4889 
347 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
claiming that there are enough canned goods 
to last two years if another can were not put 
up in the United States. The Prohibition 
people have got a bill through the Legislature 
to subraitto the people, on June 18th, aconsti- 
tutional amendment prohibiting the manu¬ 
facture and sale of all liquors in the State. 
If it passes it will not pay to raise barley any 
more, and as cider is included, our market for 
apples will be spoilt. Wheat is worth only 95 
cents; corn37; potatoes $0.00; onions $0.00. 
One farmer who rents a small farm for $200 
cash, raised potatoes intending to pay his 
rent with the price. He has now 500 bushels on 
hand and cannot give them away. This out¬ 
look, while protected manufacturers, corpo¬ 
rations, trusts and monopolies are growing 
right off tho farmer, will eventually ruin this 
country. j. h. p. 
North East. 
Here we practice mixed farming. Wo get 
most of our money from milk, butter, fruit and 
stock. A good many of our farmers raise 
some wheat, rye, corn, and potatoes. Corn and 
potatoes are the most profitable. All our 
products are sold near home. We have good 
markets,especially with the coal regions. Grain 
is sold to the mills here at little higher prices 
than those ruling in New York. The prices 
for butter and dairy products have been bet¬ 
ter for the past few years and the prospects 
are good as long as we keep insisting on 
the passage of prohibitory laws. On most 
farms raising grain does not pay even for the 
labor. A few of us are getting extra prices 
for our butter. I have been getting from 85 
to 40 cents per pound for my butter all win¬ 
ter. The reason is that I keep good thorough¬ 
bred Holstein-Friesian cows, feed them well, 
make my butter right and know when and 
where and how to sell it. 
Our creameries are getting extra prices for 
their butter. They make a good article and 
sell direct to the merchants in the coal re¬ 
gions. A few of us are also getting extra 
prices for our fancy fruit, because we pick it 
carefully at the right season, sort it well, and 
sell it to the best customers. For the past 
three or four years our farmers have been or¬ 
ganizing and educating themselves, and hence 
farming has commenced to change. They 
are depending more on dairy products and 
fruit-growing and less on grain production. 
I would suggest that our farmers should go 
extensively into fruit growing,as our soil and 
climate are well adapted for the business, and 
we have the best home markets in the coun¬ 
try. We have a few small peach orchards 
that have paid well, and are looking fine. 
The fruit sold last year tor $1 50 per basket, 
and I know some Fallawater and Baldwin 
apple trees that have borne 20 bushels of good 
fruit for 10 successive years, and we generally 
get $1 per bushel for our best fruit in the 
wiutor. People should plant the kinds which 
they know will do well in their vicinity. 
Let them prune the trees properly and culti¬ 
vate the orchard well as long as the trees 
are young. Pruning and cultivating are 
much neglected here. The following is a 
good list for profit: apples—Baldwin, Falla¬ 
water Smith’s Cider and Smokehouse; pears 
—Bartlett, Clapp’s Favorite, Anjou and 
Sheldon; peaches—Mountain Rose, Craw¬ 
ford’s Early, Old Mixon free, Crawford’s Late 
and Smock; quince: the Orange. Small 
fruits, the good and well tested sorts ouly. 
Walnutport. w. m. b. 
FROM NEW YORK STATE. 
1. Potatoes, butter and eggs. 
2. To New York City commission dealers. 
3. Fair prices, potatoes averaging 50 cents 
per bushel. 
4. Yes. For eggs, by warranting them 
fresh White Leghorn. 
5. Yes. Yes. Low prices of wheat and 
pork, and advanced prices of butter,milk and 
cream. Butter brings from 30 to 40 cents per 
pound in summer after the city people come 
out iuto the country, Southampton being a 
summer resort. f. d. 
Southampton. 
1. What we call mixed agriculture is prac¬ 
ticed hero, embracing the culture of wheat, 
corn, oats, rye, buckwheat and fruits. 
2. Our products are sold to middlemen at 
our stations here. 
3. Prices are low aud prospects dull. 
4. Some get extra prices, by thorough cul¬ 
ture of their crops so as to have flue goods 
aud watching the market closely. 
5. Co isiderable changes have ooeu .made 
owing to low prices. Tobacco and small 
fruits have been introduced more extensively. 
I would suggest that farmers should raise 
some beans and more root crops. Some raise 
barley and some horses. h. c. 
Wolcott. 
1. Dairying and raising potatoes. Some 
sell their milk and some sell cream; but most 
money is made by making butter and selling 
it at home. 
2. Potatoes are shipped, being bought by 
buyers at this place. Butter is sold at home 
whenever a buyer is found; if not sold here.it 
is sent to New York City. 
3 Potatoes are a drug, bringiug only 25 
cents upward per bushel; butter from 20 to 
25 cents a pound. 
