THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MARCH i 
134 
per dozen ; chickens, alive, 3to five cents 
per pound; fat cattle, to 2% cents per 
pound : milch cows, $10 to $20 per head ; 
horses from $15 to $100 according to qual¬ 
ity. T. H. w. 
Massachusetts. 
Norfolk County.— The R. N.-Y. asks its 
readers what crops they propose to plant 
for the most profit in.1890. Here is what I 
intend to plant as garden crops: Early 
peas, which will be put in the first day on 
which the frost is out of the ground. I am 
not particular as to the kind I plant, for all 
“ Extra Earlies ” are about one and the 
same kind. As i-oon as these are cleared 
off the ground, I shall plant celery, prob¬ 
ably Boston Market, which I shall have 
previously sown in a hot-bed. Peas have 
never failed with me and seldom fail in 
this locality ; but celery is more uncertain ; 
still 1 think there are nine chances out of 
10 that the celery will succeed. Peas vary 
in price from about 00 cents a peck to 70 
cents a bushel. Celery sells at from two or 
three cents a head to 15 cents. Half the 
land upon which these crops are to be 
planted was planted to spinach about the 
middle of last September. The spinach 
promises to be a good crop, and the only 
expense was in seed and sowing. F. G. H. 
New York. 
Oswego Falls, Oswego County, Febru¬ 
ary 15.—On page 86 the R. N.-Y. asks its 
readers what they intend to try for a “ cash 
crop” this year. My place comprises 
12 acres of sandy loam, which I intend to 
devote to strawberries and potatoes, divid¬ 
ing it into three plots of four acres each, 
viz.: Four acres of potatoes, four acres of 
newly-planted berries and four acres of 
berries to fruit. After picking the berries 
I intend to put in buckwheat, to be plowed 
under, and then follow with potatoes the 
ensuing season. • p. g. 
Pennsylvania. 
New' Alexandria, Westmoreland Coun¬ 
ty, February 12.—Crops in this county the 
past year were generally good, except pota¬ 
toes, which were very light. Apples were 
a fair crop. We get about Philadelphia 
prices for our produce, most of what we. 
raise being consumed within our own 
county. w. w. 
Virginia. 
Peaksville, Bedford County, February 
10.—I here tell how I have planned to make 
farming pay me for 1890. I live in a 
section in which the people are fairly pros¬ 
perous and though none of us are rich, 
still almost all of us have reason, in this 
era of dull times, to be thankful. We still 
follow the old custom of large farms (rang¬ 
ing from 200 to 600 acres) and while we feel 
the need of “ intensifying” our farming, 
we have to come down slowly, not being 
able to do so all at once, for fear of failure. 
I expect to make more money out of cattle 
than out of any other one branch of my 
operations. I am now feeding a lot of 
steers and heifers which cost me (about 
January 1st to 10th) two and three-eighths 
cents per pound, and they are sold for 
April 1st at four cents. I have a 20-acre 
clover field which will be just in full bloom 
about May 10th. I will then buy 25 light 
heifers, and on this extra pasture, with 
perhaps a little grain, they will get ahead 
of the rush, and I should gpt an advance 
of one-half cent to three-fourths cent per 
pound on them, and 100 pounds of extra 
weight per head, which will probably pay 
better than making hay on the If nd which 
is rough. At any rate it will diversify the 
farming, and lessen the chance of loss by 
wet weather. Last ye&r with us, no clover 
hay w r as saved on account of too much rain. 
I will then try to have a lot for October 1st 
and one for December 20th, handling about 
20 to 25 each time. I sell to a local butcher 
who buys them on representation one or 
two months ahead, and I work to make 
them so good that it is decidedly to his in¬ 
terest to buy my cattle, and I always find 
ready sale at outside prices. 
I have 14 nice shoats which will be for 
sale in the spring or early summer or early 
autumn whenever pigs get scarce and high. 
I will have four sows to pig in spring. I have 
made a little money on hogs and clover and 
hope to do so again. Two of my mares will 
have colts. I expect to plant, by way of ex¬ 
periment, one acre of clover sod in early po¬ 
tatoes according to the “ Trench System ” 
with 1,600 pounds of good fertilizer. I 
plant early kinds because I think I can sell 
them during the summer when other peo¬ 
ple are “too busy.” I shall sow r about 50 
bushels of oats on thin unimproved land. 
