1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
239 
the best way is when the ground is ready. With a 
measure 25 feet long, make marks 25 feet apart in 
each direction through the field, and put one-half 
bushel of lime at each mark, which will take about 
two tons per acre. One can vary from this rule, and 
lime more or less. If one is in a hurry to spread it, 
fill the milk cans with water, give from four to six 
quarts of water to each pile, and the next day it is 
ready to spread. If not in a hurry to spread, let it 
lie; the air and the moisture of the ground will, in 
four or five days, make it in shape to spread. There 
is no necessity of covering it with earth, the wind will 
not affect it as long as it is not disturbed. When 
spreading the lime, harrow and mix into the soil as 
fast as spread ; don't let a rain come on it after being 
spread, as it adheres into little lumps. I am now 
spreading in this way, and it’s the best way I have 
found yet.”_ 
A VETERAN INDIANA FARMER. 
Tiie R. N.-Y. has had much to say from time to time 
about the young stock on the farm. The hope of the 
future lies in these, but we must not forget the work of 
the veterans whose indomitable energy, tireless labors 
and resolute purpose have made possible the favoring 
conditions of the present day. At Fig. 106, we show 
a picture of one of these veterans—Mr. Jesse Houchin, 
of Vermillion County, Ind. Just about two years ago, 
he and his good wife, Retsy, celebrated their golden 
wedding in their spacious residence but a short dis¬ 
tance from the site of the little log cabin in which 
they were married 50 years before. 
Those 50 years have seen great changes, not only in 
their immediate surroundings, but in the great world 
around them. The old log cabin has passed away. 
The forests which covered their farm have been cut 
away, the land has been cleared by the hardest kind 
of toil, and has been brought to a high state of culti¬ 
vation. New and modern buildings have supplanted 
the old, and new and improved machinery and house¬ 
hold conveniences and furnishings have replaced those 
which so well served their purpose in those early 
days of toil. Together they worked to wrest that 
great farm from the forest, and together they have 
lived to enjoy the fruits of their labors. With his 
own hands. Mr. Houchin writes us, he has raised 53 
successive crops on that farm. 
Fifty years together as life partners ! Yes, it seems 
a long journey to us whose silver wedding is yet in 
the distant future. Rut to him whose days have been 
filled with earnest, arduous labor, in hopeful planning 
and earnest purpose, they seem even “ as a tale that 
is told.” All honor to the sturdy veterans ! In com¬ 
mon with the 200 friends of this venerable couple who 
helped them to celebrate their golden jubilee, we hope 
that many more years of happiness and usefulness 
may be theirs ! _ 
PROGRESSIVE HORTICULTURE ON FARM. 
A BERRY-BUILT HOME. 
A garden of choice fruits is one of the most delight¬ 
ful features that can be introduced in the develop¬ 
ment of an attractive country home. Environed by 
a well-maintained half-acre of trees and vines and 
plants, the most humble cottage assumes an air of re¬ 
finement and genuine “home-likeness” that the skill 
of the architect would fail to contribute. Under thor¬ 
ough culture and systematic pruning and training, 
such a little plantation is not only highly ornamental, 
but it, at the same time, supplies the home with an 
abundance of the finest fruits, and affords a charming 
“horticultural workshop” wherein an observant, in¬ 
dustrious boy and Nature, as genial co-workers, may 
quietly, pleasantly and decisively settle some of the 
momentous questions of our day. 
