1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
721 
plots that they should ; hut, as a whole, the men have 
done well, considering the fact that many of them 
were entirely unaccustomed to this kind of labor. 
No Chance of Loss. —The use of the land for the 
experiment was given free by the city. Although it 
bears the name of park, it is yet unimproved, and is 
one of the future improvements to be secured in the 
enlargement of the Metropolis. About 33 acres were 
used, divided into half-acre plots, each man having 
one plot. The Society for Improving the Condition of 
the Poor furnished the seed and fertilizers, and fitted 
the ground. The Typographical Union transported 
the men to and from work free, and gave them a din¬ 
ner on the ground. Thei'efore, the men themselves, 
can lose nothing but their time, even though the crop 
were a complete failure. A committee has charge of 
the work, overseeing and directing it, and giving all 
necessary instructions. This committee will also look 
after selling each man’s crop, if he desire, or he can 
dispose of it himself, as he may elect. Considerable 
discouragement was encountered last Spring over the 
continued wet weather, which interfered with and de¬ 
layed the planting seriously. But most of the men 
showed their grit by sticking to it, and results, so 
far as the looks of the fields were concerned, would 
compare favorably with those of other potato grow¬ 
ers this year; in fact, the fields presented a cleaner 
and better appearance than the average potato fields 
I have seen throughout the country. 
Digging began October 3, on which date I visited 
the place. The variety most largely planted was the 
Rural New-Yorker No. 2, and this seems to be the 
best variety for this soil and location. Some Early 
Rose were planted, but the bulk of the crop was of 
the former variety. So far as the digging had pro¬ 
ceeded, there was considerable difference in the yields 
of the plots. Nearly all the potatoes were smooth 
and clean, but on many of the plots were of small 
size, and the yield, as a whole, was not* a heavy one, 
probably though, as large as average yields for this 
year. Some of the planters had varied their potato 
plots by planting small patches of corn, and one man 
who had the cleanest and neatest plot of all, had 
quite an assortment of garden crops, having grown 
cucumbers, beets, beans, corn, potatoes, turnips, etc. 
A Perpetual Picnic. —One of the unemployed 
printers had been having a new experience this Sum¬ 
mer. He had a wife and two children, and the health 
of all was poor. For a change, he took his family 
and possessions right out into the woods, as it seemed 
to them, where a number of large trees furnished 
ample shade. He had constructed a rude hut of some 
old lumber, from a house that had been torn down, 
covered it with tarred paper, to make it dry, put up a 
small tent for sleeping quarters, and the whole family 
had camped out there through the entire Summer, en¬ 
joying, as his wife termed it, “ A perpetual picnic”. 
Health had been restored, a pleasant and profitable 
Summer spent, and their plot had been well culti¬ 
vated. Neighboring fields, woods and orchards had 
furnished them an abundance of fruits, and they had 
enjoyed life as never before. The girls had grown 
brown and healthy, so that, as the superintendent 
said, one would not recognize them as the girls that 
went out there in the Spring. The probability is that 
the city will have few Gharins for them hereafter. 
As to the results in bushels," and dollars and cents, 
of this experiment, they will be given in full, after 
the work is finished, and will, doubtless, prove ex¬ 
tremely interesting. I shall try to get them as soon 
as they are accessible, so that we may see just the 
results that have been obtained from this unskilled 
labor. f. h. v. 
DOES WASHING INJURE EGGS ? 
I have asked several men who put millions of eggs 
in cold storage, and not one of them knows for sure. 
It would be reasonable to assume that, if washing in¬ 
jures the keeping qualities, they would have found it 
out after years of experience. Although none of them 
has made accurate tests, with all conditions alike, I 
find no one willing to assume that the washing is an 
injury. As long as our buyers pay two cents per 
dozen more for washed white eggs, as they do now, 
the eggs will be washed by the majority of the country 
people. 
There is a difference in washing them quickly, 
using a little vinegar, sand soap or soap powder for 
spots, and wiping them dry, as they come from clean 
nests each day, and soaking them in soap suds and 
drying by draining in a slat-bottom box. The first 
way scarcely removes the natural glazing, and none 
of the lime, while the second injures in two ways, by 
eating off the natural coating and, perhaps, dissolving 
the lime, permitting evaporation of the contents, also 
by allowing the mass of wet eggs to heat and rot. In¬ 
stances are on record of such eggs hatching chickens 
in a crate. 
From my experience, I think the paper is correct in 
saying that “ eggs are often injured by washing,” but 
would add that, in all such cases, the washing was 
not properly done. Eggs should be scoured clean, 
and wiped dry. A bit of Sapolio and a damp cloth 
will remove spots. Dip the egg in water, and wipe at 
once. Our section has the reputation of sending to 
market the most eggs of the best quality, and the 
highest prices are paid for them. Most of them 
are scoured before being sold, and a good many of the 
remainder also before going into cold storage. 
