AUG. 22 
610 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A QUESTION FOR FARMERS. 
Let Us Discuss It. 
T. H. Hoskins, Orleans County, Ver¬ 
mont.— For upwards of 30 years as an editor, 
a member of agricultural boards and socie¬ 
ties, and as a neighbor, I have been labor¬ 
ing to help my fellow farmers to make their 
farming “ pay.” The upshot of it all has 
been thatonly in exceptional cases can much 
good be done where there is almost total ig¬ 
norance of Nature’s methods, that is, of the 
natural sciences. Unless a boy gets suffi¬ 
cient insight to these to make him inter¬ 
ested in Nature and her workings, be can 
never farm to the best advantage. Unless 
he is naturally shrewd, industrious, eco¬ 
nomical and persevering, no man can now 
make farming pay on our partially ex¬ 
hausted farms without the help of science. 
I know a few men who, without much ac¬ 
quaintance with books, can yet “ see into ” 
mAny of the sound rules of farm work; and 
who will rotate their crops, economize well 
and correctly in their management, and se¬ 
lect, breed and handle their stock to ad¬ 
vantage. Such men, however, are compar¬ 
atively few in number. When they exist 
they will beat a slack and careless man in 
practical farming, no matter how much the 
latter may cirry in his head of school 
knowledge, or how well he can talk at 
farmers’ meetings. I admire such men as 
men; tut in a certain sense they are a hin- 
derance to progress, because their success 
seems to prove that science is not needed on 
the farm. They, by their shrewd observa¬ 
tion and clear common sense, with industry 
and force of character, attain success, even 
though they make bad blunders occasion¬ 
ally which accurate knowledge would have 
prevented; but still they stand as examples 
of successful farming without school 
science. 
With what we call the “ average farmer ” 
losses occur—very heavy losses—from want 
of elementary knowledge. I should say that 
fully four-fifths of the farmers of New Eng¬ 
land cannot see value in any incomplete 
manure. This is the secret of their disre¬ 
gard of urine, muck, lime, plaster, ashes 
and various manufacturing wastes, olten 
cheaply purchasable in their neighbor¬ 
hoods. It is also a reason why they cannot 
make profitable use of purchased feeding 
materials, or even of their own grain and 
hay crops, or of their stable manure. 
Routine is their only resource. When they 
step outside of that they are all at sea, and 
neither neighbor nor newspaper can give 
them any adequate help. They may be in¬ 
dustrious, and on new, rich soils fairly suc¬ 
cessful ; but for lack of the right sort of 
knowledge they rapidly get their farms out 
of condition, become discouraged, sell out 
and “go West.” 
It is plain to be seen that without a good 
acquaintance with practical science on the 
part of the farmer, this must always be 
the case ; and we are almost forced to the 
conclusion that if the “common farmer” 
must continue ignorant of the theory of his 
art, there is little hope for our agriculture, 
except in a return to the landlord system 
of Europe, where in his lease the farmer is 
bound not to diverge from sound principles 
of farming. The landlords, or their man¬ 
agers, will study agriculture as a science 
as well as an art, and will constrain the 
tenants to follow certain rules as condi¬ 
tions of tenantship. 
The large sale of complete commercial 
fertilizers is a consequence of this igno¬ 
rance, which prevents our farmers from a 
successful use of any other kind. They are 
accustomed only to dung as the manure 
that is good for all crops; and manufac¬ 
turers find that it is such a fertilizer only 
that the average farmer can do anything 
with. Even, as in the case of ashes, or of 
ground bone, or the potash salts, or of Mr. 
Harris’s favorite nitrate of soda, if they 
are bought they are only by accident made 
to give profitable results, or any result that 
can be surely duplicated—much less made 
constant or uniform. 
This state of the case explains why the 
many cheap and handy incomplete fertil¬ 
izers, accessible to many, are allowed to lie 
unused, in New England, millions of tons 
of “muck” lie in untouched beds, because 
the Yankee farmer has not the knowledge 
to make it available, or to test it fairly on 
his crops. The same man finds the liquid 
manure of his stables unmanageable stuff 
—sometimes causing too rank a growth on 
his grass ground, and often apparently 
doing no good on his tilled crops. He gets 
easily discouraged, and goes back to “ the 
good old way,” which does not pay, but 
which he thinks he “ understands.” 
