THE RURAL) NEW-YORKER 
October 30. 
all kinds of coal on all kinds of trains, and with all 
kinds of men, for over seven years, and I know 
and can prove what I am talking about. On the 
large railroads of to-day the engine comes in off 
the division; it goes on the ash pit to have the 
fire cleaned, front end cleaned and examined, and, 
if such a thing as a screen was punched with holes 
or the fireman “monkeyed” with it the fireman and 
the engineer would hear of it at once, and proba¬ 
bly would get time off for i*. The engineer will 
not allow his firemen to “monkey” with the front end, 
for it would cost him his own job as well as the 
fireman’s. If it gets closed up, it is a very easy 
matter to open the hand hole on the left side of the 
smoke box and tapping the screen lightly will clean it 
as good as new, unless the flues are leaking and the 
cinders are wet. If an engine is properly drafted and 
properly handled the fireman who understands his 
business will have an easy time keeping her hot, pro¬ 
vided he fires the engine carefully, but there are a 
few points that should be considered in order to in¬ 
sure success. From actual experience I could write 
a short story on firing to give the readers a little 
light on the subject in order to clear and clean the 
fireman of all blame, and will do so if requested. 
Another thing; trains are run nowadays by block- 
system, and there is no time for a poor tired-out 
fireman to clean his fire, get it in shape to make the 
time, let alone tampering with the scree'ns. All there 
is to it for a fireman is to report at the end of a trip 
that the engine wants more draft on the fire, or 
examine the front end; there are men to do that 
work, and foremen to see it is done. 
A R. R. FIREMAN. 
A CHAPTER ON MUCK. 
How would good black muck, that has been piled up 
for three months with plenty of fresh burned lime mixed 
in, compare with the common, run of manure? How long 
would it take to sweeten it with a rotten rock that is 
supposed to contain 58 per cent lime, but unburned? I 
have one of those farms that you read about. The last 
owner starved out. I got sick of the city and am going 
to make the place pay or know the reason why. Of 
course, I need manure, but! it will cost me about $2 per 
load, and have to haul it about 2% miles. There is 
plenty of this muck right on the place, and I can get 
lime for .$5.85 per ton in car lots. I would like to 
know which is the better for me to use. I am quite sure 
the land needs lime, for the only thing that seems to 
grow now is ragweed and a kind of June grass that does 
not seem to rot when you plow it under. That which 
was buried under the first of July, 1908, is quite sound 
where 1 plowed to-day. c. M. 
Willink, N. Y. 
Suppose you asked us how one good black horse, 
well fed and cared for, would compare with a farm 
mule that had served you well for years. We should 
should have to know more about the horse before 
we could answer. It is the same with the “good 
black muck.” Few things on the farm vary more 
than muck. It may contain all the way from 10 
pounds to 60 pounds of nitrogen in a ton. That nit¬ 
rogen may be partly available on drying out, or it 
may not become available naturally for years. If 
a farmer thinks of using muck he should have an 
analysis made, and then he can figure. 
Taking an average sample of black muck mixed 
with lime the chances are that it will contain more 
nitrogen and lime than stable manure and much 
less potash and phosphoric acid. Always remember 
that muck contains little if any potash unless mixed 
with sediment from overflows, and that the nitrogen 
is of little value until the muck is fermented. The 
object in mixing lime with the muck in a com¬ 
post heap, is to neutralize the acid and start fer¬ 
mentation. The burned lime will be better for this 
purpose than the “rotten rock.” From 150 to 200 
pounds of lime to a ton of muck will be ample. 
Probably in two months there will be an improve¬ 
ment in the muck and under ordinary conditions in 
from four to six month's the muck ought to be in 
fair condition for use. Wte are not aware that 
any analyses have been made to show the changes 
which result from this use of lime, but the muck 
will be greatly improved and, so far as its nitrogen 
goes, will make a fair substitute for a manure. 
Potash and phosphoric acid should be used with it. 
In addition to the plant food it contains muck will 
help many light soils when spread over them, by 
adding organic matter and giving a darker color. 
This dark color helps the soil to absorb and hold 
heat. One way to use muck is to haul from the 
swamp and spread over the soil during Fall and 
Winter. Then spread lime and harrow the whole 
thing lightly into the soil. In the Spring plow as 
usual. This would save the expense of composting, 
which would mean handling several times over. 
