THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
JUNE f§ 
minutes in preference to 85. The cage and its 
contents of No. 1, are, at the expiration of 35 
minutes, raised from the vat; the cans^are 
spread out on the slide bars, Fig. 220,Vi*pail*of 
cold water is dashed over them and then the 
capper (who while No. 1 was cooking, has 
been preparing a batch for No. 2), takes a 
sharp awl and punches a small hole in the end 
of each can. A small stick is placed under the 
tray to raise the end where the vent is 
made. Should the cans blow much steam 
and water when punched, a piece of bag¬ 
ging, wet in cold water aud pulled over them, 
is useful in preventing too much sput¬ 
tering. Just as soon as the discharge of 
steam aud gas begins to diminish, the cap¬ 
pers take a No. 3 tinman’s flah-irou a .d close 
up the vent-holes perfectly tight. The cans 
are then replaced in their cage, relowered into 
the boiling water and kept there from 50 to 
75 minutes according to the length of time 
they were cooked before venting—about one 
hour 40 minutes is the minimum of safety on 
asparagus. On being removed the second 
time, the cans are spread out to cool for 30 
horn's, aud then stacked, aud when opportun¬ 
ity offers are labeled, packed in cases of two 
dozen and shipped to purchasers. Should any 
leak? be discovered, they should be stopped as 
soon as the cans arc cold. The cans should 
then be cooked 15 minutes, vented to allow t he 
air to escape, closed up as soon as possible, aud 
then spread out to cool without any farther 
cooking. 
A farmer who has a small three or 
four-horse power boiler, a little knack for 
handling tools, plenty of go-aheaditiveness 
aud who is not afraid of hard work, can put 
up his Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and 
Wednesday cuttings, send his Thursday and 
Friday “grass" to market, aud thus make 
a good average for his crop. 
Square asparagus caus cost about five cents 
each. No. 3 rounds cost $20 per 1,000; 
No 2 rounds $18 per 1,000. One pound 
of solder, costing 13 cents, will seal about 52 
cans, or at the rate of a quarter of a cent per 
can. Cases cost 11 to 13 cents each, or from 5>£ 
to seven cents per dozen cans; labels cost $3 
per 1,000 after the first cost of the plates has 
been paid. The labor of filling, fuel, etc., 
cost 12 cents per dozen; and then come 
freight, brokerage, etc. There is not enough 
left, after all expenses are paid, to make a 
man rich in one season; but enough, to make 
him feel happy. We started out with the de¬ 
termination to put nothing but first-class 
goods on the market; as a result, Delmonico’s 
the Brunswick aud a half dozen of the best 
houses in New York city get their supplies 
from us, to say nothing of dozens of private 
families scattered from Massachusetts to Da¬ 
kota. What we have done in this section 
fanners in other sections can do, and in the 
end they will find it much more profitable 
than the old humdrum oats, corn and pota¬ 
toes ; potatoes, oats and corn. This year we 
expect, if nothing goes wrong, to pack 40,000 
cans of asparagus, worth $10,000; $500 worth 
of strawberries, raspherrios, etc., ami about 
$3,000 worth of tomatoes. To this extent has 
our business grown from the puny efforts of 
10 years ago, when 2,000 cans of asparagus 
was our limit, and a cider mill, 20x34, our 
factory. Now we have a two-story building 
42x26, with shed 26x52, making a ground plan 
of 52x68, and a 50-horse power boiler. 
Glen Head, N. Y. r. H. scudder. 
fifli) Crops. 
TILLAGE FORPOTATOES. 
It is found that with all our so-called hoed 
crops wherever horse power can be substituted 
for hand work, the advantage is great. The 
work is done quicker and cheaiier and the til¬ 
lage is more thorough. The potato crop is 
well suited to horse cultivation. The plant is 
a rank, sturdy grower which can endure 
without injury the harsher, more thorough 
work of horse tillage. 
