1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
71 1 
Cattle High in Pennsylvania. 
E. P. B., La Plume, Pa —I find a de¬ 
cided advance in price of cattle from 
last fall. Last week, I drove 30 miles 
up through Wyoming and Susquehanna 
Counties to buy new milch cows and 
young stock, but came back without 
anything. Most of the farmers I talked 
with were short of stock and wanted to 
buy cows coming in next spring. Such as 
we got our pick out of dairies of 20 cows 
last fall at $20 each, are held at $25 to $ 30 , 
and new milch cows $40 to $50 ; at those 
prices, with September milk at 1% cent 
par quart, I did not care to buy. There 
are no fat cattle of any kind to sell, and 
no calves being raised. I don’t think 
that this state of things will last more 
than a year or^so. 
Whitewashing Peach Trees. 
W. M. Munson, Maine Experiment 
Station. —I have had no experience in 
spraying peach trees to protect fruit 
buds. In general, however, I should 
think the practice worthy of trial. Aside 
from its action in reducing the absorp¬ 
tion of heat by the tree, by whitening 
the surface, the coating applied would 
tend to check the rapidity of evaporation 
during high winds. That this may be of 
importance, is evidenced by the well- 
known fact that buds are more liable to 
injury at a zero temperature if a high 
wind is prevailing, than they are at a tem¬ 
perature 15 degrees lower in the absence 
of wind. To be of value, it would seem 
that the coating should be relatively 
permanent in its character ; at least, 
that it should be more persistent than 
is an ordinary lime whitewash. In this 
connection, a wash which we have found 
very effective in shading greenhouse 
roofs seems worthy of trial. It is made 
by slightly moistening a quantity of 
whiting with oil, and diluting to a thin, 
milky wash with kerosene. 
Destroying a Hornets’ Nest. 
M. M., Medway, Mass —On page 676, 
C. R asks how safely to destroy a hor¬ 
nets’ nest in a tree. I destroyed one 
under the eaves of my barn in the fol¬ 
lowing manner : In the evening, I care¬ 
fully raised a stepladder under it and 
arranged a place to set a dish just under, 
and a few inches below, the holes in the 
bottom of the nest. Then I filled a dish 
holding about a quart, two-thirds full 
of water and finished the filling, as full 
as I could handle it, with kerosene. I 
carefully ascended and placed the dish 
under the nest, blocking up so the kero¬ 
sene closed the outlet. I found every 
hornet dead in the morning. 
R. S. L , Washington, D. C.—Fifty 
years ago, we Ohio farmer boys captured 
hornets’ nests by closing the lower hole 
with a plug of wood, and then cutting 
off the limb holding the nest, and car¬ 
rying it home on our plow horses. 
Again, if the limb could not be detached, 
half a newspaper tied on the end of a 
pole, fired, and then held close to the 
lower hole, would suffocate the hornets. 
But there is, however, not half so much 
fun in these plans as the one suggested 
by Mr. Slingerland, page 676 . 
Plain Talk About Tuberculosis 
Benjamin Buckman, Illinois. —While 
reading the article, Tuberculosis in Kan¬ 
sas Cattle, page 659 , I could not help 
being reminded of a belief I have ex¬ 
pressed before, that if those cattle had 
been given just about the treatment 
that the average farmer’s cow receives, 
this tuberculosis, probably, would not 
have invaded the herd. As I see it, cat¬ 
tle that are most housed and pampered 
are most liable to disease, just the same 
as with people. The cry has been all 
along the line—papers are always full 
of it—“ Close up the cracks in the stable 
and poultry house, and save the food.” 
“ Boards and tar paper are cheaper than 
corn.” “Keep the animal fat and he 
will laugh at the cold.” “ Exercise runs 
off the fat and wastes time and food ” 
Yes, this is all true. Yet, in my 
opinion, there is another strong side to 
this, and he who disregards it may ex¬ 
pect to reap tuberculosis and a plenty of 
other diseases. Pure air and water and 
plenty of exercise, coupled with honest 
coarse food, applied to man or any other 
animal, give good appetite, good diges¬ 
tion, good, unbroken, restful sleep, and 
is the best medicine that can be found 
to ward off disease—especially such a 
disease as tuberculosis. Yes, you can 
closely house the cow and stuff her with 
rich food, and “ put on the fat,” or in¬ 
crease the flow of milk, but are you fol¬ 
lowing the laws of health ? 
