11«12 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
isovemoer 1, 
Hope Farm Notes 
Is the Spring or Fall the better time 
to top-dress with potash and phosphoric 
acid a lot of rye sown this Fall, and also 
to top-dress with above a seeding of 
Timothy sown last Fall and clover sown 
last Spring? c. 11 . 
If the land is fairly level so there will 
be no serious wash over it there would 
be little difference. Fail application of 
potash and phosphate saves time, and a 
late season will help the Fall crop some¬ 
what. We usually apply fertilizer in 
Spring unless it may be for a grass seed¬ 
ing in early September. Our land is 
steep and “washy,” and there might be 
some loss in a rainy season. On level 
land it would be pretty much a matter of 
convenience—somewhat like the plan of 
hauling out manure every day to get rid 
of it. 
Heeling in Strawberries. —Here is 
one I must pass up to others: 
What do you 'know about heeling in 
strawberries now to set next Spring? 
Perhaps I might pile a little more dirt 
around them if I were going to set out 
at once. b. w. r. 
Manchester, X. II. 
I know nothing about it, not having 
tried the plan. If we had such plants 
in Fall we should set them as deep as in 
Spring, but in beds with both plants and 
rows close together. They would make 
some little growth in our latitude up to 
December—then we would cover with 
straw or coarse manure. “Heeling in” 
would take less time, but I think the ex¬ 
tra work of transplanting would pay. 
Direct Selling. —There are many 
farmers who should not wait for someone 
else to enlarge the 35-cent dollar. They 
may be situated so as to do it for them¬ 
selves : 
You mention at times the advantage 
of doing business directly with the con¬ 
sumer by parcel post. Do you think a 
business in eggs and dressed poultry could 
be built up in New York and Brooklyn 
directly with the consumer, by parcel 
post? How would it be possible to reach 
the class who are willing to pay an extra 
price for fresh goods? Is there any way 
of getting a mailing list for advertising 
matter directly to them? J. E. 
New Jersey. 
I doubt the wisdom of working for a 
parcel post trade in eggs yet. There is 
too much breakage. That is largely be¬ 
cause the packages are carried in mail 
bags. In time of rush those are piled up 
and the lower ones cannot stand the 
strain. In England and Europe wicker 
hampers are used, and in these egg pack¬ 
ages carry well. Until our postal ser¬ 
vice can make use of the hampers I would 
not go very strong on egg shipments. 
In dressed poultry and other meats there 
is a good chance to develop trade. No 
doubt about it—thousands of consumers 
want to deal direct with farmers if they 
can have a square deal. That means 
uniform and pure goods at a reasonable 
price. You cannot expect any consumer 
to buy direct for the fun of it, or for the 
love of the farmer. He is after a bargain 
like any other man, and if you hold him 
up for an extravagant price he will not 
pay. 
Obtaining Customers. —From our 
own experience I would not go near New 
York or Brooklyn, but try the smaller 
towns nearer home. In the end this will 
be a more satisfactory plan. I do not 
know of any better way to begin than 
to start a small advertisement in your 
local papers. Before you Degin be sure 
you have the goods for a continuous 
supply. Do not get customers started and 
then tell them that you are all sold out. 
They will never come back to you again. 
Make sure of your supply and then be 
careful what you say in your “ad.” Here 
is an instance. We are aoveriislng ap¬ 
ples in our country town. I offered 
"half-barrel baskets.” This is the trade 
name for a regular package, but actually 
they hold a little less than half a Hour 
barrel. The price is low, and 95 per 
cent of our customers understand about 
those baskets, but a few critical buyers 
started a protest. So we changed the 
"ad.” at once and clearly stated that the 
baskets are “scant.” We offered a grade 
of “pie apples,” and stated distinctly that 
they are windfalls. We are working for 
a permanent trade for various kinds of 
farm produce, and it pays to be honest 
and liberal with customers. Dressed 
poultry of good grade ought to go well 
by parcel post. Nearby towns are best 
for a beginning. Do not let new cus¬ 
tomers run up a large credit account. 
There are plenty of dead beats ready to 
get produce for nothing if they can. Try 
to encourage three or four families to 
combine, and buy 15 or 10 pounds of 
chicken at one time—they to do the dis¬ 
tributing. Do not advertise once or twice 
and then stop, but keep at it day after day 
or week after week. If you begin such 
a trade make a business of it and study 
it out in detail. 
“Follow Up.” —Our own advertising 
has been very successful. For the first 
four or five days there was little response, 
but finally we began to get a dozen good 
orders a day. It seems that people want 
to think it over and become acquainted 
with the advertiser before buying. It 
looks as if we should be able to secure 
75 or more good families in this way. 
Now if our apples are satisfactory you 
can see what will follow, when we have 
dressed poultry, a small carcass of pork, 
sausage, potatoes, firewood—anything 
which these people would be likely to 
buy we can follow them up. This is 
easily done in a letter or circular telling 
fairly what we have to sell. If the price 
is fair many of these people will buy. 
