820 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 18 
a vessel may be loaded at any dock where she may be 
lying. A single elevator has a capacity of 6,000 bushels 
per hour, and several of them can work alongside a 
vessel at once. 
When wheat is not to be shipped at once, it is stored 
in one of the great warehouses ; two of the largest of 
these are Dow’s stores, and the Columbia stores, in 
Brooklyn, which have a combined capacity of 3,500,000 
bushels. Sometimes there is danger of grain heating, 
in which case it is run through a cooler which re¬ 
duces it to a normal temperature. 
One of the newest and largest of these floating 
elevators has just been destroyed by fire, started 
while it was loading a vessel. It was entirely de¬ 
stroyed excepting the hull, which was saved by sink¬ 
ing it. This one was said to have cost $45,000. f. h. v. 
HORSE SHOE FARM NOTES. 
PREACHERS VS. PEARS ; AVERAGES VS. EXAGGERATIONS. 
A neighbor came in to spend the evening. I set 
out a dish of Anjou pears and we sampled them. 
After finishing the fourth, he remarked, “ I never 
care for pears, but these are too good to let alone.” 
They were picked early, as soon as the stem would 
snap off the limb when the pear was turned up. 
They were stored in a dry, cold house until liable to 
freeze, and then put in the cellar. As fast as wanted, 
they were brought up and kept a few days in a warm 
room. They turn yellow, and are soft, juicy, melting 
in the mouth, delicious. A pear is what you make it. 
One good Anjou pear tree will yield all a family will 
need for canning and eating. Ours is eighteen years 
old, bore five bushels this season, and nearly always 
has some. The aroma of the pear brought back old 
memories, and for an hour the neighbor entertained 
us with reminiscences of midnight raids on fruit trees. 
The boys took it all in, eyes, mouth and ears all 
open, and were inclined to think it must be great fun. 
His vivid descriptions fascinated them until his im¬ 
agination became his master and his stories became too 
large, then the glamor vanished. After he was gone, 
they concluded that a tramp through mud, woods, and 
darkness to get some hard, green, unripened specimens, 
would hardly pay, “ When we can get such good ones 
at home.” A bushel of pears is more effective than a 
sermon on stealing to restrain boys. One tree each 
of Sugar, Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Sheldon, Seckel, 
Anjou, Lawrence and Angoulfime, will furnish a suc¬ 
cession which will be good for both health and morals. 
Yet not more than 10 out of every 100 men who own 
land, have them. 
“ That is an exaggeration 1” some reader will ex¬ 
claim. But, my friend, this is an age of overstate¬ 
ment. People write of pullets laying at four months 
of age, as though the whole flock were laying and 
as if it were a common thing. A novice is led to 
think that he can receive ready money from that time 
for their eggs. I do not believe there is a large flock 
in the country that pay daily expenses for food at 
seven months of age. Visits to both fancy and busi¬ 
ness poultry plants confirm the impression. 
Friend Baker is well known by me, and is an honest 
man, but one who had no experience would be mis¬ 
led by his assertion that he could make butter for 
nine cents per pound. The cost per pound of the 
butter made in one week, when all conditions are 
most favorable, has as much to do with the 
average cost per year as a rain has to make good 
sleighing. Allowing that a cow made 300 pounds per 
year, the food cost would be $27; for 10 cows, $270. 
You could not hire a man to care for them a year for 
that and board himself, he to purchase all food, feed, 
milk, care for and manufacture their products and 
sell them. The nine-cent butter becomes 18, allow¬ 
ing the cost of food not to exceed the most favorable, 
cheapest week. At a recent meeting, it was asserted 
that land in good condition would yield 300 bushels 
of potatoes each year. It would be of no use to write 
out an account of how 100 bushels were grown, for 
most agricultural papers. The account would be sent 
to the waste basket as “ too slow,” yet the men who 
have grown 300 bushels per acre more than once are 
as scarce as the men who own pear trees. 
A man wrote to one of our leading papers and asked, 
“ How can I make 40 acres of stony hillside land yield 
me a good living without working more than two 
hours per day.” By the question, one would know 
that the inquirer had no experience. Note the an¬ 
swer which, in substance, was, “Grow two acres of 
potatoes ; 600 bushels will bring in from $200 to $300. 
Put out several acres of small fruits, and sell the crop 
in the local market. Keep a flock of hens and a few 
bees,” just to help furnish work to fill out the spare 
time left out of the two hours, I suppose. That he 
could care for all this by working two hours per day 
is as astonishing as the further statement that his in¬ 
come would soon be large enough to enable him to 
live without work. 
