4888 
TMl RURAL NEW-YORKER 
37 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please see If It Is not answered In 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper. 
PREPARING LAND FOR AN ORCHARD. 
J. B. Me C., Mt. Morris, Pa.— I want to 
plant an acre of peach, apple and plum trees 
on a poor white-oak and chestnut, yellow 
sandy hill, the soil of which is underlaid with 
clay. It appears well adapted to fruit. Sta¬ 
ble manure is difficult to get. but Forest City 
superphosphate has given me a good catch of 
grass, and helped my crops generally. I wish 
to prepare the soil so as to produce good crops 
while it is growing richer. What kind of 
fertilizer should I use, and how much per 
acre, and what crops would be l'kely to give 
the best returns and benefit the fruit most ? 
Ans. —The best fertilizer for fruit trees is 
unquestionably a mixture of coarsely ground 
raw bone and unleached hard-wood ashes. 
For a first dressing, 1,000 pounds of the bone, 
and 50 bushels of the ashes (both well worked 
into the soil) would be none too much, espe¬ 
cially as the land is “poor.” It is not said 
whether the land is poor by nature, or by 
bad farming; but we infer the latter, as it it 
said to be “well adapted to fruit,” which 
naturally poor land is far from being. If the 
land is to be cropped while the trees are 
young, the croDS should be manured the same 
as though the trees were not there, and they 
should alwavs be hoed crops. Small grains are 
deatn to a young orchard. Low crops—oeans, 
roots, etc.,—are the best. VV bile the trees are 
small, strawberries, well manured, will do 
well among them. Currants, gooseberries, or 
black raspberries will succeed in and between 
the rows until the trees get well into bearing. 
Profit from tree fruits is quite as much de¬ 
pendent upon care and good culture as in the 
case of any other crop whatever. When it is 
proposed to crop between the rows for a num¬ 
ber of years, it is best to make the rows con¬ 
siderably wider apart than the trees in the 
rows. Then the cultivation can be continued 
for a considerably longer time. 
WHAT AILED THE STEER? 
M C. M., Blackstone, Mass .—When I went 
out to milk one night recently, [ found one of 
my three-year old steers lying down and sick. 
I couldn’t make him get up. The doctor came 
in about two hours and gave him some 
physic, and said the trouble was Impaction’of 
the rumen. He cut into the rumen and re¬ 
moved its contents; after which he inserted 
about two pounds of salts into it.and then sew¬ 
ed the opening up. The contents of the rumen 
seemed to be packed pretty hard, but were 
not dry. The steer died in about 30 hours, 
nothing more being done except to give him 
some oat-meal gruel. Was it impaction of 
the rumen, and was the treatment proper? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
You should have given a full history and 
the symptoms of the case, if you expect us to 
give a satisfactory opinion as to the disease 
and treatment. In the absence of any facts 
to the contrary, we suppose the steer was 
taken suddenly sick, with no apparent or 
known cause for the attack; that there had 
been no change in diet, and that the only 
marked symptoms were the lying down and 
refusal to rise when urged to do so. 
If these are the facts, the history and 
symptoms are not what we would expect in 
a case of impaction or over-loading of the 
rumen. We suspect the doctor failed to cor¬ 
rectly diagnose the disease, and consequently 
gave the wrong course of treatment. 
YELLOW OR JAUNDICED PORK. 
J. J. II., Pardoc, Pa .—The other day I 
butchered six hogs, each about one year old, 
which had all been fed together. They ran 
during summer in an apple orchard. Their 
food was principally milk during summer, 
finishing off with corn since the winter 
apples began to fail. When I dressed them, 
I fouud two of the largest and most healthy, 
looking somewhat peculiar. The entire car¬ 
casses were of a yellow or saffron color, the 
lard after being rendered, ?till retaiued the 
same color. The color of one pig was black; 
that of the other white. What was the cause, 
and is such pork fit for food? 
ANSWERED BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
The color of the flesh'was probably due to a 
re-absorption of bile into the system, followed 
by the staining of the tissues with the bile 
pigment. The causes that may produce this 
re absorption are so numerous and often so 
complicated, that it would be' impossible to 
say, without making a personal examination, 
what caused the trouble in the present cases. 
While I cannot advise any one to offer such 
meat in the market, because strictly speak¬ 
ing, it is not clean, healthy meat. I am of the 
opinion that it is suitable for food, and, ex¬ 
cept a prejudice against the unnatural color, 
I believe there is no SDecial reason why it 
should not be so used. It is certainly more 
wholesome than large quantities of meat that 
finds its way into the market. 
