674 
sume birds carried the seed. We carefully dug up 
those plants with some of the soil around it, shook 
all soil carefully off the plants into a cart, and 
broadcast this soil evenly upon the field we were 
preparing for Alfalfa. We selected for this proce¬ 
dure a cloudy day, so the bacteria would not be in¬ 
jured by the sunlight. Running short somewhat with 
this inoculation soil, we dug up some Sweet clover 
which grew luxuriantly along the road and used this 
soil near around the Sweet clover roots to finish 
inoculation with. Another harrowing prepared the 
seed bed and 40 pounds of the best Alfalfa seed I 
could buy was sown carefully broadcast on the field 
and lightly harrowed in. In due time the young 
plants appeared and made a rapid growth before 
Winter. set in. This Spring they covered the field 
almost like hair on a dog, and we shall cut the 
Alfalfa in about a week. There are two or three 
small spots in the field where the Alfalfa either died 
out or looks delicate. This condition I charge to a 
miss of inoculation. There are three impdrtant facts 
to bear in mind as far as my opinion goes, those are 
have a clean field and clean seed, inoculate your soil, 
and apply lime. In preparing a field for Alfalfa I 
could fulfill this to the letter and feel confident of 
SUCCeSS. CHAS. B1ERMACHER. 
Ulster Co., N. Y. 
EDUCATION OF THE BUYER. 
There is a significant and very suggestive headline 
on page 298 of The R. N.-Y., “The Education of the 
.Buyer.” The article has much to say of the farmer as 
a buyer and also of people who are also sellers, as all 
farmers are. I do not want to see the rural districts 
filled up with sharp commercial people, and I know 
that it cannot be done, yet much can and should be 
done to educate the farmer as a seller. I believe that 
if this could be done thoroughly most of the troubles 
of the farmer would disappear. Long life to the agri¬ 
cultural papers that can first get the farmer’s ear— 
which is the main difficulty—and then pour into it with¬ 
out ceasing information that will tend to make him 
acquainted with his markets all the way from the farm 
to the consumer. 
There is at present a vast army of middlemen who 
are taking the cream off the farm product, that is pro¬ 
duced with so much lab.or, and leaving the producer 
with less than his proper share, just because the pro¬ 
ducer is not up to the market he works for and does 
not know how to come into proper touch with it. A 
late farm paper contains an inquiry from a farmer as 
to how to sell some timber he has on his farm, which 
well illustrates this point. It is plain from the ques¬ 
tions asked that the farmer has next to no idea of 
lumber or of how to turn his trees into a salable prod¬ 
uct. He, of course, knows it, too, or he would not ask 
his questions, but he is so far from the subject 
that his questions served merely to mystify the per¬ 
son who undertook to reply. 
It is the education of the farmer as seller that is 
going to enable him to reduce the middlemen to their 
lowest terms, and it is his failure to study the subject 
sufficiently that has made it possible for the middle¬ 
men in such numbers to live upon him. The point to 
begin at is of course to see that the man he deals 
with is honest and responsible. Better accept a mod¬ 
erate price from such a man, whom the seller well 
knows if possible, than to fall into the hands of the 
smooth stranger who promises everything and fails 
to be heard of after he gets the goods. To deal with 
strangers is too often to offer a premium to scamps. 
My experience has always been that all farm products 
should be sold as soon as they are in marketable con¬ 
dition, for if they are not perishable they mostly will 
shrink in bulk fast enough to cover most advances of 
the price, which are as often not realized at all as any 
way. Try to get ahead also of the parasites that eat 
up our crops at home and then steer clear of the para¬ 
sites who try to eat up what we have left. 
New York. j. w. C. 
VALUE OF A DAY’S WORK. 
