1889 
THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER. 
851 
drove on June 10, 1880, as there were 13 sows 
in the lot and eight barrows all pure-bred 
Poland-Chinas. On the 5th of October I 
advertised them in several papers: viz., 13 
Poland-China sows due to pig in October 
for sale for $2 for each pig and the sow to be 
gratis. They were all sold eJccept two, and 
they ^have 17 pigs which I will sell in the 
same way. The eight barrows were penned 
on September 20 and fed 50 pounds of corm 
meal per day and sold for ($85.40) four cents 
per pound on October 10. The sows sold 
for an average of 816 apiece. The boar was 
sold on September 12 for $12; I had paid $15 
for him. It will be easily seen that I was 
feeding those pigs at the rate of just one 
cent per day for each in corn in winter and 
shorts and pasture in summer. They had 
the run of stubbles and orchards in Sep¬ 
tember and October. Pork brings the best 
price. Spring pigs find too many holes so I 
can't pasture them and they don’t get very 
large until December; then they can briug 
only small prices in market. I never go 
heavily into any one thing. I keep up a reg¬ 
ular rotation of crops: corn, 30 acres, grass 
or hay 30, oats 30 and wheat 60 acres. I 
also keep 25 or 30 head of Short-horn cattle, 
200 grade Merino sheep and 10 horses and 
colts. I raise or buy two colts and sell a 
team each year. I moved on this farm 
with my parents In 1847 from Monroe 
County, N. Y. j. F. F. 
Almont. 
VARIOUS VERMONT VIRTUES. 
Unlike some of the correspondents of the 
R- N.-Y. who make a specialty of a few 
crops, I carry on mixed farming in quite a 
broad sense of the term. I carry on what 
I call general farming in a small way ; that 
is, I keep a few cows, sheep, hogs, etc., and 
then do quite a business at truck-farming 
or gardening, and also raise some fruit for 
market. Our main market is Rutland, 6 )4 
miles distant, and we don’t find it takes 
much more time to take a load of various 
products and get $15 or $20 for it, than it 
does to go with three to five dollars’ worth. 
As to which crops pay best, as the yields 
and prices vary every year, it is hard to tell. 
For instance, in 1888 I sowed a quarter of an 
acre of Yellow Danvers Onions and had a 
good crop and sold early and got good prices. 
This last year I sowed half an acre and 
hoed and weeded them twice, and then lost 
them through the maggot; but I shall try 
onions again next season on a different 
piece of land and put on lime and salt for 
the maggot. Again, my early potatoes 
this year were good; but two acres of late 
potatoes, planted for late marketing and 
winter use, were nearly a failure; but I 
shall plant potatoes for late marketing 
again another season. It takes pluck and 
perseverance to succeed in farming as well 
as in any other business. Sweet corn, to¬ 
matoes, beets (for bunching <md selling 
early) and pole beans paid the best of the 
garden truck this past season. Currants 
paid me best in the fruit line and my small 
dairy of cows paid best in the general line. 
I shall try to increase all along the line, ex¬ 
cept in raising small grains. Farming will 
not pay in this section if one sits down and 
looks at the work—he has to go at it and 
make it pay. I am not in love with all 
kinds of farm work, but I am in love with* 
the old farm that my grandfather and 
father before me tilled. My gross income 
for 1889 will be about $2,000. I can give the 
“xact figures at the end of the year—and 
this on a farm that probably would not sell 
for more than $3,500 at auction ; but I 
don’t want to sell, nor am I going to aban¬ 
don it. 1 am sure the income can be 
doubled. Twelve years ago the gross re¬ 
ceipts were $450. c. P. s. 
East Clarendon. 
JERSEYMEN JUDGE JUSTLY. 
The potato crop in the first place and the 
hay crop in the second are the crops from 
which 1 expect to realize my profits if there 
are to be any. Owing to the excessive rains 
of last season and the low prices, I am of 
the opinion that New Jersey farmers are to 
have a hard time of it, aud that in many 
cases the balauce will be on the wrong side 
of their accounts. I believe the potato crop 
will prove the best paying crop even with 
the risks attending its growth. It never 
entirely fails to be a paying crop in a great¬ 
er or less degree, and whenever it proves 
a fairly successful crop it pays well; other¬ 
wise it leaves our soil so thoroughly im¬ 
proved that only a slight outlay is needed 
for the wheat crop which succeeds and in 
ordinary seasons we are assured of a maxi¬ 
mum wheat crop and splendid grass crops 
for two years thereafter. * Next in import¬ 
ance is our hay crop. These are usually 
our paying crops. For myself 1 propose to 
continue my present system. All my yard 
manure is applied on sward for corn ; then 
come potatoes, wheat and two years of 
mowing. I shall make an extra effort with 
my potato crop next year using only chemi¬ 
cal feTtilizers—and that freely—considering 
this the basis of all subsequent crops. 
