70 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
TE8 2 
want them, and, in fact, they are able to do it 
as well where we do want them; conse¬ 
quently we are gradually cutting loose from 
the foster crops, and are sowing clover and 
grass just as we sow any other crops, giving 
hem all the ground, and all the light and air. 
sowed a few acres of clover and Timothy, 
ast spring, alone. The land was thoroughly 
well plowed and worked with the Acme pul¬ 
verizer. The grass and clover—a peck of each 
per acre—were sown, ana a light, sloping- 
tooth harrow was run over the surface. It 
was a pleasing sight to see the young grass, 
ike hair, coming through the surface in two 
weeks after sowing, and the round clover 
leaves interspersed among the tiny spires of 
the grass. Notning interfered with that 
grass and it came on quickly, covering the 
ground by the end of May, (it was sown in 
April), and in August it was a dense mat. In 
September I turned a lot of calves on to it 
and they fed it down, and now it does not 
differ at all in appearance from an adjoining 
part of the field seeded the year before with 
oats. 
But oats ! A few years ago the man who 
sowed grass seed with oats would risk being 
thought imbecile at least, perhaps crazy. 
Fall grain was thought the only crop to seed 
grass with, and clover was sown on the snow, 
or on the frozen ground, or on the hard, beaten 
surface, haphazard, in the spring, to do or 
die. Usually it did die. Then the poor catch 
was complained of and seedings that had 
failed made poor meadows and scanty hay. 
The thing cured itself. Grass would no longer 
grow in the old way, and fresh land must be 
provided, and oats necessarily usurped the 
place of the fall grain. 1 say usurped, be¬ 
cause the crop is a usurper, needless and in¬ 
jurious, because it robs the grass and clover 
of the food they need and must have or per¬ 
ish. But grass and clover are sown witn oats, 
and the practice is becoming popular and 
general. Just as a boy on a log fears to get 
out of reach of the shore of the pond, and 
keeps within knee depth of water, so we 
farmers hang on to the spring grain seeding, 
and cannot break loose because the young 
grass is so tender, we think. It is tender, 
doubtless, but it is too tender to be burdened 
with a hungry crop to starve and shade it 
from the air and sun. If one cannot bring 
himself to this belief, he must choose the oat 
crop as the foster, and if he does well with 
the land, giving it manure liberally, the oats 
will pay for it, and the grass will repay for 
it, and fit the soil well; tte grass and clover 
will make out to stand the strain and show a 
fine aftermath on the stubble, and give a good 
account of themselves the next year. I have 
about 30 acres thus seeded with oats, not that 
1 thought the oats helped the grass, but that 
the land was good enough for both—as it was 
—and I wanted the oats anyhow. But for 
several years past I have lost every clover 
seeding made in fall crops, and I have had 
but poor Timothy and other grass from fall 
sowing. If one will study the drift of experi¬ 
ence now given in the agricultural journals, 
he will find that the old method is fast being 
abandoned and that spring sowing is becom¬ 
ing popular and successful. Thus we change 
and advance, but unless one reads of what is 
going on, he gets left behind. 
Inimsi’l Bocutus. 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
THE ALBANY FARMERS’ INSTITUTE. 
New York crops good last year witn several 
exceptions ; farmers' institutes becoming 
more popular ; Treasurer's report ; officers 
elected ; "Secretary Woodward at work 
again. 
The annual meeting of the New York State 
Agricultural Society was held in the society’s 
hall in Albany, at noon, on January 16. The 
attendance of members was larger than at 
any previous meeting, save one, since the or¬ 
ganization of the society. The report ot the 
executive committee upon the condition of 
agriculture in the State and the affairs of the 
society, said that the cereal crops of last year 
compare favorably with the records of the 
previous year except in the case of wheat. 
As to that, although the seeding remained 
fairly well protected by the snow of last win¬ 
ter, owing to the dry autumn of 1887 the seed 
did not germinate well, which, added to the 
effects of the dry, cold weather of April, ac¬ 
counts for a lighter yield per acre and a poorer 
quality of wheat in 1888 than in either of the 
two preceding years. 
