782 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 28 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Burning Corn in Nebraska. —In this part of the 
State, very little coal is burned by the farmers ; it 
sells from $5.50 to $7 for soft coal, and $12 for hard 
coal. Cobs, willow brush and cow chips are the fuel 
usually used. When corn, as at present, is worth 
only from 10 to 12% cents per bushel, it is used during 
very cold weather, as it is cheaper than coal; it makes 
a very hot fire, and lasts fairly well. Although I live 
in town, on the main line of the Union Pacific rail¬ 
road, I have burned some corn because I could buy it 
cheaper than I could buy coal. k. o. b. 
Overton, Neb. 
Feeding Steers in Wisconsin. —Prof. IleDry, of 
Wisconsin Experiment Station, had a report about 
seven years ago about keeping dishorned steers loose, 
and said that they did fully as well as the stall-fed 
steers. At that time, the wolves were killing our 
sheep, so we had to sell them. Next, we fed three 
yearling steers in a small shed on tame hay all win¬ 
ter ; they were as good in the spring as the ones we 
fed meal and hay, and stanchioned every night all 
winter. Having a farm of 150 acres, that spring we 
built an addition to the barn, with a basement 16x32 
feet, and pinned the stanchions half open. At the 
same time, we formed a plan to buy good steers as 
young as we could after they were weaned from milk, 
takeoff the horns just after fly time, every fall, and 
sell them when worth not less than $25 each. We 
have had nearly a carload every spring, that sold 
readily ; twice they were contracted two months 
before delivery. Surely, they pay for the feed and 
taxes, and make manure enough to more than keep 
up the fertility of the small amount of land tilled. 
The feed used has been early cut, tame hay mostly. 
This winter, grain is so cheap, that more is to be fed. 
Health permitting, I see no reason for a change. 
Elkhorn, Wis. s. d. h. 
A Grafting Machine. 
The grafting machine ranks in the same class with 
the milking machine, just one class below aerial 
navigation and rainmaking, and two classes below 
perpetual motion. Various devices have been pro¬ 
posed from time to time, for substituting mechanical 
exactness for the manual skill required in making a 
good graft; but most of these contrivances have been 
so bulky or bunglesome that they have made no 
progress in popular favor. What seems to be a real 
step in the evolution of the grafting machine is 
marked by the announcement of M. Pi adines’s machine 
in the 1 b 95 volume of Revue Horticole—see Fig. 254. 
This new machine is light, convenient and manage¬ 
able. It weighs about 14 ounces, or only a little 
more than a pair of common pruning shears. It is 
about the size of a Wiss No. 3 pruner, has quite a 
family resemblance to grape shears in general, and is 
almost as easy of manipulation. 
We have made a trial of this interesting tool merely 
in an experimental way. We have not attempted to 
use it on a large scale. In fact, our results thus far 
would not encourage us to hope for its success in ex¬ 
tensive operations. The first oblique cut, as it is 
made in the whip graft, the splice graft and in some 
other methods, is easily, quickly and accurately made 
with this machine. If evenness and accuracy were a 
special consideration, and one had some hard-wooded 
stock to handle, the Pradines grafter would, probably, 
be quite useful. For cutting the tongue, however, in 
the ordinary whip graft, it is not a success as at 
present constructed. But it seems to me that some 
modification might enable it to do this part of the 
work also. The tool was originally designed for 
grafting grape vines in the vineyard ; and here, upon 
stocks in place, it will, doubtless, cut the tongue to 
one’s entire satisfaction. In such places, a tongue is 
peculiarly hard to make with a knife. On the whole, 
I would say that, for this country, it is a pointed sug¬ 
gestion, rather than a practical success. It is made 
only in France. f. a. waugh. 
Vermont Experiment Station. 
“Sales Days” for Country Produce, 
I take pleasure in reading the views upon sales of 
farmers’ produce and the attention given to the 
middleman. The idea of selling direct to consumers 
is right, but there are few, compared to all, who are 
so situated that they can do so ; the great mass must, 
in the country, sell to the country buyer, and in the 
main, they do better than they can in any other way. 