I do not think your estimate of the value of a 
day’s work in figuring crop values is fair. A manu¬ 
facturer produces his goods and charges up against 
his goods, or the finished product; in other words, the 
actual cost of production, the actual cash that has gone 
into those goods. He does not charge against his 
finished product 10 tons of coal at $5 per ton, which 
he bought at $4, or which perhaps since he bought 
it has advanced to $5. On each distinct operation in 
his manufacture of a certain article he does not add 
a little profit to each one, and then add a profit over 
all to the finished product. This to my mind is what 
you are teaching the farmers to do. True, for a few 
days at a time some farmers are able to get almost 
any decent price for their team if they will let them 
out. In some locations there is a constant demand, 
hut to my mind any price that they may so secure 
should not be considered in any respect as to the 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
charge they should make against the farm crop. For 
instance, and I do not quote these figures as accurate, 
yet I believe they will not figure out so very much out 
of the way, if on a work horse, figuring in the interest 
on the investment, the shoeing, the depreciation, the 
hay and grain fed during a year amounts to $150, and 
that horse works 200 days in the year, it brings the 
daily cost of that horse 75 cents per day. If I have 
named a figure too low, the opposite is likely also 
true, that is the horse has credit also for too few days. 
On my own place the horses work far more days than 
that. If this is true then why charge horses up at 
more than it costs to provide them for the purpose? 
To follow out your principles, it seems to me in my 
own case it would work out this way. I am keeping 
cows for milk, and sell my milk at a stated price per 
year, and have a nice margin left after deducting the 
cost of keeping the herd. As a basis for figuring I 
have found out that I can raise my corn and put it in 
the silo for about a certain sum per ton, therefore I 
uniformly figure the silage at that cost price. Now 
last year and the year before owing to the shortage of 
other feeds there is no question but silage was intrin¬ 
sically worth more money, especially if you take a 
common method of computing the value, a certain 
percentage of the value of Timothy hay, yet it did not 
cost me any more than other years, and I do not think 
the price should be changed. Yet on your basis, be¬ 
cause I could have sold silage at $5 per ton I should 
have charged the cows that rate. frank e. rupert. 
Comments by Mr. Ditchings. 
A successful farm is a factory of many departments. 
To continue a department when it failed to show a 
profit is not good business management. To prove 
whether a department should be continued or not some 
SOME IMPORTED LIVE STOCK. Fig. 282. 
basis of labor must be determined upon. A charge of 
1C cents per hour for horse and 20 cents per hour for 
man is not too much on the average for farmers here 
in Central New York to pay for the actual time em¬ 
ployed in growing and marketing their crops. There 
are many hours in a year on account of weather condi- 
ditions that our horses are idle. They must be fed 
and cared for just the same. When you count the 
feed, the depreciation in value, the interest on money 
invested, the shoeing, veterinary services and pay for 
the time of taking care of your horse, 1 think you will 
find that 10 cents per hour is cheap to charge for 
actual service. Also the 10 cents per hour for horse 
and 20 cents per hour for man covers the depreciation 
or wear of whatever implement they are using, such as 
mowing machine, wagon, plow, etc. If your corre¬ 
spondent will set up an establishment in this vicinity 
and furnish the horses, men and implements on the 
above terms we will be very glad to avail ourselves 
of his services. 
In regard to charging cows for silage the only fair 
way is to charge cows just what the silage would 
sell for. If the cows could not make a profit on this 
basis I should sell the cows and grow silage for my 
neighbors. On the other hand, if the silage cost me $5 
per ton to grow and I could buy it for $4, I should 
charge the cows $4 and discontinue growing silage. 
There has been altogether too much of not charging 
the cow's for feed produced on the farm and the wives’ 
and boys’ labor thrown in for caring for the cows. 
This makes the dairy business look good, but it is 
hard on the farm crops and family, and is one of the 
reasons the boys leave the farm. Let the dairy depart¬ 
ment stand on its own feet. If it won’t show a profit 
discontinue and give the other fellow the market whose 
farm perhaps is better adapted, and confine your oper¬ 
ations to departments which show a profit. It is very 
evident that you could not name a price per hour that 
would be exact for the entire Lhiited States, but the 
price named will do for a basis to determine the rela¬ 
tive costs of different crops and is not far out of the 
way for Central New York. 
We want our agricultural colleges and institute 
forces ready next Winter to tell us the cost of their 
June 25, 
theories figured on this basis, so we may know whether 
to adopt them or not. We are ready to cheapen cost 
of living to people in the cities by working with them 
for better market facilities or better methods of grow¬ 
ing crops, but insist most decidedly upon a fair rate 
of wages for doing the farm work. 
GRANT G. HITCHINGS. 
CHICKENS AND PEARS. 