About 65 acres of oats and wheat will 
be seeded to clover and 10 acres to 
clover and Timothy; 25 to 27 acres 
go in corn which I will cultivate shallower 
and oftener than heretofore. Then at har¬ 
vest I shall have 86 bushels of w r heat seeded 
which 1 will cut with my McCormick bind¬ 
er and I should have in a fair season 60,000 
pounds of hay. I expect to sow as much 
wheat this fall and will try more if I find I 
can do it well. I expect to put a 60-ton silo 
in my barn and fill it for next winter on 
trial. I intend to plant 800 apple trees 40 
feet apart and 1,600 peach trees between 
them on a clover lot, and I have bought for 
this spring delivery some small fruits as 
well as plums, pears, etc., which I propose 
to plant in a lot specially set apart. Our 
lands are thin and unimproved, but they 
take and retain improvements very kindly. 
I expect to investigate fertilizers so as to 
find out which are suited to my land; to 
push clover for all that is in it, to study 
my business thoroughly and to subscribe to 
the R. N.-Y. for 1891. I keep four regular 
work horses, feed them well and work them 
hard, and will try to keep my labor account 
inside of $400. R. K. 
Wisconsin. 
Freedom, Outagamie County, February 
15.—The winter so far has been favorable 
for resting. Getting fire-wood and doing 
the chores are the principal occupations of 
the farmers here. \Ye have had a few days 
of real winter weather with good sleighing; 
the rest of the time the weather has been 
mild and soft. We had good crops last 
year and, as far as living is concerned, we 
have enough and to spare; but when it 
comes to paying interest and taxes, it takes 
a big load of produce to bring a little 
money. If one has special customers for 
butter at 25 cents instead of selling it in 
the store for 10 cents in trade, and can cut 
up his fat pigs into sausages, hams and 
lard, and sell the products to city customers 
for good prices, or if he has a good sugar 
bush and knows how to make maple sugar 
andean sell it to regular customers; in fact, 
if a farmer has the gumption to produce 
something a little better than his neigh¬ 
bors can, and can secure customers who 
believe in and trust him, he can make 
farming pay even now, but otherwise it is 
up-hill work. What are we going to do 
about it—give up farming ? What then ? 
E. N. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
fEvery query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the writer to insure atten¬ 
tion. Before asking a question, please see if it 
is not answered in our advertising columns. 
Ask only a few questions at one time. Put 
questions on a separate piece of paper.1 
CLOVER FOR VERMONT FARMERS. 
“ Subscriber,” Southport, Long Island. 
—On page 73, “M. C.” of Georgia, Ver¬ 
mont, makes some statements about clover, 
that I would like to have further explain¬ 
ed, The last sentence is not clear to me. 
ANSWERED BY M. CHASE. 
The article referred to in the R. N.-Y., 
page 73, first column, where it describes 
my future course of rotation, should read : 
“After potatoes, barley seeded with clover ; 
then I shall mow the clover the succeed¬ 
ing year in June, and leave it to decay on 
the ground,” etc. ; leaving out the words 
“ sow barley.” Leaving the first cutting 
of clover on the ground to decay may seem 
wasteful; but for me, as I am situated, I 
believe I can make as good use of it in this 
way as I can by harvesting and feeding it 
to stock or by selling it. I am so afflicted 
•with rheumatism that I am compelled to 
have most of my work done by hired help, 
and help is so scarce and dear in the har¬ 
vesting season that it costs a good deal to 
harvest our crops. I know of no means 
whereby I can furnish as much fertilizing 
matter to the soil and have it as evenly dis¬ 
tributed over the ground, as by turning 
under, the year after seeding, the entire 
crop of clover grown on the land. Clover 
seed to seed an acre will cost not over one 
dollar; the interest on the value of the 
land at $70 per acre is $4.20, and mowing 
the first crop costs 80 cents, making the 
total $6. If we count the growth of clover 
above ground at three tons of cured hay, 
the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash in 
the same at market prices are worth $29, 
and if the roots contain half as much value 
—$14.50—there will be a total of $43.50 
worth per acre of manure in the crop. It 
will take from 14 to 20 tons of stable ma¬ 
nure to produce as mnch plant food. To 
show the difference for potatoes in plowing 
under a good growth of clover and in plow¬ 
ing under the stubble only, I will give an il¬ 
lustration. My neighbor on an adjoining 
farm, two years ago last fall, plowed under 
a heavy crop of clover in a field designed 
for potatoes the next spring: but on the 
north and south sides the clover was stout¬ 
er than on the rest of the field, so he mowed 
a strip on each of those sides and drew the 
crop off, but next fall when he harvested 
his potatoes he found that where he had 
plowed under the whole crop, he had 150 
bushels of nice potatoes to the acre, and 
where he had mowed off the clover he had 
at the rate of about 100 bushels per acre, 
and the tubers were smaller than the oth¬ 
ers, considerably scabby and in every way 
inferior. He had used no fertilizer beyond 
the clover and sod. It cost us in this 
vicinity about all our hay is worth to har¬ 
vest it last summer. A farmer hired two 
men for one month for $80; add $30 for 
board, making $110, and during that time 
he had but three days of hay weather. 
