398 
JUNE 16 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
We give full and complete instructions for 
setting up and operating our machines ; if 
they are carefully followed there is no reason 
why the machines will not work and last a 
great deal longer than they do at present. 
There is no doubt but what farmers could 
save much time and annoyance to themselves 
by taking more pains and studying the crude 
art of putting together machinery used by 
them. As a rule we find that a very large 
proportion of the farmers are not capable of 
putting machines together without assistance; 
although each step in the process is detailed 
in our instruction book. We have no doubt 
that a large amount of breakages of parts is 
caused by improperly putting together. We 
believe that the average farmer could, if he 
would give attention to instructions, avoid a 
great deal of trouble and expense. Another 
suggestion to the farmer, though not directly 
in this line, is to buy his machinery nearer to 
manufacturers’prices. This can be done only 
by paying on short time or buying for cash. 
The Eastern farmers are more apt to do this 
than those in the new country in the West, 
where one, two and three years’ payments are 
asked for, making it impossible to sell to them 
excepting at a large profit. 
♦ ♦ ♦- 
MR. TERRY TALKS. 
Why farmers pay less attention to their gar¬ 
dens than to their fields ; cultivating both 
together ; easier to hoe weeds three times 
than once\ hard work killing well-rooted 
weeds ; surprise at Mr. Minch's theory of 
potato cultivation; a convenient the¬ 
ory for some Ohio farmers. 
Will any one deny that farmers, as a class^ 
neglect their gardens more, yes, very much 
more, than they do their fields? Probably not. 
Nor is it strange that they do this. They 
usually have many irons in the fire, and th e 
larger jobs naturally get the first attention 
The result is that when they get around to 
the garden it is too late to do the work to the 
best advantage. When the writer came on to 
his farm, 20 years ago, he found a half-acre 
garden spot fenced off with a picket fence. 
He managed this for some years in the ne¬ 
glectful way mentioned above, then turned it 
into the field, and all the garden we have had 
since has been in the field of clover sod that 
was broken up that spring for potatoes. The 
rows are made to correspond with the potato 
rows, so all has to be cultivated and cared for 
at the same time. This has solved the garden 
problem for us. Come what will, we do tend 
to our potatoes, and we have to care for the 
garden at the same time. 
Last year we set out a piece of strawberries i 
about three rods by 14, right in the potato 
field, in the same way. Every time the pota¬ 
toes were cultivated the strawberries had the 
same attention. But, thanks to the harrow 
and the horse hoe, the potatoes needed no 
hand-hoeing, which the strawberries did. We 
must have hoed them carefully 12 or 15 times 
over, for we were bound to have them clean 
and have them do their best. I have read 
somewhere that it was easier to hoe the fruit 
garden three times than once. Now that is 
the point I wish to bring out strongly. Th e 
idea is that it is easier to move the surface a 
little and keep weeds back, say once a week, 
before they have come in sight at all, for three 
weeks, than to let the garden go three weeks 
and then hoe up and kill the well 
rooted weeds. So when I write of hoeing 
those strawberries a dozen or more times, 
readers should bear in mind that it was mostly 
fast work, in clean mellow soil, and no more 
time was spent in going over three or four times, 
perhaps, than some spend on one hoeing. And 
then there was a great deal more satisfaction. 
How I used to hate hoeing in father’s garden, 
35 years ago, when they hoed weeds instead of 
moving the soil, to prevent their everseeing 
day-light ! How I like to hoe now, just mel¬ 
lowing the surface of the soil, what little 
the cultivator leaves, and feeling all the time 
that I am saving all the plant food for the 
crop, and keeping the surface mellow to check 
evaporation and let in the air 1 It is business 
now, and I enjoy it. It was drudgery then, 
and I hated it. 
But I fail once in a while; so I know how it 
goes to hoe once instead of three times. Last 
summer we were very busy trying to get our 
new barn done in time to put in the hay. AVe did 
the cultivating all right ; but the hand-hoeing 
of that strawberry patch had to wait. AVe 
are much troubled with purslane. AVhile we 
rested the hoe, this got well started, and 
didn’t we have a time of it afterwards! AVe 
ended it ; but a light stirring of the surface 
in time would have ended it before it came 
up, with far less labor. 
Such experiences have made me more than 
ever determined to keep the upper hand of the 
weeds this year—in short to “hoe three 
times instead of once.” And then I fully be¬ 
lieve that the extra tillage will be more than 
paid for by the increased crop ; so really the 
weed killing will cost nothing. AVe have 100 
rods of strawberries, grapes, raspberries, 
blackberries and currants set out this spring. 
