3Sa 
MAY 3t 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
For Minnesota’s Climate. 
The chief requisites of a fruit-room are perfect freedom 
from moisture or dampness and a uniform temperature. 
A cellar or a cave built in a dry, sandy or gravelly bank 
or hill-side answers the purpose very well, provided good 
ventilation is secured, and the entrance to it is effected 
through an ante room, which will partly prevent a rush of 
outside air when it is of a different degree of temperature 
from that within. For summer use I prefer a room built 
above ground, and it be should an annex on the north or 
east side of the dwelling rather than a room in the body of it 
When built above ground, it must be built with double 
walls, with an air-space between them. My method of 
building would be to erect a frame or skeleton, using two 
by six lumber for studding. Outside sheath up with com¬ 
mon inch lumber and veneer with brick, or double-board, 
with a lining of felt or building paper between. The in¬ 
side wall may be a common lath and plaster one, but I 
should like better a ceiling with a well-seasoned dressed 
and matched flooring with heavy building paper next the 
studding. (It might be better yet to lath and plaster on 
the studding and fur out and ceil over that, thus securing 
two air-spaces). The doors, windows and upper ceiling 
should also be double and made to fit closely, and there 
should be a ventilator through the top ceiling, and open¬ 
ing out above the roof. Air can be admitted through the 
windows: but it is better to admit it through the ground 
floor, through pipe or tile laid under ground, and opening 
out at some distance from the room in a shaded place. 
The air, when admitted, should be about the same tem¬ 
perature as that inside of the room or lower, or there will 
be troublesome moisture. There should be blinds to the 
windows ; but I do not know that light is injurious if it 
can be secured without heat. The interior of the room 
should be fitted up with racks and shelves so arranged 
that different sorts of fruit may be separate. Perishable 
fruits will keep in good condition much longer in such a 
room, provided that they are dry and sound when put in, 
and it is an excellent place for keeping apples, pears, 
grapes and pantry stores of canned fruits. In my market 
gardening I use a wooden building with double walls for 
summer storage, and a bank cellar for winter, closing the 
ventilator when the temperature gets down to 34 degrees 
outside. J. S. HARRIS. 
La Crescent, Minn. 
A Succession of Fruits Best. 
The keeping of summer fruits requires refrigeration, 
and this involves expense—usually too much of it for the 
average private family. 
Cold storage is often a financial success*commercially, 
but rarely so in a private family. My advice for a private 
family would be to have a succession of summer fruits 
covering the entire season, and to use them freely while in 
perfection,disposing of any surplus day by day as they ripen, 
and there will be little need for cold storage. Occasionally 
I use a cold room in connection with the ice-house; in this 
way I hold Bartlett pears until the glut is past. Some¬ 
times I hold strawberries and other small fruits from Sat¬ 
urday until Monday, as we never pick any on Sunday. 
This would do for commercial growers and would be a 
convenience often in a private family. In a large board¬ 
ing-house such a convenience would without doubt often 
be a decided advantage; but In this case I would sooner 
advise a large-sized refrigerator rather than a cold room, 
as more economical of ice. A good plan for holding late 
pears and grapes is to set apart for the purpose a portion 
of a basement which is fairly dry, with good heat-non-con- 
ducting walls and partitions, with a single window and 
one door for occasional ventilation; in this there should 
bo an iron or zinc ice-box sufficiently large to hold 300 
or more pounds of ice, and by keeping the ice there con¬ 
stantly a temperature of about 40 to 45 degrees should be 
maintained. When the weather is cool the air should be 
changed by opening the window awhile. P. M. AUGUR. 
Middlefield, Conn. 
A Cold Room of Little Consequence. 
I have no fruit room devoted exclusively to the preserva¬ 
tion of fruit, and have never made any systematic experi¬ 
ments, or any special effort to keep perishable fruits much 
beyond their usual period of maturity. I use only a cool, 
airy cellar, an upper room on the north side of the house, 
and an ice-box or refrigerator. I have relied upon my 
garden to produce fresh fruits in succession, and have 
adopted no other means for keeping them for any consider- 
abU time. Our first fruits are strawberries, which are 
closely followed by raspberries, and these by blackberries ; 
then come cherries, peaches, with early apples and pears, 
followed by grapes in abundance, supplemented by cur¬ 
rants and gooseberries ; thus I have a constant and varied 
supply until the season closes with winter apples. The 
constant and ample supply also of foreign fruits, such as 
oranges, pineapples and bananas, also renders any method 
of keeping perishable fruits of little consequence in the 
country. GEO. W. CAMPBELL. 
