i 82 
tHE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH 22 
rial, and there will be no occasion then to 
draw to the field two pounds of water for 
one of manure, nor one pound of corpse 
after two pounds of the spirit of the fire- 
fanged stuff have departed. 
The building which is outlined in the 
figure may be changed in shape, or the 
method of constructing it may be altered; 
it may be painted and decorated with a 
“ginger-bread cornice,” but the manure 
will be preserved just as well without any 
change. Most farms already have quite 
enough buildings for housing all the stock 
and products of the farm ; all that is want- 
' ed is to gather them together, or arrange 
them around a hollow square, roof them in 
and remove the cold, open wooden floors, 
which have caused so much sufferingto the 
animals and loss of fertility to the land, and 
get the animals down on the earth where 
they will be comfortable. Two sides of the 
buildings may now be stripped of the 
weather-boarding, and these old boards 
should be used to line the inside of the out¬ 
er walls, preparatory to filling the space be¬ 
tween the two walls with straw. 
I am well aware that most farmers can¬ 
not afford to pay commercial prices for pot¬ 
ash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid; can they 
afford to waste these valuable elements 
when they are found ready at hand at the 
barns? Suppose they are worth but half 
what they would cost in the market, are 
they still worth looking after? Will the 
loss now incurred, if prevented, pay for a 
building in which to store manure and keep 
cattle temporarily? Will the cost of re¬ 
pairs on a building exceed the loss now in¬ 
curred? Two hundred tons of manure, 
having a commercial value of $500 from 30 
animals in six months, divided by two= 
$250. One-eighth to three-fourths of this is 
now lost; is it worth our while to give this 
subject careful attention? 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
f ftvm (Topics. 
DIGGING A WELL. 
Ant farmer who has to dig a well dreads 
the task ; for it is a disagreeable and heavy 
job to dig the dirt and stones and raise 
them with the accumulated water that 
must be kept out of the way. I had oc¬ 
casion to dig one eight or nine years ago, 
and I struck a large volume of water, 
which came in, in great quantities, before 
the well was half-way down. I put up a 
frame, as shown at Fig. 55, and with the 
aid of a horse, the work was reduced to a 
minimum. To put the plan in practice, 
put up two posts, one near the well and the 
other far enough away so that there will 
be room for the well and a place for a 
wagon or cart; the space between the two 
must therefore be from 12 to 16 feet. Bore 
two holes, say, 12 to 15 inches from the top 
of each post, for an iron rod like that on 
which the hay-carrier in the barn runs. 
On top of each post make a mortice and in 
it insert and spike fast a round pole of 
sufficient size to hold the posts stiffly 
apart; put in the iron rod and screw the 
nuts up tightly. Then put on the hay- 
carrier. Guy the posts on each end with 
ropes well fastened or pegged to the 
ground, and also put a good brace against 
each post so as to make the contrivance 
very strong and well stayed. 
Saw a molasses barrel in two; firmly 
nail or bolt to the bottom of a half-barrel a 
or two-inch oak plank six inches wide, 
and cut axles hom the four or five inches 
extending over the sides of the bottom for 
the bail to work on. Cut a three or four- 
inch piece of hickory or other tough 
wood and halve it; bore a hole through 
each end for the axles to go through; then 
bend it over the barrel and put on the axles, 
and pin them in place with wooden linch¬ 
pins. Near the top of the bail put a stiff 
brace for when the tub is loaded the bail 
will press tightly against its sides so that it 
can hardly be upset, and it should be upset 
easily. Fasten a wooden block on one 
side of the tub for the bail to rest against 
when the tub is full, and bore a hole through 
the top and put an iron bolt to stay the 
bail. In unloading, pull out this iron bolt, 
give the tub a light push and it will upset 
into the wagon beside the well. With 
every thing in good working order, a well 
can be dug very quickly. M. H. c. G. 
Orange County, N. Y. 
In Figure 55, 1 represents the well, 2 the 
posts, 3 the beam at the top, 4 the braces, 
Side. View PVcim.fi-, 
Fig. 
5 the ropes, 6 a hay-carrier, 7 the bucket, 
and 9 the pulley rope. In Figure 56, 1 is 
the bail, 2 the brace, 3 the axles and 4 the 
iron bolts. 
fictt) Crops. 
JERSEY SWEET POTATOES. 
NO. 2. 
MARKING AND DUNGING. 
Sweet Potatoes usually follow corn in 
our rotation, and to prepare the ground for 
the crop, the corn stubs are either torn out 
by a harrow or thrown out by a plow run¬ 
ning under the rows, and cross-harrowed 
till they are free from adhering soil. They 
are then thrown into heaps and carted off to 
some low place. This leaves the ground 
clear for future operations. If the stubs 
are not removed, they interfere with the 
close working of the hand and horse hoe, 
sometimes catching in the latter and tear¬ 
ing the hills down. 
One of the first operations in the spring 
is to turn over and pulverize the composts 
of manure. This should be carefully done, 
and all large lumps should be w r orked up 
fine; then the manure should be covered 
over lightly with soil and allowed to warm 
up. This turning must be repeated two or 
three times according to the condition of 
the manure, and the finer and looser it is 
made, the better it will suit the potatoes, 
and the more easily it can be handled with 
the shovel in putting it in the hill. The 
corn stubs having been removed, and the 
ground plowed and harrowed, it should be 
marked out both ways in rows from two 
feet six inches to two feet nine inches wide, 
and the last way at least the rows should 
be eight inches wide at the top and five 
inches deep. The work is done with a 
marker. For first-class work with a horse- 
hoe working between the rows and culti¬ 
vating the two sides at one passage, the 
rows must be even distances apart. 
