13X0 
The Devons’ home here in Southern Maryland is 
the beautiful pasture nearly all the year, for short 
intervals they go in this barn, Fig. 572, which is 
typical of this county. It is a useful barn, the plan 
of which might be followed to advantage. The drive¬ 
way is plenty wide enough, for farm implements to 
he on the sides, such as plows, cultivators, harness, 
seeds, fertilizers, etc. It is very handy to drive a 
A MARYLAND CATTLE BARN. Fig. 570. 
load of hay right under cover at times. Even on 
Long Island I found the Devons reluctant to go into 
stalls at night—they seem always to prefer the 
open. The vice-president of the Maryland Horti¬ 
cultural Society wrote me that cattle in St. Mary’s 
County did better if allowed to be out all the year, 
and one of my tenants did so Winter before last, and 
his cattle wintered well. At any rate this is a far 
different climate from Winnipeg and Alberta, and 
the wheat here is fine, above the average in yield. 
Maryland. elbert wakeman. 
A FIG PROPOSITION—THE LATEST. 
H ALF a DOZEN people from Canada to Delaware 
have sent us the following notice, which appeared 
in the daily papers. We omit the address: 
“IS HE CRAZY? 
The owner of a large plantation in Mississippi, where 
the fine figs grow, is giving away a few five-acre fruit 
tracts. The only condition is that figs be planted. The 
owner wants enough figs raised to supply a co-operative 
canning factory. You can secure five acres and an in¬ 
terest in the canning factory by writing the. 
They will plant and care for your trees for $0 per 
month. Your profit should be $1,000 per year. Some 
think this man is crazy for giving away such valuable 
land, but there may be method in his madness.” 
This seems to be a very slick concealed advertisement 
—one of the meanest forms of fishing for suckers. We 
submitted the proposition to a very intelligent corre¬ 
spondent on the Gulf coast. Here is his report: 
River plantations along the Alabama and Tom- 
bigbee rivers, in Alabama, that is, alluvial deposit 
soil which was rated as a bale to the acre for cot¬ 
ton when slavery solved the labor question, can be 
bought at from $5 per acre up, due to the trouble of 
getting labor to cultivate the land. In view of the 
value of the land as a whole, I would not judge 
that it would be much over $10 to $"15 per acre, 
and it is a good proposition for a seller to give 
away five acres worth $75 and get $72 per year for 
several years for looking after it. I do not think 
the man is mad, but wants to unload his plantation. 
The fig orchard proposition is a very dangerous 
enterprise for a Northern man to venture on. As a 
rule, with rare exceptions, the orchard treatment of 
figs is a failure in this country; Cudahy, the meat 
packer, set out an orchard of l. - !.000 trees in Baldwin 
County, within .30 miles of Mobile, got an expert 
from Chicago to operate it, and this season (1914) 
estimated he should get a good crop for young trees. 
I have learned on authority that I accept as correct, 
that every tree in the tract dropped its entire crop, 
and the orchard produced no revenue at all. No 
doubt his manager was competent to manage a 
peach, apple or ordinary orchard, and assumed that 
the fig was amenable to the same treatment, which 
it is not. 
While California has fig orchards and produces 
dried figs, they are from what I have read and heard, 
mostly of the Smyrna type, the male and female 
trees, and fertilized by the fig wasp, the insect often 
being brought from points south of the orchard 
where the climate permits them to winter. This is 
an entirely different fruit from our figs, which be¬ 
long to the “mule” type, and are incapable of being 
reproduced from seed, but are propagated by cut¬ 
tings and suckers and it. is probable that the Cali¬ 
fornia methods would not work on this different tree. 
