59o 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Sept.  10 
Road  Dust  For  Squash  Bug's. 
J.  E.  W.,  Stkkatok,  III. — I  saw  in  a 
late  Bubal  that  one  of  its  readers  has 
been  using-  saltpeter  (nitrate  of  potash) 
for  the  yellow  squash  bug-.  I  don’t  think 
this  bug  is  anywhere  more  troublesome 
than  in  the  West  and  I  have  never  failed 
to  drive  it  away  in  from  three  to  four 
days.  When  the  road  is  very  dry  and 
dusty  I  gather  a  box  of  the  fine  dust  and 
keep  it  dry,  and  as  soon  as  the  bug  makes 
its  appearauce  I  dust  my  plants  while 
the  dew  is  on  late  at  night  or  early  in 
the  morning.  An  addition  of  50  per  cent 
of  wood  ashes  makes  the  application 
more  effective.  I  have  used  it  successfully 
also  on  my  quince  and  cherry  trees.  Next 
spring  I  shall  try  it  on  the  plum  trees.  I 
don’t  think  the  curculio  will  like  the 
dust  any  better  than  do  the  vine  bugs  or 
the  insects  on  the  quince  and  cherry.  It 
costs  only  a  little  labor:  let  Rural  read¬ 
ers  try  it. 
Some  Notes  on  Back  Numbers. 
S.  A.  Little,  Seneca  County,  N.  Y. — 
It  pays  one  richly  to  look  over  the  back 
numbers  of  The  Rural,  refreshing  one’s 
memory  on  points  which  might  other¬ 
wise  be  forgotten,  since  the  first  readirg 
is  often  hurried. 
Among  the  first  things  to  catch  my  eye 
to-day,  when  enjoying  this  sort  of  re¬ 
viewing,  was  Col.  Brigham's  plea  for 
debt-paying  associations,  in  the  issue  for 
May  28,  an  article  which  should  be 
brought  before  every  farmers’  organiza¬ 
tion  in  the  land  for  careful  consideration. 
Col.  Brigham’s  closing  advice  to  young 
men  to  “rent  or  buy  a  small  piece  of 
land  ”  and  pay  for  it,  rather  than  to  go  in 
debt  for  a  larger  area,  is  really  worthy  of 
daily  thought.  Debt  is  an  incubus  which 
has  ruined  many  an  otherwise  happy 
home,  and  a  mortgage  is  the  worst  fertil¬ 
izer  a  man  ever  applied  to  a  farm. 
The  issue  of  June  25  says  the  rose-bugs 
appeared  on  the  Rural  Grounds  “in 
greater  numbers  than  ever  before.”  The 
reverse  was  the  case  in  this  section. 
Among  the  wild  plants  the  white  daisy — 
Leucanthemum  vulgare — seemed  a  favor¬ 
ite  with  them. 
One  feels  like  shaking  hands  with  Jer¬ 
sey  man  when  one  reads  on  page  42G,  “  My 
belief  is  that,  in  the  long  run,  profit 
comes  to  the  farmer  who  pays  best  atten¬ 
tion  to  lessening  the  cost  of  production.” 
But  lessening  the  cost  of  production  is 
not  the  only  element  of  success.  The 
farmer  must  know  when  and  how  to  sell 
his  products.  A  delay  of  but  a  few  hours 
sometimes  makes  the  difference  between 
success  and  failure.  Just  here  let  me 
ask  the  opinion  of  those  concerned 
whether  that  successful  Tompkins  County 
farmer,  Mr.  Thomas,  of  Brockton,  is  right 
when  he  advocates  the  sale  of  the  whole 
wheat  crop  in  the  fall,  and  the  buying  of 
flour  for  family  use.  He  claims  that  the 
average  price  of  wheat  is  as  good  soon 
after  harvest  as  at  any  other  time,  and 
that,  by  selling  it  then,  the  chances  of 
loss  by  vermin  and  fire  are  all  obviated, 
and  that  the  miller’s  toll  makes  our  own 
flour  cost  as  much  as  he  chai’ges  for  his. 
In  another  number  I  see  a  query  in  re¬ 
gard  to  turning  turnips  under  for  fertil¬ 
izing  purposes.  J.  E.  Buell,  a  Wayne 
County  farmer,  has  near  the  roadside  a 
field  which  has  been  rather  unproductive 
for  some  years.  Last  summer  he  was 
unable  to  get  an  early  crop  in  it,  so  he 
sowed  flat  turnips  broadcast.  They  came 
up  and  grew  splendidly.  Hundreds  of 
bushels  of  the  larger  ones  were  gathered 
and  put  ’nto  pits,  and  the  small  ones 
were  left  on  the  land.  The  field  was 
sowed  to  oats  this  spring,  and  has  pro¬ 
duced  a  fine  crop.  The  spots  where  the 
pits  stood  and  where  the  turnips  were 
left  when  the  good  ones  were  drawn 
away,  could  be  plainly  seen  all  the  while 
the  oats  were  growing.  I  am  only  an 
“eye  witness”  and  cannot  report  the 
actual  value  of  the  turnips  as  fertilizers, 
but  appearances  are  certainly  in  their 
favor. 
