7ht  RURAL  NEW. YORKER 
1273 
Thrashing  Machine  for  Corn 
[  Here  and  there  in  certain  locations 
farmers  have  learned  to  do  farm  work  in 
new  ways  which  save  money  and  labor. 
For  example,  around  Odessa,  N.  Y.,  a 
number  of  farmers  handle  the  corn  by 
running  the  bundles  through  a  grain 
thrashing  machine.  This  shells  the  corn 
and  shreds  the  stalks  at  one  operation. 
The  following  note  tells  about  it.] 
There  is  not  a  great  deal  to  tell  about 
thrashing  corn.  So  far  as  I  know,  two 
of  our  enterprising  young  men  were  the 
first  to  thrash  corn  in  this  section.  An 
ordinary  grain  separator,  running  just  a 
Tittle  slower  than  on  oats,  will  do  a  per¬ 
fect  job  in  one-fourth  of  the  time  that  it 
can  be  shredded  with  any  shredder  in  this 
section.  A  wind-stacker  is  the  best,  as 
the  shredded  fodder  can  all  be  blown  into 
the  mow.  The  grain  is  shelled  clean  as 
it  is  shredded.  Of  course  the  drier  the 
corn  is  the  better  it  will  shred.  Stalks, 
husks  and  cobs  all  go  into  the  mow  in 
fine  shape.  It  can  be  fed  to  the  machine 
quite  fast.  A  charge  of  10c  a  bushel  is 
made  where  a  fairly  good  crop  of  ears  is 
ripe  on  the  stalks.  For  stover,  or  sown 
corn,  without  much  grain  on  it,  they 
charge  by  the  hour,  and  easily  shred 
four  times  as  much  as  any  shredder  here 
in  the  same  length  of  time. 
Last  Fall  there  was  a  lot  of  big  West¬ 
ern  or  silo  corn  here  after  filling  silos. 
The  fine  Fall  weather  let  them  do  a  lot 
of  corn  thrashing.  It  became  very  popu¬ 
lar  in  this  town,  and  satisfactory  all 
around.  All  kinds  of  corn  were  thrashed, 
both  flint  and  dent  varieties.  The  corn 
shredder  has  injured  more  men  than  any 
other  agricultural  machine  ever  invented. 
There  is  no  more  danger  with  a  separator 
on  corn  than  on  oats.  Taking  everything 
into  account,  we  think  it  is  a  good  thing. 
The  corn  is  cured  well  in  the  shocks,  and 
drawn  direct  from  the  shock  to  the  ma¬ 
chine  in  a  dry  condition,  and  thrashes 
as  fast  as  any  one  man  can  feed  by  hand, 
or  is  taken  care  of  very  fast  by  a  self- 
feeder.  R.  W.  BARRETT. 
A  Farmer’s  Farm  Notes 
A  Goon  Use  for  Leaky  Pails. — A 
but  practically,  it  is  no  good. 
How  to  Pick  Peaches. — The  ordi¬ 
nary  instructions  that  I  have  seen  are 
to  put  your  eyes  on  a  peach  and  if  you 
think  it  should  be  picked,  pick  it;  but 
don't  pinch  it  to  see  whether  it  is  ripe 
or  not.  My  help  have  been  instructed  to 
feel  enough  of  them  to  know  what  they 
are  doing  and  usually  feel  all  of  them 
the  first  time  going  over  them.  A  peach 
is  divided  on  one  side  only,  and  on  the 
larger  of  the  two  lobes  at  this  divide  it 
begins  to  ripen.  .lust  a  touch  at  this 
point  should  decide  whether  ripe  enough 
to  pick  or  not.  If  the  peach  is  mellow 
with  a  slight  pressure  at  this  place,  it 
can  be  depended  upon  to  be  ripe  if  kept 
in  an  ordinary  temperature,  in  two  days. 
For  first-class  home  trade,  the  customer 
can  be  told  just  when  the  peaches  arc 
usable.  The  quality  of  yellow  peaches 
in  particular  can  be  largely  judged  by 
the  shape.  If  broad  they  are  apt  to  be 
good,  but  if  almond-shaped,  as  Elbertas 
are  apt  to  be  when  they  bear  a  full  crop, 
then  they  are  liable  to  be  bitter.  Many 
ing  of  isolation  out  of  many  solitary 
farmhouses. 
OBITUARY.— In  the  death  of  C.  W. 
Eekardt  on  Sept.  17  the  Eastern  States 
lose  one  of  the  greatest  advocates  of  im¬ 
proved  live  stock  breeding  that  the  indus¬ 
try  in  this  section  has  ever  sustained. 
