58 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 26, 
BURN ON A CONCRETE FOUNDATION, 
I am going to build a barn 44 x 54 with basement, wllh 
a foundation wall on three sides four feet high, (ho wall 
on upper side full height. Will some one give me full in¬ 
structions how to build it of concrete? Will it cost as much 
as if made of cut stone? What will the cement cost for a 
job of that size? I would also like to know how to put 
in a cement bottom, llow high will the lower story have to 
be in order to use an elevated carrier for taking out the 
manure? E - h n * 
Titusville, Pa. 
I have figured the high wall nine feet and - r >4 feet 
long, the other sides four feet high and 18 inches at the 
bottom and 14 at the top. This can be built thicker or 
thinner, depending upon the weight upon it. The high 
side could be made two inches thicker at the top if the 
barn is to be high and loaded heavily with hay. I his 
side should be reinforced with one-half inch iron rods 
laid lengthwise about two feet apart. It will be safe to 
put at least one expansion joint' in the center of each 
side. With these dimensions and the mixture made one 
of cement, three of sand and six of crushed stone, there 
will be required approximately 50 barrels of Portland 
cement, 22]/ 2 yards of sand and 45 yards of crushed 
stone. You can easily estimate the cost of material. 
Quick measurements for a 1-8-6 mixture are one barrel 
cement, (four sacks), three barrels sand, six barrels 
loose gravel or crushed stone. 
On a farm much of the labor is done by the farm help, 
and hauling by farm teams, and these the farmer does 
not usually figure in his cost of labor. The contract 
price of concrete wall work varies, according to Tay¬ 
lor, from $4 to $7 per cubic yard. I have observed in 
concrete work that much depends upon the skill of the 
men. There is a feeling among farmers that cheap labor 
n building, or in fact in any other operations, aside from 
farm work proper, is a saving, but in the end fhe work 
is faulty and has cost more. So in concrete construc¬ 
tion get skilled men ; even the handling and mixing is a 
cheaper and better job when done by men accustomed to 
the work, no matter how careful the supervision, and 
again if a foreman has skilled men with him he can 
work himself; if they are green men it will take his 
entire time to watch them, and then he often gets 
cranky and the whole business goes wrong. Just a 
word, however, on methods. The sand and cement 
should be thoroughly mixed when dry, then spread out. 
and put gravel or stone on top, then wet and mix, just 
moist enough so it will stand ramming ( a necessary 
thing to do). The forms must be strong and thor¬ 
oughly braced. Have material and mixing box as near 
spot as possible to save labor, if necessarily distant’ use 
wheelbarrows. The concrete will cost more than stone. 
The usual price here $1.25 per perch laid in the wall; 
cost of lime and sand added. You do not need any 
special height for the manure carrier. 
To build floor, first grade, then pound the soil firmly. 
For grouting use a 1-4-8 mixture about three or four 
inches t’hick; then a surface coat of 1-2, finished with a 
rough sandpaper surface. Do not use plank anywhere 
in the stable. Use same care in mixing previously men¬ 
tioned. _ H. E. COOK. 
MR. HITCHINOS ON ORCHARDS. 
I am expecting to plant, an apple orchard next Spring, 
and would like the advice of Grant Ilitchtngs. I have a 
large orchard of early and late varieties and wish, in plant¬ 
ing the mew orchard, to have something coming between 
the two. I have thought of Ilubbardston and King, and 
would like opinions regarding these kinds and others. 1 
wish to follow the Hitcbings system, and wish instructions 
as to planting, securing a permanent sod, trimming when 
planted and later, and in what way to keep the land fertile. 
How can I protect the trees in Winter from mice, and how 
shall I proceed in order to bring the trees to bearing in 
the shortest possible time? How many years should elapse 
before bearing paying crops? What distance apart for trees 
planted and kept in sod? As far as practicable I want 
kinds which will bear young, bear annually and be ready 
sellers. k. R- J - 
Corfu, N. Y. 
