i89o 
7o9 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
manure, let him put a spoonful of ashes and Bowker s 
powdered bone, well mixed, in the hill, and put in four 
kernels of red-cob corn, or Southern white dent, the hills 
being 18 by 42 inches apart, and he will get a good crop. 
Then let him buy a new milch cow about October 1, and 
sell her milk or butter. The next season let him do the 
same thing, and use the additional amount of manure to 
enlarge his corn-field; then let him buy another cow, and 
so keep on until his farm is up to its full productive capa¬ 
city, and a good-sized dairy fills the barns. As long as 
there is plenty of silage, corn stover and hayed oats in the 
barn, there is no cause for fretting about hay. Some 
writers tell us hay is king on the farm, but it should not 
be. Silage and corn stover, hayed oats, barley, etc., must 
be resorted to for the best results. If the silage or corn 
stover is all fed out at any time in the spring before fresh 
feed has come, the flow of milk cannot be kept up with 
even the very best hay. "W. H. WILKINSON. 
Hampden County, Mass. 
The Farmers Club. 
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Blanketing Horses In Cold Weather. 
J. H. B., Bourbon, Ind .—What is a safe rule for blan¬ 
keting horses in cold weather ? 
ANS.—There are few matters of stock management about 
which farmers are more divided than this. Some want a 
blanket on the horse all the time while it is in the stable ; 
when it goes out they propose to exercise it hard enough 
to keep it warm. Others argue that a horse is like a man 
in the fact that the proper time for him to put on an over¬ 
coat is when he goes out-of-doors. The following notes 
describe typical practices: 
Feed a Good Coat of Hair. 
The treatment begins back of blankets in the previous 
care of the horse. If his coat has been thinned and short¬ 
ened by pampering and grooming, then he must be 
blanketed or suffer. I must confess that I believe we 
ought to induce the growth of a thick winter coat for the 
average farm horse, and in case there is one the need of a 
blanket is greatly lessened. I believe that even then the 
horse should always have a blanket when standing still 
out-of-doors if the temperature is at or below freezing- 
point. As to blanketing a horse in the barn after a hard 
drive or hard work, or under extraordinary circumstances, 
good judgment must decide. Better not give farm horses 
hard drives. It would be a good rule never to work or 
drive a farm horse so hard that he will require blanketing 
when put into the stall. One thing to be remembered is 
that a horse may contract in a few minutes all the dis¬ 
asters due to a want of blankets. I would not cover head, 
ears or legs. eugene davenport. 
Ingham County, Mich. 
It Depends Upon the Horse. 
God made the horses, but man has “ improved ” them 
until now their nature Is very different from what it 
would have been had they remained in a wild state, and, 
while in that condition no shelter would be ever needed, 
when used by man they must be stabled and fed to be able 
to endure the changed life. But do horses need more than 
good feed and warm stables ? Some seem to do well when 
totally unblanketed in winter or fall; but the coat in such 
cases gets unusually long and thick, and when it gets 
heavy with sweat it takes a long time to dry out. I do 
not believe in covering the head, neck or legs; but, as cold 
weather comes on, I use a light blanket at night, and, 
later on, a heavier one. I find that when a horse is treated 
in this way the coat remains short and smooth, and the 
horse is more easily kept clean, and is readily dried when 
wet from sweat or rain, and when a horse comes in wet 
I use an old blanket to cover him until he becomes 
dry; then I put on his regular blanket dry for the night. 
For out-doors I use the large, square, woolen blanket, 
which covers a house almost to his head. Buckled across 
the breast and once under the belly loosely, this is as good 
a protection as can be had. Put it on at once whenever 
the team is to stand, even if it is but for 10 minutes. It 
may be that the 10 minutes will from some cause run into 
20, or even longer, and a chilled horse is in danger if he 
has been used to a blanket. I believe it safer not to use 
any blanket at all than to use one occasionally, and I 
think it is never safe, even when blanketed, to allow a 
team to stand long out-of-doors in a cold wind or rain. 
