2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 7 
at eight cents, net, are worth $6.16 As each man 
furnished the same amount of milk, he would be paid 
the same sum, or S3 08 The injustice of the pooling 
system is then very apparent, for A received 44 cents, 
or 11 cents per 100 pounds more than his due, while B 
received 44 cents, or 11 cents per 100 pounds less than 
his due. 
It Is Popular. —When patrons of cheese factories 
come to see and experience the fairness of the fat 
basis in paying for milk, they never have any desire to 
return to the unjust pooling system. Early last 
Spring, I had occasion to assist a cheese factory in 
Oswego County in beginning to take milk according 
to the fat content. Many of the patrons were very 
skeptical about adopting the system, and the cheese- 
maker was as doubtful as any concerning its practical 
workings. But now, cheesemaker and patrons are 
enthusiastic over the plan, and the former writes that 
he ’could not get milk enough to run his factory, 
should he return to the pooling system. 
One excellent feature of the plan is the incentive 
which it gives a dairyman to improve his herd. He 
sees his neighbor with fewer cows and less but richer 
milk, drawing as large a check as he. This sets him 
thinking, and he immediately begins to weed out his 
poor cows and introduce strains which produce richer 
milk. Another good feature of the plan is its moral 
effect. There is no longer any premium on watering 
or skimming milk before it goes to the factory, for 
the farmer is paid for the pounds of butter fat he de¬ 
livers and not for pounds of water. 
Where milk is taken on the fat basis, it is usually 
tested once in two weeks. Each day’s milk is sampled 
when it is delivered, each patron having a bottle bear¬ 
ing his name or number, and into this bottle is put a 
small portion of his daily delivery of milk. Some 
preservative, like bichromate of potash, is put in the 
sample to keep it from souring. It has been found by 
actual experiment that as accurate results can be 
obtained by testing this composite sample once in two 
weeks, as by testing each day’s milk separately, and 
where there are 30 or 40 patrons, the testing is no 
small task. Then, having the weight of milk delivered 
by each patron, it is an easy matter to calculate the 
amount of butter fat he delivers for the two weeks, 
or for a month if the dividends be declared monthly. 
The total sum received for the month’s make of cheese, 
minus expenses, divided by the total pounds of fat 
delivered, will give the net price for one pound of fat, 
from which each patron’s share is easily calculated. 
Cornell Experiment Station. l*roy AND arson. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Good Roads. —I read on page 799, the note on Road 
Smashers ; also on page 849, the note on A Talk About 
Good Roads. I notice that the latter recommends 
stone roads nine feet wide. I think this is a very 
poor plan, and no town ought to accept a roadbed 
that is not wide enough for two teams to drive side by 
side. I would recommend that they be built 12 feet 
wide, and posted with signs, Don’t Drive in the 
Middle of tiie Road. This is a plan carried out by 
the Massachusetts Board of State Commissioners, with 
good results. The note referred to says that good 
stone roads can be built for $850 per mile. This plan 
would cost only $1,300 per mile, which is much cheaper 
than Massachusetts stone roads, as their cost is $11,000 
per mile. If the sign is well observed, the road will 
be kept in good repair. I tried this plan on a dirt 
road, with excellent results. w. f. m. 
Leominster, Mass. 
Fine Seedling Potatoes. —Your account of the 
remarkable seedling potatoes—page 834—interested 
me very much, especially as I have just returned from 
the annual meeting of our State Horticultural Society, 
where I saw the finest exhibit of seedling potatoes 
of which I ever heard. One very long table was 
nearly covered with one-year seedlings, and a large 
part of another table was occupied with two-year 
seedlings. They were all grown by L. H. Read, of 
Wisconsin. My impression is that there were over 100 of 
the one-year seedlings, and perhaps one-half of them 
were of fair marketable size. Almost none was 
smaller than a walnut, while many would be called 
large. They were of all shades of red and blue, while 
the majority would be classed as white. It would be 
easy to pick out varieties resembling any of the well- 
known sorts that have been grown during the last 
quarter of a century. 
