758 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOV 16 
soned with salt when that substance had 
been withheld for a while. 
THE PRICE OF THE R. N.-Y. NO. 2 POTATO. 
W. G. W., St. Paul, Minn. —Last spring 
I purchased some R. N.-Y. No. 2 Potatoes 
and they were sent to my father iu Chico¬ 
pee, Mass. He now writes me that they 
have yielded very well indeed, and would 
have done much better had it not been for 
the unfortunate blight that was so general 
in Massachusetts during the summer. All 
late potatoes suffered badly, but the No. 2 
did very well in spRe of the blight. I shall 
sell a few of these potatoes and would like 
to know what price I ought to charge. I 
don’t wish to charge more than the usual 
price and would like to know what those 
who have them for sale think a fair and 
reasonable figure for them this season. The 
quality of the potatoes of this variety that 
we have raised is excellent. 
Ans.—T he demand for the R. N.-Y. No. 2 
is almost unprecedented. The price next 
spring is sure to rule very high. 
PROPAGATING HICKORY NUTS. 
W. P. II., Payer's Ford, Pa. —1. How 
should nuts, such as the Shellbark, be 
propagated ? 2. Will the variety repro¬ 
duce itself ? 3. How should the nut be 
treated to make it sprout ? 4. Can the 
variety be budded ou the hickory ? 5. 
What sort of a blackberry is the Wilson 
Jr. ? 6. Is the R. N.-Y. No. 2 Potato an 
early or late variety ? 
Ans. —1. Hickory nuts for seed may be 
packed in boxes—a layer of sand, a layer of 
nuts, etc. Bury the box in a well-drained 
place and plant in the spring. 2. No. 3. 
Answered above. 4. Yes. but many will 
fail. Few propagators are skillful enough 
to meet with much success in budding the 
hickory. Mr. Trumpy of Parsons & Co., 
Flushing, L. I., is one of the successful ones. 
5. The Wilson Jr. is almost a reproduc¬ 
tion of the old Wilson Blackberry. 6. Late. 
DIFFERENCE IN VALUE OF ASHES. 
E. L. W., Brooklyn, Pa. —What are the 
relative values of ashes from a wood-acid 
factory and Canada unleached ashes and 
common wood ashes from stoves. 
ANSWERED BY PROF. E. F. LADD. 
An analysis of ashes from acid works, in 
comparison with the average of three an¬ 
alyses of Canada unleached ashes, as given 
in the last annual report from the New 
York Agricultural Experiment Station, 
shows as follows: 
PHOSPHORIC ACID. POTASH. 
Ashes, acid works ...1.40 per cent. 5.55 percent. 
Ashes Canada 1.23 per cent. 6.97 per cent. 
The Canada ashes have more potash but 
less phosphoric acid than the ashes from 
the acid which 1 analyzed. The difference 
in value, at present prices, for the above 
samples would be about six cents per hun¬ 
dred in favor of Canada ashes. 
THE USE OF PLASTER AS A FERTILIZER. 
G. S. P., Winslow, Me. —In the very in¬ 
teresting article in a late Rural regarding 
the hay crop of the table-lands up the Hud¬ 
son, land plaster is mentioned as the only 
fertilizer used. How is it applied ? How 
much is used per acre; when, and how 
often ? Is it applied on clover or ou land 
“ worn out ” as is sometimes done in this 
State ? As our main crop is hay and the 
soil is also a heavy clay, the successful 
methods there might do as much for us 
here, along the Kennebec. 
Ans.—A n ordinary application is 500 
pounds per acre or one ton for four acres. 
It is broadcasted. It is excellent in spring 
on clover. It costs here about $5 per ton. 
THE WILDER PEAR. 
P. W., Rochester, N. Y .—In the issue of 
the R. N.-Y. for October 26 amongst “ Wide 
Awake Items,” I find this: “The Wilder 
Pear is well worth a trial.” Which of the 
Wilder pears is referred to—Is it Fox’s of 
California, raised by him and named some 
years ago, or the one put out by Mr. Green, 
of Clifton, N. Y., last year ? The Fox seed¬ 
ling is a large, late-keeping pear of excellent 
quality, and it alone is entitled to the name. 
Mr. Green’s is an early variety, but I don’t 
know the quality. 
Ans.—W e referred to the Wilder of Mr. 
Green. We were not aware of the exist¬ 
ence of another Wilder. 
