86 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FEB 8 
a good one. Let us hear from others. For 
the year 1889 hens paid best with me. 
The following are the figures taken from 
my book account at the close of 1889. 
DEBIT. 
Jan. 1, 1889 1S4 hens at no cents $67 00 
7 roosters “ 69 “ 8.50 
4 chickens “ 10 “ .40 
Jan. 12. Bought 41 hens 18 45 
Mar. 14 •* 8 ducks ' “60 “ 4 80 
94.15 
CREDIT. 
Eggs sold for three months ending 
March 31 334 10-12 dozen $ 78 63 
June 30 5V7 “ 100.60 
Sept. 30 415 •* ]07 48 
Pec. 31 221 *• 82 46 
Chickens sold 89.91 
Ducks “ 59.*8 
Extra hens at close of year 1889, 48 at E” conls 24J 0 
“ chickens “ “ 4 “ 10 “ .40 
493.06 
There is another item of considerable im¬ 
portance to the credit of the hens, of which 
I have not kept any account: it consists of 
an estimated 100 dozen eggs used in the 
family. These would amount, at 24 cents 
per dozen, to 824.00 ; 60 hens, ducks and 
chickens at 50 cents, 830.00; 17 pounds of 
ducks’ feathers (Pekin) at 50 cents, $8.50; 
making a total of $62.50. I did not give 
the flock credit for these items as they 
had been used in the family. In addi¬ 
tion to all this, 513*j dozen eggs were used 
for setting, hens being employed as incu¬ 
bators. Of these 19 dozen were duck 
eggs. This avocation kept a considerable 
flock from their regular work of producing 
eggs. This year I have given up the ducks, 
and shall try to make a better showing at 
the end of the year, rain or shine. I have 
not any figures to show the actual cost of 
keeping the fowls for the year; but at pre¬ 
sent with a flock of 255 hens and eight 
chickens, one-third grown, the regular 
daily food consists of 
12 quarts of skim-milk 12 cents 
9 pounds “ meal 9 “ 
2J£ “ “ scraps 53^ “ 
lj^ “ “ Pratt’s poultry food 15 “ 
5 “ “ oats 7 “ 
7 ** “ cracked corn 7 “ 
2 “ “ wheat “ 
1 “ •* oyster shells % “ 
3 “ “ clover rowen 2 “ 
16 “ “ corn 16 “ 
6 quarts “ small potatoes 4 “ 
Cost per day 81}{ “ 
This is more than it will cost to keep 
them in the warm season of the year, but 
at this rate throughout the year it would 
cost $1.09 per hen. A hen can be kept for 
much less than this amount on a ration of 
corn and meal, but I cannot get eggs in 
winter from a clear grain ration. I claim 
that I can take care of this flock of hens 
with less labor than two cows require. 
Drive up your $94 worth of cows and show 
up your figures from them ! 
“FARMING PAYS.” 
S. C. I., Providence County, R. I.—We 
often hear it said that “ the farmer works 
hard all summer to get enough to live on 
through the winter.” In many sections of 
this State I know this to bo true, and some 
who farm cannot or do not make “ both 
ends meet.” Then in a few years the farm 
is mortgaged, the farmer is discouraged 
and goes about in an aimless sort of way 
complaining that “ farmin’don’t pay.” I 
pity all such. A few years ago when I was 
about to begin farming for myself, I looked 
forward to the winter months as a kind of 
grand holiday time for rest and enjoyment 
after the hard labors of summer. But my 
experience has been far different from what 
I anticipated. I have found just as much 
work to be done in winter as in summer. 
I have been aiming to make farming pay 
the Tyear round. A farmer who would 
prosper cannot afford to be idle in winter ; 
neither can he afford to keep a lot of non¬ 
paying animals. And now let me contrast 
the farm management of 30 or 40 years ago 
with the present methods in this section 
and on the very same farms. 
Then a small number of cows were kept 
on the farm and a few pounds of butter 
were made during the summer season. In 
winter it was fortunate if a farmer had a 
farrow cow to supply himself and his 
neighbors with milk for their tea and 
coffee. One! horse was kept to drive and 
do lighc work, while oxen were kept to do 
heavy work on the farm. The hens roosted 
in trees or huddled in some shed. An egg 
in winter was a rare thing. Only small 
Quantities of produce were taken to market 
at irregular intervals during a part of the 
year. Now on some of these farms from 10 
to 30 or more cows are kept. Milk or but¬ 
ter is made summer and winter. The hens 
have good snug houses where they are well 
taken care of and are a source of profit in 
winter as well as in summer. The slow 
ox-team has disappeared and two or three 
Worses do all the farm VbrK with better 
satisfaction. The farm products, includ¬ 
ing the butter and eggs, are carried regu¬ 
larly to the consumer once or twice a week 
during the whole year. Result, “farmin’ 
pays.” 
