864 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 10, 
THE WORK OF A CORN BINDER. 
We have several corn binders in this neighborhood. 
Three horses and one man operate the machine, and 
two have to hustle to set it up. The machine has two 
jaws that straddle the row and work the corn on to 
the knife in a very narrow space. The machine gathers 
it in, clamps it together, binds it and throws it out of 
the way. One machine binds horizontally, another ver¬ 
tically. You begin some distance from one edge, 
straddle a row and go on, come back on the next row 
just as you would back-furrow in plowing, then finish 
up the land. You cannot cut across the ends. The 
machines are Jight, and soft ground is no hindrance. 
The corn stubble and cultivator tracks hold the 
machine on any hillside. The machine picks up down 
corn, simply cuts it off farther from the ground. Some 
farmers throw several bundles on the ground as a 
nucleus to form a stook around. It never molds out¬ 
doors in this locality; gets too dry rather. Three men 
and three horses will cut and stand up six to seven 
acres of fodder corn. Three men will have to work 
hard to cut an acre of fodder corn and lay it down. 
It i« worth $1 to $1.25 an acre to cut corn rows three 
feet apart with binder, three to five times as much by 
hand. A farmer with any sort of farm machine can 
get more outside work than he can do. One farmer 
last Fall cut short corn with grain binder; several 
others cut with a reaper. It is hard on these machines. 
Do not buy a machine till it is well tested; it ought to 
run an hour without cutting anything. D. p. b. 
New York. 
DONKEYS IN NEW MEXICO. 
We often have questions about the Western burro or 
donkey. Many people seem to regard them as good 
“companions” for children. Mr. H. N. Kerr, of New 
Mexico, sends us the picture shown at Fig. 375, and 
also the following statement: 
“In regard to the burros, I have a team of them. A 
burro will weigh from 300 to 500 pounds; they are 
black, white, grey, spotted or any color. A burro is 
used for mining purposes or ranching. They arc tame, 
gentle and good matured when treated right and taken 
care of. A burro will carry from 200 to 400 pounds on 
his back, and we use them here for ranching work. I 
can plow with a 10-inch plow one to V/ acres per day. 
With a 2 J /i ton wagon 1 have pulled a load of 1200 to 
l. r )oo pounds in mud and snow; no balking, they never 
refuse to pull. They arc creepy things; if fences are 
not good, that is, wire fences, they can creep under; 
if not they will not jump. They are the very thing 
for children to ride, but they have feelings, and must 
have good treatment and be petted if you want them 
to work well. They do not kick nor bite. They are 
worth from $10 to $25 each, and will do to drive, plow, 
harrow, ride, and are gentle for children that arc old 
enough to work a pony. A burro is slow on a walk, 
but sure. I can drive 11 miles in three hours. With 
a load it takes five hours. They will live on less grain 
than a mule. They arc the genuine ass of Bible times, 
no doubt. We have lots of them here; they are full 
blood. A burro wants kind treatment as well as any 
animal.” 
LAND LOANS IN RUSSIA. 
We have told how the Canadian and German farm¬ 
ers are able to obtain money loans from their govern¬ 
ment or private sources. Another plan is followed in 
Russia. Consul J. H. Grout, of Odessa, describes what 
is known as the Russian Nobility Bank: 
When, in 18(51, the form of slavery existing in Rus¬ 
sia, commonly known as “serfdom,” was abolished and 
the former slaves, or serfs, were endowed with a part of 
the estate owner’s lands, it was soon found that these 
members of the nobility needed assistance. The State 
had given the nobility salable bonds hearing good interest 
as indemnity for the lands taken, the valuation of which 
was fixed at rather more than the worth of the land in 
those remote days. Ilad the nobility been better pre- 
paied for the independent struggle for life they would 
have retained these bonds and, with the interest thereon, 
could have gradually evolved a sound system of farming 
their remaining lands with the aid of hired labor. In¬ 
stead, most o4 them hurried to sell the bonds, so that 
the money market was soon overstocked with them, and 
they had to be sold at great loss, bringing their owners 
not considerably more than the value of the land for 
which they had been given as indemnity, but consider¬ 
ably less. Having lost the labor of their serfs and part 
of their lands, the total of which in many’ cases had 
1.. but moderate, the nobility called on the State for 
assistance. 
The result was a land bank where these estates 
could be mortgaged up to OO per cent of their value at 
a low interest rate. In case of crop failure or calamity 
the year’s payment could be distributed over the three 
following years. The bank was also authorized to 
purchase parts of the noble’s estates when the owners 
could not pay interest. The lands thus acquired were 
sold to other nobles who wished to buy. Later a 
peasants’ land bank was organized, the object being to 
enable peasants to buy land. It came about that some 
of the nobles were unable to hold their large estates. 
