1912 . 
CHANCES FOR WINTER WORK. 
You have often mentioned the need of country 
people for Winter work, by which the rough weather 
in Winter could be employed to some advantage. 
There are two industries that seem to me available in 
many localities to some extent. There are many farms 
where a limited quantity of white-ash is available, 
and baskets can be made with a very small outlay for 
tools right from the log. There would not be big 
wages, but a man and a boy could easily get $100 
extra by this means; not if everyone in the town 
went into it, but several families in each town could 
pick up quite a bunch this way. Baskets of this stock 
are worth and will bring more than the ordinary oak 
basket made from machine-cut stock. 
The other is apple barrels. My barrels cost me at 
the station 39J4 cents each last year, and they were 
green barrels at that. Since then 1 have looked the 
matter up and by hauling 19 miles I can buy for 25 
cents or less. As near as I can find out the staves, 
heading and hoops only cost about 12 cents. The 
hoops can be cut and shaved on at least one-half of 
the farms in New England, and if the staves and 
headings were bought by the carload I think they 
could be delivered anywhere in New England at a 
cost of not over 14 cents. In the apple sections it is 
seldom that new barrels can be bought for less than 
35 cents; that would leave 21 cents for hauling, mak¬ 
ing hoops and setting up. This stock is dry, and if 
storage were available these barrels could be made up 
ahead. One man can set up 35 to 40 barrels per day 
with outfit that does not cost over $20, not including 
building. 
Broom making is another operation that is largely 
hand work, and with comparatively cheap machinery. 
I do not want to answer further questions about these 
occupations, but I saw a cooper set up one barrel and 
AN APPROPRIATE DAIRY STEED. Fig. 486. 
I have no doubt but I could set up one barrel per 
hour the first day and work up in a week nearly to 
where the regular cooper would be satisfied with his 
day’s work. An advertisement in The R. N.-Y. would 
no doubt find those ready to furnish barrel stock. The 
basket question may be more of a trade, but it is 
surely not hard to learn. 1 do not believe I shall 
pay 40 cents for any more barrels to put apples in. 
When I was a boy at home we had Winter work 
as well as work most all the time. We had an Ameri¬ 
can evaporator and evaporated the unsalable apples. 
This job lasted some years about all Winter. Father 
made the shoes for the family for the coming year 
in the Winter. He took that time to repair sleds, 
wagons and harnesses; even to make new if they 
were needed. My father, brother or myself never 
had occasion to loaf round the farm for want of 
work to do at any season of the year. I run a farm 
now and it is more trouble to find people to do the work 
than it is to find work for the people to do. d. j. l. 
Maine. 
CORN, SOY BEANS AND TURNIPS. 
I recently visited a farm of 300 acres located in 
Seneca County, about half way between the two 
finger lakes of Cayuga and Seneca. In that region 
the land slopes eastward towards Cayuga Lake, and 
after a short rise to the west above this farm it slopes 
westward towards Seneca Lake. The soil on this 
farm is mainly of the Volusia type. It is derived 
largely from broken sandstone and shale, is not natur¬ 
ally as fertile as many of the soils in the State, but 
is very similar to many square miles of farm land 
in the southern counties of the State. 
This farm is owned by a father and two sons, D. 
H. Townsend & Sons being the business name of the 
partnership. It has been in the family for many 
years, and is now in a much better state of fertility 
than the adjoining farm lands. The proprietors make 
a specialty of showing cattle and swine at county 
fairs. They have several breeds of each represented 
The rural new-yorker 
on the farm. A few dairy cows are kept and enough 
horses to do the farm work. 
I was particularly interested in the field of corn in¬ 
tended for the silo from which sheep are to be fed. 
As this farm is somewhat elevated above the lake 
levels, the climate is rather cool for corn, but the 
soil in the cornfield was in such good condition that 
a good yield of fodder, probably 10 tons or more an 
acre, was growing there. At the date of my visit, 
October 8. this corn had not yet matured enough so 
SPECIMEN SOY BEAN. Fig. 487. 
that it could be harvested for husking. The early 
frost had barely touched the leaves, but it was not 
ripening so that good ear corn could be expected. 
Many of the ears were in the milk and a few were 
dented. Mr. Townsend was about ready to fill his 
silo from a portion of the field. The Townsends have 
practised planting corn with a grain drill in rows 24 
inches apart, as the variety used is an early yellow 
dent. I was surprised to see how well developed and 
well eared many of the cornstalks were when sown 
this way. I can only account for it by the fertility 
of this field, which has been well manured and well 
cultivated in the past. 
