1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4o3 
of wet, muggy weather, will eause the seeds to 
sprout; four days of such weather will generally ruin 
the crop entirely. Great care must be used to pre¬ 
vent needless handling, as the seeds drop at the 
slightest touch when dry. We use large four-tine 
steel forks, for handling it. 
Although the seeds in the haulms drop so easily 
from the stems, it is very difficult to separate the 
seeds from the haulms. Ordinary steam-power hull- 
ers are used, fitted with riddles and sieves especially 
made for Crimson clover, as the seeds are larger than 
those-of Red clover. I use low-down wagons with 
tight racks for hauling to the huller or barn. A full 
outfit for hulling, with 10-horse power traction 
engine, etc., of latest pattern, costs about $3,000. 
Seven bushels of seed per acre, are a good yield ; 
more often it will not exceed five or six. Fifty to 
sixty bushels make a good day’s work for these power 
hullers. Thrashermen who own a full rig, and make 
a business of going around among farmers to hull 
seed, charge from 50 to 75 cents per bushel, with 
board and coal found. At present price of seed—$3 
per bushel—it is not a very remunerative crop for 
farmers, and much less than usual has been saved for 
seed here. k. g. PACKARD. 
Delaware. 
FARM BOOKKEEPING. 
WHICH CHOPS PAY A PROFIT? 
Every merchant must know what his goods cost 
him if he is to do business at a profit. We would have 
a very poor opinion of the ability of a storekeeper 
who did not know the cost of the goods he was sell¬ 
ing. But that 
is just what the 
farmers are 
doing, selling 
their produce 
year after year, 
not knowing 
whether the 
price they re¬ 
ceive is above 
or below the 
cost of raising. 
I do not know 
of a single 
farmer in this 
town, though 
there may be 
some, who 
knows what it 
costs him to 
grow a bushel 
of corn, wheat 
or potatoes. Six 
years ago, a 
lecturer in our 
farmers’ insti¬ 
tute asked 
every farmer 
present who 
knew what it 
cost him to 
grow each of 
his crops, to 
hold up his 
hand. Two hands went up out of the 200 who were 
present. Since that time, I have kept an account of 
the cost of raising every crop which I have grown. 
One of the reasons and, I think, the main reason, why 
farmers do not keep an account of the cost of growing 
their crops, is because they think it a difficult opera¬ 
tion. Many think it a good theory, but hard to put 
in practice. In reality, it is simple, practical, and 
what is of more importance, profitable. My method 
is simple and original. I use a small (7 x 9 inches) day 
book large enough to hold the accounts for one year. 
I charge the crop with all the work I do for it, with 
all seed and other material used, and the rent of the 
land. Oats being the crop on which we do the first 
work, have the first place in my book. I write “ Oats ” 
on the top of the page, and make the entries for labor 
and material as they come along ; for example : 
Oats— 1895. 
March 30—To plowing. $1.00 
April 2—To plowing. 3.50 
April 5—To one-half ton E. T. & Co. fertilizer at $29. 14.50 
April 5—To carting and sowing same. 1.50 
April 5—To 914 bushels oats at 42 cents. 4.00 
April 6—To harrowing and roiling. 3.15 
July 27—To cutting with binder. . 7.00 
July 30—To carting and stacking. 4.00 
Sept. 18—To thrashing 186 bushels at 3i4c. 6.51 
Sept. 18—To thrashing; hired help. 1.00 
To rent 4*4 acres at $3 50 per acre. 15.75 
Cost of oat crop. $‘14.91 
Three tons straw (estimated) at $7. $21.00 
186 bushels. $43.91 
Cost of growing oats, per bushel, 23.6 cents. 
The above is just as I have it in my account book. 
Oats being a crop on which there is but little work, the 
account is short. On potatoes or cauliflower, the 
account would occupy several pages, as they are crops 
which have more labor done on them. All ordinary 
work, such as plowing, cultivating, hoeing, etc., I esti¬ 
mate at $1 a day of 10 hours, or 10 cents an hour, 
which makes it very easy to estimate the price of 
the labor put on any crop, whether it be one, two or 
ten hours. For cutting grain with a binder and for 
thrashing, I charge the crop with what I have to pay 
when I have it done. With strawberries, I charge the 
crop what I have to pay for picking. 
Each crop has charged to it the rent of the land 
on which it grows, the actual market value of all 
material used on it, and what the labor would cost if 
I hired it all done. My oats would have cost me, if I 
had hired all the work done, 23.6 cents per bushel. I 
could have sold them for at least 10 cents per bushel 
more than they cost, which would leave me a clear 
profit of $18 60 ; but I did the work myself, and so 
have the wages beside. This method may not fur¬ 
nish an exact way of finding what it costs the farmer 
to grow his crop, but it does show which crops pay 
him the best. I have heard my neighbors say many 
times that we could not afford to grow potatoes 
around here for less than 50 cents per bushel j I know 
better, for it does not cost more than half that to 
grow them. 
