67o 
October 6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
34,000 quarts of milk to get the same sum. But these 
big figures should not induce anyone to give up his 
general farming, sell his cows or cut down his or¬ 
chards in order to go into cabbage-seed growing for 
commercial purposes. It is a business by itself, a 
specialty requiring a large amount of experience, and 
a greenhornls first attempt would quite likely be a 
fizzle. w. w. h. 
A NURSERY LIAR AND HIS LIES. 
An Ananias from Alabama. 
A company with headquarters in Alabama has been 
securing orders in this county for peach trees which they 
say are budded on the Myrobolan plum, and which for 
this reason will live 40 years, and bear fruit every year 
and never miss, even when others fail, on account of 
late frosts. The firm’s apple trees are on French stock, 
which cost them $30 per 100, and being grafted into 
these French crabs they are absolutely healthy, being 
free from every kind of insect pest, disease or blight 
whatsoever. They also sell a most wonderful grape—a 
seedless grape—which will produce 250 pounds of very fine 
grapes the second year after setting, which will keep 
all the Winter in this warm climate, and then, when 
Spring comes, this fine grape turns to first-class raisins. 
They also secure orders for a bloomless apple, which, 
however, bears apples every year, the tree putting forth 
its fruit like the fig. All this appears wonderful and 
very desirable to many of the farmers, and quite a 
number have made big orders. I send you the following 
clipped from a county paper. Will The R. N.-Y. please 
turn on the light? 
“The golden opportunity to buy fruit trees that is 
adapted to our climate and that is guaranteed to give 
perfect satisfaction in every respect. 
“It is to one and alls interest who buy nursery stock 
to patronize responsible firms of and old standing and not 
buy trees from inexperience agents. 
“It is highly necessary that all families should have 
plenty of the best varieties of fruit for home necessities 
and no family should try to live without it. 
“Good fruit is essential to health. 
“It is the way to save money, to spend money for 
good trees. 
“Three of the seven - Bros, will be at this place 
and in the country adjacent for a few weeks soliciting 
orders. They have had twenty-five years experience in 
fruit culture. They have also got proof that they are 
reliable, and have never sold any trees that have not 
given perfect satisfaction. 
“They grow their own stock, and do their own selling 
and delivering. 
“We wish to have a talk with every man in this 
county, who wishes to see it developed and bettered in 
the way of fruit growing, and we do not object to talk¬ 
ing to a man concerning our business though he has no 
other motive than curiosity. 
“Gentlemen, we are in the business to stay. It is our 
lifetime business. 
“It is to our interest to please our customers; it is to the 
people’s interest to patronize men who understand their 
business. 
“We sell apple trees propagated on the French crab, 
whole root, and also inoculate peaches on the myrabolian 
plum root and peach on Japan pear seedlings which in¬ 
sures them against borers and add greatly to the length 
of life and certainly to a good crop of and develops 
fruit much better.” J. m. j. 
Haywood, Ala. 
This is another shameful swindle. The perpetra¬ 
tors may have some semblance oi honesty, but if they 
have their consciences are so befogged by the exag¬ 
gerated and misconceived ideas they hold that they 
are utterly unworthy of the dependance of anyone 
who expects to plant trees. It is a pity that there are 
so many brothers in the company. Among the lot 
there must be some who have intelligence enough to 
know that no sort of stock will make a peach tree “live 
40 years.” There may be peach trees in Alabama 40 
years old, but any such are on their own roots and 
not on plum roots of any kind. Apple trees on 
“French crab” stocks are a fake; in other words, the 
whole thing is a fraud. No stock will cause apple or 
other trees to be “free from every kind of insect peist, 
disease or blight whatsoever.” This is a base false¬ 
hood. It is like some of the lies told by the famous 
Ohio children of Ananias, whom we have lately heard 
of working among the New York fruit growers. We 
have heard about the big clusters of grapes brought 
to the Israelitish camp from Canaan, but if the spies 
could only have found one of these vines that bear “250 
pounds of grapes the second year after setting,” and 
keep all Winter and then turn to raisins they would 
never have returned to tell of their success, but have 
gone into the vineyard business and been ready to 
sell grapes, raisins and wine to their brethren when 
they entered the promised land a little later. What a 
terrible lie that is! Give the cake and the whole 
bakery to Alabama! We may as well lay the new 
battleship Alabama at anchor in Mobile Bay and send 
out these “seven brethren” to engage the enemy with 
their tongues. They could surely beat the Spaniards 
at lying, and make them ashamed if not afraid to see 
an American. 
