JULY 24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
455 
business Nine-tenths of the commonest farm 
operations were new to me. Our stock in 
trade at that time consisted of 150 acres of 
land, ten acres improved with log barn and no 
house. I had no team, no stock, no farm im¬ 
plements, few household utensils and no capi¬ 
tal besides. A little outside property would 
just about olTset my debts. I worked out in 
the Winter time and in the Summer time 
stayed at home and improved the place. For 
different reasons T made hay a lending crop, 
it brought a high price, my land was adapted 
to it, and it left me more time to improve the 
farm The improvement of the farm I made 
a leading idea, arguing that t he first thing to 
do in farming was to get a farm. When I 
got a little better off I bought an ox-team; 
then a horse team which I have kept ever 
since. 
All this time I was studying farnnug from 
books aud papers and was experimenting on 
a small scale. Every year I found myself, by 
the blessing of Providence, a little bettor off 
than I bad been the year before. I have gone 
in debt for plows and harrows, for a cultiva¬ 
tor, ahorse rake and a mower nnd never re¬ 
gretted the fact. An agricultural implement 
I think should at least pay 25 per cent, on the 
investment. 10 per cent for use of money aud 
15 per cent for depreciation of property. Two 
years ago 1 also went, in debt for a thor¬ 
oughbred Short-horn bull, which I hope to 
make pay by improving the stock. I am now 
out of debt—I have 80 acres improved, two 
barns, oue stable, a granary (capacity 1,000 
bu hels) aud comfortable log house, have 11 
head of cattle, three horses and all this past 
season’s crop (estimated value 87U0) ahead, 
it has all been made here, and i have had no 
labor hut my own, except what 1 hired. We 
are now within easy reach of a railroad, have 
a post-office in sight, aud have grist aud saw¬ 
mills at nearly every point of the compass. 
I always clover heavily regardless of the price 
of seed, of which I sow the cleanest and best 
in the market. It does not pay to sow weed 
seed liecause we may happen to get the clover 
seed a little cheaper. The cheapest is much the 
dearest in the end. I keep the best stock 1 
can. They are more pleasant to bundle, they 
are more profitable, aud 1 can sell when I 
please at remnnerativc prices. So-called fancy 
stock I leave for men with more money. I 
have never sold a bushel of wheat except at 
fancy prices for seed, preferring to mill it, 
thereby saving the hrau for feed and to put 
buck on the land. I always litre the best help 
l can get, believing them to be more profita¬ 
ble than inferior hands. When we have help 
we aim to give them a good start in the morn¬ 
ing so they will not have to hurry to do a 
day's work. Regularity of meals, and general 
smoothness and plcusnutuess of life are ueces- 
sary to the best results with hired help. For 
the house we always buy, when we can, un¬ 
adulterated groceries, pure sugar, pure sirup, 
unground coffee, etc. In clothes we try to 
preserve a happy medium. 
1 have thus s-trung together some general 
maxims, the observance of which 1 believe to 
be of more value than any set system of farm 
iug I could suggest. No good general man¬ 
ager will long remain a poor farmer. Each 
man at starting must adapt himself to sur¬ 
rounding conditions, but if lie is guided by 
proper business principles he cannot fail of 
success. 
Missaukee Co., Mich. 
SULKY PLOWS IN NEW YORK 
Among the many recently-given opinions 
•and results of trials in the matter of using 
sulky plows, none appear to come from the 
Middle or Eastern States. The Western States 
.abound in farm lands eminently suited for the 
successful working of the sulky plow; and in 
the East, too, may be found thousands of acres 
of laud in every way equally if not better 
adapted to machine plowing, although very 
few farms are composed entirely of it. 
Many farms of stony soil aro made up of 
small, hilly fields, containing quantities of fast 
stones and rocks, standing trees and open 
ditches. All of these obstacles require fre¬ 
quent manipulation of (he levels, as well as of 
the team, even when the farmer is not at 
tempting to do all the plowing with the sulky. 
Cau a sulky plow be expected to do good exe¬ 
cution in such territories? Agents say it can. 
The advantages claimed for the sulky plow 
are many -lightness of draught, ease for the 
plowman, ability to plow larger areas in a day 
aud to plow deeper and keep the plow iu the 
ground in soil lacking humidity m droughty 
time; more accurate furrows, with less balks 
thau in baud plowing; less wear, and less cost 
for points. Can all of these points be con¬ 
sidered in every region as belonging to the 
plowing machine? Can any two of them bo 
claimed fully for the sulky plow? A certain 
sulky attachment was very favorably reported 
upon by a committee of the American insti¬ 
tute witnessing its operation at a plow trial 
near New York in 187 S. 
