202 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 21 
THE 
The Rural New=Yorker. 
THE BUSINESS FANNERS PARER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established. 1850. 
Elbert S. Carman, Editor-In-Chief. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Managing Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
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able 40 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Corner Chambers and Pearl Streets, New York. 
SATURDAY , MARCH 21, 1896. 
That is a new idea in poultry keeping—that Cali¬ 
fornia scheme of portable houses. The English and 
Canadian farmers often made little houses on wheels 
which are hauled into the grain fields after harvest, 
to provide headquarters for hens which pickup the 
fallen grain. The plan of planting plum trees in 
poultry yards, or of building yards around plum trees, 
is old enough ; but the California combination seems 
to be new and practical. 
© 
In describing that fertilizer mixer last week, we 
were told how Mr. Macomber has a number of boxes 
gauged to hold certain weights of the chemicals that 
are used in mixing. This saves an immense amount 
of weighing, and some dairymen have adopted much 
the same plan in feeding different kinds of grain to 
stock. They gauge boxes or measures to hold certain 
weights of corn meal, bran, oats or linseed meal, and 
are thus able to ‘ ‘ balance” their ration much more 
accurately than they could when feeding by the quart. 
O 
Every spring the fever for trying all the “ new” 
forage plants, seems to strike some farmers. No 
matter how high the price, the prospect of growing 
twice as much fodder as an acre of clover on good 
soil will yield, is enough to make money fairly burn 
in the enthusiasts’ pockets. It is no use trying to tell 
them not to do it; in fact, it is not a bad thing for 
them to try these new plants in a small way. A care¬ 
ful test of the new things will make them more care¬ 
ful to observe the habits and possibilities of the 
plants they already raise. A few seeds of the new 
plants, carefully tested, will give them a cheap and 
reliable education in “ novelties.” 
© 
Again and again we are asked to state what mix¬ 
ture of chemicals should be used to fertilize small 
fruits. From long experience, The R. N.-Y. has con¬ 
cluded that fine bone of good quality is, generally 
speaking, the most satisfactory source of nitrogen 
and phosphoric acid for fruits. In some cases, a little 
nitrate of soda is needed, and in others, cotton-seed 
meal is so cheap that it should be used ; but in most 
cases, bone will be found most satisfactory. As for 
potash, the choice will generally be between wood 
ashes and muriate. If ashes guaranteed to contain 
five per cent of potash, can be bought for $9 a ton, 
we would use them, applying equal parts of ashes 
and bone. At a higher price, muriate of potash will 
be cheaper—so far as actual fertility is concerned— 
and we would use three parts of bone and one of 
muriate—all broadcasted and worked in with rake, 
cultivator or hoe. 
© 
At the meeting of the Peninsula Horticultural 
Society, a well-known horticulturist advanced, and 
advocated, the absurd theory that, by the budding 
or grafting of one kind of plant upon the roots of 
another, all new root growth would be like the bud 
or scion which was inserted into the root, i. e., when 
pear scions are grafted upon quince roots, the new 
growth of roots will be pear roots, etc. He claimed 
that the pear leaves elaborated the sap from the 
quince root, and changed it into pear sap ; hence the 
new roots would be pear and not quince roots. Those 
present at once questioned the truth of the statement, 
and instances were cited where the roots of dwarf 
pear trees had sent up quince shoots, and the peach 
roots upon which plum had been budded sent up peach 
shoots. It is a very pretty theory that the leaves 
change the sap to that of the kind of plant of which 
the leaves are the foliage ; but it does not hold good, 
else why does the potato root, for instance, upon 
which the tomato has been grafted, still continue to 
yield tubers instead of tomatoes ? Theory and prac¬ 
tice must necessarily go hand in hand ; but practice 
does not carry out the above theory in any instance. 
O 
With all due respect for the theories and results of 
those German scientists. The R. N.-Y. does not be¬ 
lieve that it is safe to assume that the phosphoric 
acid in raw phosphate rock is as available as that in 
bone. Let us make a mixture of 100 pounds of good 
bone, and 30 pounds of muriate of potash, and an¬ 
other of 28 pounds of dried blood, 120 of raw phos¬ 
phate rock, and 30 of muriate. The two mixtures 
contain about equal amounts of organic nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid and potash. Yet we think that few 
persons who have used fertilizers carefully would 
hesitate in saying which will give surer results. This 
matter has been tried at the Rhode Island Station for 
two years. In this case, like money values in bone 
and rock were tested. In other words, a dollar’s worth 
of phosphoric acid in fine bone was used against a 
dollar’s worth of fine rock. In four trials—two with 
lime and two without lime—the bone has invariably 
given better results. 