In planning a new orchard to be managed under the 
mulch method you should learn first the soil conditions 
necessary for success. Then meet those conditions by 
the most feasible way that occurs to you. This way 
will be governed to some extent by your particular soil 
and location The ideal soil condition consists of clay 
loam well drained and well filled with decaying vege¬ 
table matter, known also as humus. This humus serves 
a two-fold purpose. It acts like a sponge to hold a 
steady supply of moisture in the soil, and also by its 
decay liberates or makes available plant food which is 
locked up and held unavailable in large quantifies in 
all soils. A Blue-grass sod is best for new orchards; if 
not available seed down either before or after planting 
trees with a mixture of 10 pounds of clover and 10 
pounds of Kentucky Blue grass per acre, mulching the 
trees when first planted with coarse manure and after¬ 
wards with what grass grows in fhe orchard, cutting 
grass first three years in June, after that cutting in July, 
extending each year the distance from tree to beginning 
of mulch. After six years let grass lie where cut. To 
guard against mice use galvanized wire cloth running 
four strands to inch, this is durable and keeps in place 
without tying, costing three cents per tree, using about 
one square foot per tree. 
Of course stable manure applied to the soil will help 
out the grass or any vegetable matter, as straw, weeds 
or Alfalfa, will serve fhe same purpose, but with natural 
limestone soil Blue grass comes in of its own accord, 
and the-addition of extra vegetable matter is unneces¬ 
sary. The fine thick aftermath of Blue grass which 
A HAY BARRACK IN NEW JERSEY. Fig. 24. 
shades the soil during Fall and Winter is very important, 
and should by no means be pastured off. 
Rows should be 30 feet apart, trees 25 feet apart in the 
rows, every other one a permanent tree; Northern Spy 
first choice. The alternate trees early bearing sorts, 
any of the following are good: Duchess, Wealthy, 
Twenty Ounce, Hubbardston, McIntosh or Wagener; 
for midseason varieties, Hubbardston and McIntosh. 
Trim off two-thirds of each limb when planted, and do 
not trim again until trees come into bearing, which 
should be in six years’ time; then trim off two or three 
limbs, no more, each year until tree is balanced up to a 
plan of which there arc several t'hat you may adopt. 
By following this plan of trimming you avoid forcing 
the tree to send out suckers or forcing wood growth 
which tends to delay bearing. 
The plan adopted here is for four or five limbs to start 
out from body of tree at height of 18 to 24 inches from 
surface of ground, these limbs to extend in a horizontal 
direction and then four upright limbs branching out 
AN INDIANA DISTRICT SCHOOL. Fig. 25. 
within 24 inches of additional height. This is my idea 
of a well-balanced tree and this form is aimed at while 
trimming. (See diagram). It is not possible to handle 
frees so as to produce large annual crops from each. By 
planting trees of different kinds and from fhe fact that 
the same kinds do not all bear the same year you may 
have annual crops from your orchard, but from alter¬ 
nate set of trees. grant g, hitchings. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
PRICES FOR POULTRY PRODUCTS. 
In July, 1905, when we began shipping roasters to 
Boston, they were very scarce and readily sold at 30 
cents per pound, and price did not drop to 24 cents 
until after the fifteenth of September. Last year ship¬ 
ments made at the same time sold for five to six cents 
less (the birds weighing the same), owing to the fact 
that such heavy shipments were being made the market 
was oversupplied. Then we reasoned that these ship¬ 
ments must consist mainly of cockerels in order to 
meet the market requirements for weight, and that the 
pullets would commence laying early, and that in the 
Fall eggs would not command such high prices as in 
former years. The reverse is the case, however, and 
fresh eggs are in strong demand and selling at 42 to 
45 cents per dozen at wholesale. We received to-day 
a sales account of 44 cents per dozen for pullets’ eggs. 
This situation is interesting. How do you account for 
it? F. c. c. 
