8So 
rHF RURAL NEW-YORK HR 
DEC 28 
an earnest advocate of our public school 
system and takes great interest in the cause 
of education. 
No. 4 is Mr. G. E. Maxon, a native of 
New York State. He was reared on a farm 
and at the age of 17 years came to Illinois 
with an empty purse and began life for 
himself. He worked steadily and carefully, 
saved his earnings until he was able to buy 
a farm for himself. Believing that there 
was more profit in raising and feeding 
stock than in exclusive grain farming, he 
soon became the owner of a herd of cattle. 
Close observation convinced him that there 
was money in Short-horn blood and he 
forthwith introduced it into his herd. 
This, together with his system of hastening 
maturity by means of good shelter and an 
abundance of food, enabled him to make 
money while others lost. As the profits of 
cattle-raising and feeding were cut down 
by the development of the business on the 
Western plains, he gradually changed to 
sheep and draft horses, and out of these he 
has made considerable money. He says 
that sheep have proved the most profitable 
stock he has handled, and one of his great¬ 
est mistakes was in farming without them. 
He has raised and sold quite a good many 
very fine draft horses. He advocates 
mixed farming—growing grain and grass 
and feeding them on the farm to stock of 
the best quality, limiting the numbers so 
that each animal will have the best of care 
and an abundance of food from birth to 
maturity. In connection with his farming 
operations, Mr. Maxon is engaged in buy¬ 
ing and shipping fat stock. As his ap¬ 
pearance indicates, he i» energetic and 
enterprising, a close observer, watchful of 
his own interests and quick to adopt any 
device or practice that will facilitate oper¬ 
ations on the farm or enhance the comforts 
of his stock and increase his profits. He is 
greatly respected by a large circle of friends 
and acquaintances, and last Spring was 
elected supervisor of his township. He 
now resides in the suburbs of this village 
and communicates his orders to the farm, 
one mile distant, through a private tel¬ 
ephone. 
No. 5 is Mr. T. F. Potts, a native of Illi¬ 
nois. He was reared on a farm and began 
to hoe his own row at the age of 21 years. 
He inherited a small amount of money to 
begin with, and this he employed to such 
good advantage that he soon accumulated 
quite a nice property in land and stock. 
Being of a rather genial and social nature, 
and placing a broad construction on the 
command: “Love thy neighbor as thy¬ 
self,” he was imposed upon by friends 
whom he was trying to assist, just atatime 
of great financial depression, and this gave 
him quite a severe backset. Nothing daun¬ 
ted, however, he resolutely pressed forward 
—worked a little harder, and economized a 
little closer, and in due time recovered all 
he had lost. He is now worth about $20,000. 
He has made quite a handsome sum in 
breeding road and general-purpose horses. 
For this branch of farming he has a great 
liking. He is firm in the belief that how¬ 
ever depressed the market for common 
stock may be there will always be an active 
demand for well-bred, stylish horses at 
prices which will justify a man in expend¬ 
ing a liberal sum for first-class breeding 
animals, and taking the best of care of 
them. He keeps between 300 and 500 very 
good sheep, and thinks they have yielded 
him a larger profit, from the investment 
they represent, than anything else he pos¬ 
sesses. He takes considerable pride in this 
flock, and they are given the best of care, 
and this is, probably, the reason they have 
paidsowell. He is a firm believer in tliefer- 
tilizing and beneficial mechanical effects 
of clover and sows a great deal of it. He is 
confident that his land is richer in plant 
food to-day than when first broken up. 
This has been brought about by means of 
clover and sheep. He keeps a considerable 
number of cattle and hogs, but devotes his 
attention so largely to horses that this 
branch of farming may be considered a 
specialty with him. Mr. Potts is some¬ 
thing of a speculator, but a very cautious 
one. He usually has an extra iron or two 
in the fire, but he manages so well that he 
rarely gets any of them burned. His ap¬ 
pearance indicates the quiet, speculative 
genius. He is a school director and a great 
admirer of our public school system. 
Morrisonville, Ill. F. G. 
-4i»- 
SPECIAL PREMIUM OFFER. 
Read what is said on page 863 about 
BLAKELEE’S INDUSTRIAL CYCLOPEDIA. 
The R. N.-Y. regards this as the best 
book of the sort it has ever seen. We will 
send it as a premium for three subscribers 
at $2 each, and 28 cents for postage. 
(iitml topics. 
NOTES ON 1889 
W HICH IS NOW 
A “BACK NUMBER.” 
CROPS THAT PAID BEST. 
PLANS for the FUTURE. 
1 . What crop or product has paid 
you bestduring the past season ? 
2. Why, in your opinion, has it paid 
you best? 
3. Will it pay you to increase this 
crop or product for next year? 
NEW HAMPSHIRE 
NOTIONS. 
HE product of 
the farm that 
has paid the best 
considering the 
cultivation and 
the expense of 
harvesting, has 
been that of the 
orchard. Why 
was it the most 
profitable? 
First, because of 
a good and lively demand for the fruit, 
which insured a good, fair price per barrel. 
