364 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
-JUNE i 
ner all over the State, we should not have 
heard of the terrible losses of 1882. 
Of the 12 bundles that make the shock, se¬ 
lect, first, for caps the two longest and best, 
preferably not very large ones. Next take 
the two largest and longest and stand ttiem 
north and south, head to head, with the buts 
well apart, aud settle them firmly together 
and on the ground. The beginner will not 
set the buts far enough apart. The bundles 
should stand at an angle of about 45 de¬ 
grees with the ground or as flat as may be 
without falling in; they will never move 
after they have been left to themselves. 
Next, with a good bundle in each hand step to 
the north end of the shock, facing south, and 
set a pair astride of the buts of the north 
one of the first pair, rather straight, leaning 
slightly toward the shock, i. e. south. Set 
another pair over the buts of the south bundle 
of the first pair. 
The shock is now long, consisting of three 
pairs of bundles, the first rauging north and 
south, and the second and third ranging east 
and west, one pair astride of the buts of each 
of the first. This is the essential part of the 
shock, and with a little practice is so set as to 
form a lock that stands firmly. A pair 
against the east and one against the west sides 
with the caps complete the shock, which will 
not be round, but will present a well defined 
ridge running north and south. 
To cap this shock, do not break the straws 
all one way, but part them to the right and 
left above the band; then with the fingers 
open the lower side of the but just before plac¬ 
ing the cap on, and spread the buts well when 
in place. The object is to have, not a circular 
roof, but a long one with two well defined 
sides, east and west. No man need be afraid 
to lean against this shock in putting on the 
caps as it will hold up any ordinary person. 
Our prevailing winds are from the west and 
we put the south cap on last. If tfie shock be 
properly made there will be a hole entirely 
through east and west, and every bundle will 
be visible from the outside. 
The advantages of this method are many, 
and will become appreciated on trial. The 
shock consists of pairs of bundles, and they 
should be handled hi pairs. One or two men 
can work at it with equal facility. There is 
no danger while working,of pushing over what 
is completed. The last four bundles—on the 
sides—are in no way concerned in the strength 
of the shock, and may be equal or unequal, 
good or poor. The first six make the lock, 
and the two of each pair should be about 
equal. Even a careless man may help; if the 
careful man sets up the first pair, and one of 
the end pairs, the shock will stand in spite of 
careless work elsewhere. Every one knows in 
practice that in most methods every bundle 
must be carefully placed, or the shock will be 
likely to go down. 
This plan requires little care when once 
learned, and I have never had a man who did 
not readily make good shocks in this way. 
Since 1 began to use it, five or six years ago, 
very few caps have been blown off, and less 
than half-a-dozen shocks have been blown 
down. The only fault is that in taking down 
the shock it must come in the order in which 
it was built up, as it cannot be readily pushed 
over with the fork and taken at random. 
This method is especially good for starting 
shocks of corn stalks, which are easily blown 
down. In short, a shock put up in this way, 
is stronger, presents more drying surface, is 
more eqsily made, will resist more bad work 
and bad weather. Altogether this is the best 
method I have ever seen. Try it. 
E. DAVENPORT. 
SWEET CORN FOR CANNING. 
The growing of sweet corn for the canning 
factory occupies several hundred acres of 
land in this vicinity, and, in suitable soil with 
good management it is quite a profitable in¬ 
dustry. The factory is owned by a firm 
which has several other factories in different 
places. The farmers grow the corn on a con¬ 
tract, made in the spring, specifying how 
tnany acres each shall plant; what variety, 
how it is to be cultivated (that is, the grower 
agrees to give the crop good cultivation, as 
corn poorly cultivated, producing many 
“nubbins,” is unprofitable to the canner); 
how and when it is to be delivered, how 
weighed, etc., and the price to be paid. This 
is now 25 cents per bushel, although I think it 
was formerly 30 cents. The canner furnishes 
the seed, and takes his pay from the price of 
the corn at the time of settlement. Growers 
are not allowed to purchase seed elsewhere, 
though they may grow their own from seed 
furnished from the factory if they wish to do 
bo. Tne corn is generally paid for in Jan¬ 
uary. This is the worst feature of the busi¬ 
ness, as it compels farmers to wait for their 
pay until long after the crop is delivered. 
