6:i4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
•Tunc 
as we had a field all "marked nut" ready to plant the 
old-fashioned way, the rain came pouring down and 
1 lie work must be all done over. In less time than it 
takes to mark a field, by the use of the planter the 
corn would be in the ground. The saving of time 
is very important. Last Spring a nighbor had a wet 
stumpy field ready to plant when continued heavy 
rains delayed the planting so long that the corn crop 
was a failure. He might have bought two planters 
with the corn lost. While this is an extreme case 
it demonstrates the value of the planter. 1 hope in 
the near future to present a picture of the horse 
EQUAL TO TWO HIRED MEN. Fid. 239. 
planter and at that time enter more fully into its 
advantages and construction. j. a prickett. 
Fulton Co., O. 
THE USE OF HAY SLINGS. 
Some weeks ago M. M. C. made inquiry concern¬ 
ing the use of hay slings. After eight years’ experience 
1 consider them as much ahead of the horse fork as 
the horse fork is ahead of the pitchfork. More room 
is needed than for the horse fork where the old- 
fashioned big beam is still in existence, but the up-to- 
date open-center barn frame and the trip lock on the 
up-to-date sling car allow the sling load of hay to 
go into the mow as soon as it is elevated enough 
to clear the hay already in the mow. There the man 
in the mow, with a little experience, can swing the 
sling load to and fro a few times, and then by tripping 
the sling lock at the right instant lie can dump the hay 
six to eight feet to one side, much quicker and easier 
than it can be done with a fork. Where there is 
much hay and careful help is scarce it is better to use 
only one sling for each wagon and use two double har¬ 
poon forks; take two drafts with the fork, then hang 
them up and take one draft with the sling: this means 
two horses instead of one on the rope. I would get 
slings that have long stick and four ropes; then you 
are ready for long hay, cornstalks, short bundles or 
even short straw. Keep all bearings oiled, be sure to 
get the slings right side up, and you will soon learn 
to be thankful that somebody invented slings. I use 
a push loader, and sometimes get in hay entirely alone, 
but would not advise it as a ride 
Overheated, paralyzed and maltreated when a boy, 
I am heavily handicapped in a physical sense for a 
farmer. My legs are a little better than wooden 
ones. I cannot exchange with my neighbors to get 
my work done. My wife is not strong enough to do 
the work necessary to keep a hired man. A web or 
cylinder loader, such as pictured recently, would be 
of no use to me, because I could not take the hay 
away from it while the wagon is in motion, so 
1 use a push loader and let the hay pile up; then 
stop my team and take care of the hay. Then I 
drive again, and so on till the first sling is full; 
then take another one off the front standard and 
TRUSS METAL LATH. Fig. 241. 
place it and go on as before till second sling is 
full; then take the third sling and finish out the 
load. I use the Dain loader because it is the lightest, 
easiest running push loader that I can find. It is a 
good swath loader, but will not take up a heavy 
windrow; so in this way J avoid the expense of 
buying and sheltering a side-delivery rake, for tools 
cost too much in depreciation of value when stored 
in the “big shed.” J try to manage so as to get up 
two or three loads of hay every day when we have 
good weather right along; but I cannot make hay 
to good advantage without good weather, and I can¬ 
not make the weather. If my bay is not dry enough 
till late in the afternoon 1 often dump next to the 
last load in the mow without even going into the 
mow; then get the last load and let it stand on the 
wagon till morning. Then 1 am up and take care 
of those two loads while the dew is still on, and 
when it is not so terribly hot in the mow. 
Ohio. _ u. T. FOOTE. 
STEEL AND CONCRETE BUILDING. 
Will Edward R. Taylor (page 328), tell tin more about 
cement bouses? How thick is the mortar put on the metal 
lath, one or two coats? Whal proportion of cement and 
sand? IIow big a building or how big a surface would 
be safe from danger of cracking from contracting or 
expanding with heat or cold? o. d. r. 
Colorado. 
For the construction of chicken houses, such as 
indicated in my communication referred to, I would 
advise a punched sheet lath similar to that shown in 
Fig. 240. This particular kind is known as clincher 
lath; there are several varieties on the market. It 
is nailed to studding, and may he plastered inside and 
out with Portland cement, made one part cement to 
two or three of sand—first mixed thoroughly in the 
dry state, then with water to suitable consistency and 
immediately applied. This makes a light hut very 
excellent structure for uses where it is sufficiently 
substantial. For more substantial structures, truss 
metal lath, such as shown in Fig. 241, is an excellent 
material, and is what was used in the charcoal house, 
referred to in my previous article, for sides and 
roof. To build with this material put up a frame¬ 
work of two by fours that can subsequently be taken 
down, and wire the sheets of truss metal lath to 
them, breaking joints so that no two joints will be 
in the same place. When all is accomplished plaster 
with cement on the whole surface where the studs 
are not. After three or four days, when this is 
thoroughly hardened, the wires can he cut and the 
studs removed—and the other side plastered either 
with mortar or cement as desired. This makes a 
single-thick wall which may be from an inch to 
two inches or more in thickness. For building a 
house an excellent way is to make the frame as for 
clapboarding, then nail the truss metal lath on the 
outside and the clincher lath on the inside. When all 
this is done plaster the outside with Portland cement 
as previously indicated and the inside with plaster 
as would be done on ordinary lath.. 
