1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
835 
produced grades of fine dairy type and quality, some 
of the best dairy cattle in the land being of this 
breeding. Just now, there seems to be a revival of 
interest in the American Short-horn. The dairy or 
milking type of cow has been developed, until it is 
likely that the breed will be divided into three quite 
distinct classes. One class will be bred for beef pro¬ 
duction largely, another for dairy and beef combined, 
while the Polled Durham or hornless Short-horn will 
constitute another class. 
Jersey Oxen. —I do not agree with The R. N.-Y., 
page 802, that “ the dairy steer is usually an insignifi¬ 
cant little fellow—hardly large enough to provide a 
good-sized roast of beef,” and “only on such hills, how¬ 
ever, could Jersey oxen be made profitable.” I have 
a photo of a Holstein steer shown at the Chicago Fat 
Stock Show in 1890, that was good enough to com¬ 
pete in the sweepstakes class, and make a very credit¬ 
able appearance. I wish that I might never be served 
with poorer beef, for he was good enough for anybody. 
As to Jersey oxen, I have not used them, but have 
seen several pairs, and know of one large farm 
where they keep nothing else. I have seen them 
weigh 3,600 pounds, and recently saw two pairs of 
three-year-olds that were good for 2,400 pounds per 
pair. These are about the weights of Devons. The 
Jersey oxen are prompt and willing workers, fast 
walkers with heads and tails up, and in plowing will 
keep up with the average horse team. The Jersey 
steer is not made for beef purposes, but for working 
oxen, the Jerseys are the equal of many others. 
New York. edwin c. powell. 
Jersey Cattle in Chestnut Orchard. —If H. M. 
Engle & Son, page 785, will pasture their chestnut 
grove with Jersey cattle, feeding some grain feed to 
keep in prime condition, there is no doubt that they 
will keep down the under-brush and yield 
a profit above all feed and care, if properly 
cared for. t. e. 
North Carolina. 
R. N.-Y.—You would need Jerseys with 
hooks on their feet to climb such hillsides as 
those sprout chestnut groves. The hills are 
too steep. Goats might live there, but not 
ordinary cattle. 
Poultry House at Hope Farm. —Fig. 354 
shows a cheap poultry house in which the 
Black Minorcas at Hope Farm are kept. This 
house is 7 x 16 feet. It is built of cheap hem¬ 
lock lumber costing $13 per 1,000 feet. A 
skeleton of 2 x 4 joist, was first made, and the 
boards were nailed to it. We then tacked 
over roof and sides three thicknesses of thick 
wrapping paper, and daubed on two thick 
coats of water-gas tar. Then thin strips were 
tacked over the cracks, and another thick 
coat of tar was daubed over all. The two 
windows in front are now glazed, and since 
the picture was taken, a small hendoor has 
been cut in the front of the house. This 
house is warm and dry, and now shelters 
about 60 hens and pullets. As shown in the 
picture, the house is divided into two rooms by means 
of wire netting. In one side, we keep our breeding 
pen of old Black Business birds, and in the other, the 
best selection of the pullets. The interior shows 
how the nests are arranged, also the feeding trough. 
Our houses are cleaned out twice a week, and once 
every two weeks the roosts are daubed with tar. 
This seems to have thoroughly cleared out the ver¬ 
min. This house cost but little in actual cash, and 
gives first-rate satisfaction thus far. 
A Success With Crimson Clover. —Early in July, 
1896, we sowed broadcast 25 pounds of Crimson clover 
seed per acre in the growing corn at the time of the 
last cultivation. The clover grew nicely, and when 
the corn was cut for the silo, it was in long rows be¬ 
tween the corn, The clover then spread until it 
covered the entire field. When the ground was frozen 
hard, we ran a roller over it to break oil the corn 
stubs to get them out of the way of the mower. The 
clover was in full bloom from May 10 to 19, when the 
last of it was cut, and it was the most beautiful sight 
imaginable ; in fact, if valuable for no other purpose, 
it would be as a thing of beauty. The only objection, 
if it can be called one, is the number of people it 
attracts, who help themselves, as many as 19 being 
counted in the field at one time. We fed green from 
this field of six acres, 20 cows for 10 days, and then 
cured nearly five tons of good hay. I would not, how¬ 
ever, make hay again, preferring to turn the surplus 
under, as at that early season of the year, it is very 
hard to cure anything, especially a plant of such 
rank growth. This year, we planted corn on the 
same piece again, using a homemade fertilizer, and 
notwithstanding the fact that this was the second 
year, we had the largest and finest yield, both in ears 
and stalks, of any piece on the farm. From where I 
write, I see another eight-acre field from which we 
took 117 tons of corn for the silo, and in which we 
sowed Crimson clover in the same way this year, and 
it is now one beautiful mat of green, the entire field 
being covered. p* t. n. 
