1 889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
789 
be so raised; that is, if w. understand tb 
question. 
J. M. S., Rutland, Pa. —Where can I get 
registered swine ? 
Ans. —What breed of swine ? Here are 
the names of a few breeders: F. D. Curtis, 
Charlton, N. Y., Duroc-Jerseys; C. H. War¬ 
rington, West Chester, Pa., Chester Whites; 
S. E. Shellenbarger ’& Co., Camden, Ohio, 
Poland-Chinas; Springer Bros., Springfield, 
Ill., Berksliires; W. Atlee Burpee and 
Johnson & Stokes, Philadelphia, Pa., vari¬ 
ous bi’eeds. 
J. O., Carbondale, Pa. —What is the best 
work on the care of horses and mules. I 
have charge of a large number of mules 
here, and the legs of nearly all of them are 
in a terrible condition. 
ANS.—For diseases of farm animals there 
is probably no better book than Law’s 
Veterinary Adviser, published by Dr. 
James Law r , Ithaca, N. Y., price $3. This 
probably will not give all that you wish 
about the handling and feeding of the 
mules. We do not know of just such a 
book as you want. A good one could be 
compiled from the columns of the Ft. N.-Y. 
A. H. B., Chicago, III .—How can I con¬ 
vert oak leaves, now falling, into manure 
in time for use for next season’s crops of 
grass for pasture and hay? 
Ans. —The leaves can be scraped into piles 
with rakes or by other means. They make 
good bedding or can be used in the manure 
heap. They can be converted into good 
compost by rotting them down. To do this 
properly, something must be mixed with 
them to hasten decay. Night-soil or some 
similar manure is excellent for this pur¬ 
pose ; in fact, about the best use for night- 
soil is to serve as a composting agent for 
muck, leaves or similar material. In the 
absence of manure, lime is often used to 
start the rotting with quite satisfactory re¬ 
sults. A layer of leaves about a foot thick, 
then lime enough to make them white, then 
more leaves and so on. The best place for 
leaves will be found in the stable or on the 
manure heap. As a rule, the R. N.-Y r . 
doesn’t believe it pays to collect leaves. 
Discussion. 
MORE ABOUT THE COST OF LIVING. 
Fred. Grundy, Christian County, 
III.—Here is a partial list of family ex¬ 
penses for each adult in 1888. 
Flour. $5.90 
Cereals, rolled oats, pearl barley, etc. 1.85 
Meat, largely fresh beef. 7.55 
Sugar. 4.75 
Tea and coffee. 1.62 
Wood and coal for two stoves cost-18.60 
Family supply of kerosene. 4.10 
Flour is bought by the sack from the 
lnrge flouring mills in the village at $2.60 
to $3 per sack of 98 pounds. Coal is shipped 
in on the railroad and we buy it by the 
bushel, a full supply of mixed nut and 
lump forwinter being laid in, at 7)4 to nine 
cents per bushel, some time in October. 
Meat is bought mostly from regular 
butchers at eight to 12)4 cents per pound. 
We buy some from farmers who butcher 
beeves of their own raising, and sell by the 
quarter or 100 pounds to neighbors at 4)4 
to eight cents per pound. Eggs, butter, 
chickens, vegetables, milk and the greater 
part of the fruits used are produced on the 
place and no account of them is kept. We 
burn quite a lot of corn-cobs in the cook 
stove in summer because they make a hot 
fire quickly and it is soon gone. Very little 
molasses is used because we find it so very 
difficult, to procure a thoroughly good arti¬ 
cle. Most of the stuff usually sold as mo¬ 
lasses or sirup would destroy the stomach 
of a rhinoceros, if the animal could be in¬ 
duced to eat it. Boots, shoes, clothing, etc., 
cost about the same here as in any village 
between New York and Omaha. 
C. F. H., Clarksville, Mich.—The Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker of Nov. 2, asks the fol¬ 
lowing question : “ What is the cost of liv¬ 
ing in your neighborhood ? ” If this question 
could be answered correctly or even approxi¬ 
mately, it would beshown thafca widediffer- 
ence existed in the cost of living in families 
of equal numbers and means in this neigh¬ 
borhood, not only in the aggregate outlay, 
but also in the use and consumption of dif¬ 
ferent articles of diet and dress. Our fam¬ 
ily comprises three adults. Below will be 
found a table of our expenses for the past 
three years and 10 months, beginning Jan¬ 
uary 1, 1886. 
Sugar. Grot'ortes Meat Light Tea. Ct ffeeUUith’g. 
