1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
255 
ashes. What the chemical analysis of this compound is 
1 am anxious to know. I have tried it on tomatoes and 
melons with most satisfactory results, using it on several 
rows and then skipping some, and the good effects of 
the homemade fertilizer could be traced in the dark 
rank growth and finer fruit throughout the entire season. 
White Salmon, Wash. a. h. j. 
In one form or another this method of burning the 
soil has been practiced for centuries. Even to-day in 
some parts of England and France what is known as 
“paring and burning” is quite generally followed. The 
.sod i.s cut into thick cakes, partly dried, and then 
slowly burned—the ashes and baked soil being spread 
al'out as we use commercial fertilizers. The fact that 
this plan has been followed so long by practical men 
shows that it has merit. It is useful only on the 
heavy stiff clays—which are inclined to be cold and 
sticky. The scientific men have concluded from this 
that the chief value of this system lies in the action 
of a slow fire upon heavy clays. Experiments have 
shown that this slow roasting changes the character 
of the clay. A quick, hot fire might change it to 
brick, but a slow, steady heat has an opposite effect. 
When raw clay is heated to the point where its water 
is driven off it lo.ses its sticky character, and is much 
more like sand than like the original clay. When this 
powdered clay is worked into a heavy soil the “char¬ 
acter” ot that soil is improved—that is, it is less cold 
and sticky and better suited for crops. The slow roast¬ 
ing also increa.ses the amount of available potash and 
phosphoric acid. In some cases where a cold, sticky 
soil was burned the amount of available potash in 
the ashes was from two to three times that in the 
raw soil, while the increase in phosphoric acid was 
even greater. The burning put these elements in such 
a condition that the plants could absorb them. Your 
so-called fertilizer is valuable for the ashes left from 
the burned trash and the action of heat upon the clay. 
The nitrogen is not “absorbed by the clay,” but is 
lost Your practice is a good one except the use of 
leaves and straw, which would make good humus. We 
would plow all such material into the soil and use the 
trimmings, old sods and other trash which will not 
rot easily for burning the clay. 
A PROMISING SEEDLING APPLE, 
I send some apples for examination. If I had room 
for but one apple tree it would be this kind. It is a 
constant bearer of very fine fruit. My nearest neigh¬ 
bor tells me he has known the tree for 46 years, and 
has not known it to fail any one year in the 46. Each 
year it has been full of fine fruit. It furnishes fruit 
for use from eight to nine months each year. We 
can and do begin to use these apples in August, and 
have had them in the following May. This year we 
began using them August 12, at which time they 
cooked as well and made as good sauce and pies as 
any Summer apple we ever had. Six years ago I sold 
them to a grocer of Wheeling, W. Va., for the highest 
market price in the month of September. We have 
kept them in an open Darrel or open bushel crate in 
an upstairs room until the following May. This last 
year, without cold storage or any extra preparation 
or care, but as stated above, we used them within one 
week of nine months. The tree is claimed to be a 
seedling, generally believed to be from the Rhode 
Island Greening or Pippin; some of our fruit men 
think it a hybrid of the two. It has the good cooking 
qualities of the Greening, and when at its best the 
eating qualities of the Pippin. The tree that bore 
these apples has not been cultivated for perhaps three- 
quarters of a century, but has been in sod all these 
years. It stands in the dooryard about 20 feet from 
the walls of the house. The yard is in sod, and has 
been since the house has been built, which is 56 years 
since. The tree is older than the house. My neighbor 
(who lives on an adjoining lot) says it was a large 
tree 46 years ago when he moved here. The tree is 
large and vigorous. It measures six feet four inches 
around the body, three feet from the ground, and has 
a spread of limbs of 40 feet. This tree and Its fruit 
have not been sprayed, nor has the ground been ferti¬ 
lized to ray knowledge. The only fault that this apple 
has, if it is a fault at all, is that it begins to fall about 
the middle of August, but these are the apples we 
begin to use, and use only those that fall until pick¬ 
ing time, when we gather them for Winter use. They 
do not fall as much as the Baldwin, Northern Spy, 
lioxbury Russet or some other apples, j. b. miller. 
