1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
635 
difference  whether  one  raises  12  tons  or  20  tons  of 
ensilage  corn  on  an  acre.  So  with  other  crops.  But 
we  cannot  take  a  big  crop  out  of  the  soil  unless  there 
is  plant  food  for  a  big  crop  in  the  soil.  And  even 
though  there  be  plenty  of  all  other  forms  of  plant 
food,  if  there  is  a  deficiency  of  pctash,  we  cannot  get 
a  maximum  crop.  The  same  is  true  of  phosphoric 
acid  and  nitrogen.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is 
more  likelihood  of  a  deficiency  of  potash  under  ordin¬ 
ary  farm  management  than  of  the  other  elements. 
Lamoille  County,  Vt.  j.  w.  newton. 
Gleanings  from  the  Grangers. 
TAI.K  PICKET)  UP  AT  A  PICNIC. 
The  grangers  of  Tompkins  County,  N.  Y.,  the  other 
day  held  their  annual  picnic  at  Glen  wood,  a  pleasant 
resort  on  Cayauga  Lake,  about  10  miles  from  Ithaca. 
The  almost  continuous  row  of  cottages  which  are  to  be 
found  the  whole  10  miles  shows  how  this  lovely  lake 
is  appreciated  by  city  people.  “  I  don’t  suppose  any 
farmer  owns  one,”  said  a  granger.  “On  my  way  to  the 
picnic  I  saw  but  two  farmers  at  work.  It  is  not  be¬ 
cause  farming  is  such  a  poor  business,  but  because 
they  do  not  care  to  do  so,  that  farmers  do  not  ‘  camp 
out.’  ” 
“Humph!  Sleep  on  brush  nights,  and  fight  ‘skeeters’ 
daytimes  ”  commented  granger  No.  2.  The  outdoor 
life  and  home  comforts  of  the  farmer  are  such  that  he 
cannot  understand  why  any  one  should  wish  to  leave 
home. 
Boys  are  natural  critics.  “  Here  come  a  lot  of 
grangers,”  said  one,  “  you  can  tell  them  by  the  length 
of  their  pants.”  A  suit  that  fits  and  is  becoming  costs 
no  more  than  an  ill-fitting  one.  It’s  only  a  question  of 
a  little  care  in  selection.  If  a  farmer  dresses  his  boy 
in  such  a  manner  that  he  feels  ashamed,  why  should 
the  farmer  scold  the  boy  for  sneaking  around  with 
“  low  trash.” 
Two  men  meet  :  “  Any  sheep  in  your  section  for 
sale  ?” 
“No.  Everybody  is  crazy  for  sheep.  Poor  time  to 
buy.  Sheep  are  high  for  a  few  years  and  then  go 
clear  to  the  other  extreme.  They  are  unstable.” 
“  Yes,”  said  another,  “  I  was  over  in  Seneca  County: 
that's  a  grain  county;  but  they  have  more  sheep  than 
we  have.  The  grain  crop  is  poorer  there  than  here, 
and  they  use  lots  of  phosphate  too.  ’Tain’t  the  stuff 
to  depend  on.” 
“  No  ”  chimed  in  the  next  speaker,  “  got  to  keep 
stock.  Barnyard  manure  is  what  pays.” 
“  Yes  ”  said  No.  6  ;  “  but  when  butter  sells  for  15 
cents  a  pound  all  summer,  how  can  you  afford  to  keep 
cows  ?  ”  This  was  a  poser  and  No.  7  came  to  the 
rescue  with, 
“  Make  winter  butter  and  get  25  cents.” 
“  Oh  !”  sneered  No.  8,  “  with  Timothy  hay  at  $12 
per  ton,  and  corn  meal  way  up,  there  is  more  profit  in 
the  15  cent  butter.” 
“The  ‘  paper  farmers  ’  have  been  yelling,  make  win¬ 
ter  butter,  till  they  are  hoarse,  but  not  one  cow  in  ten 
will  pay  her  board  bill  if  fed  hay  and  grain.” 
“  I  am  selling  off  my  cows,”  said  No.  9. 
“  I  am  selling  cream  which  pays  better,”  said  No.  10. 
