8io 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NOV. 29 
I shall never know. Without any expense, experiments 
might have been made on this potato field that 
would have proved of great value as a guide to after 
practice, and the knowledge gained would have been far 
more satisfactory than the ignorance that I am now 
obliged to confess. State experiment stations may yet 
prove of great value to the practical farmer; but it will be 
a great mistake if he wholly depends on their labors. 
Soil and climate are not the same throughout the State, 
and what may be true at Ithaca, may not be true at 
Geneva, and what may be true at both these stations, may 
not be true in Lewis County. 
I believe it to be true that a majority of farmers have 
never conducted one well defined experiment. No wonder 
that farming does not pay where such indifference prevails. 
Every Acre Useful.— If I were young again and just 
beginning on the farm, I would study to make each acre 
contribute its proper share to the whole amount of profit. 
It is not good management to apply manure in wasteful 
quantities to favorite fields along the public highway, so 
that passers-by may think the farm wonderfully produc¬ 
tive ; while other fields not so situated are in a sterile con¬ 
dition for the lack of the fertilizers so lavishly used else¬ 
where. It is not the large crops of a few acres that fix 
the standard of farm profit or management. The question 
of real importance relates to the aggregate of farm pro¬ 
ductions for a year or for a series of years. A large acreage 
of unproductive pasture does not contribute its proper 
share of profit if the land is tillable. It should be brought 
into the regular rotation of the farm if the best results are 
to be secured. A young farmer should become acquainted 
with the capabilities of each acre of his land, and put 
every acre to profitable use 
Mixed Farming Best.—I would adopt a system of mixed 
farming and try to have something to sell every day in the 
year. I have no 
sympathy with 
the idea recently 
advanced by an 
agricultural 
writer, that a 
farmer should 
confine himself 
to one particular 
branch or line of 
farming. The 
capabilities o f 
the human mind 
are not so limit¬ 
ed that a man 
may not be an 
expert butter 
maker and at the 
same time a suc¬ 
cessful breeder 
of swine. He 
may be an adept 
in raising pota¬ 
toes and an au¬ 
thority on the 
cultivation o f 
small fruits. 
That eminent 
Ohio agricultur¬ 
ist and former 
advocate of spec¬ 
ial farming, who 
has lately given 
the cultivation 
of fine fruit a 
share of his at¬ 
tention, may yet 
be a breeder of 
superior butter 
cows and per¬ 
haps become 
noted for im¬ 
provement i n 
Cleveland Bays 
or fine horses of 
some other breed. When all this and more has been 
accomplished, his potatoes will be none the less fine, and 
his strawberries will continue to grow to an enormous 
size and be quite as delicious as they now are. The same 
thoroughness and careful attention that secured success 
in one branch of farming will insure like results in others. 
The monotony of farm life is often the subject of com¬ 
ment; but a small farm devoted to mixed farming may 
afford great variety in subjects for study and great divers¬ 
ity of employment and thereby broaden useful education 
and add to the pleasure of living. Increased facility for 
constant profitable employment of labor is also among 
the advantages of mixed farming. 
Breeding of Farm Stock.—I would use only selected 
thoroughbred males for breeding farm stock. Want of 
space forbids details of my experience or any experiments 
on the subject. There is abundant evidence within reach 
of every farmer that this is the only wise course to pursue. 
I would study to make my farm animals comfortable and 
to supply them with plenty of suitable food every day in 
the year. Thoughtful kindness to such animals will re¬ 
sult in increased profit. I would give careful attention to 
the manufacture, saving and application of manure and 
would supplement it with purchased fertilizers so far as 
experiment might show that this could be profitably done. 
Avoid Debt,— I would religiously obey the Bible com¬ 
mand: “ Owe no man anything.” Perhaps primarily this 
injunction did not include pecuniary indebtedness, but it is 
excellent gospel for a young farmer if accepted as these 
words are ordinarily used. The argument is often made 
that debts promote diligence and economy. It is true that 
many men have prospered while laboring to discharge 
obligations of this nature, but, on the other hand, the 
country is full of farmers contending hopelessly with debts 
that ought never to have been contracted. Custom or 
fashion should not be allowed to dictate personal or family 
expenses beyond what are warranted by assured income. 
Men should meet the unavoidable ills of life with a cheer¬ 
ful countenance and a brave heart. Debt is an evil to be 
shunned. 
Reading and Study.— I would not only take and read, 
but also study The Rural New-Yorker and some others 
of the leading agricultural papers of the country. The 
farmer who neglects to avail himself of such helps gives 
evidence of “imbecility ” and no one need be surprised if 
he becomes wholly demented. Improved implements and 
farm machinery have greatly lightened the labor of farm 
ing and the young farmer of to-day in good health has no 
valid excuse for ignorance except lack of mental capacity. 
Books and papers are cheap and can be supplied at little 
cost. In many cases where the farmer is not the owner of 
even an apology for a library enough money has been 
blown away and disappeared in clouds of smoke to have 
paid for many costly hooks if it had been used for that 
purpose. A farmer may be an educated man whether he 
has enjoyed the benefit of schools or not. 
“ If I were young again ”—but I am reminded that space 
in The Rural is limited—that youtn is gone, middle life 
past and old age alone remains Happily men may so 
pass the periods of youth and middle life that the retrospec 
tion may afford both pleasure and profit. 
Lewis County, N. Y. 
THE TREE MOON-FLOWER. 
