302 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAY 10 
FARMERS’ CLUB—DISCUSSION. 
Malate of Lime In Maple Sirup. 
Prof. A. J. Cook, Agricultural Col¬ 
lege, Mich.— A correspondent of the R. N.- 
Y. wants to learn how one is to manage the 
malate of lime, or the earthy sediment that 
often gives not a little trouble in the sugar 
bush. The substance annoys in two ways: 1, 
it settles on and coats the bottoms of the 
boiling pans; 2, it remains in the sirup and 
settles to the bottom of the can to the dis¬ 
gust of the purchaser, who ignorantly 
thinks that he has paid for just so much 
sediment—so much dirt. In the Cham¬ 
pion evaporator there are three small pans 
back of a larger front one. These are con¬ 
nected by means of siphons, so that they 
are easily changed. Thus the back small 
pan of to-day, from which the thick sirup 
is drawn, and the one which becomes 
coated with the malate of lime, becomes 
the front small pan of to morrow, and the 
thinner sap dissolves off the crust of lime 
on its bottom. Thus with this evaporator 
the first difficulty disappears. 
Prof. Davenport of our college owns a 
sugar orchard. He has one of the contin¬ 
uous pans. He tells me that by using a 
board fashioned like a boat paddle and fre¬ 
quently scraping the bottom of the pan at 
the back end, he prevents the lime incrus¬ 
tation. In making sirup, pains must be 
taken to remove the lime. Why does any 
one make sugar? We can readily get $1.25 
per gallon for the sirup. Sirup, carefully 
made, is so delicious that it is well worth 
the price. This represents about eight 
pounds of sugar, for which only 10 or 12% 
cents per pound, at the utmost, can be se¬ 
cured. Sugar-making entails much more 
work. The can for the sirup can be had 
for 10 cents. So by selling sirup instead of 
sugar we gain from 15 to 35 cents per gal¬ 
lon. This would be about $100 on my crop. 
To remove the lime we manage as follows: 
We boil till the sirup weighs 11 pounds to 
the gallon. If thinner than this, it does 
not please the buyer ; if thicker, it crystal¬ 
lizes on the bottom of the can, which is also 
annoying. When we draw off the sirup we 
strain it through cheese cloth or, better, 
factory-cloth, that will catch much of the 
lime. We then let it settle about half an 
hour when the lime wil I nearly all settle to 
the bottom of the large can into which we 
draw it from the evaporator. We now 
carefully dip and turn off into our gallon 
cans all that we can without mixing in the 
lime, and seal the cans air-tight while the 
sirup is still hot. We then put the rest in¬ 
to a cotton bag, and rinse it in cold sap. 
This washes out the sweet, and leaves the 
lime which we throw away. We often, 
especially early in the season, get almost 
no lime, while at other times we get a quart 
or two in six or seven gallons of sirup. 
Sirup managed this way, if made soon after 
the sap runs, will be so delicately flavored 
that if we can once get it on a customer’s 
table we shall secure a market. Of course 
no pains must be spared to keep everything 
sweet and clean. Cleanliness and dispatch 
are indispensable to the successful sirup 
maker. My sugar-house and all the uten¬ 
sils were burned this spring. I built anew 
and got all new apparatus. The entire 
cost for 800 trees was between $400 and $500. 
My sales this year will pay two-thirds of 
this outlay; and yet I know of fine sugar 
bushes that are idle. 
Against Moles. 
F. H., Climax, Mich.— I wish to express 
my dissent from the statements in a recent 
article in the Rural, to the effect that 
the mole is not a vegetable feeder. I have 
never seen a mole in the act of eating, nor 
have I examined the stomach of one ; still 
I feel very positive that moles eat peas, 
potatoes, and various bulbs, such as the 
tulip. Here are the reasons for my 
belief: For the past 16 years not a 
crop of peas or potatoes has been 
raised in my 'garden without more or 
less of them being destroyed by moles. 
Several times my garden peas have been 
entirely destroyed by them. I plant the 
peas In drills. After they have been in the 
ground a few days and have begun to 
sprout the moles put in their work. They 
will go the entire length of a row and des¬ 
troy every pea in it, if not stopped. I have 
time and time again carefully examined 
the rows where they had worked, and I 
never could find a pea left in the ground 
where they had been, and I could find every 
pea where they had not been. The only 
way in which I have been able to raise a 
crop of peas in my garden for years has 
been by sticking down shingles, tins, or 
something equivalent across the rows at 
short intervals to head off the moles from 
following the rows. I have tried sticking 
brush thickly in the rows at planting time, 
but unless It is stuck very thickly it is not 
effective: for the moles wind in and out 
among the sticks, following the row and 
get nearly every pea. They serve potatoes 
in the same way. I plant potatoes in rows 
40 inches apart and from 10 to 20 inches 
apart in the row, one or two eyes in a place. 
