AUG 4 
THE RURAL HEW-YORKER. 
he statement. But who ever heard before o 
ripe strawberries keeping in fair condition 
nine or ten days by any other method ex¬ 
cept refrigeration? And as no reference is 
made to any artificial means employed, the 
inferenc e is the statement is to be taken per se. 
Now who believes such nonsense? What is 
the use of such exaggerations? On showing 
this statement to a prominent fruit grower, 
he replied: “That is all humbug! No 
strawberry in existence will do that.” 
That is so, I think the Atlantic has enough 
real merit to commend it, without the claim¬ 
ing for it any such impossibilities. 
Not long since a “ tree agent.”—I should per¬ 
haps say “salesman”—called on me, and after 
trying in vain to talk me into the purchase of 
his new grapes, all of which I happen to have 
in fruiting.he turned to the Kieffer Pear and 
urged the 25-and-5fi-cent-apiece story as an in¬ 
ducement for me to liny. I told him, as I have 
others, that if such prices were to last he and 
others so anxious to sell trees had better plant 
them and make a fortune instead of dividing 
it pro hono publico : for long before all the trees 
now planted came into bearing JviefTer Pears 
could be had for less than the price of better 
varieties, if thev were not a drug in the mar¬ 
ket. Statements of this kind are calculated 
(if not intended) to deceive, and deception I 
hate, Such extravagant praise as is often 
given to new fruits is onlv injurious: it de- 
strnvs confidouce and creates disgust in the 
minds of all sensible people. It is about time 
this inordinate puffing of novelties should be 
sat. down ou and discountenanced. 
Better by far err the other wav, and if 
trial proves the novelties better than repre¬ 
sented, it will be better for all concerned. 
There is my protest anyway. What say you 
Mr. Editor? r“ Ditto.” Eds.] 
Montclair. N. J. e. williams. 
The Ohio Black-Cap Raspberry. 
I have some of these raspberries, spoken of 
in the Rural of July 7. Some of the canes 
are six feet high, though Thave pinched in the 
tops to make them branch. To-dav (July 13) I 
picked seven quart baskets from 2(1 bills, and 
there was previous picking the day before yes¬ 
terday. Twenty berries picked at random 
from plants set out a year ago and laid in a 
row. measured 1 2}{ inches; 20 assorted ones 
lSJsjf inches. j. h. 
£l]e Poulin* Barb. 
STRIKING BACK. 
The Rural asked for experience with an 
incubator, and in response I gave mine. Mr. 
Felch said a pound of grain will make as much 
poultry as pork. This I denied. My article 
has been severely criticised, but I have looked 
in vain for experiences contradictory of mine. 
Mr. Salmon was facetious, but was chary of 
experience. So with the others. I can raise 
poultry by theory and get rich; but my ex¬ 
perience “ho its me that the stndenr. was cor¬ 
rect who said he believed there was a little 
more friction in practice than in theory. The 
20 -chioks-to-a-hen poultry raiser in the Rural 
of June 30 presents the old prohlem—20 chicks 
so much profit, twenty hundred, of course 
twentv hundred times the profit. We have 
seen that problem live hundred times, haven’t 
we?—but. never the solution of the last part 
of it from experience. I am ready to sit at 
the feet, of Mr. Salmon, “Twenty-Chicks” or 
any other person who has demonstrated this 
problem, but T am not ready to acknowledge 
my follv until "experience” takes the pen. 
Mr. Salmon says I know nothing about the 
poultry business. Granted that, this is true, I 
have given the poultry business 10 years of 
careful study, and have learned nothing about, 
it; yet I am a subscriber to four of the best 
agricultural journals in the United States; 
have taken two poultry journals several years, 
and spent several hundred dollars in buildings 
and appliances. Now. Mr. Rural (blessings 
on your head for your patience, honesty and 
genuine devotion to rural interests), does it 
not legitimately follow that, the business is 
founded upon principles so difficult to acquire 
that the ordinary mortal cannot reasonably 
hope to master them? He says l should have 
killed the cat that ate my chicks. Granted; 
what shall I do to the score or more belonging 
to my neighbors? In a village of A,000 people 
there is at least, that number besides my own. 