A little specimen of this new ipomoea was sent to the 
Rural Grounds last spring by J. C. Vaughan of Chicago, 
Ill., and planted in soil not very rich and in an unfavorable 
situation—a grass margin crowding it on one side and, later, 
chrysanthemums on the other. It grew vigorously, never¬ 
theless, so that in early September it consisted of three 
main stems each about four feet tall. The leaves are al¬ 
ternate, of course, on long petioles from joints two to six 
inches apart. In shape they are ovate, acuminate and 
about five inches broad at the base, suggesting the general 
shape of a Calla Lily. The stems are an inch in diameter 
at the base and of a dark green color. The peduncles, 
growing from the leaf axils, are six inches or more long, 
when they break into two pedicils which again divide into 
several short pedicils, each one bearing half a dozen or 
more buds which bloom successively. The tube of the 
flower is about IK inch long by over half an inch in diam¬ 
eter, while the limb when fully expanded measures over 
three inches ift diameter. The throat is a brilliant carmine- 
purple, the limb white. Upon one branch we counted 160 
buds, the lower buds (growing from the middle of the 
plant) opening first and those above later. 
Prof. John M. Coulter of Crawfordsville, Ind., says that 
this ipomoea was sent to the Department of Agriculture in 
Mr. Nealley’s collections. Mr. Coulter having charge of 
naming the Texas collections, named it Ipomoea Texana. 
His own specimens came from Santa Maria, Cameron 
County, Texas. The illustration, Fig. 390, is from nature. 
Flower lovers would do well to obtain a few specimens of 
this excellent novelty. 
One cent will mail this paper to your friend 
in any part of the United States, Canada or 
Mexico, after you have read it and written 
your name on the corner. 
THROUGH THE GENESEE VALLEY WITH A 
CAMERA. 
THE RETSOF SALT MINE. 
There are various ways of making salt, some of them 
very simple and inexpensive, while others require an im¬ 
mense amount of machinery. The ancients used to get 
salt by evaporating sea water, and this method is in opera¬ 
tion at the present time in different parts of the world. Of 
late years salt has been evaporated by steam heat to a 
great degree, and I think it safe to say that nine-tenths of 
all salt manufactured at present is made by this pro¬ 
cess The idea of mining salt is a new one to Americans, 
although extensive salt mines have been in successful 
operation in different parts of England, Germany, Austria 
and Poland for long periods, and in one case in Gallicia 
for seven or eight centuries. Six years ago Messrs. Varker 
& Freeman became interested in the recently opened Gene¬ 
see Valley salt field, and put down a test well near Greigs- 
ville. The indications were so favorable that a company 
was formed for the purpose of sinking a shaft. As the 
work went forward the need of more capital was ap¬ 
parent, and a new stock corporation with a capital of $3,- 
600,000 was organized, known as the Retsof Salt and Min¬ 
ing Company. 
The Retsof mine is located four miles northwest of Gene- 
seo, in the town of York, and has the distinction of being 
the only salt mine in America. The group of buildings 
shown at Fig. 391 form the nucleus of the village of Retsof, 
consisting of nearly 100 houses, with a store and meat mar¬ 
ket. The tall building is probably one of the most pecu¬ 
liarly constructed structures in the world, but utility, not 
beauty, is the watchword of the company. It stands di¬ 
rectly over the shaft and rises above it to the height of 130 
feet. The salt is raised to the top of this “head house,” 
as it is called, and then runs through a series of iron 
crushers and 
sieves, the dif¬ 
ferent grades 
running into 
separate bins in 
the warehouse as 
it descends. The 
buildings at the 
left, in reality 
part of the head 
house, are used 
a s warehouses. 
They are fitted 
up with im¬ 
mense bins hold¬ 
ing hundreds of 
tons of salt, 
which is loaded 
on the cars that 
run through the 
warehouse o n 
three tracks. 
The ground floor 
of the warehouse 
at the extreme 
left is devoted to 
bagging and 
storing the finer 
grades, such as 
dairy, table, and 
common salt for 
household pur¬ 
poses. At the 
right is the en¬ 
gine and boiler 
house contain¬ 
ing the motive 
power for the 
plant. There are 
two sets of boil¬ 
ers, each of 600 
horse power, al¬ 
though only one 
set is used at a 
time. These gen¬ 
erate steam for the large engine that drives the ma¬ 
chinery, and also for the smaller engines that work the 
pumps and the dynamo, for all the buildings are 
illuminated by electricity. In the center of the engine- 
room is a huge steel druui 14 feet in diameter, on which is 
wound the wire cable that hauls the cages up from the 
mine. The company is now building a new warehouse 
40x80 feet and 65 feet high, and expects to erect a new store 
and meat market in a short time. The works are about a 
mile from the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Rail¬ 
road and are connected with it by a branch line owned by 
the firm. Two locomotives constitute the rolling stock. 
So much for a description of the surface, but interesting 
as the village of Retsof is with its busy whirl of business, 
the chief interest lies a thousand feet underground, liter¬ 
ally down in the bowels of the earth. 
The shaft connecting the surface with the mine proper, 
is about 1,200 feet deep, and before curbing was 13x19 feet. 
The curbing, which is made of heavy timbers securely 
mortised at the corners, has reduced the size to 12x18 feet. 
Up and down this shaft two cages run, on the principle of 
duplex well curbs, one rising up while the other goes 
down. But what a difference. The cages are capable of 
carrying several tons, and the rope is a heavy cable over 
an inch in diameter. Some people are rather timid about 
going down into the mine the first time, and the sensation 
one experiences is rather startling, to say the least. You 
enter one of the cages, the signal to descend is given, the 
engineer starts the mighty engine, the cable begins to un¬ 
wind slowly then faster and faster, aud you drop, drop 
1,000 feet in minute. As the cage nears the bottom the 
speed is slackened and it stops without a jar. As you 
step out aud look around you cannot see much at first, for 
THE TREE MOON-FLOWER. From Nature. Fig. 390. 
