1910. 
Z3Q 
AN ENGLISH BULL-TERRIER FAMILY. 
In the picture, Fig. 3111, is shown a p nr of pure¬ 
bred English bull terriers and ti.eir l .niiiy of six 
puppies. 1 have owned the female for two years, and 
during that time my feed house has been kept free 
from rats and mice. ’ This Spring I lost a number of 
chicks about six weeks old. They would disappear 
and I did not know where or when, although I sus¬ 
pected that they were taken at night, and not by four¬ 
legged animals either, as the colony coops in which 
they were confined were fastened so that not even a 
rat could have got in. These losses were pretty dis¬ 
couraging. I had over 900 chicks, and at the rate they 
were disappearing the number in a few weeks would 
have diminished half. Then at this time I did not 
care to expose my dog to all kinds of weather, but kept 
her at night in the feed house, so I determined to buy 
a dog of the same breed. I now have a wire running 
from my feed house to a large tree, about 100 feet 
distant. The dog’s chain is snapped into a ring on 
this wire and as the chain is 10 feet long, he can cover 
quite a bit of ground, nearly half of the plot where 
the largest chicks are confined at night. Since I have 
owned this dog I have not lost a chick that way; 
therefore I think he is a pretty good investment. The 
puppies are readily sold at five and ten dollars each 
at the age of six or eight weeks. The name "bulldog” 
seems to inspire quite a little fear or respect, I notice, 
in the minds of a certain class of people. 
Hillsdale, N. Y. m. a. f. 
SMALL ENGINES ON HARVESTERS. 
There has been so much said about the use of small 
gasoline engines for operating the working parts on 
harvesters that we show at Fig. 312 a harvester 
equipped with one of these motors. This is the Gilson 
engine harvester attachment, said to lie the most suc¬ 
cessful implement of the kind yet tried. It will be 
seen that the engine is carried on a two-wheel steel 
truck, which is fastened to the binder just back of 
the hull wheel in the center of draft. The engine is 
2'/ horse power, and is used to operate directly upon 
the working parts of the machine. At first the engines 
were mounted directly on the binder platform. This 
gave good results for the time, but the strain or jar 
of the engine was too strong, and it usually threw the 
machinery out of balance. It was found safer and 
better to mount the engine as shown in the picture, 
for in this way the strain upon the binder platform 
was overcome. These little engines came in response 
to a demand for lighter draft in a harvester. Three 
years ago there were heavy rains in the Missouri 
Valley, and the fields of ripe grain were Hooded. It 
was impossible to harvest this -grain with the ordinary 
harvester. The ground was soft, and not only was 
jt difficult to haul the harvester along, but the bull 
wheel which was to operate the machinery slipped on 
the ground when working. With the engine attach¬ 
ment it does not matter whether this happens or not, 
for all the horses have to do is to pull the harvester 
on while the engine operates the working parts, cuts 
the grain, binds it and throws the bundles out. From 
four to six horses were required in the western grain 
fields to operate a large harvester. With one of these 
engines in operation three horses, and on a firm ground 
even two can pull the machinery. All they have to do 
is to pull the dead weight of the machine. There may 
be no doubt but that this engine will save thousands 
of acres of grain, and we understand that it is also 
operating successfully upon rice harvesters in the 
South. It is figured that every year many horses are 
killed by heat in the harvest fields simply because 
they arc overworked. One of these engines with this 
attachment will cost about the same as one good 
horse. It will easily do the work of two or three 
horses, and continue doing it for a term of years. 
THE USE OF “COVER CROPS.” 
Will you toll me in some detail what you mean by a 
“cover crop’’ and how you put it in ? a. b. 
We mean a crop intended to cover the ground or 
grow in the soil after regular crops in the rotation are 
harvested. Most cover crops occupy the soil during 
Fall and Winter, when the ground would otherwise 
be idle. The most common cover crops are those used 
to follow corn or potatoes. There are four main rea¬ 
sons for the cover crop. It saves fertility—chiefly 
nitrogen. During the hot weather of late Summer, 
particularly in a moist time, the organic matter in the 
soil is rapidly decayed, and as this decay goes on 
nitrates arc formed. These nitrates are the soluble 
forms of nitrogen, and unless there is some living and 
growing crop to utilize them they will be washed out 
of the soil and lost to the farm. For example, corn 
makes a rank growth and no doubt uses these nitrates 
as fast as they are made, but by the middle of Sep¬ 
tember the corn is cut—yet the formation of these 
nitrates goes on rapidly. There are usually some 
weeds until frost kills them, but up to December in 
THE RURAL N E W-YORKER 
this latitude the nitrates will be formed. If the soil 
is bare, with no vigorous crop growing on it, $.> or 
more in value will be lost to each acre through leach¬ 
ing of these nitrates. The cover crop following the 
corn saves this to the soil. It also adds organic 
matter to the soil. In the Eastern States one great 
trouble with our soils is that they are too hard and com¬ 
pact, because there is not enough organic matter in 
them. The cover crop, growing between two regular 
crops of the rotation, gives a large growth for plowing 
GASOLINE ENHINE ATTACHMENT 
Fig. 312. 
FOR HARVESTERS 
under. Some crops like clover or peas not only save 
the nitrates which might be washed from the soil, but 
obtain nitrogen from the air and thus add plant food 
as well as save it. The cover crop also helps the soil 
mechanically. By forming a living mat on the sur¬ 
face it prevents much gullying or washing, especially 
on rough land. Some deep-rooted crops, like turnips 
and clover, dig down with strong tap root and open 
the soil to considerable depth. These are the main 
arguments for the cover crop; there are many others. 