Somerville, N. J. 
Down With Tramp Hunters. —You ask what we 
think about what Mr. Ballou says concerning the 
tramp hunter ; he should be severely dealt with. This 
State imposes a fine of $25 for hunting without a 
written permit, but very few enforce it for fear of 
having barn or house or crops destroyed. I have 
heard some men who do not own a foot of land say 
that they would hunt where and when they pleased. 
If a law were passed allowing any man to shoot any 
one for trespassing, the same as for burglary, then 
and not ill then would the tramp hunter learn to 
respect the rights of others, and stay off, or get per¬ 
mission before he hunts on some other person’s land. 
Such should be the laws of the United States to pro¬ 
tect every one who owns land and pays tax thereon. 
Indiana. l. h. g. 
Cement to Protect Trees. —I have found a better 
way to protect trees from animals than the methods 
given in recent issues of The R. N.-Y. Mix hydraulic 
cement and skim-milk into a thick paint, and use 
about one ounce of crude petroleum to each gallon 
of paint, not more. Clean away the soil to the large 
roots, and paint the body with a heavy coat up as 
high as the snow is likely to pile about it; for rab¬ 
bits, paint two feet higher, so they can’t reach the 
body above the snow. If one coat be not heavy 
enough, put on the second as soon as the first hardens. 
It can be put on with an old broom, but a short, stiff 
brush is better. When dry, the soil can be replaced 
about the tree. This hardens into a coat of stone 
about the tree, and no animal will attempt to gnaw 
through it. It is, also, a perfect preventive of attacks 
of borers, but for this purpose it need not have any 
crude petroleum added. I have found a thick paste 
of cement and sweet skim-milk as above, to which a 
little linseed oil has been added, the best thing to 
apply where large limbs are necessarily cut off of 
fruit trees. It hardens over the wound, will do no harm 
if it be put on so as to reach on to the bark, and will 
stay longer and better than any kind of paint. Try it! 
New York. j. s. woodward. 
HOW THEY RAISE POTATOES IN WISCONSIN. 
The pictures shown on our first page are from 
photographs taken in the field o Mr. F. A. Huebner, 
of Manitowoc, Wis. They show the sort of potatoes 
raised in that country, and also give us a view of the 
human stock that is growing up on these prairie 
farms. Mr. Huebner sends us the following account 
of his potato culture : 
The soil of this field is a level clay, with about four 
inches of black virgin soil on top. This field was used as 
a horse pasture for about five years. In the summer of 
1895, it was plowed 10 to 12 inches deep with a sulky 
plow with four horses. That fall, it was prepared for 
winter rye, and produced, in 1896, a crop of 41 bushels 
to the acre. After the rye crop was harvested, the 
soil was plowed 12 inches deep, harrowed and rolled 
to make it level. During the winter, about 12 cords 
of horse manure per acre were hauled on the field, 
each load piled by itself. In April, this manure was 
spread and worked into the ground with a disk har¬ 
row. Then followed three weeks of rain, after which, 
or the first week in May, Mr. H. planted Carman No. 
3 potatoes about seven inches deep and covered them 
level with the surface. 
The soil was comparatively clean during the season, 
but he cultivated frequently with a spring-tooth cul¬ 
tivator. As the seed was planted three feet apart 
each way, the cultivator was worked in both direc¬ 
tions. Very little hilling was done, but they worked 
the soil as close to the potato vines as possible, and 
seed pieces with three or four eyes were used. The 
seed remained in the ground until June before the 
tops appeared above the ground. Mr. Huebner says 
that the boys became quite anxious, as they feared 
the seed would not grow. They dug down into the 
hills to find out, and then they found that the seed 
pieces of Carman No. 3 had produced small potatoes 
the size of dove’s eggs before the plants had any foli¬ 
age above ground. In warm weather, the plants 
grew fast and furiously. The vines were dark green, 
and covered the entire field in spite of the distance 
between the hills. 
