77o 
November 36 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A CONDENSED INDDSTKT.—In EnglAnd and G«r- 
many, where teasels are grown, the plants are started 
In beds much as tobacco plants are started in this 
country. In the Pall of the first season the plants 
are taken from the bed and set in the field, thus enab¬ 
ling the farmer to secure his teasel crop by using the 
land only one season. One of the best crops with 
which to follow teasels is wheat. The teasels come 
from the land at just the proper time to enable it to 
be fitted for Winter wheat. Up to the present time 
no insects or fungous enemies have appeared to pro¬ 
duce serious damage to the crop. Recently there has 
been an attack by what is evidently a fungous disease 
which causes the stalks to weaken and droop shortly 
before the plants reach maturity. This trouble is at 
present being investigated by the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington, and without doubt some 
remedy will be found. The teasel industry was start¬ 
ed in Skaneateles in 1832 by John Snook, who brought 
seed with him from England. The Oregon teasel in¬ 
dustry was introduced into Oregon by an Englishman, 
Mr. Sautell, who brought seed from Belgium. Owing 
to the limited area on which teasels can be grown 
successfully there is not much danger of the market 
being over-supplied. They cannot be stored for an 
indefinite length of time, for with age they become 
brittle and break easily. No investigations seem 
to have been made, up to the present time, as to prop¬ 
er methods of fertilization and amount of plant food 
removed from the soil by teasels. These investigations 
will shortly be undertaken, and it is hoped that soon 
definite information may be secured as to the effect 
of the growth of teasels upon the soil, and also soil 
and climatic conditions which produce the valuable 
qualities in teasels. l. a. clinton. 
COW PEAS AT THE NORTH. 
A Good Siarf in Pennsylvania. 
As I had never seen any cow peas growing I con¬ 
cluded to try an acre of them. I planted them June 
15, in rows three feet apart; dropped them by hand 
and covered them by putting shovels on the culti¬ 
vator. Just before they came up I ran over them with 
weeder; cultivated three times, once in a row each 
time. The ground on which they were planted was 
heavy clay, with no humus in the soil. Heavy cold 
rains about September 1 turned vines very yellow. 
About September 20 they were frosted. They matured 
some ripe pods. I plowed them under October 10, and 
sowed the piece to rye. The ground on which the 
peas were planted was so poor that I cannot remem¬ 
ber the time when the mowing machine was run over 
it. It has been the custom to plow it, raise a crop 
of buckwheat, then a crop of oats or rye; try to seed 
it with sweepings of bam fioor, let it rest a few years, 
then give it another dose of the same, until it got 
barren of all vegetation except five-finger and silver 
grass. I measured some of the vines that were eight 
feet six inches high. These grew on a part of the field 
that was made rich by the sheep lying in the shade 
of an apple tree. I removed the tree with dynamite, 
but the growth on the whole field was about all that 
could be plowed in. The ground was filled with nitro¬ 
gen nodules, or at least the roots were covered with 
them. The cow peas were an early black-seeded va¬ 
riety. If this experiment plot proves a success I shall 
use the same means on the rest of the poor land. It 
is 12 years since I bought this place; it was then in a 
worn-out condition, or at least in a bad chemical con¬ 
dition. How to pay for it, build new buildings and 
rebuild the old ones, keep the pot iwiling and raise 
three healthy children was a very serious question to 
me, but for me to tell the rest would take too much 
space, so will close. o. b. 
Factoryville, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—You close just at the wrong point, for we 
all want to know how you mastered these hard prob¬ 
lems. We feel sure that the cow peas will help. 
/ Good Account from Massachusetts. 
