NEW YORK, SEPT. 9. 1882. 
Vol XLI. No. 1702. 
FHIOE FIVE CENTS 
*2.00 PEB TEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, 
in the year 1S82, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Cong 
"A 
*7 
Washington.] 
farm Cccmomij. 
POTATO DIGGER AND HILLING 
POTATOES. 
PROFESSOR I. P. ROBERTS. 
The article in the Rural of July 22 on dig¬ 
ging potatoes, in which I mentioned the Travis 
Potato-digger as giving the best satisfaction, 
appears to have developed a desire on the 
part of some to learn more about it. I have 
procured a cut of the machine for insertion 
1 find that the digger is retailed with cultival 
ting and hilling attachment, at $24 00. 
The eugraving does not show the wheels 
which are attached near the end of the b*am, 
but does show the two small shovels which 
are attached; when the chains and side bars 
are removed it is used as a horse-hoe for 
which it serves quite well. The machine is 
peculiar in the extreme obliquity of the dig. 
ging shovel when at work. It might be said 
that the digger slides under the bill and that 
the dirt, instead of dividing and rolling away 
from either side of the shovel as from a plow, 
spreads to a breadth of four feet from the 
shovel in the rear at ail angles without roll* 
mg. .Thus ten dirt is left so widely, evenly 
and thinly distributed that there isnotenough 
depth in any one place fc > hide a potato. In 
addition to this, the dirt falls on numerous 
chains and the buckets of knots dr 'g every¬ 
thing of any size to tbe surface. 
Mr. Travis having met with heavy lo-ses in 
the last few years, is not able to manufa ture 
the diggers; hut ho informs me that he will 
endeavor to do so through some other firm in 
the near future. Upwards of 1,000 have been 
manufactured and have been sold readily, 
giving the best of satisfaction. I have never 
tided the machine w'here the potatoes were not 
hilled, but I see no reason why it should not 
run equally as well if run a little deeper. 
The digger makes a good hiller though I 
am beginning to think that except on w et or 
cold land, hilling i3 injurious. 1 have a few 
rows on my laud that were planted in drills in 
rather deep furrows and these furrows have 
scarcely been filled as yet, as at the first hoe* 
ing the dirt was drawn from, instead of to, 
the rows. My Irish neighbor has a patch 
similarly planted forty feet away. They are 
planted near the surface and heavily hilled. 
The soil of both gardens is gravelly and in¬ 
clined to suffer when dry, as at present. We 
are both digging for table use; the yield of 
those cultivated flat is at least three times as 
great as of those hilled. While traveling in 
Holland four years since, I noticed many 
thousand bushels of moderate-Mzed but very 
uniform potatoes being shipped from Rotter¬ 
dam to England. I took some pains to find 
out how such vast quantities of fine, uniform- 
potatoes were raised. They were planted in 
many cases in rows not more than 15 to 18 
inches apart and not more than one foot apart 
iu the row. A single eye and a single stalk 
in a place were sought for. Hand cultiva¬ 
tion was quite largely the rule, but in every 
case I saw perfectly flat culture. In July the 
field looked more like a grass than a potato 
field, as no rows were visible. Each hill ap¬ 
peared to produce two to four moderate-sized, 
uniform tubers. 
[A. potato-digger was sent to the Rural Farm 
a long while ago to be tested. But no letter or 
instructions were received with it, so that it 
was never fairly tested until the present season. 
We are not at this moment prepared to make 
a specific report, but we may say that in land 
of a sandy nature, free from large stones, it 
has dene satisfactory w ork—indeed the man 
who used it is quite enthusiastic iu its praise. 
We are glad of the present opportunity of 
bringing this subject before our readers.] 
EXPERIENCE WITH MUCK. 
E. W. DAVIS. 
There seems to be little said at present in 
the agricultural papers about the use of muck, 
the last I remember being a statement to this 
effect, that while a farmer might iucrease the 
size of his manure pile by using muck, he 
should remember he had only the fertilizing 
matter be would have had had he used no 
muck, and all the labor spent in handling the 
extra quantity was simply thrown away. 
[Tbis is a mistake which has never found ex¬ 
pression in tbe Rural.—Eds ] The above 
quoted teaching is so contrary to my expe¬ 
rience that I propose to show it to be utterly 
misleading and untrue. 
