1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
8o5 
A YANKEE IN OHIO. 
HOW THE STATE LOOKS TO EASTERN EYES. 
Its Advantages and Disadvantages. 
Part VI. 
I EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. I 
Old-Fasliioned Farming 1 . —The Quakers are al¬ 
ways good farmers. They love the land, and cannot 
bear to see it run down. We drove past a fine Blue- 
grass pasture where even the hungry sheep could not 
keep the grass from growing knee-high in places. “1 
like to see that,” said Mr. Scott. “ I like to see grass 
get past the stock, for it means more to go back to 
the land.” Some farmers would have grieved that 
they could not cut that grass to feed or sell. After 
years of sheep pasturing, these hills are rich enough 
to put right into truck or fruit-growing if necessary. 
This country is a wonderful example of how the soil 
may be kept strong and true for years. 
I think it likely that the average Western Reserve 
farmer could buy and sell the Jefferson County farmer 
of equal acres, so far as cash goes, but these hill men 
do get a love as well as a living out of the land. Their 
houses are full of home comforts, and they take pride 
and pleasure in educating their children. Two hun¬ 
dred years ago the Yankees played Hob with the 
Quakers, but these Ohio folks have forgotten all that, 
and they fill you up with fried chicken and ham and 
pumpkin pie, and look grieved when you can’t possibly 
eat any more. It is a beautiful farm life these people 
live—deep in the quiet of the hills, and far from the 
dirt and smoke and blight of the town. The mines 
are bringing in a new element, but the farmers still 
regulate and control affairs, keeping up many of the 
old-time habits and customs. You will find very few 
abandoned schools and churches in this Quaker coun¬ 
try. It seems to me that, in this fierce and rushing 
age, it is a good thing for the country to have such 
quiet, restful sections reserved where the calm, happy, 
old-fashioned spirit of American farming may be kept 
alive. 
Blue Grass. —The wonder to me is that some poet 
has not arisen to sing the song of Blue grass so that 
even we cold-blooded eastern folks would understand 
how the West and South love it. We don’t know 
what it is to worship grass, though some of us do love 
clover. For my part, I haven’t a square rod of good 
grass on the farm, and do not need it. Our stock will 
have no fodder but sweet-corn stalks and oat hay this 
Winter. Every farm among these hills has its Blue- 
grass pasture, and some of them have not been plowed 
for 60 years ! They talked Blue grass on the Western 
Reserve, but I suspect that many of them would plow 
up their pastures if they could make a dollar by doing 
so; but these Ohio-River men, Quakers though they 
be, would, probably, fight a man who started a plow 
in the pasture. 
An acre of one of these Blue-grass pastures would 
be worth 50 loads of manure in Bergen County, N. J., 
and if I owned it, I would plow it up as quick as I 
could get the team harnessed ! What wonderful sweet 
corn or Lima beans we could raise on it ! An acre of 
the Blue grass will keep about five sheep, which will 
earn something like $3 each per year ! One of our 
Jersey gardeners would take that sod and, by adding 
fertilizer to it, make it earn $1,200 in five years ! In 
order to do it, however, he would have to carry the 
whole acre eastward about 500 miles ! He could not 
go where the land is and do it, though some gardeners 
and fruit growers are doing well in that country. 
The one thing that interested me most of all in Ohio 
was the wonderful sod of Blue grass or clover that 
these western farmers are able to produce. The basis 
of all good agriculture is sod. With us, at the East, 
we value it chiefly for what we can make it produce 
in other and more valuable crops. It is only a means 
to an end. These western men love the sod itself. 
They must plow up the clover, for that will die in due 
season, but the Blue grass lives forever, and that is 
why a Yankee should wait until he gets east of the 
mountains before talking of plowing it for corn or 
beans ! 
Hill-Country Crops.— Wheat is usually a good 
crop in this section. As in the Western Reserve, it 
seems to be mostly sown after clover. Farmers do not 
yet feel much need of purchased nitrogen. The chief 
need seems to be phosphoric acid, with but little pot¬ 
ash, hence the fertilizers chiefly used appear to be 
superphosphates containing a small amount of kainit, 
mostly used on the wheat. This seems surprising to 
me, for the cultivated land of most sheep countries is 
quite heavily drained of potash. A ton of raw wool 
takes away 112 pounds of potash, 108 pounds of ni¬ 
trogen, and two pounds of phosphoric acid. 
Sheep manure is lower in potash than that of other 
animals The great proportion of it is voided in the 
urine, and thus chiefly benefits the pasture. The 
urine of sheep contains nearly twice as much potash 
as that of the horse. If these pastures were broken 
up for cultivation in the regular rotation, the wheat 
and corn would benefit from this potash, but they are 
not, and one would suppose that, on corn and potatoes 
at least, potash would show itself in a marked degree. 