The writer’s letter of inquiry to the Secre¬ 
tary. John W, Chambers, was placed in the 
hands of a well-known seedsman and imple¬ 
ment dealer, who, after further writing, kind¬ 
ly agreed to send one of the machines on trial, 
upon the payment of freight and all expenses 
both ways if it did not prove satisfactory. 
Upon its arrival it was attached to a hand 
plow and tested in a field free of all obstacles, 
It needed but a short trial to couvince me that 
it possessed none of rhe merits ascribed to the 
sulky plow, except that of affording a seat for 
the driver; but he is so cramped between the 
levers that ho will feel much easier aud safer 
walking. 
Last year I was again imbued with the idea 
that a sulky plow was a necessity. No persua¬ 
sion was needed to secure one of the best 
known of the superior sulky plows, accom¬ 
panied by an ugent to take charge of a trial of 
it. V\ ith a medium plow team, in a field 
partly of clover sod aud wheat stubble, I be¬ 
gan t.o drive light along with it, giving most 
attention to the team. It requires quite a 
twist of the neck to set* the plow. No driver 
can be expected to watch the team and plow 
both; none but a Janus could. 
It turned the corners handsomely, and did 
good work in many places that were clear of 
all obstacles: but whenever the point struck a 
stone occasioning any resistance, the whole 
machine wavered, and however slightly it did 
this, it failed to turn over neatly the furrow- 
slice at that place. The fact that the wheels 
carried the plow was very evident, except 
w here there was a continuous row of fast 
stones or a single one not deeply covered with 
soil: then the wheels and whole machine rested 
upon the plow. 
In very stony aud dry. hard ground, it failed 
completely to turn the furrow slice as it 
should, aud the quality of the work in no way 
equaled that done by a hand plow in the same 
field. Judging from my experiment more 
than a half-dozen points certainly would be 
broken every .lav, if plowing in stony ground. 
Wo found also that the driver would not be 
apt. to discover that the point or share was 
broken until some time after it had given way. 
As to backing up to mend a balk, it is im¬ 
practicable to do so. It required no small 
effort! on part of the team and the driver, The 
manipulations of the level’s must lie done quickly 
aud with an arm of no mean muscular power. 
A boy could not lie master of the situation.” 
Stones and sods often drop or roll down into 
the furrow obstructing the path of the fnrrow- 
w heels, and although but slightly, aud but 
for an instant, where the wheel passes over 
the obstruction slight as it may seem, the fur 
row slice exhibits a litt le notch and bulk there. 
Assuredly a wider furrow was taken thau with a 
hand plow; but the team seemed to be fatigued 
to a greater degree thau that difference would 
be expected to produce. Be this as it may, 
the team could not endure the work The 
pole fretted the horses to a considerable extent* 
and t he same thing is noticeable in using the 
Harris Farm Truck on plow. On level, loamy 
soil, the driver rides very pleasantly; hut on 
stouv ground and also on hard, uneven sur¬ 
faces, lie is by no means enjoying a ••picnic,” 
hi id if he receives only one or two tin usts in 
the oar from the lever handles he need not 
complain. He will lie tiled surely, andmoie 
so thau at the end of a day’s hand plowing. 
Perhaps it may be compared with walking 
and riding eultivatois. At a county fair last 
Fall, an agricultural implement ugeut was 
heard to sav to u farmer. “If you will keep 
to the seat of a riding cultivator for two con. 
secut ive days, and affirm that you are not 
more sore aud tired than in all your experience 
with walking cultivators, T w ill give you one.” 
1 was not convinced of a single positive point 
in favor ot the use of the sulky plow, for my 
land at least, aud l was glad to end the trial 
w ith paying freight charges from and back to 
a not distant city, and payment for the agent’s 
trouble and time, 
The topography and soil of Western farms 
arc suitable lor the sulky plow, and these w ill be 
the future menu of its successor the steam plow, 
which the mulch of progress is certain to per¬ 
fect aud make practical. And the new 
traction engine seems to be tin* solver of the 
problem. w. L. devereaux. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
SEED BREEDING. 
I’JtOK. J. \V. SAN HORN. 
Perhaps no department of farming neod s 
so careful attention as that of the breeding 
and selection of seed. The seed is the parent 
of the plant—aud bounds its possibilities— 
possibilities that vary widely with the seed. 
