38 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
January  16 
The  Value  of  Farm  Labor. 
S.  M.,  Harlan,  Ind. — J.  H.  R.,  page 
807  of  last  year’s  R.  N.-Y.,  inquires  how 
much  he  shall  charge  his  crop  for  horse 
and  hand  labor.  He  should  charge  just 
what  such  labor  is  worth  in  his  vicinity. 
Here  it  would  be  worth  S3  per  day  for 
man  and  team,  and  $1.25  for  a  man.  He 
says  his  8%  acres  of  potatoes  cost  him 
65  days  of  man  labor,  and  60  days  of 
horse  labor,  which  would  equal  30 
days  of  man  with  team,  $90,  and  35 
days  of  man  alone,  $43.75,  making  a 
total  of  $133.75,  with  which  he  should 
charge  his  crop,  if  wages  are  the  same 
there  as  here. 
He  seems  to  have  the  idea  that  because 
his  potatoes  cost  him  only  18  cents  a 
bushel  he  should  put  them  at  this  figure 
in  estimating  the  cost  of  his  hired  man’s 
board.  Rut  that  is  not  right.  He  should 
put  on  them  the  same  price  at  which  he 
sold  the  others.  If  he  had  sold  them,  he 
would  have  got  45  cents  per  bushel,  and 
if  he  lets  the  hired  man  eat  them  he 
ought  to  realize  as  much,  or  else  he 
loses. 
He  seems  also  to  think  that  we  should 
not  charge  our  crops  with  teamsters’ 
prices.  Why  not  ?  If  my  crops  will  not 
pay  a  profit  on  my  labor  at  the  same  fig¬ 
ure  I  can  get  by  hiring  out,  I  had  better 
hire  out  and  save  all  the  care,  worry  and 
risk  of  raising  a  crop  myself.  We  should 
value  everything  we  have  or  raise  at 
what  it  is  worth  on  the  farm,  without 
the  expense  of  hauling  it  away.  We 
might  raise  a  horse  till  it  was  three  years 
old  at  a  cost  of  only  $50,  and  be  offered 
$100  for  it.  Then,  supposing  it  should 
die,  we  would  speak  of  our  loss  as 
amounting  to  $100,  and  not  to  just  what 
it  had  cost  us. 
The  potatoes  the  hired  man  eats  have 
to  be  washed  and  peeled  and  cooked  for 
him,  while  if  they  were  sold  for  45  cents 
they  would  go  just  as  they  were  dug. 
For  how  much  would  he  sell  a  bushel  of 
peeled  potatoes  ?  He  might  say  that  the 
women  washed  the  potatoes  every  day 
along  with  their  other  work,  and  that, 
therefore,  there  was  no  expense.  Well, 
by  the  same  course  of  reasoning,  he 
might  raise  the  potatoes  himself  and  let 
the  hired  man  do  something  else  ;  then 
it  would  not  cost  anything  to  board  him. 
More  About  White  Grubs. 
Subscriber,  Ohio. — Prof.  A.  J.  Cook  on 
page  882,  says  that  to  destroy  the  white 
grubs  we  can  do  no  better  than  to  plow 
early,  and  then  cultivate  frequently  so 
that  the  birds,  etc.,  may  rid  the  earth  of 
the  despoilers.  That  would  be  right 
when  the  grubs  are  in  the  first  or  second 
year’s  stage.  I  would  like  to  know  if  lie 
ever  gave  the  matter  a  test  or  if  he  knows 
any  person  who  has.  Two  years  ago  I 
did  just  what  he  recommends.  The  plow¬ 
ing  was  done  in  May  and  repeated  shovel 
plowing  and  harrowing  followed;  in  fact, 
the  most  thorough  cultivation  was  given. 
Parts  of  three  inclosures  had  been  thrown 
into  one,  making  a  field  of  30  acres,  about 
10  of  which,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the 
previous  crop,  were  free  from  the  pest, 
and  that  part  yielded  30  bushels  to  the 
acre  of  choice  wheat,  while  the  remain¬ 
ing  20  acres  yielded,  in  all,  only  100  bushels 
of  a  very  poor  quality.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  there  was  a  loss  of  500  bushels.  My 
neighbors  who  plowed  their  sod  ground 
just  before  seeding  did  not  suffer  at  all. 
I  shall  certainly  not  repeat  that  experi¬ 
ment. 
Is  “Fallowing'”  Fair  to  the  Soil  ? 