In September, the small boy went with a basket to 
get some Carman No. 3 potatoes to show at the county 
fair. Every tuber he brought home weighed more 
than two pounds. This astonished Mr. H., so that he 
left the Carmans until all other varieties had been 
dug and stored. One Saturday, his son, who attends 
the Two Rivers High School, invited some of the 
boys out to help dig potatoes. We see them in the 
pictures picking up the crop, and also laying in a 
balanced ration at noon. The chances are that they 
enjoyed the latter operation fully as well as they 
did that of picking potatoes. The tubers were thrown 
out with a Common Sense digger, which was pulled 
by two strong horses. Mr. Huebner says that, as this 
machine moved along the row, the potatoes tumbled 
out like limestones, and dropped on the toes of the 
man who guided the digger. The nine largest tubers, 
all shapely and perfect, weighed 30 pounds and 3 
ounces. This is no big story, but a simple statement 
of fact, and it will show some of the eastern readers 
what that rich land in the Northwest can be 
made to do in the way of potato culture. 
PROTECTION FOR ORCHARD TREES. 
TREES KILLED BY AXLE GREASE. 
Here we have Jack rabbits and the common 
cotton-tails. Nothing will keep Jack rabbits 
from destroying young fruit trees excepting 
wire screens or strips of lath. They will tear 
off corn stalks, cloth or paper to get at the 
tree, and axle grease and whitewash are deli¬ 
cacies which they seem to relish. Almost any 
thin covering will keep the small rabbits and 
mice from the trees. Axle grease will kill the 
trees, and should not be used. One fall, I 
thinly coated 1 500 young apple, peach, plum, 
cherry, pear, quince, apricot and chestnut 
trees with it, mixed one-half lard. I was sus¬ 
picious of it, and watched for results. It kept 
the small rabbits and mice away, but to the 
Jack rabbits it was like butter on a boy’s 
bread, and seemed just to suit them. In two 
or three months, I noticed that the bark was 
turning black in spots on some of the trees, 
and cutting through, found that the inside of 
the bark was killed next to the wood. I set 
some men at work at once to scrape and wash the trees 
with strong tar-soap suds, and it was a much harder 
job to get the axle grease off than to put it on. Many 
of the trees were killed outright; some leafed out in 
the spring and died in midsummer ; some grew for a 
time above where the grease reached, and did not 
grow a particle where the grease was put on ; some 
died on one side as high up as the grease was 
used. I am satisfied that, if I had not scraped and 
washed the trees when I did, most of them would 
have been killed. The apricots were injured most, 
the pears next, peaches next, and the plums with¬ 
stood that barbarous treatment better than any of 
the others, although some of every kind were killed 
with it. 
The best protection of all is wire screen, such as is 
used for mosquito bars. Buy it in rolls 18 inches 
wide, then cut it across into strips six inches wide, roll 
these strips tightly around an old broom handle so that 
they will stay curled, then spring them around the 
tree and sink the lower end an inch into the ground. 
As the tree grows, the wire will expand, and will 
protect the trees from borers and sunscald in the 
summer, and from mice and all kinds of rabbits in 
the winter. The strips can be cut and curled in the 
barn on a rainy day, and a boy can take them in a 
bushel basket and spring them around the trees very 
rapidly. They are much cheaper and much better in 
every way than strips of lath. The expense for the 
wire screen would be about a cent a tree for the com¬ 
mon wire. The aluminium-covered wire is much bet¬ 
ter, as it will last much longer, and is much more 
pliable ; but at present prices, it costs about twice as 
much as the common wire. The price for this pro¬ 
tection is merely nominal when compared with the 
value of the tree. A fruit tree that has lived through 
the first summer in the orchard, is worth_$l, and it is 
ONE OF THE POULTRY HOUSES AT HOPE FARM. Fig. 354.. 
