THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
794 
and food, however, hold good in these simpler sur¬ 
roundings. The care of the flock, in many cases, de¬ 
volves upon one of the farmer’s sons, who passes some 
of his happiest moments in the midst of his woolly 
charges. Sheep-farming can perhaps no longer be con¬ 
sidered an important industry in the Eastern States. 
For the past 50 years the flocks have decreased, each 
year finding sheep-owners less willing to struggle 
against western competition. Wool growers have long 
found favorable conditions in the great range country 
of the West, where free and inexhaustible pasturage is 
offered. Since increased facilities for transportation 
have brought the West nearer to eastern markets, the 
raising of sheep for food has become almost equally 
profitable. It is thought by many authorities, however, 
that there is much chance for profit in small eastern 
sheep farms. The average pasture in this section of the 
country is well adapted for supporting the flocks. Much 
of the land is hilly, or undulating, and the fields are 
well supplied with water, and sheltered by many trees. 
Vegetation which other animals do not eat is welcome 
food to the sheep, and many a stony bit of pasture can 
be profitably used in grazing a flock of sheep. 
A favorite variety on all the farms is the Cotswold 
sheep, a long-wooled type. It possesses a heavy and 
valuable fleece, which is often beautifully waved. These 
sheep have large frames and a dignified carriage, and 
are always noticeable in a flock for their active habits 
and lack of timidity. The Shropshire sheep are also 
popular. Their appearance is not especially attractive, 
but they are noted for their great hardihood. The 
American Merino, which originated in Vermont, has 
a worldwide reputation, and much popularity has been 
recently gained by the Rambouillet Merino, imported 
from France. These are some of the commonest varie¬ 
ties comprised in the flocks in the Eastern States. They 
are naturally vigorous, and repay their owners for faith¬ 
ful attention and careful shielding from cold and 
storm. In well-equipped barns, they defy the cold 
weather, and patiently await the coming of Spring. 
Northern New Hampshire. A. 
STUDIES IN HUMAN NATURE. 
He came here to-day after some grain, and when 
paying for it said: “I’m sick of buying grain for cows 
and paying about all I get from the cows for it.” I 
began to make some inquiries, and found he was milking 
13 cows whose entire product the day before was 58 
quarts, and their highest for some time back was 88 
quarts. This milk he sells for three cents per quart, and 
each night takes it to town, four miles away, making 
an eight-mile drive daily. I asked about the cows, and 
found that here was the trouble. He was feeding all 
right, but had a poor lot of cows, and the best feeding 
in the world will not make poor cows give lots of milk. 
He says: “I’ve got to trade off some of them and get 
some better ones, but when I go up to see- 
to trade I find that he has a lot of cows that somebody 
else didn’t want, or else he wouldn’t have them.” This 
about hits the average cow trader’s stock right, as most 
of the cows are “floaters,” either hard milkers, kickers 
or a screw loose somewhere, as the man who has good 
cows doesn’t dispose of that kind. This man has been 
a teamster most of his life, and I imagine it is hard work 
to make the dairy business go well with one who has lit¬ 
tle liking for it. He works hard, but hard work is not 
all. The only thing, it seems .to me, for our friend to do 
is to get some good heifer calves from some neighbor- 
noted for keeping good stock, and so raise a herd that in 
a few years will have some pleasure and profit in them. 
He bought a 100-pound bag of fertilizer and broad¬ 
cast it over an acre of potato land, and later said he 
couldn’t see that it did any good to use fertilizer. The 
fertilizer he used was a good one, but figure out how 
much fertilizer each square foot of land received when 
you recall that an acre of land has 43,560 square feet. 
Some men constantly using a team, machinery and 
harness never have breaks or accidents. They have ac¬ 
quired the habit of keeping their eyes open, and as soon 
as a nut loosens it is tightened; a rip or weak spot in 
the harness is sewed or riveted. They use oil before 
parts get so dry you can hear them telling their need. 
It saves lots of trouble and annoyance and serious de¬ 
lays to acquire this profitable habit. 