J.  V.  W.,  Jb.,  Lawyersville,  N.  Y. — 
In  The  Rural  for  December  19,  1891,  on 
the  editorial  page  you  say  :  “  *  *  *  ex¬ 
posing  the  bare  earth  to  the  sun’s  rays 
was  injurious — a  discovery  still  unknown 
to  or  ignored  by  the  advocates  of  summer 
fallowing  ”  Will  you  allow  me  to  ques¬ 
tion  the  sweeping  truth  of  this  “  discov¬ 
ery  ?”  I  believe  that  the  summer  fallow 
is  the  most  potent  method  we  have  of  set- 
ing  free  a  portion  of  that  vast  store  of 
unavailable  fertility  which  every  arable 
soil  contains.  This  stirring  and  grinding 
of  the  soil  and  the  exposing  of  it,  unpro¬ 
tected,  to  the  burning  suns  and  dews  and 
winds  of  midsummer,  break  up  these 
chemical  compounds  as  nothing  else  can, 
and  thus  make  available  the  fertility 
locked  up  in  them.  A  gentleman,  per¬ 
haps  the  most  widely  known  agricultur¬ 
ist  in  the  State  at  present  and  a  frequent 
contributor  to  The  Rural,  has  said  to  me 
that  on  many  soils  a  dollar  expended  in 
grinding  the  soil  by  the  feet  of  horses  and 
by  the  implements  used,  would  give  a 
larger  return  than  if  expended  in  fertil¬ 
izers.  The  sun  and  the  frost  are  the  great¬ 
est  factors  in  making  latent  fertility 
available.  I  would  be  glad  to  have  my 
farm  plowed  and  harrowed  every  day 
from  May  1  to  October  1,  but  then  I  should 
want  some  growing  crop  to  take  up  the 
fertility  which  had  been  set  free,  lest  it 
be  leached  out  and  lost  during  the  win¬ 
ter.  That  is  to  say,  summer  fallowing  is  all 
right  in  itself  ;  only  we  too  often  set  free 
this  great  store  of  precious  fertility  only  to 
let  it  go  to  waste  later.  I  find  a  confirma¬ 
tion  of  this  opinion  in  the  fact  that  old 
hop-yards  (which  are  practically  summer 
fallowed  for  years,  the  ground  being  thor¬ 
oughly  cultivated  and  the  hops  only  par¬ 
tially  occupying  it),  when  plowed  up, 
rarely  fail  to  give  maximum  returns  of 
other  crops  for  several  years,  without 
manure,  owing,  I  hold,  to  the  fertility 
set  free  by  this  long  course  of  all-the- 
year-around  fallowing. 
Summer  fallowing  is  expensive  owing 
to  the  loss  of  one  crop  and  the  labor  re¬ 
quired;  but  I  believe  it  is  one  of  the  ideal 
methods  and  practices  in  agriculture.  At 
least,  are  we  so  certain  that  this  old  plan 
of  our  forefathers  is  wholly  wrong  ?  Can 
we  not  hear  the  opinions  of  other  sub¬ 
scribers  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  ? 
R.  N.-Y. — Summer  fallowing,  our  cor¬ 
respondent  contends,  ‘  ‘  sets  free  this  great 
store  of  fertility,”  and  he  would  have, 
therefore,  “  some  growing  crop  to  take  it 
up  lest  it  be  leached  out  and  lost  during 
the  winter.”  Allowing  that  summer  fal¬ 
low  does  set  free  otherwise  unavailable 
fertility,  we  do  not  see  what  there  is  in 
this  fertility  that  would  be  leached  out 
during  the  winter  or  at  any  other  time, 
except  the  nitrogen.  We  have  no  evi¬ 
dence  that  either  the  potash  or  phos¬ 
phoric  acid  would  be  leached  out.  The 
loss  by  summer  fallow  would  be  en¬ 
tirely  of  nitrogen  from  the  surface,  as 
ammonia;  and  nitric  acid  or  nitrates,  by 
leaching.  Whether  the  loss  of  nitrogen, 
which  would  be  more  rapid  in  summer 
than  in  winter,  would  be  compensated 
for  by  the  quantity  of  potash  and  phos¬ 
phoric  acid  rendered  soluble  by  the  sum¬ 
mer  fallow,  is  the  question  to  be  consid¬ 
ered. 
the  elements  of  a  160-acre  farm  in  a  fruit, 
vegetable  and  celery  country,  near  a  fine 
market,  with  country  roads  and  buildings 
and  school-houses  built  and  paid  for. 
