THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 4 
146 
Fair Price for Planting: Potatoes. 
F. C. J., Hastings, Nkb.—I believe the 
amount of moisture at the time of ripen¬ 
ing has much to do with the quality of 
potatoes. If excessive the tubers will be 
watery, no matter of what variety. If I 
mistake not, the price of an Aspinwall 
planter is $75, and as about five acres 
seem to be a fair day’s work, at a charge 
of $1 per acre only 15 days’ work will be 
needed to pay for it. There is only one 
in this neighborhood owned by a market 
gardener, and I believe his charges are 
25 cents an acre. The poorest ship to 
sail in is partnership. I have nearly all 
the tools I wish for farming, and had to 
use credit to get them, but I know how I 
got them and try to take care of them 
and do not wish to even hire them out, 
as I find no farmers about here who take 
care of their tools. I have a Champion 
grain drill made in 1868 and still use it. 
I would, of course, prefer the later im¬ 
provements, but this answers the pur¬ 
pose. I used my harvester 11 years, 
which is about twice as long as the 
majority of wooden frames last. 
A Smoke for Jack Frost. 
G. W. S., Eureka, W. Va. —In a late 
Rural is an inquiry by F. J. W. in regard 
to saving vegetables from frost by smoke. 
The query leads to the conclusion that 
he depends on the smoke forming a cur¬ 
tain which prevents the radiation of heat 
into space, which is the accepted theory, 
but it does not seem to me practicable. 
Professor Tyndall says, “ a moist atmos¬ 
phere is opaque to heat,” meaning, I sup¬ 
pose, that the moisture in the atmos¬ 
phere would absorb the heat. I have on 
three occasions saved my own garden, 
and once the garden of a neighbor 40 rods 
below me in the same narrow valley, 
while all the surrounding gardens were 
greatly injured. In these cases I first 
started a fire of logs, and, when I had 
considerable heat, threw on quite a large 
quantity of wet leaves, straw and sorghum 
bagasse, and continued to do so until 
morning. This could hardly be called a 
smoke, but rather a fog. Philosophy 
teaches that a substance passing to a 
rarer medium or state, absorbs heat, and 
to a denser state, gives it out. In this 
case the water in the damp smudge was 
changed to a rarer state, that of vapor, 
and carried off the heat, then coming in 
contact with the atmosphere and vegeta¬ 
tion, it passed into a denser state, that of 
water, and gave out the heat, thus warm¬ 
ing the vegetables. There is always on 
frosty nights a perceptible flow of air to 
lower ground, known as aerial drainage. 
The smoke will drift with it, yielding its 
moisture to the colder vegetables, and 
the heat raises the temperature of the 
plants above the freezing point. The 
success of the experiment consists in 
having a fire that has some heat in it, 
and then adding enough wet material to 
absorb that heat, and yet have the vapor 
just hot enough to rise. It will then 
gently float with the air and fall to the 
lower parts. If too hot, it will rise too 
high and not come in contact with the 
plants. 
The Exodus from the Country. 
Alva Agee, Gallia County, 0.—It 
may be very true that the tendency of 
the people toward the cities is due to 
some injustice that farmers have to bear, 
as The Rural quotes Mr. Johnson as 
saying; but should not the tendency of 
the population be townward, if the bal¬ 
ance be kept between the food-producing 
forces and the consumers ? Invention 
has increased the ability of manufactur¬ 
ing classes to supply the needs of the 
people, but not to supply all their wants. 
Wants grow greater every day, and the 
luxuries of one day are the necessities of 
the next. The world can be kept busy 
ministering to wants that are not true 
needs. Workmen are used and are in 
demand, and will be, despite the mar¬ 
velous increase in our productive capacity 
caused by invention. 
But the amount of agricultural prod¬ 
ucts needed and wanted is limited. Bread 
and meat and vegetables will not be con¬ 
sumed to any great excess, no matter 
how abundant the supply. Inventions 
that reduce the number of workmen 
needed to raise a thousand bushels of 
wheat reduce the number of men needed 
in the country districts. Our market is 
not an elastic one, taking all offered, as 
is true of the market for the comforts 
and luxuries that are supplied by most 
town and city workmen. The ratio 
between the number engaged in produc¬ 
ing food and of those only consuming 
should grow greater with the introduc¬ 
tion of all labor-saviDg devices into the 
field. The demand for food is yearly 
increasing, but labor-saving devices in¬ 
crease more rapidly, and not only should 
all the nation’s increase in population go 
to the towns, but some farmers must go 
with them, if we are ever to reach the 
end of over-production. 
Continued on next page.) 
IN writing to advertisers please always mention 
The Rural New-Yorker. 
Willie Tillbrook. 
Scrofula 
lu the Neck. 
The following is from 
Mrs. J. W. Tillbrook, 
wife of the Mayor of Mc¬ 
Keesport, Penn.: 
“ My little boy Willie, 
now six years old, two 
years ago had a scrofula 
bunch under one ear 
which the doctor lanced and it <discharged jbr 
some time. We then began giving him Hood s 
Sarsaparilla and the son; healed up. H is cure 
is due to IlOOIV.** SAKS AI Alt 11 . 1 , A. 
He has never been very robust, but now seems 
healthy and daily growing stronger. 
HOOD’S PILLS do not weaken, but aid 
digestion and tone the stomach. Try them. 25c. 
Sheridan’s Condition Powders 
MAKfc 
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$5. Ex. paid. Poultry Raising Guide, tree, with $1 orders. 
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