A man who is milking 30 cows, and making some 
money, said to me, “ Hoard’s Dairyman says (in sub¬ 
stance) that a man who will keep a cow that will not 
make over 250 pounds of butter per year is a fool. If 
Hoard’s advice were followed, two-thirds of the stables 
would be empty. There are not enough such cows 
for all of us in the country. I am disgusted.” Like 
the boys, he considered that it had been “ laid on too 
thick.” 
Exaggeration, partial statements, yields obtained 
under exceptional circumstances over which the 
grower had no control and which he could not dupli¬ 
cate, are responsible for the pathetic failures which 
usually overtake those who are persuaded by them to 
leave fair salaries to engage in agriculture. To those 
who know how to read between the lines, no harm 
may be done ; but if we were taught to study how to 
increase the average yield of our crops, how to reduce 
the average cost of growing our produce and making 
our butter, how to get profitable average returns for 
our labor, every year, would it not be better for all ? 
The average yield of potatoes is 74 bushels Averages 
are what the larger part of us must accept, be con¬ 
tent with, and calculations relating to future receipts 
should not be overestimated. A fair statement of the 
average receipts received would tend to encourage 
discouraged fellow-workers and prevent those of 
other professions from trying to compete with us. 
C E. CHAPMAN. 
HARVESTING ICE IN SOUTHERN LATITUDES. 
Cur i 
Plan of let Pond 
Ic 
f 1 
C WooK 9 
: — S' - * B 
Plaf-r.rn 
The selection of a location for an ice pond requires 
much judgment, as many points have to be considered. 
It is a bad plan to build a dam for a pond, directly 
across the stream that will supply the water, as a 
hard rain will cause a sudden rise in the branch that 
may wash the dam out and thus destroy all chance 
for ice, and cause a repetition of the work necessary to 
rebuild the dam. If it is preferred to locate the dam 
on a branch, the entire supply of water in which comes 
from a spring, care should be taken to build the dam 
sufficiently far below the spring, so the water will 
get cold before reaching the pond, spring water in 
winter being warm. But the 
pond should not be too far 
from the house, as the farther 
the ice has to be hauled, the 
more expensive it is to harvest. 
It is best to locate the site 
for the pond on a flat piece of 
ground to one side of the 
branch, dig out the hole the 
size desired, and feed the 
water to it through a ditch as 
indicated at A, cut 1, Fig. 349 
At A, build a temporary dam 
to raise the water and throw 
it into the supply ditch. At 
B, make an outlet from the 
ditch to the branch, as it will 
be necessary at times when 
there are heavy rains or melt¬ 
ing snow, to pass the water 
into the branch. At C, make 
a waste-way from the pond to 
the branch, and if there is 
any red clay convenient, line 
the waste-way with it so as to 
prevent washing. A good two- 
horse plow and a drag scraper 
will build a pond quicker and 
cheaper than it can be built 
in any other way. The grade 
of the supply ditch should be 
very easy, and its depth not less than two feet. After 
the ice is harvested, the temporary dam at A should 
be taken out of the branch in order to allow the water 
to flow freely, and the mouth of the supply ditch 
should be dammed against excessive rises in the 
branch. When this is done the water in the pond will 
sink and evaporate, after which the pond is “ laid by ” 
safe and sound and out of the way of summer rains, 
until the following winter, when very little work will 
be required to put it in order for again supplying ice. 
Haswell says that ice two inches thick will bear in¬ 
fantry ; at any rate, such ice will, certainly, bear the 
weight of a man to go on it with an ax and cut it loose 
so that it can be floated to the bank, taken out and 
loaded into the wagons. But it is safer for the cutter 
to stand on a plank 10 or 12 inches wide and 16 feet 
long, and with his weight so distributed, he can cut 
the ice alongside the plank without danger, using the 
edge of the plank as a guide for cutting straight. 
Therefore, it is unnecessary to place stakes about in 
the pond to support the plank, as is done in some 
sections, with the idea that the ice will not support 
the weight of a man. These supports tend to weaken 
the ice, as it does not freeze well around them, besides 
rendering it less solid, therefore less liable to keep 
in summer. The water -in the pond should never be 
more than waist deep, so in case any one fall into it, 
he will get out with nothing worse than a wetting. 
