526 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July .‘50 
tember and market in December, and expect to go into 
this still more extensively.” 
“ Your fruit business is quite an item ? ” 
“ Yes, we consider that this, in connection with the 
duck raising, is a decided point. As 150 tons of grain 
per year are fed, there is no lack of fertilizer. We 
have about (500 plum trees, mainly the Japan varieties 
Burbank and Abundance. They have borne some 
already, and will be a growing source of profit.” 
Fig.237 shows a general view of the duck yards, 
while Fig. 238 shows a group of ducks just coming out 
of their bath. w. w. h. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Thk Polled Mead. —Last week, we called attention 
to the Polled Durham or hornless Short-horn cattle. 
These animals have lost their horns by breed¬ 
ing, and it will be curious to watch and see 
which side will finally prevail. Will the horned 
Short-horns finally lose their horns, or will the 
Polled Durharas, in time, be forced to go to the 
horned families for new blood ? We think the 
horns will be voted useless within ]() years. 
Last week, we gave pictures of animals from 
which the horns have been bred. At Fig. 239. is 
shown the head of a dishorned cow from which 
the horns were taken in calfhood. Tastes may 
differ, but we think this head is as handsome 
as horns could make it. It is certainly safer, 
both for the cow and her keepers. This picture 
is taken from the bulletin of the Maine Ex- 
periment Station. Only this year a Maine 
farmer was arrested for dishorning his cows. 
Of course, the courts finally discharged him. 
The horns must go. 
Cutter Follows Thrasher.— Mr. (). Sawyer, 
of Ohio, says that he runs a 12-horse-power 
traction engine, with a cutter mounted on 
trucks. He furnishes three men, an engineer 
and two feeders, and charges $1 an hour for 
services. He can cut a good, two-horse load 
of green ensilage in 10 minutes, and the chief 
trouble is to get fodder to the cutter fast 
enough to keep it busy. There ought to be, at least, 
three low wagons with platforms and two teams. 
Some farmers use a corn-harvesting machine. To 
load the bundles, they use a long plank, one end rest¬ 
ing on the rear of the platform on the wagon, and the 
other on the ground. In loading, each man walks up 
the plank, throwing the bundle in the right place. 
Mr. Sawyer says that, as ensilage corn usually runs, 
they can cut about an acre an hour. The season for 
cutting commences after thrashing is all done, about 
September 20, and runs until frost, although one frost 
does not hurt ensilage, but hurries the ripening and 
cutting. The average stay at each farm is two 
days ; sometimes three days, with a larger silo. 
Traveling Fodder Cutters. — Donaldson 
Brothers, of Kentucky, write us that they use 
a large fodder cutter on the plan of a thrash¬ 
ing machine. They travel from farm to farm, 
furnishing only two men—an engineer and a 
water hauler. They charge from SI to Si.50 per 
acre, or 8 cents to 1(5 cents per shock, 1(5 hills 
square. They have never eut for the silo, as 
there are no silos in that part of the country. 
A fair day's work with dry fodder is 500 large 
shocks. They think there is more clear money 
in cutting corn than in thrashing wheat, and 
the wheat thrashing is all over before they 
begin to cut fodder. It is remarkable how all 
over the country farmers are cutting more of 
their dry corn fodder than ever before. 
IIay Cars. —A reader in Vermont says that he 
wants to say a word in praise of hay caps. He 
used to think that no one but a rich man could 
afford to buy these caps. Last year, he read in 
The R. N.-Y. of one man who made them out of 
old fertilizer bags. He went ahead and tried 
it, and found that these sacks make good hay caps. 
Coarse bran sacks, however, do not amount to much. 
The phosphate in the sack would make the hay grow, 
and the sack itself would keep the rain off the hay. 
Death Without a Sting.— Bug Death is a substance 
sold as an insecticide. It is, also, claimed that it has 
a fertilizing value, and that it will be useful in curing 
diseases of plants. Prof. Cavanaugh, of Cornell, 
announces in Bulletin 149, that Bug Death shows the 
following analysis : 
Per cent. 
Zinc oxide. 76.5 
Lead oxide. h,B 
Iron oxide. 7,8 
He says that there is no record as to the successful 
use of these oxides for killing insects. As to the fer¬ 
tilizing value of this substance, analysis shows the 
following results: 
Per cent. 
Nitrogen. 00 
Phosphoric acid.’_ [os 
Potash. 2.00 
The value of this as a fertilizer will be realized yvhen 
it is stated that the average analysis of five samples 
of ordinary soil was found to be : 
Per cent. 
Nitrogen.21 
Phosphoric acid.16 
Potash. 1.63 
It looks, therefore, as though garden soil is a better 
fertilizer, and ordinary Paris-green and London-purple 
better insecticides than this Hug Death. 
Fitting the Strawberry Bed. —Hitch the team to 
an old mower that you are not afraid of injuring, and 
run over each row, cutting as close as possible; dry 
thoroughly and burn, then plow out a light middle 
furrow between each two rows, and then back again 
so as to cut the ground all up. excepting from (5 to 10 
inches in each row. Roll thoroughly, harrow the 
same way as plowed, with a light harrow. If hard 
THE DUCKS AT THEIR HATH. Fig. 238. 
no better than those kept over Winter. Last Spring, 
I got apple trees from cold storage, from a prominent 
nursery company, and 15 per cent of these are dead. 
Locality, Broome County, southern New York, alti¬ 
tude 1,500 feet, soil clay loam, exposure both northern 
and southern. w. b. clkves. 
A Lesson for Farmers.— We farmers will have to 
work together like other business men, if we ever 
have much to say about the prices of our produce. 
