878 
TIIK RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 9, 
A COW TO PIN YOUR FAITH TO. Fig. .390. 
other contractor was induced to extend his route over 
the Nashua & Rochester road, taking in another dis¬ 
trict of the State; and the business gradually grew; 
the predominating breed of cattle was Holsteins. At 
this time we had reached the high-water mark, as the 
surplus began to show up and then the standard began 
to rise and the price began to fall. The farmers band¬ 
ed together and kept the price up for a time; but it be¬ 
came a fact that the time had come when the price must 
go down, so at some seasons 22 cents a can of 8]4 
quarts delivered in the car, was all that could be had. 
So with the standard continuing to rise many of the 
farmers were either forced to go out of the business or 
THE WRONG BUILD FOR A DAIRY COW. Fig. 397. 
“LIKE PRODUCES LIKE.” TOO NARROW. Fig. 398. 
break in new men'nearly every time any of this work is 
done. Sometimes they are handy, and learn easily, and 
again they do not. 
I have never been able to use a plow, or any machine 
on my land, with any degree of satisfaction. While I 
have tried to use a plow, I have never used any kind 
of a machine built for that purpose, nor 
have I known of any being used in this 
section. For a time, I thought to pur¬ 
chase a plow manufactured and much ad¬ 
vertised for this purpose, but my efforts 
to use a farm plow were never satisfac¬ 
tory, and as a result discouraged me from 
buying a plow made for this purpose. At 
the time draining can be done with the 
lightest labor in my soil, that is, when the 
soil is soft—it is difficult to work a team 
over it with satisfaction. In all my work 
I have aimed to get all lines of drains as 
straight as possible. When drains arc 
cut on the farm, the teams arc usually 
out of practice, as well as the owners, for 
correct driving,'which results in a lot of 
crooked work. Then it has always 
seemed to me that it was a good deal 
of work to clean out these plow furrows, 
ready for a continuance of the work. And 
then when the cuttings are filled up, it 
requires more plow work to level up the 
land, than if the work had been done by 
hand. 
If professional ditchers do the work, 
the}’' much prefer to do the whole of it 
rather than to finish after the plow. The 
greatest amount of tile 1 have laid in a 
single season has been about 400 rods. 
Sometimes 50 rods is put down in the 
Spring, and again I may lay 200. It is 
owing to the necessities of the land to be 
plowed for a crop at that time. I have 
found it much easier and cheaper to cut 
drains where there is a sod, than to cut 
them in naked soil. On this account it 
is my custom to do the work when the 
land is a clover sod, and during the Win¬ 
ter or Spring before the land is to be 
plowed for a crop. Often the plowing 
and ditching is going on at the same time 
in a field. 
The only successful ditching machine, 
that I know of, would not work in my 
land on account of small stones that are 
frequent, and then a bowlder is sometimes 
found. It was always my aim when 
working at it myself, to move as little 
soil as possible, cutting the ditches as 
narrow as they could be worked in. Oc¬ 
casionally I attach drains to those that 
have been laid 20 or more years, and I 
have always found these old lines of tile 
in as good working order as when they 
were first laid. In filling in the ditches 
after the tile is laid, I always use a plow 
and one or two horses. In another ar¬ 
ticle I will tell how I do the work to 
economize labor, secure a perfect grade, 
and make the work permanent. 
JOHN M. JAMISON. 
change their cattle, and as a consequence many began 
to mix Jerseys and Durhams into their herds. Some 
put in Ayrshires, and by thoroughly mixing the milk 
were enabled to keep it up to standard. 
With all of these changed conditions in view manv 
of the farmers have put in separators, and have gone to 
making butter; they are selling to custo¬ 
mers and enjoying a great peace of mind 
once more. The average price of butter 
iierc is 25 cents the year around; and 
all who make it say they could sell double 
what they are able to make. To sum up 
the whole, the dairy business as selling 
milk to contractors is on the wane, but as 
selling milk, cream and butter at retail is 
on the increase yearly. Purebred stock is 
growing more and more prominent everv 
year. Holsteins, Ayrshires, Jerseys and 
Guernseys are the principal breeds now 
most commonly used. The Guernseys arc 
just now coming more and more into the 
front rank, as they are more hardy than 
the Jersey, a little larger and give a large 
flow of rich, yellow milk with a high per 
cent of butter fat. Oxen in these days 
are very scarce; only a few are used on 
the farms at present, as the changed con¬ 
ditions demand a team that will move a 
little quicker. Those that are used in 
thl? section are principally Herefords. 