Just as soon as it is dry enough to go on to the 
land without injury, after each shower or 
rainy spell this will be cultivated and hoed, 
once a week any way, if it does not rain. 
I was greatly surprised at what Mr. Elj 
Minch said in these columns a few weeks since 
in regard to cultivating. In substance it was 
that he cultivated his potatoes as much as he 
could before they were up and as little as he 
could afterwards. Much cultivation was an in¬ 
jury to the crop. AVith his tremendous ma¬ 
nuring he may raise large crops without con¬ 
stant cultivation; but I believe he can raise 
them cheaper with less manure and more til¬ 
lage, and that shallow and proper cultivation, 
at the right time, can do only good and never 
any harm. The doctrine of little cultivation 
of potatoes would suit many farmers in Ohio 
—those who, owing to the drought, had to 
buy their potatoes last year, or those who cul¬ 
tivated thoroughly and often, but on no better 
land. [The R. N-Y. was also surprised at Mr. 
Minch’s statement. Eds.] As a rule, farmers 
are ready enough to buy strawberry and 
other plants for the fruit garden; but some 
way they seem to expect them to take care of 
themselves almost after they are once set out. 
Now, taken in time, as I have explained above, 
it is not much work to take good care of all, 
and there is a lot of good eating to be got from 
a quarter of an acre, and eating that most 
farmers would never have unless they pro¬ 
duced it themselves. Any reader who will go 
at it, systematically, to take good care of his 
fruit garden, will soon agree with me. Make 
it long and narrow, if convenient, and have 
rows wide enough to use a horse easily, 
with good head-lands to turn around on. A lit¬ 
tle land is not so much an object to the farmer 
as convenience in tending. AVhen I ride by a 
little neglected patch of small fruits and 
weeds, and see fine fields of corn and oats and 
clover on the same farm, I cannot help but 
feel pity for the man who doesn’t try as hard 
to grow as fine eating crops for himself and 
family as he does for his stock. Do you say 
he buys his small fruits—it is cheaper than to 
fuss with them? Ah! no he doesn’t, at least 
not freely, once in a hundred times. That lit¬ 
tle neglected patch serves as an excuse for not 
buying, and essentially for going without. 
Now isn”t this so, friends? 
Summit Co., Ohio. 
HARDINESS OF THE YELLOAV WOOD. 
A NOTE FROM PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
Prof. Sargent’s words of praise of the 
Yellow-AVood (Cladrastis tinctoria) quoted iu 
the R. N.-Y., are suggestive, as this Southern 
tree—so restricted in its native range—is also 
hardy in Central Iowa, where even the Ten¬ 
nessee form of the Red Cedar winter-kills. 
The species from the Amour River in Asia 
(Cladrastis Amurensis) is also hardy and beau¬ 
tiful on our grounds, and I believe it will 
thrive in Minnesota and North Dakota. 
Ames, Iowa. 
ftuual topics. 
ROAD IMPLEMENTS. 
the square flat sections of track drop down in 
front and are drawn up behind. English ex- 
Fig. 206. 
perimenters claim good results for this de¬ 
vice, but our contemporary, the Farm Imple¬ 
ment News, thinks it appears somewhat like a 
man lifting himself by his boot straps. 
PORTABLE FENCE. 
I USE something in the line of a portable 
fence that is not patented, which 1 show at 
Fig. 208. The post consists of four pieces a. 
b. b. c: a. is made of inch board about five 
feet long and eight inches wide, and there 
is some saving of lumber if it is cut in the shape 
shown b. b. It should be made of two-inch 
plank and by ripping may be made from a 
piece eight inches wide and as long as the 
hight of fence desired; c is four inches wide 
Fig. 207. 
The machine shown at Fig. 205 was seen 
in use by a correspondent of the Farm Imple¬ 
ment News. AVe think the drawing is clear 
and its use is readily seen. The pannels should 
be made of good fencing boards and of con. 
venient length, say 12 feet to 16 feet, and they 
Fig. 205. 
enough to show how the machine is made. It 
is put on an ordinary wagon frame. It is all 
of wood but the scraper, which is made of 
iron. Any blacksmith should be able to make 
one. We are assured that the road made 
with this machine is wide and well rounded 
up. Here is a chance to show the neighbors 
at a small cost what a first-class road machine 
will do. 
Fig. 206 shows a curious machine invented 
by a native of Buenos Ayres. The roads were 
so bad that he had trouble in getting his pro¬ 
ducts to market—so this “endless railway” 
was invented. The picture explains the prin¬ 
ciple of the device. As the wheel turns about, I 
should be put together with the strips e. e 
four inches wide, and the middle one inclined 
as shown to prevent endward movement. 
