THE RURAL MEW-YORKER. 
447 
down on their knees, spread over a beet field 
of several hundred acres, weeding the rows by 
hand and transplanting the roots to fill vacan¬ 
cies These females earned about 10 cents, or 
less, per day. And yet the boot crop is the 
most costly one grown in Europe, needing 14 
days of horse labor and 46 days of human 
labor for each acre. For this labor and all 
other expenses the average yield is $30; as the 
beets sell at the factory for $3 per ton, and at 
times for less. 
Second: Beets require very costly fertiliz¬ 
ing. A crop of 10 tons per acre is considered 
by the French and German chemists to re¬ 
quire, in addition to the return of all the 
leaves, the following quantities of the fertil¬ 
izing substauees: 373>£ pounds of nitrogen; 
83 pounds of phosphoric acid; 563 pounds of 
potash, worth, at cost here, $117. If the far¬ 
mer takes these from his rich soil, he neverthe¬ 
less expends this sum, as some time he must 
return all these elements of fertility, or ruin 
his land. 
Third: Beets are only successfullv growu 
by the most rigidly economical and the most 
skillful methods of culture, in which the Euro¬ 
pean farmers as far surpass Americans as we 
surpass them in our free and liberal political 
aud social condition. The culture is especially 
garden culture all through, and in largo 
tender. As I do not want to be at the trouble 
and labor of cutting and crushing them, I 
prefer to confine my cultivation to sweet corn 
growing not over five to six feet high. The 
stalks of all such sorts are nearly as sweet as 
those of Amber Cane, aud they are so tender 
tliut cattle, horses aud swine eat up the whom 
to the end of the butts, cut close to the ground. 
Corn of this sort can be planted for soiling 
and fodder as late as July. ‘‘A.” 
This machine is so novel iu its construction, 
and so unlike any other, that, we overstep our 
usuul custom, and as a matter of public infor¬ 
mation, show the device at Fig. ait). As will 
be seen, the wheels arc large and strong, and 
far enough apart to run on each side of the 
row. Under the pole, in front of the wheels, 
are suspended a couple of teeth, which remove 
a small portion of soil from each side of the 
row, and at the tame time act ns vine- 
struighteuers, leaving the vines all on top of 
the row At the rear end of the frame in¬ 
closing the machinery, and behind the wheels, 
is hung, at its top center, to a shaft, the dig¬ 
ger, which is a half-round steel scoop edged 
with sharp prongs. This digger, when iu 
Operation, is given a short, rapid, os¬ 
cillating motion, which prevents grass, 
weeds, or vines, from getting on the 
edge. A ffixed to, and projecting from, the rear 
edge of the scoop, are numerous, small, flexi¬ 
ble steel rods, as shown, toe ceuter j>ortiou 
being about five inches shorter than either 
side. The oscillating motion which theso re¬ 
ceive, in common with too scoop, shakes or 
rattles all dirt through, aud delivers the pota¬ 
toes in a dose, compact row behind, conve¬ 
nient tor picking up. Over this aud driven by 
zaxm 
lensivoiy cultivated for culinary purposes. 
The species has undergone some change since 
it was first introduced; then the core was a 
bright crimson, ami after being boiled and the 
corn taken off, if the core was laid in contact 
with any linen, it communicated an indelible 
stain. This inconvenience has disappeared v 
In a communication to the same paper, of date 
August 3, 1832, we acquire the additional in¬ 
formation that it was found, by the same 
party apparently, during Sullivan’s expedi¬ 
tion “among the Indians on the border of the 
Susqnehuunah.” Another account is that it 
was found by Sullivan’s expedition in the Guu- 
nessee country, in 1779, and brought to Con¬ 
necticut, whence it. proceeded south (Loudon’s 
Gardeners' Magazine, Vi., 488.) It is first 
mentioned for sale, so far as wo have seen, in 
Thorburn’s seed catalogue of 1818, one va- 
riety, the “Sugar, or Sweet,” being named, 
and is not oven spoken of by name in his Gar¬ 
deners’ Kalemlar for 1817 or for 1821. Men¬ 
tion is first made of it by American writers 
on gardening in Bridgemuu’s Gardeners’ As¬ 
sistant , 1832, one variety only being therein 
named, the “Sweet or Sugar,’’ and Bmst's 
Kitchen Gardener, 1851, mentions the “Sweet 
or Sugar,” of which there are two varieties. 
