1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
been thrown out of a job. He selected the four 
terminal points which cover the largest hay trade in 
the country, namely, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New 
York and Boston. To his surprise, he found that the 
volume of hay actually consumed in these cities, was. 
if anything, a trifle greater than the amount required 
five years ago. 
When asked why, if the use of the horse is dying 
out, the consumption of hay shows a slight increase, 
Mr. Bates says that the lower prices for hay have in¬ 
duced a larger use for it. He says that when hay was 
worth $25 a ton, the owner of the horse went to the 
stable and almost counted the spires of hay that were 
fed out. Since hay lias been reduced in price, city 
consumers have given their horses all they could eat. 
City truckmen have told him that when hay is high, 
they have cut the amount fed, in two, feeding more 
corn and oats in its place. The lower price of hay, 
too, has induced dairymen and farmers who are pro¬ 
ducing other crops, to buy more baled hay. Many 
farmers on small farms find that they can buy hay 
cheaper than they can raise it, since they can obtain 
more money per acre from other crops. 
A member of the Association, from St. Louis, said 
that, notwithstanding that the car horse had disap¬ 
peared, and that bicycles were in full force, twice as 
much hay was used in that city in 1896 as in 1893. 
There, as in the East, the proof was that horsemen 
fed more hay when it became cheap. The general 
opinion among the members seemed to be that this 
was true of most of the large towns and cities. The 
days of high prices for hay have, evidently, gone, but 
there is a greater demand than ever at lower prices, 
because feeders are using more of it. 
KEEPING APPLES IN COLD STORAGE. 
How Kept Cold .—The storage of apples for late 
Winter and Spring markets is becoming an important 
industry. In the past, this work has been most largely 
done by apple buyers and speculators, largely, prob¬ 
ably, because of the great expense of the buildings 
and apparatus used. It is generally understood that 
the successful keeping of apples, requires a tempera¬ 
ture as near 32 degrees as possible, and the smallest 
possible variation of temperature. The atmosphere 
should, also, be dry, because dampness favors fungous 
growths, which induce decay. It is said that the most 
perfect and extensive cold storage house known, is in 
Boston, and one modeled after it is located at Roches¬ 
ter, N. Y. The temperature in these is reduced by 
means of an iceplant, but the cooling pipes are in a 
room separate from the storage apartments. The per¬ 
fection of machinery for making artificial ice has been 
a great advantage in the development of the cold 
storage business. The cold air is admitted into the 
latter through wooden conduits, thus insuring a more 
perfectly dry atmosphere. In these large establish¬ 
ments, experience indicates that apples are more suc¬ 
cessfully preserved in a constant temperature of 30 
degrees, than at any other, but such extensive build¬ 
ings as these require more capital, both for construc¬ 
tion and operation, than is within the reach of even 
the wealthy fruit grower. 
But there are smaller and less costly houses, that 
answer the purpose very well. At Fig. 362 is shown 
a cold storage house which is on the farm of Wm. F. 
and Robert Brown, in Hancock County, W. Va. The 
storage apartments of this house have a capacity of 
10,000 barrels, and are in the basement. The ice chest 
in which the ice is stored, is on the upper floor. 
Stored on Shelves. —Bulletin No. 43, of the Penn¬ 
sylvania State College, on Apples in Pennsylvania, 
from which the illustration is reproduced, says there 
are several such fruit houses in that State. The cost 
is from $2,000 to $5,000, and they have a capacity of 
from 1,000 to 3,000 barrels. One situated in Berks 
County has floor dimensions of 25 x 40 feet, the fruit 
room being 12 feet high to the ceiling, and having a 
capacity for 1,000 barrels. The cost was $3,000, but 
as the stone had to be hauled a long distance, the ex¬ 
pense was ud usually high. The house is built on ris¬ 
ing ground, and in the rear, a dam is constructed, al¬ 
most on a level with the ice floor, so that the ice is 
drawn directly into the house. A large quantity of 
ice is stored on the second floor, and this serves the 
purpose admirably. 
