©14 
THE RURAL 
NEW-YORKER 
THE LARGEST SQUASH. 
Your correspondent, F. E. P., on page 
878, asked for the weight of the largest 
squash grown in the world. There may 
have been a bigger one raised some¬ 
where in the world than the one of 
which I send you description. It is 
called Rennie’s Mammoth Green squash. 
A specimen of the variety was raised 
by Wm. Warnock, Canada, and exhib¬ 
ited at the Chicago Exposition, which 
weighed 403 pounds. From seed I ob¬ 
tained from Mr. Warnock several years 
ago I raised and exhibited at the Mains 
State Fair a specimen of that variety 
which weighed 216 pounds. That was 
the largest one ever raised in the 
United States up to that time of which 
I have any knowledge. . This season, 
my brother, Dexter Burnell, raised and 
exhibited at Cumberland Town Fair one 
of the same variety that weighed 240 
pounds. He also showed at the same 
time a pumpkin which weighed 100 
pounds. R. A. BURNELL. 
Cumberland Co., Me. 
“PRACTICAL FARM BOOKS.” 
On page 850 we mentioned the case 
of a railroad company which desired to 
put small practical books on farm topics 
in the hands of farmers. The books 
were to be simple, readable, small and 
sensible enough to hold a farmer’s at¬ 
tention. We called for names of books 
which our readers consider suitable for 
the purpose. Quite a number have re¬ 
sponded, and we print below the names 
of the books suggested. Some of them 
are excellent but are too large and high- 
priced for this use. 
A Tobacco Grower’s Opinion. 
I have been interested in your article 
on need of practical farm books. In my 
travels and observations and consulta¬ 
tions with farmers, I find that a very 
small percentage of farmers past 40 
years of age pay any attention to seed 
selections and fertilizers. I bought a 
70-acre farm situated in eastern Lan¬ 
caster Co., Pa., two years ago, and 
started to farm without cattle of any 
kind. The only animals on the farm 
are horses. My idea was clover and high- 
grade bone fertilizers, and seed selec¬ 
tion. My experiments proved away be¬ 
yond my greatest expectations, as the 
farm land was run to its lowest ebb, 
and the way that land responded was 
remarkable. In one instance, using 
horse manure for corn, the foliage was 
larger, but more soft corn and nubbins, 
than the experiment with 850 pounds 
per acre of high-grade fertilizer mixed 
to my order and directions; also plowed 
down a heavy set of Crimson clover. 
This season I was successful with an 
experiment in growing potatoes under 
straw. My crop under straw averaged 
at rate of 130 bushels per acre. My six- 
acre crop planted old-fashioned way 
with 850 pounds of high-grade fertilizer, 
viz.: 2 nitrogen, 8 phosphoric acid, 10 
potash sulphate, averages 35 bushels 
per acre. It was a very dry season. 
Some farmers did not get as many 
bushels as they planted. My experi¬ 
ments have proven that two crops of 
early variety potatoes can be grown in 
Pennsylvania under straw, and the yield 
will be greater than covered with earth. 
Now to get back to your article, I 
think you are right; there is no one 
particular book that will benefit the 
farmers until they find out what they 
really need. This they must to a cer¬ 
tain extent find out themselves by read¬ 
ing State bulletins and experiments car¬ 
ried out by their own hands, and great 
care in breeding and seed selections. 
Pennsylvania. j. s. weaver. 
List of Practical Books. 
We simply print here the names of 
books suggested by readers: Our Farm¬ 
ing, by T. B. Terry; Practical Farm¬ 
ing, by Prof. W. F. Massey; Elements 
of Scientific Agriculture, by J. S. Nor¬ 
ton ; Practical Vegetable Growing, by 
W. P. Wright; Present Farming Con¬ 
ditions, by Samuel Allerton; Tim 
Bunker Papers; Ten Acres Enough; 
Book of the Farm, by Waring; Talks 
on Manure, by Harris; Simplicity of the 
Soil, by Wallace E. Sherlock; Princi¬ 
ples of Soil Fertility, by Vivian; First 
Lessons in Dairying, by Van Normand. 
A number of writers suggest the books 
by T. B. Terry and Prof. Massey. The 
trouble with these volumes is that they 
are too large and too expensive for 
railroad company to handle. 
FLINT AND SWEET CORNSTALKS. 
R. (No Address ).—I noticed that you 
value the stalks of flint corn highly for 
horses. How about the stalks of sweet 
corn for them ? We raise a few acres for 
market. I would like to keep another 
pair of horses if I could safely use some 
of the cornstalks to help out the hay for 
rough feed. 1 am struggling with the same 
problem as many other members of The R. 