For covering, farmers have various appli¬ 
ances by which with a horse, or a team, they 
will cover two rows at once. The most im¬ 
portant point of this job is to draw earth 
enough from a good breadth on either side of 
the row to make a good ridge, well-balanced 
over the row of seed Much will depend on 
the after tillage. Even if it is to be level cul¬ 
ture, the rows should be prominently shown, 
and although the seed may be covered 
twice as deep as necessary still no harm will 
be done for a week or 10 days; then after the 
potato seed just begins to sprout in its bed, 
ami one good crop of weeds lias sprouted over 
all the surface, run a light drag briskly over 
all the field. This will reduce the ridges prob¬ 
ably oue-tbird, and in doing so most effectual¬ 
ly destroy every weed that had started in the 
rows. After a few days more, the- potatoes 
will be seen pricking through the ground. 
Then the drag should be used again either 
lengthwise of the rows, or across them, thus 
making sure that a hill of dean, fresh, fine 
earth surrounds every plant as it commences 
to grow above ground. Being of rapid 
growth, the tops will soon occupy the land in 
the hill to the exclusion of any weeds. The 
spaces between the rows are easily tilled and 
kept clean by after culture, which should be 
given as often us once in a week or 10 days, 
through the growing season, not stopping 
when the blossoms or balls appear or even 
when there are in the hills potatoes large 
enough for eating, if between the hills there is 
any prospect of a new stock of weeds. Much 
of the cost as well as satisfaction in harvesting 
will depend on whether the land has been kept 
clean or not. 
As for an implement for this kind of tillage, 
I prefer one with long.narrow teeth and many 
of them. With such an implement I can do 
fine tillage close to the hills if I wish, aud 
work deep in the early stages of growth. For 
later tillage, after the potato roots have pene¬ 
trated most of this surface soil, these tools 
should be so gauged, as to work quite shallow, 
next to the rows. Here, however, both the 
advocates of level culture and those who prac¬ 
tice ridge, or hill culture almost invariably 
use a biller, or winged shovel plow, to hill 
them up in tilling the last one or two times 
for the season. This tool is peculiarly well 
adapted for this class of work, for it enters 
the ground in the middle of the space and at 
the farthest point from the plants, to obtain 
the earth, which the wings, just skimming 
the surface, carry to the very top of the ridge 
and close to the plants without at all disturb¬ 
ing their roots. This, as ubove described, in¬ 
sures a good, clean cultivation, wholly with 
horse tillage, and oue that is much better than 
hand tillage which would cost two or three 
times as much. Another very important point 
in the care of this same potato crop, if the oc¬ 
casion for It should occur, is re-tilling which 
is good for any crop,os soon us the laud ts dry 
enough to till after any good penetrating rain, 
no matter how short a time before the rain it 
may have been ever so thoroughly tilled. This 
reworking at the proper time will keep the 
soil light aud moist, whereas without it it is 
liable to crust over, harden and dry up, after 
receiving so good a rain. H. ivks. 
Genessee Co., N. Y. 
-♦ ♦ » - — 
THE HAY HARVEST. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
The hay harvest is approaching, and the 
crop is almost certain to be a light one for the 
Northwest. Making and securing it by the 
cheapest aud best methods of harvesting are 
just now matters of interest. Besides, the Red 
Clover crop has come to cut a prominent fig¬ 
ure in great areas in the corn and cattle 
States, and therefore the harvesting of it by 
improved practices is of the first importance. 
Formerly, and under old methods, Timothy, 
Red Top, and other grasses in meadows were 
allowed to stand till dead-ripe before being 
mown. When the mower, the rake aud 
the pitchfork followed each other without any 
interval, the time between the standing grass, 
aud the hay in the stack was reduced to a mini¬ 
mum. But when it was thought best to cut the 
grass at the time of the full bloom, it was cus¬ 
tomary to set the mower at work in the early 
morning, spread the swaths before dinner, 
rake aud cock iu the afternoon and not cart 
till the next day, and then, not until the cock 
had been opened, aired and dried. If the days 
were clear, dry and hot, the method was a 
good one; but if wet or foul weather fol¬ 
lowed, a third of the crop was lost. The risks 
in curing clover by the old method of cutting 
in the morning, cocking in the afternoon and 
suffering the herbage to lie in the cock three 
or four days to cure, were still greater, and to 
the extent it would bp safe to say 50 per cent, 
of the clover crop of Central Illinois, witbiu 
the last 10 years, has been ruined in the pro¬ 
cesses of saving, or reduced in feeding value 
so as to be of little or no account. 