Cranbury. d. C. L. 
Say pays best. Potato raising with me 
seems to be a risky business \ only once in 
a while do I get a good crop, and then the 
tubers rot. Last season two-thirds rotted. 
Being located near Newark, taxes are high 
and so is labor. I conclude that it is best 
to plow sod in the fall, cart the manure out 
during winter, put in a cultivated crop 
next summer and put on rye and seed to 
grass in the fall. w. v. 
Franklin. 
All crops have been very poor hereabouts 
this year, with the exception of hay, but a 
great part of the latter was gathered in a 
very bad condition. Wheat was a half-crop ; 
the oat crop was very light. The greater 
part of it was damaged by the rain. Corn 
was a half-crop and potatoes not half. 
What there were have rotted very badly. 
Mendham. b. h. l. 
My two paying crops for the past year 
were early tomatoes and Yellow Globe 
Danvers Onions. I transplanted my to¬ 
mato plants on two heats; by the first of 
May, they were fine, large plants, some in 
blossom. Then I transplanted them into 
my cold-frame and covered them with can¬ 
vas frames for a few days and nights ; they 
scarcely felt the transplanting. I had toma¬ 
toes in market far ahead of other garden¬ 
ers around here and got 15 and 20 cents per 
quart, wholesale, for a good many peach- 
basketfuls. I intend to increase this 
branch of my business next year. My 
onion seed I always sow quite thickly and 
make three sizes in sorting the bulbs— 
large, pickling and sets. I raised 50 
bushels from one pound of seed on less 
than one-eighth of an acre. w. p. 
Kingston. 
Thf. grass crop has paid much the best; 
first, because the season was favorable to 
the growth of grass, and very unfavorable 
to grain raising on account of wet and 
cloudy weather. The hay crop was the 
heaviest, to my knowledge, ever cut in this 
neighborhood, while the crops of grain were 
the poorest, both in yield and quality. In 
our pbn of farming I do not think it would 
be wise to increase the area of grass land, 
as in order to keep the live stock clean ani 
comfortable a certain quantity of straw 
seems to be indispensable; but it is my 
constant aim to increase the yield of grass 
by drainage, the use of lime and manure, 
clean seed and plenty of it, etc. I sow Tim¬ 
othy in the fall, and think that where I lose 
a sheaf of wheat by it I gain a load 
of hay. I sow clover seed in April, and pas¬ 
ture the land the first year, when the 
growth is mostly clover, and mow it the 
second season when it is about three- 
fourths Timothy and makes excellent hay, 
easily cured, etc. I cut four tons to the 
acre on a part of my land this year—75 two- 
horse loads from 20 acres. 1 never had so 
heavy a yield before. Pasturing was also 
abundant. d. j. b. 
Harborton. 
IOWA INDICATES INCREASE. 
The familiar expression that corn is king 
in Iowa, may be quite as truly applied to 
my farm as to my State, It is the most 
important crop that I raise. It is the crop 
that absorbs the attention of this whole 
region. Every successful farmer raises all 
the corn he can, and it is to be feared that 
he too often sighs because he cannot raise 
more corn. But at the present price—20 
cents per bushel—there is no profit in raising 
corn to sell. The profit—whenever there is 
any—comes from feeding good, thrifty, 
swine. My bogs are my best paying pro¬ 
duct. There was a time, perhaps, when 
fat steers paid as well as fat hogs, but that 
time has passed. For a number of years 
we have been makingour money out of the 
swineherd and we expect to continue to 
make it in that way tor years to come, for 
doubtless the present depression o 1 the 
market will not continue a long time. But 
where is our profit this year ? Dealers are 
paying $3.25 per cwt. alive. The profit is 
certainly very small. I think it will re¬ 
quire a microscope with power to magnify 
about 15,000 times in order to see it at all. 
