The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Disposing of a Beef Carcass 
1 have a .1 i*rsey cow which is too old for dairy pur¬ 
poses. I had planned feeding and using her for beef; 
thnl is. killing her myself and selling in the neighbor¬ 
hood. I do not care to use her for beef now. I am 
only offered S6 by mil- local dealer for her. IIow could 
I handle her to get best results in meat scraps? [ have 
•about 100 head of chickens, mostly hens of laying age. 
The weather Inis not been cold enough yet to butcher 
the cow and hang the meat, fan you suggest some 
way? I< it better to grind the meat and feed that way. 
or jusl hang up a piece at a time and let the hens peck 
it off? "Will it pay to buy a bout: grinder for Just one 
cow? ' E. W. 
renters are so heavily in debt that they are .prepared 
to sell their live stock and outfit, apply the proceeds 
un the debt, and move to town to take their chances 
in a town job. In some eases both renter and owner 
have borrowed money at banks, giving paper based 
on high prices for farm products and extravagant 
prices for land. The earning power of the farms 
having been cut in half or worse, they cannot meet 
their notes, nor can the banks safely foreclose on the 
security. Unless some radical adjustment is made 
before Spring thousands of these Western renters 
W K have a number of discussions about plans will move away from the laud. That would be close 
for utilizing a carcass on the farm. The cow to a calamity. Most of these men are not well fitted 
you speak of will lie worth more than $0 for feeding for town work, and they are needed in the country, 
hens or hogs; certainly if we add the value of bones From all over the West come dismal reports from 
for fertilizer. We would not advise you to try to renters. Several persons have seriously asked the 
make dried beef scrap. During the cold weather following question: "What could happen to the 
this meal will probably keep without trouble. It can farmers of any community if they organized and 
he cut into chunks, and have one of them tied up by positively refused to pay more than half of their 
a string in the henhouse for the hens to peek at. present high taxes?" The Eastern farmer is. by 
That is often done, and appears to give good results, comparison, better off than these Western men. 
I he hens will polish off a bone. Laud speculation has not troubled us as a rule. Our 
Another good plan is to get a bone cutter and run farms are smaller and generally more diversified. 
Our markets are better, and most of 
T in - , circular to which A. a. refers is printed in 
German and comes from Bohemia. Tile picture 
at 1‘lg. <> is taken from Ibis circular, and gives an 
idea of the operations of (his stone-picker. Appar¬ 
ently the stones are [licked up by revolving lingers, 
carried up over the top and dropped on a platform 
behind. Some years ago Tiik R. X.-Y. made a care¬ 
ful investigation regarding stone-pickers. We were 
unable to find any practical machine on the market. 
At that time one manufacturer wits trying to develop 
a machine somewhat on the principle of the one 
shown in this picture. It appeared to work fairly 
Garden Notes from New 
England 
PRUNING TREES. 
It is claimed 
J- that March is the best month for 
tree pruning, but on most farms the 
work has to he done at any time 
throughout the Winter when an oppor¬ 
tunity offers. It is important to re¬ 
member. though, that no cutting should 
be done while the limbs are frozen. I 
have been experimenting with a new 
pruning tool, which has some advan¬ 
tages, especially in cutting away small 
limbs which could not readily be 
reached with the saw or the clippers. 
The device consists of a sharp chisel 
at one end of a long rod. At the other 
end of the rod there is a plunger handle 
in two parts. One part is pulled hack 
and then driven quickly against its 
mate, the force of the impact driving 
the chisel through the branch. The 
work is done mostly along the limbs, 
as the tool will not work well when 
driven directly against a branch that 
offers but little resistance. A tremen¬ 
dous amount of tree work has devel¬ 
oped in New England as a result of the 
great ice storm, which ruined thousands 
of specimen*, both fruit trees and orna¬ 
mentals. Big shade trees, like elms, 
oaks, willows and maples, were hit par¬ 
ticularly hard. These are trees which 
the owners dislike to lose, and free 
principle of a woeder. with a heavy 
plank and iron rods driven through it. 
One man claimed to use an old potato 
digger with a stone boat floating be¬ 
hind it. The stones were taken up by 
the digger and dropped out behind on 
the stone boat. There seemed to lx* 
nothing of practical value except a few 
homemade rakes. Many efforts have 
been made to produce a stone-picker. 