Now when are we goiog to see youDg 
men and women educated to the trade of 
agriculture ? How is it to ba dons ? Are 
our agricultural colleges and experiment 
stations really helping the great body of 
our farmers, or only here and there one 
who has some elementary training in the 
sciences of Nature ? Are we on, or near, 
the right track? If not, what is there to 
encourage hope ? Is there a subject more 
worth study and discussion than this ? 
Keep Up Your Fence. 
H. H. G., Northvillk, Tenn.— We have 
had a very dry summer ; hay is half a crop. 
There are lots of fruit, except apples which 
are half a crop. Times are getting close ; 
money is scarce. Let the mechanic of the 
North, if he is getting a living, stay 
where he is. All should take The Rural’s 
advice—down with useless fences. Build a 
little fence of trust and therein stay; let 
no one come South expecting a soft time 
presently. We have droughts or too much 
rain as well as troubles encountered else¬ 
where. The soil is poor and the hot sun 
scalds and burns vegetables and fruit. 
Birds are more troublesome than in the 
North. B. B , Farmingdale, Ill., speaking 
01 page 511 of The Rural, hits the nail 
squarely oa the head when he condemns tl e 
birds. It is as he says except in the case ot 
the wren snd the bluebird. We have 
taken The Rural for years and expect to 
take it for years to come unless that Tree 
Blackberr. and Wlneberry Man gets away 
with my old friend, which I sincerely hope 
may not be the case. 
R. N.-Y.-We are patiently waiting for 
the “Tree Blackberry Man” to begin oper¬ 
ations ! We are ready for him. 
“ My Best Wheat Yield.” 
G. A. H., Bellefontaine, O —The best 
crop of wheat I ever grew has just been 
harvested and yielded 30% bushels per acre 
when thrashed. On September 22 I drilled 
wheat on 8% acres of corn ground which 
had previously been a good clover sod on 
which the crop had had one year’s growth. 
The ground was cut up with a disc harrow 
and a bushel and a quarter of seed was 
drilled in; 1000 pounds of ammoniated dis¬ 
solved bone were drilled in on five acres 
and the remainder was seeded without the 
use of either fertilizer or barn yard manure. 
Had the entire field been treated with fer¬ 
tilizer lam sure it would have averaged 
33% bushels per acre; 21 acres were sown 
and the average yield was 21% bushels. 
How will I duplicate the yield next season ? 
By using fertilizer or barnyard manure on 
every acre sown. A disc or Cutaway har¬ 
row is the best implement for cutting up 
the ground. I use a disc followed by a 
smoothing harrow or an Acme to make the 
ground smooth and level. When the ground 
is broken up with the plow I roll immedi¬ 
ately alter plowing. 
I am especially partial to no one drill. 
There are manv different manufacturers of 
drills and the standard drills do the work 
well. I want a combined drill—one that 
will drill in fertilizer with the sead, and at 
the same time measure the ground cor¬ 
rectly. 
1 aim to sow wheat on corn ground Some¬ 
times, when I have a poor catch of grass or 
oats I plow up and sow to wheat. In future 
I expect to sow more on clover. The diffi¬ 
culty with me in sowing on clover is in get¬ 
ting a suitable time to plow in order to 
have the soil well packed. For the past 
four years I have used fertilizer on wheat 
and owe much of my success to the prac¬ 
tice. I have carefully felt my way along 
in using it until I have made up my mind 
that when I run out of fertilizer I will stop 
wheat seeding and drive the drill to the 
barn. I have tried different quantities up 
to 200 pounds per acre, and have found that 
my ground requires at least that amount. 
This year I shall try 250 pounds on an acre 
or so. I use all the stable manure I can 
possibly make, and apply it as a top-dress¬ 
ing after the ground Is. plowed for wheat. 
I find it gives grand results to apply it in 
connection with fertilizer. Of late years I 
apply as much as I possibly can on corn 
ground which I intend to follow with 
wheat. In this way I get the largest part of 
it in the corn; still sufficient nourishment 
is left to give the wheat a good start. 
About 25 years ago a farmer named 
Scott living near me, saw some peculiar 
heads of wheat which differed from the 
kind sown. These he carefully secured and 
sowed, and the new variety was named 
“ Scott Wheat.” I have sown this ever 
since, and while I have tried very many 
other kinds by the side of it, I have never 
had any other that out yielded it, and it 
has never failed to give me a fair crop, 
while other varieties have done so, and 
while many of my neighbors have tried and 
eulogized other sorts they have returned to 
the Scott, and now more of it is grown in 
this vicinity than of any other variety, but 
I cannot say whether it would be equally 
well suited to other localities. I have tried 
many other kinds of new wheat, especially 
those sent out by The R. N.-Y., and those 
distributed by the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, but I have not received satisfactory 
results from them, although I have b^en 
anxious to secure a variety that would in¬ 
crease the yield and at the same time make 
a good flour. 