So critical an observer as Dr. Sturtevimt has 
given facts upon which he seetus to rest a be¬ 
lief t hat seed is capable of making as wide a 
difference ill product as the use of manure 
against unmanured laud. We find that laws 
of heredity are us potent in plant as in auirna* 
life, and respond as fully to the breeder’s art 
under crossing and selection. To secure the 
best seed is of more importance to the farmer 
and the country than it is to secure the best 
breeding stock. The plant precedes the 
animal and its cost modifies the cost of animal 
products. The plant food of the country far 
exceeds the value of our animal products, 
much of plant food going into direct human 
consumption. Yet, notwithstanding these 
facts, far more complete attention is given to 
animal improvement, i am aware that, new 
varieties, or pretended varieties, of plants are 
being constantly put upon the market, get 
fairly introduced at much cost and then are 
found to 1>e no improvement, or have become 
mixed with other seed, or are soou displaced 
under the cry of deterioration. 
In animal breeding the effort has not been 
so much to produce new varieties as to im¬ 
prove the old. Aud how ? By the selection 
of the typical animal of a given breed and 
then the best of his get. Or the best to be found. 
Selection has rarely been pursued iu seed 
breeding of our field crops, excepting corn— 
imperfectly. When anew variety is put upon 
the market, if the introducer does not give us 
every seed produced, the purchaser sows and 
continues to sow all the seed used without any 
selection at, all, or if at all, the selection is in" 
adequate. It is true that a minority of ns do, 
by the use of separators, obtain the plumpest 
and heaviest seeds, but in this division we fail 
of the point desired. We have in the dense 
and heavy seed combined, no guarantee of 
several vital factors. Iu plants grown for 
seed, seed in quantity aud quality is aimed at, 
aud not stem and foliage. Other things being 
equal, the less of stem and branch the better. 
Again, prolificacy is important—if not all im¬ 
portant, a main object to be achieved. Our 
dense large seeds from the separator may have 
been grown on a uon-prolific plant. However 
important production of new varieties "may 
be, by crossing, selection of seeds from the 
plant in the field mast be and remain always 
a most valuable means of maintaining a high 
standard of excellence. It was by this means 
that Maj. Hallett succeeded so well with hi^ 
pedigree wheat, which he reports to having 
increased in length of head from in. to 8'q. 
and in seeds per head from 47 to 120. 
By this means the wonderful increase in the 
per cent, of sugar in the sugar beet from 
Napoleon’s day to this, was largely accom¬ 
plished. Among the Durhams we have the 
Princess. Duchess. Young Marys, etc., etc.: 
why not have lines of field crops of superior 
excellence? in some respects the analogy may 
not lie perfect, nor is it likely that strains of 
Timothy w ill be sold over the country. But 
why does not some careful farmer select seeds 
from 1 imothy plants ol superior type and by 
continued selection fix that type. It may lie 
objected that selection with our lesser field 
crops is too troublesome a matter. In many 
directions those things that require much 
trouble to accomplish are the most profitable 
to take hold of. Those things required to be 
done, and that take but little care or skill to 
handle, ure the matters that the masses are 
doing, aud in which there is much competition. 
This work is a work that pre-eminently needs 
doing in the West 
College Farm, Columbia, Mo. 
CONVENIENCE AND COMFORT VS’ 
NATURE. 
We frequently see allusions in the papers to 
certain ways of treating stock that “they are 
not natural.” It seems to me that such re¬ 
marks are simple and foolish. Everything iu 
our treatment of animals is unnatural from 
first to last it is not natural that cows should 
be milked or that calves should be fed. that 
stock should be confined or eat dry fodder; 
but it has been proved that animals cun be 
made to do as well and hotter in other ways 
than the natural oue. The only things to be 
considered when we have once departed from 
the course of nature are the creatures’ w ell-be¬ 
ing and our convenience. Some people object 
to ensilage ou the ground that it is not natural 
for cattle to eat sour food. What matters it 
if it is not natural so long as the cattle like 
it. thrive upon it and it suits our convenience 
to feed it to them. One might as well object 
to feeding sleek roots or grain as they are not 
natural food. 
Writers sometimes make queer mistakes 
Oue writer in the Rural cf June 9, in refer¬ 
ring to ways of tying cattle, objects to stan¬ 
chions on the ground that they are uncom¬ 
fortable because they constrain the cow to lie 
in an “unnatural” position, and in the same 
article he recommends building mangel's a 
foot or more in bight, as if it was natural 
for a cow to eat its food a foot from the floor 
Why, that is the chewing position. Now, no 
one can say cows tied in stanchions, though 
they remain in them all of the time, will not 
do well, and stanchions are eertaiulv the most 
convenient devices that ever w ere devised for 
tying cattle. With flooring of the proper 
length and a deep trench, cattle iu stanchions 
cau be kept clean eveu without bedding, with¬ 
out the constant hoeing and scraping the 
writer above referred to admitted were neces¬ 
sary in his stable. 