© 
Hothouse lambs, properly dressed according to the 
requirements of dealers, have the heads and feet on. 
Dealers say that these enable them to detect the pres¬ 
ence of disease otherwise undiscoverable. Rut these 
are contrary to a city ordinance which says that no 
animal shall be taken to any public or private market 
for food, until the entrails, head and feet, except of 
poultry and game, and the heads and feet of swine, 
shall have been removed. The inspectors of the Health 
Department have recently been endeavoring to en¬ 
force this ordinance, and much dissatisfaction has re¬ 
sulted. A petition has been presented to the Board 
of Health, reciting the facts of the case, and asking 
that this provision be so changed as to exempt spring 
lambs. The Board of Health has promised not to in¬ 
terfere with these lambs, and to have the ordinance 
changed so as to have them sold as formerly without 
violating the law. They are shipped dressed until 
hot weather, and are then sent alive. 
© 
It appears to be a very difficult matter for farmers 
to get out of the “old ruts.” While conversing last 
fall with a prominent farmer, we casually alluded to 
the fact that a well-known fruit grower was feeding 
windfall and unmerchantable apples to a dairy of 
milch cows. The farmer insisted that it could not be 
possible, as the apples would “dry up the milk.” Such 
would, undoubtedly, be the case if the cows were 
allowed all the apples they could eat when first be¬ 
ginning to feed them. The fruit grower informed us 
that a very few apples were fed at first. About one- 
half bushel was given at a feed, to four or five 
head of cattle. The quantity was gradually in¬ 
creased after a few days’ feeding, until from one 
peck to one-half bushel was given to each animal 
at a feeding, in connection with other food. Fed 
in this manner, the apples proved a most satis¬ 
factory food, and increased the yield of milk and 
butter. Many farmers have hesitated to adopt ensil¬ 
age feeding for fear of injuring their stock ; yet when 
once begun, they rarely return to the old methods of 
feeding. This is a progressive age, and the farmer 
must keep to the front if he would succeed. 
G 
The Atlantic States Packers’ Association, an organi¬ 
zation of the packers of canned goods in the eastern 
States, has just held a convention in this city. The 
general verdict was that prices are too low, ruinously 
so. In connection with the convention, was an exten¬ 
sive display of canning machinery. Everything seems 
to be done by machinery, the saving being carried 
much farther here than it is in the growing of the crops 
Here, for instance, is a husking and silking machine 
into which the unhusked ears of corn are dumped 
promiscuously, and with the rapidity of lightning go 
through the machine automatically, and come out on 
a conveyor, perfectly free from husks and silks. Some 
husking machines do not remove the silks, and 
there are machines that brush the ears free from silks 
automatically. Then the corn is taken from the cob, 
is carried to cookers, of which there are various kinds, 
which stir and mix the corn, then it goes to auto¬ 
matic machines which put just the proper amount of 
corn into each can. One of the machines shown had 
a capacity of 50,000 cans a day. Another machine 
caps and solders the same number of cans daily, with 
no attention except to feed in the cans and material, 
capping one dozen at each pressure. Another machine 
pastes the labels on the cans as fast as three or four 
persons can feed them in, delivering them in cases of 
two dozen each, all ready for nailing on the covers. 
There are various makes of these different machines, all 
of them claiming superiority in one or more points. 
There is a rotary pea separator for cleaning and grad¬ 
ing peas. An ingenious device took the skin and core 
from pineapples with lightning speed. Is it any won¬ 
der that canned goods are being sold for phenome¬ 
nally low prices ? And is there much encouragement 
for the grower of small quantities of fruits and vege¬ 
tables to can his goods and hope to compete with the 
establishments that use these great labor-saving 
machines ? 
