228 
15he  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
mereial  point  of  view),  and  undoubtedly  never  will 
be,  but  in  this  section  of  the  Hudson  Valley  we 
have  more  than  a  score  of  varieties  that  can  be 
always  relied  upon  to  prove  successful  commercially 
and  are  all  apples  of  high  quality,  so  high  that  if 
a  person  eats  one  one  day  he  wants  another  the 
next — he  doesn’t  wait  30  years  before  trying  one 
again. 
UNSATISFACTORY  SUBSTITUTION.  —  With 
this  thought  in  mind  I  wish  to  make  another  re¬ 
port  upon  the  hundred  Rome  Beauties  which 
were  saddled  upon  me  for  Spies.  The  first  three 
years  of  bearing  they  were  under  cultivation,  but 
this  last  year  they  stood  in  sod  and  had  a  heavy 
mulching  of  coarse  manure  and  hay.  The  set  was 
good,  so  that  they  required  but  little  thinning,  and 
with  the  plentiful  rains  which  we  had  they  acquired 
satisfactory  size.  But  they  attained  scarcely  any 
color  whatever,  although  all  other  i’ed  varieties  were 
brilliant  in  their  coloring.  During  the  three  years 
of  cultivation  the  fruit,  hung  better  than  any  variety 
which  I  have,  so  that  I  had  enumerated  that  as 
the  second  best,  point  in  its  favor — its  long  keeping 
quality  being  its  best  point.  But  last  year  the 
crop  was  worse  than  in  any  other  variety  excepting 
Graven  steins.  Now  to  apply  the  touchstone — 
they  sold  for  $2.75  per  barrel  in  the  open  New  York 
market,  while  $3.50  was  the  lowest  that  I  received 
for  any  other  variety.  So  after  four  years’  experi¬ 
ence  with  the  Rome  Beauty  I,  for  my  part,  em¬ 
phatically  declare  that  its  planting  should  be  ex¬ 
cluded  from  this  section  of  the  Hudson  Valley.  And 
even  if  its  quality  and  color  were  good,  I  would  not 
plant  it  on  account  of  the  enormous  expense  en¬ 
tailed  by  its. pruning  proposition.  And  yet  this 
variety  might  prove  a  very  valuable  one  for  export 
to  Southern  countries.  Its  quality  is  so  much  better 
than  Ben  Davis  and  others  of  that  class,  that  I-  put 
two  barrels  in  my  own  cellar  for  use  in  June  and 
July,  and  I  also  budded  a  tree  or  two  in  the  “Home 
Orchard,”  but  all  the  rest  I  shall  destroy,  and  cer¬ 
tainly  for  the  good  of  the  apple  industry,  there 
should  be  a  censor  -who  should  put  his  brand  upon 
this  apple — that  it  is  not  to  be  sold  in  Northern  mar¬ 
kets  except  for  culinary  purposes. 
YORK  IMPERIAL. — And  there  is  another  variety 
which,  while  I  do  not  as  jet  unqualifiedly  condemn 
for  this  section,  yet.  I  wot.  id  suggest  a  period  of 
“watchful  waiting”  before  planting  in  any  quan¬ 
tity,  and  that  is  the  York  Imperial.  I  have  a  score 
of  these  that  cropped  out  among  the  Baldwin  and 
McIntosh,  and  for  four  years  I  have  had  the  op¬ 
portunity  to  watch  them  in  hearing.  Four  years 
ago,  upon  the  advice  of  a  friend,  I  planted  100 
Yorks,  but  after  watching  the  trees  I  have  iu  hear¬ 
ing  two  seasons,  I  went  to  work  and  set  a  King  bud 
In  the  top  of  the  whole  hundred,  and  after  two 
years  more  experience  I  am  more  gratified  than  ever 
that  I  made  the  change.  To  state  the  matter  briefly, 
the  York  presents  too  expensive  a  problem,  in  the 
matter  of  thinning,  and  then  is  unsatisfactory  in 
the  end.  I  saw  a  large  quantity  of  York  Imperial 
this  year  raised  by  one  of  our  best  growers — all  his 
other  varieties  were  in  the  fancy  grade — but  these 
were  all  of  that,  unpleasant  greenish  red  color  that 
we  occasionally  see  in  some  of  our  Spies,  and  they 
were  very  much  undersized,  though  they  had  been 
thinned  twice.  We  are  all  liable  to  make  mistakes 
and  are  more  than  liable  to  have  mistakes  thrust 
upon  us  by  the  nurserymen,  hut  I  do  not  under¬ 
stand  how  anyone  can  deliberately  make  large 
plantings  of  poor  quality  or  unknown  quality  apples 
when  we  have  more  than  twenty  varieties  of  the 
very  highest  quality.  It  is  certainly  bad  policy  if 
not  bad  morals.  I  stand  by  the  old  proverb,  “The 
proof  of  the  pudding,  etc..”  and  would  suggest  as 
the  Golden  Rule  for  the  fruit  grower,  “Be  thou  not 
the  seller  of  what  thou  wouldst  not  have  in  thy  own 
cellar.”  harvey  losee. 
