462 
July 11 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
cept for a short time after the fat hogs were sold, 200 
hogs big and little. One year, 1 had 400.” 
‘ ‘ How about your cattle growing ? ” 
“ 1 grow most of the cattle that I fatten. My books 
show that I have paid for stock cattle, in the past four 
years, $1,250. I have on the farm now, 70 cattle, con¬ 
sisting of cows, stockers and feeders. I aim to sell a 
car-load of fat cattle each year. I never had much 
liking for sheep, but one of my sons liked to handle 
them ; since he has gone, I have kept them, and now 
have 140 stock ewes and 115 lambs. They are death 
to the blackberry briers, and save a great deal of 
scythe and mattock work. About 650 acres of my 
1,600, are not tillable. Four years ago, I was in debt 
$4,000, but now I am practically out of debt, and in 
better shape financially than 1 ever was before.” 
“As a matter of interest to poultry raisers, how 
about the chicken house you built out of sassafras to 
get rid of lice ? ” 
“ The building is 10 by 16 feet, all sassafras but the 
roof ; but the vermin-ridding property of the wood 
was all a hoax, for it takes as much whitewash and 
other washes to rid the building of lice as any other 
kind of wood. My expenses for hired help run from 
$900 to $1,100 per year. My son-in- 
law controls, of the 1,600 acres, 172 
acres.” 
The Financial Side of It. 
Mr. Porter has eight account books 
commencing with 1839, and in these 
books, can be found all his business 
transactions since that time. To show 
the price of labor and farm produce 
at that time, here are two statements 
found in his first boo’k : 
Labor on tub Farm from March to July, 1811. 
Lot Porter 9 days.84.50 
Win. Gossard 1 day. 0.50 
Solomon Ely 4 days. 1.50 
Tlios. Sharj) 3 days... Ri2*4 
Jas. Ely 3 days. 1.25 
Rolen Foster 3 days. 0.93 
Elisabeth Spong 5 days. 1.25 
Solomon Ely 3 days mowing. 1,1254 
By one half-day plowing. 0.18% 
S. Ely 4 days cutting corn. 2 50 
Jacob M. Porter by 1 day cutting corn_ 0.62‘/ a 
It seems that they had a running 
account, and 1 give it as found in the 
book: 
Received on the above account, by 2*4 
months’ pasture.82.50 
By one watch key. 0.12*4 
October 9, by cash for trace chains. 1.50 
By two bushels wheat. 1.50 
November 1, by cash 81-75. 1.75 
November 30, by beef. 6.00 
The price of beef then was five cents 
per pound as we learn by other entries. 
The woman mentioned dropped corn 
the five days. The Lot Porter men¬ 
tioned could shoulder, in a sack, four 
bushels of wheat. Mr. Porter paid 
him for working in the clearing, double 
wages, on account of his great 
strength. 
Here are Mr. Porter’s sales of stock 
and grain for the past five years : 
1891 .83,960.09 
1892 . 3,071.80 
1893 . 4,098.37 
1894 . 3,161.88 
1895 . 2,531.48 
For a young man, these figures may 
seem low, considering the fast work 
done now. But we must remember 
the age of the workman and manager. 
Others of nearly the same age have 
accumulated more, but have settled 
where the land was better, and had 
better natural advantages. I doubt 
whether a score can be found, of his age, that still 
he carried to the World’s Fair. Standing in front of 
the back wheels of the buckboard, are a pair of hand¬ 
made scales that weigh 1,400 pounds. Hanging on 
the front wheels, are a pair of steelyards that weigh 
400 pounds, are over 100 years old, and at one time 
were used as standard weight in Chillicothe, O. 
Mr. Porter can still mount old Fred from the 
ground, as well as dismount, and much prefers to ride 
him instead of in the buckboard. This illustration 
shows the rear view of the house. The buckboard is 
standing under a large locust tree in full foliage. His 
house, for the last 48 years, has been 12 miles west of 
Chillicothe. Since the death, quite recently, of his 
oldest son, a grandson has aided him in the manage¬ 
ment of the farm. john m jamison. 
HAY. 
MORE SUBSTITUTES FOR 
CORN, MILLET AND BARLEY. 
In the event of threatened shortage in forage, there 
are several courses which might be followed, even at 
this comparatively late date. I will outline a few, 
based upon personal experience and observation. 
Last year, a field of six acres, mostly Kentucky Blue 
the rate of 12 tons per acre ; the nutritive value being 
practically the same as that of good ensilage corn. 
Of course this crop might have been fed green. The 
heads were just coming into sight when it was cut. 
This crop will not endure frost. 
I have used barley and peas, and barley alone, with 
considerable satisfaction as crops for late fodder. Bar¬ 
ley is very hardy, but the peas will not stand heavy 
frosts. Up to about August 1, I would sow peas with 
barley—about two bushels of barley and one of peas 
per acre. Later, up to about August 15, barley alone 
at the rate of 2% bushels per acre may be sown. Either 
the barley and peas, or the barley alone, make excel¬ 
lent feed for milch cows. I have never attempted to 
cure them, and think that, with the cool weather and 
short days which are common at the time these late- 
sown crops mature, it would be found difficult to do 
so. They would much better be ensiloed. 
We have raised Hungarian grass as a late crop, after 
oats and vetch for fodder, with fair success. In 1893, 
a field from which the oats and vetch had been re¬ 
moved, was plowed on July 21, and on July 23, the 
Hungarian grass was sown. The season was very 
dry, and the crop was injured thereby. It was cut 
and fed green from September 25 to 
October 16, the total weight obtained 
being about two tons per acre. 
