1 89 1 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
6o9 
interest, up to a legitimate rate, they can get. Mr. Agee 
asks “ can he not see ” how simple this all is ? Permit me 
in my dullness to say that all I can see is that the farmer 
or land owner and the man who holds the mortgage would 
receive a direct benefit—the latter because he would re¬ 
ceive cash for an investment which, according to our Al¬ 
liance friends, cannot possibly be paid under existing con¬ 
ditions. The benefit that other classes of workers would 
receive would be indirect, and mighty indirect at that! 
It is now but a few months since Mr. Agee and others 
were complaining about the tariff because farmers were 
forced to accept an indirect benefit while manufacturers 
were directly benefited. This uneven benefit was what 
they called “ class legislation.” There is no consistency 
in such talk as that. If the direct benefit given the manu¬ 
facturer by the tariff is “class legislation,” then this 
financial benefit given the farmers by the land loan scheme 
is 50 times class legislation, for the benefit is that much 
more direct. A merchant doing business in a little South¬ 
ern town once told me that any form of tariff or indirect 
taxation was a fraud and a fair excuse for a revolution. 
He then went on to say how his business was injured by 
pack peddlers who tramped through the country selling 
goods for le38 money than he could because they paid no 
taxes or rents and did nothing to improve the town or 
support the local or State government. 
“ How do you stop them ?” said I. 
“ We make them pay a big license. This helps pay the 
county bills and they have to charge more for their goods 
and thus we can compete with them.” 
Now this man was ready to join a revolution against 
a government that put a tariff in the way of foreigners 
and yet he was eager to turn around and put the worst 
sort of a tax on those pack peddlers, who, according to his 
own statement, would sell goods to poor farmers a good 
deal cheaper than he would. Now, in my humble judg¬ 
ment there is even less sense in the efforts of these land 
loan men to attempt to say their scheme is not class legis¬ 
lation tnan there was in this talk about the tariff. 
Let me say a few words about the scheme itself. If I 
had space I would like to discuss It at length. It is not new. 
In the last 100 years two instances of an attempt to make 
land money safe legal tender are recorded. Late in the 
last century a bank was opened in Rhode Island which at¬ 
tempted virtually what is proposed by the land loan people. 
It proved a most dismal failure. The Argentine Govern¬ 
ment in South America attempted on a large scale just 
about what Senator Peffer and others want this country 
to do. Is there any intelligent person in the country who 
does not know that Argentina is to-day worse than bank¬ 
rupt ? I say that the results of the financial policy of 
Argentina have been almost to a dot what would follow in 
this country if the schemes of the land loan people were 
adopted. I have not the space to give the details here, but 
could easily do so. An accurate and condensed synopsis 
was printed in the last Century Magazine and Consul 
Baker’s report to the State Department is complete enough 
to convince any reasonable man. 
My great objection to land as a basis for money is that 
it shows a greater range in value and is a better field for 
speculation and fraud than any other property yet pro¬ 
posed for a money basis. For example, the farmers in my 
township could at an expense of $50,000 build a beautiful 
park and summer resort which would add value to every 
acre of land for miles around it. In other places a factory, 
a short railroad, an artesian well or other improvements 
would add $50 to the value of neighboring lands for every 
dollar invested. If this land loan scheme went through 
the farmers in my township could borrow $50,000 and 
easily add $500,000 to the value of lands in the township. 
The land loan would enable them to turn that increased 
value right into cash. That thing could be duplicated in 
the majority of the townships in this country. Would it 
indicate “ class legislation ” or not? It is my belief that 
the adoption of this land loan scheme would lead to a 
period of speculation and fraud without a parallel in the 
history of the world. It Is probable that no department 
of our present government has been more completely filled 
with scandal and fraud than the Land Office; and this 
with merely giving away land ! Does our friend realize 
the frightful possibilities for corruption that would follow 
the turning of this land into “ money ? ” 
Again, he says that the railroads would not be able by 
this scheme to turn their great tracts of land into cash- 
something they can’t do now to save their lives. But I 
don’t see why not, unless some discriminating “class 
legislation ” is used to determine just what lands are to be 
sold. In the ordinary course of events, it looks to me as 
though the first result of such a scheme would be that the 
holders of government land, railroads included, who have 
either received their land as a gift, or paid a very small 
price for it, would turn it into cash and thus provide cur¬ 
rency enough. The mortgagor farmers in the slower 
Eastern States would be the last to get in and the result 
would be just as it is In these “short term investment 
companies ; ” the big fellows that got in first would have 
a fine thing—the later ones would be “stuck.” 
