386 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ASPARAGUS RUST IN CALIFORNIA. 
They are having quite a time with Asparagus rust in 
California. The disease is as troublesome and destruc¬ 
tive as in its worst days in the East, but the climate 
out there comes to the aid of the growers by rendering 
sulphur applications far more effective than in cooler 
localities. Asparagus fields dusted several times during 
the growing season with powdered sulphur show much 
less injury from rust than untreated plantings. This 
treatment was first tried in 1903. Experiments have 
been greatly extended in the past two years. By starting 
treatment as soon as growth begins after cutting, and 
before rust appears, with a second application a month 
later and the third a month later still, using about one- 
half a sack of sublimed sulphur, at a cost per acre for 
material of $1.47 for each application, very encouraging 
results are had. Some growers use a combination treat¬ 
ment, first spraying the tops with a mixture of whale- 
oil soap and Bordeaux, and immediately following with 
a dusting of sulphur by hand or machine. When thor¬ 
oughly carried out this treatment is so effective in head¬ 
ing off development of rust that' California horticultural 
papers announce victory over Asparagus rust as an 
accomplished fact. It remains to be seen whether the 
sulphur treatment is sufficiently economical to pav in 
the long run. Some success with sulphur applications 
has been reported from eastern localities, but it is gen¬ 
erally considered that it is only likely to be effective 
where long intervals of dry, hot weather may be counted 
on with reasonable certainty. 
May 
given to support the roof, and the builder does not un¬ 
dertake to see how cheap he can build. 
If the builder puts up a concrete or stone basement 
the advantage would be greater in favor of the plank 
fiame than with a wood basement. As to which is 
the better kind of a frame, I think that is a question 
that the man who contemplates building should decide 
for himself. Either style frame, properly constructed, 
is good. Never depend wholly on the advice of others; 
help to solve the problem yourself. Look the two 
styles of frames over closely; even though it costs you 
something to go to see them it will be money well in¬ 
vested, and whatever style of frame suits you build 
that style, even though it costs more money; you will 
always be better satisfied. It would be a physical im- 
IN FAVOR OF CHINESE LABOR. 
^ our questions about the Chinese laborers affect me a 
good deal. I need help, and I have tried to get it by 
hiiing what we call white men. I have had men, boys 
and gills; not very much of it was satisfactory. I am 
in the gardening business. Twenty-five years ago I 
commenced hiring Chinamen, some of the time only one, 
at othei times two or more. I furnished them a house, 
and they boarded themselves. I have had to pay about 
the same wages that I paid other men, but on the 
average they have given a better equivalent for the 
wages than any other help I can get. I have one China¬ 
man now. and he has worked for me in all about five 
and a half years. I can trust him, and he trusts me. 
They are not good with a team; anything else I have 
set him at he does all 1 could ask; of anyone. At pres¬ 
ent there are but few of them here. Farmers would 
be glad to get them, and whenever one is at liberty 
he is willing to go and work on the farm or any place 
where there is work to be done. Their labor is not 
cheap in the sense that they can be hired for less money 
than other workmen. Some hire them as familv cooks 
and pay them from $7 to $14 per week for their work, 
simply because no other help can be had. I believe 
it would be much better to allow the Chinese to come 
hei e than the cheap laborers of Europe. These ques¬ 
tions are being discussed by the politicians, and they 
believe in a square deal for every man, and the next 
sentence they utter is exclude the Chinese, we cannot 
have the cheap labor of China brought here to compete 
with our poor workingmen.” I am simply disgusted 
with such kind of talk. Let the Chinese come here 
under the same conditions that we allow the people of 
any other nation to come. My father and grandfather 
were born in Massachusetts, and I was born in Ohio, 
pretty nearly a Yankee, and yet it does not degrade me 
to work with a Chinaman. dexter field. 
Oregon. 
PLANK AND FRAME BARNS COMBINED. 