This season anything that was an apple 
could be sold without urging, at a profit¬ 
able price. Again, the expense of gathering 
was low. Barrels were purchased at 40 per 
cent, discount on the usual prices. My 
fruit was less wormy than in ’88 and there 
was a heavier crop per tree than ever be¬ 
fore. The pickers were intelligent and 
trusty—capable of sorting and packing 
their own pickings, which they did from 
their baskets, thus avoiding expense and 
many bruises on the apples. Why was the 
proportion of wormy apples smaller ? It 
was owing to the spraying of Paris-green 
and the increase in yield. It seems to be a 
fact that in a thinly fruited orchard the 
apples are nearly all bad—that is woimy 
—and that there are no more pests in the 
orchard if the trees bear heavily. On a 
tree bearing one bushel all the fruit is 
poor,while on a tree bearing more than one 
bushel there are no more bad fruits than on 
the first. Then if the yield of the orchard 
is increased the culls will remain nearly the 
same in quantity as now, and the increase 
in fruit will be a profit. Five years ago 
there was gathered from a neglected or¬ 
chard only fruit enough for our own home 
use—during my first year here this season 
the product was 460 barrels besides what 
was consumed in two families consisting of 
12 persons, and windfalls that were thrown 
into the hog-yards. * The orchard is kept 
seeded to grass and this product has doub¬ 
led since I began to work among the trees 
with the saw, plow and stable manure. 
The foliage has changed from a sickly 
green to a t hick, dark green and each tree 
presents an appearance of health and lux¬ 
uriance and produces an abundance of new 
wood each year. 
Next year I expect to harvest from the 
orchard the largest crop that it has ever 
borne. This year each tree has received an 
application of manure as a top-dressing 
spread as far as the limbs extend. Next 
year this dressing will return good interest 
by increasing the size of the fruit and by 
forming blow-buds for “’91.” By such 
means I expect a good crop each year (Prov¬ 
idence permitting). Now why should a 
half-starved orchard bear a full crop every 
yea 1 ' any more than a half fed cow should 
give a maximum yield of milk or make the 
greatest possible amount of butter ? Will 
young stock grow without feed, or horses 
do their best work when half-starved ? 
Why, everybody knows they can’t. The 
profit on any crop depends not so much on 
the price it is sold for as on the cost of pro¬ 
ducing it. To reduce the cost of produc¬ 
tion is to increase the profit in the same 
proportion. The capital invested in trees 
and land is just the same whether the or¬ 
chards bear or not. The interest and tax 
remain the same, fruit or no fruit. The 
cost is less per barrel in gathering from a 
full than from a “scattering” tree. There 
are fewer poor fruits and, finally, by having 
a good crop of fair fruit every year one is 
able to secure a quick sale at the very best 
market price at any time when the crop is 
ready to sell. J. E. s. 
Concord. 
My chief w ork last year was the erection 
of a barn. The business which seems to 
pay best in this section is dairying by sell¬ 
ing either milk or cream to the creameries. 
The land is well suited for this industry. 
The products are in a concentrated form,- 
and the prices received are fair—an average 
of 22 cents for butter, and the price of milk 
is on about the same basis. I think it will 
pay for us to increase our product for the 
coming season. s. C. H. 
Henniker. 
My apple crop paid mebest the past year, 
as it also did in 1888, because it is raised at 
the least expense. My potato crop was 
good; I t ried to raise 200 bushels to the 
acre. Had it not been for rot, it would 
have been a paying crop. The hay crop 
was good, but there has been no money in 
it. Stock is so low it will not pay for the 
labor. I could do something raising lambs 
if we had a higher duty on wool. J. s. 
Wadley’s Falls. 
Potatoes have been my most profitable 
crop the past year; because I have raised a 
good crop while most of my neighbors 
raised a poor one and my potatoes will be 
sold in the local markets. I raise no other 
crop so liable to vary both in yield and 
price as potatoes. Raising potatoes is like 
putting money in a lottery. I think, how¬ 
ever, that in a series of years potatoes have 
brought me better returns than any other 
crop, and I shall somewhat enlarge the 
area planted next year. A. I’. 
Hanover. 
MICHIGAN MEN MAKING MONEY. 
The most profitable crop on my farm the 
past year, and in fact for several years, has 
been that from my apple orchard, and this 
I shall enlarge until I cover that portion of 
the farm which I consider adapted to 
apples. Of general farm crops the past 
year, clover has given the largest margin 
of profit after paying for the labor and the 
use of the land, and this too whether I refer 
to the portion kept entirely for seed, or to 
that w'hich was cut for hay and then 
allowed to ripen seed. My aim in farming 
is to so use the land that every crop shall 
make a margin of profit and still leave the 
land richer at the close of a course of rota¬ 
tion than it was at the beginning. Al¬ 
though I have not always received the larg¬ 
est cash returns from clover, yet a series of 
10 years has shown that it is quite profit¬ 
able, and the land is much more productive 
than it was even five years ago. Perhaps 
if I had been a more skillful feeder it 
would have paid better. I have not always 
received as much for the hay fed on the 
farm as it w r oukl have brought if sold; but 
then I had the manure and I believe in put¬ 
ting the clover through the animal ma¬ 
chine and getting what I can out of it, Mr. 
