660 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
acres of similar orchard, with freight, commission, 
picking, packing and barrels deducted: 1904, 97.25 
cents per barrel of 90 quarts; 1905, $1.74.10; 1906, 
$1.37.70; 1907, $1.75; 67 barrels at the average price 
per year of $1.46 is $97.82. The expenses, including 
five per cent on capital, were $30; total, $67.82. The 
varieties are 40 Ben Davis, 18 King of Tompkins, 
eight Spy, four Ribston and a few Stark, Canada 
Red, Wagener and Baldwin. Comparative yields of 
varieties in same orchard are also interesting. Twenty 
Ben Davis (two complete rows, one of which was 
the row getting the bag of fertilizer each year) 
averaged per tree per year 2.75 barrels, unpacked; 
eight Spy. 4.05 barrels; four Ribston, 2.25; 18 King 
of Tompkins, 2.80. 
Proportionately one acre of 40 trees, 20 years old, 
deducting 12 per cent as shrinkage and paying for 
picking, packing, barrels, freight and commission: 
Nova Scotia Ben Davis, 96.80 barrels at $1, $96; 
Nova Scotia Spy, 142.56 barrels at $1.75, $249.48; 
Ribston, 79.2 barrels at $1.40, $110.88; King of Tomp¬ 
kins, 98.56 barrels at $2.05, $202.04. Net profit per 
acre, deducting the $30 expenses: Ben Davis income 
$66; Spy income, $219.48; Ribston, $80.88; King of 
Tompkins, $172.04. 
Now T want, like the twins, to see your “wheels 
go round” and see if your yields are equal, even if 
prices are less or greater. John buchanan. 
Nova Scotia. 
SAVING TIME WITH TOOLS. 
In a former article I attempted to show how the 
larger farmer and the small, by co-operating with 
his neighbor, might by the use of larger tools fit 
his soil a great deal faster, better and cheaper than 
is usually the case. There is a class of farmers to 
whom such a method will not appeal. For such the 
method followed by many in various sections living 
upon medium-sized farms is perhaps more practical. 
Many farmers find they cannot handle their farms 
just as they would like, because of a lack of just a 
little help, or through lack of proper equipment. I 
shall not attempt to describe minutely the method, 
but state in a general way how the work is done, 
because each farmer modifies any method to suit his 
particular conditions or ideas. We find farmers in 
every community, almost, trying to handle an 80- 
acre farm with a two-horse outfit. The result is 
that in an unfavorable season like the present the 
crops go in late and the yield is cut down accord¬ 
ingly. However, we find many men handling the 
80-acre farm lone-handed, and doing it in a very 
satisfactory manner. As in the former article re¬ 
ferred to I shall confine myself to getting the soil in 
condition for the crops and leave the care of the 
crop for a future paper. 
Instead of the little 12-inch plow many use a plow 
turning 16 inches, and requiring three horses. In 
this way a half more ground may be turned, be¬ 
cause of the larger plow, and then the third horse 
makes the work lighter for the team, and it may be 
kept going right along. With two such outfits we 
recently plowed a 15-acre strip, a part of which was 
in. tough June grass sod, in less than three days, and 
did it easily. As . we were plowing this I did a 
little figuring. It ran something as follows: This 
strip is 85 rods long, and it took 193 rounds to 
plow it. We averaged a round about every 18 
minutes, one minute of this being required to turn 
at the corners. One man required only 10 seconds, 
while the other spent 20 seconds yelling and lifting 
his plow around. The first man seldom did more 
than bear down upon his plow handles and let the 
team swing the plow around. I mention this fact to 
show how one man used his head instead of his 
muscles. 
On most farms this 15 acres would probably have 
been in two fields, each about 40 rods long, and 
have been plowed in perhaps eight lands each. This 
would make 64 corners for the two fields—60 more 
than in our large field where we plowed in one 
body. Taking 10 seconds as the average time of 
turning at the corner it would take nine minutes 
longer to plow the equivalent of a round in the large 
field. This means that it would require a half 
longer to plow the same amount of land, or a loss 
of l J /2 day. With the small 12-inch plow this would ' 
be extended to more than two days’ loss of time. 
