■Uhe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
69 
selling by the pouiul should l)e adopted for all 
solid products, including eggs. It will take time to 
change the present system, for most Eastern buyers 
are accustomed to using certain packages and meas¬ 
ures, but we should all get together to bring about 
til is reform. 
Home Storage for Apples 
B T’YEES and consumers are looking for better 
apples. The grower can produce them with 
jiroiier care, but cannot supply his trade the year 
around unless he has a proper storage. While we 
can dispose of our apples at picking time at prices 
ranging from .$l.r>0 to per barrel, we shoiild not 
overlook the local trade, which gives us the best 
jirofit, by placing a few hundred barrels in a good 
home storage, the profit of which will more than 
pay for putting up of storage the first yeai'. Prices 
Hillside Storage House for Fruit. Fig. 24 
as Avell as the demand for apples are always good 
in March and April in our home towns. Apples 
hold up longer after removing than they will out 
of cold storage. 
I Avork my storage in this Avay. At picking time 
I place my choicest varieties in my storage. ;My 
apples are advertised as choice apples. I have 
plenty of buyers from nearby towns and Baltimore, 
,‘1(5 miles uAvay. coming in automobiles, taking aAvay 
ftdl loads for AA'hich I am Avell jKiid. I have a 
local trade in a nearby toAvn of .o.OOO Avhere I run 
a delivery Avagon. My storage tipples are all picked 
in ba.skets and hauled to storage in stune basket on 
Avagon Avith springs and carefully dumped. There 
they stay nndi.sturbed until I Avant them for sale. 
I never need pick through them for dectiyed ones. 
They do not decay Avhen properly sprtiyed. T'n- 
sprayed apples Avill not hold up under the best 
stortige condition.s. 
This storage, Fig. 24, is a little more expensiA’e 
to build tlnin the old time AA’ood constructed caves 
in the hills but is the cheapest in the end—nothing 
to decay, Avhich means first cost all costs. The ex¬ 
tra money I received for apples the first year more 
than paid for the building. The cost of building 
Avas $100, storage capacity 100 barrels. I have sold 
(1 rimes Golden in Aiiril for $2 per bu.shel. Stay- 
man. AVine.sap and Paragon in .Tune at same price. 
llaA’e kept the Iaa-o last named until August in per¬ 
fect condition and exhibited Ben Davis at Maryland 
Horticultural SIioaa*, Baltimore. Nov. 10-20, 1915, 
that Avere groAvn in 1914, held more than 1.1 months 
and Avere in perfect condition., though color be¬ 
came pale. 
I Avould advise farmers avIio groAV 200 to .300 
bu.shels to build a similar .storage and IniA'e apples 
in A])ril Avith good flavor and sound. If pos.sihle 
select hillside sloping to the south or southAA'est, 
so the north and northAvest Avinds Avill not strike 
the entrance to storage. Dimensions inside are IG 
feet deep, 12 feet wide, six feet high at sides, nine 
feet in center of arch, built Avith IS-inch stone AA-all. 
Concrete avUI not giA'e moisture enough to insure 
the keeping of the apple. Notice in picture that 
it is neces.sary to extend the front Avail on each side 
in order to hold the earth hack. After Avails and 
arch are completed cover sides and top over arch 
Avith a good coat of earth. Before earth is put 
OA'er arch, juit over brick tAvo inches of good ce¬ 
ment and sand to make it Avater-tight—the arch is 
best to build with hard brick. Gi\'e interior sides of 
AA'all and arch a coat of one-inch cement plastering. 
Do not concrete bottom. By haA'ing earth bottom aa'c 
get the refluired moisture for apples, drops of AA’ater 
are dripping from arch at all time.s Avhich makes it 
ideal. 
For A'entilation. place two six-inch terra-cotta 
tiles in arch, one four feet from* front and the other 
four feet from back. Also one fourteen by four¬ 
teen inch ventilator in door by cutting into door the 
required size. Noav cover this opening Avith heavy 
Avire netting, this will give all ventilation needed. 
For extreme Aveather—zero and loAver—it Avill be 
neces.sary to have a second solid door to shut off 
the cold through first door. XoA-er clo.se the solid 
door unless the temperature falls near zero. Never 
close tope A’entilators. ItemoA-able .sheh-es are 
placed for the apple.s. Three are arranged one on 
top of the other, on each side of gangAvay. This 
gives six .shelves, each holding 50 bu.shels. or ,300 
bushels on all the shelA’es. d'he gangAA’ay .should 
be at least .3i4 feet Avide. j. m. mykrs. 
An Eastern Virginia Cornfield 
T he picture on first page is printed to shoAv 
AA'hat kind of corn they are able to raise on 
the light soil of Eastern Virginia, and also Avhat 
that .soil may be made to produce by taking ad- 
A-antage of Aveather and soil condition.s. Any far¬ 
mer can see from the size of this corn Avhat it 
Avonld do at harvest in grain and fodder. 
In the Spring of 1915 this field had a fair stand 
of Crimson clOAcr, AA’hich had been seeded the Sum¬ 
mer before. This cloA’er Avas ploAA’ed under In 
Spring, and about .300 pounds of acid pho.sphate 
per acre was broadcast. It avos .seeded to Soy 
beans the latter part of .Tune. The.se grew into a 
tine crop, reaching about 414 feet high. In .Tan- 
uaiy. 1910, this land Avas ploAved. Early potatoes 
were planted the latter part of February, fertilized 
at the rate of 700 to .SOO pounds to the acre. Oav- 
ing to the shortage of potash very little of that 
element Avas used. One brand contained six per 
cent, of nitrogen, seven of idiosphoric acid, and one 
of potash ; the other eight percent, of nitrogen and 
seA’en of phosphoric acid. There Avere harvested be- 
tAveen 70 and 80 barrels of fine potatoes, Avhich Avere 
dug from .Tune 15 to 20. 