Either rape or Crimson clover, sown 
now, would produce a large amount of 
fall feed. The rape can be especially 
recommended for sheep, as it is so 
hardy. In conclusion, I would say 
that, if short of fodder, I would build 
a silo or increase my silo capacity, if 
not already large. Then, if it can be 
done at once, put in an early corn, or 
later, millet, or barley and peas, or 
even barley alone ; and put these into 
the silo. Then, in addition, I might 
sow rape or Crimson clover for fall 
pasturage, if situated so as to need 
it. In the case of all these crops, it 
should be remembered—but this is 
especially important in the case of the 
corn—that they must be made to grow 
rapidly, as the period for growth is 
short, and manure or quick-acting fer¬ 
tilizers should be applied unless the 
soil is already rich. 
[prof.] wm. p. brooks. 
Massachusetts Agricultural College. 
A JAR OF JELLY. 
now it is 
AND SOLD 
A FEW OF MR. PORTER’S OLD-TIME FRIENDS. Fig. 151. 
do so much and can show the books of farm operations 
for 57 years. 
Some Old and New Friends. 
Fig. 151 shows some of Mr. Porter’s old friends in 
the shape of tools that still stay by him ; other friends 
of his younger days have nearly all passed over and 
joined the silent majority. The wooden moldboard 
plow in the group is, at least, 58 years old. The spin¬ 
ning wheel is 60 years old, the wooden scoop shovel 
66 years old, the wagon bed 52 years old. He bought 
his last lot of hand sickles in 1850, buying 15 in a lot. 
There is also represented a part of a bedstead with 
holes bored in the railing for cord. The ox yoke, 
Jumping Jack (corn coverer), and single-shovel plow, 
will be recognized by all. The plow in the weeds is 
an old cast plow that has, probably, been lying in 
the grass there for years. 
“ There is a Sycamore gum in the basement of my 
grain house, that I cut 60 years ago, that holds 56 
bushels of wheat,’-' said Mr. Porter. “It was a prong 
of a tree cut 12 feet from the ground. A man had a 
hole cut in the root of the tree, and fed his hogs in 
there.” 
At Fig. 150, we see Mr. Porter on the gray horse, 
Fred, 23 years old, with a mattock and double-bitted 
BX 0B hi§ shoulder, with a cane in his right hand that 
grass, not having been broken for 12 years, was cut 
about June 15, the yield being about two tons per 
acre. It was plowed June 20, 21 and and lightly 
top-dressed with cow manure ; 925 pounds per acre of 
wood ashes were put on broadcast, manure and ashes 
were thoroughly wheel-harrowed in, and Longfellow 
corn was drilled in June 24 and 25, 300 pounds per 
acre of Bradley’s corn fertilizer being put in the drill. 
Grass and clover seed were sown in the corn about 
August 1, and to-day (June 23) this is one of the finest 
fields of grass on our farm, where our average hay 
crop varies from about two to three tons per acre, in 
different years. The corn was cut about September 
20 , and the crop, amounting to nine tons per acre, was 
put into the silo. This corn was well eared, and many 
of the ears were at the glazing stage. 
Another field was, last year, treated as follows : It 
had been in grass four years, and the yield was not 
over two tons per acre. It had been my purpose tc 
plant the field to corn this year. Bad weather caused 
delay in securing the hay crop last year, and we did 
not get the field cleared until July 20. It was at once 
plowed, manure at the rate of five cords per acre was 
spread and harrowed in, and Cock’s foot or Barnyard 
grass (Panieum Crus galli) at the rate of one-half 
bushel of seed to the acre, was sown July 26. The 
crop was cut about September 20, and put into the 
silo, all being weighed as hauled. The yield was at 
MADE 
Part I. 
The Beginning of a Business. 
I have been asked to give to women 
who wish to be self-supporting, a few 
ideas along the line of making table 
delicacies. Woman’s education from 
her birth, has been that she must be 
supported instead of self-supporting, 
and this education has made us timid 
about reaching out for ourselves, ex¬ 
cept in certain lines. I have no ad¬ 
miration for the “ new ” woman, but 
1 am heartily glad that our boys and 
girls may be educated in the same col¬ 
leges, and have the same intellectual 
standing, and that all avenues for ad¬ 
vancement are open alike to both. For 
the young, and those who have the 
command of their time, it is very easy to decide what 
they may do ; at least, they can follow their inclina¬ 
tion to work in certain directions to secure certain 
results. Later in life, so often our inclinations are the 
servants of necessity or circumstance, and just here 
it is so hard to know just what is best. Very often, 
I think that we are thrust into our places, doing our 
work blindly as regards results, until we, finally, 
awake to find our business has developed our capacity 
instead of our capacity developing some business. 
This line of business will recommend itself to many, 
as it may be carried on in one’s own home, an d so escape 
much outside criticism. As to the work I have chosen 
(for it is my choice, and, usually where the heart is, 
success is quite sure), I feel that I may be justly proud 
of the success achieved, inasmuch as it had the small¬ 
est possible beginning. The amount of stock on hand 
was a thorough knowledge of the business, a very 
small capital to invest, a pair of willing hands, and a 
strong determination to succeed ; but not an order 
for a dollar’s worth of fruit, or any knowledge where 
I should secure one. Surely, no one could begin with 
smaller prospects of success ; but I knew that I could 
put up nice table delicacies, and I felt quite sure that 
there were people somewhere who would want them, 
only I must find them. 
But let me say to others, that they cannot sail on 
“ unruffled seas ” in this business any more than in 
