838 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
DEC 2i 
Discussion. 
SMALL FARMS ON LONG ISLAND. 
J. E., Melville, L. I.— I have read the 
letters of the R. N.-Y.’s correspondents in 
reply to an inquiry as to how a man can 
make a living on a farm of 13 acres on Long 
Island. Now, I do not think a man (espec¬ 
ially a city man) could make a good living 
on that much land, even if it was all clear, 
without some other resources; hut I do 
think a man could make a healthier and 
better home for his family in the country 
than he ever could do in a tenement house 
in New York or Brooklyn. A distance of 
20 miles from the city is not too great for a 
man to attend to his business there and run 
a small farm too. I have done so for several 
years and I live nearly twice as far from 
the city. W. D. Pyles shows a very good 
record at farming, but he is one in a hun¬ 
dred and he doesn’t farm on Long Island. 
T. T. makes some very true remarks, es¬ 
pecially in reference to the Long Island 
small farmer, but I am of the opinion that he 
could handle a pen better than he could 
handle a mattock or a plow or give better ad¬ 
vice on legal matters than on practical farm¬ 
ing. He says the owner of 12 acres ought, 
with the assistance of his man—a green 
German at that—to be able to clear half an 
acre of his land in a day. Now m my loca¬ 
tion it is considered hard work for from 18 
to 20 days to stump an acre and that too by 
a man well used to his business. Plowing 
the stumps out by means of oxen I don’t 
think practicable. It would be difficult to 
get a plow strong enough or made of the 
proper shape for the purpose. Such a plow 
would also turn up too much of the sub¬ 
soil to the surface, and it would take nearly 
as long to cut off the roots and knock the 
dirt off the stumps as to clear the land by 
hand with the mattock. In my opinion the 
easiest and best way to clear a small place is 
to dig it all over with the mattock and get 
the roots all out. This method is slow but 
sure, and the land will be left in a good 
condition for planting. I paid $25 per acre 
for clearing my two first acres for a garden 
plot, and when it was plowed and harrowed 
it looked like an old wooden-tooth harrow 
turned upside down, with roots sticking 
above the surface. I next made a machine 
—something like what house-movers use— 
and cleared the land with a horse, pulling 
the stumps out root and branch, one at a 
time. It left the land easy to plow and 
in good condition for any crop. I burned 
the stumps in heaps and spread the ashes 
before plowing. I have now a nice little 
f.im with good buildings, a wind-mill for 
pumping water for house and stock, foun¬ 
tain and pond, and as fine an orchard and 
t-mall-fruit garden as there are on Long Is- 
and. Some of the old residents wonder 
what I do to my fruit trees, they look so 
healthy and have such fine crops of nice 
fruit, but as good fruit and farm crops 
can be raised on Long Island as any¬ 
where, if a man takes the right way to do 
it. I have been in business in New York 
for a number of years and have lived on 
Long Island for the last 15 years. I have 
raised a large family and improved my 
place without any help except what has 
been hired, and I would not live in the city 
again if I got a house rent-free. There are 
a great many things a man can make 
money at outside his farm, and this helps 
to make both ends meet. There are hun¬ 
dreds of business men building homes and 
summer cottages all over Long Island and 
giving employment to hundreds of people, 
and every year this sort of thing is increas¬ 
ing. I do not depend entirely on farming. 
I have a good business here besides but 
what I have learned at farming has been 
learnt by practical experience, and perhaps 
a few suggestions from me to the owner of 
12 acres might not be out of place. 
In the first place, I would advise the own¬ 
er of 12 acres to start a hot-bed as early in 
spring as the weather will permit. He 
should raise all kinds of early plants, in¬ 
cluding celery and sweet potatoes. He can 
sell enough to his neighbors to pay for the 
sashes at least. Let him build a chicken 
house of 10-inch hemlock boards—a lean-to 
shed roof is good enough to start with— 
cover it outside with tar-paper and white¬ 
wash it inside. A door and one or two 
sashes should be put on the south side. He 
should fence one-quarter or one-half of an 
acre with wire netting within which to 
keep his chickens in planting time. When 
the crops are off let them run where they 
please. Let him get as many good chickens 
as he can conveniently attend to. Leghorns 
are the best for eggs ; they are non-sitters 
and will lay most of the time if properly 
managed. Eggs always bring a fair price. 
He should get a couple of full-bred Lang- 
shan or Plymouth Rock roosters to cross on 
his'stock'for the' next season. I prefer the 
incubator or brooder for raising early 
chickens for market and home use. It is 
hard to get hens that will sit early enough. 
