip about 
four feet wide. I also remember the miles on miles 1 
traveled after a little 11-inch plow to plow a 40-acre 
field ; how I bound wheat after a hand-rake reaper 
while the thermometer stood at 98 degrees in the 
shade, and the blood from my worn-out fingers stained 
every band ; how I pitched hay into the barn loft or 
on to a high stack with a hand-fork, until the hazy 
landscape seemed to float on waves of liquid fire, and 
my eyes felt like red-hot base balls. I could go on 
and recall the delights (?) of the hand labor of those 
halcyon days, and array them before the young hus¬ 
bandman of the present time ; but I forbear. 
I would rather tell how the farmer now mounts his 
sulky plow and sings merrily as he rolls over three to 
five acres a day with the greatest ease ; how he sits 
on his harrow and pulverizes 12 to 16 feet wide at a 
single sweep ; how he rides a harvester and rapidly 
tumbles his wheat sheaves, firmly bound, into con¬ 
venient bunches for the one lone shocker to set up 
and cap ; how the great traction engine steams into 
his yard, drawing the improved thrasher with its 
automatic band cutter, grain weigher and cyclone 
strawstacker, fiercely roars a few brief hours, and 
steams away again long before the sun goes down, 
leaving him 600 to 800 bushels of grain all ready for 
market, and a stack of straw 20 to 30 feet high as the 
only reminder that he bas thrashed ; how he slashes 
down the grass in his meadow in swaths six feet 
wide, and a few hours afterward drives over it with 
an implement that rakes it up and pitches it on his 
wagon ; then how his ten-year-old boy with a horse 
hitched to another little apparatus pitches it off the 
wagon into the mow, faster than four men could with 
hand forks ; how his wife wonders what has become 
of the great gang of rough, dirty, hungry men that 
used to stay with them for several days every harvest, 
thrashing and haying time, work her almost to death, 
and very nearly eat them out of house and home. I 
would rather tell of these things—of this age of ma¬ 
chinery, of the wonderful progress we are making as 
the years go by ; and stop for a moment to inform 
Mr. Chapman (page 717), that nevermore will the 
Western farmer return to the primitive methods—tbe 
hand and foot slavery of the days of yore. 
What profitable thing can he do after his hard work 
is so quickly done for him by the improved machines ? 
Read the best agricultural periodicals and books, and 
learn what the wisest and most progressive farmers 
are doing; look more closely after his stock and the 
details of his business, and stop the little leaks ; cul¬ 
tivate a more extensive fruit and vegetable garden, 
and enjoy the farmer’s right and privilege of having 
the largest variety and best quality of fruits and 
vegetables on his own table; keep his eyes and ears 
open wherever he goes, and strive to become a veri¬ 
table master of his vocation, always having in mind 
the fact that there is no limit to the possibilities of a 
combination of skill and soil. If he do these things, 
his time will be fully and profitably occupied. 
Illinois. _ FRED GRUNDY. 
HORSE SHOE FARM NOTES. 
POTATO PROBLEMS UNSOLVED AND SOLVED. 
The Carman No. 1 seed potatoes were expensive 
last spring. A friend who had planted on a garden 
spot, offered me a barrel of rough, scabby seed for 
half price. I am opposed, from principle, to buying 
anything to bring home that is diseased, for fear of 
introducing the germs into my soil to my future loss. 
We cook all scabby tubers, and pick up and take 
care of even a single rotten tuber whenever found. 
We rarely lose a dollar's worth a year. Care in these 
things pays. However, we took the scabby seed. 
At planting time it was thoroughly soaked in the 
sublimate solution, cut to about three eyes and 
planted. The resulting crop is a fine one ; I do not 
think there were 10 scabby tubers in the 150 bushels 
harvested. They are a bit whiter than Rural New- 
Yorker No. 2, but almost identical in shape. When 
cooked one can see a difference at once; they are very 
white and dry now. The Rural No. 2 is better in 
quality toward spring. 
The notes of G. II. B., page 727, do not indicate that 
he lias the true Carman No. 1. The foliage should have 
matured before September 11 if planted May 2, and 
there is not enough difference in shape to distinguish 
them. The quality will tell, however. W., same 
page, says that Carman No. 3 is identical with R. N.-Y. 
No. 2. The tubers of No. 3 grow all over the hill, 
while those of No. 2 are close and compact. The 
three numbers are very much alike in some ways, 
showing a common parentage, but have distinct char¬ 
acteristics. So long as the price of these justly cele¬ 
brated varieties is high, caution must be observed in 
ordering seed, for they are easily interchanged. 
While digging for a neighbor, a few rods of tubers 
were found so scabby that not one could be sold. 
Inquiry revealed the fact that the contents of the 
privy had been spread on this spot. If cooking will 
destroy the germs, they could not have been in the 
fertilizer. The question of their source becomes of 
interest. The rest of the crop was entirely free. 
Who can explain it ? 
Mr. Hill plants the Dandy. While standing on one 
side of a four-acre field, we could see that the vines 
were one-third larger on the farther acre. When I 
reached this spot with the digger. I found a much 
larger yield. Two years ago, Mr. Hill found a few 
hills that kept green longer and had larger foliage 
than the rest. These were saved and planted. The 
two bushels from these gave 50 the next year. These 
50 were again planted and yielded 100 bushels per 
acre more than those from the common bin. A few 
hills still ripen earlier and have much smaller foliage. 
Are these later potatoes the same kind as the original, 
or entitled to a new name ? I have long contended 
that varieties could not be prevented from running 
out. At Hornellsville, a Mr. Karr has what he claims 
to be Early Rose. The seed has been planted from 
year to year on the same farm since their introduc¬ 
tion, without change, and the yield is now fully equal 
to the yield of this variety in its palmiest days. He 
claims that they have been kept up by the selection of 
the vigorous hills. This fact was argued at length at 
the breeders’ meeting last winter, to prove me wrong. 
At -the fair, I was shown exhibits of the so-called 
Early Rose, and found that they resembled the orig¬ 
inal only in color. After 20 years of selection, they 
are changed in form, smoothness of skin, depth of eye 
as well as in yield. Are they the same variety, and 
entitled to the name Early Rose ? I say no. 
A friend and his man warmly discussed the seed 
question last spring. To settle the question, two 
rows were planted, one with one seed piece to the hill, 
the second with two placed six inches apart; the lat¬ 
ter gave much the larger yield. The two pieces 
always will give more tubers and, except in off years, 
more merchantable ones. If I planted in hills, I 
would use two pieces of seed with two eyes on a piece ; 