Think of two days out of every five being absolutely 
thrown away! Many may think this a little over¬ 
drawn, but look around and see if this very thing 
is not going on in your own. neighborhood. Of 
course in wet fields it is necessary to plow in lands 
and leave the furrows for drainage. 
While I was doing this figuring a neighbor was 
fitting a field for corn with two horses and a spike- 
tooth harrow. This man had another horse stand¬ 
ing idle, but it did not seem to occur to him that he 
might weight down the harrow, and by using the 
idle horse make the harrow nearly twice as effective. 
The recent rains had packed down the ground so 
that the harrow merely scratched the surface in 
some places, and where the ground was lumpy it 
simply turned the lumps over. This man’s intention 
evidently was to keep at that ground till he wore it 
out. Had he taken a spring-tooth harrow and three 
horses he could have torn up that crust and those 
clods at one going over, and by then using the roller, 
which, by the way, stood in an adjoining field, those 
clods which were not very hard would have disap¬ 
peared as if by magic. On our own field we used 
the roller and spring-tooth entirely. Three rollings 
and twice over with the spring-tooth, which was 
A COLORADO TURNIP PATCH. Fig. 246. 
weighted, put the ground in reasonably good shape 
except in places which required an extra going over 
with each implement. Some may think this a poor 
fitting for corn. I must confess it does not come up 
to my rule of cultivating my corn once before it is 
planted, but being June and threatening rain I de¬ 
cided to take no chances. In our haste to get the 
corn planted there was a great temptation to hitch 
four horses to the 15-foot spike-tooth. Last Spring, 
throwing aside my better judgment, I decided on one 
strip to go over the ground twice with this harrow 
instead of once with the spring-tooth. In going from 
one part of the field to another with the latter we 
crossed the part which had been gone over the last 
two times with the spike-tooth and the path of the 
spring-tooth furnished an object lesson which I 
thought my men never would forget. But, alas! 
imagine my surprise the other day when one of them 
came to me and said* he rode the spring-tooth over 
that hard spot as I had told him to do, but it made 
it look worse than when lie did not ride. I told 
him to jump right upon that harrow every time 
he came to that hard spot, and the worse it made it 
look the better I would be suited, for I was anxious 
to get those clods torn up where the roller could 
make short work of them. The cost of a first-class 
plow, roller and spring-tooth need not exceed $50, 
and I know from experience that they will pay for 
themselves the first year on the average farm, not 
only by the aditional work they will enable one to 
do, but by the superior quality of the work done. 
Fulton Co., O. J. D. PRICKETT. 
CHANCES IN COLORADO. 
I was quite interested in Mr. Cosgrove’s article on 
poultry opportunities last Spring. Chicken business 
pays well here, but we have other things that 
pay better, if care is taken with the plants, 
and the owner does not have to get up be¬ 
fore daylight and work until after night to 
make a good living, and that is in the raising of 
cabbage, cauliflower and potatoes without irrigation. 
Fig. 247 shows Mr. Carl Martin with a basket of 
cauliflower, weighing from six to 12 pounds per head. 
THE CAULIFLOWER THAT SELLS. Fig. 247. 
Mr. Martin has been furnishing the hotels with same 
at eight cents per pound all Summer and cabbage at 
two cents per pound; both of which has been raised 
by his wife and hauled to town by Mr. Martin. The 
cauliflower and cabbage have been raised without irri¬ 
gation, and made more than $500 per acre, on land 
that is valued at not more than $25 per acre. This 
is something that the poor man and gardener can 
raise without much capital. Another thing that brings 
.Tuly 4, 
in a lot of ready cash is watermelons and canteloupes. 
Joseph Potter from Indiana, besides his other crops, 
had one-half acre of watermelons that he sold over 
$200 worth from and gave away dozens of them 
besides. A great deal is done on a large scale, 
but that only makes the opportunity greater for those 
who wish to garden or raise vegetables. Fig. 246 
shows a field of Colorado turnips. One word more 
about Mr. Carl Martin: He moved to Colorado 19 
years ago from Bloomington, Ilk, with a large family, 
went through a great many privations and hardships 
the first five years, because he did not know which 
crops were best adapted, or how to till the soil, but 
he has learn how all right, as he has a family of 
12 children and could sell out now for $75,000, and 
has made it all right here without any other income. 