You  may  go  West  and  pay  $200  for  160 
acres  of  land;  $3,000  for  lumber,  pay  for 
your  county  and  district  improvements, 
and  deny  yourself  the  ordinary  comforts 
and  pleasures  of  life  for  many  years,  only 
to  find  that  everything  you  buy  must  be 
shipped  500  miles  or  more  and  every  ton 
of  hay,  oats,  or  corn  must  be  sold  for  half 
of  what  it  is  worth  in  Michigan. 
Then,  to  those  west  of  western  Mich¬ 
igan,  I  would  say,  “  Go  East,”  and  buy 
cheap  farms,  with  a  summer  climate  not 
surpassed  by  that  of  Italy,  and  adapted 
to  the  peach  as  well  as  to  wheat  and  corn. 
To  those  east  of  Michigan  I  would  say, 
“Go  West”  and  “grow  up  with  the 
country,”  get  virgin  soil  and  lumber 
cheap.  Live  on  peaches  and  cream,  and 
go  to  the  Columbian  Exposition.  If  not, 
why  not? 
Elseagmus  Long-ipes. 
Isaac  Hicks,  Long  Island. — Some  time 
since,  in  company  with  a  few  other  invi¬ 
ted  guests,  I  was  shown,  at  Dosoris,  an 
Elaeagnus  longipes  then  full  of  rich,  red 
fruit — a  novel  and  highly  attractive  tree. 
Evidently  our  host,  Chas.  A.  Dana,  and 
our  genial  friend  Wm.  Falconer,  were 
not  a  little  proud  of  it.  The  fruit  was 
nearly  the  size  of  the  average  Houghton 
Gooseberry,  a  little  too  acid  for  enjoyment, 
but  its  beauty  and  great  abundance 
alone  will  make  it  a  desirable  ornament. 
Although  the  collection  of  rare  and  beau¬ 
tiful  trees  and  plants  was  large  and  in¬ 
teresting,  this  holds  the  brightest  place 
in  my  memory,  so  I  determined  to  have 
some,  too,  and  two  nice  bushes  came  from 
a  reliable  nursery,  duly  labeled.  Well, 
they  bloomed  profusely  and  we  watched 
and  waited  for  the  berries.  The  Elaeagnus 
parvifolia  and  some  old  bushes  named 
Argentea  fruited  abundantly  at  midsum¬ 
mer,  and  the  birds  laid  claim  to  the  ber¬ 
ries,  but  not  a  berry  of  our  Longipes 
ripened  until  October.  They  were  a 
( Continued  on  next  page.) 
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IN  writing  to  advertisers  please  always  mention 
The  Rural  New-Yorker. 
No  Stomach 
Can  long  stand  abusive  treatment,  such  as  too  hearty 
and  rapid  eating,  too  much  rich  food,  hurrying  to  and 
from  meals,  overuse  of  stimulants  or  narcotics,  etc. 
The  Inevitable  result  must  be  Indigestion,  and  later, 
Dyspepsia, 
with  all  the  horrible  suffering  so  many  people  know 
too  well.  Dyspepsia  does  not  get  well  of  itself.  It 
requires  careful  attention  to  diet  and  a  good  medicine 
like 
Hood’s  Sarsaparilla 
which  regulates  the  stomach,  liver  and  bowels,  stimu¬ 
lates  secretion  of  the  gastric  juice,  removes  acidity 
and  tones  the  entire  system  to  health. 
Hood’s  Pills  cure  liver  ills.  Price  25c. 
Cheap  Land  Vs.  Cheap  Farms. 
