THE BUBAL MEW-YORKIR. 
483 
HOW I DUG MY POTATOES. 
Professor I. P. Roberts. 
In 1877 I raised several acres of potatoes 
and dug them with forks; then plowed the 
ground and found that by hiring a man at 
$1.25 per day to follow the plow and pick 
those that bad been missed, there was a gain 
or protit of about $8.00 per day. 
The next year I purchased a Travis Potato 
digger, cost $15.00. I next purchased some 
half bushel handle-baskets and some refuse 
apple aud cement barrels, the latter at five 
cents each. These barrels were distributed at 
frequent intervals over the field. Two horses 
were attached to the digger, taking every al¬ 
ternate row. They were driven at a fast walk 
and eight hands had full work in picking the 
potatoes, though they never had more than a 
rod or two to go to empty their baskets. 
Some of the barrels of potatoes were covered 
with vines and left standing in the field for 
some time. The barrels should not be filled 
quite full, as the potatoes are inclined to roll 
off in loading. Three men can easily load a 
wagon—for instance, thirteen barrels in five 
minutes and they can be unloaded in about 
the same time. This method saves much time, 
and tedious picking and does not bruise the 
tubers. The barrels, which may be kept from 
year to year, should be given a dash of water 
just before being taken to the field, to keep 
the hoops on and the barrel firm. 
Plo wing the ground developed the fact that 
the digger had done much better and cleaner 
work than the hand forks; the man who fol- 
tinuously the surest and most reliable help is 
obtained by having men with families, furnish¬ 
ing them with a small, comfortable bouse and 
a garden patch and paying them by the year. 
Laborers of this class are,as a rule,better con¬ 
tent, less likely to want to change, and more 
trustworthy, and they will look more to their 
employers’ interests, as they know that their 
living and that of their families depend upon 
their faithful performance of their work and 
on the success of their employers financially. 
Day help is generally the dearest of all, as 
the laborer demands higher wages where he 
works by the day than if he is working by the 
month or year. Then he has no interest 
except to put in the time as easily as possible, 
as he has no assurance of anything further 
when night coiues, hence he does not accom¬ 
plish as much as if employed permanently. 
Then, generally speaking, the class who go 
around working by the day are those who 
have not been able to secure work by the 
month or year—generally the poorest of the 
laboring classes as regards ability and willing 
ness to work. Tbis is not always the case as 
circnmstunce3 sometimes compel the best of 
bands to be working by the day. I am speak- 
ing of them as a whole, not as single instances, 
A good, reliable hand can generally obtain 
steady work with very little trouble, and if 
he has a reputation for doing good honest 
work, he will find very little difficulty in 
securing work by the year or month. 
Miller Co., Mo. N. J. Shepperd. 
CntfimaloflicaL 
THE SQUASH VINE BORER. 
lowed the plow soon quit in disgust, declaring 
that he could not make fifty cents a day. 
The digger is something like a d mble-horse 
hoe with wings riveted on the shovel, to which 
numerous pump chains are attached, the 
whole set at an accute angle and the front 
end of the beam mounted on two simple 
wheels. They are not in the market. A firm 
struggling under financial difficulties pur¬ 
chased the right and manufactured a very 
limited number and then went under. I hope 
the manufacture will soon be revived. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
YIELDS OP DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF 
SMALL GRAIN IN KANSAS. 
When thrashing last Fall I kept an account 
of the number of acres and bushels of the dif¬ 
ferent varieties of grain that we thrashed. 
Here is compiled a statement of the same. 
The grain was raised in the northern part of 
Ottawa and southern part of Cloud Counties, 
Kansas. 
VARIETY- 
WHEAT. 
No. of acres. 
o 
»-% 
O' 
c 
cn 
O' 
Av. yield per 
acre. 
'Largest, yield 
per acre. 
Velvet. 
172 
2,847 
16 95-172 
— 
Fultz. 
177 
2,655 
15 
S >1 u 
Orance. 
ina 
l,i,Du 
14 40-109 
hlte. 
73 
980 
12 22-39 
r, u 
May. 
3>8 
3.405 
III 125-328 
2. *.L 
I 1 a!' Grass_... 
nr. 
1,818 
11 1-5 
i? * 
Spring Ornss... 
49 
3 9 
6 5-7 1 
$ 
Early Am her_ 
200 
2.018 
10 9-100 
11 
tv hlte Russian... 
17 
1«8 
9 15-17 
12 
Clawson. 