Sweet corn succeeds well on almost any 
soil unless it be a heavy clay, although the 
best crops, both as to quantity and quality, 
are grown on the river bottoms and on loamy 
soils. The land must be well drained. The 
soil must be fitted about the same as for field 
corn, and the general culture of the crop is 
about the same, although the early growth of 
sweet corn is more slender than that of field 
corn, and it requires a little more nursing in 
the earlier stages of its growth. It must not 
be planted until the ground is warm, or it 
may rot instead of germinating. It is grown 
both in hills and drills, the latter method, I 
think, being preferable, although it necessi¬ 
tates more hand labor. A considerable num¬ 
ber of different varieties are grown, though 
all must have a white cob. For the earliest 
picking Crosby or Minnesota is planted, fol¬ 
lowed by Hickox, Old Colony, Asylum, Slow- 
ell’s Evergreen, Egyptian, Mammoth Sugar, 
and others. The same varieties succeed dif¬ 
ferently on different soils. The cultivation is 
about the same as tor field corn, but must be 
very thorough, as sweet corn will not endure 
neglect. 
The crop is harvested when the corn is in 
the milk, or in a suitable condition for use on 
the table. The ears are picked from the 
stalks,aud drawn immediately to the factory. 
The load is weighed; sufficient corn, taken at 
random from the load, to make a bushel of 
husked ears, is husked, and weighed together 
with the husks removed from it. This is the 
weight of a bushel, and varies from 50 to 70 
pounds. The net weight of the load divided 
by this,gives the number of bushels,for which 
the grower receives a receipt. Sometimes 
the field is picked over twice; sometimes but 
once. The stalks are cut as soon as the corn 
is removed, set up in medium sized shocks, 
and cured as thoroughly as possible before 
being put into the stack or mow. 
This is a very difficult part of the work, as 
the stalks contain so much sugar that they 
are very liable to heat and spoil after being 
stored. It seems to me that the silo will prove 
a great blessing to growers of sweet corn. 
The stalks are more valuable for feeding than 
those of field corn, but the difficulty is to get 
them properly cured. The yield of sweet 
corn varies much with the soil, season and 
culture. I have no figures at hand, but from 
observation, I should say an average crop is 
about 100 bushels per acre, or, perhaps, a lit¬ 
tle les«. One field of five acres under my ob¬ 
servation the past season produced S00 bush¬ 
els, or 160 bushels per acre. F. H. 
Clyde, N. Y. 
Euml topics. 
PROTECTIVE COVERINGS AMONG 
PLANTS. 
PROF. BYRON D. HALSTEAD. 
Functions of the skin, rind, fuzz, and prick¬ 
les of fruit, and oj the epidermis of leaves 
as well as of the bark of trees and other 
plants ; microscopic breathing pores of 
leaves; the cambium-, “ hide-bound'' trees-, 
rootlets, their function and protection. 
Plants, like other living things, need to 
have their tender or so-called vital parts well 
protected. We seldom think of this, but it is 
not difficult to be impressed with the fact as 
soon as attention is called to the matter. 
Take any fruit you please and the first thing 
that is met with is a skin of greater or less 
thickness. This skin may be so thick that it 
must be removed before the soft parts within 
can be used upon the table. This is the 
whole explanation of the peeling of apples, 
pears, peaches, cucumbers, etc. This skin, or 
epidermis, in some fruits is very thin and may 
be eaten, especially in case of the smaller 
fruits. Thus no one would stop to remove it 
from a currant or cherry 'and, least of all, 
from a strawberry. Sometimes, in addition 
to a thick, tough layer, fruits are covered 
with a coat of short hairs or fuzz, as in the 
peach and allied fruits. Others have, besides 
the thick skin, a number of prickles which in 
some instances, as in the wild gooseberries, 
are so sharp and stiff as to make the gather¬ 
ing of the fruit a disagreeable process. Other 
fruits have a bitter or otherwise unpleasant 
rind that needs to be removed before the in¬ 
ner parts can be utilized. These outer layers 
of tissue serve a double purpose, namely, that 
of inclosing and holding in place the soft in¬ 
terior part that would otherwise be destroyed 
by the elements' or by birds and other ani¬ 
mals. This is particularly true of the fruits 
because the parts within, named the seeds 
are of more than ordinary importance. 