And then, to think that there are people who have 
intelligence enough to make money enough to buy 
nursery stock who will believe such stuff, and buy 
hundreds of dollars’ worth of it in single bills! Every 
one of them should cancel his orders and prosecute 
“the seven brothers” for obtaining money under false 
pretenses. They would not dare stand suit. They 
tell just enough of the truth about the value of fruits 
to make people believe the lies they tell. 
H. E. VAN PElkfAN. 
A BARN FOR A STOCK FARM. 
The Principles of Barn Building. 
My barns were struck by lightning and burned August 
20. Could you help me design a barn for a 200-acre stock 
farm in a fair state of fertility? I wish to keep from 20 
to 30 cows and the young stock; a flock of sheep and 
eight to 12 horses and colts. Do you consider it better 
to keep cows in a shed attached, or In the basement 
under horse stable? Please give me probable cost. 
Breakabeen, N. Y. f. f. 
A BASEMENT BARN.—Every farmer must prac¬ 
tically design his own barn, or have some one design 
it who is perfectly familiar with his special needs. All 
that can be done in tne matter of general advice is 
SAN JOSE SCALE ON PEAR. Fio. 250. See Page 672. 
to state the fundamental conditions which should be 
met in the construction of any barn. It seems likely 
that F. F. could provide the cheapest and most 
satisfactory shelter for his horses, cattle and sheep by 
building a barn with basement stable, providing for 
the horses on the second floor; this would certainly 
be the best plan to follow if a side hill is available 
for the placing of the barn where the second floor is 
easily accessible from near the level of the ground on 
the up-hill side. There are few objections which can 
be urged against a basement barn, where it is well 
exposed on one side and half exposed on the two ends, 
leaving one side only against the bank, and I think if 
Pear. Apple. Plum. Peach. 
TREES PLANTED ON STRINGFELLOW PLAN. Fig. 251. 
any farmer has conditions so that he could utilize the 
basement in this way it is much the better plan to 
follow. 
SAVING TIMBER.—The building of a main barn 
with one L or more for cattle and sheep necessarily 
increases the amount of lumber required to provide 
the needed shelter. There is no form of construction 
which necessitates so little lumber as the building 
whose horizontal dimensions are most nearly the 
same; the longer a building is in proportion to its 
width and the lower a building is the more material 
is required to inclose the space. It requires as much 
roof and as much stone wall to provide for a low 
building as it does for one which is higher, and the 
amount of side which is necessary to inclose the floor 
space is always less the more nearly equal the length 
and width of the building are. Just what is the best 
length and is also the best width for a rectangular 
barn must be decided by the specific accommodations 
which are desired. If the barn is to be two stories 
and all of wood except the foundation wall, or if it 
is to be of stone for the basement and wood above, 
the best plan for the frame portion is to arrange to 
put the siding on horizontal, and to use the ordinary 
balloon frame, such as is used in the construction of 
dwelling houses, selecting the size of studding neces¬ 
sary to give the needed strength, and placing them 
two feet apart. For a barn that is to be 30 to 40 by 
50 to 70 feet 2x6 studding would be sufficiently heavy 
where the lengths do not exceed 24 feet. This form 
of frame is much simpler than what is ordinarily 
designated the plank frame, and it is much cheaper 
and stronger than the old-fashioned heavy-timber 
frame. When such a frame is used, and the studding 
is covered with drop siding, the siding itself forms 
the best possible bracing which can be devised for 
such a structure, while if the siding is put on up and 
down, as is usually the case with the ordinary frame 
barn, and with the plank frame which has been de¬ 
signed to come as near the old frame barn as pos¬ 
sible, there is no additional strength given to the 
barn by the siding itself. The barn frame of early 
days was designed to meet the conditions which ex¬ 
isted when sawmills were few; it was then easier to 
hew the frames out of heavy logs than it was to cut 
the logs into the form of studding, and the continuing 
of that type of barn frame into the present time is a 
useless expenditure of lumber and labor. 