Yet there is more money in three-cent. pork 
than there is in 20-cent corn. One year ago 
we sold prime hogs for $5 per cwt. Then 
we made some money. Every farmer who 
was ready to sell at that time and did sell 
wore smiles. Probably we then received 
surplus enough to balance, in part at least, 
the deficit this year. We have to estimate 
Our profits not from the prices of any one 
year, but from the average prices of longer 
periods when all the ups and downs of an 
unstable market may be equalized. It is 
from this larger view of the situation that 
I answer as above the first question pro¬ 
pounded by the Rural. A few fine young 
horses are also profitable ornaments on 
this farm, and a small dairy helps to make 
profitable pork; but these branches of 
farming are only supplementary. The ex¬ 
tensive corn-fields and large droves of 
swine all over this country are sufficient 
proofs that the great majority think alike. 
Here is a little anecdote to illustrate the 
usual fate that befalls the man who tries 
to get up a little rebellion against our King 
Corn: Mr Blank, one of our highly re¬ 
spected citizens, made potatoes his speci¬ 
alty this year. The woik was all well done 
and the season was very favorable. He 
harvested a bountiful crop, but, as the 
Rural has already noted, we have a super¬ 
abundance of potatoes. Accordingly Mr. 
Blank “cast a wishful eye” toward Mr. 
Terry’s market. I suppose he concluded 
that Mr. Terry and his co-laborers had not 
supplied the good people of Ohio with 
potatoes enough, so he sent away two car¬ 
loads to that State. I cannot state all the 
particulars of this transaction, but it is 
sufficient for my purpose to say that Mr. 
Blank was greatly amazed to see the rail¬ 
roads pocket the entire receipts. He will 
not raise potatoes next year. He will be 
found plowing corn. 
This brings me to the second question : 
“ Why ?” The reasons are found in the 
fitness of things. This is the fittest coun¬ 
try in which to grow corn. There is the 
most perfect adaptation of soil and climate 
to its production. Corn is the fittest food for 
making fat hogs. Let me stop right there. 
It is a clear case of “ the survival of the 
fittest,” but I do not wish to go on and 
state that the fittest food for the people is 
pork. However, so long as man continues 
te eat the hog, so long, I reckon, will the 
great corn belt furnish him with his ham 
and bacon. d. w. f. 
Mt. Yernon. 
NUBS OF NEW YORK NEWS. 
My farming is mixed. Some wheat, 
corn, barley, hay, colts, butter and beef are 
raised, besides some fruits, but nothing ex¬ 
cept a few eggs has been marketed this 
year. My opinion is that the farmer who 
has done the least, and has fodder for stock 
and lets the rest go back to the soil is the 
best off this year. No farmer can pay the 
present price of labor, sell his produce at 
the present prices and make any money. 
In fact, he had better just try to make a 
living and no more until the surplus of 
farm produce is consumed and fair prices 
are paid. w. h. o. 
Clyde. 
I FIND that beans have paid me much the 
best, considering the labor and time ex¬ 
pended on their culture. The supply not 
being up to the usual average, they are in 
brisk demand and prices high. I shall 
plant a much larger acreage next year, as 
they generally bring good prices. Blooded 
stock pay me finely, and the satisfaction 
derived from their care and improvement 
is very good. Three years since I invested 
in a few full-blood Holsteins, and now have 
13 head of pure-blood and high-grade an¬ 
imals, from the noted Aaggie, Netherland, 
aud Pieterje families, beautiful animals 
whose milk and butter and surplus increase 
are highly remunerative. I have also two 
very fine pure-blood Jersey cows, bought to 
test the comparative merits of the two 
breeds, aud so greatly do I favor the Hol- 
Rteins that I may say the Jerseys are for 
sale, as I shall keep only Holsteins in 
future. j. m. 
Nuuda. 
Owing to the wet season some crops did 
not do as well as anticipated, as I had a 
considerable wet ground under the plow. 
