440 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 22 
ter without them; the eggs will keep better 
if you want to pack them; and you will save 
considerable feed. The roosters must go. 
Look out for the lice. They breed with in¬ 
credible rapidity during the summer months, 
especially it the houses are not thoroughly 
cleaned. Provide the hens with a good dust- 
bath if they are confined in yards. Eggs are 
higher now than at any time since mid-winter. 
It is very poor economy to throw soft feed 
into the dirt. Place boards in front of the 
coops to feed the chicks on. Place troughs in 
the hen-house n such position that the hens 
cannot get their feet in them. 
Provide plenty of pure water for the hens. 
An egg is more than three-fourtbs water. 
Some men say a hen doesn’t need water. No 
farm animal will suffer more for want of it. 
Such men should be set on a desert island 
for a short time with “never a drop to 
drink.” f. h. v. 
farm ©amotmj. 
TRUCK WAGONS ON FARMS. 
THE CASH CROPS 
The Cornell University and the Mississippi 
Land and Cattle Company of Calhoun, 
Miss., use trucks briefly described as 
follows:—see Fig. 152. Wheels 30 inches, 
2 1-2 inch tires,—they would be better 
if they were three inches—distance be¬ 
tween axle-trees when used with dump board 
box 7 feet 2 inches; when used with hay rack 
the ieach is lengthened. Width of bolster be¬ 
tween stakes four feet; tread five feet from 
center to center of wheels. Top of bolster 24 
inches from the ground. Weight of wagon 
without box 600 pounds. For carrying crates 
of potatoes, etc., stone, manure and the like, 
dump boards are used made of clear basswood 
2 1-2 by 4 inches, and side-boards and end 
boards of the same wood 1 1-2 by 8 inches and 
of the length desired. The hay and grain 
rack would also best be made of basswood. 
Sills 2 by 8, 16 feet long; 4 cross-pieces 2 by 5 
inches,? 1-2 feet long notched ha] f an inch on thp 
sills; 4 cross-piecesl 1-2 by 4 inches 4 feet long; 
6 slats 11-4 by 4 inches 16 feet long:2 pieces 2 
by 4 16 feet reduced on one edge to 3-4 inch. 
These are nailed on the top of the outside 
slats to give them strength and to prevent the 
load from sliding. See Fig. 154. A board 8 
inches wide and 7 1-2 feet long should be 
placed crosswise over the top of the truck at the 
extreme rear end: 6 carriage bolts, 1-2 inch, 
14 inches long, 24 carriage bolts, 3-8 inch, 0 
inches long, 1-2 pound 10-penny nails. 
The trucks will turn in a much shorter 
space, if the sills to the rack are brought to¬ 
gether from four to six inches in front, and 
blocks are nailed to the side of the sills to fill 
out to the stakes of the front bolster. 
If the dump or farm box described above is 
made 12 feet long, it may be left on and the 
rack described above, minus the sills, can be 
used; the side boards of the dump box 
serving in place of sills. This cheaper rack 14 
feet long will easily carry one ton. The more 
elaborate one will carry two tons. The only 
danger is that the load will exceed (he strength 
of the team. It will be noticed that the top 
of the rack on the truck is but three feet one 
Inch from the ground, or just the bight of 
an ordinary man’s trousers’pocket; while the 
flat rack-see Figure 153-on an ordinary wagon 
is four feet nine inches high. Fully one-half 
of a ton, possibly three-tourths of a ton of 
hay may be put on the truck before the load 
reaches the hight of the rack of the ordinary 
wagon. If we take the V-rack, the differ¬ 
ence is still greater. In this the first part of the 
load as well as the last has to be pitched four 
to five feet higher than with the lower wagon. 
While the truck can hardly be tipped over, 
the latter contrivance keeps one nervous for 
fear the center of gravity will not remain 
over the base. 
The trucks we are now using were manu¬ 
factured by the Groton Manufacturing Co., 
Groton, N. Y., when they were building 
mounted horse powers. Knowing the great 
value of farm trucks by practical experience 
—especially since we have gone so largely in¬ 
to silage farming—I notified the manufac¬ 
turers over a year sinco of the great demand 
for a cheap perfected truck that would inevi¬ 
tably follow the silage and potato boom. The 
cost of such a wagon without box. should 
range between $20 and $30 
The hubs are cast, there are no front hounds 
or ironed stakes, and all the parts are very 
simple and plain. How a farmer can afford in 
these days of low prices to pitch hay, manure 
and grain,lift stones,potatoes and wood,two or 
three feet into the air unnecessarily only for 
the fun of throwing them down again cannot 
be scientifically explained. i. p. Roberts. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM. 
WESTERN REPORTS. 
