36 
much help is furnished. That, added to the shuck- 
ers’ wages and board, and all other expenses inci¬ 
dental to cost, of production, leaves our farmers 
with the balance in red ink this year. At this writ¬ 
ing the local corn prices are from 43c to 45c. No 
one is selling except those who must sell to meet 
obligations. Many are going flat broke. Especially 
is this the case among young tenants paying cash 
rent. The share renters are a little better fixed, but 
not much. 
MARKETING.—Shelled corn as well as other 
grain is hauled to market in tight wagon boxes hold¬ 
ing 50 bushels or more. The rear end board of 
the bottom box is hinged at about one-third its 
length. At the elevator in town, wagon, load and 
driver are weighed together. The load is then driven 
onto the “dump,” a trap door opened below and be¬ 
hind the rear end, that hinged end board or gate 
unlocked and pulled clear out. The elevator man 
then springs a trap that raises the front end of the 
wagon and at the same time drops the rear end to 
floor level, thus allowing the load to run out in a 
few moments. Driving the team ahead three or 
four feet brings the wagon back to level again, and 
also resets the dump ready for the next load. The 
wagon is then driven on the scales again to be 
“weighed back,” as it is called. These same ele¬ 
vator dumps will also handle trucks, both large and 
small. 
Now although I have been very conservative in 
all statements made in this letter, and have only 
told what I know to be the exact truth, I know from 
past experiences years ago among relatives in On¬ 
tario. just across the lake from Rochester, that 
many of my readers will shake their heads and 
wonder if that fellow is not “handling the truth 
carelessly.” Like the man of old, my answer is 
“Come and see.” j.h. tubbs. 
Nebraska. 
Good Results From Swamp Muck 
T HE reproduced photograph, Fig. 10, shows a por¬ 
tion of my garden, with the good results of an 
application of meadow muck to sandy soil. This 
garden is on a level plain, composed of sand and 
gravel, very porous. This sand and gravel was un¬ 
doubtedly washed here at some remote period, and 
contains hardly any plant food. The application of 
meadow muck was made in the late Fall of 1010. and 
was plowed in last Spring. Fig. 17 shows meadow 
from which I took the muck. There is a deposit 
here from 5 ft. to 0 ft. in depth. After the first 
5 or 6 in. are removed it is one solid mass of de¬ 
cayed vegetation, as dark as well-rotted stable ma¬ 
nure. and easily mistaken for manure when dumped 
in the field for use. This is so saturated with water, 
and so located that natural drainage is out of the 
question, that a trench pump was employed while 
making the excavation. 
My home garden is nothing but sand and gravel. 
Loam was hauled here by my father, but the soil 
was so porous that moisture was soon lost, and even 
a short period without rain sufficed to wilt and in¬ 
jure growing vegetables. I had eight two-horse 
loads of this muck hauled on a section of my garden 
in the late Autumn of 1919. Dumped it in piles and 
left it there until the following Spring, Thar, spread 
it about 4 in. deep and plowed it in. No lime was 
used. The frosts of Winter and the mixing with 
the sand and gravel seemed to be all that was neces¬ 
sary. * I consider that this muck was of greater value 
than an equal amount of the best stable manure. I 
can so state because I used cow manure on other 
parts of m.v garden and closely observed plant 
growth, yield, effect of dry weather, etc. I propose 
to use more of this muck and buy no manure at all. 
In fact. I 'have a field of five acres of sandy loam, 
and I am planning to haul a considerable quantity 
of muck to that- For lawns it is most excellent, as 
it promotes rapid growth, retains moisture and seems 
to cause the grass to be more green. The muck I 
have is rich in nitrogen; is easily pulverized. It 
is undoubtedly better than the average muck; but 
all muck is composed of washings from the high¬ 
lands, decayed vegetation, etc., and contains just 
what is required to restore fertility to light and 
depleted soils. frank e. mitcheix. 
New Hampshire. 
R. N.-Y.—We have no doubt that many of our 
readers have swamps with muck deposits which 
would provide the equivalent of many hundred tons 
of manure. If it could be hauled out, dried and 
mixed with lime, it would save many a fertilizer bill. 
Remarkable Production on a Hill Farm 
O NE of Tioga County’s hill farms comes forward 
this year with an item in production that 
should add •materially to the Empire State’s reputa¬ 
tion as a record maker, agriculturally speaking. 
7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Nature has been generous on all sides this season. 
She has acted as if she knew that the Winter of 
1920 would see almost unprecedented need for food 
in a starving world, and as if, too, she had confidence 
in the ability of man to supply the lack in one place 
with the abundance from another. Alas that Nature 
must be disappointed in her human children; that 
she must see the pitiful hands of want stretched out 
from lands that are stark and bare in a vain attempt 
to reach the plenty that wastes in our own. 
The good dame Holstein, shown in Fig. 15, traces 
the major part of her blood back to Northern 
Europe, where countless infants will die this Winter 
Garden After Muck Was Used. Fig. 16 
for lack of milk. As if the thought of this had 
spurred her to her utmost, she gave birth last Fall 
to triplet heifer calves, three potential milk pro¬ 
ducers, with the power, when developed, to put roses 
into the cheeks of more children than any score of 
New York’s farms can display in these days of 
rapidly disappearing American families. 
So unusual are three calves at a birth that Madam 
Holstein attracted the attention of the county Farm 
Bureau and a photographer was sent to take a pic¬ 
ture of the family. The youngsters rather coyly 
turned their heads from the camera, but their dam’s 
complacent expression shows that she feels that none 
too much honor is being paid such remarkable chil¬ 
dren, and that, after all, what she has done isn’t 
much more than might be expected from one who 
traces her blood lines back into ancient history. 