ROLLING OATS IN A DRY SEASON: STRAW¬ 
BERRY BLIGHT. 
H. W. S., Oakland, O.—I notice a refer¬ 
ence in the R. N.-Y. of January 7, to Mr. 
Strickland’s oat crop. I believe a mistake 
was made with regard to the effect of roll¬ 
ing in a dry time. Farmers here roll a great 
deal when the weather is very dry, and I 
believe it is right. The mellower the soil 
is, the more moisture it gathers, and when 
ground is rolled down smooth, less surface 
is exposed to evaporation than when it is 
cloddy. I rolled oats after it had nearly hid¬ 
den the ground in 1881, (one of Jthe driest 
seasons we ever had) and raised above the 
average. In the same issue is an inquiry 
from my own county about strawberry 
blight. In the answer referenceis made to 
the wet season as possibly the cause: but 
the past season has been very dry here. 
R. N.-Y. We can merely speak from our 
own experience. Rolling wheat after seed¬ 
ing in the fall gave a smooth surface which 
became glazed, so to speak, and caked after 
rain. It is true that a mellow soil con¬ 
serves moisture. Does the roller mellow 
the soil or compact it ? If T. W. S., will 
roll a strip of the field, leaving the rest not 
rolled, it will be seen that the strip rolled 
will be moist on the surface when the un¬ 
rolled soil is dry, thus showing that the 
moisture comes to the surface more rapidly 
and of course escapes more rapidly. We 
were for a time much in favor of rolling. 
It may be well to break up lumps and clods, 
but we now prefer to harrow afterwards. 
Probably rust or leaf-blight is more de¬ 
structive in dry than in moderately wet 
seasons. During the past season there was 
very little rust in the early part. An un¬ 
usual growth of leaves was induced by the 
excessively wet season and rust prevailed 
as never before during the early fall. 
NOTES ON THE MINER GRAPES, ETC. 
R. A. W., Geneseo, N. Y.—I observed in 
a recent issue of the R. N.-Y. a question as 
to the color of Miner’s Belinda Grape. 
About 14 years since I bought directly of 
Mr. T. B. Miner, both the Antoinette and 
Belinda Grape Seed lings, having received de¬ 
scriptions of them through correspondence 
with the originator. I also bought, a little 
later, from Mr. Miner his seedling straw¬ 
berry called Miner’s Prolific, which I still 
fruit, and also six or seven more of his 
seedling grapes, among which was the 
Victoria, which I lost. The Antoinette 
and Belinda have proved very similar with 
me. They are both white grapes, the 
former being the larger, with a stronger 
musky aroma and more inclined to crack 
when fully ripe. It is also the better 
bearer. The Belinda with me is somewhat 
smaller in cluster and berry, of paler color, 
purer in flavor but slightly more acid. The 
varieties are both very similar to the Con¬ 
cord in vine, leaf and habit of growth. I 
discarded the Linden, Augusta and Eu¬ 
genia. They were rather shy bearers, and 
the Linden was small in cluster and berry. 
The Carlotta, which has something of the 
same habit as to bearing, is splendid in 
quality and I grow it for that reason. I 
have tested nearly all of Ricketts’s mos 
promising seedlings, but retain only a few 
and these principally for the purity of their 
flavor, as the Eldorado, the Jefferson, the 
Golden Gem, etc. 
CLOVER FOR HOGS. 
D. W. F., Mt. Vernon, Iowa.—I cannot 
quite agree with Dr. Henry Stewart, when 
he says, in a late Rural, that clover is in¬ 
dispensable as an early spring feed for pigs. 
If one can change his pasture from one 
field to another every few years, then clover 
is best; but if one, like myself, must have 
a permanent pasture, then Blue Grass is 
best. My hog pasture is mostly Blue Grass 
with some White Clover and Timothy. 
Pigs are fond of all these if they are fed 
short. My pigs this year were fai rowed in 
April and sold about Christmas time. 
The average weight was 347 pounds each. 