Dutchess  County,  N.  Y. 
Experience  in  Handling  Hen  Manure 
HAVE  read  with  interest  your  various  sugges¬ 
tions  relating  to  the  handling  of  chicken  manure, 
and  am  moved  to  write  you  owing  to  the  article  by 
F.  E.  Upson  on  page  147.  Ills  suggestion  is  in  line 
with  my  experience  and  regular  practice,  and  seems 
the  only  way  to  handle  manure  cheaply.  I  have 
3,500  hens  in  my  plant.  One  house  having  2,000 
hens  has  a  carrier  along  the  dropping  boards.  The 
manure  is  delivered  to  a  shed  outside  the  end  of  the 
house.  This  shed  has  compartments  eight  feet 
square  with  cement  bottom  and  sides,  lined  with 
galvanized  sheet  iron.  This  is  necessary  on  ac¬ 
count  of  the  rotting  of  the  wood  which  would  occur 
if  the  manure  touched  it  while  damp.  We  use  gen¬ 
erally.  some  sand  on  the  dropping  boards,  but  some¬ 
times  nothing  is  used  at  all.  If  the  hens  are  per¬ 
fectly  fed  the  manure  is  generally  dry  enough  with¬ 
out  anything,  because  our  house  never  goes  below 
freezing  on  account  of  its  good  construction  and  the 
number  of  hens  kept.  We  allow  two  square  feet  of 
floor  space  per  bird.  If  the  manure  does  not  freeze 
it  rapidly  dries  out.  The  hoards  are  cleaned  every 
day  at  10  a.  in.  The  manure  in  the  shed  is  so  cold 
that  it  lias  almost  no  odor 'at  all. 
In  the  Spring  we  apply  it  to  the  land  with  a 
manure  spreader  set  to  run  very  slowly.  My  ma¬ 
chine  will  spread  one  load  over  a  space  1.000  feet 
long  by  six  feet  wide  perfectly.  This  is  about  one- 
seventh  of  an  acre  to  the  ton.  If  I  want  it  thinner 
I  cover  the  bottom  of  the  spreader  with  litter  from 
the  house  first,  and  put  the  pure  manure  on  top 
only.  Of  course  I  would  prefer  to  be  able  to  spread 
thinner,  hut  have  not  found  any  better  machine  yet. 
The  manure  is  then  harrowed  in  with  the  seeding  of 
the  crop.  I  cannot  see  that  it  pays  to  dry  and  grind 
the  manure;  it  is  not  high  enough  grade  fertilizer. 
I  have  been  treating  manure  this  way  for  two  years, 
and  find  it  works  well.  It  is  necessary  to  clean  the 
dropping  boards  every  day  to  get  dry  unfermeuted 
manure.  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  of  any  cheaper  or 
better  way  of  handling  this  product. 
New  Jersey.  edward  r.  hewitt. 
Ayrshire  Men  to  the  Front 
WE  showed  the  original  photograph  of  the  pic¬ 
ture  shown  at  Fig.  62  to  a  number  of  good 
judges  of  character,  and  asked  them  to  tell  who 
these  are.  They  did  not  know  anything  about  it, 
but  right  on  their  appearance  and  shape,  what  busi¬ 
ness  would  you  suppose  these  men  are  engaged  in? 
Answers  ran  all  the  way  from  bankers  and  lawyers 
to  first-class  farmers,  only  a  few  however,  giving 
the  latter  guess.  Most  of  those  who  looked  at  the 
picture  were  greatly  surprised  when  they  were  tokl 
that  this  was  a  group  of  Ayrshire  breeders  taken 
at  the  forty-first  annual  meeting  of  the  National 
society.  The  picture  was  taken  at  Highland  Farm, 
in  Pennsylvania,  owned  by  John  R.  Valentine,  and 
it  certainly  was  an  eye-opener  to  most  of  our  critics 
to  realize  that  breeders  of  Ayrshire.?  when  they  got 
together  could  make  such  a  showing.  Front  the 
name  and  the  Scotch  history  of  these  cattle  it  may 
be  that  our  people  expected  to  see  these  breeders 
all  dressed  up  in  Scotch  caps,  kilts,  and  claymores, 
and  perhaps  -carrying  bagpipes  around  with  them, 
but  here  they  are  as  fine  and  solid-looking  body  of 
men  as  one  would  care  to  see.  Tt  is  a  good  thing 
for  farming  in  general  and  Ayrshire  cattle  in  par¬ 
ticular,  when  the  breeders  can  make  such  a  show¬ 
ing  as  this.  For  many  years  our  criticism  has  been 
that  the  Ayrshire  people  were  altogether  too  modest. 
