RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
221 
mwKi  rAteks  Mips  i|ggtf 
SHsfeu  JafebiA 
upon 
Books 
Jan.  17.  This  is  a  very  fine  Winter  for 
business;  snow  enough  for  good  sledding 
without  any  drifted  roads.  .Many  port¬ 
able  sawmills  in  Central  Maine  are  rapid¬ 
ly  cutting  out  the  remaining  lumber, 
which  is  mostly  so  far  from  permanent 
mills  as  to  make  hauling  unprofitable; 
many  are  short  of  hay,  and  the  local  de¬ 
mand  will  use  all  the  local  hay  for  sale. 
Potatoes  are  $1  per  bushel  and  over  at 
the  railroad  stations,  and  small  ones  bring 
half  price.  At  Thorndike  Station  Jan. 
If  over  4,(HH)  bushels  were  hauled  in 
and  sold.  Every  day  the  stations  along 
the  railroads  are  very  busy  places.  Farm¬ 
ers  who  were  discouraged  are  now  greatly 
encouraged  and  plan  a  large  acreage  of 
potatoes  next  year.  Tile  fertilizer  com¬ 
panies  are  putting  out  brands  of  fer¬ 
tilizer  carrying  no  potash  at  prices  as 
low  as  or  lower  than  it  has  been  usual 
to  sell  the  complete  fertilizer  in  the 
past.  Many  farmers  are  buying  a  4-10-0 
brand  and  export  good  results,  especially 
those  who  are  using  barn  manure.  Sweet- 
corn  did  well  last  year,  and  the  acreage 
will  he  increased.  The  milk  and  cream 
business  is  also  on  the  increase ;  D.  Mint¬ 
ing  &  Sons,  11.  1’.  Hood  &  Sons  and  the 
Turner  Centre  companies  are  the  firms 
doing  business  in  Central  Maine.  They 
all  paid  87 c.  per  pound  for  butter  fat 
(ascertained  by  the  test  of  a  composite 
sample)  last  month;  also  to  those  sell¬ 
ing  milk  they  paid  about  00e.  per  hun¬ 
dred  pounds  additional.  Grain  is  very 
high,  cottonseed  $2  per  hundred;  gluten 
feed,  $1.75;  corn.  $1.70 ;  meal,  $1,60; 
bran,  $1.45  at  railroad  stores.  Growers 
are  greatly  disappointed  with  the  apple 
market.  Buyers  talked  and  contracted 
for  some  at  $2.50  per  bbl.  right  through 
for  No.  1  and  No.  2;  they  packed  some, 
hut  have  not  paid  for  them  and  they 
are  stored  mostly  at  grower's  risk.  Buy¬ 
ers  say  they  will  take  them  soon  as  mar¬ 
ker  improves.  But  suppose  it  does  not?  Are 
there  too  many  apple  trees  in  the  coun¬ 
try.  and  had  we  better  cut  down  all  hut 
a  few  of  the  best?  R.  w,  II. 
Waldo  Co.,  Me. 
Jan.  17. — The  coldest  day  we  have  had 
so  far  was  Jan.  15.  when  the  thermome¬ 
ter  registered  10  degrees  above  zero.  There 
have  been  no  heavy  snows,  hut  a  num¬ 
ber  of  light,  ones.  Farmers  who  own 
automobiles  and  gas  engines  are  busy 
writing  to  their  Congressmen  and  Sena¬ 
tors  protesting  against  the  proposed  in¬ 
crease  of  (lie  price  of  gasoline  and  tax 
on  automobiles.  The  bay  crop  being 
one  of  the  shortest  on  record  last  season 
it  was  predicted  that  the  price  this  Win¬ 
ter  would  reach  $80  per  ton :  however, 
it  is  hard  to  soli  now  at  $15  per  ton. 
It  is  predicted  that  farm  help  will  be 
scarcer  than  ever  this  year,  as  there  ap¬ 
pears  to  bo  a  general  stampede  to  Wil¬ 
mington  to  work  in  the  powder  factories. 