“  I  have  a  herd  of  Jerseys  that  will  average  350 
poupds  each  a  year,”  said  No.  11,  “  Some  of  the  cows 
are  fresh  in  the  fall.  When  I  depended  on  hay  and 
grain,  the  butter  cost  22  cents  per  pound.  When  to  this 
are  added  the  labor,  interest  and  loss,  it  exceeds  the 
selling  price.  Some  say,  ‘  don’t  sell  Timothy  hay.’  I 
say  you  cannot  afford  to  feed  it.  My  butter  now  costs 
nine  cents  per  pound.” 
“Great  Scott !”  interrupted  No.  12,  “How  do  you 
do  it  ?  ” 
“  I  feed  ensilage,  which  cost  me  $1.20  per  ton,  as  well 
as  oil  and  cotton-seed  meal  to  my  butter  machines — 
Jerseys.  All  there  is  of  it  is  cheap  food  and  cows  bred 
for  butter.  Winter  butter  is  the  most  profitable.” 
Potatoes  were  reported  as  a  small  crop.  The  early 
ones  are  all  dead  with  the  new  blight,  which  kills  the 
foliage,  but  does  not  cause  the  tubers  to  rot.  The  acre¬ 
age  is  much  reduced.  The  tubers  are  unusually  small, 
scabby  and  rough.  In  Tompkins  County  late  potatoes 
are  dying,  while  in  Seneca  County  they  are  vigorous. 
Why?  Grain  is  a  very  poor  crop.  Many  a  field  of  wheat 
did  not  give  more  than  10  bushels  per  acre  ;  some  six. 
Oats  will  not  average  25.  Corn  is  not  ripe,  and  a  frost 
is  imminent. 
From  these  facts  one  would  conclude  that  potatoes 
and  grain  would  bring  better  prices  than  last  year, 
and,  as  hay  is  already  selling  higher  ($10),  the  wise 
farmer  will  dispose  of  all  surplus  and  unprofitable 
stock.  Only  those  that  are  right  in  every  way  will  pay 
for  their  keeping. 
The  veteran  fruit  grower  of  Ithaca  said  :  “  Currants 
have  not  done  well  for  several  years.  Our  bushes  have 
borne  crops  for  16  years,  and  have  got  the  ‘  currants’ 
all  out  of  the  ground.  Manure  won’t  do.  One  must 
change  location  to  get  good  small-fruit  crops.  Black 
raspberries  are  affected  with  anthracnose,  and  I  think 
all  plantations  will  have  to  be  burned.  If  everybody 
would  quit  raising  for  a  few  years,  the  disease  would 
die  out.  Strawberries  do  not  average  half  as  much 
as  a  few  years  ago.  I  do  not  know  why,  but  the 
average  of  fruit  yields  is  getting  smaller  every  year. 
The  pear  trees  are  making  a  good  growth,  and  we 
hope  for  a  crop  next  year.  The  entire  absence  of  the 
Hies  ( Psylla) ,  which  nearly  killed  the  trees'last  year,  and 
the  absence  of  fruit  this  year  will  give  them  a  chance. 
“Mr.  Chapman,  what  do  you  think  about  the  road 
question  ?”  asked  one. 
“When  I  was  coming  over,”  said  I,  “I  saw  one 
overseer  who  had  warned  out  the  neighbors  and 
was  scraping  the  road  full  of  sod  and  stone.  The 
first  rain  will  wet  it  to  the  bottom  and  the  wheels 
will  cut  it  full  of  ruts.  It  will  be  full  of  mire  holes 
whenever  it  is  not  frozen,  until  next  July.  It  is  said 
that  when  farmers  1  work  on  the  road’  they  ‘  sit  in  the 
shade’  most  of  the  time.  At  this  time  of  year  it  would 
be  better  if  they  rested  all  the  time.” 
“  That  is  so,  butl  meant  the  articles  in  the  papers. 
