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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
they are simply chasing a gold brick. We cannot 
see that such extravagant articles do any good as 
practical educators, and they certainly give the un¬ 
tried and susceptible a wrong idea of farming. Prac¬ 
tical farmers know how to sift them down, hut the 
back-to-tlie-landers are unable to do this. 
BARNS OF STEEL OR CONCRETE. 
W OULD like to know your opinion on steel barns. 
I am about to erect a small barn on an 18-acre 
place, but have not sufficient capital to try ex¬ 
periments. Will the steel barn sweat, and make 
damp bay? h. mc c. 
Hockessin, Del. 
I am glad to note the demand for permanent farm 
buildings. Self-supporting trussed steel barn frames 
have been constructed which give great strength and 
economy of floor space. These have been, I think, in 
every way satisfactory. But the first cost is great, 
too great to permit of general use. 
The permanent structure, which is popular to-day, 
is the reinforced concrete structure. Barns are being 
built entirely of concrete and steel that are perma¬ 
nent, fireproof, neat and economical. The economy 
of reinforced concrete is due to tlie fact that when a 
beam of any material is supported at the ends and 
subjected to a load, the fibers in the upper surface 
of the beam are subject to a compressive force, while 
those in the lower part are subject to a tensile (pull¬ 
ing apart) force. Concrete has a very great com¬ 
pressive strength, but a very poor tensile strength. 
Steel has a very great tensile strength, and by em¬ 
bedding a very small per cent (commonly three- 
eighths of one per cent.) of steel in the lower part of 
a concrete beam, its tensile strength is made equal 
to its compressive strength. Steel costs 10 times as 
much per pound as concrete, and a concrete con¬ 
struction with a small per cent, of properly placed 
.steel reinforcement, gives a greater strength for the 
cost than either concrete or steel alone. 
The cost of a finished reinforced concrete building 
is said to be in general about 10 per cent, more than 
October IT, 
manure pulverized, though in car lots it may he con¬ 
siderably cheaper. 
We buy about 10^j ions of New York manure for 
the same price as one ton of pulverized sheep ma¬ 
nure and for our $30 we get : 
Tn one ton In lO 1 /^ tons N. Y. 
sheep manure. stables manure, 
pound. 
Organic matter . 1.426 4.704 
Nitrogen . 47 12.X 
Phosphoric acid . 33 115 
Potash . 39 117 
When we buy manure we buy it for the quickly 
decaying vegetable matter in it. The “plant food" 
is rather a side issue. We can get them cheaper in 
chemicals. I should consider good stable manure at 
$2.85 per ton a better purchase than sheep manure 
at anything over $8. e. ii. jenkins. 
TREATMENT OF AN APPLE ORCHARD. 
I HAVE an apple orchard 30 years of age. The trees 
do not bear what they should, as most of them look 
very healthy. Some trees in a row will be loaded 
well with fruit and those next to them will only 
have fruit on one side. The orchard of 350 trees had 
300 barrels four years ago, but since that, it averages 
about 100 or 150. What is the best plan to bring this 
orchard back to good bearing? It lias been in sod three 
years. I intended to prune the trees, removing ail dead 
limbs, spraying with lime-sulphur, and then plow the 
ground this Fall, sowing buckwheat on it in the early 
Spring with about 400 pounds of good fertilizer to the 
acre, and when the buckwheat is in blossom to plow it 
under, and keep the ground harrowed for the rest of 
the Summer, then in the Fall sow rye to be turned un¬ 
der in Spring. Is this a good plan? Also the kind of 
fertilizer to use and amount of same to acre. T. w. 
Greene Co.. N. Y. 
You plan to prune your orchard, removing the 
dead branches. I would remove more than this, in 
order to let the sunlight into the center of the tree. 
There is danger of thinning out too much, so that 
the growth will go to the branches rather than the 
fruit 
You plan to spray with lime-sulphur, using three 
gallons to nine gallons of water. The commercial 
lime-sulphur which tests 32 or 33 Beamne needs to 
he diluted 35 to 40 times before it can he used on 
trees in leaf. I would suggest the following plan for 
spraying your orchard. 
1. Dormant season before the leaf buds open but just 
as they are swelling. Use lime-sulphur 32 Beamne and 
dilute the concentrate 1-S. Add lead arsenate to the 
lime-sulphur in the proportion of two pounds to 50 gal¬ 
lons. 
