1895 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
465 
A  Jerseyman’s  Journey. 
Part  III. 
Potato  Growing-  Under  Difficulties. 
We  raise  a  good  many  potatoes  in  our  section,  but 
do  not  use  many  of  the  best  labor-saving  devices.  Our 
farms  ai*e  mostly  long  and  narrow.  Our  good  old 
Dutch  ancestors  thought  each  farm  should  have  open¬ 
ings  on  two  roads,  so  they  cut  up  their  estates  in  long, 
narrow  strips.  Many  are  one  field  wide  and  two-thirds 
of  a  mile  long.  Fields  are  small  and  there  is  not  room 
for  expensive  planters,  diggers  and  sprinklers.  South 
of  us,  where  Mr.  Lewis  lives,  the  farms  are  large  and 
of  better  shape  and  these  tools  can  be  used.  With 
sweet  corn,  beans,  melons,  tomatoes,  etc.,  to  care 
lor,  four  or  five  acres  of  potatoes  gives  about  all  one 
of  our  farmers  will  try. 
We  use  fertilizers  heavily  on  potatoes,  plant  and 
cover  by  hand,  and  use  the  hoe  quite  a  little  in  cultiva¬ 
tion.  AVe  put  plaster  and  Paris-green  on  by  hand  and 
generally  dig  with  a  handfork,  though  a  few  potato 
plows  are  used.  The  potato  with  us  is  not  our  main 
crop  but  a  good-sized  side  issue. 
I  p  in  1  ompkins  County,  N.  Y.,  potato-growing  is 
getting  to  be  quite  an  important  industry.  From  the 
few  little  railroad  stations  in  the  small  district  I  vis¬ 
ited,  about  750,000  bushels  were  shipped  last  season. 
Most  orf  them  brought  not  over  25  cents  a  bushel,  so 
any  one  can  see  that  the  cost  of  producing  a  bushel 
must  have  all  the  extras  squeezed  out  of  it  in  order  to 
leave  any  profit.  It  is  hard  to  tell  what  it  costs  to 
raise  a  bushel  of  potatoes,  but  I  don’t  believe  our 
farmers  can  do  it  for  less  than  30  cents.  Mr.  C.  E. 
Chapman  figures  that  it  costs  him  10  cents  a  bushel, 
which  is  cheaper  than  some  of  his  neighbors  do  it,  be¬ 
cause  he  saves  much  of  the  cost  of  cultivating  by  using 
the  harrow,  and  spends  no  money  on  fertilizers. 
Some  of  the  methods  there  upset  my  ideas  of  potato 
propriety.  One  young  man  is  on  a  farm  so  steep  that 
it  is  actually  impossible  to  get  manure  up  to  the  top  of 
it  except  in  winter  with  oxen  and  a  sled  ;  yet  he  has 
grown  crops  big  enough  to  eat  up  a  mortgage  and 
fatten  a  home.  VV  e  always  believe  in  level  ground  for 
potatoes.  Such  a  farm  with  us  would  be  left  to  grow 
a  crop  of  cedar  posts  and  scenery. 
Mr.  Chapman  s  farm  is  pretty  steep  too,  yet  he  grows 
every  year  all  the  way  from  2,500  to  4,000  bushels  of 
potatoes  at  the  top  of  it.  Stable  manure  and  clover 
form  his  “plant  food.”  He  says  that  fertilizers  show 
no  profitable  results  on  his  soil.  Clover  does  well 
there  and  does  better  and  better  one  rotation  after 
another.  I  he  soil  is  so  full  of  stones  that  it  is  impos¬ 
sible  to  use  the  potato  spades  for  digging,  while 
digging  machines  are  entirely  out  of  the  question. 
The  way  they  dig  is  to  run  a  plow  lightly  along  each 
side  of  the  row,  throwing  the  earth  away  from  the 
vines,  leaving  them  on  a  little  ridge.  Then,  with  a  six- 
tined  potato  hoe  they  go  along  and  pull  the  ridge  over 
and  thus  throw  out  the  potatoes. 
The  potatoes  are  planted  according  to  The  R.  N.-Y. 
trench  system — seed  pieces  dropped  by  hand  and 
lightly  covered  with  the  harrow.  The  soil  is  too  full 
of  stones  for  Breed’s  weeder  to  answer,  but  the  harrow 
is  kept  at  work  gradually  filling  in  the  trenches  as  the 
potatoes  grow  and  tearing  out  the  weeds  while  small. 
