AUG 24 
560 
THE BUBAL WEW-Y0RKEB, 
of squashes, and continue this fertilizing for 
six weeks, to each hill would be given 
bushel ol horse droppings, two pounds of 
nitrate of soda and 72 gallons of water. This 
we should regard as extraordinary liberality. 
As so much depends upon your land, the 
moisture already in the ground and the vigor 
of the plants, the strength and quantity of the 
liquid manure to be applied have to be gov¬ 
erned accordingly. 
SHADE FOR BEES. 
C. T. S., Swanton , 'Md.— Remembering 
that public sentiment is mostly manufactured 
by the manufacturers of bee-hives, is it best 
to keep one’s bees in a building, and would the 
Rural use a corner of the barn? 
Ans. —It is not wise to keep bees in a build¬ 
ing at all. The building does no good, and it 
is easier to handle the bees when away from 
any building, shed, etc. If it is desired to 
shade the bees, use a grove trimmed high or 
an apple tree. If no trees are at hand, a board 
can be used for shade. This should be nailed 
to cleats so as to be held three inches above 
the hive. This shade board should be eight 
or 10 inches larger each way than the hive. 
If the hives are painted white, shade is not 
very necessary though, even with white hives 
bees may sometimes do better in shade or 
with a shade board. 
Miscellaneous. 
S. C., Vernon, Vt. —The Orange Judd Co. 
of this city publish a book on fish culture by 
Seth Green. 
(Name Lost).— The peculiar-looking insect 
is really a spider known as Gasteracantha 
spinosa, so identified by L. 0. Howard, Acting 
United States Entomologist. 
0. T. S., Swanton, Md.— Considering the 
additional risk of fire, etc., and the cost of 
power at two places, is it, or is it not best to 
have one’s work-shop in the barn ? 
Ans. —We shall have to ask our readers to 
give their opinions regarding this matter. At 
the R. N.-Y. farm the shop is arranged over 
the carriage room which is apart of the barn. 
J. J., Toronto, Can. —1. How early can I 
take up red raspberries of this year’s growth 
and be successful in planting and growing 
them ? 2. Does it injure red raspberries to 
cut the young wood back after they have 
been planted in the fall ? If not, how near to 
the ground should the cutting be done ? 3. 
Can blackberries be safely planted in the 
fall ? 4. Can Norway Spruces be planted early 
in the fall ? 
Ans.—1. Now. 2. Better let the wood 
mature. This will be the bearing wood next 
year. 3. Yes, if you mulch them. 4. No. 
You should wait until spring. 
Q. H. F., Southampton, L. I. —How is 
cream raised so as to be thick and solid in 
summer? I am using the Channel Can 
Creamery with plenty of ice; but my New 
York customers say that it is not as solid as 
that sold in the city. What would a small 
centrifugal cream separator fit for a dairy of 
15 cows, cost? 
Ans.— The Howell Cream Company which 
supplies a good portion of the cream used in 
the city, informs us that it sells four grades of 
cream, the quality being determined by the 
number of pounds of butter that can be made 
from a can of cream. Extracted cream, or 
that from milk that has been run through a 
separator is preferred. Of course, the concern 
uses large and expensive machinery. The De 
Laval Company, of Philadelphia, Pa., make 
a hand separator which is used by some dairy¬ 
men. It costs about $125. 
DISCUSSION. 
Points in Peach Culture, Eli Minch, 
Shiloh, N. J.— I have received so many in¬ 
quiries in regard to a note of mine which ap¬ 
peared in the Rural for July 27, on the use of 
potash in peach culture, that I am compelled 
to beg space for a reply. Potash is not the 
only desideratum in peach culture. I presume 
the peach orchard to be planted in a dry, well- 
drained soil that admits of no standing water, 
and in a location as free as possible from 
early and late frosts—in fact in a good peach 
soil. The yellows as described by the best 
writers may be produced by any of the fol¬ 
lowing plans, and more surely so when they 
are—as they often are—all combined. In all 
such cases I will at once say that potash will 
not supply the loss of other needed conditions 
for health and longevity. The drawbacks 
that potash cannot compensate for are: First, 
weakly trees of low vitality. These may be 
large trees of weak roots, or overgrown trees 
of weak, porous wood. For vitality I always 
select a small tree with an abundance of'small, 
fibrous roots. Second, shallow planting, care¬ 
lessly done, the roots all crowded together in 
a small hole, the dirt carelessly thrown in 
and left loose. Trees should be set rather 
deep in all proper peach soils (on wet soils 
deep planting will be ruinous), say three 
inches deeper than they grew in the nursery, 
and always on land deeply plowed—say seven 
or eight inches—and also sub-soiled if possi¬ 
ble. The object is to get a deep-rooting tree, 
to secure it from the effects of dry weather, 
from injury by any subsequent deep culture, 
and from being blown over by high winds. 
