710 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 12, 
and some fresh. When piled this way it was never 
forked over. This pile had 50 barrels of water put 
on it, and was hauled in the Spring. The field on 
which it was put w r as put in clover that was cut for hay 
and then for seed. After the seed crop was off the 
manure was loaded on a wagon and scattered over 
the field. There was practically no leaching from 
this pile, for the succeeding crop did not show that 
there had been a pile of manure on this spot. Only 
a small spot in the pile was fire-fanged. This is about 
as near as we ever came to composting on this farm. 
It has been the custom to avoid handling as much 
as possible; still there are times when fork work 
very much aids the quality of the work done by the 
spreader. I have not yet seen the spreader that 
would scatter sheep manure as first forked up, but it 
can beat fork work two to one. Last Spring at plow¬ 
ing time it was necessary to clean ,OUt one of the 
sheep sheds and also move some of the straw and 
coarse cornstalk manure adjoining the shed. This 
we fork over before loading on the spreader, and 
aim to mix the manure from the shed with that out¬ 
side; when mixed the spreader tears the sheep manure 
to pieces better. I would prefer to have the mass 
composted for some uses, but there would be some 
loss of fertility in composting and the labor of water¬ 
ing and turning cuts out the idea of composting. 
For Alfalfa it is desirable to have composted 
manure for the reason that when the crop once gets 
to going it is difficult to get coarse fresh manure on 
the land where it will not be in the way when hay 
is made, as the rakes will gather the coarse part 
with the hay. This forking over manure in the lot 
and allowing to lie a while overcomes this trouble 
to a considerable extent, but when left in the barn lot 
I»UTCII BELTED CATTLE AT PAKTURB. Fia. 327. 
till late Summer or Fall it has lost much of its value. 
The amount of manure made on this farm would be 
very hard to get on the land without the spreader. 
It takes longer to spread a load properly from the 
wagon than it does to load it on the wagon, and it 
takes nice fork work and lots of it to get a dozen 
large two-horse loads so evenly scattered that it will 
cover an acre, while a spreader will evenly distribute 
it over two acres. The right way to haul manure 
and do quick work is to have two spreaders and men 
in the barn, or yard, to keep them going. When the 
grass crops arc growm in rotation with crops, farm¬ 
ers will find it much better to put the manure on the 
young grass or about as soon after the wheat or other 
small grain crop is off the land as possible. Ex¬ 
perience teachep the writer that this is the best way, 
for using in this way the manure does not need to 
be composted. Next Spring it will be the aim to get 
as much as possible of the coarse manure out, before 
the Spring and Summer rains wash and leach it. 
Ko,SS Co., O. JOHN M. JAMISON. 
GUARANTEED ONION SEED. 
I believe 1 am the “Reader” whose offer of $10 a 
pound for seed of the Prizctaker onion (true to 
name) you published nearly a year ago. A number 
of prominent seed firms replied to the above propo¬ 
sition by saying that probably this map wopld be 
willing to pay the prize for guaranteed, seed, hut the 
majority would not, hence there was not one of them 
willing to guarantee any portion even of genuine 
Prizctaker. As a general proposition J would not, like 
to pay $10 a pound for true seed of the Prizctaker, 
for I know it can be grown “pure.” and placed in 
the hands of the planter ’for less, but were I obliged 
to choose between true to name seed at $10 a pound 
and the miserable mixture exposed for sale under that 
name for nothing I would choose the $10 seed. 