Just as long as we do business with the rest of the world 
and just as long as gold and silver money are in circula¬ 
tion in the world, this government cannot make a paper 
land dollar equal to a gold dollar. If the whole world 
should agree to take up the land scheme, it would be 
a different matter. The majority of these land loan people 
seem to be in favor of a low tariff or no tariff at all. I 
should think they ought to favor a tariff so high that 
there could be absolutely no foreign trade. They want to 
increase our foreign trade and at the same time create 
money that will fall far below par in every other country. 
Do they not see that the only way to pay our debts abroad 
would be to pay more than our par value of this cheap 
money or buy gold at a premium and pay with that ? The 
creditor will determine the character of the money he is to 
be paid ! 
I have heard a great deal about mortgages. The mort¬ 
gage debt in my township doubled in the past 10 years. 
Now, this does not Indicate that our people are being 
forced off the land; on the other hand, it is one of 
the most hopeful signs of the times. These mortgages 
are placed by a building and loan association. This 
is how they work : A young man wants to own a home. 
He secures control of a piece of land, and joins the build¬ 
ing association, paying $1 every month for each share he 
takes. As money accumulates in the treasury it is loaned 
out to members. This young man borrows money enough 
to build his house. As soon as it is built he gives the asso¬ 
ciation a mortgage on it to secure it. Then all he pays in 
the way of interest, rent, etc., goes toward paying that 
mortgage, and when it is paid the house is his and the 
other members of the association have all received a good 
interest on their money. These mortgages indicate pros¬ 
perity; they show that young men are building and own¬ 
ing homes which they could not secure in any other way. 
This thing has been worked with wonderful success all 
over the country. It is cooperation. If the Farmers’ 
Alliance and other organizations would take hold of this 
cooperative system and use it to pay off their mortgages as 
young men here use it to secure homes, they would ac¬ 
complish something. Let them put into it the energy 
and breath they are now wasting over the land-loan and 
sub-Treasury business, and they will have every mortgage 
paid long before they can get a Congress to seriously con¬ 
sider either of these schemes. Do they really want to pay 
those mortgages ? Are the strong ones among them 
anxious to help the weak ? jerseyman. 
The Farmers Club. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
|Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of the 
wrlterto Insure attention. Before asking a question please see If It Is 
not answered In our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
The Cheese of the Future. 
1. In what way will cheese making improve in the fu¬ 
ture ? What proportion of casein and fat will the future 
cheese contain ? 2. What shall be done with the fat in 
milk if above four per cent when cheese Is the object ? 3. 
Would you favor a national law compelling cheese makers 
to brand the cheese with the date of make and amount and 
proportion of “stock” in it? 4. Shall factories be put 
under State Inspection ? 
Ans.— 1. More attention will be given to our home trade 
cheese, and in time our entire make will be consumed at 
home. Little if any April and October cheese will be made. 
May, June and July milk is not a whit too rich for cheese. 
August milk can be worked into a cheete for early winter 
use: September milk into cheese for winter and spring 
use. October milk is too rich to make a close, solid, long- 
keeping cheese. Good October milk contains five pounds 
of butter to each 100 pounds. Milk that has four pounds 
of butter to ICO pounds of milk and is carefully handled, 
will make the best of cheese. Such milk ought to be 
standard and the cheese from it ought to be standard cheese. 
2 . 1 would work all milk above four per cent of butter into 
butter, or skim it if I must make cheese of it, so that four 
per cent of butter would remain. 3. A national law Is what 
we must have in order to build up our trade and hold it. 