The California fig is primarily large, rather coarse 
and well adapted to drying; our fruit is small, juicy, 
delicate, and is pre-eminently a table and preserving 
fig and is practically useless for drying. The fig is 
a very delicate fruit, and a rain on it when about 
ripe swells and sours it on the trees, so a large por¬ 
tion of the crop is lost this way; I figure on an av¬ 
erage that half of the fruit on my place is destined 
to be lost this way; the season .just gone, I believe it 
amounted to two-thirds of the crop The tig ripens 
in our season of rains, so yu can safely figure the 
T M K KUKAl. NEW-YOKKEh 
rain damage. The year of the great, freeze, I for¬ 
get the date, that wiped out the Florida orange 
orchards, every fig tree in this section was cut to 
the ground, but grew again from the roots. 
There is no doubt that there is good money to be 
made from a fig orchard, as the supply is short of 
the demand, but to successfully orchard the fig is 
something which will require more study, and is a 
proposition for the future. It is strictly to-day a 
hack-yard and fence-corner tree, flourishing in such 
locations of apparent neglect, and such conditions, 
in view of present information, must be duplicated 
to orchard it successfully. The co-operative cannery 
looks like a promoter to me. The fig canneries here 
are those putting up oysters and shrimps, and are 
open for the fig season with nothing else to do, when 
it comes. An ordinary cannery would have to use 
them as a side line, or crowd out some other fruit, 
and could operate just as well without figs as not. 
Taking the proposition in another light, if a man 
had a good and productive plantation which he could 
cultivate, he would not get rid of it in five-acre drib¬ 
lets at a reasonable price, certainly not give it. away. 
Further, if he had a good plantation but had not 
available labor to work it, how could he get the 
labor to cultivate the small tracts? We have a good 
climate, the range in temperature compared to other 
sections is small, it suits me right down to the 
ground, but 1 very seriously doubt that the average 
Northern man would like it after he had grown up 
under other conditions; further, he does not under¬ 
stand the negro, and would never learn to handle 
that class of labor, practically the only kind avail- 
A TYPICAL DEVON COW. Fig. 571. 
able, and I would not advise him either to buy or 
accept as a gift (without a string to it) any land 
down here, until he had lived here several years and 
saw if it suited him. He probably would not care to 
live on his place, and to run it by absent treatment 
would be a losing proposition, and he couldn't sell 
it, for I do not think there is a market for fig or¬ 
chards; I have never seen one offered, and doubt a 
buyer could be found if it was. 
CONCRETE FLOOR FOR BARN. 
I WOULD like advice about putting cement bottom 
in a basement barn 30x60 feet. A. A. 
Addison, N. Y. 
If your floor is to be a continuous basement floor, 
without special arrangements for stalls, etc., its con¬ 
struction will lie a very simple matter. If the soil is 
of open, well-drained character, the dirt floor may be 
leveled and tamped, and the concrete laid directly 
upon it, but if it is inclined to be wet it will be safer 
to lay a sub-base of field and cobble stones eight or 
10 inches in depth. Build the concrete floor in sec¬ 
tions, working from the walls toward the centre to 
permit of using the open centre for working pur¬ 
poses. Set 2x4 scantlings upon edge against the base 
of the wall, running the long way, and parallel with 
them and eight or 10 feet distant, another line of 
scantlings, fastening these to the ground by means 
of short stakes. Fill the space between these two 
lines of scantlings Avith your concrete mixture, level¬ 
ing it with a straight-edged board resting at the ends 
upon the scantlings. After the concrete has become 
somewhat stiff, finish the surface with a rough float 
or wire brush. Set another line of scantlings at a 
convenient distance within this section, and continue 
the process until the floor is completed, removing the 
used scantlings as soon as the concrete has become 
sufficiently set and filling the spaces left with the 
concrete mixture. The standard mixture for such 
a floor would he one part of cement, tAvo and a half 
parts of sand and five parts of crushed stone or 
gravel; if you have a natural hank mixture of gravel 
and sand suitable for this purpose, hoAvever, one part 
of cement to six or seven of sand and gravel should 
make a good floor; local masons should be able to 
advise you as to the proportions needed. Unless a 
November 7, 
specially smooth, hard, surface is wanted, it. is not 
necessary to use a finishing coat of sand and cement. 