SWELLING ON A COW’S KNEE. 
M. O. G., Johnson's, N. 7 .—On the knee of 
my three-year old cow in milk, there is a 
lump as big as a fist, produced, 1 suDpose, by 
a bruise. It is SDongy anq soft. She is now 
in a box stall. I thought of putting a seton 
in the swelling; would it be safe ’to do so? 
What is the proper treatment? 
Ans —Try painting the swelling every 
three days with compound tincture of iodine 
until the skin is considerably blistered; then 
apply it less frequ«ntlv. Th« seton should not 
he inserted, because it is liable to increase, in¬ 
stead of removing, the trouble. And. in anv 
case an expensive swelling about a joint should 
not be opened except by a competent vet“ri- 
narv surgeon, as the join*, or a svnovial sac 
might be onened, and that would be very 
difficult to close and h°al. If the above treat¬ 
ment fails, call a veterinarian to examine the 
cow. 
GRAFTING APPLE TREES. 
J. C M ., (no address). —What'is the'proper 
time for grafting apples ? Where can I get a 
work on the subject ? 
Ans —1. We prefer to graft apple trees 
just before the buds break. They may be 
grafted earlier and later. The writer has 
succeeded in grafting apples even after the 
buds have pushed. But the cions'"must be 
dormant. We have thoroughly explained 
the process many times, and will probably go 
over it again before spring. Any of the porno- 
logical works explain grafting and budding, 
such os Thomas’s American Fruit Grower, 
and Barry’s Fruit Garden. 
Miscellaneous 
C. -V, R., Canton, Pa —What is the address 
of some manufacturer of No. 1 grain drills. 
Ans. —A. B. Farquhar, York, Pa.; P. P. 
Mast & Co,, Springfield, O.; Spangler M’f’g, 
Co., York, Pa. 
G. S., Westfield, N. Y .—Our canning 
factory wants me to raise a small, red, 
smooth tomato to put up as a fancy article. 
What kind would you suggest? 
Ans —King Humbert, Wonder of Italy, 
Nesbit's Victoria, or the Pear-shaped. They 
are all nearly alike. 
L. H. T., Elmira, N. Y .—The authorities 
at Washington will furnish you with a cir¬ 
cular entitled Instructions Relative to Entries 
Under Homestead. Pre-emption, and Timber 
Culture Laws, that will give you full infor¬ 
mation regarding “homesteading.” Address 
General Land Office, Department of The In¬ 
terior, Washington, D. C. 
L. D. A., Texas Valley, N. Y. —1. I sent the 
Rural some gooseberry plants two years 
ago; what about them? 2. How can I ex¬ 
terminate snails? 
Ans. —l. The plants did not live. 2. We 
do not kuow, but should try Buhach, salt and 
water, and the kerosene emulsion. Some of 
our readers may be able to answer the 
question definitely. 
J. C., Petaluma, Cal. —1. Under the head of 
catalogues, etc., is noticed an Introduction to 
Entomology, by Prof. Comstock: is this free, 
and are such things in general free, when the 
price is not mentioned? 2. Is it better to burn 
leaves, corn-stalks, potato vines, and all such 
rubbish as collects on the farm, or to put 
them in the compost heap? 3. Did the Rural 
print an article on the best disposition to be 
made of straw? If so, in which number? 
Ans. —1. The price of Prof. Comstock’s 
boob is 82. This price should have been given 
when the volume was noticed. The idea is 
that all pamphlets for which no prices are 
stated are supposed to be free, though it is 
always courtesy to inclose stamps when writ¬ 
ing for them. 2. That depends upon many 
conditions,like the cost of labor,the location of 
the rubbish.etc.,etc. On our new farm which 
is "sadly in ueed of manure, we have collect¬ 
ed large quantities of leaves, vines and stalks, 
which,"after.being used as^bedding, have been 
thrown into the manure heap and mixed with 
wood ashes. Other vines, brush, chips and 
rubbish were collected in beans on the ground 
designed for potatoes. In the spring, these 
heaps will be burned and the ashes will be 
scattered. 3. You will find the article you 
speak of on page 623 of the Rural for Sep¬ 
tember 24, 1887. 
DISCUSSION. 
MORE HEN TALK. 