Orange County, N. Y. F. M. carrtl. 
“ A Good Feed-Blanket Inside.” 
I never blanket work horses, and driving horses only 
when they are standing out-doors after they have been 
driven. I have a warm basement stable and have never 
used a blanket on a horse while he was in it, and I see no 
necessity for using one. When my team come from the 
city on a cold day and are warm from work, it seems as if 
they must take cold while standing in the cold wind until 
a load of manure is pitched off; but they do not. And from 
the fact that my horses rarely, if ever, have colds, or are 
sick in any way, Ido not see why blankets would be of any 
use. When horses under this treatment live to the age of 
28 or 30 years, as I have known them to do, I think they 
thrive pretty well without blankets. If blankets are used 
at all, they should be used regularly or else I should ex¬ 
pect trouble; but it is hard to get drivers to use any judg¬ 
ment in putting on blankets, so it is better not to use them 
at all. When a blanket is used it should cover the back 
from the neck to the tail, come well down the sides and be 
buckled over the breast; the head, ears and legs will not 
then suffer from the cold. In this climate if work horses 
have a good “feed-blanket” inside, they can get along 
without a woolen blanket outside. A. L. crosby. 
Baltimore County, Md. 
It Depends Upon the Stable. 
If the stalls are warm no blanket is needed, unless the 
horse comes in warm from a drive, and then I think It a 
good plan to put on a woolen blanket for an hour or so, or 
until the animal has become dry, and then remove it. If 
the stalls are cool in summer and warm in winter, I think 
it well to keep on a cotton blanket all the time, except in 
cold weather, when the horse comes in warm, when a 
woolen,blanket can be put on until he has dried off, and 
then the cotton one should be put on. The horse will dry 
sooner with the woolen blanket than without one. I tried 
this plan for a number of years, and liked it. The cotton 
blanket kept the flies off in summer, and I think the horse 
was as comfortable as he would have been without it. It 
is almost impossible to keep a blanket on some horses. 
Last fall I bought a young Canadian horse, and when the 
weather became cold I put on a woolen blanket. He was 
uneasy and kept biting himself. I took off the blanket, 
using it only when he came in warm, for an hour or so, 
and he seemed much more comfortable. I think that a 
horse that wears a cotton blanket or none at all, except 
after he has come in warm, is not so likely to take cold as 
one that wears a woolen blanket all the time. When a 
horse has been driven in cold weather, and is at all warm, 
and has to stand out-of doors if only for a few minutes, I 
think he should be covered with a large, square woolen 
blanket, pulled well up to his ears. I do not think cover¬ 
ing for the head and ears necessary, and know of no way 
to cover the legs. "W. E. RINES. 
Strafford Co., N. H. 
A Blanket Is Like An Overcoat. 
In cold weather, when outside, and at work, horses 
should certainly be blanketed, and the kind of blanketing 
should depend on the weather. Wheu I need a light over¬ 
coat in going to the village, on my arrival there my horses 
need a light blanket. When the mercury has dropped to 
zero or below, I put on each a large and heavy woolen 
blanket. I have blankets with straps so arranged as to come 
round the horse and buckle ju3t forward of the hind legs. 
Fastened thus, the blanket can not be blown up or off 
from behind, and will therefore afford better protection to 
the vital parts. When I have work for the horses, such as 
drawing wood or manure nearby, when it is very cold, I 
either throw a blanket over them while standing, or put 
one under th e harness. In the stable they are not blanketed, 
as a rule, unless they show signs of being cold, which they 
will in zero weather if a high wind is blowing. When 
after a drive they come in warm, I blanket them for an 
hour or two. Farmers’ horses ought not to be driven so 
hard that it would be necessary to cover them, like race¬ 
horses, over head, ears and legs. Some horses, like some 
men, need more protection in cold weather than others. A 
horse that is inclined to be nervous will shiver, while a 
closely built Percheron will be warm and comfortable. I 
keep a light blanket on my nervous horses all winter, and 
when the weather is very cold, a good woolen one. Although 
the stable is the best, a horse that has the run of a yard in 
cold weather, will exercise enough to keep warm, whileone 
that is confined in a stall must depend on his master to aid 
in keeping him comfortable. In this, as in many other 
things, some gumption must be used, and if the master 
does not possess it, the horse will suffer. I have often seen 
horses driven to town, hitched to a post, left standing 
there for hours without blanketing, or if blankets were put 
on, they were simply thrown on without fastening; in a 
little while the wind would blow them off, when the poor 
animals would stand and shiver, while the miserable 
owner would be at the tavern or saloon. Such inhuman 
creatures do not deserve to own a horse. 