I had three acres of planted corn and about 
four acres of fodder-corn which was put in 
in the expectation that I could cure it; 
but as the season advanced, seeing that I 
should be short of winter feed, I finally de¬ 
cided to build a silo, and being quite a dis¬ 
tance from the mill, a good deal of the 
labor was done by hand, such as hewing, 
etc. The bottom was filled with pounded 
stones and grouted. I commenced cutting 
my corn September 10 and began filling the 
silo on September 12. We were not quite a 
week in filling it and we covered the top 
with bog grass and weeds. To-day (.Dec. 11) 
we are using the silage from the silo, feed¬ 
ing the cows twice a day from it with a lit¬ 
tle grain and hay once. We picked off the 
best ears of our planted corn and left them 
on the ground to dry or cure, and put the 
fodder and small ears in the silo. The other 
was put in with a drill so thickly that it 
would not ear. The corn was put into the 
silo without cutting and it comes out in 
fine condition. I intend another year to 
plant ensilage corn so that it will ear, 
and I shall cultivate it, and it will be put 
in without cutting, the same as this year. 
Tallette. J. E. T. 
My potato crop has paid me the best 
the past seasou. In my opinion it has done 
so because the crop has been short in many 
sections, hence the price has been high. I 
had a very nice crop and sold them for 50 
and 60 cents per bushel from the field at 
digging time. I hardly think it w r ould be 
wise to increase this crop for another year. 
Canastota. o. L. s. 
Cabbages and onions were the best pay¬ 
ing crops that I raised, as there is a home 
market in which cabbages are sold readily 
for from $6 to $8 per 100, and onions for $1 
per bushel. The cost of raising an acre of 
cabbage is less than that of raising an acre 
of corn. b. t. 
Moriah. 
The peach crop has paid the best the past 
season, on account of scarcity of peaches 
in other sections, which has made prices 
high here. It will pay me to give special at¬ 
tention to the fruit crop, as I can grow and 
market it at a less expense and greater 
profit than grain, even though the prices 
were much below those of the past season. 
Youngstown. a. J. B. 
The corn crop was the most profitable this 
season, as corn yields both grain and fod¬ 
der; but generally the potato crop is the 
one from which we get the most money: 
but this season potatoes were very poor. 
The business that has paid me the best for 
a number of years is dairying. Butter¬ 
making pays me the best as 1 have good 
customers through the summer and fall, 
and sell my butter at 30 and 40 cents per 
pound; but from now until June next we 
do not have much call for butter. There is 
also a good deal of cream and milk sold 
here in the summer. Yes, it will pay to in¬ 
crease the ability of one’s farm to carry 
the stock through the winter in good con¬ 
dition. I saw a piece in one of the papers 
a short time ago, telling how a Mr. W. R. 
Devan of East Rodman, churned 57 pounds 
of cream from 376 pounds of milk which 
had been centrifuged, and received 14>£ 
pounds of butter, being one pound of butter 
for about four pounds of cream from na 
tive cows. Now, this morning (December 
3) I have churned 49 pounds of cream and 
received 14)£ pounds of unsalted butter, 
being about one pound of butter from 3 % 
pounds cream. I use the Cooley Creamer 
and the Davis Swing Churn. I stop the 
churn when the butter is from the size of 
wheat kernels to that of a kernel of corn, 
and wash it thoroughly and salt it to suit 
the taste of my customers. In some there 
is no salt at ail and that brings the highest 
price. c. H. B. 
Southampton. 
OUR chief product has been milk for the 
New York market, and the crops of the 
most value in producing milk the past 
year would have been hay and grass, had 
it not been so wet. Corn drilled and in hills 
makes a good crop for milk production. 
On an average I think apple orchards pay 
the largest profits. Milk has paid best the 
past seasou, because we can keep more 
stock by buying ground feed aud also by 
cutting all our coarse feed with a horse¬ 
power. The cows use it all up and it 
makes more manure. g. J. G. 
Yorktown. 
My farm consists of 10 acres of laud and 
the necessary buildings. I produce for sale 
small fruits, onions, squashes, some sweet 
corn, milk and honey. I think the milk 
pays as well as anything, if not better, be¬ 
cause I have a good warm stable, feed well 
the year round, and sell the milk to the 
neighbors who pay a fair price for it (in 
comparison with the prices for other farm 
produce) and come to the house after it. 
Sehuylerville. t. e. b. 
Potatoes have paid me the best the past 
season. The yield was about 200 bushels 
per acre. I shall plant potatoes and cauli¬ 
flowers for my principal crops next year, as 
they are the only crops from which we can 
get much money. h. f. r. 
Riverhead. 