We should form strong bodies to secure a 
permanent hold on the soil by allowing the 
branches to start low, say, a foot or so from 
the ground, making them start upright by 
judicious pruning and then we can cultivate 
them much more closely than if the bodies 
are formed four or five feet high, for in 
that case the branches always droop, and close 
culture is impossible. I always permit all 
buds to grow the first year of planting. A 
tree in this condition looks unsightly, but 
makes a strong, robust body : often it will be 
in the fall an inch and a half in diameter and 
possibly only four or five feet high. These 
trees are so bushy that they push an enor¬ 
mous amount of root3, and firmly fix them¬ 
selves in the soil. The second year they are 
pruned to a single stem and an extremely 
strong and healthy growth follows. Three 
or four branches are allowed to grow the sec¬ 
ond year, all upright. 
Culture is always thorough and deep the 
first year to cause deep rooting ; each year 
afterwards it grows more shallow until only 
the surface is loosened. Other crops should 
never be planted in a peach orchard. They 
attract the moisture and sustenance from the 
tree. If one intends to stick to farming he 
had better drop peach culture. Under the 
treatment I recommend, the trees will grow 
luxuriantly and will require heading back 
each year, or they will soon outgrow all 
reasonable bounds and form long limbs which 
will droop with the weight of leaves and 
fruit. The bending will cause the rupture of 
the wood cells and a growth of small, wiry 
shoots will follow, or the yellows will appear. 
We now come to potash and soil exhaustion. 
All soils do not need potash, though most do. 
I hold that in all soils where potash is needed 
the yellows will always appear unless it is 
freely used. The three great needs of the 
peach are phosphoric acid, potash and a small 
amount of nitrogen. A large application of 
nitrogen causes late growth and winter-kill¬ 
ing. In my own case I use, before the trees 
are planted, 1,000 pounds of bone-dust per acre 
deeply plowed under before the trees are set. 
Then I annually broadcast 1,000 pounds of 
kainit per acre. Farther inland the cost of 
kainit is greater, and the use of muriate of 
potash and salt is to be preferred. I exhibited 
at the American Pomological Society’s meet¬ 
ing at Boston, Mass., September, 1887, a peach 
limb three years old over 15 feet long and I 
had left on the tree five equally long. Such 
large growth is not desirable. This has all 
been done on land where, without potash, the 
yellows take the trees before bearing. 
PRODUCTS AND PRICES. 
An Illinois Farm, Pleasant Valley, III. 
—I was much interested in those reports of 
profitable Jersey farms. Farmers in New Jer¬ 
sey have a great advantage over us in being 
near an almost unlimited market, thus secur¬ 
ing better prices with less expenso for rail¬ 
road freight. The West can never drive 
them from the New York market on any 
bulky commodity as long as freight charges 
remain as at present. Our local markets are 
the neignboring towns. The nearest railroad 
town with 500 inhabitants iseight miles distant. 
The next is 12 miles off, with 2,500 population. 
Chicago is 135 miles away. There is, there¬ 
fore, no chance for us to compete with Jer- 
seymen in selling small fruits, and potatoes 
are seldom high enough in price to pay for 
raising them in large quantities, as we can 
haul but two loads of 25 bushels each per day 
to the railroad. This farm consists ot 80 acres 
of fairly good, tillable land; 40 acres of good 
creek and marsh pasture, and 80 acres of 
rough, bushy and stony hill pasture. The 
stock kept are three work horses, three colt?, 
10 cows, 25 calves and yearlings and 20 two- 
year old steers and the offspring of 10 breed¬ 
ing sows. The sows are full-blood Poiand- 
Chinas and the pigs are sold for breeding pur¬ 
poses to neighboring farmers. Two litters 
per year are raised and the sows are kept as 
long as they behave well and bring profit. 
Any faulty ones not sold for breeders are 
fattened and put on the market. The amount 
of land under different crops averages about 
as follows: 20 acres in corn; 15 in oats; five 
in wheat; one in potatoes; 35 in meadow; the 
remainder is occupied with the orchard, gar¬ 
den, etc. Corn averages 50 bushels per acre. 
The hay crop this year will amount to 80 tons. 