These accidents to the hay crop have led to 
the discovery of the new aud improved pro¬ 
cess, likely to be quite extensively practiced 
by a larger number than ever now that the 
crop is sure to be a light one, and the market 
value of hay next year, twice what it has been 
this. 
The new process of clover harvesting »s a 
very simple one, consisting in not starting the 
mower till the dew is off in the late forenoon 
of a bright, hot day, and then driving it for 
all it is worth, till 3 p. m., but cutting no more 
than can be handled and put in stack or barn 
the same day. But a bay in a barn with four 
tight sides is found to be the preferable place 
to preserve the green clover in; though if 
stacked iu large masses and weighted, the 
stuff keeps nearly as well The grass in Tim¬ 
othy, Red Top and Blue Grass meadows, may 
be successfully treated iu the same way, i. e. 
housed or stacked in a wilted and half green 
state, one of the essentials to success being 
that every particle of outside moisture must 
be dried out; else there will be mold when 
there is a trifle of moisture, and rot when 
there is a little more. 
But there is another essential in these pro¬ 
cesses, aud it is to make this known that these 
paragraphs have mainly been written. To 
illustrate: It is found by experience that all 
do not succeed alike iu curing hay and clover, 
even when tbo best processes are most con¬ 
scientiously followed. Thus, Farmer A. may 
cure his clover aud Timothy and succeed per¬ 
fectly ; while bis neighbor, Farmer B., working 
just as conscientiously, meets with a failure. 
Why? The secret seems to lie iu this, that in 
the one case the herbage was iu a right state 
and in the ot her was not, and that iu order to be 
able to stack green or wilted clover and 
Timothy, and have both keep well in the staok 
or housed, both must have attained a certain 
measure of growth aud development. Clover 
must be past full bloom, and Timothy be be¬ 
yond the second. Thus the secrets of failure 
with the new processes of curing clover and 
huy are found to be, first, every particle of 
moisture must be dried off; and, second, 
the plants must have reached the stage 
of full growth. It is easy to understand, of 
course, how the new processes are more likely 
to succeed in bot ami dry summers than In 
wet or cool and moist ones; and how much bet¬ 
ter the new methods are calculated for warm 
and dry climates than for cool ones. Still, if 
ail vantage is taken of the weather, and the 
work is done in clear, bright, dry days, it can 
be successfully accomplished as far north as 
the crops arc important ones. 
I remember the valuable Hay Harvest Num¬ 
ber issued by the Rural a year or two ago. 
In it I think the now departure was more than 
once recommended; but I do not recall a dis¬ 
tinct caution that the herbage to insure suc¬ 
cess must iiave attained a mature stage. 
Champaign Co., Ill. 
NOTES ON ALFALFA. 
This is the fourth year in which I have cul¬ 
tivated Alfalfa, and confirms my faith in it 
as a forage crop in this part of New Jersey. 
1 prefer sowiug iu the spring as soon as the 
ground is dry enough to work so it will pul¬ 
verize and remain light. It will be all the 
better for u good dressing of barn yard manure 
and subsoiling after potatoes or some other 
hood crop. When the ground hot been thor¬ 
oughly pulverized with smoothing harrow or 
roller—or both—I sow 25 pounds of seed 
broadcast, and roll* or harrow with a 
smoothing harrow, or both if the soil is 
dry. On my soil potash seems u specific, 
so I apply about 200 pounds of muriate and os 
much acid phosphate on the surface after 
plowing. With this treatment I cut two light 
crops the first season. When established, it is 
in bloom—the proper time to cut—fully two 
weeks before clover, and if cut and cured in 
the same way, it makes an excellent hay, but 
its early maturity makes it a very desirable 
soiling crop, filling tliegap between green rye 
and clover; the second crop will supplement 
oats with vetches and make out until early 
corn, and the third cutting makes the best 
kind of hay for wintering calves. 
My soil is a fair loam overlying a stiff, grav¬ 
elly subsoil. I think Alfalfa will do well in 
any good soil, where water does not lie on or 
near the surface. It will do well on the red 
shale of the valley of the Raritan if only made 
deep enough. From my experience in feed¬ 
ing, and the results of tests aud analyses of a 
sample of my Alfalfa last season, no farmer 
can afford to sell it off his farm us hay. As 
indicating its growth in comparison with that 
of clover, I cut to-day—May 30—a good fair 
stalk measuring 38!^ inches, with branches 
measuring, in the aggregate, over three feet, 
while the longest clover I could llud iu an ad¬ 
joining field measured 21 ’ { inches. 