T  hat  is  the  true  practice.  A  man  can  whip  a  dozen 
babies,  but  if  he  waits  20  years  before  he  goes  at  them, 
the  chances  are  that  any  one  of  them  will  whip  him. 
Mr.  Chapman  saves  two  or  three  times  working  with 
the  cultivator  by  this  harrowing  and  this  is  one  item 
that  makes  the  cost  per  bushel  low. 
The  other  is  the  low  cost  of  “  plant- food.”  Here 
comes  a  thing  that  I  don’t  understand.  This  stone- 
covered  land  produces  better  crops  year  after  year  the 
more  it  is  worked.  Heavy  crops  are  taken  away  from 
it  and  nothing  goes  back  but  the  clover  and  small 
quantities  of  stable  manure ;  yet,  instead  of  giving 
out,  the  soil  seems  to  gain  in  strength.  I  have  ob¬ 
served  much  the  same  thing  with  other  stony  land  ; 
and  I  believe  that  the  stones  have  much  to  do  with 
sustaining  the  soil’s  power  to  produce  crops.  I  do  not 
say  its  fertility ,  because  I  don’t  believe  the  stones  add 
much,  if  any  plant  food,  though,  of  course,  the  heat, 
water,  frost  and  tools  all  combine  to  gradually  wear 
them  up.  Hut  the  chief  value  of  the  stones  seems  to 
me  to  be  mechanical— they  give  the  soil  a  better 
chance  to  make  use  of  itself,  so  to  speak.  They  keep 
it  open  for  a  better  circulation  of  air,  they  give  good 
drainage  and  prevent  damage  from  floods,  and,  best 
of  all,  they  hold  moisture  in  a  dry  time  so  that  it  can 
be  used  by  the  plants.  A  stone  is  a  natural  irrigator. 
It  attracts  and  holds  water,  and  the  majority  of  plants 
suffer  more  from  lack  of  water  than  from  lack  of  food. 
I  saw  many  other  interesting  things  that  I  would 
like  to  talk  about,  but  talk  is  cheaper  than  space.  One 
think  I  know — farming  is  “  all  right  ”  in  central  New 
A  ork  just  as  long  as  farmers  are. 
America  Good  Enough  for  Me  ! 
Lately  I  went  to  Switzerland  with  the  intention  of 
buying  a  farm  there,  thinking  that  in  hard  times  I 
could  buy  one  cheap  ;  but  I  was  very  much  mistaken. 
1  here  is  any  amount  of  land  for  sale  even  there  where 
cattle  bring  10  cents  a  pound  gross  and  hogs  about  the 
same.  1  here  I  could  see  the  final  effect  of  lending  too 
much  money  on  land.  The  banks  lend  one-half  of  the 
value  of  the  land  and  with  two  good  securities  three- 
fourths  at  4  to  4%  per  cent  interest.  When  times  were 
good  land  went  away  up  and  people  bought  on  credit. 
Now  in  hard  times  they  cannot  pay  interest  and  if 
they  sell  the  land,  they  must  get  the  mortgage  value 
and  leave  with  nothing  after  having  worked,  maybe, 
10  years.  In  some  places  land  has  lost  50  per  cent  in 
value,  still  it  cannot  be  bought  at  the  depreciated 
price  for  the  above  reasons,  therefore  everybody  wants 
to  sell  and  nobody  can  buy.  Still  the  banks  are  giving 
time  and  I  saw  but  a  few  mortgage  or  sheriff  sales. 
In  spite  of  hard  times,  I  saw  but  few  beggars — not  one 
per  month— and  everybody  wears  good  clothes.  No¬ 
body  is  starving  and  everyone  is  hoping  for  a  good 
harvest.  So  far  everything  is  promising.  Grain  farm¬ 
ing  is  losing  ground,  as  foreign  wheat  is  cheap.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  straw,  which  is  used  for  bedding,  no 
grain  at  all  would  be  raised.  Straw  is  worth  there  50 
cents  per  100  pound  and  hay  75  cents.  A  great  deal  of 
superphosphate,  Thomas  slag  and  Chili  salpeter  is  used. 