2 
24 
13 
12 
Total. 
1,297 
15,880 
13 816-1297 
♦Mixed Oats. 
58 
1,915 
S3 81-58 
46 1 
Blaolr, ditto. 
944 
335 
3634 
•*? 1 
White, ditto. 
6 
160 
26 2-3 
>6 2-3; 
Total. 
78?i 
2,460 
33 21-59 
Rye. 
69 
628 
9 7-69 
20 
m 
-I —i 
8l 
* ^ 
7 S * 
9 1-3 
9V4 
8 1-3 
I 
4 4-5 
12 
together? ° a ' S meanS blaCk and wh,te oats mlx€ 
John Bishop. 
Ottawa Co., Kans. 
In a late Rural a correspondent asked for 
information concerning this enemy of the vine. 
While we are about it we might as well take 
the special enemies of this vine in order; for 
there are other enemies quite as troublesome 
as this one. We first fiud the little striped bug 
ready to devour the plant almost as soon as 
it appears, aud unless prevented it frequently 
destroys the vine before the other enemies 
get a chance at it. A little slaked lime ap¬ 
plied In season, is considered a sure remedy. 
Plaster is also good. If these are washed off 
by rains several applications may be neces¬ 
sary. Next we have the brown squash bugs; 
slaked lime is also a good remedy for tnem. 
One of my neighbors whom I consider a very 
skillful gardener, has an ingenious way of de¬ 
stroying this insect. Having on hand some 
old shingles, he lays down one of these by 
each vine. In the morning the children go 
over the field with baskets and take up the 
shingles; the bugs are gathered on the under¬ 
side of the shingle and these children scrape 
them in the baskets, then take them to the 
house and destroy them with boiling water. 
Any piece of board will do, and the probabil¬ 
ity is this is the beso way to deal with this in¬ 
sect. We next have the borer to deal with, 
and the way to treat it is plain. We must 
examine the vine often and when the pest 
commences its work it is easy to discover it. 
We shall find the vine punctured near the 
ground, sometimes a few inches above. When 
we see this we know the worm is inside. We 
then take a pen knife and cut a slit up and 
down and search until we find the worm. 
Sometimes, though seldom, more than one is 
found in such a place. This slit up and down 
the vine does little harm. This is the only 
sure way to destroy the borer. By planting 
early the vines get layered so as to produce 
a crop even when entirely cut off at the root 
by the insect. A. M. Williams. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
HIRED HELP. 
Insect Pests in Fruit. 
Much has been written and many different 
plans proposed as to the best and most econ¬ 
omical plan of hiring necessary help about the 
farm. The old saying “if you want a job 
hall done, send; if well done, go vourself,” is 
very applicable at the farm, but, alas’ fo r 
human endurance! there are;times wbeuon an 
ordinary farm no one man can begin to keep 
up with the work to be done, aud the farmer 
is obliged to look to some one else. On many 
of the larger farms only two,and, many times 
three or four hands ure kept busy all the year 
around, and especially is this the case where 
much stock is kept, and where it is the rule to 
feed all that is raised on the farm and sell the 
produets in condensed forms. Where this is the 
case hiring by the year is best, as by that 
means you are not expecting a change at the 
end of every month, your help gets better and 
better costed as to your way of working and 
manners of feeding and attending to your 
stock, while the help,knowing he is sure of his 
place, takes more interest in his work and is 
better satisfied and will look more to the 
interest of his employer than if he were only 
"oikingb, the month. He soon understands 
what is required of him and is better prepared 
to perform his part. 
On large farms where help is required con- 
I find my apple trees badly infested with 
the aphis. This is a new pest in my experi¬ 
ence. Being very busy with my strawberry 
crop, I failed to notice the condition of my 
apple trees until they are past all help for 
this season. W ill some one who has success¬ 
fully managed the aphis inform me through 
the Rural how the thing was done? I desire 
no guesses, as I can guess for myself. I guess 
that spraying the trees thoroughly with whale- 
oil soap, or strong tobacco water would be 
successful. This on large trees looks like a 
“ big job.” Is there any easier way? 
From a ratheriimited survey of the orchards 
in this vicinity, I judge that the damage 
being done by the aphis is considerable— 
enough to reduce the apple crop one-third at 
least. 1 pride myself on being able t. > manage 
most insects that infest my fruits, and feel 
rather ashamed that these lice should get the 
best of me, but they came on unexpectedly. 
