1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
863 
more potatoes, he doesn’t want to pay any advance 
on the wholesale price, claiming 1 that he has bought 
for that, and can get more if he wants. Therefore, 
the dealer, in order to do business, must necessarily 
buy his potatoes for less than 75 cents, and in that 
way, the market price is lowered by about 10 cents 
per bushel, because of the farmer's liberty to sell 
without a license. The question arises, Does it pay ? 
The loss to the regular growers would be, at 10 cents a 
bushel (the city uses about 300 bushels a day), $30 a day. 
Had this farmer been compelled to take out a 
license for the privilege of using the city’s advantages, 
for which I claim that there is no conceivable reason 
why non-residents, who pay no city taxes, should be 
exempted from them, he would not have been so 
likely to cut the price in order to sell 
his goods. The above reasoning holds 
good for other products of the farm, 
more especially in the case of perish¬ 
able goods like small fruits, which 
must be sold at once or be a total loss. 
FRANKLYN A. TABER. 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—There is another side still: 
In some western towns, farmers have 
been frozen out of local markets almost 
entirely in the interests of a few large 
growers. As to cutting prices—licensed 
peddlers do it right along—the license 
seeming to make but little difference. 
was made to keep them good natured, and to coax 
them to their work. One man’s sweetheart was 
drafted into this work, and several men had their 
wives on hand to cook for them and give them encour¬ 
agement. In one sense, the cow that is expected to 
help pay the mortgage is like the bicycle rider. She 
must yield her weight in milk every month, and come 
close to yielding her weight in butter every year. In 
order to do this, she must be well fed with soluble 
food and lots of it, and she must be coaxed and petted 
so that she will not mind the physical and m?ntal 
strain. 
A number of readers in Tennessee and Kentucky 
speak of the difficulty they experience in keeping 
potato onions from rotting during the Summer. Prof. 
WHAT 1HEY SAY. 
Hunters, Beware! —A reader in 
central Indiana says that farmers in 
his neighborhood are having trouble 
with hunters who run over the farms, 
and don’t respect the rights of others. 
Some children have been slightly shot 
in the face and hands while on the 
farmers’ own land. One 1,400-pound 
steer received a load of shot in his side. Hunters 
are very careless as to where they shoot. The farmers 
wish to protect themselves, and will take measures to 
keep these careless hunters off their farms if possible. 
The question is, How can they do it to best ad¬ 
vantage ? Readers who have been able to remedy 
this trouble will please tell us how they proceeded 
to do it, as such medicine is needed everywhere. 
Cost of Shoeing.—You ask: “What does it cost for 
shoeing one horse for a year ?*’ I keep three horses on 
the farm. Horse No. 1 makes a trip of three miles to 
the creamery nearly every day in the year,besides doing 
his share in the farm work. He is kept shod all 
around, and it has cost an average of $4.04 per year 
for five years to keep him shod. Horses 
Nos. 2 and 3 are kept shod in front, 
and occasionally behind, and do the 
general farm work. For them, it has 
cost an average of $1.35 apiece per year 
for five years. I doubt whether many 
farmers can answer this question very 
accurately, as farmers, as a class, are 
very careless about keeping such ac¬ 
counts. w. A. B. 
Farmer, N. Y. 
Blowing Out STUMrs. —The articles 
on the use of explosives in splitting 
logs and rending stumps, leave out one 
little link in the chain of successful 
blasting, namely, the method of se¬ 
curely tamping the charge, the failure 
to do which must make amateurs 
more trouble than any other thing ; 
for it is no easy thing to prevent a 
good charge from blowing out at the 
top. The safest and best way is to use 
two or three inches of plaster or, per¬ 
haps, sand (I find land plaster the 
best), rammed down well with a wooden 
rammer, with an iron rod or pin over 
it, loose enough not to crowd the fuse, and a heavy 
plank or log laid with one end on top of the pin. This 
can be placed quickly, and is a pretty sure thing, the 
full force of the powder being exerted on the rock. 
Maine. g. s p. 
Bicyclists and Cows.—During the recent bicycle 
race in this city, a man rode his wheel 2,007 miles in 
142 hours. Of course, this great feat was accomplished 
only under the most favorable conditions. No one ex¬ 
pects that the winner could ride this distance over 
ordinary country roads and against winds and storms. 
Great quantities of food were required by these riders. 
One of them consumed the following food in one day : 
Four eggs, two chops, two quarts of milk, four quarts of beef 
tea, four ounces of calf’s-foot jelly, half a pound of crackers, one 
pound of steak, two apples, half a pound of grapes, four ounces 
of beef extract, four slices of toast, and two siphons of vichy. 
Most of the riders took little besides liquid food which 
they drank as they rode. They were quite ready to 
quit riding after the first 40 hours, and every effort 
PLOWING OUT RHUBARB ROOTS. Fig. 394. 
Garman, of the Kentucky Experiment Station, tells 
us that this trouble is a very real one. The southern 
people are disposed to believe that the best way to 
avoid the trouble is to spread the onions on scaffolds 
in a shed constructed so as to allow complete ventila¬ 
tion. To avoid extreme heat, it is well to have this 
scaffold in the shade of trees. 
