366 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 2fi 
sucked dry by the leaves, the other was trimmed of 
leaves, and no pumps were at work to drain the trunk 
-dry. When clover hay is spread out to the sun as I 
have stated, the leaves which contain these little 
pumps are put out of action, because they are shriv¬ 
eled and dried up, and cannot do their duty. If, soon 
after cutting, the clover is piled in fair-sized cocks, 
and left fairly open to the wind, the leaves remain 
green and strong, and the work of pumping the stems 
goes on until the whole plant is dried out.” 
“What is the best way, then, to cure clover hay?” 
“It is not my business to tell that. All I can give 
is the ‘philosophy’ of the matter, as you call it, and 
this may be summed up in a few words: Let the plant 
dry itself. Handle the hay so that the leaves will re¬ 
main green as long as possible. The perfect leaves 
will suck the plant dry much faster than the wind or 
the sun could ever do it. The best clover hay will 
always be made in the shade. Most of the older men 
remember on the old farm how mother used to bleach 
cotton cloth by taking it out on the grass and leaving 
it exposed to the sun. That took the color out of the 
cloth, and if a farmer wants to take the color out of 
his hay, he should leave it flat on the ground and 
exposed as long as possible to the direct rays of the 
sun. There is no reason, however, why this should 
be done, for the green color of grass is standard, as 
mudh so as the yellow color of butter.” 
TELEPHONE LINES AND WIRE FENCES. 
The papers often contain stories of western farmers 
who have used fences of barbed wire for telephone or 
telegraph lines. Many of such stories prove on Investi¬ 
gation to be “fakes,” but J. H. Taylor, of the Rhinehart 
Cheese Co., Kan., sends us this account of such a tele¬ 
phone: 
We have a telephone line with four instruments, 
which has been in operation for over three years, of 
which 3% miles are the top wire of a bart)-wire fence, 
and iy 2 mile is a single loose wire lying loose in the 
top of a hedge fence. In regard to the details of work¬ 
ing, will say 'that the joints must be scraped clear of 
rust, and wound very tight, the same as a telephone 
line, and not looped together as the ordinary fence 
wire is. In crossing roads, we use two poles, one on 
each side of the road, and the line is raised from the 
top fence wire to these, and joins the fence wire again 
on the other side of the road. Our line works very 
satisfactorily, and cost but $50 for the four instruments 
and five miles of Tihe, and the only objection is that in 
wet weather, the water dripping from the post es¬ 
tablishes a water connection with the ground. Onb 
trouble was that the cattle in reaching over the fence 
for grass on the outside, tear the staples loose, and 
the top wire touching the lower wire cuts off half of 
our current, and makes it hard to hear distinctly. By 
nailing short pieces of 2x4 lumber to the post, and 
raising the wire about three feet above the top of 
the fence, it will work perfectly. 
CORN CULTURE; PLANTING AND WEEDING. 
I have read with interest Mr. Wright’s article on 
corn culture, on page 319, and look forward with equal 
interest for the other articles of the series. I believe 
in the silo, but am aware that there is plenty more 
to learn about corn culture. He takes a shy at the 
hand planter. My father made the rather rash esti¬ 
mate, last year, that it cost us $50 a year to use a 
hand planter, on account of the poor stand of corn 
we got. So I stumped him to a test on a two-acre 
field; he, with one man, began planting with hoes on 
one side, while another man with the planter started 
at the opposite side. The man with the planter had 
done about three-fourths of the field when they came 
together, and the stand of corn in this case was ac¬ 
knowledged to be equally as good where the planter 
was used as where the planting was done by hand. 
Nevertheless, there is danger of being careless with 
an automatic planter, because the operation is so 
simple. If the “boy” is to be sent off alone to plant 
corn, it were probably safest to give him a hoe. If 
the ground is mellbw, I think four plants Coming up 
in a bunch, if they come up all right, will grow about 
as well as Mr. Wright’s, which stand with a good 
space between. 