I will guess again that insects and worms 
thrive most in a wet season, like the present 
one. The currant worm is more plentiful 
this year than ever before, and it requires 
considerable diligence and a large amount of 
hellebore to Bubdue them. The past dry 
season they gave me very little trouble, and 
I was in hopes that they would gradually dis¬ 
appear, but the currant worm and the Col¬ 
orado beetle have evidently come to stay. 
We can console ourselves with the thought 
that the man who most successfully fights in¬ 
sects will find fruit growing the most profit¬ 
able. Nelson Ritter. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
-♦-*-♦-- 
Silk Worms. 
I have a small lot fed on Osage Orange 
leaves; they have done well and are now 
goiog into cocoons. They have, in spite of 
cold weather, ants, etc., grown right along. 
The loss since my first hatching has not been 
one per cent. The first hatching I put into a 
cigar box (I don’t smoke), and in an hour they 
were dead. As they do well on the Osage 
which is all over the West, is there any use in 
bothering about the Mulberry? Is not the 
West to-day prepared to raise all the silk 
the country needs? Those who have the 
Osage Orange and want to try the worms 
need not fear to go ahead so far as food is 
concerned. H. T. Vose. 
[We have spoken of the Osage Orange as 
food for silk-worms many times. We believe 
the silk is of interior quality as compared 
with that from worms fed on the Mulberry. 
Eds.] 
<ll)£ 
PIG NOTES FROM KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
An English writer tells the truth when he 
says that we might as well admit first as last 
that all breeds of pigs have been more or less 
mixed and crossed in their formation. This is 
a candid admission and accords with my own 
ideas, and affords a natural solution of the 
discrepancies and peculiarities which are so 
often manifested in the breeds of pigs which 
are classed as thoroughbred. I huve all along 
suspected that breeders in Great Britain had a 
knack of improving their pigs by infusing into 
them, as they term it, “dasheB” of new 
blood. In no other way can breeders main¬ 
tain strength of constitution and keep up the 
stamina of their pigs. Pigs are d ifferent from 
all other stock in regard to in-breeding. Two 
or three in-crosses destroy the character of the 
stock and cause the offspring to be weakly 
aud often to be deformed. On these accounts 
it is never safe to make more than two in¬ 
crosses in breeding pigs. The effect on cattle 
and sheep is not so marked, and there is 
abundant evidence that these kinds of stock 
have been improved by iu-breeding for suc¬ 
cessive generations. The rule, however, will 
not apply to horses or to poultry of any kind, 
because with these weakness and deformities 
are sure to follow the breeding of blood rela¬ 
tions. 
A great deal of confusion has arisen in the 
out-crosses of the same breed by giving them 
local names, which would lead persons not 
acquainted with the blood to suppose that 
they were different breeds, when in reality the 
only essential difference is in the names. The 
Yorkshire family of hogs furnishes the most 
notable illustration of the fact. The descrip¬ 
tion and standard of characteristics for Small 
Yorkshires would also fully describe the Cum¬ 
berland Yorkshires, the Lancashires, and also 
the Bedfordshires. The Byefleld hogs, once 
well-kuown and popular in this country but 
now extinct, so far as the nam° is concerned, 
were undoubtedly an old family of York¬ 
shires. There are also several families of Suf- 
folks with distinctive names, and quite differ¬ 
ent in appearance acd varying much in size. 
In the early improvements of pigs in England 
crosses were made of breeds of different colors, 
which accounts for the anomalous appearance, 
oftentimes, of some of the pigs which are 
classed as pure-bred. 
For a long time I was at at loss how to ac¬ 
count for the black spots on the skin of white 
hogs which had been bred white, and were 
always classed as white breeds. The appear¬ 
ance of a black spot, hair and all, on a pig of 
pure white ancestors was a sort of Darwinian 
hint that there must have been some time a 
cross of black blood, of which this black spot 
was an out cropping proof, showing that there 
was a taint, although it might be remote, in 
the bl ood. Au old English work which fell 
into my hands afterwards, aud which was 
printed long ago when perhaps the truth was 
oftener told, stated, in so many words, that 
the hogs of Yorkshire (white), had been im¬ 
proved by crosses upon the hogs of Berkshire 
(black), so that it seems that Yorkshires are 
really part Berkshire. There ia now no mys¬ 
tery to mein regard to the black skin spots on 
white hogs. Darwin is vindicated so far as 
pigs are concerned, and so is the Euglish writer 
above referred to, who lived before Darwin 
wrote 
The advantage of education in the pig-sty 
was illustrated the other day at Kirby Home¬ 
stead, when two old sows, heavy with young, 
were readily made to walk down the stairs 
into the pig-house cellar, where pens had been 
fitted up for them to have their young in cold 
weather, and avoid the risks of losing them. 