But  little  Fall  plowing  was  done.  Owing 
to  the  demand  for  canned  tomatoes,  it  is 
said  the  acreage  will  be  doubled  this 
season  over  that  of  last.  Some  packers 
have  already  commenced  contracting  with 
the  growers  for  this  year’s  crop.  The 
pack  last  year  was  almost  50  per  cent 
short-  Fork  is  dull,  8e.  per  lb.;  chick¬ 
ens  in  good  demand.  16e. ;  eggs,  8fic. ; 
corn,  68c.;  wheat,  $1.22;  butter,  85c. ; 
bran.  $25.  A  large  number  of  our  lead¬ 
ing  fruit  growers  attended  the  Peninsula 
Horticultural  meeting  at  Easton.  Ind.  It 
has  been  reported  that  considerable  dam¬ 
age  has  been  done  to  young  apple  trees 
by  the  round-headed  apple-tree  borer. 
Hundreds  of  baskets  of  sweet  potatoes  are 
being  taken  from  the  storage  houses  and 
loaded  in  refrigerator  cars  for  the  North¬ 
ern  and  Western  cities.  Owing  to  the 
scarcity  and  high  price  of  fertiliser  farm¬ 
ers  arc  being  advised  this  year  to  save 
everything  that  can  he  used  to  improve 
the  soil.  Phosphates  are  too  high  as 
compared  with  the  prices  for  grain,  hay, 
potatoes  and  fruits.  Farmers  of  this 
State  have  not  utilized  more  than  half  of 
the  available  manures,  such  as  cornstalks, 
straw,  ashes,  leaves  and  the  green  crops 
such  as  Crimson  clover,  cow  pens.  Soy 
beaus,  rye,  etc.  The  State  Board  of 
Agriculture  has  arranged  a  series  of 
farmers’  institutes  to  be  held  in  this 
county  during  the  month  of  February. 
The  speakers  will  include  the  best  the 
hoard  can  secure.  Our  roads  remained 
good  until  Christmas,  hut  since  that  time 
have  been  in  poor  condition.  c.  II. 
Dover,  Del. 
Prices  ruling  here  are  as  follows : 
Eggs  50c;  milk  16c  per  gal.  f.o.h,  rail¬ 
road  station  for  the  year  round.  Butter 
45  to  50c,  sold  to  private  consumers  in 
Beaver  Falls.  Cows  selling  from  SS5  to 
$1110.  Fat  cattle  butchers  call  for  at 
the  farm,  paying  flora  8  to  10c  per  lb. 
Potatoes  at  $1  per  bu.  to  trade.  Apples 
$1  per  bu.  Good  demand  for  every  thing. 
Fombell,  Pa.  w.  h.  g. 
Jan.  10.  Potatoes  seem  to  be  the  prin¬ 
ciple  market  just  at  present;  the  price 
at  siilings  is  firm  at  $1  per  bu.,  and  a 
large  number  of  cars  are  being  loaded  at 
the  present  time.  Indications  point  for 
another  advance  in  price  in  the  near  fu¬ 
ture.  This  is  a  good  dairy  section. 
Creameries  are  plentiful  and  tested  four 
per  cent,  milk  is  $1.00  per  100  lbs.  at 
door.  Apple  crop  very  short,  yield  Away 
below  tin1  average :  sold  early  in  the  sea¬ 
son  for  $1.75  to  $2.25  per  barrel.  No 
chance  to  store  any  here.  No  storing 
facilities.  Butter  82c;  eggs,  strictly 
Send  no  money.  The  coupon  alone  will  bring  this  great  agri¬ 
cultural  library  which  tells  every  important  secret  of  successful 
farming. 
See  for  yourself  the  $4,000,000  worth  of  farming  facts  these 
books  contain.  Go  through  the  wealth  of  information  on  tested 
methods  and  money-making  facts  given  on  every  page — facts  on 
profitable  dairying,  on  fruit  growing,  on  animal  diseases,  on  grain 
growing,  on  hog,  sheep  and  cattle  breeding,  on  bees,  on  poultry — 
facts  on  everything  pertaining  to  money  making  from  the  soil. 
Just  send  the  coupon.  We  will  ship- the  complete  set  to  you 
at  once.  Read  the  wonderful  offer  we  are  making.  Read  espe¬ 
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especially  for  this  work. 
serration,  inquiry  and  experiment  which  government  experts  have  spent 
ten  years  in  time  and  over  $4,000,000  to  secure.  Practical  instruction  for 
(the  man  with  only  a  garden,  as  well  as  for  the  man  with  a  10,000-acre 
ranch.  Classified,  indexed  and  cross-indexed — every  fact  immediately 
accessible.  7  big  volumes  containing  5,000  pages,  3,000,000  words  and 
hundreds  of  pictures,  give  you  clearly  and  concisely  just  the  information 
you  want  about  any  and  every  branch  of  farming.  They  tell  you  what  to 
do  and  what  to  avoid  to  make  your  land  pay  the  biggest  possible  profits. 
