564 
AUG. 3o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FARMERS’ CLUE—DISCUSSION. 
Irrigation of Potatoes. 
Henry Stewart, Macon Co., N. C.— 
Potatoes are injured by too much moisture 
and the most effective means for procuring 
a good growth of tubers is frequent culti¬ 
vation. The case mentioned by W. H. R., 
on page 518, seems to me to be one for work¬ 
ing the soil rather than for watering. 
Watering a hard, compact soil would not 
help to make a crop of tubers when there 
has been plenty of rain. The coolness 
which W. H. R. fears might be injurious 
would rather be favorable to the potatoes 
. which enjoy coolness and are impatient of 
too much heat. The conditions of the case 
do not seem to indicate want of water, but 
want of thorough tillage—deep not shallow 
—when the crop was young, and now a too 
compact condition of the ground. I have 
just been digging the early potatoes which 
were worked with a narrow plow like a 
cultivator tooth once a week from the time 
the plants first appeared until the vines 
nearly met. Six rows were hoed by hand 
only on the surface. In these rows the 
ground was almost as hard as the road, and 
the whole six rows gave fewer potatoes 
than the next one which had been deeply 
worked. In the worked rows the soil was 
loose and mellow and the potatoes (Early 
Rose) had spread all over the ground. All 
the vines covered the ground. I have al¬ 
ways found that deep plowing, deep plant¬ 
ing, and deep working between the rows 
until the blossoms appeared, with a level 
surface, have given the best yield of po¬ 
tatoes. 
Burning Old Strawberry Beds. 
B. F. Engel, Pennsylvania.— We have 
practiced burning our old strawberry 
patches for several years and like the plan 
so well that we expect to continue the prac¬ 
tice in the future on all old beds which we 
wish to save for another crop. This season 
our strawberries had but little mulch and 
we found that on account of the “tramping 
up ” the straw had got from the pickers and 
the heavy growth of large weeds among it, 
we could not get it to burn. We then 
hauled out more straw and spread it on top of 
the weeds between the rows,and then set fi re 
to it while the wind was blowing briskly. 
If C. E. C. —page 512—had been with me 
this afternoon I think he would have had 
to acknowledge that “ a fire hot enough to 
kill the large weeds ” does not always “ kill 
cultivated plants,” for the strawberry 
plants are just beginning to grow beauti¬ 
fully while not a plant in 500 has been 
killed and not an annual weed is left. We 
have run the cultivator between the rows 
and the patch will not need to be hoed be¬ 
fore September 1, or later perhaps. 
I claim that burning saves half the hoeing, 
the plants on a burnt bed grow with more 
vigor, leaf-blight or rust will be prevented, 
at least to some extent, insects and their 
eggs will be destroyed and the clearing off 
of the mulch and weeds by the fire is alone 
benefit enough, in my opinion, to make it 
the best plan I know of. In heavy soils the 
ground gets very hard from being tramped 
over by the pickers and burning the mulch 
will make such soils “ mellow up ” easily 
under the cultivator and retain moisture 
much longer than if not so treated. Why 
it is so I cannot say, but I know from ex¬ 
perience that this is the fact. 
Potatoes and Wheat vs. Summer 
Fallowing and Wheat. 
CAN WE AFFORD TO LOSE A CROP ? 
C. E. Chapman, Tompkins County, N.Y. 
—In a recent number a correspondent gives 
his method of preparing ground for wheat. 
By it he gets perhaps five dollars’ worth 
of pasture per acre and plows in July, 
Other cultivation follows and he receives 
30 bushels of wheat the next season. The 
plowing is done in the busiest time of the 
year and the hardest time for plowing. 
Great care must be taken or the horsts will 
get sore. Flies torment, haying hurries 
and the ground is hard ; but few men can do 
good work under such circumstances. The 
ground is exposed for two months to the 
burning sun and drenching rains without 
growth of any kind to gather plant-food 
and prevent wasto of fertility. If kept in 
this condition long enough, it would be¬ 
come utterly worthless. Counting all the 
expenses, I think the wheat would cost 10 
dollars an acre. My theory, and as far as 
possible my practice, are to make the work 
done on one crop fit the ground for the next. 