In 1848 Salisbury (Trans. N. Y. Agric. Soc., 
p. 836), describes three varieties—the Small 
Early Sweet, the Large Rhode Island Sweet, 
aud the Hematite, with a rad cob. In 1858 
Bement (Trans, of the N. Y. Agric. Soe., p. 
336) describes Early Sweet Corn as short¬ 
eared, eight-rowed, grain shriveled, one kind 
with a white, the other with a red cob, and he 
calls this the variety introduced by Cnpt. Bag- 
uoll, of Plymouth, and adds that it is exten¬ 
sively grown in the vicinity of cities for mar¬ 
ket purposes. In 1*54, Schenek, in his Gar¬ 
dener’s Text-Book, says:—•‘Perhaps no early 
vegetable is in greater demand at the market 
of a city than good green corn,” And he re¬ 
commends for sweet corn the eight-rowed 
Sugar, and says a new kind, by the name of 
Stowoll’a Sugar, has been brought into notice 
“within a few months, and is spoken of very 
A CHEA1 
GOOD HAY RACK. 
Many farmers have the merest apology for 
a hay rack, or one that is so heavy that it 
requires four men to put it off and on toe 
wagon. There is uo necessity for such devices 
being so heavy or for their being all bolted 
and spiked together so as to require handling 
all in one piece. 
We are indebted to our good friend, A. B. 
Tucker, Jones Co., Iowa, for an illustration 
of a neat, handy aud cheap rack, which we 
show iu hig. 815, and which, when the lumber 
of which it is made is, as it should be, planed 
and painted, will be both good-looking and 
durable. 
The rack, of which we show a side and an 
end view, is made as follows: The bed-pieces 
(b), are each 2x8 inches by 16 feet long, of any 
light, stroug wood; the cleats ,«) are 2x6 
inches, and two inches longer than the width 
of the rack, aud are bolted to the side-pieces 
by half-inch bolts (a) iim., Inches long, hai 
washers under the nuts. The cleats ulso have 
slanting mortices cut in thorn on each side of 
too center, as shown in the end view, to ro 
ceive the cross-pieces (e), which hold the shelv¬ 
ing on each side of the rack, and on these 
cross-pieces are belted two boards 1x8 inches 
wide, forming the shelving over the wheels. 
Jewell Stkawrkruy 
farms, the beets are brought in on portable 
railroads, and every upplianco that largo capi¬ 
tal and long experience can afford is made 
use of. Tho pulp, after the juice has boon 
expressed, is carefully saved and fed to cattle, 
aud f lic leaves are preserved m silos for the 
same purpose. 
Fourth: 50 years of preliminary efforts, 
with the loss of millions of dollars repaid in 
subsidies by the French and German Govern¬ 
ments, aud tho aid of a high protective and 
really prohibitory duty, wore required to Ret 
this beet sugar business on its feet, and it is 
now supported only by the most perfect sys¬ 
tem of scientific supervision and management, 
by skillful chemists ami the most thorough 
business methods.uud let us not forget, w th the 
exceedingly cheap labor, uud the most poorly 
fed, clothed aud lodged men. the most 
wretched slaves of women, aud the most igno¬ 
rant and unhappy children that one can find 
in any civilized (*) country. 
Wnile this is true as regards the culture of 
the sugar beet, the circumstances of the manu¬ 
facture are almost exactly parallel in their 
complete difference from those existing h«re 
It may be that, in time, our circumstances may 
be such as to bring our case down to a level 
with that, of the European farmers. But God 
forbid that the American farmer should over 
he forced to harness his wife alongside of a 
cow; to have his daughters carry manure on 
their beads; and his infants, who should be at 
school leorniug to read, on their knees pulling 
weeds from among the beets. But to produce 
beets in America at such a price that they can 
he profitably made into sugar, w'e must come 
to this condition. 
ami after being put in satisfactory running 
order, are to be turned over to tho society for 
examination and preliminary test on Sep¬ 
tember 1. The actual trials are to commence at 
noon, on Septembers. The mills are to l>e uni¬ 
formly 10 feet iu diameter, and may be fur¬ 
nished with any sort of pump desired. The 
test is to be the quantity of water which they 
shall each pump to a uniform hight through 
meters to bo furnished by the society. 