T am about to build a large barn, and would like some 
advice as to which is the better and cheaper, the plank 
or ttao old style frftino. stah'M. 
The plank frame barn has in many sections become 
quite popular because it is a saving in volume of dimen¬ 
sion stuff necessary over the old style frame of years 
ago. I imber had no value then beyond the labor at¬ 
tendant upon its preparation for use. There are houses 
standing to-day in some of the older sections with 
framework sufficiently elaborate for a sawmill. When 
the plank frame was devised there at once appeared a 
saving of about 30 per cent in frame timber, and they 
were hailed with delight, especially in the great agri¬ 
cultural sections of the Middle West, where timber 
values were high. To-day radical modifications have 
been made in the so-called old style frame, and the 
amount of dimension stuff is not materially different 
from the amount used in the plank frame. The curb 
roof with self-supporting construction offers an oppor¬ 
tunity to eliminate all purlin works, which have been 
the expensive features of all the old-style frames. No 
advantage is claimed for the plank frame in a two- 
story, barn up to the height of the basement. Where a 
heavy load of hay, grain and straw is to be supported 
there must be strength of timber and post, or the barn 
will lose its proper alignment. This point may as well 
be recognized first as last. There is some advantage in 
framing with the plank frame if sufficient strength is 
A GRASS CROP ON RECLAIMED LAND. Fig. 153. 
possibility for anyone to figure accurately the differ¬ 
ence in timber and labor cost unless a concrete case was 
at hand. j j s _ 
EXPERIENCE WITH CITY HELPERS. 
Bad Luck with Bureaus. 
I notice your article on page 338 in reference to 
farm help from missions and bureaus in the citv. I 
have had some practical experience for two years. In 
1904 I corresponded with a labor bureau in New York 
city in reference to farm help, stating I needed a young 
man able to speak English and a good milker. In a 
few days I received a reply, stating the terms, and 
that they could furnish me with competent help, but 
I would have to advance some money to bear expenses 
from New York to Lancaster, Pa., my nearest railroad 
station. This I did, and in a few days they wrote me 
thej had sent a man. I went to depot several times, 
but man or baggage did not appear. I wrote again, 
and they said they would send another. Finally, in 
about a week, a man came, a Hungarian, who could 
neither speak English nor any language that we could 
understand, and he had never worked on a farm; had 
always lived in the city. He had just come from 
ally knew nothing about practical farm life, and could 
not milk four cows in one hour. He stayed a few 
weeks, then went to his home for a few days, promised 
to return, but I have not seen him since, neither do I 
care to. I would advise practical farmers to let help 
of this kind alone. The game is not worth the powder. 
J. ALDUS HERR. 
Experience with a Dead Beat. 
I noticed the request that readers who have tried 
farm help from the various missions and bureaus in 
New \ork would give a fair statement of the outcome. 
I want to give you my experience, both because it con¬ 
tains a lesson, and because it will correct an account of 
it that I sent you something over a year ago. Last 
year I had great difficulty in getting help. In my strait, 
I went to the Bowery Mission. There I looked over 
a number of men and picked out one who had been 
brought up on a farm not far from Troy. He had 
come to the city to make a fortune, and had not suc¬ 
ceeded. His hard-luck story was so reasonable and 
he seemed so anxious to get a fresh start, that both Air. 
Hunt, the superintendent, and I were convinced that he 
was sincere. So I took him, fitted him out with some 
clothes, and sent him up to my place. For the first 
w'eek or two he did well, but as soon as the novelty 
wore off he began to get tired easily, and by the end of 
the first month he was of little use. Having no other 
help and not being able to find any. I kept him for 
about two weeks more, when he was sent away. He 
went to the village, did odd jobs for a while, and finally 
took up his quarters in a saloon, where he worked for 
his board and drink. This went on until July. In the 
meantime he had been busy. He had used my name and 
established a small credit on it. He got some clothes 
and other merchandise on the strength of it, and finally 
wound up by forging some checks and running away, 
taking with him a fine young girl, daughter of well- 
to-do parents. He took an excursion train for New 
\ ork, and when last seen he and the girl were at 
Coney Island. Officers of the law were sent after him. 
but he succeeded in eluding them, and I have not heard 
that he has been taken. calvin l. lewis. 
