1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
785 
Why Smutty Grain Kills. 
T. C., WallaWalla, Wash .—Why does smut¬ 
ty grain kill hogs, and is there any remedy 
for it? 
Ans. —Smutty grain is likely to con¬ 
tain poisons somewhat similar in their 
action to the ergot of rye and corn smut. 
This series of poisons affect the brain 
and nervous system, the heart and res¬ 
piration, causing convulsions, and at 
times abortion. Other constituents irri¬ 
tate the stomach and intestines, causing 
diarrhea, etc. Most healthy animals, 
especially horned cattle, can consume 
moderate quantities of smutty grain 
without serious harm, provided the re¬ 
mainder of the diet is wholesome and 
nutritious, but its use is always accom¬ 
panied by some danger. We know of no 
remedy for the immediate effects of poi¬ 
soning from smutty grain, that is safe, 
except in the hands of a competent vet¬ 
erinary surgeon. When bad effects are 
noticed, cease using the suspected grain 
at once, and place on a light diet of 
bran mashes, green clover, etc., in order 
to eliminate the poison from the system. 
What About Cuba ? 
II. P. N., Connecticut .—What are the facts 
about Cuba as a future home for Ameri¬ 
cans? What are its farming possibilities 
for people of average means? Will it pay 
a farmer to go there? Do oranges, ba¬ 
nanas and pineapples do as well near the 
coast as farther inland? 
Ans. —The writer has never been in 
Cuba, but spent several months in Ja¬ 
maica, looking over the prospects for 
fruit growing in a small way, and con¬ 
cluded that it would need considerable 
time, capital, and an immense amount 
of patience to achieve moderate success. 
The climate and soil were all right, but 
the native labor was wholly unreliable, 
and the facilities for transporting and 
disposing of the product entirely inade¬ 
quate. These conditions must be greatly 
intensified in Cuba at present. It is a 
serious undertaking to grow produce in 
any locality, however favorable, which 
must be sold thousands of miles away. 
The profits are almost sure to be appro¬ 
priated by transportation companies, 
and the small planter left without re¬ 
sources. Capitalists and syndicates may 
make money, but the individual colo¬ 
nists are quite certain to be plucked. 
Bananas grow as well on fertile low¬ 
lands near the coast as inland, but the 
oranges of the coast belt are generally 
much inferior to those grown at an ele¬ 
vation of 500 to 2,000 feet on the coral 
limestone soils of the interior. We do 
not know of any reliable English work 
on Cuba. Write to the United States 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
I). C., for further information. 
Plowing Out Rhubarb Roots. 
E. 8. 11., Harwinton, Conn.—I am much in¬ 
terested in the articles on forcing rhubarb, 
and would like to know what time the roots 
should be plowed out ready for freezing? 
Also, how deep the plowing should be, and 
whether a large amount of earth should be 
taken in with the roots? 
Ans. —Let the roots remain in the 
ground until there is prospect of a frost 
sufficient to freeze them clear through. 
They would not be injured, however, by 
being plowed some time before freezing; 
but should heavy rains occur, the soil 
washes off, which is objectionable. It is 
better to leave them as late as possible, 
as less soil will be required to fill the 
.spaces. It will require quite deep plow¬ 
ing. Draw a line, or mark along the 
right side of the row. Turn a furrow 
away from the row; for the next furrow 
set the plow behind the row, and suffi¬ 
ciently deep to keep clear of the main 
body of the root. The plow will cut off 
the tap roots, and the coulter should be 
sharp enough to cut the prongs on either 
side of the row. A sharp spade should 
be used for trimming the branches. The 
third question depends upon the cellar 
or forcing place. If the floor is cement, 
brick, or other hard substance, loose 
soil to the depth of two or three inches 
should be thrown in before placing the 
roots. If the floor is loose soil, the 
bunches may be placed immediately on 
it, using enough soil to fill the spaces. 
Do not lose sight of the fact that all the 
soil possible should adhere and freeze 
to the roots, as the moisture will be re¬ 
quired in forcing. J. e. m. 
For the land’s sake—use Bowker’s 
Fertilizer.— Adv. 
A NEW JERSEY FRUIT FARM. 
What the Barnyard Does for Apple Trees 
A Start With Apples. —There are 
many fertile and well-managed farms 
about the village of Hightstown, N. J., 
but probably the most profitable of them 
all has been conducted by Isaac L. Davi¬ 
son for over 20 years. When he bought 
lit, back in the seventies, it was in a run¬ 
down condition, but there was a bearing 
block of apple trees, covering nearly 12 
acres, consisting mainly of Sweet 
Bough, Baldwin, Smith’s Cider, and • 
Orange or Monmouth Pippin. He was 
able to get $6 to $7.50 per barrel for 
prime Sweet Bough apples in the Boston 
market, while his Winter varieties 
would bring $2 to $3 per barrel in New 
York. Being of a very practical tem¬ 
perament, Mr. Davison soon made up 
his mind that an acre of apple orchard, 
well cared for, was worth many times 
such an area in ordinary farm crops. 