•When taken in charge by t.ho society, each 
derrick will be boarded up tight, aud neither 
tho manufacturer nor any other person shall 
be permitted near it, and no mill is to bo oiled, 
pueked or touched m any way during tho 12 
days’trial. During tho trial a record will be 
L/Iumnraniiiijiir: 
■ m | 
Hay Rack. Fig. 315. 
There is an upright, or ladder, at the front 
end for holding the reins, tho standar s of 
which are bolted to tho sides near the front 
end, 1 his rack should have a close bottom, 
made of one inch boards. There should also 
be end pieces of tho saino dimensions as llio 
„ which go Into gains cut one half Inch 
deep iu the sides, two inches from each end, 
and a half-inch iron rod should pass through 
t.ho sides just outside the ends, and ho drawn 
up tightly with a nut on one end. When the 
shelving sides of this rack am removed, a very 
handy low box is left, for drawing any heavy 
articles about the farm. 
m^tnnenis, &£ 
THE HERRINGTON POTATO DIGGER. 
If we take thorn iu periods of fivoor ten 
years, there is no more profitable crop than 
potatoes. Tho great drawback, and that 
which deters many people from raising them, 
is the slow, hard work of digging. Wo hon¬ 
estly thiuk the hardest work we ever did on 
the farm, and that which the men most dread, 
is potato digging, whether done with hoe or 
fork. It is a kind of work that should he 
easily done by machinery and horse power; 
but yet, although more than 500 patents have 
RAISING CALVES WITHOUT MILK. 
When considering the phenomenal yields of 
some animals in butter aud of others iu milk, 
surprise is oftuu expressed at tho low average 
products of American dairies: but wheu the 
common method of keeping up the supply of 
dairy cows is taken into consideration, tho 
SWEET CORN (Zea saccharata) 
ITS HISTORY AND VARIETAL DIFFERENCES 
ILLUSTRATED. —No. I. 
E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, M. D. 
Ears of sweet corn of the various varieties, 
from the crops of 1881, 1882 and 1883, wore 
collected from leading seedsmen, such as 
Messrs. Thorburn, Sibley, Henderson, Bliss, 
Gregory. Ferry, Landreth, etc., aud a collec¬ 
tion of these ears with those growu on the 
grounds of the New York Agricultural Ex¬ 
periment Station, furnish tho data for our 
descriptions. 
As to the value of varieties in maize, some 
idea may be gained from our statement, that 
in no case was there any divergence found 
irom the type in ears of the same variety 
name, cultivated or collected from these differ¬ 
ent sources. 
Sweet corn is of essentially modem intro¬ 
duction to our gardens. The earliest mention 
we find of it is in Bordley’s Husbandry, 1801, 
m which he says that it appears to him that 
the sort of corn called sweet com (having a 
AMBER CANE. 
I found the stalks of Amber Cane so much 
sweeter than those even of sweet corn, that 1 
cultivated it to a moderate extent for three 
seasons; but, as in the case of the Jersey agri¬ 
cultural forage crop, spoken of in the Rural 
on page 401, the stalks were so hard that my 
cattle would only eat the tops, though the seed 
was sown so thickly thatthe stalks were stand¬ 
ing as close as possible together in the row 
when growing, in order to render them more 
been granted on digging devices, very few 
have ever bem constructed to work in tho 
most favorable condition, and none to work 
under all conditions. But last Fail, at the 
New York State Fair, we saw in operation a 
machine that worked iu a seemingly success¬ 
ful manner, digging the potatoes clean, ami 
no matter how large the vines, they did not 
seem, to at all hinder the work, 
w.juuei jh, uoo mac cue product averages so 
little, but so much. No matter how good the 
t-ow and large her production of milk, butter 
or cheese, the dairyman never seeks to per¬ 
petuate her good qualities by raising her 
calves. They, with the others, go, when a 
few weeks old, to the butchers, or, what is 
worse, they are “deaconed.”—slaughtered for 
their pelts, and their carcasses fed to the hogs, 