For the roof simply nail the truss lath to the 
rafters, plaster with cement, say one cement and two 
of sand. When dry paint well with two coals of 
paint, to make waterproof. Plastering the under 
surface is a good thing to do; then the metal will 
not rust. Fig. 243 illustrates a very substantial roof 
made with Hyrib sheathing and cement which is about 
V/ 2 inch thick, and is very substantial. If kept well 
wet for a day or two, while setting, there is no dan¬ 
ger of the cement cracking in any of this work. This 
costs but little more than wood, and is practically 
everlasting. edward r. tayi.or. 
CUTTING YOUNG ASPARAGUS. 
When culling asparagus from n young bed, should the 
thin spears be cut out or not ? c. J. K. 
New York. 
In cutting asparagus all spears should he cut, even 
though no larger than good stout straws. If too 
small to market they need not he cut below suface 
of the ground, simply destroy them. If anyone will 
choose a certain number of asparagus crowns, say io, 
all equally vigorous and of same age, let cme-half 
produce top, the other half cut clean as fast as shoots 
appear. Keep tally on all shoots cut; after a month 
or six weeks’ time compare the amount cut to the 
amount of stalks growing on the crowns not cut. 
You will find that there has been more than one indi¬ 
vidual cutting with as many shoots as there are on those 
crowns that have not been cut at all. To demonstrate 
further, lake a given number of crowns and cut all 
shoots appearing for two, three or four weeks, keep 
an accurate record of each cutting, then stop cutting 
anywhere along the line, at two, three or four weeks, 
it makes no difference where, and note what happens. 
Two or three shoots will appear and go on and make 
top; no others come for weeks, while had these 
same shoots been cut others would have grown, and 
so on through the season. What does this teach? 
Surely not to let any top grow where more cutting 
shoots are wanted. Keep everything cut down, and 
the closer and more frequently the grass is cut the 
faster the eyes will develop. On a young bed one 
year from setting a very little if any cutting should 
he done. I am aware that many growers do cut 
for a short period at this time, hut it is an open 
question with me whether it would not pay better in 
the long run to grow tops, and a good root system, 
and thereby secure a full crop on strong roots earlier. 
I have a young bed set in Spring of 1907 . 1 have not 
cut a spear from it this Spring. Tops are now 
from four to five feet high I hope to cut larger and 
better grass a year hence than I would provided 1 
had cut it this season. c. c. hulsart. 
A QUESTION OF SPRAYING. 
Spray, spray, they say, and spray again, but 1 am 
almost afraid to spray again after the sad experiences 
1 had last year. 1 sprayed the third time when 
apples were about as large as a small hickorynut, 
and peaches about the same size. A good deal of 
SAVING TIME ON A CORN PLANTER. FlO. 212. 
fruit being left after all.the frosts we had, I thought 
1 would make it stick to the trees by spraying 
with Bordeaux Mixture, three pounds of blucstone, 
five pounds of lime, with two pounds of arsenate of 
lead to 50 gallons of water. Well, you ought to see 
that fruit beginning to drop a few days afterward 
and keeping on till there were only a few fruits left 
011 the trees; I suppose they were such as did not get 
much of the spray. Also on some of the peach trees 
a good many leaves fell off; on some a few only, and 
on other I thought they would nearly all come off, 
but they stuck after about one-third had fallen on 
some of the trees. All the apples and peaches seemed 
to be hurt, excepting two Florence crab apple trees, 
off which not one apple seemed to fall, although 
I had given them about the biggest dose, and they 
were loaded with fruit; J wished about one-half 
would have come oft", as we would have had just 
as much fruit, by the rest of them growing so much 
larger. By the way these Florence crabs are about 
the best I have seen; they hear nearly every year, 
grow to a large size if they are thinned out, tree a 
vigorous grower and fruit fine for eating raw or 
cooked. 
I have been thinking about trying the lime sulphur 
mixture this Summer; do you know whether we 
can use arsenate of lead successfully in combination 
with it? 1 consider the arsenate worth about three 
times as much as Paris-green, as it will stick about 
three times as long to the foliage, and one lias to 
spray about three times with Paris-green to make it 
as effective as arsenate. Can we use the flowers of 
sulphur for making the lime sulphur spray? 1 
mean the kind of the latter that is prepared without 
extra boiling, with the heat only that the lime gene¬ 
rates in slaking. Do you know what value the 
commercial oily sprays have as fungicides? Some 
of the manufacturers of the above claim they have 
made them so they will act as a fungicide as effec¬ 
tually as Bordeaux. c. l. roth. 
Illinois. 
R. N.-Y.—We can see no good reason for using 
the arsenic on the peach trees. While the Agricul¬ 
tural Department and some of the State stations 
have issued bulletins on the self-boiled lime-sulphur 
mixture they do not seem to be sure of anything 
except that it: does benefit in cases of fungous dis¬ 
eases of peach without hurting the tree. It seems 
likely to take 1 lie place of Bordeaux for this pur¬ 
pose. Just what else it will do or what can be used 
with it has not yet been worked out. We told how 
to make it on page 452. We do not believe that the 
oils have any particular use as fungicides. Wc 
understand that experiments are being made with 
adding carbolic acids or other chemicals to the oils. 