When the new potatoes get as large as 
hickory nuts the moles begin to follow the 
rows just as they do in the case of peas, 
and continue to do so until the potatoes 
get nearly or quite their full growth. I 
think that a considerable part of the 
damage they do is due to their burrows, 
which cause the hills to dry out; but that 
is not all : I never found a merchantable¬ 
sized potato in a hill that the moles had 
troubled if it happened to be a variety that 
grew compactly in the hill. Frequently I 
have found none, big or little, and for 16 
years I have not dug a crop in which I did 
not find potato hills in which there were 
pieces and shells of partly-eaten tubers 
with the teeth marks of the mole as plainly 
to be seen as the marks of a squirrel’s 
teeth were ever seen in a nut shell. Mole 
holes, though, invariably run through 
these hills. My tulips have been served 
in the same way, ’till out of a large 
bed of them not more than one or two, if 
any, are left. There are plenty of angle- 
worms in my soil, and a good supply of in¬ 
sects, so that I am satisfied that the moles 
eat my peas and potatoes and tulip bulbs 
from choice. Moles may destroy many in¬ 
sects for aught I know; but in view of the 
great damage they do, I would much 
prefer to take my chances fighting the in¬ 
sects without their help than with it. 
Oat-Meal. 
Dr. T. H. Hoskins, Orleans Co., Vt.— 
A physician finds nothing new in being 
“ taken to task ” for objecting to an article 
of diet for which people have a fondness, or 
of which they have made up their minds 
that it Is “healthy.” Oat-meal is excel¬ 
lent food for those who can digest it. But 
for a very large number of people, espe¬ 
cially those of sedentary habits, who have 
been beguiled into adopting it as a regular 
article of diet, it is the cause of a great deal 
of trouble and ill-health, and the worst of 
it all is, that the reputation of oat-meal as 
“healthy” keeps many from suspecting 
any ill results from it,while it is doing them 
serious harm. In saying that oat-meal Is 
quite as hard of digestion as baked beans 
I do not mean there may not be some who 
cannot eat the beans, who can eat the oat¬ 
meal. One thing in favor of the latter is 
that it is rarely eaten as freely as beans, it 
being served more as a fancy food, or side 
dish. But the eating of oat-meal, even in 
moderate quantity, is frequently followed 
by serious disturbance. I practiced medi¬ 
cine in Boston a considerable number of 
years, and had many dyspeptic patients 
whose trouble was easily traced to this 
food. When persuaded of the fact—which 
was by no means always an easy task— 
there was not much difficulty in affording 
them relief. But as it is absolutely neces¬ 
sary in such cases that the oat-meal should 
be dropped, the wide prevalence of the 
belief that oat-meal is a food suited to deli¬ 
cate stomachs stands directly in the way of 
success. It is for this reason that I have 
felt it my duty to call attention to the 
matter—though not in the Rural, as what 
I said on the subject was copied by the 
RURAL from another publication. 
New Points on Silage. 
Prof. A. J. Cook, Agricultural Col¬ 
lege, Mich. —I have just finished feeding 
silage another winter, and am more than 
ever pleased. Last fall the cut corn was 
trodden but very little even around the 
edges of one of my silos, and the silage was 
entirely sweet and kept with no loss what¬ 
ever. Is treading necessary ? It was covered 
with about two feet of cut straw and no 
weights were used. There was no loss. I 
fed the silage to all my stock very liberally, 
and was never more pleased with the re¬ 
sults. I wish specially to speak of my 
horses. They had only silage, with a quart 
of oats at night and again In the morning. 
My horses never looked better in the spring 
than they do this season. If a man has 
sweet silage—and there is no excuse at this 
date for having any other—it is all nonsense 
to say that it hurts horses. It pricks horses 
just as good oats do. I am going to build 
another silo the coming summer. I shall 
build it separate from my barn ; it will be 
octagonal in form, with a diameter of 20 
feet. I shall use joists two by 10 Inches 
and shall board inside and out with match¬ 
ed or ship-lapped lumber. I shall coat the 
boards inside with a water-tight prepara- 
tion’oLcoal-tar. I must have silage to feed 
any time in summer when the pastures dry 
up. From this I hope, and rather expect to 
use silage all summer, and so do away with 
nearly all pasturing. 
