1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
R U R A LI S MS. 
-% 
(CONTINUED.) 
to serve as a mechanical support for the inclined 
plant, and to derive nourishment from the soli 
for the same. Why one variety of corn plant will 
do this more than another is hard to explain. 
Speaking generally, therefore, the tendency of 
corn plants to develop the aerial roots, It seems 
to me, is along the line of mechanical support, or 
props, as you term them, and also to increase 
the amount of feeding root surface, the corn 
plant being one that seems to relish that which 
is in the soil near the surface. It is not a deep 
feeder, and these secondary roots help to increase 
its capacity to absorb from that portion of the 
soil that is most congenial to It. 
From Wilhelm Miller, of Ithaca, N. Y. 
I believe that these aerial roots feed the plant, 
and also act as braces, but that they are of little 
importance after all. Any one who doubts 
whether they are really brace roots should pull 
at a big stalk of field corn until he can roughly 
measure its powers of resistance, then slit the 
aerial roots with a knife, and see how much 
easier the whole plant can be uprooted. When 
he has pulled up the whole plant, he will see how 
these aerial roots have “caught on ” as soon as 
they have become established iu the soil. Each 
one of them starts a new system of roots which 
look exactly like those formed in the regular 
way. It is hard to believe that they are not of 
service in feeding the plant. We are all familiar 
with insttnces of failure on the part of these 
aerial roots to reach the ground. But plants are 
all the time making failures, just as we are, and 
sometimes they have organs as useless as the 
thing that gives us appendicitis. In the ordin¬ 
ary conditions of cultivation, I fancy, the corn 
could get along practically just as well without 
any aerial roots at all. My impression is that 
their aid is not partieulaMy timely. There is a 
critical time in the life of every plant that grows 
from seed—the time when toe plant is just be¬ 
ginning to make a root-system of its own, and is 
getting weaned (if one may say so), from the 
nourishment of the seed. I doubt whether the 
aerial roots come to the rescue at this time. 
Theoretically, aerial roots ought always to be 
encouraged, and that is what gardeners do with 
orchids and other expensive plants that are 
tenderly cared for under glass. Practically, 
these roots seem to be of small importance to 
the corn plant. I have never heard of any one 
who has encouraged them, neither do I know 
any one who thinks that they should be cut off. 
Again, we have all noticed that some varieties 
throw out more aerial roots than others, but none 
of us, I fear, can really say why they do so. The 
same varieties vary in everything else. They 
vary in things that concern us, and these we 
notice, but they also vary in things that seem to 
be of no possible use to themselves. The truth 
is that it is born in plants to vary, and we can 
hardly wonder at it. What we ought to wonder 
at is a statement that all varieties of any one 
species agree exactly in any one thing. For my¬ 
self, I don’t believe they ever do. 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Rye Seeding.—We have less than three acres 
of rye this Fall, and it was all seeded after Octo¬ 
ber 20. For some reason, one field of early pota¬ 
toes and one of early corn were not seedi d to 
Crimson clover, so we put rye in. In seeding to 
rye, we work the ground with the Cutaway, 
broadcast the seed, and then work with Acme 
and roller. Just back of the barn is a small field 
where late cabbage were about ruined by some 
pullets that would get over the fence. We have 
put rye there, too, expecting to use it for an 
early hog pasture next Spring Everything is 
now covered with growing crops except two small 
corners of the farm. Rye is better than nothing 
for a cover crop, but it has little value in our 
plan of farming. We cut some for hay last Spring, 
but it is too hard and dry. For green manure, 
it is too harsh and too slow to decay. It may 
make fair hog pasture. We can tell better about 
that in the Spring. 
Killing Frosts.—Every killable plant is brown 
and dead. The cow peas in the bush fruits went 
down on October 15. The millet went at the 
same time, but the barley is still green. The 
Snyder blackberries have rusted badly, but all 
other fruit is in fine shape for Winter. We were 
glad to have ihe frost hold off, so f ir as our own 
crops were concerned; but for the sake of friends 
iD Mississippi, we would have been glad to have 
it come a month earlier. These friends were 
in the yellow-fever district. At the first alarm, 
they moved out into the country and thus es¬ 
caped the disease. No one knows how the folks 
in that region hoped and prayed for a hard frost 
—which meant death to the fever. How slow 
Jack Frost was in getting down to business! It 
must have been a terrible strain, but at last, the 
frost came and put an end to their trouble. 