Delaware, O. 
Root Pulpers. —These machines in England take the 
place of our root cutters. The roots are sliced and then 
crushed either between fluted rollers or between stout 
iron jaws. Cattle eat this pulp readily, and there is no 
danger of choking, as there is when roots are cut in large 
pieces. We have known several valuable animals to be 
choked to death in trying to eat roots that were passed 
through an ordinary cutter. Pulped roots are fed mixed 
with grains or cut fodder. The R. N.-Y. learns of several 
English farmers who use roots as an ensilage crop. They 
are well pulped and put in thesilo with chaff and cut hay. 
This product is said to keep and feed well. 
The Farmers Club. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
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of paper.] 
A Convenient Hog House and Yard. 
W. S. S., Pleasant Valley, Illinois.—J would like to see 
a model of a well arranged hog-house 20 feet x 30 feet with 
platform cattle scales in one end and a handy yard on the 
outside for cattle, etc. to be weighed, and a corn-crib in the 
upper story. 
Ans.—T he drawings shown at Figures 110 and 111, are re¬ 
engraved from the report of the Wisconsin Experiment 
Station. The house shown is much larger than the one 
mentioned, but it is so arranged that ventilation, warmth 
and cleanliness are readily secured. While-this building 
was arranged especially for feeding experiments, it will be 
found very useful, with slight modifications, for the prac¬ 
tical breeder and feeder. The ground dimensions are all 
given in the drawings. The studdings are 16 feet high. 
The pens are each seven feet nine inches wide in the clear. 
A tight partition reaching to the ceiling six feet 11 inches 
back from the feeding alley, divides the pens into two 
apartments, the feeding and sleeping rooms. After each 
meal the hogs are driven back into the sleeping room 
through small doors that slide up and down in grooves and 
are operated from the feeding alley by ropes that run over 
small pulleys. A large entrance to each sleeping room is 
also provided. The partitions between the feeding rooms 
are three feet high. Doors three feet wide through each 
division afford means for handling the hogs. A convenient 
device for keeping hogs back from the trough while pour¬ 
ing in swill is shown at Figure 112. The sleeping rooms 
are 11 feet five inches by seven feet nine inches and occupy 
the south portion of the building. A shaft two feet square 
reaching from within three feet of the floor to the top of 
the building, provides ventilation and enables one to throw 
bedding from above. The yards shown at Figure 110, reach 
back 16 feet. Access to the yards is had by means of small 
doors open at all times, except in very cold weather. With 
this arrangement all the droppings are deposited outside 
the building. The outside fence is permanent with a sub¬ 
stantial gate hinge at each end. The division fences are 
made so that a 10-foot panel may be lifted out to allow a 
wagon to pass through and collect the manure. These 
yards now have an earth floor, but it has been suggested 
that they should be floored with plank laid in water-lime. 
This would reduce the loss of manure and keep out 
vermin. 
Breeding Hipped Mares. 
J. H. S., Oscoda, Mich .—My three-year-old colt was 
hipped last winter; but she isn’t lame. Can I breed her 
with safety? Some of my neighbors say she can never have 
a foal. 
Ans.—F ractures through the shaft of the hipbone, or of 
the inner angle (the angle near the backbone), might, in 
some cases, rehder the animal unsafe for breeding, from 
the formation of bony growths in healing, which may par¬ 
tially obstruct or prevent the proper dilation of the pelvis 
at foaling. But if the colt is hipped by a fracture and 
drawing downward of the outer angle of ,'the hip—“ down 
in the'hip”—or of the posterior angle or point of the hip at 
either side of the tail, there will be no danger in breeding 
her. 
Lump on Heifer’s Jaw. 
W. M., Hockessin, Del.—About a month ago a lump ap¬ 
peared on the left side of the lov^fer jaw of a two-year old 
heifer, and has steadily increased ever since. How should 
it be treated ? 
Ans.—Y ou should have given the character of the swell¬ 
ing : whether attached to skin or bone, hard and bony, or 
so ft. Try painting with compound tincture of iodine daily 
until well blistered. Repeat after two weeks, if there is 
any improvement. If there is no improvement apply a fly 
blister, to one ounce of which add 15 drops of croton oil, or 
one-half ounce of oil of turpentine. 
Sorrel. 