Strafford Co., N. II. a. j. t. 
FUMIGATION OF NURSERY 
STOCK. 
My attention has just been called to a 
short article on page 812 in regard to 
fumigation of nursery stock. It is true 
that fumigation of orchard trees in the 
East has not given results that would 
recommend it to the use of practical men. 
The cost of tents, their liability to being 
burned by the acid used in fumigation, the 
difficulty of gauging amounts correctlv, 
the time required to do the work, all op¬ 
erate against its general use in orchard 
work. But in spite of these facts, fumi¬ 
gation is quite generally practiced on the 
Citrus fruit trees in California, and well- 
known writers in that State, both practi¬ 
cal men and scientists, consider it by far 
the best means of dealing with insect 
pests for this class of trees. 
The fumigation of nursery stock, how¬ 
ever, is quite a different problem. Here 
the plants can be brought together in a 
small room, the contents of which are 
known, and in this way the operation is 
very much cheapened and simplified. This 
method of treating nursery stock has been 
practiced in Virginia for 10 years, and it 
is now generally conceded both by nur¬ 
serymen and nursery inspectors, that fum¬ 
igation is the best treatment for nursery 
stock. The question as to the effective¬ 
ness of fumigation against the San Jose 
scale, when properly done, and also as to 
its non-injurious effect on deciduous 
fruit plants, while in the dormant state, 
was definitely settled some years ago. A 
few nurserymen and fruit-growers have 
claimed recently that trees were injured 
by fumigation and, because of these 
claims, some exhaustive experiments were 
conducted during the Fall of 1904 to 
learn, if possible, whether we were all 
mistaken in regard to this matter, and 
whether fumigation really is injurious to 
nursery stock. A. F. Burgess, State En¬ 
tomologist of Ohio, T. B. Symons, State 
Entomologist of Maryland, and the writer 
undertook this work in the Fall of 1904, 
each without the knowledge of the other. 
We all arrived at practically the same 
conclusions; namely, that fumigation, as 
recommended by nursery inspectors, will 
not injure well-matured nursery stock. 
Whenever our attention has been called 
to apparent injury by fumigation, we have 
almost always been able to trace it to 
some other cause. The most fruitful 
source of this is the exposure of stock to 
sun or wind, or improper methods of 
heeling into the soil. The writer can 
speak only for Virginia and a few other 
States in which the conditions are known to him. In 
these cases fumigation is not a farce. Our nurserymen 
show no disposition to shirk their duties or minimize 
the importance of this very necessary operation , and 
should they do so, there would be no hesitation in en¬ 
forcing the law so as to protect the fruit-grower to the 
fullest extent. J. l. Phillips. 
DAIRY CONDITIONS IN SOUTH¬ 
EASTERN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
Previous to 1873 most of the farmers 
in this section made a small amount of 
butter and a considerable one of beef. At 
that time nearly every farm had a yoke 
of oxen on it. The farmer would man¬ 
age to have a yoke of oxen to work and 
a yoke of steers growing up so to take 
the place of the oxen when they were 
ready for the block. The cows then kept 
were largely for stock raising, and gave 
but a small flow of milk, and only for a 
short period. Through the efforts of a 
few of the farmers here one of the Boston 
milk contractors was induced to extend 
a route through this corner of the State 
in the Fall of 1S73. Many of the farm¬ 
ers that lived in a reasonable distance 
from the various stations began putting 
on milk. In these times the price of milk 
was some thirty-odd cents a can delivered 
to the car. At this time there began to 
be a change in the breed of cattle kept; 
as it became necessary to have a breed that would give a 
large quantity of milk, and for a longer period. At 
this time the standard of quality was low, so the farm¬ 
ers began breeding grade Holstein cows, and they 
proved very satisfactory, giving a large quantity and of 
fair quality. The business became so well liked that 
other farmers began to get interested, and later on an¬ 