Fig. 349, 2 shows a superior form of hook for hand¬ 
ling the ice on the pond and drawing it out; such a 
hook costs little or nothing, will last a long time, and 
is very effective. It is composed of two pieces of flat 
iron one inch wide and one-quarter inch thick; two 
holes are punched through them, and they are bolted 
to the side of a pole flattened to fit them. This form 
of construction is superior to sinking the hook in the 
end of the pole, or so forming the butt end of the 
hook as to place it on the end of the pole. The best 
poles are slim pines, barked and seasoned ; these will 
last a long time, but will last longer if a little paint 
be put on them. 
The best way to get the ice out of the pond is to 
draw it out on a platform such as is shown at 3 as, if 
it be hauled out on the ground, it will get more or 
less muddy, and be unsatisfactory to use. The slop¬ 
ing part of the platform should run down into the 
water, so the ice can slide upon it without trouble. A 
slight jerk will pull it up on the level part of the plat¬ 
form, which should, if possible, be so built as to be 
level with the top of the wagon body, into which the 
ice will then slide without handling with the hands. 
The ice house should be constructed with a double 
roof; thus, the sun will affect only the upper roof, 
as through the space between it and the lower one, 
the air will circulate freely and keep the lower roof 
cool. A well three feet in diameter and four or five 
feet deep should be dug in the center of the hole ; 
this will prevent the water that melts from the ice 
from standing in the bottom of the hole, and causing 
the ice to melt more rapidly. If the house do not 
keep ice well, a small pump may be placed in it and 
the*water pumped out when necessary ; the end of 
the pump suction should be placed about 12 inches 
above the bottom of the well, and protected by a 
strainer to prevent leaves and trash from being drawn 
into it. If necessary to place a drain pipe from the 
bottom of the well to the outside, so as to take care 
of the water, it should be, at least, one inch in 
diameter, and have a trap in it to keep out the air, 
the entrance of which will make the ice melt very 
much more rapidly. 
In storing the ice, the greatest care should be taken 
to pack it compactly, and the house should be filled to 
the top, even though the family will not use it all. 
There are always unexpected calls for ice, and the sur¬ 
plus can be sold to those in the neighborhood who did 
not store ice. This little income, even though small, 
will help, and every little must help the farmer, or he 
cannot live. julibn a. hall. 
Virginia. 
THE VELVE1 BEAN-NITROGEN GATHERER. 
A WORTHY RIVAL OF THE COW PEA. 
I send you a cluster of a new (?) bean which I have 
tested here on my experiment grounds. It is destined 
to supplant the cow pea for cattle feed and a soil 
renovator here in the extreme South. Its nitrogen¬ 
gathering properties surpass those of the cow pea. It 
is the rankest grower of any of the legumes ; two or 
three seeds planted four feet apart in rows five feet 
apart will literally cover the ground two to three feet 
thick with a mass of foliage and vines. It leaves a 
mulch on the ground that is very beneficial to the 
soil. As to prolificacy, I never have seen the like ; 
such huge clusters of beans, from 15 to 25 beans, and 
often more, in a single cluster. It is a very promising 
plant, but it is to be regretted that it will not mature 
or bear a full crop of seed north of here, as it requires 
a long season to mature its enormous load of pods. 
Most of the seeds I planted the latter part of May 
matured pods which are now ripe and ready to gather. 
Dr. Stubbs, Director of our State Experiment 
Station, lately furnished us with the chemical analy¬ 
sis as compared with the cow pea. Fora given weight, 
it contains about one-fourth as much ash and one-half 
times as much protein, three times as much fat, less 
than one-third the amount of fiber, and 1% time as 
much nitrogen (free extract), thus having more food 
material and less waste. If upon further experiments 
it be found to be of equal digestibility, it will be 
superior to our old favorite, the cow pea. I have no 
doubt it will surpass the cow pea in productiveness, 
as it is one of the most luxuriant growers that has 
been planted at the station grounds. 
If the cow pea stand in any danger of being partly 
crowded out by any of its relatives, I should say that 
the Velvet bean is by far the most dangerous rival. 
It produces an enormous amount of vines and seeds. 
If it is planted early in the spring, it will, probably, 
mature seeds in nearly all of Louisiana before frost. 
It very soon covers the ground with a -heavy mat of 
vines that make a dense shade, choking all kinds of 
native grasses, and killing temporarily our almost 
irrepressible Nut grass (Cyperus rotundus), 
Dr. Stubbs further says : “ I believe that it can be 
cut advantageously almost any time from June to 
October, and cured in less time than cow-pea hay, 