It is not often that it is wise to make public men¬ 
tion of a seedling fruit, for we now have too many 
varieties on the roll. However, if the new kinds were 
not given a hearing and a trial we would not learn 
about the really good ones. That is why I will call 
attention to this seedling apple. Rev. J. B. Miller, of 
Olivet, O., says that the old tree has been bearing for 
56 years and is yet in good condition. The apple looks 
lil'i Rhode Island Greening in color, size and shape, 
and with the same russeting at the apex, but it is more 
tart in flavor. The quality is very good, and when 
fully ripe this is an excellent apple, as I can plainly 
see from its character now. It is a very late keeper, 
remaining firm and without losing flavor until May. 
No definite name has been given it as yet, but if it 
proves of value elsewhere it may be well to give it 
one. The drawing, Fig. 92, was made from one of the 
specimens sent. h. e. van deman. 
HINTS ON BARN BUILDING. 
H. B. S. says: “1 want but one barn, and that large 
enough to stable 60 or 75 head of cattle, besides other 
stock, and to hold fodder enough to feed the same. 
Our farm contains about 200 acres, nearly all till¬ 
able.” Having built a new barn a few years since 1 
P 
GROUND PL.4N OF B.4SEMENT. Fio. ‘.CL 
probably learned something which may be of service 
to H. B. S. and others who contempiate building new 
barns this Spring. A barn should not be begun un¬ 
til it has been carefully planned and drafted, even to 
the smallest details. This is just as necessary as to 
sit down and count the cost, and will assist ma¬ 
terially in counting the cost. Any person is capable 
of making a rough draft of what he wants, which 
the carpenter can understand much better than if 
told by word of mouth. 
Mine is a bank barn, 50x70 feet. The advantages 
of a bank barn are first the economy of space and 
materials. It adds to the capacity of the barn in 
holding hay, grain and cattle without increasing its 
size or the amount of roofing. If the whole basement 
is not needed for horses and cattle the bays can ex¬ 
tend down to the ground, or rather a floor raised a 
foot above It for the circulation of air and to prevent 
the hay from drawing dampness from the earth and 
molding. Such bays will hold a great deal more 
than ordinary bays because the pressure of the 
greater height compacts it so much more. Second, 
it saves labor and time in taking care of stock, as 
there is not so much traveling to be done, and it is 
much easier to throw hay and fodder down from 
above than to carry it away to a wing-shed built on 
purpose for stock. Basement stables are warmer in 
Winter than it is easy to make them when entirely 
above ground, and are cooler in Summer. 
Masonry is more expensive than woodwork, but 
is more durable, and one good thing, can be obtained 
honestly without cost. There need not be so much 
masonry as is sometimes put under bank barns. It 
is not best to have the basement much under ground. 
It requires more digging, higher walls, and you can¬ 
not get in so many windows—three things of con¬ 
siderable importance. Where a person is at liberty 
to choose the site, it would be better to dig into the 
bank only far enough to get sufficient earth to make 
the embankment for the driveway. There should be 
a bridge two or three feet long between the drive¬ 
way embankment, and the barn sill, to prevent it 
from rotting. Basements will not be damp if good 
drains with outlets are put under the foundation 
walls, and a space of a foot or more in width be¬ 
tween the walls and the bank is filled with broken 
stones. This will also protect the walls from being 
pushed inward by frost. It is a general fault with 
basement barns that they are too dark, and when the 
doors are all shut there is hardly light enough, even 
on a bright day, to see how to do the work without 
a lantern. This need not be. Windows are not ex¬ 
pensive, and particular pains should be taken when 
building to put in enough to make the basement as 
light as possible. Horses and cattle enjoy the light 
as much as do human beings, and it is cruel to them 
and injurious to their eyesight to confine them in a 
dungeon instead of a well-lighted, well-ventilated 
stable. The basement of my barn is nine feet high. 