HOLST E1N-FRI ESI A N COW PONTIAC CALYPSO. Fig. 154. 
See Page 397. 
abroad about six weeks previous. A Russian who lived 
in Lancaster, Pa., happened to be at our house, peddling, 
and fortunately for the foreigner and ourselves, he 
could speak to this stranger. He said the bureau had 
charged him a fee, besides the one I paid them in 
advance, and misrepresented the situation to him. We 
could not use the man. There was but one thing to do; 
he had no money to buy a ticket to return to New 
York, so we gave him sufficient to buy a ticket from 
Lancaster, Pa., to New York, and lost in the little expe¬ 
rience about $10 and some annoyance. The next at¬ 
tempt of this kind was in 1905. I wrote for a young 
man who had lived in the city, but had attended school 
a year at the Baron de Hirsch school in New Jersey. 
This man was to be able to do farm work in general, 
and be a good milker. But what a failure! He virtu- 
THE COST OF CEMENT WALKS. 
Nearly all the sidewalks in this town (Minneapolis) 
are built of cement, and all new ones. The cement is 
first made into tile, two inches thick, and 18 inches or 
two feet square, and allowed to harden before being 
laid. More cement is used on the upper side of the 
tile than in other parts. Walks in the residence part of 
the city are six feet wide. The ground is first cov¬ 
ered w ith a body of sand and well rammed down, and 
some cement placed on it before laying the tile. Firms 
here make a business of manufacturing and laying the 
tile. The price per square yard is about 70 cents. The 
city pays less. I have walks about my house that have 
been down over 20 years that are as good to-day as 
when first laid down. Driveways and curbing are also 
made of the same material. Good sand or gravel is 
necessary to mix with the cement. Minneapolis. 
To lay a concrete walk, remove the top soil, ram the 
bottom upon which the walk is to be laid, and cover 
three inches thick with a concrete compound of Port¬ 
land cement one part, sand four parts, and grav'd, from 
one to three inches in size, five parts. Mix the cement 
and sand dry, then mix with the gravel and wet to a 
proper consistency to pack well, and ram solid; then 
cover one inch thick with mortar composed of cement 
one part and sand two parts. The success in laying a 
cement walk depends largely on the mixing of the mate¬ 
rials; they should be turned over with the shovel at 
least four times, and each shovelful of the mixture 
should be spread at each operation; the bottom layer 
should be put down to gauges 'not more than four feet 
apart, and the top coat put on before the bottom layer 
is set, and the whole troweled to a smooth even surface; 
the top coat should be made of the same consistency as 
plastering mortar, and if you should get it too wet,'put 
some dry cement in an old stocking and dust it over. 
You can safely drive your teams with loaded coal 
wagons ovei this walk or stable floor if properly put 
down. Here in the city we pay 15 cents a square foot 
for such a walk, and one-half the cost is labor. If the 
walk is to be laid where there is moisture, or on a clay 
bottom, I would excavate the width of the walk about 
18 inches deep and fill with cinder from factory boilers ; 
otherwise the frost will heave and crack it. On a dry 
sand bottom this will not be necessary. m. h. 
Paterson, N. J. 
Those who are willing to “give the devil his due” gen¬ 
erally expect some return for it. 
The Department of Agriculture states that in France a 
prize of $2,000 was offered for the best method of killing 
house flies. It was won for a suggestion to use oil stirred 
in water in vaults and cesspools. For manure the oil 
is mixed with sand or phosphate scattered over the piles. 
This prevents egg-laying or hatching, as most of this is 
done in manure piles. 
