THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 23. 
food, summer and winter. It should not be fed green, Our illustration—Fig. 248—shows the average size 
but dried as hay. Nearly all kinds of vegetables are and shape, marred at the core by the work of the 
good. I feed a great many Jerusalem artichokes ; all Codling moth, 
vegetables, however, should be fed in moderate quan¬ 
tities, and in as great variety as possible, letting dry 
foods predominate, yet avoiding the extreme. Too 
much green food will cause diarrhea and pot-belly, 
while too much dry food will cause stoppage of the 
bowels.” 
“ How often do you clean out the pens ?” 
“ Every day ; absolute cleanliness is positively 
essential to success.” 
“ What is this long, low shed for ?” 
“ That is for the accommodation of the young. We 
just took the last out a few days ago. You see that it is 
a platform, built one foot from the ground, and divided 
by wire netting into pens 2x6 feet and two feet high, 
the top covered with wire netting, with a close nest two 
feet square at one end of each pen, and a roof over 
all. I keep 10 or a dozen in each pen. Of course, the 
very small ones are not put out here in cold weather ; 
this is more for summer use, and for fattening stock 
for market in the fall.” 
“ I see a number over there in a yard. What are 
you doing with those ?” 
“ There are about 100 in that lot. I am trying an 
experiment with them. It is less work to feed them 
when they are all together, and with plenty of range, 
they seem to do well. I shall experiment further on 
this line another year, and try pasturing them.” 
“ Where do your market your stock ? ” 
“ I sell a great many in pairs and trios for breeding 
purposes. I have also sold some to game associations, 
an£ for stocking private game preserves. The bulk of 
my product is killed and sold in the New York mar¬ 
ket. These bring from $1 to $2 per pair, net, accord¬ 
ing to size and condition and the state of the 
market. I sell through a commission merchant.” 
“ What are the profits when sold in this way ?” 
“ I have figured the thing out very closely, 
and it costs about 50 cents per pair for feed to 
raise them to a marketable age. If a doe has a 
litter four times a year with five in a litter, 
which is a very conservative estimate—mine do 
much better—we have 20 hares, which, sold at 
the lowest price, $1 per pair, will leave, after the 
feed is paid for, $5 as the profit on each doe.” 
“ At what age are they fit for market.” 
“From four to six months is the usual age. 
Rabbits born at this time of year, however, 
will have to be kept over until next fall ; but 
as they can be fed cheaper in the summer, the 
cost of raising will be about the same as of those 
raised in-the winter to six months of age.” 
“ Do you have any trouble with disease ? ” 
“ I never had any to amount to anything. 
Once in a while a hare gets a little mangy, but 
that is all. If proper attention is given to clean¬ 
liness and ventilation, the risk of disease is 
reduced to a minimum. The raising of hares for 
market, well deserves a place among the small 
industries of the country. It is new, and there is less 
competition than in poultry raising and kindred pur¬ 
suits. There is but a small outlay in starting, and the 
running expenses are light.- The Belgian hare is con¬ 
sidered a great delicacy by those who have used them. 
Vineland, N. J. s. t. d. 
a six-horse-power engine, I have to report on a test 
which I made when I paid 1% cents per gallon for 
gasoline when grinding eight bushels of corn, or 16 
bushels of wheat per hour. The total cost covering 
lubricating oil and electricity, was five cents an hour. 
Other gas engines in my county are giving the same 
satisfaction and profits as mine. I well remember the 
time when many people were afraid to use coal-oil 
lamps. Perhaps some of your readers can remember 
the feelings aroused by the introduction of the com¬ 
mon match. l. G. D. 
Harristown, Ind. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
More Potato Notes. —C. E. Chapman, page 742, 
puts the cost of the year’s crop of potatoes on his 
farm at 317.81 per acre. The cost of our crop up to 
putting it in cellar and pits, is $17.88, a difference of 
only seven cents. We used no phosphate, and used a 
potato planter, but plowed the ground in the fall, and 
again in the spring, and also used the disc harrow in 
addition to harrowing, which nearly evens up the 
cost. But our yield was less by 50 bushels per acre, 
which would put the cost per bushel at a trifle over 
12 cents. 
A strip across the field containing nine-tenths of an 
acre, was mulched after planting, with 80 loads of 
strawy horse manure. The few weeds that came 
through were hoed out by hand. The yield was 245 
bushels, all marketable, and I do not believe that a 
finer lot of R. N.-Y. No. 2’s was ever grown ; not a 
sign of scab, but in the lowest part of the field, signs 
of rot were present, which leads me to think that in a 
wet, or even an average season, there would be great 
danger of rot by the mulch system. The cost of grow¬ 
ing by the mulch method was about double that of 
those not mulched, and the yield was not quite double. 
The season was as favorable for the mulched field as 
could be desired, for we had only one thoroughly 
soaking rain after planting, until the vines began to 
die a natural death. 
This fall we are preparing a 21-acre field for pota-- 
toes next season, by plowing under a pasture sod five 
inches deep, and following with a subsoil plow, which 
loosens the earth eight to ten inches deeper. The 
[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 
YOUNG ORANGE WOOD AND FROST. 
Would Plow the Grove at Once. 
By all means plow the grove now. Many 
growers have made a mistake in allowing the 
groves, which were frozen to the ground, to go 
without cultivation during the past summer, as 
the results obtained by those who have given 
the trees the usual cultivation clearly show. 