The picture at Fig. 284 shows a pear orchard in 
Columbia Co., N. Y., in which chicken runs are 
placed. The chickens are penned and have space 
enough to run about under the trees. The bloom 
shows the result of the cultivating and manuring 
which the hens do. This combination of hens and 
orchard is often found very profitable. As compared 
with growing grain or other crops in an orchard the 
hen culture requires little labor and usually gives 
more and better fruit. Apple and pear do well with 
the hens, and plums are fairly successful. The peach 
orchard is not a good place for such hen culture, as 
the peach tree cannot stand too much forcing with 
nitrogen. _ 
A FOUR-HORSE TEAM. 
The picture at Fig. 283 shows a double farm team 
at work on an Ohio farm. The introduction of the 
manure spreader and other heavy machinery has 
made it necessary to breed and use large farm horses. 
The scarcity of good farm labor has driven farmers 
to use this machinery and thus greater power is re¬ 
quired. The Percheron breed of horses is well suited 
to such work. The four splendid animals shown at 
Fig. 283 are certainly large enough to walk off with 
a small house if need be, and they make that heavily 
loaded manure spreader act like a plaything. This 
team has a combined weight of 0,000 pounds. One 
of the back team is an imported Percheron stallion. 
The others are home bred horses. Imagine such a 
team on a sulky plow or on a wide cutting binder. 
BUILDING AN APPLE HOUSE. 
I am planning an apple house 27 by 20, where the fruit 
can be stored as soon as picked. It will be on a sidchill 
and the fruit will be delivered at the second story, where 
it will be sorted and packed and then lowered into cellar 
by a trap door, there to be stored until needed. Have ap¬ 
proved modern methods suggested any arrangements for 
such a building? I would have my windows on the north 
and avoid sun in the building. Is the King system of ven¬ 
tilation desirable in the*cellar? Should the cellar floor be 
concrete? The cellar walls will be of stone, rest of build¬ 
ing of wood. Practical hints would be appreciated. 
Bedford, N. Y. n. >r. 
If H. M. is planning for a storeroom cool in warm 
weather as well as warm in cold weather, the storage 
room should be placed as deep in the ground as 
practicable, and the floor should be concrete.' The 
concrete floor gives the best conduction of excess heat 
downward in the Summer time, to keep the storeroom 
cool, and the best conduction of deep ground heat 
upward in the Winter to keep the storeroom from 
freezing. If no artificial heat is to be provided the 
ceiling should be of galvanized iron, nailed directly 
to the joists and the space between the joists and the 
floor above filled with sawdust, dry peat or some such 
non-conductor. The advantage of the galvanized iron 
for ceiling is that it makes the ceiling absolutely air¬ 
tight and so prevent loss of heat in Winter, and it 
will not mould and so will protect the joists from 
decay. If the walls above ground were hollow and 
the space filled with sawdust or dry peat the store¬ 
room would be cooler in warm weather and less liable 
to freeze in Winter. Windows should be double. 
For ventilation use a nine-inch galvanized iron flue 
extending out through the rOof from near the bottom 
of the cellar. Provide two six-inch galvanized iron 
intakes, built horizontally in the wall on opposite 
sides, with the ends projecting into the storeroom 
about six inches. Provide each of these and the out- 
take flue with dampers to regulate the air movement. 
Both intakes and outtakes should be kept closed ex¬ 
cept when the air is too damp or too warm in Winter. 
F. H. KING. 
We receive many letters from western men asking 
about the low-priced farms in New York and New 
England. We are usually asked to give positive and 
direct advice about locating on such farms. We must 
decline to give anything but general advice. No man 
can put himself in the position of a stranger. Some 
of these letters read as if the writer wanted us to 
make some statement which would overcome objec¬ 
tions of wife or friends. We would not assume any 
such responsibility. It is a well-nigh impossible task 
to make a farmer from a level western farm without 
stones or waste laud understand what these rough, 
hilly farms are like. They must be seen to be appre¬ 
ciated and no man should change his home without 
coming to see for himself what the new country is 
like. During the past week we received letters from a 
barber, a clerk, a mechanic, a teacher and several far¬ 
mers, all asking us to decide wdiere they are to go. 
We want to see the waste places bloom, but misfit 
advice might blight them and we wiW not undertake to 
tell men just where to find a home. 