O. H., Greely. Colorado —On page 709 of 
last year’s Rural, “ Jerseyman ” had a sav¬ 
age article about “city farmers.” Among 
other things he laughed at the idea of making 
a fortune out of hens. I have said many times 
that I believed I could support a very large 
family from fowls alone. This was several 
years ago before the recent low prices for 
chickens and eggs. At this writing, eggs sell 
readily here at 30 cents per dozen, and in 
September spring-chickens were selling slowly 
at 25 cents and 30 cents each. The Kansas 
and Nebraska people send fowls into Denver 
so that they sell'at very low rates—so low. in 
fact, that we could not raise them at much of 
a profit with corn at 66 cents and wheat at 
$1. per bushel. Of late vears, I have seen bar¬ 
rels of Nebraska dressed fowls selling at from 
sixto nine cents per pound. We sometimes s°e 
flat cars on the Union'Pacifie piled high with 
coops of fowls—probably thousands of them— 
going through from Nebraska to the Pacific 
coast. Last spring, eggs drooped once to 10 
cents per aozen and sold for weeks at 15 cents, 
so I am not so sure of the profits of the hen 
business as T was when prices were far better. 
I often wonder bow it was that I sold, when a 
boy, three and four-pound soring chickens at 
the Fourth of .Tulv. for the Boston market, for 
from 82 50*to 83 50 per pair ,"and cannot be¬ 
gin to do it in Denver. 
I know one thing—we boys used to make a 
good deal of monev from our fowls, and we 
knew how to manage them. I am verv 
positive, and we had no glass houses and bad 
never heard of anything like an incubator 
except the following, which we read in Lip- 
pincott’s Gazetteer, in an article on Egvpt; 
“Of all the trades pursued in this country, the 
most remarkable is the hatching of eggs bv 
the artificial heat of ovens—a peculiaritv of 
Egvot handed down from ancient ti "es. The 
poultry reared in this wav are wholly'with¬ 
out the instincts which relate to the care jf 
offspring; the artificial method of hatching, 
therefore, when once resorted to, soon be¬ 
comes necessary, and ’the natural system of 
incubation is totally superseded.” 
Now, if I were to make a poultry test, very 
much as the Rural made a potato one, with 
the intention of seeing how much money I 
could make from the smallest capital. I would 
act as follows here in this dry climate of 
Colorado. I take the hint from the poor 
Mexican women of New Mexico, who, trav¬ 
elers assure me, raise quantities of eggs and 
fowls on a small investment. 
If the problem was to see how one could 
make the most clear money from fowls, in one 
or two years, considering the investment of 
money and labor, I would contrive pits in the 
earth at regular intervals, on a four-acre lot. 
Each pit should be about three feet deep, and 
sheltered by a sloping roof of some inex¬ 
pensive material, like a battened door, or 
poles, willows, grass, hay, straw or earth. 
The effort should be to construct a shelter, 
offering the following advantages in some of 
its various parts: warmth, dryness, cool¬ 
ness, light, darkness, seeludedness, and safety 
from nocturnal visitants. 
The hen entrance should be such that it 
could be instantly closed by the hen-farmer, 
to keep out unwelcome visitors; or to keep the 
fowls in at stated times. The perches should 
be so placed as best to insure the safety of the 
colony. The hens will lay in dry-earth n°sts 
very well. About 24 hens to the colony 
would be enough. One man would have to 
work hard to care for 1,000 or 2.000 fowls. 
That man should be the owner. If I wanted 
eggs mostly, I would have the White Leghorn, 
an easy keeper and a good layer. As for an 
egg-producing article of diet, I believe the 
world never yet saw the beat of sweet beef- 
bones chopped into pieces about the size of 
peas. A ration of this, with a variety of 
grains, crumbs, sour milk and water, and 
eggs will be plentiful. Bone crackers are 
offered for sale in many pla'-es. In this 
climate, hens very sensibly enjoy the coolness 
of a cellar in summer, where they will sing 
and coin money for a fellow, as Uncle Marcus 
used to say, “like all possessed.” I have tried 
it. 
CONSUMPTION OF HORSE FLESH. 
W. L. H., Brooklyn, N. Y.—The consump¬ 
tion of horse- flesh by people on the Continent 
of Europe, and especially in France, has long 
been [legalized under certain^ restrictions. 
What is disposed of in this way is sold for 
what it really is. or, at any rate, severe penal 
ties are provided for its^ c ale as anvthing else. 