Fairly good hay is selling, delivered at St. 
Albans, for $6 and No. 1 for $8 to $9 per 
ton. 
FLOWER QUERIES. 
E. K. L., Athens, Ga. —I have a Steph- 
anotis in a gallon pot, it grows very 
slowly, is six years old, has never bloomed, 
is in a cool greenhouse, and gets the sun 
until 12 o’clock. What is the matter ? In 
the same house in a two-gallon pot is a 
seven-year-old Tacoma jasminoides which 
has never bloomed though it grows w T ell. 
Is the Climbing Niphetos advertised by 
John Lewis Childs a good thing ? Would 
the R. N.-Y. advise me to plant one in my 
rose-hOuse ? Would the Stephanotis and 
tacoma do better in the rose-house, which 
gets the sun all day long ? Will they 
bloom better in the pots, or planted in the 
ground? Will they injure the roses? 
Will Coba-a scandeus bloom in winter in a 
cool greenhouse, partly shaded ? 
Ans.—T he Stephanotis is a native of Mad¬ 
agascar and requires a warm temperature 
in winter as well as in summer; at the 
same time, if it is grown vigorously in 
summer and ripened off well in the fall, it 
will live over-winter ia a cool greenhouse, 
but it will not be likely to come into bloom 
before late spring or summer. It would, 
probabiv, do better in a warm rose house 
in winter. While it would grow and bloom 
more freely if planted out, perhaps it may 
be handier for you to keep it as you now 
have it, in a pot. If shaded from warm 
sunshine, it will enjoy a sunny greenhouse. 
Tacoma jasminoides is an Australian plant 
and thrives well in a cool greenhouse in 
winter. Plunge it out-of-doors in summer 
in a well-sheltered but sunny place and 
give it lots of water, and encourage it to 
grow freely, but take care it does not root 
much through the bottom of the pot. It is 
more manageable in the pots, and if well 
pot-bound both this and the Stephanotis 
will bloom better. Yes, Cobam scandens 
will bloom in winter in a partially shaded 
cool greenhouse, but it will probably grow 
very long and straggling-, indeed, many 
another vine would pay better for the 
room. The climbing Niphetos Rose is 
mentioned favorably by some leading rose- 
growers, but, like all new roses, it should 
at first be planted on probation. 
BONES AS A FERTILIZER AND HOW TO “RE¬ 
DUCE” THEM, ETC. 
P. G., Oswego Falls, N. Y.—l can get 
fresh bones from the meat market for 25 
cents per 100 pounds; can I use them to 
advantage as a fertilizer at this price, and 
how should they be prepared ? Would 
horse manure be cheaper at $1 per two- 
horse load ? 
Ans.—T he bones are very cheap at this 
price. The trouble is to “reduce” them or 
get them into such form that they will be 
available for plant food. Fertilizer manu-- 
facturers are provided with powerful 
grinding machines for grinding the bones 
into meal, or with facilities for treating 
them with sulphuric acid. Both of these 
methods are out of the reach of the average 
farmer, though some farmers use acid with 
more or less success. Where plenty of 
wood is found, the bones can be burned by 
building up a heap composed of layers of 
dry wood and bones and starting a fire at 
the bottom. The ashes resulting from this 
are valuable for their phosphoric acid. 