The last few years I have grown some of my own 
seed. 1 do not do this as a matter of choice, but be¬ 
cause I cannot buy the kind of seed I want. I be 
onions I selected for seed are large, a perfect globe, 
with a very small neck, smaller even than a lead pen¬ 
cil, of a beautiful perfect straw color. Had I crated 
up those onions in a crate similar to those that are 
sold for five cents a pound in grocery stores under 
the name of “Spanish” no man could have told the 
difference between mine and the “Spanish;” I could 
have sold mine for the same price the “Spanish” 
onions sold for, and with the money so received might 
now buy 1/ pound of Prizctaker seed for every 
pound I harvested. You will see that I am out all 
of the labor and expense of growing, harvesting and 
cleaning the seed besides. The commercial grower, 
of course, may be able to grow bis seed cheaper, but 
he cannot grow the kind of seed that I have for the 
amount of money he gets as his share and live and 
prosper as he deserves. 
I believe 1 am within the bounds of reason and 
truth when I say that owing to seed adulteration the 
planter loses millions annually. This fact was 
brought home to me again last Fall when 1 placed 
upon the market turnips grown from seed of my 
own growing in competition with turnips grown from 
seed bought from the seed merchant. Gardeners 
would pick up a turnip from my basket and exclaim, 
“Why, they look as though they were hand-painted.” 
Others wanted to know what kind of washing powder 
I used that produced such bright clean turnips, but 
everyone wanted to know the name of the turnip. 
When I told them it was the Red-top White Globe, 
they could scarcely believe it. “Why,” they said, 
“we planted the same kind, but we have no such 
turnips.” Of course not; 1 didn’t have them cither 
before. I sold them for 50 cents a half bushel basket 
and though I put as many as 30 baskets a trip on my 1 
market wagon I never had enough to go around, and 
this when turnips of the common variety went beg¬ 
ging for a buyer at 25 cents a basket. In producing 
this seed I selected a turnip somewhat elongated, with 
as small a top and tap root as possible, the white I 
wanted as waxy white as possible, and the purple as 
bright and distinct as colors can be produced. I 
certainly have a thoroughbred turnip, but don’t any¬ 
body ask me for seed. I have none to sell, nor shall 
I ever be in the seed business. 
Now a word as to the price of seed charged by the 
seed merchant. If the grower of seed who produces 
such seed as I am advocating got every cent that the 
seed merchant sells his stock for, I do not believe that 
this would be. sufficient pay to grow seed as pure 
and carefully as it should be grown. Poor seed is 
dear at any price, but it seems to me that quality is 
lost sight of by the seed merchant in a desire to pro¬ 
duce cheap seeds, probably to undersell his competi¬ 
tor. I might sum up the principal causes of cheap and 
inferior seed which may be attributed to a species of 
parasites, bugs, humbugs and other insects which feed 
upon both production and distribution of the seed 
business. Prof. Slingerland usually is able to name 
a remedy or spray to destroy or keep in check all of 
them, except the humbug. This is the one that mails 
you that high-priced catalogue fidl of impossible pic¬ 
tures and exaggerated descriptions. I enclose a pic¬ 
ture of a Prizctaker onion clipped from one of those 
catalogues. I wished you were able to reproduce it in 
size, shape and color. If these fellows could be 
eliminated and the seed grower brought together with 
the gardener, truck and general farmer, our crops 
would be much better, our meadows cleaner and freer 
front noxious weeds; in fact it would greatly benefit 
both producer and consumer. j. h. bollinger. 
Ohio. 
PUMPING WATER FROM A DISTANCE. 
Occasionally there arc questions as to whether it 
is practical to pump water from a spring or well at 
some distance from where it is desirable to locate 
the pump. It is not only practical under certain 
conditions, but these conditions are so numerous in 
many sections of the country, that the wonder is 
that this method of arranging a handy water-supply, 
cheaply, is not in more general use. 1 have a pump 
which has been in satisfactory, constant use for nine 
years, drawing water from a spring 1.65 feet distant, 
with the water level IK feet lower than the cylinder 
of the pump. The lift is not perceptibly heavier 
than it would be with the pump directly over the 
water supply at the same, height. At any rate the 
pump is worked easily, and almost always used with 
the handle grasped ;it half length. 'Flic primary con¬ 
dition to im arrangement of this kind is that the 
surface of the water supply shall not be more than 
18 or 20 feet lower than the valve of the pump 
cylinder. Theoretically a pump should draw a little 
over 33 feet; but those who should know, claim that 
for satisfactory practical work 20 feet is about the 
limit. The second condition is that the pipe may be 
laid rising toward the pump at all points. The rise 
need not be uniform, but it should be constant, so as 
to avoid the formation of air-pockets. 