The cry that stanchions are uncomfortable 
is all humbug. I believe that cattle can sleep 
as comfortably in a properly-constructed stan¬ 
chion as in any tie that is made, and when we 
come to the question of convenience every¬ 
thing is on the side of stanchions. In this 
matter, as in all others pertaining to the care 
of stock, if the creature thrives and we are 
convinced, throw nature to the dogs. 
Newport, Vt., June 30. O. E. Ryther. 
Catching Moles. 
Seeing several articles iu the Rural in 
relation to moles, and iu the issue for June 
23 one asking for an inventor who would dis¬ 
cover a method of catching moles, I will give 
a method that is infallible aud costs nothing 
but a little time, aud not more of that than 
would the eare of a mole trap. 
Moles feed betweeu the hours of 11 aud 12 
night aud day. Now with this knowledge it is 
easy to catch them. All one has to do is to go 
through the garden in the morning and see 
where the fresh track of the mole is, which 
cau easily be perceived. Then between the 
hours mentioned, go quietly and watch, aud 
in a little time you will see the earth heave up 
where the mole is at work, then slip your band 
down in the loose earth behind, the mole aud 
throw him out and kill him. 
Moles do not habitually go back over a track 
they have once gone. This is perhaps why 
mole-traps do not catch more of them. j. e. 
Mapleton. Kansas. 
£l)f Pfmllnj Dari). 
PROFITABLE CHICKEN RAISING. 
A. B. C. SALMON. 
Some people think all they have to do is to 
give a hen 13 eggs and she will raise 13 chick¬ 
ens without any feed or care, and when they 
find site doesn’t do it they condemn, chicken 
raising in the bitterest terms. I am satisfied 
that all failures iu raising chicks arise from 
a lack of judgment aud coupled with careless 
ness. Chicks will not thrive without proper 
fond and a great deal of care. 1 know scores 
of farmers who never think of giving their 
chickens a mouthful of food during the sum¬ 
mer mouths and very little in \\ inter. They 
never know how- many fowls they have or 
where to look for them or where they lay, and 
it is al>out as much as a man’s life is worth to 
venture in their eluekeu-eoops on account of 
the lice. I am personally acquainted with 
two farmers who keep loo hens each and who 
often through the summer get as high as two 
to three eggs a day. and iu the Winter time 
nothing is further from their minds thau the 
idea of getting an egg. If oue of their hens 
should happen to hatch a half dozen chicks, 
the little tilings are immediately eaten up with 
lice, or if perchance one escapes, the hen is al¬ 
lowed to spend the vs hole bummer running 
with it , aud it turns out to be a rooster and by 
Christmas will weigh two pounds. Then there 
is the man in the city w u o wants to keep a 
few fowls aud a garden at the same time. 
The old ones can lie confiued iu a small coop; 
but how is he going to raise chicks with a 
garden ? If they run with a hen in the garden 
he knows what to expect, and if he puts her 
with them in a coop he will know what to ex¬ 
pect next time—chicks trampled to death, 
l hen comes the plaintive cry, chicken raising 
doesn't pay. 
Now it seems to me that all this eau be 
avoided by taking proper care of the fowls 
and chicks. 1 don’t want to appear egotisti¬ 
cal, but I must say I have yet to see a hook on 
poultry that contains the proper notion of 
raising chicks. As the trouble seems to be 
with chicks, 1 will give my mode of raising 
them, leaving out the fowls. L find that to 
have fertile eggs and have hens lay aud sit 
early, I must have early chickens of the year 
before—old fowls will not sit as early as young 
ones. My hens are of a large breed and 1 find 
that the best way to get fertile eggs is to have 
a cock of some smaller breed (.Game or Leg¬ 
horn) with them. 
1 do not set urn iien in an old sleigh to keep 
the pigs from eating her up; but take a barrel 
with both heads iu, cut a door near one eud 
about eight or ten inches square, aud set it on 
end with the door at the bottom, make a door 
of wire to give her air and set it out of the 
w ay of pigs, cows, etc. This is an excellent 
nest for Winter, but not so good for Summer, 
as it will be too warm. 
Iu January and February, the sitting hen 
must not be allowed to leave her nest unless 
some one watches her. as the eggs will chill in 
a very few moments. Tins carelessness, l 
think, accounts for the want of fertile eggs iu 
brother bibbo s case, i take my hens off every 