City Partners for Farmers. 
L. F., Allegany County, N. Y — A re¬ 
cent article in The Rural on town and 
city people bettering their condition by in¬ 
vesting their little savings In small fa ms, 
has interested me much. It is a move in 
the right direction The article in the issue 
of August 1, “ A City Man Talks Farm Busi¬ 
ness,” leads me to suggest an idea that has 
often occurred to me, and one that I shall 
endeavor to put into practice on my own 
farm. Instead of traveling about as this 
correspondent says he has been doing, to 
find a good location where he can settle 
down and begin farming in a small way, 
let him form a copartnership with some 
one who, having a good farm but not the 
wish to sell out, would be willing to enter 
into an equitable agreement for the more 
thorough development of the farm to the 
mutual benefit of both. I am notin gym 
pathy with trusts, combines or syndicates, 
as we read of them nowadays; but to the 
casual observer it becomes at once appar¬ 
ent that those engaged in manufacturing 
and other commercial pursuits, who work 
together, giving their employees an inter¬ 
est in the business, obtain the best and 
most profitable results. I fail to see why 
this principle faithfully carried out will not 
apply advantageously in agriculture as 
well. There are very few farms in this 
country that would not be bettered by the 
combined intellects of several good he ds in 
bringing them up to the highest standard 
of productive excellence. The old saying, 
none the less true to-day, “ He who by 
the plow would thrive, must eitl er hold 
the plow or drive,” is sadly perverted by 
the too prevalent idea that to thrive one 
must both hold and drive. It would afford 
me much pleasure to confer with any one 
having a taste for farming and some capi¬ 
tal, with a view to combining forces. 
Firing out the Moles. 
C. G., Ridgeville, III —I, too, was 
troubled by moles in the spring. It may 
be that moles will eat worms and other 
forms of animal food, but I am as well 
(Continued on next page.) 
Advertisers treat all correspondents 
well if they mention The Rural New 
Yorker. 
Boils,Pimples 
And other indications of 
Impure blood, including 
Scrofula 
Salt Rheum, etc., cured by 
Hood’s 
Sarsaparilla 
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For Information apply to 
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Commlssionet of Agriculture and Immigration, 
RICHMOND, VA. 
An Excellent Opportunity 
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THE PE COS V ALLEY. 
THE FRUIT BELT OF NEW MEXIGO 
Over 100 miles of irrigating canals now completed, 
each from 18 to 60 feet wide und carrying 5 to V feet of 
""Over SOOjOOO acres of the richest lands in the world 
already available for irrigation and farming under 
these canals, twenty-five per cent, of which are still 
subject to entry under tho homestead laws. 
Other lands for sale at $15 to $3U an acre and on 
1 “^he Pecos River being fed by ncver-falling springs 
of immense size, the water supply for all the cunals 
i an carry is assured. In this respect the Pecos is 
unequ iled for irrigating purposes by uny river on the 
L ° Climatic and soil conditions here are superior to 
those of Southern California. All the fruits that are 
grown there can be produced here, except oranges and 
lemons, while the Pecos Vulley grows all the cereals, 
vegetables and grasses that can be grown anywhere on 
lh Cotton.tobacco and hemp also grow here luxuriantly, 
while the neighboring mines ulford a home market tor 
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perns IRRIGATION & IMPROVEMENT CO.- 
Just Published. 
HOW TO RID 
Buildings and Farms 
OF 
RATS, 
Brother 
Should Have li in The House. 
Dropped on Suejar, Children Dove 
to take Johnson’s Anodyne Liniment for Croup,Colds, 
Sore Throat, Tonsilitis, Colic, Cramps and Pains. Re¬ 
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Mice, Gophers, Ground Squirrels, 
Prairie Dogs, Rabbits, Moles, 
Minks, Weasels and other Pests 
quickly and safely. How to snare 
Hawks and Owls. 
Valuable Hints to Housekeep¬ 
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Keepers. 
By “ PICKETT.” 
PRICE, 20 CENTS. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
Times Building, New York. 