Who  writes  them  ?  ” 
“They  are  all  paid  articles,”  said  I,  “all  by  some 
professor  or  scientific  man  who  has  to  agitate  some¬ 
thing  or  make  a  place  for  somebody.  No  farmers 
are  writing  on  the  subject.  It  is  all  well  enough  to 
say,  ‘  The  farmers  will  get  all  the  benefit  and  the 
cities  pay  90  per  cent  of  the  cost,’  but  the  power  that 
can  get  the  bill  passed  for  bonding  the  country,  can, 
afterwards,  pass  another  putting  the  cost  on  to  us*” 
Just  here  a  man  whose  red  hair  did  not  belie  his  tem¬ 
perament  struck  in  with:  “The  farmer  is  being  slowly 
ground  to  pieces.  The  monopolies  and  trusts  make 
their  own  prices  and  regulate  the  output  of  their  pro¬ 
ducts  until  the  demand  is  equal  to  the  supply.  The 
labor  organizations  fix  the  price  of  wages  and  between 
the  two  we  are  helpless.”  Just  here  a  friend  said  : 
“  I  want  to  renew  my  subscription  to  The  Rural 
New-Yorker,”  and  I  did  not  hear  what  the  remedy 
was.  What  about  roads  ?  Do  the  farmers  want  a 
change  ?  Let  us  hear  from  them.  The  grangers  are 
great  friends  of  The  Rural. 
“  My  father  took  it  for  years  and  I  cannot  do  with¬ 
out  it,”  was  told  me  a  dozen  times. 
“Here,  John,  you  ought  to  have  The  Rural.  Try 
it  three  months;  if  you  don’t  like  it  I  will  pay  for  it,” 
said  one.  One  gentleman  had  some  sample  papers 
which  he  laid  on  one  of  the  tables.  There  were  old 
subscribers  standing  there  discussing  questions  whicfy 
they  had  read  in  Tiie  Rural.  If  the  editors  of  some 
of  our  papers  could  listen  as  their  subscribers  talked 
they  would  realize  how,  unconsciously,  the  opinions  of 
many  are  formed  by  what  they  read.  If  the  responsi¬ 
bility  were  fully  appreciated,  I  think  they  would  be 
more  particular  about  the  class  of  reading  admitted  to 
their  columns.  Through  the  solicitations  of  friends  20 
Where  the  Lovers  Used  to  Hang.  Fig.  256. 
(See  Fig.  r>4«.) 
were  induced  to  subscribe.  If  every  reader  would 
speak  a  good  word  and  induce  a  neighbor  to  subscribe, 
what  a  grand  result  would  follow  the  introduction  of 
a  clean,  moral,  progressive  paper  like  The  Rural,  in 
so  many  families.  c.  E  chapman. 
How  the  English  Farmer  Thrives. 
Is  the  Dark  Cloud  Silver-Lined. 
Chance  for  English  “  Bull  Dog.” — This  year,  1892, 
will  be  remembered  in  England  as  one  of  the  worst  in 
the  long  list  of  bad  and  indifferent  ones  which  com¬ 
menced  in  1877,  have  continued  until  now,  and  “  will 
be  continued  in  our  next,”  as  the  serial  stories  say — 
so,  at  all  events,  a  good  many  people  more  than  half 
believe.  All  the  same,  however,  the  amount  of  hope 
which  wells  up  in  the  agricultural  bosom  of  Old  Eng¬ 
land  is  at  once  surprising  and  admirable  !  And  our 
farmers  have  a  bull  dog  instinct  and  power  to  “  hang 
on,”  so  long  as  there  is  anything  to  “hang  on”  to! 
But  for  this,  indeed,  many  of  us  would  have  been 
beaten  off  long  ago — as  indeed  some  few  have  been 
Lifting  Gates  by  Stoneweight.  Fig.  257. 
(See  page  G46.) 
here  and  there — and  our  old  homes  would  have  known 
us  no  more  forever.  I  will  give  an  instance  : 
Can’t  Stand  the  Rent. — Within  a  walk  of  where  I 
live  is  a  farm  on  which,  until  this  very  year,  a  family 
named  Gould  have  been  living,  without  a  break,  since 
the  time  of  the  Stuart  kings,  as  tenants  of  a  farm  on 
the  estate  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire.  This  family  has 
had  the  power  to  “hang  on”  during  the  vicissitudes  of 
centuries,  farming  the  land  and  paying  the  rent 
Now,  however,  they  “  hang  on”  no  longer  there,  but 
have  moved  away  to  another  part  of  the  country.  The 
present  head  of  the  family  made  an  application  for  a 
drop  of  rent,  basing  his  claim  on  the  continued  badpessj 