He raises crops on his $20 per acre land, that would 
be a credit to the $150 per acre land of Illinois. 
Lincoln Co., Colo. w. s. pershing. 
ANSWERS BY PROF. MASSEY. 
Cheat in Oats and Wheat. 
Last October I seeded several acres in Winter oats. Soon 
after seeding I top-dressed some of the thinnest places 
in the lot with good stable manure. I find at this writing 
everywhere I top-dressed about one-half of the oats are 
cheat or chess. Can you account for this? Wheat treated 
in identically the same manner not affected, all adjoining. 
Ixniisa, Va. m. 
The notion that wheat and oats turn to an entirely 
different species of grass has more lives than a 
Thomas-cat. If there is no cheat seed in your land 
or none sown there, you will have no cheat, for 
cheat, Bromus secalinus. comes from seed of Brotnus 
secalinus and from no other. You can just as easily 
get wheat or oats by sowing cheat seed as you can 
cheat from sowing wheat or oats. The seed of the 
cheat is very like a small oat, and can be sown with 
oats without being noticed, while they would be 
noticed among wheat. You sowed cheat seed with 
your oats, and the manure made them grow strongly 
and show well where the manure was applied. The 
same manure may have been put on the wheat and you 
found no cheat, because it was not the manure that 
brought the seed in, and wheat was sown without 
any cheat seed. 
Seeding Vetch and Wheat. 
Can vetch and wheat be seeded at last working of corn, 
or is that too early? Is it necessary to inoculate soil 
for vetch and how? What time should the vetch and 
wheat be cut for hay, and how does the wheat as bay 
compare with Timothy? Is the vetch likely to reseed 
itself and become a nuisance? What is the best time <o 
seed the wheat and vetch if seeding in corn is too early ? 
Could grass seed and clover be seeded with it in Fall 
and Spring with a chance of not being smothered out 1 
How much vetch seed is needed to the acre, and also 
wheat with it? Here we can seed eow r peas after the 
vetch and wheat is cut, and have peas off for hay in 
time for seeding to grain. f. w. h. 
Hollywood, Md. 
I have sown Hairy vetch and wheat with perfect 
success in North Carolina in September, which is 
much earlier than I would sow wheat for grain there, 
on account of the danger from the Hessian fly. But 
it escaped that time, and made two tons of excellent 
hay per acre, the vetch running to the top of the 
wheat and hanging down as though it would have 
liked to climb further. But I fear that sowing wheat 
among the corn would not do so well. I have seen 
around here some very pretty fields of Crimson 
clover and wheat mixed for hay, and as it is the 
common practice here to sow Crimson clover in the 
cornfields at last working, these may have been 
sown in that way, but not having tested the matter in 
my own practice I hesitate to advise it. * If you have 
any interest in the wheat crop for grain, I would 
advise you to go slow with the vetch, as it may 
become a very troublesome weed in the wheatfields. 
It is perfectly practicable to sow Crimson clover in 
the corn and to make a fine crop of hay in the Spring, 
as is done in almost every cornfield around here, 
and there is no danger that the Crimson clover will 
give trouble as a weed. Hay made from vetch and 
wheat is far better than Timothy, especially for cows, 
for which Timothy is about as poor feed as you can 
get. Soil from an old garden, where English peas 
have long grown, will inoculate the soil for vetch 
very well. The best time for sowing the wheat and 
vetch will be in September. Grass seed can be sown 
with it, as the vetch will make but little show in 
the Fall. But it will come again the next Fall 
strongly. Half a bushel of vetch seed is sufficient 
for an acre. After the crop of wheat and vetch I 
have mentioned above were cut I prepared the land 
and sowed cow peas and made another good crop 
of hay in August, and then prepared the land well 
and sowed to Alfalfa, and on part of the land got a 
good stand. _ w. F. massey. 
The Chinese use a wheelbarrow with a wheel in the 
exact center—with two crates or boxes. This barrow 
will carry about 300 pounds, and a stout Chinaman will 
wheel it about 27 miles a day over a dry road. 
