272 
their  crops  and  themselves,  and  pure  water  in  their 
streams.  This  is  a  significant  victory.  Too  often 
it  has  seemed  that  “business’'  was  bigger  than 
“folks";  that  when  anyone  had  the  money  to  buy 
land,  put  up  buildings,  and  employ  workmen,  the 
effect  of  his  activities  on  the  neighbors  need  trou¬ 
ble  him  little.  We  congratulate  our  subscribers 
upon  their  courage  in  fighting  for  their  rights  and 
niton  the  outcome  of  their  suit. 
The  real  source  of  the  trouble  with  the  crops  was 
by  no  means  as  evident  as  the  injury.  The  case  of 
the  brook  was  easy;  guncotton  is  made  by  dipping 
the  purest  cotton,  cotton  batting,  for  instance,  into 
mixed  nitric  and  sulphuric  acids.  Most  of  the  nitric 
acid  combines  with  the  cotton,  the  rest,  and  all  the 
sulphuric  acid,  must  be  entirely  washed  out.  If 
even  traces  are  left,  the  guncotton  goes  bad  and  is 
liable  to  blow  up  in  the  bands  of  its  friends.  The 
factory  had  run  its  acid  wash  water  into  a  pit  and 
had  partly  neutralized  it.  But  the  pit  overflowed, 
the  liquid  ran  into  a  wood  lot.  over  a  meadow  and 
into  the  brook,  killing  as  it  went.  This  was  so 
clear  that  no  attempt  was  made  to  dispute  it,  only 
to  claim  that  the  damage  was  unimportant  and 
temporary. 
The  sulphuric  and  nitric  acids  are  mixed  by  blow¬ 
ing  air  through  them,  and  compressed  air  is  used 
to  carry  them  through  the  works  as  they  are  used. 
Then  that  air  was  allowed  to  blow  off  into  the  open, 
carrying  with  it  a  fine  mist,  or  fog  of  the  acids,  and 
also  a  mixture  of  the  oxides  of  nitrogen  which  are 
formed  and  appear  in  the  air  as  red  fumes.  These 
fumes  are  also  produced  constantly  as  the  guncotton 
i>  made,  and  at  times,  when  the  action  goes  too 
fast  and  the  cotton  burns  up,  they  form  in  enorm¬ 
ous  volume.  It  was  shown  conclusively  that  it  was 
these  which  caused  the  headaches  and  sore  throats, 
killed  the  seedlings  and  dwarfed  and  scorched  the 
growing  crops.  They  were  in  the  air  more  or  less 
all  the  time,  and  on  foggy  nights  they  condensed 
with  the  dew  and  burned  the  curious  holes  in  the 
leaves.  To  prove  their  presence  was  not  easy,  as 
they  destroy  themselves  in  destroying  the  plant  tis¬ 
sues,  but.  they  were  found  in  the  air.  and  once  in  a 
dew-drop  which  was  eating  a  hole  in  a  cabbage  leaf. 
Handling  Sweet  Clover  Seed 
In  his  article  on  "Building  Up  an  Ohio  Farm,”  Mr. 
Wing  attributes  much  of  bis  success  to  the  raising  of 
Melilotus  alba  or  Sweet  clover.  He  says  that  tbe  sec¬ 
ond  year  be  grew  it  he  learned  much  about  cutting  it 
for  seed,  but  fails  to  tell  us  about  it.  My  experience 
with  it  has  been  that  if  it.  was  cut  green  enough  so 
it  would  not  shell  it  would  he  too  “tough”  to  thrash. 
What  does  he  mean  by  scarified  seed?  Whatever  it  is 
I  don’t  think  we  want  it  here,  as  my  experience  has 
been  that  we  get  a  great  deal  better  stand  of  any  kind 
of  grass  by  sowing  the.  seed  in  the  early  Spring,  while 
the  ground  is  freezing  and  thawing.  j.  c.  T. 
New  York. 
HEBE  is  no  secret  at  all  about  the  proper  meth¬ 
od  for  handling  Sweet  clover  for  seed.  T  let 
mine  get  pretty  ripe,  ripe  enough  so  that  about 
three-fourths  of  the  seed  pods  have  turned  some¬ 
what  brown.  Then  I  use  a  self-rake  for  harvesting, 
and  I  harvest  only  when  wet  with  rain  or  dew;  if  it 
is  a  dry  time  this  means  getting  up  about  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  harvesting  until  half  an  hour  after 
sunrise,  and  then  quitting.  Handled  in  this  way 
there  need  not  he  any  loss  from  shattering,  or  at 
least  not  enough  to  amount  to  anything.  If  you 
have  a  very  large  acreage  it  would  pay  you  to  rig 
up  some  form  of  automobile  lamp,  and  to  cut  all 
night. 