As a rule, the country buyer pays all he can afford, 
and often much more. Competition and ambition to 
buy, and often mistaken ideas of what the market is 
or is to be, induce him to pay more than he can afford. 
But of all ways, the most hazardous and unsatis¬ 
factory method of disposing of goods by country 
buyers or farmers, particularly the farmers, is to 
send the produce to a city commissionman to be 
sold. In this way, the goods are put into the 
hands of those whose chief interest is in getting 
their commissions, and the chances are by many 
odds that the returns will be much less than the 
goods could have been sold for at home, for it is 
a peculiar condition that, almost invariably, the mar¬ 
ket price is always down just the day the goods are 
sold, and just as surely the shipper is informed that 
prices will be better next week. 
Market quotations are but a small guide to the 
price the shipper will get. It will be found, more 
often at the lowest or near it, than at intermediate 
or higher. Another thing; did any farmer ever send 
to a commissionman any produce that proved of good 
quality, that the report was not nearly always re¬ 
ceived that the goods were of poor quality, or in bad 
condition ? Something is always wrong. Seldom 
are quality and condition right. The standard of re¬ 
quirement for city markets for produce, is higher 
than the ability of the farmer, on the average, is able 
to secure. If the change could be made, it would be 
more satisfactory if city dealers had to buy all their 
goods in the country. If all country produce could 
be sold at home, it would, in the end, I believe, be 
more satisfactory to seller and buyer, and far less loss 
to farmers, for if city dealers owned the goods, they 
would not sell at a loss, as so much of farm produce 
is, with present methods. Sales days for cheese and 
butter are established in Utica and Little Falls. Why 
could not every county have sales days for all kinds 
of produce, and meet city buyers there ? Most milk 
is so sold, why not all other produce ? c. o. n. 
Homer, N. Y. 
Colorado Second-Crop Strawberries. 
Second-crop strawberries are found in the West, in 
nearly every strawberry plantation, but owing to the 
limited quantity produced in the ordinary way, very 
few growers have been enabled to market any. 
A FRENCH “GRAFTING MACHINE.” Fig. 254 . 
Mr. Page and myself of the Grand Valley, are the 
only growers marketing fall berries, Mr. Page having 
marketed, one fall, six cases ; this I believe was three 
years ago. To raise second-crop strawberries in pay¬ 
ing quantities, the grower must be enabled to control 
the moisture ; he must also grow his stock plants 
different from the method now in vogue in growing 
spring berries. It is true that it requires more labor 
and pains to raise fall berries, but the high price 
obtained makes this crop more remunerative than 
June berries. 
All varieties will not produce second-crop berries, 
no matter how treated; this includes all of the 
pistillates, and the majority of the staminates. Those 
which produce more or less second-crop berries in a 
natural way, in the West, are Beder Wood, Jessie, 
Enhance, Parker Earle, Crawford, Jucunda Im¬ 
proved, and Leader ; but after a thorough trial of 
all of these except Jucunda Improved, I have settled 
on Jessie and Parker Earle as the most profitable for 
second-crop forcing. By having the right place, and 
control of both heat and moisture, I am enabled to ob¬ 
tain, besides the second crop, one early spring crop 
from my Parker Earles, the only variety that will do 
this, speaking from one season’s trial. I have, for 
years, whenever I had occasion to mention this variety, 
called this its home, having always been enthusiastic 
over it since 1892, the first time it fruited with me. 
But since discovering its two-crop tendencies, I am 
more pleased with it than ever, and must truly say 
that this variety is yet a stranger, its good qualities 
being not yet known, although grown more or less 
throughout the country for a half dozen years or more. 
The time when Mr. Crawford’s prediction will come 
true, is not far distant, that is when we have ripe 
strawberries every month during the summer. We 
have now picked ripe ones every month from April 
to November, except August, but this gap will be 
filled up another season. I go friend Crawford one 
better, by predicting that a time will come when the 
strawberry specialist will market ripe berries every 
month in the year, just the same as the apple grower 
is doing now. g. w. hoover. 
Colorado. 
THE RURAL SCHOOL PROBLEM. 
HOW TO HELP SOLVE IT. 