HKti SUMIS 
$14 St¬ 
S‘‘l SO 
' 8 76 
$2 94 : 
>6 :o 
$81 06 
1S8J... 8 10 
as 41 
2j35 
S 50 
8 40 
\ i«i 
36 74 
1888... » 43 
IS U . 
s: 10 
4 0 
8*0 
ti 21 
44 87 
1888.. 20 10 
24 88 
22 74 
8 o2 
a i:> 
1 Via 
88 50 
For many years past I have kept strict 
debit and credit accounts of all receipts 
and expenditures in trade—before and since 
moving on a farm—hence I am able to give 
a very correct statement of our family ex¬ 
penditures. I have separated from the gen¬ 
eral grocery account the items of sugar, 
coffee, tea and kerosene. In addition to 
the sugar purchased, we have used about 
100 pounds of maple sugar, each year, man¬ 
ufactured on our premises. Also, to the 
meat account must be added about 250 
pounds of beef of our own slaughtering 
each year, except 1887. The consumption 
of pork has been principally hams, as we 
have not had a hog on the premises since 
1884. The expenditures for clothing include 
shoes, etc., which have been for two mem¬ 
bers of the family only— wife and myself. 
It will be observed in the above table that 
no account is made of the amount of flour, 
fuel, fruits, vegetables, butter, milk, eggs 
and fowls consumed, as no direct outlay of 
money is made for those articles. About 
18 bushels of wheat manufactured into 
flour for family use, and about 15 cords of 
wood are consumed per annum. It will be 
noticed that the item of sugar has cost this 
year more than double the outlay in any 
previous year. This is one of the conse¬ 
quences of protected trusts rather than of 
an increased number of pounds purchased. 
My farming experience is limited to the 
last seven years, and as the farm labor has 
been done by experienced farmers for a 
share of the crops, I have not hired much 
outside labor—not enough in the years 
above enumerated to add materially to the 
expenses. 
W. S. S., Pleasant Valley, III.—I be¬ 
lieve the R. N.-Y.’s idea of collecting esti¬ 
mates of the cost of living in different 
parts of the country might prove’very valu¬ 
able to town people who think of trying 
country life. Our family consists of four 
adults. We produce all the flour, meal, 
potatoes, milk, butter and vegetables we 
use and most of the meat, fiuit, etc. We 
use very little smoked or salt meat, but 
patronize the butcher’s wagon in the sum¬ 
mer and butcher for ourselves in the win¬ 
ter, or buy beef by the' quarter and keep it 
fresh, selliug it so to the neighbors when 
we butcher. For the past five or six years 
our average yearly outlay for dry goods 
for the family has been $100, as nearly as I 
can figure it from our accounts. For gro¬ 
ceries $70 or $80; for meat about $15 cash 
paid out; coffee and tea $5 to $10, and su¬ 
gar, honey, etc., $20 or $25. These latter 
items are not reckoned with the other gro¬ 
ceries. Our fuel costs nothing but the la¬ 
bor of cutting and hauling SO rods or so, as 
this is a timbered part of the State. Our 
real estate tax runs f com $2 to $15 on each 
40 acres per year. I haven’t any accounts 
very far back so as to be able to compare 
the cost of living then and now; but the 
expenses for the past five years or so have 
beeu quite uniform: $300 per year will 
cover the whole, including repairs, black- 
smitliing, postage, and all the other little 
leaks; but not including the price of stock, 
machinery, etc., for the farm. 
S. B. W., River Falls, Wis.—O ur ac¬ 
count is rather meager, and has beeu kept 
with the idea of knowing the total amount 
of our expenditures rather than the cost of 
each item. For the year 1888 my outlay for 
two adults—no children, but some help 
hired by the day, but none by the mouth, 
no account being kept of flour, vegetables, 
meat, fowls, eggs, butter, milk and cream 
—was as follows. 
Groceries and dry goods. $108.07 
Sugar. 15.00 
Wood estimate. 50.00 
Total $173.07 
The above is an estimate of what we 
“stayed on” rather than the cost of living. 
R. H. T., North River, N. Y.—I have 
never kept an account except of flour, pork, 
sugar and tea. Butter, cream, eggs, vege¬ 
tables and potatoes I raise myself. I have 
my own wood, so all the cost of ic is that of 
cutting and hauling it and we do that by 
odd jobs. There are eight of us in the 
family. This would be for each member 
about $26.43 per year, or about 51 cents per 
week. 
