702 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 15 
raising fine crops of excellent potatoes in corn and 
clover.” 
“ Are you extending your fruit business ? ” 
“ Yes, on all lines, since Crimson clover has demon¬ 
strated its great ability to cheapen our supply of 
nitrogen. We used buckwheat in the preparation of 
the soil and sowed the clover in it. This year, it has 
made a fine stand, so that the buckwheat will give a 
fine mechanical condition to the soil, while the clover 
goes on and enriches at the same time. I have, also, 
a very interesting strawberry experiment going on. 
Two crops of clover have been plowed under, and I 
have applied 50 loads of stable manure, one-half ton 
of muriate of potash, and one-half ton of bone meal 
per acre, in addition, making, besides the nitrogen 
supplied by the clover, $ 100 per acre for plant food. 
At the present time, I have over an acre of strawberry 
plants that measure from 20 inches to 2 feet across 
the diameter; plants set in the Spring and on the hill 
system. _ 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
The Precocious Paragon Chestnut. —Fig. 319 shows 
a Paragon chestnut tree four years old which has, by 
actual count, 67 burrs on it. These may not all come 
to perfection, as some will drop before ripening. This 
plot of trees bore several last year, and if there is any 
fault to find with this chestnut, it is its early bearing, 
which retards its growth. I have no other fruit tree 
of any kind, which bears as early as this chest¬ 
nut. Grafts inserted in the Spring of 1897 are 
loaded with burrs. These trees open up a pos¬ 
sibility of enjoying nuts before the loss of teeth 
by old age. We may plant, and we, not our 
children, enjoy. e. p. f., jr. 
Bridge Valley, Pa. 
must go in ventilated packages, but cool, dry berries 
keep longest and best in tight packages, j. h. hale. 
Fine Kansas Farmhouses. —The Kansas Farmer 
tells of a visit to Cowley County of that State. There 
were found magnificent residences on the farms, that 
seemed quite out of proportion to the general wealth 
of the country. It seems that back in the eighties, 
great tracts of land were laid out into blocks and plots 
in the vicinity of cities. This craze became so great 
that a bill was actually introduced into the Kansas 
legislature, reserving “ at least 10 per cent of the area 
of each county for agriculture.” Eastern money was 
borrowed to build fine residences on these suburban 
lots. The boom flattened out, and these fine houses, 
unable to escape tax bills and assessor, became bur¬ 
dens to their owners. They soon passed into the 
hands of those who held the mortgages, and many of 
them were sold to farmers who had saved their money. 
It became a regular business to sell these houses, 
remove them from town, and deliver them on the 
farm in perfect order. The large residences were 
sawed into sections, and every section carefully num¬ 
bered. The heating plants and bathroom outfits were 
taken apart, and the entire property, including the 
cellar walls, was loaded upon cars, and carried as near 
as possible to its future resting place. Then the sec¬ 
tions of the house were put together again, re¬ 
plastered, painted, and all conveniences put in place. 
The farmer secured for $1,000, in many cases, a home 
in the same way. They will, however, thicken up, 
and in a few years, become a mat and give better per¬ 
manent pasture. Fie believes that, in a wet climate, 
the grass may be difficult to eradicate unless the plow¬ 
ing be done during the Summer, when the heat may 
kill the roots. 
Sickness in the Army. —Some of our good friends 
are grieving because The It. N.-Y. has advocated, in 
strong terms, an investigation of the causes which have 
led to so much sickness and death in the army camps. 
We notice that the politicians would like to make 
political capital out of this unfortunate state of affairs. 