There  seems  to  be  a  popular  idea  that 
the  Leghorn  hen  never  sits,  and  a  note  in 
the  issue  for  June  11,  says  “the  Leg¬ 
horn  is  a  miserable  nurse.”  I  admit  that 
“  one  swallow  does  not  make  a  summer;” 
but  one  of  my  Leghorns,  hatched  in  May, 
1891,  has  a  fine  brood  of  chickens  as 
large  as  quails,  which  she  is  still  “  moth¬ 
ering  ;  ”  another,  when  not  allowed  to 
sit,  acted  as  stepmother  to  a  brood  which 
had  been  forsaken  by  their  mother,  and 
a  third  is  as  persistent  as  a  Wyandotte 
and  required  a  third  imprisonment  be¬ 
fore  she  abandoned  the  idea  of  making 
an  incubator  of  herself.  All  three  are 
pure-bred  birds. 
A  Villag-e  Man  That  Earned  A  Farm. 
I).  C.  S.,  Jasper,  N.  Y. — The  question 
about  young  men  earning  a  farm  inter¬ 
ests  me  because  I  am  a  farmer  and  b3- 
cause  I  was  a  village  boy  who  was  not 
contented  in  a  village.  Nothing  but  a 
farm  and  horses  would  do  for  me,  and  I 
have  always  taken  great  interest  in  all 
live  stock.  1  commenced  working  out 
when  young;  but  when  21  years  of  age  I 
began  to  save  money  for  myself,  work¬ 
ing  on  a  farm  for  $200  a  year.  After  a 
year  or  so  I  worked  at  almost  any  thing. 
When  25  years  old  I  had  saved  $400  or 
$500.  At  that  time  I  was  married  and  my 
wife  and  I  both  worked  out  for  two 
years;  then  we  worked  a  farm  on  shares 
for  two  years  more.  Then  we  were  worth 
about  $1,000  invested  in  stock,  tools  and 
horses,  so  we  were  not  getting  rich  very 
fast.  Farms  sell  here  for  $20  to  $50  an 
acre,  according  to  the  improvements — 
not  as  much  as  it  cost  to  make  the  latter 
and  clear  the  land.  If  a  young  man  is 
strong  and  economical  he  might  save 
enough  to  buy  a  farm  after  a  while;  but 
it  is  the  work  of  a  lifetime  to  make  a 
good  farm  in  almost  any  country  and 
get  the  improvements  that  make  it 
worth  while  to  farm;  but  farming  is  as 
sure  a  way  to  get  a  living  as  I  know  of. 
If  a  man  has  a  great  desire  to  live  in  the 
country  and  have  a  farm  and  is  willing  to 
give  up  everything  else,  he  probably 
could  get  a  farm  in  this  country.  I 
would  like  one  or  two  of  those  young 
men  to  work  for  me,  those  who  want  to 
be  farmers  and  will  not  be  satisfied  to  be 
anything  else,  men  who  are  inter¬ 
ested  in  farming  and  want  to  learn 
how  to  farm.  Boys  that  want  to 
earn  a  few  dollars  and  then  go  to  the 
village  and  spend  them,  or  go  to  school 
to  become  teachers  or  join  some  of  the 
professions  are  not  worth  much,  as  they 
are  not  interested  and  do  not  learn  how 
to  do  their  work  well  and  quickly.  I 
never  had  more  than  one  or  two  hands 
who  were  of  any  profit  to  me,  because 
as  soon  as  they  had  learned  what  I  wanted 
they  went  to  try  something  else. 
Any  Chance  for  a  Young:  Man  ? 
Franklin  Dye,  Sec’y  N.  J.  Board  of 
Agriculture. — Yes,  here  in  New  Jersey 
there  are  good  chances  for  young  men  (and 
their  wives)  of  intelligence,  firm  purpose 
and  economical  habits  who  are  willing 
to  work.  A  few  days  ago  it  was  my  privi¬ 
lege  to  make  a  two-day  inspection  of 
farms  in  Somerset  County,  this  State,  for 
a  special  purpose.  The  history  of  one 
fine,  productive  farm  visited,  which  was 
thrown  out  to  “  the  commons  ”  before 
the  present  owner  bought  it,  about  40 
years  ago,  led  me  to  ask  him  : 
“  Mr.  S. ,  how,  in  the  light  of  your  ex¬ 
perience  and  observation,  do  the  chances 
for  success  in  farming  for  a  young  man 
compare  now  with  those  existing  40  years 
ago  ?  ”  Promptly  the  answer  came  : 
“  At  the  prices  at  which  farms  are  sell¬ 
ing  in  New  Jersey  to-day,  a  young  man 
who  has  means  enough  to  properly  stock 
a  farm  will  be  safe  in  buying  ;  and,  al¬ 
though  he  may  have  nothing  to  pay 
down  on  the  farm,  yet,  with  good  man¬ 
agement,  I  believe  he  can  pay  for  it 
within  15  years.” 
