222 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 3 
trouble of burying them as Mr. Ballou describes ; such 
methods produce very poor plants for setting. Then 
having the plants right at hand where they may be 
reset without any drying out or check, is a great ad¬ 
vantage. Every sentence of this article is helpful and 
practical, and the pictures tell a story of their own. 
WHAT SAY? 
Have any of your readers had any experience with 
the Dutton mowing machine knife grinder? I would 
like to know its good points ; also, bad ones if it has 
any ? w. J. s. 
White Barley Oats. —Where can I get White 
Barley oats for seed ? I have written to a good many 
seed firms, but it seems that no one has the variety. 
It appears not to be raised in the West any more. I 
raised it in 1874, and it did very well, but I lost it by 
fire. c. G. 
Missouri. 
Filling Silo With Wind Power. —Has any one 
ever tried to fill a silo with a windmill ? If so, did he 
find it practicable ? A. h. l. 
South Dayton, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We never heard of such a thing, and 
doubt whether it has been accomplished. Who can 
give facts ? 
Wire for Sieves Wanted. —Is there not some way 
by which the men who make sieves for fanning mills, 
or who have the wire for such sieves on sale, can be 
induced to advertise the fact ? I suppose that I am 
only one among hundreds who need only new sieves 
to have a good fanning-mill. e. d. r. 
Crooked Creek, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—The manufacturers ought to be able to 
answer this. 
Wanted : Hardy Raspberries for Kentucky.— 
Why is it that no red raspberry has proved perfectly 
hardy here in Kentucky, except the Turner ? Cuth- 
bert is almost hardy, but about one in five years it is 
badly injured. Marlboro is injured some every win¬ 
ter, and all others occasionally. I 
don’t understand why such a great 
number are perfectly hardy all over 
the North, and are killed in Kentucky. 
That a berry or fruit will stand 20 de¬ 
grees below zero is not to describe its 
hardiness; but let it be warm for three 
weeks, and the mercury drop 50 de¬ 
grees in a day, and repeat at intervals, 
is a test that one-half the “ ironclads” 
won’t stand. We would often like to 
know what is hardy and what is 
not, but in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois and Missouri, we have to test 
them ; it won’t do to depend on the 
catalogues. We don’t have such low temperature, 
but sudden changes, with the ground usually ex¬ 
posed. Tell us about some real hardy raspberries 
and blackberries. j. m. g. 
Woodford Co., Ky. 
Hills or Rows for Strawberries. — A number of 
your subscribers would like to have the views and ex¬ 
periences of the various growers relative to growing 
strawberries in hills, narrow rows (where the plants 
are allowed to run just enough to have a row of single 
plants about two to four inches apart), and the wide 
matted row. Experience is desired particularly upon 
the relative yield, quality, ease of cultivation, cost 
of picking, etc., and last, but not least, relative net 
returns. f. g. t. 
Oswego, N. Y. 
and Elder George Willcox of the Enfield Shakers 
will corroborate this statement, as he is a few years 
older than I am, and we have always been acquainted 
with each other. L. h pease. 
A Two-Horse Wheel Marker. —Fig. 104 shows a 
wheel marker that is readily adjustable to mark at 
varying distances, and which makes four marks at a 
time. The wheels give it comparatively easy draft, 
which enables the operator to ride. In marking for 
crops that are planted by hand, this marker is prefer¬ 
able in many ways to some of the forms in general 
use. It is especially desirable for marking wide rows, 
as for plantations of the raspberry, blackberry and 
currant. Where second-hand wheels can be secured, 
the cost of this marker is slight. The frame should 
be made of yellow pine or oak scantling about 3 x4 
inches, and the shaft may be of 1%-inch gas pipe. 
The wheels should be about three feet in diameter, 
and may be made from old grain-drill wheels cut 
down. In the marker shown in the illustration, the 
wheels are from a worn-out potato planter. The 
wheels are held in place on the shaft, and the shaft 
is prevented from moving endwise in the frame, by 
cast-iron collars, secured to the shaft by set screws. 
The pole and chain attached at the rear serve to mark 
the row for the return trip. G. 
Madison, Wis. 
Dairying Without a Milk Pail. 