We don't “ want the earth.” The best part of it—the 
country—is in our possession now. All we ask is a 
fair return for our money, time and labor. It is more 
difficult for us to cooperate than for merchants, 
mechanics or financiers, as we are more widely separ¬ 
ated, and busy on our own farms most of the time. 
Also, we are about the hardest people in the world to 
agree when we do get together. Farm life 
is the most nearly independent of any, and we 
seem to have imbibed a large portion of this 
independent spirit. Other business men care¬ 
fully study their conditions, and are willing to 
sacrifice their personal opinions to a certain ex¬ 
tent. They are able to make, and ready to re¬ 
ceive, suggestions. Here is a lesson for us. 
Chenango County, N. Y. b. k. 
Queer Hay Making. —Ensilage seems to be a 
backnumber in England. Very little is said 
about the silo in the average English paper. 
Hut this is explained by the fact that English 
ensilage is composed of green grass or clover cut 
directly into the silo. Our American corn plant 
is not a success in England, and science and prac¬ 
tice seem to prove that permanent success with 
the silo is not possible, where corn is not a 
popular crop. Every wet season in England 
brings out a class of men who advocate curing 
hay about as clothes are dried in a laundry. 
The hay is thrown into a long metal shed 
through which hot air is blown by fans. This 
takes the moisture out of the grass, and 
really makes a fair quality of hay. Several years 
ago, we read an account in an English paper 
of a farmer who filled an old barn with green 
hay. There was danger of its fermenting, and so he 
ran steam pipes in at the bottom, and forced steam 
into the hay so that it escaped through the top of 
the building. This was actually said to have saved 
the hay in the mow. 
Fertilizer for Wheat. —A reader in Maryland has 
a large stock farm, and uses considerable fertilizer on 
wheat. He says that one of his hardest studies is to 
find what his land requires without going to the 
trouble of experimenting with a plot system, lie has 
been using bone meal and kainit, but next Fall, he 
will try a mixture of dissolved rock, bone meal and 
muriate of potash in the hope of obtaining 
better wheat. For grass, the bone and kainit 
have given ^excellent results, but the wheat 
does not seem to do as well as it should. We 
think it likely that the wheat would do better 
for a small application of nitrate of soda. 
Unless the land is strikingly deficient in phos¬ 
phoric acid, we would try 250 pounds of nitrate 
of soda per acre in the Spring on the wheat, and 
expect to receive good results. 
Potato Beetles and Tubers.—As to potato 
beetles eating the potato tubers, page 500, not 
only have 1 seen the full-grown beetles eat 
them, but have known them to construct bur¬ 
rows, or at least cavities, in the potato, appar¬ 
ently as retreats, for 1 have found some of these 
as late as February and March in potato pits, 
the beetle hale and hearty, the hole %-inch 
deep and about the caliber of the bug. 
M. G. KAINS. 
The English papers are talking about what 
they call the Florida Velvet bean, quoting 
quite largely from The R. N.-Y. Very wisely, 
they do not advise farmers to grow this bean 
as a field crop, but limit their advice to its use as a 
climber over arbors and garden arches. They smile 
at the great stories told by our Florida friends, and 
merely remark that this bean must be “a lineal 
descendant of the wonderful climber planted by Jack 
of bean-stalk fame.” 
Some Profit in Bagging Grapes. 
and dry, repeat. Dig out of the rows all the old 
plants as far as possible, and some of the. new ones, 
leaving enough so that if the weather should be very 
dry and not many runners start, you would have a 
fair showing of plants for another year. A light 
sprinkling of nitrate of soda or hen manure on the 
rows, and plentj' of Planet Jr. or some other good 
cultivator, will be all they need until time to mulch. 
Tompkins County, N. Y. t. h. king. 
A Trap for Hornets.— In California, where fruit 
drying is practiced on a large scale, the yellow 
jackets get to be a nuisance. A writer in the Califor¬ 
nia Fruit Grower tells, as follows, how he fought them: 
Common nail kegs with both ends knocked out were thoroughly 
tarred with pine tar on the inside; a shingle was then placed 
across the bilge inside, about in the middle of the keg, upon 
which a handful of chopped meat was placed. The yellow jackets 
swarmed in to eat the meat, and whenever they came in contact 
with the tarred surface, they stuck fast and perished. Thus in the 
course of a short time, all fell victims to their voracious appe¬ 
tites, and the pest was abated. 
A POLLED HEAD—DISHORNED. 
Fig. 23!). 
Fall-Dug Peach Trees. — I received a lot of peach 
trees from a northern nursery last November, and 
heeled them in on a dry southern slope, covering the 
roots and about one foot of the stems. I set them 
out last Spring, and did not lose one. After planting, 
I cut them back to about 20 inches. I received at the 
same time apple, pear, cherry, plum and quince trees, 
treated all alike, and have lost but one apple, one pear, 
and 10 cherry trees out of about 1,000 trees. The 
Spring was very favorable, rains continuing until after 
planting was accomplished. About 50 trees were 
planted out in the Fall, and these seem to have done 
l • • *'**••) 
Does it pay from any point of view to bag any 
varieties of grapes? I think that depends upon where 
and how they are to be disposed of. If the fruit has 
to be shipped from a distance, and consigned to the 
wholesale commission dealers in the large cities, it is 
doubtful whether bagging the crop will pay; in fact, 
at the prices frequently quoted for grapes in the New 
York markets, I often wonder where the growers' 
compensation comes in anyway. If, on the other 
hand, the grower has a nearby market where there is 
a demand for a moderate amount of strictly first-class 
fruity it may pay to cuter to that demand. Bagging 
