1910. 
1071 
A FARMHOUSE PORCH. 
I am sending you two pictures of my father’s farm¬ 
house. The one, Fig. 456, shows the house as it was 
built 59 years ago, with just a little SJ/lxe-foot porch 
at the front entrance; and the other, Fig. 457, shows 
how much the same house is improved in looks by an 
up-to-date porch eight feet wide and IS feet long. 
This porch was built for the small sum of $105, and is 
THE OLD FARMHOUSE AS BUILT. Fig. 456. 
as nice a porch as any farmer would care to have. 
The foundation is cement piers 20 inches square. 
There are four of them, two each side of steps, and 
they are made of white quartz stones laid in cement. 
This makes a fine looking pier, and they are as solid 
as a rock, and certainly any farmer who has any stones 
on his farm, can find plenty of this kind. Everyone 
who sees our porch comments on the handsome piers 
we have. eleanor jones. 
Columbia Co., N. Y. 
CANADIAN FARM DRAINAGE LOANS. 
The farmers of the township of Gostield South are 
very much pleased with the plan of borrowing money 
through the township for drainage work. We have 
borrowed $20,000, and that is nearly all paid. We are 
so well satisfied that we have applied for another $20,- 
000. The township council passes a by-law authoriz¬ 
ing the reeve and clerk to borrow the amount of money 
required from the Ontario Government. Any person 
requiring a loan would apply to the township council. 
The council loans the money for 20 years, and it is 
paid back in equal yearly installments. For example, 
if a man borrows $100 he pays $7.36 a year; this in¬ 
cludes the interest. lie can pay it up at any time he 
wishes by paying seven per cent on the unpaid prin¬ 
cipal from the time he has had it. The Ontario Gov¬ 
ernment will give all the information. B. w. w. 
Ruthven, Ont. 
R. N.-Y.—We shall continue to talk about this un¬ 
til American farmers have the same privilege or some¬ 
thing like it. The constitution of New York will not 
permit such public loans, but some way must be pro¬ 
vided for them. _ 
FIELD STONES IN CONCRETE WORK. 
I notice on page 1005 an article by E. V. in answer 
to a question on the filling in of concrete work with 
field stones. As I have had considerable experience 
with the use of stones in concrete I should like to state 
same, as I believe anyone who cares to try stones and 
has them handy will find it saves not only concrete but 
a great deal of time, especially in the construction of 
foundations and walls. We mix one part Portland 
cement to three parts good clean sand. In mixing large 
quantities we pile cement and sand together on mixing 
platform, then one or two men, as the case may be, 
shovel it to the other end of the platform, while an¬ 
other man keeps the new pile well raked with an iron 
rake. Then we repeat, throwing back to the other end 
and raking, when we make a hole in the center and 
add the water. By pushing the cement back into the 
water gradually no water gets away. This pile of 
moist cement is then reshoveled to the other end of 
form and raked the same time as the sand and cement. 
As it is being thrown back it is well to add sufficient 
water by using a large-holed sprinkling can, which 
will not permit enough water at a time to run the 
cement away. We find this much quicker and easier 
than the hose method. With this mixture we use any 
size of stone that will lie in the forms and not touch 
the sides. We use big stones, and exercise care in 
seeing that no two stones touch, yet just as many as 
possible are put in. 
We just finished a wall or foundation for a barn 
40x50, 10 feet high and one foot thick, and I think in 
the entire job a two-gallon bucket of cement will 
plaster every hole. I have had occasion to test this 
work by having to tear out a wall so built, and find the 
stone will break before the cement will let loose. We 
mix rather thin, so the cement will run into the pores 
and crevices of the stones. E. A. albyn. 
Licking Co., Ohio. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
THE CONSUMER’S DOLLAR AGAIN. 
I have read your article entitled “The Consumer’s 
Dollar,” page 1002. I am enclosing sale account of 
a car of potatoes that I sold last Spring. Understand, 
this car was sold for my account. I was disgusted 
with the way we were being used in our own town, 
and loaded two cars. I was offered for one carload on 
track in Houlton 50 cents per barrel. I realized 69.6 
cents per barrel, there being only a shrinkage of 2)4 
bushels. The other car fell short 31 bushels, and was 
a much smaller car. Where that 31 bushels went to 
I never found out; but let me say right here that I do 
not believe that the commission man cheated me; but 
thz potatoes disappeared somewhere. As to what is 
being said and written about the high cost of living, 
and the back-to-the-farm movement, if they will only 
give us a decent profit on what we do raise now we 
will show that we can double our production of crops 
in a short time. But railroad presidents and college 
presidents and editors may talk and write until the 
crack of doom and it will make no difference; unless 
we farmers get a living profit from our crops there 
will be no important move toward going back to the 
farm. Our Government has been spending a goodly 
sum of money trying to find out where the trouble lies. 
After the commission had been in session about three 
weeks I saw the published statement that they had 
found it to be a fact that the producer of farm crops 
could not sell directly to the retailer. (Not the con¬ 
sumer, mind you). The retailer is compelled to ignore 
the farmer and in many instances dare not buy from 
the farmer, and I would like to get in touch with a 
retail man who had the courage to try the experiment. 
Y\ r e farmers see where all the trouble lies, and we 
hope that the day is not far distant when we can get 
together and control the marketing of our own pro¬ 
duce. We can do it if we try. If I could get next to 
a retail man who could handle my produce I would 
THE FARMHOUSE WITH A PORCH. Fig. 457. 
give an object lesson to some of my farmer friends. 