A low ceiling is not conducive to health in house or 
barn, and is particularly objectionable In a barn 
where forkfuls of hay cannot be carried without hit¬ 
ting the beams overhead. My barn posts are 20 feet 
high, and I wish they were higher. With a horse 
fork there is no trouble in elevating hay to the peak 
of the roof, which is 20 feet higher than the plates. 
A steep roof is not so apt to leak, and it gives more 
room in the barn for storage. In this part of Penn¬ 
sylvania barn frames are built with timber about 
eight inches square, but in Ohio many are now built 
with plank and spikes, which they say makes a barn 
frame just as strong and much cheaper than a tim¬ 
ber frame, “Balloon frames” for wooden houses 
are now universal, and it may be that plank frames 
for barns will soon supersede timber. 
When a farmer builds a new barn he should be 
sure to build it large enough to hold all his hay, 
grain, straw, pumpkins, roots, horses, cattle and 
farm tools, and have some room to spare. My barn 
is so large that when the thrashing is done the straw 
can all be kept in the barn, where it is always handy 
and dry. Formerly it had to be pitched out of doors 
and stacked where it was inconvenient to get at, 
and in Winter was frozen on the outside and gen¬ 
erally covered with snow and ice. My barn is 50x70 
feet, and according to my experience H. B. S., witli 
his 200 acres of tillable land and more than 75 head 
of stock, will need a bank barn about 50x100 feet. 
The cost of barns will differ in different places as 
the cost of labor and building materials differ, but 
as a general rule, a barn can be built with timber 
frame, 20-foot posts, weatherboarded with planed 
lumber, painted and roofed with shingles for $1 per 
two square feet of floor space. This includes the cost 
of a good stone-wall basement. According to this 
rule a barn with basement 50x100 feet would cost 
about $2,500. My barn 50x70 feet cost about $1,500. 
The accompanying diagram. Fig. 94, shows the in¬ 
side bents of my barn, and Fig. 93 gives the arrange¬ 
ment of the stalls in the basement as I would ar¬ 
range them if building again. A, 20 stalls for young 
cattle; B, three box stalls; C, 35 cattle and horse 
stalls; M, meal room. j, w. ingham. 
HOW TO SHIP APPLES ABROAD. 
Never pack No. 1 and No. 2 apples In the same bar¬ 
rel. I know nothing so foolishly suicidal as this too 
frequent practice. My own belief is that there should 
be no difference between No. 1 and No. 2 apples ex¬ 
cept in size; that is, I am thoroughly convinced that 
wormy or defective fruit should never be packed for 
shipment. It costs in the neighborhood of $1.50 a 
barrel to pick, pack and ship apples from Winchester, 
Va., to Liverpool. Under the circumstances, it would 
never pay to ship any but good fruit, as the cost is 
just the same for good fruit as for indifferent. I do 
not know of any case where inferior fruit has paid 
the cost of shipment abroad, and I do know of many, 
many cases where it has not paid the cost of shipment. 
With regard to the best methods of packing, our 
experience here has convinced us that fruit should be 
picked, packed in the barrel and put under shelter the 
same day it comes from the tree. Our best growers 
pick the fruit when dry (never handle fruit when wet, 
either with rain or dew), and pour it on the packing 
table, from which it is run directly into the barrel. 
Usually we first place in the barrel a corrugated apple 
barrel cap. On this place a sheet of white paper, cut 
to fit the barrel. On this white paper place, stem 
down, two layers of fair fruit, the brightest colored 
and best specimens easily obtainable. Then pour the 
apples in, shaking down frequently. I desire to em¬ 
phasize particularly the frequent shaking down of the 
barrel, as otherwise you will not be able to get enough 
pressure on the fruit to prevent it going slack. The 
barrel should be well shaken every time a half-bushel 
of apples are put in. Fill up the barrel a little above 
the chine, and place on top a corrugated cushion. On 
this place the head, and press into place. All apples 
intended for export should be well nailed, and each 
head lined with head liners. If possible, neither the 
fruit nor the barrel should be allowed to get wet after 
picking. No apples should go in under 2^4 inches, 
unless It might be Wlnesaps, or some similar small 
kind. fl. L. i.iiPTON. 
Virginia. 
