39o 
May 13, 
TIIH RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
horses, and not cut. As we begin to work or drive 
we increase the feed till we get up to full rations. In 
cool weather 10 or 12 ears of corn twice a day, four 
quarts of oats and six ears of corn at noon. As it gets 
wanner we feed corn and oats morning and noon, a 
jjood forkful of hay at each meaT. My working horses 
are from seven to 11 years old and weigh from 1,150 
to 1,250 pounds. Road work is mostly about six miles 
a week, but sometimes we go to Des Moines, 9'/) miles 
from nere, but nowadays not very often, as we have 
our mail at the railroad station within one-half mile 
of the house and can get our groceries as cheap as a 
general thing as in the city. The cars arc quicker than 
the team to the city, and as a general thing it is 
cheaper to go that way, taking all things into consid¬ 
eration, than to drive a team to the city. R. c. s. 
Campbell, Iowa. 
I only kefcp one pair of mares, 11 and 13 years old, 
and they seldom work over eight hours a day. They 
are what may be called general purpose horses, weight 
about 1,150 pounds, and used for peddling milk and 
driving. I have no fixed rule for feeding. When they 
are at work right along through Spring work and hay¬ 
ing, I feed provender, three quarts corn and oats 
ground, equal parts, for morning and night, and oats 
four quarts at noon, and a good forkful of hay; never 
weigh or cut it. Along the latter part of Summer, when 
the work slacks up, I begin to feed sweet corn, and at 
husking time feed flint corn whole ears, and through 
Winter no grain at noon, hut a few potatoes or car¬ 
rots. They are always sleek and fat, and ready to go 
on the road a fair gait, or work. G. b. ii. 
Mood us, Conn. 
KING STABLE VENTILATION. 
In putting in King system of ventilators, what is the 
best way to finish the out-take flues above the roof? l. s. 
Jamestown, N. Y. 
If upon a new barn I would use a round double flue 
of galvanized iron with the air space of six inches 
stuffed with straw. The same could be used upon an 
old barn if there were no former cupolas into which it 
might be advantageous to run the flues. A single solid 
wall of any material would he cold and inclined to con¬ 
dense the vapor as it came up. In severe weather frost 
and ice would gather, and later melt and run to the floor 
below, or leak out of the flue if it was crooked and 
not watertight. Just keep in mind the principle that at 
no place during the passage of this vaporized air from 
stable to the open air above must it be permitted to 
condense. That means complete insulation. If you 
have a cupola and want to run the flues into' it, you 
can do so by taking off the sides, leaving the flue from 
below far enough above the roof (three to five feet) 
so that nothing will interfere with a free current of 
air across the top. no matter which way the wind 
blows. The cupola should, of course, have a tight 
roof. There must be a roof above the flue of some 
kind to keep out rain and snow. h. e. cook. 
EXPERIMENT STATIONS AT COUNTY 
FARMS. 
The Kansas Legislature has passed a bill which aims to 
extend the work of the State Experiment Station by organ¬ 
izing substations at county poor farms. Prof. Ten Eyck 
of the Kansas College refers to the plan as follows: 
The bill originated largely in this office, and the gen¬ 
eral plan was simply to make it optional with the 
county commissioners to authorize the carrying on of 
experiments in co-operation with the State Experiment 
Station. The present plan is to undertake experiments 
with crops at the county poor farms in different sec¬ 
tions of the State. These experiments will consist in 
the testing of different varieties of different crops rela¬ 
tive to their adaptation and productiveness, the intro¬ 
duction of new crops, experimenting with different cul¬ 
ture methods for different crops, and the selection and 
breeding of seeds of certain crops, or varieties adapted 
for the different localities. 
The immediate object, in my judgement, is to intro¬ 
duce among farmers in different sections of the State 
better-bred and better-adapted varieties of crops than 
are at present grown, making the county farm the-cen¬ 
ter of agriculture for the county, and for the distri¬ 
bution of new and improved varieties of seed of the 
several crops which are most successfully grown in the 
county. Of course the same work, as has been sug¬ 
gested foi farm crops, can be done with fruit; and ul¬ 
timately, possibly, work in handling and breeding of 
stock may be undertaken at these county experiment 
stations. As you have suggested, the plan seems to 
he an excellent one. Of course there will he many 
difficulties to meet before the undertaking is put on a 
fairly good working basis. 