I think the date of the make ought to be branded on the 
side of each cheese, and the amount of “ stock ” or pounds 
of butter to 100 pounds of milk it contains. The buyer will 
have to be the judge, for some well-made July cheeses are 
as good as some August cheeses. Good, sweet milk and a 
careful man are required to make fine, long-keeping 
cheese. 4. Yes; but before this Is done a price for making 
must be lawfully enacted, based on the quality of the 
cheese made in each factory. The maker should hold a 
certificate from a board of competent men, not only as to 
his ability to do his work, but also as to his neatness of 
management, kind treatment of the patrons and capacity 
to care for the factory machinery. The present milk in- 
spec :ors, if competent butter and cheese makers, could at¬ 
tend to what work is now done and superintend the fac¬ 
tories from A to Z. The price paid factorymen in many 
instances will not pay good cheesemakers living wages as 
well as for first-class supplies and repairs. Then a cheaper 
hand is employed next season. The quality as well as the 
quantity falls off, and the patron loses at both ends; but 
few see it, and when they have succeed d, at the an¬ 
nual factory meeting, in cutting the price of making, they 
have saved 10 cents a hundred pounds and lost half a pound 
of milk for each pound of cheese by careless making, and 
half a cent in price owing to the inferior quality. Yet they 
don’t see how they suffer a loss. f. w. edmunds. 
Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
Mr. J. M. Smith’s Irrigation. 
Subscriber, (address mislaid).— J. M. Smith, of Brown 
County, Wis., tells in a late Rural how he saved his 
strawberry crop by artificial watering; how can I water or 
irrigate from one-eighth to half an acre of strawberries so 
as to save a crop in a protracted drought ? 
Ans.—M r. Smith’s system is very simple. The water is 
pumped from wells into a high tank by means of wind 
mills. From this tank iron pipes run beneath the ground 
in all directions. These are tapped at intervals by pipes 
that run above the ground like hydrants in the city water 
works. In irrigating, a hose is attached to the hydrant and 
the water flows through it over the plants to be watered. 
A3 the tank is placed high in the air, it gives sufficient 
“ head” to force the water the required distance. This is 
an economical way of using the water because it can 
be placed just where it is wanted. In the far West 
water is carried in ditches across the country and run 
along the rows of cultivated crops or flooded over the sur¬ 
face of sowed grain or grass. This is a wholesale system 
and too wasteful for the gardener. The theory of Irrigation 
is to lift the water so high that it will force itself, by its 
own weight, through pipes and hose where it is wanted. 
Grape Fertilizers, Strawberries, etc. 
W. A. L., Hammondsport, N. Y.— Does The Rural 
recommend any fertilizer for grape vines? If so, what 
kiud? Where can I buy Parker Earle Strawberry roots ? 
What is the price ? Who sells the seed of the R. N.-Y. 
No. 2 Potato, and what is it generally worth in spring ? 
Ans —A mixture of wood ashes and bone will make a 
good fertilizer for grapes. Most of the larger fertilizer 
manufacturers sell special fruit or vine manures that are 
excellent. T. V. Munson, Denison, Tex., has tbe true 
Parker Earle plants. Most of the seedsmen will soon offer 
R. N.-Y. No. 2 Potatoes. The price last spring was $5 per 
barrel. 
The Flea Beetle. 
J A., Wellsville, N. Y. —We have a new bug here. He 
spoils our potato tops almost as much as the Colorado 
beetle. One can get rid of the Colorado pest with Paris- 
green and plaster, but this one still keeps right on. It 
does not eat any of the vine, but it stings It in some way 
and one branch after another withers and dies. The pests 
hide under the leaves and are as cunning as a fox. Is 
anything known of them and to what extent will they In¬ 
jure the vines and how can they be fought ? 
Ans.—T his is probably the flea beetle, which has been 
thoroughly described In past issues of The R. N.-Y. In 
several seasons this insect so weakened the vines of our 
potatoes that the blight later in the season easily killed 
them. It always injures the vines more or less, dwarfing 
them and making them far more susceptible to blight or 
drought. We have never been able to fight the pests suc¬ 
cessfully. Several entomologists recommend tobacco 
water or wood ashes. 