He should also get a couple of early spring 
pigs ; they will be large and fat enough to 
be killed for next winter’s pork. Let him 
get a good young cow—one after calving or 
just coming in—and plant some fodder- 
corn for her. Let him plow two acres 
eight or 10 inches deep for an orchard and 
kitchen garden, if it is subsoil plowed, all 
the better. Half an acre is enr ugh for a 
garden. As many loads of well-rotted stable 
manure as he can afford and a few barrels 
of ground bone should be spread on it, and 
the whole should be harrowed in until the 
ground is level and in good order for plant¬ 
ing. The apple trees should be 35 feet 
apart each way, and the peach trees should 
be set north and south between the 
apple trees. The latter will come in 
bearing soon, and by the time the 
former are large enough to bear a full 
crop, the peach trees may be dug up, as 
their usefulness will be over. Potatoes, 
beans, carrots, beets, parsnips, peas and 
other low-growing crops may be planted 
between the rows of apple trees for five or 
six years. The potatoes should be put in 
according to the Rural’s trench system. 
Doing so will double the crop and make the 
land deep and mellow forthe tree roots. No 
grass or weeds should be allowed to grow 
around trees. The cultivator and hoe 
must be kept at work and the owner will 
be surprised to see how quickly the trees 
will grow and come into bearing. A few 
rows of dwarf apple and pear trees should 
be planted in the garden : they will bear 
in a year or two. Angouleme and Anjou 
do best as dwarf pears. They should be 
planted 10 or 12 feet apart in rows with 25 
feet between the rows. A few rows of cur¬ 
rants, gooseberries, raspberries, grapes and 
other small fruits should also be set out as 
well as quinces, plums and cherries. One 
cannot have too many fruits; they are 
meat and drink and will save doctors’ bills. 
Garden vegetables should be planted in 
rows between the trees so that as the own¬ 
er can plow and cultivate them with the 
horse a great deal of time can be saved in 
hoeing and weeding. One should not buy 
large trees ; those two years old are large 
enough ; they will take root better and 
grow faster than larger ones and cost a 
great deal less. The inquirer should write 
this winter to a reliable nurseryman for a 
catalogue, select what trees he wants and 
have them shipped in time for planting. 
He should use good tools. Doing so -will 
save labor and temper and do the work bet¬ 
ter than poor ones. Agricultural imple¬ 
ments are so improved now and so cheap 
that it would not pay a man to lose time 
bringing home a lot of old rubbish fit only 
for the wood-pile or junk-shop. The old 
fashioned plow is a thing of the past. It 
would wear out more shoe leather in one 
season keeping it clean than would pay for 
an improved one. 
Let him buy a Gale or a Boss one-horse 
plow. The Boss is the best I ever used, it 
keeps clean and rolls the soil over and cov¬ 
ers up the weeds; it can be set to any 
depth or width of furrow. Three differ¬ 
ent sizes of mold-boards and shares come 
with it. It will plow between rows 15 
inches apart and the whole costs only 
about $5. He should get a good steel-tooth 
cultivator; it will not cost much. A good 
iron-tooth harrow will answer well enough. 
The Cutaway is the best for new land, but 
it is expensive. There are a great many 
farm and garden tools which a handy man 
can make at his leisure and thus save time 
and money. It would be advisable to get 
a good, steady horse that has worked some 
time on a farm, if one has to pay a little 
more for him. As a general thing, the 
broken-down city car-horse is of little use. 
For a year or more it is hard to get him to 
go straight in the plow; he will walk on the 
plants, tramp on the corn hills, go too fast 
or not at all, and tear things to pieces. If 
extra help is needed a man who under¬ 
stands the business would answer the pur¬ 
pose best even if one has to pay him a little 
more wages. A poor workman, either me¬ 
chanic or laborer, is dear at any price. The 
above gives my experience in men, horses 
and tools. One should not take too much 
stock in what every one does or says. He 
should read some good agricultural papers, 
like the R. N.-Y., and study Nature and 
paddle his own canoe. He should not give 
up his business until his place is in good 
cultivation unless he can find something 
that will pay him better in his'neighbor- 
hood. 
SELLING DAIRY COWS A GOOD^BUSINESS. 