2. After leaf buds open, but before blossoms open. 
Spray before rather than after a rain. Lime-sulphur 
solution 32 Beamne diluted 1-40 and arsenate of lead 
2-3 pounds to 50 gallons. 
3. After petals have fallen, beginning when about 
two-thirds have fallen. This is the most important ap¬ 
plication. Use same mixture as at the second spraying. 
4. Ten days to two weeks later. Before rain period. 
Same mixture as at second spraying. 
5. Eight or nine weeks after the blossoms fall. In 
case of late scab infectious or attacks of codling moth. 
In most seasons this mixture is unnecessary. Same 
mixture as at second spraying. 
__ If aphis appears spray before leaves curl with wlmlo- 
oil soap, one pound to six gallons, or with kerosene 
emulsion diluted with six parts of water or with one 
of the tobacco extracts. 
The use of a cover crop in combination with clean 
cultivation during the Summer is good orchard prac¬ 
tice. I would change your plan a little, however. 
Instead of sowing buckwheat in the Spring I would 
harrow the orchard until August, and then sow 
buckwheat and rye together. It might he well to in 
elude a leguminous crop. Before sowing the cover 
crop 1 would apply the fertilizer. The fertilizer 
should consist of about S per cent, phosphorus and 
10 per cent, potassium. The phosphorus may be in 
the form of acid phosphate or basic slag phosphate, 
and the potassium may be in the form of muriate of 
potash or sulphate of potash. Four hundred pounds 
to the acre should be sufficient. You may find that 
commercial fertilizer will not be always necessary, 
but it will be wise to apply it the first year. 
F. W. L. 
haps it will lie almost entirely motionless for a 
couple of hours or more. Observers have watched 
bees that have come from the fields, go into the hive, 
crawl into a cell and lie motionless for two or three 
hours at a time. The old legend, ‘busy as a bee,” 
does not always apply. If we had hired men that 
would work half a day and then loaf half a day, 
well, I don't know what we would do with them; 
but that is what the bees do sometimes, although 
ordinarily In the height of the season it is my be¬ 
lief that most of the bees are busy on the job from 
daylight until dark, but when the picking is poor 
and there is not much nectar to be had the bee 
goes into the hive and takes a period of rest. 
Whether these rest periods are common with other 
bees I am not entirely sure. It would take hours and 
hours at a time to determine the point, and what 
is more, it would he very difficult to look down in¬ 
side the hive without disturbing the normal rou¬ 
tine. When that is once disturbed bees will do a 
little differently from what they would provided 
they were left to their own sweet ways.” 
POPULATION OF A HIVE.—“About how many 
bees are to be found in the average hive?” 
“The number of bees in an average hive will vary 
according to the season. In the Spring of the year 
there will probably not he more than about 10.000 
individuals. About the time clover begins to come 
into bloom this number will be increased from 
10.000 to 25,000, or even 50.000. A hive with 50,000 
bees in it would he a very strong colony, aud is the 
exception rather than the rule.” 
A BEE CENSUS.—“How is it possible to count 
bees in this way?” 
“I have weighed a good many swarms of bees as 
they have been brought in by farmers. The heaviest 
swarm I ever knew of that was brought into Medina 
weighed five pounds and a half. A pound of bees 
that has been well fed or has taken with it all the 
honey it can carry will contain about 20.000 bees. 
If it is two or three story, as they often are for the 
production of extracted honey, it would contain two 
or three times as many.” 
$140 PER ACRE FROM CORN. 
S it possible to make about $90 per acre on corn in 
New York State ($90 net profit), as is done on the 
Hospital State Farm in South Carolina? I see the 
statement in the Country Gentleman, called “A 
Fortune from Run-Down Farms.” If possible, how can 
it be done in New York State? G. B. 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
“All things are possible,” hut not all are profitable 
or expedient. The article with these large figures 
describes a farm at an insane asylum! The writer 
says it required 15 years of dreaming and 20 years of 
hard work to make the dream come true. The in¬ 
come from this farm per acre is given as follows: 
INCOME. 