Dry Goods by Mail.—Our big family requires 
five beds and three cribs in order to sleep com¬ 
fortably, and all housekeepers know what that 
means in the way of bed clothing. The Madame, 
like most other enterprising women, gets the 
shopping fever now and then, puts the price of 
500 eggs or 15 bushels of potatoes in her pocket, 
and goes out after bargains. This year, she saved 
car fare to the city, and tried a mail order. She 
saw some bargains advertised, sent $6.88, and 
received by express, paid, 12 sheets and 12 pillow 
cases, all well made and of tine material. She 
claims that, when we were married, such sheets 
were worth $1 apiece. I can’t understand how 
such things can be sold at these prices. Charlie 
771 
bought a first-rate suit of clothes recently for 
$9.98, and a pair of pants for the Graft cost 45 
cents in our local town. It strikes me that work¬ 
ers in other lines must be getting even less for 
their labor than farmers are receiving—that is 
little enough as I well know. 
Dishorning the Calf.—The horns on the little 
Jersey begin to make themselves felt, and the 
question as to killing them has come up. Just 
now they could be quickly killed by using caustic 
potash, so that the head would be quite smooth. 
We have decided to let the horns grow. That 
calf’s mission in life is to grow into a family 
cow. We shall make a pet of her, and always 
treat her gently. So long as she lives with us, 
she will have no occasion to kick or strike if I 
can help it. As a matter of value, a handsome 
pair of light horns will add $10 to the value of a 
family cow when you try to sell her. People who 
keep only one cow, want horns and all. At least 
that is the way it goes in this country. A busi¬ 
ness dairyman keeping many cows, and regard¬ 
ing each one as a milk machine, may find dis¬ 
horning a paying operation. Not so with the man 
who expects to train a first-class family cow to 
be sold at a high figure. You will find that cus¬ 
tomers who want such cows, demand horns and 
all. They want horns tied to a disposition so 
gentle that the horns are as harmless as though 
they were tacked up over the fireplace. 
Clipping tlie Clover.—In Ohio I found the 
best farmers I saw strong advocates of tue plan 
of clipping the clover during the late Summer 
and Fall. They set the mower bar high, and run 
over the field, clipping off the weeds and such 
clover heads as might be too high. You would 
be astonished to see what a difference this makes 
in the clover. In riding about the country, one 
can easily pick out the fields that have been 
clipped. Not only are such fields cleaner, but the 
clover looks stronger. The clipping causes the 
clover to stool out and thicken out, making a 
stronger plant. Then, again, by cutting off the 
heads before they form seed, we save the plant 
for another season. Let it once form seed in the 
Fail, and it will not be worth much the following 
Spring. I have heard farmers complain that, 
after a very late and open Fall, when many 
heads formed, the clover was nearly a failure 
the next Spring. If such farmers had'only clip¬ 
ped their clover several times during the Fall, it 
would have been better rather than worse, when 
Winter ended. I came back and found one field 
of Crimson clover which followed early potatoes 
quite badly mixed with tall weeds. We got the 
mower out at once, and clipped the whole thing 
over, and now it looks much improved. It is 
about like the theory we are following regarding 
the Bud’s hair. We have kept it cut short in¬ 
stead of letting it run in so-called “ ringlets.” I 
am certain that she will have a thicker and bet¬ 
ter head of hair to pay for it. 
Practical Farming.—I once drove home with 
a good farmer, and when we got to the barn, I 
stepped up to unharness one side of the horse. 
“ Why,” said he; “ You do know how to unhar¬ 
ness a horse, don’t you?” 
Now that gave me a thought that I shall al¬ 
ways study over. Why does a practical farmer 
usually question the ability of the man who 
writes about farming to practice his own preach¬ 
ing ? Now I certainly don’t dress like a dude. 
Usually my coat and hat are so old that the 
Madame scolds me about them. I never did and 
I never will wear a high silk hat or a big stand- 
up collar, and the only jewelry I can sport is a 
$10 watch. I have milked my 20 cows a day in my 
time, ditched and forked manure, and cut wood. 