How long would you enjoy hearing a minister preach 
whose education ended when he left the theological 
school? You expect your pastor to read and study and 
keep up with the times, yet we actually find lots of 
farmers whose only dairy education is the hard knocks 
they get from their own dearly-bought experience. 
The long Winter evenings are ahead of us. Suppose 
you take two or three of the best dairy papers you can 
find. Also get a list of good agricultural books, and 
invest in one or two as a starter. 
It was after the middle of September when I was de¬ 
tained several hours at a small station in northern Ver¬ 
mont. While there two men came to inquire if their 
silage cutters had come, and for one of these men 
the agent wired to see if it had even been shipped from 
starting station. Less than five days later there were 
heavy frosts, and I have no doubt that both these men, 
as many others, had badly frost-bitten corn to put in 
their silos, and in many cases these men had only 
themselves to blame. They put off ordering their cutting 
machinery until it was time to use it. They knew for 
weeks ahead that they should want it, but had never 
got into the habit of getting anything ahead of the day 
they would really want it. Some one may say perhaps 
they hadn’t the money ready to pay for same, but any 
respectable farmer can get credit enough to get all his 
machinery early enough to save himself from crop 
losses on that account. The trouble lies further back. 
A great many farmers have fallen into the habit of let- 
A LADY IN WOOL. Fig. 356. 
ting things drift along without much of any plan in 
their work. Their seeds they do not buy until the 
ground is ready, and then they rush to the nearest store 
and get sometimes good seed, but often a very poor 
grade. The kinds they want are often out of stock, 
and they must put up with something inferior. Be¬ 
sides, this class of farmers always have to pay the 
“long” price, as the dealer for his foresight and planning 
expects to reap a good profit from this class of custom¬ 
ers, who must have it and right now, and are in poor 
position to get the best terms. These men never get 
very near the producer in their buying, and are rich 
prey for the wideawake middlemen, who lie in wait 
for this class. When the dealer has sold out his best 
brands of fertilizer and has only low-grade profitless 
goods (for the farmer, not the dealer) left these men 
come along and pay the top price, and then complain of 
their poor-luck with their crops. Bad luck usually 
means lack of good systematic well-planned work. 
A VIEW OF THE WORLD. Fig. 357. 
Good luck results from well-planned work faithfully 
carried out. h. g. Manchester. 
HOT LYE FOR PEACH BORERS. 
I have used the following formula for solution to kill 
borers in apple and peach trees: One can of Banner lye; 
one quart of coarse salt; 20 gallons of water; mix and 
bring to a boil. Remove a small amount of the ground 
from about the root of the tree and pour a quart of the 
solution about the tree one foot above the ground. In 
doing this you will destroy all undeveloped eggs or 
germs about the tree. In a week or 10 days replace the 
soil about the tree that was removed. It is better to 
pour the solution about the tree as hot as possible. 
When one has a large orchard use a kettle stove. By 
thus doing you lose but little of the heat. This solu¬ 
tion (if used as directed) has given good results, and I 
am glad to have others use it. The time to apply it is 
November 5, 
in August or September. The egg is deposited in June, 
and in a few months is about one quarter of an inch in 
length and easily destroyed. Another reason for apply¬ 
ing it at this time is that the borers are not well pro¬ 
tected by the bark so early in life and not so hard to 
reach by solution. j. f. Alexander, m.d. 
Pennsylvania. 
June first I treated 200 trees, a few planted one year 
ago, but most of them two or three years from the 
nursery. I made a little cup-shaped depression about 
the crown, and poured a quart of the hot lye (one 
pound in 20 gallons of water) about the stem and base 
of the tree, letting it run about the crown. I put it on 
boiling hot, and it took about half a minute for it to 
soak into the soil. For the smaller trees I thought it 
risky business for trees and borers. The same day T 
drew the earth about the trees, covering eight or 10 
inches of the stem. There were plenty of the borers at 
work at the time, but 1 was so confident that nothing 
could stand that dose that I did not cut them out. 1 
did not even look at the trees until September 12, when 
I went over the whole 200. I found very few borers 
about the crown or roots, and think that the lye killed 
all or nearly all the eggs and larvae then in the trees. 