We have had better success with the weeder than 
he, although our ground is by no means free from 
rubbish. It has worked especially well for crossing 
immediately after the cultivator has worked length¬ 
wise. It is well for a man with a hoe to follow, tak¬ 
ing two rows, and straightening up corn that is pulled 
over. It is better to use the weeder when the corn is 
dry. Our land is not very weedy, and we seldom 
need to use the hoe until near the end of the culti¬ 
vating season, when the corn is shoulder high, or 
higher. Then a man takes two rows along, cutting at 
such weeds as have escaped; but if there are weeds 
earlier, by all means use the hoe and clean them out. 
It is necessary sometimes. It is a great discourage¬ 
ment to weeds in corn, to cultivate once by the marks 
just before the corn breaks ground, allowing the dirt 
to sprinkle into the drill row. We have used the 
weeder and smoothing harrow at this time, but I 
think there is some danger of leaving little clods or 
stones over the sprouting corn. The corn plant is a 
tender infant, notwithstanding the giant it makes 
later. e. c. birge. 
Connecticut. 
ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS. 
WELL-HEELED POTATO.—Last year, on page 
S30, we had a picture of a potato which had grown 
into a hole in a steel boot heel. This heel was evi- 
SPROUTING THROUGH THE HEEL. Fib. 107. 
dently thrown away, and was plowed into the ground. 
The potato grew against it and pushed its nose di¬ 
rectly through the hole. The engraving -was made in 
November. We thought the tuber had been thrown 
away, but last week it turned up, dry, but still sound, 
JUST RIGHT TO SPRAY. Fig. 108. 
A pear aud two apples from which the petals have recently fallen. 
Note that the calyx lobes are widely spread. 
at the bottom of a pile of papers. It had sprouted, 
and one of the sprouts had grown through the hole in 
the heel—as shown in Fig. 107. Now we shall plant 
the tuber—boot heel and all, and see what it does. 
Of course we do not expect to produce a crop of heels, 
ALMOST TOO LATE TO SPRAY APPLES EFFECTIVELY. 
Fig. 109. 
Note that the calyx lobes are drawn nearly together on the two 
apples, while on the pear in the center, the calyx cavity isopen. 
but we will try to make that sprout toe the mark, 
and see where the tubers grow. 
WHEN TO SPRAY.—Evidently many fruit growers 
will spray before July 1 this season. The first attack 
will be against the Codling-moth. We are asked by 
several readers just when the poison should be ap¬ 
plied. We can hardly do better than to print two 
cuts which appeared in Bulletin 142 from the Corneli 
Experiment Station. Prof. Slingerland shows that just 
exactly the best time to spray is when the calyxes 
appear as at Fig. 108. Fig. 109 shows the little apples 
just beginning to form, and it is then almost too late 
for the poison to be effective. He says that when 
the lobes of the calyx of the flower close, it is too 
late to get in the most effective blow against this in¬ 
sect with a poison spray. He thinks that when we 
spray soon after the blossoms fall, we deposit the 
poison in the calyx cavity, which is a cup provided 
by Nature for holding the poison until the little 
worms hatch out, and are ready for business. The 
whole bulletin is very interesting, and will prove use¬ 
ful to all new beginners. 
SPREADING MANURE FROM HEAPS. 