Rye and oats, on the contrary, yielded much 
more per acre, and while the former was 
about the same in quality, the latter was 
much better than in 1887. Barley held the 
place it occupied the year before, and gave a 
slight increase in returns per acre, though it 
was not equal either in quality or yield to the 
crop of 1886. Corn planting was delayed by 
continued cold weather, and the severe early 
September frosts practically ruined a large 
portion in various parts of the State. As a 
result, the crop runs far below that of 1887 
both in quality and yield per acre, and conse¬ 
quently many farmers have been led to try 
silage. The hay crop was better in quality, 
though not quite as high in yield per acre as 
in the previous year. The September frosts, 
which decreased the yield of corn, also affect¬ 
ed that of tobacco, and were disastrous to 
buckwheat. The same may be said of broom- 
corn and sorghum. Owing to a late, cold 
season and dry weather in midsummer, hops 
were reported only about one-half the usual 
crop. Continued autumn rains gave us good 
late pasturage. Of fruit it may be said that 
while there were fewer pears, there were 
many more apples and a much better yield of 
grapes than in 1887. Last season was favor¬ 
able for live stock and the losses were less 
than usual. The demand for a better class of 
horses is being promptly met by a judicious 
selection and improvement in the breeding 
stock. The same may be said of dairy cattle 
and, in fact, of all kinds of farm stock. The 
improvement in the quality of dairy products 
in this State is very noticeable. 
The farmers’ institutes show much improve¬ 
ment in the second year. So hearty and 
cordial has been the reception of these insti- 
stutes, that where at first the people welcomed 
them, they now demand them. Thirty-seven 
have been held since the last annual meeting. 
The society is satisfied that the agitation, 
discussion, and diffusion of useful knowledge! 
afforded by the institutes must inevitably re¬ 
sult in better farms, better houses, better 
cattle, better horses and greater happiness. 
Hon. Adin Thayer, Treasurer, read his re¬ 
port for 1888 as follows: 
RECEIPTS. 
Cash on hand January, 1888 . §4,870.63 
Ticket sales at the Elmira State Fail - , 15,258 25 
From the State. 8,000.00 
Other sources. 9,801.93 
Total.. §37,930.81 
DISBURSEMENTS. 
Premiums. §11,009 ie 
Fair expenses. 11,345 83 
Salaries. 5,086.70 
Institutes. 4,981.46 
Sundries. 2^322.42 
Cash on hand. 3,185.24 
Total. $37,930.81 
The committee of 24,—three from each 
judicial district—to nominate officers, pre¬ 
sented by its chairman, Gen. N. M. Curtis, 
the following unanimous report. 
President, James Wood, Westchester; Vice- 
presidents, J. Pierrepont Morgan, Jos. H. 
Storm, F. D. Curtis, C. D. Smead, Jared 
Van Wagener, M. C. Remington and Col. H. 
Bowen; Corresponding §ec’y., J. S. Wood¬ 
ward; Recording 'Secretary, Seth Fenner; 
Treas. Adin Thayer; Executive Committee 
David Cossitt, J. F. Converse, F. C. Stevens, 
A. C. Chase, W. R. Richardson, F. O. 
Chamberlain, F. B. Redfield, James Hilton; 
Consulting Veterinary Surgeon, James Law; 
Consulting Entomologist, J. A. Lintner, all of 
whom were unanimously elected. Secretary 
Woodward, whose illness had prevented his 
attention to business for several weeks, was 
present and seemed to have regained his 
usual excellent health. At a meeting of the 
executive committee, it was determined that 
the annual exhibition should be held on Sep¬ 
tember 12—19, the place to be either Albany, 
Poughkeepsie or Rochester. 
(To be continued.) 
ABOUT CAPONS. 
Do THEY PAY ? Well, I will tell you what 
I did as an experiment last year : In August, 
I bought 28 cockerels, that the party I pur¬ 
chased of said were hatched the last of May, 
so they were what I called late chickens. 
Their average weight, when I bought them, 
was about 2)4 pounds. They were a mixed 
lot, the Plymouth Rock blood showing in 
them more strongly than any otner, yet there 
was considerable Leghorn blood there, too. 
They were, however, regular mongrels, and 
what I called a “hard lot.” I gave the 
farmer 25 cents each for them, and immedi¬ 
ately gave them a pen by themselves, until I 
could free them of lice, which I very soon did 
with cynolina. The following week, after 
getting them in proper condition, I caponized 
the whole lot, not with the idea of making 
large capons of them, but to ascertain just 
how much profit could be made on such a lot. 
After 'they had been caponized, I simply 
treated them as I did all my growing chicks, 
giving them the same amount of feed and no 
more. As usual, they immediately began to 
grow very rapidly and seemed well contented 
in their new life. I was unfortunate enough 
to lose three by a door blowing against them. 