I  he  methods  given  in  the  Farmer's  Cyclopedia  are.  practical.  They 
have  been  tested  and  proved  by  thousands  of  successful  farmers  in  every 
part  of  the  country  and  collected  in  this  handy  form  to  help  you  solve 
your  fanning  problems.  For  only  a  few  cents  a  day  you  get  a  complete 
course  in  agriculture  and  in  ten  minutes’  reading  you  may  find  one  fact 
that  will  be  worth  many  times  the  price  of  the  books.  So  send  the  cou¬ 
pon  for  the  free  examination. 
— - Partial  List  of  Contents - 
and  Care  of  Dairy  Cows  Poultry  Problems  Solved  Soils  and  Fertilization 
(i iiis  alone  worth  the  price)  (No  other  books  on  pout-  (Make  your  land  yield  more) 
Feeds  and  Feeding  for  Beef  *?’  mUl)  Farm  Building,  ' 
(A  wonderful  work)  F  ,£“1* *  „  fo!  „  (How  to  plan  and  build 
_  I  Rigger,  more  certain  re- 
Diseases  and  Insect  Pests  suits)  ° 1  lue  nm  ' 
(How  to  protect  cuttle  Latest  Facts  and  Inveatiirfl.  Domestic  Science 
and  crops  against  them)  tion  on  every  Farm  Product  Comfortable,  economical 
p  c.  -tt  n  •  •  ( IiiKiiros  liinffpr  better  fwrm  housekeeping 
Profitable  Hog  Raising  crops  with  less  l-’ilmr)  (Lightens  the  work  of  the 
(A  complete  library  on  the  crops  ' m,  less  labor)  housekeepers) 
hog)  Every  Phase  of  Farm  Man- 
„  .  agement  And  thousands  of  other  sub- 
buccess  with  Sheep  (From  liovcrnment  Fxperi-  jeets  of  vital  interest  aud 
(Every  question  answered)  meats  amt  Researches)  value. 
Notes  from  Southeastern  California 
If  one  comes  nut  here  by  the  .Southern 
Pacific  Railroad,  before  reaching  what 
has  been  called  the  garden  spot  of  tin- 
world.  one  of  the  most  impressive  sights 
is  the  Salton  .Sea.  This  is  about  200 
miles  from  the  Pacific  and  about  50  feet 
below  sea  level,  and  originally  was  a 
part  of  the  Pacific.  But  in  the  begin- 
mng  the  (’dorado  Rivet*  emptied  into  the 
I  act  fie  about  a  hundred  miles  south  of 
what  is  now  the  Saltou  Sea,  and  at  the 
same  time  formed  the  habit  of  bringing 
dowu  silt  with  its  Spring  Hood,  which  it 
deposited  at  its  mouth,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  pushed  this  new-made  land  clear 
across  to  Tower  California,  shut  off  the 
Saltou  Sea,  and  made  several  thousand 
I  olorndo  River  by  means  of  a  canal  with 
its  intake  a  few  miles  below  the  Mexican 
border.  This  was  done,  and  I  shall  not 
tell  now  how  things  grow  in  an  alluvial 
soil,  abundance  of  water,  and  a  tempera¬ 
ture  of  some  times  120  degrees  in  the 
shade. 
But  habits  of  long  standing  are  not 
lightly  broken  even  by  rivers,  and  the 
habit  of  bringing  down’  silt  still  citing  to 
the  Colorado  River,  and  in  a  few  years 
the  irrigation  canal  was  partly  filled  with 
silt,  and  there  was  not  enough  water. 