Livingston Co., N. Y. P. G. frutchey. 
Green-Manuring. 
J. M. Osborn, Bridgehampton, N. F.—I have sown a 
piece of ground with rye, expecting to plow it under in the 
spring, and sow buckwheat to be plowed under. I want 
to do the best I can with it all next summer, plowing under 
a green crop for manure ; can I sow a second crop of buck¬ 
wheat, or will something else be better ? It is good land 
and will grow good crops of corn, wheat, etc. 
Ans. —Two crops of buckwheat may be grown in the 
summer by sowing the first early in May ; then the second 
may be sown in July and turned under as soon as it is In 
blossom. But if the ground is in good enough condition 
to produce good crops of grain, it seems to be a waste to 
lose a crop of corn which might be grown after the rye is 
turned under early in May. Then buckwheat might be 
sown through the corn late in July when the last cultiva¬ 
tion is given, or even early in August, and it will afford a 
considerable quantity of green manure to be turned under. 
Too much of this kind of matter is not desirable, as it is 
apt to produce too much acid in the soil, and this is espe¬ 
cially true of buckwheat. To avoid this result it is well 
to give the land a dressing of lime with each green-manur¬ 
ing, as this causes the vegetable matter to become decom¬ 
posed and mineralized, in which condition only it is fully 
available for plant food. 
Wintering Cabbage Plants, Etc. 
W. H. J., Walton, N. Y. —1. How do market gardeners 
winter cabbages for the spring market ? 2. How can I 
best winter cabbage plants—by transplanting them in cold- 
frames or covering them with glass where they grew ? 
3. Can I make hot-bed sashes cheaper than I can buy 
them f Where can cheap glass for the purpose be ob¬ 
tained f 
Ans.— 1. The common method is to pull the cabbages as 
late as it can be done without permitting them to be 
frozen in, and turn them, heads down, in beds six or eight 
feet wide where they grew. They should be left In this 
condition until there is danger of the ground between the 
beds freezing so that it cannot be dug, when they should 
be covered with the soil from between the beds to a depth 
of six or seven inches, or enough to almost or quite cover 
the roots. After the ground has become frozen, cover with 
straw, leaves or strawy manure to a depth of three or 
four Inches, to protect from extreme freezing and to facil¬ 
itate getting the cabbages during cold weather. There 
should be no difficulty in wintering cabbages by this 
method on ground where the water will not stand. 2. By 
transplanting, but this method is little used by market 
gardeners. They sow mostly in greenhouses or hot-beds 
early in spring, usually in February in this vicinity. 3. 
That depends upon the price you would have to pay, your 
mechanical ingenuity, the value ot your time, etc. If your 
time is not very valuable and you are handy with tools, 
you could probably make them cheaper. The glasses are 
bedded in putty, fastened by glazing points; the joints 
between glass and sash are then covered with a line of 
white lead in oil,which is dusted over with dry white sand. 
Glass in quantities may be purchased of hardware dealers. 
Henderson’s Gardening for Profit will prove invaluable to 
you. It will be mailed from this office for $2, post-paid. 
Dry Paris-Green on Cotton Plants. 
S. B. H., Dover, Del —On page 549, The R. N.-Y. speaks 
of sifting dry Paris-green on the cotton plant to kill the 
cotton worm. The poison, it was stated, is sifted from a 
bag held at the end of a long pole directly upon the plants. 