FRESH AIR.—The arrangement for ventilation is 
one of the most important points which should re¬ 
ceive attention in the planning and building of a stock 
barn. Every such barn should have at least one thor- 
oughly-good ventilating flue which extends from the 
level of the stable floor through and above the high¬ 
est part of the roof. The ventilating flue, to be per¬ 
fect, should have all the essential characters which go 
to make a good chimney, and this means that it must 
have air-tight walls at all places except where it is 
designed that air should enter it. The size of the 
ventilating flue should be determined by the number 
of animals which it is to supply with fresh air, and 
20 cows require a ventilating flue whose cross section 
is four square feet, or two feet on a side; the opem 
ing which admits the air to the ventilating flue should 
have a cross section nearly equal to that of the flue 
itself, and should be within a few inches of the lower 
part of the stable, because it is the coldest air and 
the most imDure air which it is desired to remove 
from the stable. Fresh air should be admitted as near 
the ceiling as possible so that it may be mixed with 
the warmest air, ana have the chill taken off from 
it before it falls to the floor to come in contact with 
the animals. In order to admit the cold air to the 
stable at tne ceiling, without having the warm air 
pass out through the same openings, it is necessary to 
make the outside opening to these intakes four or 
more feet below the level of the entrance, and with 
the balloon frame this is easily done by allowing the 
air to rise between two studding, providing an open¬ 
ing at tne ceiling on the inside and one near the sill 
on the outside. These openings about 4x12 inches are 
best placed horizontally about 12 feet apart on as 
many sides of the stable as it is possible to place 
them, so as to take advantage of the wind pressure 
from whatever direction the wind is blowing to help 
force the fresh air into the stable. 
The height of the stable snould be determined 
chiefly by the amount of room or headway that is 
needed to carry on the work of the inside, and it is 
seldom necessary to have a ceiling higher tnan eight 
or nine leet; a greater height than this is wasteful of 
animal heat, and increases the cost of the building. 
If the barn is to be 50 or 60 feet long the sides can be 
strengthened by bents at regular intervals just as 
would be done in the ordinary frame barn, but the 
bracing or timbers can be given the necessary dimen¬ 
sions by increasing the number of two-inch pieces 
just as would be done in a plank frame. 
F. H. KING. 
New Use for Cold Storage.— The use of cold storage 
is on the Increase, but the first instance we have heard 
of Its being tried as a remedy for human ills was re¬ 
ported by the New York Herald recently. A man suffer¬ 
ing from hay fever concluded that, as the trouble ceases 
at the beginning of cold weather, he might hasten the 
relief by putting himself in charge of an artificial Winter. 
The matter was explained to the proprietors of a cold 
storage warehouse, and they showed their hospitality by 
taking him in, not out of the cold, but into it. The tem¬ 
perature ranged from zero to 10 above, and he cruised 
around in his Summer clothes among the packages of 
frozen fish, Thanksgiving turkeys, and other edibles. At 
first the change from the suffocating heat of the street 
was pleasing, but his fingers and ears soon began to 
tingle. After being on ice for an hour, the cold seemed 
to penetrate clear to his bones, and, as he was obliged 
to race around like a lunatic to keep from freezing, he 
concluded that it was time to get out. After being out 
in the heat again for a short time he found that his 
cheek was badly frostbitten. Not being a book agent by 
trade, however, his business operations were not ma¬ 
terially hindered. The result of the experiment was a 
temporary relief from the hay fever, but it is doubtful 
whether the remedy as a whole will ever become popular. 