In place of pasturing, 1 plow and plant 
potatoes. The constant cultivation re¬ 
quired for a good yield of these is the best 
summer fallowing and the vme-shaded 
ground sustains no injury. A medium- 
early potato crop, planted in good season, 
will be ready to be harvested in time for 
wheat sowing. As fast as the tubers are 
dug, I plow shallow, drag and sow. This 
work will cost nothing, because the plow¬ 
man will pick up enough tubers which 
have been left in the ground, to pay his 
wages. A pail is strapped to the plow and 
all merchantable potatoes are picked up. A 
box is fastened to the drag and the driver 
can get a few without stopping the team. 
There is no way that I know of that will 
secure all the potatoes the first time. Last 
year I tried several diggers—some plows— 
and finally in despair, dug an acre with 
hooks, by hand, in my efforts to get all the 
crop at once. On that acre I picked up 
four bushels while fitting it for wheat. 
They paid for the work, and would have 
been lost had not I prepared the land for 
wheat. The soil is worked into the best 
mechanical condition without extra labor 
while the potatoes are being dug. One 
would hardly feel justified in putting as 
much work on a summer fallow as the 
potato field receives, while looking to one 
crop for profit. My land will not give one 
bushel more wheat after it has been sum¬ 
mer-fallowed than after potatoes. A com¬ 
parison of the results of the two methods 
would be as follows : 
Cr. 
SO bushels wheat at 80c.. 
Pasturage. 
.. $27 00 
Dr. 
Cost. 
Halance... 
. $10 00 
. 22.10 
$82.00 
$82.00 
100 bus. potatoes at 50c.. 
80 “ wheat at 90c. 
.. $50.00 
Cost . 
Balance... 
. 88.00 
$68.10 
$68.00 
I have underestimated the yield of both 
wheat and potatoes and take the cost from 
my books; yet there is a difference of nearly 
100 per cent, in the net profit. Rural 
readers, what do you say to the question : 
Can we afford to summer fallow ? 
R. N.-Y.—But can you handle as many 
acres in potatoes as under the other plan ? 
In other words, is the potato-wheat crop 
practical for large farms ? 
Long Island Strawberries. 
Wm. Falconer, Long Island.— We aie 
making up new beds now—the middle of 
August. These August plantings always 
give us our finest berries the next season, 
and the two-year-old plants the heaviest 
crops. We never keep them longer. Sharp¬ 
less is king with us. My vegetable fore¬ 
man has a home of his own and a few 
acres of ground near here, and this year 
he raised quite a patch of strawberries on 
it. The variety was Sharpless. While he 
was away at work his family attended to 
picking and selling the berries, and they 
sold them all in the village here. When 
there were lots of New York berries in the 
stores, selling at 15 cents a quart, he 
could not nearly supply the demand for his 
fruit at 25 cents a quart, and as the season 
advanced and berries became very plentiful 
and were selling three quarts for 25 cents, 
he was getting 15 cents a quart. Now, why 
was this ? Simply because his berries were 
fresh-picked, just ripe, sound and perfect, 
and every berry was a big berry, every box 
was filled full, and the berries in the bot¬ 
tom of the box were just as good as those 
at the top, and every person who dealt 
with him knew it. He sold during the sea¬ 
son from $2 to $4.20 worth a day. And now 
he is increasing his plantation for next 
year. True, the Sharpless is a poor ship¬ 
ping berry, and can be handled profitably 
only as he handled it—at home. But it pays 
to grow superior fruit and deal honestly. 
“Cas9lus M. Clay on Trusts.” 
J. W., Vineland, N. J.—Of all the good 
things in The Rural of August 16, none 
attracts my attention so strongly as C. M. 
Clay’s letter, and, to my mind, none so im¬ 
peratively calls for an indorsement or 
criticism. The Rural wants to know 
what I think of Mr. Clay’s railroad idea. 
1 must, even at the risk of violating The 
Rural’s stern decree that we shall be brief 
in what we have to say, speak a word or 
two about the writer. I am an utter 
stranger to Mr. Clay; but he is well-known 
to me, as he is to hundreds, yes, thousands, 
of others of the generation that lived in the 
“ sixties,” and during the late “ unpleas¬ 
antness,”—the time that tried men’s souls, 
especially those of the men who resided and 
had property in the border States ; but his 
love of freedom landed him in the Party of 
Liberty, and he soon became a historical 
figure; for his abilities and fearless ad¬ 
vocacy of the rights and liberties of the 
people caused him to be placed in positions 
of trust and honor. My object in indulging 
in this reminiscence is to give me the oppor¬ 
tunity to say to the readers of The Rural 
that when a man of Mr. Clay’s standing 
gives utterance to such rank socialism as 
advocating that the government should 
own and operate the railroads, it is time 
for them to open their eyes, put on their 
thinking-caps and consider what they are 
going to do about it. He tells us—and 
that without equivocation—that he is, and 
has been for a long time, a victim to 
“ legalized robberies,” and most emphatic¬ 
ally declares that he is “ no longer a free- 
mau,” and that, in no true sense, is this a 
Republic, but that, to-day, “it is the worst 
Government on earth ” (I 1 I) (and it’s true, 
every word of it). Think of that, ye Rip 
Van Winkle farmers, and let each ask him¬ 
self the question: “How much am I to 
blame for this state of things ?” Then, 
according to the answer, let his action be. 