A fruit house, constructed of wood, is shown at 
Fig. 363. This was built by Wm. P. Fisher, of Center 
County, and has a capacity for 6,000 bushels of apples 
stored on shelves. The interior is filled with shelves 
of movable boards, which are supported by scantlings 
and crossboards. The passageways are few and 
narrow. Fruit is stored loose on shelves and barreled 
as ordered during the Winter. The two stories of the 
house are arranged in this way for fruit, and the attic 
for ice. A broad platform in the attic, the full length 
of the house, is covered with galvanized iron, on 
which the ice is placed. This platform has a gentle 
slope, to carry off the water from^the melting ice, 
and this is conducted out of the building. Mr. Fisher 
claims special advantages in building a house high, 
whereby he imitates the conditions of a well. By 
proper attention to ventilation, he has reduced the 
temperature, and maintained it at 40 degrees F., 
without ice, in October. The cost of such a house 
varies according to circumstances, from $600 to $ 1 , 000 . 
Sometimes in Caves. —The walls of such fruit 
houses are usually made of ordinary studding, 
sheathed within and without, and the intervening 
spaces are sometimes filled with sawdust. The ex¬ 
terior is then covered with good building paper, and 
weather-boarded. Most fruitmen say that apples 
will keep much better if they are hurried into cold 
storage promptly, as soon as picked, instead of being 
left in the orchard in piles or in barrels to sweat. 
The same bulletin also refers to fruit caves or cel¬ 
lars, which are usually of smaller dimensions than 
the house, and are less easily controlled as to tempera¬ 
ture, because there is no provision for ice. One built 
A COLD STORAGE HOUSE OF STONE. Fig. 362. 
by G. C. Brown, of York County, has a capacity of 
200 barrels. The floor dimensions are 12 by 20 feet. 
The walls and arched roof are of stone cemented 
inside and out. An excavation of six feet was made, 
and the soil removed was used to cover over the top. 
SOME CONDENSED FARM NOTES. 
A Cement Floor. —In The R. N.-Y., page 753, Mr. 
L. A. Clinton gave a plan for laying cement floors. 
From past experience in laying cement walks, I would 
be afraid to follow his advice. I used water lime for 
the base, and allowed it to dry before capping with 
Portland cement, with the result that the top and base 
never united. In laying a floor, the result would, 
probably, be the same. The best authorities to which 
I have access say that the base should not dry before 
the finishing coat is put on. Next time I build a floor 
or walk, I shall use the Portland altogether, and have 
as cheap a floor as if I used part water lime, as the 
A COLD STORAGE HOUSE OF WOOD. Fig. 363. 
Portland is so much stronger, and will go farther in 
making the grouting. With ours, the water-lime base 
seemed to absorb moisture, and when freezing weather 
came, all went to pieces, the base as well as the cap¬ 
ping. This is in accord with the advice of men that 
use water-lime floors, that they must be kept away 
from frost. 
Fall Plowing'. —Page 769. I do not think it advis¬ 
able to Fall plow land unless well drained naturally 
or artificially. When such plowing is done, I would 
regard it as a mistake to replow. I would try to put on 
the manure before plowing, and then edge the furrow 
slices up against each other. When the land is worked 
the manure will be well incorporated through it. If 
the land is clay and replowed in the Spring, it will, 
doubtless, be found to be in a cloddy, gummy con¬ 
dition that will require too much labor to get in order. 
Instead of replowing in the Spring, it should be 
worked into condition with a disk or Cutaway har¬ 
row. I have plowed land heavily coated with manure 
in the late Fall or early Winter, and put in order as 
above. If such land were left till Spring to plow, the 
manure coat would keep wet too long. If plowed a 
799 
little wet in the Fall or Winter, the freezing over¬ 
comes the injury done. This is Ohio experience. 
Rye Pasture ; Clipping Clover. —The editor 
will find rye the best of hog pasture. I think that 
hogs relish it as much as, if not more than, they do 
clover. I have sown rye and clover together the mid¬ 
dle of April, and in a little over a fortnight, had hog 
pasture. In regard to clipping clover, I do not think 
it necessary to clip more than once to keep down 
weeds and prevent seeding. I clipped one field soon 
after harvest this year, a little too early to prevent a 
part of it going to seed. Another field was clipped 
later, and weeds as well as the clover kept from seed¬ 
ing. If clipped at the right time, once will answer. 
