378 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 7, 
GRASSES FOR PERMANENT MEADOW. 
In this region farmers seed almost entirely with Tim¬ 
othy and clover, and during the five years of my farming 
I have done the samei with the result that I get very 
heavy hay, mainly clover, for the first two years, and 
after that nearly all Timothy that is too big and too 
rank and coarse for my dairy cows—Jerseys. This land 
is too strong for a three-year crop rotation, corn, oats 
and clover, and I would like advice as to some combina¬ 
tion of grasses that will give a lasting meadow with but 
a top-drossing of stable manure occasionally. The land 
that is free from stones I shall use for corn silage grow¬ 
ing every second or third year instead of going the round 
of the whole farm every six or eight. Also tell me what 
mixture is used in the Clark seeding. h. l. a. 
McDonough, N. Y. 
The practice of seeding with Timothy and clover is 
general. Whether it will be advisable to make your 
meadows permanent and plow the same land each year 
of course is debatable. Remember that so long as you 
are to plow a given amount the organic matter sup¬ 
plied by clover roots is equal to a good dressing of 
manure, and your continued plowing of a field year 
after year will mean a gradual reduction of humus. 
A great deal of land in the dairy sections would, I am 
sure, be improved if it had three years’ cultivation 
instead of two, the usual practice. In regard to cows 
eating clover and Timothy, of course it seems just a 
bit strange for them to refuse to eat nice hay, and let 
me suggest if it grows coarse that you cut it very 
much earlier, at a time when it is fine, green and suc¬ 
culent. They will eat growing grass, will they not? 
Then give them dried grass for Winter. The result 
will be, upon land as rich as yours must be, that the 
first year you will cut. a second crop as good as the 
first, and it will come very nicely from August 15 to 
November 1. In fact, we fed this second cutting last 
year from August 20 to November 15. On account of 
rain some of the first cutting was late. The system 
of top-dressing is safe and sound, and I am fully sat¬ 
isfied there is no other place where it will, upon a 
dairy farm, bring equal results. Ours goes upon new 
seeding. I have no fear of too large a growth. I can 
cut as fast as It will grow. I am judging that these 
fields are upland and dry. If so perhaps the following 
would be fairly satisfactory: R°d clover, 10 pounds; 
Timothy, 10 pounds; Orchard grass, 20 pounds; Red- 
lop, 20 pounds, sowing 25 to 30 pounds per acre. Soil 
and climatic conditions are influential in determining 
ihe permanency of grasses. With our soils Timothy 
and Red clover, under the influence of surface dress¬ 
ing with stable manure, will produce almost indefi¬ 
nitely. Where fertility is kept high often other 
grasses than those sown will finally secure a foothold. 
I know a pasture seeded to Orchard grass in 1881, thai 
now is a fine Blue-grass sod with only a trace of Or¬ 
chard grass growing. F'fieen quarts each of Red-top 
and Timothy and six quarts of clover are sown unde) 
the Clark system.__ h. e. cook. 
THE VALUE OF AN APPLE ORCHARD. 
Apple orchards in this section vary greatly in 
value; in fact, very few orchards are sold alone, 
usually an orchard goes with other land with build¬ 
ings. I suppose you mean at private sale, not a 
forced sale. There has been one farm of CS acres with 
buildings, rather poor, about two acres of orchard, 
good location, good running water, sold for $3,200. I 
knew of another farm of 15 acres, buildings fair, on 
which there are seven acres of fine apple orchard, four 
acres peaches in bearing and about three acres of 
cherries just commencing to bear, which the owne* 
refused $3,300 for. I should say that a good bearing 
apple orchard could be sold for from $100 to $500 per 
acre according to its condition, location, nearness to 
railway station, etc. The value of most of our farms 
is varied according to what apple orchard is on it and 
what, condition it is in. b. j. case. 
Wayne Co. N. Y. 
My first investment was in a young orchard of 
five acres, which had been set on poor, gravelly soil, 
three years, for which I paid $150 per acre. At the 
end of 15 years it had paid me back the purchase 
money with interest at seven per cent, a new fence 
around it. all taxes, all help, including two good cov¬ 
erings of manure bought and hauled upon, and left 
me $150 beside the orchard, which has been a good 
source of income for 25 years, which makes the or¬ 
chard 43 years old. Now I think it. worth about $2,500. 
