THE RURAL NEW-YORKER; 
March 17 
182 
or more to the tree, and kept gaining every year. Of 
course some years have been better than others, but 
no year has been anything like a failure. Now let’s 
go and see how the picking progresses.” 
I found the harvesting operation a very interesting 
one, for it showed actual results. Here is where one 
learns to appreciate the advantages of dwarf trees 
closely pruned. Hardly a pear anywhere but what 
could be easily reached from the third step of a lad¬ 
der; and fully half of the crop could be picked from 
the ground. These little points particularly appeal to 
anyone who has had experience in church-steeple 
climbing in an orchard of standard varieties. 
“But are the dwarfs long lived, and will they pro¬ 
duce as much to the acre as standards?” 
“Where I came from, in New York State, there are 
dwarf trees in a certain orchard that are now 35 
years old—and they’re still in thrifty condition. Just 
how much longer they will hold out, under proper 
treatment, is an open question, but I believe they are 
good for many years yet. As to which bear the most 
to the acre—standards or dwarfs—I am not prepared 
to say, not having an orchard of the former for com¬ 
parison. I have an idea, though, when you take into 
consideration the early bearing, close setting, and 
labor-saving qualities of dwarfs—that a long series of 
years would show them to come close to the standards 
in net profit.” 
HANDLING AND RESULTS.—Next, we investi¬ 
gated the packing operations. The fruit is picked in 
round peck baskets, then carefully poured into bushel 
baskets, and taken to the packing room. Here it is 
sorted by hand into firsts and seconds, and all im¬ 
perfect specimens—(and there are not many on this 
farm)—thrown out. Of course, the fruit is picked be¬ 
fore it colors, and is marketed while still in the same 
green state. Mr. Mills uses regular 2%-bushel barrels 
for shipment, packing each grade by itself, and hand¬ 
ling the pears as though they were eggs. The bottom 
(or head) of the barrel is faced with fruit laid in reg¬ 
ular circles—much as apples are packed, except that 
the pears are placed side down. When the barrel is 
evenly full, the cover is forced into place by a screw 
press. The firsts are sent out under Mr. Mills’s name; 
the seconds bear simply a number stamp. 
"Who do you sell to, mostly?” 
“Part of the crop goes to Chicago, by boat, con¬ 
signed to commission men there; part of it goes to 
private' customers in various States. To-day, for in¬ 
stance, I am filling an order for a customer in Beloit, 
Wis. Some years I have opportunities to sell the en¬ 
tire crop for cash right in the orchard. One Chicago 
man offered me $3.25 per barrel here for all my firsts; 
this occurred only the other day, but I could not af¬ 
ford to accept.” 
“How much do you realize per barrel—usually?” 
“On an average, one year with another, from $3.50 
to $4.50 would represent something near the selling 
price. One season I got a check from a man in Illi¬ 
nois—a stranger to me—saying that he had seen some 
of my pears the year before, and wanted me to ship 
him an even $5u worth.” 
“Well, how many barrels did you send him?” 
“Just nine; pears were up that year.” 
Then Mr. Mills took me to see his orchard of four- 
year-old dwarfs—as promising a lot of trees as a 
man needs to possess. These young fellows are al¬ 
ready higher than a man’s head, and many of the 
trees had several dozen pears on—as a slight sample 
of what they intended to do later. 
W. E. ANDREWS. 
AN APARTMENT POULTRY HOUSE. 
Fig. 62 shows one of the poultry houses on our 
farm, built several years ago, when we were more in¬ 
terested in several varieties than is the case at pres¬ 
ent. It was designed as a breeding house for several 
small yards of fowls, and answered a very good pur¬ 
pose. The building is 12x24, divided into five pens, 
with a three-foot alley in front, which opens into each 
' yard. The pens are divided by a two-foot baseboard, 
and wire netting over this. Each pen is provided 
with a platform three feet square, over which the 
roosts are arranged. The middle pen is arranged so 
that a stove can be used if desired. In such a case 
the stove is shut off by itself with temporary doors. 
Each pen is about 5x9 feet, which does very well for 
a male and six or eight females. The interior is 
either sided with matched stuff, or else covered with 
tarred paper. The house is set on a stone wall, so 
that it is about 30 inches or more from the ground, 
leaving some room beneath. This space was designed 
as a scratching place for the hens housed above, or 
else a shelter for ducks. In either respect our plans 
miscarried. It is a practical failure for both purposes, 
being inclined to be damp and not easily cleaned. I 
should not care to build another henhouse this way, 
nor recommend anyone else to do so, unless quite 
sure that it will be dry and sufficiently high, that it 
can be cleaned without any difficulty. Don’t build a 
henhouse in such a way that every place cannot be 
got at readily. The value of this house would be in¬ 
creased several fold were this space filled with good 
earth. 