_C. E. CHAPMAN. 
Farmers’ Club. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of 
the writer to insure attention. Before asking a question please 
see whether it is not answered in our advertising columns. Ask 
only a few questions at one time. Put questions on a separate 
piece of paper. 1 
Questions About Rhubarb Culture. 
F. G. C., Bridgton, Me .— I wish to grow rhubarb for market, 
forcing it in the greenhouse and in frames. 1. Which is the best 
variety? 2. Is it best to use seedling or divided plants? How 
long does it take seedlings to grow before they are ready for 
use? 3. Do the seedlings come true—that is, are the stalks from 
seed as large as from divided plants ? How many plants can I 
put into a frame 6x50 feet? 4. How high is it best to build the 
frame i 
Ans. —1. Paragon and Linnaeus are, perhaps, best 
for early forcing, but finer crops are given by Victoria 
or Mammoth. 2. Thoroughly established clumps are 
required ; seedling plants three years old might be 
used. 3. Seedlings cannot be depended upon to come 
true in the botanical sense ; that is, they may not be 
a perfect reproduction of the parent plant, but when 
fully established, there is no reason why they should 
not produce good stalks. You would find it necessary 
to grow on the seedlings into strong clumps before 
using them for forcing. The number of plants put 
into a frame 6 x 50 would depend entirely upon the 
size of the clumps. They are put close together, with 
the soil sifted tightly between them, and then cov¬ 
ered with two to six inches of soil. A good place for 
forcing rhubarb or asparagus is under the benches in 
lettuce, rose or carnation houses. 4. About three feet 
inside ; of course, this would not all be built up above 
the surface. 
How to Treat a Cow's Hide. 
W. C. B., Breckenridge, 111 .— I have a cow hide from which I have 
taken the hair with wood ashes; I then put it in soft soap for 18 
hours, took it out and washed it three times, and when nearly 
dry, oiled it and worked it. But it is still raw and hard. How 
can I tan it to make it pliable ? 
Ans. —The process should have been as follows : 
When the hair had been removed in the way men¬ 
tioned, the hide should have been soaked in a solution 
of alum and salt, one part of the former to two of the 
latter, and as much as will be dissolved in water suf¬ 
ficient, leaving a residue undissolved. The hide should 
remain in this liquid a few days, until it has absorbed 
all of it that it will. It is then wrung out and dried. 
This process is repeated three times, until the skin is 
soft and pliable. Good washing then with soft soap 
and water, and rubbing, pulling, and working the 
skin, will soften it and make it permanently pliable. 
To fit the skin for this process, now, it must be freed 
from the oil, which may be done by washing and 
soaking it in soft soap and water ; when the oil is re¬ 
moved use the alum and salt mixture. It depends on 
the use the dressed skin is put to, what particular 
process is to be used, as there are several, but the 
alum and salt method is the most common in use. h. s. 
How to Grade Nursery Stock. 
W. E. C., Hartford County , Conn .— Is there any rule by which 
a beginner may tell the different grades of nursery stock ? 
A First-Class Tree.— In The Nursery Book, page 
142, Prof. L. H. Bailey thus sets forth the require¬ 
ments of a first-class tree : 
The requirements of a first-class tree should be that 
the specimen is vigorous, free from disease and blem¬ 
ishes, and that it possess the characteristics of the 
variety. This allows a crooked tree to be first-class 
if it is a Greening or Red Canada apple, because it is 
the nature of these varieties to grow crooked. A 
crooked or wayward grower is not necessarily a weak 
one. It is advisable to top-work weak-growing varie¬ 
ties upon strong-growing and straight-growing ones. 
A first-class tree is well-grown ; that is, the various 
operations to which it has been subjected by the nur¬ 
seryman have been properly performed. It must be 
mature, that is, not stripped of its leaves before the 
foliage has thoroughly ripened. It must be of the 
proper age for planting. It must have a clean, smooth 
bark. It must have a stocky, strong trunk, good 
roots, and be free of borers and other insect injuries. 
The union—at the bud or graft—must be completely 
healed over. Stocky and rather short trees, with 
well-branched heads, are always preferable to very 
tall ones. Very slender trees, if above one or two 
years old, should be avoided. Nurserymen express 
the size of a tree by its diameter about three inches 
above the bud. The measuring is usually done by a 
caliper. The diameter of a first-class tree varies with 
the method of growing and trimming it. In the New 
York nurseries, a first-class two-year-old apple tree 
(budded) should caliper five-eighths to three-fourths of 
an inch. Plums run about the same. Pears will gener¬ 
ally run a sixteenth of an inch less, and sour cherries 
about a sixteenth more. Sweet cherries will run 
three-quarters inch and above. 