N.-Y. family, a big farm, a big mortgage 
and small working capital. It is a hill 
farm, neglected for many years, but seems 
to respond readily to cultivation. I have 
used fertilizer quite liberally this season 
in order to get a start and get some 
clover growing, but the cost is too great. 
After the recent articles in The R. N.-l r . I 
shall try more lime with clover and less 
fertilizer and more thorough and frequent 
use of the cultivator on cultivated crops. 
Ans.— We use a good many sweet 
cornstalks every year for horse feeding. 
They are harder to cure than the flints, 
and we think the best use for them 
would be to feed green to stock. By 
cutting the late varieties, like Evergreen, 
as we do field corn, and tying in small 
bundles, you can cure them. Do not 
put in large shocks or piles, but set the 
bundles up against the fence or a frame, 
where the air can surround them. The 
horses will eat more of them if the 
stalks are cut or shredded before feed¬ 
ing. It will pay to do this even by 
hand rather than feed the. whole stalks. 
Be sure to feed bran or oil meal with 
them, for the dry stalks are quite con¬ 
stipating. We like the flint corn be¬ 
cause the stalks as we grow them are 
slender and easily eaten. At the pres¬ 
ent time our horses have no other fod¬ 
der and they eat the stalks nearly as 
clean as they do hay, while the larger 
dents and sweet stalks are barely half 
eaten. Nearly the entire butt is left. We 
have found the flint corn best to grow 
on rough, hilly land. We do not think 
there is any other plant that will yield 
more grain and forage on such situa¬ 
tions. Do not be too fast to give up 
the judicious use of fertilizers. They 
will help you get your soil under way 
and once well set in clover you can 
go on. Better use the fertilizers freely 
on few acres rather than scatter a 
little over a large area. 
PRODUCTS, PRICES AND TRADE. 
Poultry. —At this writing the Thanks¬ 
giving trade is in full blast. Some of the 
turkeys that arrived early, came in fine 
condition, and sold up to 22 cents. But 
later the weather turned too warm for dry- 
packed poultry, and receipts were so large 
that many lots sold from 15 to 17 cents. 
Fancy ducks were rather scarce, though no 
high prices were noted. 
Butter. —The market is firm, with an 
advance of one to two cents on the bet¬ 
ter grades, storage stock included. Many 
johbers are unable to get enough of high 
grades to fill their rush orders. Trices are 
now four to five cents above last year, 
and this last advance is sure to cut down 
consumption. When butter retails at 34 
to 37 cents, every cent advance looks big¬ 
ger than when the buyer pays 25 to 28. 
Farm Accounts. —There are occasional 
requests for a simple yet effective device 
that will handle the records of farm opera¬ 
tions. Few farmers have the time or 
inclination to carry on elaborate systems 
of bookkeeping, and in many cases keep 
practically no accounts. The best method 
we have noted recently was shown us by 
a man who lives about 300 miles from 
his farm. It is a sheet about the size of 
a letter head with blank spaces to be filled 
out. His foreman sends him one of these 
sheets each week. The blanks can be 
filled out in 10 minutes, and, when the 
owner gets it, he knows just what work 
was done every day and where it was done 
(the farm being mapped and the fields 
indicated by letters). He also sees what 
the weather was daily, what sales and pur¬ 
chases there have been and the amount of 
cash on hand at the week’s end. Though 
primarily designed as a foreman’s report to 
a non-resident owner, it furnishes records 
which the general farmer frequently wishes 
he had kept. If anyone cares to know 
more about this, we shall be glad to for¬ 
ward letters to the man who devised the 
plan and has used it for some time. The, 
blanks are not for sale now. but possibly 
will be if there is a demand for them. 
Corn Question. —“If there is such a large 
corn crop this year (2.680.000,000 bushels) 
why is corn so high? My father was a 
farmer and raised corn. My husband is 
engaged in business in town, and we keen 
a few chickens. The local farmers raise 
enough for their own use only. What we 
get from the local stores is moldy and 
costs per hundred at that. Where can 
we buy 100 bushels of sound corn at a 
moderate price?” e. w. 
New Jersey. 
Corn, like 'coal and some other products 
of general use, does not come down readily. 
The law of gravitation appears to be re¬ 
versed regarding prices of such things. 