They will not come after us; we must go 
after their trade, and with this list of 
names and others, which we can pick up 
we can develop several good side lines for 
the farm. For instance, suppose we have 
10 or a dozen good pigs to dress a little 
over 100 pounds. This lean sweet pork 
will be just what small families want. 
Small roasts or hams and shoulders can 
be sent by parcel post and bring us 50 
per cent more than we pould get for the 
carcass. The same with poultry. In 
such a trade as I see developing the Leg¬ 
horn would be too small a bird. The 
“Red” or the “Rock” will give a larger 
carcass to supply dressed meat. In fact 
this direct dealing by parcel post will 
give many of us a great chance to do 
an independent business. We must not 
expect too much from it. Unless the 
consumers can feel that they are saving 
something they will not buy in this way. 
If we can prove that we can help reduce 
the high cost of living by direct dealing 
we can have our own way with this 
trade. Therefore my advice is not to 
demand high or extravagant prices. I)o 
not demand any pound of flesh, but offer 
your goods at moderate prices and be 
sure of your quality. And be firm when 
you know your goods are right. Some 
customers call us up on the ’phone and 
say: “If I knew they were all right I 
might order some apples.” Mother is a 
good agent to answer such calls. She 
politely informs them that any statements 
made in the advertisement are correct, 
and if they have any doubts about it she 
advises them not to buy. In nine eases 
out of 10 they will give the order right 
there. 
Cow Tests. —We shall start another 
yearly record this week. Spot, the grade 
Guernsey, has just presented us with a 
fine son—large and black. Sorry it isn’t 
a daughter, for with its parentage such 
a heifer ought to make a fine cow. Spot 
has had a somewhat stormy career—one 
of these individuals that seem born to 
accidents. She ran a wire into her foot 
and limped about on three legs. Then the 
other cow butted her aud broke her hip. 
They tell you that dishorning takes the 
fight out of a cow, but Spot can point 
to Mol.'e’s head and deny the statement. 
Spot lay on her side for weeks, and still 
hobbles around, but she has all the good 
qualities of a family cow and we kept 
her. Now she starts off fresh and we 
may see what she will do in a year. We 
shall also have her milk tested for fat. 
In a family like ours a good cow is a 
wonderful help. Aside from their grain 
our cows cost but little in cash. They 
live mostly on cornstalks, mangels, pas¬ 
ture and the odds and ends from garden 
aud cover crops. On every fruit farm 
there are many wastes which have no 
cash value, but which a good cow can 
easily turn into milk and butter. Up to 
the limit of handling these wastes such 
a farm can make a small herd of good 
cows profitable. When you get beyond 
that limit the cows fail to pay. People 
are finding out this fact and most of the 
farms will carry their small herds of im¬ 
proved cows in the near future. We have 
two good cows and a fine yearling and 
we shall improve our stock with the 
finest animals we can find anywhere in 
this country. A fine family cow is worth 
$100—a scrub barely $50. That’s about 
the difference between No. 1 sprayed 
Baldwin apples and wormy unsprayed 
fruit. 
Please inform me whether or no the 
feeding of sweet apples to milch cows 
will affect their milk, either by curtailing 
or increasing the flow? J. T. w. 
Chatham, N. J. 
You hit me in a rather sore spot with 
this question. If you begin with half a 
peck per day for each cow and slowly 
increase until you reach nearly a bushel 
you will find these apples good feed— 
nearly equal to pasture. If the cow gets 
too many at once she will bloat and go 
down on the ground “drunk.” I know 
that a lot of experts will rush in to say 
that a cow cannot get drunk. I will not 
argue with them, but I can get hundreds 
of dairymen to offset their theory with 
facts. You let your cows eat their fill 
of apples and they will become as drunk 
as lords. Once when I was running for 
the New Jersey Legislature on the Pro¬ 
hibition ticket my cow turned herself 
into an apple distillery by breaking into 
the orchard. You may call it “sun¬ 
stroke,” bloat, disease or what you like, 
but when a cow gorges on apples she 
goes down just as I have seen drinking 
men crawl into the barn or in a fence 
corner to “sleep it off.” A cow in this 
condition stops giving milk for several 
days, and then slowly comes back part 
way. I never saw one yet that fully re¬ 
covered her milk flow. One of the best 
things to do for a bloated cow is to feed 
her clear cornmeal, but bloat from green 
corn or clover is different from the “load” 
which is piled on from eating apples. I 
have seen cows which were started with 
a small amount of apples developed so 
that they finally ate them as freely as 
they would silage and with good results. 
But he careful how you begin. 
I notice my old strawberry bed needs 
filling in between the plants, as the 
plants have grown up well above the sur¬ 
rounding dirt- I propose to haul in 
some fresh dirt so as to fill the whole bed 
up level, and it is in my mind to spread 
on the present surface between the plants 
a quantity of bone meal, of which I have 
a very considerable quantity of good 
quality; then to fill in with the soil and 
cultivate until Winter. Would this bone 
meal be all right as a fertilizer? 
Grand Rapids, Mich. J. B. b. 