FORCING RHUBARB IN THE DARK. 
AN ACCOUNT OF A LITTLE-KNOWN INDUSTRY. 
A Growing Enterprise.—The enterprise has, I 
think, come to stay, and will prove a rich harvest to 
the gardeners and farmers, especially of the North. 
plow is run as deeply as possible, and close to the 
row, turning the furrow away and cutting off all the 
prongs possible, taking care not to injure the stocks. 
In turning the next furrow, the plow runs behind and 
under the roots, turning them up to the surface, 
when with a sharp shovel or spade, the remaining 
prongs are removed, and the stock nicely trimmed up. 
Fig. 395 shows the stocks trimmed up and ready for 
the cellar. They are then left undisturbed until well 
frozen, when they are removed to the cellar. If 
thawing should occur before removal to the cellar, it 
will do no harm ; but experience proves that best 
results can be obtained only by thorough freezing be¬ 
fore placing in the cellar. There is, however, a de¬ 
cided advantage in placing them in the cellar while 
frozen, as the soil adheres to the stocks 
so much better, and less labor is re¬ 
quired in setting. If the soil where 
the roots are grown is sandy or very 
dry when the roots are plowed out, so 
that but little soil adheres, more care 
will be necessary in setting in the 
cellar, as the soil must, in that case, 
be well worked under and between the 
roots, and watering to some extent 
will, doubtless, be beneficial. If plowed 
out and nicely trimmed and set into the 
cellar with all the soil adhering, they 
will need little or no filling up, and 
much labor will be saved. 
The illustrations, of course, show 
the work where it is extensively car¬ 
ried on. If one has but few roots to 
handle, they can be turned out with 
the spade, and one need not hesitate to 
begin with four or five roots and a few 
feet of space in the cellar shut off from 
the rest. With this small beginning, 
sufficient can be grown for family use 
for the entire Winter, and the experi¬ 
ence gained will be so much stock in trade for future 
operations; so no family need be deprived of this 
luxury. 
Place of Growing'. —In a previous article, page 
803, this subject was treated ; but let me emphasize 
the fact that frost and light, except artificial, must be 
strenuously kept out; but lamp or fire light as much 
as desired for working or heating purposes will do no 
harm. If no cellar or shed is available, one may be 
quickly and cheaply constructed of boards or plank 
with straw, manure and earth sufficient to keep out 
the frost and water. Excavate to any depth desired, 
or build entirely above ground, governing the space 
by the number of roots to be set in, only remembering 
that each root will require about one 
square foot, with additional room for 
working and any heating apparatus 
desired, as lamps, oil or gasoline stoves. 
As to Temperature. —This may be 
governed entirely by circumstances, 
and results sought. If only for home 
use, it is well to use some heat until 
large enough for use, after which very 
little if any will be required, and the 
season of growing will thus be pro¬ 
longed. In growing for the market, 
where large and quick returns are de¬ 
sired, a high temperature will be re¬ 
quired ; this will, of course, shorten 
the season of production, as the roots 
are capable of doing only a certain 
amount before a period of rest is re¬ 
quired. j. k M. 
Detroit, Mich. 
RHUBARB ROOTS READY FOR THE CELLAR. Fig. 395. 
Valuable to the gardeners because so few edibles can 
be grown successfully during the long Winter, except 
by the costly methods of glass culture ; valuable to 
the farmer because of the increasing demand for the 
roots, which will require more space for the growing 
than the gardeners can well devote to the work. 
The dark-grown product is far and away superior 
in quality, color and yield to that grown under green¬ 
house benches, or in ordinary hotbeds under glass ; 
the latter especially grows as much leaf as stalk, 
while that grown in the dark has little or no leaf, and 
is so much less trouble and expense that vvherever 
this method is practiced, it will become the favorite. 
Securing' the Hoots,—Figs. 394 and 395 were 
taken on the grounds of an extensive grower, and 
show the work of preparing the roots for the cellar, in 
actual operation. Fig. 394 shows the operation of 
plowing out the roots. A line or mark is made with 
a shovel along the row for a guide to the plow. The 
Loss from Glass Bottles. —Some 
dairymen who are still delivering milk 
in tin cans, have an idea that the 
losses from breakage in glass bottles 
are considerable. In some cases, this 
idea of excessive loss keeps them from changing from 
the can system. The Thatcher Manufacturing Com¬ 
pany tell us that one of the largest dealers in New 
York City estimates that the life of a milk bottle is 
about 35 trips. The breakage in a large city would 
naturally be heavier than in a smaller town. Even 
with this average, the Thatcher people claim that 
milk bottles are cheaper than tin cans. They say, 
multiply the number of quarts that could be carried 
in a tin can, and it would be unfit for use about as 
soon as the miik bottle. Another thing is that milk¬ 
men save more than the cost of milk bottles, even at 
this ratio, as the average loss in dipping and slopping 
from the large can is at least 10 per cent. This view 
is that of the practical milk dealer, and merely dis¬ 
cusses the question of cost from his standpoint, irre¬ 
spective of the consumer’s point of view. The loss in 
hurriedly dipping out the milk is often overlooked. 
We shall be glad to hear from other readers as to the 
estimated loss, both in breakage and dipping. 
