558 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 13 
up well, and the shock stands much better when made 
of bundles. The curing and keeping are both in favor 
of the harvester. e. h. collins. 
Central Indiana. 
When the Corn Is Husked. 
We like the new innovation, and would not go back 
to the old plan, either for field or ensilage corn. A 
good harvester has been a long time in coming, and 
the fence corners are filled, so to speak, with the un¬ 
successful machines of the past. Last year, w-e had 
all of our corn, both field and silo, cut by a harvester 
w-hich did cut corn of all sizes and kinds by the scores 
of acres, without a skip or a break. The cost was $1 
per acre, and the dinner of a man and team. About 
six acres of heavy ensilage corn made a day's work, 
and hand cutting costs from $1 to $1.50 a day with 
board from start to finish. Hand cutting cannot 
equal the work of the machine. 
The usual fault with the harvester is that the shocks 
made with bundles are easily overturned by wind, or 
the unequal pressure in settling, which is true, but 
easily avoided. Instead of setting all the bundles up¬ 
right, we first lay a bundle lengthwise and on top of 
a row ridge; then lay another exactly crosswise of it, 
reversing tops and butts until the “cross” is 10 
bundles high. Five bundles are then set in each angle 
of this cross of bundles, making the shock from 30 to 
36 bundles. This shock cannot fall down, or blow 
down ; the crossing of the bundles affords ample air 
spaces, and the fodder dries out as well as in the up¬ 
right shocks. Some of the ensilage corn was allowed 
to remain all Winter in the field, as an experiment, and 
beyond a slight damage to the base bundle, the keep¬ 
ing was No. 1 . 
Perhaps the actual cost of cutting may not be greatly 
different for a single acre, but when it comes to dis¬ 
patch, getting the job off one’s hands in a brief time, 
and the boarding included, the figures—in my own 
opinion—are all in favor of the harvester. Where the 
corn is in bundles, it is no damage to it to let it lie 
upon the ground for a short time, if necessary, and 
cure out more before being shocked. By reference to 
Fig. 258, it is seen that the machine handles pretty 
large corn, as the bundles in the foreground lie ex¬ 
actly as left by the machine. This field of 5% acres 
was cut in one day and with one team after 9 A m. It 
might be worth the record to note that the corn w-as 
heavily eared, and so few ears were knocked off by 
the machine, that no attempt was made to gather them. 
Ohio. .JOHN GOULD. 
Reports from the East. 
Chas. H. Royce, of Ellerslie Farm, says: “My ex¬ 
perience with corn-harvesting machines goes back only 
one year, and I have no data on which to base a com¬ 
parison of the economy of the two methods of harvest¬ 
ing and curing corn. That it cures quite as well when 
cut and bound with a harvester, and shocked in the 
ordinary way, I am well assured from our last year's 
work, and my best judgment is that, for getting corn 
ready for the ensilage cutter, a saving of fully one- 
third is effected.” 
Prof. I. P. Roberts writes: “We have used a corn¬ 
harvesting machine only for securing ensilage corn. 
For this purpose, it is most admirable, and I estimate 
that the corn can be loaded on wagons for one-half of 
the expense that it can be when cut and thrown on 
the ground in loose, untied bundles. I very much 
doubt whether any great amount is saved when the 
corn is to be shocked and husked. The bound sheaves 
cannot be husked to advantage. If the band could be 
left on so that the bundles would be ready to set up 
again and go to the barn or stack without rebinding, 
much would be gained. It is possible that the band 
may be put around far enough above the ears to allow 
husking without unbinding, but I have yet to see a 
practical illustration of it.” 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Notes on the Asparagus Rust. —I have recently 
been through the asparagus fields in this State and in 
Massachusetts where the asparagus rust ran riot last 
season, and I found the plants practically free from 
the disease, except those in a single field in Concord, 
Mass. There w T as an acre or more in the infested 
field, which was low land with a brook at one end of 
it. This field was attacked by the rust last year, but 
when we saw it, late in August, the plants seemed to 
be resisting the progress of the disease rather better 
than those upon lighter soil. This year, the scene 
has changed; the plants in the damp location are 
rusting badly, and some stalks already are on the 
verge of turning brown, while no appreciable damage 
has occurred in the other fields, and some of them are 
entirely fi*ee from it. In some fields at Concord, the 
asparagus stalks were mown in midsummer last 
3 -ear, and we made numerous inquiries to learn what 
effect this treatment had upon the roots. Opinions 
differed considerably concerning this, which indicates 
that the results were not very marked ; still those 
who did it are convinced that it did not pay, and they 
will not do it again. Nothing appears to have been 
gained by the operation, and it is probable that the 
roots were unnecessarily weakened by it, and that the 
cuttings last Spring -were a little lighter than they 
would have been if the stalks had been allowed to 
stand until Fall. Generally, the crop was light last 
Spring on all beds severely attacked by the rust. In 
some cases, it was not more than one-fourth as much 
as in 1897, but more often there was one-half or two- 
thirds of a crop. At the present writing, asparagus is 
making a good growth, and if the unfortunate fields 
are not again attacked by the rust, they will soon 
recover from the injury received last year. 