Grain Hay and Other Matters. 
H. O. N., Wickes, Montana.—I have 
used grain hay for 10 years and like it well. 
What is the matter with peas and barley 
for feed, cut when of a good green color ? 
I am giving this feed to horses and cows 
with very satisfactory results. Oats are 
good, but hard to cure and handle cheaply 
and quickly without thrashing. If I had a 
silo I would grow them for silage for 
feeding cows. I think I have one important 
farm convenience not shown in Mr. Warn’s 
illustration, though I haven’t nearly so 
many tools as he shows. My advantage 
lies in a shop 25 by 18 feet with a work¬ 
bench, forge and anvil, all got up from plans 
published in the R. N.-Y. some time since. 
I have saved many times the price of the 
Rural on that one thing; so all other in¬ 
formation has come gratis. I inclose a 
clipping from an agricultural paper and 
would like the R. N.-Y. to figure the weight 
of that porker when a year or a year and 
a-half old: 
“A good pig should average about eight 
or 10 pounds gain daily from birth to 
slaughter until 12 months old.” 
R. N.-Y.—At the end of 365 days, as we 
figure it, this pig ought to weigh 2,680 
pounds, allowing the smaller gain indi¬ 
cated and not allowing him any weight 
at the beginning. 
J. A. L., East Aurora, N. Y.—An article 
on page 201 is right in “going for the dogs.” 
My father used to keep a few sheep for wool 
and meat for the family; but dogs kept at 
them until all had gone but one, and we 
got her to the barn, killed her and used 
her for mutton. That wound up sheep¬ 
raising for us. But I do not like the writer’s 
standing up for cats; better send them 
with the dogs and give the birds a chance 
to protect our fruit and sing for us debt- 
ridden farmers a cheering song. 
The Middleman.— Statistician Dodge 
says that the middleman, working in trade 
guilds, societies, exchanges, and boards of 
trade, combines to control the transfer of 
lands, farms, city lots, railroad shares and 
bonds, stocks and securities of all kinds, 
and all real and personal property, and to 
swell commissions and fees of such transfers. 
Cities are filled with non-producers, not 
merely teachers and physicians, and other 
useful professionals, who are in a sense pro¬ 
ducers and in every view useful and neces¬ 
sary members of the body politic, but peo¬ 
ple who, under the guise of go-betweens in 
the distribution between producers and 
consumers, combine to fix the prices they 
pay for the goods of the former and set up 
daily the rate demanded of the latter. Free 
competition should reduce this share of the 
middleman to a minimum but for the in¬ 
ducement and opportunity to combine 
formally or informally to control prices of 
products and cost of vending. 
Thus the share demanded often amounts 
to a confiscation of the grower’s profit, and 
the number of salesmen is so increased that 
they complain that they can not make a 
living. The trouble is that there are too 
many of these non-producers who absorb 
the products of the farmer in the distribu¬ 
tion to the consumer. Something must be 
done to reduce the numbers and modify the 
greed of a long line of leeches that are fat¬ 
tening on the industry of the country, who 
neither toil on the farms nor spin in the 
factories, and yet they are absorbing the 
wealth of the country by combination with¬ 
out conscience and service, without equity, 
while the producers are relegated to the 
rear and left to enjoy their pittance as they 
may. 
The middlemen in each department of 
activity are comparatively few in number 
and close together. It is easy for them to 
combine and destroy by compact the bene¬ 
fits of free competition. The commission- 
men, the transportation companies, the 
produce dealers of every degree find it 
easier to make fictitious conditions than to 
struggle with natural ones. At this game 
they have every advantage over the farm¬ 
ers. who are widely separated, much 
more numerous and with less aptitude for 
organized effort. These combinations not 
only depress the prices of what the 
farmer has to sell, but they raise the prices 
of everything he needs to buy. His farm 
implements cost twice what they should 
because a combination of agents must 
secure 50 per cent, commission from the 
manufacturer, and so with all the rest, 
and the farmer suffers both as a buyer and 
a seller. 
SAMPLES. 
Bulletin 57 of the Michigan Experiment 
Station shows that good practical work has 
been done in the horticultural department. 
