206 
March 2S 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FARM BUILOmS ON A SMALL LOT. 
If one live in the suburbs, one has to get along with¬ 
out some, at least, of the advantages of city life. As 
compensation one ought to have all the advantages of 
the country. Most suburban residents will place 
among the greatest of these advantages the family 
cow, the family horse, and a moderate flock of poul¬ 
try. That more suburban families do not have these 
luxuries is due to three reasons: the care involved, the 
space required, and the expense of buildings that 
would not look unsightly, rough sheds not being per¬ 
missible on a suburban lot. The surmounting of these 
three obstacles led to the plans here shown. The 
buildings require but little space, and daily use has 
proven that their arrangement reduces the labor in¬ 
volved in the care of the animals to the minimum. 
They add to, rather than detract from, the appear¬ 
ance of a suburban home, yet their cost is small. The 
poultry house and the stable are separated, as they 
should be. Side by side they fit nicely on the rear of 
a lot 40 feet wide; otherwise disposed they can be 
built on a width of 25 feet. There ought to be about 
10 feet depth of yard room behind them for the few 
unsightly objects of the stable yard, as this lightens 
labor. If there be no room for this, omit the arched 
door on the rear, place the small door and the parti¬ 
tion door in front, and reverse the stalls so that the 
mangers will be against the rear wall. 
The stable will commodiously accommodate a cow, 
a horse, a buggy and an ample stock ui provender. 
Fig. 87 shows the building on sloping ground, with 
the floor of the stable dropped two feet below the floor 
of the carriage room. The walls are built of rough 
hemlock sheathing set up vertically without studding. 
On this tar paper is laid, outside of which the wea¬ 
therboarding is nailed. This gives the warmest pos¬ 
sible wall and is wind and vermin-proof. The front 
and rear walls are 10 feet high. The stalls are floored 
with oak, calked and pitched. There is an incomplete 
overhead floor above the stalls that makes them 
warmer, and affords a loft for extra bags of feed, bales 
of hay, etc. The doors are made simply of IxlO-inch 
pine boards running vertically, the cracks being bat¬ 
tened with i^x2-inch strips. The poultry house will 
accommodate a dozen fowls, which, if of the right 
kind and fed properly, ought to yield an abundance of 
eggs all Winter. The house has a one-slope roof 
which, if objected to, can be hidden by continuing the 
lattice of the yard all the way around. The rear wall 
is four feet high and the front seven, the wall con¬ 
struction being the same as that of the stable. The 
roosts are three feet from the ground,, reached by an 
inclined dropping board which slopes downward to the 
end near the door, thereby lessening the labor of 
cleaning. The space under the dropping board may 
be latticed up to serve as a coop for broody hens or 
fattening fowls. The nests are simply soap boxes 
hung on the wall, with a lattice above to prevent 
fowls roosting on top. They are taken out and burned 
at the Spring cleaning and replaced by new ones. The 
yard is made two laths high, and has a round bay 
front for appearance’ sake. It can be covered in with 
a roof and cheap muslin sides for a Winter scratching 
shed if desired. Fig. 88 gives a ground plan of the 
buildings. In western Pennsylvania the cost with 
slate roofs was $30 for the poultry house witu its yard 
and $181 for the stable. The investment has yielded 
handsome dividends of pleasure and profit. 
CHEVALIER. 
THE VINELAND BUSH SWEET POTATO. 
About a year ago The R. N.-Y. published an article 
on the sweet potato, accompanied by an illustration 
over the name of “Vineland Bush.’’ This was a mis¬ 
take. The photograph was of a hill of Jersey Yellow 
of the Vineland Fancy strain, for which this town has 
become so noted. The Vineland Bush resembles the 
Jersey Yellow very closely in form and color. The 
picture. Fig. 89, was taken 24 hours after they were 
dug and the vine had become badly wilted, but it 
shows well the general character. The bush form is 
a great advantage in cultivation, especially in the 
garden. The plants are as easy to care for as a bush 
bean, as there are no vines in the way of cultivating, 
the short stubby stems never getting more than a 
foot or so long. The leaves are of the same general 
shape as the Jersey, but much larger and darker 
green. The bright golden yellow color of the tubers 
makes them very attractive. Their eating quality is 
practically the same as the Jersey Yellow when grown 
on the same soil; in fact, it is quite impossible to dis¬ 
tinguish between them either before or after cooking. 
Their yield was at the rate of 50 barrels to the acre 
with us the past season; while some varieties yielded 
more the Vineland Bush gave a good average crop. 
Their keeping quality is not of the best, being some¬ 
what inclined to shrivel in Winter storage. Caleb 
Boggs, of Delaware, who grew the Vineland Bush 
last season, says: “We have discarded the Vineless 
Gold Coin for the simple reason that it is superseded 
by Vineland Bush, which is a perfect bush with no 
inclination for spinning. The tubers grow directly 
under the stalk; they are most abundant bearers, good 
flavor, handsome, rich yellow color. It is simply per¬ 
fection, and a great improvement over all vineless 
potatoes heretofore sold.’’ f. s. n. 
New Jersey. _ 
MAK/NB A CEMENT WALK. 
S. E. Barney, of Indiana, has told u.s how to make a 
cement floor and a cement wall. Now, readers have 
asked how walks of cement are made. As usual, the 
answer is very clearly expressed. 
