227 
ORCHARD HEATING IN CALIFORNIA. 
Most lemon groves and some orange groves require 
artificial heating to protect irom freezing in Cali¬ 
fornia, most Winters two or three nights and some 
Winters six or eight nights, usually from two to four 
hours early in the morning, but occasionally for seven 
hours. I have used many heating devices and sev¬ 
eral kinds of fuel, and have never found a kind too 
poor or too expensive for profitable use; for no or- 
chardist with frost exposure can afford to do without 
some kind of artificial heat. The most satisfactory 
heater I have used is the Bolton, which is a 10- 
pound lard pail made of iron with perforations near 
the rim for draft, a double cross over the top as a 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
soot collector and a flat top sheet to keep out the 
water. When loaded with five quarts of slop dis¬ 
tillate, costing here 2J4 cents a gallon, and set 100 
pots to the acre at intersections, they will raise the 
temperature on a still night from seven to nine de¬ 
grees, and will burn seven hours. Care must be used 
to keep out the water. 
The next best device is a sheet-iron round stove, 
costing 25 cents each, 14 inches deep and 14 inches 
across the top, with several perforations to create 
draft. In this we burn a composition of half heavy 
crude oil and half planing mill sawdust and chips, 
thoroughly mixed while the oil is hot, and pressed 
into the stoves. This device costs more for both 
stove and fuel and will only burn half as long. The 
next best is a basket of coal suspended from a tripod 
with oil-soaked chips to start it. The Bolton heaters 
once installed can be operated at an expense of $3 
per acre per night, and will save any orchard where 
fruit ought to be grown, but any device is better than 
none. Orchard heating is a necessity at times in 
many localities. a. hale. 
California. 
SMALL CORN SHREDDER EXPERIENCE. 
On page 112 G. S. B. speaks of curing, storing and 
feeding corn fodder, and you invite those having ex¬ 
perience to speak too. As we understand in this 
section, there are cornstalks and corn fodder. The 
former are the stalks after the matured corn has been 
husked and removed, the latter is of a later planting, 
sometimes as late as July 4, and is usually drilled in 
rows far enough apart to admit of cultivation. Not 
having time to make a growth of corn, and the stalks 
being near together, they are fine and produce a very 
little immature corn. We are growing fruit, and aim 
also to grow enough feed for our own use. This year 
we had 10 acres of corn. This we husked by hand in 
the field until bad weather set in; the remainder we 
husked in the barn. Some years ago we installed a 
gasoline engine to spray with; then we bought a very 
nice little shredder, and in Winter we run it with the 
engine and shred the stalks in the barn, about two or 
three weeks’ supply at a time. We like it well. It 
does not grind up into dust the leaves as some of the 
big shredders do, and as we do not shred a very 
large pile at once, it does not lie in a large mass from 
Fall and thr®ugh the Winter to heat and mould. Our 
1011. 
MAKING A CEMENT ROOF. 
Permanent Results at Modest Cost. 
Several readers of The R. N.-Y. have asked for in¬ 
formation about roofs made of cement. I therefore 
give my experience. Roofing has become quite a deep 
problem for all real estate owners who have to roof 
and keep buildings in repair. Years ago, when our 
forefathers had the old original pine and hemlock 
straight of grain and a lasting quality of from 50 to 
75 years, a man of 25 or 30 years, building a new 
house or barn, did not expect to have to re-roof in 
his natural lifetime, barring accidents. The life of 
an ordinary pine, hemlock or chestnut shingle roof 
of to-day is practically 15 years, and shingles at $2.50 
per 1,000, besides nails and cost of putting on. They 
must be repaired several times in order to get 15 
years’ wear. This makes a very expensive as well as 
unsatisfactory roof. Cedar makes a good roof if you 
get the genuine cedar, but many farmers have paid 
the price of cedar shingles, but the lasting qualities 
were no better than home manufacture, which cost 
about half as much. Same way with different felt 
preparations; some give a fair return 
for the money, while others are worth¬ 
less or nearly so. Slate is good, but out 
of many farmers’ reach in price and 
cost of putting on. Many farmers who 
can afford it are putting on galvanized 
iron as they are compelled to re-roof, 
but that is also very expensive. One 
man of my acquaintance paid over $300 
the past year for galvanized iron roof¬ 
ing. The dust at thrashing time is 
very destructive to shingle roofs, and 
the moisture from sweating hay and 
grain hard on metal, beside the outside 
elements wearing on them continually. 
In the Spring of 1907 I decided to 
build a small building for storing lime, 
fertilizer, cement or anything that had 
to be held a short time and must be kept 
perfectly dry. I first made a good con¬ 
crete foundation, as I intended to load 
it heavily for the size of building, 6x12, 
with shed roof. When I was ready for 
the roof I put false work of old boards 
inside ' the building even with top of 
plates, also boards about 12 inches wide 
on outside at top for eaves and pro¬ 
jection; then I drove a 30-penny wire 
spike every 12 inches around top of 
plates and each end rafter, leaving the 
spikes to stick up about half an inch. 