The disease known as “ blackleg” is 
another instance of the mistake of over¬ 
feeding. Here I have never known a thin 
calf to be troubled with this disease ; 
but when it is “ rolling fat,” then comes 
the danger. Here, on the first appear¬ 
ance of the disease, we promptly starve, 
in food and drink, the rest of the calves 
to prevent the spread of the disease. To 
summarize, overhousing, overfeeding, 
overpampering, underexercising, under¬ 
ventilating—plenty of fat, milk, degen¬ 
eracy and disease. Housing only in the 
most inclement weather, more coarse 
and less concentrated food, plenty of ex¬ 
ercise, pure air and water—less fat and 
milk, more vitality and health. I sup¬ 
pose that some one will promptly tell 
how I am much mistaken in this talk, 
but you have here, for what it is worth, 
the “ other side,” the side that seldom 
appears in print. 
Rooting Strawberry Plants in Dry Weather. 
L J. F , Pulaski, N. Y.—In an address 
given before the Western New York 
Horticultural Society a few years ago, 
Mr. Walter F. Taber, of Dutchess County, 
N. Y., spoke of its being so dry in his 
section one year that it was impossible 
to make the young strawberry sets take 
root and form good plants for fruiting 
the next season. I then took issue with 
him and declared that, on good soil, the 
proper soil to grow strawberries on, the 
season was never too dry to make plants 
take root, provided the right culture 
and treatment were given. I then 
described my methods, which are as fol¬ 
lows : 
In order to keep the surface as moist 
as possible, the cultivator must be run 
over the beds, stirring the soil between 
the plants or rows of plants, at least, 
once a week. The first runners that 
start from the parent plant should be 
layered at regular intervals about the 
plants so that, as the runners multiply 
and cover the ground, they will be 
regularly distributed, and not crowded 
together in some places as thick as 
hairs on a dog’s back, while other spaces 
in the rows are vacant of plants. Of 
course, every well-informed berry 
grower knows that it is better not to 
allow the very first runners to remain 
on the plants, but to cut them off. Then 
when the runners are allowed to grow, 
they will be larger, and several will start 
at once and may be layered and held in 
place by stones if at band, and if not, 
carefully pressed into the soil, quite 
deep if the soil is very dry. These first 
young runners will root and, in turn, 
will send out more rnnners which, in 
ordinary seasons, will root of them¬ 
selves without layering. 
To insure their rooting readily, and 
for other purposes, we now cultivate 
the middles thoroughly, and haul earth 
from the middles up on to the young 
runners and plants in and among the 
plants that have already rooted. This 
will cause every joint that is covered to 
root and make a plant. It also raises 
the row of plants a little, so that the 
water, if it should come too freely, will 
flow off readily into the paths between. 
If any tiny weeds have just sprouted, 
this earth will tend to smother and 
keep them from coming up and crowd 
ing the plants In this way, we get a 
good row of plants, even in very dry 
seasons. Rain will generally come dur¬ 
ing the latter part of September to help 
out and root the young runners that 
start after the covering with earth 
This year, however, it has been so very 
dry all through September and the first 
10 days of October, that these late run¬ 
ners have not rooted without further 
assistance; so we have been carefullv 
layering them at odd spells, whenever 
we could find the time. Runners that 
have plants on them, we place carefully 
in the soil, and put a stone close up to 
the young plant to hold it in place and 
attract moisture It takes but about 10 
days for them to root nicely. The ends 
of the runners we simply stick into the 
earth, pointing downwards, at an angle 
of about 45 degrees. If not stuck in too 
deeply, say not over three-fourths inch, 
they will root nicely and grow out of 
the earth in about two weeks. It takes 
a good while to go over an acre this 
way, but it pays, especially if the variety 
is a valuable one and more plants are 
wanted. I think it would hardly pay to 
root these late runners provided nothing 
but fruit is wanted. But when the 
plants are of some new variety that, at 
wholesale, are worth from $3 to $5 per 
100 , or even $1 per 100 it will certainly 
pay. We find that a good boy or mail 
will put in, on an average, about 5,000 
“ tips” per day of 10 hours. 
I find that there is a great difference 
in individual varieties about rooting 
readily in any season, as well as all 
varieties rooting in different kinds of 
seasons The Margaret, Crawford, Clyde, 
and some other varieties do not root 
readily, and need to be layered more 
carefully in any season than such varie¬ 
ties as Crescent, Haverland, Bubach. 
