1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
567 
Fly Blanket for Cows. 
E. C B., Southport, Conn. —We ad¬ 
vocates of tar and feathers for insect 
pests upon dairy stock, need to make 
some answer to Mr. Morse’s criticisms 
of our methods on page 527. I have ad¬ 
vocated in the papers, and am using’, fish 
oil flavored with carbolic acid and coal 
tar, and apply it to those parts of the 
animal forward of the reach of the tail. 
The neck and head are not treated, A 
thorough application once in three days, 
barring exposure to heavy rains, will 
answer. If the sticky ingredients are 
omitted, any application will need to be 
made often. If a thing needs to be done 
too often, it sometimes becomes too 
much trouble to be done at all. 
Now about the odor in stables. It has 
been well said, I think, that milk does 
not absorb odors while giving off heat. 
That stable smells and stable tastes, if 
imparted to it then, are imparted me¬ 
chanically in solid or liquid form. Ab¬ 
sorption of odors from the air only 
begins at about the point when exposed 
milk is cooled to the temperature of the 
surrounding air. The warm milk, then, 
as drawn in the stable, is in danger from 
the fly-killer only by drip on wet days, 
and from absorption through the lungs 
of the cows. Reasonable neatness will 
obviate the former danger, and the 
generally free ventilation of open sum¬ 
mer stables, the latter. But if one must 
have the clean, tidy coat during the fly 
season, perhaps he must use the blanket 
instead of the wash. 
The blankets will do well for one or 
two cows ; but for a numerous herd, un¬ 
less Mr. Morse is a professional tailor, 
his thimble and bag needle would be 
kept busy, and if he is a tailor, one ap¬ 
prentice, at least, could be profitably 
employed in following the herd around 
the pasture to adjust the blankets. 
The Cheapest Poultry Fence. 
J. E. S , Columbus, N. J —For a good, 
permanent plant, I should say neither 
the regular poultry netting nor a ma¬ 
chine. After many years’ unsatisfactory 
trial with the regular netting, I find it 
too light. It will do very well for a few 
years, but will soon get out of shape. I 
had occasion to use about 400 rods of 
fence to confine my ducks in yards this 
spring. I thought seriously of buying 
a machine, as the regular netting would 
have to be fixed up every season, and 
knew that I could build a heavier fence 
myself mucn cheaper than I could buy a 
regular farm fence ready made. After 
observing closely several styles of wire 
fence made on the ground by the fence 
machines, and some Page coiled spring 
fencing I had had on my farm for six 
years, and several other strings of the 
same kind that had been up for three or 
four years, I concluded that I wanted 
the Page fence. After ascertaining the 
prices, I placed my order for 400 rods of 
a 17-bar, 30-inch high fence, which will 
turn from the small duck just hatched 
to the full-grown ducks. 
I could have made a much better fence 
than the regular poultry netting, for a 
much less price than the Page cost me, 
but from the appearance of those that 
had been up two or three years, I con¬ 
cluded that the Page would be the 
cheapest in the end. Now when I have 
used good locust posts in putting it up, 
I never expect to need any other fence, 
or to repair this. I think that J. C. S., 
page 486, has never tried the Page fence, 
If so, we want to make arrange¬ 
ments with you to represent 
The Rural New-Yorker , 
Going ( and take subscriptions for the 
£q rest of this year for 25 cents. 
) Let us hear from you before some 
Fair? I one else gets the appointment. 
or he would not condemn ready-made 
fencing for rolling land, as I have found 
no trouble in its conforming to uneven 
ground, as I have seen it run down 
through ravines that were at an angle 
of 45 degrees without cutting or splic¬ 
ing, and I have run it over level land 
and down ditch banks, and no machine 
could make a fence to fit the places 
better. Besides, the coil in the wire 
will take care of the fence, and also any 
kind of stock that should happen to run 
into it. I have seen a cow run at full 
speed and strike the fence head on, 
without the least injury to cow or fence. 
More “ Sweet-and-Sour ” Apple. 
H E Van Deman, Virginia —On page 
519 of The R. N.-Y., J. S. W. is mistaken 
in several particulars as to what I have 
said regarding the matter. He says that 
I “ Beem to doubt the fact of there being 
such an apple, and even go so far as to 
call it a myth,” and that I “ would 
hardly be open to conviction, even 
though specimens were furnished at the 
meeting of the American Pomological 
Society, together with their history.” 
He also says that all those who have 
given testimony and expressed ideas on 
the subject have failed, but Mr. E. C. 
Gillett, to give the origin or any name 
other than sweet and sour,” which is 
also partially incorrect, for others did 
name the varieties that were claimed 
to have been united by splitting buds 
of each and inserting them together. 