A. O. S., Dover, Del. —Sorrel has made its appearance al¬ 
most everywhere; scarcely a field is free from it, whether 
grass, grain, or stalk land, and it is an inexplicable mystery 
to farmers where it has come from. Many claim that it is 
caused by the open winter and wet spring. Still the seeds 
must have been in the ground. I believe that the use of 
strong acid phosphate is conducive to its growth to a great 
extent. What thinks the R. N.-Y. ? 
Ans.— Open winters and wet weather while unfavorable 
to the growth of many plants are favorable to others. The 
less favored perish and make room for weeds which do not 
mind such unfavorable conditions. Sorrel (Rumex aceto- 
sella) is one of the latter. It seeds with great freedom. 
We believe that acid phosphate is favorable to its growtn. 
So also is potash, nitrogen, or any other form of chemical 
fertilizer. Why not ? Acid phosphate, however, is not 
especially favorable to its growth on account of its acidity. 
Bloat In Pigs. 
P. IF. J., Pontiac, Mich.—A few days ago I lost a six- 
months-old pig which was bloated as much as the elasticity 
of the skin would allow. When three months old it began 
to bloat, ate little, and fell off badly in condition. About 
five weeks ago it began to bloat again and ate little, while 
the bloating kept increasing until it died. Like the five 
other members of the litter, it had been kept in a warm 
pen, which was dirty during part of the moist, damp 
winter. They were fed on steamed potatoes. They also 
got cob meal and rye, 30 bushels of ear corn and 20 bushels 
of rye ground together. Half a bushel of this was added 
to the roots. They also got corn occasionally with salt, 
copperas and sulphur now and then. Why did that pig die, 
while the others throve handsomely ? I could never tell 
whether it passed urine or dung. 
ANS.—Death was probably due to indigestion or chronic 
inflammation of the bowels. A restricted diet, with a 
change of food might have proved beneficial at the outset. 
Medicinal treatment of such chronic cases by correspond¬ 
ence is unsatisfactory. The pig must have had passages 
from both bowels and kidneys. Death would have resulted 
within a few days if either the bowels or kidneys ceased 
to move. 
Rye for Hay. 
L. M. F., Orient, N. Y.— What is the value of rye 
cured, cut just as it is heading out in comparison with 
Timothy hay for feeding ? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. E. F. LADD. 
I do not consider myself as fully competent to answer 
this question, as I have made but little study of the rye 
crop. 1 give the analyses of water-free mixed grasses 
(mainly Timothy) and rye cut at bloom. 
Timothy. Rye. 
Ash.percent. 4,9? 7.U2 
Albuminoids. " 9.06 18.62 
Crude-fiber. “ 83.42 87 03 
Nitrogen-free extract. " 47.90 87.28 
Fat . “ 4.65 5.05 
These analyses indicate that the rye hay is a more nitro¬ 
genous feed than Timothy. In feeding rye as a forage 
plant during the summer of 1889, I did not find that the 
animals relished it so well or did as well on it as on some 
other forage crops. This is not in accordance with general 
experience reported, and there may have been some reason 
for its poor effects that was not present in other trials. 
The rye did not set a heavy crop, hence the stalks were 
coarser and not well eaten by the animals. Perhaps had 
there been a heavier crop, with small stalks, the trial 
might have been more favorable. The analysis of rye hay 
indicates a greater value than was found by feeding. This, 
however, is but a single trial, and can be considered as 
applying only to such conditions as existed. For hay I 
was not well impressed with it; as a forage plant for 
those practicing soiling and intensive agriculture, its earli¬ 
ness in the spring makes it of much value, coming, as it 
does, before other crops are ready for feeding. If cut be¬ 
fore heading, two, and under favorable conditions, three 
cuttings may be made in a season. This gives additional 
value to rye either for hay or forage, and in a system of 
crop rotation for improving our farm lands, rye may be 
made to play an important part. 
Fighting the Potato Blight. 
J. H. T., Bergen County, N. J.—l. Have any real ex¬ 
periments been made with the Bordeaux Mixture on pota¬ 
toes to prevent the blight ? 2. May we use Paris-green or 
London-purple with the Bordeaux Mixture, and thus fight 
the blight and the beetles at one operation ? 
ANS.—Experiments on a somewhat small scale were con¬ 
ducted by Prof. C. M. Weed of the Ohio Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, and by Col. A. W. Pearson, of Vineland, N. J. Pro¬ 
fessor Weed reports his conclusions in a bulletin issued by 
the Ohio Station (Columbus, Ohio), while a report of 