Rigeway, Brandywine, etc. The last 
varieties seem to root almost as fast as 
the young plants make, without the 
help of layering. This careful layering 
of the plants when necessary, is one of 
the links in the successful growing of 
the largest crops of the finest straw¬ 
berries, and ought not to be neglecteri 
Many persons cannot take 
plain cod-liver oil. 
They cannot digest it. 
It upsets the stomach. 
Knowing these things, we 
have digested the oil in 
Scott’s Emulsion of Cod- 
liver Oil with Hypophos- 
phites; that is, we have 
broken it up into little glob¬ 
ules, or droplets. 
We use machinery to do 
the work of the digestive 
organs, and you obtain the 
good effects of the digested 
oil at once. That is why you 
can take’ Scott’s Emulsion. 
50c. and $1.00, all druggists. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, Chemists, New York. 
“Eli” Baling Presses 
*8 Stylo & Sizes for HorBe and Steam Power. 
Kay or 
Straw 
Sell 
a* 46 Inch 
Feed Opening 
1 Power Leverage 64 to I ^SSfSTEEL 
Largest line In the world. Send for Catalog. 
COLLINS PLOW CO., 1111 Hampshire St.,Quine*,III. 
WORMS HAY PRESS; 
Will turn out from 4 to 6 tonB more per day : 
than any press made. 12 to 16 tons per 
day Is the ACTUAL CAPACITY of the 
SOUTHWICK 
Thousands have been 
NO MISTAKE ■ cured promptly of 
NEURALGIA 
mu 
BY 
/Ml 
Ulli! 
Have you ever thought how, at 
a little expense, you might fix up 
some of your old buildings, pre¬ 
vent leaky roofs, make warm your 
sheds, barns, hen-houses, hotbeds, 
and green-houses ? Neponset Water¬ 
proof Red Rope Fabric , for roofing 
and side-covering, will do the busi¬ 
ness. It is frost-proof and water¬ 
proof. It takes the place of back 
plaster in dwellings, and shingles 
and clapboards on outbuildings. 
Very much cheaper. Costs only 
one cent per square foot at the 
factory, with the necessary nails 
and tin caps for putting it on. 
For in s ide lining Neponset Black 
Building Paper is serviceable and 
economical. 
Full particulars and 
samples free. Write 
F. W. Bird & Soil, 
East Walpole, Mass. 
For sale by Dealers 
in Hardware, 1,11m- 
her, and Bui filing 
Supplies. 
Can be applied by 
anyoneon steepor 
flat roofs. 
Low Price! 
Durable ! 
Fireproof! 
If you are going to 
build, or have 
leaky shingle or 
tin roofs SEND FOR 
SAMPLE ANI) CIR¬ 
CULAR. 
A. If. SWAN, 102 Fulton Street. New York. 
FOR A GOOD FENCE 
that can’t plow down nor burn up; that 
turns all kinds of stock without injury; that 
can’t sag because It takes up Its own slack by 
expanding and contracting as required; 
a fence which meets every requirement 
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25 to 58 Inches high. Fully described In our 
free book on fence construction. Send for It. 
Keystone Woven Wire Fence Co., 
No. 1 9 Rush Street, Pkoria, III. 
steel gates .steel posts and rail, also Field and 
Hog Fence Wire, single and double farm gates. 
For further Information, write to the 
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WO YEN.WM.FENCE 
Best on Karth. Horse-high, Bull- 
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you can make 60 rods a day for 
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Orer 60 styles. Catalogue 
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Box lOB. Ridgevilie, Ind. 
1 i j T IIII 
- 
J - 
!+ : 
T" 
8 
& 
The Coiled Spring 
feature, as applied to wire fences, was intro¬ 
duced to public use by us; and vv© only have 
a U. S. patent thereon. 
PAGE WOVEN WIRE FENCE CO., Adrian, Mich. 
♦* «> 
BOWEN 
CABLE STAY FENCE CO 
<T I n For a machine to build 
4) | U the cheapest strongest 
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No royalties, no farm rights, 
machine easily and quickly 
operated by any farmer. 
Send for large circulars 
NORWALK. © 
2? 
h unyon’s Fat. Gauge 
<& Lock Wire * enc* . 
New plan to build & weave 
fence cheap and rapidly 
without machine. Money 
made fast County, Town¬ 
ship or farm rights 
t‘f\f ua In pfipail 
LKWIS M. KUNYON, Allamuchy, N. J. 