Starting with very limited capital, he 
determined to hold fast to the things 
which were proven, and not to waste 
substance and energy on experiments. 
Stable manure was the tangible fertil¬ 
izer that was certain to improve the soil, 
if applied with liberality and discretion. 
Through all the vicissitudes of the suc¬ 
ceeding years he has steadfastly ad¬ 
hered to this policy of bountifully feed¬ 
ing his land, and every Fall, after the 
season’s work is ended, he orders a 
number of carloads of manure from 
New York, about 48 miles away by rail, 
besides utilizing every scrap of compost 
made on the farm. Two or three teams 
are kept busy the greater part of the 
Winter hauling manure from the freight 
station, and applying it directly to the 
land. 
Swine in the Orchard. —The orchard, 
which has been considerably increased, 
receives every alternate year a heavy 
application, which is lightly plowed 
under lin the Spring, and Red clover is 
sown, which is in turn pastured off the 
succeeding year by pigs; 40 or 50 Jersey 
Red hogs are annually raised, mainly 
for the purpose of consuming the fallen 
fruits. We saw a number, less than 15 
months old, that had received nothing 
since Spring but clover, wind-fall fruit, 
and a limited quantity of swlill daily for 
drink, that would dress over 200 pounds 
at the time, before fattening. Chemical 
fertilizers, bone and potash, had been 
tried in the past, as a substitute for 
stable manure in the orchard, but the 
results were not marked, and Mr. Davi¬ 
son will have no more of it, though he 
applies liberal quantities of a good com¬ 
plete fertilizer to his wheat and pota¬ 
toes, and is convinced of their profitable 
use on such crops, but he maintains that 
large, deep-rooting trees do better with 
the manure. 
What the Farm Does. —Now let us 
examine some of the results of this con¬ 
sistent and extended course of soil feed¬ 
ing. Neighbors who are closest to Mr. 
Davison’s confidence say that he has 
always been able to realize over $1,000 
profit from his farm of about 70 acres, 
in the most unfavorable years, and dur¬ 
ing better seasons, his sales of produce 
have been large enough to yield net re¬ 
turns of $3,000 to $4,000. The phrase 
“farming don’t pay” has never been 
used by him. He claims that the farmer 
who fails to realize more than a living 
on the average farm is either lazy or a 
bad manager, and too often these de¬ 
fects are found together, and failure is 
then certain. From this it can be in¬ 
ferred that Mr. Davison’s marked suc¬ 
cess is the natural outcome of a keen 
practical mind directing a most indus¬ 
trious body, and the results show this to 
be the case. There are now nearly 30 
acres in fruit, the original 12 acres of 
apples having been supplanted by six 
acres of peaches and four of pears, the 
remainder being a younger orchard of 
Smith’s Cider and Baldwin apples. On 3 
of the finest crops of fruit, in the way of 
quality, ever grown in that section, was 
produced this season, though the past 
severe Winter caused a considerable 
shortage in peaches. The amounts mar¬ 
keted are about as follows: 1,000 barrels 
Winter apples, 200 barrels Sweet Bough 
apples, 1,600 baskets peaches, 250 bar¬ 
rels Bartlett and Kieffer pears, 1,700 
bushels potatoes, 200 bushels wheat. 
Winter apples were sold in the orchard 
at $1 per barrel, though $1.25 or more 
could have been had if the sale had been 
delayed a few weeks. The Sweet Boughs 
brought $2 to $2.50 in Boston, which 
seems to be the best market for sweet 
apples. Bartlett and Kieffer pears 
brought respectively about $3 and $2 per 
barrel, both being of a fancy quality. 
General Management. —A block of 
four acres of Monmouth or Orange Pip¬ 
pin, included in the old orchard, and 
surrounded by Smith’s Cider and Bald¬ 
win, have proved so uncertain in crop¬ 
ping that the trees are to be dug 
out and replaced with the first 
of the two varieties mentioned, though 
Mr. Davison has borne their short¬ 
comings for all these years from 
a natural dislike to destroy such large 
and thrifty trees, but like the rob¬ 
ber cows of the alert dairyman, their 
incapacity has been proven, and they 
must make way for a more reliable 
kind. We never saw trees more heavily 
loaded with perfect and highly colored 
apples, though no spraying or other 
treatment, aside from high fertilization 
and good cultivation was given. Mr. 
Davison has a good spraying outfit, 
which he uses when the season promises 
to be unfavorable, but he says that in a 
good season the fruit is always perfect, 
and plentiful enough if the trees have 
been properly fed, which is always the 
maJin thing. He does not take much 
stock in the idea of thinning fruits for 
the general market, and one of the re¬ 
sults, this season at least, has been the 
breaking down of some of the finest 
trees. 
