626 
September 2 5 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
factor in feeding the world, do not have gravel, or 
stone, or timber, with which they can lift themselves 
out of the mud. They have graded many of these 
roads so as to furnish good drainag-e, but are com¬ 
pelled to stop just short of crowning them with the 
indispensable stone. The drained earth road is a fail¬ 
ure and nuisance in bad weather, and that is just 
when a good road is reeded. We had a strip of it 
near here, and we tiled it and rounded it high, but it 
held water in rainy weather in every track and rut, 
and soon cut and tramped into ruts and a loblolly, 
and became impassable. We got very tired of it, and 
covered it with coarse gravel, five yards to the rod ; 
now we stay on top every day of the year. Our farm¬ 
ers come trotting over it in their light rigs bringing 
their families to school, to church, to lecture, to 
socials and what not. 
If the Illinois farmers could add stone to the roads 
of their fertile prairies, they would surely possess 
the garden of the world. This can be done, with our 
improved stone crushers and reduced freights, for 
about 82,000 a mile, and near railroad towns for$1.500. 
This does not include grading and bridges, as much 
of this has already been done. More than one-third 
of this $1 500 or 82 000 of expense can be paid in 
volunteer hauling without being out any cash I have 
a gravel pit in central Indiana, from which we often 
have 25 to 35 teams hauling at one time on to the 
neighboring roads. We have learned to build pikes 
with so little cash outlay, that I am inclined to call 
the attention of farmers everywhere to the plan by 
which it is done. 
We used to think it a thing to be dreaded to build 
a pike, and under the old law, we had to nay for 
enough “ red tape ’, including 84 a day or a. fraction 
of a day to use¬ 
less surveyors, 
to equal just 
about one-third 
of the entire 
costof the road. 
Our commis¬ 
sioners furnish 
iron bridges 
and sewer pipe 
for culverts, 
and we make 
their ap¬ 
proaches while 
working out 
our spring tax. 
In a section of 
easy grades, we 
can use a trac- 
tion-engine 
and a grader, 
and finish a 
mile for 815 or 
820. In the fall, 
our teams are 
idleagood deal, 
and we sub¬ 
scribe so many 
dollars’ worth 
of hauling 
gravel, and the county again helps a little by paying 
for the gravel and uncovering it and furnishing a few 
shovelers. The teamsters shovel while loading, and 
all work to win. It is very interesting to see the 
enterprise and good will that prevail. In the morn¬ 
ing, some teams come out loaded just a little after 
daybreak. The woods and road are soon fairly alive 
with teams loaded or empty and everybody has a joke 
or a good word and a helping hand. 
Where bowlders are .plentiful and gravel scarce, 
the portable crusher is used right in the road, stones 
are brought on trucks, wagons andsledsto the “rcck- 
eater.” Large bowlders are broken with sledges, or 
fire, or dynamite, until small enough to feed in well, 
and a nuisance and curse to the farmer is made a 
most helpful servant. The enterprising farmer -‘kills 
two birds ” with every “ niggerhead ”—he clears his 
land and makes his road to market. Where Ihere is 
much of this kind of road-building to do, the county 
should own the crusher as well as the grader 
Central Indiana k h. collins. 
Possibilities of Crimson Clover. —August 13 last, 
I sowed on about one acre a mixture of Medium and 
Crimson clover and Orchard grass. We had no rain 
till about the middle of September, when the Orchard 
grass and Crimson clover began to show with a sprink¬ 
ling of the Medium; the last, owing to the con¬ 
tinued dry weather, mostly died out. About the be¬ 
ginning of May, I harvested five two-horse loads 
of the nicest kind of mixed hay, and now have the 
ground covered with a fine stand of Orchard grass 
with the roots of the Crimson plover to feed the young 
grass for next year’s crop, yv, M> 
Benton Creek, Va. 
■A NEBRASKA WHEAT CROP. 
FROM GROUND TO GRANARY. 
For a crop of wheat on new ground, we break the 
prairie in May or June, usually with a “ grasshopper” 
breaking plow, turning a flat furrow from 14 inches 
to 24 inches wide, according to the size of the plow, 
and two or three inches deep This sod is so tough 
that the plow will often go several rods without 
breaking the furrow in two, while it is all the time 
turning it over and laying it flit with the grass 
turned under This is left through the summer to 
rot, and during the fall, it is turned back with the 
stirring plow (we call it back-setting) seldom plowing 
any deeper than it wss broken. As we raise no win¬ 
ter wheat here, the seed is sown in the spring some¬ 
times as early as February, on this kind of ground. 
The field is harrowed once or twice on new ground, 
as the ground is left very rough from back-setting. 
The sod, though rotted all summer, is yet tough 
enough to keep its shape, and it is seldom that the 
soil will break up fine from the plow till it has had a 
crop on it. But after taking a crop from it, the sod 
is well rotted, and if sown to wheat again does not 
require (or rather does not get) any preparation after 
plowing before sowing the seed. 