The  worst  feature  about  farming  there  in  the  eyes 
of  an  American  is  the  smallness  of  the  parcels  of  land— 
from  one-quarter  of  an  acre  up — scattered  all  about 
the  villages  and  towns,  and  people  are  killing  time  in 
going  to  and  from  their  fields.  For  my  part  I  prefer 
to  work  for  wages  in  the  United  States  to  being  my 
own  boss  there.  Business  generally  is  dull,  especially 
in  factories.  All  blame  the  McKinley  tariff.  Very 
few  know  who  is  1 ’resident  of  the  United  States,  but 
everybody  knows  McKinley  because  his  high  tariff 
affects  the  pocketbooks  of  all,  and  a  good  many  manu¬ 
facturers  will  not  exhibit  at  Chicago.  France  is  try¬ 
ing  the  same  game  as  the  United  States,  thinking  she 
can  get  along  by  herself.  Italy  is  trying  to  do  the 
same.  All  this  makes  times  uncertain  and  hard  there. 
Cattle  have  dropped  two  cents  per  pound  since  the 
I  rench  tariff  went  into  force.  jacob  BUCHI. 
How  to  Fight  Canada  Thistles. 
About  five  years  ago  I  discovered  on  my  farm  in 
southern  Pennsylvania,  a  patch  about  30  feet  square 
filled  with  “  Canada  thistles,”  a  new  kind  of  weed  to 
me.  I  first  dug  out  all  the  stalks,  roots,  etc.,  and 
burned  them.  About  six  months  afterward  there  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  as  many  thistles  as  before  and  again  I  dug 
them  out  and  burned  them.  Six  months  later  there 
were  about  as  many  as  ever.  I  struck  them  all  out 
with  a  shovel,  which  formed  cavities  in  the  ground 
holding  from  a  pint  to  a  quart.  These  I  filled  with 
course  salt.  Afterwards  they  seemed  less  numerous, 
and  came  up  between  the  salted  holes.  About  six 
months  ago  I  found  them  very  plentiful  there.  I  dug 
them  out  with  a  shovel  and  filled  the  holes  with  coarse 
salt  as  before,  and  at  present  there  are  about  as  many  in 
the  patch  as  at  any  time,  though  all  are  coming  up 
between  the  places  which  had  been  salted.  Can  any¬ 
body  tell  me  how  to  destroy  Canada  thistles?  eklo. 
Ruts  in  Agriculture. 
No  line  of  business  undergoes  more  legitimate 
changes  than  farming.  It  requires  constant  adapta¬ 
tions  to  new  and  advanced  conditions,  or  its  followers 
will  be  left  far  behind  in  the  onward  march  of  civili¬ 
zation.  There  is  no  class,  however,  so  slow  to 
realize  this  as  the  farmers  themselves.  Exceptions 
are  seen  and  admired,  but  the  larger  number  of  them 
find  “things  well  enough,”  and  move  in  the  tracks 
made  by  their  fathers— a  few  acres  of  this  and  that,  a 
small,  meager  garden,  pasturage  and  mowing  in  com¬ 
fortable  condition,  all  showing  ease  and  stagnation. 
While  a  living  and  a  little  more  are  the  results  of  this 
method,  it  also  has  a  tendency  to  send  away  from  the 
rural  towns  those  who,  under  more  interesting  condi¬ 
tions,  would  be  contented  to  stay.  A  young  man  has 
ambitions,  sees  others  getting  ahead  of  him,  and  de¬ 
sires  to  follow  their  example,  and,  once  away,  he  has 
little  craving  to  go  back  unless  forced  to  by  adversity, 
and  often  not  then.  Again,  the  father  has  enough  to 
satisfy  his  modest  needs,  his  life  has  been  a  slow, 
tedious  one,  he  now  floats  with  the  current  and  catches 
fish  for  his  daily  needs.  Not  so  with  the  vigorous 
youth.  Nature  has  endowed  him  with  possibilities 
that  crave  development.  These  can  be  satisfied,  pro¬ 
moted,  cultivated  without  transplanting.  Advice  as 
to  how  this  can  be  done  is  not  needed,  for  there  are 
abundant  channels  of  information  and  plenty  of 
chances  to  apply  the  remedies,  i.auren  sanderson. 