I  drop  the  bunches  off  just  moderate  sized,  and 
do  not  touch  them  at  all  until  just  before  time  to 
thrash.  I  like  to  have  at  least  one  shower  on  them 
before  thrashing,  and  count  on  the  plants  lying 
from  three  to  six  weeks  before  attempting  to  hull. 
The  day  before  hulling,  if  the  bunches  seem  tough 
underneath,  we  get  out  before  daybreak  and  just 
tij*  them  over,  being  careful  while  doing  so  not  to 
jar,  and  thereby  preventing  shattering. 
This  seed  must  he  handled  with  extreme  care  from 
beginning  to  end,  or  else  it  will  all  he  wasted.  When 
ready  to  thrash  I  use  tight-bottomed  wagon  beds  or 
sleds,  and  usually  spread  a  canvas  over  these  beds. 
We  load  on  just  what  will  ride  comfortably,  with¬ 
out  having  a  man  on  the  load  at  all,  simply  piling 
up  what  we  can  from  the  ground  without  any  load¬ 
ing  or  tramping,  and  we  hull  with  a  clover  lniller. 
Scarified  seed  is  seed  which  has  been  treated  with 
a  blast  which  practically  sandpapers  it  a  little. 
This  treatment  breaks  up  the  hard  seed  coat,  and 
properly  handled  has  proven  very  beneficial.  Sweet 
clover  seed  usually  contains  many  hard  seeds,  hav¬ 
ing  a  seed  coat  so  resistant  that  it  will  lie  in  the 
ground  for  a  year  before  taking  up  enough  moist¬ 
ure  to  germinate.  With  the  scarified  seed  this 
trouble  is  removed,  and  ail  of  the  seed  will  germin¬ 
ate  promptly  unless  it  has  been  injured  in  some 
other  way.  Many  people  are  asking  me  whether  they 
TShe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
should  sow  the  scarified  seed  in  the  Winter  or  not, 
and  frankly  I  do  not.  know.  I  am  a  little  afraid  to 
sow  it  in  the  Winter,  for  fear  it  will  germinate  too 
quickly,  but  I  do  not  believe  anyone  lias  had  enough 
experience  along  this  line  to  he  sure  in  the  matter. 
Sweet  clover  covered  by  alternate  freezing  and  thaw¬ 
ing  has  done  well  for  me,  lint  1  have  usually  used 
a  heavier  seeding  of  the  ordinary  un scarified  seed 
•than  1  expect  to  do  with  this  scarified  seed  and  I 
have  usually  had  quite  a  little  of  the  seed  to  lie  in 
the  ground  for  a  year  without  germinating.  I  do 
not  anticipate  any  of  it  doing  so  now  that  we  have 
the  scarified.  chas.  b.  wing. 
Ohio. 
“  Back  to  the  Land  ” 
How  Jewish  Farmers  Solve  the  Problem 
HE  salaried  man  from  Illinois,  who  wants  a 
New  York  State  farm  equipped  for  $4,500, 
(.light  to  think  how  he  would  distribute  his  money 
if  he  were  to  buy  a  grocery  store,  a  hardware  store, 
or  a  mercantile  business  in  a  small  town.  Would 
l.e  put  $3,500  in  a  building  and  real  estate  with  a 
$1,000  working  capital?  Or  would  lie  put  $1,000  or 
nothing  in  real  estate  and  use  his  entire  financial 
stake  as  a  working  capital  for  his  business  and  get 
an  option  to  buy  the  property  at  the  end  of  five 
years  or  more?  Whatever  he  may  answer,  this  is 
the  answer  that  the  Jewish  immigrant  farmer — the 
New  York  city  farmer  who  without  any  practical 
experience  is  buying  farms  in  Sullivan  County  and 
Eastern  Delaware  County — is  returning  to  the  ques¬ 
tion.  While  Jewish  farmers  have  been  acquiring 
farms  ni  Sullivan  County  for  15  years,  the  movement 
has  been  gaining  ground  rapidly  in  Eastern  Dela¬ 
ware  for  the  last  five  years,  due  no  doubt  to  the 
eternal  vigilance  and  activity  of  real  estate  agents. 
The  Jewish  buyer  who  has  $4,500  is  rare.  As  a 
rule  ho  has  from  $000  to  $2,000  to  buy  a  100  to  a 
150-acre  farm  with  buildings  and  equipment  and 
cows.  Naturally  he  does  not  get  purehreds  and 
sometimes  his  machinery  is  rather  limited.  Often 
the  payment  is  only  a  trifle  more  thau  the  value  of 
the  personal  property,  on  which  the  seller  takes  a 
chattel  mortgage,  and  has  in  the  mortgage  that 
there  shall  be  a  payment,  at  the  end  of  the  first 
hoarding  season. 