Something About Subsoiling. 
Subscriber (no address).— For what kinds of ground 
would subsolling be advisable ? What soils are better 
without it ? What crops need subsoiling ? Are any better 
without it ? Should one subsoil immediately before sow¬ 
ing or planting a crop, or subsoil a summer-fallow or fall- 
plowing for a spring crop ? I have noticed on our ground 
that whenever an under-drain has been newly made the 
crops directly over it have longer straw and more grain 
than crops a few feet away. 
Ans.— Subsoiling is best for close, compact, hard, clay 
soils. In such soils deep stirring not only admits the air, 
but also permits the water to sink into the soil and remain 
there. On light, open soils through which the water runs 
readily, subsoiling would be a grave error because it 
would only give the water a better chance than before 
to drain away when the great object is to make such soils 
more retentive of moisture. We cannot think of any crop 
that would not be helped by subsoiling on hard land. Po¬ 
tatoes, corn and roots would probably receive the most 
benefit from subsoiling, but mainly because they are deep- 
rooted crops, and the subsoil plow so deepens the soil that 
their roots can sink deeper and grow more naturally. We 
would use the subsoil plow as close to the planting as pos¬ 
sible, except In the case of fall-plowing a hill-side like that 
described by Prof. Massey on page 293. In that Instance 
the subsoiling prevented washing—the water sank into the 
deeply stirred ground instead of flowing over it and wash¬ 
ing it away. Subsoiling is a good aid to tile drainage and 
may be said to be of most benefit to the cold, hard soils 
that need tiles to warm and air them up. A great mistake 
is made by those who suppose that the subsoil plow turns 
up the poor, light-colored soil to the top. It is not a turn¬ 
ing plow at all. It merely breaks up and looses the “hard 
pan ” without changing its position at all. 
Fertilizer for Grain. 
H. C. W., Ducks County, Pa.—I have a five acre field of 
corn that I Intend to put in rye this fall, after the corn Is 
off, and seed it to grass (mainly clover) next spring. It has 
had a fair coat of barnyard manure on a good Timothy 
sward this spring, and, judging from present indications, 
will produce a good crop of corn. The soil is a medium 
heavy clay loam and the surface is sloping. What should 
be the ingredients of a good commercial fertilizer intended 
to produce a crop of grain and one of grass ? How much 
is it advisable to put on ? 
Ans.—A fertilizer for grain and grass should have a 
guaranteed analysis of three per cent of nitrogen, seven 
per cent of phosphoric acid and five per cent of potash. We 
would use at least 350 pounds per acre with more in the 
spring if the appearance of the crop indicated any great 
lack of vigor. _ 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Cabbage Lice.— W. M. F., Pueblo, Cal.—To kill these 
pests try kerosene emulsion or tobacco water. 
Strawberries for Home Use.— C. A. C., Ferrisburg, Vt. 
—The best prolific strawberries of fine quality for home 
use are, Prince, Parry, Henderdon, Downing and Cumber¬ 
land. The first three are not very productive in most 
places. 
The Hardiest Peaches.— C. G. A., East Island, Me.—In 
what is known as the Michigan Fruit Belt, the following 
varieties of peaches are generally considered to be among 
the hardiest, so far as liability to the winter-killing of 
their fruit buds is concerned. They are named, as nearly 
as may be, in the order of their relative hardiness : Hill’s 
Chili, Keyport (white), *Lewis, ^Kalamazoo, Golden Drop ; 
and, among the very early varieties. Hale and Rivers. 
There is little difference, among the glandular varieties, so 
far as hardiness of wood growth is concerned. The serrate- 
leaved are usually considered less hardy in this respect, 
probably mainly on account of the enfeeblement conse¬ 
quent upon mildew; to which, especially at the North, 
they are more or less subject. [pres.J t. t. lyon. 
♦Local varieties. 