Another lesson we might learn from the merchants 
is to take an account of stock. Every progressive 
merchant takes an inventory of the goods he has on 
hand when his stock is the smallest and trade is dull, 
which is after the holidays. Then he knows whether 
he has made or lost in the past year. The time for a 
farmer to take his inventory is April. Then his barns 
are nearly empty, granaries are low, and there is 
plenty of time. Go all over the place, in the house, 
barn, hogpen, henhouse, etc., and take down what he 
thinks the different things would sell for if they had 
to be sold. Then compare it with the inventory of 
the year previous, and see whether he is worth more 
or less than a year ago. In this way, he will know 
whether farming pays. 
I do not claim that this is the best method of keep¬ 
ing farm accounts. It is very simple and very easy. 
Two minutes’ time every day is enough for all ordi¬ 
nary times, and I am not sure but a farmer can earn 
$1 a minute in keeping accounts of the cost of grow¬ 
ing crops. h. K. T. 
Riverhead, N. Y. 
ONIONS WITHOUT HAND WEEDING. 
Having been close readers of The R. N.-Y. for a 
number of years, and having heard the opinion of 
many writers upon the subject of onion culture, we 
feel interested in giving to its readers what many 
years of experience have taught us. Our farm is 
located in Glassboro, N. J., and consists mostly of a 
light sandy soil. We plow the ground where we wish 
to plant onions, in the fall, and leave it open during 
the winter, so that all the maggots or insects may, if 
possible, be frozen out. As soon as the frost is out of 
the ground, we thoroughly harrow it and drill in with 
a grain drill from 1,600 to 2,000 pounds per acre of a 
fertilizer composed of 3}£ per cent nitrogen, 8 per 
cent phosphoric acid, and 8 per cent potash. We, at 
one time, used a large amount of stable manure, but 
have dropped it altogether for every purpose except 
for mulching strawberries. We found stable manure 
of little value compared with commercial fertilizers. 
Then, too, the stable manure in the ground interfered 
much with the drilling of the seed and cultivating 
afterwards, 
Late in March or early in April, we sow the seed 
with the New Model or Iron Age seed drill, sowing 
about 60 pounds to the acre, with the rows 14 inches 
apart. As soon as the onions have reached the size 
shown at Fig. 175,- we cultivate with the Iron Age 
double wheel hoe. As we have about six acres 
to cultivate, it keeps one man about half of his 
time wheel-hoeing. We sow nitrate of soda twice 
during the season, once when the onions are about 
two inches high, and again two or three weeks later. 
We do this always at the time of a shower, so that the 
soda may readily dissolve. 
We pull the onions about July 15, with an onion- 
set gatherer attached to our double wheel hoe. We 
let them lie on the ground for about a week, and then 
put them in trays three feet wide and four feet long 
with slats on the bottom, and store them in the barn 
to dry. Late in the winter, we sort and prepare them 
for sale. We raise from 500 to 1,000 bushels of sets 
per year, and sell them mostly directly to the farmers. 
Besides raising sets, we make a specialty of onion 
seed, having grown one ton last year, which we also 
sold direct to the farmers. joijn repp & sons. 
Camden County. N. J. 
PAINTS FOR FARM BUILDINGS. 
Having one building to paint, which is 100 feet 
square and 24 feet above the walls, and another not 
quite so large, the question of painting has become 
an important one. It costs considerable money to 
keep a lot of 
farm buildings 
properly paint¬ 
ed with lead 
and oil. The 
question arises 
as to what is 
the most eco¬ 
nomical thing 
to use. I am 
told that, in 
Europe, tar is 
successfully 
used for cover¬ 
ing the roofs 
and sides of 
farm buildings. 
I was planning 
to cover our 
buildings with 
coal tar, and 
immediate ly 
after it to use 
upon the tarred 
surface sand, 
hoping that the 
sand would 
cover the tar 
and adhere to 
it, giving the 
building a 
stone color. I 
am informed, 
however, by an 
experienced painter, that this will not answer, as the 
coal tar would heat and run during the heat of 
summer, but that it would do for roofs that were 
not too steep. 
I remember, in olden times, seeing picket fences 
which had been painted with lead and oil, into which 
sharp sand had been blown immediately after appli¬ 
cation when the paint was soft. This sanded paint 
was remarkably durable, lasting often 15 or 20 years 
without repainting. One trouble would suggest itself 
in connection with sanded paint—that it would be 
more difficult to apply a second coat. The sanded 
surface certainly is almost indestructible, being virtu¬ 
ally a granite surface exposed to the weather. My 
experienced painter advised me to use raw oil, mixed 
with yellow ochre and Venetian red. He says this is 
the most enduring and cheapest paint that can be 
applied. One coat applied now, auother in a year 
from now, ought to protect the buildings for 15 years. 
The only object in using both ochre and red is that, 
by mixing half and half, we get a more desirable 
terra cotta color. The Venetian red is too strong of 
itself, and the ochre is not strong enough of itself in 
color. My painter tells me that there is no such 
thing now as boiled oil, but that oils sold as boiled 
oils are of inferior quality, mixed with cheap dryers, 
etc. Therefore, the boiled oils are not so enduring 
as raw oil. I am offered Venetian red and yellow 
ochre at 1 % cent per pound, and oil at 30 cents per 
gallon by the barrel. This, undoubtedly, will make 
the cheapest paint to be had at the present moment. 
The roofs of my buildings I have made almost flat, 
and have covered them first with three courses of 
HOW FERTILIZERS AND GOOD TOOLS SAVE LABOR IN THE ONION FIELD. Fig 175 . 