They  made  little  if  any  effort  to  advertise  their 
breed,  and  rather  seemed  to  be  afraid  of  printers’ 
ink.  They  had  a  fine  old  breed  to  exploit  and  should 
have  come  out  into  the  limelight  more  than  they  did. 
By  walking  too  much  in  the  shadow  they  enabled 
some  of  the  other  breeds  to  get  the  jump  on  them 
a  little  and  crawl  into  popular  imagination,  thus 
helping  their  business.  Of  late  years,  however,  the 
Ayrshire  men  seem  to  have  changed  their  habits 
and  their  breed  has  gone  on  steadily  keeping  right 
up  with  the  procession,  and  the  Ayrshire  cow  has 
now  an  enviable  reputation  among  the  other  breeds. 
In  this  picture  it.  is  evident,  that  the  Ayrshire  men 
have  got.  together  and  are  presenting  a  solid  front  to 
the  public.  A  solid  front,  of  such  solid  men  will  go 
through  almost  any  opposition,  and  we  hope  the 
Ayrshire  men  will  keep  it  up.  stand  by  the  Scotch 
cow.  get  into  the  limelight,  a  little  more,  and  let  peo¬ 
ple  know  where  they  are  and  what  their  cattle  are 
doing. 
A  Case  of  Careless  Reading 
On  page  1501,  R.  N.-Y.,  A.  S.  A.  states  that  to  rid 
a  horse  of  worms,  ns<j  turpentine  and  a  powder  after¬ 
wards,  etc.  I  gave  this  treatment  nearly  three  weeks 
ago  to  a  mare,  and  it  nearly  put  her  out  of  existence. 
She  has  eaten  hut  little  since,  and  has  lost  lots  in 
flesh:  had  a  had  cough,  but  it  has  stopped  now  with 
treatment,  but  she  is  weak,  unfit  to  drive,  even  a  mile 
and  had  I  had  one  thought  that  the  result  would  have 
been  thus  I  wouldn’t  have  used  it  for  $5,000  in  gold. 
M.  B.  D.  says  it  is  very  harsh  treatment  and  lie  doesn’t 
believe  it  was  iu  The  R.  N.-Y.,  hut  it  was.  Will  you 
please  send  direct  to  A.  S.  A.  and  ask  that  he  advise 
what  to  do?  m  h .  w.  N. 
Massachusetts. 
URPENTINE  is  a  safe  and  very  effective  drug  to 
give  for  worms  and  is  prescribed  in  doses  of  one 
to  two  ounces  by  practically  every  veterinarian  at 
some  time  or  another.  The  writer  has  given  it 
many,  many  times  and  without  any  311-effects;  so 
have  o-thers.  The  trouble  is  that  horses  do  not  like 
to  swallow  turpentine  and  oil.  and  so  are  very  read- 
jly  choked  with  the  mixture  if  the  administrator 
is  not  careful  or  expert.  The  combination  is  liable 
February  12,  1916. 
to  flow  into  the  lungs,  and  cause  mechanical  pneu¬ 
monia.  If  a  great  deal  of  the  mixture  “goes  the 
wrong  way"  it  may  prove  fatal  and  many  horses 
have  been  killed  in  that  way  by  this  or  other  fluid 
medicine.  The  rule  is  that  the  horse’s  head  should 
lie  let  down  the  moment  lie  coughs.  Then  the  medi¬ 
cine  may  be  carefully  given  again,  a  very  little  at 
a  time,  until  all  of  it  has  been  properly  swallowed. 
You  mention  a  cough,  and  that  indicates,  in  all 
probability,  that  you  poured  the  medicine  into  the 
windpipe.  Another  cause  of  loss  is  the  fact  that 
some  men  give  medicine  by  way  of  the  nostrils, 
which  is  altogether  wrong  and  very  dangerous.  Oil 
and  turpentine  given  iu  that  way  will  he  almost 
certain  to  run  into  the  lungs  and  cause  mechani¬ 
cal  bronchitis  or  pneumonia.  Another  cause  of 
loss  is  that  our  instructions  are  not  followed  to  the 
letter,  boiled  linseed  oil  being  given  with  the  tur¬ 
pentine  in  place  of  rare  linseed  oil.  Boiled  oil  is 
poisonous.  On  account  of  the  difficulty  in  having 
the  turpentine-oil  mixture  properly  administered  it 
may  be  best,  in  future,  to  omit  this  treatment  in 
our  veterinary  answers,  but.  we  shall  continue  to 
give  it  personally  when  occasion  demands,  a.  s.  a. 