J. J. M., Whippany, N. J.,—A recent ar¬ 
ticle on the raising of calves for milch cows 
in the dairy districts which supply New 
York City with milk is a good one. It is 
almost impossible to buy good cows any 
more. I speak from experience both in 
buying and selling, for I have done both. 
Sixteen years ago I began handling milch 
cows. I bought them in Pennsylvania, 
and New York State and sold them in New 
Jersey. Most of this stock came from Sus¬ 
quehanna, Wayne and Bradford Counties, 
Pa., and from Broome, Chenango, and 
Cortland Counties, N. Y. At that time 
such a thing as a creamery shipping milk 
to New York City from that section was 
not known, and in fact there were no 
creameries there to doit. The farmers kept 
from 10 to 30 cows each and made butter, 
raised calves and fed hogs. In the fall or 
spring, as a matter of course, they would 
sell some stock—generally cows or two-year- 
old heifers—and they would sell good ones 
for two reasons: they needed the money 
and they did not want to get over-stocked, 
as the calves and yearlings were coming 
on to take the places of the cows sold. 
But how is it now ? The creameries have 
sprung up all through that country and 
the farmers are selling their milk and in 
most cases, even buying butter. They are 
not raising any calves to speak of for lack 
of skim-milk, and does any one suppose 
they are going to sell cows that are good 
for anything now ? No, indeed. If one gets 
any it is the culls, and it is almost im¬ 
possible to get a good lot of dairy cows out 
of the drovers’ and dealers’ lots. Farmers 
cannot sell what they have not got, and 
the only way out of this trouble is to raise 
our own calves. I made up my mind to 
this years ago, and bought a registered 
Holstein bull and to-day I have 21 head of 
half and three-quarter-blood heifers all 
from good cows. Some of them are milk¬ 
ing and the three-year-old grades are hold¬ 
ing their own right up with the old cows. 
Three or tour can be raised every year with¬ 
out much trouble, keeping your dairy good 
in number and quality. It is very impor¬ 
tant that your bull be from a good milk 
strain. In fact, much depends on this. I 
am perfectly satisfied that the Holstein 
grades are the coming general dairy cow. I 
do not say this because I have them, but 
because I think I am right in the matter. 
They are good cows to hold on to their 
milk—not go dry six months in the year. I 
think they are away ahead in this. In con¬ 
clusion, let me say to the milk producers: 
Try raising your own cows and I think if 
you get at it once you will keep at it. Of 
course, many will say it does not pay to 
raise calves in this part of the country; but 
if one raises good stock, it does. If one 
can get 10 good cows without buying 30 
from which to select those 10, he can do 
more than I can. 
HORTICULTURE A SENTIMENT IN IOWA. 
Prof. J. L. Budd, Ames, Iowa.— With 
an experience of over a quarter of a cen¬ 
tury in practical agriculture and horticul¬ 
ture in Central Iowa, I have a very high 
estimate of our possibilities in the way of 
agricultural and horticultural products of 
the North Temperate Zone. Hence I regret 
the appearance of such remarks as the fol¬ 
lowing, which the R. N.-Y. credits, undei 
“What Others Say.” to the editor of the 
Iowa Homestead: “Horticulture in Iowa 
is a sentiment—corn, grass and live stock 
give us our daily bread.” Very naturally 
in a new prairie State attention is first given 
to such mainstays as corn, grass and live 
stock; and I even admit that the settlers 
on the virgin prairies often get wedded to 
the habit of making “hog and hominy” 
the main articles of diet. But in our older 
counties we now find tens of thousands of 
finely fitted-up homes, with shade trees, 
shelter belts, ornamental trees, shrubs, all 
the small fruits, and such orchard fruits of 
the first introduction as do well in our cli¬ 
mate. Perhaps in no other part of the Union 
are the villages and cities better supplied 
with home-grown small fruits than in Iowa, 
and the general culture of the small f ruits for 
home use is rapidly extending in all parts of 
the State. In the central and northern dis¬ 
tricts the lists of really hardy apples, pears 
and cherries have been very restricted, owing 
o the fact that the southwestern fruits of 
Europe and their seedlingswhich do well east 
of the lakes, have failed mainly with us: 
yet our markets are often oversupplied 
with summer apples, really excellent native 
plums and small fruits, and it is now con¬ 
ceded that a new era is dawning in the way 
of cherries, pears and apples in great vari¬ 
ety, that will prove as hardy in tree and 
as abundant in bearing as the Duchess Ap¬ 
ple or 'our select native plums. With our 
system r of trial stations conducted by the 
agricultural.college and the State Horticul¬ 
tural Society, these new and desirable iron¬ 
clads willberapilly tested and propagated, 
and the very near future will show fine 
amateur and commercial orchards in the 
very counties where corn, grass and stock 
are now the main staples. Everything 
having been taken into consideration, we 
have made wonderful advances in our hor¬ 
ticultural transformation of the virgin 
prairie of a few years ago, and I feel like 
resenting the charge that our millions of 
trees for shelter and ornament, our mil¬ 
lions of shrubs, our thousands of acres of 
small fruits, and the present status of the 
orchard fruits should all be included in the 
word “ sentiment,” which Webster says is 
“a thought prompted by feeling.” 
