20 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 11 
certainty on a good stand of clover ? What is the most 
profitable quantity of clover seed to put on an acre 
when sowed alone ? The soil is a sandy loam, with 
some gravelly knolls. j. b. m. 
Paterson, N. J. 
To Fatten a Beef. —I wish to turn an old cow into 
beef. She is giving five or six quarts of milk per day. 
She has been milked about a year and is farrow. I 
have ensilage for one feed, the other being hay, oat 
hay, etc. What kind or kinds of grain shall I feed, 
and how much ? Would it be best to feed any cotton 
seed? Should she be dried off ? If so, how shall I do it? 
Connecticut. E. s. H. 
R. N.-Y.—What we wish to know is, how would 
you make that cow into beef at the least expense, and 
how would you save most of the beef ? 
Cow Stall, and Coal Tail —What are the correct 
dimensions for a cow stall for an average animal ? In 
building the stalls, should one make a difference in 
the length to suit part of the herd? How would coal 
tar answer in the place of red paint for painting a 
tin roof ? H. B. T. 
Beverley, W. Va. 
R. N.-Y.—Here are two practical questions that re¬ 
quire answers from different men and different sec¬ 
tions to bring out the truth. What do you say ? 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Canadian Dump Wagon. —The Farmers’ Advocate 
(Canada), has a design for a dump wagon which is 
shown at Fig. 12 . Here is the description : “Make 
axles and front bunk ; then, instead of ordinary sides 
for a box, place a 2 x 6 -incli oak or ash plank on edge, 
and bolt and brace to the back axle and front bunk, 
as in cut. Make five or six boxes open behind, and 
balanced on rollers which turn in holes (A) bored in¬ 
side planks (B). The boxes are held in place by pin 
(C). Crosspieces to prevent the side planks spreading, 
if left projecting at the sides, may be utilized for 
steps. As reaches and tongue braces are dispensed 
with, an ordinary sleigh tongue and rod may be more 
easily arranged (by putting two staples through the 
axle) than a wagon tongue.” 
Lifting a Beef or Hog. —Last year, The R. N.-Y. 
had a picture of a tripod for lifting a beef when 
slaughtering. The lifting was done by twisting a 
stick which wound up a rope. This is too dangerous, 
for if the stick should slip, it would fly back and 
strike a hard blow. I'will give my device (see Fig. 13). 
It is a tripod, the same as the other, only I have the 
poles 16 feet long. Bore the holes to let the poles 
spread 10 feet apart at the base. To set up for use, 
dig three holes in the ground six inches deep, so that 
the tripod will stand six or seven feet high when set 
in the holes as shown in the figure. When slaughter¬ 
ing, fasten the beef to the tripod ; have a rope from 
the base of the single pole, to reach out between the 
other two poles, and hitch on a team to draw the pole 
in toward the other two. So doing will raise the beef 
as high as desired. j. c. 
Rosemount, Minn. 
To Preserve Pine Timber.— The reply of The R. 
N.-Y. to the question asked by G. A. S., page 857, by 
no means meets his requirements. I will not dispute 
the existence of such trees, but I have never seen 
either a chestnut or cedar that would make a boom 
35 to 45 feet long, that will meet the needs of a quarry- 
man. It is a matter of much moment, and I only too 
well remember how, in former years, I sometimes 
spent an entire day in the woods without finding a 
single tree that would come up to my standard. When 
I did find it, however, I never thought for a moment 
that natural decay would destroy it in the short space 
of four years. A short distance from here, a boom is 
in almost daily use that was cut in sight of my win¬ 
dow six years ago, and which is to-day, to all appear¬ 
ances, as sound as ever. I always selected a “heart” 
pine, straight, free of knots, branches and other im¬ 
perfections for, at least, 50 feet up, and of consider¬ 
ably greater diameter than was apparently needed. 
As soon as cut down, the tree should be hewed to the 
desired dimensions, blocked up and allowed to season 
and crack open, as it seems booms invariably will do. 
The boom is now roughly dressed with a plane, so as 
to prevent water from collecting, the cracks are filled 
with putty, one or two liberal applications of linseed 
oil made next, and in two or three days, a coat of 
paint applied. As paint does not last long, unfortu¬ 
nately, at the most exposed portion, owing to the fric¬ 
tion of the rope, a semi-annual application of linseed 
oil will be found most highly effective. Let G. A. S. 
try this plan, and I think that he will not again have 
to part with his costly booms before he fairly makes 
their acquaintance. j. c. senger. 