Middlesex Co., N. J. o. w. Thompson. 
R. N.-Y.—In the last report of the New Jer¬ 
sey Agricultural Experiment Station, Prof. 
G. H. Cook devotes some space to analysis 
of Alfalfa taken from Mr. Thompson’s 
farm. It was compared with clover, an equal 
area of each being carefully measured. Three 
cuttings of AltaiPu yielded 18,2 tons, and two 
cuttings of clover yielded 15 tons per acre of 
green fodder, which was wedghed before any 
loss of moisture had occurred. 
The average analysis uf the two fodders 
showed the following result: 
rumens run hundred ok 
Crude Carbo- 
Crude Crude Pro- hy- 
Water. Fat. Fiber. Ash. teln. drates 
Alfalfa. 74.41 0.65 8.31 1.89 4.59 10 25 
Clover.. 71.19 0.31 8.52 2.43 4.15 12.90 
The total amount of these foods from au 
acre is given iu the following table: 
Pro- Carbo- 
Fat. Fiber. Ash. Win. hydrates. 
Alfalfa., 190.8 2850.6 681.6 163 1 6 3523.2 
Clover... 232.2 2514. 6>W 1191.6 3738.0 
As to the best time for cutting Alfalfa, at¬ 
tention is directed to the statement of Dr. 
Wagner, a Oertnau investigator. He con¬ 
cludes tliat, Alfalfa, like clover, should bo cut 
immediately after the blosoms have appeared. 
HUNGARIAN GRASS. 
An experiment with this grass was tried at 
the New Jersey Experiment Station. Mr. 
Vermeule, a farmer living near the Station, 
having had some experience with the grass, 
substituted it for oats on seven acres of his 
farm. A crop cut from this, August 2, was 
analyzed by the Station chemist. A sample of 
mixed clover and Timothy hay was taken 
from the experimental plot on the college 
farm at New Brunswick, to bo used in com¬ 
parison with the Hungarian Grass. The ob¬ 
ject of this comparison was to learn the rela¬ 
tive amounts of animal food produced by each 
crop aud the amounts of plant food extracted 
by each crop. It was estimated that 3.6 tons 
of mixed hay and 2.6 tons of millut were pro¬ 
duced per acre. The following table gives the 
weights of the various elements produced from 
au acre of each: 
Pro- Carbo- 
Fat, Fiber. Ash. teln. hydrates 
Hay from Hungar¬ 
ian Grass. 95.2 1573.0 348.4 821.9 2492.4 
Mixed Clover aud 
Timothy Hay... 138.2 2084.4 343.4 337.7 8828.2 
The Station concludes from this experiment 
that the mixed clover and Timothy is the more 
profitable crop, nungariuu Grass must bo re¬ 
garded as a supplementary plant which may 
be sown after it is evident that a poor catch or 
severe winter lias made an average hay yield im¬ 
possible. As to the exhaustive powers of these 
plants,the Station reports that a crop of mixed 
clover and Timothy takes from au acre of 
ground more nitrogen, more phosphoric acid 
and more potash by 50 percent, than a crop of 
millet. A crop o( clover extracts four times 
as much nitrogen and potash aud twice as 
much phosphoric ackl fromou aereasacropof 
millet. Luceru, iu some respects, uses even 
more plant food than clover. It is known,how¬ 
ever, that clover aud Luceru are deep feeders, 
while Timothy roots have been found two or 
three feet below the surface. Millet, on the 
other hand, is said to feed entirely iu the first 
three or four inches of soil. Thus W0 see why 
it is that millet is called a very exhaustive 
crop. 
farm Cjctraatmj. 
WIND-POWER ENGINES—A GOOD 
WATER SUPPLY. 
1 use for the house well water from a driven 
well—driven in May 1862—the first. I ever saw. 
Wo drove 25 foot, struck a fine gravel aud 
sand, and have an abundant, supply of pure 
water at all times, 250 feet from barn, sinks 
or cesspools. The water is pumped by hand. 
For the barns, wash-houses, etc., I use lake 
water pumped by a 12-foot windmill. My 