Probably in Mr. Salmon’s neighborhood the 
•cats retire at a proper hour—say about uiue 
p. M. —but they do not in mine, and as I can¬ 
not. sit. up all night and attend to duties next 
day, they take the advantage of me. He says 
I should not put, my chicks out-of-doors and 
so expose them to the cats. So thought I, 
and therefore put them on the floor near my 
carriage house, but there was a broken win¬ 
dow pane in a building adjoining the carriage 
I louse and between the two a door which th~ I 
wind blew open, and hence the destruction; so 
each of his criticisms is pointless,if there were 
space for me to quote from my experience 
He says artificial mothers are unnecessary. 
My first hatch this past Winter was on Jan. 
27, when the temperature was about 10 de¬ 
grees below zero. Under the eircomstauces I 
incline to the belief that some sort of a mother 
was necessary. Mr. Salmon has raised 100 
chicks per year. To make a business of the in. 
dustry I must raise from 2,500 to 3,000 per 
year. Will be please speak from experience? 
I have raised 150 a year, but did not make it 
pay; can he? 
Mr. Stewart takes up the cudgel where Mr. 
Salmon lays it down. He is in favor of in. 
cubators. He made one and hatched chicks 
with it. I made four and hatched chicks with 
two of them and then gave them up and 
bought one, because with my incubators my 
chicks would cost more than they were worth. 
He says: “In rearing chicks by hand there is 
absolutely no necessity for one to be lost after 
it is batched from the shell.” More theory. 
Let him tiy a flock of 300 as I have, and he 
will know more about a chick’s vitality than 
he seems to. judging by that statement. There 
is not a man living who has raised, with ordi¬ 
nary appliances, all of 100 chicks hatched. In 
my article, “Pigs versus Poultry,” the source 
of neither my nigs nor chicks was taken into 
account. Why, then, should “Twenty-Chicks” 
bring in his hens? Thev have absolutely noth¬ 
ing to do with the problem. Will Mr. Salmon 
or Mr. Stewart or “Twenty-Chicks” or any 
other person who has raised 1,000 or more 
chicks per year, please tell us just how he did 
It and show us his balance sheet? Will theorv 
please give the pen to experience, at whose 
feet we shall be only too glad to sit? Tf the 
Rural’s space and patience will permit I will 
give a few experiences in order to show some 
of the difficulties of the business. a. e. g. 
[Certainly we shall be pleased to publish 
your experience in poultry' raising. Candidly- 
told experience is what we prize most highly. 
—Eds.] 
Flavoring Unlaid Eggs. 
“Like produces like even in the production 
of eggs. Hens are not fastidious, for they wil^ 
eat decaying meat, intestines of animals and* 
indeed, anything of the flesh kind, and con¬ 
vert it into nice ‘hen fruit,'”and the writer of 
the above asks, “Why cannot all the butchers’ 
offal and refuse animal and vegetable matter 
be profitably fed to poultry?” 
It can be profitably fed to poultry, but hens 
fed on offal will produce awful eggs every 
time. Swill milk has a run in our large cit¬ 
ies and is classed by physicians as a very’ pre¬ 
valent'cause of disease. Eggs made from de¬ 
caying animal and vegetable matter would be 
even more poisonous. The conversion of food 
iuto eggs is a rapid one aud the nature of the 
stock, in the process of conversion, is only to 
a certain extent changed. Feed a laying hen 
with chopped raw onions aud you can make 
an omelet that would satify a garlic eate 
without the necessity of adding onions in 
cooking. Jones of Binghamton. 
3mplfmettls, 
THRASHING MACHINES—OLD TIMES. 
COL. F, D. CURTIS. 