It is characteristic of youth to delight in that which 
is beautiful and attractive, and to become not only 
heartily interested, but enthusiastic, in pursuing that 
which has proved to be equally agreeable and profit¬ 
able. Why not, then, among the other attractions, 
hasten to inwreathe about the home this practical bit 
of Eden, among whose buds and blossoms, green foli¬ 
age and bloom-dusted fruits, there may be taught an 
object-lesson of intensive culture that will unmask, 
to the young people, the opportunities that lurk about 
in fertile nooks of the old farm ? Why should a 
bright, ambitious young horticulturist be one of the 
rarest products of the country home, when he may be 
very successfully grown as a “catch-crop” among 
the strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, 
gooseberries, grapes, plums, peaches and pears of the 
farmer’s fruit-garden? And why should quite so 
many of our young people be drawn into the maelstrom 
of city life when, upon a pleasantly situated corner of 
the old homestead, and in the very midst of a delight¬ 
ful and orderly little wilderness of trees and vines and 
plants that constitute a wide-awake country boy’s 
“business” fruit-garden, there virtually might be 
grown a cozy, independent home of his own ? 
At the age of 14, upon a tiny plot of ground in the 
garden surrounding my old home, I grew my first 
basket of small fruits. The evolution from that first 
basket of “ home-grown berries ” to our “ berry-grown 
home” shown at Fig. 107, has been a very natural, in¬ 
teresting and pleasant one. True, it is not probable 
or possible, neither would it be desirable, that every 
country boy might thus become sufficiently interested 
to embrace fruit-gardening as a business ; but there 
are certainly a few, within reach of every prominent 
city, who, by making a specialty of well-grown small 
fruits, direct from plant to consumer, might not only 
JESSE HOUCHIN, A VETERAN INDIANA FARMER. Fig. 106. 
develop a pleasant and remunerative business, but 
eventually arrive at a satisfactory solution of that 
“ poser” of humanity—“how to earn a home ”. 
Ohio. _ F. H. BALI.OU. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Wheat Growing in Oklahoma. —A farmer from the 
eastern States coming to Oklahoma for the purpose of 
engaging in his chosen occupation, would find his no¬ 
tions of the eternal fitness of things set at naught, 
and that those who had been here longer than he are 
using unheard-of methods of farming and are being 
successful. Perhaps nothing would shock him more 
than to see his neighbor’s cattle peacefully grazing 
on his wheat field all Winter long, and the shock 
wouldn’t be lessened when that field of wheat gave 
an excellent yield, and was not at all harmed by be- 
A BERRY-BUILT HOUSE AND WORKSHOP. Fig. 107. 
ing pastured. When do they sow wheat in Oklahoma ? 
Oh, any time from the first of September to the first of 
February, depending on what else there is to be done. 
Last year, the earlier the wheat was sown, beginning 
about September 20, the better the yield, but good 
returns were had from wheat sown as late as Novem¬ 
ber. At the Oklahoma Experiment Station, no plot 
sown later than October 15 gave a “satisfactory 
yield ”, but one’s notion of a “ satisfactory yield ” is 
always modified by his standard of comparison. This 
standard of comparison is likely to be rather high 
where, in a variety test, “ the eighty-three plots gave 
an average yield of 39.6 bushels per acre." (Oklahoma 
Experiment Station Bulletin 28.) As a matter of fact, 
the yield from plots sown October 26 varied from 13.8 
to 20.8 bushels per acre, and November 16 from 6.1 to 
10.2 bushels per acre. Evep these yields give a satisfac¬ 
tory profit with the methods of culture used here. 
The present condition of the wheat is very satisfac¬ 
tory. There has been a sufficient quantity of rain to 
keep the soil in excellent condition, and some growth 
has been made during the exceedingly mild Winter. 
The acreage in the Territory is believed to be slightly 
lower than that of last year, but is very large. 
Oklahoma. joiin fields. 
A Few Fruit Notes. —The Rutter pear is vigorous 
and an early and profuse bearer. The fruit weighs 
from nine to ten ounces. The color is greenish yel¬ 
low, with some russet. Quality seven of the scale, 
1 to 10 ; abundantly good for market purposes, but 
rarely planted for such purpose. It occasionally be¬ 
gins to decay before full maturity, a tendency seriously 
objectionable in market fruit. Prudence would dic¬ 
tate that it be carefully tested before planting 
extensively. 