The seeds are not the only portions of a 
plant that need protection. Over every part 
that is exposed there is some sort of a cover¬ 
ing developed which wards off enemies and 
givos form and solidity to the portion that is 
inclosed. Take the leaf, for example, and the 
epidermis is not the least important of all the 
structures. This is a.thin, firm, usually color¬ 
less layer which extends over evt ry part, 
whether it be the veins, midrib or the softer 
portions between the frame-work. Upon the 
outside of the epidermal layer is a film of 
gummy substance impervious to water, that 
serves to keep the parts within from suffering 
from excess of moisture. Through this en¬ 
velop of cutin or cuticle and the epidermis 
below are innumerable small holes called 
breathing pores, so small as not to be seen ex¬ 
cept with a microscope. These pores are like 
delicate valves and are so adjusted that they 
open or close according to the surrounding 
conditions. It is through these pores that the 
watf r of the plant, in large part, passes out. 
Tons of water are given off by an acre of 
growing corn in a smgle July day. 
The stems are protected, and as these parts 
of a tree, for example, remain for a longtime, 
while leaves, as a rule, last for only a single 
season, and the stems are more subject to in¬ 
jury from their proximity to the earth, they 
are usually well protected by a thick layer 
commonly called bark. This bark is a com¬ 
plex substance which usually is found to con¬ 
sist of layers one over another and all outside 
of but close to the cambium. By cambium 
is understood that zone of tender substance 
e»sily destroyed and from which the new lay¬ 
ers of wood are formed upon its inner side, 
while the bark is renewed from its outside as 
fast as more bark is needed to insure the 
proper protection of the soft and delicate lin¬ 
ing cambium within. When the boy makes a 
whistle out of a willow or other twig he sepa¬ 
rates the bark from the wood upon the layer 
we have been speaking of named the cam¬ 
bium. 
This bark varies greatly in thickness and 
texture, depending upon the age of the stem. 
In short, the older the stem, the thicker this 
bark,unless it should’fall away in great strips 
from the outside as is true in the shag bark 
hickory and many other trees, and better il¬ 
lustrations may be found in the grape vine 
which is almost always casting its bark. The 
protective layer of bark sometimes binds the 
growing parts within so that the horticultur¬ 
ist often finds it to his interest to slit the bark 
longitudinally upon his “hide bound” trees. 
The young twigs have at first no true bark 
and are covtred, as are the Raves, with an 
epidermis. As time passes the bark begins to 
develop and in place of the then green epider¬ 
mis there is a bark which upon the outside 
may be brown or gray—in short, of almost 
any color except green—and covered by a 
thin, shining layer that is like the cuticle and 
made up of a gummy substance. Upon a 
large tree the whole development from a 
green epidermis upon a young twig to the 
thick, dead bark upon the body or main stem, 
may be seen. It may be said, in passing, that 
when the bark is accidentally removed from a 
small portion of a tree, there will form a new 
bark, which process is known as the healing 
over of the wound. This very fact of the 
rapid replenishing of the protective layer is 
one of the best illustrations of the importance 
of this substance. 
Coming now to the root, the case is some¬ 
what different, because the roots and especial¬ 
ly the younger ones perform a particular office 
in the economy of the plant which demands 
that they shall be free from bark or epider- 
dermis so-called. There is a hand-to-hand 
conflict, so to speak, going on under the earth, 
and the hands cannot be gloved. It is the pecul¬ 
iar function of tne younger roots to do the 
work of absorbing the nourishment that the 
plant must obtain from the soil. This work 
requires that the delicate fibrils, and still 
more slender root-hairs borne by the rootlets, 
shall come in direct contact with the soil- 
particles and the soil-water that is held, some¬ 
times quite firmly, by the small masses of 
earth. It therefore follows that the young 
roots, which perform nearly all the work of 
absorption, are uncovered save by the soil, 
among the particles of which they insinuate 
themselves. Their best protection, which of 
course includes the best conditions for the life 
of the plant, is when they are not covered 
with an impervious layer such as that spread 
over the stems aud leaves. 
But there is a portion of every young, tend¬ 
er rootlet, no matter how small, that is pro¬ 
tected by an outgrowth not unlike that which 
forms upon the bud. In other words, the tip, 
which is not employed in absorbing nourish¬ 
ment, Is covered with a cap which surrounds 
the youngest and most tender of all portions 
of the root, called the growing point. At 
this point the root elongates aud the cap is 
pushed before this place as the root grows 
through the earth, and prevents the sharp 
particles of soil from injuring the most sus¬ 
ceptible tissue. Farther back upon the root 
at a place where it has become woody and 
can no longer take an active part in absorb¬ 
ing liquids from the soil, there is a rind 
formed and this may be quite thick upon old 
roots that only serve as a mechanical support 
to the plant, and conduct the liquids from its 
younger branches to the stem and leaves 
above. 
