i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
185 
they the best for market? Will the trees 
bear the third year from the nursery? 
ANSWERED BY N. OHMER. 
This correspondent will, in my judg¬ 
ment, make a great mistake by planting 
pear trees in the soil he describes. From 
my somewhat extensive experience I think 
the land is entirely too highly manured for 
pear trees. They would most certainly die 
of blight by the time they would be large 
enough to bear fruit. Better burn the trees 
than to plant them in such soil. I would 
not object to planting some KeifTers, but I 
would not plant Le Contes in this locality: 
they might, however, do well in J. W.II.’s 
locality. Rich clay loam I consider best 
for pears. I would not plant a large or¬ 
chard on any other soil, but I might plant 
a few trees. 
TE8TING COWS ; THE BEST FEED FOR 
BUTTER. 
IF. J. S., Hickory, N. C.—l want to test 
my Jersey cow; what would be the best 
food for butter ? 
Ans.—T he testing of a cow to be of any 
use should be complete in every point. 
Thus, first, the cow should be tested on her 
regular feed, noting any change in tem¬ 
perature that may be sufficient to change 
the result. Then gradually increase the 
feed week by week, noting the result; when 
the highest yield is noted, continue it as 
long as may be desirable. The best butter¬ 
making food is corn-meal with one-fourth 
of its bulk of cotton seed meal or pea-meal. 
Care is to be taken not to overfeed, which 
will decrease the yield if the feeding passes 
the point of healthful digestion. Jersey 
cows differ in this respect and it is not al¬ 
ways the largest yield that is the most 
profitable. If the cow can digest as much 
food, eight quarts of corn-meal and two 
quarts of cotton-seed meal or four quarts 
of pea-meal will probably be the profitable 
limit for a good ordinary Jersey. 
OBSTRUCTION IN A TEAT. 
IF. E., Cohocton, N. Y.—l couldn’t get a 
drop of milk from one teat of a valuable 
fresh cow. By means of a steel probe I 
made an opening into her bag. A curtain 
appeared to have been formed in the lower 
part of the bag so that no milk could enter 
the teat. At present the milk enters the 
teat very slowly and it takes a long time to 
milk the affected teat. The bag is not 
caked. What should be done ? Would the 
use of milking tubes be advisable ? 
Ans.—T wo or three openings might be 
carefully made through the membrane 
with the probe, to facilitate the flow of the 
milk. The probe should be about one- 
eighth of an inch in diameter, but the size 
may be varied somewhat according to the 
size of the orifice at the lower end, through 
which the probe should pass quite readily. 
If it does not, the teat may be relaxed by 
bathing with hot water after which the 
probe will pass more readily. The use of 
the milking tube for a time might enlarge 
the opening so as to increase the milk flow. 
SEEDING WET LANDS. 
Subscriber, Tihincbeck, N. Y.—l have a 
field of corn ground that is quite wet; soil 
a clay loam; I wish to put oats on it in the 
spring ; and seed for mowing. What seed, 
and in what quantity should I use per acre, 
and what brand and quantity of Mapes 
manure should be applied ? 
Ans.—S ow or, preferably, drill 1% bush¬ 
el of oats per acre. Seed with seven 
pounds of Timothy and one to two pounds 
of Red-top per acre immediately after the 
drill. If the land is wet or likely to 
run together do not roll. If it is 
a little late aud the ground is in¬ 
clined to be dry then roll after seeding. 
Of Mapes’s complete manure 200 to 400 
pounds per acre may be used; the more 
put on the more likelihood of a good seeding 
and the more danger of lodged oats. The 
amount of fertilizer used should be gov¬ 
erned somewhat by the present fertility of 
the land. 
MANURE IN PITS. 
O. A. O.,—Has the R. N.-Y. had experi¬ 
ence in making suitable manure when tho 
supply of animal manure is small; while 
straw and hay are plenty aud cheap ? 
Ans.—W e have not had much personal 
experience in this line, but we have known 
farmers who obtained goodresultsfroni rot- 
tingstraw in pits. These pits were built so 
that they received the drainage from barn¬ 
yard, hog pens, etc. ; over the top of the pits 
logs were placed and the straw w r as piled on 
them. A pump ran down to the water in 
the pit and as the straw was piled up the 
water was pumped out over it. This wet¬ 
ting and piling was kept up till the straw 
yvas high enough. Then it was cov¬ 
ered with a layer about six inches 
thick of muck or plaster and left to rot, 
being wet down from, time to time. It is a 
good plan to scatter a quantity of ground 
bone through the straw while piling it up. 