He (J. S. W.) also gives a history of a 
variety he calls “ Compound Greening,” 
which, as he admits, is not clear. He is 
right, as I see it, in saying that all the 
histories given of these apples are “ un¬ 
satisfactory.” On page 436, I said, in 
commenting upon the statements of sev¬ 
eral correspondents, “ I wish to state 
plainly that I have no desire, neither 
did I ever have any, to affirm or even to 
argue that there is no such thing as a 
sweet-and-sour apple, except as the facts 
have come to my notice. I have heard 
of such a variety for about 40 years past, 
but have never seen one up to this day.” 
* * * I am anxious, as others are, no 
doubt, to have the matter settled once 
for all, and I hope that we shall find the 
variety according to description and well 
fixed as to type. I also called for sam¬ 
ples to be shown at the meeting of the 
A. P. S. at Columbus, O., in September. 
Now, if there is any conceited or hide¬ 
bound idea in the above, as is suggested 
by J. S. W., I am unable to see it. If 
that does not express a desire for “ con¬ 
viction,” what would express it ? I 
would be foolish to believe without evi¬ 
dence ; and I fear that, sometimes, we 
do that very thing. I am a fisherman 
and enjoy fishermen’s yarns and, while 
I believe some of them, I do not believe 
all ; nor do I believe that all the state¬ 
ments of my good horticultural friends 
are founded upon indisputable facts, 
although they are, doubtless, made in 
the best of faith. But we must have a 
reason for our faith. What I said I had 
no faith in was, “that such a variety was 
originated by splitting the buds of two 
varieties of different flavor, and insert¬ 
ing them side by side.” That is what I 
called “ a myth,” and the reason given 
by me was, that I had tried so to unite 
buds and always failed. 
All the would-be cases of this kind of 
which I have heard to date, were said 
to have been made by somebody’s father 
or grandfather, or by some one else 
that is supposed to have done it. If it 
has been done, it can be done again ; 
and, as this is just the budding season, 
let us have a lot of trials made at once, 
and reported in due time. As the pear 
and apple, and the peach and plum, will 
bud together, we may as well have a lot 
of crosses of those fruits. It must, also, 
work equally well with roses and a 
thousand more species or varieties that 
are closely allied. I am willing to be¬ 
lieve in this split-bud theory and prac¬ 
tice upon sufficient evidence, and not 
before. 
As I have just agreed to take charge 
of the fruit exhibit of the American 
Institute Fair at Madison Square Gar¬ 
den, New York City, from September 
27 to October 23, and as there will be 
ample opportunity and a most hearty 
welcome there for the exhibitors of the 
sweet and-sour apples, and all other in¬ 
teresting pomological specimens, I trust 
that we shall see them out in force. If 
the trees bear this year, certainly some 
of the participants in this discussion 
will send or bring to some of the fairs 
or meetings samples of the variety or 
varieties claimed to exist, and have them 
examined by good judges and put on 
record, or forever after hold their peace 
before a credulous and incredulous 
world. This thing must be put beyond 
dispute, not left unsettled, as in the 
present vague and hearsay manner. 
The Value of a Roll of Wire Gauze 
Henry Stewart. North Carolina — 
Four dollars were well spent five years 
ago in the purchase of a roll of fine wire 
gauze, to line one of my corn cribs. The 
crib is 12 feet long, four feet wide at the 
bottom, eight feet wide at the top, and 
eight feet high, in the side of a driving 
shed. Every year, the mice made me 
miserable by their waste of the grain 
as well as by the fouling of it. So a 
happy idea struck me one day, which 
was to line the crib inside with this 
gauze. Getting a roLl of 200 square feet, 
at two cents a foot, I covered the inside 
of the crib with it, and have had peace 
and comfort ever since. No mice have 
got into the crib, and as I have just 
cleaned out the last grain from it, there 
is no waste, no filthy rubbish, and no 
fouled corn. The gauze is tacked on to 
the studs under the laths, and not a fly 
is able to get inside the crib. I count it 
a saving of 200 per cent every year on 
that little investment. 
Manure Sheds. 
F. S. N., Vineland, N. J.—That there 
is some waste where manure is left un¬ 
covered, is a well-established fact; Voor- 
hees’s First Principles of Agriculture 
says from one-third to one-half in six 
months’ exposure. The question is one 
of dollars and cents, and the best use of 
capital. Suppose that a farmer has six 
cows and two horses ; this would require 
a shed about 30 feet long by, at least, 
14 to 16 feet wide, the cost of which, 
put up in good shape against one side of 
the barn, would be from $50 to $100, ac¬ 
cording to locality, etc ; let us suppose 
an average of $75. If he have $75 to 
spare above other expenses after har¬ 
vest, shall he put that money into a 
manure shed, or put it in the bank until 
the next spring, and buy three tons of 
good fertilizer for cash at a good dis¬ 
count ? 