In England, however, it appears that a good 
deal of it is sold as beef. I wonder whether 
American butchers are innocent of such prac¬ 
tices. At a recent meeting of the butchers of 
Manchester and Salford, (which are practi¬ 
cally a single city) it was stated that 100 shops 
in both places were regularlv engaged in the 
sale of horse-flesh, and that the “joints” were 
delivered in carts after dark. The slaughter¬ 
houses were watched, and some of them also 
protected by dogs in order to prevent casual 
inspection. Good horses could not be sold for 
eating purposes under from 25 to 60 cents per 
pound, whereas the average prices of horses 
for slaughtering ranged from 815 to $25. 
Municipal and government authorities were 
asked to regulate the traffic Experience 
among wild and civilized people amply proves 
that horse-flesh is a savory and wholesome 
article of diet. Its quality, of course, depends, 
to a great extent, on the age and condition 
of the animal, and as nobodv anvwhere raises 
horses for meat production, those only which, 
for some cause, are unfit for work are, as a 
rule, sold to meat consumers. It is, therefore, 
all the more necessary that, while traffic in 
horse-flesh should not be prohibited, it should 
be strictly regulated by law. both for sani¬ 
tary purposes, 'and to prevent imposition on 
the public. There is no doubt that prejudice 
alone forbids the use of this kmd of food. 
Would it not be well to take advantage of cir¬ 
cumstances to render it useful if not popular? 
For instance, the great obstacle to the main¬ 
tenance and efficiency of large armies in the 
field is the difficultv of providing a sufficiency 
of wholesome food just where it is wanted. 
Now. the horses of an armv are, as a rule.quite 
healtbv, though sometimes thev are rather 
thin. Their flesh would therefore be always 
wholesome, though sometimes not very juicy 
—but then it would, at the worst, be as palat¬ 
able as the hard tack or fat pork which the 
soldiersoften find so very appetizing. The fatal- 
itv among horses in an armv in the field is very 
heavy, even aoart from the deaths in battle. 
Why not utilize as human food the large sup- 
plyof meat thus furnished? Of course in cases 
of dis f ress. it is often utilized: but food thus 
forced on men is seldom used by any of them 
after the necessity for it is over. The meat is 
wholesome; a well disciplined armv is bound 
to accept the rations served out to It; why 
shouldn’t wholesome, handy horse-flesh form 
part of such rations? The men would thus 
become accustomed to the article, and would 
be likely to use it after they had been dis¬ 
charged, and others would soon follow their 
examples, especially as its wholesomeness 
would be assured by the government. For 
Americans there is one strong recom¬ 
mendation for this plan—it would have to be 
tried first on the monstrous armies of Europe; 
for while destructive war is not unlikely to 
begin any day on the other side of the 
Atlantic, on this side productive peace is 
certain to be of indefinite continuance. 
A DISPUTED POINT IN CORN CULTURE. 
S. W H., Metuchin, N. J —That cornfield ? 
What is the matter with it? The corn failed to 
ripen off, and the reason for this was, I think, 
because I did not go through it with a small 
plow and sever some of the roots. This ougnt 
to be done when it fi^t comes into silk; but 
heavy showers with high wind in July twisted 
the corn so that I could not follow the row. 
With this exception. I have not failed to do 
this for the last ten years. I use a No 18 one- 
horse plow with the handles narrowed up,so as 
to enable me to run close to the row. but not 
close enough to lift the hills. I find that 
corn ripens a week or ten days earlier if this 
operation has been performed. Still I would 
advocate comparatively level culture in the 
early part of the season Four years ago, I 
had a part of this same field in corn. In the 
latter part of June when the crop was about 
three feet high, we had so much rain that, 
owing to the softness of the ground, I could 
not work the field until the first of September. 
Even then, the horse got mired; but I got 
around the field in lands once while the corn 
was in the milk. Ten days later I went over 
it twice in the rows, leaving two aud four rows 
at intervals for experiment’s sake. Near the 
last of August a neighbor passed the field. 
“Well, I declare,” said he, “what cornstalks, 
but not an ear. You have a poor show there. 
Why,” said he, “my corn has roasting ears 
on it.” I could not get him to come and see 
the corn before I cut it up, which was the last 
of October. It turned out 110 bushels of ears 
per acre, and had I gone over every row, the 
yield would have been greater. I have often 
seen a field of corn of very rank growth, 
with stalks almost ready to burst so full of 
sap were they, and leaves reaching away 
across their neighbors, as if crying out, “Give 
us more room,” and I wondered if it would 
ever be satisfied. Were the season long enough 
and it found material ,to feed upon, I believe 