Now.  tirsi,  most  of  the  farms  are  sold  in  the 
Spring,  between  Christinas  and  Easter,  or  just  after 
the  Jewish  holidays  in  the  Spring  like  l’lirim  and 
I  asach.  If  they  make  good  that  first  Summer,  the 
owner  gets  more  security,  and  lias  Ids  next  pay¬ 
ments  fall  due  a  small  amount  in  the  Spring,  and 
n  larger  amount  in  the  Fall,  right  after  the  hoard¬ 
ing  season. 
First  you  can  easily  see  that  a  people  divorced 
from  the  soil  two  thousand  years,  as  the  Jews  have 
been,  are  not  going  to  raise  any  bonanza  crops  the 
first  year,  nor  in  the  first  five  years.  Most  of  the 
sellers  realize  that  there  will  be  a  depreciation  of 
the  land  during  the  time  our  Jewish  bnck-to-the- 
lamler  is  learning  some  of  the  essentials  of  scien¬ 
tific  agriculture.  Again,  his  inexperience  will  not 
improve  the  quality  of  the  dairy  or  tend  to  improve 
the  horses.  Naturally,  you  say.  lmw  does  the  He¬ 
brew  farmer  get  by  in  this  uphill  game?  He  goes 
into  the  hoarding  business.  The  farm  that  appeals 
to  him  must  have  plenty  of  sleeping  room,  with  large 
dining  room  and  kitchen,  and  plenty  of  shade  trees 
around  the  house.  Within  the  first  two  years  he 
borrows  on  the  already  heavily  encumbered  real  es¬ 
tate  more  money  in  a  second  mortgage,  and  pays  a 
bonus,  and  builds  an  addition  to  his  farmhouse,  and 
the  farm  blossoms  out  into  a  Summer  hotel  and 
health  resort,  with  the  table  furnished  entirely  with 
products  “from  our  own  farm.” 
He  has  now  added  double  or  treble  the  value  to 
the  farm  in  new  income-producing  value,  as  it  has 
depreciated  in  actual  intrinsic  value  as  a  strictly 
dairy  farm  product.  So  though  the  fields  are  les¬ 
soned  in  value,  the  new  buildings  more  than  com¬ 
pensate  for  this  temporary  loss.  In  this  way  the 
original  owner  has  a  first  mortgage  that  is  gilt 
edge,  and  that  will  sell  in  the  community  to  some 
cue  who  wants  a  long-term  investment  that  is  grad¬ 
ually  liquidating  itself. 
Another  feature  of  the  sale  is  the  long  term  mort¬ 
gage.  running  from  20  to  40  years.  Tn  one  exagger¬ 
ated  instance  one  man  paid  down  $3,500  on  the 
tarm.  and  gave  a  mortgage  for  $10,so0  to  run  108 
years.  The  original  owner  is  a  man  of  00.  But 
40- year  mortgages  are  common.  In  this  way  I  he 
buyer  has  a  lifetime  to  liquidate  his  indebtedness 
and  if  after  he  has  made  many  improvements,  he  is 
still  dissatisfied,  lie  has  a  property  that  is  improved, 
that  has  long  term  easy  payments,  which  always 
finds  a  ready  sale  with  a  handsome  profit  to  the 
farmer  who  makes  the  improvements. 
February  If),  1916. 
Now  our  Illinois  friend  will  realize  that  in  this 
case  again,  the  farmer  to  solve  his  problem  must 
have  working  capital — must  be  able  to  borrow.  The 
poorest  Jewish  farmers  first  borrow  what  they  can 
from  friends  to  tide  them  over  the  first  few  years 
in  addition  to  their  own  working  capital.  Then 
they  try  the  Baron  Hirsch  fund  for  aid,  and  give 
chattel  mortgages  for  security.  Often  those  loans 
are  very  liberal  in  proportion  to  the  security.  Then 
there  is  the  Land  Bank  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
It  was  the  Jewish  farmers  of  (’entfeville  who  were 
first  to  avail  themselves  of  the  advantages  of  the 
First  Farmers’  Building  and  Loan  Association,  in 
order  that  after  cashing  their  mortgages  with  the 
Building  and  Loan  Association  for  long  term  secur¬ 
ity,  they  still  might  aid  their  brothers  further  by 
discounting  these  mortgages  in  turn  with  the  Land 
Bank  of  the  State  of  New  York.  Last  Fall  most 
of  the  Jewish  farmers  here  subscribed  for  stock 
and  shares  in  the  Centreville  B.  &  L.  Association. 