I have written a letter to every county poor-farm 
superintendent in the State (including something over 
80 poor farms), hut not more than a dozen have an¬ 
swered my letter. As a rule the county farms are 
poorly managed for carrying on such experimental 
work as would prove valuable to the county and the 
State. Before this work can he carried on successfully 
the people of the county must take an interest in it; 
and the county commissioners must take favorable 
action, appropriating the necessary funds to meet the 
necessary expenses of carrying on the work, and men 
must be put in charge who know something of agri¬ 
culture, and who will take an interest in properly car¬ 
rying out the work which is undertaken in co-operation 
with the State Experiment Station. Few of the super¬ 
intendents now in charge of the county farms are well 
titted to do anything along this line, hut many of these 
men will he able to prepare themselves for this work. 
In my judgment, men who are agriculturally educated 
must eventually take the places of the superintendents 
now in charge of the county farms, before the co-oper¬ 
ative work can be successfully carried out. Such a 
plan of carrying on experiments at the county poor 
farms is already in use in Iowa to some extent, al¬ 
though no special provision has been made by the 
Slate Legislature for this work, the work being car¬ 
ried on at the option of the county commissioners and 
the officers of the Experiment Station. 
Kansas Ag’l College. a. m. ten eyck. 
MICE THE CURSE OF THE MULCH SYSTEM. 
I have always been much prepossessed in favor of 
the practice of mulching, and have practiced it on 
various crops during a life of 78 years. 1 once raised 
a splendid crop of T r > om phe cl e Gand strawberries on 
the hill system, i. e., taking off all of the runners) 
by mulching the ground (about an acre) heavily be¬ 
tween the rows, immediately after planting, giving the 
held no cultivation. Winter before last was fatal to 
the Cuthbert raspberries on our loamy, gravelly plain; 
but by burying a small patch of the Golden Queen 
(which is said to be an albino offshoot of the Cuth¬ 
bert) 1 succeeded in raising a fine crop. After laying 
them down, and confining them to the earth with 
earth placed on the upper end of the bushes, last Fall, 
I covered the rest of the bushes with a heavy mulch of 
poNato vines and leaves. This was done very late in 
the season. When I uncovered this Spring I found the 
THE RUSH WALNUT. Fig. 1(50. See Rurallsms, Rage 394. 
bushes somewhat damaged by mice. The thin hark of 
the raspberry must be the poorest kind of fodder, hut 
hunger seems to have driven them to it. 
I deposited a large heap of cornstalks where one edge 
just touched an old apple tree. The mice found lodg¬ 
ings in the heap, but for board they could get nothing 
better than the thick bark of the apple tree near the 
root. This they used largely. This is a specimen 
of what mice will do under stress of hunger. The ex¬ 
periment that I am trying consists in depositing corn¬ 
stalks between the rows of raspberries, thick enough 
so no weeds can grow, thus saving the expense of culti¬ 
vation through the season. I see hut one serious objec¬ 
tion to the extensive use of mulching in cases where it 
can be readily obtained, and that is mice. I would he 
exceedingly thankful if in the large constituency of 
The R. N.-Y. readers some one could tell of an effectual 
method of poisoning or otherwise destroying this pest, 
aside from dispensing with mulching. I feel very 
friendly to the cats that make tracks all around my 
belongings in Winter; but cats cannot go where mice 
can, and mulching seems to he the best protection for 
them. A recipe that would effectually dispose of this 
gardeners’ curse would he thankfully received. 
H. J. SEYMOUR. 
CHEMICALS WITH C01V MANURE. 
My half-acre garden has been manured for some years 
past, with cow manure. It is devoted to vegetables and 
small fruits. What chemicals, how much and when can I 
profitably use this year on the garden? 
You will find an application of muriate of potash 
and acid phosphate very useful. Cow manure is com¬ 
paratively rich in nitrogen, hut has very small propor¬ 
tion of potash and phosphoric acid. Even though it 
contains large quantities of nitrogen, it frequently hap¬ 
pens that this very nitrogen is not in a soluble or avail¬ 
able form. As warm weather progresses and the soil 
becomes warm and moist, the nitrogen in the cow ma¬ 
nure becomes more available, and is therefore more 
effective towards the end of the season than it is dur¬ 
ing the Spring. If you desire to raise early crops, like 
lettuce, radishes, or early peas, cow manure is not as 
I 
effective as other forms of barnyard fertilizer, because 
its nitrogen is not soluble. You can use in connec¬ 
tion with the cow manure a fair quantity of soluble 
nitrogen. The best form for applying this is nitrate 
of soda. Even with a heavy use of cow manure, you 
will find it profitable to use on your half acre about 
150 pounds of nitrate of soda. Plow the cow manure 
under if possible, and after the seeds are planted or 
the plants put in place, scatter the nitrate evenly over 
the ground, keeping it at least six inches away from 
any living plant. Either rake or cultivate it thoroughly 
into the soil. It is caustic or burning in its action, and 
should not he put directly around young and tender 
plants. The effect of the nitrate of soda will be to 
qflickcn the early growth in the garden, and its effect 
will be probably lost about June or July. Then the 
cow manure will become more available and carry the 
crops through. In addition to this nitrate of soda, I 
would advise the use also of at least 100 pounds of 
muriate of potash and 250 pounds of acid phosphate. 