It ought to be evident that The R. N.-Y. has nothing 
of this sort in mind. Many of our readers have had 
friends or relatives in the army. We have had occa¬ 
sion to look into the matter somewhat, and it appears 
to us right, from every point of view, that the Ameri¬ 
can people should know just what was wrong. Here 
is an extract from a private letter from Florida : 
I took the pains to visit two of the camps in the State. I saw 
many things that seemed to me contrary to good judgment, and 
the result of what seemed to me bad management. I have seen 
enough to convince me firmly that no one from civil life should 
be appointed to any position in the army higher than a lieuten¬ 
ancy; that is, I would not favor the appointment of any one who 
has had neither experience nor training for the position of cap¬ 
tain, or any higher officer, either staff, regimental or other. 
If we are not mistaken, the facts will show that most 
of the trouble came from putting incompetent or care¬ 
less men in charge of important trusts. It cannot well 
be said that, in this great country, we have not 
competent business men enough to care for our 
army. If we have such men, is it not fair to ask 
why they were not put in charge ? 
THE USE OF LIME IN CREAM. 
Sensible Way to Sell Produce. — I noticed a 
small store in Middletown, N. Y., which seemed 
to be attracting an immense amount of atten¬ 
tion. Upon investigation, I found that a farmer 
of Pine Island, Orange County, had taken the 
store, put in a peach-sorting machine, and 
was selling peaches from his own orchards 
about as fast as he could sort them and get 
them ready for delivery. He was getting from 
90 cents to $1.25 a basket for them. If this could 
be done successfully with peaches, why cannot 
it be done with potatoes and all sorts of farm 
produce which can be easily handled ? There 
is an opening in almost every small city for 
such a business. j. h. g. 
Spraying the Peach. —Geo. T. Platt & Son, 
of New Haven County, Conn., call for the ex¬ 
perience of readers who have sprayed peach 
orchards to prevent scab. Last April, before 
the buds burst, they sprayed part of their or¬ 
chards twice, part once, and part not at all. 
They used a solution of sulphate of copper, one 
pound of the sulphate to 25 gallons of water. 
Apparently, the spraying did no good. Nearly 
all peaches showed the brown dots on the upper 
side, only quarter grown. Later, during the 
rainy, damp weather of July and August, the 
fruit blackened and hardened, and much of it 
cracked and rotted before ripe. This experience 
seems to be general among peach growers in southern 
Connecticut. They think that Winter spraying will 
not accomplish the objects desired, and that they must 
spray the young fruit with some substance that will 
protect it from the scab fungi. In common with 
others, they want to learn what to do in order to save 
future crops, and if any of our readers can give help¬ 
ful experience, we shall be glad to have them do so. 
Messrs. Platt say that they find, in practice, that the 
ordinary Bordeaux Mixture injures the foliage of the 
peach and Japan plums. 
Good Shipping Strawberries. —So far, none of the 
extra large, high-class berries like Maximus, Mor¬ 
gan, Belt or Marshall has proved to be firm enough 
for long-distance shipment, to arrive in bright, showy 
condition. For a berry of medium to large size, and 
of showy appearance, nothing gives much better sat¬ 
isfaction than the Gandy ; but it is too shy a bearer on 
many soils to prove profitable enough. Pride of Cum¬ 
berland, a berry of similar character, and far more 
productive, I consider the firmest and best shipper of 
any large berry, and if I were growing for a distant 
market, I would plant it in preference to all others. 
As to time of picking, if one can have absolute choice 
in the matter, between 5:30 p. m. and dark is the best 
time for long-distance shipments. Of course, berries 
are cooler when picked in the early morning, but 
they are, also, liable to be wet with dew, and become 
somewhat mussy. Picked in the middle of a warm, 
dry day, if they can be at once put in a cooling house 
and the heat all taken out of them before packing in 
tight cases, they will ship all right. This matter of 
tight packages is of very great importance in holding 
the color and form of berries. Heated or wet berries 
A LITTLE CHESTNUT GIRL AND DOG. Fig. 319. 
that would cost him over $3,000 to build. ‘‘Verily,” 
says the Kansas Farmer, “ it is an ill wind that blows 
nobody good.” Some of our eastern farmers whose 
hard-earned money went to build these houses in the 
first place, can imagine their Kansas brethren now 
enjoying the fruits of their labors. 