According to it the Summit (late) yielded 548 
bushels of potatoes to the acre, the largest 
yield of the 75 kinds tried. The seed was 
sent by E. E. Stine of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 
The next heaviest yielders of the late kinds 
were Watson’s Seedling (395 bushels), Sut¬ 
ton (375 bushels), O. K. Mammoth (380 
bushels), Rural Blush (370 bushels), Copper 
Mine (382 bushels), Dictator (415 bushels), 
President Lincoln (499 bushels,) and Alaska 
(375 bushels.). 
Among the earliest to ripen Gardner’s 
Early was first and yielded at the rate of 
275 bushels to the acre. Premium, second, 
yielded 221; Early Harvest 303 bushels. Fol¬ 
lowing these earliest kinds were Lee’s Fav¬ 
orite, 875 bushels, Timpe’s No. 4,400, Polaris, 
345 bushels. Thorburn ripened a week later 
and gave as large a yield. The various 
kinds tried are then described. 
Shall we throw away the seed ends of 
potatoes ? References to files of the R. N.- 
Y. will show the results of our own experi¬ 
ments to solve this much-mooted question. 
Mr. Taft, the Horticulturist of the Michigan 
Station, cut his tubers transversely into 
stems, middles and end pieces. The conclu¬ 
sion is arrived at that the seed end is as val¬ 
uable for planting as any other portion of 
thetuber. 
Whole potatoes used for seed yielded 293 
bushels per acre; halves 317, quarters 254, 
eighths 221, single eyes, 178. 
Mr. Taft for whole-tuber seeding used 
nearly 42 bushels to the acre; for half¬ 
potato seed 20%, for quarter-seeding 10 
bushels. Tubers cut into eighths required 
five bushels 44 pounds; single eyes, four 
bushels 10 pounds. The seed was dropped 
one by 8% feet apart. 
The half of a large potato or a medium¬ 
sized whole one of the same weight as the 
half—which is best for seed ?. 
Here is Mr. Taft’s report: 
Quantity of seed i>er acre. 
Whole tubers weighing 4 4-5 oz.60bu. 370 bu. 
Whole tubers welshing SVtf oz.44 bu. 861 bu 
Half tubers weighing 1*4 oz.22 bu. 438 l,u. 
Whole tubers weighing 1$( oz.22 bu. 349Vsbti. 
Half tubers weighing % oz.11 bu. 80M^bu: 
Single eye, cut deep. l73J4bu. 
With an open, well-drained soil the Mich¬ 
igan Station has obtained the best results 
by planting in trenches five inches deep and 
covering two inches. The trenches may be 
gradually filled when cultivating, after 
the plants are up, or, better yet, by drag¬ 
ging the field across the rows with a 
smoothing harrow as soon as the sprouts 
appear. This will level the land and de¬ 
stroy all weeds. A second harrowing and 
frequent working with a Planet Jr. or 
other cultivator, with level culture will 
give satisfactory results. 
At the New York farmers’ institute held 
at Lyons, the question was asked : “ What 
should be done for a young man with a 
good education who wishes to become a 
farmer?” Mr. G. T. Powell replied: “ Let 
him go to Cornell and take an agricultural 
course.” Mr. Rogers remarked that if a 
young man has grit and muscle he can 
work his way through Cornell without 
money. 
W. F. Massey says, in the Weekly Press, 
that the man in South Carolina, who last 
year won the prize for a crop of corn by 
raising over 250 bushels per acre, put over 
$200 worth of fertilizers on the acre. Of 
course, this would not pay except as an ef¬ 
fort to win a prize, but he will not find that 
acre exhausted this year by the excessive 
stimulation of last summer. On the con¬ 
trary, he has stored a deposit there, which 
with ordinary care and a good rotation will 
keep it fertile, and in the end his expendi¬ 
ture may be a safe investment, even if the 
prize had not been won. 
That very excellent journal of finance 
and trade, Bradstreet’s. remarks that hap¬ 
hazard methods of cultivation which might 
have done with virgin soil must be aban¬ 
doned in proportion as the area ol that soil 
is restricted. The brighter sons of the 
farmers are drifting away from the farms 
to pursue more attractive careers, and this 
tendency works in the direction of a de¬ 
terioration of’the farming class. There is 
on this account the more need for a greater 
diffusion of agricultural science among 
this class. It is interesting to notice that 