The trouble is to make machinery 
heavy enough to stand the strain, 
while, of course, only a small load can 
be taken away at one time. 
1 I.ong-handled Chisel Primer. Fig. 5 
An Acre of Tomatoes i * 
How muck tomato seed is needed for 
an acre of tomato plants, and what is v • ** ~ 
tin* number of standard-sized sash re¬ 
quired? When should plants be started 
for early as well as late tomatoes? a. o 
lladdonlield, N. J 
A X ounce of tomato seed will pro 
duce about 1.300 plants, or a lit- M&faaL. 
tie over two ounces would he required 
for nn acre. Some growers figure 1 . lb. 
of seed to the acre, allowing the extra 
quantity for broken and small plants. 
The following table shows the number 
of plants per acre at various spa rings. 
We figure on plants in rows r> ft. apart. 
with plants 3 ft. in the row. These are allowed to 
run on the ground at will: 
t European Stone-picking Machine. Fig. (i 
.Many pieces of meat and the hones not fully suitable 
for feeding the liens can lx* boiled with potatoes or 
other vegetables to make a thick soup for hog feed¬ 
ing. Flint is a good way to dispose of the scraps of 
meat and the vegetables. We have known eases 
where meat and hones were boiled with small po¬ 
tatoes and cull beaus. The thick soup, with a small 
amount of eonuueal added, made very good hog feed. 
After the hones have been cleaned they can either 
lx* crushed or burned, or mixed in layers of wood 
ashes. \\ hen this is done, and the mass kept wet. 
the bones soften and can be mashed quite fine with 
a heavy club or spade. In that way practically every 
part of the carcass will be utilized. 
5.443 plants 
•.<>30 plants 
4,840 plants 
-.004 plants 
2.402 plants 
2.722 plants 
It has been interesting to note the comparative im¬ 
munity of evergreens, few of which suffered from 
the storm. When planting ornamental trees it is 
well to consider the exposure, and to use evergreens 
instead of deciduous trees in very windy sections 
and where hard storms are frequent. 
THE LETTUCE CROP.—New England greenhouse 
men are again being obliged to meet the competition 
of California lettuce, great quantities of which are 
being shipped East. As it happens, however, the 
quality ot the California product has been poor so 
far this season. As a result, homegrown lettuce has 
sold readily and at a good figure. Still. California 
lettuce is a serious menace to the greenhouse busi¬ 
ness of the Eastern States. lettuce has been for 
many years and is now one of the best crops to grow 
under glass. In fact, the demand for lettuce is con¬ 
stant the year ’round, although in Summer much of 
this demand is met from the home garden. Because 
of the popularity of lettuce some special investiga¬ 
tions have been made by H. F. Tompson at the 
\ egetable Growers' Experiment Station in Lexing¬ 
ton. As a result, the following are given as good 
representatives of the heading types: Spring varic- 
Before setting the plants in the field they are set 
4 in. apart in the frames, with a standard sash 6x3 
ft. This allows for a little over 130 plants, or 20 
sashes are necessary to grow the acre of plants si*r 
3x3 ft. apart. 
Seeds should he purchased from some firm which 
makes a specialty of growing tomato seed. It is sel¬ 
dom wise for the tomato producer to grow his own 
seed, unless he intends to select for certain charac¬ 
teristics which will keep up the typo of the variety 
which he is growing, or unless lie is endeavoring to 
secure new strains. Careful judgment should be 
exercised in the choosing of tomato seed. Good seed 
must be true to name, pure and of the greatest pos¬ 
sible longevity. In the latitude of New York City, 
seed can he started in the hotbed about the middle 
ot March; the farther south one goes the earlier 
(lie six'll is planted. When planted at this early date 
the plants are usually in bloom at transplanting 
time; that is, when they are ready to be set in the 
field and yield some fruits earlier. 
T. H. T. 
Tenant Farming in the West 
IlRol GH the Central West and the Northwest 
there is a 
serious movement of tenant farmers 
away from the farm. In some localities it is feared 
that a large proportion of the farms will not be 
worked this year unless farm business improves. 
The low prices for grain and live stock, with little if 
any reduction in rents and prices for supplies, have 
practically ruined thousands of tenant farmers. 
They cannot live and continue to pay rent. In some 
cases the land is valued at such high figures that 
taxes are eating the owners up. Many of these 