On June 18 we planted a bushel of Black-eyed cow 
peas alone, in drills, on an acre of land. They had 
hardly begun to blossom the last of Augrust when they 
were cut for hay. They made a tremendous growth, 
and completely covered the ground. We consider 
them a success, although they were hard to cut and 
hard to cure. Another year we shall try for an earlier 
variety. We have not begun to feed the hay yet, but 
we fed some of the vines green, and the cows were 
extremely fond of them. Our making the crop into 
hay was a case of necessity. We need the cured fod¬ 
der very badly. If the long, wet Spring had not made 
it impossible we should have put oats and Canada 
peas on that piece. We would have liked to put more 
of the crop under ground than just the roots and stub¬ 
ble, but we wanted the rest to feed. I think there is 
a way to “have your cake and eat it, too.” After the 
piece was cut over, and before the hay was cured, the 
stubble sprouted enough so that the rows showed 
plainly. My idea is this: Plant the peas as soon as 
the ground is warm, and cut to feed green, bo ihat 
all will be cut by the first part of “dog days.” This 
would be the most favorable time for the stubble to 
sprout, and, judging by the way ours started, there 
would be a good second growth by the time frost 
came. This could be plowed in, or left on the ground 
for a cover crop. s. b. bobbins. 
Massachusetts. 
They Show Up in New York. 
My cow peas were sown June 22 (a black-seeded va¬ 
riety) 28 inches apart and cultivated twice; 100 
pounds of phosphoric acid and potash per acre and 
one bushel of beans. The growth was very large, 
completely covering the ground 1% to two feet deep. 
I tried to cure some of them, but the wet season had 
induced a watery growth and with a cool, moist Fall 
they did not cure well. On October 8 they were still 
green, not killed by frost, and had only produced a 
few blossoms, no pods. I think they were a late va¬ 
riety. I began on the above date to plow them under. 
Well, I thought myself an expert at turning under 
green crops, but those cow peas were a sticker. The 
vines reached across two rows, some of them four 
to five feet, and well tangled. I used a large swivel 
steel plow with heavy chain, but they clogged so bad¬ 
ly I could not get them under until I used a harrow 
to turn them around in line with the furrow; then 
they went well out of sight in the bottom of a nine- 
inch furrow. The plow was followed by roller, then 
well harrowed and sown to rye, two bushels per acre, 
with 100 pounds more fertilizer, to be turned under 
next May and planted to beans. While plowing one 
thing was brought forcibly to my mind. The land 
where the cow peas grew was very loose and lively. 
THE WILD AND CULTIVATED TEASEL. Fie. 349. 
in splendid mechanical condition, while land along¬ 
side, in same lot, treated the same heretofore, but 
planted to field beans, was so hard that I could hardly 
plow it. This is my first experience; its teachings 
are that they are poor to feed to cows or swine (as 
mine failed to relish them), but I believe the key to 
success on these old run-down clay loams is to fur¬ 
nish more humus, and the past season’s trial tells me 
that cow peas are the best crop I have ever used for 
that purpose. w. L. m. 
Searsburg, N. Y. 
SOME REASONS FOR BREEDING PONIES. 
Danger Before the Carriage-Bred Colts. 
It pays to raise well-bred driving horses. That is, 
if you can. But there are several things in favor of 
raising ponies. One of these is that they are not near¬ 
ly so liable to get injured; being of a very quiet dis- 
I)OSition, they will run by a barbed wire fence all 
Summer, when it would be impossible for a trotting- 
bred colt to run there without his getting more or 
less cut. Then the cost of feed is very small. Indeed, 
one of the drawbacks of breeding the ponies is that 
the little mares get so fat that they are liable not to 
breed. We have just been having a serious time with 
our colts, as they have had an attack of distemper 
or strangles. The baby pony had it very badly indeed, 
and it was only by the greatest care that we saved his 
life. Here was another case where his diminutive 
size was of value. When he got so bad that it was 
only with the greatest difficulty that he could breathe, 
I just picked him up and carried him into the kitchen, 
where Mrs. Morse and I poulticed his throat with 
fiaxseed meal, and steamed him by placing his head 
in a grain bag partly filled with fine hay and sprinkled 
with pine tar, and then saturated with boiling water. 
He is now probably out of danger, but he is much 
lighter than before. That distemper can take the 
flesh off a colt in a surprising manner. But his being 
a pony, it does not do any hurt if he does not grow 
very fast. This distemppr will only help to make 
him a diminutive little prize pony, another point in 
the pony’s favor, for the carriage-bred colt needs to 
be kept growing, and this distemper has left her look¬ 
ing as if walking on stilts, her legs are so long. 