We consume 12 barrels of flour at 
$6 per barrel. $72.00 
6 barrels of pork at $16. 96.00 
500 pounds of sugar at 7)7 cents. 37.50 
20 pouuds of tea at 30 cents. 6.00 
Total $211.50 
A YOUNG FARMER’S IDEAS AND PRACTICE. 
W.L. J., South port, N. Y.—I have long 
had it on my mind lo tell the R. N.-Y. how 
much 1 appreciate it. Of the six agri¬ 
cultural papers I subscribe for, tlieR. N.-Y. 
is the one 1 can least do without, and so 
long as it is kept to its present standard it 
may count on my hearty support. I am a 
young farmer and try to be a progressive 
one. I cannot claim, like T. B. Terry, to 
have made my farm, for I inherited it ; 
but I try to make both ends meet and ‘ lap 
on ’ “ some.” My farm contains about 35 
acres of sandy loam, from which I support 
a family of eight persons, and we have 
many of the luxuries of life. I have a 
large new barn, (not built from the profits of 
the farm) 60x46 feet with 18-foot posts, 
which I fill from my small farm. I keep 
three horses, 10 cattle, a number of hogs 
and about 100 hens. We make butter the 
year around. I feed my cows bran four 
parts and cotton-seed meal one part, with 
good pasture and corn-fodder through the 
summer. In the winter I feed equal parts 
of corn and oats ground together, with 
roots (carrots, mangels, turnips and small 
potatoes) and good hay and corn¬ 
stalks. I have warm stables for all 
my cattle. I keep one man the year around. 
I believe in fall plowing, and follow mixed 
farming. My rotation is about as follows: 
a Timothy sod with IS to 20 loads of barn- 
manure per acre spread on and plowed un¬ 
der in October or November when it is al¬ 
lowed to lie rough till spring. Then I ap¬ 
ply 500 pounds of kainit per acre, thorough¬ 
ly cultivate and plant to corn May 1 to 15. 
This is followed by potatoes or oats, and 
the ground is seeded to grass with wheat 
and mown for three years, then pastured 
and plowed again. I plant potatoes on the 
trench system, using 2,000 pounds of com¬ 
mercial fertilizer per acre broadcasted after 
the ground has been trenched. In the sea¬ 
son of 1888 I raised 406)4 bushels of pota¬ 
toes per acre, true measure. My money 
crops are potatoes and hay. My grain is 
marketed in the shape of milk, cream, but¬ 
ter, chickens, eggs and pork. Our village 
being a summer resort for wealthy city 
people, we get extra prices for the products 
of the farm. I make all the manure I can, 
and buy as much as I think I can use with 
profit. I believe the proper time to apply 
manure is whenever one has it. 
M. M., Minnesota Lake,Minn.—O ur fam¬ 
ily numbers five adults—two men and three 
women—and the yearlv cost is as follows: 
Wheat ground for flour.$42.90 
Butcher’s meat. 38.00 
Fowls. 9.50 
Sugar. 25.50 
Home-made sorghum sirup, 40 gal¬ 
lons @ 20 cents.. 8.00 
Tea. 8.00 
Coffee. 18.25 
Fruits, baking powder, vinegar, etc.. 21.00 
$171.15 
Wheat, meat and fowls are put down at 
the figures we could get for them if we 
sold them at the time we used them. Of 
the cost of potatoes, buckwheat and all 
sorts of vegetables we did not keep any ac¬ 
count. Wood we have to buy here. Last 
year’s supply cost $20, and we had to haul 
it 18 miles, which made 10 days’ work for 
one man and a team. Clothing came high : 
Clothing for one man..:. $37.75 
Boots and shoes for ditto . 18.50 
$56.25 
Clothing for one woman. $36.90 
Shoes “ “ . 10.25 
$47.15 
We live and dress in the same way as a 
large majority of the hard-working people 
in this county. 
CORN FODDER. 
C. S. Rice, Lewis County, N. Y.—Read¬ 
ing the note concerning the R. N.-Y.’s corn 
fodder experiment, mentioned on page 760, 
leads me again to refer to a matter I have 
discussed before. From 20 to 30 tons of 
corn-fodder can easily be grown on one acre 
of land. A dairy of 30 cows will profitably 
consume several acres of such fodder each 
season before the usual time of opening the 
silo. Labor is not plentiful, wages are 
high and the prices of dairy products are 
low. It is therefore well worth the study 
of the dairyman to cut, cure and place be¬ 
fore the cows this heavy crop with the least 
possible labor and at the same time secure 
fodder of the best, quality. About two 
years ago I gave the readers of the R. N.-Y. 
some account of a method that I had prac¬ 
ticed with perfect satisfaction for years, 
aud under varying conditions of crops and 
weather. Experience siuce that time has 
only confirmed my previous opiuion of its 
practicability and value. Many farmers 
have tried it with success aud have com¬ 
mended it for general practice, while others 
have made a partial failure. M ithout at¬ 
tempting to account for such failures or 
compare my way with the practice of 
others, I will give a brief account of my 
way of cutting, curing and feeding this 
year’s crop. 