R.  N.-Y. — Right  here  we  want  to  call  attention  to 
the  unfortunate  habit  some  readers  have  of  care¬ 
less  or  hasty  reading  of  an  article.  In  the  note  of 
advice  above  mentioned  Dr.  Alexander  cautioned 
the  inquirer  to  give  the  remedy  slowly.  It  seems 
that  some  of  our  people  read  this  hastily  and  thought, 
it  meant  give  the  turpentine  through  the  nostrils,  a 
cruel  and  dangerous  method.  By  doing  this  these 
parties  injured  their  horses  severely  and  then  they 
come  finding  fault  about  the  advice,  and  blame  us 
for  advising  the  treatment.  Read  the  advice  on 
page  1501,  and  you  will  see  that  this  cruel  prac¬ 
tice  of  giving  medicine  through  the  nostrils  was 
never  advised. 
Where  Did  the  Grass  Come  from  ? 
In  1010  the  railroad  which  runs  through  my  farm 
put  in  a  double  track,  and  in  one  place  they  cut  through 
a  granite  ledge  some  eight  feet  deep.  The  greater  part 
of  what  they  removed  was  rock.  First  the  broken 
rook  was  hauled  and  spread  over  a  piece  of  low  ground 
(about  one- sixth  of  an  acre).  The  soil  that  covered 
the  ledge  (much  of  it  coming  from  three  or  four  feet 
below  the  surface)  was  hauled  and  roughly  spread  over 
the  rock.  It  was  not  harrowed,  nor  was  there  ever 
any  Seed  or  fertilizer  applied.  In  1011  patches  of 
Timothy.  Red-top  and  clover  came  up,  enough  so  that 
it  paid  for  mowing.  Each  year  since  1011  the  crop 
of  hay  lias  improved  both  in  quantity  and  quality,  and 
in  loll  and  1015  a  very  good  second  crop  was  secured. 
Middlesex  Co.,  Mass.  n.  b.  d. 
E  have  seen  several  cases  much  like  this, 
and  it  all  goes  to  show  what  a  tvonderful 
farmer  Nature  is.  The  two  thin  layers  of  soil  over 
that  rock  could  not  produce  good  crops,  for  the 
solid  ledge  prevented  it  from  holding  water  down 
below  where  the  soil  reservoirs  are  formed.  When 
that  rock  was  broken  up  and  spread  out  with  the 
soil  over  it  there  was  a  very  different  condition. 
Unlike  the  solid  ledge,  the  pieces  of  rock  admitted 
water  and  air.  They  held  moisture  in  reserve,  and 
gave  it  up  as  the  soil  needed  it.  It  was  as  if  a  soil 
with  a  tough  hardpan  had  been  broken  up  with  a 
subsoil  plow  or  dynamite,  so  that  the  pasturage  for 
the  roots  was  more  than  doubled.  Any  seeds  put 
into  the  soil  under  these  conditions  would  have  a 
better  chance. 
There  were  seeds  of  many  kinds  in  that  soil — 
grasses,  clover  and  weeds.  Take  a  shovelful  of 
soil  from  any  pasture  field  on  your  farm,  lime  it 
and  use  fertilizer  and  put  it  under  greenhouse  con¬ 
ditions.  and  50  or  more  different  plants  will  start 
growing.  It  is  quite  doubtful  if  soil  from  any  pas¬ 
ture  field  on  a  farm  that  has  been  long  in  cultiva¬ 
tion  will  not  produce  clover  when  handled  in  this 
way.  That  is  why  when  lime  or  fertilizer  is  used 
on  an  old  pasture  clover  and  the  superior  grasses 
come  in  thickly.  Many  seeds  are  brought  iu  by 
birds.  The  plants  which  grow  from  them  make 
other  seeds,  and  these  are  scattered  by  the  wind.  In 
South  Dakota  one  Alfalfa  plant  under  good  condi¬ 
tion  produced  three  ounces,  or  43.500  seeds,  or  just 
about  one  seed  for  each  square  foot. 
Tt  is  also  probable  that  the  railroad  brought 
many  seeds.  This  is  very  common.  These  seeds 
come  iu  cattle  cars,  in  the  hay  or  litter,  or  in  the 
manure.  These  are  scattered  out  as  the  cars  pass 
on  and  take  root.  Many  of  our  weeds  are  carried 
from  place  to  place  in  this  way.  Sweet  clover  has 
been  started  in  many  new  localities  by  this  car 
seeding.  A  good  example  of  this  is  seen  in  Canada 
along  the  Grand  Trunk  Railroad,  where  for  miles 
the  tracks  are  lined  with  Sweet  clover.  In  New 
Jersey  we  quite  frequently  see  clumps  of  Sweet 
clover  along  the  railroad,  and  slowly  spreading  back 
into  the  fields.  Thus,  if  we  examine  such  cases  care¬ 
fully  it  is  not  so  difficult  to  see  where  the  seed 
comes  from. 
