1808 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
3i9 
SMALL BASKET OF PROFIT FROM OLD HENS. Fig. 139. 
THE MOLDY BUTTER TUB. 
DRY IT AND STEAM IT. 
It is my present opinion that the mold in butter 
tubs can be prevented by thoroughly drying them 
before they are used. We have never had a complaint 
on account of moldy butter, although we make from 
100 to 400 pounds of butter daily in our dairy-school 
creamery. Our 00-pound tubs are bought as any other 
creamery would buy them, that is, they are not se¬ 
lected tubs. We buy them in lots of 300 
at a time, and store them in a large attic 
room of the building. We are careful to 
have them stand bottom side up, so that 
the hoops will not drop off, and the tubs 
fall to pieces while they are stored in 
this dry room. Two to five tubs are used 
daily. They are prepared for use by first 
placing them, bottom side up, over a jet 
of steam, where they are left about 15 
minutes. After this steaming, the tub 
is filled with cold water, and stands full 
of water about two hours before ; the 
parchment lining is put into the tub, 
and it is filled with butter. This method 
of treatment has given entire satisfac¬ 
tion, up to date, to the parties to whom 
we ship the butter. We have never had 
a complaint from mold. 
Recently, I made an attempt to mold 
some of our tubs, in order to find out 
something about the subject. Four 60- 
pound tubs were taken from the store¬ 
room and kept under water, entirely sub¬ 
merged, for four days. After this soak¬ 
ing, they were allowed to dry for one 
day, and were then placed in a tightly- 
covered tank which had about one-half 
inch of water on its bottom. The tubs 
were left in this damp atmosphere a 
few days, and soon showed a luxuriant 
growth of mold on the surface of the 
wood. This evidence seemed to show to 
me that the complaints about moldy but¬ 
ter probably came from the dampness of 
the wood in the butter tub, and that the 
mold could be prevented by thoroughly drying the 
tubs before they are used. Store them in a dry room 
and not in a basement. e. ir. farkington. 
Wisconsin Dairy School. 
FOURTEEN YEARS OF CORN. 
WITH ONLY CATCH CROPS BETWEEN. 
For many years, it has been a query of mine respect¬ 
ing the number of crops of corn which could be re¬ 
moved in succession from our clay lands, without pro¬ 
ducing a noticeable diminution of the yield. The ex¬ 
periment depicted in Fig. 137, started without thought 
of this, but for the past 10 years, has been continued 
in answer to this desire to know something in relation 
to it. The crop shown in Fig. 137 is the 14th crop of 
corn in succession on the land, with no other crop in 
rotation, save catch crops which have been grown in 
the Fall, after the corn had been cut up, and it is safe 
to say that the yield last season was in all respects 
the equal of any which had preceded it. The field 
contains a scant acre, and its crop is used in the early 
Fall for soiling the dairy, and being adjacent to the 
stables, is so handy that the experiment will be con¬ 
tinued. The soil is a heavy, yellow clay with inclina¬ 
tions to a sandy subsoil at a depth of four feet. The 
field has never had heavy dressings of stable manure, 
usually strawy sorts and the odds and ends of what 
was left about the yard, and drawn at such times as 
was handiest. The plan has been to sow a catch crop 
as soon as could be, sometimes of one thing, and then 
of another, the best thing being oats and peas, each a 
bushel, last year sown October 6. In middle January, 
it showed, as the snow was melting, a rich dark green 
hardly injured by the freezings and snows of Winter, 
making a fine mulch for the soil, and promised quite 
a store of humus to plow under in Spring. 
Our plan of culture is to plow about six inches deep, 
and drag and roll until the soil is fine and the humus 
well worked in, as well as the light dressing of 
manure. We cultivate our corn field before it is planted 
We plant in drills 3>£ feet apart, the kernels six inches 
apart in the drills, and usually roll after planting. 
The harrow is run over the field before the corn comes 
up, and twice after, driving lengthways of the rows, 
with the teeth of the harrow set perpendicular. These 
three harrowings kill all the surface-germinating 
weeds, and if very shallow culture is given after, the 
weeds will give little trouble, for it is deep culture, 
and bringing up a fresh stock of seed to germinate, 
which makes the trouble. The cultivators are set to 
run as near an inch deep as possible, so that the work 
shall be simply providing a dust mulch to retard 
evaporation, and kill any chance weeds on the surface. 
Usually three of these light workings, after the har¬ 
row, prove sufficient. In this time, there has been no 
commercial fertilizer used in any form, on this field, 
or manure to more than one-third of the amount 
usually applied to land, the catch crops being the 
main reliance. During this time, the land has not be¬ 
come more compact by this cropping, rather growing 
more friable. The corn, when cut, would average 
from 11 to 12 feet in height, and very even all over the 
plot. It is only fair to say, that white Virginia corn 
is used year after year, as it is our desire to get the 
largest growth possible, a growth, however, which 
will give a large yield of ears ; it is probable that 75 
bushel baskets of ears were grown, and this may be 
calculated as an average yearly growth on this plot. 