FORCING STRAWBERRIES. 
L. M. S., St. Catherines, Ont. —By plac¬ 
ing a cold-frame over a strawberry patch, 
could the strawberries be forced successful¬ 
ly or would they draw up too much? And 
which would be the better—glass or cotton 
sash ? 
Ans. —No doubt the above process would 
hasten the crop to a considerable extent; 
but we know of no trials made in this line. 
Glass would generate more heat than the 
canvas and require more attention by way 
of ventilation, and perhaps forward them 
faster. We have seen large areas covered 
with muslin in this way in Florida, but 
there the covering was spread at night to 
guard against late frosts, not for the pur¬ 
pose of forwarding the crop but to save it. 
Our correspondent should try the experi¬ 
ment and report the results. If others 
have tried the matter, we want to hear 
from them. 
COB ASHES AS A FERTILIZER. 
C. H. H., (no address.) —1. What does 
the R. N.-Y. think of cob ashes on grass 
land where potash is needed, and how much 
should be applied per acre? 2. How would 
it work on potatoes where nothing but pot¬ 
ash is wanted in the soil? How should it 
be applied? 
Ans. —1. It takes an immense amount of 
corn-cobs to make a small amount of ashes; 
but those ashes are very rich in potash 
which amounts to nearly half the total 
quantity. You could not apply potash in a 
more desirable form. Apply all the way 
from one to 10 barrelfuls, as you can afford. 
2. First-rate. We would apply it, first, 
broadcast; second, in the furrows or 
trenches. We would like to hear from you 
as intimated. 
ABOUT BEANS. 
B. IF. N., Indianarpolis, Ind. —What are 
the methods used in raising large quanti¬ 
ties of beans—how are they sown, harvested 
and thrashed ? 
ANS.—Some growers use a grain-drill, 
stopping up some of the tubes, but in the 
bean-growing districts a regular bean- 
planter drawn by two horses is used. Fer¬ 
tilizers strong in potash must be used. 
Give clean culture, not working the ground 
when the vines are wet. A bean harvester 
built expressly for this work is used in 
gathering the crop, and it is usually 
thrashed with a machine. The beans are 
usually sold as they come from the fanning- 
mill to parties who make a business of 
hand-picking them in large buildings spe¬ 
cially fitted up for this purpose. 
THE PLYMOUTH ROCK-LEGHORN CROSS. 
E. C. A., Aberdeen, S. D.— Would it be 
a good plan to put Plymouth Rock hens 
with a Leghorn cock ? Would it improve 
the laying qualities of the offspring or 
merely increase the size of them ? 
Ans.— Nothing is sure in crossing differ¬ 
ent breeds. This cross ouyht to produce 
birds a little smaller than the Plymouth 
Rock hens, but better layers. In color the 
chickens will be a badly mixed lot. The 
R. N.-Y. has seen this cross tried several 
times, usually with the results here given. 
This is better than It would be to use a 
Plymouth Rock cock with Leghorn hens. 
Miscellaneous. 
E. Fan A., Delrnar, N. Y .—Is there a 
variety of blackberry named Bangor? If 
so who propagates it for sale? 
Ans.— Yes. Chase Bro’s. of Rochester, 
N. Y., offer it. It originated in Bangor, 
Maine. 
J. K. S., Lawton , Mich.—Which would 
be the best crop to raise on low, mucky 
land—oats, barley or potatoes ? 
Ans. —We should consider potatoes out 
of the question. As between oats and bar¬ 
ley, we should decide according to the pos¬ 
sibilities of selling or utilizing the crop. 
J. H. O. Pittsfield, N. Y .—Where can I 
buy Schamen oats? What does the R. N.-Y. 
think of the White Bonanza, Swedish, 
Poland and White Chief Oats? 
Ans.— Of Jonathan Talcott, Rome, N. Y. 
White Bonanza are offered by John A. Sal- 
zar, La Crosse, Wis. We would advise you 
to try Poland, Swedish, or White Chief 
oats in a small way if at all. 