In the same field an experiment with Soy beans has 
GOOD SILAGE CORN. Fig. 488. 
been made under the direction of the College of Ag¬ 
riculture of Cornell University. Mixed corn and Soy 
beans were sown and Soy beans alone were drilled 
in 24-inch rows at two different rates of seeding. 
Mr. Townsend has also planted some Soy beans with 
part of his corn rows in his own way, and had sown 
a considerable area of another variety of Soy beans 
besides the experiment plot. I examined the experi¬ 
ment and the cornfield for visible results. The Me¬ 
dium Green Soy beans had not made so much growth 
here as at many other locations this year. Evidently 
the soil was a little cold and heavy for their best 
development. Where they had been inoculated there 
were plenty of tubercles on the roots, but where Mr. 
RUTABAGAS IN CORN. Fig. 489. 
Townsend had planted beans without inoculation no 
tubercles could be found. 
My picture, Fig. 487, gives one an idea of the size 
of specimen bean plants taken from the field back of 
the sign board. The beans which have been sown for 
seed have podded fairly well, and in this case seeding 
at the rate of one bushel an acre seems necessary in 
order to get a full crop of seed. Where more than a 
bushel were sown, the plants were closer together and 
had not branched quite so well. 
Elsewhere in the same field Mr. Townsend called 
my attention to a crop which seemed to be very much 
1176 
at home. When he drills the corn lie uses some 
commercial fertilizer, applying it through the drill at 
seeding time. He mixes a small quantity of rutabaga 
seed with the fertilizer. The rutabagas come up here 
and there among the corn rows and the cultivation 
of the corn is just what they need. When the corn 
is harvested there are the rutabagas left in the field 
and the Townsends store several hundred bushels 
of them for sheep feeding each year. In the picture, 
Fig. 489, one is growing at the end of a corn row 
and Mr. Townsend is holding two more good speci¬ 
mens. This catch crop in the cornfield is worth a 
great deal to the sheep kept on this farm, and it is 
obtained with only the extra cost of seed and the 
harvesting and handling of the rutabagas. 
E. R. MINNS. 
LIME AND POTATOES. 
On page 1100 I notice you mention that there are a 
lot of farmers who are afraid to use lime on account 
of potato scab, and also notice that you have an idea 
the ground limestone might be used to grow clover 
and not produce potato scab. It is said that potato 
scab is increased where soil is sweetened with lime. 
Many of our authorities are teaching that about the 
only thing lime does is to sweeten the soil. This sole 
sweetening effect may be true of ground limestone or 
carbonate of lime, but burned lime in its various 
forms has several different effects in the soil aside 
from sweetening. This being the case I do not see 
how you are going to make ground limestone do 
something burned lime will not do. I believe that 
lime in any form used in large quantities will have 
a tendency to promote scab, but it is not always 
necessary to use lime in large quantities to get re¬ 
sults with clover, etc., and I know a number of places 
WEALTHY APPLE AS GROWN AT HOPE FARM. 
Fig. 490. 
where farmers have been using small quantities of 
lime (300 to 400 pounds per acre) on their potato 
ground with good results. 
An instance hardly in accord with recent teachings 
came under notice recently. A farmer in one of the 
mountain counties of Pennsylvania, where lime is 
naturally deficient in the soil, wanted to know the 
effect of small doses of lime. He tested a 10-acre 
field with litmus paper and of course found it acid. 
On half of this field he applied hydrated lime, 500 
to 600 pounds per acre, and on the whole field sowed 
wheat with clover. Where he put the lime he had a 
fine stand of clover, and where there was no lime, 
no clover. He tested the field again with litmus 
paper, taking samples from all parts of the field, and 
found that they all still showed acid as before, and 
yet he had a good stand of clover where lime was 
used. This man had experience in photography, and 
was thoroughly familiar with the litmus test, and 
knew what he was doing. This would seem to show 
that we have a lot to learn about the action of lime 
yet. 
In a great many places the small application of 
burned lime seem to be the proper thing. I know 
hundreds of farms built up and made thrifty by using 
a small quantity of burned lime every time the ground 
was broken, instead of making a heavy application 
to last several years, and I might mention that quite 
a number of these successful farmers were not origi¬ 
nally farmers, hut were lumbermen, butchers and 
tradesmen of different kinds from the small towns, 
but of course not unfamiliar with farm practices as 
city people would be. I believe if the farmers you 
mention would get a good grade of hydrated lime 
and use 300 to 500 pounds per acre each time the 
ground was plowed, they would be able to grow the 
much desired clover with no bad results to the pota¬ 
toes. At least it would pay them to experiment some 
along this line. JOHN S. still. 
Pennsylvania. 