There is plenty of room for criticism 
of Mr. Davison’s methods, but at the 
same time, none of his critics has ever 
4 
been able to show such magnificent 
practical results. His three-year trees 
in the peach block look like six-year- 
olds, and those set six years ago look 
as though they had been established 10 
or 12 years. But little attention is paid 
to stock, aside from the horses neces¬ 
sary to cultivate the land, and pigs to 
consume the wastes. He keeps two or 
three cows, and a goodly flock of 
chickens, which range the nearby pear 
blocks. 
BULLETINS BOILED^DOWN. 
Root-Killing in Dakota.— Bulletin No. 
65, from the South Dakota Experiment Sta¬ 
tion (Brookings), is a very important dis¬ 
cussion of the root-killing of apple trees. 
The past Winter was exceedingly hard on 
nurseries and young orchards throughout 
the Northwest. Apple root-grafts were 
killed by the hundreds of thousands; in 
fact, the damage was as great as that done 
in the severe Winter of ’72-’73. Prof. Han¬ 
son of South Dakota, who issues this bulle¬ 
tin, concludes that the ordinary American 
and French apple seedlings which are now 
largely used as stocks, are not sufficiently 
hardy for the Northwest. This causes 
root-killing and the hardy top, left without 
a strong root, perishes. The American 
Wild crab also winterkilled, and is not 
hardy enough to use as a stock. Limited 
experience with seedlings of hardy varieties 
and also seedlings of the wild apple from 
southern Russia, proved subject to root- 
killing. Top grafts of Siberian crabs or 
piece-root grafting on Siberian crab seed¬ 
lings have not been successful. The true 
Siberian crab (Pyrus baccata) is the hardi¬ 
est known species of the apple, and it is 
hoped that this will prove of great value as 
a stock in the Northwest. Until this ques¬ 
tion is settled definitely, however. Prof. 
Hanson says that trees should be well 
mulched every Fall before the ground 
freezes, so as to prevent a too-deep freez¬ 
ing of the roots and consequent winter- 
killing. 
Commercial Violet Culture.— We have 
received, from time to time, a number of 
inquiries for a book devoted to violet cul¬ 
ture, and this want is now supplied by a 
volume under the above title by Prof. B. 
T. Galloway, of the Division of Vegetable 
Pathology, Department of Agiioulture. 
This is the first comprehensive treatise on 
the subject which has come under oui 
knowledge, and it gives full details of the 
growing and handling of the crop. The 
chapter on building, heating and ventilat¬ 
ing houses and frames is especially valu¬ 
able. Prof. Galloway also discusses very 
fully the diseases and insect enemies at¬ 
tacking the violet, this being a subject to 
which he has devoted much study, and in 
which he is an eminent authority. Con¬ 
cerning profit in violets, the author says: 
On the whole, it may be said that the in¬ 
come from 10,000 plants grown in houses, 
and handled properly, should, year in and 
year out, average $5,600, while the total ex¬ 
penses should not exceed $1,500. This 
means an average yield of 75 flowers per 
plant and an average price of 75 cents per 
100 flowers. 
Violets can be grown in frames cheaper 
than they can in houses. With good care 
the total cost per plant will not exceed 
five cents or 10 cents per 100 for the flowers, 
reckoning that the average yield of the 
latter is 50 flowers per plant. Such flowers 
ought to net the grower 50 cents per 100, 
leaving a profit over all expenses of 40 
cents per 100, or approximately $4 per sash. 
Finally, it must be remembered that while 
these figures are fair averages and are 
based on actual experience, they cannot be 
approximated without strict attention to 
every detail. 
The book contains 224 pages and 60 illus¬ 
trations, and is beautifully bound in flex¬ 
ible cloth, purple and gold. It will be 
found a valuable handbook to anyone in¬ 
terested in violets. The price of the book 
is $1.50; it may be obtained from this of¬ 
fice. 
FRAZER 
♦ 
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i 
♦ 
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AXLE GREASE THEWOKLD. 
Its wearing qualities are unsurpassed, ac¬ 
tually outlasting 15 boxes of any other brand. 
Not affected by heat. fST'Oet the Genuine. 
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writs us 
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Wheels for Milk, Mill,Springand Delivery 
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» -Before Buying a New 
Harness 
Bend 9 ct«. In stamps to pay postage on descriptive cat¬ 
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KING HARNESS COMPANY, Mfra. 
212 Church St., Owego, N. Y. 
A Darning Machine. 
This is the only successful darning' 
machine we ever saw. We have tried 
others that were absolutely of no value. 
This one is little short of perfect. It 
enables you to mend underwear, stock¬ 
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does an endless variety of art and fancy 
weaving better, easier and quicker than 
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§1, or for two new yearly subscriptions 
at SI eacn. All money returned if not 
satisfied. 