Yet, because now I undertake to write about 
farming, farmers get an idea that a pen is as 
long as a 10-foot pole, and that is about as near 
as an agricultural writer can get to farming. I 
have quite often heard a farmer say, after read¬ 
ing a well-written article, “ That is all very nice, 
but I’d like to see that man’s/ara/” People 
sometimes say to me, “ Mr. So-and-So made a 
good speech at our institute, but what sort of a 
farm does he own ?” 
What About It ?—Who is responsible for this 
distrust on the part of practical farmers? I 
think that some of our agricultural writers are 
largely to blame for it. Some of them start with 
a little germ of truth, and weave a great article 
of advice around it. Others write a true record of 
events or facts and have it printed without tak¬ 
ing pains to point out that the results are for 
local application while only the principles in¬ 
volved are for general application. For example, 
we feel quite sure that a feed cooker pays at 
Hope Farm, because we have a lot of waste stuff 
on hand. It would not do for us to go on and say 
that every farmer who feeds pigs should buy a 
cooker, for thousands who feed almost entirely 
on corn and clover do not need one. The reverse 
of this is, also, true, for the corn and clover man 
would not be justified in telling the cabbage and 
turnip man not to touch a cooker at all. The 
writer is not entirely to blame either, for any 
man who reads should make, at least part of 
the application himself, and not expect to have 
all the suggestion or thought work squeezed out 
until it is as dry as an oak chip. In many cases, 
the farmer couldn’t begin to tell about his own 
farming as well as the trained writer can. 
Use Common Sense in Reading.—I know that 
the writer or Institute speaker will often get a 
case of the big head, and place too much import¬ 
ance upon his own work. On the other band, 
Remember that Bowker’s Animal 
Meal is sold only in yellow bags and 
yellow packages. The original; richest 
in protein.— Adv. 
some farmers will try to belittle the enthusiastic 
marf who comes cut with a new idea and does the 
best he can to make others thrill over it. It isn’t 
likely that Prof. S. M Babcock would make very 
good wages as a hired man—milking cows—yet 
he devised the great Babcock milk test which 
has been worth millions of dollars to dairymen. 
A man can't possibly work himself out at the 
plow or hoe and then come in and write an art lole 
that will be strong enough to live. You can 
usually tell when an article is written by a slack, 
careless or tired man. My idea is that a good 
agricultural writer must have several qualifica¬ 
tions. He ought to have served an apprentice¬ 
ship on the farm. He should have his heart in 
his work and know where to varnish and where 
to let the rough, hard truth stand out. He ought 
to keep a check rein on his opinions, and never 
let them pass disguised as facts. He ought to 
live on a farm and love farm life, and never ad¬ 
vocate a plan until he has gone far enough with 
it to know that It is at least sensible. He ought 
to be able to say, “I don’t know! ” when that is 
the truth. n. w. c. 
Some cough mixtures 
smother the cough. But the 
next breeze fans it into life 
again. 
Better put the cough out. 
That is, better go deeper 
and smother the fires of in¬ 
flammation. Troches can¬ 
not do this. Neither can 
plain cod-liver oil. 
But Scott’s Emulsion can. 
The glycerine soothes and 
makes comfortable; the hy- 
pophosphites give power and 
stability to the nerves; and 
the oil feeds and strengthens 
the weakened tissues. 
5 oc. and $ i .oo, all druggists. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, Chemists, New York. 
FRAZER cr»I e 
BEST IN THE WORLD. 
Its wearing qualities are unsurpassed, actually 
tutlastlng three boxes of any other brand. Not 
affected by heat. Z3T GET THE GENUINE. 
FOR SALE BY DEALERS GENERALLY. 
We are the largest C-1-ppl 
manufacturers of.. ^LCvl 
Truck Wheels 
for farm wagons in America 
Send for Catalogue 
Havana Metal Wheel Co , Havana, III. 
Machine $10 
TO BUILD THE STRONGEST 
AND BEST WIRE FENCE. 
s 16 to 24 Cents per Rod. 
■S No farm rights, royalties or 
patent stays to buy. AGENTS 
CJJ WANTED. Write for circular. 
The Bowen Cable Stay Fence Co. 
NORWALK. OHIO. U S.A 
~ Laying aside all speculation these remain as the 
requisites of a perfect fence. Our Duplex Automatic 
Machine makes just such a fence in 100 styles at the 
rate of sixty rods per day, at a coat for wire of only 
18c. for a ^ood farm fence; 19c. for poultry fence; 16c. 
for a rabbit-proof fence aud 12c. for a good hog fence. 