I feel that by continually talking about spreading 
manure in heaps from the wagon you are treading on 
my toes, and I shall attempt to defend the practice as 
far as my case and surroundings are concerned. Like 
many others, I am not blest with a surplus of horse¬ 
power, and at this time of the year it is important 
to keep the three horses busy plowing, harrowing and 
fitting the ground. Consequently, when manure has 
to be drawn, we plan to bother the team as little as 
possible. To do this the extra horse is made one of 
a team, an extra man is hired by tne 'day, and the 
farm hand takes one team, myself the other, and the 
clay hand enjoys himself pitching from the pile. We 
can draw and “hook off” into piles about 40 good 
big loads per day, and four days wind up the drawing 
question. The day hand and the team can go to plow¬ 
ing again, and find time to keep this manure spread 
ahead of the plow. Had we spread from the wagon, 
the teams would have been standing still nearly half 
the time, and 25 loads would have been a good day’s 
work for the three men. If anything prevents my 
being on the ground, I can tell the men how many 
piles to make of a load, and how far apart to put 
the piles, thus regulating the amount per acre. There 
are other arguments in favor of this method, where 
quantities of manure must be drawn during the busy 
season, but I trust you will see that we “manure 
heapers” are not working wholly in the dark. 
Union Springs, N. Y. n. t. h. 
THE TROUBLES OF A SPRAYER. 
The conflicting advice of spraying experts is very 
confusing. Starting out last Winter, I tried to dis¬ 
solve copper sulphate crystals by suspending, 
according to directions, in a sack partly submerged 
in a barrel of water, and after two days of patient 
waiting, came to the conclusion that life was too 
short to wait longer, as the material was not half 
dissolved. Then, I saw a statement that has just been 
reiterated by Mr. Pettit, page 301, to the effect that 
the crystals could be readily dissolved in hot water, 
but not to use an iron vessel, as the sulphate would 
ruin the kettle. Not having a suitable earthen or 
wooden vessel, but having an old iron preserving 
kettle with the enamel gone, 1 concluded its destruc¬ 
tion mattered little, so I would use it as long as it 
lasted. After using once, I became suspicious of the 
reason given for non-use, and telephoned a local 
chemist, who said the immediate danger was to the 
solution, as contact with iron would precipitate the 
copper, and nothing but an iron solution would re¬ 
main. I immediately stopped the use of the kettle, 
except to heat water to pour on to the crystals, which 
I placed in a barrel, thus supposing the problem was 
settled. Then I saw an article from Mr. Hammond, 
saying that Bordeaux rapidly deteriorates unless the 
water used in its preparation is kept at a low tem¬ 
perature, and as I wished to keep a stock solution 
constantly on hand, I went back to the cold water 
theory, first spending a oay “inwardly cussm’ ” and 
outwardly pulverizing the sulphate crystals with a 
maul. Coming down to the poison period, after a 
careful study of station literature, I concluded that a 
white arsenic sal soda formula, purporting to emanate 
from the spraying experts of Cornell, was the proper 
thing to use, and now, after spraying several thou¬ 
sand trees for Codling-worms, Mr. Slingerland, on 
page 318, says that the formula does not call for but 
half as much poison as it should, and gain I am left 
“inwardly cussin’ ” and very much discouraged. 
Fontella, Va. _ g. e. m. 
A Power Windmill.—Two or more years ago you de¬ 
scribed a power windmill, that gave us the notion, so last 
Fall we built a barn and put up a power windmill, the 
only one in the county, that runs fodder cutter and feed 
grinder. Our neighbors laughed at us, but it is a de¬ 
cided success. We give The R. N.-Y. the credit of it. 
Rockville, Ind. J. G. 
As the southern cow pea moves up north growers are 
finding out more about the proper way of handling it. 
A. W. Slaymaker, of Delaware, now writes us that he 
drilled some cow peas with corn last year, and has most 
satisfactory results. He thought the corn was better, 
too, having the cow peas grow along with it. The fodder 
was fed dry to the stock, and the pea vines greatly im¬ 
proved its feeding value. He also secured a lot of dry peas, 
which matured after the corn was cut up. He thinks 
as good or better results can be secured by planting corn 
or peas in the same hill so as to work the crop both 
ways. Planting cow peas alone in hills in the orchard 
and then working both ways with the cultivator would 
seem to be almost an ideal plan, because in this way we 
obtain needed surface cultivation, and still produce an 
excellent humus crop. 