R. D. F., IF. IF alworth, N. Y .—Is there 
a kind of yellow flint corn that.’grows trvo 
to three ears on one stalk, that will suit 
the climate of Northwestern New York; if 
so, where can I get the seed? 
Ans. —The Improved Early Yellow Cana¬ 
da or the Waushakum will fill the require¬ 
ments. We should choose, however, the 
Longfellow. This may not give the num¬ 
ber of ears stated, but it will give as much 
weight of ears and shelled corn. 
C., Northville, Tenn .—Does feeding rye- 
meal to a milch cow affect the milk either 
in quantity or quality. I have one that 
was fed on rye that decreased in yield and 
gave bloody milk. Was the rye the cause 
of it? 
Ans. —Undamaged rye-meal, fed’ in rea¬ 
sonable quantities to a healthy cow, will 
not produce any startling effect on her 
milk yield. We have fed rye-meal to cows 
and find its effect much the same as that of 
corn except that it does not give the butter 
that solid, firm texture which makes corn 
the best butter grain that is grown. We 
do not know how much you gave the cow 
or what happened to her. 
A Subscriber, Water Valley, Miss .— 
Mr. Henry Hales in the issue of February 22, 
gives us a cheap paint for rough surfaces ; 
will it answer for dressed lumber, say. 
fencing, etc.? If not, what is a good but 
cheap mixture for dressed surfaces ? 
ANSWERED BY HENRY HALES. 
The paint described as a cheap paint 
for undressed wood, is equally adapted to 
dressed wood of any kind, fences, etc., where 
a cheap paint is desired. There is no honest 
material that can be used between this 
kind of paint and white lead paint. By 
“honest” I mean that any other material 
used to cheapen paint is not of a durable 
character although often used, such as 
whiting, clay paints, barytes, and oil blend¬ 
ed with water, etc., as materials of this 
class have no durable body. 
Discussion. 
OPPOSED TO GOVERNOR HILL’S ROAD SUG¬ 
GESTIONS. 
F. H. C. B., Bath, N. Y.—There seems to 
he an awakening on the part of many citi¬ 
zens with reference to the present system 
of building public highways and there is a 
disposition on the part of our legislators to 
establish a new system for the making, 
repairing and grading of our public roads. 
I am opposed to every new system drawn 
in the bills that are now before our legisla¬ 
ture. A change is needed, I admit. But it 
is not necessary to turn the Great Empire 
State upside down in the haste of our peo¬ 
ple to improve the condition of our public 
highways. I believe Governor Hill is 
wrong in regard to the way roads should 
be worked. He says all road taxes should 
be paid in cash, and that the work should 
be carried on by contract, and be superin¬ 
tended by high-priced civil engineers. I 
claim this plan is radically wrong. It 
takes the roads from the hands of the 
rightful owners, and places them under the 
care and supervision of uninterested par¬ 
ties. Such men may construct better 
roads. But do we need them ? Do we 
need hundreds of thousands of dollars of 
bonded debt placed upon each agricultural 
county in the State ? Do we want macada¬ 
mized roads if we must pay for them by in¬ 
curring bonded debts, and paying the inter¬ 
est thereon for.years, and, finally, the princi¬ 
pal ? A revised system is needed, and the 
farmer is the man who should say what 
it should be. The work should not be done 
to please the wheelmen of the country 
entirely; it should not be carried out by 
the capitalists of our cities to enable them 
to secure five per cent, interest on millions 
upon millions of their money on which 
to-day they cannot realize three per cent. 
I have a system which I believe would 
work admirably. Give each town power 
to purchase a stone-breaker, and an engine, 
hire an engineer and one extra man ; then, 
instead of the farmers drawing their 
stones to the fence corners or piling them in 
the center of the fields, let them draw them 
to the highway and be allowed a certain 
amount for placing them in the road. Then 
the stone-breaker would come along and 
the farmer could work out his road tax by 
placing the stones in the breaker and upon 
the road after they had been broken. Then 
let each path-master swear before a notary 
public to the number of'days’work done 
by each person taxed on his beat, and if the 
tax had not been worked out the deficiency 
should be paid in cash and be added to the 
road fund. This would, I believe, be a 
great change for the better, and'if this sys¬ 
tem were adopted every load of stone en¬ 
countered on any part of the farms under 
cultivation, would soon be where the trav¬ 
eling public would receive benefit from it. 