We don’t use.couunercial fertilizers. Other 
farms near by of less size and better land beat 
mine in the amount of stock kept. But hay 
at present isn’t worth hauling to the railroad, 
where it brings only about $4 per ton. Hogs 
pay best at three to five cents per pound live 
weight. The only way in which we can make 
any money on steers is oy buying them when 
two or three years old and keeping them over 
one winter only, feeding corn the latter part 
of the season so that they will get a good 
start with which to go on grass pasture. One 
should feed all the good hay they want, and 
not over-stock his pastures. The animals 
should be sold right off the grass in August or 
September at from $3.50 to $5.00 per cwt. 
One neighbor paid $32 per head for three- 
year-old steers in February, and in Septem¬ 
ber sold them fat, off good pasture, delivered 
at the railroad, for $4.80 per cwt. bringing $65 
per head, and he did not feed over $25 worth 
of corn. Another began feeding corn heavily 
in the early fall and by the following June he 
bad fed to four steers 500 bushels of corn at 
20 cents per bushel and then had to sell them, 
weighing 1,580 each, at $3.50 per cwt. Result 
loss, of course. Pigs picked up corn after 
steers. What prices do the Crannury farm¬ 
ers get ? 
better cows. 
W. E. R., Dover, N. H.—A week or two 
ago I read in the Rural an article headed: 
“ Better Cows and How to Get Them.” This 
would not be a hard problem to solve if farm¬ 
ers would give up some of their old notions 
and use some of the chances they have to im¬ 
prove their stock. When I came here, near¬ 
ly four years ago, I wanted to buy a Jersey 
cow, and found them very scarce. Some of 
my neighbors told me I had better not get a 
Jersey, as Jerseys were wild and tender and 
not worth anything for beef. I bought what 
was called one of the best cows around here. 
After keeping her awhile, I concluded that 
my neighbors’ standard for a good cow was 
rather low or that mine was high. After 
looking around a good deal, I bought two 
Jersey cows and sold the first one for beef. I 
got a Guernsey heifer from a friend in Massa¬ 
chusetts, and thought I would raise my own 
cows; but when I wanted to find a bull to use 
there,were only scrubs; so I got a Guernsey 
bull from some of the best stock in Massachu¬ 
setts. There are no other Guernseys about 
here that 1 know of. I am much pleased 
with mine, and prefer them to Jerseys. I 
charge only one dollar for the use of the bull; 
nut some think that too much aud will drive 
their cows to a scrub bull whose services they 
can get for 50 to 75 cents. But many who 
keep good butter cows bring them to my bull. 
I tnink that a man who is not willing to pay 
a dollar for the use of a good Guernsey bull 
does not deserve a good cow, but ought to 
have a scrub. A farmer who is making but¬ 
ter would be better off by keeping a Guernsey 
or Jersey cow until she was five years old and 
then knocking her on the head and burying 
her, than by keeping such a beast as many of 
the farmers hereabouts keep until she also is 
five years old, when they get a good price for 
her beef. Some of the farmers say: “My 
cows are the same as my father kept, and if 
they were good enough for him they are good 
enough for me.” As long as farmers think 
that there is more money in keeping cows that 
make from 100 to 150 pounds of butter per 
year, and that butter cows are wild, tender and 
expensive to keep, they will not try to im¬ 
prove their stock. It is hard to get them out 
of the ruts in which they have traveled so 
long. When you tell them a cow will make 
a pound of butter from 7}^ quarts of milk, 
they don’t call you a liar, but they look as if 
they wanted to, aud when you tell them that 
a two-year-old heifer is making about 9% 
pounds of butter a week, they say: “ That's 
doing pretty well! ” There are none so blind 
as those who will not see. 
hired help. 
C. C., Watkins, N. Y.—I believe that the 
question of hired help is an unsolved problem 
with many. It seems to mo that any sugges¬ 
tion that will tend to the betterment of the 
employer without injuring the condition of 
the employed, is a step in the right direction. 
Nearly all that have had experience claim 
that the man hired by the mouth, who is 
boarded and has his washing done in the house 
is a nuisance, and if the man is not, 
the practice certainly is. Oftentimes the 
farmer with this monthly help finds his man 
has left him at the commencement of haying 
or harvesting for some more paying position. 