4. They are not. 
5. Yes. No change has been made of late. 
Whitney’s Point. j. h. k. 
Fig. 126. 
1. Wheat, barley, oats, hay, apples and po¬ 
tatoes. 
2. We sell to home markets—to millers and 
shippers. 
3 Fair prices have been realized. The 
prospects for the immediate fulure are proba¬ 
bly no better than the present outlook. 
4 I don’t know of any who get extra prices. 
If any do, it is through their shrewdness in 
marketing rather than through the better 
qualities of their products. 
5. Not much change has been made except¬ 
ing that more hay is raised and sold. 
Tyre. j. p. 
1. Our principal cash business is the pro¬ 
duction of milk for cheese factories. One of 
the largest and first factories in Western New 
York was located here. At one time it made 
500,000 pounds of cheese in one season. This 
was several years ago; now the same factory 
makes ouly a trifle more than 150,000 pounds, 
as smaller factories take most of the milk. 
2 The cheese is sold at the factory to local 
buyers, and delivered to the railroad station 
by the patrons of the factory anout once a 
week. It is mostly sent to Baltimore, Mary¬ 
land. 
3. Prices of cheese here have ranged from 
one eighth to one cent per pound less than 
those quoted for fancy cheese in New York. 
4. This being a maple sugar country, a 
very few are making much better sirup and 
sugar than the average, and are getting better 
prices. The use of modern sugar tools usually 
makes all the difference in results. 
5. There has been no material change 
within 10 years. A very few make a special¬ 
ty of some one thing, aud in that respect there 
are a few changes. o. F. b. 
Rush ford. 
Before answering these questions I will ex¬ 
plain the character of the people in this neigh¬ 
borhood. They are a very conservative class; 
the greater part of them are old residents oc¬ 
cupying the farms they were born aud bred 
upon, aud in the language of the “parrot” 
most of them say “farmin’ don’t pay,” and I 
dou’t believe it does except in very few cases 
if any. Some in fact are dropping behind 
aud several have lost their farms—good clever 
men too. Now for the questions: 
1. The crops mainly depended upon for 
money, are wheat aud barley. 
2. They are sold largely right here at 
Stanley and Hall’s Corners, both being good 
shippiug points only three miles apart. The 
men who buy them are farmers themselves, 
good roliable men, who buy on commission. 
Then Geneva, which is about eight milesaway, 
has two large malt houses, one for barley and 
one for wheat. When they pay more than 
the shippers, they get the grain. 
3. Prices have ranged for the past five 
years, for wheat from 75 cents to $1; for bar¬ 
ley, from 50 cents to 80 cents. There seems 
at present no reason to expect prices to be 
any better in future (unless more liquor is 
drank). 
4. I don’t think any of my neighbors get 
more than average prices, but some get less. 
Those who raise the largest crops per acre gen¬ 
erally have the best quality, and of course get 
the best prices. 
5. I do not think farming hereabouts has 
changed greatly in the past 10 years. Of 
course more machinery is used upon the farms 
and more commercial fertilizers are applied, 
while less summer fallowing is done and in 
many cases more weeds are permitted to 
grow. The all-important questions seem to 
be “What to do? and Howto do it in order to 
make more money?” The raising of beef cattle 
has become unprofitable owing to the large 
supply'of Western dressed beef. As the most 
important result of all this, one year ago a 
company was formed and a creamery was 
established here at Stanley. A very fair busi¬ 
ness was done last season, with quite satisfac¬ 
tory results for those who patronized the busi¬ 
ness. The out-look for this year seems en¬ 
couraging. The cream is gathered from the 
farms and taken to the creamery. 
6. If I were to offer any suggestions by 
the adoption of which sure profit would be 
made, I would advise better farming—more 
thorough preparation of the soil for the crop, 
more economy in saving and applying the 
manure made on the farms, more regard for 
good clean seed and better cultivation and 
care after planting. In short, if the farmers 
in this neighborhood would all take the Rur¬ 
al and read it and then have sense enough to 
put in practice what it teaches, I think im¬ 
provement would be the result. F. e. v. 
Stanley. 
1. Potatoes have been the principal money 
crop the past season. The yield ,was from 
100 to 150 bushels per acre; the price from 20 
to 40 cents per bushel—average price 25 
cents. 
2. Large local buyers and shippers of 
agricultural and dairy products have pur¬ 
chased large quantities of potatoes the past 
winter for which they found a ready market 
in Baltimore, Maryland, and Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, and other cities and places. 
Farmers, as a rule, draw their produce to 
Buffalo, their nearest market. 
3. Prices are now lower than they have 
been for several years past. Potatoes for the 
past few years have brought 40 or 50 cents 
per bushel. It is likely that in future farmers 
will direct their attention to other agricul¬ 
tural pursuits. 