How Nurserymen Grade. —The standard accepted 
gradings run as follows : 
Peaches.—They should never be older than one year 
from the bud. Sizes of extra first-class should be 4 X 
to 6 feet, 9-16-inch caliper and up. First-class should 
be 4 to 5 feet, % to 9-16-inch caliper. Medium grade 
should be 3 to 4 feet, % to J^-inch caliper. Second- 
class should be 2 to 3 feet, stocky and should have 
some branches. 
Pears, European plums, apples and sweet cherries 
should never be three-year-olds, and are in the case of 
Kieffer and Le Conte pears and sweet cherries gene- 
rally two-year-olds. Sizes, extra first-class should be 
5% to 7 feet, %-inch caliper and larger. First-class 
should be 5 to 6 feet, % to %-inch caliper. Second- 
class should be 4 to 5 feet, 3^ to %-ineh caliper. 
Japan plums should be graded the same way, but 
should never be over two-year-olds, and one-year-olds 
well branched are pi-eferable. 
Sour and Duke cherries should caliper the same, but 
run about one foot shorter, as a rule. Apricots and 
quinces are graded similar to peaches, but are two- 
year-olds instead of one year. Quinces are not so tall, 
but more branched. These are the standard grades, 
and should run between the two extremes. If none 
run over the lowest limit, they are graded too close. 
JOS. II. BLACK, SON & CO. 
The Freezing Point. 
F. If. L., Northampton , Mass.—C&n we have a frost when the 
thermometer registers only 38 or 40 degrees ? If frost is frozen 
moisture, and the freezing point is 32 degrees, how can anything 
freeze at 38 degrees ? Tnere is a divided opinion in our town on 
the subject. 
ANSWERED BY HENRY' STEWART. 
A frost is commonly supposed to be a change of 
water into ice, or crystals, as a result of some degree 
of cold less than 32 degrees F., or the freezing point 
of water. Frost occurs under some rather contradic¬ 
tory circumstances, as might be easily thought, on a 
superficial acquaintance with the facts. Frost may 
be easily produced in a room where the temperature 
is 80 degrees even, and as easily as what we commonly 
call dew may be caused on the outside of a vessel in 
which cold water is contained, in a warm room. A 
pitcher of ice water, for instance, taken into a warm 
room, is very quickly covered with this deposited 
moisture acquired from the vapor contained in the 
warm air of the room. Equally, if the pitcher con¬ 
tained what is commonly known as a freezing mix¬ 
ture, such as salt mixed with finely-broken ice, sal- 
ammoniac and saltpeter finely powdered and both 
together dissolved in water, or a mixture of sulphate 
of soda with hydrochloric acid, we may readily cause 
this vapor in the warm room to be frozen on the out¬ 
side of the pitcher and produce what is commonly 
termed hoar frost. 
Then, in the conditions mentioned, frost may be 
produced by the passing of a dry wind at the tempera¬ 
ture mentioned over moist ground ; the wind taking 
up the moisture and changing it into vapor so reduces 
the temperature of the soil as to produce ice crystals. 
As long as the intense evaporation is going on, the 
formation of the frost will continue. A simple experi¬ 
ment illustrating this production of cold may be made 
in this way: Procure a little common ether, pour 
some of it on the hand, and blow on it with the breath, 
and a very marked coolness will be felt on the skin. 
Or let a person go from a hot bath into a strong cur¬ 
rent of air, and a chill will be felt as though one were 
in ice water. 
Many curious experiments may be made in this 
way; one is to produce ice in a red-hot crucible, 
which is done in this manner : A quantity of liquid 
sulphurous acid is poured into the hot crucible, and 
some water is then poured into the acid. As the boil¬ 
ing' point of this acid is 18 degrees below the freezing 
point of water, the water is instantly made into ice ; 
so that it is quite possible that a frost may occur at 
an air temperature of 38 degrees, and frequently does 
so occur naturally on low, damp ground when a dry 
wind is blowing freely over it. At nigh elevations, on 
mountains for instance, where the air pressure is 
light and the air is rarer than at lower situations, ice is 
often made on the ponds at a temperature of several 
degrees above the freezing point, and frosts occur 
when the air temperature is above 40. This is when 
a dry wind is blowing freely, and causes an excessive 
evaporation. 
Liquid air, during its expansion into its ordinary 
condition, produces a most intense cold, far more so 
than any natural degree of cold known, and hundreds 
of degrees below ordinary freezing. The very same 
principle applies to the case in point, the evaporation 
of water, in its liquid form, into vapor, by any action 
or condition of the air, in spite of the temperature of 
it, may very easily produce what we call frost, which 
is simply fine crystals of ice. 