About the first of .Tuly the field Avas made fit by 
ploAving and harroAving, and planted to corn. There 
Avere u.sed 1-50 pounds of fertilizer, a mixture of 
dried ground crab .scrap and acid phosphate. This 
fertilizer analyzed eight per cent, of nitrogen, and 
four of phosiihorie acid. This corn Avas Avorked 
Avhenever AA eather permitted, most of it Avith riding 
cultivators. At the last cultivation Crimson cloA'er 
and CoAA'-horu turnips AA’ere seeded in the corn. 
These Avill be ploAved under in the Spring, and Soy 
beans Avill be planted, to be folloAved by late pota- 
toe.s, planted about the first of August. 3’he soil 
ought to be in condition to make a great potato 
crop by using a small iiuantity of fertilizer. This 
simply shoAvs Avhat o«n be done on that Southern 
soil by making u.se of the nitrogen AA’hich nature 
has provided in such ample quantity. 
A Connecticut Hen Record 
T he folloAving hen record is sent by .Toseph L. 
Raul) of Connecticut, as a sample of the Avay 
lie keeps record, and also to sIioav Avhat his bird.s 
ran do. These birds Avere bought as day-old baby 
ohicks at 10 cents each. There is also a picture 
AA’hich .shoAA’s the home of the.se hens. 
it/. 
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EGG RECORID . 
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A Connecticut Hen Record, Fig. 25 
“ Substitutes” for Chemical Fertilizers 
I Avas told recently by a AA’ell-knoAvn man that the 
agricultural experts were on the Avrong track in re¬ 
gard to fertilizer. He said the fertilizer on the market 
was nothing more than a stimulant, and no good List¬ 
ing results could he had from it: al.so advistvl me to 
try a mixture of iron borings, agricultural salt and 
air-.slaked lime, eipial jiarts. Avhich he claimed Avould 
giA;e as good results and last longer than the best fer¬ 
tilizer I could buy. 3'hese ingredients he claimed all 
formed oxides Avhen entering the .soil. The idea of the 
Avhole thing is: give the plant lots of oxygen and it 
Avill get all it needs from the soil in a natural form. 
I think he sjmke mostly Avith the idea that the .soil 
Avas Avell supplied Avith humus. I huA’e u.sed fertilizer 
quite freely, mixing at home, and buying the ready- 
mixed. What do you think of thi.s theorvV L. AV. a. 
Columbia Co., N. Y. 
I T is a theory not yet reduced to a fact. The 
Avorld i.s Avell filled Avith people avIio thiidc they 
haA'e .suddenly come uiion .something of importance 
AA’hich the scientific men have not reached. Hardin 
a AA’eek passes us Avithout a letter or a call from 
some of these people. Some liaA’e a method for 
curing disea.se, some a great invention, and many 
Home of the Ten Hens. Fig. 26 
others like your friend, aa’Iio thinks the scientific 
mmi are Aery sIoaa' or else slaves to the big fer¬ 
tilizer interests. As an instance of this, some years 
ago a man Avrote us of a uoav plan of killing the 
San .lose scale. He had it ab.solutely sure—.said 
he had Avorked it out carefull.v. When AA’e came to 
take it up Avith him he asked us to send him a 
tAvig Avith .scales on it. He had 'never seen the iii- 
■vet. yet he had “invented" a remedy! As a rule 
Avhen people are ready to ujiset all modern facts 
and adA’ice about iilant food and iilant feeding they 
knoAA' .iust about as much about science as our friend 
did about .scale. 3’here are dozens of theories afloat, 
and many of them are being iin-estigated. but suc¬ 
cessful farmers slick to the old notion that crops 
must have supplies of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
pota.sh and that most .soils need lime. It is true 
that science is iioaa' telling us more and more about 
making the plant food noAv in the soil aA’ailable 
through the Avork of bacteria and increased oxida¬ 
tion. This Avork is developing, and Ave think in 
time AA’e .shall learn hoAv to u.se fertilizers Avith 
greater economy. Dn most of our Eastern farms 
fertilizers are a necessity. They are not ahA'ays 
used Avith judgment, but there can be no good rea¬ 
son AA’hy nitrogen, itotash and phosphorus in chemi¬ 
cals .should be called “stimulants" any more than 
similar plant food in manure, or Avhen it is made 
available in the soil. Most of our Eastern soil 
needs phosjihoric acid, and much of it needs pot¬ 
a.sh. In the majority of cases the.se can be ob¬ 
tained cheaiiest in the form of chemicals, and AA’e 
should buy them that Avay. Our advice is to de¬ 
pend for your business farming on your old plan 
of u.sing fertilizers. AVe should use the iron, salt 
and lime as an experiment on a small area and 
make careful records for comparison. We kneAA' 
a man once Avho for a long time ate too much food. 
The doctor told him to stop eating and take con¬ 
tinued doses of a certain “.s;ilt.” The patient did 
so and recovered, but he never did claim that the 
“salt" took the place of the food! 
Post Holes With Gasoline Power 
W E have had a lively cha.se after a post-hole 
digger Avhich is operated by gasoline poAver. 
.Some of our readers Avent to a movie shoAv and saAV 
such a digger boring the earth—as it can only be 
bored on a film. Alost people seem to take the 
movies as a .serious part of life, and thus Ave are 
asked to tell Avho makes this machine. We have 
hunted for it everyAvhere up to the big telegraph 
and telephone companies. No one has seen it, 
though all Avant it. Noav Ave come to the last re- 
•sort—our readers. No one can dig a hole by talk¬ 
ing about it, but can Ave use gas? 