4. The milk from the farm of H. C. Jewett 
& Co. of this place,"who keep a Jfine herd of 
grade Holstein cows, is sold in Buffalo for one 
or two cents per quart higher than the aver¬ 
age milk. The increased price is due to the 
feeding aud care given to the cows, and also 
to the care taken of the milk after being 
drawn from the cow, by properly cooling, 
bottling aud preparing it for market. 
5. There have been some chauges as farm¬ 
ers are feeding more silage aud using larger 
quantities of commercial fertilizers, aud 
many more labor-saving machines than they 
did 10 years ago. 
6. They do, namely, fruit, grain, hay, but¬ 
ter, cheese and milk. Dairy products brought 
a fair price during the past season. The fruit 
crop was short with the exception of grapes. 
The hay crop was also short, and farmers 
have depended largely upon Western hay to 
feed their stock. 
7. Deeper plowing. A more liberal appli¬ 
cation of fertilizers and cleau, thorough cul¬ 
ture of the crops in hand. a. w. n. 
East Aurora. 
farm Cccmonuj. 
SILO BUILDING AND FILLING. 
In Bulletin No. 19 of the Wisconsin Experi¬ 
ment Station, L. H. Adams has an excellent 
paper on the above subject. As readers of 
the R. N.-Y. know, this Station has led in en¬ 
silage investigation. Mr. Adams, having 
fully studied the subject, speaks with author¬ 
ity. .Perhaps the most important portion of 
the essay is that devoted to 
BUILDING THE SILO. 
An 18-inch stone wall should be laid deep 
enough in the ground to be beyond the action 
of frost, and raised high enough above the 
surface to admit of sufficient grading to di¬ 
vert all surface water; if the location be a 
high and well-drained one, there will be no 
necessity for raising the wall more than six 
inches above the surface. In digging the 
trenches, throw enough earth inside to raise 
the silo floor up to the top of the stone wall. 
Upon this stone foundation a sill made of 
three 2x10 planks should be bedded in mortar 
—see Fig. 125. In laying the sill, the top plank 
should not be fastened to the others, but left 
loose, for reasons soon to appear. The stud¬ 
ding should be 2x10 plank, preferably 18 feet 
long. After carefully sawing the studs to a 
uniform length and squaring both ends, 
arrange them in a horizontal position, resting 
on the edges, and placed 16 inches apart; 
they should be supported on a level 
with and at right angles to the sill upon which 
the bent is to be raised. Then spike the loose 
plank of the sill to the foot of the stud; and 
when all have oeen firmly fastened as directed, 
they should be secured at the top in the same 
m»nuer. After fastening the studding to sill 
and plate-planks, the side or end, as the case 
may be, is ready for raising. After the bent 
has been raised in a vertical position to its 
place on top of the other two planks of the sill, 
the third one that was nailed to the foot of 
the studding before the bent was raised can 
be firmly spiked to the lower ones. This first 
bent can be held in place by temporary stays 
until the remaining bents are raised; the plates 
can then be nailed at the corners, and the skel¬ 
eton frame is complete; two2x10 inch planks 
will give all the strength necessaryfor the plate. 
It will be observed that by following this plan 
the studs are securely fastened, top and bot¬ 
tom, and the full strength of sill and studding 
is saved,there being no mortises cut in the sills 
and no tenons on the studding. After the 
frame is up, the next thing to be done is to 
bridge the studding (see Fig. 126). Incase the 
silo is 18 feet deep, it would be advisable to 
put in two rows of bridging. By thus spiking 
planks between the studs, it makes it just as 
impossible for the studs in the center of the 
wall to spring out as it is for those nearest the 
corners. We are now ready to commence 
lining the silo. Each one can follow his 
choice as to the outside covering, since it 
plays an unimportant part in the preservation 
of the silage. Some will prefer to use drop-sid¬ 
ing or ship-lap, others common lumber, and it 
is possible to put on a covering of low-grade 
shingles cheaper than any other way. It is 
not necessary, for the preservation of the sil¬ 
age, that paper be used on the outside of stud¬ 
ding, but to keep out frost it is advisable to 
use it, since it makes the silo much warmer. 
Since a good deal of moisture rises from the 
silage, it is well to provide for ventilation at 
the roof. This can be done by openings in 
the gable ends of the building, or a dormer- 
window in the roof. It is much better to carry 
off the moist air by ventilation than to have 
it congeal on the rafters during cold weather, 
and drop back again when mild days come. 
The lumber for this should have no knot-holes, 
Fig. 127. 
and should be dressed on one side, and is bet¬ 
ter if edged so that the joints will be reason¬ 
ably tight. The lumber need not be of uniform 
width, but boards from eight to 10 inches 
wide are preferable. The inside of the stud¬ 
ding is first covered with boards, laid horizon¬ 
tally (see Fig. 127), ten-penny nails being used; 
building paper is then tacked over the whole 
surface. Upon the paper, nail a second layer 