A.  E.  B.,  So.  Haven,  Mich. — It  has 
been  and  still  is,  to  some  extent,  the  cus¬ 
tom  among  people  who  for  any  reason  be¬ 
come  dissatisfied  with  their  homes,  to  go 
West  and  take  up  government  land;  or 
buy  what  they  consider  “cheap  land,” 
but  they  find  that  land  alone  does  not 
make  a  farm.  On  160  acres  of  productive 
land  in  the  northern  portion  of  the 
United  States,  about  150,000  feet  of  lum¬ 
ber  are  required  to  make  a  farm  complete 
— that  is,  a  stock  farm.  For  cheap  land 
go  to  Nebraska,  Dakota,  Colorado  or 
Arizona ;  but  for  cheap  farms,  or  the 
elements  of  cheap  farms,  come  to  Michi¬ 
gan.  Within  125  miles  of  Chicago  by 
rail,  80  miles  by  boat,  and  within  five  miles 
of  Lake  Michigan,  unimproved  land  as 
good  as  can  be  found  anywhere  may  be 
bought  for  from  $800  per  quarter  section, 
upwards.  A  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
feet  of  lumber  to  make  fences  and  build¬ 
ings  may  be  bought  for  $1,200  or  $7.50  per 
1,000  feet.  In  Dakota,  Colorado  or  Ari¬ 
zona  it  would  cost  from  $3,000  to  $4,000 
for  lumber  alone.  Then  $2,000  will  buy 
hly  concentrated.  Dose  small.  In  quantity  costs 
han  one-tenth  cent  a  day  per  hen.  Prevents  and 
all  diseases.  If  you  can’t  get  it,  we  send  by  mail 
mid,  One  pack.  25c.  Five  $1.  2  1-ilb.  can  $1.20; 
i  $5.  Express  paid.  Testimonials  free.  Send  stamps  or 
lVuilt.rv  GnfdA  (nHcfl  25c A  frc«  with  Stl.0# 
Mr.  Alexander  says  ‘O.  K.’ 
The  Buck-Thorn  Fence  I  built  last 
summer  has  been  greatly  admired;  many 
farmers  consider  it  the  best  Barb  Fence 
in  the  country. 
I  think  you  will  have  considerable  call 
for  it  in  this  vicinity  the  coming  season  ; 
people  consider  it  just  the  thing,  if  it  will 
stand  the  winter.  I  strained  mine  pretty 
tight,  and  many  thought  it  would  be  liable 
to  break  when  cold  weather  set  in,  but  we 
have  had  the  coldest  winter  ever  known 
here,  and  the  fence  is  “O.  K.” — not  a 
single  break.  1  used  it  to  inclose  a  horse 
pasture,  and  it  gives  perfect  satisfaction. 
T.  H.  Alexander,  Mason  City,  Iowa. 
If  Buck-Thorn  is  not  sold  in  your  town  we  will 
ship  it  to  you  from  the  mill,  all  freight  paid. 
Samples  and  descriptive  circulars  by  mail.  Write  to 
Thk  Buck-Thorn  Fence  Co.,  Trenton,  N.  J. 
TicKle 
The  Earth 
With  a  Hoe,  SOW  FERRY'S  SEEDS  and 
nature  will  do  the  rest. 
Seeds  largely  determine  the  harvest — always 
plant  the  best — FERRY’S. 
A  book  full  of  information  about  Gardens — how 
and  what  to  raise, etc.,  sent  free  to  all  who  ask 
for  it.  j/f\  Ask  to-day. 
D.  M.  FERRY  P.  O.  Box  1241 
&  CO.,  /  ^DETROIT,  MICH. 
FRUIT 
TREES 
PEACH  Specialty 
A  full  selection  of  all  the  leading  varieties. 
A  correct  descriptive  I  Also  a  foil  line  of  PLANTS  and 
and  finely  Illustrated  ORNAMENTALS.  Plants 
Catalogue  FREE  I  and  Trees  by  mail.  Address 
JOS,  H.  BLACK,  SON  &.  CO., 
Village  Nurseries,  Hlghtstown,  N.J, 
PRUNE  WEEDSPORT. 
Inquire  about  it.  We  can  interest  you  with  proof  of 
its  value  over  any  other  Prune.  Price  of  trees  on 
application  to  WILEY  &  CO.,  Cayuga,  N.  Y. 
THE  PALOUSE  APPLE 
One-year  old  trees  of  this  splendid  new  Seedling 
mailed  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price  as  follows  :  Single 
tree,  $1 ;  three  trees,  $2. 
Address  GEO.  RUEDY,  Box  207,  Colfax,  Wash. 
p  CATALOGUE,  SEEDS, 
rrvtt  PLANTS,  BULBS,  Etc. 
HOHE  GROWN  NORTHERN  SEEDS. 
Money  made  by  buying  my  seeds. 
35  pkts  $  1 .00.  2c  to  5c  pkt. 
Presents  with  every  order.  Send 
postal  card  with  name  and  ad¬ 
dress  for  catalogue. 
A.  R.  AMES,  Madison,  Wis. 
NOTICE 
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They  make  the  great  Ball  Hangers 
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The  same  device  which  makes  the  Bicycle  run 
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use,  beside  cost  for  repairs.  It  conquers  toughest  sod 
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General  Agents,  THE  GEO.  L.  SQUiER  mfg.  CO., 
New  York  City  ;  JOHN  FOSTER,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
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