York Imperial and Sutton apples are both admir¬ 
able varieties, so far as quality, size and appearance 
of fruit are concerned. Roth are healthy and vigor¬ 
ous in tree, and reputed to be abundantly productive. 
The York Imperial has been much more widely tested, 
and is generally approved. Sutton is highly com¬ 
mended in New York, as well as in portions of New 
England. It has not yet frr'ted at this experiment 
station,but trees received here, from New York, appear 
to be identical with others coming from Ohio under 
the name Morris Red, the comparative testing of 
which is understood to be in progress at the New York 
Experiment Station at Geneva, as well as at this 
station. T. T. lyon. 
Michigan Experiment Station. 
Wheat in Georgia. —There has been something of 
a revival in wheat culture in Georgia, the present 
season, and I presume that the same is true as to the 
other cotton States. This revival, however, does not 
date back farther than the past sowing season, and is 
due mainly to the advance in the price of wheat and 
the cost of flour, and my idea is that it will prove a 
spasmodic episode, as in the past. We always plant 
more wheat after a successful wheat year, or follow¬ 
ing a large advance in the price of flour. I do not 
think that the present area sown in wheat will nearly 
equal the ordinary areas sown prior to the War. There 
is no controlling, or imperative reason why we should 
not produce our supply of wheat. Fully one-half of 
the area of Georgia is fairly well adapted to its cul¬ 
ture, and there are but few farms on which a home 
supply could not be easily produced. Personally, I 
am not an advocate of the policy of extreme and ex¬ 
haustive diversification of crops. I think that every 
neighborhood, or other limited section of a State, 
should produce everything that may be produced with 
reasonable certainty and profit, and exchange with 
each other. No special effort has been made to induce 
farmers to sow wheat. R. J. redding. 
Georgia Experiment Station. 
Seeding to Grass Alone. —In the Fall of 1896, we 
sowed four acres with grass seed alone. Three acres 
of the field had grown oats and one acre peas and 
oats. After the oats and peas were gathered, the field 
was plowed and worked until very fine with a spring- 
tooth harrow, and with planks drawn by three horses ; 
the planks were fixed so that, by standing on the 
front of them, they would shove considerable soil, 
which leveled the ground nicely, and by stepping 
back, I could let it all go under at once if I wished. 
September 8, one peck of Timothy seed was drilled to 
the acre, with 200 pounds of fertilizer containing one 
per cent of nitrogen, eight per cent of phosphoric acid, 
and four per cent of potash (smallest guarantee). The 
fertilizer was shut off four times at different parts of 
the field, leaving each time the width of the drill the 
entire length of the field without fertilizer. In the 
Spring, clover seed was sown on all of it. The Timothy 
looked very green on all of the field in the Spring, 
except where the fertilizer was left out, and that was 
as bare as the middle of the road. All Summer, and 
at harvest time, it was as fine a field of Timothy as I 
ever saw. There were no weeds, and not a handful of 
daisies grew on the whole field ; the Timothy was so 
thick and tail that the clover could hardly be found, 
except where there was no fertilizer, and there it came 
in nicely, but made only a small growth. A portion 
of the field was top-dressed with manure, and here the 
grass was somewhat thicker than the oat ground that 
had none, but where the peas were grown, the grass 
was equally as thick as the oat ground where the 
manure had been used. Where the manure crossed 
the strips that had no fertilizer, the grass was good, 
but the strip having no fertilizer, where the peas had 
been grown, was very poor. The soil is a heavy loam ; 
there is a knoll that is quite sandy, but that had 
equally as good grass on it as any part of the field, 
which is something that I never saw before, but it 
was, probably, caused by the wet season. I had meant 
to sow as much in the same way last Fall, but the 
ground was so dry that I could not get it as fine as I 
wished, so rye was put on all but one acre, and that 
has all been covered with manure. I find by the lit¬ 
mus paper test that we have much acid soil, and I 
hope to experiment with lime in the near future. 
Clifton Park, N. Y. M. f. 