Then I drew No. 12 fence wire from 
one spike head to the other, both long 
and short way of building, weaving like 
a chair bottom. Then I put on my roof 
of cement, one part cement to three of 
sand, two inches thick. Pieces of old 
buggy tires about 18 inches long were 
bedded in the fresh cement on corners 
of the projections to reinforce them. 
In a few days I removed the false work 
from inside and I found I had a roof 
that I think will be doing business for 
many generations, and I think it would 
carry an ordinary team of horses with¬ 
out being damaged in the least. The 
cost was $3.40, which included 50 cents 
for sand and 50 cents for man half day 
to mix the cement while I put it on. 
As the roof has passed the experimental 
stage, having passed through all kinds 
of storms without leaking or showing 
any signs of wear, I pronounce it a success, and al¬ 
most as cheap as poor shingles, besides the protec¬ 
tion from fire, wind and hailstorms, and see nothing 
In particular to bar the use of cement for any build¬ 
ing, large or small, with good foundation walls and a 
little extra timber for very large buildings. A build¬ 
ing of that kind if built of good material and kept 
well painted should last for generations. 
Columbia Co., Pa. w. a. bangs. 
horses and cows clean it up and call for more; their 
mangers are cleaned out twice a day, and the refuse 
makes a good absorbent and bedding. It is also much 
nicer to handle in the manure. I have seen it stated 
in print recently that it goes much further than un¬ 
shredded stalks, and it may possibly. I think the 
animals in eating waste less of it. We rented about 
six acres of land last year and put it in corn fodder 
June 23, and cut it with a corn binder October 10. 
We had 292 shocks of eight to 10 bundles in a shock; 
it was a paying crop; but corn fodder is hard to cure. 
The stalks are juicy, and it cannot be put in the barn 
in the Fall, as it will mold. We left ours out in the 
open field, drew it in as we fed it, until about the 
first week in January; then in a spell of good weather 
we put the remainder in the barn. I think it will keep 
well until fed. Owing to the fine stalks we do not 
shred it; if we are careful not to overfeed, the cattle 
clean it up very well and the little they leave we 
throw to them for bedding. There is a prejudice in 
the minds of some against feeding stalks or fodder. 
Our horses like it and go through the Winter on it 
very well. We feed them carrots two or three times 
a week. Our cows will eat it in prefer¬ 
ence to clover hay, which most people 
consider an ideal roughage for cows. 
We have a large shredder in our neigh¬ 
borhood, and many farmers avail them¬ 
selves of it when it comes around, but 
we like our own little shredder the best, 
and I think it is best for the man with 
small acreage if he has power to run it. 
Michigan. john stout. 
“SNOWBOUND” CORN KEEPING WELL IN LARGE SHOCKS. 
HANDLING THE FAKE GOODS. 
A great annoyance to many country 
people is the sending of packages of 
trifling goods to children (after getting 
their names in some way) to sell in or¬ 
der to get a premium. The goods to 
sell never amount to anything. Re¬ 
peatedly goods came addressed to my 
children. My mode of procedure is to 
destroy them at once. Soon a letter 
would come asking if goods were sold, 
etc. I allowed no attention paid to 
this. It went on until threats were 
made to prosecute on a criminal charge 
for lefusing to return goods, and the 
name of a firm of our county, well 
known to me, named as the parties 
through which the suit would be brought. 
I did not scare at all, but notified them 
that in case threats were repeated against 
my children I would prosecute, and also 
told them that no attention would be 
paid to letters of inquiry unless postage 
was sent. I heard no more from that 
case. In one case I notified the firm 
sending goods to send at once the 
amount of postage needed to return 
goods, together with cost of notifying 
them (naming the amount) and I would 
return the goods, otherwise I would 
destroy them. They sent the amount 
at once. In case all would go at it as I 
have done, it would stop the business in 
short order, I think. They generally get 
names by offering a small premium for 
a list of names. A child will send’ in a 
list of names of their child friends, and 
it is but a short time until all receive 
packages of cheap goods to sell for a 
HAIRY VETCH FROM CONNECTICUT CORNFIELD. premium, and when a child goes selling 
the goods, no matter how trifling, few 
will refuse to buy, as they are generally friends of 
the child, and will not turn them down, although 
they know the goods are worth nothing. 
Pennsylvania. ___. E ' BUSHYAGER> 
We are surprised to see how much interest is 
taken in farm drainage. There has never been any¬ 
thing quite like it in the country before. Men are 
buying large tracts of wet land and draining it, and 
individual farmers are draining wet fields. In nearly 
every case a drained field is a telling witness to 
show the value of drains. On our own farm we 
have a wet field which for years was a mere eyesore. 
Now that it has been drained it is one of the most 
valuable fields on the farm. This great interest in 
drainage is one of the surest evidences that farming 
is to become a more reliable and profitable business. 
Many a farm will now receive that degree of LL. D. 
(lime, legumes and drainage), and it will also get 
more of the consumer’s dollar through co-operation 
with others. ___ 
The Department of Agriculture thinks “the decline in 
the production of peaches” has stimulated the growing of 
early apples. Now that the scale can be handled peach 
growing will increase. The business in Summer apples 
will be limited. 