This will show how well pigs will thrive 
on such a pasture. Of course, no one wi.l 
suppose that such heavy weights are ob¬ 
tained on grass alone. A little corn all the 
time and some milk greatly assist the pigs 
to make double-quick time. During the 
months when they are grazing and racing 
up and down a large pasture, a half-feed of 
corn does not make them sick: neither 
does it make them unhealthy. I cannot 
vouch for the best treatment for pigs in the 
Southern climate for which Dr. Stewart 
wrote ; but why will not colored Virginia 
pigs t-hrjYf on part ear-corn as well as 
colored Virginia boys do on hoe-cake ? And 
why cannot Virginia produce good corn 
cheaply P I should try hard to find some 
concentrated, cheap feed to use in part for 
pigs in clover. I am pleased to learn that 
Henry Stewart agrees with me as regards 
the use of sweet corn. 
A FRIEND OF FERTILIZERS. 
F. E. T., McLean, N. Y.—Three years 
ago I took a piece of land consisting of 3)4 
acres, clover and Timothy sod, except 
one acre which had been broken the year 
previous and which had six two-horse loads 
of stable manure spread upon it and had 
been planted to cabbage and produced a 
fair crop. I planted all to potatoes and 
used 1,200 pounds of a complete fertilizer; 
yield 600 bushels of tubers, of which 500 
were marketable at 60 cents, bringing in 
$300. The next year I sowed the land to 
barley and the yield was 142 bushels, which 
sold at 70 cents per bushel, or a total of 
$99.40. I sowed 600 pounds of fertilizer. 
This last season the land yielded eight 
tons of clover and Timothy hay. I plowed 
under, last October, a heavy growth of 
clover and Timothy and I think the land is 
20 per cent, richer than it was when broken 
three years ago. One side of the field is 
not so good as the other, so I spread one 
ton of straw on it and plowed it under with 
grass and will note the effect of the appli¬ 
cation. My idea is that grass roots are the 
cheapest manure we have, fertilizers come 
next and stable manure is the dearest, al¬ 
though I am keeping eight cows and save 
all the manure I can. I intend to make 
this a trial plot. 
CASH CROPS FOR 1S90. 
L. P. H., Hillier, Can.—I would like to 
inquire from the readers of the R. N.-Y. 
what cash crops will be sown in 1890. I 
shall sow on 200 acres, 75 bushels of barley, 
12 of Gem Peas, 15 of Early Kent Peas, 12 
of Champion of England Peas, two of Amer¬ 
ican Wonder Peas and 30 of White-eyed, 
Marrowfats. I will sow only eight bushels 
of wheat (just enough for our bread) and 20 
bushels of oats. I have 75 acres seeded to 
clover and Timothy and shall keep eight 
cows and hope to send the milk to a cheese 
factory if we can start one. I have nine 
pigs to kill in the spring and expect to 
have as many to sell in the fall. I also keep 
90 hens. The only specialty we have in 
this township is raising fancy peas and we 
can raise them to perfection. Peas are the 
best cash crops we have. We can raise 
barley cheaper than any other grain, but 
we cannot grow it for less than 60 cents per 
bushel and this year we got only 43 cents. 
R. N.-Y.—Let us hear from others. What 
are you going to try this year for a cash 
crop ? It is time you thought about it. 
GIVE THE COW A REST. 
E. S. S., Eagle Harbor, N. Y.—Speak¬ 
ing in a late R. N.-Y. of a cow that had been 
dried off for a time before calving, and 
which showed good results afterwards, the 
question is asked whether it was the rest 
that helped that cow. I think so. In the 
fall of ’87 I bought a cow on the first of 
December and she began giving milk the 
first of October. She was due to calve in 
August ’88 ; but I did not know the date, 
so I milked her up to within 10 d»ys of 
calving time. Well, one may judge of my 
surprise when I began to milk her again I 
got bo more milk from her than I did when 
I stopped milking to let her dry off, nor 
did she do any better through the whole 
season. Last winter she went dry nearly 
three months, and this year she has been 
the best cow I ever owned. She is four years 
old next spring. My four cows from May 
1 up to December 20 made, by actual 
weight, 1,310 pounds of butter. My near¬ 
est neighbor had the same experience in 
milking up to 10 or 12 days of calving time. 
Michigan Small Fruits, Etc.— Bulle¬ 
tin No. 55 from the Michigan A. E. S., is a 
report of small fruits by T. T. Lyon, from 
the South Haven, Van Buren Co., sub-sta¬ 
tion. Of 108 varieties of strawberries tried, 
very few of the newer varieties are praised. 
Alpha is very early and most prolific. Dew 
bears “ enormous” fruit. Gandy is profit¬ 
able as a late berry. Gold is a good family 
berry. Ilaverland is perfect in form, even¬ 
sized and profitable. Louise is promising. 