My next was a house and four acres of land, with two 
acres of apple trees in good bearing condition; land 
was of quite moderate fertility, and there was a ten¬ 
ant house worth $300 thereon. I purchased the prop¬ 
erty in 1873 for $1,400, which was a high price, set 
the remainder to apples two rods apart, with peaches 
between, which died out before they crowded the 
apples. In 1880 I purchased 10 acres more joining the 
last mentioned parcel for $950 with 60 bearing apple 
trees about 20 years old on it, and set out the re¬ 
mainder to apples, with peaches between, which grew 
finely, but the nurseryman cheated me badly on va¬ 
rieties; three-quarters of the peach trees were bogus. 
The good one paid me well. All were dead and gone 
before Ihe apples needed their room. This last or¬ 
chard paid me this year about $2,500 and only for a 
poor Fall to harvest would have been $3,500. I con¬ 
sider $500 per acre a fair valuation all-’round. My 
varieties are two trees Spitzenburg, 15 Cranberry 
Pippin, 30 Spies, 25 Twenty-Ounce, 25 Roxbury Rus¬ 
sets, 60 Greenings, four Sweet Boughs, two Sweet 
Winter, remainder Baldwins. So much depends upon 
the varieties of apples and the kind of soil on which 
they are planted and the care needed for different 
kinds, that it almost makes a lottery. I think the 
only safe way is carefully to look over the best pro¬ 
ducers of fine fruit in one’s near neighborhood, and 
plant such as are best where you expect them to grow. 
Try to find an honest nurseryman to purchase trees 
from. c. b. 
Spencerport, N. Y._ 
RAISING COLTS ON COW’S MILK. 
Do you know of any cases where colts have been raised 
on cow’s milk? If soi how is the milk fed? 
You do rot say if from the birth of colt or weaning 
time. Th. • has never been done to my knowledge, ex¬ 
cept on compulsion, death of dam or no milk, and is 
a very expensive and annoying way to bring them up. 
I had t’.o colts that had to be raised after six weeks 
of age; that is the nearest approach I have ever come 
to raising one from birth. Both of these colts made 
a good growth and while they were not like colts that 
had suckled their dams when weaning time came they 
eventually came along all right. I gave these two 
cow’s milk fresh from cow for a time, fed them about 
four times daily, and gave them all they would drink, 
besides keeping water before them at all times. I 
have been told that when fed from birth the milk is 
sweetened a little and diluted. I think the sugar is to 
A LUMBER SHANTY BEAUTIFIED. Fig. 160. 
start the secretions and promote action of the bowels. 
After that I would go on to cows milk fresh and whole 
until about two months old, then the skim-milk would 
answer if sweet, and a grain ration of ground oats, 
bran and oil meal (linseed) equal parts of oats and 
bran or two-thirds oats, one-third bran, tablespoonful 
of linseed meal added to every feed. All they would 
eat in four feeds would boom them along greatly, but 
all these ways are annoying and expensive compared 
to letting mare and colt run to grass, which is the 
natural way. c. a. chapman. 
Vermont. 
My experience has been that if the dam dies at an 
early age, the safest way to raise the colt is to rc luce 
cow’s milk about one-half with water and use brown 
sugar to sweeten the portion that you give to the colt. 
It should be fed the first few days every two hours 
or oftener. We sometimes wean colts at two or three 
months when the mothers do not give milk enough to 
keep them growing and doing as they should. We 
then give the colts from four to six quarts of cow’s 
milk each twice a day, reduced about one-half with 
water, and they will do finely on it. john bradburn. 
New York. _ 
CORN FOR COB PIPES. 
The daily papers often mention a variety of corn 
grown largely for the cob, which is used for making' 
pipes. The following facts about this corn are interest¬ 
ing: 
The cob-pipe corn was originally introduced into 
Missouri from Kentucky about 50 years ago. At that 
time, and for 25 years thereafter, it was grown for the 
grain exclusively, and the cob had no value. It was 
then simply a large, rather coarse variety of corn re¬ 
quiring a rich soil and a rather long season. About 
25 years ago people began to manufacture pipes from 
the cobs of this corn in a commercial way, and at the 
same time began systematically to improve the varie¬ 
ties of corn for this purpose. Numerous varieties 
were found with cob large enough, but they lacked 
density and toughness of fiber. Some of this corn 
reaches a prodigious size; some ears are 3% inches 
in diameter and 12 to 14 inches l.ong. The per cent 
of corn to cob is low, running between 60 and 70 per 
cent, whereas our improved field corn grown exclus¬ 
ively for grain, runs as high as 91 per cent of corn. 