When the time arrived for shutting the fowls 
in for winter, I had 25 promising capons in 
this lot. In my regular lot I had over 200, 
but I called this my experimental lot. 
To these 25 1 gave a pen by themselves and 
simply fed them on corn, bone and water. 
There was no bother with nests, cooked feed, 
etc., with which hens must be furnished. It 
did not take me five minutes a day to attend 
to them. In January a party in Boston 
wrote to me for some capons. I concluded to 
kill this lot and send them to him. Although 
they were not fully grown, yet they were 
very plump and fat. I dressed the 25 and 
they weighed, when ready to ship, a little 
over 200 pounds, or an average of eight 
pounds each. I sold them for 28 cents a pound 
It cost me just 50 cents to keep each bird, 
from the time I bought him to the date of his 
death, making a total cost of 75 cents for 
each bird. The manure would well pay me 
for my time in caring for them. Eight times 
28 are $2.24, less 75 cents, which leaves $1.49, 
net profit on each bird. 
Now, what I did any man of intelligence 
and good common sense could do. Of course, 
the price I received was extra high, as the 
party wanted them right off. But I could 
have received in the open market that day 25 
cents a pound. which would have left me a 
profit of a dollar a head. In my opinion the 
profit in raising capons is much larger than 
that in keeping hens, with less than half the 
trouble. With proper instruments one can 
perform the operation of caponizing with 
perfect success. george q. dow. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Canada. 
Ottawa, Ont., January 10.—We are having 
the most extraordinary winter experienced 
here in 40]years. The Ottawa River is open 
opposite the city, where in ordinary seasons 
it would take a man a day at this time of the 
year with axe and shovel to cut a hole 
through the ice to get down to the water. 
Members of the canoe club went out for a 
spin the other day, to record the fact that 
such an unheard-of event occurred here on 
January 8. Snow has just commenced to 
fall, and it looks as if winter was now to set 
in in earnest. a. h. 
New Westminster, B. Columbia, Janu¬ 
ary 9.—The year has been a ve»y kind 
one to us here on the Pacific coast. We have 
had a bountiful harvest of almost everything 
raised; we have got good prices for pro¬ 
duce, compared with those obtained in the 
Western States. Timothy hay fetches from 
$12 to $18 a ton; wheat is worth from $30 to 
$40 a ton; oats $27 a ton; butter 30 cents a 
pound; cheese 20; eggs—fresh—50 cents a 
dozen; apples $1 per box of 50 pounds, and so 
on. r. s. 
Delaware. 
Dover, Kent Co., January 7.—So far this has 
been one of the finest winters on record. We 
have had but one fall of snow, just enough to 
whiten the ground, and for the greater part of 
the time the weather has been just cool enough 
for work and we have had plenty of sunshine. 
There has been no stoppage in farm work. 
Farmers have improved the fine weather by 
hauling manure, cutting wood, pruning trees 
and doing various other odd jobs, and if the 
winter continues open we wall be in good shape 
to start in the spring. Stock is doing fine¬ 
ly. Public sales are unusually numerous,and, 
in spite of the low price of corn, the prices ob¬ 
tained for stock and implements are all that 
could be expected. Good cows bring from 
$25 to $45; horses from $25 to $175. Hay and 
other feeds are scarce and in demand at good 
prices. Of pork and beef the supply is fully 
up to the demand; price $7 per cwt. Not 
much corn is being marketed,as the price is so 
low—about 85 cents per bushel. Wheat looks 
well for the.time of year, and as our crop is 
among the first to be marketed, farmers hope 
to realize a good price for this season’s crop. 
Borne fear that the open winter will cause 
peach buds to start so that if we have severe 
weather later the buds may be killed; but we 
hope not, for the peach crop is the crop we de¬ 
pend on for clear cash. The first of January 
is usually moving day here, and many farms 
change tenants,and nearly every farmer is call¬ 
ed on to help some one to move. Many times 
have I taken a team and carried a load for a 
neighbor 20 miles or more gratis. Quite a 
lot of building is going on and most of the 
mechanics are employed. Wheat is selling at 
$1.10; corn, 35 cents; oats, 30; butter, 255 
eggs, 20; chickens, 10 cents per pound; pota¬ 
toes, 40 to 50 cents per bushel; wood, $3.00 
per cord; coal, $5.75 to $6.25 per ton; hay $8 
to $15 per ton. a. g. s. 