Others pack the bones in boxes or barrels, 
alternating with layers of wood ashes or 
potash, and keep the mass wet with urine 
— a slow, unsatisfactory way — which 
softens the bones somewhat. Others 
throw them into the manure pile and let 
them remain a whole season. This, also, 
softens them merely. Aside from burning 
them, the R. N.-Y. has not found any of 
the ordinary farm methods of reducing 
bones very reliable, and by burning, the 
nitrogen, of course, is lost. We should 
certainly use horse manure at the price 
you mention if of good quality. There is 
no fair way of comparing the two. Stable 
manure is really a “complete manure,” 
while the bones contain no potash. Stiff, 
it may be that your soil is so deficient in 
phosphoric acid that the bones will give a 
better return than the manure. Thus we 
see the advantage of experiment and ob¬ 
servation in the use of any special man- 
urial substances. 
ASHES AS FERTILIZERS. 
J. S. B.,Oakfield, Ohio. —1. There are two 
steam saw-mills hereabouts: one about a 
mile from us; the other about a hnile 
and a half. There is a considerable quan¬ 
tity of ashes at these mills made from 
burning slabs of oak, maple, hickory, and 
other kinds of timber. At one mill the 
ashes are kept under cover, and at the 
other they are not. How much could I 
afford to pay for them to put on wheat- 
land ? 2. The owners of the mills ask 10 
cents per bushel; is that more than they 
are worth ? 3. Would it be a good plan to 
use them in connection with other fertili¬ 
zers, or barnyard manures ? 4. Will it 
pay to buy the ashes and refuse lime, say, 
at a cost of $1.00 per ton ? 
Ans.— 1. It would be impossible to give the 
value of the ashes without an analysis. 
The figures given some weeks ago showing 
the value of an average sample of leached 
ashes are reliable. 2. The lime, phosphoric 
acid and potash found in a ton of leached 
ashes could not be bought in the form of 
chemical fertilizers for less than $7.50. A 
ton will contain about 36 bushels. The 
R. N.-Y. would like to buy 50 tons of ashes 
at the price given above. 3. This will de¬ 
pend upon the soil and also on the crop. 
For potatoes, for example, we should prefer 
to use some fertilizer stronger in nitrogen. 
It might pay you better to use the ashes 
alone on grain and grass, and put all the 
stable manure on corn. Always remember 
that ashes contain no nitrogen. 4. We 
would not touch the lime-kiln ashes if we 
could get all we wanted of the other sort. 
The product of the lime burning is really 
unleached wood ashes mixed with four to 
six times their weight of partly slaked lime. 
Tliev should always be used with caution. 
In “sour,” h**avy soils they would prove 
most useful. 
TREATMENT OF FRUIT TREES. 
II E., Ontario, Canada. —1. In making 
root-grafts what kind of string is used ? 
Should the strings be left on after planting? 
The strings I have been using have rotted 
during the winter. 2. What is the best 
remedy for the apple-tree aphis ? 3. In 
pruning fruit trees, some authorities ad¬ 
vise us to prune in March so as to prevent 
loss of foliage and sap; others say the 
wounds heal more quickly and without 
bleeding if the trees are pruned in June. 
Would it be advisable to prune in March, 
leaving the stubs of the largest branches 
a foot long and cutting them off in June ? 
4. Would large trees from a nursery be as 
likely as root-grafts to take root from cions 
if deeply planted ? 5. Should apple seeds 
and fruit stones for spring planting be 
frozen ? 
Ans.— 1. One strand of wieking is gen¬ 
erally used. If well waxed, it is difficult to 
see how it could rot betweeu grafting and 
planting. The strings are not removed be¬ 
fore planting. 2. Soap-suds made with 
water in which tobacco has been boiled. 
Tobacco stems (to be had chiefly of cigar- 
makers,) are commonly used. The soap¬ 
suds should be pretty strong, and the 
mixture is best applied to nursery or young 
trees with a whisk. For large trees use a 
spraying pump. 3. Both directions are 
right: prune early for growth, and late 
for fruit, is the rule. There is no advan¬ 
tage in making two cuts, as mentioned. 
4. No. They already have a good root 
system established, so that there would be 
no stimulus to induce the cion to send out 
roots. 5. It is much better to let them 
freeze, but they should not be allowed to 
get too dry, that is, the soil with wdiich 
they are to be mixed, before exposure, 
ought to be kept moist, but not wet. 
POTATOES ON “NEW” LAND. 
J. C., Chelsea, Mich. —A neighbor offers 
the first two crops for the clearing of IQ 