These were bought by the bank, cut up into small 
holdings and sold to the peasants. To show the size 
of these land operations it is stated that there arc, in 
all, 26,439 estates mortgaged in the land bank for 
about $334,750,000. Thus we find that practically all 
over the world governments have found it advisable 
to encourage direct and indirect loans to farmers for 
soil improvement. In this country thus far little if 
anything of this sort has been done, while such land 
loans are even more necessary than in the older coun¬ 
tries. 
CUTTING CORN BY HAND; NO SILO. 
In cutting a field of corn by hand we usually take 
seven rows. In this section corn is not planted in 
hills, but simply in rows V/ feet apart, with planter 
dropping grains from 12 to 18 inches apart, according 
to fertility of the soil. In cutting seven rows to the 
shock we have three rows on each side of what we call 
the shock row. Every time we start a shock we let 
two strong stalks of corn stand and build our shocks 
big enough so they can withstand considerable storm. 
After we have a good-sized shock we tic it at once 
with a tie about one-third of the height of the shock 
from the top down. For a tie, we prefer the old- 
fashioned long rye straw tie, for the reason that when 
a shock is tied with long rye straw it stays tied. It 
will not get loose, the shock remaining firm and up¬ 
right, and fodder and cars cure out nicely in 20 to 25 
days. For several years we used tar rope and binder 
twine, but rain and sunshine stretch such ties, the 
stalks slip around with the wind currents, and over 
topples the shock for both fodder and cars to spoil on 
the ground. In preparing the rye straw we flail out 
the grain from the rye on the barn floor; after the 
grain is flailed out and the straw is beaten soft, we tic 
it in bundles and it is ready for use. An acre of good 
heavy corn is a good day’s work for a man to cut off. 
Such work is worth a dollar a day with hoarding. 
I might also add that a few farmers in this neigh¬ 
borhood have tried the corn-hinder and have discarded 
its use, saying that the man who runs the machine, 
and the two who follow to set up the corn, will put 
more corn in shock the old way than if the corn-binder 
is used; besides they tell me if you get a man to fol¬ 
low the hinder setting up corn bundles one day he 
will not likely do it for you again. Besides, a whole 
lot of ears will be broken off by the machine that some 
one must gather. “Oh,” says some silo enthusiast, “if 
you would have silos you would not need to put your 
corn in shock and husk out the ears by hand.” \ r es, 
we don’t all have silos, nor do we want any either; 
we still need some of that fine corn in ears, as it makes 
a good feed for all kinds of live stock, and is just as 
good for humans, while the fodder, if well cured, 
makes an excellent feed for wintering cattle. I can 
count three silos in this neighborhood that have gone 
the way of discarded things. c. E. harper. 
Dauphin Co., Pa. 
JULY CORN. 
The picture shown at Fig. 374 was taken in a corn 
field in Baldwin Co., Ala., July 6. You will see that 
this corn must have been planted early enough to 
permit the grain to mature by July 4, at a time when 
our Northern corn is barely waist high. There yet 
remains a season of 100 days or more of corn growing 
weather in Southern Alabama. A crop of flint corn 
could be planted after the first crop matures, with good 
prospects for ripening it, or cow peas, or several other 
crops can be grown. The possibilities for growing 
fodder crops in this warm Southern climate are very 
remarkable and ought to make this section a great 
dairy country. _ 
MOTHS IN BEEHIVES. 
Bee moths are making havoc in my hives. Is there any 
way to prevent it? reader. 
New York. 