Now, brother farmers, you know only too 
well that everything that Mr. Clay charges 
is true, and that there is not a farmer be¬ 
tween Maine and California who has not 
suffered a like experience in paying tribute 
to the railroad octopus. Now, Mr. Clay in 
his suggestion of a remedy suggests noth¬ 
ing new, and the importance of his letter 
does not consist in this so much as in the 
personality of the man, the strength of his 
reasons, and the forcible manner in which 
they are given. His letter is a bugle call to 
every farmer and wage worker throughout 
this land to do his duty, and Mr. Clay has 
my most hearty and sincere thanks for his 
fearless but truthful arraignment of the 
two G. O. P.’s, who are eminently worthy 
of the name the Master gave the Pharisees 
of old, when he called them, “ Whited 
sepulchres, but within full of rottenness 
and dead men’s bones.” In taking leave of 
Mr. Clay, I respectfully say: “Next.” 
For myself, I am a Bellamy socialist, or 
anything else that will command a halt 
and turn this government back to its first 
principles, and establish equity. 
Curing a Cold. 
Edward L. Partridge, M. D , New 
York. —The first and most interesting 
questions would be: “What is a cold 
and what are the factors producing it?” At 
the present day the “germ theory ” has in¬ 
vaded all our beliefs, and we are coming to 
an ever-strengthening opinion that the 
greater number of ills to which we are ex¬ 
posed originate in the reception into the 
system of microscopic organisms, which 
undergo a rapid multiplication of a fer¬ 
mentative character until they are suffi¬ 
cient to cause illness. This illness will be 
of varying character according to the 
nature of the organism; in other words, 
according to the nature of the seed sown. 
Individuals vary in their receptive readi¬ 
ness toward these germs, however. At one 
time an individual seems to present a fer¬ 
tile soil for the germ of a given disease, 
while the same person, at another time, 
does not afford the constitutional condi¬ 
tions favorable to lodgment of the germ 
and development of the disease. That there 
is a varying susceptibility in a person thus 
exposed is well known. Why this is so, we 
are unable to say in a majority of instances. 
These few remarks may seem to foreshadow 
an opinion on my part that a “ cold ” has a 
germ origin. It is probably true that a 
cold may, and in many instances does, have 
such an origin—the germs of the cold being 
derived from the exhalations and dis¬ 
charges from the air passages of those with 
whom we come in contact, and who may 
then be suffering from the affection. This 
then is one (and by many regarded as the 
principal) source of a cold. I fully believe, 
however, that exposure to draughts, or 
protracted chilling of the surface of the 
body, or the failure to remove wet articles 
of clothing may often cause colds. The 
effect of these influences is to drive the 
blood from the surface of the body, causing 
an increased distribution of it in internal 
parts or organs, i. e., congestion. While 
this may cause a dysentery, a “ cold in the 
bowels,” or acute Bright’s disease, accord¬ 
ing to the organ or part congested, far 
more commonly a “ cold in the head,” or 
“ in the lungs,” or a sore throat, is the re¬ 
sult ; for the parts involved in these latter 
affections appear to be most sensitive to 
chilling of the skin. With the onset of a 
cold there is usually some fever which 
gives aching and malaise as common 
symptoms. 
Any such attack of whatever origin can 
be much modified in its severity and course 
by keeping the subject warm and quiet. 