Small cobble stones may Avell he used in the concrete, 
but they should not be allowed to come within less 
than one or t.Avo inches of the surface. If desired to 
Avaterproof the floor, a layer of concrete may he laid 
and tarred paper spread over it; this to he mopped 
over with hot tar and the concrete filling then com¬ 
pleted. With some one who understands the mixing 
of concrete to supervise the work, such a floor may 
easily be laid by ordinary labor. m. b. d. 
FARM ECONOMY—A CROP ROTATION. 
C AN you help me solve the following question in 
crop rotations? A man, having a farm of a given 
size Avishcs to raise chickens and hogs as Ids chief 
products Avith orcharding, potatoes and bay as 
side lines. His grain crops therefore must comprise, to 
be used exclusively in feeding his live stock, corn 
(chiefly), oats, wheat, buckwheat. He sets apart a 
certain portion of the farm for orchard, buildings, per¬ 
manent pasture and garden (potatoes), the remainder 
for his grains. He naturally wishes to have the rota¬ 
tion shortest possible, thereby cutting his land up into 
the least number of plots and having the fields the larg¬ 
est possible. My idea would be: 
First year, corn ; last cultivation plant cover crop. 
Second year, corn; after harvested sow Winter wheat. 
Third year, one-half of field to buckwheat (for chickens) 
and one-half to Soy beans or some crop which would 
make good roughage for hogs, and which can be planted 
late. These tAvo crops are put in after wheat is off. 
Cover crop same Fall, if possible. Fourth year, oats 
and clover, sown together. Harvest oats, then pas¬ 
ture clover, from say middle of August on, with hogs. 
Fifth and sixth years, hay, light cutting first year. 
With regular cutting second year, would this hay crop 
pay? However, this rotation requires a long period, and 
consequent inconveniences. It is possible that you may 
consider some one of these crops unprofitable, or that 
one could buy necessary amount rather than raise it. 
If so, of course, omit it. K. E. 
NeAV York. 
The proposed plan of crop rotation is quite a feasi¬ 
ble one. It Avould seem to me, however, that the fol- 
loAving suggestions might add value: 
First year, previous to last cultivation, soav cover 
crop of Avheat and vetch or rye and vetch. Second 
year, corn, to he followed by Winter Avheat. Third 
year, instead of putting in buckwheat and Soy beans 
as suggested, I would prefer to seed a mixture of 
rape and Soy beans, utilizing six pounds of rape and 
a bushel of Soy beans per acre These could be 
seeded after the wheat had been harvested, and 
Avould make a most excellent forage for swine. A 
cover crop consisting of rye and vetch or wheat and 
vetch should be seeded in the Fall. Fourth year, 
oats and Canada field peas, drilled early in the 
Spring. They may be harvested either as green for¬ 
age or cured as bay, or even matured as hay and 
thrashed. This field should lie seeded to grass dur¬ 
ing August or September Avithout a nurse crop. We 
have had the best results in establishing meadows by 
taking advantage of the Fall seeding of grass seed. 
A crop of hay could be harvested during the next 
tAvo years, and it is recommended that a mixture of 
grass seed be utilized, namely, Timothy, Alsike, Red 
clover with a little Alfalfa, rather than straight 
cloA'er or Timothy. 
If it is intended to produce crops primarily for 
ponltry and swine, the rotation could he shortened, 
utilizing corn, to be followed Avith a cover crop 
seeded in the Fall. This area could he pastured in 
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DIAGRAM OF MARYLAND BARN. Fig. 57: 
the early Spring, and the rye and wheat harvested 
as sciatch feed for the chickens and the area plowed 
and seeded with rape or Soy beans; this crop to be 
utilized as forage for SAvine. After frost appears in 
the Fall the ground could again he plowed and 
seeded to a cover crop, and this rye and vetch plowed 
under during the early Spring, and the area planted 
Avith corn. This is a two-year rotation that is very 
practical and useful? The swine and poultry pro¬ 
ducts in this case would be the only cash products, 
unless other areas of the farm were devoted to hay 
and other grains. r. c. minkler. 
NeAV York. 