THE BULL TERRIER FAMILY. Fig. 313. 
Por a late-sown crop after corn is cut or potatoes 
are dug, rye is the crop usually seeded. This hardy 
crop can be sown in the latitude of New York as late 
as October 20 with good chance of growing. It is one 
of the easiest crops to grow, as it may be simply 
harrowed or cultivated in without complete fitting of 
the ground. The digging of potatoes works the 
ground sufficiently for rye seeding. After the vines 
are raked off the rye may be seeded and covered with 
a harrow. If seeding the cover crop is left until Sep- 
THE BIG STRAWBERRY PLANT CUT BACK. Fig. 314. 
tember 1 we should advise rye. This crop makes a 
heavy growth in Spring and furnishes a large amount 
of organic matter for plowing under. In some parts 
of the North a combination of barley and Canada field 
peas gives good results when seeded late in August or 
early in September. This cover crop does not live 
through the Winter, but gives a large amount of 
organic matter in its Fall growth. The most economi¬ 
cal way to use a cover crop with corn in a moist sea¬ 
son is to sow the seed at the last cultivation and let 
the crop grow along with the corn. In northern New 
Jersey we have found a combination of Crimson clover 
and Cow-horn turnips quite satisfactory. Crimson 
clover is an annual requiring cool weather for its 
development. Hot weather drives it to seed even when 
'only a few inches high, so that Spring seeding is a 
failure. With us about August 1 is the best time, or 
at the last cultivation of the. corn. Well started at 
that time it grows rapidly through the Fall, and if it 
can pass through March without being thrown out by 
frost it will grow fast through April and May, and 
be at its best about Decoration Day. It may be plowed 
under at that time, or be cut and cured for hay—the 
stubble being plowed under. 
The Cow-horn turnip is like others except that it 
grows somewhat like a parsnip, with a long tap root 
which works down a foot or more into the soil. It 
makes a good growth of top, usually dies through the 
W inter and leaves a good amount of organic matter 
to be plowed under. Dwarf Essex rape seed may be 
mixed with the turnip seed. You may call rape a 
turnip all run to top. It makes a heavy growth above 
ground much larger than turnip tops, while the roots 
are more like corn than turnips. The Crimson clover 
fails with us seven times out of 10—that is, the March 
freeze and thaw pulls it out. We feel that the Fall 
growth alone more than pays for seed and labor. If 
we wanted to be sure of something to plow under in 
the Spring we should use a peck of rye per acre in 
connection with the clover and turnip seed. 
In seeding our plan is to mix 12 pounds of Crimson 
clover seed with two pounds of turnip seed for one 
acre. At the time when we would naturally cultivate 
the corn for the last time this mixed seed is scattered 
evenly over the field. This can be done by hand, tak¬ 
ing two rows at a time. In some cases a boy rides on 
a steady Iiorse, throwing out the seed with Cahoon 
broadcast seeder. This covers six or more rows at a 
time. In this horse method a share of the seed sticks 
on the corn leaves, and more seed will be needed than 
with the hand method. After seeding we start the 
cultivators going twice in a row and working close to 
the right at each round so as to cover all the ground. 
The best thing we have found for this work is a light 
diamond-tooth cultivator, which is really a harrow. 
To do a thorough job we hang a plank or piece of 
joist to the back cultivator teeth, so that it drags or 
scrapes over the ground. This levels down the ridges 
and covers the seed about right. Many have asked* if 
we cultivate before seeding. No—the last cultivating 
for the season is done after seeding, for this covers 
the seed. 
In a very dry season the cover crop will prove a 
failure. This crop will fail to make a large growth, 
and the corn will suffer if there is not moisture enough 
for both. Where the conditions are right—with mois¬ 
ture enough in the soil, the cover crop will pay well, 
particularly if you can make clover grow. One of its 
best uses is to enable a farmer to grow several crops 
of corn year after year on the same land. We have 
one field in particular on a back hill where it is not 
convenient to haul stable manure. By sowing clover 
and turnips in the corn and using a fair amount of 
fertilizer when planting, we have been able to improve 
the soil and grow larger and larger crops of corn. 
MILK INSPECTORS AND THEIR WORK. 
The milk inspectors see all sorts of life in their 
work of spying into barns and dairy houses. The 
game they play is not all one-sided by any means. 
Right in the same dairy district they will meet en¬ 
tirely opposite conditions. In one dairy county lives 
an old farmer who is very particular about his 
stables; they are kept whitewashed and the concrete 
floors are washed. An inspector called to look over 
the place, and was inclined to give the dairy a low 
score. The farmer was inside the barn when the 
inspector came through the barnyard ready to give 
the premises a black mark. The farmer held him 
up at the barn door and would not let him come in 
until he had wiped his feet, so as not to track on the 
barn floor! 
In the same county the inspectors told a farmer 
to build a partition in the stable so as to separate 
the horses from the cows. This farmer built a 
rough partition with cracks between the boards. The 
door came off the hinges and was put up against the 
wall, leaving the door space open. While the horses 
were thus separated from the cows the manure was 
often left for days, making the air so strong with 
ammonia that the eyes would smart. Here were two 
extremes in the same dairy district, and one can 
imagine the tact and knowledge of human nature 
required by an inspector in order to do his duty 
and be of any benefit to dairymen and city consumers. 
It would be folly to send a man out for such work 
who had never lived or worked on a farm and who 
knows nothing of human nature as found in the 
cow country. Farmers would naturallv resent his in¬ 
terference and he would do far more harm than 
good. “Inspection” rightly made.might be made use¬ 
ful to all. 