O 
Some weeks ago, The R. N.-Y. paid its respects to 
the so-called “Natural Plant-food” which is being 
advertised largely by circular. The Ohio Experiment 
Station has analyzed and tested this fertilizer, and 
concludes that it is nothing but a soft phosphate rock 
which costs about $7 a ton at the seaboard. The 
price charged for “ Natural Plant-food” is $17. To 
pay $10 a ton for the name is mighty poor business 
policy for these hard times. This may be a natural 
fertilizer, but it is offered at a very unnatural price. 
Another “Natural Fertilizer” is made by a concern in 
Pittsburgh, which claims to use garbage, and to re¬ 
tain a portion of the “vegetable carbon” in the manu¬ 
facture. Here is a sample of the statement about 
this fertilizer : 
We have inaugurated a new era iu the manufacture of com¬ 
mercial fertilizers, because we are not only giving high percent¬ 
ages of phosphoric acid, ammonia and potash, but we are incor¬ 
porating in that same ton of material, two tons of concentrated 
vegetable matter ; or, in other words, manure, animal and vege¬ 
table refuse, simply divested of its free water, and this is chiefly 
composed of vegetable carbon, which is the bulk of the solid 
residue of all plants. 
It will be discouraging, indeed, if such ridiculous 
stuff as that will induce farmers to pay for this fer¬ 
tilizer a price above a fair valuation of the nitrogen, 
potash and phosphoric acid contained in it. “ Vege¬ 
table carbon” is another name for which farmers are 
expected to pay their hard-earned dollars. The worst 
feature of it is that some of the agricultural papers 
print such stuff, word for word, with nothing to 
indicate that it is not editorial advice and comment! 
o 
BREVITIES. 
“LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON !" 
(SEE FIRST PAGE). 
Don’t lose your courage, boy—the world is wide, 
And every trouble has its lighter side. 
Stick to the farm, be brave and strong, be true 
To your ideals—Time will come to you 
With full reward. The years are just—they bring 
A recompense to those who nobly cling 
To duty, and, uuvexed by fortune’s frown, 
Break through the evils that would crush them down. 
And, striving for improvement, you will see, 
All your surroundings rise unconsciously. 
Stay for your mother’s sake; her apron’s string 
Holds witii the safety of an iron ring. 
And you will live to deem it no disgrace 
To find the proverb changed, and iu the place 
Of that “Like Father,” we shall read with pride 
The words, “Like Mother” true and verified ! 
The White grub is a scrub. 
Don’t love a dishonest dollar. 
Oatmeal will cure shote squeal. 
The devil fertilizes a family row. 
Does your cellar need sulphuring ? 
The R. N.-Y.’s potato report this week. 
Lime is not needed with uuleaclied ashes. 
How often does your mind take a vacation '■ 
We now have coming au account of a $5 henhouse ! 
’< I have money to burn!” said the young man as he lit his cigar. 
Do you notice how many questions are being answered in The 
R. N.-Y. ? 
In 1890 there were 82,329 prisoners in the jails of this country 
Of that number, 12,610 were total abstainers. 
J. A. W., page 208, has certainly done something. He is right 
iu calling on the “ goiug-to-do’s” for figures !■ 
There has been so much inquiry about that plank barn frame, 
that we have had a picture made of the complete model. 
That calf without milk, page 209, is as “fine as silk.” Too much 
belly and bones, perhaps, but for au “artificial” she is doing well. 
Look straight iu the phiz of the poultry biz, and you’ll be pretty 
apt to say that you’ve got to be “ in it” each living minute, in 
order to make it pay. 
Last fall we had au account of a silo that was filled at intervals 
during the fall with corn cut and cured as for husking. The plan 
was a success. All about it soon with a picture of the silo. 
Information is desired from those who have fed corn ensilage 
to hogs. Is it a suitable food for them ? How much should they 
eat ? How is it best fed ? What grain is best to feed with it ? 
If John L. Sullivan had a big battle in hand about April 10, he 
would now be in training for it. Y T ou will be called upon to 
tackle the spring work by that time. Are you in training? Why 
not ? 
This is the way a West Virginia friend says that he makes use 
of railroad iron : “ I hitch it behind the disc harrow to mash the 
clods and smooth and level the ground. It will do au almost per¬ 
fect job, if the ground is in condition to work.” 
In regard to the discussion as to the determination of sex at 
will—or, rather, what produces sex differences, we would like to 
bring up illustrations of men with feminine minds or women with 
masculine minds. How are we to account for such two-sided 
beings ? 