The sooner cultivation is begun again the 
better. As a protection from cold, there is noth¬ 
ing better than banking the new sprouts with 
earth to a height of 14 to 18 inches. This is in 
no way detrimental to the trees, and is effec¬ 
tual, so far as the parts covered are concerned, 
even in the severest freeze ; the exposed tops 
of trees thus banked are less likely to be in¬ 
jured, than where the trees are not protected 
in this way. Even though the young shoots 
thus banked be cut to the top of the earth, 
they will rapidly replace the lost wood, and the 
difference will not be perceptible at the end of 
the year. Water is a help in preventing injury 
from light frosts, but an injury in severe freezes ; the 
disadvantage in using it lies in the impossibility of 
anticipating the probable degree of cold. 
Baker County, Fla. G. l. taber. 
Don't Plow Until January. 
Don’t plow the ground now, or until January. But 
chop up all the grass and weeds under the trees for a 
radius of four to eight feet, and leave the grass where 
chopped. Then sprinkle a little sulphate of potash, 
say, from one to four pounds, around each tree, 
according to size, rake in, and then leave the grove 
until the danger of frost is over. Then plow and 
harrow, and cut out the dead wood, being sure not to 
cut into any that is perfectly dead and dry ; and thin 
out the green sprouts according to common sense. 
Bartow, Fla. B. f. b. 
Answered “ on General Principles.” 
I am not personally familiar with orange culture, 
or with the peculiar conditions which may prevail at 
this time, in Florida. On general principles, I would 
not consider that the presence in the groves of stand¬ 
ing grass and weeds would increase the danger of 
killing frosts. The presence of a mass of dead vege¬ 
table matter, as in the case of mulching, wet from 
recent rain, or from evaporation from the subjacent 
soil, would certainly favor the deposition of dew, and 
invite a frost at a lower temperature than would 
otherwise be required. Banking the soil around the 
young shoots would certainly protect them from an 
ordinary freeze as high up the stems as the soil might 
extend. I cannot conceive of any advantageous use 
of water in this connection other than to flood the 
grove, and thus protect that portion of the stems of 
the trees that might thus be submerged. It would 
probably be cheaper to protect the trees by banking 
up the soil, or by wrapping them with coarse rovings 
made of the grass that is so abundant and just at hand. 
Georgia Ex. Station. R. j. redding. 
THE WALTER PEASE APPLE. From Nature. Fig. 248. 
ground is so extremely dry that we are obliged to 
put four horses upon the subsoil plow, and then let 
them rest every half hour ; but we decided to subsoil 
this particular field, and do it this fall and we shall if 
we never get any rain. In other words, we shall 
have a cistern under our potato roots next season, and 
hope that the winter snows and spring rains will 
fill it. 
The Carman No. 3 yielded at the rate of 200 bushels 
per acre, with the same culture as R. N.-W No. 2, 
which yielded 160 bushels in the part of the field 
where the Carman were grown. Carman No. 1 yielded 
100 bushels per acre; I cannot account for so light a 
yield. World’s Fair gave a trifle over 100 bushels per 
acre, including some unmerchantable tubers. 
Illinois. DWIGHT HERRICK. 
Wouldn’t Accept a Steam Engine. —Noticing the 
discussion of the question of the best power for driv¬ 
ing farm machinery, I was amused and somewhat sur¬ 
prised. I have been using a gasoline engine during 
the past year, in all sorts of weather, running my 
cutting box, corn sheller, grinding mill and corn 
busker, and am so well pleased with it that I would 
not accept as a gift, the best steam engine ever made, 
if I were required to support it. While grinding, or 
shelling, or cutting feed, I have my engine right in the 
barn, knowing that I am perfectly safe. This I know 
from the construction of the engine and the fact that 
there never has been a disaster occasioned by the use 
of a properly constructed engine in which the gas is 
ignited by electricity. The man who could not operate 
it, would not be a trustworthy fireman for a steam 
engine, much less a competent engineer. I speak from 
experience with both kinds of engines. With the 
gas, we have no boiler to empty, clean and refill, no 
fuel to prepare, no time to lose in getting up steam, 
no steam to waste at the expense of fuel and water to 
generate it. We need no engineer, thus saving the 
expense of one man, As to the expense of operating 
THE WALTER PEASE APPLE. 
On October 11, we received several specimens of the 
Walter Pease apple, which had its birth in Somers, 
Conn., some 50 years ago, and has since been grown 
and controlled by the Shakers, with whom it is sup¬ 
posed to have originated. We are told that “ when a 
branch or family of the Shakers moved to northern 
Connecticut, scions were taken with them and grafted 
upon large trees, and these are now orchards of very 
large trees, the fruit of which is prized by them as 
their finest fall apples.” 
It is thought by F. E. Young, Rochester, N. Y., who 
sent us the specimens, that on trees grown farther 
north, the apples will improve in quality and become 
a winter variety, keeping until January, though in 
its Connecticut home its season is September, October 
and November. The tree is said to be entirely hardy, 
a strong, free grower, fruiting as heavily as the Bald¬ 
win. To us, it is a surprise that this splendid apple 
has escaped introduction for so many years. It re¬ 
sembles the Baldwin in color, and the size is that of 
the largest Baldwins. In shape, it is oblate to coni¬ 
cal-oblate. The base color of the skin is yellow, but 
it is so splashed and mottled with red, that it might 
fairly be called a red apple. In fact, some apples are 
all red. The calyx is closed, cavity rather deep, basin 
deep, stem short. The quality, in our opinion, should 
rank as “ best.” It is rich, subacid—not so acid as 
Gravenstein—with a spicy, delicious aroma. The 
flesh is nearly white, fine grained, tender and rich. 
We really do not know of any other apple of its season 
that equals it in quality. 