It has long been accepted as a fact that no hive 
with an efficient queen and proper force of bees ever 
was, or ever can be, destroyed by the bee moth, but it 
is also nearly as certain that a queenless or otherwise 
very weak colony will be destroyed by them during 
the hot Summer months, as they breed very fast, and 
the larvae arc voracious eaters. There have been many 
so-called moth-proof hives, and moth traps invented in 
past years, but they are absolutely worthless for the 
purpose. The common black or German bee is much 
more susceptible to the ravages of the moth than the 
Italian. One can nearly always find a few of the 
worms or larva in a hive of the former, hut a good 
strain of Italians will simply not tolerate them, and 
will even tear out patches of comb where the worms 
are working, to get at them, and they have a way of 
their own of leading them out of the hive and leaving 
them on the alighting hoard that is pleasing to one 
who has had trouble with them. The female moth 
lays her eggs as near to the comb as possible, some¬ 
times on it, and at other times at the hive entrance, 
and especially in cracks in the hive that are stopped 
with propolis or bee glue. The larva feed on this as 
well as wax, but they never eat honey. They arc very 
destructive also of empty combs used for extracted 
honey, also of fine comb honey when away from the 
bees, it being nearly a universal practice to fumigate 
such combs and honey with brimstone, formalin or 
carbon bisulphide, to destroy any eggs or larva that 
may be on them. If the inquirer has lost many col¬ 
onies by moths, I should suspect the presence of foul 
brood, a disease which will soon weaken a colony so 
as to make them an easy prey to the moth, and which 
should be looked after at once if present, and treated 
to eradicate it as soon as possible. With this expla¬ 
nation it will be plain to see that the only way to get 
rid of the moth is to keep all colonies strong enough 
to cover all the combs in the hive during hot weather 
and any colony which does not do this is worthless 
for honey gathering, and had better be united with 
some other colony. When a colony becomes so badly 
infested as to be a mass of webs and cocoons, it is good 
economy to saturate them with kerosene and set them 
on fire, so as to prevent the moths hatching and so 
infesting other hives. If the bees have no disease 
(foul brood) and fail to build up strong, it will be 
good business policy to re-queen them, and if you do 
this by all means get Italian queens. j. a crane. 
PROLONGING RED CLOVER-ALFALFA. 
From limited experience and close observation I 
feel sure the life of Red clover can be materially pro¬ 
longed by early cutting, when in bloom, preventing it 
from approaching the seed stage, which exhausts and 
robs the plant constitutionally. But as to how long 
and far this can be carried we have no reliable data 
worth offering on the subject. However, if continuous 
clover only would satisfy, there would be no hesitancy 
whatever in promptly discarding Red clover and sub¬ 
stituting Alfalfa, which will outyield it several tons 
per acre per season, of more valuable hay, both for 
feeding stock and soil. While we arc truly lovers of 
Red clover, Alfalfa has it beaten at every turn. Eleven 
pounds of early cut, properly cured Alfalfa is equal in 
feeding value to eight pounds wheat bran. To be sure 
Alfalfa is more difficult to grow than Red clover, but 
those days are surely destined to grow less, until the 
order is completely reversed. To succeed with Alfalfa 
the case can be summed up and put into four require¬ 
ments. First, a drained soil; second, a fertile soil; 
third, lime, and fourth, inoculation. When conditions 
arc favorable its growth is simply wonderful, especially 
during dry seasons. In fact it is no less than a revela¬ 
tion, as well as an inspiration. And at harvest time, 
perspiration may be, with propriety, added to the list, 
at the rate of 98 per cent, while inspiration may lower 
temporarily to two per cent. This order is bound to be 
reversed, as new growth takes place and the latter will 
change places with the former. Tf Alfalfa is once well 
established it will, if cut in season, produce three crops 
yearly, without fuss, worry or reseeding and the total 
yield is invariably a surprise, the same as arc the feed¬ 
ing results. T. E. MARTIN. 
New York. 
Experience in Wisconsin. 
First, let me say I have never made any experiments 
personally, but I was familiar with an experiment tried 
by Mr. Hiram Smith 25 years ago. Mr. Smith was 
one of Wisconsin’s noted dairy farmers. He got hold 
of the biological law of its life and growth, to wit, 
that it is a biennial, finishing its life when seed is 
formed. So he kept, a field of clover as I recollect 
nine years, by cutting each crop usually three times a 
Summer, as soon as the blossoms appeared. This 
landed him well ahead of the seed forming. The con¬ 
sequence was that the plant thus thwarted in its effort 
to produce seed, rallied its forces and threw up a vig¬ 
orous growth again to complete its mission. By tak¬ 
ing advantage of this law he was enabled to keep a 
field of clover in strong producing trim and alive for 
nine years, I think. He took the precaution also to 
top-dress it every Fall just before the ground froze up 
with a generous supply of barnyard manure. One 
reason I have never tried this plan is that I have not 
grown clover for 10 years. I grow Alfalfa almost en¬ 
tirely. I believe, as I have said many times in Hoard’s 
Dairyman, that the farmers do more than any other 
agency to kill their clover by the mistaken notion of 
waiting until the heads arc brown and the seeds 
formed before they cut the crop. They are impelled 
to do this in the main by the fact that the clover cures 
so much more easily and surely when in that state. 
But if they would use hay caps they can cure it at any 
stage of growth, in the cock, and what is more, cure 
it so as to retain much more of its nutritive value. 
Wisconsin. w. d. hoard. 
Treatment for roup: One ounce permanganate of 
potash to three pints of water for submerging the head. 
For drinking purposes, dilute one pint of the above mix¬ 
ture in three or four pints of water. 
