1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
4i9 
rape may interest our readers. We advise all who 
are anxious to learn more about this plant, to send 
for this Wisconsin bulletin. Rape is not a crop that 
can be cured or stored in any way. It is useful only 
as a pasture. It gives fresh feed for several weeks, 
but when cut, wilts very rapidly and must be fed the 
day it is cut. It does best on rich soils containing 
much vegetable matter. Old pastures, finely worked 
up, are excellent for rape. When sown in drills, two 
pounds of seed will answer for an acre ; when broad¬ 
casted, three will be sufficient. At the Wisconsin 
Station, the seed is drilled in rows 30 inches apart, 
the plants being cultivated like ordinary crops. On 
the whole, it seems best to give all the land to this 
crop, and not to attempt seeding it with other grain 
or grass. 
The crop under ordinary conditions, requires about 
two months to make its full growth. Fig. 179 shows 
the plant two months old in about the right con¬ 
dition for the first cutting. Fig. 180 shows the branch¬ 
ing habit of the plant after being cut. This plant 
has had the second cutting, while Fig. 178 shows the 
appearance of a field that was cut three times. This 
third cutting was made from October 22 to 28. The 
yield of this third cutting was 2,218 pounds which, 
with the yield of the two previous cuttings, makes a 
total of 7,669.5 pounds of green fodder from one- 
tenth of an acre. It is stated in the bulletin that a 
careful review of all results indicates that three cut¬ 
tings may be ob¬ 
tained in an or¬ 
dinary season, 
yielding about 30 
tons of succulent 
food to the acre. 
Of course, such 
returns cannot be 
made where the 
animals are 
turned into the 
field to eat down 
the crop. In 
feeding the rape 
to sheep, i t i s 
possible to work 
up part of an old 
pasture, and seed 
it to rape. A port¬ 
able fence is then 
placed between 
the rape and the 
rest of the old 
pasture. The 
stock run in the 
latter, and the 
rape is cut day 
by day and 
thrown over the 
fence, so that the stock can eat it from day to day. 
It will be seen from these statements, that Dwarf 
Essex fodder rape affords the farmer an excellent 
opportunity to provide an immense amount of green 
fodder for his stock. It has not been found advisable 
to feed the rape largely to milch cows, but for hogs, 
sheep and steers, this plant provides a remarkably 
useful substitute for grass. We advise those of our 
readers who are particularly interested in this crop, 
to send for a copy of this bulletin. We feel sure that 
it will pay many of our readers to experiment with 
rape this year. Formerly it was claimed that this 
crop was of value chiefly as sheep food. These re 
suits at the Wisconsin Station, however, show that 
all who desire to make cheap beef and pork, may find 
in rape a valuable assistant. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Mulching Fruit with Live Rye.— Yesterday, I 
visited an extra successful operator, found everything 
in very fine condition and noticed one thing in par¬ 
ticular that he practiced that has not come to my at¬ 
tention before. He thinks that the method is not 
practiced by any one else, and that it was an original 
idea with him. He cultivates his strawberries, raspber¬ 
ries (red and black), and blackberries up to the time 
of blooming, and at the last cultivation, sows rye 
pretty thickly, cultivates it in and, by the time of 
picking, it has come up and makes a nice, clean 
mulching carpet. He has not failed in 15 years to 
have the best in the market and enormous yields. He 
gives very shallow cultivation. With strawberries, 
he uses a fine-toothed harrow with teeth slanting 
backward, so as to keep the cut mulch in good uni¬ 
form spread. His methods have paid him and so must 
be good. g. c. m. 
Catskill, N. Y. 
An Experience with Cold Storage.— Our experi¬ 
ence in holding apples in a ventilated storage room 
last winter, was not entirely satisfactory. The prices 
received for some of the apples were such that it 
would not warrant anybody in paying for the storage 
and labor in holding apples over the winter ; yet, if 
all red fruit had been held until March, there would 
have been a nice profit in storage. Some kinds, of 
course, kept better than others, and the season seemed 
to be such that nearly all Greenings scalded badly 
early in the season, and were, therefore, a loss to the 
owners ; but red apples that were gathered before the 
early frosts, and carefully packed, that is, packed 
with as few bruises as possible, seem to keep as well 
as in former seasons. Baldwins were taken out of 
our building in the latter part of March and the first 
of April as fresh and nice as any apples I ever saw. 
A great many apples were slightly frosted last fall 
before they were picked, which, I think, was one 
reason for so much complaint of apples keeping so 
badly last winter. Another reason is the fact that 
there were so many of them, that people were care¬ 
less in handling them. I cannot give a good reason 
for Greenings scalding as they did, although I think 
Greenings that were carefully handled and sweat 
before being packed in the barrel, kept much better 
than those that were packed before they sweat. 
Ontario County, N. Y. t. b. wilson. 
Shrinkage of Apples in Cold Storage. —We have 
been asked a good many times since the publication 
of the note on page 345, the cause of the heavy 
shrinkage of apples in cold storage this year, espe¬ 
cially such good keepers as the Baldwin, Winesap, 
etc. There are several reasons for this shrinkage. 