One plate that attracted more attention than any 
other contained four fine specimens that would pass 
anywhere for the Snowflake. The plant that produced 
these yielded 25 marketable potatoes that weighed 
nine pounds. Mr. Read thinks that this has never 
been equaled. The seed that produced these varieties 
was sown March 17 last. 
The two-year seedlings were all of full size, and 
were beautiful specimens. One has been named the 
Blue Rural, as it is a seedling of the Rural No. 2. It 
is exactly like its parent except that it is dark blue 
instead of white. Mr. Read told of saving 15 bushels 
of potato balls which yielded 10 pounds of seed. 
Ohio. M. CRAWFORD. 
Selling Manure from tiie Farm, —It is strange 
that some farmers will actually sell manure. They 
either do it as an “ accommodation ” to some one who 
wants a few loads, or they cannot resist the offer of 
cash. Manure means fertility to the soil, as well as 
returns for the present crop, and fertility to the soil 
means the life of the farm. Seldom is there a time 
when a good excuse can be offered for selling a load 
of manure from the farm. A man lives near me who 
has a five-acre farm lot. In addition to putting in a 
crop each year, he works out with his team a large 
part of the time. He has two horses and a cow. Every 
year he sells a large pile of manure at a nominal price 
For two years, I have purchased it myself, paying him 
CARRYING THE STEAM ACROSS THE FIELD. Fig. 2. 
50 cents a load at his stable door. I have asked him 
why he sold it instead of enriching his land, which, 
by the way, is not rich. His land, he said, was as rich 
as need be, and he wanted the money. So he goes on, 
year by year, growing medium yields of ordinary 
rough crops, when there is a good demand for garden 
truck which he might grow and sell, and at the same 
time gradually get his plot of ground into a condition 
where his crop would be worth ten times what he now 
rais is upon it. G E. m. 
Fairfax Co., Va. 
“ Full-weight Prices ”—Grain and stock buyers 
have a way of robbing farmers, by docking weights. 
The reason given is for waste ; but who should stand 
the waste, after goods are weighed, the buyer or the 
seller ? Every farmer stands quietly by, and allows 
the buyer to call the weight an even number ending 
with a cipher, in cases of buying stock, and a cipher 
or figure five, with each weigh of grain, stating that 
the s filer must allow all above those figures as waste. 
For instance, a load of stock weighing 15,049 pounds 
is called 15,040, the seller losing the nine pounds. 
Would it not be better to call it an even 15,050 ? But 
the purchaser does not do that. A few pounds off 
each weigh mean dollars to him, while the farmer 
quietly submits to the doeking. Let every farmer 
hereafter insist on his rights for pay for full weight, 
and it will be the custom to give it. Another thing 
should be given close attention; buyers are not always 
ONE-YEAR OLD ASPARAGUS PLANT. Fig. 3. 
honest, and easily defraud in weight. Test the scales 
by being weighed there personally and elsewhere, or 
sometimes have the grain or stock weighed elsewhere. 
Stockbuyers can estimate weights and values of stock 
much nearer than the farmer, therefore, have an ad¬ 
vantage in buying without weighing. h. w. 
M chigan. 
R. N.-Y.—Here we see the advantage of owning good 
scales at home. 
Construction of Cow Stables. —Often we find that 
anywhere in the barn is considered good enough for 
the cows, but a separate stable must be constructed 
for the horses ; the reverse would be much better, 
from a sanitary standpoint. The cows should have a 
stable by themselves if they are worth keeping, with 
proper air-space and no hay lofts above, or any manure 
pits beneath. A concrete floor of one solid piece, with 
gutters and feeding indentations, will be found a 
most satisfactory and economical scheme, even though 
some claim that the cows may thus be injured by slip¬ 
ping, etc. ; but this can be avoided by the use of shav¬ 
ings or other good forms of bedding. 
As light is the greatest purifying agent we have, 
there is no reason why it should be excluded—the en¬ 
tire sides can be made of successive windows. The 
constructing work in the barn should be simple, so 
that it will not give an opportunity to harbor dust, 
and such that it can be conveniently reached to be 
wiped off with a damp cloth daily. The feeding should 
be done on the concrete floor in front of the cows, 
which may be slightly concave, but each cow should 
have her own drinking bucket. 