Ohio. JOHN M. .JAMISON. 
NOTES FROM OHIO. 
ROADS, TELEPHONES, AND WEATHER. 
Road Smashers.—A new phase of the road ques¬ 
tion has presented itself here. The township voted 
to make several sections of broken stone road, covered 
with gravel. The cost was about $3,000 per mile, and 
the road was considered a great improvement over 
clay roads, and it was resolved to keep on making 
other sections. This Fall, a ship-timber company 
purchased a tract of oak timber, and hauled it tree 
length on great trucks with six teams attached, over 
the greater length of this experimental road. Many 
of the logs weighed 10 tons or more. The result is 
that the road is ruined, is so nearly impassable that 
the logs are now drawn on a roundabout dirt road. 
What is the remedy ? Is it possible to collect damages ? 
If not, what is the use of building roads where non¬ 
taxpayers, and those who do not care a continental 
about roads, can, without let or hindrance, destroy 
them ? What right have the country people to have 
anything, anyway ? 
The Farmers’ Telephone. —Since the visit of H. 
W. C., the farmers’ telephone has been erected in 
town, connecting all of the stores, offices, and several 
private houses, and others are to make connections. 
We are now connected, not only with our town busi¬ 
ness places, post offices, and railroads, but the great 
outside world as well, and all for the small rental of 
$1 a month. Election night, the wires over a large part 
of northern Ohio were thrown open, and election news 
came pouring in from all sides and States and, “sitting 
under my own vine and fig tree ”, I heard the news as 
soon as the New Yorker, that “Teddy” had won, hours 
before the vote in my own town was announced. 
Plans are in process of formulation to connect it as 
an ally of the great Home Telephone Company of 
Cleveland, with its 2,500 boxes, and the Independent 
Lines Company, and then we can reach any point at 
about half the expense that it now costs to ring a 
“ Bell.” 
Wet-Weatlier Work. —As it rained here 15 days 
in the last three weeks of October, was cloudy the 
rest of the time, and has rained all of the month of 
November so far, it is a perplexing question what to 
do on the farm. Corn is all to husk in the future, and 
potatoes to dig. Oh my, my ! To get a potato digger 
across a field, would be as great a failure as to bring 
the Maria Teresa from Santiago. About the only wet- 
weather work that is not interfered with is boarding 
the troops. They come up smiling three times a day. 
After milking is over, there is little to do but to watch 
the weather. Some are pulling the potatoes a few 
bushels a day out of the mud with boathooks—I mean 
potato forks—but such a looking crop as they are ! 
It is a serious problem for many a man to solve this 
season, what to set the hired help at during these 
long rainy spells, to offset their wages and board. 
Oil the Other Side. —We are always curious about 
what our neighbors are saying and doing; but now 
and then one is surprised to find that some one 10,000 
miles or more away, is saying and thinking about the 
very things we are ; showing that, in this age of in¬ 
telligence, and rapid and wide dissemination of ideas, 
there is almost a common universality of agricultural 
thought. This is emphasized to my knowledge, for 
within a few days, I have received two letters from 
“darkest Africa,” one from 600 miles north of the 
Cape of Good Hope, asking information about silo 
building, and feeding ensilage, confessing that they 
must make improvements in the production of milk, 
or be crippled by competition. Is here not an ex¬ 
ample worthy of imitation for 10,000 dairymen, more 
or less, of this country ? The idea of cheapening pro¬ 
duction of dairy products in Central Africa cannot be 
any more important there than in considerable areas 
of the United States. I would suggest that dairymen 
here join with these men in Africa in their search for 
dairy light and better-understood practices. J. <j. 
Ohio. 
Five subscriptions for $4, four others and your 
own renewed for another year. Free till January 1 
to new subscribers. This makes your own free. 