Farmer  Jews  in  New  Jersey.  — The  problem 
whether  Russian  Jews  can  become  American  farmers 
is  in  course  of  solution  at  Woodbine,  N.  J.,  where 
$140,000  of  the  Baron  Hirsch  fund  for  the  relief  of 
Hebrews  compelled  to  emig’rate  from  Russia,  are  now 
invested  in  5,000  acres  of  land  and  improvements,  and 
where  a  colony  of  87  expatriated  families,  embracing 
nearly  300  souls,  are  already  settled  on  farms.  Each 
family  obtains  a  five-years’  lease  of  30  acres,  10  of 
which  are  ready  for  crops,  leaving  20  in  wood,  which 
can  be  cut  for  fire  or  sale.  On  each  farm  arc  a  house 
and  outbuildings,  and  each  tenant  is  provided  with  a 
cow,  poultry,  seeds,  tools,  plants  and  fruit  trees,  as 
well  as  blackberry,  raspberry,  strawberry  and  grape 
vines.  To  be  exact,  each  man  gets  150  peach,  55  apple, 
..i  pear,  12  cherry,  4  plum  and  2  quince  trees ;  then 
there  are  for  each  1,250  blackberry  vines,  000  rasp¬ 
berries,  550  grapes  and  one  acre  in  strawberries.  Four 
acres  are  planted  in  rye,  and  each  tenant  gets  a  cow,  25 
chickens,  $50  worth  of  fertilizer  and  $25  worth  of  seed. 
I  he  original  cost  of  each  farm  and  its  improvements  is 
put  at  $1,200,  the  houses  and  outbuildings  costing  $550 
apiece.  I  he  tenant  can  get  a  deed  of  his  property  if  he 
succeeds  in  paying  .$400  within  five  years,  the  other 
$800  remaining  on  mortgage.  Unless  he  pays  the  $400 
within  five  years,  the  property  reverts  to  the  fund. 
The  colony  is  an  example  of  a  farm  village,  as  no 
house  is  more  than  a  mile  from  the  railroad  station 
and  post  office.  Mr.  II.  L.  Sabsovich,  the  superinten¬ 
dent,  is  an  expert  in  farming,  and  has  taught  agricul¬ 
tural  chemistry  in  this  country,  and  his  advice  and 
suggestions  are  at  the  service  of  all  the  settlers.  Al¬ 
lowing  for  roads  and  bad  lands,  there  will  be  room  for 
125  farms.  The  town  will  consist  of  275  acres,  divided 
into  plots  of  150  by  50  feet  for  people  who  are  not 
farmers,  and  it  is  expected  that  .tradesmen  and  manu¬ 
facturers  will  soon  settle  there.  If  under  such  favor¬ 
able  conditions  the  Jews  do  not  prosper  as  farmers, 
it  will  be  a  proof  that  ages  of  trade  have  unfitted  them 
for  an  agricultural  life. 
Business  Bits. 
I  uk  Babcock  milk  tester  used  at  this  oftlco  was  made  by  the  Vermont 
Farm  Machine  Company,  of  Bellows  Kalis,  Vt.  It  Is  easy  to  handle 
and  gives  excellent  satisfaction. 
It'  you  have  never  read  Black  Beauty  two  things  are  true-you  are 
behind  the  times  and  you  have  some  of  the  best  hours  of  your  life 
before  you.  That  Is  a  book  that  every  one  should  read.  Send  six 
cents  in  stamps  to  Frank  Miller  &  Sons,  New  York,  and  you  will  re¬ 
ceive  a  copy  of  the  book,  and  also  directions  for  making  a  regular 
black  beauty  out  of  your  harness. 
ON  page  113,  “W.  A.  K.’’  asks,  “  Is  the  J.  A.  Everltt  Man-Weight  hand 
cultivator  as  good  as  the  Planet  Jr.  for  garden  work  ?  ■■  I  have  used 
or  tried  to  use,  the  Everltt  cultivator,  having  bought  one  directly  from 
the  makers  In  the  spring  of  1801,  and  I  call  it  a  complete  failure.  Have 
tried  to  use  it  In  all  places  in  which  I  use  the  Planet  Jr.  and  as  yet  I 
have  not  found  any  place  adapted  to  It  except  the  “coal  house 
A  READER. 
A  NEW  scheme  for  selling  fruit  trees  was  tried  at  Dixon,  Ill.  The 
trees  came  tied  up  In  bundles,  which  sold  at  $2.50  each.  A  Country 
Gentleman  correspondent  thus  describes  them:  “  1  got  one  containing 
40  apple,  2  cherry,  2  Kellfer  pear  and  2  Russian  apricot  trees,  an  ever¬ 
green  and  some  raspberry  and  currant  bushes.  The  trees  were  all  of 
standard  sorts  and  remarkably  thrifty;  not  one  has  died.  The  bundles 
averaged  about  the  same  and  gave  good  satisfaction. 