Will not this strong poison kill the plants ? 
Ans. —At first thought, without ever having seen the 
operation performed, we should say that the poison 
ought to kill the plants, but it does not seem to do so. 
Bulletin No. 17, of the Alabama Experiment Station, at 
Auburn, Ala., has an interesting account of this matter. 
The bulletin is in the form of a “symposium” containing 
replies from 25 large cotton planters. The manner of 
applying the Paris-green is to put it in osDaburg bags 
which are tied to the ends of a long pole. This pele is 
carried by a man mounted on a mule, and the animal is 
trotted across the field so that the bags pass directly over 
the cotton rows. The jolting and sifting thus given the 
pole sift the poison directly upon the plants. Most of the 
parties quoted used the Paris-green pure, one only using 
five pounds of flour to one of Paris-green. The poles 
varied from four to eight feet in length, and most of the 
"bags were about large enough to hold three pounds of the 
poison. All agree that a calm day with little wind is to 
be preferred, and it is also agreed that the poison floats in 
the air to such an extent that both sides of the leaves are 
more or less poisoned. The average amount of poison 
used was 2 )4 pounds per acre, and the average area 
covered by one man and a mule was 15 acres. The 
mule is washed carefully every night and is kept 
at a good pace in order to keep out of the dust. The 
chief danger from the poison lies in its coming in con¬ 
tact with some sore or with some part of the body that has 
been chafed by clothing or harness. No instance is given 
where Paris-green has injured the plants, though both 
arsenic and London-purple are condemned by a portion of 
the writers. This plan of applying poisons, while seem¬ 
ingly crude and ineffective, is really of great service to 
small cotton planters, because it is cheap, rapid and simple, 
doing away with the necessity for the buying of expensive 
machinery. 
Poisoning Sparrows. 
S. A. B., EdwardsvlV.\e, III .—How can I prepare wheat 
to poison sparrows ? They are getting to be a great nuis¬ 
ance here. They eat most of the feed I give to young 
poultry. 
Ans.— You can soak it in some soluble solution of ar¬ 
senic, or dust a little white arsenic over it while wet. The 
trouble is that anything that will kill the sparrows will 
kill the chickens as well. The poisoned food must be put 
on the roof or at the top of high poles or the chickens will 
feat it. Keep the chickens housed and use a shot-gun for 
the sparrows. The best way to kill them in large num¬ 
bers is to organize a raid in their nesting season and de¬ 
stroy all the nests and eggs that can be found. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
E. S. W., Tompkinsville, Pa.—Which are the more 
liable to rot—new or old seed potatoes ? 
Ans.— What is meant by old seed ? Is it seed pieces or 
tubers that are used from a variety long cultivated on the 
same land ? The question is not one that can be answered 
without more definite data. The R. N.-Y. believes that 
with proper selection the same variety may be raised on a 
farm without deterioration for an indefinite time from 
home-grown seed. 
A. M. C., Bunker Hill, III.— 1. How can onion sets be 
raised from seed? 2. Can onion seed be planted in the fall 
and left in the ground all winter ? 
Ans. —1. Sow, as early in the spring as the ground is dry 
enough to work, about 30 pounds of seed per acre in drills. 
When the tops die, gather the sets and store them in a dry, 
airy place. In the winter put them where they will be dry 
and free from frost. 2. Not where freezing weather is ex¬ 
perienced. This plan is followed to some extent in the 
South, the seed being sown in August and September. 
C. N. R., Canton, Pa .—Would it be advisable to cover 
wheat ground with straw ? Should it be done after or be¬ 
fore it has frozen ? 
Ans.—Y es; the results are good. We should prefer to 
wait until after the ground has frozen hard enough to 
bear one’s weight or even the weight of horses. 
H. L., Linwood, Ind .—I want to raise early cabbages 
for market; would it be advisable to use cold-frames for 
them this fall ? 
Ans.—S ow in spring, in hot beds. Unless you have had 
experience you would be likely to make a failure with a 
oold-frame, especially in your latitude. 