While we are told that the amount of 
loss is large on exposed manure, we are 
also told that there is great danger of loss 
from its being too dry under cover, unless 
the ideal conditions—a cemented basin 
with all the liquid and solid excrement 
mixed and kept well tramped down—can 
be secured, which makes very much addi¬ 
tional cost. Of course, we are not think¬ 
ing just now of the wealthy farmer who 
can have his manure sheds and plenty 
of cash besides, but rather of the man 
who is wholly dependent upon the an¬ 
nual products of his farm. Would the 
amount of fertilizing material saved by 
the shed produce as large an increase in 
his crops as the cost of the shed invested 
in the fertilizers ? 
Where a shed is to be used for manure 
alone, a cheap one with hemlock boards 
for roof, the cracks battened with slabs, 
and posts cut from the woods, is suffi¬ 
cient. The work could be done by the 
farmer, the money cost would be but 
little. We have used such a shed for 
15 years, and it has been very satisfac¬ 
tory ; the leakage is not sufficient to do 
any damage, and by hauling out manure 
often in warm weather, we prevent fire- 
fang. The upper part is also used for 
the storage of barrels, boxes, crates, etc. 
Seeding Without a Nurse. 
F. D , Glenco Mills, N. Y.—Seeding 
without a nurse or foster crop has been 
very successful here. On 2>£ acres 
seeded May 10, 1896, two good loads of 
hay were harvested in August, 1896, and 
this season, 8% tons were secured. This 
piece was seeded with one-half ton of 
fertilizer. The soil is a loam. The 
middle of last August, 10 acres of grav¬ 
elly soil were seeded with 200 pounds 
bone and muriate of potash at the rate 
of two pounds of bone to one of potash. 
Last July, one ton of hay per acre was 
secured. This piece of land was very 
poor, and had been seeded with rye, but 
failed to make a stand of seed. I think 
that 400 to 500 pounds of the best fertil¬ 
izer should be used per acre in seeding ; 
then we would be more successful, I am 
quite sure, and at the same time make a 
paying investment. On old meadows, I 
have put at the rate of 500 pounds of the 
best fertilizer—ammonia, four per cent; 
available phosphoric acid, eight per 
cent; actual potash, eight per cent, and 
doubled the crop. Apply in early 
spring, and you will be able to see where 
it was put for more than one year. 
What Partner for Timbrel! Strawberry V 
S. S. S , Mechanicsburgh, 0 —In The 
R. N.-Y. of July 24, B,, of Oak Tree, 
N. J , speaks good words for the Tim- 
brell strawberry. Will he tell us what 
variety he uses for a pollenizer ? We 
have been trying the Timbrell for three 
years, but it proves, as it does else¬ 
where, a delusion and a snare. It gave 
every evidence of doing grandly this 
year, and we did have a few quarts of 
good ones, such as customers asked for 
the second time ; but the immense stools 
of berries hung on and dallied along, 
got soft without ripening or dried up, 
and we were more than ever disgusted 
with them. We had seasonable rains, 
and did not use our irrigating plant at 
all this season, and the Parker Earle did 
grandly, ripening its fruit the best we 
ever knew it. 
ARMSTRONG & McKELVY 
Pittsburgh. 
BEYMER-BAUMAN 
Pittsburgh. 
DAVIS-CHAMBERS 
Pittsburgh. 
FAHNESTOCK 
Pittsburgh. 
ANCHOR 1 
> Ciuciuuati. 
ECKSTEIN ) 
ATLANTIC 
BRADLEY 
BROOKLYN 
JEWETT 
ULSTER 
UNION 
SOUTHERN 
SHIPMAN 
COLLIER 
MISSOURI 
RED SEAL 
SOUTHERN 
■ N.w York. 
}c 
Chicago. 
St. Louis. 
JOHN T. LEWIS A BROS CO 
Philadelphia. 
M0RLEY 
Cleveland. 
SALEM 
Salem, Mass. 
CORNELL 
Buffalo. 
KENTUCKY 
Louisville. 
J HATEVER is worth do- 
* * ing, is worth doing well . 
Painting can only be done well by 
having the best materials—Pure 
White Lead and Pure Linseed Oil, 
properly applied. There is noth¬ 
ing else “just as good.” Avoid 
“mixtures” and unknown brands 
of White Lead—the “sold-for- 
less-money” sort. (See list of 
the genuine brands.' 
V-' IT'S By using National Lead Co.’s Pure White Lead Tinting Col- 
I - * 1 c 1 r" < r"* ors, any desired shade is readily obtained. Pamphlet giving 
* 1 *-* valuable infoimation and card showing samples of colors free; 
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National Lead Co., / Broadway , New York. 
Are 
You 