WIND  as  A  Motive  POWER.-The  Hollander  has  used  the  wind  mill 
for  hundreds  of  years  and  It  has  served  him  well.  The  Dutch  are 
thrifty  and  Industrious,  making  much  out  of  little.  The  wind  mill 
used  to  work  air  compressors  might  be  made  a  very  steady  power 
to  drive  farm  mills  and  other  machinery  with  great  economy  and 
satisfaction.  In  the  future  this  promises  to  be  brought  Into  use.  The 
wind-mill  could  also  be  applied  to  drive  the  electric  motor  with  econ 
omy  wherever  fuel  Is  scarce  and  high.  w  ,, 
Does  your  wife  need  a  new  dress  ?  Of  course  she  does!  It  Is  your 
business  to  get  her  one  or  let  her  get  It  herself.  It  Is  all  right  for  you 
to  get  It  where  It  will  cost  the  least  money.  We  can  help  you  in  this 
and  put  you  Into  a  secret  that  will  save  several  times  the  price  of  The 
R.  N.-Y.  on  one  now  dress.  James  McCreery  &  Co.,  Broadway  and 
11th  Street,  New  York,  have  for  sale  a  large  lot  of  dress  good  rem¬ 
nants.  To  clear  out  stock  they  sell  all  ends  under  1U  yards  at 
greatly  reduced  prices.  These  goods  are  prime  in  every  way,  and  you 
can’t  possibly  find  a  better  bargain  this  year.  McCreery  &  Co.  are  one 
of  the  best  tlrrns  in  the  city.  If  you  can’t  call,  write  at  once  for  prices’. 
Mention  The  It.  N.-Y.  and  you  will  secure  a  bargain. 
WIDE  WAGON  Tires.  G.  C.  Mott,  writing  in  a  late  Rural,  reminds 
me  of  the  boy  who  went  to  mill  on  horse-back  and  had  to  put  a 
stone  In  one  end  of  the  bag  to  balance  the  grain  In  the  other  because 
his  father  did  and  so  he  must  also.  Neither  of  the  men  he  spoke  of 
said  anything  about  compelling  the  farmers  to  use  wide  tires  without 
compelling  all  others  drawing  heavy  loads  on  the  roads.  As  to  his 
technicalities’’  with  regard  to  wide  tires,  there  are  very  few  which  if 
properly  hung  to  the  axle,  will  not  run  Just  as  lightly  as  narrow  tires 
on  a  smooth  road,  but  there  Is  not  one  kind  of  wagon  out  of  a  dozen 
that  is  set  right,  and  when  set  improperly  wide  tires  will  not  run  well. 
All  who  have  ever  used  a  wagon  with  wide  tires  know  that  they  run 
hard  through  the  mud  after  narrow  tires  have  cut  It  up,  and  that  is 
the  reason  why  they  are  condemned.  There  is  but  one  wide-tired 
wagon  amongst  many  narrow-tired  ones  and  therefore  the  wheels  of 
the  former  have  always  to  make  their  own  tracks.  Will  Mr.  Mott  tell 
us  why  people  always  put  wide-tired  wheels  on  heavy  machinery  such 
as  engines?  Did  he  ever  see  a  narrow  wheel  on  a  binder,  reaper  or 
mowing  machine?  If  narrow  tires  are  so  much  the  best,  why  do  the 
owners  of  these  use  wide  ones?  Some  time  since  I  made  the  llrst  pair 
of  bob-sleds  with  wide  runners  that  were  nver  so  made  around  here 
and  I  had  to  stand  all  kinds  of  taunts  and  jeers  at  the  innovation  A 
man  who  reminds  me  of  Mr.  Mott,  was  In  the  shop  when  1  was  getting 
them  Ironed,  and  he  “blowed”  about  them  and  said  he  would  think  it 
a  disgrace  to  be  found  dead  beside  such  a  pair  of  sleds:  but  now  he 
has  a  pair  with  the  widest  runners  around  here,  and  one  can  hardly 
sell  a  pair  of  narrow-runner  sleds  here  now.  The  same  would  be  the 
case  If  people  began  to  use  wide-tired  wagons.  Then  we  would  have 
good  roads  and  our  horses  would  have  a  good  track  to  walk  in  instead 
of  a  rut  about  two  Inches  wide  almost  the  whole  length  of  the  roud  in 
rainy  weather. 