Miscellaneous. 
F. W. E., Hot Springs, Ark .—Send a 
stamp to the Mississippi Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, A. & M.CollegeP. 0.,Miss., for a copy 
of the bulletin on silos and ensilage. 
W. P. A., Willimantic, Conn. —Can i 
get potash cheaper than by buying mi- 
leached ashes at 17 cents per bushel deliv¬ 
ered ? 
ANSWERED BY DR. PETER COLLIER. 
Those in charge of the fertilizer control 
stations of the country have given the fol¬ 
lowing as the trade values of potash for 
1889: 
In high-grade sulphate 6 cents a pound 
“ chloride 4X “ “ “ 
Quite recently a large dealer in hard-wood 
ashes offered them to me, guaranteeing a 
certain per cent, of potash; the price by the 
carload lot was such that the potash would 
have cost 12 and one-fourth cents a pound. 
Potash can therefore be bought for much 
less in the German salts than in unleached 
ashes. 
Discussion. 
POULTRY AT EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 
I. K. Felch, Natick, Mass.— The R. N.- 
Y. has in times past urged the importance 
of making experiments with poultry a part 
of the work at our experiment stations. 
Here are a few thoughts that have occurred 
to me as valuable iu this connection. 
The public are much agitated as to the 
very best breeds and those that are the 
most practical. To my mind there can be 
but one way to secure a solution of this 
question. Each breed must be kept under 
the very best circumstances to make it the 
most profitable. To do this we must make 
three classifications: 
The heavy or Asiatic breeds come first. 
These may be kept under the following 
conditions: Give them free, open-air exer¬ 
cise by furnishing an open shed attached to 
their quarters, and a yard sufficiently large 
to allow them to keep on growing contin¬ 
ually. The feed should be three-tenths 
vegetable, two tenths animal and one-half 
grain ; the last should be wheat bran, oats, 
barley and corn. Com and meal should not 
be over 15 per cent, of their grain feed. 
In the open shed there should be a box 4x4 
feet filled with hay, chaff or cut straw and 
leaves in which they should scratch for all 
their feed. After the vegetable mash, with 
bran and meal, in the morning, let them 
scratch for the barley, wheat and oats. At 
roosting time give them the corn part of 
their food for the day. 
The American class Plymouth Rocks, 
Wyandottes and Javas come next. They 
want the same treatment so far as shelter 
and runs go; let them have the same feed 
also, excepting that about 20 per cent, of 
the grain feed may be of corn. 
The Leghorns may have the same yards 
and house quarters, but they will stand 40 
per cent, of their grain feed in corn. Their 
vegetable and animal food should be in 
the same proportions. 
The cost of raising birds from chicks and 
the full receipts from each class are impor¬ 
tant questions. Kill all males when they 
weigh four pounds to the pair, live -weight, 
and note the cost per pound of raising them 
from the shell to that age, by weighing the 
whole number, male and female, when 
hatched and the day the males are turned 
off as broilers at the above weight. Kill all 
the females at six months old, selling them 
for poultry. 
The three kinds of receipts, then, for each 
breed will be: 
1. Receipts for broilers. 
2. “ “ eggs. 
3. “ “ fowl’s meat. 
less the cost of keeping them. The weigh¬ 
ing when the broilers are killed will show 
which is the most profitable breed for 
broilers, and the supplying of these is be¬ 
coming a gigantic business. The receipts 
from the egg will demonstrate to which 
breed the most profitable winter layers be¬ 
long. The profits during the whole year for 
the food consumed will show which is on 
the whole the most profitable breed. 
There is no breed for large, heavy roast¬ 
ers that will compare with the Light Brah¬ 
mas to be killed when six to eight months 
old ; but one should also find out by actual 
test which breed will give the largest num¬ 
ber of pounds for the food consumed. I 
should say kill the Leghorns at five months 
of age; the Plymouth Rocks at six months; 
the Light Brahmas at seven months old, 
feeding dui-ing all the last months of their 
lives very heavily with hard whole corn. 
Here is another item: Pick all white 
birds and sell their feathers separate; for 
white hens' feathers sell for 28 cents a 
pound ; while colored feathers bring only 
six to eight cents a pound. This makes a 
great difference, as the feathers alone will 
pay dressing expenses if they be white ones. 
I am conscious that for purely practical 
purposes the following breeds will be found 
to be the best ; 
Light Brahmas. 