Virginia. _ 
A dollar book as premium for a new subscription ! 
free page 28. 
THE FARMER S BUSINESS APPLE. 
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BENJAMIN DAVIS & CO. 
An Ohio Farmer Grows Money on Trees. 
Mr. J. R. Pherson, of southern Licking County, Ohio, 
is one of those farmers who combine fruit growing 
with general farm crops. Most farmers have an or¬ 
chard on some prominent part of the farm ; but, as a 
rule, the returns from it are insignificant. In the aver¬ 
age neighborhood where general farming is prac¬ 
ticed, you will find but few farmers who realize much 
profit from their fruit. Mr. Pherson is one of the few. 
He has an upland farm of 160 acres. His crops are 
corn, wheat, oats, hay, strawberries, raspberries, 
pears and apples. I wish to speak of the latter crop, 
as it appeared when I visited the orchard in the latter 
part of October. The apple orchard occupies but 10 
acres of hill land, which lies in a variety of positions 
—part of it sloping toward the south, while in other 
places it faces the east, southeast and southwest. 
In answer to a question regarding the age of his 
trees, Mr. Pherson replied: “ They range in age 
from 18 to 21 years ; the younger trees are down along 
the eastern side of the orchard, although a few are 
scattered here and there throughout the older por¬ 
tion, where we had to replant on account of loss by 
rabbits and mice, which were very abundant in those 
days. Right there is a tree,” said Mr. Pherson, point¬ 
ing to a beautiful, thrifty, smooth-barked tree, the 
body of which was not more than 10 inches in diameter, 
“ that is but 19 years old, from which my son picked 
22 bushels of as beautiful apples as I ever saw. It is 
a Ben Davis, grown from a piece-root graft made by 
myself. I am well aware of the tirade which some 
nurserymen are making against piece-root trees ; but 
after 21 years’ experience in this orchard, in which I 
planted both piece and whole-root trees, I have thus 
far failed to note any difference whatever, either in 
their health or fruitfulness. They all appear to be 
equally good for, at least, another 20 years.” 
Harvesting the Apples. —“How do you gather 
apples ? 
“ We carefully pick them by hand ; each man being 
provided with a light ladder, and a strong grain sack 
which he loops around his shoulders. We find that 
careful handling pays, as a bruise or a cut upon the 
fruit very materially injures its keeping qualities. 
We distribute bushel baskets along the rows upon 
which the men are at work ; into these baskets, they 
carefully empty the apples as they are taken from the 
trees. One man with a team and sled is kept busy 
in taking up the filled baskets and distributing empty 
ones.” 
“ I presume that you do not store them at once.” 
“ Oh no ! It is then too early to store them ; but we 
shall soon see where they all have been taken.” 
As we passed downward between the rows of 
vigorous, low -headed trees, we came upon a drove of 
about a dozen fat, sleek hogs contentedly feeding upon 
the fallen fruit. I remarked to Mr. Pherson that the 
hogs were in extra condition. He informed me that 
they had fattened on apples alone; and he expressed a 
regret that he had not 50 head, as there were sufficient 
dropped apples with the addition of the culls that 
would be removed, to have fattened that number. 
One curious fact was that the hogs would diligently 
search for the very last apple under certain trees, 
while they would perfectly ignore the fact that under 
another tree, only 30 feet away, the ground was liter¬ 
ally covered with brilliantly colored, but, of course, 
defective fruit. 
“ I see,” said Mr. Pherson “ that you are not aware 
that hogs are expert judges of quality in an apple ! 
Those varieties which especially tickle their palates 
are kept studiously cleaned up throughout the entire 
orchard, while other varieties—the Ben Davis, for in¬ 
stance—‘ go begging’ in the porcine market.” 
We had, by this time, reached the lower end of the 
orchard, where we were confronted by 
A Novel Farm Scene.— Within a small, strongly- 
fenced enclosure, perhaps one-sixteenth of an acre, 
and in the shade of numerous large cherry and other 
trees, had been constructed a gigantic floored bin, 
perhaps 20 feet wide, 18 inches deep and something 
near 75 feet long. In this bin, were 1,700 bushels of 
apples, the greater part of which were of an intensely 
brilliant red color, while here and there was a small 
square of golden yellow. Well might there come a 
look of pride into the face of the venerable farmer, 
for his fruit crop was a beautiful sight to behold. 