A Raspberry Trimmer. —I have noticed in The 
R. N.-Y. several tools for trimming raspberries, etc., 
but never the simple, inexpensive one used by us. 
We use for the knife a mowing machine section, for 
the handle an old hoe handle. Saw a slit in one end 
of the handle, long enough to take in the section; 
bore two small holes to take two rivets, rivet the 
same, and you have one of the best tools I have 
seen. See Fig. 320. f. g. tice. 
Killing Awnless Brome Grass. —Mr. AngusMackay, 
the superintendent of the Canadian Experiment Farm, 
,in the Northwest Territory, writes us that Bromus in- 
ermis or Awnless Brome grass is harder to get rid of 
after once it is started than Timothy or Orchard grass. 
In their dry climate, plowing at the proper time will 
generally kill it. Breaking the sod in June, two inches 
deep, and plowing again in September two or three 
inches deeper, gives the best results. Plowing in the 
late Fall or early Spring is not successful. He says 
that the grass roots do not run under the surface like 
Quack grass, and will not take possession of the land 
A LETTER FROM PROF. S. M. BABCOCK. 
An article has been going the rounds of the 
agricultural papers, strongly advising farmers 
not to use lime or any mixture of lime in their 
milk and cream. Several years ago, Dr. S. M. 
Babcock, the inventor of the famous Babcock 
test, issued a bulletin from the Wisconsin Sta¬ 
tion, in which he gave the results of experi¬ 
ments with cream. Some specimens of separa¬ 
tor cream are too thin and liquid to suit ice¬ 
cream makers and other handlers. In order 
to add thickness to such cream, Dr. Babcock 
advised the use of lime and sugar, or sucrate 
of lime. This answered the purpose admirably, 
giving a thicker cream without, in the least, 
injuring it. On reading the floating item, we 
asked Dr. Babcock whether he had given up 
this use of lime, and whether the author of the 
article was justified in condemning its use. 
We here give his answer, which may be printed 
without comment: 
“ We are still using sucrate of lime for the 
purpose named. For the past year, nearly all 
of the Pasteurized cream sold from the Uni¬ 
versity creamery, has been treated in this way, 
and our customers prefer it, although they can 
have other cream if they wish. The amount of 
lime added is not much, if any, more than is 
removed from the milk in the process of sep¬ 
arating the cream, and is not so much as the variation 
in lime content in different cows’ milks. Moreover, 
nearly all physicians recommend the addition of lime 
water to milk for infants and invalids, which they 
would not do if it were injurious to health. I believe 
there is no valid objection to its use, as recommended 
in our bulletin, either from a sanitary or sentimental 
point of view. I would not advocate its use without 
informing the consumer of the fact. 
“ The writer of the newspaper item would have no 
influence except by posing as an advocate of pure 
foods, and is, evidently, ignorant of the principles in¬ 
volved in this. I know of no parties who are prepar¬ 
ing the sucrate of lime and selling it for this purpose.” 
_ S. M. BABCOCK. 
POSTSCRIPTS. 
The southern people have a remarkable crop of cas¬ 
sava. The Florida Experiment Station, two years 
ago, issued a bulletin on this root, making a remark¬ 
able showing for it. It is now stated that a big starch 
factory is to be erected at Brewton, Ala., the starch to 
be made from the cassava root. There seems to be 
little doubt that this plant can be made to produce 
starch much better than almost any other plant now 
in cultivation. 
A certain class of orators at farmers’ gatherings 
are fond of telling how, 30 years ago, they spoke at 
the same place, and half the audience wore homespun, 
while there was hardly an organ, piano or sewing 
machine to be found in a farmer’s house. Then they 
strike an attitude, and compare the farmer of to-day, 
with the man of straw that they have set up. This 
seems to them a remarkably good point to make, but 
it tells only half the story, and the majority of their 
hearers understand that fact perfectly. 