These will supply potash and phosphoric acid. We 
judge that your garden is lacking in these elements. 
In applying the muriate of potash and phosphoric acid, 
scatter them evenly about the ground immediately after 
plowing or digging, and rake or harrow them evenly 
into the ground. It is important that these fertilizers 
should not he left upon the surface, hut should be 
worked under the soil. When you apply these chemi¬ 
cals you know exactly what you are doing. You may 
consider it more convenient to use a mixed fertiliser. 
In that case select one containing about two per cent 
of nitrogen, nine per cent of phosphoric acid, and six 
or seven per cent of potash. You will find it more to 
your advantage, however, to use the chemicals if you 
can get them, because when you use the nitrate of soda 
you will know that you are applying soluble nitrogen; 
whereas if you buy a ready-mixed fertilizer you may 
be applying nitrogen in organic form, which is no more 
available than that in the cow manure. 
SHEEP WITH DAIRY. 
I have always been a lover of sheep, and have owned 
a flock ever since I was 12 years old. Years ago the 
amount of wool was the object sought for, and when 
it brought from 75 cents to $1 per pound the Merinos 
were strictly in it. shearing from seven to 10 pounds 
per head, and small flocks often reaching 12 pounds, 
but of later years mutton has been more of an object 
than wool, and especially lambs, for that reason we look, 
to the large type of coarse wooled breeds. After look 
ing over the different breeds, I saw none, that I thought, 
was any better for wool and lambs than the Shrop- 
shires. They are excellent mothers, very prolific, and 
when fed and cared for, give lots of milk. My flock 
average aboout eight pounds of wool per head and I 
seldom have less than three lambs to turn out for 
two ewes and of'en every ewe will have twin lambs. 
Two years ago all had twins but two, and they had 
triplets. 1 lost only one lamb and that got killed. They 
rfe a quiet breed, that is, mine are; are easy to handle 
for large sheep, and the lambs are always tame. It 
makes a great difference about sheep being afraid of 
the one in charge of the fleck. 
Now, as to the profits of keeping sheep with a dairy, 
I do not expect all will agree with me. Profits depend 
on the man and the management to a great extent, 
My flock average about $8 per head from wool and 
lambs. Two years ago they averaged $11 per head. 
When we were all making butter instead of selling milk, 
I made as much butter per cow as tliose that did not 
keep sheep around here; our make averaging 300 
pounds per cow for the year. For that reason I came 
to the conclusion that the flock was not a detriment to 
the pasture for the cows. 
The sheep will take care of themselves, for they arc 
up at daylight and feeding. They will pick their living, 
four weeks earlier in the Spring that cows will. If you 
keep your cows built up, and with a good flow of milk, 
you can begin to feed them in August, while the sheep 
will care for themselves until the middle of November. 
1 never bouse my sheep until about lambing time. They 
have a shed that is always open for them, and I see 
that they are in, if a cold storm comes on, but other¬ 
wise, they are always out in the open. Oats always give 
me satisfaction, when fed to them in the Winter. I 
generally save a load or two of sheaves for the sheep, 
as they are fond of grinding their own feed. Once in 
a while I give a feed of corn, just for a change, and 
I feed beets as long as they last, then a mess of po‘a 
toes once a week. 
Since feeding in the above manner and with plenty 
of out door exercise, I have bad no weak lambs to 
bother with. The last of February and first of March 
suits me for the lambs to begin to come. When ‘hey 
are about two weeks old they begin to eat a little grain. 
They have all they care to eat, until they go out to 
grass; and they get very tame by being with them so 
much. When I go to the barn and sit down, in about 
five minutes I have a row of lambs around me. 
New York. s. 