We will sell you plain, coiled spring or barb wire direct 
at wholesale, prices. Get our catalogue before buying. 
Kltselman Bros., Box 106, Rldgeville, Ind. 
PIG-TIGHT 
GRINDING MILLS. 
Bo’ore purchasing a mill lor 
grinding EE ED or M E A L, orany- 
thing that can bo ground on a 
mill, write us for catalogue and 
discounts. Address 
SPROUT, WALDRON 
,t CO., 
MuHcy. I’a., Manuf’rs 
of French Burr Mills, 
Crushers, and fu 1 line 
Flour Mill .Machinery 
CHEAPER wells 
DRILLED WELLS 
are cheaper and far superior to dug 
wells. THEY DO NOT CO DRY; 
they contain pure water. The 
STAR 
DRILLING 
MACHINES 
are far superior to others. 
They are stronger, faster 
and easier to operate. Made in ten sizes. We 
also have a full line of supplies. CATALOGUE FREE. 
Star Orillina; Machine Co., Akron, 0. 
UfCI I DRILLING 
WELL Machines 
Over 70 sizes and styles, for drilling either deep or 
shallow wells In any kind of soil or rock Mounted 
on wheels or on sills. With engines or horse powers. 
Strong, simple and durable. Any mechanic can 
operate them easily. Send for catalog. 
WILLIAMS BROS., Ithaca, N. Y. 
STHE STANDARD 
STUM PUMPS. AIR LIFTS. ..1 / 
GASOLINE ENGINES 
ware roe circular ng 
THE AMERICAN WELL WORKS 
AURORA.ILL - CHICAGO- DALLAS,TEX 
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Don’t Shovel Snow 
all winter from the lane, but buy Page Fence and 
have a clear track. No drifts behind our Winter 
Styles. Ask for prices. 
Page Woven Wire Fence Co., Adrian, Mich. 
.'C 
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rC 
CO 
«*) 
FIELD AND HOG FENCE. 
with or without lower cable barbed. Al 1 horizontal lines 
are cables, not effected by heat and cold. Steel Picket 
Lawn and MJU.S. Poultry Fence, Steel Gates, Posts, etc. 
UNION FENCE CO. DcKalb, III. 
Lika a Bull Dog. 
That’s the way this lock and 
fence stay grips the wire and 
.hangs on. It’s “a fence stay 
■ that will itaj.” No twisting, 
straining or breaking of 
.wires; no shaking loose or 
^slipping. Makes the moat 
rigid, strongest, most dur¬ 
able fence that can be made 
I out of wire. Only tool required Is a 
] hammer. It’s Just as easy as nailing 
pickets. Cheapest fence on earth, 
tl/r \1I AlIT APCMTQ In every locality. Excln- 
WCwfAlil BUEH I a sive territory to the right 
men. Seeding Is done, the corn will soon be husked and 
you will have time to take up a good proposition, 
write to-day for catalogue ami sample—free. 
CHANDLEE FENCE CO., 11 S. Howard St., Baltimore, Md- 
We Make 
no Claim 
» of having the largest 
2 fence business on 
g earth, or in fact any 
oj other claim we can- 
01 not verify. We have 
~ THE BEST 
FENCE 
In the market and we 
can prove it. 
Lamb WIro Fence Co., Adrian, Mich. 
11 E? I"N F** A ■ Al IP ■ A A 1 is the earliest, easiest worked and most pro- 
£*„ UfuAil«e.U L All U ductive land. By using tile you get rid ortho 
" 1 aa J-n ■ V v surplus water and admit the air to the soll- 
. both necessary to best results in agriculture. My AGRICULTURAL 
| DRAIN TILE meets every requirement. Make also Sewer Pipe, Red 
and Fire Brick, Chimney Tops- Encaustic Side Walk Tile, etc. Write for 
■ • — JOHNH..’ " ‘— *' 
what you want and prices. Jt 
. J ACKSON, 1 bird Ave. Albany, N.Y. 
THE KEMP.... 
Manure Spreader 
Converts the manure pile Into a pllo of gold. When 
you double your money you think you havo made a 
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GREA TL YIMPRO VED I able for plant food. 
FOR 1398. Backed by 13 years of successful 
manufacture. Send for our catalogue and a book 
New Treatise on Manure, FREE to all Inquirers. Box 38 