On the earth-covered stem 1 found plenty of half-grown 
larvae, mostly on the surface of the bark under the gum. 
These were no doubt from eggs laid after the lye was 
applied. Some trees were entirely free from them. 
It is certain that the lye will not injure the trees in the 
least. After cutting out all the horers and scraping the 
trees free from gum I gave them a good swabbing with 
caustic potash whale-oil soap. I am so confident that by 
using the lye solution as described we can avoid the task 
of cutting out the borers that I shall use it next year ex 
clusively. And yet, I recall that I have been confident 
before and have had to retract. So I am slow to advise 
others from my one year’s experiment. If I succeed 
next year as well as I did this, I shall have a good foun¬ 
dation for my faith. e. j. baird. 
Pennsylvania. _ 
SOWING A VARIETY OF GRASS SEEDS. 
Farmers are sometimes advised to use a mixture of various 
grasses when seeding to pastures or meadows. What are 
the arguments in favor of this? 
Prof. W. J. Beal, of Michigan, gives the following 
in a seedsman’s catalogue: “Where hay is to fed on the 
farm a mixture is often useful. For market pure Tim¬ 
othy pays the best. Along the roadside will be seen 
a mixture of many kinds of weeds, shrubs and other 
plants. In the swamps, woods, ditches and ponds, and 
on the broad prairie, the same rule prevails, not one or 
two kinds alone, but many. Why is it so? Some trees, 
like the ashes and walnuts, are shy of shade, while 
beeches and oaks will grow beneath other trees. Oaks 
have deep roofs, beeches and tamaracks shallow. Some 
prefer clay hills, some sandy loam, other low land, but 
always a mixture is found. Some forest plants root 
deeper than others, some stand up well, like Timothy 
and Orchard grass, while Alsike, clover, Hairy vetch 
and Red-top are liable to fall down, damaging the lower 
leaves. Some endure shade fairly well. For pasture, 
some should start early and some late, with all grades 
between. A mixture occupies the soil to better advan¬ 
tage, and the space above the surface also. This prin¬ 
ciple has been "observed for a long time past. Germans 
and English have experimented and proved it. From 
1889 to 1891 I made experiments in triplicate at the 
Agricultural College, Michigan, to see whether any one 
good sort of grass or clover would yield as much as a 
mixture of eight sorts. The mixture of eight sorts 
consisted of Timothy, Tall oat-grass, Orchard grass. 
Taller meadow fescue. Fowl meadow-grass, Red clover, 
Mammoth clover, and a native grass from the West 
called Slender wheat-grass, or Agropyron tenerum. The 
land.was.stiff clay and was not suited to Orchard grass 
nor Tall oat-grass, hence the light yield here given. The 
average yield of dry matter per square rod for the last 
two years was: 
Tall oat-grass, grown by itself.16.50 lbs. 
Orchard grass .'.31.50 “ 
Slender wheat-grass .36.87 “ 
Fowl meadow-grass . 50.83 “ 
Tall meadow-fescue . 53.12 “ 
Red clover 53.25 “ 
Timothy .1.54.91 “ 
Mammoth clover .57.50 “ 
A mixture of the eight sorts.86.75 “ 
“It will be seen that the mixture yielded a little over 
50 per cent more than Mammoth clover, which was the 
heaviest of any one of the eight. Had the soil been 
more favorable for Tall oat-grass and Orchard grass, 
the result might have been different. Of course it would 
not be safe to place too much reliance on my experi¬ 
ments, although each one was carried out in three 
places at the same time, and an average taken to learn 
the results. They point in the same direction as experi¬ 
ments made on various other sorts of plants in Europe. 
“A difference in yield of 50 per cent, or anywhere near 
it, might make a difference between a loss and a nice 
profit. Such items are worthy of notice, and yet I may 
say that not far from nine-tenths of the farmers in the 
Northwest sow nothing but Timothy and Red clover— 
two kinds—and in many instances only one of these 
is grown by itself, while in Great Britain the farmer 
usually sows not less than 10 to 15 kinds, or more, on 
the same field, and in that country not less than 50 kinds 
are sown.” 