Ventilation is an important factor; the entire length 
of the barn at the top may be easily arranged for this, 
as well as over the windows on the sides. Suspended 
tracks for cars to remove the manure, and similar con¬ 
veniences, are very desirable, but as little construc¬ 
tion work as possible, and places for dust to lodge, 
is found best. e. nelson ehrhart. 
WINTER FORCING OF ASPARAGUS. 
HOW IT IS DONE IN THE OPEN FIELD. 
The Use of Steam for the Purpose. 
(Concluded.) 
Asparagus in 1 O Days. —The first asparagus was 
cut November 24, 10 days after the first steam was 
applied. The stems were cut just before they got 
through the soil, and were perfectly blanched, crisp 
and delicious. They were as large as those produced 
during the normal period of Spring growth. Cuttings 
of asparagus were made almost daily for about a 
month, when the growth became somewhat weak. 
Subsequent experiment convinced us that the bed 
would have produced more and for a longer period 
if we had heated it more gradually. During the 
month, the product from this forced bed was equiva¬ 
lent to one-fourth pound to each foot of row, or 
three-fourths pound for each hill forced. The best of 
this asparagus sold as high as 75 cents per pound, and 
the poorest for 20 cents per pound. 
In Zero Weather. —A second bed was first steamed 
December 16, and the first asparagus cut December 
30. The weather was much colder, and the bed 
heated more gradually. At times, no steam was 
applied for two or three days, and the temperature of 
the bed did not fall much below 60 degrees. The 
finest stems, 12 to 14 inches long and about an inch 
in diameter, were obtained during the coldest weather 
in January, when the thermometer frequently regis¬ 
tered below zero. The cuttings in this bed were pro¬ 
longed until February 26, 1897, and the product was 
better than that of the first bed forced. We attribute 
this difference to the fact that the bed was heated 
more gradually, especially at the beginning. 
The next Winter (1897-8), an experiment was tried 
to ascertain just how much fuel and how many hours 
of steaming would be required for a given area of 
asparagus. A small plot of six rows, each 25 feet 
long, equivalent to one row 150 feet long, was forced. 
The steam was furnished by the boiler used in heat¬ 
ing our greenhouse plant, using our native soft coal, 
worth $1.62 per ton delivered. 
The Cost of Steaming. —Steam was first turned 
into the tunnels on December 29, in order that the ex¬ 
periment might be conducted during the coldest days 
of midwinter. Asparagus was cut from January 12 
until February 25. The total amount of coal actually 
used for heating this bed during the 58 days was 2,308 
pounds, worth $1.82, this being arrived at by the most 
accurate available methods. Steam was discharged 
into the bed a total of 16% hours, equivalent to an 
average of 17 minutes daily, or less than three minutes 
daily for each tunnel. The rate of yield of asparagus 
from the plot was 162 bunches weighing 80 pounds, 
equivalent to 9,882 bunches, weighing 4,880 pounds 
per acre. 
The Newest Plan. —In order to avoid the useless 
expense of annually trenching and making tunnels 
between the asparagus rows, we have now laid four- 
inch tile, the length of the asparagus field, between 
the rows of plants. We used the one-foot lengths of 
porous clay tile, laid with open joints, and covered 
with several inches of gravel, readily to admit the 
surplus water, or let out the steam. The tile is laid 
one foot deep, there being as many rows of it as there 
are rows of asparagus. During wet weather, this tile 
gives perfect underdrainage, thus permitting the soil 
to warm up early in Spring. During dry weather, by 
using shut-offs every 40 feet, we water section after 
section of the bed through this tile, thus securing a 
most perfect subirrigation. In Winter, these drains 
are plugged at each 40-foot shut-off, and are used for 
tunnels for forcing. The steam is discharged directly 
into them, and readily permeates the soil through the 
loose joints, each 40-foot section being forced at a 