In the first place, the apples were imperfect. We 
don’t refer now to the fruit that was injured by hail, 
insects, etc., but to the fact that the very wet early 
summer, followed by the very hot, dry weather in 
August and September, caused an unhealthy growth 
of the fruit. The apples lacked that necessary vitality 
which enables them to withstand decay. This cer¬ 
tainly was the primary cause of the heavy shrinkage. 
Another cause was that, in many a barrel, we found 
a few (or more) inferior apples that should never have 
been taken out of the orchard. Some fruit growers 
ANOTHER HOMEMADE ROLLER. Fig. 181. 
would even put in a windfall here and there, think¬ 
ing that, possibly, three or four such in a barrel 
would make no difference, whereas these three or 
four apples, with a slight bruise in them somewhere, 
were, probably, the cause of the decaying of other 
apples around them. As a usual thing, we found that 
the apples packed by the commission men or apple 
buyers were much better than these packed by the 
grower of the fruit. Of the 29,000 barrels of apples 
stored with us by the American Fruit Growers’ Union 
for New York farmers, not over half should have 
been shipped here, much less gone into cold storage. 
Kansas City, Mo. armour packing company. 
Another Homemade Roller —The cut of a home¬ 
made roller in The R. N.-Y. of May 22, recalls to my 
mind the fact that it is a good deal of a job to con¬ 
struct a roller on a pair of old machine wheels. Con¬ 
sider the many holes to be drilled in the rims, and the 
beveling and fitting of the numerous strips to cover 
them, the bother of repairing when the strips get 
broken, the frequent loss of nuts and bolts as the 
wood shrinks. Double the roller, as all should be, 
and double the trouble. Besides, is not the diameter 
of such a roller too great to do as effective work as 
one of a slightly less size ? Knowing this from per¬ 
sonal experience, and remembering how readily we 
made one of logs several years ago, I send a picture 
of the same as it appears to-day, with a few lines in 
explanation. See Fig. 181. 
The roller was required for immediate use, hastily 
constructed, therefore does not present as finely fin¬ 
ished an appearance as it might had more time been 
given to it. It is made in part from an old machine. 
The old shafting furnished the journals upon which 
the logs turn, excepting that, in the inside end of one 
of the logs is placed a piece of gaspipe extending 
three inches or so, which serves for a solid pin. Into 
this is thrust the pin of the other log. This manner 
of construction places all the bearings on a straight 
line, permitting the frame to be made more compact 
and rigid. The length of the logs in each section is 
three feet two inches, made this length because it is 
just the right one if we wish to roll ground planted 
to corn—driving astride one row (rows three feet six 
inches). The diameter of the logs is about 24 inches, 
which, with the length given, is just right for two 
horses to draw 
with ease. 
On the end of 
each roller is se¬ 
cured a plate of 
old boiler iron, 
through which 
the pins project. 
The pins are 15 
inches long. The 
cost of the bolts 
and blacksmith 
work was $2 or 
$3. All rollers, 
owing to the 
manner of con¬ 
struction, with 
reference to the 
line of draft, 
have a decided 
tendency down¬ 
ward on the 
tongue, which is 
likely to make 
the necks of the 
horses sore. To 
correct this in¬ 
clination, we bolt 
the old machine 
seat properly in place on the middle crosstie of the 
frame, and have a comfortable driving position from 
which to observe and direct the work. l. i. s. 
Georgetown, Ill. 
Blackcap Raspberries for Home Use. —The black¬ 
cap raspberry is well worthy of a place in the farm¬ 
er’s fruit garden. I cultivate one row of blackcaps 
12 rods in length, which yields plenty of berries for 
home use. They are good either fresh or canned, are 
excellent for pies at all times, and require but little 
sugar. The plants are set 3% feet apart in the row, 
and the soil is kept well tilled and free from grass or 
weeds The first year, the tips of the canes are 
pinched off when 18 inches in height. This causes 
branching, but the plant is quite flexible and will not 
be damaged by snow at this period of growth. In 
Lewis County, N. Y., we usually have snow in winter, 
and low branching canes are very liable to have the 
laterals broken off, and the plant nearly ruined by 
snowdrifts. For this reason, also, because I think 
canes perfecting a natural growth withstand our 
severe winters better than when pinched back, I no 
longer practice such pinching. So far from being an 
advantage, experience has taught me that lateral 
growth is a positive damage in this climate. The 
Ohio blackcap of vigorous natural growth will stand 
a temperature of 32 degrees below zero and come 
through the winter in perfect condition. 
But strong canes of natural growth are liable to 
damage by high winds, especially when loaded with 
damp snow or sleet. To avoid such damage, also for 
convenience in picking, I bend the canes over when 
nearly full grown, and tie them to a trellis. Narrow 
strips of board are nailed to stakes driven on each 
side of the row, and the trellis completed by cross 
pieces once in two or three feet. When finished, the 
trellis is 20 inches wide and two feet high. With the 
canes bent over and tied along this frame, the fruit¬ 
bearing shoots will stand erect, and the berries will 
nearly all be in plain sight. Trained in this way, the 
berries make a fine-show, forming an almost perfect 
canopy over plants and ^trellis. c. s. rice. 