Since the house is no longer used for breeding pur¬ 
poses, we have been using the pens during the hatch¬ 
ing season for setting hens, and have found them 
very satisfactory. A dozen broody biddies can be put 
in each pen and cared for without very much diffi¬ 
culty. In all probability, in the near future we shall 
knock a portion of the interior out and convert it into 
a general nouse, with the right end going to the 
ground, making a scratching pen, and the other end 
either floored or filled with soil for a roosting apart¬ 
ment. In building this house we furnished a portion 
of the materials, such as roof boards, and the like, did 
all the work, including laying the wall, and reckoned 
the actual cost of material at about $25. The cost 
would vary according to locality. c. r. Reynolds. 
Shiawassee Co., Mich. 
TREATING OATS FOR SMUT. 
I was much interested in the article on page 125, 
in which H. I. S. gives his method of treating oats 
with formaldehyde for the prevention of smut. While 
I do not wish to discredit the results obtained by him, 
as stated in a former issue, page 41, I think it highly 
probable that others might fail with the same 
formula. It would be a difficult task thoroughly to 
disinfect 10 bushels of seed with one gallon of the 
liquid; the amount is too small. I do not say it is 
impossible, only that the average operator would 
not succeed. The success obtained by H. I. S. was 
probably partly due to the very strong solution of the 
formaldehyde used, one ounce to one gallon of water. 
• A MICHIGAN HENHOUSE. Fig. 62. 
and partly to the care exercised in covering the oats 
after having applied the solution. No doubt the gas 
given off had as much to do with killing the smut 
spores, as the actual contact of the liquid with them. 
Experiments conducted at the Indiana Experiment 
Station by Dr. Arthur and myself the past season 
demonstrated that formaldenyde at the rate of one 
pound to 60 gallons of water was 'effective in pre¬ 
venting smut. The oats were sprinkled thoroughly 
and stirred, then Shoveled into a conical pile, and 
allowed to stand without covering for two hours, after 
Which they were spread out to dry. It is considered 
advisable, however, to cover the seed after it has been 
sprinkled and snoveled into a pile. In our experi¬ 
ments, two solutions of greater strength than the 
one mentioned were used. The strongest of these 
contained one pound of the formaldehyde to 30 gal¬ 
lons of water. This for convenience we will term the 
1-30 solution. The next strongest was a 1-45 solu¬ 
tion. As the 1-60 solution was effective, it of course 
follows that the others were, too, but effectiveness is 
not the sole point to be considered. A remedy must 
possess one other virtue than that mentioned; it must 
not injure the seed treated, hence that strength of 
solution which will destroy the smut effectually, and 
at the same time injure the grain the least, should be 
the one preferred. The yield of grain from the seed 
treated with eacn of the three solutions mentioned is 
as follows: 
Pgj* ,A.CI*6 
1-30 solution, 50.3 busti. 
1-45 solution, 53.4 bush. 
1-60 solution, 60.7 bush. 
Untreated seed, 33.1 bush. 
The results obtained show an increase of over 10 
bushels per acre from the weaker solution over that 
of the stronger one. The strongest, 1-30, is, however, 
not much over half as strong as that used by H. I. S., 
hence the danger, in using strong solutions, of less¬ 
ening the yield by destroying or decreasing the vi¬ 
tality of the seed. The untreated seed contained 47 
per cent of smut, hence its low yield. My advice in 
regard to method of treating the seed does not differ 
materially from that given on page 125, except in 
this particular, i would advise using a much weaker 
solution, 1-60, and a sufficient quantity of it thorough¬ 
ly to moisten all of the seed. When the seed has 
stood covered for a couple of hours, it should be 
spread out to dry. Seed so treated may be kept for a 
long period, and still retain its vitality. 
Indiana Exp. Station. william stuart. 
FORCING RHUBARB IN THE DARK. 