In reply to J. V. B. will say that cement walks, 
straight and curved in any way to suit conditions or 
OUTBUILDINGS ON A SMALL LOT. Fig. 87. 
fancy, are easily made. First secure lx4-inch strips 
for the outside of your walk, and place at such dis¬ 
tance apart as you may wish for the width. Hold 
these in place by stakes 10 to 12 inches long. If walk 
is to be straight, these stakes are only needed on out¬ 
side of strips to hold the outward pressure of the 
<-f 
grouting. For a curved walk, the strips must be bent 
to the curve desired and held there by stakes till the 
grout will hold them. Then remove stakes. These 
strips must be absolutely level on top edge, or if the 
walk is to be on any grade, these strips must make 
the grade, and, if sidewalks, the side strip next to 
THE VINELAND BUSH SWEET POTATO. Fig. 89. 
road must be one inch lower than the other side, that 
water may run from walks. Procure a straight edge 
1x4 inches, straight on both edges, and saw a notch 
of three-quarters of an inch at each end, so this 
straight edge will be full width, the width of walk, 
and 3% inches at each end. This straight edge with 
the short side down can be moved freely between 
strips to make the grouting level three-quarters of an 
inch below the top of strips. As fast as the grout is 
laid and set, put on the top coat of three-quarters of 
an inch, and use the other edge of the straight edge 
to make the top coat true. This top coat should be 
three of sand to two of cement. If to be used only for 
a walk you can safely use for this top coat two of 
sand to one of cement. To prevent any walk from 
being broken by frost, it must be laid off in sections. 
For a walk five or six feet wide make the sections 3S 
to 42 inches long. To do this use a strip as wide as 
the outer strips of walk, but only one-half-inch thick, 
and place these strips in the grouting to make the 
sections. Remove these strips before putting on top 
coat, and after the coat is finished, take a mason’s 
trowel and make a clean cut through the top coat 
into the space left by the removal of the one-half-inch 
strips. The action of frost rarely ever breaks one of 
these sections. The top coat should be troweled as 
smoothly as possible, using a plasterer’s trowel. Take 
pains at first and go slow, and you will succeed. 
s. E. BARNEY. 
WHEN AND HOW TO USE FERTILIZERS. 
Will you advise me as to proper mode of using sulphate 
of potash and nitrate of soda on a vegetable and small 
fruit garden? Should they be spread on the surface 
now, or just prior to digging for Spring planting? Should 
they be mixed, and equal parts of each used? Are they 
alike beneficial to raspberries and strawberries? 
We have many questions as to how fertilizers should 
be put on the land. Garden soil is usually rich, and 
we advise broadcasting fertilizers after the ground is 
spaded or plowed. Spread the fertilizer evenly over 
the rough furows and rake or harrow it in. One of 
the few iron-clad rules of soil culture is the fact that 
it is better to harrow rather than plow fertilizer or 
lime. Even quantities of nitrate of soda and sulphate 
of potash will answer for garden culture, but you must 
remember that neither of these substances contains 
phosphoric acid, which is likely to be lacking in most 
heavy garden soils. Phosphoric acid has most to do 
with the production of seed, and is very necessary to 
all small fruits. You might well add three times as 
much of dissolved phosphate rock or twice as much 
of fine ground bone as of nitrate of soda. It is not 
necessary to mix them—spread them evenly over the 
garden, and rake them in. 
I wish to experiment on about half of 18 acres of corn 
and one-half acre of potatoes. In all my reading of The 
R. n.-Y. I do not know just how to use fertilizer on either 
corn or potatoes. Is it to be applied a hill at a time by 
hand, or is there a faster way, and when it is recom¬ 
mended to use so much per acre, have I to count the hills 
and then figure out so much per hill, and then guess at it? 
We plant in drills, and drop the fertilizer with the 
attachment on a Robbins planter, which does good 
work. When planting in hills the fertilizer may be 
dropped one way in the furrows, put in the hill by 
hand or broadcast. In the majority of cases broad¬ 
casting is better. Many who use the fertilizer in hill 
or drill put it there because it is easier and quicker to 
do so. A grain drill will put fertilizer in the ground 
well. When the upper surface is fine and loose the 
hoes on the drill may be let down so as to drop the 
fertilizer two inches or so under ground and cover it. 
Such application is just about right. If wanted In 
drill or hill deep furrows can be made one way with 
the plow. The tubes on the fertilizer drill can be tied 
together so as to feed into the furrows. Then cross- 
mark with a light plow or marker. This will cover 
the fertilizer in the hills, and the seed pieces can be 
dropped and covered. If an exact experiment is de¬ 
sired of course some plan will have to be figured out 
so as to give the proper weight for each hill. In or¬ 
dinary culture, however, this is not necessary. For 
corn we would broadcast by all means. Some farm¬ 
ers plant and then after several days scatter the fer¬ 
tilizer along the rows and work it in with harrow or 
weeder. 
If I apply bone meal to an orchard that Is set to grass, 
will it ever get In reach of the feeding roots of the trees, 
so as to benefit them? If so, in about how long a time? 
Theoretically, an orchard should never be set to grass, 
but In this part of the world I do not regard it safe to 
give it continued cultivation. "w. H. L. 
Iowa. 
We always prefer to use ground bone on crops 
which allow it to be worked into the ground. Much 
bone meal is not ground fine enough. A finely-pow¬ 
dered bone will slowly work into the ground on sod 
carried down into the mud by rains. It would be slow 
to reach the tree roots. For orchards in sod, we pre¬ 
fer the forms of fertility that are soluble in water so 
that the plant food may be washed down past the 
roots of the grass. All forms of potash are soluble. 
Nitrate of soda is, we think, the best form of nitrogen 
for these sod orchards, and dissolved rock or bone 
black is better than bone, because the phosphoric acid 
will wash or leach down below the grass. With raw 
ground bone of ordinary fineness, on that sod, we 
should expect that the grass would get most of the 
phosphoric acid, the trees getting their share six 
months or a year after it was applied. There would 
not be this difference in a cultivated orchard, where 
the bone was thoroughly worked into the ground. 