Many such cases have happened here this soa- 
son. Besides this, the hiring of monthly help 
with board in the house generally obliges the 
housewife to have extra help. Now, the 
suggestion I have to offer is that the farmer 
should have a tenant house and let the man 
board himself as far as practicable. Many 
small places can be purchased here on which 
there is a small house and barn, for about 
what the land alone is worth. Give such a 
building a coat of paint and a few repairs and 
the tenant house is ready. One small lot 
that I know of paid for itself in 
tour years, so that the outlay was 
not very heavy. This way of hiring relieves 
the 'housewife of much unnecessary labor, 
and a man hired in .this way seldom leaves 
his employer without good cause. Many 
times the tenant’s wife can be hired to help 
in the house when such help is most needed. 
Of course, this only provides for one hired 
man, but this is all that nine out of 10 of the 
farmers here hire for the season, besides day 
help. Now let us compare the rough cost of 
the two wavs. The tenant generally gets 
here about $200 per year, house-rent with a 
garden, cow-pasture, and fire-wood. This 
same man could not be hired for less than 
$20 per month for eight months. Without 
counting the extra work required in the house 
from the monthly hand, where is the saving? 
About all that need be said about the treat¬ 
ment of the hired man is: “ Be a gentleman 
yourself and treat him like one.” If you are 
his superior, show it by the use of pure lan¬ 
guage, good, temperate habits and a Christian- 
like behavior. With regard to work, 10 hours 
in the field are enough for the hired man, and 
I believe the farmer will get fully as much 
profit from 10 hours’ work as from more. 
This way of hiring and treating a man will 
make an honest, industrious citizen of him if 
anythiug will. 
“ seeding in the corn field.” 
O. C. Howe, Berrien County, Michigan.— 
The R.-N.-Y. is very properly discussing all 
topics that pertain to the better methods of 
farming. I was quite interested in the issue 
of June 29 which treated of the subject of 
“ Seeding in the Corn-field,” and eagerly read 
the different ideas advanced. Clover is quite 
frequently sown in the corn-field by farmers 
here. Ii is sown after plowing the land the 
last time. No one sows except for pasture 
and to restore the fertility of the soil. We 
recognize the fact that wherever clover is 
growing upon land the latter is getting richer 
and consequently we sow it whenever we 
can. Prof. Latta has the right idea when he 
savs that “ with favorable weather in July 
and August the seeding would doubtless do 
well,” and that “ much would depend on 
these two months.” With us the seed is sown 
in July or very late in June. If there be rain 
enough in July and August to carry the seed 
into the ground and keep it alive and grow¬ 
ing, one will be quite likely to get a good 
stand of clover. Contrary to the advice 
given by Prof. Wing, I should sow as soon 
after the ground is plowed as possible. The 
seed then falls into the little crevices and is 
soon covered with earth. If not sown at this 
time, a few dews will form a crust over the 
soil so that the seed will have to be dragged 
in. Last year the weather was too dry and 1 
lost my seeding. Two years ago I was only 
partially successful, but had enough for past¬ 
ure, This year the weather is specially fav¬ 
orable and some of the clover is up now. If 
the frequent rains continue I shall expect a 
good stand. I think the practice a good one, 
when it works at all, for it furnishes pasture 
during the summer months and makes the 
field richer for wheat. I have adopted this 
method because it allows one to farm more 
extensively without seriously robbing the 
soil. 
granulation of butter. 
P. C., Milford, N. H.--J M. C., of Hop- 
kinton N. H., says that I ought to know that 
granulation is perfected by stopping the 
churning process at just the right time. That 
is all right; but if one stops the Blanchard 
Churn at that time, are not the floats aud in¬ 
side of the cover covered with cream that is 
not churned, unless it has previously been 
scraped off. That has been my experience 
with a churn with inside floats, similar to the 
Blanchard. Now about the cleaning: w r e al¬ 
ways wash the churn thoroughly and the 
Stoddard can be fastened upside down aud 
the cover be left on the bottom of the churn, 
and it is not shut up tightly and so has not a 
close and unpleasant odor which other churns 
sometimes have. Now about the end-over-end 
motion of Stoddard requiring more watchful¬ 
ness than the gentle motion of the floats in 
Blanchard, I can always tell by the glass in 
the cover, without stoppiug to look, just when 
to stop churning with the Stoddard, and the 
granulation is perfect, and I have heard one 
man who saw me churn and who has a 
Blanchard Churn, say, as he saw the perfect 
granulation: “I guess the next time I want a 
churn I will get a Stoddard.” J. M. C., likes 
the Blanchard because he has used it so long 
and it is a good churn I admit; but for great 
ease in cleaning and perfect granulation of 
butter aud ease of running, I prefer the Stod¬ 
dard and think that nine out of 10 persons who 
are not especially interested in either, after 
seeing both in operation, will choose the 
Stoddard. 