They go up like a balloon at the slightest 
opportunity, but mighty machinery is re¬ 
quired 1o haul them down. Although this 
year's corn crop is larger than last, much 
of it is not yet in commerce. There may 
be a reduction later, but there is no cer¬ 
tainty about it, as speculators with stor¬ 
age facilities can hold a market up against 
apparently impossible odds. Regarding 
moldy corn, it must be remembered that 
but a small proportion of the entire crop 
is cured in the careful manner followed 
by eastern farmers, who have but a small 
crop, a few hundred bushels. When prop¬ 
erly ripened before frost and thoroughly 
dried in small airy cribs, the grain is bright 
and sweet, but where a man raises thou¬ 
sands of bushels, especially of dent: vari¬ 
eties, some of it gets damaged on the farm, 
or is shelled and sold while so damp that 
it is not fit to store unless at once kiln- 
dried. It is a common complaint among 
retail buyers that they cannot get sound 
corn at any price. The inquirer has been 
given the names of honest dealers who will 
supply as good a product as can be had. 
All farmers know that corn is one of the 
most difficult crops to cure, and it would 
seem that we are raising immense quanti¬ 
ties at the expense of sound grain. Serious 
complaints about this have come from Eu¬ 
ropean buyers. So long as a large corn 
crop can be disposed of at the prevailing 
prices grain dealers see little use in work¬ 
ing for better quality. They think there is 
more money in present methods, and quite 
likely there is now. But there is a large 
amount of land east of the “corn belt” 
where corn can be grown commercially with 
profit at present prices. Unless the outlook 
changes materially there will be thousands 
of commercial corn crops east of the Corn 
Belt another year, and consumers are going 
to get these crops, as they will be practi¬ 
cally out of the clutches of the railroad 
and elevator sharks that make trouble for 
western farmers. w. w. li. 
Breeding Up Dairy Cows. —What I am 
working for primarily is to raise the qual¬ 
ity of my own herd by raising calves from 
mV best* cows and a registered Guernsey 
bull. My milk is sold on a basis of butter 
fat test, and in settling on the Guernsey I 
will get the quality, and from information 
that has come to me, I believe they are 
hardier stock than the Jersey, consequently 
better adapted to the needs of the average 
farmer. There are other reasons why I 
believe the farmer who sells his milk as I 
do should breed for quality rather than 
quantity. I tvas pleased at seeing the 
article on the feeding of apple pomace, con¬ 
firming as it did my belief as to its merits 
in increasing the flow of milk. I have just 
begun feeding it. and feel quite sure I am 
going to get results. a. f. c. 
November 23, 
When yon write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee page 10. 
Why remain where the climatic 
conditions are so much against you, 
where it is necessary to battle with 
the rigors of a long winter ? 
There are great opportunities in 
the South where you can work 
out of doors the entire year. 
ALONG THE 
SEABOARD AIR LINE 
lands can be obtained at rea¬ 
sonable prices that are equally as 
productive as yours, and the prices 
for your crops are as good, if not 
better. Thru our Industrial Depart¬ 
ment we can assist you. Write for 
copy of “Fruit and Vegetable 
Growing in the land of the Mana¬ 
tee,” by a western man; containing 
interesting data and full particulars. 
Address, 
J. W. WHITE, 
General Industrial Jlgcnl, 
Seaboard jdirLine ‘Railway 
PORTSMOUTH, VA. 
Dept. 18. 
TheRochester Radiator will 
SAVE HALF YOUR FUEL 
or give you double the amount 
of heat from the same fuel, if 
you will give it a trial, or we 
will refund the money paid 
for it. Write for Booklet on 
heating homes. 
ROCHESTER RADIATOR CO. 
39 Furnace St.,Rochester,N.Y. 
Prices from 
$2 to $12 
For hard or 
Soft Coal 
wood or gas 
Fits any 
Stove or 
Furnace 
A Call to the Farmer. 
The Sanitary Way. 
The Sanitary way is the only way 
To be “Up To-Date” or to “Make-It-Pay.” 
Tlie cows must be safe, the cows must happy be 
The cows must have comfort with security. 
This the Stanchion gives—Excelsior— 
The Wasson Stanchion, used more and more 
For This is the Sanitary way. 
The milk must be pure, the milk must be clean 
And this you secure with the milking machine. 
And the milker best—surely B—-L—K 
Makes the careful milking seem like play. 
So Milking Machine and Stanchion Humane, 
Are together in use. What need to explain 
That this IS the Sanitary Way ! 
THE EXCELSIOR SWING STANCHION 
Manufactured by 
THE WASSON STANCHION COMPANY 
CUBA, NEW YORK. 
POULTRY SCHOOL 
The Eleventh Annual Poultry Course Will Begin 
JANUARY" 6, 1909, 
and continue twelve consecutive weeks. The cur¬ 
riculum includes every branch of poultry culture. 
We try to teach every student how to make a 
success in the business. Both sexes. Any age over 
17. No examination required. Number necessarily 
limited. Apply at once to 
HOWARD EDWARDS, President, 
Rhode Island College, Kingston, R. I. 
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