White Plymouth Rocks. 
White Wyandottes. 
Barred Plymouth Rocks. 
Laced Wyandottes. 
White Leghorns. 
I put in the last to secure a summer crop 
of eggs while the others are hatching and 
running with their chickens. I am of the 
opinion that were all the Leghorn fowls 
emasculated ii, would affect the summer 
price of eggs fully eight cents per dozen. I 
mean that the incubating breeds would fail 
in summer as producers of eggs to fill the 
place of the Leghorns to such an extent as 
to make eggs worth that much more, so no 
well regulated poultryman can ignore the 
Leghorn race, if he is to have a uniform 
supply of eggs. To secure this in the best 
way I think Leghorns raised wholly as egg 
producers hatched in August and Septem¬ 
ber, the most desirable, killing the cocker¬ 
els either by pinching their heads when 
hatched, or eating them when six weeks 
old, when not larger than quails. The pul¬ 
lets raised in this way will lay a larger 
number of eggs during the great demand 
at our summer resorts than will pullets 
raised in any other way. This experiment 
may be tried also. Here is another point: 
The death rate in the different breeds from 
the shell till they are disposed of as broil¬ 
ers, also the amount of sickness and the 
number of cases of roup that result from 
distemper, and the number of deaths from 
six to 16 months old, are items that give 
all Asiatics a big advantage, for the death 
rate among Brahmas after they are a week 
old, is very small—the smallest among all 
known breeds. All the points I have named 
can be secured in one season in the same 
pens of stock, and one season’s active work 
will give a vast amount of authentic in¬ 
formation. 
CURIOUS POTATO RESULTS. 
S. B., Seaford, Del.—As the subject of 
potato growing is one of increasing inter¬ 
est, I desire to give a little of my experience 
this summer. What I am about to relate 
would seem to be almost incredible, but 
proof will be given to any doubter who 
may desire it. On my farm, which is five 
miles west of Seaford, Delaware, I had an 
old strawberry bed 100 yards long by 40 
wide. It had grown up thickly with clover 
and Crab Grass. Lengthwise it ran about 
east and west. At the extreme west end is 
a large and wide-spreading apple tree, from 
under which we gathered this fall 22 peach 
baskets full of apples. About the begin 
ning of the third week in June, this piece 
of ground was plowed to a depth of five 
inches, a drag chain having been used on 
the plow to pull under the clover and high 
grass. In the bottom of each third furrow 
cut potatoes of the Mammoth Pearl va¬ 
riety were dropped. The pieces contained 
from one to three eyes each. The sod was 
turned down directly on the pieces. No 
manure or fertilizer of any kind was used. 
About one-tliird of this patch was so 
much uiuler water this summer that 
the yield was nothing. This part was at 
the end of the patch opposite to the 
apple tree. The middle got but little 
cultivation, and immediately under the 
tree none at all, as that part though 
planted to within 10 feet of the trunk of 
the tree, was used as a play ground, and as 
pasture for a calf. The vines of the pota¬ 
toes were either eaten off or otherwise de¬ 
stroyed. At the latter part of the last 
week in September, the potatoes were 
plowed out. And now for the results: 
We got a very few small tubers from the 
middle of the patch up to within 30 feet of 
the tree. From this point up to the tree 
they rapidly increased in size until we got 
right under the tree within 10 feet of the 
trunk. Right here where the ground was 
trodden down and so hard that it was very 
difficult to turn it up with a two-liorse 
plow, and the clods of dirt had to be broken 
open to get the potatoes out, was the larg¬ 
est and finest crop that I have ever seen 
raised. To the south of the tree and only 
a short distance from it stands the home, 
so that the potatoes on the north side of 
the tree were almost constantly shaded, 
but just there, close under the tree, where 
the ground was the hardest, the potatoes 
were the finest, and right around and un¬ 
der the tree we gathered up 21 baskets, and 
all but the contents of one basket were ex¬ 
tra large and perfectly smooth. 
A FEW USES OF COFFER RIVETS AND BURRS. 
C. W. R., Clark’s Hill, Ind.— Small 
economies coupled with steady application 
will insure the success of most farmers. 