In the Rural of May 25 wo gave some 
interesting answers to a series of questions 
designed to show what farmers depend upon 
for their cash. Here are some more answers 
from Western readers: 
1. What do you sell to raise cash ? 
2. Where are they sold ? 
3. How about the past and future of prices? 
4. Are aDy farmers obtaining extra prices? 
5. What changes have occurred in the past 
10 years ? 
FROM KANSAS. 
1. Corn, flax, cattle and hogs. 
2. The overplus is mostly sold at Kansas 
City. 
a-days keep less stock but they are of better 
quality and they feed better. J. H. c. 
Strong City. 
1. Corn, pork, sheep and wheat; and, to a 
less extent, oats, millet seed, flax-seed, fruit, 
poultry, eggs and butter. 
2. They are mostly sold here at our stations 
to local buyers who ship to Kansas City, St. 
Louis and Chicago. 
3. Prices of fat hogs for the last few years 
have been good, averaging about four cents 
per pound. Good average fat cattle have 
brought about five cents per pound, but prices 
are low now—only 3)4 cents per pound. 
Corn has averaged 25 cents per bushel; but it 
is only 20 cents now. Future prospects for 
hogs are very good; for fat steers and cattle 
very dark. Good corn-fed beef at 3)4 cents 
per pound means dissatisfaction among the 
L oders. The prospect for the future of course 
depends on the season, which nas been very 
good here so far. 
4. Only those who have the best and 
smoothest hogs and steers. 
5 The only change is an increase in corn 
and its products—pork, beef, poultry, eggs 
and butter. Now 100 bushels are raised, 
where one bushel grew 10 years ago. This 
was a new country then. R. R. 
Sabetha. 
1. Hogs, cattle, wheat and corn; with a 
small amount of butter and eggs. These are 
the only products of this section. 
2. Hogs, to local shippers: cattle, to certain 
farmers who fatten and then ship them to 
Kansas City; wheat to local millers; and corn 
to stock-feeders and shippers, and butter, 
eggs, etc., to local merchants. 
TRUCK WAGON USED AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY. Fig. 152. 
3. Good till this last crop. The next crop 
will be good. 
4. I think not a great many. 
5. When I came here, 10 years ago, this sec¬ 
tion was mostly prairie; now it is all settled 
up with railroads, and small towns all around 
us. Since the emigration to the western part 
of this State and the rush to the South this 
spring many farms have not changed hands, 
consequently land is low-priced. 
Lone Elm. J. w. H. 
1. Flax seed. 
2. It is sold at home,being generally bought 
by the grain dealers. We also sell hogs and 
cattle. 
3. Prices are about the same as usual, ex¬ 
cept those of cattle which are 40 per cent, 
lower. There are no prospects of better 
figures. 
4. No. 
5. Farmers have not changed much in the 
last 10 years. Before the dressed beef syndi¬ 
cate went into operation, farmers in this 
region were doing well. I think that if farm¬ 
ers would go into dairying more they would 
make more money. d. b. 
Centralia. 
1. Vegetables, fruits, cows and bogs. 
2. Fruits and vegetables are sold at Strong 
City, and hogs to shippers. 
3. Very low with but little show for the 
better. 
4. None that I know of. 
5. Not very much. This is not a farming 
country to any extent. It is a stock 
country The mode of stock raising lias 
changed a great deal in 10 years. People now 
3. Up to last year, or until the railroads 
came here, wo obtained splendid prices and 
there was a good demand for everything; but 
since then the farmer’s greatest source of in¬ 
come being cut off— i. r. freighting and hauling 
lumber and goods—we have had no market for 
anything save hogs and steers and they bring 
much lower prices than those that are obtain¬ 
able in the Mississippi valley, because we are 
so far from market. The future seems as 
though it will be hard to make curreut ex¬ 
penses. 
4. Yes, by getting their products in the 
best possible shape when they sell. 
5. The farming has changed only in the 
method of putting in and tending the crops. 
Our farmers are experimenting now with 
castor-beans and broom-corn, and the former 
seems likely to pay well; but if such should be 
the case three or four of the adjoining counties 
can and will flood the market to over-flowing 
in a short time. I raised about 600 bushels of 
peanuts last year and 1,200 gallons of cucum¬ 
ber pickles and neither will pay freight to 
market. Then, my broom-corn neighbor has 
his stock of nice green dwarf corn and would 
be glad to realize two cents per pound for it. 
Almost all of us brought money with us here, 
and we got along finely till the railroad monop¬ 
oly came, and said, “We will haul for one dol¬ 
lar the same load for which the farmer charges 
five.” The consequences are that the one 
dollar goes East and never returns (except in 
the one way of a loan on land); whereas the 
farmer’s $5 kept on changing from farmer to 
merchant and vice versa. Burst up the 
trusts so that the laborer will be able to buy 
his other commodities as cheaply as he buys 
farm products; then we can pay a band $10 
per month the year around, and both will 
make money; but as long as the hired man 
demands $20 per month for six months and 
lies idle the other six and boards himself, we 
are both losing money. 