This  is  a  had  enough  situation  in  any 
place,  but  in  a  desert  where  the  temper¬ 
ature  goes  to  such  altitudes  it  meant 
death  to  till  industry.  The  irrigation 
company  had  not  the  money  to  dredge  tin- 
canal,  so  they  cut  a  fresh  intake  to  the 
river,  planning  to  refill  it  before  the 
Spring  flood  came.  Every  Spring  at  prac¬ 
tically  the  same  date,  flic  melting  of  the 
snow  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  changes 
the  river  into  an  angry  flood,  and  the  tem¬ 
porary  intake  with  no  concrete  protec¬ 
tion.  would  soon  have  been  changed  to  a 
turbulent  river  if  the  flood  caught  it  un¬ 
protected.  The  next  season  the  same 
thing  occurred  again,  hut  this  year  the 
river,  instead  of  waiting  its  usual  time, 
came  down  as  a  flood  two  weeks  earlier, 
and  caught  the  unprotected  intake!  And 
in  an  incredible  short  space  of  time  it 
had  torn  the  opening  to  over  a  half  a 
mile  in  width,  ami  the  entire  Colorado 
River  was  surging  down  the  canal,  while 
flic  original  bed  of  the  river  was  dry 
down  to  iis  former  mouth  in  tie-  Gulf  of 
Lower  California. 
It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  havoc  wrought 
by  the  Hood  tearing  its  way  through  that 
alluvial  soil.  Farms  were  washed  away 
in  a  day.  Towns  were  threatened,  and 
the  Southern  Pacific  Railway  had  to 
move  its  track  three  times  to  escape  the 
ever-increasing  flood.  The  State  of  Cali¬ 
fornia  was  appealed  to.  but  refused  to 
aid.  Ftn-le  Sam  was  next  asked,  but  the 
intake  was  on  Mexican  soil,  and  interna¬ 
tional  courtesy  forbade.  So  finally  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railway  brought  its  en¬ 
tire  resources  into  the  light  with  the  mad 
river  and  won.  The  Saltou  Sea  stopped 
rising,  bat  even  now  may  be  seen  from 
tin-  ear  windows  far  out  in  the  sea  the 
tops  of  telegraph  poles  where  formerly 
ran  the  road.  p.  b.  ckosby. 
Coburn  Will  Direct  You 
Not  only  the  work  done  by  hun¬ 
dreds  of  government  experts,  not 
only  the  painstaking  labor  of  a  great 
board  of  editors  wlm  l:avt»  seurohed 
through  the  departmental  records  and 
gathered  all  this  practical,  useful  in¬ 
formation  into  handy  form — you  get 
not  only  the  I  a- tit- lit  ..f  all  of  this  but 
also  the  practical  direction  of  Hon. 
1’.  1).  folium.  America's  greatest 
agricultural  authority,  who  .•nils  the 
Farmer’s  Cyclopedia  "Tile  most  val¬ 
uable  agricultural  information  ever 
gathered  together."  Mr.  Coburn  has 
written  a  valuable  Manual — a  com¬ 
plete  analysis  of  ti  e  contents  of  the 
Cyclopedia  and  suggestions  on  how  to 
study  it.  Yon  get 
COBURNS  MANUAL 
HON.  F.  D.  COBURN 
This  Coburn  I"1  f~7  t 
Manual  JT  IV  Hi  1 
President  JVilson  says:  S’ 
.  ,  ..  .  .  ....  'r  „  H.  S.  Department 
JS  the  information  given  to  you  in  the  Farmer  s  Cyclopedia.  You  need 
to  search  through  the  tiles  of  the  department.  In  those  7  big  hooks  vou 
what  would'  otherwise  lake  weeks  or  months  to  obtain.  All  that  sent-, 
indexing  has  been  done  for  you.  I.earn  these  methods  which  point  the  v 
Send  the  Coupon  Without  Money 
The  privilege  of  examination  is  yours  for  the  asking. 
We  even  prepay  all  charges.  Send  the  coupon  and  get 
the  books  for  10  days’  inspection.  Then  if  you  want  , 
them,  send  us  50  cents  as  first  payment  and  follow  / 
this  with  only  $2  monthly  for  a  year.  $24.50  in  f  s 
all.  Otherwise  tells  us  you  want  to  return  / 
them.  One  fact  alone  may  prove  to  be  /  us.  i! 
worth  ten  times  the  price  of  the  books.  *  ram!ckifn 
Don't  miss  this  chance.  The  decision  S  so  m  to  dam 
is  in  your  lianas.  1  oil  can  lose  noth-  +  wi i  will  >*n 
ing.  Send  the  coupon  today.  /  monthly  for  is  m 
*  Ooubleday,  Page 
&  Co. 
Dept.  4342,  Gard,n  City 
Sew  York,  N.Y. 
Name 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Co 
Dept.  4342  Garden  City,  New  York 
Address 