A rope tied in the form of a collar was slipped 
over their heads with the ends extending back¬ 
wards like the traces to a harness, which were 
held by a man to prevent the animal from 
losing her balance and falling headlong down 
the stairs. An ear of corn attracted the 
animals to the door at the head of the stairs 
when by a little scratching and coaxing and 
pushing, they were induced to walk carefully 
down the steps to their new quarters. Both 
of these sows will allow their young to be 
handled without making any fuss or attempt¬ 
ing to bite, which is the result of handling 
when they were young. 
When time for pigging approaches it is im¬ 
portant that the udders should be kept clean 
to prevent cracks or sores, as these will make 
the mothers restive when the pigs attempt to 
suck, and sometimes ferocious, so that they 
will destroy the litters. It is an excellent 
plan to smear the udders with grease to insure 
a sound condition. Where there are any 
cracks or sores they should be treated fre¬ 
quently, so that they may be healed up if pos¬ 
sible before the young are born. If this were 
always done there would be fewer ugly sows. 
RECOLLECTIONS OF HOG DRIVING. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
[Concluded.] 
For two or three days after crossing White 
River the weather continued cold and then 
there came a sudden thaw, followed by heavy 
rains. It is uttterly useless for me to attempt 
to convey an idea of the mud on the Western 
roads at that early day, for it must 
have been seen to be appreciated. Fortunate¬ 
ly much of the road lay through woods and 
was not fenced, and there we could deviate 
from the track and pick our way at the side, 
but where the road was fenced on both sides 
it was a mortar bed from fence to fence. As 
hogs, men and teams dragged wearily through 
it, they left no track, for the liquid mud flowed 
in and filled the track behind us. Wading 
through this mud the hogs soon became so 
wearied that they would not stir except when 
urged, and the drivers must zig zag back and 
forth across the road, traveling from two to 
five miles for every mile gained towards the 
city. Then the hogs began to “give out,” 
and must be loaded into the wagon, and this 
was pretty sure to occur in the deepest mud. 
The hog would wade in and lie down and 
no amount of whipping would start it; then 
the men must load it into the wagon, and to 
lift a hog, weighing two hundred pounds or 
more, out of mud a foot deep, while it strug¬ 
gled and resisted, required three men. Two 
of them would burrow under it until they 
could get hold of each others’ hands and they 
would lift the hog, while the third man, either 
at the ears or tail, would balance it, and pull 
or boost, it into the wagon. About four or 
five hogs made all that two horses could draw, 
but we could always hire teams of the farmers 
along the route, and with large droves it was 
uot uncommon to see six, eight, or ten wagons 
following. 
The owner of the drove was usually well 
mounted and acted as “ wagon master.” He 
would ride ahead and engage quarters for 
the night, and attend to hiring teams and 
often when the weather and roads were bad 
aud a large lot of hogs on the way, he would 
fiud it necessary to ride back from the road a 
mile or two to get teams. The worst weather 
was when it would turn suddenly cold during 
the night. Tha hogs would be so sore and 
stiff the next morning that they could scarcely 
move, and if the mud was not frozen so as to 
bear them up we must wait either for it to 
thaw or to freeze harder. 
With our drove, however, we bad no cold 
weather after the first thaw, and when after 
ten days of weary dragging through the mud 
we reached Cincinnati, the weather was so 
warm that hog killing was entirely suspended. 
We were in the city with the hogs on Jan. 
1, 1817, when the Ohio River was 82 feet and 
some inches above low water mark— the high 
est point it has ever reached since the settle¬ 
ment of the State. The bauds were paid off 
and sent home; but father remained aud soon 
found that there was In store for him an ex¬ 
perience much harder to bear than hog driv¬ 
ing even. For two long weeks he waited for 
a freeze, his hogs shrinking every day, his ex¬ 
penses heavy, and, worst of all, the price of 
hogs falling every day. When finally a 
change in the weather came so that slaugh¬ 
tering could begin, there were so many hogs 
in the pens, and so many drovers who from, 
“hope deferred" were “heart-sick," that there 
was a panic in the market and the price went 
down, down, until it dropped below two cents 
a poifnd nett Many a man who had left home 
two or three weeks uefore with visions of 
wealth, returned home financially ruined. 