Another use for muck is as an absorbent in the 
stable. Dry the muck so that it crumbles well and 
keep the gutter back of the stock well filled. It 
will absorb the liquids and will be sweetened by 
the ammonia. “C. M.” will do well to use all the 
muck he can haul out on that old farm. Use lime 
freely with it—the burned lime will be better than 
the “rotten rock,” and also use potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid with the muck. 
A PONY FARM. 
At the little town of Knoxville, Pa., I ran 
against, so to speak, a unique enterprise under 
the name of the “Village Pony Farm.” It is 
owned by a couple of gentlemen in the town, who 
are engaged in other business, but who find their 
“farming” profitable. They have about 150 acres 
of hillside pasture land, only a short distance from 
town. In the village they have their barns, and 
considerable room is required for the ponies. I 
should judge that as much stall room is given them 
as is usually allotted to a full-sized horse, but the 
storage capacity for hay need not be so much. Sixty- 
five ponies are now in the lot (I do not know 
whether to call it flock, herd, or what), and I 
presume some more might be added in a usual sea¬ 
son. It is now so dry that any amount of pasture 
would be short. It is only about two years since 
the business was begun in earnest, and it is need¬ 
less to say that a large proportion of the ponies 
have been purchased. Quite a number, however, 
have been bred, and the colts are finding a ready 
sale, some of them at only a few weeks of age. 
In that case they are delivered to the purchasers 
only after they reach the age of four months. These 
colts sell, if of good form and marking, .at $70 to 
$125. A pony four years old was pointed out to 
me that is valued at $150, and a pair of smaller 
ones, well matched, are valued at $500. It requires 
little more to keep these ponies than it does to 
keep a good-sized dog, I was told. No grain is 
fed unless for special reasons, and they eat but a 
moderate amount of hay. Breeding ponies is a 
little difficult, and I judge that one should not count 
too many chickens before hatching. The business 
appears to beat the pigeon scheme “all hollow,” but 
it requires a good deal of capital to start it ex- 
A PET AND A PONY. FiO. 514. 
tensively. The ponies, even the stallions, are kind, 
and the little girl in the picture, Fig. 514, now two 
years old, goes up and throws her arms around 
the neck of any of them. That pair of black ponies 
to which I alluded weighs about 500 pounds. They 
appear to be three feet high. You see, they are 
worth a dollar a pound, live weight. That beats 
pork, even in this season of high prices. l. 
COUNTRY VERSUS CITY. 
A N. Y. City Farmer. 
What does your Rockland County correspondent, 
H. A. M., in Hope Farm Notes, page 889, want to 
bother with oats for? In 1855 to 1860 I raised Win¬ 
ter oats in Surrey Co., Va. In 1894, I came here on my 
little, hilly, rundown 19-acre farm, and tried W inter 
oats. I made a fair crop, but my farm being assessed 
at $600 per acre I can’t afford to raise $30-an-acre 
oats. My first year gave me a surplus of sales of 
about $100; the second year a surplus of about $300, 
the third year a surplus of $600; the fourth year $800, 
and so on until the last three years, I have sold a 
surplus each year amounting to over $2,000. (Surplus 
means besides my living.) I raise currants, goose¬ 
berries, grapes, quinces, pears, apples, cherries and 
peaches for sale, other fruits and garden vegetables 
only for my table. Besides fruit I raise hay, five 
varieties of corn, potatoes, squash, and pumpkins for 
sale. Excepting my orchards my farm is laid out in 
one-acre plots in order to keep up my system of 
humus rotation, I have tried and succeeded finely 
with Alfalfa, but as it won’t fit in my rotation I had 
to cut it out. I have about 12 tons of hay to sell 
yearly, besides a second cutting enough for my stock, 
consisting of one splendid all-round horse, one pet 
cow and about one hundred purebred Plymouth Rocks 
and two pet Scotch collies. 
I am an intensive culturist. I haven’t let a weed 
go to seed on my farm in 14 years. I run plow and 
cultivator through my currant, gooseberry and quince 
orchards 30 times, then sow buckwheat, Cow-horn 
turnips or Crimson clover to be worked in the fol¬ 
lowing Spring. Crimson clover in my corn lot is now 
four inches high. I raise 140 bushels of corn (in 
ears) on my acre plot. My peach orchards are 
worked with plow, harrow and cultivator until June, 
when I sow cow peas everywhere for humus and 
nitrogen to be worked into soil in Spring. My peach 
trees are planted 18 feet apart, and now touch each 
other, actually making too much shade for perfecting. 