Terry to the contrary notwithstanding. 
One-third of the tillable part of the farm 
is in clover and I shall continue to keep 
that proportion in clover until it fails to 
pay. My rotation isclover and spring wheat. 
The other spring crops are oats, corn and 
potatoes. Only enough oats are grown for 
the horses. Many people about here do 
not like sowing .vheat after corn ; but I find 
it profitable and have never lost a seeding 
of clover in wheat sown after corn. 
Mason. W. B. R. 
Wheat is our money crop ; but owing to 
the grain aphis it was nearly a failure in 
this vicinity this year, many acres being 
entirely ruined. Grass,includiugtheclovers, 
paid me best this year, and my acreage of 
clover is largely increased. What with 
tariffs and lice, trusts and potato bugs and 
businessmen’s associations, “to maintain 
legitimate profits, ” as they put it, they to 
determine what are legitimate—the farmer 
has been so throttled that his profits are 
nil. A. G. M. 
Fremont. 
Among all the fruits, both large and 
small, grapes and pears have paid the best, 
and among vegetables celery. On account 
of the cold, backward spring and the 
drought in summer, all other vegetables 
have met with unheard-of failure. The 
above are my specialties. It is becoming 
understood more and more every year that 
in farming, as in everything else, success 
follows only well-directed efforts in some 
one or two lines of activity. Then on ac¬ 
count of the general failure, of the above 
crops in this State as in many others, 
prices have been better than usual. It will 
certainly pay me to increase the above crops 
next year although labor is difficult to ob¬ 
tain. w. F. B. 
Ann Arbor. 
Milk, hogs, wheat and clover seed are 
the principal cash products of my farm. 
Milk has paid the best during the past sea¬ 
son. It is shipped to Grand Rapids. I get 
one cent a pound from April to October, 
and one-fifth more from October to April. 
The price is fixed on October 1st for the 
coming year and has not varied for the 
last four years. It paid best because the 
price is fair and fixed, so that I know’ what 
I am working for. I feed liberally of bran, 
corn and oats. I think that at the present 
cost of these materials there is no more 
profitable stock farming than all-the- 
year-round dairying. I can see that my 
fields are getting more fertile and my debts 
are getting smaller. H. F. B. 
Wayland. 
Rye has been the best paying crop in 
my immediate neighborhood during the 
past year. It has paid best this season be¬ 
cause all other crops were more or less fail¬ 
ures, owing to an extremely w’et spring, 
followed by an extremely dry summer. 
Rye seems to be able to yield a fair crop 
when all other crops fail; consequently 
much more rye was sown in my neighbor¬ 
hood the past fall than ever before. 
Holland. C. F. P. 
I am on a small farm, and feed all the 
grain, except wheat and clover seed, on the 
farm. My largest profit comes from a pair 
of good brood mares. They do all the work 
on my farm and raise a good pair of colts 
each year. Next in order are sheep. I 
shall try to increase my stock by adding 
one more brood mare so that I can have a 
three-horse team for the harvest w'ork. I 
think I know that farming does pay. 
St. Louis. t. l. k. 
The apple crop has paid me, and a 
majority of the farmers of this State, as 
yvell as anvthiug—no doubt better for the 
amount of money invested and the labor 
spent. The crop in this State has been 
simply immense and the quality was never 
better. It will pay to try to increase and 
improve the crop, which has brought into 
this State an immense sum of money this 
year, by cultivating and manuring the or¬ 
chards, removing w orthless trees, pruning 
over-luxuriant ones, not cropping the 
ground, etc. My orchard, which is used 
for a park for a large flock of hens, and 
which has been frequently plowed for their 
benefit during the last two years, has 
brought more money than for 20 years, al¬ 
though it is very old and nearly one-half 
the trees have been removed within a few’ 
years. I cannot close this letter without 
acknowledging how deeply I am indebted 
to the Rural New-Yorker. There is no 
paper like it—no. not one, and especially 
have I been benefited by the practical writ¬ 
ings of Mr. Terry whose letters I had read 
long before he became a contributor to the 
Rural. This man is doing, I think, a grand, 
good work. Who knows hut that we may 
be near a revolution in farming ? He raises 
crops which yield more than double what 
most of us can grow and without keeping 
more stock than is necessary to work his 
land, while the most of us think that we 
must keep stock enough to eat all we raise 
in order to keep up the fertility of our land 
and this causes constant drudgery indoors 
and out, especially if cows are kept. I 
would like to have Mr. Terry suggest a ro¬ 
tation for us who are too far from a mar¬ 
ket to raise potatoes profitably, g. av. d. 
Davis. 
THE best paying thing on my farm this 
year was hogs. I wintered 21 pigs, (dropped 
in October, 1888) weaning them December 
10, 1888, and feeding them all winter one- 
half basket morning and night. On May 
10 I turned them to grass, and allowed 
them to come to the pen at night for 33 
pounds of shorts (cost 70 cents per 100 
pounds) which had been soaked three days 
in water. On May 15 1 purchased a Poland- 
China boar pig and turned him with the 