The variety of corn is known here as 
Sheep’s-tooth. A little more than a-half 
bushel of seed to an acre was drilled in on 
six acres of good, well-manured corn land. 
The rows were 32 inches apart. The 
crop was cultivated three or four times and 
grew to the hight of from nine to 12 feet. 
There were some ears on the thinner por¬ 
tion of the field. It was cut the first week 
in September. It had been in tassel for 
some time and the ears were about in con¬ 
dition for roasting. The corn stood up 
well, and it was cut with the reaper two 
rows at a time. The piece was divided in 
the middle, and the reaper cut on all sides 
so that no time was lost. An average of 
five hours’ time of two men to the acre 
completed the job of cutting and cocking 
the fodder. The rakes were allowed to run 
but not to throw off the corn. When the 
platform was well loaded the team was 
stopped aud the corn was drawn off by 
hand. The bunches were large, containing 
about 400 pounds each and were left in 
rows. The corn was handled with the 
hands and five or six of the bunches were 
put in each stack. The stacks were made 
10 feet across on the bottom, and as high 
as the men could place the armful—say, 
six feet. 
About one ton of the green fodder was 
put in a stack. The work of cocking was 
begun as soon as cutting was completed. 
There was no rain during the whole time. 
The armfuls were crossed occasionally; 
the cock was kept in good shape and fin¬ 
ished by the two men, one on each side, 
bearing down the ends of stalks that they 
might at once take proper shape to shed 
rain. The week after the cutting it rained 
nearly all the time and has done so per¬ 
haps every other day since. The rain has 
never penetrated the cocks to any extent. 
Only one or two tops of cocks have been 
blown off. There has been no heating, 
souring or molding. The fodder is in per¬ 
fect condition from top to bottom except a 
little that is weather-beaten on the surface. 
Although the stalks are large the cattle 
eat them with a relish and perfectly clean ; 
there is no waste whatever. It is as good 
corn-fodder as I ever saw. A large feed of 
it has been given the cows once a day from 
the time of cutting. 
The stalks are long and although a hay 
knife was used to cut them up so that they 
could be pitched from the cock to the 
wagon, still it was hard, heavy work to 
load them. The men now load them with 
the team in less time than when it was 
done by hand and there is no lifting what¬ 
ever. A low, broad-tired wagon with a hay 
rack that is eight by 16 feet in size, is placed 
near the cocks and the team is removed. 
Three plauks are laid from the ground to 
the hind end of the rack and with an inch 
rope 60 feet long the cocks are drawn up 
the plank and a load as large as the team 
can draw is put on in a short time. A large 
iron ring is attached to one eud of the rope 
for convenience in forming a noose. The 
rope is passed around the cock part of the 
way under the edge and part of the way a 
foot or more up on the side and the 
end is put through the ring and 
the team is attached. The rope when 
drawn tightly holds the entire cock 
firmly like a bundle, and it is drawn up the 
plank and forward on the rack. Enough 
cocks are then drawn on to form a load as 
large as the team can draw. Such a load 
will last my stock five days and it is thrown 
direct from the wagon in front of the cows. 
As there is another wagon for farm work 
the stalks are unloaded only as they are 
needed and all extra handling is avoided. 
The harvesting and curing of corn-fodder 
and feeding it from the first of September to 
the first of January can bedone in this way 
with perhaps as little labor as by any meth¬ 
od that can be devised. The quality of the 
fodder is excellent. Corn for curing in this 
way should be sufficiently mature when 
cut. The cocks should be made of a size 
according to the length of the stalks. If a 
large cock is made with short stalks it will 
probably become wet. If in the case of 
corn-fodder 10 feet long the cock be but 
three feet high, the ends of the stalks will 
rest on the ground and the stack cannot 
take the conical form necessary for shed¬ 
ding rain. I have enough of such fodder 
now in the field to feed the stock once a 
day until February and I intend to continue 
to feed it direct from the field while it lasts. 
SUuiccUantou$ A mti£inr\. 
“Herbr&nd” Fifth Wheel for Bugeies 