Three or four men were busy sorting, and upon in¬ 
quiry I found that upon the very day of my visit, Mr. 
Pherson had begun to store his apples. 
“ Yes,” said he, “ it is now high time that we should 
begin filling our fruit-house ; for it will take fully 
two weeks to handle our crop with the small force of 
men that it is possible to secure at this season of corn 
husking ; and there is no conjecturing, you know, 
what two weeks, at this season of the year, will bring 
around in the way of a cold snap, or even a decided 
freeze-up.” 
“ So you have some trouble in securing help ! Why 
is it, these dull times, when there are so many idle 
men lounging at your neighboring little village ?” 
“ Oh, it’s not the lack of quantity—it’s the quality ! 
Plenty apply for work, but so many are so careless, 
while others are so bungling and awkward, that the 
important work of sorting cannot be safely intrusted 
to them. Why, would you believe that there are some 
men who are even color blind to the extent that they 
hardly know the difference between a red and a yel¬ 
low apple ? ” As an illustration of this, Mr. Pherson 
seemed greatly to enjoy telling a little incident that 
actually occurred, but a few years ago, at his place. 
“ A certain old German neighbor,” said he, “ came 
to me and asked fora job of sorting. I could not well 
refuse the old man ; so he took the place assigned 
him, to sort a mixed lot of apples—red and yellow— 
having been told to place the red ones in a large bas¬ 
ket, and the yellow ones in crates. He stiffly got 
down upon his knees, picked up his first apple, turned 
it around and over, then glanced from the basket to 
the crate in an extremely puzzled manner. Finally, 
he slowly got upon his feet and, holding the apple up 
for my inspection, asked, in his slow, quiet way of 
speaking, “ Zhon, vhas dis a ret ur a yeller abble ? ” 
“ What qualities constitute a good sorter ? ” 
“A quick eye, nimble fingers, industry and con¬ 
scientiousness. A man who knowingly allows a par¬ 
tially decayed apple to go into his basket, and does 
not take the trouble to seek it out and discard it, is 
not serving his employer to the best of his ability. 
You will observe that the apples are kept in this out¬ 
door bin so long as we think it safe to leave them. 
The apples, as you see them, are just as they came 
from the tree—the large, the small, the smooth and 
the defective. At this sorting we remove all the 
specked and the very small ones, storing only the 
good, sound fruit of from medium to large size.” 
Ohio. f. H. B. 
(To be continued.) 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of 
the writer to insure attention. Before asking a question please 
see whether it is not answered in our advertising columns. Ask 
only a few questions'at one time. Put questions on a separate 
piece of paper.] 
Value of Phosphoric Acid in Bone. 
C. V. G., Westboro, Mass .—In the articles under Primer Science, 
published last spring on Balanced Plant Food, I find (page 232) 
that phosphoric acid with one part of lime, is soluble in water, 
with two pai’ts of lime it is reverted, and with three parts of lime 
it is insoluble, and of little use to plants. I have been reading 
some experiment station bulletins on fertilizers, and find, in the 
analyses given of ground bone, that a large proportion of the 
phosphoric acid is designated as “ insoluble.” For instance, the 
analysis of one brand is as follows: Nitrogen in 100 pounds of 
bone, 3.95; phosphoric acid in 100 pounds—reverted 7.94, insol¬ 
uble, 17.52; total, 25.46. Now, does this mean that, while 100 
pounds of this bone contains 25.46 pounds of phosphoric acid, only 
7.94 pounds are of any use to plants, and the remaining 17.52 
pounds are worthless? If this is the case, then allowing for the 
nitrogen, and assuming that this bone would sell at $30 per ton, 
the available phosphoric acid would cost 11 cents per pound, if 
my figuring is correct. Is this not altogether too high a price for 
available phosphoric acid ? 
Ans. —“Bone phosphate” is a trade name, used 
chiefly by fertilizer dealers and chemists to represent 
a combination of three parts of lime and one of phos¬ 
phoric acid. It is the form in which phosphoric acid 
is found in bones, and also in the raw mineral phos¬ 
phates. While chemically the same, however, there is 
a great difference in the “availability” of ground bone 
and ground phosphate rock. As was fully explained 