Ohio. _ JOHN GOULD. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Frost Injury to Blossoms. —The injury to fruit 
buds by Winter or late Spring frosts is often not ap¬ 
parent without a critical examination of the blossoms. 
An early-blooming apricot trained against the south¬ 
west corner of the forcinghouse office at Cornell was 
caught with half-opened buds by the cold wave of late 
March and early April. The blossoms now opening 
present no marked appearance of injury, and might 
easily be mistaken for perfect flowers. A cross sec¬ 
tion of the blooms, however, reveals the blackened 
and stunted pistils which, together with the ovaries, 
have been destroyed. The three upper blossoms of 
Fig. 141 illustrate this condition. The lower blossoms 
are uninjured, and show the normal development of 
pistil and ovary. Fruit-growers would do well to 
examine their blossoms closely before counting on a 
crop. s. w. F. 
Saving Frozen Apple Trees. —Possibly I can assist 
J. O. B., page 280, on the cause of his loss of apple 
trees, and give him a partial remedy. In the Fall of 
1896, it was exceedingly dry here; I plowed my orchard 
and sowed to Crimson clover. The drought continued 
until late in November, when we had an abundance 
of rain, and warm weather up to Christmas. Some 
of my apple trees were in full leaf, and as green as 
they usually are in September. About the middle of 
January, the mercury suddenly went below zero. A 
short time afterwards, I noticed that the bark cracked 
on one of my trees near the house, and was loose. I 
concluded that the sap had frozen and burst the bark 
from the tree, and the thaw made it loose. I went 
over all my trees with a ball of binder twine, wrapped 
the tree below the crack and every half inch until I 
got above the top of the crack, tying each round. I 
put clay over the crack, and then wrapped the tree 
with guano bags, and tied securely. I went over my 
trees, but could not find all that were injured ; those 
that were attended to were saved, but the bark did 
not heal all around. Those that were overlooked in 
the Winter, have since died, similar to those of J. O. 
B. My trees are 10 years old, and most of them of 
good size for their age. c. m. t. 
Barboursville, Va. 
Rocky Ford Melons. —I note on page 287 of The 
R. N.-Y. the article in reference to the variety of 
muskmelon grown in the vicinity of Rocky Ford 
There seems to be some difference of opinion as to 
what the Rocky Ford really is. Our trials last season 
proved that what is known as the Rocky Ford musk¬ 
melon is Burpee’s Netted Gem, the only difference 
being in the name. Last Winter, Burpee & Co. 
supplied many of the leading growers in Colorado 
with seed, and in fact, the demand has been so heavy 
for our strain of this seed, that our supply was soon 
exhausted. Burpee’s Netted Gem melon was first in¬ 
troduced 17 years ago, and is the best early, small, 
green-fleshed melon known to-day. In 
shape, the melons are almost globular, 
running a trifle oblong in some specimens. 
They differ from the Jenny Lind in that 
they are of better quality and are round, 
whereas the Jenny Lind is flattened on 
the ends. h. m. earl. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
ROCKLAND FARM ECONOMY. 
The Steam Engine on the Farm.— 
When I was a boy of 12 years, my father 
put up a stationary engine and boiler in a 
shed adjoining the barn, and as can be 
supposed, I took a lively interest in the 
proceedings. That was 20 years ago, and 
this year’s wheat crop was thrashed with 
the same engine. The boiler, however, 
is a new one. My father, upon the advice 
of an engineer, put in an eight-horse 
boiler and a six-horse engine, but after 
running it a while, found the boiler too 
small, so a few years ago, unexpectedly 
selling some stone, I replaced the eight- 
horse boiler with an eleven. The ad¬ 
vantage of the large boiler is that it will 
hold steam longer. This year, I not only 
ran the engine, but fed the cutter when 
cutting fodder, and could leave the engine 
room for 20 minutes at a time, and then 
only come back to shovel on more coal 
and start the inspirator. 
The first question one thinks of in get¬ 
ting a boiler is the danger, but after 20 
years’ use, I would say that there is no 
more danger than there is with a bicycle. 
The great and only thing is care. Keep the boiler 
full of water, and try the safety valve every few 
days, and I do not believe it possible to blow up a 
good upright boiler. But familiarity breeds contempt, 
and after using it a few years, one gets accustomed to 
it, and takes risks, and the result is an explosion. 
Economically, I consider it one of the greatest 
blessings that a farmer can have. We have thrashed 
about 10,000 bushels of grain with ours, which means 
$500, to say nothing of the comfort of being able to 
WINTER INJURY TO FRUIT BUDS. Fig. 141. 
a. Pistil destroyed by frost; b. Normal development of the pistil. 
LARGE BASKET OF PROFIT FROM PULLETS. Fig. 140. 