Until within the present century, thrash¬ 
ing was done in the same primitive wavs 
mentioned in the Bible and illustrated in an¬ 
cient works. The principal methods were 
pounding the grain out with flails, trending it 
out with oxen and horses, and drawing some 
heavy implement or block of wood over it. It 
wa« less than 50 years ago that thrashing ma¬ 
chines were introduced, except here and there 
one of primitive construction which had been 
used to a very’ limited extent. The first ma¬ 
chines were sweep-powers, and were propelled | 
by three or more horses walking in a circle 
around a drum, to which was attached by 
cogs a cylinder from which a band ran the 
thrasher. The sheaves were put in by a man 
on one side and the straw separated from t he 
grain bv a man who stood on the other side 
using a hand-rake and his feet to perform the 
work. I recollect the first machine of this 
kind which was in use in mv part of the coun¬ 
try, and what a fearful place it was for a man 
to work, to separate the straw! The man who 
performed this work usually received 25 cents 
a day more than the other hands and often 
had to wear a sponge tied over his mouth to 
keep out the dust so that he could breathe It 
required a skillful person and an active one to 
do the work well. The straw was passed out of 
the barn by relay’s of men. and the machine 
had to be stopped every’ little while in order 
to clear away the grain and chaff. 
A few years after the introduction of these 
machines one-horse tread-powers came into 
use. The first, one I ever saw had iron rollers 
for the horse to walk upon. They were dan¬ 
gerous things, as the horse often got his feet 
fast and was injured, sometimes overturning 
the power in his struggles to get bis feet loose. 
It was not long before the wooden treads, 
which are now in nse, were invented, and 
the machines enlarged so that, two horses could 
be used, working side by side, thus doubling 
the power. Tt was a number of years before 
separators were invented, which allowed the 
grain aud chaff to fall underneath, and car¬ 
ried the straw away from the thrasher. Com¬ 
bined thrashers and cleaners were afterwards 
introduced, which are now in general use. 
The horse-powers were also enlarged to the 
capacity of three horses, to meet the require¬ 
ments of this combined work. These machines 
are capable of thrashing and cleaning several 
hundred bushels of grain in a day. Steam en¬ 
gines are now being extensively substituted 
for horse-power. 
The latest improvements are portable steam 
engines, which are capable of moving them¬ 
selves as well as the thrasher and cleaner, 
from place to place. Steam is a great im¬ 
provement upon horse-power as a more uni¬ 
form motion can be kept np. which thrashes 
the grain cleaner and does not necessitate so 
many delays, so that a larger amount of grain 
can be thrashed in a given time. The in¬ 
creased power gained by the use of steam has 
led to the invention of conveyers which carry 
the straw directly to a stack and save the la¬ 
bor of men to pitch it. 
Thrashing is mostly done by persons who 
own their machines and make thrashing a 
business, going from farm to farm thrashing 
by the bushel. The work is begun right after 
harvest and most, fanners have their thrash¬ 
ing done before "Winter, which gives them an 
opportunity not only to market their grain, 
but to utilize their straw to the best advantage. 
In old times there used to be a class of men 
who made thrashing with flails a regular busi¬ 
ness. aud they used to contract with farmers 
to do their thrashing for two cents a bushel, 
and bind up the straw and help clean the 
grain. This really made thrashing cost less 
than if done with the modern machinery. 
[Wasn't all sort of labor done at a smaller 
money cost then than now? Wasn’t the 
purchasing power of money greater 
then than now? Eds.] A great many 
farmers used to turn the colts and horses 
to good account in Winter thrashing. A 
ot. of grain was spread upon the barn floor 
in a circle and three horses abreast were driv¬ 
en on it by a boy who stood in the center of 
the floor. The horses had head-stalls and lines 
so that they could be frequently wheeled 
around to go in an opposite direction to pre¬ 
vent their getting dizzy. A man stirred and 
turned the grain while they were thus going 
around. When the flooring was fully thrashed 
the horses had a rest and the straw was raked 
off. When the bed of grain and chaff became 
too high it was piltsj up and cleaned with the 
fanning-mill. This was a faster method of 
thrashing than with flails, and on mv father's 
farm it took half the Winter to do it. I used 
to drive the horses and an elder brother did 
the turning and shaking up of the grain. Al¬ 
though thus method was tedious, the straw was 
made more palatable for the cattle and they 
ate it better than they do now when thrashed 
by machines; but horses and sheep did not 
like it so well. Thera was less waste of grain, 
as there was more carefulness in handling it. 
Thrashers are not as particular as they should 
be to keep up a strong and steady motion, 
hence considerable grain passes through the 
machine without being thoroughly thrashed, 
which often makes a waste of several percent. 