Some of the Difficulties, and How to Overcome Them 
A HARD START.—W. E. t\, Oswego, N. Y., under 
date of January 28, writes: 
Last year I read In The R. N.-Y. the articles on forcing 
rhubarb in the dark. Have been trying it according to 
directions, but without any results as yet. It has been 
in the house cellar, which is quite warm, and frost¬ 
proof, but without artificial heat. There are hundreds 
of sprouts, some stalks six or eight inches high, but most 
of them not larger than a pipe stem. What is the trouble? 
Careful inquiry elicited the facts that all details of 
the work had been carefully attended to, except the 
artificial heat. Directions were given to shut the bed 
(10 by 1.4 feet in size), off from the main cellar as 
directed in a previous article, by tacking old carpets 
or blankets to the sleepers above, and letting them 
fall and rest upon the cellar bottom. The heat was 
to be supplied by lamp, lantern, or in any convenient 
way, and the writer was requested to watch and re¬ 
port the results. Under date of February 27, the 
writer says: 
I have delayed writing until now, desiring to give the 
rhubarb a chance. I put a two-burner oil stove in the 
cellar, and hung blankets around the bed as directed. I 
found the heat was what was needed; but the oil was too 
expensive, as the stove consumed a gallon in eight hours. 
After using the oil one week and selling one dozen 
bunches at 75 cents per dozen, I sent for a man, had a 
hole cut in the dining-room floor, and put the dining¬ 
room stove in the cellar, starting a coal fire. The follow¬ 
ing Saturday I had 15 fine bunches, but could not get a 
market man in town to buy it. This is not a very en¬ 
couraging outlook; still, I shall not give up. I suppose 
the people must be educated, but will it pay me to edu¬ 
cate them? Have you ever met this difficulty, and what 
do you advise? Would it pay me to ship to New York 
City? Would you advise me to go into the business next 
year? What shall I do with the roots now in the cellar? 
Where is the best place to buy plants? Will a furnace- 
heated cellar answer for the work? I have thought of 
putting in a furnace next Fall, if it will answer the pur¬ 
pose. We have had several rhubarb pies, and find the 
flavor far surpasses that grown in the open ground. 
I have quoted largely from both letters, as many 
of the questions are of Vital import, and apply to 
many industries otner than the one now under con¬ 
sideration. 
A NEW CROP.—The writer, a woman, with no help, 
and an invalid father and mother, and but 10 acres of 
ground, has serious problems to solve. The pluck 
and energy manifested will, I am sure, find the cor¬ 
rect solution, and I am sure it will ever be the highest 
privilege of The R. N.-Y. to assist its readers thus 
situated with its encouragement and friendly advice. 
As to the difficulties, it will be seen that the heat, 
though too expensive, was all that was lacking. If the 
stove was placed in the inclosure, as we suppose, and 
the inclosure sufficiently tight to prevent the escape 
of heat, there was far more than necessary. Two or¬ 
dinary lamps or lanterns placed close down to the 
cellar bottom ought to have been sufficient. No trou¬ 
ble to get the heat high up; but down close to the 
bed is where we want it. With sufficient heat came a 
good crop, but no market. This is only the history of 
every new industry, but as the people become ac¬ 
quainted with it, the demand will grow. It may be 
advisable to educate to some extent by judiciously 
giving out samples for trial. Enormous demands for 
many of the food products are thus made, and this 
will, we think, be no exception. That was the early 
history of the industry here, but now the market 
wagons are daily passing my door with supplies for 
the home market and also for shipment. It would 
doubtless pay to skip to New York City. It is shipped 
from here there in large quantities. The R. N.-Y. 
each week quotes the price of western-grown rhubarb. 
ABOUT THE FUTURE.—As to engaging in the 
business next year, be governed by circumstances. 
Study the demands of your own market, and others 
which may be reached without too much expense. If 
you can succeed in introducing it at home to some 
extent now, you will surely have more demand next 
year. With your roots for next Winter’s use already 
on hand, the outlay will be very little, and your per¬ 
severance, together with this year’s work, will, I 
think, bring satisfactory returns. The roots now in 
the cellar, when through bearing, should be kept at a 
temperature low enough to stop further growth, which 
doubtless can be done by keeping the heat off and 
ventilation. As soon as weather and ground will per¬ 
mit, divide to three or four eyes and transplant into 
as rich ground as possible. Trim carefully, and dis¬ 
card all broken or worthless plants. 
Almost any of the seed or nurserymen advertising 
in The R. N.-Y. will be able to furnish the young 
plants, which must grow two or three years after 
transplanting. Furnace heat will be all right, but 
may require some temporary partitions in order to 
control the amount. J. e. morse. 