In sections of the country where creameries are 
located, or where large dairies are kept for supplying 
towns with milk, there is an excellent opportunity 
for a limited number of persons to make money out 
of cows, and not feel that they are tied to the cow’s 
tail. Within my own acquaintance, the man who is 
profiting most by the erection of the creamery at our 
village, is one who has never patronized it. He buys 
all the calves he can get at 75 cents to §1.50 each, at 
one to four days old, puts two with a cow, and in 
four to five weeks, sells them for veal, and gives the 
cow two more. After three or four months, the cow 
may not fatten more than one, but it is still a profit- 
earliness, but as a compensation, is certainly twice as 
productive, while the crop ripens at intervals, admit¬ 
ting of three separate and good pickings. It grows 
taller than the original, and bears a close resemblance 
to the old Bishop’s Dwarf, and were it not so great a 
cropper, I should incline to the belief that it was but 
a strain of that variety. While it may be a new pea 
introduced under this name, yet the fact that it is a 
taller sort does not prove it, for this is my experience 
as a seedsman. I have had varieties, for reasons that 
I could never satisfactorily explain, changed into 
taller sorts. One fact I am sure of is that it did not 
result from an admixture of other kinds. 
.T. J. H. GREGORY. 
A NEW IDEA IN CORN MARKERS. Fig. 104. 
able market for milk, as an average calf will bring §1 
a week for its age above its purchase cost. 
Greater profit still might be secured if the grower 
would dress them and send to market himself. There 
are commission men in all the larger cities who 
handle hog-dressed veals. Some may think it impos¬ 
sible or very difficult to persuade a cow to submit to 
such frequent change of milkers. I admit that there 
is a very great difference in the disposition of cows, 
but there is rarely one that a little admonishing will 
not induce to submit. It is well to tie a somewhat 
vicious cow or put her in a stanchion. Most cows 
soon yield to the operation as submissively as an ox 
to the yoke. Some of the larger breeds and heavier 
milkers are best for this purpose. The extra high per 
cent of butter fat is of little value in fattening a calf. 
Ohio. H. P. MILLER. 
BEST USE FOR A CROP OF COW PEAS. 
don’t plow under green. 
I have a piece of land containing about 30 acres where I dug 
strawberry plants last spring. In .Tune, this land was plowed and 
planted to corn, and at the last harrowing of the corn, sown to 
Crimson clover. It was very dry for a week or two after the seed 
was sown, and a great many of the plants died, but I have half a 
stand. This land is a sandy, light loam, and is quite thin, though 
a great deal better than it was three or four years ago. What 
clover there is will all be plowed under when it makes all the 
growth it will, and I shall then, after letting it lie for 10 days or 
two weeks to settle, sow to Black-eye or cow peas, or a part of 
both. In the spring of 1898, I shall again plant to strawberries 
for plants. Will it pay me better to sow broadcast and plow in 
before frost, or sow in drills, say three feet, cultivate two or three 
times before they cover the ground, and harvest a crop of peas, 
which ought to be, at least, 500 bushels ? I can get them picked, 
thrashed and fanned for about 40 cents per bushel. How much 
worse off, if any, would the land be if I harvest the crop and let 
the vines die and rot on top of the ground than it would be if 
sown broadcast and plowed under green ? The saving in seed 
would pay for the extra work in drilling. The crop of peas, say 
500 bushels, would, I think, bring $1 per bushel, which, less 40 
cents for harvesting, would be 60 cents net, or $300. Would not the 
ground be greatly benefited, even though I harvest the crop of peas 
as above stated ? If I sow in drills and harvest 
the crop, would it pay to use fertilizer in the 
drill to make more growth ? If so, how much 
and what kind ? My main object in sowing the 
peas is to improve the land and fit it for a crop 
of strawberries. allen. 
Maryland. 
Follow with Crimson Clover. 