Some farmers have tried potato growing since the 
sheep disappeared, but not with any marked success. 
The strength of the land is banked in those Blue-grass 
hills. I suppose one of these men would go unhappy 
to his grave if he disturbed that sod, and so he must 
get what he can out of it, not through the roots of 
other crops as we would, but through the mouths of 
animals. 
The Jersey Cow. —Farmers who turned from 
sheep to buttermaking have made much of Jerseys. 
In passing through the country, it is hard to find a 
cow that does not show more or less Jersey blood. In 
the original stock, the St. Lambert family was largely 
used, and most of the best cows have, apparently, 
been bred to a distinct local type. They are good- 
sized, active cows, and many of them have given good 
account of themselves. Farmers were not all prepared 
to say that the cows gave as good returns from the 
Blue grass as the sheep did in former years. Many 
silos are being built, and the indications are that the 
Jerseys have come to stay, even though the sheep 
should be able to earn their old-time wages. In the 
cheese country no one bragged about the bull, but 
here the bull was usually the pride of the barn. 
One thing that struck me was the great popu¬ 
larity of gluten meal as a food for cows. The 
favorite plan seems to be to mix it with bran, and 
this ration with ensilage and hay is said to give good 
satisfaction, and to produce a good quality of butter. 
I saw a form of feeding rack here that I have not seen 
before, though it may be common to many. The 
manger for grain and ensilage is built with a flaring 
back, so that the upper part is wider than the bottom. 
Instead of being left open, a rack of slats or wires is 
built in front of the cow. In feeding, the grain and 
ensilage are thrown through the slats into the feed- 
box, while the hay is put behind the slats. The cow 
pulls it through like a sheep. This seemed to me like 
a relic of sheep-feeding days, for the sheep, of all 
animals, likes to pick its fodder through a hole in a 
rack. 
Other Stock. —Some of the farmers prefer beef 
cattle to Jerseys, and just now, beef is bringing a 
good price. The towns in this section are not de¬ 
pendent on western dressed beef yet. There is still a 
good local demand for beef cattle. Another thing I 
noticed is that the California fruits are rarely seen in 
this country. Farmers ought to be thankful for it. 
In the East, we are overrun with this competition in 
beef and western fruit. The horses used in this coun¬ 
try are mostly bred at home, and are strong and ser¬ 
viceable. Here we began to see what seems so strange 
to some eastern farmers—a hog grazing like a sheep 
or cow. Mojst of the farmers where I live would about 
as soon expect to see a cat or dog eating grass as to 
put a hog out in a pasture, and expect it to make a 
living. They shut a pig up in a pen, carry his food to 
him, and expect him to live—a creature of filth and 
fat. They read of pigs that run in the pasture like 
sheep, and make good gains on grass alone—but they 
don’t believe it any more than they believe the stories 
about raising great crops of potatoes and corn, year 
after year, on clover alone—without fertilizer. It 
certainly does increase one’s respect for a hog to see a 
neat, clean animal out on the clean grass cropping 
like a calf. As I went on West, I saw more and more 
of this hog grazing. The eastern farmer is very fool¬ 
ish who thinks that he can shut his hogs in a pen, 
feed them on grain, and compete with these western 
hog graziers. h. w. c. 
AMONG THE MARKETMEN. 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAR. 
“ Hothouse” Tomatoes. —One jobber in hothouse 
products showed me several small baskets of tomatoes 
which he had received. They were sent in response 
to his letter to an inquirer, stating that hothouse 
tomatoes were scarce and bringing good prices. They 
were simply outdoor-grown, some of them not more 
than half ripe, many of them covered with spots 
caused by blight. The baskets were very carefully 
covered over with paper, shipped by express and 
marked as being hothouse tomatoes. What do you 
think of a man so dense as to suppose that he can de¬ 
ceive a dealer in that way ? What sort of a conscience 
do you suppose he possesses ? 
X X X 
The Kumquat in Market. —I saw a small sample 
box of what was, to me, a new kind of fruit. It is 
called the Kin-Kan or Kumquat, and the trees came 
originally from Japan. It is a member of the Citrus 
family, the same as the orange, and its Japanese name 
means Gold orange. The fruits I saw were about 1)4 
inch in length, the skin having the same color and 
texture as the orange. It is said that the whole fruit, 
rind and all, is eaten. One person who had tried 
them, said that plain, everyday persimmons were just 
as satisfactory. The man who sent these samples has 
several boxes of them, grown in Florida. They are 
said to be somewhat hardier than oranges. 
X X X 
Good Cucumbers : Poor Price. —In one com¬ 
mission house, I saw several basketfuls of hothouse 
encumbers; variety, Rollison’s Telegraph. The re¬ 
ceiver said that they sold very poorly in this market. 