Speaking of carriage-bred horses there is no danger 
of their becoming too plentiful, because there is noth¬ 
ing to breed them from. If a farmer raises (by 
chance) a fine carriage mare, off she goes to the city, 
and only the runts and “beef” mares are left to breed 
from. Two years ago I was able to get a Hamble- 
tonion mare six years old, standing 16 hands tall, and 
weighing about 1,150 pounds. She was of a very ner¬ 
vous disposition. In fact, she had run away and scat¬ 
tered a wagon shortly before I got her. I thought she 
would make an excellent breeder, if I could find a 
suitable horse to mate her with. By careful handling 
she, with her mate, will plow two acres of sod in a 
day, but she will go up in the air if she is “fooled” 
with. This is a serious drawback to using this class 
of horses on the farm. On the road they will draw a 
wagon 10 miles in an hour, up hill and down. Still, 
neither is a “salable” horse. I bred this mare to 
Harry Eddy, a standard-bred horse with a race record 
of 2.26^. He is a blood bay, 16 hands high and weigh¬ 
ing 1,100 pounds. This horse is having a remarkable 
run of popularity just now, having served 100 mares 
the past season, and these mares are big mares and 
little mares, draft mares and mustangs; any old mare 
that perchance may raise a “Harry Eddy” colt. Amd 
what a lot of disappointed men there will be when 
these colts grow up, and they find that their “Harry 
Eddy” colt looks so very much like their little old 
Dolly, whose neck grew bottom side up, and whose 
legs were made for a Jersey heifer, but by mistake 
got attached to a horse! 
My mare dropped a blood bay colt on April 5, long 
of leg and long of neck, filled to the brim with “gin¬ 
ger,” because both the sire and dam were of these 
characteristics, not because one of them was and the 
other with faults enough to ruin a dozen colts. The 
colt was kept in a box stall, and the mare was taken 
to the barn to nurse her once during the forenoon 
and again in the afternoon. We could not let the colt 
run in the lot while working the mare, because the 
thing was too crazy to stay within a quarter of a mile 
of her mother, and the mother was inclined to go 
crazy with the colt. Yet she would work very well 
until the time came to go to the barn, then the best 
thing to do was to unhitch and go. After haying I 
turned the mare and colt into a meadow, where one 
side was fenced with wire, on the back side of the lot, 
next to the woods where no stock were. But in a few 
days the colt came down with an ugly tear in one hip, 
which took several stitches and much liniment to 
mend, and since this time they have had to be con¬ 
tented with the “calf pasture,” which is fenced with 
boards. Then came the distemper, through which 
she has barely lived, and she is less than seven 
months old. A long time yet before she will be a 
five-year-old “market” horse, and I am beginning to 
think that when a man produces one he earns his 
money, to say nothing of the fact that it is more than 
half just “luck.” J. grant morse. 
BIRDS THAT BOTHER FRUIT. 
How can I prevent my apples being eaten by birds? 
There are a number of them here that belong to the 
Apple Consumers’ League, mostly the woodpecker, 
of which there are four species. Jays sometimes think 
their systems need toning up by a diet of apple, and 
take a hand in the work of destruction. I have in 
former years shot large numbers of the black and 
white woodpeckers, as they are the worst of all, but 
their ranks were immediately filled up, and the work 
went on. They begin each year on the early varieties. 
Sweet Bough if they can find any. I cut my Bough 
trees down, thinking that would stop them, but they 
would turn to next in season. Early Harvest, Red As- 
trachan. Maiden Blush, Nonsuch and also peck and 
spoil Winter kinds, Wagener, Willow Twig, etc. We 
have been familiar with the fruit conditions in this 
section for 35 years and have not known birds to in¬ 
jure apples until about eight years ago. It is not for 
the want of food that they do so, as the crop of worms 
and other insects, except Potato bugs, gets larger every 
year. We also lose from one-third to one-half of our 
cherry crop by the same crowd, assisted by robins 
and catbirds; also lose a large share of the berry 
crop except strawberries, by the same gang. Is there 
any remedy for this state of affairs? h. s. m. 
Canton, Ill. 
R. N.-Y.—We call for information from those who 
have had similar ti’ouble. What can we put in the 
apple sauce that will cure this bad habit? Member¬ 
ship in the Apple Consumers’ League is confined to 
humans. 