From a careful st idy, it seems that a man 
who is close to a large city or even to a min¬ 
ing district where men w r ork only half time, 
is doing fairly well, whereas the man who lives 
remote from these places is having a bard 
row to hoe. J J. M. 
Iuka. 
1. At the present time corn, hay and cat¬ 
tle. 
2. They are sold mostly to local shippers. 
Shippers sometimes gather up in August and 
September what we call stockers, and these 
they will hold tor the spring market, often 
buying corn and hay to fatten them. A 
drove of stock hogs always follow cattle dur¬ 
ing the feeding, and when the former are 
ready, the latter are a'so fit for the market. 
3. Cattle and corn paid well until the last 
year; since then prices have been too low. 
The hog alone seems to be the poor man’s 
friend one year with another. 
4. There always are a few who are more 
skillful than their neighbors at large in their 
management. For instance, some put 250 
to i-00 pounds of flesh on their hogs when nine 
months old; while others teed 18 months to 
make the same weight. The secret of bog 
teediDg consists in giving a variety—milk at 
first, then oats, then soaked corn. Continue 
to change from one to the other. Keep up 
the milk feed if possible until the pigs are 
six months old. I always feed twice a day 
and never over-feed. Tne extra profits are 
made by saving feed. 
5 Wheat 10 years ago was the staple crop. 
Corn came next, and then oats. Latterly 
wheat has dropped partially in the shade, 
oats and German millet fi ling the vacancy. 
Last year German millet fell from $1 50 to 20 
cents per bushel, hence millet has gone out of 
sight for a while ami the vacancy is filled by 
oats and corn. Both of the latter are looking 
well to-day. This is a big country. A man 
sometimes leads the masses in some staple 
crop, and when all are ready to take hold of 
the same thing, if he is wise, he drops out, 
and takes something else. That is the man 
who makes the money. The farmer has got to 
the place where the merchant stood 30 yeais 
ago. Competition is forcing many to 
me rgage, who never pay off that mortgage. 
The only way I can see for farmers to get 
along is to raise a variety of products. We 
can save a little from each, and all the little 
savings put together, will give the thoughtful 
fartmr something for old ago. G. L. w. 
Clay County. 
1. Wheat, hogs and cattle. 
2 and 3. Wheat is sold to the millers in 
Leavenworth. Stock is sold to packers and 
shippers in Kansas City. Wheat has aver¬ 
aged 60 to 85 cents, except during a shot t 
time last fall when the price reached $1.00 to 
$1 05, but we didn't sell then. Some farmers 
w ho then refused $1 per bushel have sold 
during the past week at 78 cents. Prices of 
cattle ruled extremely low until quite recent¬ 
ly. Good cows are selling at $1.75to$2.00 
per 100 pounds on foot. Hogs bring $4 to $5 
per 100 pounds live weight. Considerable bay 
is left over for which there is practically no 
market. Potatoes are 25 to 30 cents per 
bushel. 
4. Not so far as I know. 
5. None to any great extent, although some 
are engaging in the dairy business, selling 
milk—present price 8)4 cents per gallon net, 
shipped to Knnsas City. Some nrefer mak¬ 
ing butter as that leaves the skim milk, etc., 
on the farm to be fed to pigs and calve?, but 
the competition with Kansas City hog and 
bull butter, is so strong that there is little 
profit. Prices at present are 16 to 18 cents 
per pound. Prices for farm products are con¬ 
tinually tending downward. This is a splen¬ 
did country, with uumerousjnatural advan¬ 
tages—good land, pure water and chi ap fuel 
—yet this (Leavenworth) is the most debt- 
ridden, tax accursed county in the State. My 
quarter section is assessed at $2,31)0: tax 
last year, $80.00. J. M. 
Bashau. 
FROM WISCONSIN. 
1. Mixed farming is practiced here. A 
majority of our farmers raise garden vege¬ 
tables, from five to 20 acres of potatoes, and 
about the same number of acres of sweet corn. 
From 1 ,(HH) to 10,000 tomato plants are also 
set out by each of the farmer gardeners, and 
they raise other garden produce in pro¬ 
portion. 
2. This place, Caldwell, is 23 miles from Mil¬ 
waukee, and we draw our produce to the city 
with our teams, selling to grocery-men, 
hotels, boarding-houses, and at times wo de¬ 
posit our goods with commission-men. 
3. Prices are very low and the prospects 
,, don’t indicate any great advance. 