I cut every branch back during Winter and Spring 
besides saw trimming. As a specimen of my trees I 
last year from one five-year-old tree picked eight 14- 
quart baskets of fine peaches, which were sold for 
$1.50 per basket, making $12 from one tree, and 100 
trees per acre. I have a most excellent home auto¬ 
mobile market for produce. My hay I sell in barrack 
at $17 per ton, buyer to haul. My apples I sell mostly 
to private families; have 20 odd varieties and about 
30 varieties of peaches, etc. Last year my crop of 
peaches, two thousand and more, averaged 85 cents 
per basket. This year my crop of 475 baskets aver¬ 
aged $1.10 per basket, though many of them brought 
$2 and some even $2.50 per basket. 1 use high grade 
fertilizer largely; have tried manures, dollar for 
dollar, but can do better with my system than with 
manure. Proceeds for 14 years will sanction my 
constant experimenting. I have now on one acre of 
Spring-sown Timothy seven experiments “talking” 
and telling me things. Excepting during currant 
picking I work this farm with my one horse and the 
help of one man four months in the year. I handle 
all my fruit personally before selling. A former oc¬ 
cupant of this farm on leaving it said “All it was 
good for was to raise weeds, work away and starve 
to death on!” I haven’t done either. I have raised 
265 bushels of potatoes to the acre but, as a rule, I 
can’t make them pay, excepting indirectly, in my 
system of rotation. I think I shall cut them out. I 
have bought and applied mulching material by the 
ton, but never with glad results. In general condi¬ 
tions would prefer by far intensive culture. Many- of 
my peaches this season have measured from nine to 
eleven inches in circumference. One lot of 24 bas¬ 
kets of peaches averaged 52 peaches for a rounded-up 
full basket. t. Leonard meinikheim. 
Staten Island. _ 
A YOUNG MAN DISCUSSES FARMING. 
Experience of a number of years spent alternately 
in the shop or office and on the farm has given me 
unusual opportunity to compare their respective ad¬ 
vantages. As my observations have only strengthened 
my intention to be a farmer they may interest your 
readers. Distance lends equal enchantment to the 
views of residents of city or country. When I inform 
my fellow-employees of my agricultural inclination, 
typical comments are, “All right if you own a farm,” 
“The most independent life” or “The best there is.” 
But unprovided with capital or essential experience, 
it is much more difficult for the city man to engage in 
rural pursuits, than it is for a man from the country 
to drift into city employment. Consequently the tide 
flows away from the farm. However, influences other 
than the charm of mere distance, tend to make the 
city appear attractive to the ambitious young man. 
Braggart acquaintances and sensational newspapers 
dazzle with their fables. Holiday orators wave their 
arms and strain their lungs to prove that every 
American boy may rise to the highest place by emu¬ 
lating some lawyer or business man, who began his 
career by leaving the farm. When firmly convinced 
at last that he has just the qualifications to win, the 
boy naturally thinks the city the only world worth 
conquering, and even his parents are passively sym¬ 
pathetic, thinking the son is to be spared all the 
hardships which they have endured upon the farm. 
As a matter of fact, discovering sure indications of 
genius in a man already famous is simpler and more 
certain than finding signs of- greatness in the eager 
youth. Every capable and energetic young man has 
the opportunity to succeed only in the sense that 
every native boy has a chance to achieve the presi¬ 
dency. Of the great number who seek fame, fortune, 
or comfortable obscurity in the city, a vast majority 
must bear the disappointment of failure. Many evi¬ 
dences of this fact may be seen; a few illustrations 
should cause the most confident to reflect. 
In a recent issue of a technical magazine, there 
appeared a paper which had been read before a 
convention of mechanical engineers. The writer ex¬ 
plained that many employers do not hire college men, 
unless out of school at least two years, because so 
many graduates fail to realize, that even a well-edu¬ 
cated employee is only a “cog in the wheel.” Why 
other applicants are desirable may be inferred. The 
grind of this cog-in-the-wheel existence is most severe 
on the individual who must be content with any 
work or wages obtainable. The untrained man is 
a convenient title. The trained man fares better, 
but not too well. Despite the first lean years of tool- 