Mr.  Eekardt  was  of  Canadian  birth,  hav¬ 
ing  spent  his  early  years  in  the  Province 
of  Ontario,  later  coming  to  New  York 
City,  where  he  engaged  in  the  real  estate 
business.  A  number  of  years  ago  he 
purchased  Ardson  Farm,  a  beautiful 
tract  of  land  in  Westchester  County, 
where  he  established  a  high  class  herd  of 
Aberdeen-Angus  cattle.  Ilis  herd  for  a 
number  of  years  has  been  a  prominent 
winner  at  the  leading  shows.  He  also 
showed  a  number  of  animals  at  the  Inter¬ 
national  Live  Stock  Show  at  Chicago, 
where  he  won  many  honors.  Mr.  Eek¬ 
ardt  devoted  a  great  deal  of  his  time  and 
money  to  the  improvement  of  Eastern 
live  stock  of  all  types,  having  issued  a 
number  of  booklets  on  beef  cattle,  sheep 
and  swine,  and  having  served  in  many 
important  public  positions  connected  with 
Eastern  live  stock  improvement.  He  was 
very  much  interested  in  boys’  and  girls’ 
club  work  and  similar  works.  At  the 
time  of  his  death  or  previous  to  it  Mr. 
Eekardt  was  a  member  of  the  Saddle 
and  Sirloin  Club  of  Chicago,  director  of 
the  American  Aberdeen-Angus  Breeders’ 
Association,  president  of  the  New  York 
State  Beef  Cattle  Breeders’  Association, 
president  of  the  Eastern  States  Aber¬ 
deen-Angus  Breeders’  Association,  and  a 
neighbor  of  mine  was  looking  at  my  wa¬ 
ter  system  and  as  he  passed  by  the  heat¬ 
er  in  the  cellar,  said  he  was  glad  to  get 
one  idea.  Asking  what  that  was,  he 
pointed  to  the  floor  near  the  heater  and 
said,  “I’m  going  home  to  do  that  thing.” 
1  have  for  35  years  saved  all  my  leaky 
iron  pails  to  put  ashes  in,  and  kept  them 
as  long  as  they  would  hold  ashes.  I 
usually  have  10  or  12  sitting  near  the 
heater,  and  put  the  ashes  in  them.  When 
they  are  all  full  take  one  in  each  hand 
and  empty  on  the  road  where  ashes  are 
needed,  or  use  in  a  low  place  in  hen¬ 
house,  or  make  whatever  use  desired. 
'Sometimes  some  of  it  may  be  worth  sift¬ 
ing  ;  but  if  fires  are  run  as  they  should 
be  there  should  not  be  much  ashes  that 
are  worth  sifting.  And  right  here  I 
wonder  how  many  people  know  what 
they  gain  by  sifting  ashes.  Once  I  looked 
at  my  watch,  took  the  lot  of  ashes,  hur¬ 
ried  to  the  sifter,  made  the  best  time  I 
could  at  the  job,  weighed  the  siftings 
when  through,  and  at  the  price  of  new 
coal  found  I  made  10  cents  per  hour. 
Coal  at  that  time  was  about  $0  a  ton. 
Since  that  time  I  have  not  sifted  much 
ashes  unless  well  worth  sifting. 
Double  Sash.- — Several  years  ago  I 
received  a  circular  about  double  sash, 
praising  it  as  the  ideal  sash  to  use.  Hav¬ 
ing  an  abundance  of  the  ordinary  6x3 
hotbed  sash,  I  set  another  layer  of  glass 
so  as  to  leave  a  space  of  about  an  inch 
between  it  and  the  upper  glass.  After  a 
thorough  trial  I  found  it  in  every  way 
inferior  to  single  glass.  It  did,  of  course, 
on  account  of  the  dead  air  space,  dis¬ 
pense  with  the  night  covering  to  con¬ 
serve  the  heat,  but  in  snowy  weather, 
boards  or  mats  were  necessary  to  pro¬ 
tect  the  glass  from  breakage.  As  the 
double-thick  protected  from  cold  by  night, 
it  also  protected  from  heat  by  day,  and 
the  plants  grew  slowly  and  were  drawn, 
just  the  same  as  they  will  be  if  two  or 
three  sash  are  piled  on  top  of  one  another 
and  left  over  them  for  a  few  days.  The¬ 
oretically  the  plan  looks  like  a  good  one, 
Listening  to  the  Radio 
varieties  of  white  peaches  under  the 
same  conditions  will  be  tasteless. 
Rhode  Island.  f.  t.  jencks. 
The  Radio  Phone  and  Farm  Life 
At  the  New  York  State  Fair  there  was 
quite  a  remarkable  display  of  radio 
goods,  and  in  connection  with  them  there 
was  a  set  of  wax  figures  to  represent 
scenes  in  farm  life.  The  figures  were 
quite  life-like,  and  the  setting  was  ap¬ 
propriate  to  a  well-furnished  farmhouse. 