Two appliances arc necessary that arc not always 
used with pump under ordinary conditions, though 
I think they could be generally used to advantage. 
These are a foot-valve and an air-chamber. Flic 
foot-valve is placed on the end of the pipe in the 
water supply to keep water constantly in the pipe, 
and the air-chamber is connected with the line pipe 
close to the pump. This acts as a spring or cushion 
in starting the long column of water in the pipe, 
gradually. Foot-valves arc sold ready for use. Air- 
chambers may also lie bought, but arc rather ex¬ 
pensive, and one can be readily and cheaply impro¬ 
vised by taking a section of two-inch pipe about 2 l /j 
feet long, threaded at both ends. Close one end 
tightly by screwing on a “cap,” and secure the other 
end in a “J” coupling of proper dimensions placed 
in the line-pipe within a foot or two of the pump. 
'Fhe air-chamber is of course to stand in an upright 
position. If all parts arc secured, cut and threaded 
to exact measurement, anyone wdio is fairly careful 
and intelligent can install all the fixtures. The essen¬ 
tials are a pair of pipe-wrenches and a small can of 
pipe cement, to be had at hardware store or dealer 
in plumber’s supplies. Apply cement carefully to all 
threads, screw up close, making sure that all joints 
are air-tight. As a final precaution, have the pump 
in use a day or two before filling pipe-trench and 
fastening down pump-bed. 
The only trouble my pump has given is that beads 
of rust gradually form on the seal of the foot-valve, 
preventing the valve from closing down snugly, thus 
allowing the water in the pipe to escape. This has 
TIIE BOY’S CALK AND BOY’S MONEY. Fid. 328. 
required cleaning of the valve-seat about once a year, 
and once the valve has had to be renewed. Many 
pumps arc made with glass valve-scats, and if a 
foot-valve could lie secured with this improvement, 
the nuisance referred to could be avoided. The 
pump I have in use is an ordinary l%-\nch iron lift 
pump with glass valve-seat. The line pipe is gal¬ 
vanized iron of the same diameter. Some recom¬ 
mend a larger diameter of line pipe for long distances 
to reduce the friction, but with smooth galvanized 
iron pipe, I doubt if this is necessary. Caution 
should be exercised to have the trench deep enough 
so that surface washing may not unexpectedly ex¬ 
pose the pipe to frost. Fhe pit in which the working 
parts of the pump are inclosed should also be amply 
protected. u. l. iiaktman. 
Pennsylvania. _ 
THE BEST CROP OF ALL. 
A picture of some of our farm crops is shown in 
Fig. 326. Raising such crops as the central figure 
shows, we think, beats the ginseng business a mile. 
It may not in dollars, but it certainly does in cents 
(sense). The boy and an uncle about 14 attempted 
to dig out a woodchuck, but chuck gave them the 
slip, only to fall prey to the dog. They kept on dig¬ 
ging till they found the four young ones, which 
looked so cute and harmless that the boys wanted 
them for pets, so they divided the spoils. They have 
the run of the door yard. “Shep” gut mad at one, 
then to repay him for his sauciness hurt him so he 
died. The other comes to the door and waits for his 
rations. Me sits up and eats pears, peaches and ber¬ 
ries to the delight of the two children. Of course 
we older ones arc too dignified to find any amuse¬ 
ment in it. J. u. P. 
Ohio. 
We nre told Hint hogs nre more likely to contract* 
tuberculosis through milk than other animals. Mixed skltn- 
mllk at t Ik* creamery should tic sterilized. 