If Allen will sow the Black cow pea, 
as soon as the Crimson clover is plowed 
under, say May 1, he should be able 
to take off a crop of seed in August, 
and then sow heavily, say 20 pounds 
per acre, with Crimson clover seed, 
dressing it with rock and muriate of 
potash. With a favorable season, this would give the 
ground a dense growth of clover for the winter, and 
put it into ideal condition for early spring plowing 
for strawberry plants. The clover seed could be put 
in with a disk harrow, run light without a rider, and 
leaving the pea vines on the ground. Again, the pea 
crop might be saved for hay, if there is use for the 
hay, with as much profit as a seed crop, and clearing 
the ground earlier for the clover. In either case, 
there will be much nitrogen trapped in the soil. Leav¬ 
ing the vines on the ground for the winter, is as good 
as plowing them under, and, I think, better. At 75 
cents per bushel, which I think a fairer estimate than 
§1, there would be little profit in the seed crop, though 
I do not think the removal of the seed would detract 
much from the benefit sought for the land. 
Delaware. e. h. Bancroft. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
A Heaping Bushel. —A box, 10)^x11x22 inches, 
contains 2,541 cubic inches, and holds a heaping 
bushel of potatoes, 60 pounds; or, of apples, 50 
pounds, stricken measure. I have such boxes in use. 
Massachusetts. c. w. k. 
The Walter Pease Apple. —In The R. N.-Y. of 
November 23, 1895, you give the credit of the origin 
of the Walter Pease apple to the Shakers. Walter 
Pease was my father, and lived near the Enfield 
Shakers, but in the town of Somers. His farm was 
bounded on two sides by land of the East family of 
Shakers. He had a large apple orchard of native 
fruit, most very old trees, and when one went down, 
another was set in its place. I am now over 70 years 
old, and when I was about 10 years old, this small 
tree came into bearing, and the Shakers were the 
first to get scions from that tree. As soon as it be¬ 
came known, every one came for them, and such was 
the call for them, that the tree was injured by being 
cut away, and father refused to part with more for 
some years. The original tree succumbed to old age 
about three or four years since. I have never seen as 
large apples from the grafted trees as from the origi¬ 
nal- This is the origin of the Walter Pease apple, 
The Improved Tom Thumb Pea. 
In my experimental ground of last season, which 
included 85 varieties and strains of peas, I learned, as 
usual, going over it, note book in hand, many interest¬ 
ing facts. One fact became evident at a glance, that 
the tendency at the present day is toward the sweet 
wrinkled varieties, and the aim to obtain such as will 
replace the hard class in earliness. A second fact 
was that the tendency is to originate dwarf sorts, and 
to create such as will bear as large pods as the taller 
kinds—and we also noted that these dwarf varieties 
grew larger leaves and stouter vines than the older 
dwarf sorts. While testing a number of the kinds for 
comparative yields, by determining how long a piece 
of row of each was necessary to fill the same measure, 
I was greatly surprised to find that a sort that bore 
the name of Improved Tom Thumb (which I had 
catalogued as such with some misgiving, fearing that 
the improvement might prove to be but a substitu¬ 
tion) surpassed in yield every other variety tested. 
Now every pea grower knows that the original Tom 
Thumb was comparatively a poor cropper, though a 
very early sort. It had a very dwarf vine, growing 
about a foot high, and the crop was over half 
gathered at the first picking. The improved variety 
differs from the original in losing a few days of its 
Prof. W. F. Massey's Opinion. 
Sow the peas broadcast, if the object is to improve 
the land, and let the whole die down before plowing 
them under. You can gather a fair crop of seed, 
even from the broadcast sowing. On no account, 
turn them under green, as you may do the land more 
harm than good. Sow the Black, not the Black-eye pea. 
North Carolina. 
Green Cow Peas “Poison” the Land. 
It would be a mistake to plow cow peas under while 
green, and might lead to the loss of the entire crop. 
Farmers here call it souring the land, and well know 
the bad results. I may state it more plainly thus : 
The rotting of so much green matter in the soil is 
produced by a fungus which becomes so plentiful as 
to attack the roots of plants or even trees set out the 
following spring. This may not happen in every 
case, but there is no doubt, as I can testify, that there 
is danger. I would drill the peas not over 2% feet 
apart ; two or three cultivations will add greatly to 
the growth of the pea vines, and at the same time 
discourage the weeds, an important matter under the 
circumstances. Better use some fertilizer to help 
make all the growth possible. Phosphoric acid and 
potash are the important elements in this case. The 