In the Spring of ’73 I went upon a farm 
that had been badly tud. The soil was mostly 
sandy loam, naturally good, but badly im¬ 
poverished. The farm contained an exhaust¬ 
less supply of muck. When a boy, yeans 
before, as a consequence of reading agricul¬ 
tural papers, I had drawn into the yard of 
my father’s farm a large quantity of muck. 
It was something new in that section, and 
the neighbors laughed at my book-farming. 
The next season we had double the usual 
quantity of manure, aud, as a consequebce, 
vastly better crops than usual, and I was able 
to demonstrate that my book farming was 
not to be laughed at. After taking charge of 
a farm myself 1 determined to enrich it by 
the proper use of muck. Accordingly the 
dried muck was placed behind the cows each 
day and all was thrown out together into tbe 
manure heap. Iu this way I obtainei from 
each cow at least three times the quantity of 
manure that farmers usually do, for I saved 
not only the solid matter, but also the liquid, 
and ^ the chemists assure us the urine from a 
Potato Digger.—Fig. 287. 
cow contains as much fertilizing matter as 
the dung. ^Furthermore, the muck, by thus 
coming in contact with the stable droppings, 
was itself converted into good manure. The 
chemical composition of a fair quality of 
•uuck is almost exactly the same as that of 
cow dung, with the exception that it is lack¬ 
ing in potash, but the fertilizing materials are 
in an inert condition, therefore they have to 
undergo a change before plants can use them 
Muck contains a large proportion of nitrogen; 
but iu order to become available to plants it 
must lie changed to ammonia and nitric acid 
The muck being thoroughly mixed with the 
table droppings, the change takes place rap¬ 
idly, while if applied directly to the soil it 
would change very slowly, and ten years 
would be required to do the work of one if 
properly mixed with manure. I had then 
three sources of obtaining manure from my 
cows that farmers, as they generally manage, 
do not have. First, th“ muck absorbed tbe 
gases and kept the manure from deterio¬ 
rating—and those who have closely watched 
the dung piles lying under the eaves of the 
barn to be washed by every rain can easily 
see that this is no small matter. Second, the 
urine, which is usually wasted, was saved. 
Third, each load of muck was converted into 
a load of manure. 
Not only was muck placed behind the cows 
in the cow-stable, but it was used just as 
freely in the horse barn. In the horse stable 
1 consider muck more valuable than in the 
cow-stable, for horse manure heats so badly 
when thrown into a heap that it is often 
greatly damaged by burning. A large quan¬ 
tity of muck can be used with tbe horse- 
manure, and the slight heating that follows 
is just wha^ is needed to change muck to 
manure; furthermore, muck being an excel¬ 
lent disinfectant, the horse-stable is kept 
sweet and healthful. 
The first year upon the farm I commenced 
keeping Cheshire swine, aud have increased 
the number each year since. I found that 
muck was an excellent thing to fill the pig¬ 
pens with, for it not only made a large 
amount of manure, but had all the advan¬ 
tages of fresh earth in promoting ihe health¬ 
fulness of the hogs; but it must be confessed 
it did »<ot improve ittce of a white 
hog. Muck will also >-p the privy and hen¬ 
house sweet, and increase the quantity of 
much-needed manure at the same lime. 
Now% did'the muck do the farm any good ? 
I was engaged in growing onions, cabbage, 
etc., quite extensively, a business which every 
gardener knows requires a large amount of 
inanuie, while it makes no manure returns 
to the farm. Instead of buying manure for 
these crops in the village, 1 made almost all 
the manure used ou ihe farm, and when I left 
that particular faim in 1880 it was so much 
improved that ic would produce three times 
as much as in 1873. The improvement was 
due to the proper use of muck. 
It may be asked how the muck should be 
prepared for use «t the barns. Its proper 
preparation is very important. If the muck 
bed is not too wet it can be shoveled out from 
the bed during the Winter aud allowed to 
freeze. Freezing is very important, as it 
crumbles the muck very tine and also helps to 
change the muck to manure. Then, during 
the dry weather of the latter part of Summer, 
when the farm teams are not otherwise busy, 
it should be hauled to the barns and placed 
under cover. It is then ready for use as 
wanted. If the bed of nmek is too wet to 
work in Winter the muck eau be drawn upon 
dry ground during a drought and treated as 
above mentioned. Scattered all over the 
Northern States are millions and millions of 
cords of muck—enough, if properly used in 
connection with the stable manures, to make 
our Eastern farms as fertile as the Western 
piairies. It is an easy matter to make the 
land grow richer each year if the matter is 
looked after with intelligence, aud I maintain 
that no man ought to be called a good farmer 
who is not making his land richer and grow¬ 
ing bigger crops year by year. 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
-- 
A CHEAP WAGON. 