Mount Vernon is valuable and late. Sum¬ 
mit IS a fine gnigteur berry. Jossja is very 
promising for market. Bubach (No. 5) is 
one of the most valuable of the large vari¬ 
eties though somewhat deficient in both 
quality and firmness. President Lyon well 
describes the Cumberland as valuable for 
its large and always perfectly formed fruit, 
which only needs a little more firmness of 
texture and a brighter color with increased 
productiveness to entitle it to stand in the 
front rank of both family and market 
fruits. 
Some 10 years ago the Cumberland (Tri¬ 
umph) was tested at the Rural Grounds 
beside some 150 varieties and, except that 
it was rather soft, it was thought to rank 
among the very best in every way, quality, 
size and perfection of form. 
The Parker Earle shows remarkable vig¬ 
or and gives promise of abundant produc¬ 
tiveness. In a small way this variety 
should be tried all over the coifntry. 
For a family or farm garden, to be grown 
in matted rows, mere quantity being of 
less importance than quality, a good selec¬ 
tion of five varieties from lists would, ac¬ 
cording to President Lyon, be Alpha or 
Covill for early, followed by May King, 
with Belmont and Parry for medium and 
late, and Mount Vernon to close the sea¬ 
son. 
For market, to be grown in hills, a good 
succession would be Covill, Cumberland, 
Jessie, Sharpless, Mount Vernon and per¬ 
haps Kentuck}'. 
Among red raspberries Hansell ripens 
first. Fruit not large, quality rather infer¬ 
ior, plant not vigorous. Its value rests in 
its extreme earliness. The Turner is first 
in its class. Superb bears a very large 
berry, dark-colored and crumbly. Cuth- 
bert is among the best whether for home or 
market. Golden Queen is a yellow Cuth- 
bert. Herstine is not hardy and not among 
the most productive. In size, color and 
quality it has no superior. Caroline (yel¬ 
low) is extremely hardy and enormously 
productive, as the R. N.-Y. has often told 
its readers. The berries are too soft for 
market. 
Among blackcaps there is little to be said 
that the R. N.-Y. has not persistently kept 
before its readers. Asa desirable selection 
for home or market, President Lyon names 
Souhegan, Hilborn, Nemaha, with Shaffer 
for canning. 
The genuine Early Harvest Blackberry, 
is alleged to be hardy, early and produc¬ 
tive. Early it certainly is. Hardy it cer¬ 
tainly is not at the Rural Grounds. Wil¬ 
son Jr. is not hardy. Agawam is but 
slightly deficient in hardiness. Otherwise 
it is praised for home or market. The 
Erie is thought to be hardier than Lawton 
with a more trailing habit. It also has 
stronger thorns. Kittatinny would stand 
near the head were it not lacking in hardi¬ 
ness. During the past season it produced 
a full crop in Van Buren County. The 
Taylor is described as a vigorous grower of 
. spreading habit. It is very productive and 
hardy. The fruit is later than that of 
Synder which is equally hardy. The fruit 
is of fine flavor but small. Western Tri¬ 
umph is rarely injured though scarcely as 
hardy as either Taylor or Snyder. It bears 
too heavily. President Lyon condemns 
it. Minnewaski seems destined to rank 
high for market. Wallace, unknown to 
the R. N.-Y., is considered valuable both 
for home use and market—hardy, produc¬ 
tive, of large size and good quality. The 
new black currant Crandall is not consid¬ 
ered a hybrid. 
Three varieties of the Russian mulberry 
give small fruits of little value. The trees 
are hardy. The Downing Everbearing 
will not prove hardy. The Paragon Chest¬ 
nut promises to be an early bearer. The 
English Walnut is being raised from seed. 
SHORT AND FRESH. 
The Mother Apple is doubled-starred 
in the Am. P. Proceedings, for Maine, New 
Hampshire, New York, North Carolina and 
Missouri. It is given single stars for Ala¬ 
bama, California, Kan«as, Nebraska, Illin¬ 
ois, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland Michigan, 
Ontario, Nova Scotia, Vermont, Massachu¬ 
setts and Rhode Island. It would seem 
that this apple is not known as widely as 
it ought to be. It is of the best quality, of 
medium size, splashed and marbled with a 
rich red upon a yellow ground. It is rich, 
aromatic, sub-acid resembling the Esopus 
Spitzenburg. It is an early winter apple 
and originated in Massachusetts. 
Enrich a little bed during these mild 
days of winter for roses. Roses will not do 
their best in poor soil, no matter how 
thrifty they may be when planted. Mel¬ 
low the soil with qlij pqvpurp, luq\ 