The potato field is usually divided into 
“ patches ” of from four to six acres each, 
with turning rows between. This is done 
so that when one is cultivating both ways 
at one tending, at the last cultivation the 
soil is freshly stirred both ways. A. patch 
having been marked out shallow one way, 
and deep in part the other and the manure 
having been turned and worked over fine, 
we are ready for putting it in the hill, or 
for “dunging,” as we call the operation. 
This is done from one-horse dump carts 
holding about 25 bushels when well round- 
w ittiou t" i-oo| r-a^ UTi- $ 
59. 
ed up, with an ordinary small sized shovel. 
A cart-load of this size will dung from 300 
to 350 hills and a good man acquainted with 
the work, will dung 8,000 to 10,000 hills in 
10 hours. The manure must be put exactly 
in the cross, and is covered with a large 
hoe, from one side of the hill only, the 
worker going up on one side of a row, 
and back on the opposite side of the next, 
care being taken to keep the center of a small 
hill exactly over the center of the cross. 
Two large hoefuls of earth are put on : just 
enough to cover the manure neatly is all 
that is needed. In following this method 
one must go over the hills again just before 
the plants are ready to be put in, this time 
using the hoe on the sides of the rows on 
which it was not used at first, and putting 
on three hoefuls of soil, making a large, 
sharp hill. 
This last operation can be done by horse 
power, by using two small one-horse plows 
—a right and left-hand—with single han¬ 
dles. The mold-boards are put facing each 
other and are fastened at proper distances 
apart by wooden slats at the top and bot¬ 
tom of the handles, and at the outer ends of 
the beams, by loosely working single bolts. 
This allows the plows motion enough to 
give guidance; but holds them at a propel 
width for working. A horse is used singly 
to each plow, but the two horses are driven 
as one team. These plows being run 
astraddle of the rows, make perfect ridges. 
This ridger should be worked in lands six 
rows wide, to permit of re-marking the 
ridges cross-wise, as the ridger works all 
the ground and destroys the cross-marks 
previously made by the market. By work¬ 
ing in lands the lands just re-marked on 
one side and the unfinished hills on the 
other,serve as guides in using a hand mark¬ 
er, made of a small slat long enough to 
reach over seven rows, and held exactly 
over the guides on each side and quickly 
dropped. In fresh soil this makes a mark 
fair enough to go by in putting out the 
plants. Some who do not dung until just 
before they are ready to set out the pota¬ 
toes-say, not until 10 days before—use 
this ridger to cover the dung, thus making 
a complete ridge at one operation. This 
saves labor, but where the soil will bake or 
get hard, it is best to set out the potatoes 
in freshly-turned ground. E. G. B. 
Salem County, N. J. 
A STUDY OF MILLET. 
A. A. CROZIER. 
Seventy-seven samples of millet were 
grown last season upon the station grounds 
at the Iowa Agricultural College mainly 
for the purpose of determining, 1, whether 
the varieties as sold were true to name ; 2, 
to learn the difference between the various 
kinds,and, 3, to observe which were best for 
cultivation. The samples were obtained 
under eight different names, from 30 dif¬ 
ferent seedsmen. Special attention was 
given to determining the relative values of 
Hungarian Grass and Golden Millet, the 
majority of the samples being of those 
varieties. The soil used was of the usual 
prairie character, containing an abundance 
of vegetable matter, and had been cultivat¬ 
ed the preceding year in garden crops. The 
samples were sown uniformly in drills, 
three feet apart, and the plants were culti¬ 
vated and hoed while young Twenty feet 
of drill were used for each sample at each 
sowing, with two or three exceptions, and 
nearly all the samples of Hungarian, Ger¬ 
man and Common Millet were sown in 
duplicate, the first sowing being upon April 
Fig. 57. 
20 and the second May 20 to 23. The 'work 
and observations prior to June 10 were by 
the writer, r after that date, under his direc¬ 
tion, t by'Mr. P. H. Rolfs, of the senior 
class in the] college,^whose [careful notes 
are here used. 
German Millet: (Golden Millet.)— 
Thirty different samples of this variety 
were grown, including over an acre from 
seed grown by the station last year. Twenty- 
five of the samples were sown in duplicate 
on] April\20, and again one mouth later 
(May 20 to 28). Twenty-five of the samples 
in both plantings were sown, for compar¬ 
ison, in rows adjoining the samples of 
Hungarian Millet, which were also planted 
in duplicate upon the same. The compar¬ 
ison was made especially with Hungarian, 
as these two are the leading millets now 
in cultivation, and it was desirable to learn 
their differences and relative values, and 
whether the German Millet deserved the 
popularity which it had gained. It was 
found that the claims made for this variety 
by seedsmen were, on the whole, well 
founded. It grows much taller than the 
Hungarian, the planting of April 20 averag¬ 
ing four feet nine inches, that of May 20, 
four feet six inches, and that sowed broad¬ 
cast, three feet nine inches. The average 
hight of the Hungarian in drills was three 
feet nine inches. The difference in the 
size and length of the heads was remark¬ 
able, those of German Millet averaging 
eight inches in length, ranging from four 
to 13 inches, while the heads of Hungarian 
averaged only about four and a-half inches. 
In earliness there was less difference be¬ 
tween the two varieties than is generally 
supposed, the Hungarian being but little 
earlier than the German Millet. The first 
planting of the German Millet, (April 20) 
had begun to ripen by the middle of 
August, and the second planting of a 
month later, was then out of blossom. 
That sown broadcast at the same time, 
was about a week later. A compar¬ 
ison of the average hight of 2 stalk and 
length of head of the samples of three 