One  group  represented  the  farm  family 
sitting  in  their  pleasant  room  after  sup¬ 
per.  The  farmer  sat  beside  the  table 
with  the  radiophone  at  his  ear,  evidently 
enjoying  a  concert.  The  farmer’s  wife 
sat  with  her  work  at  the  table,  while 
two  children  were  dancing  to  the  music 
which  was  evidently  coming  over  the 
wire.  In  another  case,  the  children  were 
just  going  to  bed.  and  before  they  went 
to  sleep  they  were  listening  to  one  of 
the  bedtime  stories,  and  evidently  greatly 
enjoying  it.  In  another  set,  the  nurse 
stood  by  a  table  containing  medicines 
and  medical  supplies,  while  her  patient 
lay  in  bed  with  the  phone  at  her  ear, 
evidently  enjoying  a  lecture  and  a  con¬ 
cert  which  was  doing  her  far  more  good 
than  any  medicine.  In  another  case,  a 
figure  evidently  representing  the  young 
man  from  the  neighbor’s  was  sitting  in 
very  close  proximity  to  the  farmer’s 
daughter.  It  looked  as  if  the  old  folks 
had  gone  off  to  prayer-meeting  or  some 
other  interesting  place,  and  left  the  chil¬ 
dren  at  home.  Many  of  us  know  how 
children  at  such  a  time  may  become  quite 
pestiferous,  but  in  this  case  the  children 
were  so  interested  in  the  radiophone,  that 
the  young  folks  on  the  sofa  had  things 
all  their  own  way.  The  figures  were 
very  good  and  life-like,  and  they  well 
portrayed  some  of  the  rhings  which  the 
radio  has  brought  into  the  farm  home. 
The  young  people  are  taking  great  in¬ 
terest  in  it. 
Our  picture  this  week  shows  two  little 
Vermont  children  listening  in  at  some¬ 
thing  which  is  evidently  of  great  inter¬ 
est  to  them.  They  are  getting  a  connec¬ 
tion  which  evidently  does  them  good,  adds 
to  the  joy  of  life,  and  makes  them  feel  a 
companionship  with  the  whole  worbk  It 
is  really  wonderful  how  the  radiophone 
is  bringing  society  closer  and  closer  to¬ 
gether,  and  driving  the  loneliness  and  feel- 
director^  of  the  Eastern  States  Exposi¬ 
tion.  For  the  past  several  years  Mr. 
Eekardt  has  been  devoting  a  consider¬ 
able  portion  of  his  time  to  the  promotion 
of  Aberdeen-Angus  cattle  in  the  East. 
Funeral  services  were  held  in  the  Cath¬ 
edral  in  New  York  City  Sept.  21. 
Coming  Farmers’  Meetings 
Oct.  5-13- — National  Dairy  Show  and 
World’s  Dairy  Congress,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Oct.  10-12— -International  Farm  Con¬ 
gress  of  America,  seventeenth  annual  ses¬ 
sion,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 
Nov.  3-10 — New  York  Fruit  Show, 
Grand  Central  Palace,  New  York  City. 
Nov.  6-9 — American  Bornological  So¬ 
ciety,  annual  meeting,  New  York  City. 
Nov.  20-21 — New  York  State  Farm 
Bureau  Federation.  annual  meeting, 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Nov.  17-24 — American  Royal  Live 
Stock  Show.  Kansas  City,  Mo. 
Nov.  20-24  —  Annual  farm  exhibit, 
Monmouth  County  Board  of  Agriculture, 
Beach  Casino.  Asbury  Park,  N.  J. 
Nov.  24 — Annual  meeting,  Monmouth 
County  Board  of  Agriculture,  Beach 
Casino,  Asbury  Park,  N.  J. 
Nov.  27-Dec.  1 — Poultry  Show.  Wash¬ 
ington,  D.  C.  Secretary,  D.  Lincoln  Orr, 
Orr’s  Mills,  N.  Y. 
Dec.  1-S — -International  Live  Stock  Ex¬ 
position.  Chicago,  Ill. 
Dec.  4-6 — New  Jersey  State  Horticul¬ 
tural  Society,  annual  meeting  and  ex¬ 
hibit.  Iladdon  Hall  Hotel,  Atlantic  Citv, 
N.  .T. 
Jan.^  7-12,  1924 — Virginia  Breeders’ 
and  Fanciers’  Association,  Inc.,  seven¬ 
teenth  annual  show,  Richmond,  Va.  Sec¬ 
retary,  J.  D.  Ilalliban,  2914  East  Broad 
St.,  Richmond,  Va. 
Coming  Live  Stock  Sales 
Oct.  16-17 — Holsteins.  Purebred  Live 
Stock  Sales  Company,  Brattleboro,  Vt. 
Oct.  17 — Holsteins.  F.  B.  Studwell’s 
accredited  herd  dispersal.  Lake  Wacca- 
buc.  N.  T.  E.  M.  Hastings,  Mgr.,  Pu¬ 
laski,  N.  Y. 
Oct.  19—  Holsteins.  Lake  County  IIol- 
stein-Friesian  Association,  fourth  annual 
sale,  Libertyville.  Ill. 
Oct.  24 — Holsteins.  Frederick  County 
IIolstein-Friesian  Association,  Middle- 
town.  Md. 
Oct.  25 — Holsteins.  District  Holstein 
sale,  Hamilton,  Ont. 
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