One hundred bushels of corn, at 90 cents.$ 90.00 
Three tons of silage from stalks, at $2. 0.00 
Two tons of corn stover, at $12. 24.00 
One ton of pea-vine hay. 20.00 
$140.00 
The expenses per acre are given at $49.25. The 
price of good No. 2 corn in New York city is S5 
cents, or a little over. It is doubtful if cornstalks 
would sell for more than $S per ton. The ton of 
pen vine hay, of course, could not be secured in New 
York State. In South Carolina it is possible to 
sow cow peas in the corn as a second crop. After 
the corn is cut the long Southern season enables the 
cow peas to grow and make a good crop. There have 
been cases where on single acres yields of 100 bushels 
of corn have been produced in New York. Our l>est 
farmers would be well satisfied with an average of 
70 bushels, while 50 would be very good for a begin¬ 
ner. The cost of growing the acre would probably 
be greater than the figures here given, while the in¬ 
come would be $40 or more less. If anyone has ever 
averaged a profit of $90 an acre growing corn in New 
York we would like to hear from him. Such glowing 
stories may have a basis of truth. They often show 
the possibilities of some unusual cultivation, or loca¬ 
tion, capital and skill. We have on our own farm 
a field of a little over an acre which gave last 
year 175 barrels of apples and over $200 worth 
of strawberries. At the same time other acres 
produced barely enough to pay for the labor of work¬ 
ing them. You must also remember that these fig¬ 
ures showing an income of $140 per acre do not rep¬ 
resent cash sales, but estimated values—a very dif¬ 
ferent thing. We avoid the printing of such great 
stories unless the figures are qualified and explained. 
The trouble is that these stories are read by inexperi¬ 
enced people who want some short cut to wealth at 
farming. Several of such people have already writ¬ 
ten us about these articles. They are almost per¬ 
suaded to buy poor land and spend their money at 
farming when every practical farmer knows that 
THE PRIZE CHICKEN. Fig. 52G. 
a good frame building, hut the saving in insurance, 
paint and repairs will probably in the end make the 
permanent building the cheapest. It is estimated 
that a trussed steel frame will cost about 15 per 
cent, more than reinforced concrete, and reinforced 
concrete will cost 10 ]>er cent more than wood. For 
a small barn on 18 acres I would suggest the hollow 
cement block structure with concrete floors. This is 
neat, durable and serviceable. 
None of the types under discussion “sweats.” A 
wooden structure absorbs and carries away to some 
extent the moisture from damp material, or that ex¬ 
haled from animals, and is dry. A monolithic (solid 
concrete) structure is a good conductor of both heat 
and moisture, and may be cold and damp. The hol¬ 
low block tile or double-walled concrete structure 
should be dry and of even temperature for a stable. 
F. L. ALLEN. 
THE VALUE OF SHEEP MANURE. 
HERE has boon of late much talk about pulver¬ 
ized sheep manure as a fertilizer for farm work 
as well as gardening. Some (|iiite extravagant 
stories have been told about this manure, and 
we are frequently asked if it will pay a farmer or gar¬ 
dener to buy it in place of stable manure or high-grade 
fertilizers. The following notes by Dr. E. II. Jenkins 
tell the story fairly and well: 
Sheep manure has this to commend it: It is an 
animal manure, which is line, has no coarse litter 
in it, and is comparatively inoffensive in odor. For 
the greenhouse and the lawn it is worth consider¬ 
ing, but for farm use—let us see. 
We pay $2.85 per ton for N. Y. stable manure de¬ 
livered at our freight station. We pay $30 for sheep 
A SMALL HEN WOMAN.—Tt is gratifying to see 
how thoroughly interested our readers are in 
their children. Evidently the homes into 
which The R. N.-Y. goes are cheered and brightened 
by these little folks, and the older people are proud 
of their children, and try to make much of them. 
We have pictures, sent us of this young stock, from 
time to time. There used to be a period when far¬ 
mers seemed more likely to send pictures of them¬ 
selves, with a suggestion that they would look well 
in print. We have less of that now than ever before, 
but very much more of the suggestion that the little 
folks might well lie shown. This is what we like, 
and we are glad to show some of these little people 
when the photographs are clear enough to make a 
good engraving. The little two-year-old girl shown 
at Fig. 526. is Winona H. Brock. Her father, An¬ 
drew C. Brock, of Delaware County, N. Y., sends 
this picture. Mr. Brock’s farm is known as “The 
Maples.” and we are sure that this little hen woman 
is the life of the farm, and as sweet as any maple 
sugar. 