Kansan. 
Parsons, Labette Co., January 11. —Our 
winter so far has been decidedly exceptional¬ 
ly mild. The temperature has not been lower 
than 14 degrees, and ice not more than three- 
quarters of an inch thick; still we have had 
hardly 24 hours through the winter without 
frost. December, January, and February, 
are our driest months, but this winter is ex¬ 
ceptional, and once or twice a month we have 
had two or three inches. Corn is being gath¬ 
ered promptly and shipped to the cotton 
States as fast as it is gathered. The fact that 
we adjoin the cotton States is of very great 
value to us, as we get St. Louis and Chicago 
prices, or very nearly, on track here. We 
also ship eggs, butter, hay, apples, etc., to the 
Northern States. It is reported that wheat is 
looking very well all through Kansas, and 
that the acreage is four times that of any pre¬ 
ceding season. The'Jce crop may reasonably 
be predicted as a failure, in spite of the un¬ 
certainty of weather predictions. J. B. 
Chanute, Wilson County, January 10.— 
Crops in this county the past season were 
good. W heat is good now; it is raised only 
on creek and river bottoms. Oats are rather 
light, the weather is too dry for them. Corn 
was mostly good, yet many fields were very 
poor, owing to drought. Flax was generally 
good. A tow mill has just been erected and 
is now running, buying up llax-straw, which is 
a great help to the farmers. After hauling 
the straw often many miles, they get $8 per 
ton for it. Potatoes were a poor crop. 
Farmers have to buy potatoes shipped in from 
Iowa. Fruit crops of all kinds were good. 
Millet hay was a very heavy crop; much is 
sown here for feed. Very little Timothy is 
grown here; but it is doing well where a good 
stand has been secured. We have had an open, 
or mild winter so far. We have had about 
six snow storms, commencing in November 
and lasting only for two or three days; some 
snow is on the ground now; but it will be 
gone soon; the weather does not remain cold 
longer than two or three days at a time. A 
great deal of plowing has been done; plows 
were running this week, but it is now too w r et. 
F. j. c. 
New York. 
Forestville, Chautauqua Co., January 
10 —The winter so far has been warm. It 
has rained for the past week almost constant¬ 
ly. If the spring should be cold and back¬ 
ward there will be lots of hungry stock, hay 
being scarce and high. A good many farmers 
will find it up-hill business to pull through. 
Many cattle are being sold at astonishingly 
low figures; some entire herds are going as 
low as $10 to $12 per head. Only a short 
time ago it was hard work to find a man that 
would plow a foot of ground in the fall; now 
it is safe to say that over two thirds of the 
plowing is done in the fall or during open 
spells in the winter. How this way of turn¬ 
ing up the soil to exposure will stand the test 
of frost, rain and sun remains to be seen. 
Potatoes are low—25 to 30 cents per bushel; 
eggs, 25 cents per dozen; butter is in good de¬ 
mand at 25 to 30 cents per pound. Almost all 
kinds of produce find a good market with us 
this season. c. H. f. 
Newark, Wayne Co., January 14.—We had 
a few days of sleighing before Christmas; 
since then there has been no snow, but a great 
amount of rain. A very small acreage of 
winter wheat was sown; it is looking well. 
What promised to be a very prosperous 
season for farmers, proved quite to the con¬ 
trary, owing to the decline in prices of potatoes, 
apples and onions at the time when it was 
possible for farmers to market them. There 
had been so much rain all through the fall, 
that cold weather came along before they were 
ready for it. The prices offered in the latter 
part of November were as follows: apples, 
$1 to $1.25; potatoes, 20 cents; onions, 20 to 30 
cents. There are at least 50,000 bushels of 
potatoes in the hands of farmers in Wayne 
County. A few' are being shipped, buyers 
paying 25 to 30 cents per bushel. The price of 
peppermint oil has declined from $2.75 to $2 15 
per pound. This is usual at this season, 
buyers knowing that a good part of the oil is 
held by small farmers, who usually sell it to 
pay taxes, so that they can purchase the oil at 
less than the real market value—another 
illustration of the ways used to defraud the 
producer of what honestly belongs to him. 
Market prices are as follows: Wheat $1; 
barley, 60 to 85 cents; oats, 34 cents; potatoes 
25 to 30 cents; butter and eggs 18 cents. 
w. H. K, 