Grain should be put into the ham perfectly 
dry and well cured to thrash well. 
THE BUCKEYE CASTER GRAIN DRILL. 
An objectionable feature of grain drills is 
obviated by Messrs. P. P. Mast it Co., of 
Springfield, Ohio, in the construction of their 
Buckeye Caster Grain ‘Drill.“The improve 
Buckeye Caster or Third Wheel.-Fig. 416. 
ment iu this consists of an anti-friction caster 
or third wheel, attached to the under side of 
the front boain and tongue of the drill. This 
supports the weight of the Implement so that 
no weight rests on the horses’ necks as in 
other drills. The tongue is hinged in front of 
the caster and is limber up and down but solid 
sidewise, and by the construction of the 
machine the side lash and jerking of the 
tongue, so hurtful and wearisome to the horses 
are prevented. Another important advantage 
is that the drill plants the grain at an even 
depth in uneven ground. The caster and 
tongue, or the caster and hinge, can be readily 
attached to any drill, so that those who may 
wish to avail themselves of this decided im¬ 
provement can do so at a comparatively 
small expense. 
fieri at lim*ut. 
CALANDRINIAS. 
These are pretty little annual plants be¬ 
longing to the same family as Portulaca and 
Purslane, They also ' have fleshy leaves and 
stems and like an open, sunny place and a 
light, dryish soil to 'grow in. Three species 
only are commonly cultivated. The best, most 
showy and easily known is C. discolor from 
Chili. It has thick, fleshy leaves, grows a foot 
or more high, bears bright rose-purple flow¬ 
ers, some one-and-a-half to two inches across, 
which open iu the sunshine and close up in the 
afternoon. _ The form known as Grandiflora 
Calandrinias umbellata, From Na¬ 
ture Fig. 408. 
is but a variety of Discolor. Speciosa is a 
bright, violet-crimson flowering species from 
Oregon and California. It is of low, spreading 
dense habit, quite leafy, and has numerous 
medium-sized flowers. It is shorter-lived and 
less satisfactory as a garden plant than the 
preceding. There is also a white form of it. 
Calandriuia umbellata. the subject of our 
illustration (Fig. 408), is a low. spreading pe¬ 
rennial species from Chili, but it is only of use 
here as an annual, in which capacity it is 
neat, free-blooming, bright and beautiful. Its 
flowers are magenta-crimson in terminal co¬ 
rymbs and are fully produced for a long time 
duriug Summer. 
Any one who is successful in raising annuals 
generally can raise Calandrinias without diffi¬ 
culty, either in pots or small boxes in the win¬ 
dow or in pots in frames. Do not sow them 
m rows or patches in a frame, because, like 
most succulent plants, when young, a little 
too much moisture, shade or confinement is apt 
to rot them. They bear transplanting well. 
PfimcrtofiicxiL 
COLD STORAGE IN ULSTER COUNTY. 
Thrf.k or four years ago, during a glut in 
the New York grape market, a few shippers 
at Cliutondale were induced by hope of better 
prices, to store parts of their shipments in 
cold cellars or chilled rooms in New York. 
After the rush, the fruit was taken out and 
sold at prices that encouraged a repetition. 
Since that time success has so far attended the 
practice that several growers in this county, 
especially at Cliutondale, have put up fruit- 
refrigerating rooms for this purpose, one of 
whom—Mr. D. J. Doualdson—has so far en¬ 
larged his house duriug the past season, as to 
store his entire crop, eighty tons or more. As 
he ims found prices uniformly higher after the 
rush in market, he expects this F all to store 
his full crop before marketing any part. He 
has also found it best to pack carefully when 
stored, and not to re-handle. Being also a 
large peach-grower, it is contemplated to store 
such portion of that crop’as may’seem) best, 
according to the conditions of the market. 
In addition to the various individual enter¬ 
prises in this direction, a company’ has been 
formed, and a large ice-house and fruit rooms 
have been erected at Highland—one mile from 
the Hudson River. This organization is called 
the Highland Fruit House Co., being com¬ 
posed of Messrs. Charles N. Snyder, commis¬ 
sion douler in New York, David Frohmann °f 