Why is it that farmers do not show better acquaint¬ 
ance with educational matters ? Occasionally one 
writes for some agricultural paper on country schools, 
and there is much usually to commend in these 
articles, but the writers do not seem to be at all 
familiar with the educational world. They have seen 
country schools, but have not read educational papers, 
and are not acquainted with the subject outside their 
own observation. The country school problem is not 
being ignored by educators. The great National Edu¬ 
cational Association with its thousands of members, 
comprising the best teachers of all kinds of schools, 
has taken up the rural school question, and next 
summer at the annual meeting, a committee of ex¬ 
perts will report on the matter. Last summer the 
American Institute of Instruction devoted a good deal 
of time and talent to this branch of school work. 
There is more interest in the subject among prom¬ 
inent men and women than ever before. 
One of the hardest knots in the rural school problem 
is how to get money. A great many country districts 
are now taxed to their utmost. Many of them need 
more money in order to have better schools, and there 
is just one way to get the money, and that is to have 
the State provide it. It is a fact not generally known 
that the State of California supports all her schools 
from the State fund. You can see at once what a 
power for good that provision is to the rural schools. 
The smallest farm district school stands on a level 
with the great city schools. Let farmers mark this 
well that the larger the territory from which school 
moneys are drawn, the better for the country schools. 
The little districts which have to bear heavy burdens 
of taxation for the support of very poor schools, 
ought to be abolished and the town system substi¬ 
tuted. Then the whole town, at least, is taxed for 
all the schools, unless some wretched law is concocted 
like the incorporated district system, which lets the 
villages raise school taxes anJ maintain schools inde¬ 
pendent of the farming part of the towns. Farmers 
should work in State legislatures with this in view : 
the town system instead of the district system, and 
large areas taxed for schools. Then in addition to 
this, they should seek to have expert supervision, 
with the salaries of the supervisors paid by the State. 
We cannot have good rural schools without good 
teachers, and we can find no easier way to secure 
both good teachers and good schools than by having 
superintendents or supervisors who thoroughly under¬ 
stand their business to watch over the schools. The 
great success of the schools of Massachusetts is owing 
to the fact that she employs competent supervisors 
for her schools. A town is ordinarily too small for 
one person to supervise, a county too large. The 
happy mean is when two or more towns unite so as to 
employ a supervisor for each 40 to 50 or more schools. 
The girls who go into country schools to teach need 
help in many ways. A teacher has many difficulties, 
and not the least often is lack of sympathy, of good 
counsel, of words of encouragement. There are 
plenty to find fault, very few to give wise criticism 
and advice. This is the work of the supervisor, who 
should know what good teaching is, and how to help 
the teachers to do their best for the schools. Thou¬ 
sands of dollars are paid out for schools which ac¬ 
complish almost nothing in the way of really educat¬ 
ing the children. The gentle village girl teacher gets 
on quite well with the little ones in the summer 
terms, but when the big boys come in in the winter, 
with no idea of the value of education, bent only on 
having a good time, tormenting the life out of the 
teacher so far as lies in their power, that is where a 
strong arm is needed. Country communities do not 
realize the value of good schools, do not know how 
to secure them by firmness with their own children, 
or by doing that which makes for peace in the neigh¬ 
borhood. One work of the supervisor is to awaken 
the interest of towns and communities in education, 
help to develop the school spirit, and tone up people 
in their ideas of what a good school is. 
But education is not everything ; the education fur¬ 
nished by the schools is much criticised in the farm 
papers, and, perhaps, justly. To me, one of the 
greatest drawbacks to farm life is the fact that, as a 
rule, when farmers’ children get old enough to go 
to a high school, they must leave home at great 
expense, and too often go where they are educated 
away from the farm. The farmer desires to have his 
children well educated, he is willing to lose their 
help just when they get to be of the greatest service ; 
if he is at all well-to-do, he will gladly give the 
money for their higher schooling. But the high 
schools and academies are nearly all in large towns 
and cities, and it often results in leading the young 
away from the farm. With the town system and a 
high school in every town, many of these difficulties 
are met. The young people can board at home, drive 
to school, and the cost of tuition is no more for the 