R. I. Ex. Station. l. f. kinney. 
Selling Fruit on Trains. —Mr. F. F. Merceron. 
whose picture was printed two weeks ago, showed me 
the figures of his nurserj' and fruit business as fat- 
back as 1864. At that time, an income tax was levied, 
and Mr. Merceron’s figures show that he did a busi¬ 
ness of $4,000 on four acres of land. This was larger 
than the great majority of the large farmers about 
him could show. One thing that helped in securing 
large prices, was the practice of selling neat baskets 
of strawberries and other fruits to passengers on the 
railroad trains. These boxes were fixed up in attract¬ 
ive style, and Mr. Merceron considered it no disgrace 
to go tluough the trains and sell them to passengers. 
People are often ready to paj’ 25 to 50 cents for a neat 
basket of fruit. Even to-day, wherever trains make 
something of a stop, fruit packed and served in this way 
would find a ready sale, and it is a wonder that more 
fruit growers do not make use of this opportunity. 
II. w. c. 
Portable English Machines —In a report- of a 
recent English agricultural show, many small devices 
are shown. Engines and powers cf various kinds are 
mounted on trucks. A wheelbarrow forge can be 
easily moved about, and wheels are being put on many 
useful implements. The poultry house shown at Fig. 
A PORTABLE ENGLISH HENHOUSE. Fig. 259. 
259 is said to be popular in England where wheat is 
grown. After harvest, these small houses containing 
about 30 hens, are driven about from place to place so 
that the hens pick up the wasted grain. The lights 
low-down truck answers well for this purpose, and 
permits the use of a very light house. We have found 
that the house must be made very strong if we are to 
hitch directly to it for moving. 
Angora Cat Possibilities. —Here is a typical letter 
from one of our readers in New York State : 
In the last R. N.-Y. we are told of the possibilities there are in 
breeding the Angora cat. My father has taken your paper ever 
since I remember, and we have been taught to believe it reliable. 
Now, if there is an opportunity for making money, I want to take 
advantage of it. On account of ill health, I am unable to do hard 
work, and If there is anything in this business, will you give me 
your opinion, and advise me what dealers and breeders to com¬ 
municate with? Hive too far from New York and Summer resorts 
to dispose of them myself, but perhaps I could raise them and 
some dealer sell them for a good profit. 
We always hesitate to print stories of new enterprises, 
however truthful they may be, because they are quite 
sure to be misunderstood. No doubt, some persons 
are making money at breeding Angora cats, but they 
are able to do so only because they are situated so that 
the cats C3n be sold to special customers. We under¬ 
stand that it is hard now to find good cats for breed¬ 
ing, but we do not think a farmer, back from the 
towns, can afford to spend much money on them. 
Effects of Cold on Fruit. —On page 512, Prof. U. 
Garman, of Kentuck 3 r , w-as made to say that a cold 
wave is, in general, less destructive to fruit on hill¬ 
tops. Prof. Garman really meant the reverse of this. 
He says: “ Frost, for reasons well understood by 
every meteorologist, is, in general, most destructive 
in valleys. In writing about the effect of frost on 
vegetation, one of the best authorities (Davis, Ele¬ 
mentary Meteorology) in this country says : ‘ The 
limitation of low temperature to the lower layers of 
air is sometimes so marked that the upper branches 
of small trees or shrubs escape a frost that injures the 
lower branches.’ Every one who has witnessed the 
good effect of pinning even so flimsy a protection as a 
sheet of paper about a plant must know that white 
frost is something to be feared by the fruit grower, 
also that it is something quite different from the 
freezing that proves so destructive during cold spells 
when no frost is formed.” 
The Currant Crop. —The currant crop this year 
seems to have been only fairly satisfactory, although 
prices have been much better than they were last year. 