Now  the  Jewish  farmer  here  does  not  put  in  any 
15-hour  day  either.  He  hires  l’olaoks  at  $10  a 
month  to  do  the  hardest  work,  and  succeeds  in  get¬ 
ting  the  work  done.  The  Jewish  farmer  is  out  for 
the  coin.  He  is  not  seeking  health  in  the  country, 
hut  shekels.  Our  Jewish  farmers  are  business  men. 
They  want  100  cents  of  the  consumer’s  dollar.  They 
solve  this  problem  by  using  practically  all  they  pro¬ 
duce  on  the  farm  right  in  the  boarding  house  on  the 
farm — by  which  I  mean  the  milk,  butter,  eggs,  poul¬ 
try.  calves,  sheep,  and  all  garden  product.  It  is 
only  the  rest  of  the  year  outside  of  the  hoarding 
season  that  they  send  their  milk  to  the  creamery. 
rIhe  eggs  they  raise  the  rest  of  the  year  they  ship 
to  private  customers  in  New  York  City.  The  path 
of  the  Jewish  farmers  in  Sullivan  County,  in  spite 
of  all  Ibis  has  not  been  a  garden  of  roses.  One  of 
the  things  that  handicapped  them  was  the  discrim¬ 
ination  of  the  fire  insurance  companies.  First  rates 
went  to  07,  on  a  hundred,  $00  on  a  thousand.  Then 
most  of  the  companies  withdrew  from  the  field.  The 
Jewish  farmers  solved  the  problem  by  organizing 
their  own  insurance  company,  and  to  date  I  under¬ 
stand  that  after  paying  all  losses  for  the  past  three 
years  they  have  accumulated  about  a  $40,000  sur¬ 
plus.  Naturally  their  company  must  lie  an  assess¬ 
ment  company,  yet  it  gives  them  at  least  some  pro¬ 
tection. 
Our  Illinois  friend  can  buy  in  the  same  way — 
and  solve  his  problem  the  same  way  if  he  has  the 
nerve  to  go  in  debt  and  work  out  his  salvation  in 
the  manner  I  have  just  indicated.  And  he  need  not 
work  25  hours  a  day  either.  Like  our  Jewish 
farmers,  even  if  he  cannot  be  a  scientific  agricul¬ 
turist.  yet  by  effort  he  might  become  a  “business 
man”  and  “make  good  business  for  himself”  on  a 
Delaware  County  farm  in  New  York  State  if  he 
wants  to  go  into  farming  for  the  money  there  is  in 
it.  HERBERT  LASHER. 
Organic  Matter  for  Sweet  Potatoes 
THE  popular  sweet  potato  fertilizer  in  the  past 
has  been  a  complete  fertilizer  containing  10% 
potash.  Large  amounts  of  potash  are  required  for 
sweet  potatoes — so  chemists  and  scientists  tell  us. 
That  may  be  so,  but  we  believe  there  is  one  thing 
more  important:  that  is,  organic  matter,  in  our 
sandy  sweet  potato  soils. 
During  the  past  season  two  fields  on  our  place 
were  in  "sweets."  Each  field  had  the  same  fertili¬ 
zer  treatment,  but  one  field  was  inherently  richer 
than  the  other  in  organic  matter.  The  crop  turned 
out  at  the  rate  of  five  baskets  (%-bu. )  to  the  100 
(plants)  in  this  field  as  against  two  baskets  to  the 
100  in  the  poorer  field.  As  this  was  not  intended 
for  an  experiment  the  fields,  probably,  were  not 
treated  as  equally  ns  they  might  have  been.  How¬ 
ever,  this  calls  to  mind  an  experiment  which  was 
planned  in  accordance  with  all  the  approved  rules. 
This  was  conducted  by  r»r.  E.  B.  Yoorhees,  a  number 
of  years  ago.  on  the  farm  of  A.  1*.  Arnold,  Vine- 
land,  N.  J. — for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  sweet 
potatoes  needed  potash.  The  only  set-back  to  the 
success  of  the  experiment  was  that  common  stable 
manure  obstinately  gave  better  results. 
Value  of  Crop. 
Nothing  .  $18.08 
Potash  .  87.45 
Stable  manure  .  201.38 
This,  of  course,  is  not  conclusive.  Many  farmers 
may  have  obtained  entirely  different  results.  But  at 
any  rate  such  figures  sound  encouraging  and  we  like 
to  look  at  them  and  think  about  them. 
Out  of  curiosity  an  examination  was  made  of  the 
soils  from  the  two  fields  mentioned.  The  richer 
showed  2.4%  :  the  poorer,  1.6%  of  organic  matter. 
IIow  much  difference  does  this  mean?  It  means  a 
difference  of  about  32,000  pounds  of  organic  matter 
(calculated  on  an  acre  foot  equals  4,000,000  pounds'). 