Rutgers College, N. J. 
(Tl)e poitUnj 1) urfe. 
A PLEA FOR THE CHICKENS. 
I have often wondered why it is that house¬ 
keepers in the country raise so few chickens. 
Taking care of them, of course, requires con¬ 
siderable time; but if by devoting two hours 
each day for three or four months one can 
furnish a table with delicate,wholesome meat 
and an abundance of fresh eggs for the re¬ 
mainder of the year, it seems to me that the 
time is most profitably spent. Very little ex¬ 
penditure, too, is required for their accommo¬ 
dation: in this latitude the roughest of wood¬ 
en houses will afford them protection from 
the snow and rain iu winter, while in summer 
they thrive best out-of-doors provided the 
owls and thieves are not too numerous iu 
their vicinity, and scattered about every 
farm-yard one can pickup loose boards which 
an ordinary farm hand can fashion into coop 
that will serve to shelter the little chickens 
from spring rains and keep them from run¬ 
ning out in the morning dews. Neither is 
their food an expensive item; the cold vic¬ 
tuals left from the table (which are usually 
thrown out to a crowd of worthless dogs) to¬ 
gether with the bran sifted from the meal 
will serve for their food while small, and af¬ 
ter that they can almost get their own living 
where the range is large and they have 
access to the orchard and eat the defective 
fruit as fast as it falls to the ground. This is 
a great advantage to the fruit trees as well, 
for the insects which cause the fruit to fall 
are thus destroyed before propagation takes 
place. 
It is the best plan, however, to give the 
half-grown fowls a light meal night and 
morning so as to keep them in good order and 
ready for the table. If they are obliged to 
forage for their living entirely, though they 
are sure to be healthy, they are apt to grow 
up very slender and long-legged. Then, too, 
every housekeeper knows what a help it is to 
have her chickens gentle, so that when com¬ 
pany drops in unexpectedly one of the chil¬ 
dren can slip out and by throwing down a 
handful of food pick up a pair of nice fat 
fowls. There is nothing quite so ridiculous as 
to see a crowd of white children and little 
negroes chasing an active young cockerel 
over the yard, and to hear its despairing 
squawk when at last it is caught, most proba¬ 
bly under the front porch where the visitors 
are sitting. The visitors almost wish they 
had stayed at home, if they are going to put 
their hostess to all that trouble, aud she is 
filled with mortification; but what alterna¬ 
tive has she? There is no convenient grocery 
store just around the corner to which one of 
the children or a servant can be secretly dis¬ 
patched; and in the country visitors do not 
call between meals and leave when Bridget 
rings the dinner bell. 
There is nothing that will take the place of 
poultry; it is always ready; the most whole¬ 
some dish a mother can set before her chil¬ 
dren is stewed chicken, cooked with a few 
Irish potatoes sliced thin, and seasoned with 
cream and fresh butter. Who does not re¬ 
member the deliciousness of the first chicken- 
pie of the season, aud if you want to see a 
man’s eyes shine just set before him a dish 
of crisp fried chicken. I know one who never 
tires of it. And the eggs, too, how the chil¬ 
dren do love them—like is not nearly strong 
enough to express their affection—love is the 
word. If you want to make little boys happy 
in cold weather, just give them some eggs to 
roast. Likely as not the eggs will pop open in 
the fire and ashes will get mixed with the 
yelks, but that doesn’t matter, not a particle 
will be lost. 
For an invalid there is nothing so tempting 
as chicken broth; it is much more palatable 
than the various extracts of meat, beef juice, 
aud koumiss, that one gets out of a drug store, 
and which to my thinking are exceedingly 
trying even to a well stomach. And yet how 
few families among the poorer people, or even 
those in moderate circumstances, have a boun¬ 
tiful supply of poultry. How often have I 
seen little children sit down to a meal of salt 
bacon and soda biscuit. No wonder their lit¬ 
tle faces are sallow aud peaked, while the 
father complains of enormous doctor’s bills. 
But if you ask the mother why she didn’t 
raise more chickens this year, 10 to one she 