“ Going for {151” said the auctioneer just as 
I came on the grounds. 
“ What is goiug I” says I. 
“This wagon. Going for $15, and worth 
$30 1” 
“ I’ll give $16,” says I. 
“ Sixteen dollars ! Sixteen dollars I am 
offered sixteen dollars, and cheap at $30. 
Sixteen dollars, and sold to Billy Borgus 1” 
The boys said I had bought the wagon 
cheap enough; if a wagon wasn’t worth $16 
what was it worth ? I told ’em I didn’t know, 
and as the wagon was mine now I didn’t care. 
Well, on the way home I broke a thill out. 
Then Jim Finnegan borrowed the wagon, and 
came bsck with i rail under one axle ia place 
of a wheel. The man who put on a new 
wheel found a weak nlace in another wheel 
and so we had two new ones. By and by 
the other thill gave out, the tires got loose, 
and the dry weather seemed to take the “tuck” 
out of the “measly” old affsir, and I made 
a bargain with Ben Jou<=s to put in new wood¬ 
work all around for #27,50, and I can get a 
good coat of paint on it for #3 more. Then I 
shall have a new wagon, all but the axUs and 
boxes that the wheels roll ou, aud those are 
a little too loose I confess, but then the wagon 
hain’t cost me nothing, as it would if I had 
bought a new one, for I don’t count my time 
running bo the shop for repairs, and as to 
going without the wagon for a few wteks, 
why it gave the mare a rest; bat then 
I lost a good job of mason-work by it. Be 
that as it may. if a man wants a cheap wagou 
an auction is the place to get it. 
I forgot to say that when the last thill gave 
out I and mother were dumped into the ditch, 
and I shall have something to pay the doctor 
for setting a bone; but these little jolts simply 
spice a man’s pudding, and we can’t get along 
well without ’em, Chas. A. Green. 
farm (Topics. 
FACTS ABOUT THE WEATHEH. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
The low mean temperature for the month 
of July for the center of the corn-growing 
region iu Illinois—a trifle less than 70 degrees 
for the whole month—lends an additions 1 
interest to any facts about the weather at this 
time, la July 1881 in the same section—ap¬ 
proximate latitude 40 degrees and longitude 
88 degrees west—the range of the mercury 
was fully 15 degrees higher: but July 1SSL was 
quite as exceptionally warm as July 1SS2 has 
been more than exceptionally cold. In 1881 
the usual reading was from 65 degrees to 80 
degrees at sunrise, and at two o'clock P. M., 
from 85 degrees to 105 degrees, wh 1 lathis year 
it has been from 52 degrees to 70 degrees at 
sunrise, and from 73 degrees to 85 degrees at 
two in the afternoon. These readings show 
the Summer temperature for July to have been 
above the mean in the one case and below it 
in the other, and as the high temperature in 
1 SSI held good for the Summer months and 
through the Fall season, we have a reasonable 
right to infer as much for 1882, and especially 
since April and May were exceptionally cold 
and June not up to the average of that 
month. 
But these experiences are but repetitions of 
what occurred io the cold and rainy seasons of 
1875, 1808 and 1857 after the hot and dry 
Summers of 1874, 1867 and 1856, in which the 
corn crop was very severely reduced ia yield 
by insects and drought and suffered nearly as 
much from heavy rains and low temperature 
the succeeding years. But iu 1881 the heat 
aud drought were a good deal intensified over 
the droughty Summers above named ar.d 
therefore the reasonable probabilities are that 
the present Summer will prove cool, even 
when compared with those of 1875, 1S68 and 
1857. In 188 L the valley of the Mississippi 
above Cairo (aud the facts here stated and the 
deductions drawu from them are intended to 
apply chiefly to this area of country) seemed 
to have fallen on a Summer season borrowed 
from subtropic latitudes fully 10 degrees 
further south, and this y r Illinois has 
rather the Summer climate of Dakota, than 
that which truly belongs to it and has and 
will gather corresponding crops. 