The seed is broadcasted, some using a low seeder 
10 and 12 feet long, and sowing the length of it 
Others use a wagon seeder, and a great many still 
sow by hand ; while some of these carry a sack over 
the shoulder, as I presume grandpa used to do, the 
lazier or more progressive fasten a box or tub on the 
back of the wagon box, and while one man drives, 
the other sows with both hands as the team takes 
them over the ground. As good work can be done 
this way as by the wagon seeder or by him that car¬ 
ries the sack ; 20 to 30 acres a day can easily be sown 
this way. The seed is now covered with the harrow, 
large ones 14 to 16 feet wide being used, and requir¬ 
ing four good horses. The ground is harrowed till it 
is smooth enough for the self-binder, no attention 
being paid to a fine seed bed or the depth the seed is 
covered, only to get it covered. That is the way new 
ground is treated, and wheat is the only cereal grain 
that will give a good crop every year on this ground. 
Wheat will also usually give the best results for the 
next crop when it is plowed as soon as convenient 
after stacking, as the ground is then ready for sow¬ 
ing the next spring. 
On older ground, wheat is almost always sown on 
ground that was in wheat the year before. In this 
case, as soon as the ground will do to work, about 
the last of March, or first of April, the corn stalks 
are cut by a two-row stalk cutter, with three horses, 
into lengths of about 15 inches. The seed is sown 
broadcast; then with corn cultivators, the ground is 
cultivated crossways of the way the corn was “ laid 
by’ the previous summer, and is sometimes cultivated 
the second time crossing the first. This leaves the 
seed covered, and the soil stirred about two inches 
deep, and also, leaves the ground in ridges that are 
leveled by two or three harrowings with a heavy 
harrow that, also, breaks down the corn stubs, and 
leaves them and other trash on top of the ground. 
The last few years, the disk harrow, with four or 
six horses, has been used by many instead of cultivat¬ 
ing, and sometimes, instead cf back-setting ; but stir¬ 
ring the soil with plow or cultivator has given a 
better crop, two years out of three. But with the 
disks, much more ground can be put into crop. 
The field receives no more attention until harvest, 
when the self-binder drawn by three or four horses 
enters the field, and at the rale of 12 to 18 acres a day, 
the standing wheat is cut and bound with twine 
bands, and the sheaves or bundles, as more often 
called here, left in piles of four to six in windrows at 
right angles to the way the machine is moving, where 
they are soon set up by the shockers in shocks of 8 to 12 
bundles. As soon as harvest is past, if not to be 
thrashed soon, it is stacked in settings, usually of four 
shocks It is left now for five or six weeks to go 
through the sweat, when it is ready for thrashing, 
which may be right away or not till November or 
December When we thrash right after harvest, the 
grain is left in the shock until the thrashing machine 
comes, which may not be for several weeks, as many 
thrash at this time. The steam thrasher has not yet 
got into this section of country, though not faraway, 
and every fall the thrashers say that they will have 
a steam outfit next year. So our thrashing is all done 
by horse power, 12 to 14 horses being used on the 
lever power. 
The separator, as the machine itself is called, is 
pulled into the center of the field and leveled by set¬ 
tling the wheels, the tumbling rods laid out, the 
power is drawn to the end of the rods and connected 
and staked solidly down, the horses are put on and 
we are ready for work. While the machine is being 
set, four or six and sometimes more hay wagons are 
being loaded with bundles, and when ready, a load is 
driven to the table on each side of the machine, where 
the driver piiebcs the bundles to the band cutters, 
who lay them for the feeder. As soon as a wagon is 
unloaded, another takes its place and in this way, 40 
acres are thrashed in a day. Where the grain is 
stacked, the 
machine is 
drawn between 
the stacks, and 
four good 
pitchers get the 
bundles to the 
band cutters. 
In a few sec¬ 
onds after the 
machine has 
started, the 
wheat all 
cleaned for 
market is com- 
ingdown along 
spout into the 
wagon box . 
When one wag¬ 
on is full, the 
spout is moved 
to another 
wagon in wait- 
mg, and the 
loaded wagon 
is unloaded at 
the granary 
where the 
wheat stays un¬ 
til marketed. 
The straw and chaff in the meantime are coming out 
of the back end of the machine, where they are taken 
by the carrier on to the straw stack, keeping three or 
four men busy. Those who have no use for the straw, 
instead of stacking it, use two horses hitched to a 
pole and “ buck” the straw away from the machine, 
leaving it scattered in piles over several acres, where 
it is burned after the machine is gone. c. K. s. 
Ono, Neb. 
THREE GOOD MARKET APPLES. 
When I took possession of the farm which I still 
occupy, I found an orchard of about 60 trees composed 
of Smith’s Cider, Eambo, IviDg of Tompkins County, 
Jennetting, etc. There were, also, 12 trees of three 
varieties that have given me more satisfaction, and 
been of more profit than all of the rest. There were 
two Summer Rambos ; the trees are very large, and 
the fruit is, also, large, resembling the old Vandeveer 
Pippin. It ripens in August, but, by picking and 
storing in a cool room, can be kept until the middle 
of October. It makes no difference how much fruit 
is in our local markets, I have always been able to 
sell Summer Rambos at remunerative prices, when 
properly ripened and put up in nice order. There are 
five trees of the Holland Pippin, which bear annually 
immense quantities of very large, yellow apples, be¬ 
ginning to ripen about September 1. These, also, 
may be kept by proper handling until the middle of 
January, and have never failed to bring good prices ; 
in fact, my supply has never been equal to the de¬ 
mand. There were five trees that bore every other 
year very full of large, red apples inclined to be yel¬ 
low on one side, and one side of the apple elevated 
slightly more than the other. I could not name this 