The upper board should have a notch on the 
under side at the ends so as to fit on the cleat 
near the top of the post. 
One end of the board, a, may be longer than 
the other, and the long and short ends should 
alternate or may be fastened to small 
stakes driven into the ground, if much ex¬ 
posed to heavy winds. 
I have used this fence for several years and 
find it very convenient, especially in winter. 
Manson, Iowa. J. f e. 
A SUGGESTION IN ROAD-MAKING. 
I have something new to me in road-making, 
which I think good. At the breaking up or 
thawing out of roads in the spring while it 
has thawed in the road only a few inches deep 
and the footing is good and the mud sloshy 
and soft, I would take a road machine and 
make a ditch, shoving what I can to the 
center, pressing the water to the surface, let¬ 
ting it pass into the ditch and run off. Go 
over exactly the same track the next day, open¬ 
ing the ditch again, letting more water off. 
Repeat the operation the third day and it will 
begin to form a crust. AVhen this begins to 
form, next time going over, take, say, one foot 
beyond and next to the ditch where the dirt 
will be drier and put that on top of the track; 
in that way you cau have a dry track and good 
road even before the frost is out of the ground, 
and a team will go over 10 miles in one day, 
and repeat until it is dry and smooth; then if 
it rains the water will pass right off and the 
road will be good in a few hours. Keep it 
smoothed up and the travel will pack it while 
drying harder than any other way. The 
travel is directed right to the center and each 
side of the track will work easier when you 
get ready to do general work thau if traveled 
over promiscuously, and work will cost less 
labor in that way than if one waits till the 
road is in good order to work. Besides, there 
will be more comfort for man and beast for 
less money than if one waits. c. P. H. 
Pittsfield, Ill. 
NOTES ON TREES AND SHRUBS. 
WILLIAM FALCONER. 
A backward spring; magnolias , rhododen¬ 
drons and azaleas; wistarias, the weeping 
dogwood , honeysuckles, sycamores, horse- 
chestnuts ,, lindens, ashes, Daphne cneorum, 
Spircea grandiflora; the Beach plum, 
Stuartia Japonica; the American and 
Japan Red-buds, Caraganas, the Asiatic 
Shad-bxish, etc. 
(May 26.) 
So far the weather has been cold and wet, 
and trees and shrubs are looking exception, 
ally clean and fresh, but their blooming time 
is some seven to ten days later than it usually 
is at this time of the year. 
Magnolia Umbrella is opening its large 
white flowers. 
The first flowers (greenish-yellow) of Mag¬ 
nolia cordata are opening. 
Nothing in our garden surpasses Azalea 
amoena for brightness and profusion of blos¬ 
soms. 
Besides the first crop of flower buds (now 
within a week of opening) of Magnolia parvi- 
flora, a second crop is appearing, which 
will be 10 to 15 days, I should think, later in 
opening than the first lot. 
Chinese wistarias are at their best. Jap¬ 
anese and American species are not in bloom 
yet. 
Flowering Dogwood is at its best. Either 
wild or cultivated plants are not as full as 
they were last year. The Red-flowering Dog¬ 
wood is a splendid acquisition and as free- 
blooming as the white. The Weeping Dogwood 
is the freest blooming of all. 
A few Ghent azaleas are iu full bloom; the 
majority have not yet opened. 
Azalea mollis in variety is gorgeous. I 
wish it were hardier. 
Azalea nudiflora, wild and cultivated, is 
in good bloom. Many Ghent varieties are 
grafted on'it, but wherever the stock throws 
up suckers I let them alone, for the stock is 
oftentimes prettier than the cion. 
Azalea Indica alba is hardy enough, but 
I never admired it much as an outdoor plant. 
After its flush of flowers in June, it blooms 
more or less during the summer, but the 
blossoms are tattered by insects. 
The flowers of the Tartarian bush-honey¬ 
suckles, are just beginning to open. Among 
them are pure white, rose, and various shades 
of purple. Lonicera Morrowii is not only a 
handsome free-flowering shrub, but iu their 
season its berries are more showy than its 
flowers are now. 
A few of the evergreen rhododendrons are 
in bloom, but the mass will not be in their 
heyday for two weeks yet. The seedlings are 
the most vigorous plants. 
Abalta Maximowizii, a distinct and hand¬ 
some species recently introduced from Japan, 
is of sturdy habit and seems to be perfectly 
hardy. 
J [Hydrangea scandens, although quite 
small last year, survived the winter very 
well, and is now making an extraordinary 
spurt at growth. 
Lonicera ccerulea, one of the bush- 
honeysuckles and rather an uncommon shrub, 