A CITY MAN’S EXPENSES. 
R. G. B., Paterson, N. J.—I take a good 
deal of interest in the various letters pub¬ 
lished from time to time from theR. N.-Y.’s 
large staff of correspondents. Just now 
the communications on the cost of living 
call for a little comment. I have thought 
that perhaps some of the readers would 
like to know what it costs a city man to 
live, so that they could compare his good 
things with theirs. In the first place, I 
earn $16 per week and pay $15 per month 
for house rent. It amuses me when I read 
some of the letters which say: “ We don’t 
keep any account of vegetables, butter, 
eggs, milk, etc.” Well I will tell them 
what some of these things cost me: I pay 
75 cents per bushel for potatoes; 32 cents 
per pound for butte”; 16 cents per pound 
for chickens; eight cents per quart for 
milk; 25 cents for seven eggs, and other 
things cost in proportion. There is one 
point in which farYners have a large advan¬ 
tage over us who are “ coffined, cribbed and 
confined,” and it is an advantage that, I 
think very few of them appreciate; that is, 
the advantage of family companionship. 
I know Mr. Terry appreciates it, and right 
here let me shake hands with Mr. Terry 
and thank him for all the enjoyment I have 
had out of his letters. Now I work from 15 
to 16 hours a day Sundays and holidays 
year after year, and I see little of my family. 
My children are growing up in a separate 
world from mine, and my wife sees so little 
of me that we can hardly have the same 
partnership such as Mr. Terry speaks of in 
one of his recent letters. 
A MASSACHUSETTS ESTIMATE. 
R. J. H., Templeton, Mass.— I have been 
much interested iu the discussion on the 
cost of living, but have not seen anything 
from this State. My family consists of two 
persons—my wife and myself. We have 
some visitors and help occasionally. Here 
are our expenses for the four years. 
MEAT 
AND GROCERIES. 
CLOTHES. 
1885, 
$93.85 
$45.81 
1886.' 
55.42 
26.90 
1887. 
58.06 
40.52 
1888. 
69.72 
43.02 
This table does not include either milk, 
butter, eggs, or poultry. Neither have I 
charged myself with the lard or pork 
fattened on the farm, and usually I kill a 
young beef creature of which I keep part 
and sell the rest to my neighbors. We 
burn about 15 cords of wood per year. 
That does not appear in the expense ac¬ 
count, as I cut it on the farm. The princi¬ 
pal items would average about as follows 
per year : tea, $7 ; coffee, $2; sugar, $8 : 
molasses, $3.50; flour, $15.50; fresh meat, 
$10 : and the remainder goes for things too 
numerous to be specified. The above ac¬ 
count does not show anything for potatoes 
or for various other vegetables grown on 
the farm, as I don’t charge myself with 
them. I think if farmers generally kept 
strict accounts and gave the farm credit for 
all of its produce that they used, they 
would have to admit that farming does pay. 
THOSE DESERTED FARMS. 
F. L. A., East Pepperell, Mass.—Do 
readers of the R. N.-Y. wonder at there be¬ 
ing so many deserted farms in New Hamp¬ 
shire and Vermont after reading the prices 
for farm products given by correspondents 
from those States in recent numbers ? 
Born and reared on a hill farm in a New 
Hampshire town, and having spent my 
time till the age of 30 on one of these farms, 
I know a little of why they are deserted. I 
earnestly adviseauy youug man with a few 
hundred dollars, to invest it elsewhere and 
not to attempt to bring up the land and 
repair the buildings, to say nothing of lift¬ 
ing the inevitable mortgage accompani¬ 
ments on those old farms. One undesirable 
feature is the long distance at which these 
farms are located from any good market, 
and freights and express eat up the profits. 
As to the local markets, a dozen cucumbers 
and a peck of L green peas would glut one of 