The .tendency of old plants is to make 
the crown a little higher, as they are re¬ 
newed year after year. Thus they seem 
to grow out of the ground. We usually 
advise hilling them up. On a small bed 
this plan of bringing in new dirt would 
be first rate. It would not pay in large 
culture. Bone meal is good, but a mix¬ 
ture of three parts bone meal and one 
of sulphate of potash is better. 
H. W. C. 
“I’m going to start an anti-noise asso¬ 
ciation,” said the man who is always 
promoting something. “How will you 
go about it?” “Well, the first thing is 
to get the public interest. I have al¬ 
ready engaged half a dozen speakers and 
a brass band.”—Washington Star. 
Sunlight Double Glass Sash 
Always Pay — 
whethei used on cold frames, hot-beds or on the 
inexpensive 11 x 12 ft. Sunlight Double-Glazed 
Greenhouse. They eliminate the need to use mats 
and shutters, thus saving half the cost of equipment 
and labor. They give the plant6 all the light and 
save the stored heat overnight, thus making them 
grow steadily without forcing. 
The inexpensive double-glazed 11 x 12 ft. green¬ 
house is covered with the Sunlight Sash which are 
removable for repairs or to use on hot-beds or cold 
frames in their season. The house, though double- 
glazed, is always kept bright and tight. 
You o~ve it. to your interest to get our litera¬ 
ture. The free catalog with net prices and all 
necessary information. And Prof. Massey's 
booklet on how to make and use hot-beds, cold 
frames atid a small greenhouse. Tor the booklet 
enclose 4 cents in stamps. 
Sunlight Double Glass Sash Company 
924 E. Broadway - - Louisville, Ky. 
Roofing Cost 
1 ’HIS is a point every farmer should 
I consider carefully—the original pur- 
chase price means little, but figure out 
what the roofing cost per year will be. The 
cheapest roof that lasts only a year or two, 
may prove the most costly in the long run— 
this is usually true. 
“ Rain-Tight ” 
Rubber Roofing 
lasts almost indefinitely, and, counting 
the length of service, it is the most eco¬ 
nomical roof you can buy. It is made of 
Trinidad Lake Asphalt—the standard as¬ 
phalt of the world. It is the same mate¬ 
rial that is used to make city pavements, 
which withstands the constant pounding of 
horses’ hoofs and heavy-laden wagons. 
Our brand of “PERFECT ROOFING” is 
the same as “RAIN-TIGHT” with Mica 
Flakes added to the surface, which make 
it fire-resisting. It is a non-conductor of 
heat and lightning and insures against fire 
from sparks falling on the roof. 
PERFECT ROSIN SIZED SHEATHING 
AND PERFECT TARRED FELT ARE 
BEST FOR SHEATHING PURPOSES 
If you need a new roof for any building, 
now or in the future, it will pay you to 
send for samples and booklet—write us 
to-day. 
Maurice O’Meara Co. 
448 Pearl Street, New York City 
1 
Ground Bone 
for 
Home Mixing 
Fertilizers 
WILCOX FERTILIZER CO. 
Manufacturers of Wilcox Fertilizer 
“Fertilizers that Fertilize” 
MYSTIC CONNECTICUT 
CASH K BAGS 
Turn your old bags into money. We buy them in 
any quantity, sound or torn, at a liberal price and 
pay the freight. Write for particulars and state 
number you have. Reference: Citizen's Bank. 
Iroquois Bat; Co., 450 Howard St., Buffalo. N. Y- 
LET US TAN 
YOUR HIDE. 
Cattle or Horse hide. Calf, Dog, Deer 
or any kind of skin with hair or fur on. 
Wo tan and finish thorn right ; make 
them into coats (for men and women), 
robes, rugs or gloves w lieu ordered. 
Your fur goods will cost you less than 
to buy them, and he worth more. Our 
illustrated catalog gives a lot of ill 
formation which every stock raiser 
should have, but we never send out this 
valuable book except upon request. 
It tells llow to takeoff and care for 
hides; how and when wo pay tho troioht 
both ways j about our safe dyeing pro¬ 
cess which is a tremendous advantage 
to the customer, esi>ecially on horso 
hides and calf skins; about (lie fur 
goods and game trophies we sell, taxi¬ 
dermy. etc. If you want a copy send us 
your correct address. r-- 
The Crosby Frisian Fur Company, ^ 
571 Lyell Ave.. Rochester. N. Y. 
Cash for 
Raw Furs 
Why sell your skins at 
home when you can 
send them to us and 
save all middlemen i 
profits? New York r> 
the best market in 
America. We pay cash 
for hides of Skunk:, 
Minks, Coons, Opossums, Foxes, etc. Thirty years in 
tho business. No commission charged, p e stand expre * 
an T DIITI CD Pfl charges. Write forprioe list. 
BELT, BUTLER Cu., Exporters, 4 East 12lh St.. New York 
GET READY FOR THE 
Raw Fur Season 
Mail us a postal with your name and 
address NOW and we will keep you 
posted on the RAW FUR MARKET. 
A. Suskind & Co., 159 W. 24th St., Mew York City 
Wiikn you write advertisers mention Thk 
I!. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” 6ee guarantee editorial page. 