They are very long and slender, pointed at the stem 
end, and of a deep green color, quite regular in shape. 
In the English markets, they are very popular with a 
certain discriminating trade, that has learned their 
fine quality. But the trade here does not seem to 
fancy their appearance, and for this reason they are 
very slow of sale. So it would seem that something 
besides quality is necessai’y, in order to sell these 
products to advantage At least, the quality must 
become known before this alone will sell them. 
X X X 
Dishonest Apple Packers. —A few weeks ago, I 
looked over a lot of several hundred barrels of apples, 
that were the most disgraceful sight of anything of 
the kind I ever saw. At the beginning of the apple 
season, a jobber here went up into the western part 
of the lake country of central or western New York, 
to buy apples. He bought about a dozen car-loads, 
paying good prices. About the time the apples began 
to come in, he was obliged to return because of ill¬ 
ness, but left a man to look after taking in and ship¬ 
ping the apples. Soon the apples began to arrive here 
by the car-load, and such apples ! A few were fairly 
good, but the greater part were anything and every¬ 
thing. Not more than half the barrels were full; 
the rest were so slack as to shake badly, a condition 
that always spoils fruit, no matter how good it may 
be. Then the marks on the barrels bore no relation 
to the contents. A barrel marked Kings, might contain 
something resembling Kings in their third estate, or it 
might contain Greenings, Baldwins,Talman Sweets, or 
something that it would puzzle the best pomologist in 
the country to name. Not a barrel of these apples 
could be sold to customers without opening and ex¬ 
amining them. Close examination revealed a terrible 
state of affairs. Most of the barrels were fairly well 
faced, but below this were all kinds of trash. I went 
through four floors of a storehouse piled full of these 
apples. On the upper floor, a gang of men were at 
work sorting and repacking these apples, trying to 
get all that were salable in shape. Many of these 
barrels were filled with apples that a self-respecting 
evaporator would refuse in a season when apples were 
fairly plentiful. I examined barrel after barrel that 
were fit for nothing but cider, and some of them were 
too rotten and dirty even for that. Judging from 
appearances, everything, windfalls and all, was 
scraped up and dumped into the barrels, and then 
branded regardless of variety. The buyer told me 
that he had already paid out $25 for carting off rotten 
apples sorted out, and that, in spite of all his efforts, 
he would, probably, lose $500 to $1,000 by the opera¬ 
tion. I wouldn’t believe that any one would engage 
in such dirty tricks as the packers of these apples were 
guilty of, if I hadn’t seen the apples. Some of these 
apples were sold for 25c., 50c. and 75c. a barrel, any¬ 
thing to get rid of them. Is it any wonder that dealers 
call such packers thieves ? It’s a serious business 
Buyers are likely to shun such localities hereafter. 
F. H. v. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Do you want a gun ? See that very liberal offer by C. S. Miller, 
46 Gold Street, New York. 
If you are interested in hen feeding, it will pay to send to The 
Bowker Company, 43 Chatham Street, Boston, Mass., for pam¬ 
phlet. They send it free to advertise their animal meal, but the 
information is good. 
Mr. Myron Reigutmyer, West Richmondville, N. Y , reports 
that he was successful in two eases in the use of injectiovagine 
for barren cows, and ordered a bottle for another. It is prepared 
by Moore Bros., veterinary surgeons, Albany, N. Y. They are 
very skillful in the treatment of dumb animals. 
Marvin Smith Company, Chicago, Ill., publish a large catalogue 
which it mails free to farmers. It contains, in addition to 49 
kinds of feed grinders, about everything you could wish in the 
way of farm implements and machinery, and many valuable 
specialties. The company affords an advantage in that you 
can order from one place almost anything you want in the way 
of farm supplies. 
We are often asked what the cost is of running a notice under 
the head of Business Bits. We invariably answer that space in 
this column is not for sale. We would not put a paid advert.se- 
ment in this column for any price, yet the items are all practi¬ 
cally advertisements. They are for the benefit of advertisers and 
readers who happen to be in need of the goods referred to. We 
hope they are a benefit to both. They are intended to be. But 
they are our expressions and not for sale. 
The Banner Root cutters offer special advantages to the farmer 
who has roots to feed. They do not slice or cube the roots, but 
cut them into half round pieces nearly uniform in size, and so 
fine that even the smallest animals, such as lambs, pigs, calves, 
etc., may eat them freely without danger of choking. They are 
all provided with a shaking grate which effectually shakes out 
all dirt before the root reaches the knives. This year another 
cutter has been added to the list, for poultry keepers. These 
cutters are made by O. E. Thompson &, Son, Ypsilanti, Mich. 