It is preposterous to levy a high cash tax 
and hire men to make our roads. To build 
permanent road-beds would bankrupt the 
farmers of our State. It would not pay to 
hire men to pile up the mud and clay of 
which most of our roads consist to-day, to 
be torn down to-morrow by rains and fresh¬ 
ets. I maintain that the roads should be 
left in the hands of the farmers rather than 
that a cash tax should be exacted. It is 
better to leave them in the hands of inter¬ 
ested parties who will see that drains and 
water-courses are in proper condition. Five 
minutes’ work on a road when needed will 
sometimes prevent days of labor. Let the 
interested parties do the road work, and let 
each town furnish the tools. Is it not time 
that farmers should stand up and defend 
their rights? It is time we should put 
down political intrigue. Legislators must 
stop voting unnecessary, and therefore un¬ 
just taxation upon us .State jobbery should 
cease, and never again should our farmers 
incur bonded debt. Let’s hear from others 
on this subject. 
A FARMERS’ INSTITUTE. 
P. E. T., Terryville, N. Y.—Some time 
ago the R. N.-Y. recommended farmers 
who might attend the institutes that were 
to be held this winter in New York State, 
to let it know what benefit, if any, they 
received from the meetings, and what crit¬ 
icism they felt disposed to make on the 
proceedings. I attended all the sessions of 
the farmers’ institute at Riverhead, and I 
feel well repaid for my trouble. Although 
the weather was stormy and disagreeable 
through the whole session, I judge the 
farmers appreciated the feast that was laid 
before them. Nat. W. Foster gave the 
address of welcome, and Secretary J. S. 
Woodward responded, noting the wonder¬ 
ful advancement in agricultural knowl¬ 
edge and predicting that some Yankee in 
the future would extract all the nitrogen 
we would need from the air where it is so 
plentiful, and that it would be so cheap 
that the sandy plains of the middle or 
center of Long Island would be made to 
blossom like the rose. Here I want to 
make my first criticism: it seems to me 
foolish to talk of reclaiming the sterile 
plains of Long Island while in the island 
there are hundreds of acres of good land 
untilled, and the larger part of that which 
is tilled is cultivated so poorly that it 
yields only half of its full capacity. Col. 
F. D. CuTtis told us how to fatten hogs 
lean and the advantages of so doing. He 
thinks the hog is a good “partner on a 
truck faim ” and that pork raised upon 
more nitrogenous feed would be more diges¬ 
tible and healthful and that we should 
work for a reform in that direction. Chem¬ 
istry of Cattle Feeds by Prof. E. T. Ladd; 
Care of Dairy Cows by J. F. Converse; Feed¬ 
ing for Milk Solids by Col. F. D. Curtis and 
Butter Making by C. W Wickham, were 
especially interesting to me, as I am en¬ 
deavoring to make as good a quality of 
butter as there is in the world, and in order 
to reach that degree of perfection I can not 
afford to lose an opportunity of acquiring 
all available knowledge. Can Long Island 
Farmers Dispense with the Silo ? was dis¬ 
cussed quite freely and seems to me an 
open question yet. Secretary J. S. Wood¬ 
ward spoke on Sheep for Long Island, and 
advised fencing them in the orchard, in 
competition with Col. Curtis’s swine. 
This would be good for the sheep and 
swine and for the orchards too; but is 
there an apple orchard on Long Island 
which, under any circumstances, has paid 
very largely for market ? Every one should 
of course, have abundant fruit for home 
use. 
One of the most interesting ’facts that 
I learned was that the Northville Farmers’ 
Club had closed an agreement by which 
they receive 400 tons of high-grade fer¬ 
tilizer, guaranteed to be such as retails for 
from $40 to $45, at ISO and a fraction, 
showing what can be done by farmers’ 
when they combine for mutual benefit. 
The question box was quite an interesting 
feature of the institute. The farmers’ 
account-book would be a'subject T would 
like to hear discussed at the next farmers’ 
institute. It seems to me that'more of our 
common farmers fail on this point than on 
any other. They do not keep an account of 
their business and seldom know very clearly 
where their successes or failures are. I 
believe the institutes are doing a good 
work and will trv to attend the next. 
A DISPUTED POINT ABOUT ENSILAGE. 
N. C. J.,* Westhampton Center, Long 
Island.—A t the farmers’ institute at Riv- 