Rest in bed for 24 hours, and special care 
against exposure afterwards would be al¬ 
ways beneficial. I should deprecate the 
indiscriminate resort to a big alcoholic 
drink, and to anything to promote profuse 
sweating. The first is generally unneces¬ 
sary if the patient will by other means get 
and keep warm. The second measure ren¬ 
ders the subject more than ever sensitive 
immediately thereafter, and while sweating 
there is always liability to accidental and 
mischievous interruption. A small Hover’s 
p iwder with 10 grains of quinine is usually 
a safe combination at the beginning of an 
attack, provided the individual will regard 
himself as sick enough to lie down and be 
quiet for 12 hours, and if he is ill enough to 
take these remedies he should add the 
other precautions. 
Local use of camphor will always help 
the nasal discomfort, and in the same way, 
inhalations from methol crystals wM 
give relief. If the patient is sick enough 
for further medicinal treatment he would 
do well to consult his physician. Increased 
sensitiveness to even slight exposure will 
continue several days during which time 
the cause of the cold will be checked, and 
additions prevented, chiefly by keeping the 
whole body evenly and constantly warm. 
Owing to the self-limited nature of a 
cold, it is the danger of additions to it 
which should be considered, quite as much 
as the cold itself, and perhaps more, as the 
latter will run a short course under proper 
surroundings. It is not the cold which one 
has as much as that which can be added 
readily, which should be chiefly looked 
after. It is human, however, to regard a 
cold as unworthy of much consideration. 
Yet, as it is easier to stop a runaway horse 
in his first few jumps, so protracted colds 
and more serious consequences will be 
avoided by early attention to a cold. The 
Turkish bath or imitation of it is a good 
thing rightly employed. The best time to 
resort to it would be as the cold is coming 
on. Employed with extreme care during a 
cold, it is also serviceable. Ample time 
should be allowed for it, and for a complete 
return to an even, quiet circulation after 
the bath, with an absence of perspiration. 
The benefit of the bath results from its 
promoting the functions of the skin, an I 
leaving it in a normal condition. The 
blood is brought to the surface, and the 
glands are opened and put in the best state 
for the performance of their work. 
The skin as a whole is as truly an organ 
of the body, as is any other part. Its func¬ 
tion is normally performed through an 
inappreciable, but ever-continuing action 
which eliminates waste products. The 
abundant sweating during the bath is not 
the thing which is curative of a cold. The 
cold is benefited because by this act the skiu 
is stimulated and made ready for subse¬ 
quent healthy performance of its func¬ 
tions. Rubbing as part of the Turkish 
bath or apart from it, tends toward the 
same beneficial result. The chief difficulty 
in the use of the Turkish bath as a remedy 
in connection with the treatment of a cold, 
is the great likelihood of exposure in get¬ 
ting to and from the bath. Household imi¬ 
tations are of comparatively little value in 
my opinion unless one’s bath-room is fitted 
up with certain elaborate, patented appli¬ 
ances; yet the attendance is even then 
absent. 
Shade for the Cows. 
F. M. Carryl, Orange County, N. Y. 
—I notice occasional articles on the ques¬ 
tion of shade in pastures. Some pastures 
have plenty of trees, others none. In these 
latter I feel that it would be money well 
spent to erect a shed large enough to shelter 
all the cattle in the pasture, and when 
they lie down they cover more ground than 
most people would believe. Then it should 
shed water well enough to be a fair shelter 
from heavy storms, and it will answer 
very well as a milking shed when it rains 
hard. If cows are pastured at a distance 
from the barns, why not drive to them, and 
milk them and save them the long, hot 
drive home f Let them enjoy the grass day 
and night while it lasts ; besides, one has 
to pay in the loss of milk for making them 
travel that distance. 
Quantity of Fertilizer Needed. 
D. C. Lewis, Middlesex County, N. J. 
—On page 528 W. F. Tabor says that to 
grow 100 bushels of corn and stalks would 
require the following amounts of plant 
food : One hundred and eighty pounds of 
potash; 79 pounds of phosphoric acid and 
81 pounds of nitrogen. A yield of 100 
bushels of shelled corn per acre is not often 
produced ; but I have no doubt that it can 
be done if all necessary conditions are 
favorable. The best average yield in New 
Jersey is 50 bushels per acre; will Mr. W. 
F. Tabor tell us how much of each of these 
three elements should be applied to produce 
50 bushels per acre uuder favorable condi¬ 
tions ? We return to our fields all our 
corn-stalks and straw, less the leaves and 
husks, which are fed to our cattle ; now, 
can we be taught the minimum quantities 
of the different plaut foods that should 
be furnished to the various crops so as to 
entitle us,with some degree of certainty, to 
depend upon an average yield of even 50 
bushels of corn per acre, everything else 