This is not difficult to account for. The over-supply 
of roasting chicks was only a local affair, while the 
dearth of fresh eggs has been general, and as eggs 
are an easily transportable commodity, and the demand 
universal, the price of them would not be governed to 
so great extent by local conditions. Such high prices 
for roasting chicks are not obtainable outside of 
Boston and vicinity and perhaps a few larger cities, but 
the demand for fresh eggs comes from every town and 
village in the land, and poultrymen have not yet suc¬ 
ceeded in overcoming the conditions that result in 
small production of eggs in the early Winter months. 
When one thinks of the immense increase of poultry 
products bv artificial incubation and brooding, it is 
really wonderful that prices keep up as they do; but 
we must not forget that the market is constantly in¬ 
creasing by growth of population and that the means 
to purchase—the amount of money in circulation—is 
greater now than it has ever been since the flush times 
after the Civil War. geo. a. cosgrove. 
EXPERIENCE WITH STRYCHNINE IN 
POISONING ANIMALS. 
On page 971, under the heading “Poisoning Foxes,’’ 
“G. L.,” of Chadron, Neb., tells how he uses a .22 
cartridge shell as a measure for a dose of strychnine 
for a fox. Either “G. L.” has had experience with 
something weaker than ordinary strychnine, or Ne¬ 
braska foxes must be pretty tough. The dose men¬ 
tioned by G. L. is enough to kill one hundred foxes if 
rightly distributed. Strychnine in the form of crystals 
is usually sold in small bottles holding one-eighth of 
an ounce. One crystal the size of the head of a large 
pin is enough to send a fox to the happy hunting 
grounds. During my boyhood days I poisoned and 
helped to poison dozens of prairie wolves or coyotes, 
some skunks and incidentally a neighbor’s dog or 
two. My home was in southeastern Minnesota, near 
the Mississippi River. When that country was first 
settled (in the early 50’s) there were two kinds of 
wolves found there, the prairie wolf or coyote, and the 
large timber wolf. . These animals, evidently not liking 
the company of the settlers, left the country, and were 
not seen for a number of years. In the early 70’s the 
coyote came back, and has been there ever since, in 
spite of State bounties and all other means used to 
exterminate him. During the time the wolves were 
away the red fox was something of a nuisance to the 
farmers, but he almost entirely disappeared after the 
coyotes came back. 
Our method of thinning out the coyotes was to feed 
them alt the dead animals, the offal left after butcher¬ 
ing, etc., by hauling all such material to a certain 
place in a ravine half a mile from the house. When 
the wolves got hungry enough to eat this material, 
special “baits” were fixed for them. These baits were 
pieces of meat about the size of a man’s thumb, each 
one containing as much strychnine as would fill the 
eye of a small darning needle. Often a wolf after 
swallowing one of these baits, would not get away 
more than a rod or two before giving up the ghost. 
At other times we would find them able to travel a 
quarter of a mile. Sometimes they would vomit up 
the bait and get away alive. This we always thought 
was due to their having too large a dose. Some Win¬ 
ters when rabbits and other game were plentiful the 
wolves would not eat ordinary bait at all. I remember 
one Winter the only wolf that took poison was one 
that had been shot so that he was unable to catch 
game. He had a bullet hole through him only one inch 
below his heart, and he lived three weeks after being 
shot before lie took his bait. 
I suppose it is now generally conceded that skunks 
should be protected, but in the days when we thought 
they should be killed we used to fix egg baits for them. 
A small hole the size of a nail was made in one end 
of the egg and a strychnine crystal about as large as 
the head of a pin was pushed in. Mr. Skunk never 
got far away after sucking such an egg. Pocket 
gophers are easily killed by opening their burrows and 
feeding them small potatoes that have been dosed with 
strychnine. A little potato the size of a hickory nut 
containing a crystal of strychnine as large (or as small) 
as the point of a pin is about the proper dose. 
Minnesota. J. m. drew. 