This  is  the  opinion  of  an  intelligent 
farmer  who  has  brought  his  farm  up 
frim  non- productiveness  to  heavy  yields 
of  the  general  farm  crops  each  year.  He 
ran  in  debt  for  it  all,  and  it  was  too  poor 
to  produce  any  farm  crop.  Many  farms 
that  are  on  the  market  to-day  in  this 
State  are  in  a  good  state  of  cultivation, 
and  will  yield  fair  crops  immediately. 
Then,  too,  there  is  now  this  advantage 
over  many  years  ago — numerous  ques¬ 
tions  connected  with  agriculture  which 
were  mysteries  then  have  been  solved 
since,  so  that  a  young  man  who  will  avail 
himself  of  the  advances  made  and  the 
helps  at  hand,  can  farm  in  whatever  line 
or  lines  he  may  choose  with  greater  cer¬ 
tainty  of  reaching  definite  results. 
I  am  not  much  in  favor  of  renting,  yet, 
if  the  person  is  a  novice  and  wishes  to 
feel  his  way  before  making  a  permanent 
choice,  it  might  be  well  to  rent.  But 
original  plans  cannot  have  full  develop¬ 
ment  under  the  tenant  system  ;  both  par¬ 
ties  are  measurably  restricted.  “  Econ¬ 
omy  and  steady  work ’’—there  is  the 
secret  of  success,  and  any  young  couple 
beginning  with  those  habits,  will,  other 
things  being  in  fair  proportion,  succeed. 
Buy  in  the  East.  I  know  of  a  number  of 
farms  belonging  to  elderly  people,  to 
widows  or  estates  that  could  be  pur¬ 
chased  on  very  good  conditions.  They 
are  near  good  markets  and  the  many  ad¬ 
vantages  possessed  here  of  schools, 
churches  and  good  society. 
As  to  special  crops,  they  depend  some¬ 
what  on  location  ;  but  there  is  hardly  a 
location,  in  this  State  at  least,  where 
special  crops  are  not  successfully  grown. 
The  Harlequin  Cabbag-e  Bug-. 
Prof.  A.  J.  Cook,  Michigan  Agricul¬ 
tural  College. — I  see  some  person  asks 
in  a  late  Rural  for  a  remedy  for  the 
Harlequin  cabbage  bug  so  destructive 
in  the  Southern  States.  As  this  hand¬ 
some  bug  is  working  rapidly  northward, 
we  as  well  as  our  Southern  friends,  may 
soon  need  a  remedy.  Prof.  H.  E.  Weed 
tells  me  that  by  sowing  or  planting  a 
row  of  mustard  among  the  cabbages,  the 
bugs  will  be  attracted  to  this  plant, 
which  they  seem  to  prefer,  and  then  may 
be  easily  killed  by  spraying  the  plants 
with  undiluted  kerosene  emulsion.  This 
will  very  likely  kill  the  plants  as  well  as 
the  bugs;  but  as  the  mustard  is  a  weed 
and  should  not  be  allowed  to  form  seeds, 
we  should  wish  to  kill  it  and  the  bugs  to¬ 
gether.  We  use  a  bad  weed  to  attract 
( Continued  on  next  page  ) 
^UisrcUancoutf  gUmtising. 
In  writing  to  advertisers  please  always  mention 
Thk  Ruual  New-Yorker. 
Mr.  S.  G.  Derry. 
Thousands 
Of  dollars  I  spent  trying 
to  find  a  cure  for  Walt 
Klim  m,  which  I  had 
13  years.  Physicians 
said  they  never  saw  so 
severe  a  case.  My  legs, 
back  and  arms  were  cov¬ 
ered  by  the  humor.  I 
began  to  take  1IOO  l>’W 
S  ABSAPABILL  A , 
and  the  flesh  became 
more  healthy,  the  noreN  soon  healed,  the 
scales  fell  off,  I  was  soon  able  to  give  up  ban¬ 
dages  and  crutches,  and  a  happy  man  I  was.” 
S.  G  Derry,  45  Bradford  St.,  Providence,  K.  I. 
HOOD'S  Pills  cure  liver  ills,  constipation, 
biliousness,  jaundice,  and  sick  headache.  Try  them. 
Highly  concentrated.  Dose  small.  In  quantity  cost* 
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