Another trouble is this; farmers are afraid of dishon¬ 
est brokers or commission men. We cannot do much 
shipping to commission men, as let they be ever so 
honest, the rate of commission is too high. I am 
pleased with The R. N.-Y., and trust that your shadow 
will never grow less. fred a. barton. 
Aroostook Co., Maine. 
R. N.-Y.—That carload of potatoes was sent to 
Springfield, Mass. The following returns were made 
by the commission man: 
624 bushels potatoes at 35c.$218.40 
Freight, etc.$68.40 
Commission . 31.20 
-99.60 
$118.80 
Thus we see that 624 bushels of potatoes brought 
Mr. Barton $118.80, or 19 cents per bushel. At the 
lowest calculation these potatoes retailed last Spring 
at 90 cents per bushel, so that the producer received a 
trifle over 20 cents of the consumer’s dollar. 
BREEDING PEDIGREED POTATO SEED. 
In regard to the much discussed question of what 
size seed potatoes to plant, how to select the tubers, 
etc., I have worked out the following which I think 
the very best way: First I select as many of the best 
tubers of a variety as I wish to raise my next year’s 
seed stock from, or in case I buy a new variety I take 
them all and plant by hand, taking the uncut tubers in 
a basket, and cut and drop them in the row at the 
same time; that is I take a tuber from the basket on 
my arm, cut and drop as far as it will go, then take 
another, etc., until I have them all cut and dropped; 
then cover by hand, making a unit of each tuber. I 
think this is far better than first cutting and throwing 
together and then planting the selected tubers, as that 
way loses the characteristic or the individuality of each 
tuber. 
What do I find through the growing season and at 
digging by. my way, where each tuber is planted as a 
unit (together) ? I keep close watch of them in the 
latter part of the growing season, and find the major¬ 
ity of the tubers making a uniform top growth. I am 
not able to distinguish the hills of one tuber from 
another, and the same when dug, but I find a few 
weak-growing tops or degenerates, not single hills 
here and there, but almost invariably several together, 
or as many as the original tuber, about six or eight. 
This plainly shows that the degeneracy of potatoes is 
in the whole tuber and not in the single eyes. Of 
course these are marked or dug out before the others 
are dug, and almost invariably yield small potatoes. I 
have not found that the size of the tuber planted has 
anything to do with the degeneracy, provided of course 
they were not taken from degenerate stock, but planted 
as a unit have found that any size tuber is liable to 
degenerate or produce tops that would blight early and 
produce small tubers. Why, I cannot say. We can 
readily see that if. a planter selects the small potatoes 
year after year he is bound to get more and more of 
the degenerates to reduce his yield, and will then say 
his potatoes are “running out.” 
In growing my seed stock in this way I have dis¬ 
covered at rare intervals tubers that would grow an 
extra large top, remaining green after the others had 
died down, and when dug would give a better yield 
than the rest. I have been testing some of these, and 
think a new variety can be originated this way as 
well as by planting the seed from the seed balls. Of 
course these are sports or variations from the original 
type. Seed stock planted and treated like this (and 
there will be nearly always a few degenerates to dig 
out each year from apparently good tubers) will keep 
its original vigor indefinitely, but I do not believe 
that a variety can be much improved over the original, 
except a sport or variation could be found, and then it 
would become practically a new variety. To raise 
one’s seed stock this way it is not necessary to have 
a separate field; a few rows can be planted by hand by 
the side of the main field, digging out the inferior or 
degenerate hills separately, treating them otherwise the 
same as the main field. When one raises his own 
planting stock I believe this extra work will pay 
grandly. Charles l. todd. 
New York. 
SELECTING SMALL GRAIN SEED. 
The Kansas Station has been testing seed wheat 
The object was to learn whether the largest grains 
of wheat were best for seed. It was found that 
selecting grain by size alone did not give the best 
seed. While there was a slight difference in favor 
of the larger seed, this difference was not sure, and 
at any rate, so small that it would hardly pay to 
screen for this purpose. Experiments were then 
made to sec if the denser kernels would be surer to 
germinate. By “dense” is meant solid, or the kernels 
which have the greatest weight in proportion to size. 
The separation of the wheat according to the density 
of the kernels was accomplished with a wind-blast grader 
—the theory being, and later by actual tests was proven, 
to be a fact, that kernels of greater density would fall 
first, while kernels of lesser density would be carried far¬ 
ther in proportion to their density, so that by catching 
the falling kernels in divisions or boxes placed at certain 
distances from the blast they would be graded according 
to density, with the first grade nearest the blast. The 
graders used iu this test were of two kinds. The first 
one was a long, tin tube from which the kernels were 
blown and allowed to fall into boxes placed at certain 
distances on the floor. The second was a deep, narrow 
channel between two pieces of tin closed except at the 
FIRST PRIZE NEW YORK AYRSHIRE BULL. Fig. 458. 
extreme end, so that the kernels were affected by the same 
blast all through the grader. The bottom of this grader 
was divided into six divisions that could be opened for 
the removal of the kernels that fell into them. Both lasts 
were run by a motor and a centrifugal fan. The motor 
was so arranged that the speed was constant. 
In another case, both methods were used—that is, 
the grain was separated first by running it in a 
screen, and the larger kernels were blown through 
the grader. The test showed that the dense or solid 
kernels gave by far the best germination and were 
best for seed. 