It would be pleasant to state that these three 
heifer calves will grow up to continue the good work 
of their dam on the farm, but the facts are other. 
The outlook for fair prices for dairy products just 
now is not one that justifies a dairyman in quad¬ 
rupling the size of his herd, and these three infants 
went to the block as soon as they had reached the 
stage of good veal. Seventy-five dollars for three 
veals nowadays beats three of a kind, when that 
kind is of a sort that promises to add more and more 
to «the “milk surplus” for which puny infants are 
crying, while milk distributors show far less interest 
in canning milk than in attempting to McCann the 
milk producers. m. B - D - 
Experience With Glazed Tile 
W. C. of Pennsylvania wishes to know whether 
• he should use glazed tile or iron pipe for con¬ 
veying water from a spring to his buildings. I would 
say by all means use tile. Its first cost is much less; 
it never delivers rusty or off-quality water, as iron 
Where the Muck Came From. Fig. 11 
does; will last longer and will deliver more water 
to the inch of original bore of pipe, for the reason 
that rust “blisters” form in iron pipe and very 
materially lessen the flow of water. On our home 
farm here is a line of 4-in. glazed tile which has 
been in service for 46 years, and shows no evidence 
of wear. This line is about one-tliird of a mile in 
length. In laying it the mistake was made of plac¬ 
ing only clay over the joints. They should have been 
carefully cemented. In consequence we have had 
several expensive diggings to locate elder roots 
January 8, 1921 
which have got in at the joints and choked the tile. 
We have another line of glazed tile, about 6,000 ft. 
in length, of 6-in. tile, furnishing the water supply 
for an artificial lake. This line has been in service 
11 years. Our mistake in making this line was in 
running it over some .sharp elevations, instead of go¬ 
ing around them. The result has been quite a num¬ 
ber of breaks in the line, caused by condensed air 
at the tops of these elevations. We have recently 
put air vents in the line, and think that we have 
overcome our troubles. 
In conclusion I would say to F. W. C. use glazed 
tile, cement the joints carefully and avojd sharp 
elevations, if possible. If this is impossible, then 
dig your trench very deep at these elevations, if 
necessary. Unless you are a very young man. the 
undertaker will get you before there will be any 
need of relaying the line because of wear on the tile. 
New Jersey. a. n. roe. 
Pasture and Barn Notes 
LEAN MANGERS.—Hoover taught the gospel 
of the clean plate. Some superhuman dairy¬ 
man ought to rise up and spread the gospel of the 
clean manger. Recently we placed a bunch of 
heifers that were in poor flesh under the care of a 
hired man, and told him to feed them all they would 
eat. Three or four days later I happened in tin 1 
barn after these heifers had finished feeding, and 
noticed good silage in front of each one of them. I 
called the man’s attention to it, but, as often is the 
case, did not make my point. Things went along 
for a month, and the heifers apparently made no 
gain. Then I took things in hand in earnest, and 
sufficiently impressed it upon the feeder that he must 
not give them any more silage, grain or hay than 
they would clean up at a feeding. He caught on, 
and the improvement of the heifers dated from that 
time. In growing young stock, or feeding milking 
cows, our aim is to get them to eat the maximum 
amount of food. This can only be done by keeping 
them measurably hungry. They don’t seem to get 
hungry if they have food before them all that time 
that has been mussed over, but if they are judiciously 
fed so that they will clean up every feeding, strange 
as it may seem, 10 to 25 per cent more feed can be 
got into them than can if they are so overfed that 
there is feed in the mangers all the time. 
WATER DISASTROUS TO SMALL CALVES.— 
Last Fall we started some small heifer calves in a 
box stall with a water bucket in it Take care of 
them as best we could, they seemed to make no gain. 
In fact, two or three of them seemed to be actually 
sick. For two weeks we studied to find the cause 
of the trouble and then we found it. Those little 
fellows were going to the water bucket and drinking 
their fill of cold water. We took the bucket out and 
the calves began to do better almost immediately. 
FEEDING CABBAGE.—In common with most 
cabbage growers, we are marketing the crop through 
the dairy. We started in trying to cut the heads up 
with a shovel and feed them. Then we got a root 
cutter, attached power to it, and are still using it. 
The heads are frozen now, so we run them through 
the cutter and let the shredded cabbage drop down 
into the basement into a pile. Cut into small pieces 
it thaws out readily, and by cutting in the forenoon 
the pile is ready to feed from at night and the next, 
morning. We feed each cow a big scoop shovelful. 
When we started the cows on cabbage, they gained 
a little, and we feel sure that the addition of cabbage 
lo what they are eating is doing a lot to keep up 
the milk flow and to keep them in good physical con¬ 
dition. 
ELIMINATING HAY.—In common with a lot of 
other dairy farmers we are short of hay and long 
on corn silage. As a result we are feedingdiay only 
at night. The rest of the ration consists of what 
silage the cows will clean up at a feeding, plus the 
usual grain ration and chopped cabbage. The cows 
and young stock do not carry quite the paunch they 
would if eating more hay, but are in fully as good 
condition as we have ever had them, and are milk¬ 
ing the best in several years. 
CLIPPING YOUNG STOCK.—We have decided 
to clip our young stock all over. Our decision rests 
on the experience of a neighbor. His heifers were 
not doing very well, despite heavy feed. They we • 
long-haired, but did not appear to be lousy. He 
started in to clip one as an experiment, however, and 
before he finished he said her body looked as though 
it had been peppered. It is pretty hard to get at 
lice in a long coat of hair in any effective way. 
Clipping may seem to be a little severe, but if the 
barn is warm, clipped animals will soon adjust them¬ 
selves. dairyman. 
The smallest bruise makes the apple more likely to 
decay. 