Hittenger Bros., of Massachusetts, raised this 3 -ear 
about 16 tons of Cilery and Fay currants against 35 
tons last 3 -ear. The shortness of the crop was prin¬ 
cipally due to a frost in the early part of May. It has 
affected the currants on the lowland, shortening the 
bunches, while those on the side-hill escaped with 
but little injury. Prices ranged from 7 to 10 cents per 
quart. The Hittengers raised Cherry and Fay currants 
almost entirely. They have a few black currants, but 
these are not readily salable. 
Wheat Middlings for Humans. —Speaking of what 
Prof. Woods writes of middlings on page 447, G. G. 
Gibbs, of New Jersey, says: I think the facts are 
that all concentrated foods are constipating. White 
flour may be considered as concentrated, because it 
is so nearly all starch. A sudden change to the use 
of middlings or of entire wheat flour or of wheat 
meal as the principal food material, may be sufficiently 
relaxing to amount to a purge. Prof. Woods admits 
that it may be valuable as a “regulator” for the 
sedentary, and such it will prove to the hard-working, 
also, if its use be begun gradually and then continued. 
I am convinced of this from results in my own family, 
and from the fact that my farm team can do hard 
work and keep in good flesh while subsisting on wheat 
bran and grass. 
Learning to Bud. —We are getting quite a number 
of orders lately from parties who wish to buy Bailey’s 
Nursery Book or other volumes on budding and graft¬ 
ing. One man who sent such an order, says that he has 
been fooled so much by bu 3 'ing trees from nurseries, 
and getting something that he did not order, that he 
is going to learn how to bud, and thus make sure of 
what he is working for. It is an awful disappoint¬ 
ment for a man to buy trees in this way, care for them 
as well as possible, for several years, and then find 
them practically worthless. No wonder our friend is 
driven to budding; we hope that he will succeed in 
learning the operation and then remember to bud 
only from the very best of his trees. Every tree has 
good or bad individual characteristics. Let us bury 
the bad ones, and bud from the good ones. 
Were the Seed Oats Cooked ?—In treating oats for 
smut, I used the hot-water treatment as directed by 
the Geneva Experiment Station. I soaked the seed 10 
minutes in water at 133 degrees by our dairy ther¬ 
mometer ; I was very careful about keeping the w-ater 
at the right heat. The treatment is a success as far 
as smut is concerned ; there is no smut in oats raised 
from the treated seed, but I think not more than half 
of the treated seed grew. Thinking to save labor in 
drying the wet seed, we waited until ready to sow be¬ 
fore treating, then sowed them broadcast by hand the 
next morning after treating. The seed was dipped 
one bushel at a time in bran sacks, and set on boards 
to drain without cooling ; right here I think was the 
mistake. I should have turned a pail of cold water 
through to cool them off. I think the heat remained 
so long that the seed was cooked. Am I right ? What 
say others ? The oats raised from the same seed with¬ 
out treatment are very smutty. j. b f. 
Madison County, N. Y. 
THE AYRSHIRE COW. 
WIIAT IS SHE GOOD FOR? 
This old breed from ihe County of Ayr, Scotland, 
needs some one to blow its horn ; the breeders don’t 
seem inclined to do it, even when given a special in¬ 
vitation. The breed seems specially adapted to the 
northern part of our country, as this more nearly re¬ 
sembles its native home. Daniel Webster is said to 
have kept Ayrshires on his farm at Marshfield, Mass., 
and he recommended them specially for New England. 
Prof. Sheldon divided the breed into two classes, one 
representing the butter and the other the cheese type. 
At the Vermont Experiment Station in 1895, Rena 
Myrtle 9530, a farrow cow, made the largest milk and 
butter record ever obtained at the station from a cow 
of any breed in one year—12,175 pounds of milk, pro¬ 
ducing 546 pounds of butter. The average production 
of cheese in Scotland is from 500 to 600 pounds per 
cow. 
The secretary of the Ayrshire Breeders’Association, 
C. M. Winslow, sums up the qualities of the Ayrshire 
by saying that she is noted for vigor, hardihood, and 
for producing a maximum quantity of good milk 
from a minimum quantity of food. The average 
weight of the cow is about 1,000 lbs. The Ayrshire 
bull is highly recommended to cross on Jersey cows. 
In the language of the breeders, the Ayrshire nicks 
well with the Jersey. Fig. 260 represents the Ayrshire 
cow, Rose Clenna, the property of C. M. Winslow- & 
Son. She has a record of 7,768 pounds of milk and 
454 pounds of butter in 365 consecutive days. She 