This cob-pipe corn, however, is quite productive, yield¬ 
ing from 60 to 90 bushels of shelled corn per acre, 
and the cobs are worth, delivered at the pipe factory, 
from $10 to $15 per acre. A number of the best far¬ 
mers have their cobs contracted for a year ahead at 
$15 per acre. This corn is not grown over a wide area 
and requires, as stated before, a very fertile soil. Per¬ 
haps 95 per cent of it is grown within a radius of 10 
miles of Washington, Franklin County. At Washing¬ 
ton, four extensive cob-pipe factories are located, 
turning out annually from 50 to 75 million pipes which 
are sold in every civilized country of the globe. On 
the occasion of a recent visit to Washington, I found 
every factory sold out and they were relying upon 
the day’s output to fill orders that had accumulated 
during that time. We shall have in the Missouri 
agricultural exhibit at St. Louis a display of 50 or 75 
bushels of this corn. h. j. waters. 
Missouri Exp. Station. 
LIGHTING THE FARMHOUSE. 
We have printed some excellent articles on heating 
the farmhouse. More will be printed later in the Sum¬ 
mer; when the “nip" begins to come into the air again. 
Now we are interested in lighting the house. As usual 
readers volunteer the desired information. 
Hot Air and Acetylene Gas. 
Having been much interested in the discussion as 
to the best way to heat a farmhouse, I give my testi¬ 
mony in favor of the hot-air furnace. Two years ago 
I built a new modern nine-room house, and had fur¬ 
nace placed in cellar with seven lines of hot-air pipes. 
The past Winter has been a very severe one, and our 
house has been kept warm and comfortable with pure 
hot air with 6M> tons of hard coal. Now you call for 
experience in lighting the farmhouse. Last Novem¬ 
ber I purchased and had installed a 30-light, carbide 
feed acetylene gas generator. We have 19 burners 
distributed around the house, including two in the 
cellar. The generator works perfectly, has given us 
no trouble, except to recharge once in two to three 
weeks. The light is beautiful; white, mellow, steady, 
no flicker and one burner will light up a room 12 by 
15 feet so one can see to read in any part of the room. 
The expense of my generator and fixtures was $134; 
the only expense after that is for carbide, which cost 
during the longest nights $2.15 per month. As the 
days lengthen cost, of course, will be less. So the 
farmhouse can be lighted with gas at a reasonable 
cost, and the light is as bright as electricity, more 
steady and much superior to city gas. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. iuram Gregory. 
Gas in an Illinois Home. 
We derive more comfort from our gas than from 
our furnace. We have used acetylene gas for a year. 
As a light, it is the finest known- It is the coming 
light for country homes and small towns. Our home 
was not piped for gas when built. Pipes were placed 
without damage, and we have one or more jets in 
each room. Cost for piping, including 75 feet to gen¬ 
erator in barn and also light in barn, $50; gas fix¬ 
tures, cost according to one’s taste. A 20-light gen¬ 
erator costs about $100. The cost of the light for a 
family of four during the short Summer’s evenings 
was 2 y z to three cents per day. During the long 
Winter evenings it reached seven cents per day, and 
for the shorter Winter days it has been 5% cents. 
This cost is for carbide, and does not cover labor. 
The light used was 25-candle power for each burner 
used. While the gas is very expensive, I feel safer 
than when we used kerosene. The generator is in a 
frost-proof room in the barn, which is kept locked, 
and the following rules are observed: 
1. Charge this generator by daylight only. 
2. A window or door nearest machine should be open 
when the machine is being charged if there is a light or 
fire in the same room. 
3. Do not use an artificial light to repair or clean ma¬ 
chine, or carry a lighted cigar or fire of any kind about 
it, even when it is empty. 
4. An open light or fire should not be permitted nearer 
than 10 feet of the generator. 
5. Operate the machine according to directions furnished 
and in the order in which they are set down. 
6. Do not try to locate leaks in piping, fixtures or gen¬ 
erator with a light or fire of any kind. 
7. Do not apply a light to any opening that is not 
equipped with a regular acetylene tip. 
The pipes between bouse and barn or other build¬ 
ings do not need to be covered and protected from 
frost. My supply pipe lay in a block of ice for 
months this Winter. Of the 756 deaths in the United 
States from illuminants in three months, only one 
or two were traced to acetylene. Acetylene gas does 
not asphyxiate, and if a burner is left open 24 hours 
or more will elapse before the mixture would become 
explosive. While the cost of most light is on the 
increase, carbide will in the future be much cheaper. 
Winnebago Co., 111. J. b. u. 