Do copper rivets and burrs figure iu your 
farm economy ? Here are some of the uses 
to which I put them. Several winters ago 
I happened to snag one of a pair of rubber 
boots, making it useless for wading in 
water. They were patched by a cobbler in 
the most approved manner. The surface 
of the boot was roughened, the patch was 
firmly held in place for some time and then 
allowed to dry for 24 hours; but in less 
than a week it came off. I got a box of 
rubber cement and tried sticking a patch 
on myself, but with no better success. In 
sheer desperation I took the boot out to the 
shop, put a short rivet through the hole 
and hammered it down tightly. This an¬ 
swered my purpose so well that when the 
uppers began to crack rivets were put in 
the split places, thus changing the place of 
bending. Result: the uppers wore out 
the rubber soles as well as heavy leather 
ones that were put on before the rubber 
ones wore through. The boots lasted three 
years (being used in wet weather and in 
ditching) and were pretty well decorated 
with rivets before they were given up as 
useless. Rivets will fasten the buckles 
and straps on horse collars very securely if 
the straw is taken out down below where 
the rivet is inserted. They will do to fasten 
a broken line, but they make a rather 
rough job. Chip basket handles are made 
firm by using them in time. They may be 
used in the place of screws when joining 
two pieces ot wood together. When want¬ 
ing an extra long one, a wrought nail and 
copper burr answer the purpose, cutting 
the nail to the required length. For mend¬ 
ing belts, splicing straps, etc., nothing is 
perhaps more expeditious or better. Other 
uses will be found for them if a supply be 
kept on hand. It is better to buy pound 
boxes of the lengths you want, for in the 
assorted boxes there are too many short 
ones. 
HIGH PRAISE FOR THE KIEFFER PEAR. 
“ Bates,” Rockville, Indiana.— In the 
spring of 1886, a neighbor of mine, a thor 
ough fruit grower, set out a Kieffer Pear- 
tree, two years old from the graft. This 
season the tree bore 50 well grown pears of 
large size: three weighed 30 ounces and 
one weighed 12 ounces, and there were no 
small ones. The samples before me are a 
most beautiful golden yellow and have an 
exquisite blush, which any woman would 
envy. As to quality, while not the best to 
the amateur and practiced fruit-dealer, the 
buyer of pears in the market would select a 
basket of Ivieffers before one of almost 
any other variety offered, and on tasting 
would pronounce the fruit first-rate. This 
variety is destined to become the market 
pear of our Western markets. It will be 
rated here as the Clairgeau is rated in East¬ 
ern markets. The tree is a strong, healthy 
grower, hardy and free from disease, and it 
bears at once. 
LIMA BEANS WITHOUT POLES. 
Elva, Buckingham County.Va.— My gar¬ 
den is an acre fenced round with a picket 
fence five feet nine incheshigh. The posts are 
inside. I run a wire along from post to 
post, one foot from the ground, and an¬ 
other four feet above it. Two-ply cotton 
strings are put from wire to wire and tlie 
Limas are trained on them, being nipped off 
when they reach the top—five feet. If this 
be omitted the plant will run along the 
top wire. Sunflowers are also planted 
along the fence at intervals of four feet. 
In some instances the Limas got hold of 
one and branched all over it. 
E. W. S., North Collins, N. Y.—I haul 
manure on the land as soon as it is made 
whenever I can conveniently do so. I plow 
it under one or two weeks before planting 
time, work the land thoroughly before put¬ 
ting in the seed, set my grain drill to put 
the rows three feet apart and two kernels 
to the foot, which will take eight to 10 
quarts to the acre, according to the size of 
the kernels. I open the fertilizer slide 
wide and put in from 200 to 300 pounds to 
the acre of the best fertilizer, whether the 
land is manured or not with yard manure, 
as it will keep off crows and worms and 
give the corn a big start which is impor¬ 
tant on cool land. I cultivate early and 
until the ears are well formed. Iu this way 
1 grow 1(H) bushels of sound ears per acre 
and it is splendid to feed before the ears are 
too ripe, or cut and put iu a silo. One rod 
of one of these rows of corn would be a far 
better feed for a cow than all the thickly 
grown corn an animal could eat. If I 
figure aright, the yield would make 8(X) 
feeds, each feed having the equivalent of 
two quarts of meal besides the stalks. 
How can I grow as cheap a stock feed and 
leave the land in as good condition ? I 
grow from 50 to 75 acres each season. 
R. C. F., SIM'LAIKVII.LE, N. Y.—1 read 
four agricultural papers, so I get that old 
gag about fast-wad' mg horses thrown in 
